Mary Baker Eddy, Her Spiritual Precepts



As gleaned and deduced from her letters to The Christian Science Board of Directors and The Mother Church (The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts) by Gilbert C. Carpenter, C.S.B. and Gilbert C. Carpenter, Jr. C.S.B.



“God is infinite. Therefore, there need be no limit to any supply that we can widen our souls to receive.”


Mary Baker Eddy



Table of Contents




Introduction

In studying a tree, one is supposed to be able to tell the size of the rootstock by the leaves and branches, deducing the unseen from the seen. Further study of these roots, however, is much more arduous than just observing the leaves and fruit of the tree. Much labor of digging is required before the entire root system is exposed for investigation. The life and teachings of Mary Baker Eddy, the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, that have been left to posterity as her loving heritage, and designated as her authorized writings, are available to all. In studying these the very beginner is safe. These constitute the branches, leaves and fruit which are open to the public inspection and study.

Mrs. Eddy was not only the author of her works, but the one who authorized them. That is, she established beyond cavil their correctness, and demonstrated that they are not of human origin, but divine. She might well have said, “My dearly beloved brethren, I give you these teachings and assure you that in them you are safe, because I guarantee that they came from God. Therein you may gain a knowledge of Christian Science that is correct and demonstrable. As you read and study them, you need have no doubt nor fear, since you are studying what was written through inspiration — by God, not man.”

In an airplane field the runway is plainly designated. It is a safe take-off for, and is used by, every plane. Mrs. Eddy's authorized works are a safe and standardized take-off for the upward-soaring thought. No student can depart from them without making a shipwreck. They represent the only God-approved means of rising into the higher realms of spiritual freedom. Hence one must study them until he understands them correctly, and is able to demonstrate this understanding in part. Then, and only then, is he ready to rise to the higher reflection of God where all knowledge comes directly from Him.

This leads to a consideration of Mrs. Eddy's own life and demonstration, as well as the waymarks, writings, letters, and books which have never been published, but repose in the archives of The Mother Church in Boston. Did not her unpublished and authorized writings come from God as well?

The leaves of Mrs. Eddy's tree are for the healing of the nations. Yet we must learn of the root system of this tree in order to perpetuate a knowledge of the demonstration whereby the tree was able to put forth such leaves. Many students seem to be satisfied with the leaves, and do not care to investigate any further. Yet it should be the desire of every follower of Mrs. Eddy to study her complete tree and learn that such study is really invaluable, because only in that way can he pattern her demonstration.

What would be thought of a man who, in his effort to bleed his rubber tree, killed it? The wise man is as careful to preserve the tree as he is to extract the rubber. He then knows that the tree will be a perpetual source of value to him. The effort to profit by Mrs. Eddy's demonstration, but to forget Mrs. Eddy — a tendency in thought which is evident today — would be to lose her as a perpetual source of wisdom, advancement and increased knowledge. On page 72 of Science and Health she writes, “In Science, individual good derived from God, the infinite All-in-all, may flow from the departed to mortals….” That is her prophecy that she will still be capable of blessing the Cause even though she may not be with us personally. She also writes on page 105 of Miscellaneous Writings, “Christian Science is my only ideal; and the individual and his ideal can never be severed. If either is misunderstood or maligned, it eclipses the other with the shadow cast by this error.”

What value would be a mooring rock, if it was severed from the buoy that marked it? In his day Jesus was the buoy, the presence of the Rock, Christ, where we might find a permanent mooring. Mrs. Eddy was chosen of God to be that buoy in this age. Hence, she saw that her mission would be robbed of its value, if she could be severed from her ideal, which is the Christ. Her insistence that she be held before thought as the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, was not for self-aggrandizement, but for the protection of her revelation and of those who would seek Christ, Truth, as their permanent mooring.

In John 12:32 Jesus said, “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.” What should be thought of the error that attempts to cast Mrs. Eddy down to the earth? It is the same error that would have cast the Master down, whereas this very statement indicates that he should be lifted up and put into a prominent and permanent place, in order that those who are in need and ready, may be drawn, or attracted, to his teachings. Similarly, what is the use of trying to gain new members in Christian Science by eliminating Mrs. Eddy — as has been advocated — striving to leave her name out of the services? If Mrs. Eddy is the drawing power of the Cause, or the marker, we should guard it sacredly.

It is claimed by some that the only thing that keeps many out, who otherwise might embrace Christian Science, is opposition to Mrs. Eddy. Yet it is entirely because of her that we have such a large membership today. How blind and foolish to believe that, in an effort to remove her so that those opposed to her will come in, an obstacle to growth is being removed, when in reality it would be removing the very drawing power that Jesus spoke of!

Jesus said in substance, “Crucify me and you have accomplished nothing; move me out of Christianity and the vitality of the Cause will be lost.” The same statement would hold true of Mrs. Eddy. We blame the Jews who crucified the Master; yet they forced on him the demonstration which has become the lodestar of Christianity, namely, the resurrection. The truly serious error has been the attempt to misinterpret his teachings, ignore or attempt to move him out of his proper place, since that has resulted in sapping the vitality of Christianity. Hence the real criminals were not those who killed the Master so much as those who attempted to kill his influence. He himself said, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matt. 10:28). This statement could apply to fearing those who seek to kill out of Christian Science the demonstrating thought, because when that is done, the body becomes vulnerable. They tried to kill the body of the Master, but because they could not reach his soul, or spiritual sense, they could not do it. Had they been able to destroy his demonstrating sense, they could have destroyed his body.

Similarly, it is easy to feel aggrieved towards the malpractitioners who dogged Mrs. Eddy's footsteps and tried to put her through a slow crucifixion. Yet they could only serve to spur her on to a higher demonstration. The effect was to bring forth a broader and clearer understanding of evil, as well as to unite the Cause more closely, and to establish it on a higher and more spiritual plane. Suppose a man to be on an ice floe that is about to break away from the land, and a polar bear, rising out of the sea, chases him to shore and safety. When he realizes what he has escaped, he will look upon that bear as a friend. There is nothing more wholesome for a student of Christian Science than to have animal magnetism at his heels, provided he keeps ahead of it and does not permit it to catch up with him. The serpent at the heel of the woman keeps her going forward when otherwise she might linger by the wayside. Mrs. Eddy once said, “Mortal mind has not been kind enough to me to cause me to desire to linger in it.”

The form of animal magnetism that was dangerous to our Leader and was, and is, the real enemy of the Cause, is the human mind that uses students within the ranks to endeavor through conservatism and intellectuality to move our Leader out of her place. Such an effort, if successful, would take the heart and soul right out of Christian Science. Such a subtle action of animal magnetism is to be feared a hundred times more than its aggressive phases.

Mrs. Eddy was so completely governed by God that centuries will elapse before the full significance of her life and teachings will be entirely comprehended. At no point did she guarantee anything that she said or wrote as being inspired in origin and content, that she did not authorize. Neither did she deny their divine authorship. In fact, she wrote to one of her students, Julia Field-King, on August 10, 1898, “All who obey His word prosper, and His word is spoken through my pen and lips even more explicitly now than when I wrote Science and Health.”

The deduction is that, in the authorized teachings and writings a student can rest secure in the realization that he is safe in God's word, whereas in the unauthorized he must develop his own spiritual perceptiveness in order to discern whether what he is reading represents Mrs. Eddy following Christ, or just Mary. The obligation is laid upon him to make the demonstration himself to answer the question correctly, “Did God write this?”

Mrs. Eddy declared many things in the privacy of her room which she knew her maids would hear and record, even though they did not understand them. She had to tell all that God revealed to her, much of which no student then was ready to take and comprehend to practical advantage. But the recording of things by her household represented perpetuating that which it was important for future generations to know. The authorized writings represented that which she could set down with safety because the world was ready for it. But there was much that she could not even record. She was like a father who has instructions for his sons that they are not ready for. So, in his will he directs them to a box where he has concealed letters that they are not to open until they reach the age of forty. He knows that at that point his instructions will be understood and followed with profit. Had they been received before that, they would have meant nothing.

Everything that Mrs. Eddy has said and made note of is valuable to the one who reaches the point where he is capable of comprehending and perceiving its nature and importance. From time to time students are raised up who are ready to listen to these isolated but wise statements. For instance, one of her maids said that Mrs. Eddy declared that the departed could not commune with those here on earth, as if death shut us off from them; but they could still see us. It is a startling proposition that few would accept. Yet, instead of declaring that this maid mistook our Leader's words, the student would be far wiser if he filed such a thought away as perhaps being true, to wait on his own growth to reveal its true inwardness.

One who is studying to be an art critic has a two-fold novitiate. First, he studies pictures that are known to be definitely inspirational masterpieces of art, and hence are used as models for painters of every age. After he has mastered the first lessons connected with such painting of recognized and authorized merit, he is required to browse among paintings the character and status of which are left for him to determine. He must learn not to be fooled by the signature, since it may be a forgery. Again, it may be signed by an obscure master, who with a few added brush strokes of correction gave his pupil's painting a truly inspirational character. For instance, when one reads the article by Archibald McLellan on page 363 of Volume 10 of the Christian Science Sentinel, he is compelled to acknowledge Mrs. Eddy's hand in it.

The student of Christian Science must never deviate from that which Mrs. Eddy was guided by God to authorize. Only through an adherence to the authorized writings, that is in strict obedience to Article VI, Section I, of the Manual, can he gain a preparation of thought for a higher spiritual discernment. He must be tested and not found wanting in his ability to detect divine inspiration, before he is ready for the vast amount of material which Mrs. Eddy left, which God did not direct her to publish or authorize, because He had a further purpose. In this latter material the student who is ready for the privilege, may find items into which he may delve and dig, in order to develop his own spiritual sense, and find the wealth of treasure that waits all students of the infinite — as they turn the water into wine — or remove the mortal thought that merely hides the spiritual inspiration of God that has always been present but unappreciated, such as “…the sea is ignorant of the gems within its caverns…” (Science and Health, page 87), or a man with blue glasses on, the beauties of the sunset.

If, as Christian Science teaches, man is in the kingdom of heaven now, what good does a knowledge of that fact do him, unless he has senses that will bear testimony to it? In order to have that fact of any advantage to him, he must be able to cognize the wonders of spiritual harmony. Man is assured again and again in Science and Health that his true senses are spiritual. Hence, he must possess such senses as will bear testimony to his presence in heaven now. But through disuse, these senses have become atrophied, and it is man's task to resurrect them and bring them back to full activity, as he blots out the opposite false material senses.

The question arises as to the method of developing spiritual sense. How is it to be done? The answer comes that man seldom seeks recourse to Soul, when sense is found adequate. It is only when man meets an insurmountable problem — one beyond the solution of material thinking or the human mind — that he reaches out for help to the spiritual source. It is through questions and problems that defy human sense, that man turns to spiritual sense. It is through such turning that spiritual sense is resurrected and strengthened. It is evident, therefore, why the study of the Bible, from an inspirational standpoint, is of such great value to the student; without this inspiration it appears to be full of dark and cryptic statements, before which the human mind quails. For instance, among the early offerings that the Israelites were called upon to bring to the altar was the heave offering. Human sense would have a sorry time trying to determine what the significance of such an offering was, but to spiritual understanding it is clear that the attainment of divine Mind must include an expelling of the human mind as something not fit to retain, even in its most purified form.

It is this spiritual study of the Bible that compels the student to exercise spiritual insight, and in this effort he is resurrecting the very sense in him which, when fully brought into activity, will testify to his present existence in God's kingdom.

Surely whatever leads man to the exercise of spiritual sense is valuable, and here the riddle of Mrs. Eddy's unauthorized writings, as well as that of her own private life, that is no longer private, is answered. The heavenly purpose in an advanced student's study of her life and letters, is not to gain knowledge so much as training and development. We are assured that all that we need to learn of Christian Science is contained in her authorized writings. But there is nothing that she has written, there is no incident in her life no matter how trivial, that cannot be used as a means to develop spirituality. For one to take some letter she has written, or some inexplicable phase of her life, and attempt to unfold the spiritual significance thereof through spiritual understanding, is to grow spiritually, as well as to take a step on the path that leads to heaven, or to the resurrecting of spiritual sense which testifies to the fact that man is in heaven now.

To return to the illustration of the airport given at the beginning of this introduction. There probably is a rule that no pilot be permitted to take off for a flight except on the designated or authorized runway. This rule would automatically include the requirement that he return always to the same runway at the end of his flight; otherwise he might get into trouble. Mrs. Eddy's authorized writings are the place from which to start one's skyward flight, as well as the place to return to. The spiritual safety of the student depends on this. This is what our Leader herself did. Science and Health formed the central point of her Scientific thought; she was so firmly anchored to it that error could never pull her away. The authors of these pages hope that whoever reads them will never fail to return to Science and Health and its teaching after such reading, and will accept nothing that does not accord perfectly with its teaching. Mrs. Eddy once said, “I have to go back to the book and so must you.”

This return to the authorized writings after a flight into mental freedom is absolutely necessary for safety. Unless the student does it, he may not be able to determine whether his effort to make a sortie into the unfettered and inspirational realm of thought was of God, or prompted by the subtle speciousness of the human mind, which is always the enemy of God, and hence of those striving to reflect God. The unalterable rule of Christian Science is that one must start from and return to the authorized teachings of Science and Health, in making a flight into the higher realms where he reflects divine Mind for himself.

For example, the student reading these pages may not be able to determine definitely whether what is written is the emanation of a heart that is loyal to God, to His witness, Mary Baker Eddy, and to her Church Manual, which includes the vast organization which it sustains and embraces. But after reading this material, he can return to Science and Health and know that anything herein contained that deviates one hair's breadth from the teachings in that book, is not of God, and should be rejected, because it must be a ventilation of the enemy of God, namely, the human mind.

It can be said that Mrs. Eddy's authorized writings are for knowledge, whereas her unauthorized material furnishes a means of spiritual development. Contained in the letters she wrote to her church and students, in her unauthorized articles and books, are statements that are subject to misunderstanding and controversy. Many statements sound inexplicable on the surface. There are letters that appear to be the emanation of a troubled, fearful, or irritated thought. Some appear to have no present-day value at all. Yet digging deeply into these items with a prayer that the true spiritual import be revealed, one finds divine treasures of Truth and Love, that cause the mission and self-sacrifice, the motives and Christly love of Mary Baker Eddy to stand forth in greater relief than ever before. Verily one is led to the conclusion that she spoke truly when she said, “I am learning more and more every day to take God with me into every little thing I do.”

One might add that study of her letters reveals the fact that she did take God with her into every little thing that she did, and wrote, and said, — that she was consistently guided by a spiritual wisdom, the import of which was not always revealed to her. As she wrote to Judge Septimus Hanna, “Faith and obedience before understanding is required to show us that it is God and not man that directs our steps in Christian Science, even the intelligent, all-wise Principle of man's being — one Father-Mother, God.”

The study of what one has written in sincerity at once takes you right into his or her thought just as the steps in front of a church, if followed, will take one into the minister's study.

Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures was a revelation from God. Hence as one reads it, he is led back into the Mind of God. When one reads whatever else Mrs. Eddy wrote he is led back into her demonstration or application of Mind. Because her individual demonstration represented the application of God's Mind to the people, it is as necessary for the student to know the way to reach the thought of people, as she did, as it is to know the truth that we give them after we have opened their thought.

The most avid student of Science and Health will learn little about Mrs. Eddy's own thought processes through such study, since in writing that book she more or less stepped out of the picture. One who feels that it is not important to learn anything about Mrs. Eddy's thought processes will rest content with Science and Health and feel that all unauthorized material from her pen should be buried in the archives of The Mother Church in Boston; but that does not necessarily mean that that is God's purpose. There are those who through a study of such material have resurrected a sense of Mrs. Eddy's demonstration and gained an understanding of her motivation which they have found to be of great help in their application of Science and Health.

The differentiation between the textbook and her other writings is that the study of the textbook takes one's thought directly to God, whereas a study of her other writings first takes one back to her and then from her to God. Unless this point is understood, it does no good to declare that the study of the other writings takes one back to Mrs. Eddy, since no one should want to go back to her as a person. In going back to God via Mrs. Eddy we learn the demonstration that was necessary for the establishment of Truth among humanity. One might question why this could not all be gained from the textbook, until he realizes that Mrs. Eddy was the only one who ever applied the revelation of Christian Science correctly, who knew exactly how to use it; this line of reasoning shows that she cannot be left out of the picture.

Science and Health is the spiritual food that Mrs. Eddy demonstrated from God, but one must go to her to discover the process by which she reflected it. One might eat the food prepared by a cook and enjoy it, but in order to reproduce it, he would have to have the recipes the cook followed. And the process by which Mrs. Eddy reflected the textbook is the same process which we need to learn and to use, to gain the divine leading that enables us to help others to know the truth. If we are spiritual cooks feeding humanity, we might say that through the textbook we learn what to make to sustain man, and through her other writings we learn how to increase our cuisine.

One might argue that there is a great deal in the textbook that relates to the adaptation of the truth. While that is true, in so doing Mrs. Eddy never stepped into the picture. She took the truth from God and simplified it; yet it still leads to God, and not to her.

Science and Health is the church with steps leading into it, where the other writings, including her letters and unpublished manuscripts, are the parsonage and the steps leading into that. When one goes into the church, he hears what the minister has to give forth as doctrine; but when he goes into the parsonage, he learns from the minister his motivation, why he preaches what he does, and the process he goes through in finding the material for his sermons.

Science and Health was a direct revelation from the Mind of God, so in reading it you are enabled to go back into His Mind. Other writings by our Leader give you an insight into her thought processes, as she sought to reflect divine Mind in her own life, make her own demonstration, as well as adapt the revelation to the founding of the Cause, and establishing processes that would best open the minds of the world to the acceptance of what she had to give.

Many people go to restaurants and enjoy the well-cooked food without a thought as to how it is cooked. But a certain percentage would like to know processes. So, in Christian Science the large body of students are satisfied to receive the spiritual food and profit by it. But there are always those who seek further and yearn to know processes, how Mrs. Eddy was able to reflect such a priceless revelation and demonstrate it so successfully in her own life. It is for such students as this and future generations that these pages are being written, not to provide them with spiritual meat, but to help them in their effort to gain spiritual meat for themselves. And of prime importance in this effort is a study that will take one back into Mrs. Eddy's own thought, as she sought to demonstrate and apply her own revelation.

We can be grateful that the tree of Mrs. Eddy's life provides both the seen and the unseen, since the study of both is necessary in its order. Since she was the window for this age, her life must provide the perfect path for each to follow in order to gain the same spiritualization and clarity of thought that she gained, as well as divine at-one-ment that brings reflection. On August 13, 1893, she wrote to the artist, James F. Gilman, who drew the pictures for her work, Christ and Christmas, as follows: “The ‘window for this age' will let in the true thought to be delineated — copy it.”

What one writes truly represents his thinking. How little we know of the veritable thinking of those who are close to us and who live with us. Only in one's writings are one's underlying thoughts fully disclosed, uninfluenced by outward contacts. Mrs. Eddy's works disclose her thinking. We have expressed the thought that because of her continued prayer and demonstration Mrs. Eddy was able to guarantee her authorized writings as being of divine origin, and suitable to be used with the Bible for self-instruction in Christian Science. In her letters and other writings, we have thoughts expressed which carry the necessity for the one who reads them, to develop his own spiritual perception to determine if they came from God. This necessity reveals why such writings are of so great value to the student who is ready for them. Before accepting them as being in perfect harmony with her authorized teachings, one must gauge them by the measurement she gave in her Message to The Mother Church for 1901 and again in the one for 1902, “…follow your Leader only so far as she follows Christ.”

How can one determine whether our Leader was following Christ except through his own spiritual perception and demonstration? And such a demonstration of perception can only be made in proportion as the student approaches the point in progress, where he functions with divine Mind, and strives to utilize it in the broadest possible way. It is a logical and progressive demand that the advancing student take all the purported writings from Mrs. Eddy's pen, and statements confided to Christian Scientists that come to hand, and make the demonstration to determine which of them represent her following of Christ.

When a student reaches the place where he begins to reflect divine Mind, the demand of God is that he put everything that is said to him, or that he reads, relating to Christian Science, under the spiritual yardstick, that he may determine whether what is said or written is of God, or merely the emanation of the human mind disguised under a cloak of apparent intelligence, cleverness and spiritual good. If the student ready for this demand is inclined to take it lightly, let him ponder the story of the young prophet in I Kings 13 who was bidden of God to eat no bread and drink no water until he returned from his God-appointed mission. Then another prophet appeared who tested him with a lie, stating that God had told him to invite him to dine with him. The result of yielding to this specious persuasion was the loss of his life. It seems like a severe lesson, but all students should take it to heart, so that when they reach the place where they are capable of receiving inspirational guidance from God, they will follow it without fail — in fact will not dare to do otherwise.

It is helpful to consider a game of chess as an illustration, since from it many helpful deductions can be made. It is plain that the contestants make moves that cannot be understood by the bystanders. The reasons for many moves do not appear until the end of the game, when one has checkmated the other. Yet the players themselves place every move so that it leads up to the denouement. It would be necessary to read the minds of the players in order to discover the plan of play. If one opponent could read the mind of the other, he would be able to meet each move and prevent him from winning.

The unfoldment given in the following pages would have constituted a serious breach of faith, had they been given while Mrs. Eddy was with us, playing her game of chess with mortal mind. It would have meant exposing to the enemy the moves she made, when much of her success in winning depended on secrecy.

As an illustration of how careful Mrs. Eddy was in divulging her methods of working, we have an entry in Calvin Frye's diary during the Woodbury suit when Mrs. Eddy prepared certain lines of mental work for the students to take up. Then on December 10, 1899, we find the entry, “Mrs. Eddy was on the point of sending instructions to students in Boston this morning when God told her not to do it or it would be used against her in Court at Woodbury suit.” This proves that she could not always trust the students with information, and God guided her to protect the situation. Evidently there were leaks in the ranks, and if the Court should find out that she sent instructions for mental work as far as this suit was concerned, that would be prejudicial for her side, since it might cause the Court to feel that she was bringing undue influence to bear. The Court would be unable to interpret it as anything but hypnotism or mesmerism. That would mean they would believe that Mrs. Eddy was trying to take it out of the hands of Justice and force a decision in her favor. Thus, we find all through her experience that she was very careful not to disclose certain things, lest mortal mind discover them. Students were not ready to perceive that the truth might become a stumbling block unless supported by demonstration.

When mortal mind was finally checkmated in this game of chess Mrs. Eddy was playing, it was possible to study her moves, talk about them, and perceive how that slowly but surely she was preparing for the final move that resulted in checkmating her opponent, a move that could not be turned aside, reversed, or affected in any way.

This illustration aids in understanding why Mrs. Eddy did not explain to students many of the things which she said and did. Had she done so she might have exposed to the enemy her thought processes, which might have enabled mortal mind to thwart her. For instance, when she gave me the privilege of carrying her tray to her room at noon, and then replaced me at the end of ten days, it took twenty-five years for me to come to an understanding of just how I failed her. It was not the food, but the thought back of it, that caused the food to be acceptable to her or not. I am convinced that she hoped I might make the demonstration to put back of that food the thought that would make it acceptable to her, by ruling out all belief in a so-called human mind. This error (human mind) in any student was the enemy of Mrs. Eddy's spirituality which all of the students were pledged to help her to maintain and sustain.

I have often thought how simple it would have been for Mrs. Eddy to have told me all of this. Yet there were several reasons why it was part of divine wisdom for her to remain silent on such points. She could not afford to tell even her closest student what the demonstrated procedure was that governed her home, although she hoped we would all see it through the revelation and inspiration of truth. But if it had been discovered by the enemy that she could be poisoned mentally through the food that was served her, that would have made it possible for the enemy to have reached her in that way. Had she disclosed to her students that she depended on the thought accompanying the food more than on the food itself, that would have placed her in the position where, if the one knowing her secret became disloyal, he might have divulged it, or used it to reach her adversely. Whatever I discovered through my own demonstration, however, would have been all right for me to know, since unfoldment and dependability go hand in hand. But for her to divulge her higher secrets to those not ready to understand them would have opened the way for a serious abuse. Furthermore, had she told me, I would have missed the blessing of discovering it for myself.

One reason for Mrs. Eddy's reticence in making full explanations to the students in her home may be that she never knew when her best friend would become her worst enemy. She had had her painful experience with Richard Kennedy. She had taken him into her inmost secrets and unfoldments. She kept nothing back from him in the early days when they were associated together, and when he turned against her he knew exactly how to reach her mentally in order to torment her in the most aggravating way. No doubt it was this experience that caused her to be so careful not to divulge that which might be used against her.

Mrs. Eddy discovered that when she told a student too much, that gave him too much animal magnetism to stand up against and he was apt to become her enemy, and use what she had given him against her. If you gave a soldier on your side a machine gun with plenty of ammunition, he could become a great deterrent to you if at that point the enemy enticed him to their side. Of course, when a man is loyal enough to take his time and money to get his own gun and ammunition, he can be trusted with what he finds out for himself from God, even though it be the same truth.

Thus, the unfoldment in these pages could not be made until they could do no harm, but only good; they set forth her unchanging motivation, or the underlying thought from which sprang all of her motives, or activities. After a chess game is won it is possible for anyone who desires, to analyze the game, explain every move, show the reason for it, and indicate why the most unrelated moves were important, without endangering the players.

It is helpful to use this illustration of the chess game and think of Mrs. Eddy as playing against the devil, or mortal mind as animal magnetism —as her opponent, — from whom she had to win, and establish God's Cause in such a way that it could not be overthrown, overwhelmed, or reversed. Now that the game has been won, it is possible to gather up the broken pieces, and analyze them, that nothing be lost. After Jesus had fed the five thousand, he gave authority for the correctness of making such analysis, when he said, “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost” (John 6; 12). From this we learn that the result of any demonstration is not as important as the method of making it. Healing the sick is important, but not as important as the correct understanding of the method employed — scientifically employed. Thus, it is our hope that these pages may constitute a gathering of the fragments that remain, analyzing them, in a fruitful and constructive way, that Mrs. Eddy's method may be more clearly understood.

The Cause of Christian Science, as it stands today, no matter how successful and prosperous it is, is merely the outward proof of the success of the method Mrs. Eddy used in bringing it into existence. And the result is never as important as the method. All of the ramifications of this great movement should lead thought back to the metaphysical and scientific correctness of the demonstration she used in bringing it into existence. Those who merely behold the Cause as effect, lose the important part of her work, which was the way she brought it forth.

There exists today a club that gives prizes to young people who raise the finest crops or livestock. What would be the use of admiring a certain boy who has brought forth the best ear of corn just so the other children would be jealous? By no means would that be a correct sample of the purpose animating the club, which is to set forth the methods used by different members in bringing out better products, so that all may benefit thereby and go and do likewise.

The great rank and file of Christian Scientists today are like the five thousand Jesus fed. The difference is that they are all being fed by Mrs. Eddy's demonstration, and yet only a comparative few are interested in discovering the mental processes and steps that led up to the results, which are for the feeding of the nations. Not many have reached the advanced position where they are interested or ready to gather up the fragments that remain.

In Luke 10:20 we read, “Rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.” Thus, the true rejoicing should not be in the results that seem so glorious, but in the establishment of one's relationship to God, the demonstration of which makes the mastery possible. Hence the following pages represent an investigation into the motivation of Mrs. Eddy's thought that made all these glorious results possible.

In seeing Mrs. Eddy as a chess player there is another point to be considered. The method one uses to win one game is not a method that can be used again necessarily against the same opponent, since what the latter has learned from the first efforts would enable him to prevent victory in a game played in the same way. This unfolds one reason why Mrs. Eddy has ruled against formulas, leaving thought free so that, no matter how often the opponent changes his plan of attack, one will be ready with a successful coup because he is reflecting divine wisdom.

In falconry, if the master should attach a cord to the leg of the bird, it could catch nothing, because it would be hampered by the weight and length of the string. But because such a bird has been trained to return to the master's hand after he has been successful, it becomes an example of freedom under restraint. Likewise, Science and Health restricts every student both in what he does and the way he does it, but gives him the teaching that will eventuate in freedom to soar to God under divine purpose, yet under spiritual rules that prevent one going wild with this freedom.

Mrs. Eddy had the knowledge that would enable her to win any number of chess games, without repeating any fixed formation. Thus, one studying the way a chess player wins, should not study just the way he won one or two games, but should discover his mental processes. From this illustration comes the realization that we cannot separate Mrs. Eddy from the games she played against her opponent, the demonstrator from the demonstration, the messenger from the message. If the demonstrator is moved out of the picture, then the only way one can learn how the demonstration was made, or the message received, is lost. It is important to understand the mental processes she brought into activity, the result of which was the establishment of the Cause, which serves as the finger pointing to the demonstration that brought it forth.

Mary Baker Eddy was motivated by a single thought, but the variations of that singleness of purpose brought forth steps in their order, up to the successful termination of that for which she hoped — the permanent establishment of a scientific Christianity adapted to the needs of mankind.

If everything unlike good is unreal, then it follows that there can be nothing in divine Mind that takes into account the necessity for divine power being used and adapted to the needs of mortal man in this dream, since God made no provision for any deviation by His perfect ideas, nor have they ever deviated. But since only divine Mind can solve this human problem, some method had to be established whereby it could be done, and since it required a bridge to be built from God to man, it required one who was what might be called a spiritual “natural” to do it. Yet after that bridge was constructed, Mrs. Eddy had to walk it to return to God, in order to prove that it was indeed the “way.” She had to traverse it from God to man without losing God, and she had to return to God and lose sight of mortal selfhood without losing sight of man. This latter journey furnished the example which we must follow.

Electricity in its primitive state is not in itself adapted for man's use; yet man has devised a way whereby through the activity and resistance of a dynamo, that power becomes his useful servant. Mrs. Eddy's discovery corresponds to this adaptation in the mental and spiritual realm, through which divine Mind in its primitive state has been made available for man's use.

To return to the illustration of Mrs. Eddy as playing a game of chess. A good chess player is one who sees through the moves his antagonist makes, and thwarts them. Mrs. Eddy's chess game was really the divine Mind arrayed against the human mind, with her in the middle representing divine Mind. Each Christian Scientist has his own chess game to oversee. How can he bring it to a successful completion unless he can learn from one who proved herself to be successful in winning from this opponent, the human mind? Certainly he can learn from Mrs. Eddy's experience the plans and moves of the enemy, and so learn how to thwart and prevent these moves, how to anticipate surprise attacks, etc. Is not a knowledge of her ways essential to his winning his game? Certainly each student has his own game to win, and if he permits himself to be a channel for the moves of the devil, he will only beat himself. On the other hand, if he allows himself to be a channel for the moves of God who is always winning, he will win. Thus winning he will have all, whereas when he allows the devil to operate through him, when he thinks he has won, he has lost.

This realization that we may be the channel for the moves of the devil or of God, according as we are watchful, or not, is set forth in a letter which Mrs. Eddy wrote Sue Harper Mims on November 27, 1905. This letter is preserved today in the High Museum in Atlanta, Georgia, and is of particular interest to me, since it mentions me as Mrs. Eddy's Associate Secretary. In it she writes, “That which you impart either impoverishes or enriches being.”

All advancing Christian Scientists should have an instinctive desire to know how Mrs. Eddy did what she did. The lazy human mind is ready to bask in effect, as did the nine lepers after Jesus had healed them. Only one came back to learn the process. Perhaps one out of every ten Christian Scientists has a real desire to learn how Mrs. Eddy functioned; what the demonstration was that she made; what her perception of the operation of the evil one was; how she brought forth a Cause that has successfully withstood the world's prejudice, enmity, and the effort of evil to scatter, dislodge, and make disloyal its faithful adherents. It was no human wisdom that she used, since no human wisdom could anticipate as she did, and be ready to meet the moves of the enemy. Consider the Sunday morning, when she sent word out of a clear sky for her students to be in their seats in church one hour ahead of time. Later it was discovered that her disloyal and disgruntled students who had fallen away had planned to come en masse to the service ahead of time and take all the seats so that when the loyal ones arrived, there would be no room, and the disloyal ones would have a chance to embarrass her. What but divine wisdom guided her to make this move that was so needed to outwit the enemy.

The spiritually inquisitive thought will seek to know how a frail woman with so little experience in human affairs could anticipate the moves of the enemy and so win the game. To such a thought will be revealed the truth, and will be entrusted the continuance of this knowledge, as well as the perpetuation of this great Cause.

These letters written by Mrs. Eddy to her church and Board have a definite value to advanced students. They provide him with a training ground where he may make the demonstration to determine whether they emanated from divine inspiration, or from “Mary.” William B. Johnson, who was closely connected with the early days of our Movement, and to whom all the letters in this collection were addressed, unless otherwise designated, received a letter from Mrs. Eddy directing the Board to extract from the files all the letters she had written that they deemed unsuitable for preservation, because they had served their purpose and would be of no value in the future. Perhaps they described too vividly the errors of some of the students. His son recalls the experience of helping his father burn these letters and wash the ashes down the drain. About thirty such letters were destroyed.

This incident indicates that Mrs. Eddy recognized that there might be some letters that she had written to the church, or Board, that had not enough spiritual significance to over-balance the possibility that preserving them might harm someone in the future. This strengthens one's conviction that the letters that were saved had a definite value. Mrs. Eddy never would have commissioned Mr. Johnson to perform this task had she not known that he would perform it through demonstration, and no doubt she helped on the matter mentally, which would mark the letters that survived as having been preserved according to God's plan.

There were times when our Leader reversed statements or orders previously given. Therefore, it is necessary to know that instructions and directions were occasionally put forth as “feelers” to test the readiness of thought to hear and obey God's bidding. Even though the demand came from on high, if the students obeyed grudgingly, and of necessity, such obedience would have very little value, and might cause Mrs. Eddy to withdraw the order or instruction, waiting until thought perceived the importance of obeying willingly, even though perhaps not yet through enlightenment. In recording the instruction and setting it forth, Mrs. Eddy unfolded an ultimate demand to be fulfilled some day, when growth made it possible from the right standpoint.

An example of this was a motion made at Mrs. Eddy's suggestion to establish a Christian Science Home, which is recorded in the minutes of the Association of Christian Scientists, in the possession of William Lyman Johnson. The exact date of the motion is not given, but on September 15, 1897, we find the entry, “Vote for, to take no further action with reference to the establishment of a home.” Here was a definite demand of God expressed by our Leader to put forth this plan to show His approval of it. Then it was withdrawn and left a matter for the students' demonstration to bring it forth later.

Years ago a man discovered a tempering process for steel superior to any known method. It was called Toledo steel, and when made into swords, it gave the user a decided advantage over his foe. But the inventor desired to reap the entire benefit for his discovery, so he revealed the secret to no one. Hence it died with him. Not until more steel of the same sort was needed was it discovered that the process had been lost. This historical episode suggests an important question that confronts all Christian Scientists — a matter that should have the most serious consideration.

While in Science and Health Mrs. Eddy gave to the world a full revelation of the demonstration of Life, Truth and Love, the average student's ability to comprehend it seems to be limited to what might be called a primary demonstration of it. Man needs higher instruction to enable him to demonstrate Truth's higher demands, — demands which surely will come to all those who are faithful over a few things. Those who had the privilege of being taught in Mrs. Eddy's home can testify to their enlarged understanding that came to them because of this teaching, an understanding and demonstration they could not have attained alone in a lifetime. That is why Mrs. Eddy states that one year in her home will enable a student to acquire the Science that otherwise might cost him a half century (My. 229:9).

Mrs. Eddy made no attempt to conceal this higher teaching from the Field; but, lest abuse hinder her work of establishing the Cause, by a premature disclosure of the tools she had to use herself, it became a part of loyalty and wisdom for students to keep silent about what she taught and what they observed of her demonstration of truth, until she had finished her active work here, and left her students free to study and pass along wisely the teaching she gave in her home, and the operation of a wisdom that was almost too high to be comprehended without divine aid. Mrs. Eddy could well have said, “And greater works than these shall ye do, because I go unto my Father,” because we are now free to study, know and use everything Mrs. Eddy has taught, written, declared, and lived, in the way of demonstration, and it must lead to a higher demonstration for us, impossible without this higher knowledge. Can Christian Scientists today, because they are feeding so bountifully on what Mrs. Eddy has demonstrated and so lovingly left for them, afford to neglect the importance of the higher demonstration that reveals the advanced and more spiritual standpoint from which Mrs. Eddy made these demonstrations, that have stood fast all these years? Certainly this priceless knowledge must be preserved for all time. Can we afford to allow Mrs. Eddy, our Leader in every sense, to be relegated to the standpoint of a statue on a pedestal, perhaps to be admired, nay, perchance worshipped? Although in Science and Health she has given us the key to the temple of God, yet wrapped up in her life is the key to the Holiest of Holies which can only be attained by seeking it consecratedly as she sought it.

Calvin A. Frye was one of the important repositories for Mrs. Eddy's choicest experiences, sayings and demonstrations. Yet, what steps were taken to extract the last drop of the wine of the inspiration he had drunk with his Leader? Shall we make the mistake of neglecting to gather up all the fragments that remain, of, and in, the life of Mrs. Eddy as known by her friends and students, and that can be found in her wide and voluminous correspondence, which understood, clearly interpret the motivation of all her actions, teaching unmistakably divine direction, and how it is to be attained? Let all those who recognize Mrs. Eddy as the door, answer “No.”

On page 278 of Miscellaneous Writings, Mrs. Eddy writes, “There is great joy in this consciousness, that throughout my labors, and in my history as connected with the Cause of Christian Science, it can be proven that I have never given occasion for a single censure, when my motives and acts are understood and seen as my Father seeth them.” Mrs. Eddy's history proves this statement, that she never gave occasion for a single censure, and that if her acts properly interpreted could not injure her, they could not injure the Cause. Therefore, Mrs. Eddy anticipated the time when everything in her life would be brought to light and properly interpreted. Perhaps that time is now, when an accurate telling of these events may be assured, more than at a later date. Secrecy at this date might betray a fear lest at times our Leader exemplified that of which her followers might be ashamed, if known; also, a corresponding fear of the world's criticism. But take courage, dear seeker, since Mrs. Eddy's own statements encourage us to cast out these doubts and fears, and cause us to seek the correct interpretation which would explain all things to the glory of God and to the justification of our Leader.

Another point in connection with these letters written by our Leader is that they embody the history of the founding of our Movement, exposing errors and giving their spiritual antidote, errors to which students will be subject as long as a single phase of the human mind remains to be destroyed. Hence Mrs. Eddy's handling of them becomes the example, and lays down precepts that will live, and be of vital importance to generations yet unborn.

Mrs. Eddy's patience was inexhaustible in dealing with students who persistently made trouble for her and her church. There were those with whom she labored for over twenty years without final success. Yet the methods she employed in dealing with obstructionists — even though she seemed to fail in a few cases — evolved precepts priceless that will serve as a pattern for future generations, and impart a knowledge to them of how to deal with all phases of error.

One notable instance for dealing with an erring student may be found in the Christian Science Sentinel for December 5, 1908. In this issue is an article entitled “Consistency” and is signed by Archibald McLellan. According to Adelaide Still who was present, Mrs. Eddy dictated this article to Mr. McLellan and instructed him to sign his name to it. This was at the time when Augusta E. Stetson was professing loyalty and obedience to Mrs. Eddy and at the same time making trouble for the church and the Board of Directors. The point at issue was an effort on Mrs. Stetson's part to enlarge her borders to the point of having branch churches of her New York church. She was planning to erect a church on Riverside Drive that would rival the extension of The Mother Church in size and beauty.

Why did not our Leader sign her name to this article that is so powerful and carries such spiritual authority? It is possible that it was devised as a test for Mrs. Stetson. The question, the answer to which Mrs. Eddy needed, was whether Mrs. Stetson was loyal to her as a person, or to God, and hence to her as His representative. If she was loyal to God then she would be loyal to anyone who represented Him. So, this article “Consistency” was designed to expose Mrs. Stetson's true position. If she obeyed what this article demanded in the way of looking higher because it was put forth by God, rather than building an imposing structure of matter, and she was loyal to God, that would prove that her position was sound. But if she ignored that which was manifestly an expression of God's wisdom, because she was at odds with the Board of Directors, which included Mr. Archibald McLellan, because it was signed by him, that would prove her professed loyalty to Mrs. Eddy to be human in quality, and give Mrs. Eddy the basis from which to judge her accurately.

Mrs. Eddy's unselfish and loving labor with unworthy students was not lost. She not only helped them but helped herself, and she established precedents of tremendous value. If a machinist undertook to manufacture a reamer to fit a certain hole, and failed, then tried again, until he had constructed a set of reamers that other machinists might use for years to come on all sizes of holes, he could not be said to have labored in vain. Perhaps the hole his was trying to fit was not true from the beginning; yet he performed a valuable service through his efforts.

Mrs. Eddy's inexhaustible labors in behalf of unworthy students might seem to have been in vain in many instances, to one not understanding the divine wisdom and purpose back of such labors. Yet even if she failed in any instance, if important rules for meeting error were thereby established as a priceless legacy for future generations, that no doubt fulfilled the divine purpose. To a certain degree this argument applies to her letters to her church and Board, although it is obvious that such letters as are to be considered in the following pages were not written to unworthy or disloyal students who in the end were going to fail to profit by them. They were written to those upon whom she relied to help her in founding and sustaining the Cause under her direction, who needed counsel and awakening.

The writers of these pages have had many privileges as students of Christian Science, and also indications that the preparation and writing of this material was a matter of divine impulsion. The father came into Christian Science in 1894, and the son was born a month after the parents joined The Mother Church in 1896. The father was made an Executive Member of The Mother Church in 1902 and was appointed Chairman of the Building Committee of the extension of The Mother Church in 1904. In 1901 he purchased the land where the extension in Boston now stands and held it in behalf of the church until 1903, meanwhile running the hotel which stood on the site. For several years he acted as Committee on Publication. In 1905 he was called to serve our Leader in her home as her Assistant Secretary remaining the full year that was required by the Manual. From that date he devoted all his time to the practice of Christian Science. He served as first Reader in his branch church for seven years. The son was brought up in the Sunday School, and joined The Mother Church in 1918 while he was serving his country during the World War. He attended Brown University, graduating in 1917. He had class instruction from John Randall Dunn in 1925 at the end of his term as first Reader in the same church his father had read in so long. He attended the Massachusetts Metaphysical College in 1928, being a member of the class taught by Irving C. Tomlinson. He also served as Committee on Publication for Rhode Island for seven years. Both father and son have had the privilege of knowing many of those who served our Leader in many ways and in some instances recording their reminiscences. Copies of letters and manuscripts by or about her have come to hand from many sources. Some of the letters included in this book are in Mrs. Eddy's authorized writings. Some were made public during the law suit between the Trustees and Directors in 1922, being published in The Christian Science Monitor. Many of them were furnished by William Lyman Johnson, son of William B. Johnson, to whom many of them were addressed, since he was the clerk of the church, and later Secretary of the Christian Science Board of Directors. Mr. W. L. Johnson has been most helpful and generous in giving aid in this work, and at times identifying individuals and events in a way to throw light on certain letters. Help has also been received from Calvin C. Hill, C.S.B., Adelaide W. Still, and Caroline Foss Gyger, C.S.B. who were Mrs. Eddy's students. Miss Still and Mrs. Gyger were her personal maids. Frederick Remington, a member of the family of Daniel H. Spofford, one of Mrs. Eddy's early students, also provided material that was valuable.

The unfoldments in connection with each letter are spiritually helpful thoughts that welled up from the effort to receive spiritual light on each problem presented, and were recorded from what seemed to be a demand on high. They are based on the fact that because the majority of these letters appear on the surface to have slight spiritual signification, they require explication.

A school of small minnows swimming near the surface may indicate to an expert fisherman the presence of a school of bluefish underneath in the depths, whereas to the novice, the minnows indicate minnows, and nothing more. To the surface seeker for ideas, many of these letters of Mrs. Eddy's may seem unimportant trivialities and routine matters in connection with the work of the church, and hence not worthy of much serious consideration. Therefore, it becomes necessary to prove that one may cast into the depths and bring up some of the most profound ideas of Mind that can be comprehended at this stage of experience.


Gilbert C. Carpenter, C.S.B.

Gilbert C. Carpenter, Jr., C.S.B.


East Providence, R.I.

March 18, 1942




December 25, 1881

To be read only to the members of this Church

To the Church of Christ, Scientist.

I beg that you allow no envy or root of bitterness to spring up between you but “that ye love one another, even as I have loved you.” I also recommend that you meet on Sunday alternately in Boston at Mrs. Choate's, and in Charleston, and have the names of Mrs. Choate, Mrs. Whiting, Miss Bartlett and Mrs. Poor registered alphabetically to take their turns in conducting the Sunday services; and now farewell and may the grace of God and the fellowship of Love be and abide with you evermore.

(Signed) Mary B. G. Eddy

N.B. Please send a copy of your resolutions for the papers in Lynn, either the “Transcript” or the “Union.” They will charge nothing I think, and be sure and send me a copy in print when you have my address.

For the Church Today

private


According to the Christian Science Sentinel, page 632 of Vol. 38, The Mother Church has on file only one earlier letter, dated April 1879, from Mrs. Eddy to the “Brethren of the Church,” before this church was organized and while preliminary services were being held.

William Walter claimed to be a Christian Scientist and did fine healing work, until his divergent views caused him to be excommunicated. One of his claims was that Mrs. Eddy had prophesied that the time would come when the church organization would be given up. He took upon himself to declare that he knew that time had come, and that all Christian Science churches should be turned into school-rooms for the purpose of teaching metaphysics.

I mention this disloyal student because there is always the temptation to believe that the Christian Science Church itself progresses. The fact is that the church remains the same, and that today we have the same problem that is set forth in this letter. It is the individual member who grows. The only fulfillment of the prophecies connected with the giving up of the organization will be through individual growth. When students are in the first throes of the new birth, they will always need the church; so, for centuries to come there will be such a need, and the church must have its manifestation to fill all the conditions and necessities of the young child. This fledgling must be fed; it must gain a knowledge of error, as well as of that which will enable it to dispose of error. But when the individual, through his own spiritual growth, reaches a place where he must walk without leaning on the “baby-tender,” he is free from the church in the sense that he is no longer dependent upon it. At that point he ceases to be a lamb, and becomes a shepherd of the sheep.

It is a sad thing to see advanced students still attending church for the good they can get out of it, when they should be attending for the good they can give. When the young child has reached a place where he is capable of caring for himself, he is prepared for the next step, which is to watch over and train the next group of neophytes.

There are two steps each student must take before he is ready to move on to a higher demonstration of the church universal. He starts by working for himself and individual patients. Then he begins to take up the obligation to work for the congregation, for the church as a unit. Finally, he comes to the point at which working for all humanity becomes the objective. To work for the church is a limited thought; but it is an expansion from the thought of merely working for individuals. After a student has learned to think in groups, he still has a larger step to take which means reaching the point where his work is for the great group, or as Mrs. Eddy states it on page 249 of Miscellaneous Writings, “worlds on worlds.”

When the “babe in Christ” first enters the church, he is fed and nourished by the church — the church gives him what he needs. The next step in order is, for the babe to become a giver to the church, as part of his becoming a man, because one's development and growth in helping others is an essential part of his progress. First the church provides a blessing to the individual directly. Yet that is only one step in the teaching. The next step is the necessity for the member to learn the obligation and need of furnishing from his overflowing cup the healing thought for the congregation. Once the member has reached this point of growth, he must never return to the conception that he is fed by the church, that his spiritual growth results from being helped by the church apart from the growth he gets by helping the church. First the church helps him, and then in turn he helps the church; then he must finally graduate with honors into the greater kingdom of God where he must receive his inspiration, his wisdom, and his guidance from above, and must eschew everything that tends to interfere with his ability to receive directly from God. At that point everything must be given up, in order to reach the highest peak of spiritual endeavor; yet this spells no withdrawal from the organization, but merely a more scientific attitude toward it, and a greater support of it.

The Bible outlines this orderly procedure. The worshippers start in the outer court; then they enter the church proper, and finally come into the Holiest of Holies, which is the place each individual aspires to be in. There one is able to receive from God that wisdom that is needed by the church, by the world, and by all nations for their prosperity and good. At that point of growth all lesser obligations become void; but only as they interfere with that delicate and sensitive point of spiritual attainment and adjustment, namely, functioning in the Holiest of Holies. The advancing pilgrim isolates himself mentally from everything that might turn his thought from this sacred mental balance — although outwardly few might know of this hallowed and exalted experience, because he still appears to function in the church as usual.

This aspiration to enter the Holiest of Holies, cannot be stressed to the beginner, because he might be so eager to gain it, that he would be apt to omit some of the intermediate steps. There is a temptation for one to assume that he has arrived before he actually has. One can only determine when he has arrived and is ready for the next step, by listening to God, and God will not reveal this to him until he has taken advantage of his earlier teaching, up to the point where he is taught of God. The three steps in this orderly unfoldment are: first, to be a receiver from the church. Second, to be a giver to the church. Third, to be God-governed, where one has attained the ability to be guided by Him. At that point the need to follow His guidance is imperative. Human guidance must be relinquished at the third stage for divine direction.

If one asked Mrs. Eddy, “When will I be ready for the course in Divinity that you mention in the Manual on page 68?” The answer would probably have been, “When God calls you; because when you can hear God calling you, you are ready to take the course. The course consists in hearing God's teaching. It is not the call that determines one's readiness, but the ability to hear the call. Therefore, those in authority need never feel disturbed over the possibility of students entering into the Holiest of Holies in large numbers, mistakenly believing and claiming that they have fulfilled the first two steps of receiving and giving. If they understand that they are not ready for the third step until God tells them, then they are safe, since if they demonstrate properly, their ears will be opened to hear; and when their ears are open to hear God's voice, that is the point where they take this course.

In this connection a lesson can be learned from the parable of Dives and Lazarus, if the former is taken as a type of Christian Scientist who made the demonstration of receiving spiritually, until he fared sumptuously every day on his spiritual food — which represents the culmination of a personal demonstration. When it came to giving, all he handed out were a few crumbs, and those who were dependent on his spiritual largess — as the world is dependent on the beneficence of the Christian Scientists — were covered with sores, were poverty-stricken, and half-starved. Just a few crumbs were all that this rich Christian Scientist would share of his largess. The lesson is, that no matter how affluent the demonstration of an individual Christian Scientist may be, if he stagnates in a selfish and self-centered satisfaction, he is not much better off than as if he had never begun his spiritual journey, since he experiences the same mortal destiny as the rest of humanity.

If several groups of people start for the North pole, those who get within a few hundred miles of the goal are not much better off than those who never started. It is true that the Christian Science Dives has made a demonstration of, is way beyond that of mortal mind; but after having demonstrated a great inflow of spiritual blessing that he thinks is wonderful, if he fails to extend that largess and give to a waiting world, he will end as disastrously as the one who never knew anything of Science. Dives was condemned because he was a great receiver, but no giver. The few crumbs that got away from him were not enough to prevent the hungry from being half-starved and sick, when they might have been healed, fed and blessed, had he only bestowed upon them that which he possessed in such abundance.

The letter in question points out that in the early stages of the church Mrs. Eddy realized that the students still had so much materiality, were still so handled by human thought, that they continued to aggrandize themselves in comparison with others, by putting the other fellow down. So, when it came to selecting one of their number to fill the honorable position of conducting the service, they could not do it without creating bitterness, envy and dissension. For that reason, Mrs. Eddy had to make the selection in order to avoid disruption. She says in substance, “Have faith enough in my spiritualized thought to accept what I say, as to the fitness of those of my students I know are ready to do this great work, and be willing to wait until your own spiritual growth is sufficient, so that you know something about making such selections through demonstration.”

Nothing is more thought-darkening and growth-retarding than the use of the developed human intelligence, or mortal mind, to select candidates for office in Christian Science. One of the most important uses of demonstration in our church is to determine the fitness of individuals for the various positions. Human intelligence would argue that all that is necessary is to have the church unite on the fitness of a candidate based on human attainment, education, and other qualifications. But Mrs. Eddy looked upon such a point of view as a great error. I have seen her with my own eyes take a list of candidates sent her by the Board for the various positions and blue pencil the entire list with the words, “Totally unfit, totally unfit.” Yet humanly considered, those on such a list would be quite adequate, well-educated, dignified, and quite capable of performing the human side of the work.

One who recognizes clearly the vast importance of letting God select the candidates in the Christian Science church, also perceives the absolute valuelessness of selecting them in any other way.

One outstanding characteristic of the Hebrew nation as recorded in the Old Testament is the fact that they maintained prophets of God, one of whose functions was to demonstrate God's candidates for the office of king. For long periods of time they turned definitely to demonstration, even though at one time they only made half a demonstration; that is, when God told them that the time had come to function without a king, they refused. The necessity, however, that their king be chosen of God was impressed on each individual.

Had the Children of Israel seen the need of functioning without a king, they would have made an individual and universal demonstration of responsibility which would have been a step beyond that of leaning on the guidance of one individual. Similarly, today without Mrs. Eddy, the responsibility is laid upon each individual Christian Scientist to follow out the spiritual significance of Science and Health, the Manual, and all of her teachings. Because she did not supply us with a successor, she laid the responsibility on each one to preserve the purity of her scientific motive, to exalt demonstration as the important requirement, and to spiritualize thought in order that God through them may furnish the wisdom necessary for the successful furtherance of our Church.

But if at any time the Board of Directors are looked upon by students as her successors, or as carrying the whole weight of spiritual demonstration, instead of being fellow students who have the grave responsibility of transacting the business of The Mother Church and of watching and making sure that the officers of the Church they have selected perform the functions of their several offices promptly and well, then there will exist the danger of a decrease in the feeling of responsibility in the individual member to further the spirituality involved in Mrs. Eddy's teaching.

Without this individual effort the church might forge ahead in wealth and numbers, and lag behind in spiritual growth. It would then be like the man driving a team to market with a can of milk. On his way the can falls off and the helper jumps out to save it, but his efforts to attract the driver's attention to stop are of no avail. So, the team goes merrily on its way without the milk, which constituted the only object for the trip to the city. Similarly, the vehicle of the Christian Science organization is intended to carry spirituality or the milk of the word. If it should lose that spirituality and still keep going, it would be forging ahead without that essential element that alone furnishes any reason for trying to forge ahead. At such a juncture something would have to be done to restore the only thing that is of value, namely, the spirituality which it teaches and demonstrates. Healing the sick is good. Our church services are good. Our lecturers and periodicals are good. But the object of all of these is spirituality. Otherwise they are an empty vehicle.

Then again it would be like a man traveling to some remote spot in order to take pictures of an eclipse of the sun, and forgetting to take his camera. Thus, like the man driving to the market without the can of milk, the whole trip is wasted.

Even as early as 1881 we find Mrs. Eddy telling her students that she takes the full responsibility for making this decision of selection referred to in the letter. But she knew that if these students grew as she hoped they would grow, in time they would be able to take this responsibility upon themselves. At this early date, however, if they were left to make the selection of the one to conduct the meetings, they might do it humanly. Of course, if all that was necessary was for them was to do it humanly, they were as capable of doing it then as they would ever be. But because they were ignorant of the necessity for making a demonstration of that selection, or at least incapable of handling the animal magnetism, Mrs. Eddy was the only one to do it; and she had to do it with the hope that time would remedy the lack, so that in the future they would be able to make a demonstration of selection. The students had approximately as much human ability as Mrs. Eddy had when she put aside her natural qualifications, but there was one thing Mrs. Eddy had which they lacked. This was responsible for their inability to follow her to any considerable degree. They did not have the same love for humanity that she did; they did not have the cry of the sick, the sorrowing and the sinner in their ears all the time as she did, while she realized that she had the remedy with which to help them.

She constantly heard the cry of the poor, the sick, the unhappy, the sinner, and out of the wealth and overflow of her demonstration, she ceaselessly fed them, — as Joseph, when he was the custodian of the grain which he had gathered during the seven years of plenty in Egypt, fed the nations who were starving during the seven years of famine. This was the reason for Mrs. Eddy's growth. Students today do not grow faster because, out of their abundance of spiritual good they do not realize that much of what has been given them was for the purpose of sharing, not withholding. Lack of giving will stultify growth.

Many practitioners seem so concerned with their own needs and those of individual patients, that they have little time to give out of the wealth of their understanding of demonstration to the world at large. Such work brings in no direct return, to be sure, but they must have enough faith in God to realize that, although they may not perceive the channels through which God will reward them for such universal work, nevertheless the rewards of God are even more certain than those from man. Work done for God's children without hope of material reward is more surely paid for than anything else one might do. Therefore, no one can lose by giving more time to help humanity. Practitioners must not make a god out of their practice, and keep their noses down to the grindstone to the extent that, when the need comes to lift up their heads to receive an inflow of refreshment from God, they cannot do it. If one works for humanity, he establishes a demonstrating thought towards the world that inevitably brings him his reward, as well as fits him to handle the universal claim of animal magnetism directed against him. Any good mental worker, through his desire to bless humanity, is handling the error that may be aimed at himself, and thereby avoids much that those who are not working to bless humanity as a whole do not avoid.

Let us consider a thunderstorm where a Christian Scientist is struck by lightning. You say how can such a one be struck? Here is another Christian Scientist who, seeing the importance of handling the belief of mental causation, is working on the weather for all. Such work is his protection and no stray lightning could hit him. His faithfulness in working on the weather, because he considers such work to be a part of the development of demonstration as well as of spiritual attainment, thereby protects him from the possibility of any weather conditions overthrowing him.

One cannot conceive of a Christian Scientist working on the weather correctly and at the same time being annihilated by it. One of the greatest protections against the unknown, the unseen, the unexpected, is the work to bless humanity, because one cannot bless humanity without handling the error that comes to humanity, and the handling of such error is one's own life insurance. In working for all humanity, you must handle its animal magnetism. This is the Christian Scientist's life insurance, since one cannot be handled by that which one is already handling.

It is very significant to read in this letter the following words: “They will charge nothing I think….” The newspapers form a vehicle for the exploitation of important news. They care little what they print providing it is news, something fresh and of supreme importance to humanity. Mrs. Eddy realized that she had introduced that which — when it was demonstrated — would bring to the world the healing of the sick, the elimination of sin, — which involves the freedom of man from mesmerism, and that serenity of thought which is the aspiration of the materially-minded as well as the spiritually-minded. Hence, whatever concerned Mrs. Eddy and her revelation became the most important news.

Even in 1881 our Leader recognized the newspaper as the medium through which could be disseminated an interest in her discovery and the world-wide importance of understanding it. But she realized that the moment one pays for news, it becomes advertising. People regard it as personal propaganda where one expects to profit; therefore, paying for news is not a demonstration as far as publicity in the newspaper goes. The wise man can see that, when Mrs. Eddy writes, “I think,” part of that metaphysical thinking was the recognition that newspapers should open their columns for the dissemination of that important discovery, so that the world might have their thought awakened to what is going on, as well as to its value. Following her hint, every alert student should always know and demonstrate the fact that the newspapers are glad to take for nothing, news of such vital importance to their readers as that concerning Christian Science. We must know that the columns of every paper are open to God, are open to voice God. The most important thing to the success of any newspaper is the space it leaves open for God. That is what it does when it is willing to take as news, reports of Christian Science activity, setting forth what Christian Science is doing in healing and in disseminating peace on earth and good will toward men.

The fact that the fast-growing Oxford Group is given so much free space in the papers these days of 1937, is the greatest proof possible that it contains little that is scientifically constructive, and is doing nothing to take man out of the bondage of the human mind. Otherwise there would be opposition from animal magnetism which would have to be overcome before they would be accorded such space. No doubt it elevates the human mind to a supposed place of spiritual importance, when it receives something in the way of guidance that is beyond the ken of the normal and recognized limitations of this mind, but animal magnetism itself knows the valuelessness of such efforts, even though they may have a civilizing effect on many individuals. Error may permit the Oxford Group to grow rapidly, but if it is not growing through demonstration, time will expose it.

Are Christian Science congregations any farther advanced today than they were in 1881 when they numbered only a handful? Are they still endeavoring by human selection to do what should only be done by a demonstrated selection? If so, then they should still be rebuked, and should be reminded of the fact that when selection is made humanly, envy and the roots of bitterness always spring up. These are always the aftermath and inevitable results of a human selection. This may not be apparent in the beginning when the majority rule, but the minority are susceptible under a lack of demonstration, and thereby they may allow a root of bitterness to enter in and pervade the whole church.

Loyal Christian Scientists know that the only way to function as our Leader taught is to make a demonstration of these matters, and then to protect the demonstration. That will not only serve to bring out the right kind of harmony, but also something that is definite in the way of spiritual growth.

Therefore, one inevitable lesson growing out of this letter is that the congregation at this early date was just as capable humanly of selecting the leader of the meeting as are the Christian Scientists of today. But because they did not approach the task spiritually, Mrs. Eddy did not let them do it. She considered the church unfit to make the selection, because they did not make a demonstration of it. Today we still need to be rebuked when the temptation of mental laziness, which is constantly upon us, lures us back to the easy way of doing things; and the easy way humanly is to use human opinions instead of demonstration. It will always be true that, unless the thought of the church be continually aroused to the necessity for demonstration, and whipped to keep it up to demonstration, it will fall back again to the easy way through the inertia of the human mind; then try to justify itself in the error by some excuse to prove it to be scientific and right.

One important lesson in connection with the gaining of a spiritual thought, is the protection that is necessary to prevent the introduction of that which would always kill the newborn babe. So, with the effort to attain a small measure of spiritual thought must go the effort to learn how to counteract and overthrow this interference. You might liken it to training your dog to bring home a can of milk from the store. You would start by giving him a worthless bit of paper, so if he dropped it, there would be no loss. When he became more reliable, you would entrust him with the evening paper. Then if he proved that he could fulfill that task in spite of the temptation to play with other dogs or fight with them, if he was so impressed with the responsibility entrusted upon him that he would faithfully carry through his task, then he would be trusted with the more valuable milk. As long as the dog is carrying nothing that anyone wants, he is left alone to make the trip without interference. But the moment he has the milk, he has something everybody would like; so, he will be tempted at various points with food, pieces of meat, etc., in order that those who want the milk may steal it while he eats the meat.

The lesson is that we have to be tested in the more unimportant ways before God will trust us with important work. In I Kings 13, the “man of God” had unquestionably been tested in unimportant ways before God finally trusted him with a mission. But the moment the part of the mission which seemed important was over, he rested under the oak tree and became an easy prey to the subtle temptation that he was not prepared to handle, and lost his life. Probably there was no strong temptation connected with his earlier tests, but when it became necessary to function under strict obedience to God and His demands, he could not carry through to the end, and so became useless to God. There is no place in Christian Science for one who is not thoroughly grounded in the recognition that the only way to progress, and to be safe in the narrow path that runs from sense to Soul, is to keep alert, alive and awake.

This letter shows how Mrs. Eddy took her valuable time to make demonstrations for the church which they should have been able to make themselves. But they were not able to at this point. She expected that when they attained a greater demonstrating ability along these lines, they would take the responsibility of doing the work that she was now doing for them, so that she would be left free to assimilate herself to God, but alas! that time never came. The only real continuous help she got was from those students whom she took into her home and trained to demonstrate. Further pondering of the problem of the activity of students has led me to the possible conclusion that much of the help that she demanded of students in her home, was really intended for their own spiritual growth. When the Master asked the woman at the well of Sychar to give him to drink, we can infer that he did this because of the blessing it would be to her to minister to him. After a student had been in Mrs. Eddy's home for a period, she would be very apt to ask that student to work for her and help her in some specific way. Perhaps she did not really need that help, but was doing it in order to train the student, or in order to determine his spiritual possibilities. She could tell a great deal about a student by the effect of their work for her.

I had been there about three weeks when she first asked me to help her. I concluded that this was about the length of time students stayed there before being asked to help her. I also believe that she seldom sent a student away without first testing him out by requesting him to help her, since she could discover so much through that effort on the student's part.

The main value of the effort to help our Leader would have been lost, had there been the slightest suggestion that she was asking for such help for any other reason than that she needed it. But after thirty years of pondering the problem, I am reaching the conclusion that perhaps she did not need the help, but requested it for the sake of the growth of the student who was to give it.

At times she would call me in the middle of the night to come to her to help her audibly. Yet I think she was far more interested in determining my mental status and in training me, than she was in receiving such help. One reason for this conclusion is the fact that she listened carefully to every scientific argument I used, and was alert to correct me for the slightest deviation — all of which was unlike a person in such great need that they could not help themselves metaphysically. I believe she could have carried on without such help. Students came and went in her home, but she continued to function successfully.

If her only thought was to receive help from me, why did she compel me to come to her room and argue to her audibly? I feel that it must have been for my training, or to determine my mental status. No doubt she was feeling an error in the home, and it is possible that she called to me to come to her room in order to determine whether the error she felt was one that I was cherishing. Perhaps some student in the home was innocently malpracticing on her, and she endeavored to determine which one it was by asking each one to argue audibly. Thus, it would not take long to probe the thought of each student. If she found the error in the mind of one of her students, she would know just where to correct it. It is beginning to seem more reasonable to me that she needed to know the error that was lurking around, rather than to receive personal help from us.

Of course, if we gave her constructive help, that would not be amiss. When I was called to help her, I felt led to reassure her of her divine destiny under the Father's care, and she would seem to appreciate it. I would state that God would sustain her because of the work that He was requiring her to do; that He never required of man a task that He did not support him in furthering; that that task never would appear until man was close enough to God to be helped by Him in carrying it out.

As I argued, she followed me, ready to correct me if I made one misstatement. No matter how badly off she seemed to be, her thought was alert and ready to detect one false declaration. I can perceive that she learned from my statements the exact status of my thought, and whether its foundation was truly metaphysical. She knew that if my thought was scientific, it could not be made a channel for a sick thought to enter the home or to be held toward her. Of course, if she knew in advance that one's thought was unscientific, she would not need to use this test.

I believe that students were led to believe that the work they did for Mrs. Eddy was important, per se, but I am coming to see that the training they received may have been the primary purpose of such endeavor. Mrs. Eddy trained students in this way, and then let them go out into the Field, while she continued to carry on. While the help she gained from students — if it was constructive — was no doubt very acceptable to her, nevertheless I am convinced that there was a larger purpose involved than merely to help her.

In making the selection of those to conduct the meetings of the church as Mrs. Eddy does in this letter, she no doubt incurred the disapproval of those who had a human idea of whom should be selected — which was themselves. But she took the responsibility in order to give them the opportunity to learn more about how to make the demonstration for themselves, so that later they could relieve her; but that time never came.

Adelaide Still, who was Mrs. Eddy's maid from 1907 on, writes, “She told us that she found herself on the mount of revelation, where all was good; there was no evil to her consciousness, but she did not know how she got there.” In order that the revelation should be proved practical in redeeming mankind, she had to come down from this mount and keep the way to prove it daily. Mrs. Eddy's first attainment of spirituality was as a “natural.” As such she had no expectation that she would find another “natural,” to work with her. But when she put aside her natural sense of Christian Science and began to function exactly as did her students under the rules that had been revealed to her, she had every expectation that her own growth would be the growth of her students, at least to a very great degree. She felt that it was only as a “natural” that she was leagues beyond them, and she was willing to put that all aside and start afresh. But to her disappointment she did not find any students who understood and applied the revelation as she did. She went right ahead progressing, while they chemicalized over her forward steps. Mrs. Eddy was like one who inherits a great fortune, and then voluntarily puts it aside to accumulate one through his own efforts.

These arguments lead up to the fact that if Christian Scientists desire the right kind of publicity, they must handle animal magnetism, because that is what keeps us from having the natural publicity the Oxford Group is getting. The latter has neither the significance, growth, organization — nor the aims — that Christian Science has, yet how little free publicity we are getting in comparison, and the little we get these days we have to fight for!

Mrs. Eddy is not accustomed to question things or to say, “I think.” But she ends the letter by instructing them to send her a copy of the resolutions in print when they have her address in Washington, where she was going with Dr. Eddy. That proves that there was no doubt in her mind but that the paper would print them. The wise man can read between the lines, and know what kind of thinking she indulged in, and you may be sure that when Mrs. Eddy thought, it bore fruit.

Finally, lest a letter of this sort get out and become public, she writes at the end the word, private, underlined twice. She was always watching lest in some way what we call demonstration and prayer might be interpreted as manipulation, as being some mental process whereby the newspapers were induced to print something that they otherwise would not do. If such a concept began to spread, and editors began to feel inclined to publish items in regard to Christian Science, they might say to themselves, “That proves that I am being manipulated by those birds, so I will not publish anything about them,” and that would effectually shut the door on the possibility of any demonstration. It is necessary to watch lest such a false assumption gain credence, and become current. The moment persons believe that demonstration is manipulation, they will guard themselves against it, and put a double lock on a door that otherwise is merely closed waiting to be opened. They likewise close the door on the blessing they should receive, by becoming unwilling to give space to God.

Mrs. Eddy's “I think” was more than a mere human opinion. It was demonstrated thinking. Had it been otherwise, she would have merely said, “Send me a copy of it if they accept it.” But in her mind the demonstration was finished and complete. So, she directs them to send it.

I firmly believe that if we did enough work on the problem today, the newspapers would come to us for news as they did to Mrs. Eddy. She did a great deal of mental work on the papers, because she considered them an important channel for breaking down prejudice, reaching the minds of the needy and arousing them to the value of Christian Science. When I was with her, many letters came to her from editors requesting articles from her pen for publication. Many offered her large sums for such contributions, but I noticed that she usually granted the request of those who did not offer her money. The amount of space newspapers gave to the founding of Christian Science was much greater than what it is accorded today, and I believe that the reason can be found in the amount of work Mrs. Eddy did on the problem.

If the newspapers are willing to give space to the activities of the Oxford Group in 1937, how much more should they be willing to give space to that which is not transitory, but which time has proven to be a permanently established religion that has come to stay, and that is having a definite influence upon the lives of mankind! Therefore, students must be sure that they are thinking right about the press in relation to Christian Science, and are realizing that there can be no opposition that can reverse the right and normal desire of papers, to print news about that which is playing an important part in the lives of such vast numbers of people.




To the Church of Christ, Scientist


With Love's battle flags unfurled,
With hope's cause before the world,
We are going on;
Though the storm clouds thunder o'er us,
Though the path seems dark before us,
Though the foeman strive to kill us
We are going on;
For our Master led the way,
Fought the fight, and won the day!
Follow, follow, all who may,
Going on, going on.
Stand ye only back, who dare
Not the cross of Christ to bear;
We are going on;
Triumph's star above us gleaming,
Victory on our foreheads beaming,
For fresh duties hourly reaching,
We are going on;
To fulfill each hope and aim.
Conquer sickness, sin, and blame,
And each erring heart reclaim —
Going on, going on.
From the darkness of the night,
Into morning's golden light,
Sisters, — labor on;
>With the aid of God's own Science,
With no heed of hate's defiance,
Truth and Right my sole reliance,
I shall labor on.



Your loving Teacher,

(Signed) M. B. Glover Eddy


To be read today in meeting

It is true that terse expressions produce a better effect and a more lasting impression upon the memory than more fulsome explanations. If a thing is said in a few words, in alliteration, or in poetical form, people will remember it longer. Teaching can be given in the form of poetry that will make more of an impression than when it is in prose. There is something about the lilt and meter that causes the thought to remain more firmly entrenched in consciousness. This has been strikingly illustrated in my own experience. When I lived at Pleasant View I learned a method of scientific thought that was very helpful and complete. I used to declare that I saw myself as God's perfect child; that I saw my brother-man also as perfect; that I saw him seeing me perfect; that I saw him seeing me seeing him perfect, that I saw him seeing everyone else perfect; that I saw everyone else seeing him perfect, etc. There seemed to be no limit to this interlocking thought and I found it extremely helpful.

Thirty years later my son was sharing this instruction with a class he was teaching in Christian Science, and it came to him in metrical form as follows:


I see myself as God's own child,
As perfect in His sight;
I see my brother-man, as well
A perfect child of light.
Then to complete my prayer
I see him seeing me aright;
I see him seeing me seeing him
As perfect in Love's sight.


In this form, this verse began to circulate until it was no uncommon thing to hear of the sick being healed and estranged families united, on the basis of the thought contained therein. It was set to music in order to be sung as a solo in Christian Science churches, and other evidences accumulated to prove that it gave this teaching an added force to have it in the form of a verse. This proves that it is just as possible now to convey spiritual teachings in this way to thought that is trained, as it was in 1881. No doubt Mrs. Eddy realized that something more than mere prose, was required, and she saw that thought would be more firmly established on the right side if the truth was given to them through poetry.

Giving spiritual teaching in metrical form, might be likened to giving children in sweetened and flavored form, medicine that otherwise would be distasteful to them. The old way was to give it in its plain and unpleasant form. The modern way is to disguise it so that children will like it. Thus, many of Mrs. Eddy's admonitions were like medicine; in poetical form they were more agreeable to take. But in taking it in that form we want to be sure that we realize that it is spiritual meat, rather than milk, and hence, that it requires spiritual perception to uncover its veritable meaning.

“With Love's battle flags unfurled.” When Christian Scientists talk about the fight they are having with evil, it sounds like a real one, as if the forces of good were arrayed against the forces of evil; but the forces of good are real, and the forces of evil are imaginary. The struggle is never anything more than what goes on in one's own consciousness, against the humanly inherited temptation to believe that one has something real to fight. As long as one believes he has something to fight, he continues to have an enemy, which is his belief. Hence, the realization that the only power is Love, that the only fight is to retain love, and that a right understanding of Love dissipates and destroys every phase of illusion or falsity, is what is needed. Evil is merely a belief. Yet it needs dissipation just as much as though it were a reality.

If a child fancied that its mother did something wrong, it would feel at odds with her and would criticize her. It would be less obedient, the underlying motive of love would be absent, and it would obey largely through fear; hence no good could come of it. Yet it is all a mistaken sense. The mother has done nothing wrong, and the belief that she has, needs to be destroyed in the child's mind. The child's attitude is the same as though the mother had really done something to forfeit the child's respect. Thus, the effects of belief and of facts, are just the same. The difference lies in the handling of the two, since the belief is only an illusion. Love is the battle flag in this warfare — for Love is the way to dissipate belief. It is the realization of the infinity of Love, the recognition that it fills all space, that it is all power, all of which preclude the possibility of there being anything that can produce pain or fear, want or woe. Love is the effective thought in Christian Science. Its efficacy comes through one's effort to realize the allness of ever-present Love; that we are now immersed in an ocean of infinite Love, that we cannot get away from it — it is all about us and within us; that the manifestation of Love as well as Love itself, can produce only joy, peace and a sweet and uplifting sense that is never reversed, that can never carry aught of sorrow or sadness, but instead dissipates them; that it can never result in anything but a permanent and continued spiritual ecstasy that knows no end.

Thus, it can be seen that Love's battle flag is not a passive acceptance of Love, but an active demonstration of it. The flag is unfurled so that everybody — even if they do not see it — will feel it.

“With hope's cause before the world.” We cannot promise an immediate fulfillment of the facts of Christian Science, but the rule of demonstration carries a great hope. It is as if a man took the corner of a dirty rug, and with some kind of chemical cleaner made it spotless. Although the rest of the rug may look dirtier by contrast, yet it proves the efficacy of the cleaner, and gives the hope that eventually the whole rug may be restored.

The demonstration of healing the sick in Christian Science proves that the devils are subject unto us, and gives hope of their final destruction. When, through the application of the understanding of Truth, you see material sense yielding up its false claims in any direction to this power operating through man, that prophesies the final and eventual destruction of all evil — all material sense. God's power does not exist apart from man, because man does not exist apart from God. The term power applied to God must mean the amplification of power through man. Power must always mean man's reflection of divine Mind. Furthermore, animal magnetism being nothing more than suggestion, its only effect can be to endeavor to trick man into misdirecting or misusing divine power.

If a man stood in a pool of water and at the same time grasped a live high-tension wire, he would be electrocuted. The man of God in I Kings 13 was taught the danger of failing to operate Truth correctly. Finally, his feet got into a pool of water as it were, water symbolizing mortal mind. The result was death. We learn from his experience that the action of Truth reflected by man, who at the same time steps into a finite sense, is destructive. High potential properly used represents tremendous power for good. But man should never attempt to deal with high potential unless he is prepared to be careful, and use it strictly in accordance with the teaching of those who understand its operation.

In our early days in Christian Science we had no idea of the dangers involved in an ignorant and erroneous use of divine power and the consequent effect on man. Therefore, before man is entrusted with much power he must prove his fitness. As Mrs. Eddy once wrote on a leaflet she sent out, in regard to class teaching dated June 19, 1890, “Find out before you take a student whether he is fit to enter this field of labor and be trusted at present with so much power.”

A seed is always planted with hope. In that small seed the human eye can see no indication of the magnificent bloom that will eventually replace it, but we have hope that through the processes of nature, beauty and desirability will eventually come forth.

“Though the storm clouds thunder o'er us, though the path seems dark before us.” Apparently, there is no way to avoid the storm clouds thundering over us. When a seed is put into the damp ground, if the seed had the ability to take cognizance of its surroundings, it would probably feel that it was badly off. Yet the very nature of a seed is to push through and overcome every obstacle that stands between it and the light. So, it is certain that there will come a time when it will emerge from the darkness of the earth, into the sunshine where it can properly manifest its own beauty.

These storm clouds seem to be the beliefs in a power opposed to God which continue to operate in lessening degree, until they have been thoroughly eradicated. Thank God! Through Mrs. Eddy's teachings the nature of error has been discovered and reduced to a unit of nothingness, as she writes in an article called, “The Second Death.” But the nature of the beast, or false belief, is that it continues to function until man has overcome it. Christian Science teaches the process of reducing error to nothing and shows it to be the same process that releases man's true selfhood.

The student who has nothing to meet, however, has little to stimulate him to do the work necessary to release himself from bondage. In our early days storm clouds thundering o'er us may seem like fearsome things; but the time comes when we appreciate their value; they no longer seem terrifying, and we begin to see that they form the stimulus that drives us up and out. Long before we have dissipated the storm clouds, we begin to appreciate their importance and need.

“Though the foeman strive to kill us.” Man must grow out of the belief that life is material, that it is the result of heart action, and that without heart action he would be dead. As error operates through such a belief in an attempt to kill us, we are driven to remove our sense of life out of that which is vulnerable into that which is invulnerable; just as one might exchange a flickering candle for a mirror that will reflect the sun.

Once during the Civil War when the capitol was in the path of the foe, it was removed to a city that was not in danger. The very recognition through sad experience of the vulnerability of the human sense of life, drives Christian Scientists to the demonstration of that life which is invulnerable, and not at the mercy of time, chance or change, that cannot be touched or affected by what we call animal magnetism. Therefore, even the foeman's effort to kill us becomes a valuable experience. If we have placed our sense of life in matter, we are driven to a higher understanding of Life to replace that false sense, and that puts us beyond the reach of this murderous foeman. So, to the Christian Scientist, every attempt to kill him only helps him to establish a more secure sense of Life.

People who are continuously happy and healthy seldom turn to Christian Science. You do not find man striving to discover a sense of life that is invulnerable, when he is satisfied with a false sense, just as you do not see men searching out for safer airplanes, unless things happen to indicate the shortcomings of the present model. Out of each sad experience a safer invention comes. So, in Christian Science the discoveries and demonstrations that lead us more positively to a final spiritualization as well as a continuous protection, so that we may function without fear, until the final demonstration is made, have grown out of the efforts of animal magnetism to overthrow man.

It is through the effort of the foeman to kill us that we are driven to the demonstration of life as the reflection of God, which is the only sense of life that cannot be touched by limitation, time, or animal magnetism.

“For our Master led the way, fought the fight, and won the day.” So far, in this poem the most important lesson is Mrs. Eddy's call for continued progress. There is no present reward indicated. Rewards do not come on this side of the veil to any great degree. The entire throwing off of materiality is not reached until the other side, and the final reward does not come until that is done. Men who are rowing a race, do not receive a reward until the race is run. They have not won the race until they cross the finish line. It is also well to remember that when one has overcome the world, the world cannot give one anything, so he should never look to the world for his reward.

In the beginning, our demonstrations bring certain human emoluments to encourage us to keep on. They give us a temporary incentive until we get the real reward. But a temporary incentive is never a sufficient motivation, any more than a desire to glide will make an aviator. It may cause him in the beginning to strive to keep aloft; but the motive power, which is the heart and soul of the airplane, is lacking.

The victory over sickness, the freeing of man from sadness, loss and bondage, and the brightening of human experience, which come as the first part of the way the Master laid down, bring a temporary reward. But human harmony is only gliding. It is not the forging ahead and upward, that takes man to his goal. The real incentive that must evolve itself is the fight the Master fought and won, the freeing of man from every phase of mortality, the awakening from, and elimination of, this mortal dream through the recognition of its unreality. The real reward can only be given when man has thrown off the dream. So, he need not expect any real reward in the dream, even when he starts to throw it off, since the dream still seems to stick for a time, like tar which a man tries to scrub off. But it is no indication that the tar belongs to man and is not to be separated from him, simply because it seems to stick.

Man is not clean until every particle of tar is taken from him, but some tar will adhere tenaciously; material sense sticks close; but God's rewards can only come when man throws off all materiality. Therefore, no form of materiality can be the final reward. In fact, we do not deserve God's rewards until all materiality is thrown off. So, the way the Master led, and the fight he fought may seem to bring temporary rewards. But the real fight and the real rewards come as we struggle to throw off all that is unlike good and finally succeed in winning the day.

“Follow, follow, all who may, going on, going on.” Here is the call for progress repeated twice, like the runner who gets his second wind. Sometimes it would seem as if a runner ran for a while on his nerve, and then when he thinks he cannot go any farther, he gets what is called his second wind. This enables him to settle down, and find a speed that he can maintain mile after mile.

The second wind in Christian Science is when we realize that previously it has been more or less of a toy for us to play with. When we feel like it and need it, we take it on, and then between times, drop it. Then we reach a place where we realize that it is something we must keep on with, and that we cannot throw it off by an act of the mind. We have put our hand to the plow, and cannot look back with longing to the time when the field was nice and smooth, even though filled with weeds and unfit for spiritual sowing. The plow has begun to break up the hard material beliefs in order to prepare for Christ's fruitage, and we must go on, no matter how much material sense may rebel, since there is nothing to go back to; we have burned our bridges behind us. For instance, at such a point one could not go back, and receive the slightest help from old religion or from medicine. We have permitted the entire warp and woof of falsity to be broken up, so that there is no warmth left in materiality. We cannot go back to it, any more than a man who has been living in a hut, and builds himself a beautiful new stone house, can go back to the hut and enjoy it or even endure it. Finally, he destroys the hut, just as soon as the new house is complete enough to shelter him. Even if he wanted to go back, he could not, since he has destroyed it.

In the second wind, man begins to demonstrate Truth for its own sake, and not for the human emoluments which formed the reason for his acceptance of Truth in the beginning. People come to Christian Science because they like its treatment better than the doctor's; there is less fear connected with it. One does not feel that he is liable to be exposed to experiment or lack of skill. Man takes it on, therefore, rather than continue with the doctor. But the second wind is the second going on in this poem; it was this that Mrs. Eddy wanted to see in every student who came to her, — where their efforts were impelled by God rather than by human inclination, so that they could not look back because they had put their hand to the plow. No matter how severe the lesson, how toilsome the road, how unsettling the breaking up of fixed beliefs, they could feel no temptation to look back.

No student should ever be given responsibilities which subject him to the pressure of animal magnetism, until he has begun to get his second wind. There is always the chance of his turning back under the first wind. But under the second wind man realizes that Christian Science is the way of Life, and everybody must take it, whether they want to or not. It is the only way out of mortality, sin, sickness and death, and whether it seems easy or hard, no matter what one has to go through, even if it be the cross, there is no other way.

The entire thought conveyed by this poem is mental activity. It is as if a man was called to skate over thin ice, or to pass through a road with fire burning on both sides. Both illustrations bring out the fact that the only danger would be to slow down or stop. So, Mrs. Eddy's admonition to continued progress is not a sentimental urge, but the setting forth of the only true protection from animal magnetism. Animal magnetism can never hit a moving target.

When I used to hunt, I was never able to hit a bird on the wing. Flying was the bird's protection. It is a well-known fact that a hypnotist cannot hypnotize the one who resists, and maintains an active thought. If you make up your mind that it shall not be done, and keep active control of your thinking, the operator cannot possibly have any effect on you. The first step in hypnotism is yielding to inaction of thought. Then error can slip in and think for you. But the one who does not yield to the influence of the operator to put him to sleep, can never be hypnotized.

So, this poem sets forth the rule of protection, in going on, going on, keeping your thought moving on. The whole call is for activity. The student of Christian Science can never accomplish anything of value, if his thought is handled by apathy, inertia, or lethargy. Error cannot hit a moving target. An active thought is untouchable.

First the poem gives us the goal as being hope's cause before the world. We are going to help humanity. Then, even if we seem to be enveloped by error and fear, we are still going on. The lesson of the Master is that, in spite of all that he had to go through, he still continued because he got his second wind and never let go of his spiritual thought. That was his salvation and enabled him to go through successfully without looking back.

The plant called the flycatcher furnishes a good illustration of animal magnetism. This plant naturally is immovable, and must rely on the insects lighting on it, in order to catch them. It is so constructed as to furnish a lure, since a flying prey is safe from it. So, animal magnetism might be said to be stationary as a belief, and yet presenting a lure, so that the victim will voluntarily put himself in a position where he will be caught in a state of mental inactivity. The active mind cannot be caught, since animal magnetism cannot give chase. Mental activity from God's standpoint of course is quite different from what the human mind calls activity. We must always remember that the temptation to sleep, to stop thinking and relax mentally and physically, is the suggestion leading up to our being caught by animal magnetism, and if we successfully resist it, we will not be caught. A stationary error can never catch a moving thought. Activity of the right kind is the salvation of the Christian Scientist, and mere passivity is always dangerous.

In I Kings 13, when the man of God was caught by the argument that temporarily spelled the end of his spiritual usefulness, he was found resting under an oak tree. In that somnolent condition he yielded to the arguments of animal magnetism. The Bible says that there is always a falling away first. That suggests the thought of falling away from a right activity of thought, or falling asleep.

We have a humble parable of a tortoise, a slow plodding tortoise, that won a race from a hare because the hare yielded to the temptation to go to sleep. Animal magnetism cannot move to tempt man, but it is always waiting for the one who slows up in his spiritual thinking. When one approaches within the bounds of its stationary influence, he can always detect this fact by the tendency to mental inactivity that he feels, and if he goes to sleep within its boundaries he is caught. Animal magnetism works by guile and trickery, not by speed and force. It is no wonder that when she had to leave the church for a period, and take a trip to Washington, Mrs. Eddy left behind this poem, which inculcated the need of the students going on, going on. It was to take her place for the time being as the prodder of the students.

The church always offers an opportunity for great growth, but it is also a place where one may be overtaken by animal magnetism if he is unwary. The Bible says that where the carcass is, there the eagles are gathered together. So, in the very place where the greatest good is to be found, animal magnetism plants its lure. The church is a place where mental activity brings the greatest blessing, and passivity puts man in the greatest danger. Because it is such a danger, Mrs. Eddy established the requirement, that there be mental workers in the church to help those who might be overcome with lethargy and apathy, — mental tithing-men as it were to help to keep thought awake and active. In the very place where the greatest good is to be found, the greatest evil is present also; but never as a reality.

“Stand ye only back, who dare not the cross of Christ to bear.” When one fails to judge from a spiritual basis of thought, the consequent misinterpretation of the good that the spiritual pioneer brings forth, is as serious an error, as is the misinterpretation of that which seems bad. There were students who did not understand Mrs. Eddy, and made no definite effort to do so, because they fancied that their normal mental equipment upon which they prided themselves was sufficient to gauge, understand and criticize her. They attempted to credit her with certain weaknesses of character, to declare that she could not always maintain her lofty standpoint, but yielded at times to error. Yet more serious than this attitude was the misinterpretation of the good in her life, the inability to perceive how it was good. Since the error on the side of misinterpreting her good was less obvious and hence, more subtle, they would be more apt to yield to it. Their misinterpretation of certain things she did which they called bad, or at least, not Christian, would be less harmful. In other words, if they felt critical of Mrs. Eddy about certain things, they might make an effort to rise above that; but if they felt that they had a correct concept of our Leader on the metaphysical side, they would not be awake to the fact that that concept might need correcting. If students believe that there are puzzling places in Mrs. Eddy's life that need clearing up, that seem out of keeping with her character and mission, let them realize that far more important than that, is the effort to gain the correct interpretation of the good she accomplished.

One might say that this poem is very beautiful and spiritual, that it is indicative of Mrs. Eddy's loving and spiritual nature; yet to feel that way about it and go no further would never enable one to perceive that, breathing through every word is scientific teaching, admonition, correction, and guidance, and this lack of perception would be a misinterpretation of Mrs. Eddy's good.

It was this misinterpretation that constituted the cross Mrs. Eddy had to bear. No wonder she wrote in Science and Health that our good would be evil spoken of. That had been her sad experience at the hands of her own students! No wonder she wrote to Mrs. Stetson: “I have no fears whatever of the passage of any law that can injure Christian Science, and only fear the dishonor that comes from unwise measures taken by students. Christian Scientists have a better remedy than material means for error.”

It can be said that Christian Science throws man from the frying pan, which is medical law, mortal belief, etc., into the fire, which is animal magnetism, which is symbolized by the cross of Christ. So, in this phrase Mrs. Eddy says that if you are not willing to bear this cross, do not stand in the way of others who are willing to go on and endure the cross-bearing that spiritual effort carried with it. She tells such to stand back so as not to be in the way of others, but not to go back. Merely mark the time until they are ready.

It would be like climbing a mountain. If one feels that he has gone as high as he can and is unable to make any further strides toward gaining the summit, let him get off the path so those back of him will not be hindered. We learn indirectly from this line that Mrs. Eddy had a great deal to meet from those who went a certain distance spiritually, and then stopped, because they were not willing to endure what was required of them in going higher, yet stood in the way of progress so that she and others were hindered.

One of Mrs. Eddy's own resolves was that there was no price too great to pay for the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth, and to leave behind a comprehensive and demonstrable way for the world to walk in. This higher motive of universal service was necessary to carry her through the experiences that waited for her as a pioneer.

Once a man feared going to the dentist, and yet he had served creditably in the World War of 1914. The motive of service to his country enabled him to rise above fear. Mrs. Eddy knew that students would be willing to bear the cross of Christ if, and only if, they were animated by the desire to bless humanity. Those who stand back must be those working more or less selfishly.

The whole poem sounds as if Mrs. Eddy had Tennyson's epic about the six hundred in mind when she wrote it, not only as far as meter is concerned but the spirit as well. Tennyson's poem tells of men who rode into certain death; but so great was their valor inspired by their motive, that they did it willingly. No man sustained merely by a personal motive would have done such a thing.

In Christian Science practice the only motivation that will enable one to continue and endure what is required of him, comes from the realization that one is helping to free humanity. The maintenance of one's own health, peace of mind, prosperity, and wealth would not generate sufficient determination to him to endure. But the realization that whole nations — nay, the world — are waiting for the blessing one has to give, causes one to see the sacredness and importance of having an overflowing cup, or of beginning to labor to demonstrate one.

Dives, as portrayed by the Master, represents a Christian Scientist who did not dare to bear the cross of Christ. The cross does not come until one begins to give, and Lazarus is portrayed as the living witness to the paucity of Dives' giving. The latter lived merely for his own improvement and gratification. He went no further than to make half of his demonstration. He represented students who regard Christian Science as merely a personal benefaction, to make them happy, healthy and prosperous. They realize, of course, the individual purification necessary in order to have the use of this divine power. But when it comes to healing the universal sick and blessing the universal poor, that does not enter into the limited radius of their thought. They have yet to come to the realization that the greatest demand and obligation Christian Science lays upon them is to demonstrate an overflowing cup, so that the world may benefit from it and receive its blessing, and that they may become part of the unified effort on the part of Christian Scientists to break up this determination of animal magnetism to hold mankind in bondage through ignorance.

Christian Science alone holds the key that will unlock this hold, and set mankind free through the understanding of error's nothingness. If one who understands this Science does not take on this larger work, he is guilty in God's eyes of the sin of selfishness, and should be dubbed either Dives or an elder brother.

There are students who, when they get older, seem to have as hard a time as if they had never heard of Christian Science, and yet to the best of their ability they have stayed in the Father's house and never gone down into Egypt. They cannot understand what the trouble is. They feel as if a life of devotion to Science should be bringing them more than they are getting. Yet perhaps they have received their reward already, since it is the work that we do for God that embraces humanity, for which we have not yet received our reward. It is a truism that man wins his place in heaven by the work he does on earth, or for earth, or humanity.

To be sure, the prodigal went down into Egypt; but if that sojourn be looked upon as the mental effort every Christian Scientist must make, in his desire to understand the secret workings of animal magnetism, and to reduce it to nothing, then the meaning, or application, of the parable in this instance becomes clearer. The prodigal was commended because he prepared himself for service with the Father. We know this by the symbols the Father put upon him. The ring symbolized being united to the Father's purpose, which is always unselfish and loving giving. The shoes indicated activity in service. The mantle symbolized protection in this activity. So, the journey into Egypt furnished the understanding of animal magnetism, the Father furnished the equipment for service, and the son furnished the incentive to go and do what the Father desired him to do, namely, to help free mankind from bondage. This placed him far above the elder brother, who indulged in the sin of selfishness and pride, his self-purification making him feel superior to his younger brother.

Thus, we see that the impulse to work for self, can never furnish man with the courageous willingness to endure the heat of the day. That can only come when man appreciates his value to the world, and contemplates the greater suffering of those who are waiting for what he has to give.

When man comes to himself as did the prodigal, he is ashamed that he has spent so much time in idleness and distraction, when poor Lazarus was sick and subsisting on a few crumbs, waiting for him to come and share with him the rich blessings Science has brought to him.

“Triumph's star above us gleaming.” It throws light on this phrase to interpret the star as a planet that shines by reflected light. Then we get the picture of man's ability to reflect God as being the aspiration that constantly gleams on his path, promising him triumph over all material sense. If a mirror lying in the sun becomes dusty, it has not lost the light nor its ability to reflect it, and needs only to be cleaned off. So, the gleam of triumph's star is the recognition that man never loses God, but merely finds the shade of belief drawn on Him; that the ability to reflect Him is an ever-present fact, and this knowledge illumines his pathway with the assurance of ultimate triumph.

“Victory on our foreheads beaming.” The forehead symbolizes the blackboard of thought. When Cain killed Abel, the murderous nature of mortal mind was thereby indicated for all time, because on the blackboard, or forehead of Cain, was placed the mark of the beast, the indication of the murderous nature of the mind that man yields to, when he is not reflecting infinite Mind. From this we learn where man's reformation must start. There is little use in asking God to write on a full blackboard, since He only writes on an empty one. The task of the student is to eradicate the marks of the beast, that would claim to fill his blackboard full of human thoughts; some better than others, to be sure, but all erroneous. The ultimate goal is having thought filled with the ideas of God.

Mortal man starts with his blackboard full of human thoughts. Then as he begins the work of cleaning up the blackboard, or forehead, victory must beam thereon long before he has attained the entire eradication of human thinking. That victory must mean not only the determination to eliminate all human thinking, but the realization that in reality the victory is already established, and our work is merely to demonstrate that fact, and come into a permanent realization of it. Our determination cannot wane as long as victory beams on our foreheads. We can keep this victory on our foreheads in such a way that our friends and enemies, family and the world will know that this is what we are working for, and so they must overlook our mistakes, which occur as we innocently or ignorantly function at times from the standpoint of this murderous human mind. We have established the determination to change minds, and that constitutes the victory on our foreheads, providing we realize that in reality the battle is already won, since there exists in reality but one Mind.

But in the process of exchange we are like a man who is making over his house, taking out all the old timbers, rotten or not, in order to put in permanent steel supports. He puts up a sign on the front, under repair. That is the victory on his forehead, because he never forgets, and his friends never forget, that some day soon he will have a new home, without a vestige of the old remaining. The very name Christian Scientist means that we do not claim to have attained our aspiration in practice, but that we have pledged ourselves to let no obstacle or interference, no matter how persistent, how great or small, prevent our reaching the goal, the cleaning our blackboard of every human dependence, so that God alone will write on it.

In trying to make this demonstration in connection with eating, trying to realize that matter does not sustain life and that our daily bread is merely a symbol of God's feeding and nourishing man, I have been confronted with the problem of even remembering to do it. So, recently, I printed a sign and placed it where I could not help but read it at every meal, to help me to realize that in yielding to the human appetite I am not answering the call of animal magnetism, nor eating because I believe that my life will be forfeited if I do not, but doing it merely as a symbol to keep forever before my thought the fact that I live because I reflect God as Life, and that life comes to me from God and not through the medium of so-called food. I did this so that through the eating of food I would enter into a conscious recognition that God feeds man. The sign reads “Eating is merely a symbol of assimilating the body and blood of Christ.” This sign is my effort to have victory on my forehead beaming, in connection with food.

So, the very fact that we call ourselves Christian Scientists indicates that Truth and Love motivate our efforts, influence our activities and guide our very lives. If at times we are tempted to be offended at some apparent insult, or with some evil thought, we suddenly remember that we are Christian Scientists, and hence, are above all such human trivialities.

One of the things this poem teaches us is, that it is a great help in attaining victory to anticipate that the victory is ours already, and we are willing to have it known that we have pledged ourselves to its attainment, so that we may be constantly reminded that we are a chosen people; and a chosen people are simply those who have chosen to walk in a certain path, so that everything they do to keep this fact before the mind is a blessing. I doubt if a student could ever attain the goal, if he did not find some way to keep his aspiration aloft, so that whichever way he turned he would see it. As Christian Scientists we put ourselves in a position where people expect more of us. When the ordinary mortal does or says certain things the world may overlook them, but with our victory on our foreheads beaming, we are expected to do more because more has been given to us.

“For fresh duties hourly reaching.” The demand in this poem for continued progress, implies that we must keep before thought the importance of a fresh impartation from God, so that man will not be controlled by any fixed procedure, but be a minuteman. As Mrs. Eddy says on page 158 of Miscellaneous Writings, “All God's servants are minute men and women. As of old, I stand with sandals on and staff in hand, waiting for the watchword and the revelation of what, how, whither.” We must never permit ourselves to become victims of inflexible thought. When the horse cars were dispensed with, people bought the horses and found them willing workers, but of little use, since, if they heard any kind of a bell ring once, immediately they would stop and not go again until it rang twice.

Consider a blind man. If he is sure of the way he is going, then it is difficult for another to lead him; but when he only goes the way he is led, then just a gentle nudge one way or the other, is sufficient to guide him. So, the very mental habits that have helped the young student in right lines, have to be thrown off later, so that he may feel that gentle touch of God leading him in the right path.

Mrs. Eddy waited for that gentle nudge from on high, and if she did not feel it when she sought to select candidates for office, or for her home, she rejected them. When Adelaide Still was first interviewed by our Leader, she was disappointed in the fact that Mrs. Eddy rejected her as a candidate for a helper in her home, hardly questioning her at all, beyond asking her how the sleighing was in Massachusetts, and how long she had been a practitioner. But Mrs. Eddy did not feel the gentle nudge of God at that moment, and that was enough for her. Furthermore, the question in regard to the sleighing was simply designed to put Miss Still at her ease, so that Mrs. Eddy could look deeply into her thought, just as one waits for the surface of a spring to quiet down before one can look deeply into it.

When a rocket is put into a trough in order that it may be given direction into the sky, it must leave the trough at the right point. So, the Scientist must put himself into certain mental habits in the beginning of his work; but he must be as ready to leave them as he was to form them, in order that like the blind man, he can be gently guided by the touch of God. Man must be flexibly responsive to the demands of God.

So, we must reach for fresh duties hourly, as God directs. Otherwise we will continue at the old ones, unaware that the call of God is to go up higher. Every moment we must ask, “God, what wilt thou have me to do? Show me the way in which Thou would'st have me walk.” Or, as Mrs. Eddy herself once said, “O, God, show me Thy way and keep me in that way.”

“To fulfill each hope and aim.” An artist may have great hope of gaining skill, but of what use is that, if he never improves his models or aims. Of what use would it be to put a great deal of time into painting a poor model, no matter how skillfully?

The difficulty in Christian Science is that about all we know, as far as a model or aim is concerned, is that this mortal sense of man is not the true man. What the true man is we do not know. Yet this real man is hidden from our view merely by animal magnetism, the tricky mental process whereby erroneous thinking is introduced into consciousness, so that all we see is a distorted sense of man. This causes us to relinquish our hold on divine Mind wherein alone is man's safety, security and immortality, wherein alone is a true sense of health. If the Christian Scientist is sick, he should never call it the result of medical law. It is always because he has permitted animal magnetism to operate in such a way, that he has let go of his reflection of divine Mind. So, the only remedy is for him to handle animal magnetism.

When Mrs. Eddy told Adam Dickey that, if she should leave here, he was to record that she was mentally murdered, she was not trying to rouse thought to the possibility of malpractitioners killing people mentally, but to teach students that the moment they come to a place where they recognize Life as God, they put their sense of life under the government of divine Mind, so it is above the reach of medical and material law, and it becomes theirs by reflection. So, the only way they could temporarily lose their sense of life would be through the action of animal magnetism, temporarily shutting off this spiritual reflection.

This fact was exemplified with the three Hebrew captives. They had taken their sense of life above material law, and were being faithful over a few things — even the belief of pleasurable sensation in matter. This was proved when they refused to eat of the king's meat, and only ate pulse; yet they soon appeared fairer and fatter than those who ate the meat. The next step was to have their sense of life assailed through animal magnetism, which was typified by the fiery furnace. But because they did not let go of God — their reflection of God — the fire became a great spiritual illumination that revealed the Christ, or real man. Thus, were they made rulers over many.

To fulfill each hope and aim, man must be constantly improving his model and striving for an ideal that will be fresh every morning and new every evening. It resembles mountain climbing, where it becomes necessary to cut one step above, and then pull oneself up to that step. This process is repeated. The student in Science thus lays hold of the highest ideal that he can, and then strives to bring himself up to that ideal. Then he works to improve that ideal. Each higher conception is a new hope and aim which he strives to fulfill, that brings him nearer the goal and is a step in progress.

It is interesting that all through Science we find a dual function necessary for completeness, as a bird needs two wings to fly. Error is always tempting man to fulfill only half of the obligation, so that he will not become conscious of his lack, but will be deluded into a sense of satisfaction with only one wing, and therefore, have no ability to fly. In this instance, hope might represent man's individual attainment, and aim might be the sharing of that good with others. It seems to be the male and female of God's creating, since the masculine represents the individual attainment, and the feminine represents the sharing of that attainment with those who need it. In the parable of Dives and Lazarus, it would seem as if the former represented the masculine that made a fine demonstration of individual abundance, whereas Lazarus was symbolic of the feminine that needed care, but which Dives neglected to supply, thereby remaining a one-winged bird. Hope, also might be said to represent motivation, aim, and accomplishment.

This uniting of the male and female in Christian Science, truly represents the mathematics of metaphysics, since it is one and one making one. The feminine is to recognize the need, and the masculine is to supply that need by reflecting divine Mind. The fulfilling of these two, results in the marriage, or third element which is the resulting inflow of divine good. Thus, we have two elements combining to bring out a third, the recognition of the need, the individual ability to reflect divine Mind, and finally the consequent inflow that starts when the first two are joined together. The complete demonstration is the God-sustained man of His creating functioning with two wings. Of course, these are elements that are to be demonstrated within each individual, and those with eyes to see can see all through the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings these dual qualities set forth. In Revelation 1:6 we are told that we shall all be kings and priests unto God. Also, in Acts 2:36 it states that the Master was made both Lord and Christ.

Thus, the great error of animal magnetism is seen to be one-wingedness, or incompleteness. If man has a need, error argues that he cannot fulfill it. If he can fulfill it, error argues that he has no need. So, in all demonstration you must keep before thought the need, and your ability to reflect divine power to meet that need. And the greatest need we recognize in mankind, is for them to awaken to the realization that they have permitted a false mind to possess and govern them. This awakening must precede man's determination and ability to overthrow this false master. We learn from this unfoldment, that the secret of inspirational revelation is to have a need. That explains why just to open the thought to receive unrelated spiritual revelations when there is no need, is often unavailing.

“Conquer sickness, sin and blame.” One might think that at this point Mrs. Eddy stretched the poem a trifle in order to bring out the rhyme, but analysis will show how wonderfully and completely she has set forth the human problem in these three words. If you knew that some story that was untrue was going around about you, you might feel unconcerned because you knew that you were not to blame. But perhaps there has been a misinterpretation by a maliciously-minded person that has established a falsity that has convinced many. So, even though you know you are not to blame, yet, as a metaphysician, you have a responsibility in the case, to handle that thought of blame, not so much for self-protection, as to protect those poor individuals who are being kept back from salvation, because of their incorrect concept of you. It becomes your obligation and privilege to break down the suggestions of evil for them, not only for your own sake, but for theirs.

The three words, sickness, sin and blame, set forth man's threefold responsibility, and are allied to the three words, door, lips, and materialism in Science and Health 15:9. The door is to shut animal magnetism from without. The lips mean to silence error within, whereas the silencing of materialism is quenching false evidence. It is as if in destroying a wasp's nest you first closed the door so the wasps outside could not get in. Then you destroy those on the inside, and finally burn the nest.

Sickness is the evidence of the senses that is the manifestation of fear and false belief. Sin is the yielding to mesmerism so that man becomes an involuntary actor or controlled puppet, although responsible for yielding to the mesmerism in the first instance. Christian Science does not differentiate according to the world's standard of morality. It regards sin as the yielding to animal magnetism that forces man down the path that most effectually keeps him in belief separated from God. With some, human goodness and morality form the most effectual deterrent to divine at-one-ment, while with others evil in its grosser phases more readily establishes a sense of separation from God. With some, through downright sin, they feel separated from God by a sense of guilt. Others accept such separation through human contentment, virtue, friendship and family ties. So, whether mesmerism results in human harmony, or human discord and sin, is just a matter of chance. The important recognition is that the entire purpose of mesmerism is to produce a sense of separation from God, and thereon hinges the Christian Science question of morality.

The first step out of mesmerism is to destroy the effects of wrong thinking as manifested in sickness. Next comes the need to throw off the wrong thinking which results from the sin of yielding to the belief in a mind apart from God. Finally comes the destruction of the belief in blame, which is the malpractice held over us by mankind or mortal mind. This brings complete freedom. The first step destroys the mold into which fear has been poured to become visible in some form. Then we handle the fear itself, which is the mesmerism of adulterated mentality, or mortal mind. Finally we throw off the belief in a universal mortal mind, and this constitutes the three-fold freedom where man reflects the divine Mind and then manifests it, so that he has the opposite correspondence of the world, the flesh and evil, namely, Father, Son and Holy Ghost — God the source, man the channel, and the spiritual essence that flows through the channel.

“And each erring heart reclaim.” Here is a fourth step following the above three, which brings individual freedom, leaving man free to work for all mankind, to give to these millions of unprejudiced minds, Mrs. Eddy writes about in Science and Health — “a cup of cold water in Christ's name.” These millions of people are innocent sinners, not even knowing that they are in bondage to a false mind, and fancying that what they do is part, either of their own innate badness, or goodness. They do not know that they are functioning under mesmerism, and must be set free, whether they seem to do well or ill, before they can function as normal ideas of God. Thus we find that in this poem, which served as admonition to the church, Mrs. Eddy included the thought of sharing your understanding and its practical application in the demonstration of divine Mind, so that you may not only enter into a state of freedom yourself, but that you may free humanity.

In times of flood, individual effort in order to be successful, must be merged with universal endeavor. Otherwise it will not be successful. The individual who spends his time in trying to protect himself from the human mind and its effects must add to that the effort to free all mankind, and that effort becomes an individual blessing to himself as well. When man works to put the human mind under the control of divine Mind, he is controlling the mind that claims to govern all humanity, as well as himself. The same effort blesses one and all, the individual and the whole.

“From the darkness of the night, into morning's golden light, Sisters — labor on.” Mrs. Eddy has said nothing about the masculine side. Yet suddenly she refers to the feminine, just as if at this time there were no men in the Christian Science Movement. One reason is that the masculine element does not need to be told that it is a worker, and that it is the demonstration of wisdom that carries on. It is the feminine nature that needs quickening.

A teacher always makes her explanations in such a way that the dullest pupil will understand, because she knows then that the smartest one will comprehend. Mrs. Eddy must have realized that in line with old theology women would outnumber the men in her church, and at the same time have far less appreciation of what their real mission was. In the old church much of the work is given to men, and the women come to look upon themselves as recipients. So, she is addressing the women and calling upon them for an inspirational attainment, even though in metaphysics we know that she is merely addressing the feminine nature in man, whether it be in a man or a woman. The deduction is, that the part of this poem that is a call to endure persecution, and bear the cross of Christ, is directed at the masculine nature in the members, and the appeal to the feminine nature is to labor into the morning's golden light, which typifies spiritual inspiration, since darkness is merely the absence of light, just as a dark thought is one that reflects nothing of God.

The time comes to all, when they realize that the only true joy is to be gained through an inspirational thought. If a man takes a beautiful path, and finally it comes to an end so that he has to retrace his steps, after a while he will avoid such dead-ends, no matter how beautiful they may appear to be. All human gratification comes to an end, and forces man to retrace his steps. Those who study Science, after a while, begin to appreciate the fact that the only real joy and satisfaction comes through the maintenance of spiritual thinking. Thus, they reach the place where, no matter what the human enjoyments may be that life offers, if through them one's inspirational thought is lost, they turn away from such fleeting folly. And since it is always the feminine thought in us that seeks and attains inspirational thought, Mrs. Eddy addresses her appeal in that direction.

The masculine thought is the thought that we use to right wrongs, to overcome error, to handle animal magnetism, and to endure the cross. Thus a Christian Scientist finds that it is possible for him to manifest two distinct qualities of thought within himself, one that may be going through quite a mental disturbance, but doing it with courage and with a determination to overcome and attain victory, while the other is seeking to reflect God, which is the office of the feminine.

Thus, in accordance with Rev. 1:6 the masculine nature is the king and the feminine nature is the priest. It may be said that the masculine must protect the feminine in its effort to attain inspiration or morning's golden light, since the latter effort must always be accompanied by a protective thought. Thus, the student must never fancy that the feminine within himself represents weakness; contrariwise, it is the only quality within him that will enable him to reflect God. It is often called intuition because it is so humanly intangible. It is a thought that seeks to come to the recognition of the reality of divine Mind as ever-present, although unseen, just as we learn through outward phenomena that in the human realm electricity as an unseen force, is ever-present. Similarly, all of the demonstrations of Christian Science are intended to establish the fact of the presence of the unseen but real, divine Mind.

The doubting disciple, Thomas, represents the masculine thought that demands evidence in order to believe; whereas the feminine thought represents the blessed ones who through intuition are capable of believing without seeing. Mrs. Eddy is appealing to the feminine thought to reflect divine Mind, to bring it forth. After it is brought forth, the masculine thought applies it and uses it in various ways.

This poem considered as a whole is very interesting because it considers the problem of the church universal for two stanzas. Then in the last stanza, it focuses down until it reaches the sisters of the church, and finally Mrs. Eddy herself. It is like the set-up of ten pins, starting with four and narrowing down to one.

“With the aid of God's own Science.” Christian Science is God's own divine Science adapted to the human need, stepped down to lead people from their present mortal mind status to the place where God's own Science — divine Science begins. On page 127 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, “…the term Christian Science relates especially to Science as applied to humanity.”

If a man is traveling to an airport, he may be permitted to take quite a little baggage with him, but when he steps into the plane to fly, let us assume that he is not permitted to take any. So, in Christian Science we may be permitted to carry some baggage, but the moment we begin to function with divine Science all baggage must be cast off. Science and Health tells us that in Christian Science, if we get into extreme pain and are not able to think scientifically, we are permitted to resort to morphine in order to reach the place where we can handle the case mentally. Yet morphine is part of the unreality of the dream and belongs with the rest of it to the illusion of nothingness, that has no truth in it, no power, no substance. There is no morphine in divine Science. But Mrs. Eddy brought it into Christian Science in order to defeat a certain subtle phase of animal magnetism. In divine Science there is no sickness, no recognition of any, nor any provisions made for meeting it. Divine Science is absolute. In it is no claim of animal magnetism, nothing to overcome, since Spirit is All. By the time one reaches divine Science, every claim of falsity is removed from thought.

If a vessel was loaded with contraband, she would be the legitimate prey of any nation; but the moment she unloads it she is safe. Similarly, as long as man retains any belief in materiality, if he is a student of Christian Science, that Science must protect him from animal magnetism. But when he eliminates all materiality, then old things have passed away and he is no longer carrying contraband; he cannot be attacked by animal magnetism. The only possible contact point in man through which animal magnetism can reach him, is through the materiality that he retains. If there is no materiality, there is no contact point.

Divine Science is taught alone by God. It is the subject matter of the course in Divinity which Mrs. Eddy promised to give to those who came to her home. When one begins to take that course, his textbook is divine Science, which comes directly from God. Divine Science underlies Christian Science. The platform is divine Science, but the application to the human need makes Christian Science out of it; yet in learning the latter, one gains the fundamentals of the former: but as long as there is any necessity for the application of Science to man's present human needs, it will be Christian Science.

In the last stanza therefore, Mrs. Eddy states that when the feminine thought — of which she is an illustration — works out of darkness into the golden light of inspiration and begins to function under the understanding of God, reflecting the Mind that contains all wisdom, then it is working under, and laboring on, with the aid of God's own Science which is divine Science. She says in substance, “Sisters, make this your ideal, work for it, realize that it is a possibility, since I am doing it.” And Mrs. Eddy's declaration of what she was doing, as being possible for others, was truly impressive, because, although she started out as a “natural,” she had resigned that, in order to follow out the doctrine according to the rules laid down, exactly as her students were called upon to do, so her life and demonstration exemplified the fact that because she had worked it out according to rule, her sisters could. Because she had worked out of the human mind according to scientific rule, and attained the inspirational guidance of divine Mind, her sisters could. If one argues, “Yes, but she had the additional benefit of being a “natural,” then it can be said that when she left that behind, and began to demonstrate according to scientific rule, she carried burdens at the same time that were beyond human comprehension. She demonstrated her own rules under the worst conditions possible; therefore, her followers can certainly do it under the best.

When a watch is tested for accuracy, it is subjected to extreme heat and cold, way beyond what it would encounter in ordinary use. So, our Leader demonstrated Christian Science under extremes that no student will ever have to experience. If she could do it under those conditions, we can do it under those that are presented to us. Here Mrs. Eddy indicates that it is the feminine nature in man that can work from the darkness of materiality, and gain spiritual reflection by laboring on, by the aid of God's own Science. But men must graduate from Christian Science to divine Science, as the adjunct through which the true inspirational thought comes to man.

“With no heed of hate's defiance.” This is a remarkable statement of the fact that when we reach a place where we begin to use divine Science, we handle animal magnetism by taking no heed of it, just as the children in some foreign countries are trained to study aloud, an attainment possible only by ignoring everything but one's own task. If one who has never had such training in childhood, is striving to work out a serious problem, another can successfully prevent him from finding his solution, by keeping up a running fire of conversation, which distracts his thought so that he cannot apply it to the matter in hand. That could not be done to one who had had the early training of studying in a room with a hundred children all studying and talking at the top of their voices.

Part of the advanced training of the Christian Scientist is to learn to rise above the attacks of hate and animal magnetism, which in their last stages have no more power than to distract thought from its application to the subject to which man is striving to apply his finest efforts. So, the final demonstration over hate's defiance is to take no heed of it.

To be sure, in his earlier experience the student has animal magnetism to handle, but in his later experience he handles it by taking no heed of it and saying, “None of these things move me.” Jesus instructed us not to permit even a blow on the cheek to upset thought to the point of desiring to retaliate, because he knew that if one gave no heed to hate's defiance, one thereby neutralized the possibility of animal magnetism attaining its object. If one permits oneself to indulge in a sense of righteous indignation however, that is the surest way of dissipating one's spiritual thought.

There comes a point in growth, where the right attitude towards the action of hatred and error is to disregard it, not to heed it, but to go ahead in spite of it. In one's early experience he must handle it. In the next stage, he must not let it deter him from his task.

This same point covers pain and sickness. In the first instance we handle pain and suffering. In the second instance we win the ability to function under them, with the same spiritual effectiveness that we do under material harmony. The first instance is protection, and the second instance takes away their sting. Jesus was applying the second and higher method in his handling of hatred, when he was on the cross, when he demonstrated the inability of his enemies to rob him of God. He practically said, “Go ahead and put me on the cross, and I will prove that none of these things move me; that there are no conditions on earth sufficiently powerful to rob me of my persistent determination and ability to maintain the spirit of God in me.”

When a young man is being taught to become a sea captain, he is trained to observe the sky so that he may run for harbor at the first sign of a storm. Then the time comes when further training makes him ready to learn to steer through the storm, without losing his poise and complete mastery of the boat. Both methods are essential to his training. Jesus gave an illustration of both these methods. When he was an infant and his mother saw signs of a storm in Herod's hatred, she ran for a safe harbor down in Egypt until Herod was dead. She had learned to detect the first signs of error's determination to destroy him. In his last experience when he ran into the storm, he did not seek harbor, but went through it and came off conqueror.

Unless you understand these two phases of training, you will wonder why the three Hebrew captives with their spiritual understanding, that enabled them to refuse the king's meat and yet wax fat on pulse, were unable to handle animal magnetism sufficiently, so that they might escape from being put into the fiery furnace; or Daniel being thrown into the den of lions. But these spiritual pilgrims had all reached the place where they had given exhibitions of the spiritually protective quality of divine Mind, so that they were ready to challenge mortal belief to do its worst — and prove that the storm beat in vain against such protection.

Thus, we understand how it was that Jesus stilled the tempest in one instance, and walked over the waves in another, the latter being secondary and the more advanced way — the more scientific way — of meeting the error. The first step in progress seems to involve evil alone, whereas the second step involves both good and evil. The third step, therefore, must be where no more evil enters into the problem.

“Truth and Right my sole reliance.” Here again we find the mathematics of metaphysics, where one and one make one. First you pick a nut; then crack the shell in order to get the meat. So here Truth stands for spiritual understanding, the recognition and realization of that which emanates from God. Yet how is one going to know and recognize that which comes from God? It has already been proved that the best religious training and civilizing influence are not sufficient to enable one to understand what the Christian Science ideal is, as Mrs. Eddy exemplified it in her own life and demonstration.

We find the same lack in old theology's interpretation of Jesus' parable of the prodigal son, dubbing him a sinner, and the elder brother the saint. Yet Jesus was trying to break up the old-fashioned ideal of morality, so that we would realize that, although the prodigal dipped into the materiality of Egypt, he thereby learned the illusive and erroneous nature of all temptation, made nothing of it, — and came to an appreciation of the Father's house that the elder brother never gained. He returned to active service, as is indicated by the gift of shoes and robe. Which was better, to yield to sin and make nothing of it, or to resist it, as the elder brother did, but to continue to hold it as something real? Old theology would select the latter, whereas Christian Science chooses the former, but says that best of all is to resist it and make nothing. of it.

The Bible tells us that one who saves a soul shall thereby cover a multitude of sins. The prodigal became the epitome of this statement. So, Right must stand for the highest human understanding of the path that all must take from sense to Soul. The path of human good is a necessary path; all Christian Scientists must recognize the importance of following out the best human sense of good, as a preliminary to the attainment of a demonstrated sense of good. The demonstration of Truth will not attain what it is intended to, where there is no demonstration of right. Yet, the highest human sense of right is valueless — as the history of old theology has proved — if it goes no further.

Therefore, Mrs. Eddy states that she is able to find her way through the path of mortal mind illusions by following her highest sense of Right, or human good, to which she added a knowledge of Truth, and, as the Master said, such a knowledge of the Truth will make man free.

Finally, we come to the fact that Mrs. Eddy signed her name to this poem. A signature is a sign of the authenticity of the thing signed. Mrs. Eddy's name Mary had a very profound significance. When she was a child she heard a voice calling Mary three times in an ascending scale. That was evidence that, even in this dream of mortal existence, she was attuned to hear God's voice, much as a child asleep whose mother is calling to it, might hear that call, as if it were right in her dream.

The very fact that Mrs. Eddy heard God call Mary proved a sanctification of that name, at that point, so that wherever she signed that name after that, it was appended to that which was her best offering, — that which she felt was inspired. Certainly, after she came into Christian Science she never knowingly put the name Mary to anything but what she felt came from God. You may be sure that whatever Mrs. Eddy signed, she stood back of it as being inspired, as being the emanation of inspiration. The lesson from this is, that we should all be careful of what we sign, because as our name becomes more and more an appellation designating our real selfhood, a spiritually authorized name, the less right we have to sign it to something that we are not ready to believe and to declare is inspired, — is an emanation of infinite wisdom.




Massachusetts Metaphysical College

Mary Baker G. Eddy, President

571 Columbus Avenue

Boston, October 6, 1884

Dear Brethren of the Church of Christ, Scientist:

It will be impossible for me to preach every Sunday during the term of services. And as you have paid me, not by salary, but weekly, I shall not be able to speak for less than $15, per week.

In Christian Bonds,

(Signed) Mary B. G. Eddy

N. B. I hope the services will commence October 12, as this season gains more hearers than the inclement weather.


It is interesting to trace that, from the beginning to the end of her ministry, Mrs. Eddy held in thought the spiritual development and metaphysical training of students. Here in this letter is one of the few places where Mrs. Eddy sounds as though she translated her services into terms of money; but a little analysis will reveal the true purpose she had in mind.

No doubt the church at that time was paying her as much as they considered that they could pay; but by suggesting a sum beyond what they felt was humanly possible, she confronted them with two spiritually beneficial necessities. One was the self-sacrifice that they would have to make for the Cause, to reach the place where they would be glad to give everything they had for the sake of establishing and forwarding the work of God. This is the mental attitude that each member must demonstrate. There is no real sacrifice in giving up any part of this human dream, in order to further the Cause, that has for its purpose the freeing of mankind from the bondage of falsity and mortality. In the student's early experience he gives money, because he does not have anything of greater value in his estimation to give. This represents the greatest self-sacrifice possible, and gauges his interest in the work.

After he has learned the tremendous effectiveness of scientific mental work, however, he realizes that he can give the greater gift of metaphysical argument and declaration. Therefore, the later sacrifice becomes whatever work of this nature he can do. A greater sacrifice than money is always the sacrifice of thinking, doing, giving up that which he would naturally want to think and do, for the sake of demonstrating freedom for humanity.

This sacrifice is not so much the sacrifice of time and money as it is of ease. He must recognize the importance of keeping awake to the obligation of mental work. A thousand and one distractions creep in, unless one organizes his time and mind so that he will do the work in spite of interference. Every Christian Scientist should orient his whole life, so that he will be sure each day to give what he considers to be a right quota of thought and time to this unselfish service.

The second beneficial necessity illustrated by this letter was the fact that Mrs. Eddy was driving the students a little higher, each time she made a demand upon them to rely upon demonstration, and not upon human processes. When it is well known and recognized that a person like our Leader has in mind the spiritual development of others, and is a natural teacher, one who has something of importance and value to impart, as well as one who desires to share that knowledge with everyone who is ready for it, it is logical and natural to believe that such ideas and endeavors form the underlying motivation back of everything such a one says and does.

There have been individuals holding positions in our Cause who have demanded money for their services, when it was evident to even a young student that they were trying to squeeze the Cause to the last cent, so that they might get all they could. Such selfishness never lasts long, nor accomplishes much. It wants to be paid for everything it does and, if not paid, it balks at doing anything. Such individuals have always fallen by the wayside, and have been the exception rather than the rule in our Cause.

Today we can smile when we discover what the idea of paying Mrs. Eddy was in those days. She was one that could not possibly be paid, no matter how hard they tried. They thought fifteen dollars a week was a lot of money to pay to a woman who could stand up and deliver a sermon, the substance of which would endure throughout time, who could write through revelation that which was immortal. As she once expressed it, “My work for the world this last year will go on through all time. I feel that you all have in my book, Science and Health, the anchor of your being that will prove sure and steadfast in storm and shine. O! how thankful I am that God has enabled me to give to you, my dear children in Christ, a rich inheritance!” (Christian Science Sentinel, December 31, 1932, page 350.)

Had they paid our Leader a thousand dollars a week she would have been underpaid, since there is no contribution that has been made to the world since the time of the Master, that can equal in value what she contributed. Whatever she gave was so far beyond anything anyone else had given or could give, that no sacrifice would have been too great, no monetary consideration too large, to have offered her in return. She named a very modest sum; yet at that time no doubt the students looked upon it as a heavy burden. Perhaps they did not think that she was doing her whole share to meet the expenses, in cutting down what she received. But she was merely striving to enlarge their thought, so that they might come into a larger realization that the supply that God furnishes everyone who works for Him, is unlimited.

Had Mrs. Eddy asked for fifty dollars a sermon at this time, it would only have meant an enlarged demonstration of supply, and they would have profited more by making the demonstration than she would have by having the extra funds. But she knew that with their sense of limitation they would have probably chemicalized over a larger sum, and refused to pay it.

If you put too large a load in a wagon, a horse will balk. If he thinks he cannot pull it, he will not try, no matter what you do to him. But if you can help him to start the wagon, so that he thinks he is pulling it, then he will put his strength into it.

When you read a letter of this kind written by one who is wholly animated by the urge to teach, and to enlarge everyone's idea of the limitless Mind, and their ability to demonstrate this Mind, you know that such a one is merely giving students additional reasons for demonstration. You know that if the Leader felt that fifteen dollars a week was the right amount, that would enable them to demonstrate it.

So many of these incidents pattern the building of The Mother Church, that it is impossible to see their true meaning without referring to what might be called our Leader's pattern experience. By placing unusual restrictions on that event, she brought forth demonstration. It is a rule in Christian Science in its practical adaptation that the hard way to human sense, rather than the easy way, is what fosters scientific demonstration. So, if you follow all these incidents in our Leader's experience, you can see that the difficulties she placed in the way of students caused them to be objects of demonstration, and brought out the development that must come to students. It gave to them the enlarged understanding that comes to everyone as he grows into a greater sense and use of demonstration, the limitless possibilities along spiritual lines.

Many of the misunderstandings in regard to our Leader's experience would be cleared up, if one would realize that she had her students in mind rather than herself. They would see, for instance, that in this letter she requested fifteen dollars not because she wanted it, but because of the good it would do the students.

The reason she insisted on order in her home, and the furniture being replaced exactly as it had been after a room had been cleaned — the reason she insisted upon her stockings being ironed without creases and yet would not permit a stretcher that the students constructed to be used — was to drive the workers to a more persistent, consistent and daily demonstration of divine Mind. The more she put upon them — if they were obedient — the greater would be their spiritual development in consequence.

When trainers of a prize-fighter begin his training, they give him tasks which increase, until he is performing the maximum of his possibilities. He might not realize in the beginning that what he was told to do, was for the purpose of training him; but as he grows stronger and stronger, capable of greater endurance, he begins to realize that what the trainers required of him was only for his development.

The moment you realize that our Leader was training fighters for God, fighters against animal magnetism, and that everyone had to be put through a rigorous course of training, — that her home as well as the Field was a training ground for fighters, — then much that is not comprehensible in her experience begins to be clarified and understood. Just as fast as the workers in her home were able to perform it, she would require service that could not be done rightly except through demonstration.

When she forced the demonstration of The Mother Church by hedging the task about with many arbitrary restrictions, the Field at large understood this point to some degree. There were students who realized that she was trying to drive them to demonstration, by making the situation so difficult that they could not do it in any other way. Yet this same rule, when applied to the work in her home, caused some of the workers to complain. When she took away the stocking form which they had ingeniously contrived in order to iron her stockings without creases, and thus made the task more difficult, it was only to drive them to perform the task from a higher standpoint than just the use of the human mind and skill. She saw that in constructing the form, they were working to dodge the issue, trying to make it possible for them to fulfill her strict requirements without demonstration. She forestalled such mental laziness by taking away the form.

Perhaps the Board of Directors complained that their Leader did not give them time enough to build The Mother Church, by setting up a requirement that was humanly impossible to fulfill. Following the same thought into her conduct of her home affairs, one can see the possibility of her workers complaining that she was a fussy, and too strict for instance in her requirements that the furniture be replaced just where it stood before the room was cleaned. But it is untenable to believe that she was doing anything but fostering, and stimulating demonstration, when she deliberately made things hard for her workers to do from a human standpoint. Those who complained merely proved that they did not understand that she was driving them to spiritual effort, by putting obstacles in the way of human tasks. Hence, when the human mind found ways to circumvent such obstacles and thereby avoid demonstration, she had to step in and forbid such procedure.

Had she known that small tacks were placed in the floor as guides to replacing the furniture — as Adam H. Dickey relates in his book, Memoirs of Mary Baker Eddy — she would have forbidden them to do it, since it was another instance of the workers attempting to carry out their tasks from the standpoint of the human mind. Through the use of such nails, the students lost the realization and value of what she was endeavoring to accomplish in them.

As far as I know Mrs. Eddy never made any open explanation as to why she placed obstacles in their path in this way. She gave no hint of it, so that they would have to work it out for themselves. But it was reasonable for her to believe that if one was metaphysician enough to be called to her home, he should have been able to realize that she was driving students to spiritual effort in all things, lest they yield to the temptation to drop to the use of the human mind.

By making no explanation as to why she created situations to drive students to demonstration, she enabled the students to gain an intangible as well as a tangible benefit. The latter was the fact that, if they were metaphysicians, they had to use metaphysics in whatever they were given to do, since that is what metaphysics is, — a teaching to bring man into the realization that there is but one Mind, — and the proof of that fact lies in what Mind accomplishes through man. When one takes on divine Mind, he can do the impossible — that is, the impossible from the human mind standpoint. Thus, one can test himself to determine whether he is functioning with the human mind or divine Mind. If he is using the human mind, he cannot do these things; if he is reflecting divine Mind, he can; and, thereby, he knows that he is taking on divine Mind. But he must keep in mind that he is not taking on divine Mind to make demonstrations — he is making demonstrations to prove that he is taking on the divine Mind. That is the great work that confronts a student, to establish the permanent recognition that he is functioning under the one Mind, the only Mind, that is the Mind of God; and that no matter what he is doing, he must know that God is supreme in him. He must keep that thought alive and active. If it begins to sag and a material line of thinking comes in, he must resurrect his thought and get it back on the right platform, because that and that alone entitles him to be called a son of God. No matter what one is doing, it becomes a source of good to him if he watches his thought to be sure that he is carrying the recognition of divine Mind as supreme in him.

At first a student must go into the closet mentally and shut the door — have all conditions favorable — in order to demonstrate divine Mind. Then comes the need of trying it out under all sorts of conditions, both favorable and unfavorable, agreeable to the senses and disagreeable, in order to determine whether he can maintain his consciousness of divine Mind under all circumstances. He must prove that, when he seems to lose it, he can get it back under affliction as well as human harmony. Thus “all things work together for good to them that love God,” (Romans 8:28). Those who love God are those who are striving to establish God as supreme in them; so, all things that they do, that offer the opportunity to train them in maintaining the consciousness of God as supreme, bring, and become, a blessing.

The intangible benefit offered through the situations which Mrs. Eddy created, was the necessity for students to discover the reasons for her doing what she did; and in the working out of the reasons, they would develop their spiritual perception. Perhaps there were some who out of love and blind loyalty, would say that she was worth fifteen dollars a week in the pulpit, that she had a right to ask it and so they would give it to her. Such might reap the tangible benefit that would come from the effort to demonstrate the amount; but they would lose the intangible, which was the working out of the situation through spiritual perception, to see that the amount of money was merely the club she was using to drive them to a higher recognition of supply, that growth in Christian Science must represent a larger consciousness of God's power and love, and of man's ability to bring that into expression.

Had Mrs. Eddy divulged her hidden purpose in all these things, she would have robbed her students of the intangible blessing that would come to them, through the effort to find out for themselves, which was even a greater blessing than that which results from the work of striving to demonstrate her requirements. Without this intangible benefit, the students would have felt that they were making demonstrations merely to satisfy her personal demands. While there might be growth resulting from that, yet that growth could not equal that which would come through the spiritual perception, that the whole stage was set by Mrs. Eddy in order to bring out individual growth and benefit that would be lasting.

All through her experience Mrs. Eddy attempted to make things hard for the students, deliberately hard for material sense, although it was easy for a demonstrated sense to fulfill what she demanded. Yet, we know that the human mind is prone to complain that demonstration is the difficult way. When I used to assert in her home that demonstration was easy, and we were the ones who made it hard, I was met with a mild denial from some of the students.

One reason people shy away from the use of demonstration, is because of the suggestion that that is the hard way; yet it is the easy way, since divine Mind supplies to the full everything that man needs when he reflects this Mind. Under mortal mind there is always lack, while under divine Mind there is never any lack. The truth is that demonstration is the easy way, and whatever we do in any other way is the difficult way. When one has a problem to solve, is not the easier way to give up the attempt to do it under his own inadequate ability, and to call upon God and let Him do it? He is always successful. He is always adequate.

Consider an illustration. Here is a man who has a little plumbing that needs to be done, and he undertakes to do it himself. Not being a plumber, he soon makes a mess and, when he finally calls in the plumber, the latter has twice the job. Had he called him in the first place, it would have been better.

We attempt to do things from the standpoint of our own human ability, intelligence, etc., and call that the easy way. But mortal mind is never really adequate for any task. The quicker, the surer, the more successful way, is always to go through the process of getting God to do it. While it means a sacrifice of self to call God into the picture, yet that is the only way the task can be done correctly, since God alone can solve the problem.

We have such an outstanding illustration in David, who was tempted to believe that the easier way to conquer Goliath, was thoroughly to equip himself with armor and spear and sword. Then he realized that, while that might seem the simpler way to start, the simpler way to finish was to call on the living God to fight the enemy. It was God who destroyed Goliath, and David found that the easier way was to let Him do it. The power of Truth over error, the power of even a grain of Truth over the entire consolidation of error, was thereby established forever, as being both possible and instant.

We are all blessed by David's demonstration, because through it we learn that, while it might have meant a little more effort in the beginning for David to call upon God, than to get into a suit of armor, yet the seemingly less work prophesied sure failure, and the seemingly more work prophesied sure success and victory.

It was early revealed to our Leader that man usually demonstrates because he is driven to do so, and that there is a point below which it seems so natural for him to use his human intellect, that he does it almost unconsciously; whereas above it he feels called upon to demonstrate. Growth means having this point of demarcation brought lower and lower, so that he sees the need of demonstration more and more, until he lives under that thought and necessity. Then something has really been accomplished through Christian Science, and man can say that he has fulfilled the Scriptural demand, “In all thy ways acknowledge him.” Then man has a sure guidance in God and He will direct his thought.




P. O. Address, 385 Commonwealth Avenue

Massachusetts Metaphysical College

Rev. Mary B. G. Eddy, President

571 Columbus Ave.,

Boston, October 29, 1888

To the Church of Christ, Scientist

My dear Brethren:

I send to you Mr. Theodore Chave's letter requesting a dismissal from our Church.

I favor granting this dismissal at once.

Yours in the bonds of Truth,

(Signed) M. B. G. Eddy


At times when Mrs. Eddy felt that an act was opposed by so much animal magnetism, that the Board of Directors might not be able to give a correct solution or decision, she would write a letter in which she directed them what to do. But when she sensed that they were capable of making the demonstration themselves, she merely said, “I favor it, but it is up to you.”

Perhaps it is not correct to say that she directed them, because in reality it was God who did it through her. It is right to say that our Leader knew only what God told her, and she always followed her highest spiritual inclination.

She was engaged in constructing that which she herself could not possibly visualize as a whole, since God revealed only part of it at a time; and she performed each part as it was made plain to her. She acted as God prompted her to act. When the many parts were all put together, then and only then could she see the tapestry she had woven in its entirety. To be sure, she was building according to a definite pattern, but it was a pattern that God alone knew. She acted under orders.

Probably she could not have analyzed why she wrote in this letter that she favored Mr. Chave's dismissal, other than to say that she did what God told her to do. And she was liable to turn right around in the very next letter, and order that a certain thing be done, instead of saying that she favored it.

It is necessary to assume that this member would benefit by being out of the church at this time. Either he was a good student who could not stand up under the pressure of animal magnetism involved in church membership, or else he was one who never should have been taken in in the first place. If it were the first assumption, it was better for him to get his growth in Science outside of the church, away from its animal magnetism, until he had learned to handle it.

Why did not Mrs. Eddy's innate love for humanity cause her to feel that she should talk to this man, and uncover the trouble; that some loving member should try to understand why he took this stand, and to discover if there was not some explanation? Perhaps some help might be given to him that would cause him to reconsider. That would be what one would expect our Leader to do. Why did she not try to save this soul from going into outer darkness, when the church represented his salvation?

But she did not regard it that way. If he never should have been let in in the first place, he was better off out of the church and it was right for him to resign. Or if the pressure of error was too great, then he should have a chance quietly and peacefully to assimilate himself to God, until he had attained an understanding that would enable him to be in the church and grow thereby, instead of being deterred.

When something is a deterrent, either you must move off the deterrent, or get away from it. So, I am compelled to state from my knowledge of our Leader, that she must have believed that this act was for the good of this man. It must have been for his good, or God would never have told her to do it.

It puts our Leader's whole life under the clear light of Spirit to feel that everything she did was done under the direction of God, divine Mind. From that standpoint, to criticize her would be to criticize God, and that is impossible.




P. O. Address, 385 Commonwealth Avenue

Massachusetts Metaphysical College

571 Columbus Ave.,

Boston, Mass.

March 5, 1889

My dear Student:

When I have a class I want you to bring the Constitution to my house 385 Com. Av. and I will attend to getting the names of applicants for the membership of the C. S. A.

Hoping you are blessed and blessing others,

I am,

Most truly Your Leader,

M. B. G. Eddy


There is always the temptation in Science to believe that we are accomplishing a great deal because we are engaged in a lot of active work. Yet in Miscellaneous Writings, on page 230, Mrs. Eddy writes, “Rushing around smartly is no proof of accomplishing much.” Students are under the temptation to believe that even though they may be busy just doing material labor for the Cause, they are automatically blessed by doing it merely because it is intended for a worthy cause. Theoretically that might be true, but it is not true practically. It is really a notion that is a hangover from old theology.

There is a thought that men constructing a Christian Science edifice are protected more than they would be building some other kind of building. But such a proposition holds good only when the students are doing their mental work rightly. There will be a protection attending the construction of a Science church if it is being built according to demonstration, and alert students know that they are obligated to protect those who build their structures.

A superstition exists that one man at least will be killed during the construction of a large building or church. This superstitious fear and expectancy must be overthrown by mental work, as it can be. Thus, if others receive healing and protection by coming in contact with a Christian Scientist, it is because his thought is alert in challenging mortal belief, not because they are coming in contact with a good man.

There are those who might believe that because they are going on an automobile trip with a Christian Scientist, there is less liability of an accident merely because he is a Scientist; but such a proposition does not hold good unless he has a demonstrating thought and uses it to keep a protective thought alive and active. When he does that, others are safer in his company than anywhere else on earth.

The officials of Mrs. Eddy's church from its inception were busy people — as they still are. No doubt they were tempted to believe — and still are — that they were and are privileged to fulfill the highest demands of Christian Science on them. From the beginning their duties increased. Mr. Johnson's son relates of times when his home was a beehive of activity. There were times when he and his father worked into the small hours of the morning.

In the letter in question, however, Mrs. Eddy introduced a keynote that was valuable to Mr. Johnson, as well as to all busy students. She knew how busy he was about the work of the organization, and she hoped to help him all she could to resist the temptation described above to believe that the work of itself carries a blessing. So, she ended her letter to him, “Hoping you are blessed and blessing others.” In this she does not imply that the blessing came automatically through the work he had to do. She hoped, therefore, that he would see this as a call for mental alertness, knowing that he would get the blessing and be able to bless others if he handled the error.

One does not bless others unless he handles the error so that his desire to bless others is accompanied by the work that will accomplish it. Mrs. Eddy did not want any student ever to believe that activity without demonstration, — even though it is activity in behalf of God's Cause, — is different from any other activity as far as our growth and blessing are concerned, unless we make it so. We grow in Science and bless others, because we know how to grow and to use that knowledge to produce growth and give out a blessing.

Mrs. Eddy desired Mr. Johnson to realize that his spiritual growth, his usefulness to God, and God's appreciation of him because of the blessings he was bestowing upon others, was wholly a matter of the demonstration that he must make, in spite of being a busy official in the Church, and not because of it. It is a rule that when you have a position in which a great deal of work is expected of you, you have a greater demonstration to make to be able to remember your obligation to God, which must be done in spite of your obligation to man humanly. Thus, to one who understands metaphysics, such positions represent taking up the cross. One who desired to be a Director for instance, would thereby expose his unfitness for the position at the outset. The real Scientist would consider such posts a cross because they make it difficult for him to pursue his real work as a student, namely, being blessed and blessing others. In order to do this, he would have to demonstrate over the constant demands on his time and thought.

In latter years it would appear as if the Directors were seeking to take on more and more responsibility. Perhaps they want to feel that they are earning their money, and to show the Field that there is such a demand on them for constant activity that they are worth the salary they get. Yet the most valuable servants in Christian Science, those who are the best servants of God, are those who are making the demonstration to be blessed and so blessing others. They receive the greatest reward spiritually, even if their reward humanly is small.

It was very important for Mrs. Eddy to impress this vital yet simple point on Mr. Johnson, as well as on other students who were busy in the church; and this letter gave her the opportunity, because it was part of his activities in behalf of the work to bring the Constitution to her home when she held a class, so that she might do with it as she had to. She knew that any little service he did for her would cause him to feel blessed, and that he was accomplishing great service. She knew this was true in a measure, because to relieve her of responsibility so that she might be of the highest service, was a great demonstration, one that always blessed those who made it. But she did not want him to believe that that necessarily released him from making a definite and specific effort to bless the world — and he had to be taught how to bless the world, as all students have to be. They have to learn how to be able to send out a wave of spiritual truth to humanity that goes out with power, because it is backed up by expectancy and spiritual optimism.

Mrs. Eddy set the great example in her own home. The daily life there was of such a nature, that no matter how busy the students and their Leader were, no matter how much work piled up, the work of blessing others and so being blessed had to go on. Out of each working day, five hours were given over entirely to this work of blessing others. Then when that was taken care of, the rest of the time was given over to the material side of the work. But the important side was the work of blessing and being blessed.

In sending Mr. Johnson a note asking him to do a favor, it might seem strange for Mrs. Eddy to hope that he is blessed and blessing others, unless we realize that Mrs. Eddy knew so well that there was a constant temptation to substitute work for service, when in Science both must go hand in hand, with service taking the lead and work following after. Thus, she never lost an opportunity to impress upon students the fact that human obligations in relation to the organization must never encroach on the demonstration of being blessed and blessing others through spiritual means, — the demonstration of infinite Mind as supreme.

Historically it is interesting to know that there were two associations in the early days, one composed wholly of Mrs. Eddy's own students, and the other national in scope, which grew out of the first one and included all teachers and their students. This latter association had for its purpose the bringing out of greater unity in action and teaching, so that there would be less difference between my teaching and thy teaching. But the Constitution which she wanted Mr. Johnson to bring to her home was that of her own association, which had existed since the early days in Lynn. When she finally advised that a national association be formed in 1886, her own students belonged to it. Thus, those she had taught had the opportunity to mingle with the students of other teachers, and bring out to them Mrs. Eddy's methods and ideals. This would assist in bringing out a uniformity, so that there would be less danger of other teachers teaching in a way that differed from the Leader's way.

There were some graduates of the college who insisted that they were thereafter members of Mrs. Eddy's own association, and even sent their dues to the treasurer; but Mrs. Eddy required that this money be returned and did not acknowledge this claim. She knew that if those whom she had not taught joined her association, they might be listened to by her students, and yet they would not be competent to bring forth unity based on Mrs. Eddy's method of instruction, which was the only right way. But the national association represented an opportunity so that Mrs. Eddy's methods and teaching might become more universal. It was a very wonderful way of doing something that was vitally necessary, without the underlying purpose being evident. Then when this point had been established, and Mrs. Eddy's methods had been broadcast sufficiently, the need for the association no longer existed and it was disbanded. It was only necessary to get the idea into the minds of enough students and then drop the matter, since the work was done. If it was carried on too long, it might become interference. But for a while there was the danger that students whom she had not taught might fall away from her methods of teaching. So, the association was formed, and when it had fulfilled its purpose it was disbanded. Mrs. Eddy's own association was finally disbanded, too. This was wisdom, since in this way the last impression left on her students' minds would be the way she had taught them, and there would be no danger of another trying to lead them and substituting other ideas.




P. O. Address, 385 Commonwealth Avenue

Massachusetts Metaphysical College

Rev. Mary B. G. Eddy, President

571 Columbus Ave.,

Boston, May 28th, 1889

To the Church of Christ Scientist, Boston

Beloved Brethren: — For good and sufficient reasons I again send you my resignation, which must be final, of the Pastorate of the Church of Christ Scientist, Boston, and recommend that you secure a Pastor to enter upon this labor in early Autumn. One who will take full charge of this dear church, look after its interests, receive and attend to applications for membership, hold regular communion service, and in all respects discharge the duties of a Pastor. Also, I beg that you will give such an one a sufficient salary to enable him to give his whole time to the duties which belong to this responsible office.

Yours in the bonds of Christ,

(Signed) Mary B. G. Eddy, Pastor


While it seems necessary in behalf of our Leader to comment on each of these letters, and to verify the divine basis of each, a few examples authenticated in this way would be sufficient. If a number of green shoots should appear above ground. and you began to dig away the earth to trace each one back, and discovered that they all traced back to the same central root, it is self-evident that, after tracing two or three, you would deduce that they all did, without going through the labor of tracing each one.

Time has proved that Mrs. Eddy functioned under a wisdom that was not her own. Therefore, we must realize that she always kept her demonstration of divine Mind active and alive, and that she never deviated from it except when she seemed to lose sight of it momentarily under the pressure of animal magnetism. Thus, all these letters trace back to an ever-enlarging demonstration of divine wisdom.

To be sure, there were times when she felt uncertain. There were times when she had to prove to herself that she had not lost the spiritual touch. Nevertheless, it was important for her to demonstrate over every uncertainty, even though she might have felt convinced that, from her own standpoint, the step was right. When one is faithful and consistent in functioning under divine Mind, eventually positive proof will be established that such a one did not make either occasional or frequent sorties into the realm of the human mind, did not carry along a sense of the importance of small material matters, or live under a growing sense of the importance of matter.

In court certain evidence which comes from what are called character witnesses is allowable. If a man is accused before the bar of justice, the court permits evidence to be brought to prove that he has a good character, that his neighbors and friends find him uniformly kind, that the store-keepers find him pleasant to deal with and prompt in meeting his obligations. Such evidence goes a long way toward influencing judge and jury.

If Mrs. Eddy was accused before the bar of justice, we might bring these letters, — with some attempt to perceive their spiritual import, — as character witnesses. We would not be disturbed by the evidence against her, because we would know that through these witnesses, which prove the success of all that she undertook, the integrity and consistency of her spiritual thought and motive would be established. They would prove that the steps which she took were beyond the ken of the elevated human mind; they were steps that departed from human procedure in ways that no human being could have anticipated, or that no clever human mind would believe could possibly have ended successfully.

For instance, when she instituted Readers to read from the Bible and Science and Health, her students, — those who had had experience in human affairs, as well as those who had a metaphysical sense, — prophesied that no one would attend church just to hear read what they had been studying the whole week. Yet the congregations all over the world almost doubled in a short space of time. When the time came for Mrs. Eddy to take that step, her own human sense might have felt that it was an experiment that might not prove successful; yet knowing the infallible wisdom supplied by God, her spiritual sense must have known that when orders came from on high, the results must prove the wisdom of those orders.

When the Christian Science Monitor was launched November 25, 1908, Mrs. Eddy recorded in her private notebook, “When I first proposed to the Christian Scientists to have this newspaper and gave it its name, I had not much encouragement from them that it would be a success.” Nevertheless, she records that one hundred and sixty thousand copies were sold the day it came out, and the Publishing House could not fill the orders!

Thus, there is no doubt but what Mrs. Eddy herself put aside what she considered best from the human standpoint, in order to let divine wisdom be the dominating factor. In court, when it has been proved that one has a good character, — through character witnesses, — that oftentimes neutralizes the circumstantial evidence presented on the other side. In these pages we are striving to take any and all evidence to prove that, in all her ways she was governed by God; therefore, that such incidents were inspired by God and were valuable contributions to the founding of the Cause.

In this regard it is helpful to consider the fact that in her home, Mrs. Eddy checked on the state of mind of her students, by the manner in which they performed their human tasks. She even declared that one's doing material tasks rightly registered his ability to heal. This statement shows that she handled her students from a standpoint above the human mind, and brings added evidence to prove the continuous integrity of her daily life and thought. When her reasons for paying attention to details are understood, such matters can never be used against her, since they become witnesses for her.

The world would call it an accident, if a Christian Scientist tripped over a telephone cord; but he knows that when his thinking is controlled by divine Mind such things do not happen. If he unwisely discussed such a matter in front of a stranger, the latter might get the impression that he was exaggerating, and placing undue importance on the trivial, that he was too ready to make an issue out of a slight accident. The metaphysician knows, however, that if he starts with the admission of mental causation, then when one is controlled from above, everything on earth expresses harmoniously that control.

The Bible states, “When a man's ways please the Lord, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.” What does this tell us? That when one is governed by the divine Principle of harmony, there is harmony in effect to indicate this fact. By reversal, therefore, we see that the control of the so-called human mind is detected in effect by discord.

An incident that gives evidence of Mrs. Eddy's concern for the seemingly trivial, was once related by Lida Fitzpatrick. She was having dinner with Mrs. Eddy in a modest restaurant in Boston. The time was nearly two o'clock. The dessert was apple pie and cheese, but the waitress brought no cheese. Mrs. Eddy said to her, “The menu says, ‘Apple pie and cheese.'” The former explained that it was late, and that the cheese was all gone. Mrs. Eddy repeated her statement, and was given the same explanation. When she repeated it the third time, the waitress with a flirt of impatience, said she would call the proprietor. Mrs. Eddy repeated her statement to him, and he made the same apology that the waitress had made. When she repeated her statement once more in a firm tone, he said, “Oh! — all right,” and sent a boy out for more cheese. When the cheese arrived Mrs. Eddy said to Mrs. Fitzpatrick, “My dear, you don't think that I cared about the cheese; but if you let mortal mind rob you of your cheese, the next thing it will rob you of your pie.”

Mrs. Eddy taught that we live in a mental world; hence that every phenomenon means something in the mental realm, and points to its noumenon. The Bible, to the metaphysician, is a record of outward events, given so that one may trace back to their mental causes, thus giving us divine authority to put the whole external world on a mental basis.

The friends of a Scientist might laugh when he declares that, when his dog is sick, he perceives error trying to enter his home, first striking at the outposts. But he knows this to be true, and at once enters upon his work of protection.

Mortal mind is constantly presenting suggestions of robbery to the student. It suggests that he is losing his health, his sight, his hearing, his prosperity, and finally his life. He knows that if he stands ready to challenge and cast out the most minute suggestion that attempts to wedge in, he will be in a position to deal with the more aggressive phases. And since Mrs. Eddy once declared that, “one error rides in on another,” it is possible that a small argument of robbery is intended to be the forerunner of a greater one, just as a robber will send a small boy into a house through a tiny window. The boy will open a door, and then the robber can enter easily.

When Mrs. Eddy did not get the cheese she paid for and was entitled to, she detected the action of mortal mind trying to get her to accept the suggestion of robbery in its incipiency. She knew that back of such a suggestion was a fundamental malice and hatred against what she stood for, that, if allowed to grow without resistance on her part, would strike at her very life. Mrs. Eddy knew that she had aroused mortal mind's hatred against the Truth, and she was alert to detect every evidence of that hatred, just as the people of the lowlands in Holland have been trained to watch for the slightest trickle of water, through any one of the dikes that keep out the sea.

It is logical that, had Mrs. Eddy neglected to handle even the slightest inroad of the suggestion of robbery, it might have ended in the loss of her very life. She taught and lived the doctrine of one causation. She knew that when error appeared in effect, it must be in cause, and unless she challenged and overthrew it in the first instance, it might overthrow her in the second. What a practical and helpful lesson this cheese incident furnishes for her followers, of alertness and attention to that which the unwary might overlook!

By explaining such simple incidents in our Leader's life spiritually, we gain added evidence that in her relationship to the Cause, to her students and to her household, she was governed by God in all her ways.

It must be evident to thoughtful persons, that this correspondence between Mrs. Eddy and her church needs to be explained spiritually. At times, it would seem as though she desired complete authority, and rebuked the Board of Directors if they assumed any. At other times, as in this letter, she seemed to force authority on the Church or Board.

When one considers the slight spiritual understanding the members had at that time, in comparison to their Leader, the responsibility she placed upon them seems very great, in requesting them to elect a Pastor. Furthermore, at times she seemed so hard to please, that the students felt like the one who said, “I'm damned if I do, and I'm damned if I don't.”

If a vessel tied to a wharf attempted to steam away without casting off the hawsers, it would be damned if it started its engines, and also damned if it did not, since neither procedure would do any good. Mrs. Eddy wanted the students tied to her thought, when she was led to take the full responsibility for some act, so that they would execute it blindly. But when she requested them to take the full responsibility, she wanted them to cast off the ropes and launch forth alone, without her support. Thus, they were rebuked if they separated from her when she took the lead, and also rebuked if they leaned on her, when she gave them the word to act independently of her, as she did in the letter of July 20, 1889.

Mrs. Eddy was hard to please, only because part of her training of students lay in the fact, that she could not make it plain to the human mind what the secret of pleasing her was. The students tried to act from the standpoint of being Christian Scientists, but often failed because they themselves were unable to determine whether what they did was the result of demonstration, or a human effort.

If Mrs. Eddy had sent her students forth to gather pine needles from which to make fragrant pillows, it would have been a simple matter for her to direct them to bring back only the needles that had the characteristic sweetness of the balsam. But how would a student go about doing such a task, if his sense of smell was impaired by a cold?

Much has been written about Mrs. Eddy's successor. At one time, while I was with her, she told me very definitely that I was to be her successor. It came as a surprise to me, when I learned in later years that she said this same thing to several other students, until it became plain to me that one could never hope to approximate her place until he had made the demonstration to become a voice for God. She knew that man walks in the direction toward which he looks; so, she helped our demonstration by encouraging us to look higher.

A human conception of Mrs. Eddy would estimate her as having been a woman who was filled with a great deal of knowledge, spiritual and otherwise, and who was capable of doing what she did better than anyone else. When, however, she is conceived of spiritually as having been “the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,” you know that anyone could approximate her place who made the demonstration she did to be a voice for God. Before anyone can be her successor, they must learn that spiritually she was only a voice, and that they, too, must be a voice. One's fitness to be Mrs. Eddy's successor does not depend on what he has done, or knows, from the human standpoint. The question is, are such ones learning to be God's voice? Only then are they fitting themselves to take her place.

It would be like a bombshell thrown into the ranks of Christian Scientists to state that today there must be one to take Mrs. Eddy's place. Such a suggestion would seem to be of the devil, since Mrs. Eddy herself left no follower to whom she gave the authority to take her place, nor did she leave a hope of finding such; so why agitate the assumption that someone must take her place? However, every Christian Scientist would admit that he must have for his aspiration and expectancy the taking of her place; that is, he must train himself to voice God, which is just the same as having for his aspiration and expectancy the filling of her place. Therefore, it is obligatory for each student to train himself to take her place, to expect to do it, and work for that end.

Mrs. Eddy stands in the line of spiritual progress for everyone, and no one will attain what he has started out to do unless he reaches the place Mrs. Eddy occupied as God's representative. She is in the line of progress for each one of us, and some day we must catch up with her. Of course, we cannot catch up with her where she is now, but we can catch up with what she attained here, namely, to be the voice of God. In order to do this, one must realize that spiritually considered she was just a voice, and anyone has the latent possibility of becoming a voice through which God may be heard and obeyed.

The entire work of a Christian Scientist is the submission of the human mind, along with its determination to voice itself, to be heard, and to find channels to possess, so that at all points they will be its voice. It must be overcome, until we realize and demonstrate that we are purely a voice for God. We must live in such a way that we rebuke the human mind whenever it tries to talk to us, or through us. Such a demonstration is taking Mrs. Eddy's place, and the only taking of her place there ever will be.

If an individual should walk down a road on his way to a certain city, and come upon a flying field where he embarks in an airplane that takes him the rest of the way, and you desire to follow that person, you must do the same thing. You must walk until you reach the flying field, and then take the airplane waiting there. If this illustration covers Mrs. Eddy and her followers, — and you should, upon reaching the flying field, find no airplane there, you would be led to believe that God is a respecter of persons, and has for one what He has not for another, which is contrary to the doctrine and teaching of Christian Science. Therefore, when you think of Mrs. Eddy as going to the flying field and taking a plane, you must think of a similar plane waiting for you.

Our Leader had a double task. She never forgot that the paths must be kept straight, yet she required people to develop initiative, and as they did this, they were apt to stray. Hence, when she forced upon them the demonstration of initiative, she had to watch and help them to go straight. Otherwise, the records would not have been correct for future generations. The experiences of the early Board of Directors, as well as those of other officials, and of the Church in general, are as necessary for our salvation as Mrs. Eddy's own history. While she did not come under the same temptations that the Board and the Church did, nevertheless she gave the antidote for their deflections, just as if they were her own, and these are contained in these letters.

Mrs. Eddy was spared a great deal that we have to meet, because of the singleness of her purpose. She never swerved from an unselfish effort to work for the Cause, which is something none of her followers can yet say they have done. We take on errors just as her students did when she was with them, yet we have the advantage of an understanding of her life and teaching which they could not have. Therefore, if we are watchful and careful, we can avoid many pitfalls. Even if we fall into some of them, we have the way of escape. Mrs. Eddy's demonstration, as well as her work with the Church and her students, furnishes the collective as well as the individual history of the progress from sense to Soul. The difference between Mrs. Eddy and us is that we go up occasionally, while she came down occasionally!

These facts all help to make it plainer why Mrs. Eddy at times, forced the students to use initiative. Then when she saw that that initiative was not being utilized metaphysically, she took the reins in her own hands again. Too, she had to keep the records straight for future generations. Every error had to be noted and corrected, and the reason for it known, as well as the antidote recorded.

The letters that follow show why finally she did not let the church go ahead and pick out the pastor, as this letter directs. No matter whom they had selected she would probably have seen that he was unfit. Nevertheless, she adhered to her conviction that the Church should select its pastor, so it might be suited, until she was finally led to do it herself.

The situation was a paradox, since if she let the students select the pastor and suit themselves, the public might suffer, because of a lack of demonstration on the part of the students; whereas, if she made the demonstration of selection, the Church would miss the opportunity that God had given them to develop spiritual initiative. If they alone had been those to be suited, the penalty for their failure to demonstrate would have fallen only upon them, and thus they would have learned by experience, as the Children of Israel did when Saul was made king, after the divine direction came to the effect that they should not have a king.

Mrs. Eddy was like a man erecting a beautiful building, with a body of apprentices working for him. He hopes that by the time they finish the building, they will be expert workmen. He cannot watch everything they do; he cannot direct every step they take, because they must learn for themselves, in order to be able to function under their own knowledge. Nevertheless, he must see that their knowledge is developed, and at the same time that the building is erected correctly. When it is completed, it must stand as a model of excellence, even though it has been erected partly to train apprentices, so that they will be full-fledged workmen, able to stand on their own knowledge and understanding. This is what the Cause represented to her. It was a training ground, yet the work must be done so accurately that it would stand for all time as an example to be followed.

Therefore, what this letter directed the Church to do was impossible from a human standpoint. If they did select the pastor, it would be someone unfit, as witness what she wrote Mr. Johnson about Dr. Smith as a candidate under the date of July 24, 1889. It was another way of telling them that they did not do what they had been taught, namely, demonstrate. The plain statement for her to have made would have been, “God has a candidate to fill this office, and it is not up to you to select one, but to reflect this knowledge of His will, and thus find out whom God has selected.” It would have seemed the much simpler way for her to have written to the Church and said, “God has already selected the one who is ready and capable for this work. So, in selecting, do not choose a man by your own knowledge and acquaintanceship, but try to find out whom God has prepared for the work.” Had she done this, however, the value of the circumstance as a spiritual trainer would have been minimized.

God's selection of Saul was an interesting incident. God knew whom He had selected, and it was the task of the holy men to find this out. They were supposed to live in such accord with divine Mind that their thought would always be open to interpret the divine will. Thus, Samuel knew, that out of all those hundreds of people, Saul was the one whom God wanted in that position. To be sure, Saul did not work out very well, but that was all part of the plan, since the purpose of installing him was not to put in a man who would lead a disobedient people to greater success, but one who would eventually give them such a grievous time, that they would be sorry that they did not do what God commanded them to do in the first place, which was to make the demonstration to function without a king.

The situation was this: — God told the Children of Israel that they must function without a king, that the time had come when they were ready for this demonstration; yet the popular demand was for a king, and so God selected one to meet that demand. But it was someone who would make them wish that they had never asked for a king.

Mrs. Eddy's demand in later years that the Church start a home for the so-called sick was an interesting by-play. She felt that the time had come for a Benevolent Association, so she ordered it started. Then she realized that thought was not ready for it, so she withdrew the order. That did not mean that she was disobedient to God's demands, or that she disobeyed God in withdrawing it. It simply meant that there is a wisdom, which must be demonstrated in relation to the divine demands, and that wisdom means being in season. Thus, wisdom gave her the thought, and also caused her to withdraw it. Putting it forth before the time was merely to prove that all these ideas, which became so beneficial and valuable to the Cause, came from God; and also, to forestall any possibility of someone attempting to take credit for ideas for which God alone was responsible. It is important for us to demonstrate and prove that the whole Cause represents steps taken in scientific order, steps that were revelations from God, and that the order in which we take them today also comes from on high.

We must be able to prove that at no point in the establishment of our Movement did the human mind step in and, by attempting to set forth something called good, prove that it had some value. Mortal mind is always trying to prove that it is not entirely bad. This is done to discourage the representatives of Truth from attempting to destroy it utterly. The moment man believes that there is some phase of the human mind that is good, that prevents its destruction. That is the way the human mind through sympathy, pity, and a false sense of good, attempted to operate with Sodom and Gomorrah. The question was asked whether the cities would be destroyed if, peradventure, there be found fifty righteous men therein. It was safe for wisdom to answer in the negative, since if there is any phase of mortal mind that is considered good, that will prevent the destruction of mortal mind. The question finally narrowed down to ten, and still the answer was in the negative.

All there was of good, namely, Lot and his family, was no real part of the wicked cities; when they left, then the cities could be destroyed. Therefore, in order to guarantee the elimination of the human mind, our Leader had to guard carefully lest some smell of smoke be left in her Movement, some belief that some phase of the human mind was good, or could offer something that was good.

When the attempt was made to prove that the idea for the Christian Science Monitor did not originate with Mrs. Eddy, but had its inception in the brain of an ex-reporter named John L. Wright, it was an attempt to shake the very foundation of Christian Science. If it could be shown beyond possibility of contradiction that Mrs. Eddy, under the influence of animal magnetism, accepted some human suggestion that led to the founding of the Monitor, then we would feel that mortal mind was responsible for an important and valuable step taken in the founding of the Cause of Christian Science. If this were true, there would be no reason for wholly destroying mortal mind. So, we must prove that mortal mind is a murderer and not a builder, that there is nothing constructive about it, nothing permanent nor of any value, before the reason and possibility for its destruction are apparent.

One point needs to be stressed, and that is, that it is possible to awaken the human mind to see its own falsity, so that it may affect its own destruction. And it is the salvation of man to do this, since the moment the human mind begins to be destroyed, that releases divine Mind, so that the destruction of the human mind goes on in a scientific and continuous way. Therefore, we must believe that the human mind does possess the possibility of recognizing the value of its own self-destruction.

The letter under discussion can be understood more clearly, when it is realized that Mrs. Eddy was carrying along this twofold purpose, using the Cause to develop spiritual initiative and at the same time carefully watching her students' every move, to see that, in taking that authority, they did not make mistakes that might mar the spiritual perfection of the structure that had to be built by God alone. She was letting them go just so far, hoping that they might learn something through giving them that authority, and also might be satisfied in their desire for a king. This element in the situation is revealed by the letters following.

We know that she continually tested them to see whether they had established themselves on this rock of demonstration, and this rock had to be used in every direction for the foundation.

The experience of living in the home with our Leader in symbolic form is a necessity for every student of Science. Many went to her home who never learned its intended lesson, while many who never went there in the flesh have gained the import of this lesson. What was it? I dare to repeat it a thousand times, “In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.”

The only possible way one can erect a permanent superstructure, is by having the foundation entirely of stone. Sand cannot be mixed in with the foundation if the foundation is to be secure and unmovable. Shipwrecks have occurred in the ranks of Christian Science because students have erected large and attractive superstructures on a foundation made up of part rock and part sand.

Spiritual growth must be three dimensional. Progress upward is improving our metaphysical thought so that we are gaining a more and more spiritual sense of God. Progress ahead means a broadening application of Christian Science to human needs, an increasing ability to cope with the human mind, and apply and supply what will best help the world. Progress in breadth means an enlargement of demonstration in the experience of ourselves and our fellow-men.

This latter point covers the need of using divine Mind in the business meetings of branch churches. When you see a whole church apparently arrayed against the effort to broaden its use of demonstration to include the business of the Church, it is a discouraging thing, because you know it is mass animal magnetism. If you should talk with any one member, you could probably get him to admit the need of using demonstration rather than the human mind in connection with the business of the meeting; but when the meeting is held, mass mesmerism steps in, showing that the need of spiritual thought can never be perceived relative to the business of the church, unless you definitely and directly handle the suggestion that animal magnetism can prejudice the minds of the membership against the demonstration of God, against the recognition of the necessity for looking upon divine Mind as the only correct source of knowledge.

Every member must come to the point of recognizing the necessity for turning to the divine source for what they say and for direction in voting. Every member must have the equal privilege of making this demonstration, and that is why we must work to know that animal magnetism cannot blind thought to the importance of this growth in breadth.

The commonest conception of growth is growth upward. Students continually strive to gain a higher sense of God. They forget that they are like a captive balloon that must never lose connection with the ground. If they lose such connection, then all that is discovered in the higher atmosphere cannot be communicated to those on the ground who need such information.

Students must progress upward, but what they learn from such upward soaring must be used in their progress forward and outward, in their application of this understanding to all human need. As they progress upward, they must keep in touch with humanity. They rise in order to gain a more comprehensive concept of the needs of mortals and the ability to meet them, but then come down in order to make the actual application.

The letter under consideration is direct evidence that Mrs. Eddy was using the Cause as a training ground. She knew how animal magnetism would suggest politics, wire-pulling, human influence, favoritism, chicanery and prejudice, in order to prevent the students from making a demonstration of the pastor. Nevertheless, she hoped that the teaching she had so faithfully given might bear fruit, that the members might perceive the importance of demonstration.

Her high hopes were not fulfilled, however, and still are not fulfilled. Even today there is not a branch church that with positive conviction takes for its ideal that the only way to select officials of the Church is through the use of Science alone. They still believe in using their best human judgment. They still cry out, “How can I vote for people when I do not know their ability?” Yet, that is just what must be done. They must vote for those they do not necessarily know, but whom God knows. Only by voting for those God knows, or has selected, can the members be sure that they are using demonstration.

The attitude of mind of the candidate for office is also important. He should feel that he is glad to have a position, but he does not want to take it unless God has selected him for it. He tries to have an open mind, ready to do whatever God wants him to do. Metaphysics reveals, however, that this is not enough. This student must work to handle the error that would prevent the congregation from seeing that he is the one God has selected. God knows he is the one, but does the congregation know it? The point is, if God has selected him, it is up to him to see that he is elected. It is a failure on his part if he is not. If he has a conviction that God has selected him, and he is willing to serve for that reason, he must handle the error that would attempt to blind the leading thought to the candidate whom God has selected. So, it is not enough to make the demonstration to know that God has selected one; that demonstration must extend to the congregation, and handle the animal magnetism that would prevent the congregation from perceiving God's choice.

The reverse of this proposition is equally true. If one has been elected to a position, and he feels that he is not God's choice, he should refuse to serve, and strive to make the demonstration that will cause God's choice to appear.

Mrs. Eddy kept her thought so flexible that she not only heard when God told her to do something, but when He told her to tell somebody else to do something, as well. Thus, when He told her to tell the Church to make the demonstration of electing the pastor, she followed this direction. There is a possibility of becoming specialists in revelation, confining unfoldments to interpreting difficult passages of Scripture, or perceiving the spiritual thought in what our Leader wrote. We must watch and not confine our conception of the inspiration of wisdom to those forms. It is important to realize that in all our ways we are divinely guided, and thought must be kept flexible to this end, namely, of being able to reflect the knowledge that is needed in all our ways. We should reflect the divine intelligence that directs our Cause, and that selects those who are to be placed in prominent positions. If better candidates for the position of the Board of Directors than now occupy it are available, we should know it and bring about the demonstration to put them in.

But it is well to remember the error that assails the Board, since they are in the middle of the fight. While that means no danger to the alert metaphysician, yet the error in the situation is that being so hard-pressed with human business, they have little time for communion with God, which one must have in order to counterbalance the human side. One can enter the field of controversy and mix up with error without harm, providing he takes the proper amount of time to balance his thought spiritually, so that he will not be “overwhelmed by a sense of the odiousness of sin and by the unveiling of sin in his own thoughts” (Science and Health).

At the same time, it is not a necessary part of loyalty to feel that the present incumbents are the only ones who can fill the office, or are the only ones who have the say in the Cause. God alone has the say, and anyone who voices God, should do it mentally, if not audibly, and handle the error that prevents it from being made manifest.

When a new invention is made, it is said that similar ideas will come at once to several unrelated people who are working along the same line. Therefore, it is possible that God might reveal to us through our thought, open in that direction, the names of those who are suitable candidates for office in Boston. If that happens, we should work to establish the fact that God's will must be done on earth as it is in heaven. That means that what you perceive mentally and spiritually you must establish humanly, in order to complete your demonstration. When you listen for the divine will in heaven, in Mind, then it is your business to see that it is carried out in effect. You are an unfaithful voice of God if you do not do it.

Mrs. Eddy was remarkable in this direction. I doubt if she ever failed to establish what God told her to establish, in spite of the authority that she gave the Church herself. Through the sharp and stern nature of her rebukes, she built up almost a sense of fear in the minds of her students, and she did this deliberately so that when the time came that God told her to do something, she had the situation in hand so that she could execute it, in spite of numbers or of opposition. Many times she stood alone against the whole membership, but she always won out.

There is on record the time she went to Chicago for a month, when upon returning she found the church disrupted, and the books stolen by the opposition movement. She soon had things under control again; yet this showed what might happen without her direction. Whatever she did, feeling that God was back of her, went through. To carry it out was just as important to her as it was to hear God's direction in the first place. She deliberately built up in the minds of those through whom she had to work, not only a great respect for her spiritual qualities, but a fear of disobedience, so that they would never question her ability to execute what God told her to execute.

Some day it will be seen that her rebukes, and those things that she prophesied and threatened would come to pass, were her efforts to keep the road open which would lead to the establishment of that which God told her to establish. There has never been anything like what she accomplished in the history of the world. She kept students in such a relation to her that they could not possibly unite to obstruct what she put forth. When she went to Chicago, they showed what they might do if they had a chance, but she standing alone with God was always the victor over opposition in any and every direction.

If students of her life feel that she was unnecessarily severe, that the letters she wrote to the Church and the Board of Directors were drastic at times, that it was unchristian for her to threaten students with removal from office and Church, loss of salary, and the like, they must realize that she knew that, when God revealed to her a step to be taken, it was obligatory to have that step put into operation. Likewise, she knew that nearly every advanced step that came from God would be fought, misunderstood, and the attempt would be made by animal magnetism to prevent it from being established or put into operation.

It was an equal part of her obligation to God to see that His directions went into effect and operation without fear and without favor. It was necessary for her to keep a relation with those in authority that made them respect and obey her. And today, when she is no longer with us, students should retain a sense of her that acts as a spiritual monitor of each forward step. They can well take for their motto what she wrote in a letter to Julia Field-King, October 9, 1896, “But remember you must avoid the appearance of evil and do nothing that you would not be willing and glad for me to know. This rule kept will save you.”

What a travesty on a correct understanding of our Leader to interpret her rebukes as a bad disposition! What ignorance to translate her efforts to keep the road open for God into an enjoyment of strife, misinterpreting what she so carefully established for the purpose of enabling her to execute what God told her to!




(Presented at the church meeting of July 15, 1889)

To the Church of Christ Scientist, Boston

Beloved Brethren: —

I recommend that you lay aside all that is ceremonial even in appearance in our Church, and adopt this simple service.

Before the sermon read one hymn, sing once. Read selection from a chapter in the Bible and if agreeable to Pastor and Church, a corresponding paragraph from Science and Health. Repeat alternately the Lord's Prayer, the pastor repeating the first sentence and the audience the following one. Unite in silent prayer for all who are present.

Close with reading hymn, singing, silent prayer and the benediction.

Yours lovingly in Christ

(Signed) Mary B. G. Eddy


This recommendation from our Leader at the inception of our church services which was printed in the August Journal, indicates that her spiritual thought convinced her that what she advised was right, and that that which was ceremonial, even in appearance, in a Christian Science church, constituted a temptation to distract thought from the real object of the reading of the Lesson-Sermon — namely, to bring forth healing to the congregation. Every phase of the service is intended to bring forth healing, as shown by the admonition to pray “for all who are present,” that later took form in the By-law found on page 42 of the Church Manual. “The prayers in Christian Science churches shall be offered for the congregations collectively and exclusively.”

This healing influence must be provided by the faithful and conscientious work of Christian Scientists. If there is no such work done, there is no real healing. Furthermore, the service ceases to accomplish the real object of a Christian Science service when the healing is not present. Hence, whatever distracts thought from this important task that each member is obliged to perform, is an error, because it causes the member to assume that the service is self-supporting, and that if one neglects this sacred task, the Christian Science service still carries the same blessing and help to humanity. But such is not the case. Mrs. Eddy knew that unless the thoughts of those in direct charge of the affairs of the church were in accord with God's demands, discord instead of harmony would result, as well as a feeling of unrest and dissatisfaction which would not be conducive to effective mental work.

At this point in history, a handful of picked students who had been taught by Mrs. Eddy herself and put in charge, did consistent and continuous work for the congregation at each service. So, she words this letter, “…if agreeable to pastor and church.”

There are two points which one must establish through demonstration if he desires to function under the demands of God. One is, to be able to receive such wisdom; and the other to put it forth so that it will be acceptable to others and will not chemicalize them. This Mrs. Eddy always endeavored to do.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy reduces the service to bare essentials, and relies upon the spiritual demonstration of the members of the church, to provide the inspirational part of the service that produces the healing. This is the element in our services that impresses the stranger and causes them to stand out in such sharp contrast to the services held under the auspices of old theology.

There are three results that the prayers in Christian Science churches should accomplish: opening the door of consciousness; cleansing out the debris of mortal mind; bringing in that which is good in place of that which is bad. It can be said that the flowing in of that which is good takes place automatically, after that which is of no value has been ruled out; but it is still part of the triad, and must be held in thought as part of the triad.

Whether one's prayers are for an individual who is sick, or for a congregation, they must include these three steps in their proper order, the difference being that with a sick man the form of the error to be removed is more definite and specific, and more general with a group in a church service.

Jesus said, “Behold I stand at the door and knock.” This is the first office of prayer. When the door has been opened in response to the knock, then comes the eradication of the human debris mortal mind is continually depositing in mortal man's consciousness in order to distract his mind, and keep it so busy, that he will forget and neglect his obligation to God. Finally comes the replacement, where the room that has been swept and garnished is filled with the permanent things of God.

Mrs. Eddy early perceived that whatever was ceremonial even in appearance in a church tended to mental distraction, where she wanted concentration. A son might take over his father's business and decorate his office until it resembled a boy's room at college. The father would then recommend that he remove everything that might tend to distract his mind from business, and include in the office only that which would tend to keep thought reminded that it was a business office, where only business was to be done. Mrs. Eddy saw that Christian Science services should be looked upon as a business proposition where there is one object in view, and everything must tend to that result and dovetail in order to bring it to pass.

In the present form of the Christian Science services everything has its value and meaning. Even the singing of the solo is designed to rest thought, preparatory to the concentration necessary in listening to the reading of the Lesson-Sermon; as at a ball game where everyone stands up for a moment and stretches as a means of resting himself or herself. In the early days of Science, lectures lasted over two hours, this being made possible by the fact that at intervals the lecturer would rest thought by relating some interesting and amusing story, or a case of healing. By doing this the lecturer would relieve the tension, that always attends the necessity to give close attention to the subject matter of a lecture. Thus Mrs. Eddy made provision for a mental rest or relaxation, for those who were about to concentrate on the Lesson-Sermon for a half hour.

The ceremonial always tends to distraction, and Mrs. Eddy was appealing for concentration — which the ceremonial interferes with. She wanted nothing in the Christian Science services that was the opposite of what a Christian Science service should be.

Mrs. Eddy perceived that it was not wise to require the reading from Science and Health as a part of the service on Sunday, since at this time these were conducted by ministers, who might be chemicalized if she demanded that her book be placed on the same platform as the Bible, just as today many people chemicalize if Mrs. Eddy's name is mentioned together with the Master's. From the very inception of the services it was in her heart to have her book allied to the Bible just as closely as it could be, so that the acceptance of the latter would aid in the acceptance of the former, yet she had to introduce this plan slowly and carefully, as long as pastors conducted the Christian Science services. This point had to meet with their acceptance as well as that of the Church. It was only when Christian Science had met with a more universal acceptance, and readers were appointed instead of pastors, that Mrs. Eddy was able to put her book side by side with the Bible in the pulpits of her Church. These readers were students of Christian Science, demonstrators and often practitioners, who would surely not chemicalize over the use of these two books in this way.

The nucleus of our present-day order of service is to be found in this important letter, although the reading from Science and Health was left to individual acceptance, on the Biblical basis no doubt that if meat causeth my brother to offend I will eat no meat. Mrs. Eddy knew that if she made the reading from her textbook at that time a requirement, and it produced the slightest antagonism in the mind of any pastor, that would neutralize the good that might be done, just as today, when a lecturer in his heart rebels against having to bear testimony to the life of Mary Baker Eddy according to the By-law in the Manual, it does more harm than good because of his unexpressed rebellion.

When a lecturer states the simple facts of Mrs. Eddy's life under duress, and not from love, he harms the Cause and produces a prejudice against his Leader by his unspoken thought, although what he says outwardly is favorable to her. Metaphysics shows that a man's thoughts are more potent than his words. What a lecturer leaves behind by way of a mental atmosphere results far more from his thinking than it does from his lecture. What a metaphysician would find to criticize in a lecture would not be so much the body of the lecture as the lecturer's thought, which, if it was not scientifically correct, he could discern.

Words merely serve to convey thought. Mrs. Eddy once said to her students (May 25, 1903), “If you do not understand what words mean they are without power.” If one's thought is wrong, although his words are right, the right impression is not conveyed. Thus, after a lecture on Christian Science, we should not ask how did you like the lecture, but how did you like the lecturer's thought? The more spiritually sensitive we become, the more the thought of the lecturer reaches us, and the more we are able to judge its spiritual quality.

Thus, if the pastor of the church at the time this letter was written should read from the textbook under duress, when in his heart he did not consider that it was orthodox or legitimate to put the Bible in the same bracket with Science and Health, the congregation not only would receive little benefit from such reading, but might be harmed by it.

Today our Sunday service includes a reading from the Scriptures that stands alone, as much as to announce that the Bible is the foundation on which Christian Science is laid. Then in the Lesson-Sermon Bible texts are read with correlative passages from the textbook, that interpret such texts metaphysically. When this reading is done from the right standpoint, it helps a great deal to break down prejudice against Christian Science, because it confronts the public with interwoven passages that prove that the teachings of Science and Health in no way depart from the teachings of the Bible, but merely emphasize them and make them more practical.

You push a sled to get it started down a snow-covered hill so that it will go on its own momentum. The silent prayer in our services is merely intended to push the mental workers in the service into continued effort. It is obvious that such work must continue throughout the service, because the few moments of the silent prayer would not be time enough in which to do any great amount of healing work. One could hardly assemble his thoughts in two minutes. The silent prayer merely reminds the workers of the silent work they should do throughout the service. Yet great care must be taken to keep this part of the service secret from the public, since a serious misunderstanding might arise if the stranger, or even the young member, should learn that he was being worked on, or worked for, by the other members of the church. No person in his right mind would want to attend a meeting feeling that he was going to be worked on mentally. It would seem to him perhaps that it was an invasion of his individual rights, and that he was being influenced in order to make a Christian Scientist out of him, without his knowledge or consent. A man likes to feel perfectly free to accept or to reject a doctrine on its own merits.

The correct explanation of the silent prayer in relation to the stranger is perfectly understandable, and could not produce any feeling of resentment in him. When a man takes a journey in an airplane, he is not permitted to take baggage beyond a certain limited amount. He understands this restriction and the reason for it, and is not troubled. He does not consider that his rights are being interfered with. He knows that the plane cannot ascend into the air if it is carrying too much weight.

Those who work silently and mentally at our Christian Science services, are not trying to influence others erroneously or to make Christian Scientists out of those who do not want to become such. But they know that every idea of God in reality wants God, and all that stands in the way is excess baggage. This excess baggage has been placed on man by animal magnetism in order to ruin him, and it works against every spiritual impulse he may feel. The endeavor of the mental workers is to remove this excess baggage that has no real value, so that when the stranger enters into this airplane of God, which is to take him up and lift him off the earth, he will not be so heavily laden that he cannot rise. Anyone who had been carried up in the spirit, and had a Pentecostal experience, would admit that he loved it.

Once having felt such an experience, a stranger would permit nothing to keep him away from our services where he might again experience it. But one cannot go up in this airplane of God with excess baggage, material thoughts, fears, desires, etc. So, the work of those who pray silently in our services, is to remove the error animal magnetism has put upon the stranger that keeps him down on the earth. The authority for this effort is the Master's words: “And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.”

Our church is the airplane which should lift everyone to God, and it would, if the excess baggage was removed. Christian Science is not trying to give people a better sense of God; it is trying to remove from them a false sense of God, and it is a certainty that the right sense of God will re-enter thought when a wrong sense is taken away. When the debris is removed from a rain barrel, no one doubts that the rain will fill it. So, the rain of Truth and Love falling on the hungry thought in our services will surely fill it, as the debris of mortal thinking is removed.

It is the privilege of the stranger and the young student to come to our services, to feel the divine presence and be healed; it is the duty and privilege of the more advanced students to do the mental work that opens the way for the healing atmosphere of divine Love to be felt. Some may believe that the healing in our services is an automatic result of merely holding them; but those who take the responsibility of membership in a branch church learn, before long, that our services heal because devout and devoted members work mentally during the services and lectures with this object in view. They work as conscientiously as practitioners work for sick patients. When such sacred work is neglected, our services become barren of their vital element.

Mrs. Eddy found the old church so cluttered with form and ceremony that thought was distracted from the healing Christ to the point where all expectancy of its services healing the sick, was ruled out. She inaugurated a reform which, in part, consisted in paring down the service to the simplest form possible, doing away with what was ceremonial, even in appearance, so that the business of healing would be seen to be the one and only object, and nothing would be present to distract thought from this high and holy purpose.

In pondering the order of service in our churches, one can gain a lesson from Jesus' act in entering the temple, and whipping out the money-changers and those that sold doves. If the narrative is read in its sequence in Mark 11, we find that first the Master visited the temple and looked the ground over, much as an evangelist, who is going to conduct a week of revival meetings in a certain city, visits the city and endeavors to determine the moral and spiritual status of the people.

The Bible narrative reads, “And Jesus entered into Jerusalem, and into the temple: and when he had looked round about upon all things, and now the eventide was come, he went out unto Bethany with the twelve.” In entering into the temple in this way, what was he doing but sensing the mental and spiritual status of the demonstration that was being made in the temple, to determine whether the fruitage in healing was what it should be, to accord with the outward indication of prosperity.

Proof that this is a correct deduction may be gained from the next two verses, which state that Jesus, on his way to Bethany, saw “a fig tree afar off having leaves.” Smith's Bible dictionary states that, when a fig tree has leaves, that is the sign that it has fruit; but Jesus, finding no fruit, condemned the tree as a fraud. It had that which was a sign of fruitage without the fruit.

In the next verse Jesus condemns the temple as a fraud, and whips out those engaged in worldly traffic. Why? Because, like the fig tree, the temple had put forth beautiful leaves of activity and prosperity, yet was bearing no fruit in healing — which is the only real fruitage. The Master, therefore, condemned it as a fraud, and called it a den of thieves; the outward prosperity, form and ceremony had robbed it of the silent prayer for the congregation, without which it could bear no fruit of healing.

The old gospel hymn, “Nothing but leaves; the Spirit grieves over a wasted life,” well describes the condition Jesus found in the temple. The error he uncovered was a lack of fruitage hiding behind an outward evidence of fruitage. All the efforts toward growth, which should have brought forth fruit, were devoted to the outward form, or to effect. The tree put forth its efforts merely to grow beautiful leaves, and the members of the temple worked so hard for outward prosperity and success, that they neglected the humble service of silent prayer, which brings the Christ-spirit, causes the congregation to feel at home, because of the reality of God's presence, and heals the sick.

The Bible indicates that in their relationship with the Master, Martha and Mary were symbolic of the outward and inward ministry. Jesus did not condemn Martha, but he approved Mary for choosing the better part, while Martha was “cumbered with much serving.” In other words, she was paying so much attention to the outward ministry, that the inward ministry was neglected.

As church members we cannot neglect the outward form, any more than a man, who sells milk, can neglect to have stalls for the cows, and to keep them clean. But we can “choose the better part”; we can choose to remember at all times that healing is the vital thing, that everything revolves around it, is secondary to it, and that without it, the church were but an empty shell.

The standard that holds a powerful microscope is important; but only to keep the lenses in place. In Christian Science the healing results from the clarity of one's vision, its magnification of reality and one's ability to see man as the perfect idea of God now, in spite of the false testimony of the material senses. This corresponds to the lenses in the microscope. The church as an organization is like the standard — important, but never first.

In the gay nineties it was not an uncommon thing for a framer of pictures to put a frame that was so ornate on a painting, that it drew a large part of one's attention away from the picture. Organization is the frame of our picture in Science, and it must have its rightful place as always secondary to the healing.

It is significant to recall that, when Mrs. Eddy dissolved the organization of her church on December 2, 1889, in order to reorganize it on a more spiritual basis, as she writes in Retrospection and Introspection, she declared that the time had come when the Church should rise into spiritual latitudes, where the law of Love is the only bond of union. One paragraph of the resolution passed by the members reads as follows: “The members of this Church hereby declare that this action is taken in order to realize more perfectly the purposes of its institution as an organization, namely, growth in spiritual life and the spread of the ‘Glad Tidings,' and that they will continue as a voluntary association of Christians, knowing no law but the law of love and no master but Christ in the exercise of all the ministrations and activities performed by them as the Church of Christ, Scientist.”

In this action one can feel Mrs. Eddy's exultant hope that her Church would be a Mary, not a Martha. Martha's mistake was simple. She was cumbered with much serving because she let her sense of values become reversed, by putting effect ahead of cause.

No one can deny that the church organization with its many branches is important. Churches must be built when it is necessary, and when demonstration is used, this will always be possible. But it is spiritual healing that makes our religion the hope of the race, not church edifices. If we put first things first, secondary ones will fall into place naturally.




July 20, 1889


My dear Student:


First I thank you and our heavenly Father for your letter of experience. Tears of joy watered the words. The next thing was to profit by it, but the last movement looked less favorable.

Now your letter seems wholly rational and the course open which God may bless. Doctor Smith's former church you should treat with brotherly love and just as you would be dealt with under the circumstances. Go and talk with the leading members, but not until Dr. Smith has taken his stand openly, heartfully. This can be done right and it must be if he comes to my Church, or not done at all.

Now I refuse to decide on him or any other man or woman as a candidate for my pulpit; my church shall decide this question and then they may be suited. Hence you must not call on me or my son to say whether or not you give Dr. Smith a call, for your question will not be answered. This, not from disrespect for you, for you have shown great interest, self-sacrifice and ardor in your efforts (even if not wise in every instance) — for which I honor you, to obtain help for all our organizations. This fills me with love and gratitude to you.

Hypnotism is busy. It has two schemes on hand. The late scheme to dishonor my church and its pastor has only failed in part. Mrs. W. has got the written invitation to my pulpit and will use it to put herself into the church work which I had forbidden until she was morally fit to do it.

Hypnotism carried this scheme when the mesmerist was in our midst. I pity you, so new in this glorious work and inexperienced — but am indignant to see a student as old as Miss B. — one, too, who has denounced the moral candidate with which she supplied my pulpit, openly in letters, and recently, too, or at least within the year.

I have yet to see a single instance when my students in Boston (without my help) have walked over the spell of hypnotism and taken the line of God in opposition to it. I write this in tears.

But this shall be done, and they shall be left to their own direction until it is done, since I am convinced that they will never learn out of this blindness but by suffering.

Yours in bonds of Christian love

M. B. G. E

Mr. Easton told me his decision is final.

Men who have described their ecstatic moments under the influence of certain drugs, would almost lead one to feel that thought had been temporarily released from limitation, so that they caught some vision of reality. Perhaps this phenomenon is what the Bible refers to, when in John 10 the Master speaks of those who climb up some other way. One obvious error involved in laying hold of the higher vision too soon, in having an ecstatic experience that one has stolen by the use of some drug, rather than earned through the spiritual method, is the discouragement of coming back to the drabness of mortal existence and discovering that one has a long process ahead, before that vision can be attained permanently. To have had a glimpse of freedom almost indescribable to the material senses has a much more discouraging effect, than if one had less of a vision, since this vision held too strongly in mind tends to discouragement, if the demonstration reaching it is slow. It is right to hold the goal in mind, but not necessarily right to have a premature foretaste of that goal. It is the part of wisdom not to gain a higher vision sooner than we do. Otherwise we might fall by the wayside because of a delayed demonstration.

The first paragraph of this letter to Mr. Johnson was another way of Mrs. Eddy's saying that there was undoubtedly an inspirational thought contained in his experience and in his portrayal of it to her. In substance she said to him, “What you say undoubtedly came from God; so we must thank God and you.” But it was not too great a vision for Mr. Johnson to have had. It was not so great, that his slow and solemn footsteps in reaching its fulfillment would cause him to become discouraged.

It is a wholesome as well as a scientific thing habitually to associate in thought the fact, that whatever Jesus voiced came from God, and to give God thanks for it. At the same time, one thanks Jesus for his unselfish motive and determination, to let nothing interfere with his reflection of God, and to be a permanent voice, so that at all times God could use him for that purpose. His attainment in this direction was without parallel except in Mrs. Eddy's experience. She alone approximated the same steadfastness and unselfishness that he displayed, that never deviated from the path of work for the world.

Mrs. Eddy never forgot that she was pre-eminently the teacher, and she wanted Mr. Johnson to bear in mind as a more or less young student in Science, that whatever he voiced that was inspirational and, therefore, profound, came from God, that God was responsible for it, and so we must give Him thanks. So, she thanks him and our heavenly Father because of the demonstration that brings it about. Thus, she clarified the situation and taught him the lesson.

Another point that stands out is, that even though she received so much in the way of inspirational thought, she never forgot to be grateful and thankful for any portion of it, or to any humble channel through which it came. We can hear in this the Master's cry, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes.” A babe in this case merely stands for one who is stripped of human experience, education and all the mortal knowledge that causes mortal mind to change from a babe to a man. What we call a mortal man is merely a more mature expression of a changed thought. If he could strip himself of that accumulated experience and thought, he would become a child again, even in appearance.

It is in proportion as we learn to strip ourselves, and return to the purified thought of a child, freed from human knowledge and experience, from the world's ideas, ideals and modes of thinking, that we become a channel for God. Mrs. Eddy was teaching Mr. Johnson never to forget to be grateful for what God revealed through him or anyone else. The real pearl of great price is not what comes out of the sea. The real things of value are not dug out of the earth. They are what man seeks, finds and has been revealed to him in God. Thus, we should never forget to be grateful for them. It is a thought adjuster as well as something that assists spiritual reception, for one to appreciate what he gets spiritually. She was teaching him a true appreciation that carries with it the realization that “of myself I can do nothing.”

Then she says that the next thing was to profit by it, but the “last movement looked less favorable.” This sets forth the necessity for protection in the application of the revealed spiritual idea. The birth of the Christ was not subject to attack; but soon afterwards, Mary had to take the young child into Egypt for protection. The birth of the spiritual idea in Mr. Johnson was brought forth in its primitive purity in his experience referred to, but to protect it so that it might resolve itself into activity was a different proposition. The impartation of God to man, which is the spiritual idea embodied in man, may be born unaccompanied by any aggressive attack of animal magnetism, since one who is capable of giving it birth, is also capable of handling any interference. The effort to make it practical in demonstration, however, is a higher step. Soon after his birth the Master was beset by foul enemies, those that sought his life. Mrs. Eddy knew that the outlook for Mr. Johnson's effort to put the spiritual idea that he had brought forth, into activity in the Cause and make it work, was less favorable.

Hence, we can read between the lines and discover how she wanted to instruct him. This demonstration of the reception of the spiritual idea was a different proposition from its subsequent activity, and the young idea needed constant spiritual protection.

The next paragraph shows, that she wanted to know if Dr. Smith was willing to take his stand voluntarily, and give up what might have seemed a fairly good connection in order to risk his future with this budding thought of Christian Science, that of itself gave no assurance of its continuance, — and do this heartfully and in spite of the influence of the leading members of his church. She knew that he had all those things to weigh in his mind, and unless he was convinced of the truth of Christian Science, and so was willing to be identified and yoked with this new and as yet modest beginning, he would not be fit to take the position of pastor in the Christian Science Church.

This letter sounds as if she had little hope that Dr. Smith would take his stand. Yet consider how thoughtful she was of the members of his flock! Her consideration is even more noteworthy when one learns that many of the members of Dr. Smith's flock had once been interested in Christian Science. This love and consideration for the other fellow was the natural quality of her thought, and she was not tempted as many are, to feel elated because they have been able to snatch away the pastor of another church. She insisted that Mr. Johnson go and talk with its leading members, so that they might not feel that Christian Scientists were thieves and robbers, and were trying to steal away their minister whom they esteemed and desired to retain.

This experience shows the immaturity of the Cause in those days, since here was a man who had as yet not taken a firm stand for Science. Nevertheless, he was being considered for the position of pastor. Today we feel that a man would have to study Science from ten to fifteen years, before he would be suitable for the position of Reader in The Mother Church. And those years would have to include the demonstration of healing the sick successfully, before there would be the assurance that he was seeking the truth for its own sake, and was ready to stand up under responsibility.

One bit of history that must be known to make this situation clearer, is that when this letter was written, Mrs. Eddy did not know who the congregation was that Dr. Smith was preaching for, and it was not until a few days later that she learned it through William B. Johnson. The movement to get Dr. Smith, started with Mr. Joshua Bailey. Then Mr. Johnson became suspicious, and sent his young son, William Lyman, to watch at Dr. Smith's church, 3 Park Street. Mrs. Eddy's church was holding their meetings in Chickering Hall. William Lyman found that Dr. Smith was preaching for Luther Marsden, who had been a Christian Scientist, and that the church was a hotbed of disloyal students such as William I. Gill, Arthur True Buswell, Clara Choate, etc., and included many who went out in the schism of 1888. Even Julius Dresser and Warren Felt Evans were among the congregation, according to the report of Mr. Johnson's son. When Mrs. Eddy was finally told by Mr. Johnson — she being at Concord at this time — she learned for the first time that Dr. Smith was not being called away from an orthodox church, but from a group of dissenters who had gone out from her church.

Mrs. Eddy's loving consideration for others is a powerful note in this letter. We must watch that not one bit of that loving thought ever goes out of Christian Science. Never should we permit ourselves to think of ourselves more highly than we ought, — which results in less regard for the feelings of those who are not Christian Scientists. Mrs. Eddy was insistent that her students act as Christians, as well as Scientists. She did not want anyone in the world to feel that the attitude of her followers ever manifested anything but a Christian spirit. Our Leader desired the public to feel that as representatives of God her students were encouraging all mankind by their example.

A barker for a side show in a circus is paid to represent what is taking place inside, in such a way that everyone will want to go in. He would lose his job, if he represented it in such a way that people would be turned away. Similarly, Mrs. Eddy desired that her followers advertise Christian Science by their lives in such a way, that the whole world would be drawn to her teachings.

When I was at Pleasant View, she permitted the students in Boston to select very few of the candidates for the various positions. Usually she felt that the selections they sent up were unsuitable. Sometimes she would direct the students in her home to make the demonstration of candidates, and there were times when she accepted their recommendations. Yet, at this point in the development of the church she takes a vigorous stand and refuses to make the decision. This was her attempt to drive them to a demonstration of their own and away from an effort to lean upon her demonstration. The situation was this: it would often seem as if the students would do anything to escape the heavy-handed rebuke of our Leader. They knew that if she made the selection, there was no danger of her rebuking them; whereas if they made it, it might be subject to her rebuke.

This same effort to avoid her rebukes was made in her home. How simple the whole thing is today when the answer is plainly seen! Mrs. Eddy looked for demonstration and what she got so often was the human mind; and every time she did, she had to rebuke it. It seemed hard for students to comprehend that she did not criticize the results attained, but the fact that they did not use the divine Mind. She knew, as all metaphysicians do who stop to think about it, that any attempt to bring about anything that is right with the human mind, must be wrong; any candidate suggested by the human mind is bound to be wrong; any step one takes that is prompted by the human mind — if one is advanced in his understanding and growth — is bound to be wrong.

Christian Scientists get into more trouble than mortals ever thought of. You hear students say, “I would have gotten along better if I had stayed in mortal mind,” and they are quite right in this statement. This is because, when you repudiate the human mind, it becomes your enemy, and when you look to your enemy for friendly service you do not get it.

Once my father and I lost thirty thousand dollars, because I put faith in a Christian Scientist who did not demonstrate, and because I did not demonstrate myself. It was a costly lesson. From it I learned, that a man who calls himself a Christian Scientist, who goes to church, studies, etc., is not thereby given wisdom on high unless he demonstrates it. It appears to be a difficult thing to establish in any branch church the truism that the only things that are right, and should be allowed in the church, are those done through demonstration. Unless you persistently keep this demonstration aloft, the human mind will come in, and the church will be controlled by Roman Catholicism, — since Roman Catholicism is merely the human mind, and the human mind is merely Roman Catholicism. The human mind may be called Roman Catholicism whenever it attempts to dominate, and one does not have to look to the Catholic church in order to find it. Wherever the human mind assumes control over other individuals through fear, attempts to influence them and persuade them to do as it dictates, it is Roman Catholicism; and if we are not watchful the Christian Science religion will carry more Catholics in spirit, than the Catholic church does in name.

Will there ever come a time when this tendency in our church will be wholly cast out, namely, to rule out demonstration and supply the purified human mind and its attempt to control activities? New members constantly being admitted sustain this condition. The church merely exemplifies Mrs. Eddy's experience in her own home. If you cannot perceive how this tendency operated in the home, you cannot see how it is operating in the Cause; and if you do not see how it is operating in the Cause, you cannot understand how it operated in her home. You cannot perceive what she sought, what she insisted upon teaching, namely, the necessity for leaning upon demonstration instead of the so-called human mind.

There is a poem by James Whitcomb Riley that has the refrain, “The goblins will get you if you don't watch out.” Christian Scientists can paraphrase that. “The human mind will get you if you don't watch out.” The moment you yield to the thought of mental inactivity, the human mind slips right in, and there you are, functioning under the enemy of God. That is what the trouble is. It is an axiom that the moment mental laziness slips in, the human mind comes in with it. Then you are working against God and not for Him; against the interests of the church and not for them. Material remedies, which all Christian Scientists eschew, represent no more than the use of mortal mind in a medical form. Then, where is the consistency of turning away from mortal mind in one form, and permitting its use in some other form, such as the human intelligence or will? The reason Christian Scientists should repudiate mortal mind manifested as a material medicine, is not because of the medicine, but because of the error back of it. If students are required to consider remedies as error solely because of the mortal mind back of them, then any sense of mortal mind as well as any form that has mortal mind back of it, is error, and the one who uses such stands condemned before God.

Animal magnetism and mental suggestion are merely the human mind operating in ways that have for their intent to rob man of God. To those to whom the term animal magnetism, covering the action of the human mind, is distasteful, the third verse of the twenty-second chapter of Luke should come as an awakening, proving that Judas was handled by it, since it declares that Satan entered into him. When students realize that to some extent they all yield to mesmerism, they realize how close many of them come at times to a betrayal of the Master. Judas simply functioned under the human mind at a time when it required that dastardly deed to be done. Metaphysicians are not indignant at Judas for the betrayal, but at animal magnetism; although they do not mitigate Judas' responsibility for yielding to the human mind.

As students realize how easy it seems to be to yield to the human mind, they will take stronger measures against it, and prepare for war in times of peace. In Europe whole cities are trained to don gas masks when mock attacks are staged, in preparation for danger. Should not Christian Scientists be even more wise in the mental realm, and exercise a divine protection that will stand in times of stress, when mass mesmerism seems rife? What Christian Scientist dares to declare that all mortals are not subject to mental suggestion when awake or asleep? If mortals are wise enough to prepare cement fortifications in which they may take refuge in times of war, how much more should students of Christian Science prepare upper rooms in thought, where they may retreat when the armies of earth press hard upon them!

It is interesting to note, in connection with animal magnetism, that Jesus said that he would be betrayed by one whose hand was with him on the table, showing that a man's foes are they of his own household. It is difficult to feel that the thought we should protect ourselves from may come through our nearest and dearest. Yet, the very thought that we accept with never a suspicion that we should guard against it, when it is not governed by Truth, is always our betrayer.

When we like people, we are apt to feel that they are incapable of doing us any harm. But anyone who is susceptible to animal magnetism will lend himself to error, and we must be on guard against such at all times. Whoever can be made a channel for error becomes our Judas, because the devil is using him.

What a bombshell you would throw into any branch church, if you should rise up and declare that those not for us, are against us! — What consternation, if you should state that the human mind being destructive and inimical to Christian Science, throws it down, and betrays it! And whatever is done in the church that is not the result of demonstration is definitely against Christian Science, in fact is Roman Catholicism and not Christian Science at all! Students sometimes fearfully turn their attention to the Roman Catholic church, when they should be watching out for Catholicism as a mental bias and quality among their own membership. It is not on the outside that it touches our church as much as inside, because that is where it becomes a formidable foe.

Thus Mrs. Eddy, in insisting that they make the demonstration of the Pastor, was throwing the necessity for demonstration on the church. It was important whom they selected, but she also desired to build them up to the point of seeing the importance of demonstration. Here was an instance where human cleverness, ingenuity and ideas seemed to fail, so the members were left without any knowledge of whom they could get, whom would be suitable, whom would not betray the Cause, whom would be able to understand Christian Science well enough to deliver a sermon on it that would be helpful.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy is placing a few obstacles in the way so that the members will not get Dr. Smith, although they do not know it. She does not say, “You cannot have Dr. Smith.” She says, “Talk it over with his members and find out if he has taken his stand heartfully, and is thoroughly convinced of the truth of Christian Science to the degree that he is willing to become a pastor of a Christian Science Church.”

Yet, years later she often tells the church just whom to elect, and just whom to refuse. When she rejected the candidates the Board of Directors suggested, it was because she knew that they had not demonstrated the names sufficiently apart from human methods. She knew there were motives mixed up with their suggestions that were not pure Christian Science. Thus, we see that from 1889 to 1905 she had learned a great deal about the human mind. She learned how loath it is to demonstrate, how far from the habit of demonstrating even the best in mortal mind is; how the best people in Christian Science are willing to sacrifice everything to be counted among sinners, yet will not demonstrate habitually, — the one thing that makes them worthy to be called Christian Scientists.

When Caroline Foss went to Pleasant View to be Mrs. Eddy's maid, she was given the task of making Mrs. Eddy's bed; and was told by Laura Sargent that no one seemed to be able to make the bed to satisfy our Leader, so that she rested comfortably. As Miss Foss was working to smooth out the lumps in the feather mattress, she thought, “This bed belongs to God. I am making it up for Him, and not for any personality. He sent me here to do it so I can do it right.” There never was one complaint from Mrs. Eddy during the whole time Miss Foss was there as to the condition of the bed. But she confessed that among her many duties, the bed making was the only one she really tried to demonstrate consistently!

The Christian Science church is in need of demonstration in every department today, as much as it was in 1889. Mrs. Eddy knew that one does not usually make a demonstration until he is driven to the last ditch, where it is “Lord, save or I perish.” People come to Christian Science because they have come to the last ditch. Mortal mind seems unable to take them any further, so they must turn to God.

As long as the members thought, “We will do the best we can, and then it is up to Mrs. Eddy,” she knew they would not make the demonstration of the pastor. They hoped to put several candidates up to her, and let her choose one. But she puts herself on record as saying, that under no condition will she have anything to say about it. This put them in the last ditch, which was helping to force them to make a demonstration that otherwise they could not make.

Mortal man usually has to have a strong and severe experience before he will demonstrate. When he has a minor difficulty and feels it is not dangerous, — so he can get along all right, — that attitude shuts him off from making any kind of a real demonstration. He has to have something that frightens him, something that others will criticize him for or, belittle him for, if he fails, before he will wake up and get rid of it. If one has a growth on his back he will neglect it, whereas if it is on his face he will work continually to get rid of it.

The deduction is that the human mind must have some prod, otherwise it will go to sleep spiritually. Part of the nature of the belief that animal magnetism has put upon man is a lackadaisical sense. It is part of the equipment of mortal man. Thus Mrs. Eddy was the most skillful prodder that the world has known since the time of the Master. Would to God she were still with us to stir us to the action that means salvation!

As an example of her own realization of the value of her rebukes, she wrote to Mr. Johnson on March 21, 1893, “My son the Dr. has awaked to his own dear noble self, and I am so thankful, I cannot express myself. His mistake and my stern rebuke were God's dear means for saving him.”

In hot countries where food is plentiful, we find that the natives spend a large proportion of their time in sleep. Activity increases in proportion as food is harder to obtain, but that activity is not normal. Wherever conditions warrant, you find man falling back into the native condition of lethargy. He falls asleep mentally if there is nothing to rouse him up. Activity is always an artificial phase of human thought, although it is divinely natural with the real spiritual man. We do a hard thing to get mortal man to see the importance of mentally rousing himself, until he takes on the divine Mind which includes the activity which is natural to him.

In the days before airplane motors were equipped with self-starters, the starting of an engine was a perfect illustration of the above fact. It was an unnatural and difficult thing to turn the motor over. But as soon as the mechanism began to function, its revolutions seemed effortless. There is a native and unlabored activity in the real man; but in mortal man activity must be started humanly to counteract the inertia of the human mind, until thought is connected with the real man's activity. Then activity becomes unlabored and easy.

Mrs. Eddy manifested an active sense continuously, and it was not forced. But she continually had to use the self-starter on her students, until they connected up with the natural man's activity. Then it continued without difficulty.

It is plain in the beginning of this letter that Mrs. Eddy diagnosed Mr. Johnson correctly. Spiritual perception must always precede the demonstration of it. It begins to flood into one's thought long before he finds himself able to demonstrate it. All students struggle against an inability to practice what they perceive. Ministers who become interested in Christian Science perceive its logic readily, because they have been trained to grasp intellectual propositions; but they find it difficult to practice, since old theology has never demanded of them aught but profession. Hence, when they perceive the truth of Christian Science, they are greatly satisfied, without taking on the fact that that spiritual perception carries the necessity for demonstration. They become long on perception and short on demonstration. Before long a sense of discouragement takes hold of them, because they find their demonstrations so immature.

It always discourages a man to find that he understands a theory perfectly, but is unable to operate it. He is liable to fall by the wayside, thinking that there is something wrong with Christian Science, when, for instance, he feels that he has a profound understanding of Christian Science, and is unable to heal himself of a simple cold. As a matter of fact, the belief of a cold is just as serious an affliction as consumption. Back of both beliefs is the same devilish intent, namely, to rob man of his spiritual thinking. That intent represents the maximum of all evil. Animal magnetism has for its intent, not to kill man physically but spiritually — if such a thing were possible. We have Science and Health to witness that Mrs. Eddy's definition of murder interprets it as an effort to kill man spiritually rather than materially. It is necessary for the student of Christian Science to learn a new definition for murder based on Jesus' injunction not to fear them which kill the body, but which have the power to destroy both soul and body in hell, — hell being the belief in separation from God, Life.

Thus Mrs. Eddy gently calls Mr. Johnson's attention to the fact that while she appreciates his spiritual vision, she knows that to profit by it, — which means to demonstrate it, — is a different matter, one that looks less favorable.

The difficulties attending the establishment of Christian Science services with preachers, finally presented such overwhelming obstacles that Mrs. Eddy was driven to give it up, — which was what God wanted her to do. These ministers were all fully capable of expressing themselves, but ministers cannot be helpful in Christian Science until they demonstrate what they have learned, and hence, preach from the standpoint of what they have demonstrated. That is where the ministers were found wanting.

If we realize that to Mrs. Eddy healing and demonstration were synonymous terms, then the following which she wrote to Miss Naomi Robertson on August 13, 1904, bears on this point. “You mistake, dear one, in thinking I am sad! I am the very opposite — am filled with gladness and gratitude for the unsurpassed prosperity of Christian Science. It was only when naming the need of more and better healers in the field that my face expressed my disappointment. Do not think I am not the happiest of the happy, for I am, and I should be; but address yourself and fellow students to leave behind the fashions and foibles and pride and vanity of the world, and to demonstrate Christian Science. Teaching, and church-making, and leading, will never demonstrate what is taught.”

It is generally understood today that unless a Christian Science lecturer has demonstrated what he has learned, he is not equipped to go forth and lecture on Christian Science. It is only the man who has proved what he states, who can carry conviction to his listeners. It can be seen what a difficult thing it was in those days to find pastors for the church, since this letter covers an effort to obtain one who had never even had a chance to demonstrate Christian Science! This man under consideration had become interested in Christian Science from the theoretical standpoint, yet was still preaching in his own pulpit! From the general knowledge that students have today, this sounds foolish; but it indicates the difficulties that confronted the early footsteps in organization.

In old theology there is nothing strange about a minister changing his faith from one church to another. If a Baptist minister decides to become a Congregationalist, no mighty mental upheaval is necessary, since there exists no essential differences in those two religions. And if the man is a good preacher, he will soon receive a call from some group of the latter faith, to come to them.

Mrs. Eddy's insistence that the members work this problem out themselves is a fine precedent for all time in our church, since the only way students will ever learn to demonstrate is by being thrown on their own resources.

Another point of helpfulness in this letter, is that she honors Mr. Johnson for going ahead without fear and showing great interest and ardor in his efforts, even if they were not wise in every instance. This is in contrast to the timidity that holds back lest it make a mistake. This letter from our Leader, therefore, would encourage him to go ahead in the future, but to watch, that he reflect more of the divine wisdom that is so necessary.

A still further deduction from this letter is the point about Mrs. Woodbury. Evidently Mrs. Eddy looked upon an immoral sense as something that could be healed. When this was done, Mrs. Woodbury would be fit to work in the church, even to being the pastor. How far removed is this estimate from the attitude that would damn the one who has sinned, forever! Mrs. Eddy had no such motto as, “Once a sinner, always a sinner.” Here she was, waiting for the healing of immorality before she appointed her to high places in the Cause. What a comfort this should be to those who have allowed some temptation to overtake them, the strength of which they did not realize! Instead of feeling that they are forever outside the pale of spiritual service, they should realize the possibility of meeting the error, and returning to the Father's house, cleansed and ready for service.

In Christian Science, immorality should be classified with sickness, something that can be healed; and when one is healed, he is free from every stain.

Mesmerism changes its form to suit conditions. Its primary purpose at this time was to dishonor Mrs. Eddy and the church, as she states in this letter. Any student who stands up in a business meeting and advocates the use of the human mind, is dishonoring Mrs. Eddy and the church. The church is founded upon the necessity of providing opportunities for demonstration; and it is always the action of mesmerism when members stand up and insist that the human mind is all right in its place, — that is, conducting the business of the church in a human manner.

Mrs. Eddy was sad when she saw a student carried away by his first great perception of Christian Science — with a vision of the wonders he was going to perform — when she knew that he was doomed to an unsuccessful demonstration unless he gained an understanding of animal magnetism. Her pity for Mr. Johnson's inexperience was because he lacked a training in the knowledge of evil. She had been down into the mire in order to learn about evil, against her own inclinations; so, she pitied anyone else who had to do it in that manner.

This necessity has always been the great stumbling-block. When a man starts on his upward journey, he does not want to descend into the depths of depravity to learn about the operation of the lie. He feels nothing but joy in his contemplation of good; but it is distasteful to contemplate the need for talking about, understanding and compassing the claim of animal magnetism. If Mrs. Eddy were with us in person, would she still write in tears that she had not yet found students who of their own volition could walk over the claim of hypnotism, so that they could follow our God's demands upon them, — which no one can do unless he handles this claim?

A sick man's thought has stalled; it is necessary to start it in right activity. When a practitioner can feel his patient's thought take hold, so that the natural activity of the real man animates the human sense, he knows he has healed him. Christian Scientists need not feel as though activity of thought is something that will always have to be forced, or that at any time it may stop. When one functions rightly, activity of thought is far more natural and unlabored than inactivity of thought.

This letter puts the student into the last ditch, as our Leader was so fond of doing; the most notable instance being the rigid requirements she brought forth in the building of The Mother Church, which forced them to make its erection a demonstration. No doubt Mr. Johnson was pleased to receive this letter; but Mrs. Eddy's commendation and appreciation was always to encourage and stimulate one to do better. We can tell by its contents, that he was bringing to the altar a mixed offering. He was wise in his ideas, but lacking in the demonstration of carrying them out.

The students did not understand animal magnetism then any more than they do now; they did not realize what it was that sought the life of the young child. In fact, they could not always tell that the young child was dead, or when the spiritual thought left them and they picked up the threads of human thought again. Who does know when this happens? Do we not require some sharp reminder, physical exhibition or manifestation of that loss, before we realize that we have lost it?

Why is this? Because the spiritual thought and the harmonious human thought appear so similar to mortal sense. It is like a sparkling, beautifully cut gem my wife found. She took it to three jewelers, and one of them declared it to be a valuable diamond, while the remaining two said it was glass.

As we become more and more acquainted with both the human and the real — as spiritual sense is brought into activity — the distinction between them will surely become more apparent. It is only to the immature thought that the purified human mind and divine Mind seem so alike that one cannot be distinguished from the other.

One thing is sure, if desire is prayer, the more we desire to know whether it is the human mind or the divine Mind that is governing us, the surer will be our spiritual discernment. It is when we are indifferent that we remain in doubt. When we earnestly desire to know, God will always tell us; and the manifestation of the purified human mind, which is the loss of the Christ, will become more apparent. The more we approach the understanding of Spirit and acquaint ourselves with spiritual sense, the less chance there is for us to be deceived, and the more objectionable and obvious becomes the purified human mind when it attempts to assume the prerogatives of the divine Mind.

In the Christian Science Journal for November 1, 1884, we find the following, “How can I distinguish between the immortal and the mortal thought? The thought that rests firmly on the understanding that all is Good is the immortal thought. When belief in the presence and power of evil, or the reality of sin and sickness, enters your mind, it is mortal thought.”

One day not long ago I felt such an abundance of human health, that it seemed as if I could accomplish anything. I was grateful to realize that, because it carried with it a sense that I had lost God, it was as objectionable to me as would be sickness. I realized that I would never again believe that human harmony raised to its highest degree was divine harmony.

Is it surprising, when one takes up selling precious stones as a profession, that he become more and more proficient in his keen ability to distinguish the real from the false? Mrs. Eddy could always detect the difference between action based on the human mind, and that expressing divine Mind. In this letter written in 1889, she proved the clarity of her spiritual thought, her ability to diagnose, in the wonderful way in which she trained students, so that the Cause itself would never suffer. Nothing was surer than that no pastor that Mrs. Eddy had not demonstrated, would ever enter the church.

This letter praises Mr. Johnson for his natural spiritual desire and attainment. But at the same time it shows that Mrs. Eddy appreciated the fact that when animal magnetism produced any special pressure, he was not able to handle it. So, the results were not always in accord with Christian Science. Having made the statement that she loved him and was grateful to him for his spiritual good, she says that at times he failed. Then she states why.

One of the schemes of hypnotism was to put Mrs. Woodbury into the pastorate — a woman who later proved to be a definite renegade and who finally came right out and showed that her purpose was to break up the Cause, if possible, and take away from it its logical Founder, the only one who could carry it to success.

Mr. Johnson would always listen to Mrs. Eddy. That was one of his saving qualities. If he differed from her, she was always right. He was clay in her hands, and as such served a grand purpose, even though at the same time she was looking for stones on which her church might rest. When it came to trusting Mr. Johnson with his own demonstrating thought, and finding the results permanent and constructive, that was more or less of a doubtful experiment.

Mrs. Eddy found that oftentimes the students borrowed her demonstration, as it were, and when they got beyond the range of her influence, they fell back to the level of thought that was the result of their own demonstration, which was not equal to hers. Mrs. Eddy speaks for herself on this point in a letter to Julia Field-King under the date of January 29, 1893. “The spirit of your letter breathed a breath of praise to God that was most cheering to me. You ask to see me for one hour if I think it will be a blessing to you — before you return to the West. I cannot answer this question satisfactorily to myself, and, therefore, dare not answer it to you. But this I will say. If you are sure that you will go, and when you are ready to start, will drop me a line, I will endeavor to see you. In Christian Science my rules are, or, rather, God's, are written ineffaceably in my books and when I advise a student I do it most conscientiously; therefore, if these rules are not heeded and my advice is not followed, then the good I may do by an interview is problematic for it can only be my atmosphere instead of their understanding that does it and when this fades, like borrowed plumes, the effect is gone. Precious child, I long to see you reflecting the true image, saved from the flesh and made perfect even as the Father. But what a distance seems to lie between this consummation for us all, and the present proof of this grand fact. I wait on God and pray and watch and struggle and rejoice for you all. God bless you.”

The early students knew how to demonstrate, but they did not always protect their demonstration from animal magnetism, so that it would not be reversed, or produce the opposite of what was intended. One may know how to bowl on the green, but if he does not know that he must rake away the obstructions or smooth the rough worm casts, how can the ball roll unerringly? What good is perfect skill that is deflected by that which interferes? Surely a knowledge of how to prepare the ground is a step in advance of the understanding of how to roll a ball straight, since the latter cannot operate successfully without the former. Similarly, a knowledge of how to deal with animal magnetism, which is the only deterrent to the unerring and successful operation of Truth, is essential to the demonstrating Christian Scientist.

Miss Julia Bartlett was one of Mrs. Eddy's early and staunch students, one who had denounced Mrs. Woodbury. Yet she became the instrument in giving her a call to the pulpit. Mrs. Eddy states that it was hypnotism that brought this about. She does not blame Miss Bartlett for what she did, but for her failure to apply what she had learned from her, namely, that through hypnotism evil may seem good, wrong may seem right, and the most unsuitable person conceivable may seem to be the right person. The choicest of Mrs. Eddy's discoveries had been shared with Miss Bartlett, so she had a right to be indignant that the latter did not do a better job in handling hypnotism.

Mrs. Eddy hammered away at the importance of handling animal magnetism, even though the laborers who listened and were wise, were few. She called it hypnotism because everybody knows that that term signifies man being robbed of his own individual thinking, so that he thinks as the operator instructs him to, which is dissimilar to right thinking.

First, the victim is put into a lethargic state of sleepiness, so soothed that he can easily put himself to sleep. But the operator impresses himself upon thought, so that when the victim does go to sleep, the operator seems to be with him in sleep; but because the operator himself is not asleep, he is able to rob him of his mind. If the operator was in his dream merely as an imaginary person, he would have no such power. But if he can project himself into his dream, while he, as the operator, stays awake, then he has the victim in his power. He goes along with him into his dream, and yet he is outside and awake, in full control of his senses, and he is able to handle the mind of the one asleep.

Thus, by speaking of it as hypnotism, Mrs. Eddy describes how animal magnetism works on the students, and implies that the effect of that work is to possess their thinking, so that they will act the way the adversary wants them to, by first putting them into this lethargic indifferent state of mind.

But it was a shock to Mrs. Eddy to see how little impression her admonitions and teachings in this regard made on the students. When she would use one method to rouse them, — one illustration, — animal magnetism would soon darken thought in regard to it. So, she would select another, thus always striving to keep ahead of the devil.

When the thought of her students became lethargic, she would use Kennedy and Arens, Woodbury and Spofford, as illustrations of the action of the enemy. When these failed as thought awakeners, she used theosophy, spiritualism, etc., all down through a long list that finally ended with Roman Catholicism, and there she left it. The term Roman Catholicism covers the human mind operating through domination and fear. It is the human mind, but in its most active and detrimental form, less personal than hypnotism, accomplishing its purpose by organization and universal consent. So, she went from personal illustrations of the operation of hypnotism, to a more universal claim, to illustrate for all time the baneful effect of animal magnetism.

The letter in question is a beautiful one. Yet Mrs. Eddy is troubled over the unwillingness of students to acknowledge and perceive the need of acting according to her instructions. When she criticizes Miss Bartlett, she is criticizing Mr. Johnson, but doing it by the indirect method, of which she was so fond. The indirect method avoids chemicalization. If someone should point a stick at you, you would dodge. But if one gave you a warning as if it was intended for another, you would listen without dodging, and you might see the importance of its application to yourself.

Mrs. Eddy wrote this letter in tears, because she saw how much longer it was going to take than she had hoped to establish the Cause on a basis that could not be torn down. There is no doubt but what she was tempted to consider the dark side of the human picture, her human age, her years of poor health, her own experiences as a lone, frail woman. And she must have realized what a task she had before her, to build up this great organization, as well as to train those who could carry it on in the way she built it up. The outlook was not very bright. She was confronted by the inability of students to understand her teachings in regard to animal magnetism, and to follow them as they should.

Of course, we can read this letter today without partaking of Mrs. Eddy's anxiety, because then she had no certain evidence that she would finish what God would have her to do. But we know she did, and that is why she was a success. It is not so much a question of her personal demonstration, because she did not take much time for that. She sacrificed working for her own spiritual growth and demonstration at every point, when necessary, for the Cause. Therefore, because she finished the work God gave her to do in establishing the Cause, she should be praised, and little said about the fact that if she had given more time to her own personal needs, she might have done better along that line.

She was never unfaithful, because had she been so, there would be some evidence of it displayed in the weakness of the organization. Had she been negligent in any way, or in thinking of just herself and her own problem, had she allowed herself to neglect any part of it, had she permitted herself to lose her temper or become irritable, — which we know is the surest way of losing God, — the Cause would show it today, because the human mind would have crept into it and would have betrayed it long since. But we know her work was done correctly; she must have taken footsteps that were ordered by the Lord.

Seldom did she complain that her students did not understand her teaching about God. Seldom did she say that the simple explanations that would lead to demonstration had not been absorbed and digested. She said that the one thing that she had failed to do, was to present this subject of animal magnetism in such a way that it could be detected and handled by students. She could not seem to impress upon the students that this mental mosquito called animal magnetism was a carrier of disease germs, so she continually had to handle the disease her students caught from this mental pest. She could not seem to inspire the proper work in this direction. But she writes, “But this shall be done, and they shall be left to their own direction until it is done.”

One thing can be said for our Leader, that when she saw that the students did not understand this business of animal magnetism, she never let herself become discouraged. She kept on ceaselessly. Here, back in 1889, we find her hammering away to awaken thought to a proper appreciation of the error of mesmerism, hypnotism and animal magnetism; yet, thirty years later we find her doing the same thing. She kept up a ceaseless effort to stimulate thought, and she did not confine it to one method. When she found that one way of stimulating thought had become ineffective, she dropped it without apology and took on another.

The fundamental exposure of animal magnetism is simple, but students are prone to think too much or too little of it. The teacher must soften it at times, by emphasizing its unreality, and at others he must cease the declarations of its unreality until he can stimulate a certain constructive fear, so that students will feel that they are fighting for their very lives. But if they fight, they will surely be successful. That is the best attitude of mind to give a student.

Once Mrs. Eddy wrote to a teacher, “Teach your students what animal magnetism is, how it works in themselves and from outside sources on them. These are the points in which my students fail most in teaching, and are the most difficult to teach rightly so as not to frighten but strengthen the students.”

It is helpful at times to tell students that their understanding of truth is like a hot fire, that certainly could never fear a group of men trying to beat it out with icicles. Thus, would fear be destroyed, since the icicles would melt just as fast as they approached the fire.

It often becomes necessary to stimulate students to feel that if they do not fight animal magnetism aggressively, it will overwhelm them; whereas if they do, they will be successful always. It is permissible to state that animal magnetism can never overcome a fighting man; it can only overcome a non-combatant. The explanation of how to handle animal magnetism is never as important as the necessity to awaken thought to its activities and the recognition of its claims, since that is its automatic destroyer.

Mrs. Eddy knew that she did not have to go too carefully into the explanation of the method; that if she could awaken thought to the fact that resistance would win the day and so bring out that resistance, all was well. Such resistance to animal magnetism is absolutely necessary, as well as the recognition of its claims, and the necessity for that mental activity which is the only way to destroy it.

Let us suppose some fearsome river beast was chasing you as you ran along the bank. Then let us suppose you turned around and started for him. Would he not at once turn and go back into the river? The very fact of his recognition of you as an enemy would cause him to turn and run. As long as he thought you were something he could chase, he would chase you. Animal magnetism works in just that way. Never fear it for one moment. Always remember that if you face it with courage, it will flee before you.

The man who is awake to animal magnetism, understanding it aright, is never handled by it. Man is handled by it because of his ignorance and fear of it, two qualities that make him vulnerable. Ignorance causes man to do nothing, and fear causes him to run before it. Both these qualities play into the hands of animal magnetism. ‘“Resist the devil and he will flee from you,” is the motto. The devil cannot stand against resistance.

Once Edward Kimball wrote to Mrs. Eddy that he felt ill and he believed that he would have to leave Boston, since he could not stay there. Under the date of July 3, 1902, she wrote back to him, “Stay in Boston and vicinity always if you please. I know you can master it, the lie, there as well as elsewhere. To run before a lie is to accept its terms. This works like running before the enemy in battle. You will be followed, pursued till you face about, trust in God and stand on Spirit, denying and facing and fighting all claims of matter and mortal mind, both one. I and you have grown to be honored by God with entrance into this department of leavening.”

Mrs. Eddy knew that when she left the students to their own devices, their selection of a pastor might be controlled by the same error that caused the Children of Israel to desire a king when God told them not to, — which would result in disaster. But she also felt that that disaster would be salutary if they learned the lesson it had to teach them, so here she plans it. It is as if she said, “I am going to give you a last chance to demonstrate this and if you do, you will be all right. If you do not do it, you will pay the price of a lack of demonstration; but that will be a salutary thing, opening your eyes to that which perhaps you could not learn in any other way.”

It will always be true of the Christian Science church, that while there will be many students who understand animal magnetism aright, there will always be those coming in, who will chemicalize over the explanation of it. They will find it difficult to believe that it is something that must be handled. They will experience its interference when they use what they know is a right and sufficient understanding of God, and find that it does not work as it should. They will not know why, until they learn that the demonstration of divine Mind does not work successfully, unless the ground is cleared beforehand through the handling of animal magnetism.

The reason why students find it difficult to comprehend the teaching of animal magnetism may be understood from the following illustration: If a fish could decide gradually to become an air-breathing being, before he was ready to leave the water, one might fancy his constructing a transparent diving suit with a hose running to the surface, so that he might have fresh air to breathe. If this suit and hose were wholly invisible, one can imagine that the other fish would fail to understand his great care to protect the hose so that the supply of air would be continuous. The more he came to depend on the air for his life, because he found that going back to water-breathing tended to drown him, the more careful he would be of the hose.

If the water stands for mortal mind, and the air for divine Mind, it is evident that Mrs. Eddy had reached the point where her very life depended on the free and continuous influx of air; so, the necessity for protection was a matter of great importance. From this illustration we learn that, to the advancing student of Christian Science, animal magnetism and the necessity for protection from it relate wholly to one's reflection of divine Mind. Those who know nothing about this reflection scoff at any such teaching as that of Christian Science in regard to animal magnetism. Those who do not know that Mrs. Eddy's very ability to continue her life here, and thus found her Cause, was dependent on the protection of her spiritual thought, will never be able to understand why she made such an ado over animal magnetism. It was not that she was afraid of it, but she found it difficult to convince her students that it was something they must be alert to, especially after she had put forth a revelation from God teaching its nothingness, powerlessness and non-existence.

No doubt there were times when she made a show of being afraid of animal magnetism, in order to arouse her students, as witness the experience of Miss Caroline Foss who became her maid soon after I left Pleasant View. One day during a violent thunderstorm, Mrs. Eddy made a great show of being afraid. She instructed Miss Foss and Mrs. Sargent to put towels over everything in the room that was metal. She herself lay on the bed. The whole performance looked rather foolish to Miss Foss; but who could credit our Leader with really being afraid? Yet knowing the methods she took with students to educate them and quicken them along lines of right thinking, who can say but that she did all this as a means of stimulating them to a right spiritual effort? If she had appeared perfectly serene and fearless, they would have felt no urge to work mentally. But to see the brave Leader they followed apparently in the grip of fear, would make them feel that the whole load of responsibility lay on their shoulders, and they would struggle to bear it and no doubt this was what Mrs. Eddy wanted.

Since the letter in question mentions Mr. Easton as the pastor, it is fitting to close this discussion by quoting a letter Mrs. Eddy wrote to him on March 10, 1893, that is both beautiful and helpful. Part of it may be found in the Christian Science Sentinel for July 6, 1940: “I feel it my duty to state to you the spiritual need of my old church in that city. It is in short a revival, an outpouring of love, of the Spirit that beareth witness. I found it essential, when the pastor of this church, to lead them by my own state of love and spirituality. By fervor in speaking the Word, by tenderness in searching into their needs — and especially by feeling myself and uttering the spirit of Christian Science — together with the letter.

“O, may the God of all grace and peace and joy and love give you wisdom to feed this dear flock and He will if you trust Him and obey Him. These are His only conditions.

“One more candid hint I will throw out on things less sacred but very requisite. Give the mesmerists no points to your disadvantage. The wicked horde of this class in Boston exceeds any other place. Never name (and caution your family also) any belief of sickness in the past or present. No provocative experiences of any kind, unless they are good and true. Have your sermons not at all commonplace, but well chosen, eloquent and adapted to the Boston high culture. To this end you will need much study and contemplation.”




P. O. Address, 385 Commonwealth Avenue

Massachusetts Metaphysical College

571 Columbus Avenue,

Boston, Mass.

July 20, 1889

My Dear Student,

I thank you for keeping still. I have just written Mr. Bailey that I positively decline to give any decision or even an opinion relative to any candidate whom my dear church or committee may propose for pastor, and I have no one to propose of my selecting. I want this to be done utterly independent of me by the Church and then they can satisfy themselves and feel a responsibility in the case which belongs alone to the church and society.

I hope that hypnotism will not go on in the ranks by aspirants for office, nor outside of their own ranks to in any way influence this choice of a pastor.

I have committed my dear flock to God in full faith that He will care for it.

Lovingly your Teacher

M. B. G. Eddy

P.S. I want to thank you for the wise action and faithful performance of your tasks which characterized your part in the final settlement with our offending members of the C.S.A. And I ask that you continue to watch and pray for this Assoc. and our church. Be most careful to accept no members of the C.S.A. who are not vouched for by Christian Scientists whom you know are right and loyal.

Again your faith-filled friend who leaves you all with God.

M. B. G. Eddy


A son who is taken into his father's business, if he is like most boys, will soon feel perfectly capable of running the whole thing — even better than his father, whom he will think an old fogy. But there is one sure way to expose this delusion, and that is for the father to withdraw his advice and let the son take charge of the business and run it for a while, without any interference. The boy must understand in no instance is he to refer a single thing to his father, but be ready to decide all questions for himself. If the boy is incompetent to run the business, although he thinks it is time for his father to retire and turn it over to him, this will surely be the best way to find it out. On the other hand, if this experience proves to the boy his need of his father to stand by to watch, instruct and advise, lest he make mistakes, then he will appreciate that that is part of a necessary training for him that will prove advantageous and successful to the business.

One can deduce from a study of Mrs. Eddy's history, and that of the Cause, that she probably knew at this point that this task of demonstrating the pastor, — which had to be accomplished under fire, — could not be worked out by them, largely because of their meager demonstration of Christian Science outside of healing the sick. It is evident, however, that she felt it necessary for them to find this fact out for themselves. We feel she knew that her students could not demonstrate this important point, because even fifteen or twenty years later we find her allowing the Board of Directors to select candidates for office only occasionally. When they sent in their selections, she vetoed them at once if she sensed a lack of demonstration.

The deduction is that she did not throw the responsibility on the students for demonstrating the pastor for the sole purpose of training them. While she knew they were incapable of doing it, — and would be for a long time, — without her help and guidance, she knew, too, that the suggestion was rife that they could run the church successfully without her, for it had been so expressed several times. Therefore, she deliberately withdrew from this question, because she wanted to permit them to discover how little they could really do in demonstrating the wisdom necessary to handle this situation properly.

If the father was letting his son take hold of the business as part of his training, and not in order to expose to him how little real capability he had, he would instruct him to refer anything to him that he wished to. If he ran up against a snag, the father would be ready to help him out. The way to train him would be to tell him to take the initiative under his own intelligence, while the father stood by as a consultant.

Hence, it is plain that Mrs. Eddy desired to expose to her students their inability to do this thing, and not to train them, for she told them not to come to her at all. It was a fallacy for them to believe that they could step in, and without either adequate human experience or knowledge of demonstration, do the task as she did it. Very carefully she stated that she would have nothing to do with the matter, that she had no one to propose of her selecting, and that she wanted it done independently of her.

There were times when for the sake of training students, she let them try their own wings, but stood back of them lest they fall. In some cases, however, it was necessary for them to find out through their own experience that they were not capable of doing this work. When they found this out, they would be willing to turn the matter over to Mrs. Eddy without any interference or malpractice, and allow her to make the demonstration. Then she would be free from the continuous influence of their deterring belief that they could do it as well if not better than she, if she would only give them a chance.

This letter is also valuable for the next statement she makes, to the effect that there is always a mesmerism which goes out from the people who aspire to any position. Because of this condition, there is always a hypnotism that we have to contend with in the effort to discover God's choice for a position. To be sure, this mesmerism is more or less unconscious on the part of the office-seeker, but it is very definite and distinct to those who have the spiritual sense to detect mental atmospheres.

If one believes that he is thoroughly fitted for a position and wants it — perhaps believes that he ought to have it — he unconsciously exerts a mesmerism. The only stand to take that carries no hypnotic effect and is metaphysical, is to rest in the thought that you are ready to do anything that God calls on you to do, for He will not call on you to do anything of which you are incapable. When it is made plain to you that God has selected you to do a task, you desire to be obedient. But you also must hold the thought that no one can put you into any position that God does not desire you to fill. Such a stand is scientific and carries no mesmerism, but it requires an advanced point of spiritual growth to attain it, or to detect it in another.

An illustration of this hypnotism was seen in the conduct of a young but promising student who desired to be appointed as Committee on Publication for his state. He was an employee in a grocery store managed by his father, but did not like the work. He saw the possibility of the Committee position bringing him a steady income, so that he might leave the work he did not like. His mother was the Second Reader of their church and had the privilege, together with the First Reader, of casting her vote for this appointment. The young man's desire together with his mother's ambition, exerted a mesmerism that could be felt and had to be guarded against.

Finally, Mrs. Eddy warns Mr. Johnson to accept no one into the Christian Scientist Association unless vouched for by one who has the ability to gauge his worthiness. The implication is that it is necessary to handle animal magnetism, and to be awake to the hypnotism of those who want position and membership, as well as to the danger of being influenced erroneously in making such selections.

There are those who feel that it is detrimental to praise deserving people for work they have performed, but a wise man is always ready to appreciate and quick to applaud any work that merits it. A little praise of this kind from our Leader was always a great inducement to further effort. If it was possible to give any praise, she was always ready to give it, even though the wise and faithful performance of tasks fell short of being a demonstration of true metaphysics. Mrs. Eddy saw in the students' efforts, obedience and a prayerful desire to do the right thing, even if they were not yet capable of directing their efforts wholly along lines of scientific metaphysics.

We learn, therefore, that Mrs. Eddy perceived the value of encouraging students all she could and of always applauding good work, — or work that was at least not bad.

In this letter, she states twice that she is leaving the flock to God “in full faith that He will care for it.” She is washing her hands of the whole situation and thus forcing them to work with God, and to be answerable to Him. Mrs. Eddy wanted them to realize what it meant to fail God. They might fail her, and she would do nothing about it; but she wanted them to know that they could not fail God without His doing something about it.

Her final statement does not indicate or express much confidence in what she hoped they might do in the way of demonstration, but she insists that she is their friend who is filled with faith. She was always ready to help and encourage them, and she would always hope and believe that they would do as God would have them do. Yet, the way she closes the letter does not imply a very great confidence or expectancy that they would do it.




P. O. Address, 385 Commonwealth Avenue

Massachusetts Metaphysical College

571 Columbus Ave.,

Boston, Mass.

July 23, 1889

My dear Student:

Your tender parting on paper with your pastor was touching. Yes, I call you all my children and feel a Mother's emotions of joy or grief in your prosperity and adversity.

My only care is this, now, and it would be light if all my students had your foresight and caution. Please notice this word to the wise. If Mr. Joshua Bailey starts another movement of importance and you get knowledge of it let me know before he influences my thought by a report of his own.

Be careful to admit no members into your C.S.A. that are not endorsed by me and I will be careful as possible to know whom I send through my son.

Lovingly yours,

M. B. G. Eddy

(Confidential)


It is a known fact — and Mrs. Eddy knew it — that if you can get a person's ear first, you can always give him a more or less prejudiced report of a situation that will tend to influence him to see it your way. It is possible that at this early date Mrs. Eddy had to make a more definite and conscious demonstration of divine guidance than she did later. The habit of relying on God, however, eventually brought about a reflection of wisdom that was more or less permanent, so it would have been difficult to influence her either by talking or writing. But at the period this letter was written, she realized that she might be influenced and allow Mr. Bailey, for instance, to go ahead in a wrong direction and purpose, in an unwise effort and suggestion; or that she might be so carried away as to the value of the arguments that he presented that she would consent to something that rightly she should rebuke and eschew.

It is evident by this letter that she had learned by this time from Mr. Johnson the nature of the congregation Dr. Smith had been preaching for — her own disloyal students — and she saw what an error it had been for Mr. Bailey to have agitated the proposition of securing Dr. Smith to preach for the Christian Scientists, when it meant taking him away from Luther Marsden's church.

Mrs. Eddy here anticipates this suppositional power of deception by asking Mr. Johnson to give her knowledge of what is going on, before anyone else gets a chance to influence her, so that she may be able to apply a wisdom that is not prejudiced or warped by human influence. This was very wise, because it is true that after a person has had a chance to tell you their side of the question, the other side may not seem as convincing. It sounds merely like a rebuttal of what has been said. The human fact is that the first one to the ear always has the best chance to convince, and the last one the least. And a conviction already created is difficult to move off. Mrs. Eddy admits this as the truth about the lie. Then she endeavors to forestall the possibility of error creeping in in this way, by relying on Mr. Johnson's help.

Finally, we find her seeking to safeguard the Christian Scientist Association against error, by relying on the members, who although they usually stood all right themselves, were more or less subject to the action of mesmerism in admitting unsuitable candidates, because of their ignorance of its presence and influence.

In the previous letter she has already stated that there are two phases of mesmerism that must be dealt with in this connection, the hypnotism coming from those who desire place and power, and the outside influence of human opinions seeking to bring about such an appointment — one that is the result of the human mind's opinion, rather than divine Mind's direction.

Now she seeks to safeguard the situation by having no members elected to the Association not endorsed by her. Mrs. Eddy knew that if those who would betray the Cause were sufficient in number, error might easily stampede the small band of loyal ones. A fact about the human mind is that it is always possible to keep in subjection its aggressive phases with a small group, whereas with a larger one under mob mesmerism, they may burst forth and become unmanageable. The moment the majority of thought gets on the wrong side it becomes difficult to handle. When our Leader returned from Chicago in 1888, she discovered that a small group of dissenters had stampeded the whole church and disrupted it to the extent of stopping services, so that apparently her work had gone for naught.

It was thus that Mrs. Eddy learned to distrust human opinions, and the acts of those who did not understand the necessity for freeing thought from human influence. She knew that this freeing of thought can only be done through the action of divine Mind, and must be accomplished before any endorsement could be made of future candidates for membership in the Association, in order that such endorsements might be trustworthy.




P. O. Address, 385 Commonwealth Avenue

Massachusetts Metaphysical College

571 Columbus Ave.,

Boston, Mass.

July 24, 1889

Dear Student:

Doctor Smith's case has failed because it was not started by our Father. This is history, that everything I have started from His direction has stood. The candidates proposed by me for my aid in pulpit have never been what I wanted but only the best I could do under the circumstances.

If the elements and people brought by Dr. S. had come into our church and been guided by M.A.M. they would again have broken it up. I have kept the flock from being scattered till now. Had I had my time to tend them, we should have had a large church membership.

Now I own your church lot for a meeting house and I want the sums collected for building put into the work at once. You can trust me with the land until you pay for it. I want the first floor above the ground, for my College, and a vestry when needed. Go to building soon as possible.

Again,

M. B. G. Eddy


This letter begins in a helpful way, for one of the errors of mortality is animal magnetism's constant suggestion that the dwelling place of God is an infinite distance away. Mortals speak about God with bated breath and superstitious awe, making it impossible to realize the true and scientific relationship between God and man, where God is something to be brought into experience and demonstrated.

In Christian Science, God is talked about naturally and without a shiver, as if man was talking about a friend. Mrs. Eddy wanted to break down that sense of distance and strangeness, so she states that “Dr. Smith's case failed because it was not started by our Father.” This conveys the thought that our Father is everywhere, and while He differs from our earthly father, He is much more real, and is right at hand. A child could not do much with a father who was always away somewhere. But here she gives the conception of God as right at hand. You can call upon Him, rely upon Him and at any time you can receive His voice and direction, since it is merely the suggestion of separation and inability of communication that makes us feel that He is far away from us.

If you discovered that you were a German who had been stolen away at birth and brought to this country, you might return and meet your father for the first time, and be glad to see him, but you could not talk with him because you did not know his language. He could give you no advice until you learned to speak his language. So, the first and important step we must take in Christian Science is to learn how to communicate with our heavenly Father. Once that is learned, there will be no excuse for not going to Him for everything. To attempt to communicate with Him before one knows how, does not enable one to hear Him, although the habit of striving to, helps one to learn how to do it.

The first thing this letter does is to show that to Mrs. Eddy, God was just as useful, and just as tangible, as would be an earthly father, and that she was conscious that He was always at hand. She could communicate with Him, and hoped that her students had acquired some knowledge of the universal language of Spirit by which they could also communicate with Him. She hoped that they might break down the error of distance and time, those suggestions that make God seem so far off to mortals that they feel that there is not much use in trying to talk with Him until they get to heaven.

The majority of people postpone any active effort to do much of anything about communicating with God, waiting for the time when they think they will be where He is. They feel the hopelessness of dealing with that which is so far off. While they try to keep His mark on their foreheads, willing and desirous, they feel they must wait. Christian Science says that you do not have to wait, and if you are really eager, willing, and desirous, you can mold that into the understanding and realization that heaven is right here, and that there is in reality neither time nor space. One begins to approach God when he realizes that he is with Him now, and that recognition has got to come, or man will always be separated in belief from Him.

Mortals in selecting a candidate for pastor should do one of two things; either search for one with certain external qualities and qualifications, or else look for the perfect man, which can never be found. But in this first paragraph Mrs. Eddy tells us that under demonstration she learned that God does not wait, — divine wisdom does not wait, — for the perfect man to appear, but selects the best one, the most suitable one. She found this out in her long weary years of trying to find someone to train to take her place.

God never pointed to anyone as her successor, permanently, even though she tried her best, and trained many — nay, even told them that the possibility would be theirs — as she told me. No doubt she wondered at times whether it was her inability to get near enough to God to find out who the right one was. But when she went right up to the end of her human experience without having disclosed to her, one who might follow her as a successor, she was forced to recognize that God did not intend that anyone should fill her position.

Mrs. Eddy's destiny, to have no successor, was similar to the experience of the Children of Israel, when God told them the time had come for them to function without a king. Everyone should have stood up and measured up to this demonstration, but they did not. They insisted upon a king. So, God selected Saul, which should forever end the belief that, when God selects one for a position, he must be perfect. Saul was not perfect, but he was the best that could be found at the time, and if at the end he betrayed his people through witchcraft, perhaps even at that he did better than anybody else might have done. Hence, it was not any lack of wisdom that selected him, since he was undoubtedly the best under the circumstances.

Is it reasonable to believe that Saul was selected to lead the Children of Israel to great success; for in having a king they were disobeying God, since He had said the time had come for them to make a demonstration of individual guidance? This demand still has metaphysical significance and value to the Christian Scientist. At first the Cause had an individual Leader in Mrs. Eddy. After she passed on, she left us the Pastor Emeritus which was more impersonal; also, Science and Health, which was still more impersonal. Yet in the advancing footsteps of growth man must finally become his own king and priest, and lean directly on God for all guidance and all wisdom.

The question might have arisen in the minds of the church members, who were permitted to read this letter to Mr. Johnson, how Mrs. Eddy knew that if the elements and people brought in by Dr. Smith had come into the church and been guided by M.A.M. they would have again broken it up. It almost sounds like a doctor saying about some case that a practitioner failed to heal, “I could have healed that case if it had come to me.” How does the doctor know?

It must be realized that the temptation of the church was to aggrandize Mrs. Eddy because she took steps that were ordered by God. He instructed her and the results were so eminently satisfactory that they were willing to follow her. But it was difficult to see that Truth also instructed and directed her in relation to animal magnetism, the understanding of it and its effects, just as definitely and clearly as it directed her in founding the Cause and building the church. To those who do not understand how revelation works, it does not sound rational that those who receive revelation should know how evil works, since all evil is unreal. They look upon God as knowing nothing about evil, and therefore do not see how revelation can include an understanding of that which is unknown to God.

Electricity does not need to know about the machines that it runs. The inventor constructs the machines and when the power is connected, it flows in and does the work as he planned it. So, if one perceives the necessity for understanding the operation of evil, then if he reflects divine Mind, it enters into that mold and enlarges his capacity in that direction, giving him the ability unerringly to understand evil.

God knows nothing about evil, but furnishes that which, when it motivates man's desire, brings forth the object of that desire. That is why man has to demonstrate divine Mind, for divine Mind furnishes everything but the problem. Man must furnish the problem; then he must recognize the problem in the human need, and in the way that divine Mind will meet it.

An important part of all revelation is the empty vessels which man must provide. When man has a definite and recognized need within himself, Truth takes care of it; but when he has not, it is impossible to bring divine Mind into active operation. Therefore, in order to keep the flow of infinite Mind operating, man must go out and bring in the poor, the halt, the lame and the blind, to his feast. That is the only way there can be a feast. When the people came who had no need, there was no feast. So, they had to go and get the empty vessels, the poor, the lame, the halt, etc., and then the Bible records that they had a feast. This proves that you can never have a feast unless you have the need — the hunger. When the hungry come, that provides the perfect set-up for the divine Mind to flow in and bless the world. Any practitioner knows that he cannot effectually treat a man who has no recognition of any need. But when a man is sick, it is disclosed to him that he has a need, and because he cannot meet it humanly, he comes to Christian Science and in turn Christian Science is able to meet it.

Jesus could not do many mighty works in his own city because of the mental state in the people called unbelief and hardness of heart. They did not want what he had to give. They did not consider that he could do anything for them. They presented no empty vessels. When Jesus talked to the five thousand, he took them into a desert place and preached to them long beyond their supper time. Thus, he created a need, which provided him with the means of making the demonstration of feeding them. One might believe that Jesus had a power of reproduction, that was such that he could start a store and sell fish and bread ad infinitum. Jesus, by talking so long and arousing their material hunger, fulfilled an important sector of the demonstration, an important member of the triad of demonstration, which was the need.

It is sometimes possible to take a patient you cannot heal, because they have no recognition of their need as being a spiritual one, and work with them until they recognize what it is. The tenor of Jesus' teaching was to make man recognize his need of what he lacked. Then he could supply it.

So, the explanation of what Mrs. Eddy wrote in this letter is that when there is a need in man of understanding the operation of evil, Truth will unfold it. There are students who go along with no understanding of animal magnetism, although they might seem quite spiritually-minded. That is because they have not been trained to believe that the understanding of the operation of evil is a necessary preliminary to the correct functioning of Truth. So, they work along, and the Truth does not reveal to them what they do not recognize as a need. This explains why the old prophets never knew the scientific process by which the world could have attained and demonstrated what they did. They had no sense of the need of attaining it. But Mrs. Eddy was so imbued from the beginning with the recognition of the need of the world for a knowledge of the way, that she provided an empty vessel that Truth filled in this way.

We must realize that, because Mrs. Eddy was so convinced of the need of providing the world with a comprehensive and complete explanation and demonstration of the way out of mortality, there was nothing omitted from her revelation, either on the side of an understanding of good or a knowledge of evil.

She could foresee the results of God's footsteps taken obediently. Therefore, she could declare what she did about Dr. Smith and his “elements and people,” provided they were governed by M.A.M. No doubt they were, although she did not want to come right out and say so. But she knew it, since William B. Johnson had brought to her the information that she did not have, namely, that Dr. Smith was preaching to a congregation which had among its number some of Mrs. Eddy's disloyal students. She states that if they yielded to animal magnetism, the presence of a large number of people coming in that way, would divide and scatter the flock, especially if some who came in were her own disloyal students.

One might wonder why Mrs. Eddy could not have protected them, but she had all she could do without working all the time to protect the congregation from animal magnetism. Her feeding of the flock was limited, and that in itself was a reason why there were not a larger number attending at this time, since it is a divine rule that the demonstration of feeding must keep pace with the number fed. When the mental work in any branch church diminishes, the congregation begins either to thin out or to increase with undesirables. The same is true in the diminishing sale of the periodicals, and no high-powered salesmanship methods can ever take the place of mental work.

When a few years ago the number of members who withdrew from The Mother Church totaled over a thousand a year, it was evident that they were not protected as they should have been. Had they been protected, many would not have withdrawn. So, Mrs. Eddy says that she has kept the flock from being scattered until now. And if she had had the time to tend them, she would have had a large church membership. But without adequate protection, only the few and faithful, those so spiritually imbued that they did not allow error to touch them, could stay. They made up the small congregation.

There are some who might say of those who left, “If they are as easily handled as that, they had better not stay.” But we are all easily handled, and if we did not have some loving thought to warn and correct us, we do not know what might happen. We are all handled and all need help. So, we must be willing to give it. There is no necessity for any church losing members, since anyone who has once perceived the wonder and effectiveness of its teaching, cannot give it up. Where can they go? Can they go back to old theology? Can an oak tree go back to an acorn? So, these young members leave solely because they are not protected from animal magnetism in their vulnerable period; and they must be protected.

The common green crab would soon be extinct but for the fact that a hard-shelled brother is available to tend to a soft-shelled one whenever the need arises. Whenever one is ready to shed his shell, a volunteer comes along to stand guard during the process. What a lesson in unselfish protection! There is no room for selfishness in crab life. Should Christian Scientists be found unwilling to do for each other what the crab is willing to do for his brother?

Of historical interest in this connection are the following letters, one written at Mrs. Eddy's request by the Business Committee to Dr. Smith and the second by Mr. Johnson to his church:


Boston, Mass., July 22, 1889

Rev. Charles Macomber Smith, D.D.

The Business Committee of the Church of Christ (Scientist) deem it advisable to say nothing further on the matter of calling you to the Pastorate of this Church. We felt that we owed you this statement that you might know our position. Thanking you for your kind and courteous attention, we are yours in love and respect.

(Signed)

Julia S. Bartlett

Wm. B. Johnson

J. S. Eastaman

Boston, Mass., July 24, 1889

To the Church of Divine Unity:

The Church of Christ (Scientist) has decided not to call Dr. C. M. Smith to become their Pastor, but to look elsewhere for a supply.

No such action was conceived or recommended by Mrs. Eddy. When the question of calling him was first named to Mrs. Eddy, by a member of her Church nearly six months ago, she refused three times to listen to the suggestion, and has never been heartily in favor of such action, not for lack of respect for Dr. Smith but because she did not think it right to interfere with the Pastor of another Church.

Yours sincerely,

Wm. B. Johnson,

Clerk of Church of Christ (Scientist)


In the next paragraph of Mrs. Eddy's letter we learn that the church represented to her both a place of worship and a school. Her original concept was to combine the two in one. There have been students who have advocated turning all Christian Science churches into schools. Such have not grasped the importance of the union of those two concepts: that since all true knowledge comes from God, our religious worship is the practical demonstration of Christian Science that opens the door to God in the service. Then the wisdom that flows in turns the church into a schoolhouse. Mrs. Eddy declares that we must teach by healing and heal by teaching. So, the church service consists of readings from the Bible and from Science and Health. The latter is intended to have a practical and scientific value in educating thought along lines of the possibility and method of the use of divine Mind.

The Wednesday evening meeting is intended to show that the church is taking advantage of what it has been taught; but it is confined to the special form of application that is largely for the benefit of the world. Then we have the business meeting that is for the benefit of the members. That is the point where the church becomes the schoolhouse in the strict sense of the word, because the business of the church is recognized as the problem given the school to solve according to metaphysics, which means the recognition that everything is an opportunity for demonstration, everything material must be turned into a channel for the spiritual. Mind must be proved to be all causation. So, when the business meeting convenes, the school is in session, where the members may be taught in matters that are not brought before the public. The specialized form of healing that is set forth in the Wednesday evening meetings is intended to interest the public in Christian Science so that they will join the church. Then when they become members, they can be given the higher teaching that should be brought out in the business meetings.

Sometimes attendants at the services do not join the church because they realize that membership would only mean the right to attend the business meetings, and have a vote in the running of the church; this seems to them like a questionable privilege. In reality it is a priceless privilege, because there students are taught things that the public are not taught, which is the method and opportunity to use the demonstration of Christian Science in all phases of human experience. The business meetings offer an opportunity for higher teaching that is not obtained in any other way. The greatest advance in understanding can be gained from them if they are conducted from a right standpoint. If they are utilized as they should be, to encourage and further knowledge and application of the demonstration of Christian Science, they will bring an increase of spirituality and growth, and a preparation for the higher work that God has for us when we are ready. Under such a right thought, members would not even consider missing a single business meeting. So, the real demonstration of fulfilling what Mrs. Eddy foresaw in this letter, is to turn the church into a school when it comes to the business meeting.

Mrs. Eddy's statement, “You can trust me with the land until you pay for it,” sounds very strange, because who would ever believe that anyone would doubt her integrity to a point where he would feel that, unless she was put under the restraint of the law, the church might lose the land, because she would refuse to turn it over? But she knew the possibilities and the extent of mesmerism. She saw it break up families where there was not the slightest rift between husband and wife, but the most devoted affection. Few of the students could possibly perceive that their faith in Mrs. Eddy's integrity could ever be so shaken, that they might believe it possible for her to play them false.

But to one under the influence of animal magnetism, black can seem white, and white, black. Mrs. Eddy realized this and made a statement in this letter backed up by her demonstrating thought to anticipate the possibility of anyone questioning the situation. What she wrote was practically a signed agreement that was legally sound. She did not do the thing she did not want to do, or allow them to require it of her, that is, to pledge herself to something that divine wisdom might not guide her to do at the time. She forced upon them a signed agreement which would hold in any court of law — yet without their realizing it. And in giving this assurance that they could trust her, she was counteracting error. She did not make this statement idly, or to whip them into line; but the wise man would listen and be warned by the fact that she was looking ahead and seeing the error, and so warning them of it. Students who were permitted to read this letter to Mr. Johnson should have realized at once that they had something on hand to handle, lest they fall into the error of doubting the integrity of Mrs. Eddy, or feel that the error could make them believe in any way that she was playing them false, or ever could do so.

The same can be said of her previous statement, “Had I had my time to tend them, we should have had a large church membership.” This statement acknowledges that error was active, and without her protective thought they would not have had any membership at all; and the membership at that time was only in proportion to what she had time for in the way of demonstration to give to the church. Of course, she could not give the time to meeting every phase of error that confronted every individual, but she was anticipating an attack upon her integrity by animal magnetism, so that the error would never come to a head.

Today it is a matter of history, how susceptible those early Christian Scientists were to animal magnetism, how little they knew about its operation, how she had to carry practically the whole burden of protection, because they had not awakened to the importance of that work. Today we still need to watch, because the tendency of thought is to shy away from animal magnetism, thinking that life should reach a place where everything is so harmonious and safe that we do not have to handle error.

This point was exemplified by Miss Lucia C. Warren, Secretary of the Board of Directors, who stated in 1935, in answer to our query, that the Board had practically nothing to meet from animal magnetism. Her tragic and accidental death within the year was an indication of the blindness of the field to error. If the Board of Directors ever reach a place where they have nothing to meet from animal magnetism, it will either be because they themselves are working in the human mind to such an extent that there is nothing in the human mind to oppose them, or else they have triumphed far beyond what our Leader did, in meeting the raging elements of hatred, malice, envy, and lust as belief.

It is a rule in Christian Science that, while animal magnetism is nothing, one is in danger from it until he has made nothing of it. To declare that it is nothing does not fill the demand. He must prove it. It becomes harmless only as one makes nothing of it. Unless one applies this scientific remedy, it is an error that one should fear.

The Bible implies that those who are not for us, are against us. The human mind constitutes all animal magnetism, and if one is working with the human mind, it is not against him, but for him. It is fallacious and deceptive for any working Christian Scientist to believe that either he himself, or the Cause at large, will in this sense of things reach a place where opposition has been stilled. In Science and Health on page 97, Mrs. Eddy states that “the higher Truth lifts her voice, the louder will error scream….” Surely growth must mean lifting one's voice higher and higher in the strength of Truth. Hence, we must believe that the proof of the sincerity and spirituality of the members of the Christian Science Church and the fact that their demonstration is improving spiritually, must be in having more to meet, yet at the same time, in having more to meet it with. It is an inconceivable proposition that this destroyer of mortal mind should find, or make, mortal mind agreeable to it. Either mortal mind must recognize that the thing it has feared is fast disappearing from Mrs. Eddy's Cause, namely, the active spiritual demonstration of Truth against mortal mind, so that it has quieted down in its active resistance, or else it is feeling a more powerful consolidation of spiritual thought and as a result is lifting its voice higher in active protest.

It is inconceivable for any student who has been taught aright, to believe that as Truth goes higher and makes a more successful and vigorous demonstration against the powers of darkness, error will make no corresponding resistance, when its whole suppositional existence consists in self-preservation and self-perpetuation. In the above statement Mrs. Eddy does not say that error becomes more powerful, as Truth lifts her voice higher. She merely says that it screams louder. One immediately thinks of an animal that does not make much noise when you fight it, until you start to choke it. Then it begins to really make a noise as its last stand against its destroyer. So, we do not believe that animal magnetism increases in power; but it comes out from where it is hiding — the devil is unchained as the Bible prophesies, and comes out into the open where it can be destroyed. Thus, animal magnetism is error on the way out.

Evil as an inoperative latent belief cannot be destroyed. It has to be unchained before it can be handled, just as venomous snakes hidden underground for the winter cannot be destroyed until the warmth of the sun in the spring causes them to come out. They are no more dangerous when they come out, than they were in their holes. Similarly, Truth brings error out of hiding. But it is no more real, no more vicious, when it is out where you can see it. In fact, it is less dangerous, because one knows what he is up against. But it is a weird supposition to believe that at the present time students have been so successful in breaking up the claim of animal magnetism, that they no longer have to consider it much. Let them look at the condition of the country and the world. Let them look at the animal magnetism that has been stirred up in these days. Let them look at Germany, Italy, Russia and Japan, and then say that the forces of evil in the form of mass mesmerism and human will domination, greed, hatred are not on the run. Surely it is possible to learn from its outward manifestation, the inward and subtle opposition of animal magnetism toward the Truth.

As long as there remains one belief of life and reality in the human mind, or animal magnetism, it will adhere to its determined purpose to destroy God and all of His ideas, and it will continue to strive to do so until it is destroyed. There is nothing God can do to stop this opposition from being manifested; hence, there is nothing His ideas can do in that direction. The carnal mind is at war with divine Mind and this warfare must express itself, and can only end with the elimination of error. On page 96 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy writes, “These disturbances will continue until the end of error....” The Bible says, “…only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.”

There is only one antidote for animal magnetism, and that is its destruction by reducing it to nothing. And the evidence on every hand is that it has not yet been destroyed in this way. But it is always a cross to the Christian with a gentle thought in his desire to elevate his thinking and to commune with God, to make this sortie into the realm of evil in order to destroy it; and so, he dislikes to make it. But it must be made. Even our Leader states that she shrank from doing it.

In the early days there were many students who chemicalized over the Lesson-Sermon on animal magnetism and hypnotism, yet it is a lesson that must be given to the people whether they like it or not. Since Mrs. Eddy states on page 210 of Miscellaneous Writings that “error, when found out, is two-thirds destroyed, and the remaining third kills itself,” we can assume that two-thirds of our effort in Christian Science must represent our demonstration over error, and the other one third the endeavor to elevate our thinking. The Master states that it needs be that offences come. So, it needs be that we have a service that uncovers error, and it should never be softened down until it becomes agreeable to those who chemicalize over a dissertation on animal magnetism.

If you live in a country where there are wolves, your son must learn to shoot, and when he has mastered the art, he must go out and hunt wolves, whether he likes it or not. It may not be an agreeable task to hunt the pests that destroy your sheep, and which if not cleaned out will prevent sheep raising. Perhaps the boy would prefer to go out and hunt birds or deer. But the worthless wolves must be destroyed, and whether he likes the task or not, he must do it until the wolves are destroyed.




Concord, N. H.

October 9, 1889

Dear Student:

Your letter astounds me. I do not own the land for a church site but have put it into honest hands for you to redeem. I shall never pay another dollar to be squandered by my students or to maintain, or support an organized church. This conclusion is God-guided. If you will allow the lot on Falmouth St. to be sold you shall have the money you have put into it refunded to you. I have saved it for you, but the church has never recognized my services.

Yours as ever in Truth and Love,

Mary B. G. Eddy

N. B. Answer in twenty-four hours after this is received or I shall recall this offer, sell the land myself and pay you the balance after taking out the money I have paid in to save yours.

N. B. My earnest advice to you is to never attempt building a church. If you do you will fail and again lose your money. Animal magnetism will sway you again and demoralize your ranks. You are not strong enough in God to stand.

M. B. G. Eddy


Future history shows that the students did build The First Church of Christ, Scientist, The Mother Church, but they never could have done it if their faithful Leader had not thoroughly roused them to their own weaknesses and challenged them, as she did in this letter. Loyal students loved their Leader and always felt that they wanted to make good on whatever she put up to them, to prove to her that they were at least as good Christian Scientists as she hoped they were. When she asked them to do something, they put a lot more effort into doing it, than they would if anyone else on earth had asked them.

Jesus gave the parable of the man who cast the devil out of his house. The devil returned, and, finding it swept and garnished, brought some friends and took possession once more. The deduction is that if the man had filled his clean house with truth, the devil would not have been able to return.

If one considers this letter as Mrs. Eddy's act of cleaning house for her students, rebuking and challenging them with vigor, so that they would cast the devil out, then we know one reason why, after this, she wrote her magnificent article called “Material Church Activity.” It was in order to fill their thoughts with good, so that the devil would have no chance to return. The article covers all the needs of the students, and will stand for all time as setting forth the basis on which The Mother Church was built.

The body of the article will be printed in italics to enable the reader to distinguish between it and the interpolations:


Are you a Christian Scientist? Oh, yes. Let us examine. Do you believe in the existence of mortal mind or a mind disintegrated from the one Mind, God, and its conceptions of law, justice, mercy, and Truth as valid and important to your own well-being and the welfare of the race and the methods of immortal Mind as opposed to the methods of mortal mind? Oh, no. Let us examine.


Here is as excellent a description of mortal mind as could be given. Mrs. Eddy declares that it is not made out of material that does not exist, but that it is a limited sense of God and His creation. It is made of fragments that have broken away from the original.


Do you exercise more faith in God's feeding you, clothing you or making you a place in the world such as you desire?


Here Mrs. Eddy sets forth the spiritual ideal, showing that we should look forward to being fed and clothed spiritually. Our clothes should not wear out, and our food should not produce distress of any kind. She wanted to awaken the students to the importance of making the demonstration that God feeds and clothes man.


Have you any more faith in God peopling the universe with man and giving you the objects of your affection than you ever had before?


It is essential in Christian Science to bear in mind that God peoples the world, and that people do not people it. God is the Father and the Mother, and it is only the claim of mesmerism that causes mortals to lose sight of this important fact.


Have you any more faith in obtaining money to build a church, in maintaining your means and God's power to hold this money secure to the ends whereof it is obtained? Have you any more faith in sustaining His church without organization and personal combinations in thought and effort, ways and means, to maintain this church in spiritual organization and through thought consecrated to good, to Love, and to the might and supremacy of Mind to do all things in order? Oh, yes. Let us examine.


It is plain that the letter in question and this article, represent Mrs. Eddy preparing the way for The Mother Church to be built. In preparing a garden one digs up the soil, since there may be stones, roots, and weeds that will prevent the good seed from propagating. The letter represents Mrs. Eddy digging down deep into their thought to extract the weed seeds, and to turn it over as a plough does the soil, so that the dark places may be brought into the light. Then she writes this inspiring article, which represents planting the good seed.

Mrs. Eddy never left a situation in a negative state, admonishing and rebuking, and then failing to provide the antidote. In the parable of the Master referred to above, the ploughing, weeding and preparation of the ground was accomplished, but there were no good seeds planted. The result was that the devil returned and planted his evil seeds again. Mrs. Eddy did the scientific thing in first admonishing and calling attention to the error, as she does in this letter, so that it might be cast out. Then she gave the members this article, which provided the good seed.


If you really do believe there is no mortal or erring mind, then as a rational being you would suppress the manifestation of this falsity; you would hold in abeyance its sensation, emotion, volition; you would say to its every impulse, “Get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of man,” that are of mortal mind and proceed not from immortal Truth and Love.

If this is not your mental attitude relative to this question and its answer, then you do believe in another mind other than God, believe in its actuality, necessity, rights and modes of action. Believing thus, you will cater to the law of mortal mind, its civil, social and religious codes of law; you will adhere to these and you will have one master, for you cannot have two masters; you will search the occasion for these laws; you will insist that they shall be adhered to and demand this adherence from others; you will piously believe and declare that this is rendering to Caesar the things that are his — and so it is.

The Christian Scientist has one Master, even Christ, Truth, the unerring Mind and spiritual Ruler of the universe. This Mind so governs his affections, faith and allegiance that he reflects Christ, and this gives him dominion over the earth. This dominion is through Mind, not matter. It is the true sense of things and not the false — the abiding sense of supply, safety, and success, even the justice, mercy, and faith that is the substance of all he hopes for and can attain.


In the letter in question Mrs. Eddy puts a great problem before the members from a human standpoint, which was to allow the lot on Falmouth St. to be sold, and to do it in twenty-four hours. It was her habit, however, to drive students to demonstration by setting a time limit. In this article she sets forth the correct demonstration, by telling them that the money that they need is in Mind, and so the demonstration of Mind will result in money.


This Scientist becomes a ruler over all things, for God, good, has made him this. He has no more occasion to doubt the result of his position, for he is working out the purposes of God, good, in the way of His appointing, than he has reason for disputing the supremacy of right and the helplessness of wrong, or to doubt the superior efficacy of Truth over error in healing the sick — the superior power of Mind over inanimate drugs, unintelligent hygienic laws and faith in matter being superior to faith in God. He is benefiting himself and the world almost involuntarily. This moral power is as superior for success in business as in healing the sick, destroying disease, its cause and effect, antecedent and subsequent. Which do you prefer for your master, a smart man or a smart God?

If you spiritually take less thought of what appetite craves or desires, about what you eat or drink, then you will drink water instead of coffee, tea or stimulants, and save much expense in cooking and groceries. Your clothing will abide instead of pass away. Your thought will so replenish yourself with wearing apparel that your clothing will be like the widow's oil, rather than the fashionable ladies' wardrobe from Parisian models and much time saved for usefulness instead of being expended on shopping, selecting and fitting garments.

You will desire that place in society and the world which removes you furthest from them. The fate of ambition is its snare, its only rationality is madness. We should yearn and aspire to rise above the world, its sorrows or its favors, with as great earnestness as to triumph over sickness, sin and death, for worldly ambition leads in the paths of these conditions which are forbidden and forsaken in Christian Science. Man is not more nor less. Men and women have never multiplied. There was never a birth nor a death of man, since man is the idea inseparable from his divine Principle which exists and coexists with God. Our only Father and Mother is God — therefore, the offspring of the flesh, born of a woman, is no more real, scientific or eternal, than a tumor, which the Christian Scientist labors to destroy and so heal the sick.

What should be the objects of the Scientist's affections, the things of sense or those of Soul? Certainly the latter. His affections will not cleave to corporeal personality which is error. He will not fall in love with error but fall out with it and depart from it and cleave to good, Truth, the impersonal good. The objects of his affections are spiritual, not material; his modes of action, success and happiness are removed from the shallows of matter into the grooves of God.

The currency of government which furnishes you the means of building a church, is faith in God, obedience to God and the understanding of God. This established circulation in thought is as superior to monetary means to obtain success in church formations and the building of church edifices as these qualities of Mind are superior to drugging and drilling for health, and as Christ is beyond catnip.


Here Mrs. Eddy sets forth the scientific process by which the students might get the land for The Mother Church and be assured of their ability to hold it. She knew that the demonstration would eventually be made. But before it could be done, they had to be roused to see the inability of the human mind to compass the problem. Students might well profit by this lesson today. Mrs. Eddy never hesitated to belittle the human mind. Where it expresses a certain wisdom that is looked upon as desirable, we are apt to stand up for it; but Mrs. Eddy was never afraid to debunk the human mind. Even among her most humanly prominent students, those who had made names for themselves in mortal mind, she was never afraid to belittle the so-called human mind. She knew that even its best phases have got to be put off, before one can contact and employ divine Mind, which is the only real Mind, and whose value and success is so far beyond anything that the trained human mind can accomplish, that they are not to be mentioned in the same category.

Was our Leader sincere when she declared that she would “never pay another dollar to…support an organized church”? There is sufficient evidence to prove that she was convinced that her church should have no organization. She foresaw the undesirable and human effects of organization. Whereas it may be of great help in the beginning, later it tends to slow up spiritual progress and cause the human mind to be substituted for the divine. It is like using the argument in healing. Mrs. Eddy saw the need of students using the argument in order to gain the Spirit, but she encouraged students to anticipate the time when they would heal by the Spirit alone, and would not need the argument.

When one continues to use the organization year after year without holding in thought the time when he can dispense with it, as our Leader states on pages 145 and 359 of Miscellaneous Writings and page 45 of No and Yes, he is like a practitioner who never expects to heal by the Spirit. He believes that his arguments are effective and can be used, no matter what his mental state is. It is a fact that in Christian Science arguments are worth nothing if they do not produce a state where thought is in tune with Truth and Love. Organization is worth nothing if it does not produce the spirituality it is designed to produce.

When human organization flourishes to a too great degree, the importance of individual spiritualization is kept well out of sight. Under such conditions the human mind will be found to be in the saddle, and any attempt to rule it out, so that the law of God, or demonstration, may hold sway, will be resisted. Mrs. Eddy knew that in taking on the outward form, she was taking on an error that must be handled and kept in its proper place.

When you plant pole beans, you do not want the poles to grow. You merely want them to remain as supports for the vine, as it grows and bears fruit. It would be contrary to your purpose, if the poles took root, and the nourishment intended to enlarge the bean plants should cause the poles to grow larger.

Another illustration is a grape vine. Each spring much wood must be cut away, if one wants a good crop of grapes. The organization must be trimmed and pruned, if one wants the true fruitage of Christian Science to express itself. It requires constant watchfulness lest that upon which spirituality is supposed to get a foothold, increases in size and tends to crush out the spirituality. Students need to be rebuked, who become so obsessed with the subject of organization, that they only look for and work for its growth, and so lose sight of the real object in Christian Science.

Mrs. Eddy, however, did finally found an organized church. Then why did she write such a statement against organization to her students in 1889? She was making a vigorous declaration in order to educate her students as to the unscientific nature of human organization, and as to the possibility of its becoming a definite millstone around the neck of a spiritual sense of church. Having gone on record with this fact, she turned around and permitted an organization, but only as one yields to a human necessity as a “suffer it to be so now.” The students were not far enough advanced to carry on without a human organization, nor will the time ever come when young students can do so. It would take more demonstration than young students are capable of making in order for them to carry on without organization.

The human mind might believe that this letter in question was written in the heat of criticism on Mrs. Eddy's part, and so what she said about an organized church was not to be taken seriously. Yet how about the article “Material Church Activity,” that soon followed that emphasizes exactly the same point? In that she still insists that the church should have a spiritual rather than a material organization. We know, therefore, that in this letter Mrs. Eddy made no snap judgment which later under demonstration she retracted. Her first statement and stand has a metaphysical significance that we must strive to perceive. She was conveying the fact that no matter whether it seems necessary to have a human organization, the higher demand of God is not to have it.

If we are to criticize Mrs. Eddy for her first statement, as if it were out of keeping with her later efforts, then we must criticize God who declared that the children of Israel should not have a king, and then provided them with one. Such apparent inconsistencies merely represent wisdom adapted for man's present limitations and growth. To the beginner in Science certain things are permissible and right, which are not right for the advanced student. Mrs. Eddy had a right to found an organization that would always stand and would always be necessary, as long as one mortal remained on earth, and yet to point thought to the time when human organization would not be necessary.

When our Leader writes a letter which includes a statement, “This conclusion is God-guided,” it is well for her students to heed it. It shows that she did not arrive at it by any process of human reasoning, but that it came to her by revelation, exactly as Science and Health did. She was most careful when she declared that a statement came from God.

When she wrote that her services were not recognized by the church, I am reminded of my sisters. When I was a boy they were so unselfish and self-effacing, I came to believe that they were that way naturally, and enjoyed being that way. Therefore, I failed to recognize and appreciate the self-sacrifice and unselfishness which they sought to express. I had to grow older before I gave them the credit which was due them.

Members were apt to believe that the church belonged to Mrs. Eddy; so why should she not sacrifice for it and put every dollar she had into it? It was her pet, her baby, in which she found her greatest satisfaction. So, they were apt to take her nameless sacrifices as a matter of course! For the good of the students she wanted that attitude to be corrected, so that they might realize that it was God's Cause, that she was working for God as well as man, and that it took unselfish devotion and unselfed love to be willing to apply one's self ceaselessly to such work; to be willing to work year after year without a vacation; to receive little or no thanks or pay; and to be willing sometimes to do without the necessities of life in order to promulgate the Cause. Hence, she reproached them in this letter with the fact that they were too ready to accept her services thoughtlessly and without proper appreciation.

In her home she gave students twenty minutes or less to heal a case. She knew that our desire to make good in her sight, and not to have her feel that we professed something that we could not stand up to, would enable us to heal a case in twenty minutes for her, when we could not, or would not, do it for another. In line with this same thought, in this letter she gives the students twenty-four hours to make the demonstration in regard to the land. In this way she sought to call forth from them their finest effort.

Mrs. Eddy once said to me that it seems a shame to whip a splendid pair of horses that are doing their best, but that sometimes that flick of the whip will enable them to put forth an extra ounce of strength, which will take the load up to a level place, where they can rest. In this second postscript to this letter she lays the whip on the students, when she tells them never to attempt to build a church, since animal magnetism will again sway them. This rebuke was addressed to the human mind, which was governing them; so, she really said, “Never let the human mind build a Church of Christ, Scientist, since it is bound to be swayed by animal magnetism. It is itself animal magnetism. If you attempt to build a church from that standpoint, you will lose your money, and fail. Animal magnetism will demoralize your ranks, since the human mind is not strong enough in God to stand against its own errors.”

It is plain that the moment they showed evidence that they were striving to have the Mind of God govern them and to a degree succeeding, then this Mind of God could build the church. Mrs. Eddy's rebuke was not addressed to students but to the false mind that was claiming to sway them, and that should never be permitted to build a Christian Science church. The rebuke and advice in this letter has not grown old with the passing of years. It is still vital and correct. Today students should realize, when there is any thought of building a church, that there is only one Mind that can build a church. If the human mind attempts it, the result is bound to be unsuccessful from God's standpoint.

A dangerous state for a group of students is when they have plenty of money to build with, so that there seems to be no need of demonstration. They should bear in mind that we build with God's help, not so much because that is the best way to build a church, but because the circumstance offers an opportunity to help us to establish the one Mind as the only Mind. If students happen to have plenty of money, it can be a material remedy, — as if they used medicine in sickness, — to allow the human mind to build the church.

Mrs. Eddy's article, “Material Church Activity,” goes on to state:


In the true exercise of the power of Mind, you hold in your hands the means, the methods and achievement of all that is good that conspires to benefit man and to honor God. You are His faithful trustee, and to every heir and assign of this mental condition is transmitted your wealth of wisdom and power which builds upon a rock against which the gates of hell shall not prevail.

No church edifice, no building fund, no money in banks will stand or is secure without the power back of the earthly thrones which is enthroned upon God. Mortals are mutable; you cannot trust them because they cannot trust themselves. There is no basis for either trust. Therefore, as trustees they must be environed and imbued with simplicity, meekness, purity, or else, sooner or later, they must be caught and fall into the meshes of their own error and the snare of the fowler.

The smartest business man is not scientifically a safe business man. He is not as smart as God, while he thinks himself smarter and is quite unconscious of this thought.

If you have more faith in establishing Christ's church by material organization than upon the spiritual rock of Christ, then you build upon matter instead of Spirit — build upon sand. Personal combinations, human thought and effort, material ways and means whereby to establish and maintain the church of Christ are weak, vacillating, temporal, subject to divisions, factions, feuds, and all the etcetera of mortal and material phenomena.


Mrs. Eddy never hesitated to make it plain that we should not believe that the human organization is a permanent necessity. Organization is a crutch, a temporary assistance until man is able to walk without it. Demonstration should take the place of organization in a student's thought just as fast as possible. This declaration would not trouble those who have the organization in charge, if they were sure that it meant no outward withdrawal from the organization, thus setting a bad example for others. As a matter of fact, the student who has a right concept of organization, as being merely a human means, is the one most apt to set an example to young students of devotion to the organization outwardly.

It is as safe to encourage even young students to trust God with the church as it is to trust Him with their health.

The Christian Science organization will not change with the years; but students will grow, and gain that spirituality which makes it no longer necessary to lean on the organization.

Students who have reached the place where they can heal without argument, find it possible to maintain a spiritual vision and consciousness which, when applied to a case, causes evil to yield to good, and incorrect thinking to yield to correct thinking, without an audible or a mental argument. Mrs. Eddy knew, however, that there would be only a few who would be able to maintain themselves on the housetop; so she provided a ladder in the scientific argument, as a help to students on the ground, in order to spiritualize thought to a point where it can heal the sick, by knowing that there is nothing real in the error to be disposed of.

In like manner she provided an organization for her church. At first she hoped to put it entirely on a spiritual basis, as she did her healing; but she discovered that the students were not ready for that. She saw that students required organization to help them to build up a spiritual sense; so, she permitted it, but always with the hope that they would reach the point where they were sufficiently spiritually-minded to do away with all material bonds, and rely wholly on demonstration.

The danger in the use of argument in healing is, lest the time come when one fancies that it is the argument that heals. The danger in organization lies in the tendency to believe that the organization carries the Cause, and provides spirituality. Although we would not stress this point to one not ready for it, nevertheless it is true that both the argument in healing and the organization are accommodations to material thought, designed to help it to attain a spiritual sense that it could not do otherwise.

It is sad to see a practitioner long in the work — one who has become weary in well doing, because he has sought far too long to heal by the letter rather than the Spirit — wondering why he is not more successful, when, each time a case comes to him, he endeavors to take up a line of mental argument that is scientific and correct, and apply it to the case, as if he thought that the argument was the spiritual agency that healed.

In Science the argument, if it is required, is for the benefit of the practitioner, not the patient. The spiritual elevation of thought is what is intended for the patient. One argues in order to reason himself out of a material point of view, to the point where he can perceive in the patient the perfection that God has created, and so demonstrate the impossibility of there being any discord of any kind in perfection. Then it is that attitude of thought that heals, because it reflects divine power. The argument is for the practitioner, and the result of the argument, if it is successful, is for the patient. No practitioner should ever let himself reach the point where he believes that it is the words that he has learned that heal!

Why is it that the argument does not heal? Does a cup quench man's thirst? No, it is the water in the cup. Words carry thought. The important thing in a church service or a Christian Science lecture is the thought that goes out with the words. Mind alone is our concern in Science; that is what we are dealing with. Therefore, no matter how well a reader reads, or a lecturer lectures, unless the thought of the reader or lecturer is spiritualized by what he is putting forth audibly, he will not spiritualize the thought of the listeners.

It follows from this premise that when members believe that it is the words rather than the thought back of the words that heals, they illustrate the error of the organization getting ahead of spirituality in the race.

The earliest office of our church is a house of worship. Then it becomes a place where a member learns much about the doctrine and its application. Finally, it offers the member a chance to impart his knowledge to others mentally as well as audibly. It is evident that the church does not change through all this; it is the attitude of the member that changes. Furthermore, it is sad but true that some members never leave the first stage. Others stagnate in the second stage. Those worthy of the name Christian Scientists, however, go on to the third stage, where they feel the importance of passing on to others in every right, wise, and permitted way, what they have learned.

A student cannot be said to be a real Christian Scientist other than in name, until he learns to be a giver. One is such only in name, as long as he is content to enjoy the activities of the organization and the improvement of his human harmony. If he really wants to follow his Leader, he must become a giver, since that is what she was at all times. That made her the chief Christian Scientist.

Mrs. Eddy's article concludes as follows:


The church created, founded and erected on the rock against which the winds and waves prevail not, is the church triumphant, the indwelling temple of God; it is the mind that has consecrated its affections, its aims, ambitions, hopes, joys and fruition in Spirit, whose methods and means, plans and successes are secure; they cannot be separated from success. God is their Principle and is supreme. He doeth His own will; none can stay His hand; and His methods manifest will all be sound, square, legal, honest, decent and in order.

This model Christian Scientist is the sharpest, the surest, the most successful business man or business woman that this earth can afford. Christian Scientists — what is your model? What is your model business man — he who begins with political economy, human plans, legal speculations, and ends with them, dust to dust, or the real Scientist who plants in Mind, God, who sows in Mind and reaps in Mind?


In this article Mrs. Eddy analyzed her own mode of action in founding the Cause. In the letter to the students she set forth error; she in no way minimized it, nor was she afraid to tell them that they were manifesting it. She knew that the situation called for drastic action. Then in this article she set forth the complete antidote, so that they would have no excuse for a failure to see just what the problem was, as well as its solution. How pre-eminently faithful she was in telling them what they must do, as well as in showing them just how to do it!




Concord, N. H.

November 28, 1889

To the Church of Christ, (Scientist) Boston

Dear Brethren:

The Church of Christ (Scientist) in Boston, was my patient seven years. When I would think she was well-nigh healed a relapse came and a large portion of her flock would forsake the better portion, and betake themselves to the world's various hospitals for the cure of moral maladies. These straying sheep would either set up claims of improvements on Christian Science and oppose The Mother Church, or sink out of sight in religious history. This state of the Church has lasted ten years. It even grew rapidly worse, when about three years ago I, for lack of time to adjust her continual difficulties, and a conscientious purpose to labor in higher fields and broader ways for the advancement of the glorious hope of Christian Science, put students in my pulpit.

Six of these students became at different times candidates for pastor's assistant; one of them preached over a year; all the others had spoken in my pulpit. Some of them were true Christians and tolerable expositors of Christian Science, but all of them were ruled out.

This and much more of a severe nature caused me as the Mother of this Church to ask earnestly, “what shall she do to be saved?” And I think God has answered me and bidden her to disorganize, saying, “I will try her and prove her on the pure basis of spiritual bonds, loving the brethren, keeping peace and pursuing it. I will test her love which seeketh not its own but another's good, is not puffed up, is not easily provoked, envieth not, doth not behave herself unseemly, beareth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things,” and if she is saved as a church, it will be on this basis alone.

As one who is treating patients without success remembers that they are depending on material hygiene, consulting their own organizations and thus leaning on matter instead of Spirit, saith to these relapsing patients, “now quit your material props and leave all for Christ, spiritual power, and you will recover,” so I admonish this Church after ten years of sad experience in material bonds, to cast them off and cast her net on the spiritual side of Christianity. To drop all material rules whereby to regulate Christ, Christianity, and adopt alone the golden rule for unification, progress, and a better example as The Mother Church.

When this is done I have already caused to be deeded to those who shall build a church edifice, the lot of land designed for the site of such an edifice, and which is now valued at $15,000.

This offer is made on condition that the question of disorganization shall be settled by affirmative vote at the annual meeting of this church held December 2nd, 1889.

Please read in Science and Health, page 92, paragraph 5.

Owing to the spirit of the letters received from certain members of this Church, and their persistent determination to keep me embroiled in their quarrels one with another, notwithstanding my oft expressed desire that they should do their own work and leave me to do mine, God has confirmed the purpose of this letter.

The hearts of the main body of this beloved Church are trying to be right in the sight of God, and for this and their faithful devotion as Christians I send them at this time the assurance of my abiding love and fellowship.

(Signed) Mary B. G. Eddy


One reason why the letters Mrs. Eddy wrote to her church require explication is because each one had a definite purpose, just as Science and Health has a definite purpose. Christian Science deals entirely with thought; it sets forth rules and laws that relate wholly to the correcting of thought, the spiritual and mental adjustment of one's thinking. The outward is merely the manifestation of the inward. The less attention that is paid to the outward — except to regard it as a thermometer of the inward, — and the more attention that is paid to thought, the sooner will one arrive at the desired destination and the less power material thinking will have to interfere with progress.

Science and Health is composed of important precepts to aid thought in its journey from sense to Soul. Of course, if a man knew how to spiritualize his thinking, he would not need instruction, because it would be a straightforward proposition if he thoroughly understood it. But as a matter of fact, man requires a great many helps along the way, in order to bring out results the nature of which he is unaware of in advance.

Once a teacher of music evolved a very interesting method, whereby she instructed pupils to play certain unrelated passages on the piano, which seemed to be without sequence. But when these passages were put together, the pupil found himself playing an entire piece.

Mrs. Eddy put certain unrelated propositions before the church to test them, and to assist them in gaining a proper mental readjustment. One might liken these instructions to the race track, where, if the horses get off to a false start, they are all required to return and start again.

The central point of this letter is that Mrs. Eddy saw that the old error of the importance of the affairs of the church machinery, government and affiliation, had caused these to take precedence in the minds of the members over spirituality. This ancient error, — the one that caused our Master to use his whip of small cords in the temple, because effect had taken precedence over cause, — was appearing in modern form. You can feel in this letter that Mrs. Eddy, in referring to herself and her work, was pointing out that the students, in making so much of the minutiae, — the ramifications, — of the church and its operations, had caused these to take precedence over the real aim of Christian Science, which is the spiritualization of the individual, and so of the church.

This error needed to be whipped out, because it was a false start. Mrs. Eddy goes on to say that she dropped the church work at a certain point, and put students in her pulpit, so that she might take up the greater work of assimilating her thought to God in order to reflect His wisdom for the church. Thus, she gives the keynote of the difficulty, and leads us to the conclusion that organization is always an enemy of spiritualization, and so organization can be permitted to function only under the strict supervision and control of spiritualization. Otherwise the temptation may prevail to make it the end and aim, since it gives students something definite and tangible to do, keeps them interested, and enables them to do a lot of work which they feel is very efficient and fine, without in the least progressing spiritually.

To avoid such an abuse, the organization should function only as a necessary human part of the demonstration of spiritualization. But when the majority in the church — if driven to choose between two evils — chooses to neglect spiritualization and carry out the organization efficiently on a human basis, that is a false start and it must go back and make another. So, she clearly sets forth what the error is, and seeks to compel them to start over again on a new basis.

Throughout all time this temptation will continually present itself to the church. The new members who come from the old church, where they have found their satisfaction in the activities of the church, find it difficult to cast off that ancient stain. The old church has no real spirituality to hold the interest of its members, so it gives them human duties of a more or less interesting nature. It tries to put everybody to work, until they feel that they are good members of the church, — that God would consider them good Christians. The church offers this suggestion as a sop to their lack of spirituality. It strives to get its members to engage in endeavors that have the odor of godliness, to take the place of real spiritual effort. This false conception is continually brought into the Christian Science church by new recruits and must be purged again and again.

The average Christian Scientist does not feel that he is a good working member of the church, until he is on some kind of a committee, or until he is elected to some position where he can use his energy in humanly defined activity. While this may be part of the growth of the members, it is also true that the animal magnetism mixed up in the situation is always the temptation to cause man to become so interested in the “Martha” side of the picture, the outward service, that he neglects to choose the better part which belonged to Mary, that appreciation of God's inspirational good that is waiting for all, and the effort to reflect God who, as the parent Mind, is continually broadcasting wisdom and love to all His children.

But what if no one is tuned in to hear the messages of good? Would a broadcasting station continue to broadcast if it knew that no one tuned into its programs? Such stations rely on individual willingness to tune in, since they cannot force anyone to do it.

God knows that each of His children has the capacity to hear the messages of wisdom and love that He is sending out, but mortal existence provides so many interests, so many diversified entertainments, that it is rare to find one sitting down with a definite and direct expectancy that God is broadcasting to him and that he must tune in; that in order to do that he must throw aside and eradicate the belief in any power apart from God claiming to introduce that which would deflect the message, reverse it, stand between God and man and thus prevent the message from being received, or, if received, being distorted or reversed. We must realize that there is nothing that can stand between man's desire to hear and the fulfillment of that desire.

We know that God is sending forth messages of Truth and Love. But how many make the demonstration to receive them? In order to lose a favorite program coming over the radio, all one needs to do is to be thinking of something else, be tuned into another program, or be away from the radio. It is just the same with the messages of God. To lose His messages one needs only to have thought occupied in other directions. Students believe that certain thoughts and demonstrations they have, or make, will lead them to the reception of these messages without a definite expectancy and effort in that direction. They are always hoping for a Pentecost without working in a direct line for it, looking for it and expecting it, — doing the work necessary to receive it. Paul tells us that now is the accepted time. In other words, the good is present now; God's dear messages are coming to man now, and the element of time has nothing to do with it and will never help man to attain it.

Time is one of the definite and notable errors that falsely presents itself to us as a friend, and we must labor definitely to overcome it. Then that which now takes time, if time were eliminated, would be instantaneous. Man provides all the ingredients for an instantaneous cure, but the moment he mixes time with it, he takes away the possibility of it flashing forth instantaneously. The belief in time must be eliminated from the mind of the practitioner as well as from the mind of the world. Time is an element of all disease, and its eradication is as essential as the destruction of the disease itself.

If you ever expect to hear the voice of God, you must accept the proposition that His voice is now sending out its messages continuously, and doing this because you possess a capacity to hear it. No one can rob you of that, and the reason you do not hear it, is because of your lack of focusing your attention on that fact, by letting other things occupy your thought. Thus, you postpone your effort, and fail to receive.

Suppose a man tries to hear God's voice as the process is outlined here, and fails. What might be the reason? Suppose he hears nothing and then is discouraged and disappointed. Perhaps he is trying to get a material expression of that which is purely spiritual. Can he expect the voice of God to be heard by the material ears? The unfoldment of true inspiration lights on man so gently that he does not feel it humanly, but if he makes the right effort to receive it, he will. His thought is taking it in even when he does not know it, and he finds this out when he needs it.

Man does receive and hear the voice of God when he seeks it and makes the effort to gain it, but he is not conscious of having done so until a need arises. Strange as it may seem, man does not hear the voice of God talking to him until he voices it himself. He does not feel it come to him; but when he voices that which he himself never knew, then he knows that it is God talking through him. He hears the voice of God when he voices it. When he opens his mouth to speak, he will find that he is the loud speaker of his own radio or phonograph.

A man might have phonograph records sent to him. They might accumulate and he would never know what they contained. But the day comes when he wants some music, so he opens a package, takes out a record and plays it. Then he hears the lovely music. All the time these records were accumulating, but he was not conscious of what they contained, until he played one.

So, when you seek to hear God's voice and do not seem to hear it, do not be disappointed. Every day make the effort to open your thought and let God talk to you, and if you are not conscious of His doing so, — if you do not hear it with your material ears or are even not conscious of it with your conscious thought, — take it on faith. Believe that it is being recorded on the tablet of your mind, that you are laying up treasure in heaven, — in your spiritual consciousness, — and when the right time comes you will be able to give it out, and know what God has been saying to you by what you say to another.

It is evident what Mrs. Eddy was doing, when she withdrew from the disturbing and distracting phases of the church, its discipline and difficulties. She knew that in order to give forth God's messages to the world, she must take time to receive them.

The demand on the part of some church members to find continuous activity in the church, is comparable to that of people without particular interests, who strive to plan their lives so that they will be doing something all the time. They are bored with their own company, or when they must sit down quietly with their own thoughts. Such people turn naturally to the outward activities that Christian Science provides. Yet all this bustle and hurry precludes the possibility of attaining a quiet time in which to open one's thought to receive that which God has to give.

The whole story of church organization is summed up in the statement that it can function under demonstration and be of a certain value in spreading the Gospel; but when it does not function under demonstration, it should be cast out. Mrs. Eddy required them to cast off the material bonds of the organization because she saw that it was producing just the opposite of what it should; instead of fostering spiritualization, it was shutting off the possibility of attaining it, and becoming a deterrent to the students in their effort to retreat into the secret place of the Most High, to receive the only wisdom that is capable of guiding the church and mankind correctly.

The very opposite of this silent communion with God is the human satisfaction that members permit themselves to take in the number of new members they have taken in, in the number of pieces of literature they have mailed out, or the number of broadcasts that have been given. On the surface these activities seem useful and constructive, and so they are, provided they are used to augment and express spirituality, but not to take the place of it.

It is a rule that when the functioning of the organization takes precedence over the gaining of spirituality, it is time to throw off the material bonds and cast the net on the spiritual side of Christianity. “To drop all material rules whereby to regulate Christ, Christianity, and adopt alone the golden rule for unification, progress, and a better example as The Mother Church.”

Then the church can start over again with the effort to gain spirituality as the one central teaching, the one point that Mrs. Eddy emphasized. Then let the organization fall gently into place behind, much as the plough that follows the horse. Preparation must precede the demonstration of spiritual progress, which is the parting of the soil, the eradication of the weeds and roots, preparing the soil for the reception of truth. But where would you get, if you put the plough ahead of the horse?

In this letter Mrs. Eddy refers to her own experience. She attempted for seven years — seven being symbolic of a complete period — to establish a proper relationship in the minds of Christian Scientists between spirituality and its material expression and failed. Then she realized that it could not be done without a new start. It is like candy that you boil beyond the temperature indicated. You have everything in it as it should be, you have followed the directions and watched it; but it is cooked too much, so the best thing is to stop fussing with it and trying to make it right, and start fresh.

After seven years Mrs. Eddy found that the candy was spoiled, and so she must throw it away and start afresh; give up organization and let the students see that the church continues without material organization as effectively and with less danger to its underlying spirit and purpose, as it does with it.

It was at this point that Mrs. Eddy realized that the Church of Christ, Scientist must be founded on something besides organization.

If this letter was read at the business meetings of our branch churches and understood even a little, the members would recognize the temptation Mrs. Eddy detected, and perceive her attitude toward the tendency to put organization ahead of spiritualization. When members of the church feel that the doing of business is more important than using the business of the church as an opportunity to attain spirituality, it is putting the business of the church on the throne where God belongs, mistaking means for ends, and results in the most pernicious kind of idolatry, because it flourishes in the name of good.

This letter is the whip of small cords that expresses definitely Mrs. Eddy's feeling in the matter. It helped at that period to purge the church of what she called vain traffic in worldly worship, and would do the same again today, if used and understood rightly.

When Mrs. Eddy writes about the world's various hospitals for the cure of moral maladies, she refers to the fact that the human mind attempts to cure through the human mind. She found that, when she tried to put the church on a spiritual basis, there were always those who would relapse into the use of the human mind.

Mrs. Eddy never knowingly neglected her church. If she neglected anything it was herself. If she had animal magnetism confronting her in her personal experience, and the church was confronted with animal magnetism at the same time, she would spend her time in protecting the church rather than herself, and no doubt that was why she found herself in difficulties from time to time. It was not because she was not fully capable of handling her difficulties and fully understood their nature, which is a large part of the handling of them. But because she was weighed down with the importance of her obligation to the church which she felt God had laid upon her, at times she neglected herself.

It may be that for a time she would endeavor to put the church out of her thought, and work to spiritualize herself, but she was always sharply brought back to it. When the church showed its need of her, she dropped herself and took up the church again. She states in this letter that in dropping the church for a time, she merely went on to higher labors, labor in higher fields and broader ways for the advancement of the glorious hope of Christian Science. So, no one could criticize her for dropping the church in order to have the privilege of entering those broader fields, where she could be of greater service to the world.

In leaving the church, Mrs. Eddy did not thereby lose the opportunity that the church offers for spiritualization. In stepping out of the demands of the church upon her and leaving it behind for a more glorified hope and a greater advancement, Mrs. Eddy merely indicated for all time that there exists a higher field of labor for advanced students in this sense of existence than the church visible.

This that she speaks of as of a severe nature was the placing of the organization ahead of spirituality. It caused Mrs. Eddy to ask, “What shall she do to be saved?” — saved from this error.

A higher demonstration of Christian Science requires the student not only to spiritualize his own thinking, but also to apply that spiritual thinking to the world's needs. When we have to drop the world and go up on the mount in order to regain and retain our spiritual thinking, because we have lost it in the midst of mortal thought, that is an admission of our inability to maintain it in conflict with the world. Yet that is what our demonstration requires us to establish, the ability to maintain spiritual thought in spite of all contrary and opposing evidence and suggestion. We must gain the ability that the black preacher had, who was caught stealing chickens and went to jail. He told his congregation after he was released, “that he done kept his religion all the way through.”

We do not have to go into the world, steal chickens and go to jail, but we do have to come in contact with mortal thought in all its phases, and yet be able to maintain that sweet communion with God that is our goal.

If a student, whose mind was intent on demonstrating pure spirituality, should become a member of the Board of Directors, would he be able to hold that heavenly purpose in the midst of the mental confusion coincident with the immense amount of labor required of him and the great demands made upon him? Would his only chance be, to drop his material labors that seem such a deterrent to his attainment of spirituality, and turn away from the human side of the picture, so that he might endeavor to regain the spiritual balance of his thinking?

Surely that would be an admission that his spiritual sense is not sufficiently crystalized, that he cannot hold it with sufficient determination against the mental pressure of the human task. He has not reached the point where he can maintain his spiritual thought in the midst of confusion. Yet, how many of us can do it at our present point of growth?

It is a wise rule for all to follow, when we lose our spiritual thinking by contact with mortal mind, or because of material necessities in connection with the human side of the Cause, to drop that side of things, and withdraw until we can resurrect our spiritual sense. It is far more important to maintain our spiritual thought than it is to do the outward tasks that Christian Science presents, although this attainment is practically useless unless we gain it for the purpose of engaging in work for the world.

At this point in the history of the Movement, the hope of the church was to disorganize, to drop all meetings, where the members gathered, that offered the opportunity for differences of opinion creating strife. The hope was that the church body would regain that more sacred attitude toward the church as being a place where they meet with God, assimilate themselves to God, and regain the divine purpose for which the church was founded, namely, the development of spirituality in each individual.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy quotes the Bible as giving the basis for proving the church on a purely spiritual basis, and for testing her love. In other words, give her the opportunity, by freeing her from all material obligations and restrictions, to see whether her objective is spirituality or material organization. This Scriptural testing indicates that the evidence of spirituality in the church is loving the brethren, keeping peace and pursuing it, realizing that peace is the manifestation of oneness with God, and so we must pursue it. We will never have peace unless we demonstrate it. A thing you have, or think you have, you do not have to pursue. Furthermore, a thing you pursue is something that eludes you and runs away from you. We can see from this, that unless we capture peace and hold it, it will always elude us, so we have to pursue it.

Seeking not our own but another's good must mean that as metaphysicians we must overlook the falsity — look under it — that attempts to make one man seem objectionable to his fellow men. We must perceive the real man underneath that is wholly desirable, that we are proud to know and claim as a brother. When you lift the veil of animal magnetism and see the man God created, beneath the debris of error, you will realize what a desirable man he is. Then there will be no hatred for him, no dissension among the brethren.

The second test of love is that it is not puffed up. When God begins to manifest wisdom through us, it is a temptation for us to believe that it emanates from our own intelligence. The praise that flows into one who is merely a channel for God, is as foolish as would be praise given to a radio from which proceed various splendid programs. It is a temptation to feel that the flattering things others say about us is true, because the wisdom we express and the inspiration we voice come from within. When others believe that we are divinely wise of ourselves, it is a temptation to believe that error, and accept that idea about ourselves, rather than to realize that we are wise only as, and if, we reflect divine wisdom. We are wise because of what we reflect and not because of what we embody.

To be puffed up is the most effective way of losing inspiration, because the moment you believe and accept the thought that you are wise from within, you stop trying to reflect wisdom from without, and so lose your ability to do so.

The third test is not to be easily provoked. What is it that provokes us? When animal magnetism lies about us, we know that it knows that what it says is not true. We know that it is merely a trick to pull our thought down to a point where it can be easily entered by the adversary. So, to be provoked, to be angry, to manifest hatred, is not serious in itself; the error is that it opens the door for error to enter and control us.

If you are seeking to reflect the spirit of God and you show any evidence that you are beginning to do it, you may know that you will be pursued by animal magnetism, much as a fox is chased by hounds. It is the serpent at the heel of the woman. You can never yield to being provoked therefore, without being sure that through that mental state you are being handled by animal magnetism, any more than the fox can yield to sleep unprotected, without knowing that the dogs will be upon him.

The story of the man traveling in Tibet comes in at this point. He was set upon by a group of malpractitioners who were called dugpas. They tortured him merely with the purpose of arousing in him a sense of hatred for them. They intended to enter his thought, gain control over him and force him to join their numbers, and they were using hatred as the opening wedge. But he had been warned in advance about these evil men, so he refused to hate them. While he could not bring himself to love them, he succeeded in pitying them and that saved him. He was fortified through understanding.

The whole purpose of these dugpas was to provoke a mental state in this man through which they could reach and control his thought, and hatred was this mental state. When they perceived that they were outwitted, they stopped torturing him. When he refused to yield to hatred, they saw that their effort to gain control of his mind was unsuccessful.

It is an axiom that if you are any good as a Christian Scientist, you will have animal magnetism at your heels. It is not personally directed animal magnetism necessarily. It is somewhat like a man who fastens a shotgun over the door of his chicken coop and anyone who ventures in becomes a target. So, the one who ventures into the realm of investigating evil and successfully destroying it, becomes a target for its wiles and deceptions — which are not real, but which constitute a menace, in belief, that must be handled.

It is good for a student to have animal magnetism at his heels if he views it rightly, because it becomes a whip that helps to keep him progressing in the right path — so long as he can keep it at his heels. But when animal magnetism ceases to bless you as a whip because of your failure to handle it rightly, and catches up with you and seeks to harm you by getting you to yield to a sense of hatred, by getting you upset, or causing you to fancy that your feelings are hurt, then if you fall for that deception or trickery, you will manifest the phase Mrs. Eddy speaks of here, of being easily provoked. If, when animal magnetism is at your heels where it belongs, you yield to hatred, that enables it to catch up with you, because that puts you on animal magnetism's level. Hatred is a thought exactly on the level with animal magnetism, because it is animal magnetism.

If you do not yield to hatred, that enables you to keep ahead, and animal magnetism stays behind where as a whip it can do you good. We must make a covenant with ourselves never to yield to any suggestion that enables animal magnetism to get out of its place at our heel, and catch up with us. It can never catch up until it can persuade you to entertain thoughts that are on its level, or entertain its thoughts that will level you with it. When you entertain its suggestions, that enables the serpent to catch up with the woman.

If you do not seek another's good, you are manifesting selfishness. If you are puffed up, you are placing faith in your own mind which is the mind of the serpent in back of you. Then that enables him to even things up to your hurt.

Mrs. Eddy lists envy next. Envy indicates a mental laziness which is a lack of demonstration, because it looks with greedy eyes at the demonstration of another, instead of making the demonstration for oneself. This mental quality gives the devil a chance to level us, or catch up with us, because we slow up. You envy another the effect of his demonstration, instead of knowing that you do not need to do that, because demonstration is open for all, and what one can do, another can do, arguments to the contrary notwithstanding. A failure to make your own demonstration and envying one who has made it, represents mental laziness which permits the devil to catch up where he can get you.

The next on the list, behaving unseemly, simply means being handled definitely by animal magnetism, because no right-minded student would behave himself unseemly, — that is, do anything that would be a stumbling block to anyone less enlightened than himself.

Finally, we have three words, bear, hope and endure, which puts the problem right up to divine Mind. Unquestionably the way to develop spiritual sense is for one to be presented with problems that are humanly insurmountable. When the human mind is shown to be ineffective, then man will turn to divine Mind as the only way to work out the problem and in so doing he develops spiritual sense. So, humanly insurmountable problems do more for man in helping him to develop spiritual sense than anything else. Mrs. Eddy infers this in her letter to the church in Atlanta, Georgia. “When it is learned that spiritual sense and not the material senses convey all impressions to man, man will naturally seek the Science of his spiritual nature, and finding it, be God-endowed for discipleship.” (My. 188)

Here in three words we have qualities that cannot be expressed through the human mind successfully. No old-church Christian would ever expect or believe that for one moment he could live up to these demands. What adherent of false theology, or even a Christian Scientist without the supporting influence of divine Mind, could ever “bear all things,” “hope all things” or “endure all things?” It cannot be done without demonstration. So here Mrs. Eddy makes a demand of the church that manifestly cannot be accomplished without demonstration and hence, will help the church to develop spiritual sense.

Certainly man cannot “endure all things” without help from God. No matter how adequate the human mind may claim to be, it has never claimed the ability to “bear all things,” “hope all things” and “endure all things.” So, this triad of qualities would certainly require a demonstration of divine Mind rather than the human mind.

The Christian Science practitioner who reads this letter from our Leader and whose thought is alert, should see that herein Mrs. Eddy not only gives the church a diagnosis of its error and the remedy, but at the same time unfolds why, when a student fails to heal the sick, he is not successful and what the remedy is. The reason why he does not heal a patient, — providing the healer has an understanding of metaphysics, and puts it into practice, — is because of the patient's faith in material remedies, his dependence on matter. Unless the practitioner can destroy that, he cannot heal his patient.

In spite of the fact that the patient may have more or less faith in God, yet if God fails him, his thought goes out to the possibility of getting help through matter. Stoppage is a difficult condition to meet in Christian Science simply because mortal mind offers such simple and harmless ways to meet it, if Truth seems to fail. This faith in matter, as a reserve, is a barrier to spiritual healing always. The receptive attitude is, “Lord, save or I perish.” That would indicate that there was no material means of help in reserve, so man turns to God for help without quibbling. This fact explains why at times so-called incurable illnesses are healed through Christian Science more readily than stoppage; because of the latent faith in matter in the case of the latter difficulty which patients do not feel with the claim that is pronounced incurable.

In considering the church as her patient. Mrs. Eddy realized that the church troubles represented the fact that the members considered that material methods, organization and the human mind, were more adequate to run the church than the ethereal and transcendental process which they imagined to be the demonstration of Christian Science. Then she gives the antidote. She says that one would say to a relapsing student, “Now quit your material props and leave all for Christ, spiritual power, and you will recover.”

The practitioner endeavors to fulfill this with his patients. audibly and mentally; to persuade them to turn away from matter trusts, by destroying their faith in the possibility of there being any means for a real cure except through God's power.

When I first came into Christian Science, I was told that in every case one must destroy the patient's faith in material remedies and establish the fact that they have no power, that there can be no real faith in them, and that this illusive and false faith in that which has no power has no foothold. This serves to destroy the possibility of the patient's believing in remedies and to turn his faith entirely to God.

If you are trying to get out of a room through a dummy window, you may not hear me when I am trying to tell you what the combination is that will unlock the door. But when you discover that there is no way out but through the door, then you will apply yourself to what I am telling you about the unlocking of the door. So, when a patient's thought is turned away from God, as it must be when he is thinking of the possibility of being healed through some material process or remedy, you cannot shine directly into his face with the spirit of God, the demonstration of Truth. So, in the beginning of my practice I was taught in every case to work to shake the patient's latent faith in the power of material means as being a possible escape from disorder.

This letter brings out the importance of the above effort, because it shows that Mrs. Eddy lost the case of the church because of the church's faith in material methods. Then Mrs. Eddy gives a spiritual interpretation of the story of the disciples casting their net on the wrong side, as the casting of it on the material side of Christianity, instead of on the spiritual.

This letter could be profitably studied by students, because it is a practical and active rule for conduct. It sets forth a correct aspiration, and exemplifies the proper relation between our effort to gain spirituality and the work of bringing that spirituality to the attention of mankind over the bridge that people may cross.

If you stop on a bridge, you have left the old behind, but have not crossed to the new. To take advantage of the bridge Christian Science offers, merely to stay on it, is not a safe or scientific progress. The bridge is to be crossed. The organization is a bridge. Whoever heard of staying on it? It must be crossed. When you get on the side of God, you do not need a bridge. It then becomes a matter between you and God. The bridge has passed away as far as you are concerned.

This leaving the bridge behind does not mean withdrawing from the organization, or ceasing in one's endeavor to support it. It refers to a change in one's mental attitude toward it. At a certain point a child ceases to take its nourishment through a nipple. But that does not mean that when it gets older, it launches out in a campaign against nipples, or ceases to provide such for babes that need them.

The simplest way to express this point is to declare that one ceases to be a receiver from the organization, ceases to regard it as the one and only source of good to him, and becomes a giver to it, a supporter of it because of the good that it always is to the babes in Christ, as well as a training ground where he can learn to give, as soon as he is ready for this advanced step.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy urges the church to disorganize — or to yield up this belief in the importance of organization per se — and pledge themselves anew to the conception of the church as a place to spiritualize thought and assimilate it to God. If they will let go of the rest of it, Mrs. Eddy herself will look out for the material side, give the land so that they can go ahead and have the church edifice. Thus, she exhorts them to resist the temptation that grows out of the organization, — namely, to place effect ahead of cause.

Mrs. Eddy asserts in substance, that not only has the church become immersed in the material side of the picture, having let go of the important side, but has insisted that Mrs. Eddy withdraw herself from her sacred solitude — the separation she had made between the world and herself so that she may find God, and receive from Him the wisdom that is needed to govern this church — and has sought to pull her down from the housetop, to keep her embroiled in the church quarrels.

Mrs. Eddy was convinced that God had inspired the instruction in this letter, because it would give the church a fresh start, that it might once more approach the subject of organization with a scientific sense of the relationship between the importance of the spiritual, and the human need of material machinery. When the membership lent themselves to the effort to try to keep her from the higher demonstration that the church needed, it was time for some drastic step to be taken.

When she said that the church had been her patient seven years, she was not boasting, trying to show how much work she had done or was capable of doing. She was writing veritable history for time to come, so that it would always be known that the church grew through demonstration — through the metaphysical treatment that it needed that she gave it.

She wanted students, who fancy that they can function under their own intelligence, and be responsible for the success of the church, to realize their mistake. So, she makes it very clear that she treated the church as one would a patient; that she had to take it up every day and work for it; and that it was her demonstration that brought out the results. If this had not been her thought, when she revised and approved of Joseph Armstrong's book, The Mother Church, she would never have permitted the following statements to remain: “Every step up to this time had been made through demonstration of divine Science, the work of our beloved Leader. Not a point could be carried without her aid for she alone could show the way — God's way — and make it possible to do what mortal sense declared impossible.” When in the fall of 1937 these sentences were omitted from page 77, when a new revision was published, students had a right to protest and insist that the Board of Directors have them reinstated in the book. Thus, we find a notice in the Christian Science Sentinel of October 9, 1937 that all copies be returned in order to have this done.

At the end of seven years of treating the church, Mrs. Eddy saw that the time had come when her patient should rise or fall according to its own effort. She stood by, of course, to advise, to help, and to do whatever God told her to do. But she records for posterity that at the end of that time she stopped treating her patient, and insisted that it stand on its own basis. Then whatever happened that was not right would be the result of its own error, and she would not be to blame, since she was no longer treating the patient.

It was revealed to Mrs. Eddy that the members must learn for themselves that the only success in Science, and the only right we have to call our denomination Christian Science, is in direct proportion to whether we sustain it by demonstration; and if the members are too lazy to do it, or too blind to perceive it, then they will indulge in mortal mind methods and thus retrograde from the sacred standard of demonstration.

It is a difficult lesson to learn, namely, that the most successful human progress on the part of the church is a retrograde step in Science. Every such step taken that is the result of the human mind will have to be retraced and taken over. This applies to the individual as well as to the church as a whole. There is but one way to conduct a Christian Science church, which must be in all its ways to acknowledge the supremacy of divine Mind and to demonstrate that fact.

Many a branch church has demonstrated its edifice and then permitted it to fall back into mortal mind methods. This is because those in charge insist upon bringing into the church work that which they prized so highly before coming into Science, namely, their business sagacity and ability to diagnose and correct situations from the human standpoint. Such individuals feel that they have more from a human standpoint to offer the church than they have from a demonstrated standpoint. They know that they will receive from the church more commendation because of their human acumen than they would from demonstration; so, they choose to bring the offering of the human mind to the church. Thus, their Science is more and more crowded out, and the church is turned back into the channels of man instead of progressing in the grooves of God.

How many students realize that, when they are working out the church problems, doing the business and conducting the members' meetings from the human standpoint, they are wrecking the church? It requires more than human perception to detect that, when the balance sheet is good, when the financial affairs are being conducted economically, and there is money in the bank, the church is going the wrong way if such success is the result of the human mind. Mortal mind success is divine Mind failure. Under such a regime God is being forced out of the church. More and more He becomes tabu, and those who stand up for Him will be misunderstood and rebuked.

Mrs. Eddy mentions in this letter hospitals for the cure of moral maladies. The world offers many such hospitals, but they have never cured anything. Prohibition is such a hospital, and it is an error for Christian Scientists to cooperate with the world's remedy for that vice. Prohibition has never accomplished anything of any value. When it was in force in this country for a few years, it made the situation a lot worse than it was before it became a law. Another mortal mind method of attempting to cure a moral malady creeps into the Church of Christ, Scientist, when applicants for membership are induced to stop smoking in order to join. The Christian Science method for curing such a problem is demonstration, whereas the world's method is the use of will power. One who stops from that standpoint thereby brands himself as still unfit to join our church.

Mrs. Eddy speaks of the straying sheep as seeking to set up claims of improvements on Christian Science. Human reason has no conception of God's plans. A man who knows nothing about mountain climbing might have certain fixed ideas about how it is done; but only the expert really knows. The ignorant man, if he was planning to scale a high peak, would no doubt neglect to take the most important things.

God's way of directing man out of this maze of mortality is beyond the conception of any human mind. For centuries mortal man had been seeking a way out of mortality without being able to find it. The fact that the good Christian is supposed to be more or less poor and sick is proof that there is something wrong with the methods mortals have taken on, since the Bible makes it plain that if man works rightly on this problem, he will be more or less immune to sin, sickness and death. Unless a good Christian is offering results in his life that would attract people, he certainly cannot be on the right track. Who wants to be poor and sick and to be spit upon? There is nothing encouraging in that.

The moment the human mind comes into the picture in Christian Science it begins to oppose God's methods. Today Mrs. Eddy is justified because all of her methods have proved to be effective. But in the days before her recommendations and what she established had been tested, the human mind found fault with them, believing that it could put forth suggestions that would be more successful, apart from God. These were the improvements on Christian Science mentioned in this letter.

The reason heads of countries fail to call on God to help them, is because they believe themselves to be adequate to take all problems, and to solve them. Such an attitude is the grossest kind of ignorance. People at large have an appreciation of a ruler who leans on God. Abraham Lincoln is the most revered of all of the presidents the United States has had, and he was the one president who felt thoroughly inadequate for the position. He felt that it was a work too great for him, yet he took it because he believed that God would give him the wisdom to do it, which He did. Yet when people are looking for a new president, they seek the one who has been the most successful in his own business based on his own intelligence. They feel that the country would prosper better with such a one at its head. Such an attitude advances the country not one whit, and means footsteps which must finally be retraced.

Everyone must come to the place where it is, “Lord, save or I perish.” All mankind must eventually reach the point where they see that under human leadership there is no real permanence or success; then they will be driven back to God. This is too much to expect apart from Christian Science; but today there are Christian Scientists in all countries who are doing their part to teach and set forth the method of how to lean on God in national affairs. Thus, they are impregnating the thought of all peoples with the recognition of the need of divine wisdom.

Perhaps one reason why Mrs. Eddy gave up the church as a patient after seven years was because God pointed out that the higher ideals of Christian Science were embodied in treating the world, rather than confining such effort to the church, and she was eager to be doing this higher and broader work. It is from the world that we recruit new members, it is in the world that we work as mental missionaries. Because we work mentally, we can go into all the world and preach the gospel and heal the sick. We could not possibly fulfil this demand of the Master physically; but when we perceive the scope of thought and the numbers of people we can reach mentally, we realize that that is the only way to fulfil it. But this demand is more or less of an empty statement to a man until he recognizes the communicable and universal nature of the demonstration of divine Mind.

It is the universal mental work done by Christian Scientists that provides practitioners with their patients, because such work breaks down the prejudice that would seek to keep people away from the only true source of healing. People would flock to us in large numbers daily if it were not for this induced and argued prejudice. The opposition of the world to Christian Science is not based on what it is or on what it does. It is a prejudice artificially induced by animal magnetism and must be broken down. Mrs. Eddy found this out and was seeking time to work on this important matter, in order to help to break down the artificial prejudice which would keep people away from Science. She knew they would come in droves if this work could be done rightly. But she had this patient which took most of her time, and the moment she let go of it, it relapsed. So, she realized that the time had come to pass on the responsibility, and get others to feel the importance of making this demonstration. Then Mrs. Eddy would be left free to do the larger work, which at this time she alone could do successfully.

One might fancy that Mrs. Eddy wrote this long letter for the eyes of the church alone, but in reality she was setting forth church history which, if she did not record it in this way, might be lost. So, she recorded the progress of the church, and made it plain that it progressed because she took it up as a patient and worked for it. From this we learn that if we want the church to progress today, work must be done to bring that about. So, the value of this letter to the members in those early days was far less than its value to posterity, since now it can be studied with profit, and students can learn the lessons that it teaches, as well as gain insight into the arduous but effective labors of Mrs. Eddy.

We can learn from this letter why The Mother Church functions as it does today. Mrs. Eddy felt no doubt that if the human organization became the medium for dissension and argument, and caused students to return to the material side, even if that material activity was made manifest in church government, then the time had come to remove that organization, in order to see if the purely spiritual nature of Science might find expression, when thought was no longer required to rest on the material side of the picture.

Today there are no meetings held by The Mother Church, in which the human mind with its arguments and bickerings may have a chance to establish itself. As far as the members are concerned, it is disorganized, and functions on a purely spiritual basis, since all that is required of them as members of the church is that they demonstrate spiritually. They never have to mix up with the problems of money, discipline or any of the problems of government. They have the privilege of attendance, to go and worship God and demonstrate good; that is all that is required of them. Thus, the church can be said to be on a purely spiritual basis, except for the fact that it has officers in order to conform to the law of the land. The law requires organizations to have treasurers to pay the bills and representatives who can sue and to be sued if necessary, and who have the authority to take care of the property.

All practitioners of Christian Science know enough to say to patients, “Now quit your material props and leave all for Christ.” They instruct patients that the material and spiritual can no more work together than a boat can make progress with two bows. They cannot divide their interest and trust, seek God's help, and at the same time keep looking to matter as though it might help them. In this letter Mrs. Eddy applies this thought as though the church were a patient, and she had a right to require of it what a practitioner would require of a patient.

Then she calls upon the members to read the fifth paragraph on page 92 of Science and Health. In the fortieth edition this reads: “As the crude footprints of the past lose themselves in the dissolving paths of the present, we should understand the Science that governs these results, and plant our footsteps on firmer ground. Every so-called pleasure of sense gains a higher or lower definition, with the lapse of time. This unfolding should be painless progress, attended by love and peace, instead of envy and pride.” This paragraph puts the responsibility on the church to seek to understand the Science that governed the changes and results in the church affairs, and how she arrived at them; where the wisdom came from that caused her to take the stand she did. In reality what she asked the church to do was to see that she was reflecting to them the wisdom of God, and the more they appreciated this fact, the more they would accept it without chemicalization and wondering what might be the ultimate result.

She states, “God has confirmed the purpose of this letter.” It is not often that we find Mrs. Eddy bringing God into a letter as authority for what she did, although we know that all she did, was done at His command. But she knew that there were those in her church who, when they wanted to put something over humanly, would declare, “I have worked on this and it comes to me plainly from God that the church should do so and so.” Such students would know that many members, who would not agree with them humanly, if they felt sure that what they were asked to do was a demonstration of divine wisdom, would follow at any cost. Thus, they would take advantage of that attitude to use divine authority to put something over that was purely of man. For that reason we do not find Mrs. Eddy often saying, “This came to me in demonstration to do, and I would not ask you to take what seems like a drastic step such as disorganizing unless God told me to do it.”

But in this letter, she refers the members to Science and Health as her authority, and states that God has confirmed the purpose of the letter. The quoted paragraph brings out a clear realization that no material footsteps or evidence are permanent. Even the present paths, though right, are dissolving. The crude beginnings are eliminated and the future steps are dissolved, when higher demands are revealed to us. In spiritual progress it is impossible to stay still. Thus, through this quotation from Science and Health Mrs. Eddy begged them to try to understand for themselves why she made this call upon them to disorganize. She knew that if they gained the right answer, they would know that God told her to do it. It was the result of the Science that unfolds God's way, which is and can be the only successful way.

This paragraph states that every so-called pleasure of sense gains a higher or a lower interpretation with the lapse of time. This same fact is true of pain. Sickness might be considered the call that God makes upon us when He has a message for us, and we have reached the place where we are able to receive such information. The call must come in the form that arrests our attention, just as a telephone call must come as a bell jangling in our ears; otherwise we would pay no attention to it. But if we look to the sickness we will lose the message; if we look away from the sickness to God, we will get the message and lose the sickness.

A human fact about sickness can be learned through the horse. If the horse has a sense of fear and starts to shy, the rider oftentimes strikes him with the whip, because he knows that to strike the horse sharply will distract his attention from the object that frightens him. While the horse is not as afraid of the whip as he is of the object of his fear, yet it takes his attention for the moment, so that a lesser fear takes him away from a greater one. When a mule balks they often light a fire underneath him, and thus he is compelled to do something he has determined not to do, that is, to move on.

Thus, to an advanced student sickness might be called a sharp call to take him from whatever he is doing and to get him to listen, providing, of course, such a one has reached the place where he can hear God's voice. If he concentrates on the sickness, he will only increase it. But if he turns to God to hear what God has to say, the call will disappear. When the metaphysician has a difficulty, he must form a habit of turning to God and asking as it is said Mrs. Eddy did, “Dear Father, what would'st Thou have me to learn from this experience? What art Thou trying to tell me?”

An illustration of how a so-called pleasure can gain a higher definition with the lapse of time would be the drink habit, where perhaps it has brought heart-aches and suffering. Christian Science is brought to bear on the situation and the drunkard is healed. Then he finds that, because he had that experience, he is able to go forth and do more good everywhere, than he perhaps could have done otherwise; so the so-called pleasure takes on a higher definition and value. Finally, he can thank God he was a drunkard, because through that he became able to set forth the power of God to help all drunkards. Thus, all so-called pleasures of the senses take on a higher definition because, under the influence of Science, they become important links in the chain that teaches us the way to God; whereas under mortal mind's explanation or condemnation they become links to bind man more firmly to hell.

How tactfully our Leader sought to teach the church that no human steps are permanent! At first, they are crude and so we have to get rid of them. Then when we can look back and see that we are registering progress, those advancing steps must be dissolved. With this knowledge the pilgrim can maintain a flexible sense towards everything human, which includes the organization, since one never knows when a renaissance of spiritual effort may require further changes in it. There is nothing permanent but the demonstration of God. The moment one settles down and declares that this material situation is permanent, he is making a mistake. Science and Health makes it plain that even the Christian Science organization, which seems the most permanent of anything on earth, is dissolving, as far as the individual's need of it is concerned.

It is evident from Mrs. Eddy's letters that she considered blind obedience important when the demand came for instant action; but she never wanted students to rest in the results of blind obedience. She knew that they should endeavor to find the revelation of Principle under which such steps became imperative, and thus learn why they were so. So, this letter was an invitation for the membership to join their Leader, in the demonstration that brought what afterwards proved to be divine wisdom in the guidance and government of the church. She makes plain the need of flexibility, a quality which many students lack. Only those can be called flexible who feel that God is governing them, and so they are ready at all times for any move He calls upon them to make. Then they will seek to understand the Science that governs these changes and results, and continually reach out for higher and firmer ground. There is no such thing as firm ground in matter, although there are preliminary steps that have to be taken. But the only firm ground is when one begins to take his steps in divine Mind, and to execute these steps on earth as they come from heaven.

A helpful thought on keeping peace and pursuing it, as Mrs. Eddy admonishes in this letter, would be for one to consider that he is a man taking a journey for a specific purpose, namely, to win a crown, and he will receive it only if he proves that he can maintain his peace, no matter what happens, no matter what changes take place, no matter with whom he comes in contact. He will rise above envy and pride, the thought of the deference due to him when he is ignored, and the temptation to be irritated over trifles. The spiritual purpose of the journey is to see if he can come in contact with all sorts of situations and afflictions, yet stand up under them, and still maintain and preserve the peace of God which passeth all understanding. It is a rule that one does not deserve the right to utilize divine Mind until he thinks enough of it to be willing to put everything else to one side, so that he will be able to maintain it and protect it, and declare, “None of these things move me.”

Once a practitioner came to me for help, and I lifted her to a spiritual realization of joy and peace that lasted for three days. Then some roomers broke an agreement with her, after promising to board with her for the summer, and she descended into a sense of deep depression. When she appealed to me, I asked her if she deserved the spiritual peace which I had brought to her, if she valued it so little that she would permit the deflections of careless mortals to rob her of it? I told her that she had been seeking to establish the peace of God and a spiritual consciousness of His presence for thirty years. It was worth more than a fortune since it could not be measured in terms of money, or matter. Then I said, “Yet you think so little of it that you permit yourself to be robbed of it easily. Do you think in God's sight you deserve it, when you seem to have so little regard for it?”

In this letter we see Mrs. Eddy telling the members to remember that, before God, their work is to maintain their love and peace through thick and thin, through the heat of church problems as well as individual ones. She knew that the church problems would continue for hundreds of years and would prove valuable in training and testing students.

Certainly, the problem in our church is not to see how harmonious we can be as a church, but how harmonious we can be in the church, or in spite of the church and its difficulties. The church problems seem to carry the greatest temptation to disturb the student. He might be able to defend his consciousness of God's presence and his consequent feeling of peace against malice, envy, jealousy, or suffering. He might overcome friction in his home and business. He might rise above the temptation to be irritated. But when his fellow-students in the church rub him the wrong way, it becomes difficult to maintain his peace under such circumstances. This very fact means that the church represents the greatest opportunity for spiritual growth, and growth is represented by one's ability to declare, “None of these things move me.” Can one doubt that God's purpose is that the church have some sort of disturbing effect or influence on each member as he progresses, in order that he may learn how to maintain the peace of God which passeth all understanding, his joy and love through the fire? Surely one graduates from what the church has to teach him, when he can go through all church experiences and problems untouched and unruffled, or without losing God.

Mrs. Eddy wanted to convey to the church at this time and for all time the fact that changes may take place, crude footprints may disappear, present modes may be dissolved, friction may appear, but such things should not touch one's spiritual thought.

Mrs. Eddy knew that there were those in her church who had gained positive good and who were striving to help everyone else attain that same positive good. But she knew that the bulk of the organization would always be those who had a negative sense of good, those who truly desired to do right, those who failed only when they were influenced through their innocence and ignorance. She knew that such members were faithful and loyal, but were easily influenced. They represent the ballast of the Christian Science ship. When a storm blows, the ballast is liable to shift, and the ship then becomes unseaworthy just at the time when it needs the ballast in the right place. This puts a great responsibility on the few who carry the spiritual thought and are working successfully for the many. As long as they are successful they will have the majority of the church with them.

Finally, she saw that there would always be an element in the church of those who, as they developed, would manifest certain human traits that they had not handled, which would be a disturbing element. An illustration of this was a member of my church who told me that he loved to stir up the membership. When things were going smoothly at a business meeting, he loved to throw in a bombshell, at the same time declaring that he loved harmony, but had to do what he was doing for the good of all. This was a Judas trait which he had never cast out. Members like him are a positive influence on the wrong side. They tend to keep the church stirred up and to oppose everything that is constructive and progressive. They are determined that the human mind shall be the ruling mind in the church.

Mrs. Eddy could say, “God bless the faithful students who carry the thought for all.” As to the great body of members who have so little spiritual thought that it hardly weighs in the scale of God, and yet who genuinely love Christian Science, she did not want to include them in her condemnation. She knew them to be like sheep, who, because of their ignorance, could be swayed back and forth. Yet she could not praise their negative position. So, she says that their hearts are trying to be right in the sight of God. Then she writes of their faithful devotion as Christians. This statement is as if she said, “I perceive your lack of Science and realize that at times it will get you into trouble; but I know that at heart you are genuine and sincere. When the storms are over you will be found where you belong, as the ballast of this great ship.”




Concord, N.H.

December 11, 1889

My dear Student:

Should have thanked you sooner for your faithful discharge of duty, but am busy getting things right and made strong.

I will let you know soon how the lot for building is appropriated for the benefit of you all.


Lovingly your Teacher,

M. B. G. Eddy

Mrs. Eddy's way was to make a vigorous mental assault where she felt that the enemy was entrenched. Then when it was cast out and quiet prevailed, she was ready to extend the sense of the thankfulness and appreciation she felt that the will of God had been accomplished.

This brief note breathes the consciousness that she was content at this point that she had executed what God told her to. What was the students' faithful discharge of duty? It was acquiescing to Mrs. Eddy's requirements — which was not as easy to do as it might sound!

It is wise to bear in mind that spiritual obedience is always hedged about by cross purposes and restrictions, from the very nature of the resistance of the carnal mind. One would be tempted to believe that merely to obey Mrs. Eddy and to agree with what she demanded, to be blind and deaf to anything else, was simple and sufficient. It was not as easy as that, however. It could not be done satisfactorily without demonstration.

Mrs. Eddy, therefore, was ready to applaud them for a demonstration of obedience. She knew how easy it is to obey the suggestions of mortal mind, and how irresistible the urge to do so seems to be. For this very reason obedience to God has got to be a matter of demonstration. From this letter of commendation we can deduce that the students were beginning to find this out.

Mrs. Eddy's statement that she was busy getting things right and made strong is interesting, since analysis shows how important it is that work must be right, before it is made strong. If a carpenter glued something, but put it together so that it was not right, if the glue set, its very strength would make it difficult for him to correct his mistake.

Mrs. Eddy sets forth a valuable precept, therefore, that we must be sure that we are right, before we develop strength, since, if we are not right, strength in wrong becomes a serious deterrent. When mortal mind makes up its mind, it is usually very stubborn. It is strong in that which is not right. For this reason, students must train themselves to be very flexible, as a protection against the possibility of mortal mind making up their minds for them, in order that they may make the demonstration to be sure that it is God that is influencing them, and God alone. Once this has been established, the demonstration of strength must follow.

History shows that Mrs. Eddy handled the matter of the church land as if she was dealing with untrustworthy persons! She carefully covered every point legally, although, of course, in a way that would benefit the Church for all time. What precept can we glean from her procedure in this matter?

If you make an agreement with a man who is known to be absolutely honest, he will abide by it, even though it was verbal. Suppose, however, you knew that that man had occasional lapses into insanity. You would know that at such times you would have no way to hold him, unless you had a legal document you could enforce, since he would forget honesty, and even that he had made a verbal contract.

Christian Scientists have to be businesslike, and not trust mortal mind at all. Why? Because mortal mind is subject to mesmerism, which corresponds to periods of insanity, where it forgets, denies, contradicts, and shows itself to be wholly unreliable. For this reason, Scientists must always be on guard and careful in their dealings with each other and the world.

Mrs. Eddy trusted her church officers and students whom she had tested and tried. Yet sad experience had shown her that they were all, without exception, subject to mesmerism. No doubt Peter's apostasy in denying his Master awakened in the rest of the disciples the importance of protecting themselves as Jesus had directed and instructed them to do, against a similar lapse. If a student so firm, strong, faithful and reliable could have a moment of insanity, in which he deserted and denied his best friend and all that he held dear, this would compel the conclusion that, unless each one protected his integrity, he might find it missing some morning.

It was not an evidence of mistrust, that Mrs. Eddy tied up everything she did with the students legally. She could not trust them always to be on guard against the enemy, to watch that no evil suggestions entered in that would cause them to do or say things inimical to the advancement of the Cause.

One experience that had taught her this point was when a church fair was held in December, 1887, to raise money. Nearly the whole amount necessary to cancel the mortgage on the land was raised; and then the treasurer absconded with all the funds! After his disappearance Mrs. Eddy said of him, “He was an honest man.” (See page 60 of Biographical Sketch, by Bliss Knapp.) She knew that his lapse was due to the influence of animal magnetism. Details concerning the history of what Mrs. Eddy was doing at this time to get things right and made strong, may be found in the book by Mr. Knapp referred to, the complete title of which is, Ira Oscar Knapp and Flavia Stickney Knapp. On page 67 he gives the date of the execution of Mrs. Eddy's trust deed as December 18, 1889. This deed named five Directors, as well as a board of three trustees, who were to hold title to the church land, but only for the purpose of erecting a church edifice thereon.

Mr. Knapp refers to the Christian Science Journal for February, 1890, where one of the Directors, Eugene H. Greene, advocated making the new church a memorial to Mrs. Eddy. After Mrs. Eddy had voiced her objections to this, another Director, Joseph S. Eastaman, put forward the idea of including in the church building a publishing house. The fact that this violated the deed was overlooked, and plans went forward. It is important for this point to be known, since the controversy which culminated in 1892 arose over this point.




Concord, N.H.

November 2, 1891

My dear Student:

Last Friday the very student of mine, whom two years ago I tried to get for editor of our Journal, came to me wholly unexpectedly, saying, I will take this charge! She did not know why she came to me until I told her our need. I had hoped God would send her, but never so much as thought of any mental influence in the matter. She is the one, or I am mistaken. She is a thorough scholar and will need no assistance. Truly God makes us willing in the day of His power.

With much love,

Mary B. G. Eddy


This letter to William B. Johnson would not be complete without quoting the one Mrs. Eddy wrote to Mrs. Julia Field-King under the date of November 7th. Sarah Clark was the editor who resigned, and Mrs. King took her place and remained until August 30, 1892.

Mrs. Eddy wrote:


“I have named you to three of the Business Committee on our Journal and you have doubtless heard from them.

“I shall rejoice in your success and wait patiently for this opportunity. The ordeal is something to meet. I give no recommendations, but wait for you to furnish these in fruits, which are so much better than our words.

“That you should arrive just when the present editor had sent her resignation to the Committee, and came unasked, when years ago you had refused this place on the Journal, — and I had given up the idea, and as I suppose you knew not how we were situated, — looks like a providence more than a personal purpose which sent you. Let us thank God and take courage.

“You must already be aware that I am absolved from all care of this magazine and sometimes am misrepresented by those who take me for authority relative to what I know nothing about. Your scholarship is ample for your task, and to be wise and gentle, and strong and fearless is the province of an editor. May our Father give His angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.”


Then as a postscript she added,


“Above all, whatever is contributed on Christian Science, that is not Science, correct and erase until it is. If the author is ignorant of the improvement of his copy, he must wait and grow to it. And if you are sometimes perplexed as to points in it, go to Science and Health. It is all there in its genuineness.”


Mrs. King's history at this point was of interest. On May 16, 1891, Mrs. Eddy wrote to her urging her to come to Boston with the statement, “Our most cultured cities need you.” She did not respond to this invitation at once; but when she did do so, Mrs. Eddy felt that it was a sign — a leading of divine providence — and recommended her name as editor.

As editor Mrs. King caused Mrs. Eddy to be praised personally in the Journal — in spite of the latter's constant admonitions to her not to do so. Mrs. Eddy wrote,


“M.A.M. will incite you to constantly praise me. Why? Because it stirs up strife, in belief it sets the powers of envy and malice harder at work, and I have much more to meet than when there is no stir made in this direction. Again, to refer to what God has done through me is all right — but to name me in it is not necessary, and at present it is very unwise.” (January 7, 1892)


Then on June 18 she wrote to her,


“1 thank God for your faith in Him and your true sense of me. Why? Because in over one quarter of a century I have never in one single instance seen these fail to carry a student safely on in growth and prosperity. But in every single instance the loss of those mental conditions has wrecked the student. Once I was young (and now am young) but never have I seen the righteous forsaken — those who are right, misled. ‘Long ago' means in experience a lesson learned. Yes, you may give me the title that God has given, viz. Discoverer and Founder. It will do much toward steadying the minds in the present and future. Only I beg of you to be temperate in using it, be wise as the serpents that it will cause to hiss. Will you not, dear one? Why I prohibited its use was because of intemperance. A moderate reminder of this great point of history is needed and will be so long as time lasts. (1) It shows the advent of God's expressed Motherhood. (2) It shows the fact that destroys the falsehood. (3) It is God's order of showing to the human race the divine dispensation of Christian Science. Will you see, can you see me as I am? Dear child, I have asked too much at present.”


About this time there arose a controversy in regard to the Building Fund of The Mother Church, and the land on which the edifice was to be erected. The money had been given in good faith to build a church, and the trustees, Mr. Lang, Mr. Monroe and Mr. Nixon, wanted to include a publishing house. The reason for mentioning this controversy at this point is merely to show how it caused Mrs. King to make a serious mistake that ended her editorship. Mrs. Eddy sent an article concerning the Fund to be published in the Journal, and when it appeared, it was changed in its essential legal point. Mrs. King did this at the insistence of Mr. Lang, one of the trustees, without consulting Mrs. Eddy.

Mrs. Eddy's rebuke of this very dangerous error caused Mrs. King to resign her place as editor. On August 30, 1892, Mrs. Eddy wrote:


“I suppose your resignation takes effect tomorrow! At first I felt sorry, but now I see it is best for you and for the Journal. No good ever came or can come from discord. I trust you will be happier and can do more good in your old field of labor. The Trustees had no right to suppress any portion of my article. They have misrepresented me publicly and as usual I have returned good for evil. Good reigns and evil cannot harm goodness.”


Then Mrs. Eddy added a postscript,


“I did recommend you as Editor. But shall not do even this again. I am determined to take no part whatever either pro or con in the Journal business. The Pub. Society is ‘old enough and big enough' to do all that is requisite, and I do not want to know what they do and they so far have not troubled me by letting me know.”


There are many points of importance and interest brought forth by the above extracts. One might wonder, after Mrs. Eddy had advised Mrs. King to correct all articles contributed to the Journal, why she should make it such a point of rebuke, when she did this very thing to Mrs. Eddy's article. But it was a very different thing to change a contribution from a student, or to alter an article written by Mrs. Eddy for the whole field, one that had come to her from God. To change such a one was to oppose God and to take away His purpose. Thus, Mrs. Eddy was right when she perceived it to be a very serious situation, serious enough to be the occasion of Mrs. King's resignation as editor. She felt strongly that her article contained God's plan; in reality it was God that wrote it, and she was merely following out God's behest. It was a sin to have one word changed.

The human effects coming from demonstration — but materially interpreted — give no indication of the directing wisdom responsible for such effects. So, how was Mrs. King to know that she was doing wrong? Had she been watchful and demonstrating as she should have been, she would have known. Had Mr. Lang, the trustee, been able to see spiritually, he never would have suggested the change; and those at headquarters, whatever their position, should be consistently striving to see spiritually. Both Mrs. King and Mr. Lang should have realized that Mrs. Eddy was guided and influenced alone from above. Hence, what she gave them for publication had a divine purpose back of it — and God's purpose is not man's. It is a rule that the only way we can perceive the wisdom of what God tells us or others to do, is to see it spiritually, and not materially.

Mrs. King did not realize that in this position of editor, God had given her an opportunity to rise higher, and through a lack of demonstration she failed. It was an opportunity for her to grow and improve, but she failed. If one felt that she failed only from Mrs. Eddy's standpoint, let him remember that Mrs. Eddy's standpoint was God's standpoint. Mrs. Eddy could not continue to sponsor one of whom God disapproved. When God approved of one, Mrs. Eddy was bound to know it and to approve.

When it was plain that Mrs. King would have to go, Mrs. Eddy sent her the following letter on August 27.


“Before you leave us, if leave you must, I want you to give me a call and let me take you over my house and look with me on the hills and catch their rest.


For the strength of the hills I bless Thee, my God,

Our father's God. Hemans.”

From this letter we learn that Mrs. Eddy wanted Mrs. King to take this blow in the right spirit, so that she might right herself, after being released from the malpractice that necessarily attended her position. How often Mrs. Eddy used the hills in this way: when events seemed to be more than she could endure; when friends mocked and betrayed, and error seemed to be holding sway temporarily, she would contemplate the hills and see how insignificant were the happenings in this mortal sense of things, in comparison with the eternal nature of the hills.

Sometimes a forest fire that devastates homes is a horrible thing to contemplate. Yet the next morning when the homes and trees are gone, one can see that the hills are still there unmoved by the surface desolation and devastation, and one can gain some peace from that realization, since the trees will grow again and houses be built again. The hills help to show that the tragedy is merely a passing one. Mrs. Eddy hoped Mrs. King would catch this realization about her own tragedy by coming to Concord and catching the rest of the hills.

If one questioned why Mrs. King's act in changing Mrs. Eddy's article, or omitting a portion of it at Mr. Lang's insistence, was grounds for her removal, let him remember that if she would do a thing of that kind in regard to Mrs. Eddy, it proved that she could not be trusted. If you have a quality of thought that can be influenced by error in one instance and be made disloyal, there is nothing that you might not do — so you become dangerous to have in a responsible position.

Mrs. Eddy did not know in advance whether the shock would cause Mrs. King to go out of Science, or whether she would go back to normal and continue to be an active and efficient student. Proof that she did stray is found in a letter dated September 5, 1893, in which Mrs. Eddy wrote,


“We cannot carry along with Christ, evil-speaking, envy, deceit, or conceit, for Christ will either leave us, or take these and all other errors out of us by the suffering they bring. Now dear one, remember I cannot save you, — If I could I would, — from sinning and suffering; but we can hold guard over our own evil inclinations by continued watchfulness and prayer, and thus seeking to put them down, will do it. This I beg, that you will keep up your severe struggles to accomplish this until I can welcome you back to your Mother in Israel.”


Mrs. Eddy believed that it was a divine leading to take Mrs. King as the editor of the Journal. She hoped with all her heart that the latter would measure up to what she expected of her — or rather, what God expected of her. Some of her letters that she wrote contained marvelous guidance, reproof and teaching, as well as breathing of her love for her. On October 19, 1893, she wrote


“Was it not disobedience to the Master's last request to his sleeping disciples which left them without the bridegroom to mourn their disobedience, to return to their nets, to battle alone — until they were put to death? But the prophecy is contradictory. If the Christianity of our cause is so dependent on person as to disappear with one individual, to scoff at obeying that one is to hinder the progress of Christianity, if indeed disobedience is thereby enforced. My letter to you pointing to a time when it might be well for you to return to Boston needs an amendment. I learn something new continually. One of the many things is that that city is not the place for such a sensitive to mortal mind influence as you are at present. Sometime I hope you will master this. But dear student, the secret of being thus victorious all lies with yourself. A state of perfect honesty is a fortress impregnable to this evil influence. God always has, always will cause all things to subserve the welfare of such a state of mind.”


When Mrs. Eddy recommended Mrs. King as editor, it was with a sincere conviction that she was God's choice. If there was any one thing she was particular about, and very often her students neglected, it was the importance of going to God to find out the suitability of a person for a certain position. Mrs. Eddy claimed to have not the slightest human opinion in such matters. She disregarded the names of candidates sent to her from Boston when she was convinced that they had been selected merely because of their apparent human ability. She relied wholly on demonstration in such matters. She knew how important it was to have the right person in the right place.

When God calls a student to take a position, it is wise for him to accept. When God selects one, if the candidate knows it, he would think a long while before he would refuse to obey God. The penalty for disobeying God is serious. From her own experience Mrs. Eddy knew this. From my own observance I can declare that Mrs. Eddy was childlike in her obedience to what God told her to do, and strong and vigorous in her determination to put it into effect.

Mrs. King was no sooner made editor than she wrote a long article called “A Protest” in which Mrs. Eddy was referred to personally. This called forth from Mrs. Eddy a sharp rebuke dated December 13, 1891, which reads in part:


“The enemy gloat over any contribution which supports these charges, ‘Mrs. Eddy makes the Journal deify her personality. Mrs. Eddy, alias Teacher, alias Leader, or some other cognomen for her is all we hear of from this Journal that is in any manner connected with Christian Science.' Now please observe these rules: (1) Never let me figure in an article personally. (2) Write all you please denouncing error but give no handle to it of personality. (3) What you wrote divested of its personal references was just right. (4) Keep out of your Magazine ‘stolen goods' and set the example ‘Thou shalt not steal' even from Mrs. Eddy! but omit the personal mention of the warehouse whence this book stealing goes on. If you value these hints at the starting point of your labor, you will find them invaluable at the end.”


This letter did not put a stop to Mrs. King's praise of Mrs. Eddy. The latter had to rebuke her again and again. Finally, she wrote,


“Also you paid me another high praise in this article after all I have said against this. Now dear one, keep this letter in your pocket or somewhere handy and everything you write or correct for the Journal, before doing it read this letter and follow my directions till you overcome the temptation of M.A.M. to write anything on personality any more than you would talk sickness as real.” (January 7, 1892)


In the letter Mrs. Eddy wrote Mrs. King telling her of her appointment as editor, we find her saying, “I shall rejoice in your success and wait patiently for this opportunity. The ordeal is something to meet. I give no recommendations, but wait for you to furnish these in fruits, which are so much better than our words.” She was really saying, “I cannot rejoice until I see your fruitage. There is no aggrandizement in merely being put in a position; but if you conduct it according to demonstration and so satisfy God — and so satisfy man — that will be cause for rejoicing.”

When Mrs. King arrived in Boston just as Sarah Clark resigned as editor, Mrs. Eddy took it to be a fortuitous circumstance; but in her letter she does not state that it is a demonstration, but merely that it looks like it. She writes, “That you should arrive just when the present editor had sent in her resignation…looks like a providence more than a personal purpose which sent you.” It takes more than a happening just at the crucial moment to prove that it is a demonstration. At times error brings forth phenomena so as to deceive one into believing that it is God's guidance that is operating. Hence, it is important for us always to check on such happenings, to be sure they are demonstrations.

My teacher in Christian Science, Eugene H. Greene, taught me, when a thing appeared to be demonstration, never to be satisfied until I worked to know that if it was right, it would stand, and if not, it would fall; I must declare and realize that nothing can cause error to be sustained, that it has no power to maintain any position of deception, where it appears to be a demonstration of good. Then Mr. Greene told us that if the circumstance stood under that effort, we could be sure that it was a demonstration.

I assume that Mr. Greene, having been taught by Mrs. Eddy, got the above thought from her. Thus, I can assume that in this case of Mrs. King, Mrs. Eddy was not entirely satisfied that her coming to Boston and taking the editorship was a demonstration; but it looked like one and she hoped it was one. We can believe that she continued to work on it as Mr. Greene outlined, and within a few months it was revealed to her that Mrs. King was not God's choice.

Mrs. Eddy knew Mrs. King's natural qualities and qualifications. She knew that she had the scholarship requisite to take the position of editor. What she did not know was, whether under stress and pressure she would be able to handle the error that came to her in that position, and so keep herself free to accomplish the good she desired to, and Mrs. Eddy desired her to. No one can tell in advance what he or another will do under such circumstances. Mrs. Eddy had been disappointed so many times in students, that she did not accept a fortuitous circumstance of this nature too readily. She was constantly hoping to find the student who was to be her successor; but the moment one had to share with her the error she had to meet, he or she usually fell away. Some even became her enemies and so the enemies of the Cause. For these reasons Mrs. Eddy was careful to write Mrs. King that she was to be judged by her works.

Mrs. King must have been under a peculiar temptation to feel that because she was approved by Mrs. Eddy, it amounted to her being appointed by God for the position. The result of this was the possibility that she would feel adequate merely because she would believe that she had found favor in God's sight. This might lessen her appreciation of the work that she must do to measure up to the requirements of the position. It is possible for a student to go wild with the idea that God has appointed him for a job, and so he must be absolutely fitted for it; and all he has to do is to show God how right He was in His selection. Yet it is only because he showed possibilities that he was appointed.

Judas, the disciple, was selected because he showed possibilities of being an influence for good; but evidently he allowed his satisfaction in being selected to take the place of demonstration. Actually, the demand of God upon him was to clean house, which he neglected to do. There were some old errors which he did not touch; the result was that they tripped him up and eventually destroyed him.

It is necessary to state that, just because at first Mrs. Eddy felt that Mrs. King was the right one for the position of editor, and then after a few months discovered that she was not suitable, that does not mean that she was not the right one for the time being. God works in mysterious ways to human sense that we do not always understand. Human effects which come from God, materially interpreted, give no indication of the directive wisdom responsible for such effects.

A great world war may seem to be the effect of evil; yet there is a directive wisdom back of it. Rightly interpreted it is an exposure of the incorrect thinking of the world. When one is sick, that sickness rightly interpreted is an exposure of the error of that one's thinking. If it had no manifestation, one might remain ignorant of the error and be lost without some sign that was visible or tangible. Therefore, in such a sense sickness might be called the salvation of mankind.

The rattle of the rattlesnake gives warning to people that there is something deadly approaching, that will harm them unless they escape. When a volcano is about to erupt, there are sometimes certain internal noises that give warning in time for people to flee for their lives. Thus, sickness is the indication that one's thinking has gone off, and the seriousness of wrong thinking lies in the fact that, in belief, it separates us from God, and puts us at the mercy of animal magnetism or mesmerism.

How many students fully appreciate how important scientific right thinking is? If they want to be in tune with the One who is the source of everything that is good and enduring, if they want eternal happiness, health and prosperity, peace and good, they must please God; and what He demands is not a great deal to ask, namely, to watch one's thinking and to think as He wants us to think. Mrs. Eddy has taught us what right thinking is, how to think, and what the deterrents are that would stand in the way; so, all are without excuse. If students do not think right, the only excuse can be mental laziness or forgetfulness.

The right thinker is the only one who is pleasing to God. Thus, whatever informs us that our thinking is not right is a blessing, no matter how much we suffer in the process. Sickness is the indication of wrong thinking. Hence, how foolish it would be to try to get rid of the sickness, when wrong thinking is the error. It is the wrong thinking that gets us into trouble, that separates us from God; so, it is the serious thing; it is the thing that must be corrected. Then when that has been done, harmony returns.

In her letter to Mrs. King of November 7th, we find Mrs. Eddy telling her in substance that in the work of editor everything is up to her. It would appear as if there was a divine plan back of it all; yet she did not want her to feel because it was a demonstration to have her in that place, that she did not have a lot to do and a lot to meet; that she did not have things to overcome, and have to demonstrate a radical reliance on God; that she did not have to be obedient to her.

Mrs. Eddy knew the temptation that might follow the belief that one was selected by God and approved of Him for a position — the temptation to feel that one was adequate to take hold and be successful without further prayer and demonstration. So, she had to be careful not to give that impression.

Once I bought a bowl of shaving soap and started right in to use it; but to my disappointment it made no lather. It was an English soap and I decided that it must be an inferior grade. After three days I discovered that it was wrapped in cellophane and I had not detected this fact. When the transparent wrapping was removed, the soap was found to be all right.

When we feel that God has selected us for a position, we need not believe that we are adequate, but that we have good possibilities, and if we use them properly, and demonstrate correctly, we may bring ourselves up to the standard that is necessary. But there is always the cellophane to be removed, because no one is ever ready for a position. One becomes God's choice because he has the best possibilities and is the most amenable to the divine influence.

It is evident that this was Mrs. King's trouble as editor. She felt that God had selected her, and so she must be adequate for the work. She was lacking in a proper sense of humility. She went ahead and assumed her worth for the position, doing what she thought was right. But she did not listen for advice — Mrs. Eddy's advice — and so she made so much trouble that she had to be removed. Yet that did not mean that God had not selected her. That did not mean that God was not pouring out His wisdom upon her. Whether she could take it and profit by it was up to her. We need never believe that because God is pouring into us His wisdom, that that is all there is to it. There is a preparation to be made to receive it. If you do not make it, how can you expect to receive divine guidance? Certainly it is not up to God!

God selected many students for many positions in Mrs. Eddy's time. When they failed — if they did — it was not God's mistake in selecting them, but it was their failure properly to take advantage of and utilize His knowledge, and thus make themselves worthy. This is the law and the prophets. First, we perceive the truth as a prophecy, and then through the law, we make it permanent. Without prophecy one would never heal a case, and without law one could never make it permanent. The practitioner must perceive the perfection of the patient, although to the senses that perfection is not acknowledged. Then he uses the law to dissipate the illusion so that that which we know, will be acknowledged by the senses as well as by the understanding.

The letter of November 2 which Mrs. Eddy wrote to Mr. Johnson was to inform the church of Mrs. Eddy's thought about Mrs. King, so that there would be no argument or dissension about the appointment. If they felt that she was not suitable for the position, this letter would show them that from Mrs. Eddy's best standpoint, she was the one.

Once it was my privilege to make the demonstration to provide our Leader with a pair of horses. August Mann foresaw the need and apprised me of it. The day came when the old span misbehaved, and Mrs. Eddy said to Mr. Mann, “I cannot drive behind these any longer. Do you know where I can get another pair?” “They are already in the stable, Mother,” was the reply. This was a fortuitous circumstance which pointed to the possibility that they were a demonstration; yet Mrs. Eddy was not satisfied until she had used her highest understanding and demonstration to determine the situation. So, she summoned me to Pleasant View to describe just how I had gotten the horses. When she was convinced that they had been obtained wholly by demonstration and in no other way, she felt that she could keep them. But first she had to find out whether it was the hand of God or error. On the surface it seemed to be the hand of God, but she worked further in order to be sure.

Similarly, Mrs. King's being on the spot when Sarah Clark resigned, and being ready to take over the reins of the editorship, seemed like a demonstration; but Mrs. Eddy did not accept it as such merely because of the coincidence of her coming at just the right moment. No doubt the hand of God was in it, even though Mrs. King did not appreciate the necessity and opportunity of making the highest and best demonstration she had ever been called upon to make.

A year after Mrs. King had resigned from the editorship, Mrs. Eddy wrote to her and said, “How my tired, bruised mortal sense is cheered by your sweet letters.” She would never have felt bruised, if her faith in human nature had not been continually tried, and she had not met with continual disappointment. Here she thought that God had guided her to put in Mrs. King; yet she only lasted a few months as editor. Mrs. Eddy had placed the matter before the students and assured them through Mr. Johnson, that unless she was mistaken, Mrs. King was the one. It bruised her, therefore, when her highest judgment seemed to be impugned. Yet we can realize that it was perhaps as much part of the divine plan to have Mrs. King take the position for the time she had it, as though she had been able to fulfill it for years. Sometimes the blind alleys have as much part in fulfilling God's purposes as the roads that go through. Afterwards God's plan is seen, how one step leads to another. Once a man wanted to go to Bangor, Maine by boat, and got to the ticket window just in time to lose the last reservation. It seemed to him, as a Christian Scientist, that that was a great lack of demonstration. Yet the boat was never heard from; no trace of it was ever found.

Human sense cannot trace God's plans in their working out. No doubt it was part of God's plan to have Mrs. King fill in the place temporarily until the right one presented himself, the one who was to hold the position for a reasonable length of time. When Sarah Clark resigned, the right one was not ready; but was getting ready, no doubt. Thus, all things were working together for good, because of the love for God that Christian Science inspires.

Yet it bruised Mrs. Eddy's spirit, when she had given a student months of intensive training, to have her prove unworthy, and show that she had more or less wasted her time; so, she must start again with another student.

Yet, as time went on, it appeared as if Mrs. King was continuing to be a good Christian Scientist, and this cheered Mrs. Eddy and poured balm into her wounded spirit. It was good to feel that putting her into a position for which she was not ready had not ruined her, as it did some other students.

One point in my getting the pair of horses for Mrs. Eddy in 1904 is worthwhile noting. Mr. Mann knew that I had made one or two demonstrations for Mrs. Eddy; so, he concluded that I knew something about the error that had to be handled before one could minister to the Leader constructively. Yet for thirty days I sought the horses entirely from a human standpoint, with no thought of demonstration. I had a clear sense of why the mission had been given me to perform. I knew why two other searches conducted by students had failed — they had not made a demonstration of it. Yet I did not attempt to demonstrate the horses once during the thirty days I searched for them. Only when I realized that I had exhausted all human means, did I rouse myself to demonstrate. Nevertheless, I had been demonstrating up to that point in other ways in my life.

Thus, it can be asserted that Mrs. King had probably been demonstrating up to the point where she took the editorship. She doubtless demonstrated the articles for the Journal that had attracted Mrs. Eddy's attention and favorable comment. Just as August Mann recognized that I had made demonstrations which were successful, so Mrs. Eddy recognized the same thing about Mrs. King; just as he wanted me to buy the pair of horses, so Mrs. Eddy wanted her to be editor. At that point it appears that she stopped demonstrating, just as I did. Then before she could right herself and begin to demonstrate, the error got hold of her, shut her off from God's guidance, and she began to do erroneous things through a lack of demonstration, and had to be replaced.

When Mr. J. V. Dittemore permitted error to use him to the point where he betrayed the Cause and Mrs. Eddy, he was treated as a pariah, a Judas, one whose name was not fit to be mentioned. Yet his downfall came somewhat in the same way Mrs. King's did, he being put in a position he was not ready to fill. Had he been permitted to go along in the ordinary way, he might have been an exemplary student.

It is significant to note that Mrs. Eddy did not throw Mrs. King overboard because of her betrayal. She realized that she was in a measure more sinned against than sinning, since she was given a position she was not ready to fill. She did not know how to demonstrate over the error and this kept her from demonstrating over it! She ran up against the same peculiar error that I did, that kept us both from demonstrating when we should have been, with this difference: I finally righted myself and demonstrated over the error that claimed to shut me off from demonstrating; she did not until it was too late.

Mrs. Eddy, however, did not treat her as an outcast and have her excommunicated. She took her back into her heart and forgave her. She worked with her, and was glad when she showed that she had not permitted herself to be upset and to leave the Cause — so becoming its enemy — as so many students did, because of what had happened.

There were many students who had to be placed in positions they were not ready for, because there were so few to draw from. So many had turned away from Christian Science and the Leader, and became their enemies, under the action of animal magnetism. When Mrs. King did not do this, Mrs. Eddy was lavish in her appreciation. On November 3, 1894 she wrote:


“I am more than paid for all I have done for you when you are doing good to yourself and others that you report in your excellent letters….I do wish that you and your students knew how I love you, and how my tired, bruised mortal sense is cheered by your sweet letters. Please tell your students this and give my love to them. May the loving Love keep you, guide you, bless you as His own, — mother.”


In the case of Mr. Dittemore, the time came when he had fretted himself free from the error that had driven him out of the Cause and caused him to seek revenge by doing just the things he should not do. He yearned to come back into the fold, and he should have been taken back, since he was more sinned against than sinning. Finally, he was offered a position of minor importance, but it was too late. He passed on, a broken-hearted man.

Mrs. King was a notable exception to the usual destiny of renegade students, for her final downfall came much later. Her pride did not cause her to turn away from Mrs. Eddy because of her demotion from the editorship. Mrs. Eddy rebuked her in ways that were powerful. Once she called upon her to subscribe one thousand dollars to the Building fund of The Mother Church, her name to be included in the corner stone. Then on April 2, 1894, she wrote, “Since my letter of invitation I have heard from leading members of the Boston Church and think it will be very unpleasant for you and them and me to have your name on the subscription list which I mailed.” Later it developed that Mrs. Eddy was told that she taught her pupils that Jesus was the illegitimate son of Mary, which brought forth the statement from Mrs. Eddy on April 21, “The virginity of Jesus' mother is a cardinal point of Christian Science.”

After resigning from the editorship Mrs. King took up the research of Mrs. Eddy's genealogy, and a whole book could be written relative to her work in this direction. At first the latter encouraged her in this study. On March 1, 1895, she wrote:


“How Mother loves you as she reads your last letter and perceives the experienced woman and the babe in Christ combining. How natural that the babe should be fretted with the friction of material history and the error it includes, and must go to Mother for the milk of the Word and rest on the bosom of God. Mother has felt all this and a million more struggles for thirty years and walked in the straight and narrow path which lies between harming others and helping them. Giving milk to babes and meat to men, requires great wisdom, great growth, great love. To lead the world wisely means much; hence Jesus' words: ‘Be ye therefore wise as serpents.' To direct the thought to Gen. Totten's grand publications without forearming it with the facts laid down in mine, also the recital of your own experience as referred to in your letter to me — would be as unwise as to talk materia medica and surgery to a patient you were healing of a compound fracture of the bone. Search up the history you are upon the verge of discovering, fairly and clearly, — and write it wisely; then send it for publication in the Christian Science Journal and (if it is received favorably there) publish it in pamphlet form.”


The purpose of Mrs. King's search was to prove Mrs. Eddy's descent in the same line as our Master's, from David. It is evident that Mrs. Eddy was not in favor of the human side of research, and submitted to it only with the hope that it might serve to destroy prejudice in the minds of the public. This is proved by her next letter of March 13.


“I think it is not wise to further pursue your chronological research. It is not really in the line of Truth that the thought is forming itself in this investigation, but in the line of material origin and this has an end. Now I would turn away from the subject. My reason for asking you to undertake this historical proof was that the people would sooner be convinced perhaps by it of my legitimate mission; but I fear it costs you too much to direct your thought so materially and the end will not justify the means.”


After the above letter it is possible that Mrs. Eddy felt a great disappointment in Mrs. King's thought, and she felt it wise to reverse her decision, since she next wrote on March 19:


“A feeling of sweet submission has come over me, a sense of ‘Thy will be done,' and I have conquered the reluctance I felt to have what I knew was true proven — lest it should cherish a sentiment or rather a belief, I so deprecate, namely, a canonization of which I feel so unworthy, and so dislike. But, dear one, you deserve the place you have earned, namely, the historian of what will thrill the people. And God gave you to me, no doubt, for this very end, and I have stood for you, and by you against fearful odds, no doubt, for this very end, and I love you and wish now to honor you. Therefore you may go forward now if it costs you no spiritual loss, as you assure me. Then in your charming style and with unquestionable proof, send your article containing this news to the C. S. Journal, you once edited. But darling, I charge you tell no man till this be accomplished.”


On July 17 Mrs. Eddy takes another tact and writes:


“I forgot to say The Heraldry and Christian Science will not go together; when the mind is prepared to receive the latter in your beautiful illustrations, it is immediately diverted from receiving your spiritual import by the former. Your present arrangement must be changed before it will do to publish it. As it is, it would do more harm than good to our Cause. Please go no further into the search for Ambrose. I can never express my gratitude for what you have done. But we will drop it now and wait.”


On July 23 Mrs. King received the final statement that ended the plans for the genealogy.


“Now do not make a single more research into my genealogy. You have all I want; just type the whole as you named and that is all I shall allow to be historic. I do see that it is wrong to pursue the material thought of the dead as having life or of matter kinship, for there is none. Only think of the descent as that of a name. No inherent qualities of race exist. Banish this lie from your mind or it will harm you. Mind strictly what I say; I read the thought looking at your fingers. Fix it up and send with no more labor over it. It is all a ‘liar from the beginning and Truth abides not in it.' You need Truth; the lie seems more real to you than to me, hence the result above named.”


Mrs. King's reply to this letter on July 25 is of interest, since on the back of it Mrs. Eddy penciled a note. Mrs. King writes,


“I thank you that the work is not to be published. What a good-for-nothing liar the human heart is! I am deeply grateful for every purifying test which has come to me through this work. All things do work together for Good, if we love Good. Love shall reign in my heart, life and work. I will be your loving, obedient student, in my inmost heart. Spirit must be more real to me than matter. There is no matter. Help me to more fully realize it every hour. God is your shield and buckler; for He has said to you, ‘This is my beloved in whom I am well pleased.' I am grateful to the loving Father that He had one through whom the light has shined upon us. Patient, loving Mother, reflecting patient Love divine, believe me your grateful student, Julia Field-King.”


On the reverse Mrs. Eddy wrote:


“Precious, obedient child. This she wrote after all her labor to get out the facts material of my lineage and with the expectation of publishing them. And I then declined to let the work be published now. What an example is this for some of my other students!”


On the same day Mrs. Eddy wrote to her:


“Your prompt obedience, so intelligent, simple, wise, almost surprises one who has so long waited, worked and suffered to gain this growth for her students. You have been benefited, I have been satisfied, the world will some time reap the reward of your labor, and you shall be announced as the author of the little work, if ever it is made public.”


In analyzing this item of history it can be said that it took great wisdom and discernment to know whether it would be of greater value to have the world know that Mrs. Eddy was of the seed of David humanly considered and traced, than to stress the teaching of Christian Science that repudiates all human parentage, and, with the Master, commands us to call no man your father which is upon the earth. It is always a question to know how far one should go in setting forth what one knows to be scientifically untrue. Many times those who give testimonies stress the unreal as if it were real, in their zeal to make an impression on the public and prove that Christian Science does heal; on the other hand, we have young earnest students who try to speak so scientifically that when they finish, one does not know whether the one healed was sick from the medical standpoint, or merely suffering under the imagination.

Those who try to be too scientific in their testimonies convey no clear sense to the public of the real miracle of healing from the human standpoint. They are not able to separate in their minds between the method by which the healing is done, which should not be given to the public, and the truth about the lie, which is, that to the human standpoint it did exist as the world recognizes it, and then it was healed through Christian Science. We are trying to convince the world of the remarkable healing power of Science, and we should do it in every wise way. When a young student believes that it is important for him to stick to Science in his testimonies, he is mixing up the method with the statement of the human fact in a way that is not understandable to the public.

On the other hand, we have those who set forth the error so graphically that they make it seem real, in their effort to convince the public that a wonderful healing took place. Such ones need to be restrained and instructed never to relate a healing without establishing the thought within them that they are only telling about a dream.

One who reads this correspondence could never say that this great amount of work that was done was a mistake, merely because Mrs. Eddy finally shut it off. The record remains and certainly it cannot be called an error. Who knows in the future, but what it will be made public and certain ones will be helped in their estimate of Science in feeling that Mrs. Eddy was worthy to be its Founder because of her human lineage? Who can say that it was an error for her to allow Mrs. King to do what she did and to encourage her in it? The error in it seems to have been, not in what she did, but in the way she did it.

When Thomas Edison invented the incandescent light, he not only discovered the material for the filament, but he proved that over twelve hundred substances were not suitable for it. Could one say that the vast amount of work that he did, was wasted because it was fruitless? Was Mrs. Eddy misled in encouraging Mrs. King to do this research, merely because when it came to the point of what should be done with it, she changed her mind about having it made public, because God told her to change it. Was all that work wasted? Does one feel that her spiritual perception should have told her in the beginning that it was not to be published? How can one estimate what this work may accomplish in future years?

Once, as we find in these pages, Mrs. Eddy announced plans to have a resort for the so-called sick. Then she withdrew the plans. That move was not a mistake, since it opened the way for the Benevolent Home to come into being. I doubt if any loyal student would have felt that it was right or scientific to have such an institution conducted by Christian Science, unless in some way Mrs. Eddy had gone on record as approving of it, when the time was ripe. Today students should awaken to the fact that this home must be protected and supported mentally, because when you put an activity of Christian Science out in the open where everyone can know about it, it awakens opposition and envy; so, it must be protected.

In accordance with the Master's admonition to call no man your father upon the earth, Mrs. Eddy taught students to acknowledge no material birth. Thus, she was consistent when she told Mrs. King on July 23, “Only think of the descent as that of a name.” A name is carried from one generation to another. She writes, “No inherent qualities of race exist.” This is Science. All that we call inheritance is belief, education, environment. A child can be adopted by parents and have his whole life changed, so that nothing about him resembles his real parents. Christian Science denies that any qualities descend through birth.

Mrs. Eddy warns Mrs. King, “Banish this lie from your mind or it will harm you.” Mortals are harmed by believing that certain qualities or tendencies are inherited, since they thereby accept the proposition that they are not responsible for them. A young man who believes that he inherits the appetite for liquor, accepts it without a struggle, and others do not blame him. Yet he is merely hiding behind a false statement, and excusing his own weakness.

It seems odd that Mrs. Eddy should have written, “Mind strictly what I say; I read the thought looking at your fingers.” Sometimes one's knuckles will become out of shape because one's parents' knuckles were. Mrs. Eddy no doubt saw this condition in Mrs. King, and knew that there was no reason for it except the belief of inheritance, which she was making real because of this research into Mrs. Eddy's lineage. So, she was warning her in this way.

Christian Scientists need to be alert on this question of human inheritance, and know that in reality inheritance is the law of God, whereby the blessings that belong to man come to him. They must realize that the only inheritance is divine, and applies only to God. They must deny it as a human fact or claim, since it is through the appropriation of inheritance by mortal belief to human parents that the claim of materiality is perpetuated through the error of a beginning and an end. The moment the wonderful blessing called inheritance is attached to human parents and materially appropriated, it becomes the curse on mortal man. Before we can eradicate the belief of mortal mind appropriating this spiritual quality for the damning of mortals, we must know that humanly it has no power to enforce itself or communicate itself; that human tendencies are not transferable to children, etc.

Mrs. Eddy saw that Mrs. King was becoming too much interested in the material side of generation. It was becoming real to her. There are students of Christian Science who have become interested in prophecy, prophetic writers and writings. This may be harmful for the advancing student seeking to live under the correct rule of metaphysics. Prophecy may be helpful in convincing one of the divine basis of Christian Science, but when one knows it is true, why should he need to study prophecy to a point where it darkens his metaphysical thought? Metaphysics denies material parentage, while prophecy is based on material descent. If one becomes wrapped up in the proposition that divine inspiration prophesies the advent of a mortal man, that is liable to have a darkening effect upon one, so that he loses the true metaphysics in which no admission of the existence of a mortal man is included.

When the Master took mind and transformed it into bread and fish, that did not mean that there is material food in God. It meant that man's conception of God's divine feeding may take the form that is recognized by mortals as needful for sustenance.

Jesus in the flesh did not prove that a material man is contained in God. He represented the adaptation of the prophetic thought, on the basis that the spiritual idea is with us always, giving it a material investiture recognizable by mortals.

Thus, prophecy involves giving the idea that comes from God a human adaptation — not that God prophesies the advent of a mortal. It was in tracing this material adaptation that Mrs. King got caught, so that material succession and inheritance began to seem real to her, and Mrs. Eddy detected this by seeing her fingers beginning to be misshapen. Her belief in human inheritance was becoming accentuated by what she was doing, so Mrs. Eddy called a halt. Human inheritance can seem unreal only as we know that man has none, since he is born of God, who is his only Father, and through a divine inheritance, all that belongs to God becomes man's.

The history of this episode must include the fact that on July 24, 1895, Mrs. Eddy sent Mrs. King a telegram which read, “Send manuscript just as it is to me at once; it will not be published.” Having lived at Pleasant View I can reconstruct a possible picture, which, even if I cannot prove was true in this case, was often true. Perhaps Mrs. Eddy found herself in a sense of suffering. As she usually did under such circumstances, she sought the cause of it. One might think of her as being the center of a system, much as an operator of a telephone exchange has charge of a large number of telephones. If the bell rings, she seeks to know where the call comes from and answers it. A less happy illustration would be a spider in his web. No matter how large the web, his watchfulness covers it all, and if any insect lights on any part of it, he can detect it at once by the disturbance conveyed to him.

Mrs. Eddy was called of God to watch over His growing organization. Whenever anything entered into that organization that was displeasing to Him, she had to know it and to cast it out. Oftentimes the way she knew that something was taking place that needed to be corrected was by suffering. Thus, if she suffered on July 24, we can deduce that she cast about in her thought until she detected that the publication of her genealogy was not pleasing to God. So, she at once stopped it. Then the cessation of her suffering would be the proof that she had fulfilled God's demand, and all was well again.

Mrs. Eddy, as God's guardian over His vineyard, was necessarily sensitive when through any channel or mortal mind conditions, animal magnetism stepped into the picture. There were students who did not understand this phenomenon, and when the Leader suffered, and sought to find out the source of it, they fancied that she had a superstitious fear of animal magnetism. They concluded that she was allowing her stimulated imagination to run away with her, to fancy that what Mrs. King was doing was affecting her health, or that she could trace her suffering to that.

On May 6, 1895, however, Mrs. Eddy wrote Mrs. King that she had traced her suffering to the malpractice of Dr. Foster Eddy, although she did not name him, other than to refer to him as David did to his son. On April 26 she had written to her,


“After I told Dr. Foster what you were doing for our cause, you wrote me how difficult it was for you to go on. Now handle this question accordingly. Oh, Absalom, was David's moan.”


Then on May 6,


“I now see clearer than ever the Absalom. The cause of the action in Washington, the cause of what took place in your history in Boston, the cause of my quitting my field in Boston and the change in my health, and what God means in establishing the inheritance and heritage of His in the worthy line of succession. Go on bravely, dearest one. Defend yourself from any Absalom by knowing that evil has no power, and hate and envy cannot rule this event, while love and good will toward men does.”


This later letter is quoted as proof that Mrs. Eddy traced her change in health to error in a student in a form that displeased God. Later she no doubt discovered that it was the error connected with Mrs. King's handling of the genealogy that displeased God and she put a stop to it. I will guarantee that, when she did, she experienced relief.

Mrs. Eddy was not a victim of a superstitious fear of what the students were doing and thinking, when it seemed to bring her suffering. When through her advice and recommendation a thing was done, and the students did not act or think in accordance with divine wisdom, she often detected it by the fact that she suffered. Thus, through her stripes we were healed. For this reason, I claim that it lies within the range of possibility, that she was led to release Mrs. King from what she was doing by the fact that she suffered, since God knew that the results would not be best for His Cause. Down through her life many things that at the time seemed logical, rational and right, were shut off because she suffered. She shut them off primarily to avoid the suffering, and in that way things that were not good in God's sight were stopped. Through her stripes we were healed of doing that which would not in the long run be good for the Cause.

Perhaps God foresaw that had this production of Mrs. King's been published, the enemies of the Cause would immediately credit Mrs. Eddy with a desire for aggrandizement, as well as a lack of consistency, in teaching the unreality of any belief in a material origin of man, and then sponsoring a record that traced human ancestry. Perhaps the effect of this on young students who did not know Mrs. Eddy, or on the public, would have been deleterious.

What other reason could there have been for sending the telegram of July 24 other than that Mrs. Eddy was suffering? I believe that things were not pleasant at Pleasant View, and so this telegram was sent. And the relief that was experienced would be proof that another danger had been averted, and the Cause saved from what only God could tell at the time was not good, nor in accordance with His will and wisdom.

It is always interesting how childlike Mrs. Eddy was in her appreciation, when a student was obedient. She instructed Mrs. King to do something that involved a great sacrifice — giving up plans to publish that which she had worked so hard on — and she obeyed. How grateful Mrs. Eddy was! She called her obedience intelligent, simple and wise — the result of growth she had worked, waited and suffered to gain. When one contemplates what she had been through as a result of disobedience on the part of students, it becomes plain why her gratitude in this instance was so spontaneous.




Concord, N. H.

December 14, 1891

Mr. Johnson

My dear Student:

Now is the hour for you to organize the Sunday School and have a superintendent to conduct things orderly.

Please if you are willing, to do this at once.

Lovingly,

M. B. G. Eddy


The Bible speaks about doing things in season, indicating that there is a time in which to do everything. A premature move will often spoil our demonstration. Yet delay is equally dangerous. Thus, we are driven to the conclusion and recognition that God alone knows the time in which to make a move. Therefore, it becomes necessary to make the demonstration to know what is the right time.

Mrs. Eddy must have perceived through demonstration, that the hour had struck for this step to be taken. The question was under agitation, because on November 21st she had written William G. Nixon, as a postscript to a letter, “In reply to my enquiry Miss Bartlett writes, the Sunday School has a class for boys and Mrs. Williams is their teacher. Also that this School is in a very flourishing condition. It will be time for a suggestion from me after the new arranged classes are under operation.”

It takes courage to speak with authority unless one is convinced of the truth of what one does. That confidence can only rightly come from God. The weak man is made strong when he feels that he is acting under divine wisdom, and the strong man is made weak when he lacks that conviction. This letter is another evidence that Mrs. Eddy herself had no doubt but what she was being guided.

One who thinks of her as being a woman of great wisdom, mistakes the whole nature of the demonstration of Christian Science, in which man strives to be a voice only for God. It is self-evident that Mrs. Eddy would have insisted under any conditions on having the Sunday School organized when God gave the order to put it through. If the Board of Directors had doubted the wisdom of the move and refused to act, she would have replaced them.

From our present vantage ground it is possible to see that there was always the danger of the Board feeling that Mrs. Eddy was running things entirely apart from them, and they were more or less figureheads. That would tend to diminish their feeling of responsibility, as well as to make them feel that even if they did not demonstrate, Mrs. Eddy would take care of all the demonstrating that needed to be done. This was just the attitude she did not want them to take.

When one is training apprentices, he wants them to feel their importance, so that they may do their best work, and do it just as if the one who is training them was not present. When Mrs. Eddy called upon me to help her audibly at night during my stay in her home, I had to feel that her harmony and rest through the night depended wholly on my demonstration. Otherwise I would not have worked as I did. Had I believed that she gave me that task merely to train me — as I now believe, to some extent — I would not have been as zealous, as careful, or eager as I was, nor would I have put into the work the extreme unction that I did.

This letter calling on the Board through Mr. Johnson, to make this move, indicates that if they were willing, they could put through this recommendation, which required a discussion and a vote as well as a note in the church records that would tell future generations that they did vote to take this step at this time. Perhaps the records would not include this letter to show why they took up the matter, but merely a minute of the fact that at this point they voted to organize a Sunday School, as a demonstration of divine wisdom.

One difficult task Mrs. Eddy had before her was to prove to young students the possibility of demonstrating their way up to the wisdom she had attained. There is a proverb that says that what man has done, man can do. Therefore, the present day Boards, which often seem to be limited in their comprehension, and application of metaphysics, can refer to the minutes of the early Boards and see that the latter were responsible for very wise and far-reaching acts. They will be encouraged thereby to feel that they can do likewise, since the early Directors did not know any more Science than they do. This is a valuable point, and a by-product of the wisdom Mrs. Eddy reflected.

When a teacher of art is striving to bring out in a neophyte the ability to paint, he tells him to paint just what he sees, as best he can. Then as the picture takes form, the teacher gives suggestions. There are two things he wants him to learn, to see intelligently and then to gain skill in transferring what he sees to the canvas.

This would explain Mrs. Eddy's thought concerning Mr. Nixon and the Sunday School, as if she said, “I want to see what you are able to do under your own demonstration. When you have done so, then I will step in. There is only one stipulation. In the entire history of the world there has never been a Christian Science Sunday School. There is no precedent to go by of anything done along lines of Science. But all things are contained in the Mind that is God. For instance, all law is in Him. If it were not, we could not have its limited replica on earth. If a thing does not exist in God, it could not appear on earth even in its poor and distorted way. Therefore, the perfect demonstration of this Sunday School, as of all things, is in divine Mind, Principle, which is the cause back of every effect. So, if we have access to the Mind of God, we have access to every phase of its activity, the limited expression of which we find on earth. But in God's Mind we find it in its perfect form. So, the only standard I have is demonstration. Thus, demonstrate this Sunday School! If you do not, it will not measure up to my standard — not the standard that I have thought out, but the one I have demonstrated.”

I repeat that the greatest difficulty in connection with understanding Mrs. Eddy was where students put forth effect that was in every way humanly perfect, and yet did not come from demonstration. She criticized, and was often criticized secretly in return by the students. It was her refusal to accept what the students put forth that was humanly all right that aroused the Cain in them. The Bible records that Cain put forth an offering to the Lord that was humanly satisfactory, and it was refused. This was because it did not come from demonstration. This refusal aroused a murderous thought in him, showing that the underlying basis of mortal mind is murder.

It was Mrs. Eddy's refusal to accept humanly correct work that did not spring from demonstration, that was a stumbling-block to many. Students who declared that Mrs. Eddy was fussy to an extreme and wanted material things just so, cannot explain why, when she got things that way, she still often refused to accept them. The alternative of the human mind would be to state that she was overly fussy, in fact. so fussy that she did not really know herself what she wanted.

Christian Science teaches that there is always a visible manifestation to trace the course of our growth mental. There are electrical machines that can detect the course of underground rivers, by means of the static electricity that is generated on the surface of the river. Mrs. Eddy knew that the outward experiences in a student's life trace his retrograde or advancing footsteps mental.

Mrs. Eddy was not concerned about effect except as it became the indication of the mental footsteps of the students. She considered the cleaning of her room, for instance, important. because it gave her a definite check on the demonstrating thought of her students. I repeat that she kept track of the mentality of everyone in her home by certain tasks they were given to do. She gave us all tasks to do with that purpose in mind. She gave me the task of tucking the robe around her, as she started out for her drive in her carriage or sleigh. This had to be done in a certain way. One might have thought she was very fussy about this minor detail, because I was required to practice the task by having Mrs. Laura Sargent sit in a chair, and by tucking the robe around her, until I was proficient in doing it, so that there would be no creases in the robe when I came to tuck it around our Leader.

This incident would furnish Mrs. Eddy's enemies with further proof that she was very fussy about minor details. As a matter of fact I concluded that she delegated me to this task and caused me to be trained in it, that thereby she could gauge my mental state by the way I performed the task; and later I had proof of the correctness of this conclusion, when she commended me one day and rebuked me the next, when I could not detect the slightest difference in my performance of the duty. I deduced that the difference was in my mental state. This caused me to take myself up vigorously on the day she rebuked me, from the standpoint that she would not have done it had she not detected that my thought was not where it should have been.

Everyone in the home had at least one task that he was delegated to do, so that Mrs. Eddy could learn of his mental state through the visible. To her the visible task was the instrument that indicated the direction and flow of the underground waters, so that she knew whether we were improving our mental state in demonstration by the way we performed our individual tasks. The contention is absurd that anyone could have performed these tasks to suit her by doing them in a perfect way humanly. There is enough in her experience to prove that that was not true, and that when a student's mentality was off, nothing that they would do for her could possibly satisfy her. It was true even when it came to her food, that if there was a demonstrating sense back of it, it was nourishing and agreeable to her, otherwise not. But Mrs. Eddy was not fussy about her food, of that I can bear testimony. Often if the meal did not arrive just on time, she would give it up and order it taken away, without touching it. Thus, I know she was indifferent to her food, as well as other material things. It is a false deduction that she was fussy humanly, or that matter in all the various phases of manifestation in her life contributed greatly to her happiness or unhappiness. Therefore, I repeat that what appeared to be human fussiness in Mrs. Eddy's life was the care with which she traced the mental progress of her students through their performance of outward tasks. I know that apart from this use, matter had scant importance or value in her estimation.

When her students — a few of them — put so much human effort and human love into their work and determined not to be upset if she would not accept that work, Mrs. Eddy's refusal really stirred up Cain in their thoughts, although, of course, it appeared to be no more than an internal rebellion at what mortal mind thought was unfair and ungrateful treatment.

Consider the incident of the stretcher that was made for drying her stockings without creases. From the time it was constructed, the tendency would be to forget demonstration; yet to have anything that was not done from the standpoint of demonstration was an offense in her home.

Mrs. Eddy complained when her maid did not iron every single crease out of her stockings. So John Salchow carved out a form that would dry the stockings without creases. For two or three days Mrs. Eddy was pleased, until Lydia Hall told her about the form. At once she required them to destroy it, and go back to the old way. What explanation could there be for this act, except that she was accustomed to use the ironing of her stockings as a gauge of the mental state of her students who performed this humble task?

The moment she saw some form of activity in the home that was not being done by demonstration, — no matter how perfectly it was being done from the human standpoint, — she knew that the old human mind was coming in, was fooling the students, and was trying to fool her. She, therefore, had to rebuke it. Her very allegiance to God compelled her to do it. Her criticisms and faultfinding about her stockings were intended to make the students appreciate the fact, that they could never have them right if they did not demonstrate the ironing of them. It was her purpose to have them realize that they could never do anything for her that was right apart from demonstration, and yet she could not tell them so in plain language. She wanted them to feel that her demands were so peculiar and particular that human ability could not possibly satisfy her.

Mrs. Eddy was concerned with method rather than results, and no method that involved the use of the so-called human mind was ever right or satisfactory in her eyes. She was almost like a child in her appreciation of anything that a student worked out spiritually. She never criticized such work. Had she done so, God would have punished her, for she would have been criticizing His work.

Mrs. Eddy did not disclose this secret of her life in so many words, for, had she done so, it might have fallen into the hands of the enemy and given him knowledge of how to thwart her endeavors for the Cause. So, she was obliged to protect this secret.

The historian and spiritual expositor of her life is confronted in her home with a replica in miniature of the way she directed the building of The Mother Church. Instead of being satisfied with the progress the students were making, and their intelligent human effort, she drove them to the wall and declared that the church must be built faster than human effort could do it. She knew that apart from telling them plainly to demonstrate, this was the only hope and chance of driving them to it. And since God would not let her tell them, she had to do it in the way He directed her. Divine Mind can be trusted. In this case where she longed to explain the mystery, she was not permitted to, nor has divine Love permitted the explanation to come forth until the writing of these pages.

Mrs. Eddy's criticism of the work performed in her home with the human mind was intended to make it impossible for the students to deceive her with a purely human effort, and to force them to the standard of demonstration, the standard for activity in her home, — as it should be in all homes. Some who criticized her for being fussy, thought that she merely wanted her work done as other people wanted work done in their homes, efficiently, correctly and nicely. But if that had been so, then she should have been satisfied when that was what she received. But that was not her standard, nor should it be that of any Christian Scientist.

The advancing student must adopt for his standard demonstration as the only right basis from which all things should be done, if they are to be acceptable in the eyes of Mrs. Eddy. This is only another way of saying, in the eyes of God, since she was striving as best she could to approximate God's standard. Her whole thought was to bring her home up to the standard by which the kingdom of heaven is run. Surely the kingdom of heaven is run by demonstration! Then if one is preparing for the kingdom of heaven, he must prepare his earthly home so that it will be run that way; and when it is, it will no longer be an earthly home, since a home run by demonstration is a heavenly one.

It is obvious that Mrs. Eddy was striving to make the whole purpose and effort of her students an enlargement of their mental borders of demonstration, until her home should indeed become the kingdom of heaven.

This unfoldment of the apparent mystery of Mrs. Eddy's life will only come to one who is unwilling to criticize her to the slightest degree, even though at certain points there seems to be good cause for it. The enlightenment will come to one who adheres to the conviction that she had a metaphysical motivation, that was justified in the eyes of God and satisfactory to Him. Then his responsibility is to discover what it was and to make it his own.

The Bible indicates that Cain's offering was not satisfactory because it did not emanate from the right mind. The work of the students that Mrs. Eddy rejected was exactly like the work of Cain, and her refusal had at times the same effect on them as the refusal of his had on him. There are with us today students who are still smarting under her rebukes for work which they thought was efficient and good. Yet, when she rebuked them, she was merely fulfilling the admonition of the Master in Luke 17:3, “If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him.” The dictionary tells us that to trespass means to violate a positive law. In her case this law was the demand to reflect and use the Mind of God alone.

On the opposite side of the pendulum we find Mrs. Eddy's almost extravagant appreciation for work done from the standpoint of divine Mind, a fact that often surprised the students as much as did her rebukes. No one can perhaps know what it meant to her to have an offering brought by Abel, one that her spiritual sense could accept, because she detected the spirit of God back of it.

As an illustration let me quote from the words written by one of her personal maids, “Mrs. Eddy used the lid of a small pasteboard box to put her hairpins in when she took them out at night. One day I suggested to Mrs. Sargent that we give her a small silver tray for this purpose. Mrs. Sargent talked with Mr. Welch, telling just what was needed, and he ordered it made. It was a small, plain tray with a scalloped edge and the word ‘Mother' engraved on the bottom. Mrs. Eddy was delighted with it. She called in the watch and told them Love had sent it to her. If it had cost a million dollars she could not have showed more appreciation and joy, and she always used it afterwards.”

Further light on Mrs. Eddy's rebukes can be gained from Jesus' statement in John 14:12, “…He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do….” Mortal belief presents two arguments, according to Science and Health, namely, pleasure and pain. One can be called human harmony and the other, human discord. In the order of progress there is as much need of healing the former as there is the latter, although this point becomes apparent only to advanced metaphysicians.

Once a student was troubled by the notice Mrs. Eddy placed in Science and Health as follows: “The author takes no patients, and declines medical consultation.” He felt that with her wonderful ability to heal, she should do greater healing work, and not withdraw from it, even though she withdrew in order to have more time to write and teach.

One analysis is that she did continue to heal on an ascending scale, but that God called upon her to do the greater work. If the lesser work is to heal human discord. then the greater work is to heal human harmony. Why is one greater than the other? Healing discord is the curative, or therapeutic art that Mrs. Eddy mentions on page 369 of the textbook. Healing harmony is the prophylactic, or preventive art, since, if one makes the demonstration to rule out the false mind and leave divine Mind in control, before the plant of falsity has had a chance to bear the fruit of pain and suffering, then one has prevented such results.

Mary Baker Eddy was the first healer of human harmony the world has had, and, since no patients would come to her to be healed of this malady voluntarily, she had to use the students in her home. She called students to her home and paid them, in order to give her the opportunity to heal them of human harmony, and one can be sure that she was faithful in doing it.

The question is, could one understand how she functioned, unless he realized that this was what she was doing? Mortal man likes to get rid of discomfort, but he rebels against being healed of ease in matter. Many of the students did not relish having their human harmony invaded and shaken up, and they rebelled as much as they dared. Others were obedient and thoughtful, and yielded to the greater wisdom of their Leader. They were the ones in whom she was able to accomplish the healing of human harmony, so that they gained a taste of divine harmony; and who would willingly go back to the deadening condition of the false peace of mesmerism, after they had been touched by and experienced the so-satisfying divine harmony, which Mrs. Eddy's rebuking and healing of human harmony brought out in them?

Because mortal mind does not part with its false peace willingly, it requires drastic action to deal with it. A drunken man asleep in a burning building forms a good illustration. He wants to be let alone, so that he can sleep; but if you want to save his life, you are not going to let him alone. You are going to shake him, and kick him, if necessary, until you are able to take him to safety. But you get no thanks for your trouble, until he is sober enough to realize the good that you did him.

God called Mrs. Eddy to do the greater works. He called her to give up healing the sick, and to leave that to her students, in order that she might do the greater work of healing human harmony. She was the first and finest exponent of the art of healing human harmony that the world has had. Even our Master could go no further than the healing of discord, since that was all the world was ready for; although he prophesied that his teachings would finally bring not peace to mortal mind, but a sword. On page 53 of Science and Health we read, “The world could not interpret aright the discomfort which Jesus inspired and the spiritual blessings which might flow from such discomfort.” This sentence describes the healing of human harmony, and indicates that at the time of the Master the world was not ready for it.

When Mrs. Eddy rose up to rebuke a student, and perhaps shook her fist at him, — when she displayed what some chose to call anger, — she was merely going through the necessary steps and method to heal human harmony. When the Puritans employed a tithing man to keep members awake during the long sermons, they furnished an illustration of this greater work Mrs. Eddy did, in rousing students from human harmony, which, rightly defined, is a state of peace in which man is indifferent to the demands of God for spiritual activity. It is a state of human complaisance and apathy that requires vigorous treatment in order to be dissipated.

When students were in a state of scientific harmony, Mrs. Eddy would not chide them, because they were functioning as Christian Scientists. That is what they called themselves, and that is what she had a right to expect them to be at all times. But it was a new experience to many of them, when they found that their Leader expected them to clean a room as a Christian Scientist should, and not merely as mortal mind would do it. She wanted her meals cooked as Christian Scientists should do it, as unto the Lord.

Once a story appeared in the Christian Science Monitor that illustrates this point. A group of ministers were discussing the text, “pray without ceasing.” The maid in the home overheard the talk and said to her employer, that to her, that text was one of the easiest and best in the Bible.

The old minister said, “Well, well. What can you say about it, Mary? Can you pray all the time, when you have so many things to do?” “Yes,” said the girl, “when I begin to work, I pray that I may have strength equal to my day; when I kindle the fire, I pray that God's work may revive in my heart; as I begin to sweep out the house, I pray that my heart may be cleansed from all its impurities; when I am preparing and partaking of the breakfast, I desire to be fed with the manna and the sincere milk of the Word.” “Go on,” said the minister, “Pray without ceasing.”

Human harmony was the error that had to be rebuked and cast out by our Leader, because it is a state of mental inactivity or spiritual dullness, where one fancies that everything is all right, because he feels all right. A pauper will take cocaine and for a short time believe that he is rich and affluent. Human harmony is based on nothing. It is a state of human consciousness that not only has nothing to support it, but if it is indulged in, it marks the death of all spiritual growth and constructive effort.

The moment Mrs. Eddy detected that any of her students were under this phase of belief, she knew that they were rendered spiritually inoperative. Therefore, it was her responsibility to heal and destroy it, and she went at this task as a practitioner would a case of sickness, with this difference. A practitioner has a willing subject, whereas she had unwilling ones.

More than once I experienced the healing of human harmony as wrought by our Leader, that took me into spiritual harmony. Hence, I can declare that there is no comparison between the two. The former is nothing but negation, whereas the latter carries a wonderful sense of dominion, power, alertness and understanding. There is nothing more desirable than to feel that, because one is functioning with God, all things are possible, and that, because the power he reflects is infinite, nothing can stand in the way of his righting all wrongs, making any demonstration necessary.

One reason the healing of human harmony does not appeal to students is because at times it requires the fiery furnace to bring about the change. Oftentime students who are being purged of human harmony, wonder why God permits such a fiery experience and does not intervene. Yet when the three Hebrew captives were put into the fiery furnace, God did not intervene to save them from the experience. He permitted them to go through it. When they came forth, they had gained a recognition of their true selves as ideas of God, indestructible and perfect, that they could not have gained in fifty years otherwise.

Perhaps in the furnace they cried out, as did the Master, “My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?” He had not forsaken them. He had no pity for them, because they needed none, since the most wonderful thing possible was happening to them, namely, the dross was being separated from the gold.

Mrs. Eddy made Pleasant View a fiery furnace for her students to a great degree, and that is why they gained spiritual growth in one year, which she declared would otherwise have cost them half a century. It was an experience where much materiality was burned away, so that the real man was revealed as never before.

It is human pity and sympathy based on mortal mind's reasoning that would protect those we love from fiery experiences that come to burn away human harmony, and to reveal the Christ idea. Mrs. Eddy herself once wrote to a student, “Thirty years I have been in the fiery furnace and the dross has dropped away from the gold through agony. But ‘if we suffer with Him we shall also reign with Him.'”

On page 102 of Miscellaneous Writings we read, “God's ways are not ours. His pity is expressed in modes above the human. His chastisements are the manifestations of Love.” Also, on page 19 of Message for 1902, “The great Master triumphed in furnace fires.” And on page 28 of No and Yes we read, “…the mists of error, sooner or later, will melt in the fervent heat of suffering….”

In a copy book Mrs. Eddy kept for over fifty years, in which she wrote out her poems, we find the comment, “O what a life of sorrow and unrequited goodness is this that I lead; and what a blessedness it is to do good, to love God and to keep His commandments, even in the depths that I wade through.”

In this same book we find a poem she wrote called, Ode to Adversity. It reads in part:


My long tired soul will triumph unsubdued,

If all earth holds of joy, destruction's prey.

Am I to conflicts new to be inured?

No! I have long the utmost wrongs endured

And drawn fresh energies from sharpest blows.

Thus from rude hammer strokes or burning heat,

With each successive change, refined, complete,

The gold is purged of dross and brightly glows.


The difference between the healing of human discord and human harmony may be illustrated by a father who finds his little son weeping over his broken toys. In his compassion he comforts his child and repairs his toys. As the boy grows older, however, the father demands that he outgrow them, because he is becoming a man. Whereas the early experience of having his toys repaired was a sweet experience, the later necessity for outgrowing them is bitter, according to Rev. 10:9.

On page 230 of Miscellany Mrs. Eddy writes: “Scientific pathology illustrates the digestion of spiritual nutriment as both sweet and bitter, — sweet in expectancy and bitter in experience or during the senses' assimilation thereof, and digested only when Soul silences the dyspepsia of sense.” In her home Mrs. Eddy was dealing with advanced metaphysicians who were ready to outgrow matter, and to put it underfoot in ways beyond the mere healing of sickness. Yet they often found the digestion of their Leader's rebukes and advanced teachings bitter. What was it that they suffered from but the dyspepsia of sense?

Little minds cannot conceive of great purposes. When a noble man and woman work together in Christian Science, gossip will declare that there must be something amiss in such a relationship. Little minds could not possibly conceive of Mrs. Eddy's spiritual purposes. Her apparent fussiness about the household tasks appeared anomalous to little minds, as if she taught and declared the nothingness of matter, and then was fussy out of all reason about how it was cared for in her home!

Actually Mrs. Eddy was teaching her students and the world a lesson, the value of which would have been lost, had she not wisely caused it to be self-seen, rather than to be taken on her say-so. Apples tied on a tree have little value. Mrs. Eddy might have explained this point carefully, but it would have resulted merely in tying her demonstration to her students, whereas, when each saw it for himself, it would be a discernment that came from his own growth and demonstration. Hence it would be his own fruitage.

The experience of my son as a member of the Board of Trustees of the branch church in Providence, R. I., illustrates this point. For three years he did not raise his voice, asking from the other members a more metaphysical consideration of church problems, although he longed to. Many times, when the human mind seemed to have the ascendancy, he longed to call the other members to task, and to ask if they were not metaphysicians; but in the silence of his heart he endeavored to maintain a spiritual thought, feeling that divine wisdom was prompting his silence.

Finally, at his last meeting, after the problem of repairs to the church roof and of the funds necessary for this work had been thoroughly aired, from the human standpoint, the atmosphere suddenly changed, and one of the members voiced a desire for more metaphysics. She said, “We are metaphysicians, and we should have more of it in these meetings. Let us vote to have an extra meeting each month entirely devoted to metaphysics. Here we are, Christian Scientists, exponents of the fact that there is no matter. Hence, we must resolve these things into thoughts. We have the roof to consider. Let us make a demonstration of it. Let us see what the fact that it leaks means metaphysically, and meet it in that way.”

My son suddenly found the very thoughts he had been cherishing for three years being voiced. Then he realized that they had not been his thoughts, but God's, and when the atmosphere was cleared so that God could be voiced, his thoughts held the floor. Then he saw that had he voiced them prematurely and tried to force them on the others, he would have been tying his apples on their trees. As the result of his mental work for three years, the others finally saw the truth, each one for himself. This meant individual fruitage which would endure the storms, that would take from the trees all the fruit that had merely been tied on.

My son felt that this last meeting amply rewarded him for his three years of patient effort, and that through this experience he had gained added insight into Mrs. Eddy's modes of working, and her wisdom in forbearing to declare many things which she might have made clear. Had she done so, she would have robbed her students of their own growth.

In a class of which Mrs. Mary Dunbar was a member Mrs. Eddy asked, “Do you know that Christian Science is the truth?” They all hesitated and did not answer. She repeated the question forcefully. Mrs. Dunbar said, “I believe,” then faltered. Abruptly Mrs. Eddy said, “Why do you not say, ‘Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.'” Mrs. Dunbar answered, “I do say that most earnestly.” Then Mrs. Eddy said, “I know that Christian Science is the truth.”

Why did these students hesitate to answer this simple searching question? Did they not all know that Christian Science is the truth? Yes, but they were dealing with Mrs. Eddy, and experience had taught them that the human mind could never foretell which way she would jump. Had Mrs. Dunbar declared, “I know Christian Science is the truth,” without demonstration or conviction back of the statement, Mrs. Eddy might have come back at her with the rebuke, “You know no more than you can demonstrate.” I can assert this because I heard her declare it time and time again.

The students knew that this was a catch question, and that they might be caught no matter how they answered it. Yet Mrs. Dunbar gave a fine answer, as if to say, “I believe Christian Science to be the truth, but I need help in overcoming the human mind that I yield to in many ways, that would indicate to one with spiritual discernment that I still have a long way to go.”

We declare that we know that God sustains us, or that we believe it; yet we give daily evidence that we believe that we would starve to death without food. If Life is God, we would not die just because we did not eat. Nevertheless, even while declaring that God is our Life, we assent to the material belief that food is a necessity.

Mrs. Eddy presented the same difficulties to students in the classroom that she did in her home. She was continually saying the unexpected, and rebuking where human sense could perceive no reason for her doing so. When she asked a question in class, a student was liable to be taken to task, no matter what he answered, or even if he took refuge in silence. However, we know that this was her way of driving students to obtain the right answer, which would be from God. She was led by wisdom to pull away every human prop, so that a student would be forced to lean on God. Her method was not to point out the right way, but to expose the wrong. If this method worked, so that the right way dawned on a student through his own reflection, it would be the result of his own growth, and be of the greatest benefit to him.

On page 246 of Miscellany Mrs. Eddy states that the Magna Charta of Christian Science is essentially democratic; yet she founded a church in which democracy becomes impossible from a human standpoint. That was her wise way of driving members to that democracy which is based on demonstration, where one with God takes the lead, which is the only true democracy. By shutting off every path by which the human mind could enter in and function successfully, she compelled the use of divine Mind. In every way she made it as difficult as she could for students to find a substitute for demonstration. In this way she forced spiritual growth, and caused the carnal mind to criticize her.

Mrs. Dunbar found no way to answer Mrs. Eddy's question apart from demonstration; and the latter gave her the right answer for one at her stage of growth as though she could say, “My intelligence tells me that Christian Science is true, but I do not measure up to it; so I need help to attain a consistency in my life that will accord with my statement.”

Mrs. Eddy certainly put students in difficult situations, so that they were tempted at times to find fault with her and call her a very difficult person. Yet the moment the light dawned on a student, everything became plain to him, and he saw what a faithful Leader he had. He saw that demonstration was the answer.

The only reason Mrs. Eddy ever had to rebuke a student in her home was because of the temptation and tendency to attempt to do the work she gave him to do, with his human intelligence. When the maids attempted to clean her rooms while she was on her drive — which was the only time she gave them for this task — they might be full of fear lest she return before the task was completed. They might work with one eye on the window, fearing the sharp rebuke they might receive, if the work was not finished before Mrs. Eddy returned. Surely the result of such work would not be the presence of that holy peace and calm, which characterizes the establishment of one Mind. Under the impulse of fear and the pressure to hurry, they would rush around and spoil the mental atmosphere, while they attempted to get things clean from a human standpoint.

It is evident that such a mental attitude would fill Mrs. Eddy's rooms with fear, which would be as tangible to her as though they let loose some vile odor. It must be recognized that Mrs. Eddy was so sensitive that a mortal mind atmosphere was as noticeable to her, as would be an unpleasant odor to a mortal. It was a human temptation to feel that it was all right to use the trained human mind, even though filled with fear, and that the students deserved no rebuke for that, while to have the task half done when she returned, would call forth a scolding. I believe that even if the task was not completed, if they did the work to fill the rooms with divine Love, and thus to establish an atmosphere in which Mrs. Eddy could find rest and peace when she returned, she would have been satisfied.

To our Leader all was Mind. The real cleaning of her rooms that she required was the moving out, or destruction of the claim of animal magnetism, rather than just the material dirt. When they worked the problem out mentally, and saw the material dirt as a symbol of mortal mind's effort to sully the clear presence of Life and Love, the result was that the rooms were not only made clean physically, but mentally as well, and Mrs. Eddy rejoiced.

Why should it sound far-fetched for a student of Science to demonstrate a clean room, when in reality he lives in a mental world and knows it? It was the dirt in the mental realm that troubled our Leader, that she wanted eliminated. She knew that if her maids did that thoroughly, there would be no dirt visible to the material eye. Furthermore, the doing of such tasks from that standpoint would mean spiritual growth to those who did them.




Concord, N. H.

February 25, 1892

To the Board of Directors of

The Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston

Beloved Students:

I think that our heavenly Father has shown me how to counsel you on this subject —

Avoid any possible means for future contentions as to the ownership of the church building, and who constituted the membership of the church to which I gave the land on which the church edifice is built.

To be certain on this question it will be necessary for you to remain as at the present, unorganized, if this would avoid the aforenamed disputation, and I think it is wise to wait.

Affectionately yours,

(Signed) Mary B. G. Eddy


Mrs. Eddy's founding of her Church is a great rebuke to those who feel tempted to regard healing sick bodies as the whole of Science, thus limiting the radius and application of their use of demonstration. Such individuals fancy that Mrs. Eddy's greatest proof of the truth of her revelation was largely confined to her success in healing. On page 2 of Rudimental Divine Science quite a different point of view is indicated, and Mrs. Eddy's letters to the Church support this proposition. Those who see no further than the healing, fail to recognize the importance of a universal application of divine Mind, in correcting every human problem and condition.

When the ideal use of Science is seen to be an all-embracing application of God's power, and healing physical sickness to be only the bugle call to thought and action as Mrs. Eddy says, then she will necessarily take her place not only as the Revelator, but as the best demonstrator of Christian Science, as one who successfully applied it in all directions. This concept alone will open the way for the possibility of a true understanding and following of her teaching, of her life, and of her demonstration.

On the other hand, if one believes that the main application and use of Science is healing the sick, that limited outlook will tend to limit his concept of Mrs. Eddy to being more the master-physician rather than the master-metaphysician.

It is a curious phase of error in a branch church, when misguided members take a different attitude toward the human mind in the business meetings than they do in the Wednesday evening meetings. They rise to bear testimony to the wonderful results in healing that have resulted, when the human mind with all its erroneous beliefs has been put under the control of divine Mind, and relegated to the realm of the unreal, the worthless and the powerless. Then, in the business meetings, these same members use the human mind in doing the business, and, if another so much as suggests that the meeting is held for the purpose of demonstrating the one Mind, they rise up in defence of the human mind. They tend to condemn one who asserts that human opinions and efforts to influence the vote of the membership should be cast out with the Master's whip of small cords. Thus, in one meeting such members advocate the very thing that in the other meeting they decry.

It is obvious that those who foster this error have never broadened their limited concept of the use of Christian Science. They stress its use in restoring health as the all-important application. In opposing and questioning the effort to establish a broader use of demonstration in the business meetings, they expose their own lack of breadth in the use of metaphysics. To such the life of Mary Baker Eddy must remain an enigma, since her entire life as a Christian Scientist must be viewed as a constant struggle to substitute demonstration for the modes of mortal mind. To those with this limited point of view, much in her life will seem to deserve criticism, and her severe rebukes will be regarded as the result of frayed nerves, and as an over-fussy determination to have the material side of her home perfect, rather than as Truth's rebuke to error.

When one begins to understand Mrs. Eddy's effort to hold a scientific attitude toward every phase of human existence, he realizes that there was something about her private life and her rebukes that needs to be unfolded spiritually. Otherwise she must appear inconsistent, since she seemed to place a great deal of importance on the material side of her home, while in her teachings she set forth matter as being valueless and as having no real existence.

The letter in question shows how Mrs. Eddy took the lead, not only as the healer of the sick, but in every activity in the Movement. Here she assumes without arrogance that she has a knowledge of the law sufficient to handle the situation, recommending the church to follow her advice with confidence, including in the letter counsel that only astute lawyers are supposed to be capable of giving. The deduction is that her knowledge of how the property might be held safely and securely according to human law, was that which she reflected from God through the same process she used to heal the sick, and merely represented an extended application of it.

Here was a woman, born and reared in the country — one without legal training or experience, assuming to guide and sponsor her Cause in every way. The average church organization looks to a trained lawyer, if necessary, in order to protect its members and property against lawsuits, loss and excessive taxation. Mrs. Eddy, however, trusted lawyers less because she trusted God more. Hence it was not Mrs. Eddy but God who guided the Cause aright.

General Frank Streeter was one of the ablest lawyers of his day. His son has testified that his father once asserted that Mrs. Eddy knew more law than he did. On page 200 of The Life of Samuel J. Elder, we find Mr. Elder's daughter telling of a time when Mrs. Eddy was in conference with her lawyers in regard to a critical issue in the Next Friend's Suit. Gen. Streeter and Mr. Elder were both present. In spite of the standing, experience and legal training of the lawyers, Mrs. Eddy had differed from them, and all had spent a very tense hour of controversy. The point involved was a matter of deepest import, and the wisdom of taking the stand they advocated was self-evident to every one of the lawyers. Each in his turn had given his reasons for the necessity of supporting it, in language respectful, but emphatic.

They made no impression. Mrs. Eddy was obdurate. She spoke quietly and reasonably, but imperiously. Her brilliant eyes shone with determination. The lawyers were very patient with her. She was an old woman, nearly as old as Mr. Elder's mother. Her person commanded deference, but clearly her legal opinion was valueless. Finally, she dismissed her lawyers, who adjourned to Mr. Streeter's office to continue their discussion.

They had been there but a short time when a Negro boy, a servant in Mrs. Eddy's household, appeared at the door of the office, saying that she was outside in her carriage and wished to speak to Mr. Elder. When he arrived beside her carriage, she reached out her hand and laid it quietly upon his arm. “Mr. Elder,” she said with great impressiveness, looking steadily at him, “you are wrong in this matter which we have been discussing. I wish that you would return to the other gentlemen and ask them to reconsider it. Will you do this?” He assented reluctantly. Then she repeated before she drove off, “Mr. Elder, you are wrong.”

The situation was awkward, but having given his assent, Mr. Elder told the others of Mrs. Eddy's request. He insisted that they reconsider their decision; so, they went over all their arguments again. During the trial they followed the lines insisted upon by Mrs. Eddy, and it became indubitably clear to them all that she had been right!

At times she was able to find parallel cases to support her side, when her lawyers insisted that she could not do a certain thing. She would not accept their pessimistic pronouncements, and invariably she would be led to find precedent that enabled her to win her point.

What further proof is necessary that Mrs. Eddy worked to demonstrate divine Mind in everything connected with her Church, as well as with her home? She looked upon the housework and menial duties as God-given opportunities to develop students in right thinking, and to train them along lines of demonstration. In order to do this, she had to observe all that was done, and check every failure, because of her desire and effort to train students to the point where, perceiving the spiritual purpose back of her effort, they would not consider her unduly critical or nagging, nor would they feel that they were enduring a fault-finding at her hands, which they would not tolerate from the ordinary housewife who employed servants.

It is, therefore, a necessity, in our right estimate of Mrs. Eddy, to understand why she made an issue of such things as the trivialities of housekeeping. One reason was because, in her training of students, she gauged thought by its expression. Even where the expression of their effort, although incorrect, was such that she would not suffer under it unduly, the teacher in her would not let her accept poor work. The reason for this was that the error lay not in the expression, but in the thought behind it.

The greater the possibilities a child shows in school, the greater the care the teacher is apt to take in marking the child and pointing out mistakes. She knows that such accurate effort will be rewarded by a corresponding growth in the child. This might be a human illustration of the Biblical statement, “Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.”

In her home the more promise a student showed spiritually, the more punctilious she would be in holding up the standard of spiritual perfection, and in calling attention to any failure to live up to this ideal. Those who went to Pleasant View with a right intent — a desire to attain that mental status which carries the promise of spiritual power and usefulness to humanity — merited and received Mrs. Eddy's closest attention. She watched them for their own good, and through the outward service they rendered, she helped them to measure up to the high ideal of Christian Science.

One who is functioning under divine power must obey the rule, “Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth,” in his dealing with students. If one appreciates and loves a student because of the latter's genuine desire for spirituality, one will hold him up to the highest standard. This statement does not imply that Mrs. Eddy was partial in her love; but it means that the greater one's spiritual possibilities, the more he was to be rebuked. John Salchow served his Leader for fourteen years consecutively, and during all that period she rebuked him but once. He was faithful in all he did and could not be shaken in his unswerving devotion to her; but she never found him sufficiently equipped mentally or spiritually to give him an outstanding position in the Movement that would subject him to the pressure of animal magnetism. For this reason she did not groom him in the manner that she did others.

This letter in question is historical evidence that Mrs. Eddy was not afraid to assume authority for the acts of her students who were officials in the Church when God directed her to do so. She proved her ability to demonstrate Science in so many directions, that the Directors came to put implicit trust in her. Seldom did they fear to follow where she led. Gradually her students came to regard her as infallible, when they were in their right minds — and infallible she was, when she reflected divine Mind.

It is valuable for future generations to have these records preserved which prove that Mrs. Eddy was able to demonstrate divine Mind's power and wisdom, not only in healing the sick, but in other directions. It is gratifying to know that, as time went on, the Directors accepted her orders and instructions more and more willingly, feeling in their hearts that, when she told them to do a thing, it was according to the divine plan and would result only in the greatest good. Thus, a repetition of Mr. Nixon's apostasy was avoided by the growth of the students in gaining a better concept of their Leader.

It is no black mark on the memory of the early Directors to declare that what they lacked in initiative and individual demonstration, was compensated by their confidence and faith in Mrs. Eddy's demonstration. Loyal students who have the privilege of becoming members of this Board in years to come, may well regard Mrs. Eddy's admonitions to these early students as setting forth precepts that out-date time, in their applicability to all situations. In fact, these letters help to fulfill the prophecy of the Master, “Lo, I am with you always.” The spiritual idea of God, which she named the Pastor Emeritus, which she embodied and to which she always turned for guidance, is still with us, functioning as she hoped and knew it would.

It would be a travesty on our Leader's life-work and prayers, if the notion should prevail that, when she passed on, she was removed not only as Leader of the Cause, but as the Pastor Emeritus. In reality the Pastor Emeritus, or the spirit of divine wisdom and love, is ever-present, and may be embodied at any time by earnest students. It may be defined as the reflection of the impersonal guidance of God, as applicable especially to the needs of the organization. It is what Mrs. Eddy referred to on page 166 of Miscellaneous Writings, where she states that the Truth taught and spoken by the Christian and martyr lives and moves in our midst a divine afflatus. “Thus it is that the ideal Christ — or impersonal infancy, manhood, and womanhood of Truth and Love — is still with us.”

In her home Mrs. Eddy not only reflected the Pastor Emeritus, but she trained her students to do likewise. Part of this training was to criticize work that was done apart from this divine reflection, or through the human mind, just as the manager of a home which was built to advertise the use of electricity, would criticize one who used anything else. In Mrs. Eddy's model home, the operation of the human mind apart from, or uncontrolled by, divine Mind, was tabu, since she was setting forth a standard for all time to come.




March 21, 1892

My dear Student:

You have my full assent to give up the books containing the church records if you and the loyal students think it best to do so. Mr. Nixon goes against my advice in nearly all he does about the church and Journal. M.A.M. has no account in his high estimation.

It would be much safer to copy the church record of membership and give that for the occasion than to let the books again out of your hands. If lawyer Griffin insists on seeing your books you can go to his office and remain with him and keep the books in your hands while you point out the names. But I have no knowledge of what is being done in Boston.

Affectionately yours,

(Signed) Mary B. G. Eddy


The ancient worthies, according to the Bible narrative, arrived at a certain admirable spiritual status; but apparently they went no further. As a result they represented no important steps in the spiritual advancement of all mankind. They were able to share but little of the great spiritual blessings which were poured into their laps. The error that prevented this sharing may be summed up either as an ignorance of animal magnetism, or a refusal to acknowledge the importance of handling its claims.

One who grows steadily in his appreciation of and desire for God, should gain a corresponding understanding of the claim of evil and a determination to throw off its influence, in its tendency to warp thought, to prevent a proper appreciation of the human problem, and to foster a misunderstanding of its solution.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy credits and discredits Mr. Nixon all in one statement. She acknowledges that he has a high estimation of good, but his failure to take into consideration the claim of malicious animal magnetism makes him its servant. It operated with him largely through his faith in his own human acumen, so that he ignored the wisdom of God as it was expressed by his Leader, and followed out his own ideas, believing them to be right. He relied on his own judgment as well as that of the lawyers he consulted to tell him what was sound and wise.

When a branch church approaches the problem of building an edifice, the action of animal magnetism may be detected by the fact that certain ones will take the stand that Christian Science is all right when it comes to healing the sick, but in matters of business and church building, it takes hard heads and common sense. This material point of view is the adversary that, as Scripture says, goes about as a roaring lion, seeking whom it may devour. From the beginning of her work of founding the church, Mrs. Eddy had this error to meet. Many who were willing to follow her revelation and demonstration pertaining to healing, when it came to matters which were outside of her experience and knowledge, agreed among themselves that it was right to trust wiser heads than hers, who through training and opportunity knew about such matters.

Mr. Nixon, as one of the Trustees under the deed, felt that he could get far wiser advice from the lawyers than from Mrs. Eddy. He saw no reason to trust her, because she had never had any practical experience in business affairs, especially when she was calling upon him to go ahead with a deed to the church lot which the august Massachusetts Title Insurance Company said was defective in four particulars! How could she be right, when this company said she was wrong, and the only assurance she gave him was that God had told her that it was all right to go ahead? He felt that it was proper to trust God in matters pertaining to the soul, and to healing the body, but it was foolish to go ahead on a legal matter, which was obviously not sound according to human law.

Mrs. Eddy called it malicious animal magnetism, that blinded the eyes of students to the breadth of the operation of demonstration in bringing the guidance of God into all human matters, unerringly. She did not blame Mr. Nixon personally, but declared that M.A.M. had no account in his high estimation, when he failed to recognize that Mrs. Eddy was just as capable of deciding points of law through the power of Spirit, as she was of healing sickness by the same agency. The divine Mind which she reflected was not a circumscribed Mind! It is not just the healer of the sick. It is All! It is the Judge of the whole earth that, as the Bible says, does right.

One who reflects God reflects a knowledge of all true law — a knowledge of how to let right reign supreme, so that its purpose will not be thwarted by self-seeking, conservatism and fear. This demonstration includes matters pertaining to human law as well as healing.

Mr. Nixon had a high estimation of Mrs. Eddy and Christian Science. Yet his failure to account for and to handle animal magnetism, caused him to work in a direction against the future good of Christian Science, like a football player who becomes confused, and runs with the ball toward the goal of the opposing team.

Mrs. Eddy regarded Mr. Nixon as an estimable character — a man inspired with the desire to do right. But he had a weakness in his understanding that caused him to become unreliable as far as Mrs. Eddy was concerned. His downfall helps one to understand the operation of error, and how to regard all students who seem to fail God. Their failure is usually not so much because of any fundamental unreliability, mad ambition, or sin, but because they cannot be made to understand the operation of animal magnetism and to see the importance of handling it.

It was M.A.M. that caused Mr. Nixon to trust the lawyers, the title insurance company and the mature judgment of the trained human intellect, as being more reliable than Mrs. Eddy's demonstration of divine leading. The trained human mind considers the latter to be a frail reed.

Let us suppose a class of students was being taught how to use solder, and refused to take into consideration the fact that in the process, the surfaces of the metal to be joined must be clean; otherwise the two surfaces will not adhere. This indifference might arise from the fact that often the foreign substance that must be cleaned off is grease that cannot be seen. This neglect to take this invisible accretion into consideration would make the entire effort void, no matter how correctly it might be done otherwise.

The various claims of animal magnetism to which Mrs. Eddy tried to draw the students' attention seemed non-existent or insignificant to many of them. These more subtle phases seemed so natural to them, and so unlike what they considered error to be, that she could not convince them that, unless they handled them, their judgment would be warped and their inclinations interfered with — in short, they would work against God. She called the error malicious animal magnetism which would blind them to the fact that Mrs. Eddy was their only safe guide, and that obedience in every direction to the inspiration that revelation brought to her, was the only way to steer the ark of Christian Science safely amidst the rocks that she could see, but that those on deck could not see.

There is an amusing story of a man who was hired to steer a boat, because he declared that he knew every rock in the channel. The boat struck a rock and the owner said, “I thought you said you knew every rock in this channel.” The pilot replied, “I do, and this is one of them.” Mrs. Eddy found that this was the attitude some of her students had toward animal magnetism. They disregarded it until their bark went aground on the rocks. Then, when it was too late, they acknowledged its claims. What use is a knowledge of animal magnetism which requires some outward ill or discord — some mistake — in order to convince a student that it must be handled. Mrs. Eddy sought a foreknowledge of error. One of the rules she gave the students in regard to handling it was, “See what it is trying to do. Know that it cannot do it. See that it is not done. To accomplish this: Be patient. Be meek. Be vigilant. Be sober. Be loving.”

Mrs. Eddy sought to impart a knowledge and an understanding which would enable students to avoid shipwrecks, for she knew that the rocks and pitfalls were not perceptible to mortal sense; and since no students had developed spiritual sense to the degree that she had, they perforce must be obedient to her admonitions and warnings, if they wished to avoid shipwrecks. Mrs. Eddy's most difficult task was to bring students to the point where they realized that whatever was accomplished successfully for God was attained only after this subtle deterrent was overcome.

I had a remarkable and unusual experience — one which was highly instructive — when our Leader called on me to work with her one night, after I had been in her home for a short time. Mr. Frye came to my room and said that she wanted me to work for her, or with her, on the problem of a night's rest. As a young student called upon for the first time to help the one I had always regarded with awe, I was greatly moved, and I put into my mental work the fervor and unction that I felt was sufficient to raise the dead, even those in nearby cemeteries. Hence it was a great blow to me when Mr. Frye brought me word the next morning that I had utterly failed.

The next night, to my surprise, Mrs. Eddy gave me the same task to do again. At this point I turned to God to have Him reveal to me how I had failed the night before, when I had prayed and worked so fervently, and tried to put into practice all the Science I had learned during the previous ten or eleven years. The answer He gave me was in the form of an illustration, where I saw an archer failing in competition, after having practiced at home many years. Instead of accepting the evidence that he was a poor marksman when he knew he was not — he grew suspicious, and examined the target. He found that an enemy had strung a fine wire in such a way, that when his arrows sped toward the mark, they hit the wire and glanced off.

The second night, — after receiving this lesson from God, — I did not vary my work for our Leader other than to handle animal magnetism as the subtle deterrent that would tend to make all scientific work of non-effect. It became clear to me that one argument that it would present, was that it was foolish for so young a student as myself — one who was not Mrs. Eddy's own student, as were the rest of the household — to fancy that he could be of metaphysical help to one so far above him spiritually! I declared that if God had guided our Leader to seek help through me, that was proof that she could receive it through me. I also handled misdirection and reversal.

In the morning my heart was made glad by word that came from Mrs. Eddy that my work had been successful, and that she had had a peaceful and refreshing night's sleep. She called me to her room and asked me to explain just how I had worked; then she called all the students in the household to her room, in order that I might give the fruit of my experience to them.

Here I had an opportunity to observe under Mrs. Eddy's own supervision, the part played by animal magnetism in its effort to obstruct the work in Science. It was not a case where a doctor was first tried, and then when he failed, Christian Science was resorted to. The latter was employed both times. Thus, I proved to my own satisfaction — plus our Leader's approval that the finest scientific effort — the highest degree of prayer, faith, and love of which I was capable at that time — was thwarted, neutralized, and did not reach its mark, until animal magnetism was handled.

In taking their first footsteps in Science, students are not ready to perceive the importance of handling animal magnetism. They do not awaken at once to perceive the dangerous rocks that lie in the path. They must accept the necessity of handling animal magnetism, on faith, until they grow to the place where they can perceive the need through their own developed discernment. When Mrs. Eddy was with us, she seemed to be the only one who could accurately detect this subtle deterrent. Today, if students are faithful, progress will bring them experiences in which they may behold the results when animal magnetism is handled, and when it is not, such as I had in Mrs. Eddy's home. They will thus be brought to the point where they will be convinced of the vital necessity for meeting this deterrent of evil, so that they will never neglect it.

Students must learn that a definite, though unseen — and, of course, unreal — obstacle in their path is removed through the metaphysical process of handling animal magnetism. Thus, the way is opened for the power of good to operate, and for them to proceed on their spiritual journey.

Because of Mrs. Eddy's higher spiritual development, she discerned this obstacle of error that would interfere with and reverse the operation of good. She found it difficult, however, to inspire students who could not see it, with the importance of meeting it. Many did not really believe that such an obstacle was present, and secretly considered that their Leader was romancing, as it were, when she described it to them and laid stress upon its hidden action. The faithful students who did follow her admonition, and worked to overcome animal magnetism, who regarded its grosser phases as the most dangerous part of it, worked against its more subtle claims, not because they saw for themselves that without such consecrated work, no real progress was possible, but largely through faith in the wisdom of her teaching and instruction.

Mrs. Eddy admired the high estimate Mr. Nixon had of her and Christian Science; but she saw that he continually did the wrong thing and worked against her unwittingly. He did this because he failed to take into consideration the deterrent of evil, and paid scant attention to this phase of Mrs. Eddy's instruction.

One of the tasks delegated to Mrs. Eddy's secretaries was to open and read her mail, sorting it in such a way that letters that she should see were brought to her attention, even though they might be of a disturbing nature, and trivial and unimportant letters were withheld. Even if a letter contained error, that was not a valid reason for withholding it from her, since she could neutralize that error; but to hand her a letter that would upset her unnecessarily was an error. It is evident that those who had charge of this work had to make a demonstration of doing it.

Someone might write Mrs. Eddy a letter that would be accompanied by a sense of error, so that it would disturb her. What caused the disturbance would be the thought back of the letter and not the paper and ink. It should not be difficult, therefore, to carry this point a step further and admit it in connection with other forms of matter.

As an illustration let us consider the incident of a lady coming to Mrs. Eddy's home with a box of American Beauty roses, asking the maid, Lydia Hall, to give them to Mrs. Eddy, and to tell her that she would return in the afternoon to see her. At dinner Lydia brought them to her, and Mrs. Eddy said with a wave of her hand, “What a mockery! Take them away and destroy them.”

Lydia suffered all afternoon. When she was tucking Mrs. Eddy into her swing on the porch as night drew on, the latter said, “Lydia, you are suffering and have been suffering all afternoon.” “Yes, Mother,” was the reply. “What did you do with the roses; are they destroyed?” was Mrs. Eddy's query. Lydia then confessed that she had put them in a vase in the kitchen, because they seemed too pretty to destroy. Mrs. Eddy then commanded her to go at once and put them in the fire. Lydia did so and immediately was released from the pain.

Later Mrs. Eddy said to Lydia, “Do you know what that means? That was theosophy. They believe that if they can get something into your hands, they can use you as a channel. Now be on your watch.”

This simple incident of the roses is an illustration of Mrs. Eddy's entire teaching, namely, that all is Mind. Without the sequel of Lydia's suffering, one might have declared Mrs. Eddy to have been the victim of her own imagination, when she detected the beautiful roses as a vehicle for error. If I ate candy and you declared that it was poisoned, I would not be apt to believe you, unless I suffered from eating it. One with more faith in Mrs. Eddy's spiritual discernment than his own, would accept her word, when she declared that error was back of something and that, therefore, it should be destroyed, without the additional proof that Lydia had when she suffered. When Mrs. Eddy declared that a span of horses, Tattersall and Eckersall, which were sent to her as a gift, were a pair of devils sent to kill her, she read the thought back of them unerringly, even though she had been no nearer to them than to see them go by from her tower window. Nearly forty years later her gardener, John Salchow, admitted that the Negro boy who brought them from the South had confided to him that these horses were so highly bred, that at times they became very nervous and unmanageable, if something happened to upset them.

A student of Mrs. Eddy's life will find incidents which prove that she regarded the inanimate as a channel for thought. Later in this series of letters we find one in which she read the thought back of some beautiful rugs that were given to her by the Church and called it “theosophy.” In support of this point she might have quoted Acts 19:12 where the handkerchiefs and aprons of Paul were brought to the sick, with the result that they were healed. One might declare that such incidents were nothing but the result of blind faith; but who is to say what thought these articles carried, if the belief at that time was strong enough?

Did not Lydia's suffering through the roses prove Mrs. Eddy's unerring detection of the error in the thought back of them revealing that she was a true metaphysician, not only in her understanding and reflection of God, but in her incisive detection of error? The acceptance of the roses at their face value, even after Mrs. Eddy had pointed out the error back of them to Lydia, exposed the latter's lack of spiritual perception and faith in her Leader's ability in that direction. Hence the lesson was a needed one.

One who disbelieves that the inanimate can be a channel for either good or evil thought, exposes the fact that he does not accept the fundamental platform of Christian Science, namely, that all is Mind. When speaking the truth about the lie, it declares that all is mind, with a small letter; when speaking the truth about Truth, it proclaims that All is Mind. How could one accept the statement on page 269 of Science and Health, “Metaphysics resolves things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense for the ideas of Soul,” and then disclaim this incident about the roses, which were obviously used by the lady who came to Mrs. Eddy's door to try to hide a thought that was not honest? She used the roses to try to bribe the Leader to grant her an interview. But Mrs. Eddy was not fooled, and detected immediately the hidden error. Often the feminine intuition of a girl enables her to detect unerringly a base motive hidden behind some gift of beautiful flowers or jewelry. Did not Mrs. Eddy use her feminine intuition in this case, an intuition which through years of spiritualization, had become unerring spiritual perception?

In calling the error in connection with the roses “theosophy,” Mrs. Eddy showed her great powers as a teacher, her ability to carry students a step at a time in their journey toward the proper insight into the claim of animal magnetism. If Lydia had had a full knowledge of the claim, Mrs. Eddy would not have had to call it “theosophy,” since the claim of animal magnetism covers the entire action of mortal mind, that on the surface seems so harmless. We use this mind every day; it is the only mind the world knows, so we grow to have no fear of it, except in specific forms. Mr. Nixon's conduct was an illustration of this point, and nothing Mrs. Eddy said to him was sufficient to awaken him to the danger of putting his faith in mortal mind.

Once a woman, who was a criminal, came to be known as “the tiger woman.” The police used this name in an effort to arouse people to see what a menace she was. She was such a frail looking girl and seemed so harmless to those with whom she boarded, as she went from city to city, that it was difficult to rouse people to the fact that she would commit murder without compunction.

Mrs. Eddy knew that mortals have no fear of mortal mind as their common concept of mind. When she had to teach students the veritable nature of this so-called mind, she had to devise a constantly changing terminology, in proportion to the growing understanding and needs of the students, to the degree to which they could stand it, in order to rouse in them the proper resistance to its claims.

“Theosophy” as the term was used by Mrs. Eddy was merely mortal mind utilized with a greater recognition of its possibilities; so, it became one of the “scare words” she used, just as at times she used the word, arsenic. In the early days she even used the names of renegade students to illustrate the action of mortal mind, because at that stage of the students' growth, this was the only way she could illustrate its action and arouse resistance. Her use of such terms or names was not the result of fear on Mrs. Eddy's part, nor was she personalizing error. She was the teacher unfolding to pupils the action of mortal mind, or animal magnetism, and giving practical examples, in order to rouse them to watchfulness. Her final objective was the education of Christian Scientists to realize that back of the scenes in this mortal sense of existence was the universal claim of mortal mind, the “man higher up,” and it was the final elimination of this claim that she was working for.

It is logical that as a student advances in understanding, the claim of animal magnetism should keep pace in its claim of subtlety and intelligence, since it is merely an argument of reversal. If a farmer raised a poor quality of vegetables, and a thief stole some of them, the latter would get poor vegetables. If later the farmer should raise a better quality of produce, the thief would likewise get a better quality. As one demonstrates a more scientific sense of Mind, the claim of reversal that dogs his footsteps must seem to increase in subtlety, and require greater insight to uncover its secret workings. As Mrs. Eddy perceived the students' readiness, she revised her illustrations and terminology in regard to animal magnetism.

Mr. Nixon was by no means the only student who went against Mrs. Eddy's advice, as the result of taking no account of malicious animal magnetism. He was not as close to her as were the students in her home, whom she watched continually. Even when it came to the simple matter of opening her mail, animal magnetism had to be handled. I recall being strongly rebuked for giving her a letter that upset her thought just before her noon meal. Her comment was, “If you had a belief of struggling with indigestion, would you like to have somebody hand a letter to you that would naturally shock you from head to foot, just before your dinner? Read the Commandment that goes with the First.”

Certainly I was doing the best I knew how to do, in sorting her mail, but at this point I was not working from God's standpoint, since, had I been doing so, I would have been guided so that I would have known just which letters to give her, and which to withhold. The only way to know unerringly which letters needed her attention, and which would produce unnecessary agitation at a time when her own thought was disturbed, was to go to God for guidance. Letters which I handed her under demonstration were right and never brought any criticism. A rebuke would be forthcoming only when I sought to form my own opinion as to what to give her and what to withhold from her.

Those who sorted her mail were confronted with this temptation, namely, not to hand her anything that might upset her. Yet as the active Leader of the Cause she needed to know the moves of the enemy that might affect its growth, or threaten its existence in any way. It was vital to give her the opportunity to solve problems which she alone could solve, even though it might disturb her to find out about them. It might be a more serious matter when a humanly loving thought, not wanting to see her disturbed, withheld letters she should have seen, than when she was handed letters that did not require her attention. To refrain from showing her important material would bring forth a rebuke as severe as that resulting from giving her too much to handle.

Like other situations in connection with our Leader, it appeared to be a most difficult one, where one was damned if he did, and damned if he did not, with only one course open, which was to try to bear the rebukes which one could not avoid, in the right spirit. Yet how simple it was to make the demonstration to have God sort the mail, rather than human judgment!

There was a temptation on the part of some of Mrs. Eddy's students to hide behind the thought that it was a demonstration on their part to be untouched by her rebukes; but this did not fool her. If some one had the notion that she was criticizing him unjustly, but that he was not going to let it touch him, he might be certain that she would keep at him until his eyes were opened to see the justice of her rebukes.

Did our Leader ever overlook undemonstrated work in her home? At times she might have such important work at hand, that she could not take the time to reprimand an individual student. A right attitude on his part, however, should have been to hope that she would detect all poor work and give him the rebuke that he merited, just as a student should desire to be ill, if his thought has accepted some error the presence of which he cannot detect in any other way than by its physical manifestation.

The complaint, “I have done the best I know how, so why am I being rebuked,” had no place in Mrs. Eddy's home. To her the best was always right, because it was demonstration. She would never rebuke that, since to do so would have been to criticize God.

A student who understood Mrs. Eddy's purpose in rebuking poor work would be grateful, because he would realize that she was helping him to acquire the same ability she had to distinguish between good and bad work from the Christian Science standpoint. This would be a valuable attainment, since on the surface the results of efficient and inefficient work might appear to be alike, where efficient work is defined, not as work well done by the trained human mind, but as work done by rebuking and casting out the human mind, in order that divine Mind might operate and be expressed. Inefficient work, therefore, would be work that was done with a conscientious effort to do it well, but without handling animal magnetism. It was this very thing that marked Mr. Nixon's efforts as a failure from God's standpoint, and cost him his high position in the Cause.

Everything in Christian Science hinges upon the student's understanding of the claim of evil and his faithfulness in handling it scientifically. At some point in his spiritual journey each student must acknowledge that no true demonstration is possible, unless the deterrent of animal magnetism is taken into consideration and mastered.

American wives who go to the tropics to live soon learn never to use a pot or pan, without first inspecting it for insects or vermin. They soon become accustomed to doing this automatically. In every effort a student makes, he should handle animal magnetism, since, even if the problem needed no such effort, no harm would be done; whereas one is certain of eventual failure in his spiritual progress if he neglects to handle it properly.

It is an axiom in metaphysics that demonstration, to be successful, must be preceded by the handling of animal magnetism; just as it is an axiom that one cannot solder two surfaces so that they will adhere, without first cleaning off the deposit of foreign matter, so that the virgin metal is exposed.

One reason for Mrs. Eddy's frequent rebukes was that she knew how prone the carnal mind is to get into a rut, where it is controlled by sheer inertia. For instance, it is a good thing for a young student to form the habit of studying the Lesson-Sermon from the Quarterly at a certain time each day. Yet such a habit — good as it seems to be — may become a matter of mortal mind's inertia and thus be a stumbling-block, when a student reaches the point where he is called upon to reflect the leadings of God and to be flexible enough to obey them, so that he reads his Lesson when God guides him to.

Flexibility is essential in rendering God the obedience He requires, since one must learn to move instantly as He directs. He must go to the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's works, as well as study the Lesson-Sermon, when the impulse to do so comes from God, and not be controlled by habit or formula.

Mrs. Eddy saw nothing strange about making a demonstration of an unimportant matter, or handling animal magnetism in connection with it, since in such ways one learns to be taught and led by God with as much success as in that which mortal mind calls important. She criticized that which was not done as God would have it done, no matter how trivial, since she used the unimportant as a step toward the important. She saw nothing queer about threatening to fine Miss Eveleth fifty dollars out of her pay, because she moved her desk and disarranged some papers on it, when she was cleaning, and then did not put the desk and papers back into the exact spot where they were, after the cleaning was done. This was designed to challenge and rouse Miss Eveleth's thought and to quicken it in a right direction. Mrs. Eddy wanted her to reflect a positive state of mind, an intelligence and an awareness as she worked, instead of letting her mind go wool-gathering, as it is wont to do when one is doing menial tasks mechanically.

Demonstration means the enforcement of God's law of harmony. It is the effort to see as God sees, to reverse the error named on page 251 of the textbook, which says that inharmonious beliefs rob Mind, calling it matter. Demonstration restores all things to Mind, and it is as pleasant and possible — as well as spiritually profitable — to do this in the little things, as well as in the big.

When a sick patient comes to a practitioner, the latter seeks to restore him to Mind, by seeing him as God sees him — spiritual and perfect, which is the only right and true way to see him. This process heals him of seeing himself in a false way. Demonstration, however, should not be limited to this initial effort. It must be extended until students acquire the ability to see all things spiritually, and all things include the little things as well as the large. In Mrs. Eddy's eyes her desk was included in this category.

Those who join the Christian Science church solemnly promise to have the same Mind in them which was also in Christ Jesus. They subscribe to the Bible statement that all the ways of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Then in order to deserve the classification of good men, they must seek to be good and see good in all ways and everywhere.




Strictly Private

March 23, 1892

My dear Student:

I had forgotten what you named, but this is of no consequence, farther than the good it did, namely, to prevent your being misled. All that I have counselled has worked well for Church and Cause. Your only danger now lies in the past being repeated. Another faction formed to pick off my soldiers, and to make the leader of it a traitor, adds to work right in your camp, in the most plausible manner. Watch, the hour is ominous; when any student goes against my advice and still gives orders in my name, that one is making up his quota.

I wrote you, Miss Bartlett and others, not to organize a Church! Then it was reported that I gave the order to organize, but I did not. Now your salvation as a people whose God is the Lord lies in being wise as a serpent.

Again I repeat, do not unless God speaks through me to you to do it, change your present materially disorganized — but spiritually organized — Church, nor its present form of Church government, and watch that the Directors are not carried to propose or to make changes relative to the present forms of Church work.

The lot I paid for, the taxes on it, the expense of Lawyer, etc., are all straight, legally and forever settled. No man can make it otherwise any more than evil can destroy Good.

Affectionately,

M. B. G. Eddy

P. S. This letter is private. Wisely warn the Directors not to be misled. Do this at once. M.A.M. is busy on the points before named.


A house built on a faulty foundation would have to be torn down. A sweater with dropped stitches would need to be unraveled. The Church in its effort to handle the matter of Mrs. Eddy's trust deed of December 18, 1889, which called for the building of the church edifice, had dropped a few stitches. Mrs. Eddy was not informed of what was being done, because the trust deed expressly stated that none of the Trustees nor of the Directors should bring to Mrs. Eddy any matter of business relating to the fund or to the building of the church, under penalty of forfeiting his position. When Mrs. Eddy found out what they had done, she made them unravel it and start afresh.

Why did Mrs. Eddy refuse to let them consult with her as to details of business? That was her way of getting them to go to God. In her great desire and hopes for her students, she overrated them. She would not admit that some of them would be too lazy to turn to demonstration, or be so handled by animal magnetism that the human mind would gain control.

The Leader and teacher could do no less than stress the fact that students should function under demonstration, and she set an example in that direction that was unexcelled. She selected students for the various offices by demonstration. So, she had every reason to expect demonstration on the part of her students. She was looking out from a mental state in which she perceived the prime importance of demonstration, and felt that her trained students had the same attitude.

It took time for our Leader to discover the wide gap that lay between the way her students really functioned, and the way she thought they functioned. Perhaps one of her most painful discoveries was to find how far short her students came, of living up to her ideal of them.

Mrs. Eddy was determined to found no material organization. She knew that the disciples began their ministry, after the Master left them, with no organization. Yet in Acts we read of tremendous additions to their ranks. At one time three thousand persons were baptized in one day. She knew that a material organization would lead to many sad experiences, and she hoped to avoid them if possible.

Mrs. Eddy healed by the Spirit, and she hoped her followers would heal in the same way. She had to descend to organized healing, however, or healing by argument, in order to help students to attain the spiritual thought from which spiritual healing comes. In like manner she finally permitted students to have organized churches. She had to give up her hope that either spiritual organization or healing was possible in the present age; yet she looked forward to the time when growth would bring that elevated consciousness, that would make possible both spiritual healing and spiritual organization.

Mrs. Eddy's students had a very keen appreciation of the importance of demonstration. They knew that she was relying on them to demonstrate the matter of the land for the church and the erection of the edifice. What they lacked was an alert recognition of the animal magnetism, which would cause them either to neglect or to forget to do it. They failed to estimate properly the error that would shut off those in authority from doing their work according to Science, and that would be present at the business meetings, tempting them to do things the easier way according to the clever human mind, which takes no special effort.

One obstacle to demonstration is pride. Students who put forth wise human opinions receive applause from others, whereas no such applause follows the voicing of what one hears from God. Humility is essential before one can be a demonstrating Christian Scientist. The moment a student becomes inflated with his own importance, that proves that he is using his human mind, so that he feels that he is entitled to aggrandizement for what he voices.

Men with prodigious memories are applauded, because they know so much. These same men would receive no such aggrandizement if they read from an encyclopedia the answers to questions. A Christian Scientist deserves no credit for voicing God; the only credit due him is for the fact that he has overcome the tendency to use the human mind, and has made the demonstration to lean on God. The wisdom that flows from him is God's wisdom.

Mrs. Eddy's statement in this letter about the past being repeated, is her admission that this church error will always be present as something members need to watch against. We have it in the organization today, but we do not have our beloved Leader with us to caution us against it.

When one reads the history of this period and learns of the trouble the Trustees made for Mrs. Eddy, he is tempted to criticize the individuals responsible; but she calls it the enemy, that would pick off her soldiers and make the leader of the faction a traitor. She took the Master's attitude toward animal magnetism, and laid not this sin to their charge.

Why did she state that students were making up their quota, if they went against her advice, and still gave orders in her name? Because she was doing what she did in God's way. So, when they did things in her way, they were doing them in God's way, and would, therefore, have all the power of right back of them, and so be safe. When they did not do things in Mrs. Eddy's way, they were not doing them in God's way. This meant that they had God against them.

When David destroyed Goliath, he proved that even with the whole of error in front of you, it was nothing, if you had God back of you. The Master had God back of him; therefore, the worst animal magnetism could do, was nothing. The results of its greatest crime against God and man proved only to be good for the Cause of Truth. The deduction is that the serious thing is to have animal magnetism with you, and so to have God against you! Animal magnetism of itself amounts to very little and it knows it. Hence, when it seeks to harm God's child, it tempts him to think or act in such a way that he has God against him. This becomes something really serious, and explains why, in its effort to get control of man, it tries to get him to hate, to be resentful, or to feel indignant over the way he is being treated. This also shows why the panoply of Love is his sure protection. As long as man can love the brethren, he has God with him, and animal magnetism can do nothing.

Hence, a student was making up his quota when animal magnetism enticed him to go against Mrs. Eddy, because that meant that he was going against God; and so, he would have to endure his share of punishment for such an error.

Those who study Mrs. Eddy's history would do well to attach no personality to the names of students that are involved. Miss Bartlett was one of the most faithful students on record. Her history may be found on page 221 of Historical Sketches, by Judge Clifford P. Smith, where the following helpful excerpt from a letter from her Leader is given: “Do not forget to be strong in the clear consciousness that you are able to heal and no counter mind can make you weak for a moment through fear or a lack of confidence in your power, or rather, understanding. Remember, God, Truth, is the healer, the balm in Gilead, and our only physician, and can never be insufficient for all things.”

When Miss Bartlett went astray temporarily, as all the students did at times, Mrs. Eddy had to rebuke her as she did the others. After one such rebuke, she wrote her, “My letter last written you was a message from a higher love than the human and was designed to do you more good than all praise can bestow. God grant me my desire.” At another time she wrote, “Because I love you with unfailing affection I speak as I do and cannot apologize nor take back what I say, lest it will harm you. So trust my love and God's holy, faithful means of blessing us.”

One can understand from this why Miss Bartlett — faithful as she was — was numbered among those who reported that Mrs. Eddy had given the order to organize, when she had not. Mrs. Eddy was working away from the idea of a human organization, while the others thought it vitally necessary, and were struggling to put it forth.

My teacher, Eugene H. Greene, was a very loving man, and in all his ways sought to put his faith in God. He tried to make a demonstration of his supply. Therefore, he did not resort to humanly efficient means of taking care of what his patients owed him. This greatly disturbed his wife, who had formerly been a very efficient bookkeeper, and she attempted to establish some sort of business methods in his relation with his patients. It tried her patience and offended her business sense to see him so slack, when from his point of view, he was striving to put his business affairs on a spiritual basis and wrest them from the control of the human mind.

Mrs. Eddy says enough about human organization for us to deduce that she considered it the work of the devil. When one reads her article in the Christian Science Journal for October, 1892, he can perceive that the whole problem arose because the humanly efficient sense in the students was offended by what seemed to be the slack methods of divine Mind! In this article Mrs. Eddy characterizes this trait as straining at a gnat in one legal direction and swallowing a camel in another, and says that this lack of faith in God's providence and omnipotence has not been blessed by divine Love. Then she writes, “All loyal Christian Scientists will be pleased to know, that we can have and hold church property without going back to outgrown forms of church organization.”

What should we learn from Mrs. Eddy's analysis of her church as materially disorganized — but spiritually organized? Is it possible to define what she meant to convey by the term, “spiritually organized”? Did it mean one without Directors, services, church edifices, in fact, anything tangible? Can we not say that to her it was a church that was organized by the wisdom of Spirit, rather than by the efficient sense of the human mind? Surely such a church would have a form, have officers, services, and the like; but it would be called spiritually organized if Spirit, God, directed it. A spiritually organized church must be one where everyone recognizes that God is the Head of it, and so each one must be obedient to divine Mind — to the demands of God. It is an organization in which the human mind is ruled out — excommunicated — as having no legitimate place.

A spiritually organized church may have a treasurer to take care of its funds, and to represent the members before the law; it may have Directors to transact the business of the church, those elected and authorized by the membership for this purpose. Such a church is not one that has no head; but it is one in which the Head is God, in which each member is striving to know what the demands of God are in conducting that organization.

Contrariwise, a materially organized church would be one in which the human mind has the opportunity to run it, and is supreme in its deliberations. In a spiritually organized church each member recognizes it as the expression of the will of God, and he is, therefore, afraid to take any step unless he is sure that the Spirit of God is directing him. Such a church worships the Father in spirit and in truth, not according to human opinion. In such a church, officers are chosen by demonstration, according to their faithfulness in striving to learn what His wish and will is regarding His organization.

The last paragraph in Mrs. Eddy's letter to Mr. Johnson tells us that the human activities of our church should be the result of demonstration; then they will be forever settled and, “No man can make it otherwise, any more than evil can destroy Good.” The postscript warns us, however, that we must so protect ourselves from animal magnetism that the voice of God can be heard and obeyed. We must handle this claim so that we will not put forth human opinions, and that we will neither be dominated by mortal mind lawyers nor let the human mind become the guide for the organization in any direction.

If there ever was a Church that was God's Church, it is Mary Baker Eddy's spiritually organized Church. If this is true, God must be acknowledged as supreme in it, and we must watch to maintain and perpetuate our Leader's demonstration and example in this direction. If any question comes up as to whether it is God's wisdom or human opinion that is leading, we must work on the point until we are sure it is divine Mind — not the human mind. The former is always constructive, the latter destructive. Hence it has no place in a spiritually organized church!

Further light on Mrs. Eddy's attitude toward organization may be gained from a letter she wrote to the Pastor, Rev. Mr. Norcross, on November 23, 1889, in which she said, “This morning has finished my halting between two opinions. This Mother Church must disorganize, and now is the time to do it, and form no new organization but the spiritual one. Follow Christ Jesus' example and not that of his disciples, which has come to naught in Science; ours should establish Science but not material organization. Will tell you all that leads to this final decision when I see you.”

The next day, November 24, 1889, the following notice was given out: “The annual meeting of the Church of Christ (Scientist), Boston, will be held in the Christian Science Reading Room, No. 210 Hotel Boylston, 24 Boylston Street, Monday, December 2, 1889, at 7:30 P. M. At this meeting the question will be laid before the Church: — to consider the advisability, and take action thereon, of dissolving the organization of the Church on the basis of material and human law, and of remaining together henceforth on a plane of spiritual law in accordance with the higher teachings we are constantly receiving.”

There are those who contend that, when Mrs. Eddy wrote to a student, she was so flexible in her application of Science, that she was able to write to suit their need. Hence such letters do not have a universal value. Nevertheless, she never wrote a letter that was not valuable for all metaphysicians to read, provided they were seeking to understand the message spiritually, since the needs of one are the needs of all. This letter to Mr. Norcross, therefore, may be helpful in understanding Mrs. Eddy's attitude toward this question of organization. And her statement that her decision in regard to it was final, was no idle conclusion; it was based on her highest sense of God's impartation to her at the moment.

No student finds himself able to maintain his consciousness of his unity with God without continuous effort, and Mrs. Eddy herself was not an exception to this fact. The main effort of animal magnetism, in its endeavor to hinder the establishment of Truth's Cause, was to disrupt Mrs. Eddy's connection with divine Mind as the source of wisdom.

Young students regard sickness as the most serious form of animal magnetism; but the seriousness of any error lies in its effect upon one's thought. If one who is a worker in the Father's vineyard falls ill and does not perceive what the purpose of the error is, he is apt to feel that he is entitled to quit such work for the time being in order to recover. If he does, his value to the Cause is temporarily gone. At such a point he should ask himself in Bible language, “What can separate me from the love of God?” In other words, what kind of a mental or physical temptation or condition is so powerful and drastic, that it can prevent him from giving out the love of God to those that need it so badly? If he could detect the hidden purpose in the error, he would seek to maintain the consciousness of his relation to God and continue to work for humanity, no matter what condition he finds himself in.

Mrs. Eddy's main effort was to keep in tune with God. At times she found herself under a pressure that claimed to rob her of God. She did not always make an instantaneous demonstration of dissipating the mist. But she persisted until her thought finally cleared, and then her halting between two opinions ceased, because God's will became clear to her.

Students who believe in matter and at the same time claim to believe in Mind are halting between two opinions, — between what is not, and what is. When they are ready to give up matter, and demonstrate divine Mind as the only Mind, they tune into this Mind and begin to make progress. While this does not describe Mrs. Eddy's experience, nevertheless she made it clear that she herself had to work constantly to maintain her spiritual consciousness of her oneness with God. At times there was a great pressure to blind her mentally, and to shut her off from hearing what God had to say to her. At such times she had to work to find her way out of the maze of falsity into reality. The moment she did this, she knew what God's will was, and was ready to obey and to see that others obeyed.

Mrs. Eddy taught that Science is entirely spiritual. It includes the recognition that there is but one God, one creation — a creation that emanates from God alone — hence it partakes of the nature of God, and is eternal and perpetual in its harmony and reflection of God. Man is the evidence of God's being, and he must be considered as such. The consciousness of this fact is what excludes all illusion.

Mrs. Eddy had to come down from this God-crowned height, however, and acknowledge that the world was under a claim of mesmerism, without knowing it; that mankind under this influence accepted everything connected with material life as real, and the things of Spirit as next to nothing. Her next problem was how to establish a bridge between Science and the human need, without losing Science.

The first solution that presented itself to Mrs. Eddy was to have a material organization. As she struggled against this necessity, she made plain the perils of organization, and took her stand against it. However, just as she had to teach students to argue in healing — a thing which she declares she never did herself until she began teaching students and had to meet the thought where it stood, she finally had to have an organization which was material enough so that through it, spiritual sense could reach the error and dissipate it, and the old idea of theology would rise to the higher spiritual idea of church.

No matter whether he has to use the argument in healing, no progressive student ever loses sight of the goal in Science, namely, spiritual healing, — the point at which his thought perceives reality and the nothingness of all else without effort or argument.

One who remains on the housetop, has no use for a ladder. The ladder is for those who come down to earth, and then need something to help them up again. Mrs. Eddy has said that in healing, the arguments are a ladder.

Should students likewise hold in thought the fact that material organization is merely temporary? Should they anticipate the time when it is to be done away with, and should they work to have as little of it as possible, in order that spiritual ways and means might be exalted as the goal? Surely such an attitude could do our present organization no harm, if it was proved to be our Leader's hope and teaching! Would it not forward the growth of all students if at church meetings the ideal of church reorganized on the basis of God, was set forth? At the Annual Meeting would not the membership be inspired to greater demonstration, if the attainment of individual spirituality was held before thought, and as little said about the growth and expansion of material organization as possible?

When thought has reached the point where it is ready to support spiritual organization by demonstration — which is the goal in Science — will it be dependent any longer on material ways and means? Mrs. Eddy teaches plainly that every student should regard the material organization as temporary when she writes on page 45 of Retrospection and Introspection that “material organization has its value and peril, and that organization is requisite only in the earliest periods in Christian history.”

When Mrs. Eddy declared that she would have no material organization, she proved that she hoped and believed that she had students who, like herself, could maintain a spiritual organization. She learned, however, that not one had enough spirituality, persistence, and wisdom from God, for this task.

In the Fall of 1941, my son had the privilege of reading a paper on Church Building in a branch church in St. Albans, Long Island. In this paper he stressed the great importance of healing during our church services. He brought out that the organization should never absorb thought to the point where members forget to do the mental work for and during the services, which establishes a healing atmosphere.

About six months later he learned that a copy of this paper had fallen into the hands of a practitioner in Rochester, New York, who was so impressed by it, that he had a copy made for each member of Fourth Church, with the request that work be done along the lines laid down in the paper. The next Wednesday night a lady got up and left the service during the singing of the second hymn. The suggestion came to some of the workers that she was disturbed over something and could not remain in the meeting. Later, however, she returned, and rose to her feet and fairly shouted, “I have been healed here tonight; I was very ill, but I have been healed! I have been healed!”

This lady broadcast the news that Fourth Church heals people. The next week a lady who had heard about the affair, came to the service bringing her husband, because she wanted him healed.

It is a proof that material organization is looming up as less important in the minds of students, and a realization of the importance of spirituality taking its place, when members increase their mental work for the services, and so such healing becomes more common.

When there is little healing taking place in our services, it is proof that very little mental work for the services is being done. When our services heal as they should, this fact will be noised about, as it was in Rochester in the Spring of 1942. One who is healed in our services will not be quiet about such a wonderful thing.

The mental work in our services has to be done rightly to be efficacious. If members make scientific declarations without fervor, without their hearts being in it, — which is necessary in order to bring healing, — such work becomes tinkling cymbals and sounding brass. Arguments without the Spirit of God back of them are like sound that has nothing musical back of it.

When students emphasize the proposition that, if we carry out Mrs. Eddy's desires and intent, and are faithful to her teaching, we will not regard the organization as permanent; the whole Field will benefit by it. Progressive students should stress the fact that demonstration will replace material organization without loss of anything essential to the growth of the Cause. And the first evidence that members are making a correct preparation for this highly desirable result will be healing in our services. This cannot come until man looks in this direction with expectancy, since our textbook tells us that man walks in the direction towards which he looks.

The right way to dispose of the materiality connected with organization, is for each member to do his part in growing into an ability and worthiness to sustain and maintain a spiritual organization. When our church functions under demonstration, it will no longer be a materially organized church. Just what changes will be brought about outwardly we do not know; but we can trust God in this matter, just as we can trust Him to heal a broken bone. A material organization to sustain Christian Science is like a broken bone that needs healing, since it does not manifest the perfect continuity of God's creation. It will be healed when the members realize the spiritual obligation they have toward the Cause, and work for it as definitely and as effectively as a practitioner would work for a patient who is in need.

In her letter to Mr. Norcross, Mrs. Eddy states that the church founded by Jesus' disciples came to naught in Science. The proof of this lies in the fact that it lost its vitality and power to heal with the entrance of Constantine, indicating that some error or materiality crept into the foundation of its inception. Since not the Master but his disciples founded a material organization, it can be inferred that this error must have been materiality. This was the element that, included in the foundation of the organization, prophesied its eventual failure as far as perpetuating the healing is concerned.

The struggle between organization and demonstration will always confront newcomers to Christian Science. When those in authority seek to encourage students to use demonstration, and to strive to listen for God's voice and to be obedient to Him, then we may be sure that the balance is on the right side. But if students and members are made to feel that obedience to the organization is the highest attainment in Science, and those in authority appear to be afraid lest members strive to be individually governed by God, that is proof that organization is getting ahead of demonstration. Under demonstration the organization would never inaugurate such a policy. It would never endeavor to crush out of students their desire to be fed from the fountain of Life itself, insisting that the only place to be fed is from the church organization.

Material organization can be called a stop gap. If students are not faithful in working for the Church mentally, if everyone leaves to everyone else the responsibility of making the demonstration, and the members let human activity take the place of mental activity, what will keep the Cause going, during the period in which students must learn that only demonstration will enable the Church to function spiritually, unless there is a material organization? Then comes the danger that this stop gap will take the place of demonstration permanently.

A housewife might hire a servant for a short period, to help out until her regular girl returns from her vacation. What will she do, however, if the former brings her trunk and settles down to stay permanently? We must watch lest the material organization dig its way in, intending to stay indefinitely.

Mrs. Eddy made clear what she wanted by way of a church. Then she had to put up with what she did not want, because of the great gap in spiritual understanding between her and the next best student on earth, who was not sufficiently free from animal magnetism to handle the error. Mrs. Eddy, therefore, had to assent to an organization which would be an automatic protector of the Church from animal magnetism, until this protection could be made a matter of demonstration.

Where the demonstration of protection is lacking for the Church, organization offers a measure of safety, since, if members go astray and do wrong, it provides a human discipline to take care of the situation. If, however, each member does his work to protect the Church spiritually, there will be no occasion to use human methods.

Mrs. Eddy cherished the hope that her Church would be a place where the stranger might come and learn about God, without having to go through a lot of red tape, where his attention could be turned to God directly, without having a lot of church problems to weigh it down. She did not fancy a church where there would be students working all day and far into the night, trying to handle problems that demonstration would take care of without any difficulty. If at any time the Board of Directors in Boston find their tasks and responsibilities increasing, they will always find that it is a lack of demonstration. Demonstration not only solves problems but it takes away problems. As the church develops spiritually, there will be less and less work for the Directors, and they will, therefore, have more time to give to spiritual matters.

The danger in looking to the organization for protection from error rather than to demonstration, lies in the fact that if organization is not regarded and treated as if it were only temporary, it may become animal magnetism to students. By this I mean that the members will have more animal magnetism to meet from the organization, that is striving to kill out the advancing spiritual idea, than from mortal mind outside.

One way animal magnetism might work in the organization, would be to destroy the faith of the Directors in the ability of the members to do anything along spiritual lines to help them. If that happened, they would resemble a man buying Niagara Falls, and then using it as a beautiful view, without realizing that he has at his command enough potential power to light the state without injuring the beauty of the falls. Surely there will never come a time when the workers all over the world will have lost their power to accomplish amazing results. Therefore, the Directors should recognize this at all times, and make frequent demands upon all who are known to be working students. Such demands could not be published in our periodicals, since the world might get the impression that we are an organization of mesmerists, attempting to get what we want by illegitimate mental methods. Confidential letters could be sent, however, asking workers to give a reasonable part of their time to working for the organization.

The government deems it proper to derive part of its support from taxes levied on all incomes. The organization of Christian Science is supported in the same way, although such support is voluntary. In the mental realm, however, it may become necessary to demand support, asking working students to give a share of their time to supporting the organization mentally and spiritually. If students are not requested to do such work, and apparently are not expected to, who will do it?

Once I asked a student who had a fancied grievance against the Board of Directors in Boston, what he would do, if he received a letter from them asking him to give a portion of his time to working for the Monitor, or some other specified activity. He replied he would drop whatever other work he was doing, if necessary, in order to do it. The implication was that his feeling of resentment against the Board would all be dissipated, if the latter showed any inclination to lean on him, and place confidence in his ability.

I contend that the Directors would automatically be freed from a large amount of criticism, criticism which in its last analysis is malpractice, if they should adopt this plan. Mrs. Eddy was accustomed to call on students for help, believing that they were capable of helping her. At Pleasant View she at times entrusted me with her own health, with work for the Cause and for the world. If she felt that my demonstrating thought was valuable enough to make such demands on it then, and if in the meanwhile I have progressed, then it is even more valuable today.

Before Mrs. Eddy's discovery, when a man was sick, he thought that it was proper for him to give his body attention in some material way. Her discovery changed all that, and showed that man's part at such times was to look out for the spiritual and correct that; then God would be trusted to correct and heal the physical. This same rule holds good in the organization. Humanly it would seem logical that if man looks after the material side, God will take care of the spiritual side, but that is not the case.

The faithful students know that divine Mind will keep their functions working in a normal and harmonious way, if they trust God. Their looking out for the spiritual side means the establishing of truth, and in no way interfering with God's government by worrying about the flesh and fearing for it. The rule is that God will keep us in perfect health; but mortal mind is so constituted, that the moment anything is wrong with our body, we begin to do back seat driving, as it were. Even if we make the effort to trust God with our health, we still worry and are anxious; we interfere with God's government through fear and this does not work well.

We fancy that the material church organization is necessary to support the spiritual idea in Science, and we are filled with despair when the organization does not show a healthy condition. As a matter of fact, if we do our work properly to support the spiritual idea, it will support the organization in a healthy and flourishing condition.

When we talk about throwing off the material organization in time, whether we are referring to the fleshly body or the material church, we should always remember that in absolute Science there is nothing to throw off. The divine demand is merely a reconstruction of our thinking, in which we eliminate the attempt of any other mind to control us, so that divine Mind alone may become our Mind.




Call by Mrs. Eddy to Dissolve Church

March 26, 1892

Dissolve the Church organization according to law through the Court. Take out a new charter for a Church called the First Church of Christ, Scientist. Make the government of the Church the same as it now is; that there shall be seven (7) Directors of this Church, viz.: Mrs. M. W. Munroe, Miss J. S. Bartlett, William B. Johnson, Ira O. Knapp, Eugene H. Greene, Joseph S. Eastaman, David Anthony. That these Directors shall elect the Pastor and see that the Pastor is paid; shall decide his term of service and remove him if necessary for preaching what is not absolutely Christian Science; for neglecting the duties of his office, or for using an influence against the true history of Christian Science, its discovery, its revelation and statement according to the books written by Mary B. G. Eddy, or any other mode of departure from strict loyalty to Christian Science in its statement and demonstration according to above named works, or for any other departure from the strictest doctrine and demonstration of Christian Science that these Directors may discover.

The Pastor shall read “Science and Health” aloud in the pulpit and use his influence to extend the publication of Mrs. Eddy's works.

Not one of these Directors shall resign his office while he remains loyal to Christian Science after the definition as above of what constitutes loyalty.

If one should be removed by what is called death, his place shall be immediately supplied by a person loyal to Christian Science as above described, with the exception of the pulpit service. If one of these Directors should depart from the strictest standard of Christian Science according to the foregoing specifications thereof, he shall be removed from office and another one chosen in his place who is loyal as aforesaid with the exception of performing the office of Pastor.

The Church shall not vote on the choice of Pastor or his removal from his office or the term of his service. This shall be the duty of the Directors only.

Whatever Constitution or By-laws this Church shall adopt, they shall in no way conflict with this order of the Directorship of the Church.

The lot of land on the corner of Falmouth and Caledonia Sts., Boston, give to this First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, provided they adhere to the above order of Directorship.

These Directors shall be chosen at the first meeting when forming this organization, and this form of government shall be continued or the right to the ownership of this land shall be forfeited and it shall go to a Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, who will adopt and perpetuate this form of Church government as aforesaid.

There shall be three (3) Trustees of this Church property. Mr. Alfred Lang of Lawrence, Mass., and Mr. Marcellus Munroe of Somervllle, Mass., shall be two of them until the Church edifice is built, when their term of office shall expire. Mr. Lang shall continue to act as Treasurer of the Church Building Fund and Mr. Munroe as Secretary of these Trustees.

If one of the Trustees who hold the Church Building Fund objects to this mode of conveying this land whereon to build the Church edifice, this Trustee shall be removed from office and another person who consents to it shall be elected to fill the vacancy.

This land shall be bonded instead of deeded to the Church on the above conditions.

The charter members of the “First Church of Christ, Scientist,” shall be the above named Directors, if all of these were members of my Church — but at all events no one shall be a charter member who was not a loyal member of the present Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, under its present charter, and at the time of its disorganization.

N. B. The reason I give for the surrender of the charter is that the Church to which I give the land shall be called the “First Church of Christ, Scientist.” It is now chartered as the “Church of Christ (Scientist).”


The old organization had been done away with according to Mrs. Eddy's instructions on December 2, 1889. Now God reveals to her a better plan, in which the Directors and Pastor are constantly checked for loyalty and obedience to God. As stated in this Call, the slightest deviation would cause dismissal.

Loyalty does not change with the passing of years. It is as constant a factor as is love or purity. Therefore, the important definition given in this Call should be held before the thought of every Board of Directors. According to this definition, no member of this Board or the Pastor of the Church could continue in office who had an incorrect or trivial concept of the Leader, or of any part of her life. Even if he seemed to measure up to the requirements of the office in every other way, this would be sufficient to convict him of disloyalty.

Although there is no proof that this Call was put into operation exactly as given here, nevertheless it shows that Mrs. Eddy felt the need of finding some way to safeguard the situation, so that the recognition of God as the first and great Controller and Governor of this Cause might be attained and maintained. The implication is that the responsibility of determining the continuous loyalty of the Directors was to rest with the church body. If this was so, Mrs. Eddy later found it to be a weak point and strengthened it. She foresaw how difficult it would be for the church members to determine the loyalty or disloyalty of the Directors.

Doubtless she foresaw that the claim of favoritism, partisanship, and prejudice might enter in, so that if members were friends or pupils of any of the Board, they would strenuously assert that their teacher or friend could not possibly be disloyal. This element in the Church would constantly encourage cliques, or breaks in the ranks, which would work ill.

The final plan that came to Mrs. Eddy was to make the Directors answerable to God. For this reason, each member of this Board should constantly bear in mind Mrs. Eddy's definition of loyalty as given in this Call.

Humanly it would appear as if the Board of Directors was self-perpetuating, and in a position where one of its members could not be removed except by vote of the other four; but actually they are under the control and supervision of God, which is more rigorous and exact than if their office were dependent upon the votes of the membership. He will remove them if they are not faithful, and surely He can do it. Hence no one need ever fear that our Church will become an ecclesiastical hierarchy with human wills and opinions rampant.

Each member has a responsibility, however, which he must fulfill as an obligation he owes to God and man. He must demonstrate to know that animal magnetism has no power to prevent the recognition and operation of the supreme control of the organization by God, to interfere with its functioning harmoniously, or to continue in office those who are doing harm. The recognition of this fact must be kept alive in the thoughts of the membership as a point to be demonstrated constantly, since that keeps the way open for God to act in its behalf. If the members are unfaithful in this respect, and cherish the supposition that, no matter what the Directors do, whether it is right or wrong, they can continue to hold their membership, and that God can do nothing about it, it is possible that the law of God might become inoperative in their behalf, and the Movement might suffer under the claim of popery.

Mrs. Eddy made no human provision for the removal of any member of the Board of Directors except by death, by their own vote, or by resignation. This fact makes it necessary for members to watch, work and pray, to know that God is supreme in the world and in His organization, that His will rules and reigns, and that nothing can prevent it from being executed. Each must do his part to keep the suggestions of error from influencing any one against the fact that God reigns.

Under such a mental attitude the members will not be attempting to domi­nate or govern the Directors; they will be holding them where they should be, and in reality are, namely, directly under the government of God, where they are controlled by divine wisdom and love, so that the necessity for loyalty is even greater than it would be if they were under merely human surveillance.

A Christian Scientist who has a case in court knows that he can put the judge and jury, the lawyers and witnesses under the control of divine wisdom, honesty and fair dealing. He can demonstrate to know that God is the only Judge, that nothing can stand in the way of His will, interfere with His power, or prevent His wisdom from being operative.

Under such a demonstration His decisions alone will be executed. Christian Scientists have often had cases at law where they have proved the truth and possibility of this scientific mental mode. Even though the average law case is very far from being judged by true justice, yet Christian Science can take hold of such a case and bring out divine justice, because under demonstration he is assured of God's justice. The right result follows because the case is worked on in the right way.

If the above is possible, the same line of argument can be applied to the church organization. The fact that Mrs. Eddy has taken the election or dismission of the Directors out of the hands of the church body, makes the work of the mem­bership along scientific and metaphysical lines more important and necessary. In lieu of voting, their part is to realize that God is our Judge and their Judge, and His judgments are right; that while God demands of the higher to watch out for the lower, yet the Directors are under the direct guidance and government of God, and the demands and requirements of God are scientific and inescapable. Under such a demonstration, whatever the situation may be, it will be cared for.

To merely say that God governs the universe, or that He will take care of some grievous situation like the wars that rage in the world from time to time, will accomplish very little. Such wars continue apparently under their own momen­tum, until they wear themselves out, and the people ask, “Why does not God stop this awful thing?” The need of the hour is for students to demonstrate God's government, to bring themselves up to the spiritual height where they are able to know beyond any shadow of doubt, that God's power is supreme on earth as in heaven, and that the government is His, and His alone!

In the early days of our country Westerners took the reins of government into their own hands. The rule of the Federal government was not felt, until it was per­mitted to come in and supersede the law of the gun. When the machinery of law was brought into lawless sections, the shooting of citizens ceased, and men were accorded a fair trial in cases of suspected murder or crime.

Similarly, we must call on God in an active and scientific way to be supreme in the physical realm so-called, as well as in the spiritual, as Mrs. Eddy writes in her textbook, before spiritual law will supersede so-called material law, and harmony will reign.

Because the members do not have the opportunity to elect the Directors, to observe their loyalty, and to remove them if necessary, a higher responsibility is placed on the membership, which is to make the demonstration that will help to keep the Directors in line with loyalty, so that they will know and be obedient to the demands of God. If the members feel that the Directors are fostering a spy system in the Movement in order to apprehend misdemeanors, as it has been asserted at times, that the Directors are using too much human opinion in their deliberations, or that they are exercising ecclesiastical domination, the members must feel that they are largely to blame, since Christian Science teaches that divine justice is certain only when we demonstrate divine justice. Who would call it fair for mechanics who have the responsibility for oiling a large machine, to stand by and complain, because the machine squeaks or develops friction from lack of oil; when they are responsible, because they have neglected to supply the machine with oil?

When church members are demonstrating God's law and seeking to obey it in their own lives, then they can and must go a step further and invoke this law for the Directors and the organization as a whole. They must do this, since, until it is done, the Cause will neither be safe, nor manifest continuous prosperity and growth.

The business of The Mother Church is conducted by the Board of Directors. It follows that, when that Board is put under the government of God, that divine government will extend through the whole Field; just as if some pigment was released in a reservoir, and the color allowed to extend until it appeared in every home where the water was used.

The conception of loyalty that Mrs. Eddy calls for in this communication to the Church, is worth analyzing, since one would not be apt to include all the points she does, in defining loyalty. A study of the minutes of the Board of Directors, for instance, reveals that on November 26, 1918, one of the members, who was Mrs. Eddy's own student and had lived in her home as her secretary, set forth that the standard of loyalty in church members should be to acknowledge the authority of the Board of Directors. This was a very narrow and human conception of loyalty, when it is compared with Mrs. Eddy's presentation of it. What she writes on page 50 of Retrospection and Introspection defining loyalty, lifts it to a higher plane than mere acknowledgment of authority.

Every student must learn Mrs. Eddy's definition of loyalty, since her understanding of it came from God, and we should all be found adhering to God's standard in every direction, if we wish to merit the title, loyal Christian Scientists. In this Call she was expounding loyalty, not merely for the Directors and Pastor, but for the Church of Christ, Scientist, for all time to come.

Thus, it is disloyalty if a student uses an influence against the “true history of Christian Science, its discovery, its revelation….” It was disloyalty, therefore, when according to the minutes of the meetings of the Board of Directors, one of their members proposed destroying part of Mrs. Eddy's papers and manuscripts. This bit of history is not inserted to darken the memory of a good man, who served our Movement faithfully for many years; it is stated as a warning, so that if a student should ever feel in some future time that the Cause would be served by the destruction of anything our Leader has written, this may serve to correct such a mistaken sense.

It is plain that this member of the Board believed that Mrs. Eddy had left behind certain matters which, if made public, might prejudice students against her. If one feels this way, however, it is because he has not sought and attained a spiritual understanding of his Leader and of her life. The deduction is that it is the part of loyalty for students to acquaint themselves with the true history of Christian Science and of its Discoverer and Founder, and strive to understand it. Then one will be able to answer the question as to whether that true history is material or spiritual, human or divine, physical or mental.

The true history of Christian Science must trace the entrance of truth into this belief of mortality, so that the so-called human mind begins to learn its own falsity, and to put itself off for divine Mind, so that it gradually disappears, and divine Mind is seen to be All. Mind is the cause of all effects; in tracing back to cause, we can determine its nature by its effects, although it is always cause that we are primarily concerned with. Therefore, the true history of Christian Science must be that which sets forth cause, and it is disloyalty to depart in any way from that true history.

Mrs. Eddy asserts in this document that, “Not one of these Directors shall resign his office while he remains loyal to Christian Science after the definition as above of what constitutes loyalty.” This statement carries the implication that, when God selects one for service, that service is continuous, unless one departs from loyalty.

In studying this Call one can see why it was logical that there evolved a group of members who were known as First Members, or Executive Members. This committee was made up of those who were considered to have been well-taught and well-versed in demonstration, since these matters involving the Pastor and the Directors, and their loyalty, required demonstration, and could not be settled or determined apart from it. This group was composed of representative working students, who had been trained to demonstrate church matters.

The weakness in this mode of church activity became plain to Mrs. Eddy, when the First Members failed to demonstrate matters put before them as they should, because they yielded to the aggressive mental suggestion, which tempted them to forget or to neglect this sacred obligation. They were the pick of Mrs. Eddy's students; yet they had to be disbanded, because she could not continuously rely on them to demonstrate the business entrusted to them. The responsibility thus returned to her shoulders, where it was most of the time anyway, and it remained there as long as she remained with us. She was the only one who could be trusted always to perceive the importance of demonstrating church matters, and to do it.

Regardless of what anyone says, the First Members, while they were of help to their Leader, were weighed in the balance and found wanting. Human processes crept into their deliberations, some of them pulled wires, and used political means and methods to accomplish their human desires. The time finally came when all responsibility to execute church matters had to be taken from them, and they were disbanded.

It was a sad thing for Mrs. Eddy to discover, when she herself selected students as First Members according to God's choice, that they failed her, that she could not depend on them in the long run to use the spiritual method in doing the business of the church, any more than on the rank and file of members. It was a good thing, however, that she found this out in time to drop this committee.

Mrs. Eddy cherished the hope that through her teaching, the students might learn the importance of demonstration in connection with all church matters, and realize the individual responsibility involved. She wanted them to regard this as a demand of God, knowing that one must meet the demands of God, or take the consequences. Students would perceive that most of the punishment they receive is deserved, if they realized how far short they come of meeting God's demands upon them. Truly it is surprising that the results of disobedience or a lack of fulfilling God's demands are not more severe in the lives of many students.

Growth in our branch churches will surely increase as members awaken to see the importance of turning the business meetings over to God, instead of the human will; but if the leading students are opposed to the use of anything but the human mind or will in the business meetings, the situation looks rather hopeless, and indicates a continuation of the error that caused our Leader to dissolve the group called the First Members.

If this group, composed largely of Mrs. Eddy's own students and trained by her, were not faithful in this important obligation, does that furnish an excuse for a lack of demonstration on the part of present students? The First Members were dissolved nearly thirty-five years before the time these pages are being written, which should mean, under the law of progress, that today students should be more wide awake to conduct their business meetings under the Mind of God, than they were then. Glaciers move slowly, but they do move. The humblest student desiring sincerely to go forward and to be obedient to Mrs. Eddy's teaching, will make progress and become an example among those whose duty it is to take the lead in this important matter.

This Call by our Leader illustrates the great value of the history of her life and the Cause. Its value, however, can never be perceived, until it is analyzed spiritually, and its application to all ages set forth.

Mrs. Eddy found that she could trust few students to demonstrate the business of the church consistently and continuously. Some of the most loyal and faithful demonstrators would suddenly fail her, not because they wanted to or meant to, but because the human mind slipped in unawares. Hence, she had most of the demonstrating to do for the Movement. She had to select the officers, or pass on the Board's selection. Thus, it came about that the First Members did not put demonstration first. They were not first in demonstration as they should have been, and the office had to be discarded.

Mrs. Eddy sent a copy of Science and Health to the famous naval officer, Admiral Dewey, and inscribed in it, “First in war, first in peaceful conquest; first in the love of his country; and the first shall be last to make war, last to lose an opportunity, last to surrender.” Had the First Members only been first in demonstration, or in the warfare against the human mind, how much they would have spared their Leader! Had they been first in handling error, the demands of God would have been heard clearly by them, and they would have been first in peace; so that when error was handled, they would have been obedient to the word of God which always brings peace. Then they would have been first in the hearts of their fellow members, since what they would have established by their lives, would have enabled the fellow students to recognize their probity, integrity and faithfulness in the demands of Science, and nothing would have endeared them to others more than that. Why was this not so? The sin must not be laid at their door, since it was malicious animal magnetism.

Mrs. Eddy once said to a student, “There are many members of my church who should not be, and sometime there will be a sifting in my church.” When this statement is taken in connection with this Call, one can see that Mrs. Eddy always kept in mind the need of weeding out of her Church members who were handled by disloyalty.




April 30, 1892

My dear Student:

I told Mr. Lang, at first, how to settle it. He promised he would, then was turned round to Nixon's side.

Go to Perry and tell him all about it, and ask him what to do.

Tell Perry if they do not build on the land I gave them, they will on land they purchase, and then govern the Church and own the Building free from the restrictions in the Deed to Trustees! Ask him if the Trustees have a right when they say they have no deed to continue to receive contributions from my students under the pretense that they will build on what was once my lot? All my dear students are giving their money with this expectation and speak so tenderly of Mother's Church and the Mother-Church, it seems awful for this fraud, as I deem it, to go on. If as the Trustees complain, their Deed is not legal — what right have they to take money as Trustees and appropriate it? They dispute the right of the Church to do business on account of lack of legal ability, and what have they?

I wish Perry would tell you how to stop this getting money on my account, or to honor me (?) only to appropriate it to my dishonor.

Affectionately,

M. B. G. Eddy

N. B. This is the last time I shall consider this matter. I will not hear from it again. You can settle it, among all that I have taught there are enough loyal students to do this. I have a greater problem to solve and no man to help me!

Again, M. B. G. E.

Let Lawyer Perry read this letter.


Generations to come will treasure these letters by our Leader, as indicating what she had to go through in founding her Church on an imperishable basis. In this letter she exhibits her masculine reflection of God, the sound judgment, the wise effort to have everything sound, right and legal, so that nothing will go by default in the trust.

The human tendency is for women to trust men, and men to trust themselves. Our Leader, in her trust of herself — which in reality was her trust in her own reflection of God — manifested the masculine quality which is so necessary and important in leadership.

Christian Science teaches that man can acquire womanly affection. It is to be assumed that the Master wanted his disciples to take on, or to develop, this feminine quality; otherwise, why did he continually instruct them to love one another? It would be a curious demand, for the masculine to love the masculine, unless one understood that he was encouraging them to take on what they lacked, namely, the feminine quality of love, so that they would measure up to God's complete reflection.

In this treatment of his disciples the Master proved that one does not need to marry in order to find completeness. He knew that whichever quality one lacked, he could claim it, or take it on, and so fulfill the ideal of divine sonship. No doubt he gave them private instructions as to how this was to be done, in understanding that God is both the Father and the Mother; therefore, as one enlarges his understanding of his reflection of God, he must manifest both natures of God.

One must exchange cause, if he wants to change effect. God is the only cause, unchangeable and ever present, and man, is His perfect reflection. Hence, we must recognize that the qualities that comprise the ideal man are in God, and in reflecting Him, we cannot neglect one of these qualities. It is vital, therefore, to study Mrs. Eddy's definition of God, since otherwise one cannot know what the ideal man is. He cannot recognize and develop the qualities that belong to him, unless he knows that they are in God, and knows what they are. When one does know what the qualities of God are, and realizes that he reflects God in His entirety, then he gains a knowledge of the complete expression of those qualities that fulfill the ideal manhood.

Mrs. Eddy states that this is the last time she will consider this matter of the land for the church; yet we know that she followed it through to the end. She did what a mother does who is teaching her babe to walk. She sees it give evidence that it is learning to balance itself, because it takes a few steps in its baby pen. So, she knows that all it needs is self-confidence, to enable it to walk without holding on. Her method is to make the babe believe that it is walking all by itself; in reality she is close by, ready to catch it if it falls.

The students felt confident while Mrs. Eddy was working with them. They knew that if they made mistakes, she was close at hand to check and correct. However, she wanted them to gain confidence in their own demonstration. Otherwise, they would not be well-rounded demonstrators. She did not want ill-balanced students like a lot of balloons, where the air, instead of inflating them so that they are symmetrical, has gone only into one portion, with the result that they are misshapen. This well describes a student who is well-trained in a knowledge of how to heal the sick, and yet has not enlarged his ability to use demonstration in other directions that require it, when that is what progress demands of us all.

At times word should go out to the trained writers in the Field, that the Christian Science Publishing Society would welcome articles in which students are encouraged to make a broader application of demonstration, lest they grow one-sided because they confine their efforts to healing the sick. One who wants to become a singer does not limit his practice to his time at the piano. He sings in his tub in the morning; he practices whenever he has a spare moment.

The students' first conception of Mrs. Eddy was as a spiritually-minded woman. It took time for them to realize that her reflection of God was so complete, that she manifested the qualities of God's manhood as well, so that she was thoroughly competent to do whatever task confronted her. She became the best architect, builder, lawyer, business man, entirely through her reflection of God.

It is evident that Mr. Lang listened to what Mrs. Eddy told him to do about the land, and was convinced for the moment that she was right. Then he talked with Mr. Nixon, who no doubt set forth the practical aspects of the situation from a business and legal point of view, and voiced his opinions based on years of business experience and what he had learned from the lawyers about the matter. All this served to turn Mr. Lang from what Mrs. Eddy had told him, over to Mr. Nixon's side. One knows that he could do this only as he regarded Mrs. Eddy as a woman, very spiritual to be sure, but not one to follow when it came to matters where hard heads and business training were needed.

It is an ill-shapen sense of Christian Science to believe that Science is all right in cases of sickness, but that, when it comes to matters of law, business, building and the like, human procedure, legal methods, business experience and a human estimate of what is right, are needed, — and Science has no place.

Mrs. Eddy found it difficult at times to get some of her male students to listen to her, to have confidence in her judgment, and to obey her in matters of business. Even in those days man had scant respect for a woman in matters of business and law. Calvin Frye records in his diary under the date of December 7, 1899, as follows: “Judge Clarkson dined with Mrs. Eddy today, and after dinner tried to convince her again that she was mistaken and the cause was going to ruin, and the men were essentially to take the lead of the cause of Christian Science, and to assert their rights without her dictation.” Is it any wonder that she wrote and immediately copyrighted her book, Man and Woman, in which she states, “The masculine element must not murmur if at some period in human history time should take a turn in behalf of woman, and say — her time has come, and the reflection of God's feminine nature is permitted consideration, has come to the front, and will be heard and understood!”

Judge Clarkson had not yet learned that Mrs. Eddy was always right in her decisions and directions, since man as well as woman, was at the head of the Cause. But that Head was the Father-Mother God, and Mrs. Eddy reflected His fatherhood as well as His motherhood.

The situation in regard to the land and the deed became more and more confused, because the men involved refused to recognize Mrs. Eddy's wisdom. She was following a plan that God had laid out — the only plan that could be properly executed. As a metaphysician she knew that unless God's plan was adhered to, it would be a great mistake and serious results would follow.

When Mrs. Eddy wrote Mr. Johnson to go to Lawyer Perry to ask if the Trustees had a right to continue to receive contributions, while at the same time they complained that they did not have a legal deed, she wanted to know if the Trustees' departure from God's plan was also a departure from legality. She hoped that, if these students who were being swayed by human ways and means, could not be reached on the basis of the demands of God upon them as voiced by their Leader, or the terms of the trust deed of December 11, 1889, they could be reached on a point of law. The question was, was it legal for them to continue to obtain money from Mrs. Eddy's students to build a church in a way that did not accord with her highest demonstration, that would leave her out of it, and that would be governed apart from the restrictions laid down in the Deed of Trust?

The demonstration of Science will always clash with the respected methods of mortal mind, methods that are the result of education, experience and profound thought. In a previous commentary I sighted the case of my first teacher, who sought to demonstrate his supply. His effort to look away from material methods met with opposition from his efficient wife, who accused him of laxness and carelessness. She had yet to learn that such an effort is not only in accordance with Science, but far more profitable, than when one watches and counts the pennies. By not watching the inflow, one leaves the situation freer for the influx from God.

In my days of more active practice I sought to make a demonstration of supply, with the result that my income was three times as large as any other practitioner in my city. Yet I made no demands on my patients for payment, as an efficient worker would. Mortals claim, when they see one receiving a large income, one who does not use business methods, that the income would be still larger, if one resorted to such methods and used care. Actually, it has the reverse effect, since that very care betokens fear and an awareness of that which must be kept out of thought, if one wants to make a demonstration of supply.

Let this not be construed as an implication that our beloved Leader was ever guilty of what mortal mind could call careless methods, in her attempt to demonstrate God's ways. At no point in her entire connection with her Cause can it be shown that there is what might be called a dropped stitch, one oversight or one irreparable mistake.

Mrs. Eddy had a right to deem it a fraud for the Trustees to continue to obtain contributions from the students who spoke tenderly of Mother's Church, when they were planning to build, and leave her out of the picture.

Even though Mrs. Eddy said she refused to consider this matter again, we know that she was like the mother, developing her babe, watching every step to prevent any catastrophe. It was her business to see that the Cause prospered and that it was founded as God directed. Yet, out of the student body must be raised up students who could replace Mrs. Eddy in furnishing God's wisdom to the Cause. How could this happen, unless she gave them the chance to develop along that line apart from her constant advice?

Many promising students have had their prospects blighted by too sedulous care from their practitioners or teachers. Some of them have even been driven out of Science, when they might have made good students, if they had been encouraged to make their own demonstrations at a time when they sought to lean on their helpers. Students who are allowed to lean beyond what is wise, do not develop that faith in their own ability to demonstrate, so that they are able to protect themselves from the animal magnetism that dogs their footsteps.

If men were building a high structure, you might have to teach them how to overcome their fear of heights, lest they become dizzy and fall, as the building rises. You would never do this by staying with them every moment, and letting them cling to you for support.

Likewise, each student must be taught as fast as he can assimilate it, how to handle this deterrent called animal magnetism or the human mind, which represents the entire phase of error that holds mortals in bondage. Anyone who asserts that this is unnecessary is himself handled by the claim. One of Augusta Stetson's wealthy students in New York finally concluded that the work against animal magnetism was foolish; so he decided to stop and see what happened. From his standpoint nothing happened at all, and he went on living a peaceful happy life. Yet from the Christian Science standpoint, he continued to function as a servant of animal magnetism, without protest on his part.

Each mortal is born into this claim of a material world under mesmerism or animal magnetism; he is under it all his life and he will die under it, unless he throws it off. The understanding of Christian Science is given to man, not so much to enable him to protect himself from what might be called overt acts of animal magnetism, but to help him to free himself and others from the universal claim of mesmerism under which the whole world functions.

It would be silly for a man who has been hypnotized to refuse to learn how the spell was cast upon him, so that he could get out of it, if such a thing were possible. He must be convinced that he is under such a spell, and be shown how to free himself from it. It is foolish for a student of Christian Science to declare that he no longer needs to work against animal magnetism, when every belief that he entertains as a mortal is animal magnetism!

Mrs. Eddy makes it plain how we may cast off this spell of illusion, by showing us how we got in, and assures us that reality awaits our doing this task; with reality she tells us comes immortality, harmony, understanding and joy — all good. She states that these have been taken from us only as we have been put under this mesmeric belief in which illusion seems real. For a student, therefore, to declare that there is no need of working against animal magnetism shows that he never understood Christian Science.

Students of Science who love to dwell in the absolute, and declare that there is no need of struggling against error, are like a man who starts his day with a box of tools and his lunch. Instead of doing the job, he eats the lunch. The lunch is fine; but it is only given to him to help to sustain him while he does the job. Our job is to throw off the claim of mesmerism; that is salvation. The uplifting consciousness of the absolute good that Mrs. Eddy has given us to sustain us in this work, corresponds to the lunch.

Mrs. Eddy ends the letter by writing, “I have a greater problem to solve and no man to help me.” What was this greater problem? It was a problem that was not connected with the organization nor with building it up. She hoped that there would be enough students who were inspired with her purpose, her faithfulness and in part her understanding, to be able to demonstrate the organization, without troubling her too much with the human details.

The problem for which she could not get help, was exposing the claim of evil. She knew that if that could be done, the rest of the task would be simple — the re-entry of all mankind into the kingdom of heaven. No one could help her in the necessity to probe and uncover the claim of animal magnetism. She had to pioneer alone, to prove that it was unreal; that its apparent power to deceive mankind to the point where mankind believed it to be real and suffered as a result, was illusion. She must explain to the world that evil was purely a wrong attitude of mind, which apparently threw forth an expression that fooled man into believing that it was something when it was nothing.

The Mr. Lang mentioned in this letter was a fellow-trustee with Mr. Nixon. A study of his letters to Mrs. Eddy written at this time reveals in a measure the problem she had to deal with. On March 19 he wrote to her, “We must give to Caesar the things that are Caesar's. We must conform to the laws of our country in our business transactions.” In this same letter he writes, “Please allow me here to say that I should regard it as very unfortunate if we or yourself should break faith with Bro. Nixon. I regard him as one of the truest men within my acquaintance. I know he has the good of our cause at heart. I shall rejoice if the course which you have outlined shall take legal form and be perfected.”

The question comes up, was Mr. Lang a good man? There is every evidence pointing to the fact that he was. Once he told his daughter that Mrs. Eddy offered to exonerate him publicly of all blame in the matter of this controversy, and he begged her not to, saying, “I can bear it,” meaning the onus of disloyalty that was laid at his door.

The next question is, was he sincere in thinking Mr. Nixon to be a good man? His words as quoted above to Mrs. Eddy proved that. Then what was the trouble?

Apparently the eleven disciples thought that Judas was a good man. Not one of them knew to whom the Master was referring when he foretold that the one who dipped with him in the dish would betray him. At least this is proof that there was no malpractice toward Judas on the part of his fellow disciples, that might have contributed to his deflection. Whatever the error was, it came from the enemies of the Master, and not from the eleven.

John V. Dittemore played the part of a present-day Judas, when he betrayed his trust as a member of the Board of Directors, and threw the church into costly litigation. The question in regard to him is, was he fundamentally unsound, or was his downfall the result of the malpractice of the workers around him that he could not handle? Did he have such confidence in his own probity that, when animal magnetism handled him, it caused him to be unconscious of this fact, and to believe that everyone else around him was in error?

The disciple, Peter, was a good man. Yet he was handled by animal magnetism and did not know it. He was the very soul of honesty and was filled with moral courage for the truth. He did not see how he could be handled. So, the Master withdrew his protection, and then Peter made a mistake that even he could see, which proved to him his error. It was a beautiful and yet sad thing to see how the Master handled the situation, so that Peter, as a result of that experience, became a far sounder and more effective Christian than he was before, or ever could have been.

Christian Scientists of today should take heed from the Master's treatment of Peter, and not accept the indication of error in a fellow-student as positive proof of mental unsoundness, as some are prone to do. Let those who are tempted to do so, consider Mary Magdalene. Was she mentally and morally unsound, because she yielded to a form of sensuality which society condemns most severely? Not according to the Master! His estimate of her was that she was handled by animal magnetism because she loved much. This incident gives us the rule whereby to measure sin in Science. When a Christian Scientist makes a moral slip, why not assume that the temptation of sensuality crept in because they loved much? Many times those who have become students of this Science and have sought to love much, have gotten into trouble, because that love was not put under the control of wisdom, or the spiritual ideal.

Animal magnetism's claim to interfere with demonstration has its parallel all along the line. Food is at present a necessity for a student. Mrs. Eddy herself once said, “Do not say, ‘There is no intelligence in food.' ‘The earth brings forth food for man's use.' And we must reflect divine intelligence that enables us to use that food; adhere to the statement that divine intelligence directs man, and governed by it, man eats, sleeps, walks and talks harmoniously.”

Yet animal magnetism claims to use food as well as sleep, to enslave mortal man. Sleep should be regarded as God's gift to man, so that at times he can withdraw from the clamor and illusion of mortal sense and gain refreshment; yet animal magnetism steps in and claims to use it as a medium for subjecting mortal man to a greater claim of mesmerism than he would be in without it.

It is plain that a student in our Movement who did nothing, would escape criticism, and perhaps please those who have grown weary in the effort to settle disputes and discipline those in need of it; yet no student ever accomplished anything constructive without making mistakes. Such mistakes should not be held against him, if his attitude and his motive are right.

The question is, was Alfred Lang right in feeling that Mr. Nixon was spiritually sound and loyal to the core? Perhaps the latter was an outstanding example of rectitude and efficiency. Certainly Mrs. Eddy would never have appointed him to the highest office in her church unless he had been a man of outstanding ability. Therefore, it may be that his very qualities and position of honor subjected him to the malpractice of jealousy and of a lot of other error from his fellow students. It must be remembered that in the early days the ability to stand under such a fire of nothing claiming to be something, as Mrs. Eddy once put it in a letter to me, was not as generally developed as it is today. Nearly everyone of Mrs. Eddy's early brilliant students fell by the wayside, victims of animal magnetism.

If a man was raising chickens and some of them were plumper and fatter than the rest, if a chicken thief should begin to despoil the yard, he would certainly select and carry off the fattest ones, until only the thin stringy ones were left.

When animal magnetism stole away Mrs. Eddy's students, is it not logical to believe that it took the best ones, since the greater the student's attainments and possibilities, the more of a mark he became for shafts of evil? One might believe that it was a great attainment in those days for a student to remain steadfast and loyal over a long period of time, but according to this argument and explanation, it was not too great a compliment to a student to have been neglected by the devil, as it were!

The Bible tells us that whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth. Does this mean that one who is worthy of a divine affection comes under a greater sense of hell, than do those less worthy? Surely it is the fat chickens that animal magnetism abducts, in order to take them out of the family of God and put them into the family of evil.

It can do no harm to feel that Mr. Nixon desired to be steadfast, loving, helpful and faithful to his trust. If one wants to know how seriously the trustees took their trust, let him ponder what Mr. Lang wrote to Mrs. Eddy on May 13, 1892: “This matter is almost crushing me. God does not require me to throw a bomb containing a thousand cartridges of dynamite into the ranks of Christian Scientists which illustrates just what we should do if we send such a letter…. This thing must not burst, the consequences would be fatal to our loved cause. I have been tempted to try to relieve myself of this responsibility but my judgment says not. It is cowardly, unmanly and unchristian to shirk. I must go through with this duty honorably in some way, but I shudder at doing the thing you suggest and we contemplated as a way out of my embarrassment.”

If the desire to be faithful and to do the honorable thing was taken from Mr. Nixon or Mr. Lang, it was a mental abduction — animal magnetism operating to make them willing to leave the ship, when their normal and right sense would make them stay, or at least, feel sad at leaving.

Some tropical fruits are so fragile that they spoil in transportation; so, they cannot be enjoyed except on the spot where they are grown. Mr. Nixon might have resembled such fruit in the sense that he had a good thought, but the moment he began to move in directions of progress and to transport his thinking in ways of helpfulness, he was so handled and overwhelmed by error that he became a liability rather than an asset to Mrs. Eddy. There have been women in our Movement who have been very spiritually-minded and seemed to live close to God; yet the moment they came face to face with animal magnetism, they would chemicalize. Spiritual sense is of no special value to the Christian Scientist, if it cannot protect him from the influence of erroneous thought, when he comes in contact with it. Mr. Nixon would have been all right, if he had not had to be used in the Cause in a position where he would come in contact with the error of animal magnetism and malpractice.

Once I saw an automobile engine being tested on a block. It ran beautifully as long as it was required to carry no load. The moment a load was applied, it stalled. Mr. Nixon might have belonged to the class of students who are of little practical value, since the moment a load is placed upon them, they stall. Mr. Lang might have known him as a gentle kindly man, but no one can prophesy what another will do under the pressure of animal magnetism. For that reason it is vitally necessary to apply to God for wisdom, in selecting candidates for positions. Mrs. Eddy herself could see the apparent goodness of a student, but of herself she knew no more than anyone else how he would act, when put to the test. The students did not know, and Mrs. Eddy did not know. The difference was that she realized that she did not know, whereas they thought they knew. Long experience had shown her that she could not foretell what the finest student would do under the pressure of animal magnetism.

Once a group of dentists took laughing gas just to note the various reactions. To their surprise the mildest man of the group began to curse and swear! The reactions of soldiers in actual warfare cannot be foretold. The mildest man may find that he loses all fear and so is more valuable than his more belligerent brother who becomes fearful. Mrs. Eddy, knowing that she could not tell what a student would do under fire, had to apply to God for wisdom in selecting workers for herself and the Cause. But even these often broke under the strain, as Mr. Nixon did.

One can argue that Mrs. Eddy detected that Mr. Nixon had unhandled errors that would subject him to being handled by animal magnetism; or one can say that it was the malpractice of the other students upon him that caused him to be deflected from the right path. He might have been valuable for a long time, if the other students had not turned on him mentally. History has shown that the most important students were usually the ones who left the Cause. This was largely because the lesser lights are not as much the targets for the shafts of jealousy and envy as their more able brethren are.

The main cause of the loss of spiritual light has been, and will always be, the students' willingness to continue to use what the world calls the “good” side of the human mind, in the business activities of the church and elsewhere, since it is through the human mind that students can be handled. When you see a student offering the organization a large amount of his human mind, you know that he is either handled or in danger of being handled. Finally, that very human sense will work against him. On July 31, 1897, Mrs. Eddy wrote to William P. McKenzie, “You are now learning how to meet mortal mind in all its false claims; and its evil is less dangerous than its seeming good. You have not nearly as much to meet now, as when you cherished (as we all have done) its seeming good, that was its greatest evil.”




May 4, 1892

Mr. Johnson,

My dear Student:

Mr. Perry is right; he says the Trustees can go on and build the Church and nothing can trouble them and no harm can come of it.

This is your duty. Now I have done mine and you yours, and I from this hour shall not be consulted or brought into the matter in any way or shape.

Mr. Nixon has made all the trouble that has been made, and his duty lies in appropriating, as the contributors expected him to do, the money he has received. That was what I said in the first place and I agree with Perry on this point.

With Love,

Mary B. G. Eddy


There might be objections raised if I declared that much can be learned from the salutations of Mrs. Eddy's letters, but we know that whatever comes from God is important, whatever one reveals from the Father has a meaning that requires spiritual perceptiveness in order to be understood. The difference between the suggestions of man and the emanations of God is that man's can be readily understood, whereas God's require study, since all of them are significant. For this reason some of the most significant statements are apt to be overlooked by the thoughtless.

This letter begins, “My dear Student.” This is a call for Mr. Johnson to bring to the front and put into practice what Mrs. Eddy has taught him, and not for him to assume to judge, criticize, or suggest of himself. As a student he had been taught certain methods which are employed in metaphysical work, and those were what she wanted him to use.

In John 15:15 we read, “Henceforth I call you not servants…but I have called you friends….” This indicated that the disciples' time of teaching was over, and so they were no longer subject to individual obedience. They had reached the place where the demand was for them to take individual initiative, and rise or fall under their own demonstration. As servants they must understand that the demands of God relayed to them through the Master, were to be followed without hesitation or quibbling. As friends they were called upon to use their own demonstrating thought.

Irving Tomlinson could learn much from the salutations on the letters Mrs. Eddy wrote to him. When she wished to applaud him for work well done she called him, “My dear disciple,” or, “My dear Brother.” At times she called him, “My dear Recorder,” and “My beloved Son.” At one time she wrote, “My precious friend.” When she wanted to ridicule him a little, because he clung to some old notions, she called him, “Dearest Parson.”

So, in calling Mr. Johnson “student,” she wanted him to recognize his relation to her as student, apply the lessons she had taught him, and demonstrate them. At first as servants, the disciples were blindly obedient. As friends they were called upon to take spiritual initiative, because they would not always have the Master to lean upon; so, they must work to demonstrate their own wisdom from God. If they failed, he would be there a little while to help them.

This is the order. First one learns Principle and its operation; then one puts it into practice. At first a child does exactly as its parents tell it to. Later it learns intelligent obedience, so that if they told it to light a match in a room filled with illuminating gas, it would not do so. It is old enough to have judgment, which at that point is what it should follow, rather than a wrong demand.

Mrs. Eddy writes, “Mr. Perry is right.” It is important for Christian Scientists to know the human law. Yet to be right it must synchronize with the law of God. Mrs. Eddy was the only one on earth who could pass judgment as to whether the human law agreed or disagreed with the law of God. She knew that the two must work in unison in order to benefit God's Cause.

One who reads this letter and seeks to understand it would do well to ask himself, “Am I ready to pass on the law of man, to determine whether it synchronizes with the law of God?” If he cannot, then he must wait for more spiritual growth, before he can assume to explain Mrs. Eddy's moves. In this letter Mrs. Eddy assures them that obedience to the law was legitimate under the circumstances, and that the law of man could be used by them at this point to make the human structure more impregnable.

The students' duty was to protect the Cause in the only way they were capable of doing it at this time, which was by having everything legally unbreakable and unchangeable. They had done this by consulting with the lawyer, and endeavoring to straighten out the matter from the legal standpoint. Mrs. Eddy had done hers in warning them, and in attempting to establish the spiritual law in connection with the human law.

In insisting that she be not consulted or brought into the matter, it is evident that she was trying to elevate the students from being servants, to being friends. A pilot trains a student to run a plane through the means of dual control. He tells the student to take over, but he still has a set of controls under his hands, so if anything should go wrong, he could right it without harm being done.

Mrs. Eddy constantly urged the students to fly alone, but her history proves that she never let go of her control. She insisted that they do these things without consulting her, only that they might feel the importance and necessity of making their own decisions.

Mrs. Eddy named Mr. Nixon as the student who was handled by animal magnetism to make all the trouble. Her letter to Mrs. Nixon dated September 2, 1892, throws light on this point.


“May the peace of Love rest on you. The constant effects of unseen evil must not recur. Christian Scientists must be, are above these opposite fruits of the spirit.

“I have settled the legal question for the Church, rather, God has. I tried to incorporate anew, but the legal arm said no! ‘We could not be chartered by our former name.' I would not quarrel, but took the pacific step and God has done great things for us in giving us a Church independent of religious or civil oppression.

“In all I have done I have endeavored to be just to the Trustees as well as to those not entrusted. Messrs. Perry and Griffen said ‘make the board of Trustees and Directors one.' I have, and your husband was the only Trustee that expressed a desire not to be on the board and I have honored his wish as expressed when he was last in Concord.

“At his wish the others have resigned; I am glad of this — for they will be more unified, and God demands this. I have given a legal claim to the land, and God has shown me the way. Now I beseech you ‘to love one another even as I have loved you,' and walk worthy of your high calling. I shall have nothing to do whatever with any more disputed questions. I never knew a single plan of the Pub. Com. until it was about to be carried out. They never troubled me with it. Mrs. King has got what she called for, and I am mute.

“No more editors shall I recommend unless God compels, and I trust He is now willing to give me future exemption from strife, for this is not the fruit of Christian Science. May the dear Love that never faileth comfort you and bless your endeavors.”


Here we have an example of Mrs. Eddy's wondrous wisdom. She knew that if the error was confined to Mr. Nixon, that would be the end of it; but the moment it began to extend itself, it would spread as does a contagious disease under medical belief and fear. She also knew that Mr. Nixon's wife might be the chief source of such a movement against her, if, as would be natural, she took her husband's side, being influenced by hearing only his side of the question. She might believe that Mrs. Eddy had been unjust to him, with the result that she might start a counter-current of error that would seriously affect Mrs. Eddy in her ability to function successfully under Truth. This letter, therefore, was designed to lay the situation before Mrs. Nixon in its truth, in order to heal her thought about it, if possible.

God was responsible for the wisdom that He bestowed upon our Leader, but it was her demonstration to execute it. If the execution was not done wisely, more harm than good might result. It reminds one of the situation in our country in 1942, when so many men were drafted for the army that not enough were left to harvest the crops. The result was loss and food shortage. Greater wisdom on the part of the administration might have avoided this situation.

Part of Mrs. Eddy's problem was to provide the wisdom needed to execute the demands of God. Much of Mr. Nixon's opposition to her was because she was a woman without business experience, and so he had scant faith in her being guided by God in matters such as securing title to land and building a church edifice. He would admit that she could write Science and Health, which unquestionably came from God. He would acknowledge that she could heal the sick in a marvelous manner. But he trusted the human mind in himself when it came to business matters, and that was the reef upon which his good ship ran aground.

In her letter of May 4 to Mr. Johnson, Mrs. Eddy said that Mr. Nixon's duty lay in appropriating the money he had received. No doubt she was calling upon him to function under the provisions of the deed and use the money he had accepted, as he should, which he was refusing to do.

It was a bitter cup for our Leader to drink never to know whether students nearest and dearest to her would remain faithful to her. In the early days of the manufacture of automobiles, the steel used for parts might contain hidden flaws, that could cause a serious accident. Later, methods of testing were developed which exposed such flaws in advance. But Mrs. Eddy could never tell in advance what the future might bring out with a student.

In the above letter to Mrs. Nixon, Mrs. Eddy writes with great love and care, in order to prevent her from thinking that she had been unjust in dealing with her husband. She knew that if Mrs. Nixon took her husband's side, she might feel ill towards her, and begin to broadcast her resentment, thus becoming the starting point of an adverse sense against her.

Department stores are willing to lose money in order to satisfy customers' claims even though such claims are not always just. This is because they realize that one dissatisfied customer can cause much trouble and loss of trade.

It has been said that the trademark of Christian Science is healing. Whatever is true Science, carries healing with it. No student was ever more punctilious than our Leader in sending out with every letter and with every gift a loving, spiritual, healing thought. Therefore, to regard Mrs. Eddy's letter to Mrs. Nixon as merely an effort to straighten this matter by a human argument and self-justification, is to miss the important point. Students loved to get letters from their Leader. The reason was because of the healing thought that those letters carried.

The first sentence in her letter obviously carries healing, because it was an attempt to free Mrs. Nixon from animal magnetism through the peace of Love. The second sentence strikes a blow at the error itself. The third sentence appeals for an active demonstrating sense, since she knew that a spiritually-active thought is protected from animal magnetism, since there is no way for error to enter in. The effort of this opening paragraph would be to bring forth activity in Mrs. Nixon's thought.

Having thus prepared the way, Mrs. Eddy makes the explanation regarding the matter of the land that she knew Mrs. Nixon did not have. At least, it was not the explanation that she had heard from her husband. Every husband desires to justify himself before his wife, and Mr. Nixon was probably no exception. So, he would present a picture that would show himself in a favorable light, and perhaps Mrs. Eddy in an unfavorable light. So, the latter knew that she was called upon to clarify the situation, since she had been guilty of nothing more than an attempt to execute the demands of God in the wisest possible way.

It is interesting to have Mrs. Eddy declare that she would recommend no more editors unless God compels. She lived the thought that she was never so inflexible or personal about a decision, that she would not or could not change when God told her to.

She ends her letter with a beautiful blessing. This was characteristic of our Leader. She took the liberty of criticizing her students under all circumstances, but she always did it through love. Because she could see through the mask of animal magnetism and behold every man's spiritual possibilities, she yearned to bring these forth. When she criticized, therefore, she did it through love, through a desire to bring forth the best in those she rebuked.




Concord

May 8, 1892

My dear Student:

Thanks for your “No.” I hope a word to the wise will again be sufficient. Hence my caution in this note. If you reorganize it will ruin the prosperity of our church. Mr. Knapp owns the lot I gave, if the Trustee Deed is not legal, and it is safe in his hands — for he will give a legal claim or title to it so that no disputes can occur. The Trustees have no right to say they are legally in trust and yet the land is not legally conveyed! If the Deed that gave them this trust is illegal as to the land, it certainly is as to their office. The thing for them to do is to get the money they have gotten, put into a building as the contributors designed, if they would be thought honest. I have given full permission, or my poor consent, for the church to do anything she chooses. But I tell you the consequences of reorganizing and you will find I am right. Open the eyes of the church to these facts. I have consented to whatever the Church pleases to do, for I am not her keeper, and if she again sells her prosperity for a mess of pottage, it is not my fault.

With love,

(Signed) Mary B. G. Eddy


Mrs. Eddy's letters covering the founding of the Cause reveal the incisive nature of her demonstration of divine wisdom. They convey a sense of the confidence and assurance she had in the fact that God was guiding her, for in them she shows no hesitancy, no doubt. Even when the majority of her own students were against her, she showed no weakness or faltering.

Because she knew that there is but one right and successful guidance, she could predict that any move the Church made that was not divinely wise, would be doomed to failure. She knew that nothing apart from divine direction could bring success. All else was really animal magnetism attempting to prevent divine guidance from functioning. Science shows that human guidance or opinion is not guidance at all, but an attempt to break up or thwart guidance.

One might envy Mrs. Eddy the assurance that enabled her to state unequivocally that she was right because God told her that she was; but this becomes possible for anyone to do who truly reflects God. At times students declare that God has told them to do this or that, when in reality they want their own desires to prevail, but such a dishonest platform can only come to naught. In order for one to reach Mrs. Eddy's platform of infallibility, one must be consistent in such guidance, even when it goes contrary to his own human desires or preconceived notions. It must come as the result of one's work in the closet, where he prays to the father in secret, and infallible guidance is made manifest openly.

At times Mrs. Eddy felt that the importance of guiding the organization exceeded the value of using its founding to teach the students necessary lessons. In such instances she realized that it was incumbent upon her to follow the point in question to a successful termination. At other times, when she felt that the matter at hand was not of a nature that might mar the symmetry of the pattern she was weaving, if it was not demonstrated correctly, she would use it as an opportunity to bring out spiritual growth in the Church members, by forcing them to take the responsibility, stating something similar to what she did in this letter, that she was not the Church's keeper.

She was willing to have the students make mistakes at times, if such mistakes had no effect on the right founding of the organization, and if through them the students learned valuable lessons. Most individuals seem to require experience in order to learn, just as when they see a “wet paint” sign, they have to touch it before they will believe that it is wet.

How wonderful was Mrs. Eddy's absolute confidence in God's guidance in relation to the Cause! Some did not appreciate that her assurance and confidence — her willingness to take a stand opposite to her own students when God told her to — was based on Jesus' statement, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” Some regarded her as a woman reared in the country, which afforded little opportunity to obtain the executive training necessary to found and guide a church organization in all its ramifications. To men like Mr. Nixon it seemed arrogant for her to pit her will against the developed judgment and sound sense of mature men of business. Those who knew her, however, trusted that it was never her idea, but the Father's, which she sought to forward. Hence, she could know and declare that she was right, even when everyone else thought that she was wrong.

Many of her students had a blind faith in her because they knew her to be the one through whom God's revelation had come. Others caught a glimpse of the nearness to God that enabled her to hear His voice, and so trusted her. In the early days, however, she could not wait for all her students to grow to the point where they attained the spiritual understanding that would enable them to see her wisdom as being God's wisdom. Therefore, she had to use the blind faith and obedience of the humble ones, to help her to establish that which they could not always see was right, from the basis of their own human judgment. As time went on, and the steps she proposed were more clearly seen to be always wise — often unexpectedly wise — she was able to rally their support more unreservedly, and they ceased to contest every step that she proposed.

Mrs. Eddy had to found the Cause; she had to lay the foundation when no one else knew how to do it. It should not cause us to criticize too severely a man like Mr. Nixon, — one who had the highest respect for his Leader's spirituality, — for doubting that a woman whose early years had been spent in the country, and who had had no legal or business training, knew how to found a cause so firmly, that its onward and outward progress would be continuous throughout time.

Mr. Johnson had a great faith in Mrs. Eddy's wisdom; so, it is not surprising that she addressed so many of the church letters to him. He had been an humble artisan before becoming a Christian Scientist, and he served his Leader humbly, in a position where his quality of thought was just what was needed. He did not permit human opinion to creep in and disaffect his faith in her. When he had to lean on his own demonstration, he did the best he could, although at times Mrs. Eddy had to rebuke him, as she did all of her students who had any capacity to be valuable to God.

Mr. Johnson was a John to Mrs. Eddy, one upon whom she could lean and trust to use his influence to carry the rest of the Directors or the Church on the side of the obedience she required. Hence, she would write to him, as in this letter, “Open the eyes of the church to these facts.” All historians of our Movement must be prepared to give due credit to these bricks which were important in the early building of the Cause. Now that we have a wonderful organization that has the protection of the law, we must look back and appreciate not only the wisdom Mrs. Eddy was called upon to demonstrate, in bringing forth this wonderful structure, so that it might stand against all attacks, but the faithfulness of students like Mr. Johnson who stood with her.

Calvin Frye has received much criticism down through the years. Yet after the Leader passed on, faithful John Salchow saw with his own eyes a mute sign of Calvin's faithfulness. His room was separated from Mrs. Eddy merely by the partition, and his chair was close to the wall, so that as he sat in it, he would be able to hear her slightest call. The floor was covered with a thick carpet; yet where Mr. Frye's feet rested, as he sat watching over his Leader, the carpet that had been new only three years before was worn right through the nap!

Mrs. Eddy in dealing with the Directors was like a loving mother teaching her baby to walk. If a mother permits her child always to lean on her, it will never take the first step alone which is needed to give it confidence. Even though it goes through the motions of walking, it cannot be said to walk until it ventures to go alone. On the other hand, if the child, being left alone, should fall without the mother there to pick it up and comfort it, it might not be willing to step forth alone again. If she is too solicitous, she prevents the child from developing initiative. If she gives it too much freedom, it may fall and its learning to walk alone may be retarded.

Mrs. Eddy sought to give those whom she placed in charge of the organization, as much freedom as possible. She wanted them to demonstrate the way successfully. Yet she could not permit them to make mistakes that might affect future generations. She had to strike a happy medium and walk in the straight and narrow path which she once declared lay “between harming others and helping them.”

It must have been hard at times for Mrs. Eddy to keep her hands off, and refrain from suggesting what she knew was right. But if she always did that, it would mean less development on the part of those whom she was training to take more and more responsibility.

In this letter she says she has given her poor consent for the church to do anything the church chooses. Yet she states what the consequences of reorganizing will be, showing that she foresees the results of false moves, and hopes the church will make none.

It is evident that she tried to keep out of the church affairs as much as possible, using Mr. Johnson as a channel to convey to the members the right moves to make. Perhaps if they followed what he recommended as coming from him, they would feel the need of demonstration, whereas if she made the suggestions directly, they would follow her through blind obedience. In the beginning blind obedience has a value; yet when a student gains some ability to reflect divine Mind, blind obedience may become a deterrent. Many students refrain from tea and coffee, because they feel that Mrs. Eddy's reference to them in Science and Health calls for such abstinence. Yet it is blind obedience to refrain from using these beverages, merely because one feels that in so doing he is fulfilling the scientific demand. At no point does blind obedience fulfill the measure of scientific demonstration.

Mr. Johnson knew the importance of the church following out what God had revealed to Mrs. Eddy as right; so, there was a danger lest he convey it in a way that would show her as its author, except when she told him to do this. Many times those who were close to Mrs. Eddy, knew that they could put forth things in such a way that others would get the impression that she had sponsored them, which would be a form of deception. Mr. Johnson found it difficult to set forth a line of action to the members, without their feeling that she was back of it, since he was in such constant touch with her.

A line of argument which helps to show the divine purpose back of Mrs. Eddy's letters to her Church and Board, grows out of a contemplation of the fifth picture in Christ and Christmas, which shows two angels on Christmas Morn going toward the Holy City. On May 8, 1893, she wrote to James F. Gilman as follows in regard to this picture:


“Please make these changes that came to me inspirationally this morning…6th verse I want changed. Have it a glorious sunrise and three angels in female forms in the air pointing to this dawn; but have no wings on them. Make no specialty of the ground; have it a sky view. Now carry out these designs with all the skill of an artist and my story is told in Christian Science, the new story of Christ, and the world will feel its renovating influence. Do not delay, nor trouble your thought to deviate from what God has given me to suggest, but follow it implicitly, remember this.”


Why did Mrs. Eddy call for three, angels in this picture, and finally have but two? Why in I Samuel 10:3,4 did the man going up to Bethel who carried three loaves of bread, give Saul but two loaves? This point may be explained by using mathematics as an illustration. It requires three steps for any mathematical proposition to be established. First it has to be discovered. Then it has to be embodied in a textbook in such a way that it may be studied, understood and practiced. Finally, an average student must take the book, study the proposition and prove that he understands it so that he can demonstrate it. Until this third step is taken, there is no proof that the theory, whatever it may be, has been made practical.

The two loaves furnished Saul may illustrate Christian Science, the first representing the Master's demonstration of it in his wonderous works; the second symbolizing Mrs. Eddy's part in rediscovering the truth that the Master taught, and formulating it into a scientific system set forth in a textbook. The third loaf could not be given to Saul, because the demand for him was to take the first two, and through them to demonstrate the third for himself.

Benjamin Franklin's discovery of electricity in a thunderstorm became practical only after Thomas A. Edison took it, and adapted it in numberless useful ways. Yet it requires an average householder to complete the triad, one who builds his house and installs wires in such a way that electricity may perform varied and useful tasks, all following out the many forms in which Edison adapted Franklin's discovery.

It came to Mrs. Eddy inspirationally that the demand in the fifth picture in Christ and Christmas was for three angels. Yet only two could be depicted, because each student is required to demonstrate the third for himself. The first angel is symbolic of the Master's demonstration of the fatherhood of God, of divine wisdom and power. The second angel is symbolic of Mrs. Eddy's demonstration of the motherhood of God, of divine Love and intuition, which always leads the way. The third angel would be demonstrated only when a student taking the first two, was thereby enabled to bring forth the third, namely, the proof that the teachings and demonstration of the Master and Mrs. Eddy have been left to the world in such a practical way, that an average follower, taking what was at hand in the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings, could assimilate and demonstrate this teaching for himself.

When Mrs. Eddy wrote her Church or the Board, she always left a third loaf or a third angel for them to demonstrate. She furnished two, and expected them to furnish the third, because in so doing they would grow spiritually. Had she acted less wisely, her letters would not have fostered spiritual growth. How like her as the teacher it was — how symbolic of her spiritual teachings — to provide two angels or two loaves, and expect her students to demonstrate the third! The two loaves or angels of Christian Science might be called authorized, since it is always legitimate to give them to the sincere inquirer. The third always remains to be brought forth by the student.




Concord, N. H.

May 10, 1892

To the Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston,

Dear Brethren:

I have said, you have my permission to reorganize, if you desire to do this. But I also realize it is my duty to say that our Father's hand was seen in your disorganizing, and I foresee that if you reorganize you are liable to lose your present prosperity and your form of church government, which so far has proved itself wise and profitable, and my gift of land worth $20,000.

As this matter now stands, it is safe to build a church edifice on the land which I gave for this purpose.

Yours in Christ,

Mary B. G. Eddy

(On separate piece of paper) Please let no one hear the contents of this letter until you hand it or send it to each member of the Board of Directors who were members of the church, and then inform the church generally of its contents.


On May 8, Mrs. Eddy wrote to Mr. Johnson to convey to the members the consequences of reorganizing, declaring that to do so, would be for the Church to sell her prosperity for a mess of pottage. It is possible that Mr. Johnson's effort in this direction was not successful, and so Mrs. Eddy felt the need of making a direct and more strenuous effort. The strength of the error as usual lay in the members' trust in the human mind. We have learned in previous letters how Mr. Nixon consulted with lawyers and a title guarantee company, and was advised that the only way to correct the situation was to make a fresh start and reorganize.

It is evident that to a conservative and timid person, — one who had respect for time-honored legal modes, — the prospect of having a church without organization, to hold property, and at the same time ensuring the future success of the Cause, did not seem propitious. It was this material thought that was claiming to obstruct the execution of God's plan, and attempting to swing everyone over to reorganization. The argument was that only in this way could things be made safe, and legal.

Love was working out a plan for the Church that at this time had to be taken on faith, a plan in which the active business and responsibility of the organization would finally rest in the hands of a self-perpetuating committee, which would never require the members to be formed into a voting unit. The members have no outward voice in the church government today, and this works well.

In Romans 9:32 we read, “…they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law. For they stumbled at that stumblingstone.” This statement appears to be an accurate description of the error that was causing Mr. Nixon and his fellow trustees to resist Mrs. Eddy's plan, which necessarily had to be taken on or by faith. Mr. Nixon's thought was wrong, since in applying the law, he was attempting to take away from the Church the Gospel. Had this error prevailed, the inspiration of faith would have been lost, and the Church put into the hands of legality; spirituality, — that precious saving grace, — would have been ruled out.

Mortal mind constantly presents the temptation in the Christian Science organization to let every step be directed by the legal profession, so that it will be materially sound. Yet, in reality, there is no such thing as security or soundness in human law! There is no will ever drawn up that cannot be broken. There is no law passed that does not contain flaws and loopholes. Lawyers exist and flourish because of the impossibility of making any contracts or laws that men cannot get out of. Lawyers are constantly appealed to, to try to find loopholes in the law by which they can get their clients out of just penalties for breaking the law. Thus, it was a fact that no bulwark of law could be found that would suffice to carry our Cause safely and permanently, and Mrs. Eddy knew it. It is true that at times she used the law as a temporary patching, until the law of God had been revealed and executed to accomplish His purpose.

Mrs. Eddy saw in 1892 the temptation which still presents itself, namely, to put Christian Science under the highest human ideals of business and human law. Jesus declared that he did not come to overthrow either the law or the Gospel, but to fulfill them. This proves that the law put forth by mortal mind is founded on divine law and divine teaching, that mortal mind has a humanized conception of it, and this concept has no permanence. Yet the action of Truth is not to overthrow human law, as though there was nothing of any value back of it.

It is that which has no reality and no origin in God that truth annihilates; but human law in so far as it has divine law back of it, has to be fulfilled. Therefore, at times we find Mrs. Eddy starting with the human law, only that she might work back to divine law, just as she started with the Christian religion in her early life as being the world's idea of Jesus' teaching and work back until finally, through her discovery of Christian Science, she was able to set forth what Jesus' teaching really was, in which demonstration and doctrine played an equal part.

Had Mr. Nixon's thought prevailed at this time, the opposite mode would have been established, namely, the effort to bring spiritual law down to the level of material law. This would have illustrated the stumblingstone of which Paul wrote to the Romans.

Today, students who are enjoying the fruit of Mrs. Eddy's labors have cause to be grateful to their Leader for her faithfulness in holding steadfastly to God's plan until it was established, when as Science and Health says, the determination to hold Spirit in the grasp of matter tried to hold sway.

Once my father's secretary ventured to criticize the Christian Science church organization to her father, who was a minister. He stopped her, saying that it had the finest church organization and government conceivable. I felt that this was a great tribute to Mrs. Eddy, and that he really credited her with a divine wisdom in her establishment of the Church, which even those who disbelieved her teaching could not help but respect.

Analysis of these letters shows that in them Mrs. Eddy set the pace for a broader use of demonstration than healing the sick. Almost any one of them, if read and analyzed, in a branch church business meeting, would awaken thought to see how Mrs. Eddy set the pace for the use of demonstration. She never asserts that she is voicing her own opinion in directing the government or affairs of the Church, and, therefore, if members wish to follow her in all her ways, they must strive to carryon in the same way she did, namely, through God's guidance.

Consistency would not lead one to rely on God for help in a case of great need, and then to resort to soda to correct a sour stomach. One should know that because Christian Science is demonstrable in important ways, it is part of loyalty and growth to use it in all one's ways, whether they be small or great. Mrs. Eddy would have been inconsistent had she used demonstration in establishing the more important phases of the organization, and then resorted to the human mind in minor matters. The same consistency that demands that a student use his understanding in minor ills, calls upon him to use demonstration in the details of the church that might seem relatively unimportant.

It is heartening to contemplate the sure touch of our Leader, when she knew that God was guiding her. She was not vacillating, timorous or apologetic. She knew how to be positive when she was convinced that she was working with God, and she did not waver. She does not write, “I hope that God is guiding me in this matter.” She does not say, “I have done a great deal of work on this question that should entitle me to divine direction, and that should make my opinion worth more than yours.” Rather does she assert that God instructed her to disorganize, and that she has had no evidence that that instruction has been changed. Hence no good can come from reorganizing. She indicates that the students would put themselves in jeopardy if they returned to that which God commanded them to abandon.

The sure touch that comes through the conviction of divine guidance, is something we must all attain individually — the assurance that is born of our confidence that we have put self aside sufficiently so that God alone is leading us.

Mrs. Eddy once said, “The problem may be universal; the solution is individual.” Here she took the old adage, “You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink,” and expressed it in scientific terminology. In this letter she conveys the same thought. She states that she knew what was best to be done, — what the right way was, — yet she indicates that the students must work it out for themselves and that she cannot force them to follow her views, since the solution depends upon their individual willingness to adopt what she recommends. She could determine what was right by going to God and finding out the way of His appointing; but it was up to them whether they would accept and adopt it.

In the light of many letters in which she gave specific orders, one might wonder why she did not order the church to remain disbanded; but it is evident that at this point blind obedience was not the answer. Part of the wisdom was to let her students solve the problem according to what they considered right and best under the circumstances. Furthermore, by allowing them to work on it and fail to solve it according to a mixture of human and divine effort, she taught them a lesson as to the superiority of spiritual means and methods that was valuable, and no doubt opened the way for the remarkable meeting of October 5, where sense was hushed, and the students gave evidence that the gold of their character had been refined in the fire.

Mrs. Eddy recognized the rights of man to work out his own destiny. A chicken raiser knows that when a chick is ready to hatch, he must do nothing to help it in any way. If he so much as breaks a tiny portion of the shell, the chick will not survive. It appears to be a law that the chick has to hatch under its own effort. Perhaps this was the reason why Mrs. Eddy left the Church free at this point to reorganize if they desired to. They did not have the spiritual vision she had; so, whatever they did would be controlled to a great degree by human opinion. So, she told them that the Father's hand was seen in their disorganization, and then left them free to hatch, or to struggle to throw off the belief in the value of the human mind as a guide to action. In so doing she did not jeopardize the future of the Church, and enabled them to learn an important lesson.

Mortal man's sin is his trust in material organization, his conviction that it is important, and the belief, that without it he would die. Therefore, he trusts his life and welfare to it. Is it any wonder that even in the Christian Science Church the constant danger is that organization will pass spiritualization in the race?

On page 85 of Retrospection and Introspection Mrs. Eddy writes that teachers of Christian Science “…can employ any other organic operative method that may commend itself as useful to the Cause and beneficial to mankind.” It is plain that she wrote this for those in whose estimation and heart spirituality was first. Such students are safe and may be trusted to use organization rightly. The danger and temptation remain, however, to value organization more highly than one ought.

In the days of the horse and carriage, the harness not only included the traces by which the carriage was pulled, but the breeching, which acted as a hold-back, so that the wagon would not run into the horse, if it got to going faster than the horse. In his relation to the organization, the student should have both the traces and the breeching, so that as he progresses, he will pull the organization higher; but at the same time restrain it, so that it will not overtake him and run him down. Spirituality must keep organization in its place.

Mrs. Eddy prayed that her Church might be established and function without material organization. Perhaps she was trying to discover whether this time had come, and was relying on the outcome of this letter as a sign. Certainly, students who in their minds postpone indefinitely the conception of a disorganized church are mistaken. A student of Mrs. Eddy's life and writings finds proof that she set forth disorganization as something that is attainable within an appreciable length of time. She encourages students to look forward without fear to the time when both the church and man will function without the material form. On page 45 of Retrospection and Introspection she writes, “After this material form of cohesion and fellowship has accomplished its end, continued organization retards spiritual growth, and should be laid off, — even as the corporeal organization deemed requisite in the first stages of mortal existence is finally laid off, in order to gain spiritual freedom and supremacy.”

On page 44, (ibid.) Mrs. Eddy evidently considered that the present form of organization was spiritual, since she calls it, “…this spiritually organized Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston….” In other words, Mrs. Eddy left her church as nearly as possible in a disorganized state, with the hope that students would grow to the point where they could see this and conduct it accordingly — which means to let the Spirit of God prevail at all points and govern it.

A study of the controversy of 1892 indicates that Mrs. Eddy put forth the proposition of disorganization, and then modified it to suit the need. The whole question of establishing some higher mode of activity rests on whether there are those who will be able to sustain it metaphysically. What value is it in Christian Science to make advanced moves, unless such moves are going to be supported mentally and spiritually by the members? If this is not done, the action is doomed to failure, and may in turn be controlled by mortal mind, at which point it ceases to be an activity of Science. There are no activities worthy the name of Science unless they are the result of, and are supported by, demonstration.

The tendency of mortal mind to play politics would, if possible, enter the Holiest of Holies. When a branch church contemplates some move that seems unwise to the hard business sense in some of the members, they are not willing merely to vote against the proposition. They feel the urge to proselyte all they can, so that those who have not yet made the demonstration of seeing the rightness or wrongness of the move from God's standpoint, will be influenced to vote against it. It is always sad to see those on the wrong side uniting to block the passage of that which has its inception in a right thought, and so will be Scientific in its result. It was this political tendency which Mrs. Eddy sought to rule out of her church as much as possible.

When in this letter of May 10 Mrs. Eddy writes, “As this matter now stands, it is safe to build…,” she wanted the students to go ahead without organization, so that her church might be as free as possible from dependence on material ways and means. When she instituted readers instead of pastors in her Church, some students predicted that attendance would fall off. Instead of that, congregations doubled in a short time. In the same way she knew that a disorganized church would greatly increase in growth over an organized one, and for that reason she declared that if the church reorganized, it would lose its present prosperity.

The separate piece of paper Mrs. Eddy included with this letter is proof that she was always careful not to give error a chance to organize. Individual error can be handled more readily than organized error. Mrs. Eddy was watchful on this point, and left her example for us. If Boards of Directors and Trustees have measures to put before the church body, if possible, they should not give the members a chance to know about them in advance, so that they may talk them over among themselves and thus have a chance to organize on either side. Some churches have by-laws which make it necessary to send out changes in such laws in advance; but usually the best plan is to spring recommendations on the membership suddenly, so that they will have to rely on Principle without a chance to confer with each other. If the recommendations are right, under such circumstances they will have a chance to be adopted without the interference that might be built up, if the members knew about them in advance.

This little slip of paper, therefore, teaches a valuable lesson, namely, that the less chance mortal mind has to ban together and plot in advance against a measure, the less the interference will be if the measure is one that is prompted by demonstration.

It is significant that Mrs. Eddy once wrote to a branch church as follows: “The question, ‘Who shall be greatest?' Christian Scientists utterly exclude. Unity is our strength — it coheres in the Principle of this Science — and Jesus answered that mischievous question for all time. The only human might is in meekness — in other words, it is knowing the nothingness of mortal means and of personal ambitions, and the all-might of the divine Principle that governs man and the wisdom that follows man's obedience to this government.” This letter is dated December 7, 1887.

Here is a plain statement of the nothingness of mortal means — yet organization is a mortal means. Mortal mind shudders at the thought of anything existing or being carried on without organization. Human marriage is an example of organization that Mrs. Eddy prophesies will some day be laid aside. On page 286 of Miscellaneous Writings she writes, “To abolish marriage at this period, and maintain morality and generation, would put ingenuity to ludicrous shifts; yet this is possible in Science, although it is to-day problematic.” It goes without saying that most students believe that this point of growth lies so far in the future, that it is not even worth holding in thought.

The danger that lies in organization is that it tends to discourage demonstration. Passing the plate on Sunday is a method of organization, which certainly seems a necessary and harmless activity of our organization. Yet there is a danger in connection with it, which is that students may look upon effect as the source of support and supply, so that they fail to bear in mind the necessity of demonstrating supply as coming from Mind.

It becomes evident that the whole human life of the Christian Scientist is organized, and back of it all is the purpose of animal magnetism which must be thwarted, namely, to prevent the need of demonstration. The Bible warns us not to become weary in well doing. It is plain that demonstration is well doing. The moment one becomes weary in that effort, he is not functioning as a Christian Scientist should, and he usually resorts to organization.

In this connection it is significant that our Master had no place to lay his head, according to the Bible narrative. A place to lay one's head means a material organization, where things are arranged so that mortals form habits and get into ruts. What is the harm in that? There is a danger in habits, since it is through habits that the human mind claims to get power over mortals. If a man eats his lunch at a certain time each day, if he does not get it on time, he begins to feel hungry; yet this is nothing but habit. Thus, organization is a large way of supporting habits of thought, and becomes a means whereby the human mind steps into the picture and claims to govern mortals. Therefore, the fact that the Master had no place to lay his head indicates that he yielded to no organized method of living. Thus, he formed no habits of thought which in turn would claim to control him and rule divine Mind out of his life.

The conclusion drawn from all Mrs. Eddy has to say about organization is that she did not want students to yield to the human mind in any direction any farther than was absolutely necessary. She wanted them to hold organization in thought as a suffer-it-to-be-so-now. When students find that organization is beginning to encroach on spiritualization, she wanted them to resist it; yet she could not put forth this proposition in a way that would cause young students to work out of season. She knew that the right thing said at the wrong time, or to the wrong students, becomes a wrong thing. Thus, the question of disorganization is not something to be agitated prematurely. One would not attempt to force the proposition that marriage was to be done away with in Science, on a young student who was about to be married!

If Christian Science did not provide organized places of worship for the public, strangers would have no place to come. After one has joined our church, his spiritual education out of organization begins. Little by little he sees that the church is not a place where he should continue to go just to worship God. It is a place where he is expected to work mentally, in order that the services may heal the sick and that from them may flow a great volume of spiritual and scientific thought that regenerates the whole world.

When a student once agitated the proposition unwisely that our churches should all be turned into school houses, he was out of order and had to be excommunicated. His recommendation was similar to the use of a remedy. What is a remedy in metaphysics? It is an attempt to correct the outside before one has accepted and embodied the higher ideal; to correct expression before thought has changed, so that the expression is the right manifestation of that corrected thought. The effort to work with effect is medical thought. It would be using a remedy, therefore, to attempt to do away with the organization before thought had reached the point of growth where it could carryon without it.

Mrs. Eddy's proposition in Science and Health that the demands of God appeal to thought only makes the whole problem simple. If a student should ask, “When is the time coming when the material organization will be done away with?” he should be told that that is a foolish question, as foolish as to ask when the time will come for a disease to leave a sick man's body. In Science we have nothing to do with disease as a physical phenomenon. Our work is to bring thought out of its erroneous mental state into a right conception, leaving Soul to take care of the outward. Then the result follows naturally and automatically. See Science and Health, page 395:6.

One might declare that, when we work to heal a sick man in Science, we are really striving to lift him from dependence on material organization, into spiritual organization. In like manner, students need to work constantly to resist and counteract the material sense of organization that would stand ready at all times to embrace God's church, and to express more and more power. If a student complains that matter is trying to overthrow his demonstrating thought and to rob it of its spiritual nature, what do you tell him to do? You tell him to strive harder to turn away from the material, and to build his thought up on the spiritual side. As he does that, matter is automatically taken care of. The rule is to work with cause, and let effect follow as it should.

If one yearns for spiritual organization, the only right way is for one to spiritualize his own thought, and the thought of others in so far as he is able. He must listen for God's voice and obey it, and teach others to do the same, as far as he is permitted to do so. Then whatever changes are scientific and right will come in their season. Any other effort is prompted by animal magnetism, — the attempt to work with effect and so to interfere with God's plans. Animal magnetism tries to bring forth effects out of season, effects that may seem good, and which would be good if they came in season. Out of season they become error.

When a student gathers all that Mrs. Eddy has said about disorganization and attempts to bring it about, using her as his authority, he is steadying the ark. He is not being governed by God, but by human opinion, a human sense of obedience. He is working out of season, and thus he merits and incurs God's punishment. It is as wrong to try to force issues in Science, as it is to take a patient who applies for help, when one sees plainly that he is not ready for Science. If a practitioner takes him and he is not healed, then his previous experience may keep him away, when the time comes that he is ready.

By the same token we should never hesitate to ask applicants for membership, who do not seem ready, to wait awhile. If they are offended by this request, that is proof that they are not ready, because it is an assumption that their wisdom is greater than the wisdom of those who are deciding his case, which is a lack of proper humility. One who rebels at being asked to wait, exposes the fact that he does not have a correct concept of what it means to join a branch church — namely, to add to the consolidation of scientific thought that is going out to regenerate the world. Thus, even if one is not a member, he can strive to have a part in this great work, and by his very faithfulness he will fit himself for membership.

Mrs. Eddy discovered that there was not enough spiritual thought among the members to support a church that was disorganized. Today those who yearn for spiritual organization are not limited to sitting still and mourning over the material organization. If they manifested some disease on the body, would they sit back and complain? No. They would get to work metaphysically. In like manner if material organization weighs on them, they should seek to spiritualize thought and to support the organization in the only way that it should be supported, and that is by spiritual means. This effort includes the recognition that God is the Head of our Church, that the real organization centers around Him and in reality is in Him; hence those in charge are really His representatives. If they are faithful over a few things, in supporting the present organization spiritually, they will be made rulers over many. Their efforts to protect those in charge of the material organization and to free their thoughts from any error that might divert them into wrong directions, will be rewarded by some evidence of spiritual organization right here and now.

It requires a great deal of united spiritual thought to support a spiritual organization. Let no member fancy that he has earned this higher modus of church, until he has fulfilled the obligation to support the present organization. And he is not doing so if he calls it an error, and abuses it, sitting back, waiting for it to be eliminated. Nowhere does Mrs. Eddy indicate that this would be the proper way to treat the physical organization called a material body. We will never have a spiritual organization to support, either as an individual body or a church, until we have fulfilled all the good ends of the present organization.

How does Christian Science teach us to work on a lawsuit, if we have one? It tells us to know and establish the fact that the case in no way depends on any human opinion or judgment, and that the judge has no power to render any decision that differs from God's wisdom and His knowledge of what is right. We are taught to put everyone concerned in the care of God, to declare and know that it is God's case, and that it will be judged according to His wisdom. In this fashion we make a present spiritual organization out of the whole case, and receive the reward of our faithfulness.

Why should this same demonstration not be used in our church organization? Instead of sitting back and waiting for the spiritual organization to appear, or breaking loose from the present church in order to be obedient to Mrs. Eddy — when that is not obedience at all — one should strive to fulfill what God has placed in his way to fulfill. A sick man is not healed in Science from any other standpoint than by knowing that he is not sick. In that way health is established, through the metaphysical realization that he requires no restoration of health, because he already has it. Similarly, in reality we are not striving to change from a material organization to a spiritual one; we are trying to realize that it is already spiritual, that there is one Head which is God, the Mind of good, that we can only be guided and disciplined by that one Mind and none other. We are working to know that the only Church is spiritual already, and this Church has one Head which is God, that those who hold positions of authority are subservient alone to the will of God and can manifest nothing else.

Surely under such a demonstration we can be said to have a spiritual organization now. When those in charge yield every opinion and decision to the wisdom of God, that is the spiritual organization working through man. Thus, instead of waiting for the spiritual organization, we must see it as already established, since it is a rule in metaphysics that unless a thing is a fact now, it never can be. If it is already a fact, then our work is not to establish it but, to see it as already established now.




May 11, 1892

I seem to hear so plainly tonight the words that tell me I am doing too much for the Church in Boston, more than is my duty to do. All her disputations are laid on my bending shoulders. Now please do not let anyone that you have not informed already know of what I last wrote you and let it, the church, reorganize if she thinks best. Perhaps this is the best lesson for her. Do not say one word against it and I shall not.

God tests us all, tries us on our weakest points. Hers has always been to yield to the influence of man and not God. Now let her pass on to her experience and the sooner the better. When we will not learn in any other way, this is God's order of teaching us. His rod alone will do it. And I am at last willing and shall struggle no more.

Mary Baker Eddy


Mrs. Eddy was pre-eminently the teacher. In teaching one must allow students to give proof of their understanding. They must be permitted to go ahead on their own initiative, so that the teacher may observe the degree to which they have absorbed the teaching. How can a teacher tell of their progress except as they put that teaching into practice?

Teachers in school are not content to give pupils only one test, to determine how well they understand their lessons. They conduct examinations that are held many weeks after propositions have first been taught, since it is necessary to determine whether pupils have been able to retain what they learned. What they were able to do at the beginning of the term, they must be able to do at the end, in order to deserve a high mark.

In this earthly school, demonstration must accompany all we learn of Christian Science. We are given the opportunity to prove our understanding at every advancing step. Also, at some later date, we find that we are given some of the primary lessons over again, in order to determine whether we have retained our ability in such directions with the passing of time. If it is found that we have been neglectful, then we have those primary lessons to learn over again.

When Mrs. Eddy went to Washington in 1881, it was a big step for her to leave the church alone for a period. Yet her own words written in a letter to Julia Bartlett dated March 14, 1882, shortly after her return, gives the keynote of her thought as the teacher, “I knew it was best for me to do as the husbandman, go away and then see if you all did not add many more talents to those you already had.”

It is possible that those entrusted with the exercise of discipline in our Movement, might become so weary with complaints that they are tempted to feel that, if members would only be strictly obedient to regulations by doing nothing except attending services and reading the Lesson-Sermon, it would be better than to have the disturbances which constantly arise when members take their own initiative. A little thought, however, proves that students would not progress under such a policy.

After a teacher has unfolded a theorem to pupils, they may think they know how to apply it; but when they are given actual examples on which to apply that which they have perceived merely from the intellectual standpoint, they find that it is a different matter. It is an axiom that one has to learn through experience as well as through precept.

The Christian Science organization was being established for future generations, hence the precedents laid down were to last as long as the need for a church remained. For this reason, Mrs. Eddy found it difficult to let students go ahead and make mistakes, even though she knew it was part of their training to learn how to carryon, to be able to follow her methods, and to function with her ideas and ideals as models.

In time of war a whole city may be overthrown if the water supply can be contaminated. Mrs. Eddy may be thought of as the water supply of Christian Science. No matter how impregnable the organization may seem to be, an adulterated conception of its Leader will affect its water supply. For this reason, it becomes the duty of each member to guard the right idea of Mrs. Eddy against pollution.

Some students might declare that Christian Science is founded and established so that nothing can uproot it. They say that they have Mrs. Eddy's writings and admonitions and that is enough. This is not enough! A right concept of the Leader, of her life and demonstration furnishes the vital spirituality to the Movement that must be guarded most carefully, lest she be thrust out of her proper relationship to her Cause.

This letter to Mr. Johnson is sad, because it shows that much that Mrs. Eddy hoped to be able to do by admonition and instruction, she could not do. She had to let the students have sad experiences, in order that they might learn how far they were from understanding the motive from which, and with which, she operated.

In the days of the famous Toledo steel, men were so pleased with the steel, or effect, that they failed to keep track of the secret of its manufacture, or cause; so that eventually it was lost. Error makes a concerted effort to cause students to be satisfied with Mrs. Eddy's results, to rejoice in them and to take advantage of them, all the while overlooking cause; when the real value of such effects is to point to cause, since it is cause that students should investigate and study. The Cause of Christian Science will never be lost while there are those who understand the motivation responsible for all effects, since if the cause is understood, effect can always be reproduced.

A teacher of art sees where he can add a few brush marks to the work of his pupils, that will lift it out of the category of the ordinary, and animate it with life and beauty. Yet he must watch that he does not do too much for his pupils, since they must learn by experience. If a student's work is mediocre, he must find this out, so that he will listen to the teacher, and not let his own ideas interpose between his work and the teaching of the instructor.

Mrs. Eddy sought to establish her church through the direction she gained from God. She found that some of the students thought that they could do as well, if not better than she, in the business affairs. Yet she was the windowpane that let in the light. On May 14, 1907, she said to her household: “God has worked through one in this age because He could. The light will come through the window because it will let it, while the wall will not; it would shine through the wall if it could; God is no respecter of persons. Then would you say the wall can let in the light the same as the window? No. Then does one person let in as much light as another? No. Can the one who lets in the light see what is best for the others better than one who does not? Yes. That is the trouble with those outside (the wall); they think they can run things just as well and a little better than I can (the windowpane). How do you know I am a windowpane for the light to shine through? By the works.”

Mrs. Eddy saw some of the students standing in the way and shading God's light, just as readers in our churches will sometimes interpose self between Science and Health and the congregation. This causes the latter to say, not “What a beautiful lesson,” but “What a lovely reader!” Congregations should never demand readers of that kind, readers that they can be proud of; rather should they elect one who will read the Lesson-Sermon with such understanding that everyone is blessed.

The setting of a diamond may be so ornamental, that it distracts one's attention from the jewel. A reader with a wrong mental sense may cause the audience to be more and more conscious of the channel, and less and less conscious of what the channel voices.

False theology tempts church members to select readers who can put themselves forth favorably. In the old church it was the minister with a commanding personality who could fill the church. In Christian Science, church attendance would not be affected by a change in readers, if people come only to hear the truth and to feel the healing atmosphere.

How Mrs. Eddy yearned at this point to be able to set the church right and to send them the word that would make them see and do God's will! But at this point it was necessary to drive them, either to go to God for their wisdom, or to fail. Mrs. Eddy knew that there were those who would lean on her personality, if she would let them, just as many patients and pupils will lean on practitioners and teachers, if the latter permit this error.

When Mrs. Eddy declared that all the disputations of the church were laid on her bending shoulders, she was appealing to the students to make their own demonstrations. To feel that Mrs. Eddy as the Leader was unwilling to give the advice that was necessary, might chemicalize some of them, unless she made such an appeal. Furthermore, she was telling the truth when she said she was overworked, with more placed on her shoulders than they seemed able to carry. Everything in connection with the Cause had to be referred to her. From these letters to the church we learn that she decided questions for the Board, when it was necessary; she checked the articles that went into the periodicals; she felt a responsibility for the care of the church property; she even gave the janitor of The Mother Church a prayer, something that he could live by — an inspirational outpouring that any student would be proud to have. He was not too unimportant to be the object of her care, or for her to feel that his part was as important as that of any other worker, provided he demonstrated it.

Science levels all things; no matter how menial a task may seem to be from the human standpoint, it is brought up to the standard of scientific accomplishment, if it is demonstrated. Those who performed the humble tasks in her home, were exalted when they demonstrated them. Mrs. Eddy was wont to call them, “eminent Christian Scientists.”

Mrs. Eddy labored with her helpers, in an effort to bring out demonstration in all things. She taught her personal maids that, in serving her, they were demonstrating Christian Science as effectively as the mental workers in the home. When the Master washed the feet of his disciples, he brought about a spiritualization and a healing that exalted that humble task to the level of the most sacred service performed by the high priests.

Once Mrs. Eddy asked Victoria Sargent to take off a certain amount of cloth from each end of a table runner. Laura Sargent said, “But, Mother, she need only take off the whole amount from one end.” Mrs. Eddy said, “Laura, that was Mind that spake.” Victoria worked all day on the runner, and in the evening Mrs. Eddy went to the third floor to inspect the work. She approved of what had been done and said, “Our ability to do material tasks rightly registers our ability to heal.” In this simple incident may be seen her effort to elevate all things to the standard of scientific right thinking.

Mrs. Eddy exposed the weakest point of the church as yielding to the influence of man rather than God. This error is plainly present in a business meeting, if the members, instead of listening to Mind, follow the man who can put forth the most convincing arguments. Listening for Mind's voice is then ruled out of the synagogue. Under such circumstances one would find himself very unpopular, if he attempted to point out that the Christian Science church was not founded on human opinion, that it had not been brought to its present point of efficiency and prosperity by following man, but God; that the business demands are merely opportunities provided to train the members in listening for God's voice.

The human mind is as inadequate to do the business of our church as it is to heal sickness. Students feel that they are faithful if they refrain from taking material remedies, when they are sick. They have been taught that sickness is the outward indication of incorrect thinking; and that when thinking is corrected and made acceptable to God, that is the healing.

Can students claim to be faithful, however, if in church matters they yield to the influence of man rather than God? To break this error, they must realize that there is no animal magnetism to blind them to the importance of listening for God's voice, and to rob them of the desire to do so. It is not natural for members to turn to man rather than God. Hence this error is induced animal magnetism, and must be handled as such.

Mrs. Eddy foresaw that her church could not proceed very far without a shipwreck, if they continued along wrong lines. She loved the church and its members so much that she could not sit by with complacence and see them suffer for disobedience. Yet, she had to reach this point of willingness, as she says in this letter. She found the present situation hopeless as far as the students' willingness to listen to her as God's representative, was concerned — that is, those students who were responsible for the error. She had left no stone unturned in her effort to instruct them through Science. Now they had to learn by suffering. No wonder she once said, “I have said in my writings that mortals could learn through suffering or Science, but I might as well have left out Science, because nearly all choose to learn through suffering.”




(In Mr. Frye's handwriting)

Concord, N. H., May 23, 1892

W. B. Johnson

Dear Brother:

Our beloved Teacher sends you the enclosed list. Get a blank at State House for application for Church charter, have it properly filled out and get the signatures of the persons named in the enclosed list; but do not tell them who or how many signatures you intend to get. Do not say who is planning this. If they ask anything about Mrs. Eddy in connection with it, say, “I know she would like to have you a charter member,” but tell them not to name it.

Be wise as a serpent; make no mistakes and put it through immediately.

Have them organize at once and call their organization the “First Church of Christ, Scientist.”

Just as soon as you get the charter, come to Concord on the 5 P.M. train, but let no one know where you are going.

Yours fraternally,

C. A. Frye

(In Mrs. Eddy's handwriting)

Do not come under any obligations not to disorganize when the time comes; remember this. Let me have the framing of your Constitution and By-laws.

Get all the legal points to be observed and then bring to me the old book containing the Constitution and By-laws of our Church.

M. B. G. Eddy

When the Trustee Deed is broken, remember that the Trustees will then have to draw the money (in a legal sense) that is deposited in their name — but in no moral sense do they own it.

Now look out for this! and obligate them in some way to put it into the Building on my lot. Make the Building larger than Nixon designed. It can be made to seat 1000 and must be.

M. B. G. Eddy

(Typewritten) (Received May 24, 1892)

List of Charter-Members

Add not another one to this list

Dr. E. J. Foster Eddy Hanover P. Smith Mrs. M. W. Munroe Wm. B. Johnson David Anthony Mrs. B. H. Goodall

Ira O. Knapp Mrs. J. C. Otterson Mrs. M. F. Eastaman

J. S. Eastaman Mrs. Helen A. Nixon Mrs. J. T. Colman

Calvin A. Frye Mrs. F. S. Knapp Mrs. Grace A. Greene

Stephen A. Chase Miss J. S. Bartlett Mrs. Ellen L. Clark

Eugene H. Greene Mrs. Geo. H. Meader Miss M. R. Campbell


Mrs. Eddy knew that if she designated certain students to be charter members, and this fact became known, there would be those who would feel that they had been left out. She knew that the line had to be drawn somewhere, and so she wisely guarded the situation by ordering that no one be told who was planning the matter.

Mrs. Eddy avoided antagonizing her students if possible, since she had had her experience with malpractice, and her history shows that it was not a pleasant one. When a Christian Scientist has learned the seeming power of mortal mind, he certainly takes on a responsibility to see that he never does anything wittingly to increase its power for evil, and does everything he can to diminish it.

When one becomes a Christian Scientist, he can never again afford to think as he used to think, since the very truth he has learned serves to release the latent possibilities in the human mind, as the Bible prophesies, when it says that Satan must be loosed a little season. He is like a boy who has had a rifle which used short cartridges, and who is suddenly given long ones, which are twice as penetrating as the short. So, he must be proportionately more careful than he was formerly in using the less powerful ones.

The teaching of Science in regard to the possibilities of divine Mind, includes the uncovering of the possibilities of the human mind, and in doing so it temporarily gives it a greater scope. Students, therefore, should never judge themselves as they do mortals, whose beliefs do not have the penetrating power that the mistaken concepts of Christian Scientists do, when the latter are not watchful. When Scientists feel justified in giving themselves the privilege of feeling irritated, rankled, jealous or critical, their thoughts have a scope and penetrating power (in belief) that the thoughts of others do not have. So, to whom much is given, of him shall much be required.

It is important for students to recognize the belief of power in mortal thinking, as a step toward proving the utter powerlessness of any mind but divine Mind, since it is the belief of power in mortal mind that comprises the entire deterrent that would rob them of the recognition of the existence of one Mind. This letter itself is proof that Mrs. Eddy gave mortal mind its due, in admonishing Mr. Johnson to be wise as a serpent, in not antagonizing the mortal mind in her students unnecessarily.

The question is whether at the time of writing this letter Mrs. Eddy foresaw that it was not going to be practical to disorganize, and to have a purely spiritual group which would have to be supported wholly by the mental work of the students, instead of by the human efforts of those in charge, as human organizations are supported. It can be said that Mrs. Eddy did not know, and that she merely acted from day to day as God told her to. Whenever one is tempted to believe that it was Mrs. Eddy's own wisdom that was guiding her in the establishment of her church on such a wonderful foundation, he should remind himself that it was the wisdom of God, and that she herself did not always know why she did a certain thing.

These letters prove, however, that the thought must have kept recurring to her that the spiritual organization was the highest ideal of church. She went so far as to declare that the organization founded by Jesus' disciples came to naught in Science. Hence it could not have been spiritual. Perhaps she was implying that his followers who advocated material organization had to pay a penalty for so doing.

Who can deny that Mrs. Eddy set forth spiritual organization as the ideal in Science? Yet she found that there was not enough spiritual growth among her students — a change from the human mind to divine Mind — to support spiritual organization; so there had to be a temporary return to material organization. Nevertheless, she put forth the thought that God wanted a spiritual organization, that He hoped for it and expected it; so it behooved all students to work for it, and to look forward to a time when they could disorganize materially and place the church on a wholly spiritual foundation.

Had she not already written in the March Journal, “It is not essential to materially organize Christ's Church. It is not absolutely necessary to ordain Pastors, and to dedicate Churches; but if this be done, let it be a concession to the period, and not as a perpetual or indispensable ceremonial of the Church. If our Church is organized, it is to meet the demand, ‘suffer it to be so now.' The real Christian compact is love for one another. This bond is wholly spiritual and inviolate. It is imperative at all times and under every circumstance, to perpetuate no ceremonials except as types of these mental conditions: remembrance and Love, — a real affection for Jesus' character and example.”

The answer to this whole problem may be that the spiritual organization is really a present fact and is going on, and that devoted students are operating under it, notwithstanding all evidence to the contrary. Possibly when their thoughts become more imbued with Spirit, and the demonstration they are now making, in a small way, becomes more extended, it will furnish proof that this spiritual organization is now a present fact, that will overshadow material organization. It would not seem scientific or constructive to prophesy that which might cause any change in Mrs. Eddy's church, although we know that the time must come with each advancing pilgrim when he makes a sharp line of distinction between material and spiritual sense. He also knows that human sense objects to this and wars against spiritual sense; but this is only because spiritual sense is destroying material sense.

As long as the world as a whole seems far from accepting Christian Science, and new members are constantly being taken in, it is fair to say that it would seem impossible ever to bring the entire membership in our Movement up to a spiritual sense of organization. The young students should profit by the material organization all they can, even while the more advanced ones try to warn them against believing that material organization is more important than spirituality.

For years to come students will go on with the material organization no doubt, and carry along everything that appears to be matter in the church. They will pursue that line and be successful in it; but every student who is loyal to Mary Baker Eddy and to her revelation from God, will strive to carry in thought the fact that her concession to the thought of material organization was only temporary, and that she went just as far as God permitted her to, in her attempt to put forth an organization that was wholly spiritual. It was God who finally said, “Thus far and no farther.” On page 229 of Miscellany she writes, “Heaps upon heaps of praise confront me, and for what? That which I said in my heart would never be needed, — namely, laws of limitation for a Christian Scientist. Thy ways are not ours. Thou knowest best what we need most, — hence my disappointed hope and grateful joy.”

The reason any students ever object when these propositions are agitated, is because the carnal mind hates to be stirred out of its inertia; it dislikes even to be told that the time is coming when changes will have to be made. People dislike war because they are called upon to break habits of years, and to adapt themselves to new living conditions. If a vote was taken among Christian people who were perfectly sincere, as to whether they would like to have the Master come again on earth, the answer would be in the negative. They would prefer to take a chance on working along as they are at present in the way they think is best, than to have one come who might rearrange things and overturn the present forms. Yet the time will surely come when the Christ will be universally welcome. Christ has come again in Christian Science, for those who have the eyes to see, and is overturning and gradually bringing those who think they are opposed to it, to the idea of mental causation.

Mrs. Eddy had to consent to material organization as a suffer-it-to-be-so-now, just as she had to consent to healing by argument. But she never was a party to the self-mesmerism under which a student is tempted to believe that he can heal his patient with arguments of truth which do not convince himself of their actuality! Surely it is self-mesmerism to believe that arguments which do not convince you, will convince your patient and heal him!

It was Mrs. Eddy's hope that her students would heal by the Spirit. In order to do this, one must maintain a healing thought at all times, even when he is not called upon for help. She has told us that the arguments are a ladder on which we can climb up to the mental state that heals, but most of us hasten to run down the ladder after the work is done, because we feel more at home in human thinking. We find it restful to do so. Yet the time will come when we will wish that we had remained on the housetop, since, when we come down to human thinking, we become as subject to discord and disease as mortals who have no knowledge of Science. The difference is that we have the remedy for it, if we will use it. Yet how much better it would be to remain on the housetop under the protection of the Most High!

As the Leader Mrs. Eddy never desired to be looked up to, nor did she desire to be the head. She knew, however, that only the ones who were directed by God could guide the Cause aright, and she was practically the only one who demonstrated God's guidance consistently. She taught the way to God, and her teaching, properly demonstrated, enables one to receive from God the same wisdom that she did. Yet who among her followers at that time had made this demonstration?

It is noteworthy that in this letter Mrs. Eddy instructs the students to make the building larger than Mr. Nixon designed. It was the smallness of his vision that made all the trouble, since his conception of the church was something mortal mind could build quite nicely, with a little help perhaps from God. This was a very narrow conception of God's church, one in which so little room was provided for God that He soon would be ruled out.

Students in the future studying these pages might be enlightened by reading the following letter written to Dr. Foster Eddy on June 16, 1890, by William B. Johnson. In this letter the latter tells of an incident that took place in the church that gives a very graphic picture of the situation which confronted Mrs. Eddy, in her effort to maintain the conception of a spiritually organized church.


“I wish to acquaint you with a few of the particulars of the situation here. As I wrote your mother last night, the announcement of the action of the Directors made quite a stir. I had supposed that Bro. Knapp had written you (he being chairman of the Board) until I called on him this morning and learned that he had not. In regard to the right of this Board to take this action, I think it probable that Cutter will try to make a spread of the whole ‘deed,' and we shall have to wait for developments, but I wish to speak more definitely concerning the conditions of membership to the Church.

“The impression has got abroad that any person who is a constant attendant upon our church services should be considered a member, and are such if they so desire to be, without any formal application or reception, and I am told that this impression is based on a statement made by Mr. Norcross and that he takes this position from authority obtained from our Teacher. If this is correct I have nothing to say.

“Now as to the condition of things yesterday growing out of that thought. Enclosed is a copy of the notice read from the desk. At the close of the Sunday School, I reminded the members of the notice and requested them to take the front seats. The school was dismissed and the congregation (which was a large one) was leaving, when Mr. Norcross from the gallery said, ‘That means all who are constant attendants.' In an instant nearly the entire audience turned around to resume their seats. I replied that it meant the regular members only, as read from the desk. Then the stir was great; many said, ‘Well, Mr. Norcross says all regular attendants are members, and I am a regular attendant, and therefore, a member.' Others said, ‘Mr. Johnson said for members only, and Mr. Norcross read it so from the pulpit.' Cutter spoke from the rear of the hall and said that many had the impression that, since the disorganization of the Church, there was no form of becoming a member, or words to that effect. I replied that I could not explain how that impression had been given; but the communication which I had was for those only who had become members in the regular way by application. Then the congregation slowly dispersed, and when the doors were closed (for they still lingered in the vestibule to listen) I then read the communication of which you have a copy; also the letter to Mr. Norcross, and his reply; the rest you know.

“Now to the point about how members are to be received into this church. I think it is of the utmost importance, as its action will furnish a precedent for every Church of Christ (Scientist) throughout the land; as the applications for membership by letter are from all points of the compass, it will be nearly impossible to see every applicant and to learn anything whatever of their character, and anyone can apply to become a member, no matter how vile they may be.

“It appears to me that while we cannot know from what motive they wish to unite with us, we can declare the conditions upon which we receive them, and we will hold that all who subscribe to them, do so in good faith. Therefore, I would suggest that everyone before joining this church shall be required to sign the ‘Tenets' and send them so signed to the proper person to receive them for the church. I would also have added in a proper manner one more proposition, viz., we accept the teachings of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker G. Eddy.

“There is a good deal of feeling over this misunderstanding, but I think if next Sunday there is read from the pulpit a notice, giving definite instructions relating to uniting with this church, much good can be accomplished. We have many letters on hand asking for admission, that have not been acted upon yet, because we have not known what was the best thing to do.

“Error will work hard this week to prevent many from coming again. Then there is another way it is working; it is determined to force those into our students' meetings who were never members. Mr. and Mrs. Nixon, although they are students of the College, yet never joined the Association; they come into the monthly meetings as if they were members; so does Miss Campbell, who works in Mr. Nixon's office, who did not study with your mother; so you see error is trying to creep in in every way.”


Since this letter by Mr. Johnson mentions Mr. Cutter, it is interesting to note that at the meeting of the Board of Directors held on March 4, 1891, the following letter was made part of the minutes, which he wrote to Mr. Johnson after he had been elected a member of this Board.


“Yours of July 9th, (1890) received and contents noted. In replying, I wish to say that if your communication has reference to the Church of Christ (Scientist) Boston, that holds its services in ‘Chickering Hall,' then my (so-called) appointment, as a member of the ‘Board of Directors' you refer to is ‘null and void,' for there is no such Board in existence. I positively refuse the use of my name in connection with said (self-appointed) Board. Please inform those who claim to be members of said Board, that I am not seeking for place or power, but for peace and to reveal to humanity the purity I reflect of God.”


In passing it is worthwhile to note that the minutes of this meeting end with the following words quoted from Mrs. Eddy, “Heaven will be the sweet surprise of a perfect explanation.”

All of this helps to complete the picture of what our Leader had to struggle with, in upholding her standard. She did not want an organized church. She did not even want a church. Edward P. Bates of Syracuse, N. Y., and his wife testified to this fact when my sister-in-law lived with them. To Mrs. Eddy, Christian Science was a teaching to be loved and lived by every individual who became convinced of its truth. Then God would be demonstrated as the Guide for each individual. Each one would have to seek wisdom from Him to know what to do. Gradually in this way the whole world would become God-governed, instead of man-governed. As Mrs. Eddy began to introduce into the thoughts of students this new form of teaching called the course in Divinity, she was awakening them to the possibility of man hearing the voice of God. Everything that comes from God in the form of wisdom, in a directing and healing sense, is part of the course in Divinity. In order to take this course, however, one must do more than turn to God at certain intervals in order to receive instruction; he must listen for His voice constantly, in order to be guided in all his ways, in his relation to the Church as well as in his relation to others.

Mrs. Eddy knew that the practitioners in her Movement, in proportion as they did their work correctly, would attain a connection with God, since they could not heal in any other way. Since divine guidance flows over this connection as well as healing, she saw that the responsibility for sustaining a spiritual organization rested mainly on the practitioners. When the test came, however, they were found wanting. If a student does not have enough patience, love and fidelity to work at every service mentally to sustain the thought of God in the congregation, he is surely not ready to do the more advanced work of recognizing God as the Leader of the whole Cause, and demonstrating the ability to go to Him, in order to receive His direction. When this lack was noted, such students as Mr. Johnson, who was devoted to Mrs. Eddy and desired to have her wishes executed, made a mixture of the spiritual and the material, as his letter to Dr. Eddy indicates. There was nothing definite in the way of a material organization at this time. When a disturbance arose, due to a lack of demonstration, it is plain that he tried to add something of a material nature, to quiet the stir. It was his effort to be loyal to his Leader and to do the best he could, but this effort was largely human.

One cannot help but smile at Mr. Cutter's letter in which he refuses to become a member of a non-existent Board of a non-existent church, since a greater insight would have revealed to him that the Church was already established in Mind, which represents its real and only existence. Even if it has no replica in a material organization, it is still a spiritual idea. The work of a member who is named as a Director in such a Church is primarily to listen for God's voice, so that he may know His will, and help to execute it.

The confusion came, however, when people wanted to know whether they were members. It was a question how people could be admitted as members in a church that had no organization. If the church was not organized, it was logical that those who attended regularly should regard themselves as members of the spiritual organization.

It becomes plain how the organization gradually took the form that Mrs. Eddy in her heart did not want. It was necessary to vote upon those who were to join, in order to keep undesirable persons out. Yet the moment one human point is accepted, such yielding calls for another yielding, until suddenly you have a material organization. It reminds me of some people who built a cabin in the forest and determined to live a primitive life. Finding it inconvenient to cook over an open fire, however, they installed a stove. Then they realized that they could have hot water. One thing led to another, until finally they found themselves with a city home having all modern conveniences. The ideal of the primitive life was entirely gone.

Mrs. Eddy knew that either she must have an organization that was ample and covered every point, or else none at all. She longed for her students to bring forth the spirituality which was her ideal. Yet she knew that the church could not be run without an organization, and at the same time without demonstration. She saw that it would be years before the opposition would be handled, that operated to prevent the daily demonstration of Christian Scientists, by arguing that it was difficult and hard, that one would neglect or forget it, or that if one did not feel like doing so he could pass the responsibility to another.

There is very little alertness to be found in mortal thought. People have periods of enforced alertness, but most of the time thought is heavy and drowsy, and seeks to withdraw from responsibility as much as possible. Mental alertness is not easy to maintain, not even in Christian Science. Students who have been Scientists for years, when they find themselves with a physical aliment, sometimes insist upon lying down and trying to sleep it off; when in Science you cannot lie down and sleep error off; you must rise up and fight it off as unreal!

When Mrs. Eddy found that she did not have students who were alert enough to handle this suggestion of disinclination to take spiritual responsibility, she had to put into operation the entire machinery of human organization and arrange for everything, so that there would be a material organization that would support the spiritual, in order that the latter would be maintained and sustained, until it grew large enough to throw off the material organization.

In the parable of Lazarus and the rich man, the meaning becomes clear when Lazarus is considered as symbolic of man's spiritual nature, and the rich man, Dives, as illustrating material sense. We are so careful to feed Dives sumptuously every day, and drop Lazarus only a few crumbs, until he is half-starved and covered with sores.

Another application of the parable is to consider Dives as an illustration of the material organization, and Lazarus of the spiritual. In that case Jesus would be stressing the danger of working hard to build up the material organization, and yielding to its demands, at the expense of spiritual growth. In many branch churches Lazarus is covered with sores and feeding on a few crumbs, while Dives appears to be in full control, flourishing and successful, because the importance of building up the visible organization has caused the members to neglect the humble service of demonstration and spirituality.




June 11, 1892

To Ira O. Knapp:

God will keep you, and when you hear His voice and can distinguish between the highest false sense that means well, and the “still small voice” of Good, you will follow. Until then, God will lend me to you to distinguish for you what is the false and what is the true direction. The Trustees have fairly proven their unfitness for God's service, trustworthiness, which is the highest point of faith. I do hear the voice of God; He does show me the way at all times. Oh! If the Trustees had only followed my directions at first, the house would now be going up and His cause honored and the title made sound.

Mary Baker Eddy


In the eleventh chapter of Romans, Paul defines mortal man as a branch that has broken away from the tree of Life. In this state of separateness man becomes finite, in belief, and lasts but a short time. Paul declares, however, that if he abide not still in unbelief, God is able at any time to graft him in again, so that he once more draws his life and intelligence from infinite Mind. (Romans 11:23)

What Mrs. Eddy calls the human mind seems to be a limited or adulterated concept of infinite Mind; yet she does not teach that it can be purified and corrected to the point where it becomes divine Mind. Once she wrote off for Adam Dickey the following enlightening statement: “The human mind is expected to increase in wisdom until it disappears and divine Mind is seen to be the only Mind.”

There is a necessary purification of the human mind — a discipline and training — that prepares it for its elimination; but a student should never seek to increase the wisdom and purity of the human with the notion that this will ever make it divine. Finally, it must be disposed of, so that divine Mind may appear as All.

Water drawn from a spring might be contaminated to the point where the task of purifying it would seem hopeless. Under such circumstances it would be expedient to throw it away, and to go to the spring for fresh water. The human mind is a belief of mind that has broken away from divine Mind and is revolving in an orbit of its own, as Science and Health says. even though finite and adulterated. At times it may seem to develop qualities that make it appear to be divine; but it can never become immortal, and must be discarded as an unreal concept. To be sure, we have to use it for a time, and strive, through the teachings of Science, to control it and bring it up to the highest point of development; but because fundamentally it is based on the belief of separation from God, it must be regarded as unreal and as something ripe for destruction.

Mrs. Eddy defines divine Mind as that which is reflected by man, whereas mortal mind is appropriated by mortal man. In fact, mortal mind might be defined as the error that results when, instead of reflecting it, one attempts to appropriate divine Mind as his own. This false belief of mind can never be brought back and reattached to God. It is never real. Hence its purification and increase in wisdom fits it only for disposal. Therefore, the highest sense that mortal man attains through Christian Science must finally be put off.

This point must be understood in connection with this letter, since Mrs. Eddy detected that the students were chemicalizing over her arraignment of what they felt was a right and wise attitude on the part of the Trustees. To have her label the best they had, “the highest false sense,” was quite a bitter pill for them to swallow at this point. Hence, she makes the concession of declaring that this false sense means well, when from the standpoint of Truth, the so-called human mind never put forth a positive note, as Science and Health says, and is a murderer from the beginning. Cain proved that he was governed by a murderous sense, even though his pastoral pursuits showed that he apparently meant well.

Cain, however, was improving the human sense in order to retain it as something good, which separated him from his brother, who was improving it in preparation for its destruction. This explanation makes plain the reason why Cain had to have the murderous nature of that which he was improving, exposed. All Christian Scientists are working to improve the human mind. That which makes this improvement acceptable to God or not, is whether the motive back of such effort is to retain this improved human sense, or to cast it out, in order that divine Mind may be established as All.

When some of the oldest members — oldest in point of years as well as length of service in Science — oppose the endeavor to have the branch church business meetings put under divine Mind, declaring that it is a “business” meeting and hence it should be conducted according to the best human sense, they apparently mean well, and it may seem harsh to declare that back of such an attitude is murder. Yet whatever attempts to keep spiritual thought, which is the life of all being, out of a meeting, is a murderous sense. When one changes his concept of Life from matter to Spirit, he can begin to understand what Mrs. Eddy means in her textbook by mental assassin.

It was fitting that Mrs. Eddy softened the blow by telling the Directors that their highest human sense meant well, since they certainly thought it did. Her experience had shown her how mortal mind chemicalizes over the exposure of the total depravity, in God's sight, of the highest human sense. Notable among such incidents is the one where a dear student who loved her as a mother, was calling on her one day when she was under a cloud of error. She lay on the couch, breathing with great difficulty. She begged this student to take his thought away from her, since she could feel it weighing on her, and was suffering from it. He knew that he loved her with the highest human sense he had, but could not see how that could affect her adversely. So, he declared that he could not keep his thought away from her, while she insisted that he must. He chemicalized over her rebuke to the extent that he never saw her again; in tears he burned some of her precious letters to him, and walked no more with her, after twelve years of devoted service.

It was too great a blow to him, when the best he had to offer was refused by his Leader, because it was human, and darkened her spiritual thought. She wrote him a note embodying the gist of her plea as follows: “Beloved in Christ: Again I have to write, do not think of me. Your tender thought reaches me — costs me much. Leave me in God alone. He loves us both. I love all — friends and enemies.” Oh! If he had only been willing to await the explanation that finally came to him! Undoubtedly later she would have declared to him that his highest human sense meant well.

The explanation was that Mrs. Eddy's own son had been influenced to bring a suit against her, and the above student felt the injustice and cruelty of it to such an extent that he personalized the error, and, therefore, no matter how loving his thought was toward his Leader, she felt the hate in his thought toward her persecutors, and it affected her in such a way, that it manifested itself physically and seemed to shut off her breath. A more spiritual love on his part would have caused him to detect and handle the error, instead of chemicalizing when she tried to point it out.

As the spiritual Leader and teacher, Mrs. Eddy could never be satisfied with wrong or mediocre work, even though a student meant well. It is the teacher's part to correct and rebuke, because she knows that every pupil is capable of doing better work than he is doing. She knows that the greatest obstacle to progress is for a pupil to be content and satisfied with the way he is doing his tasks at present.

Science and Health declares that progress is the law of God. Therefore, when a student stagnates, even at an advanced point of growth, he becomes an idolater, since he is worshipping a human sense of God. Why? Because his sense of God is still darkened by a human sense. He has become satisfied and so he has slowed up in his efforts to gain a higher sense of Deity. One is saved from idolatry in Christian Science only by continuous progress, — by taking Mrs. Eddy's definition of God, which is intended to convey an absolute sense, and striving for that spiritual-mindedness which alone can reveal God aright. One who is honestly striving for a higher sense of God each day, thus saves himself from being an idolater.

This note to the Directors via Mr. Knapp was a prophesy that the Leader would be spared to them in the flesh, until they were able to function directly under God. And it was a sacrifice for her, not a reward for righteousness, to remain in this hell of material sense, when she might have thrown off its fetters long before, had she not yearned to help the world all she could. Can it be considered a wonderful gift from God to be granted a few more years in the belief of matter, unless during those years, one is able to uplift the race through his reflection of Mind? Mrs. Eddy knew that the time would come when it would be right for her to throw the mantle of responsibility for helping the world, on the shoulders of the Elishas that were ready, so that she could retire as Elijah did, from the ceaseless struggle, in order to work out her own salvation.

It is fitting that as we develop our ability to meet animal magnetism, by handling specific claims, we should bear in mind that the great demand is to overthrow the entire belief in a mind apart from God. While she was with us, Mrs. Eddy was the one who had to be relied upon to detect the more subtle and specific claims of error. Therefore, in this note to Mr. Knapp, she indicates that the students were in a position where they required divine guidance to perceive the claims of evil, and yet they were not able to reflect divine Mind for this purpose; therefore, until they could do so, God would loan Mrs. Eddy to them. They must not be too proud to accept this help from her. If what she gave them was God's direction, they should follow it and be grateful.

One should never be ashamed or too proud to ask for help in Science from another when it is necessary. Even the members of the Board of Directors should ask for help, if they need to. They are under great pressure, and at times one not under that pressure could be of spiritual help to them. Therefore, they should never feel that because of their exalted position, they are above calling on another for help.

The Master recognized that exalted positions carried danger with them. God is bound to put man in an exalted position when he is ready for it. Yet it requires humility to meet the danger of self-aggrandizement. One must realize that he is the servant of all, and so he is not too proud to wash the feet of those who come to him. Jesus did this humble task for his disciples in order to teach this lesson for all time.

Once our Leader declared that the suggestion, “who shall be greatest?” was a claim of evil which first puts the person who yields to it to sleep, and then poisons the whole system. She said, “The human sense of leadership creates a poison, the virus of which is more deadly than the bite of the moccasin, and from which the victim cannot heal himself or be healed, but must suffer. This is the sin against the Holy Ghost, because it sets up a mind and mental activity separate from God and His idea. In other words, substitutes itself and its sense for Principle and its reflection, and thereby becomes a belief of another God and reflection — though sensual instead of spiritual — all error.”

The moment one desires to receive adulation and aggrandizement for present attainments, that discourages further progress. When one feels that he has already attained his goal, he receives his satisfaction in comparing himself with those of less attainment, which is a mental poison that stops spiritual progress, and blinds man to the realization that his thinking is not acceptable to God. Only continued progress in right thinking makes a true Christian Scientist.

Young students are urged to think right in order to heal themselves of sickness, and to protect themselves from it. This makes right thinking a convenient spiritual medicine, as it were. A higher goal is the effort to think right in order to heal others. A still higher goal is the endeavor to please God by having all of one's thoughts acceptable to Him. If, as St. Paul says, “They that are in the flesh cannot please God,” it follows that the only way to please God is to recognize spiritual existence as the only reality.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy writes of “the highest false sense that means well.” How can this be reconciled with Jesus' statement that the false sense is a murderer from the beginning? There is a story of a man who had a bear for a friend. When a fly lit on the man's head while he was sleeping, the bear tried to kill the fly with a rock. He meant well, but he killed the man. In Science and Health on page 189 Mrs. Eddy writes, “If mortal mind knew how to be better, it would be better.” The highest false sense means well, but it is a murderer because its effect is not to bring man closer to God, but to shut him off from God who is Life.

If the still, small voice is continually talking to man, why did God have to loan Mrs. Eddy to the Directors? Because they had not yet attained the ability to detect the difference between the highest false sense and the voice of good. When on page 68 of our Church Manual Mrs. Eddy agreed to teach the course in Divinity to those who came to her home (there being many who declared that she broke this agreement and never did teach it), she was teaching this course in her home every day. Why? Because she was teaching the students the process which would enable them to hear the still, small voice. After a student has gained the ability to distinguish between the highest false sense and the voice of good, he is able to take the course in Divinity for himself, since then he receives each day his teaching from God, in fulfillment of the Biblical promise that we shall all be taught of God. Mrs. Eddy gave Dr. Baker an inspired definition of the course in Divinity when she said, “God's complete explanation of Himself, at all times, and in all ways, is going on eternally, and nothing else ever was going on, or will go on — nothing will continue — and this continuity is God, or one Mind and man.”

When Mrs. Eddy once told a student that his tender thought reached her and cost her much, he resented this rebuke because he meant well. However, he had not grown to the point of being able to recognize the difference between spiritual sense that blesses and material sense that curses; so, he did not comprehend Mrs. Eddy's rebuke at the time. Animal magnetism took him away from her so that he never gave her a chance to explain it to him.

If an American lady using a strong cheap perfume should find herself in a group of cultured Chinese, she might be surprised to find her presence offensive, until she learned that they have cultivated such a sensitive sense of smell that they appreciate only the rarest and best of perfumes. Even in its highest sense mortal mind is a blight to spiritual sense, although the advocate of the highest false sense may not be able to understand why. In mortal mind is the smell of death; for this reason it was an offense to our Leader.

Not until one has approached the spiritual refinement of our Leader, can he understand what an offense material sense was to her. This was the penalty she paid for spiritualization. In explaining this point, she once said to her household, “The higher one senses harmony, the more sensitive he is to discord; the same in music.”

In Science and Health on page 452 we read, “Never breathe an immoral atmosphere, unless in the attempt to purify it.” The atmosphere of mortal mind is immoral, whether it shows its true colors, or hides them. Even its highest sense that means well is not good, because mortal mind is its origin. The only way to get rid of immorality is to get rid of the human mind.

Those who manifest mortal mind in its highest phases are not free from immorality in God's sight. So-called immoral acts merely indicate the presence of erroneous thought, which is the underlying cause and source of all immorality.

Science does not teach that the sick man's thoughts are wrong, and the healthy man's thoughts are right. The sick man is one who has discovered his wrong thinking by its manifestation on his body. Similarly, the one tempted by immorality need not be more immoral than one who does not show his immoral thoughts, but the former is the one who has the evidence that mortal mind is inherently and fundamentally immoral. If he is a student of Science, he is thereby forced to work to eliminate mortal mind, and so he is blessed by his experience; whereas one who has no evidence of the immorality and sick nature of all human thinking, may continue in a false peace and self-satisfaction, and even believe that the human mind is God's mind, because he thinks that it means well, and he sees nothing wrong about it.

A student who is sick should never permit himself to be weighed down with retribution, or what is called an inferiority complex. He should accept the situation as a problem to be solved, a correction in thought to be made. A student who yields to a human temptation should never be weighed down by a sense of self-condemnation, providing he goes to work to purge himself of all erroneous thinking, in order that he may reflect God.

A student should be grateful when his attention is drawn to the veritable nature of mortal mind, no matter how offensive it may seem to be; for who will make the effort to throw off mortal mind as long as it gives no evidence of its murderous instinct?

One might go into a kitchen and find a disagreeable odor. He would be relieved if it could be traced to food that needed to be thrown away. No good would be done, however, if he merely opened the window to try to get rid of the odor, while he kept the food. The discordant effects of mortal mind should start a student on the effort to get rid of mortal mind, and not just of the unpleasant effects.

Furthermore, one should not complain if Christian Science seems to aggravate the claim of evil, since the purpose of that is that we may be awakened to make the effort to throw it off. Who will seek to destroy that which seems good?




Concord, June 13, 1892

My dear Student:

Am glad that another point is made strong, and our Fort is held.

Am I indebted to you for an anonymous article headed “Gratitude?” I think of sending it to Editor of C. S. Journ.

Much thanks to you for your, as usual faithful discharge of duty.

Your loving Teacher,

M. B. G. Eddy

It makes no difference whether Mr. Anthony is or is not a member of our Church — if he is a suitable Director in your Board. The Church is not organized as formerly.

M. B. G. E.


Mrs. Eddy knew that everything that could be done, must be done to protect the Church from any possible inroads in the future by the enemy. Through her reflection of divine wisdom she anticipated every such contingency, so that at each advancing step, the fort was held.

This letter shows how divine wisdom so often operates, namely, in an indirect rather than a direct way. It is possible that Mrs. Eddy knew that Mr. Johnson did not write the anonymous article. One would hardly believe that a member of the Board of Directors would send her an article without signing it. She took the occasion, however, to call his attention to the fact that an article of that nature was very acceptable to her.

Had she written directly to Mr. Johnson that she would like an expression of gratitude from him, he would have obediently complied with her request; but that would have spoiled the effect, and robbed him of his spontaneity in thinking of it himself. Her wisdom is evinced in the fact that she gave him a hint, which if he followed, would not cause her to appear as the prompter of such an article.

If you entertained a friend in your home, and you heard nothing from him afterwards by way of appreciation, you might write to him, stating that you had received a letter without a signature, expressing gratitude, and asking him if he had written it. When he replied to your letter of inquiry, he would no doubt express his gratitude, and there would be no danger of his knowing that you prompted such a letter by a legitimate ruse.

If this was a ruse on Mrs. Eddy's part, it was legitimate, since her motive was to do all she could to cement the feeling on the part of students that in every way she was working for the good of mankind, and the members of the Church; that she was not only the Discoverer of Christian Science, but that she was demonstrating every step of the establishment of the Cause, and that this way of demonstration would be the pattern which her followers must use for all time. Thus, she was anticipating the possibility in the future of error attempting to remove her from the Movement as the active demonstrator, and merely permitting her to fill the place of the Discoverer and Founder.

Part of the divine leading was for her to have enough records in the periodicals, so that students of the future might study the history and sequence of events of these early days. The old Journals and Sentinels are read and reread by all students who are vitally interested. Every Reading Room strives to possess complete files of these periodicals. Mrs. Eddy could foresee that what they contained was to become a permanent record. If a student's appreciation for his present blessings grows lukewarm, and he reads the Journals and Sentinels published while she was with us, at a time when gratitude and appreciation for her was active, that will help him to renew his gratitude and bring it forth into active expression.

An article called “Gratitude” was especially appealing to Mrs. Eddy at this time of stress, when there was such opposition in her own church against her. This article no doubt contained expressions of thankfulness for her work, for her watchful care, love, protection and great self-sacrifice. Such an article would have meant all the more to her, had it been written by a member of the Board of Directors who were in such close contact with her. Thus, in her loving and wise way she attempts to inspire the writing of such an article. One can hear her heart calling for it, hoping that Mr. Johnson and others would heed this letter, and take the hint. She knew that at some future time it might help to renew the fire that perhaps would die down with the passing of time, — the living appreciation of her demonstration of Christian Science. Further proof of this contention is found in the fact that in the next number of the Journal, namely, for July, appeared her article, “Hints for History.”

It is a pity that this call on her part was not answered, as a search of the Journals reveals. Her destiny was in God's care, however, and it was part of His plan that her own article be her best witness at this time.

In her statement concerning David Anthony, who was a practitioner from Providence, R. I., Mrs. Eddy laid down an interesting precedent, in stating that he was a candidate for the Board of Directors if he was suitable, even though he was not a member of The Mother Church. Today the restrictions laid down by the Manual make it impossible for students to occupy positions in The Mother Church who are not members. The implication from this letter, however, is that membership is secondary to suitability. Therefore, it is plain that suitability must always be a matter of demonstration.




June 15, 1892

To Ira O. Knapp:

Just as the Scriptures in Genesis and Revelation portray the two sides, so all revelation comes to me. I told you last evening the side that contest could carry on to a victory through a material hard fought battle. Today I tell you the other side so clearly revealed, namely, “Be still and know that I am God” — I choose to take this side, and so do you. Now remain in watching and prayer, but take no legal steps toward breaking the deed, and sign no papers and give no pledges, orally or written, and let the Trustees meet the fearful sins that they alone commit.


This letter to Mr. Knapp belongs in this series, because it was doubtless written for him to share with his fellow Directors. It is based on the third chapter of Ecclesiastes which states that for everything there is a season…a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn, and a time to dance. We learn from this that in Science there is no formula that can be given for action, since it is a matter of timing, or demonstrating the right thing to do at the right time.

A man fighting a lion retreats the moment he has given it a death blow, in order that he may not be harmed by its death throes. Similarly, Mrs. Eddy had faced the error involved in this legal controversy, assailing it with the weapon of the law, as well as demonstration, until it was ready to destroy itself. Then she retired from all action, and advised Mr. Knapp to do likewise, in order to rest in scientific mental work. The error had received its death blow.

When in 1942 the government found it necessary to cut motorists to two or three gallons of gasoline a week, there was a time for Christian Science practitioners to protest by bringing pressure to bear through influential people, in order that those in charge might be made to see that a practitioner has as much right to have transportation, so that he may call on the sick, as a medical doctor. Then came the time for the practitioners to retire from the fray, and having done all, stand in the strength of demonstration.

This standing, of course, is prayer, which means an active mental sense. There is no demand in Science for one to remain in mental stagnation under any circumstance. When one, having done all, stands, that standing does not represent mental stagnation; it merely means ceasing one's effort to bring the human mind in line by means of whatever human processes may be necessary, in order that God may take up the battle and finish it.

Mrs. Eddy was careful not to let the accusation of human changeableness fasten itself upon her. Her success in calling forth obedience, was in impressing upon the Directors and officials that what she directed them to do was not her own opinion. They represented the open door through which the demands of God might get into the Cause. The fact that she was a woman was what often stood in the way. The argument was: what did Mrs. Eddy know about so many vital matters that had to be known, in order to conduct the Cause correctly and to carry it on to its spiritual destiny?

God called upon her to give commands to the Directors, as this letter to Mr. Knapp bears witness. Then came the demand to reverse the order. Instead of merely saying, now do nothing but stand, she appealed to his reasoning powers, using the Bible as an illustration, where wisdom gave one demand at one time, and later another, which seemed contradictory to the first.

When Lida Fitzpatrick of Cleveland, Ohio, gave copies of what Mrs. Eddy had given her in her home as the course in Divinity, to her own students, the Board of Directors objected. They pointed out that Mrs. Eddy apparently said things at one time that contradicted what she said at another. One day she gave her workers a line of work to do regarding the weather, and a few days afterwards instructed them in an opposite direction. She said, “If I say to you, ‘There is no thunder and lightning,' then I say, ‘Do not say there is no thunder and lightning, but know they cannot be destructive,' am I inconsistent? No. If I say to a dyspeptic, ‘You have no stomach,' and then say, ‘Eat food and it does you good,' am I inconsistent? No. Absolute Science you cannot prove yet; that is, if you try to work that there is no thunder and lightning, you will get into trouble, for it keeps coming, and others believe it purifies the atmosphere. So, you can see it has no power to harm, is not destructive, can only be harmonious. The dyspeptic, if you tell him to eat and the food does him good, will brighten up and be healed; when, if you declare no stomach, no food, you could not prove it yet.” A mother gives her children commands when they are young, but reasons with them, as they become older. She changes her method to keep pace with the mental development of the child.

On December 10, 1906, Mrs. Eddy wrote to Irving Tomlinson, “I find the way by experience, hence I am a Christian Science weather vane, constantly veering with the winds of Truth.”

Mrs. Eddy watched thought, and as it changed, she issued changing orders as to what must be done. She gave students mental work to do in her home. As they developed ability that was higher and more metaphysical, she would trust them with higher work, where they could work against phases of error without making a reality of it. When her demands seemed contradictory, it was only because she was suiting those demands to the hour, or to the mental state the students were in.

Mrs. Eddy's teachings were fixed, being based on unchangeable spiritual law. Thought develops, however, and needs different admonitions to suit such changes. Mrs. Eddy once declared that the Bible would seem to contradict itself and gave Prov. 26:4 and 5 as an example. She also quoted Ex. 20:12, where we are told to honor our father and mother, and Luke 14:26 where we are told to hate them, as another example. She said, “This would look like a direct contradiction of the words just quoted but it is not; after we have honored our father and mother, then comes the next step forsaking the flesh for Spirit.”

If you have hot water and want to change it to the temperature of the room, you add cold water. If it is cold, however, and you wish to do the same thing, you add hot.

This illustration shows why the application of Mrs. Eddy's, or, rather, God's rules requires flexibility, a willingness to be guided. Often, however, she had to make an explanation, so that students receiving what seemed to be contradictory instruction, would not get the impression that she was easily swayed; here today, and somewhere else tomorrow. It was necessary for them to perceive that she had a definite purpose in all that she did. She felt the need of making this explanation to the Directors through Mr. Knapp, in order that he would understand that what appeared to be an exact turnabout, was still a demand of God.

In the episode given previously where Mrs. Eddy ordered pie and cheese with her dinner and received no cheese, her insistence that she be given cheese would appear out of harmony with her teachings and Christian life. It was a point, however, at which she saw a demand upon her different from what we would have seen, had we been there. We would conclude that the cheese was a small matter, and we could get along without it easily. She was living a teaching life, however, one that was to provide precedent for her followers down through time. She had to show that if a student reconciles himself to being robbed of what he is entitled to, and does not rise up in protest, that only opens the way for further robbery.

Once the wife of a rich man joined our church. At once her husband cut off her allowance of money, lest she support the church with it. Instead of rebelling against this injustice, she accepted it in a Christian spirit, as she felt a true son of God should do. Mrs. Eddy would not have reacted in that way, since she would have seen that, if she submitted to mortal mind's injustice and robbery in one direction, that would only open the way for it to rob her in another.

On the other hand, the cheese episode in no way lays down an example of action for students to follow under all circumstances! The Master furnished us no precedent, when he used a whip of small cords to purge the temple, for doing likewise literally.




Concord, N. H., June 30, 1892

My dear Student:

It is the duty of the Board of Directors to get a list of the names of contributors from the Trustees, and then have a circular letter printed which states the facts and corrects the falsehoods of the circular they sent out. I have proof that my first proposition and earnest advice to these fellows was to make the contributors safe by putting their money into the building, and I would be responsible that they should have a legal claim to the land. But Nixon would do nothing but rule or ruin the church.

With love,

M. B. G. Eddy

Read this to Board of Directors. You know the need of mental influence on the right side. Let all unite in this.


In ancient mythology there is a tale of Thor being invited to bring his famous hammer into the land of Utgard-Loki. When, however, he tries to display his great strength, he fails, and finally becomes discouraged. Then Utgard-Loki implores him to leave his country, with the following explanation: “And, by my troth, had I known beforehand, that thou hadst so much strength in thee, and wouldst have brought me so near to a great mishap, I would not have suffered thee to enter this time. Know then that I have all along deceived thee by my illusions. But now, as we are going to part, let me tell thee that it will be better for both of us if thou never come near me again, for shouldst thou do so, I shall again defend myself by other illusions, so that thou wilt only lose thy labor and get no fame from the contest with me.”

Each time Thor attempted a display of his powers, Utgard-Loki, by his illusions, transformed the result into a seeming failure, so that Thor began to lose faith in his own strength. This myth is an accurate portrayal of the action of animal magnetism in the mental realm. It cannot rob man of his divine prerogatives as the son of God, so it has to rely on the use of suggestion, presenting thoughts of failure, lack, weakness, and limitation in such a way that man will accept such suggestions as veritable.

Interpreted metaphysically, Thor's great power was wholly mental, with the hammer as its visible expression. Because of the materiality of his thought, he needed that visible symbol to create the expectancy that enabled his power to accomplish its purpose, just as a sick man needs some form of physical medicine or treatment to kindle his faith that he is going to be healed. When Thor took the hammer in his hand, he believed that with it he could accomplish that which mind could not do, without some visible agency. Yet all force is mental.

Thor's hammer, therefore, is a symbol of the demand that mortal man feels to have something in his hand that will bring him a sense of power and expectancy. The gangster wants to feel a gun in his hand as a symbol of power. Mortal mind demands some token or symbol on which to pin its faith.

As the story goes, the mesmerism or illusions used by Utgard-Loki did not prevent Thor from performing successfully what he attempted; it merely prevented Thor from seeing the results, so that he thought he accomplished nothing, and so became discouraged. In the allegory Utgard-Loki finally explains the trick so that Thor's faith in himself returns, and as the story goes, he nearly vanquishes Utgard-Loki on the spot, the latter saving himself only by becoming invisible.

When armed with deific power man brings forth results which are inimical to the reign of evil over man. It is then that animal magnetism puts forth its illusions to break down man's spiritual morale, and to cause him to accept the suggestion that his work counts for nothing.

Mrs. Eddy tells us that this hidden action of animal magnetism was not revealed to her at once. No doubt for a time she felt that the tasks which she gave her students were straightforward, and that they could be expected to accomplish them, just as a man who purchased a book on carpentry, might expect to become a good carpenter merely by perusing the book, and never taking any personal instruction. According to such logic, Mrs. Eddy had a right to expect students to operate successfully because of the simple and self-explanatory rules that she had laid down for them.

Mrs. Eddy learned, however, that the problem of animal magnetism, as exemplified in the myth of Thor and Loki, is always present to be met. A student may learn the rules of metaphysics and practice them, but unless he learns of the problem of animal magnetism and meets it, his work will amount to little or nothing; or it will be reversed so that it becomes a deterrent rather than a blessing, making the error more instead of less real.

One trick of animal magnetism is to entice a student to work on a problem in a way that increases the belief in the error. Once a wife worked on the problem of her husband's drinking in such a way that she aggravated it. She was afraid of it, and made it more real to herself by her misdirected effort, with the result that it was intensified in her husband's thought. If she had ignored it entirely, she would have helped him more than by working on it unscientifically.

An illusion of the present-day workings of animal magnetism is the prejudice and opposition that is displayed against anything that would help to put our Leader in a right light before the people, and to show that in her life is to be found a monument that can never be lost, which points plainly to the correct way to demonstrate her revelation. Students must pray and work to break down this opposition and prejudice which would keep the people from understanding Mrs. Eddy correctly as the best demonstrator of her own revelation. Meeting this error will open the door to an appreciation of this great metaphysician, as well as of the methods she used and of her application of Christian Science in her own experience, so that her followers will be enabled to go and do likewise.

If Mr. Nixon and his associates did any work at all against the baneful influence of animal magnetism, they probably did it as a stint, rather than a recognized necessity. Mrs. Eddy taught them to handle it, and so they did. One may work all day against animal magnetism, however, and if one does it because Mrs. Eddy advises it and does not himself recognize it as the deterrent that would strive to retard, reverse or make void his demonstration, such work will accomplish little.

The turtle is protected by its shell; if that was stripped off, it would be helpless. When you believe that animal magnetism is a real claim that you must work against, you beat in vain against your own belief. Once realize its powerlessness, however, its weakness and nothingness, — the utter absurdity and fallacy of its claims — and you become its master; its shell or protection is stripped off.

Part of its mesmerism is to tempt one to believe in its reality by whispering, “See what I have done in the world; and then just try to call me unreal! Any power that has accomplished all that I have must be real and formidable!” This suggestion can only be met through the recognition that divine Mind is the only Mind and is forever manifested. Any belief in another mind or manifestation is false, and hence has no real existence.

Mrs. Eddy was not dealing with irresponsible and dishonest people when men like Mr. Nixon opposed her. He was most honorable from the world's standpoint, and only striving, as he thought, to be faithful to a solemn deed of trust. He represented a solid and substantial quality of thought, but one that was more or less handled by animal magnetism, and ignorant of this fact.

Many students who love the uplifting and sweet revelations of Christian Science, are unwilling to bring the subject of animal magnetism into the picture, which they feel is more satisfying without it. Mrs. Eddy's hardest task was to bring the students to the point where they would take up the subject of animal magnetism intelligently and without fear, probe it and handle it. She had to do it herself and her discoveries along this line are of inestimable value to the world. Few students realize what it cost her to delve into the hidden secrets of evil, and discover that the claim of animal magnetism would seek to thwart every effort made by mortals to return to the Father's house.

A study of Mrs. Eddy's letters shows many of the sorties she made into the realm of animal magnetism; the effects of it on her efforts to establish the Cause according to God's plan; and how some of her sincerest students were caught by it, and became her enemies, in that they fought what God was seeking to have executed through her.

In this controversy of 1892, we have an illustration of the action of animal magnetism, as well as a record of what Mrs. Eddy did to neutralize it. We may feel sad over the heartaches that she had; yet we know that a valuable increase in her insight into the operations of evil was the result.

Mrs. Eddy's designation of the trustees as “these fellows” is an interesting touch. By this appellation she takes them out of the category of being friends of the Cause, or constructive workers. The Bible speaks of certain lewd fellows who started a counter-current of prejudice against Paul in Thessalonica, being instigated by the Jews which believed not. It is as if Mrs. Eddy likened the trustees to these mental idlers who, lacking in an understanding of evil, permitted themselves to be used to turn against Paul, and to start that ruction that would result in his being driven out of the city.

By the use of this term Mrs. Eddy informs the Board of Directors of her attitude toward these students, yet doing it in such a way that if the latter got hold of a copy of the letter, they could not accuse her of trying to injure them. Nevertheless, she conveys to the Directors her estimate of the trustees, naming them as deterrents rather than constructive workers.

An important part of this letter is the postscript which is a call for the Directors to work mentally on the problem. How successful this work was can be determined from her note of July 4th.




July 4, 1892

Mr. Johnson

My dear Student:

“No,” please drop it. The effect is bad.

Lovingly,

M. B. G. Eddy

N. B. Tell others to stop. The thought to be held aright should be wholly impersonal, and a faith in God who doeth all things well.


If the instruction given in this letter were shown to students as being given by Mrs. Eddy to cover all mental work, it would be misleading. Hence it must be analyzed in connection with the previous letter, that of June 30 in which she told the Directors to unite their mental influence on the right side in this matter of the trustees.

Mrs. Eddy did not make mistakes in her instructions. She did not tell the Directors to work mentally, and then instruct them to stop, because her direction was a mistake in the beginning. The situation with the trustees was a serious one. It involved the whole future of the Cause and it needed the students' finest work in order to rectify it. Then why did she tell them to drop their work, because the effect was bad?

Mr. Nixon was the ringleader of the error that needed to be handled. In working on the situation, the students unquestionably failed to impersonalize the claim of animal magnetism, which would tend to make the error more instead of less real, and the effect would be to incite Mr. Nixon to a more determined protest and interference against the will of God. The situation was similar to the story related previously of the wife who worked on the problem of drink for her husband. Because she feared it and personalized it, she made the situation worse instead of better, and she had to stop.

Mrs. Eddy knew that trained mental workers like the Directors could not stop mental work just because they were told to. This Nixon affair was troubling the thought of all the members. They could not help thinking about it. It was a situation where error seemed so personal, that it appeared that if Mr. Nixon would only commit suicide or suddenly die, the whole problem would be solved. Thus, when the members worked metaphysically, they regarded Mr. Nixon as the one to blame for the whole thing. They held him in error so strongly that Mrs. Eddy could feel it. She thus knew that their work was not making the error less real and less powerful, but more so. They were holding resentment against the channel for the error.

An analogous incident occurred during the trial in 1900, when Josephine Woodbury brought a libel suit against Mrs. Eddy. Her action was so unjust and so obviously malicious, that it was difficult for the students to work on the problem scientifically, without personal feeling toward her in their hearts. On February 14 Mrs. Eddy wrote to Irving Tomlinson: “You must not pray over this subject of Court with any hatred or resentment in your thought. You must not take up W. personally or refer to her personally, but when you pray you must know that evil and lies cannot sway the judgment of the Court, and that the judge of the whole earth will govern the judges and they will do right.”

Another instance is when Mrs. Eddy instructed every member of The Mother Church to pray for the amicable settlement of the war between Japan and Russia, and for God to bless both nations with peace and prosperity. This request was dated June 17, 1905. On July 1 we find her requesting them to cease special prayer for the peace of nations (Miscellany, 280). It is probable that she was able to detect that the members were praying for peace with hatred or resentment in their thoughts, thus unwittingly praying the prayer of the unrighteous. Efficacious prayer does not arise from a thought that is harboring unrighteous elements. Impartial prayer and universal love alone fulfill the demands of both Christianity and Science. If one felt that one nation was the aggressor and so deserved punishment, that would not be impartiality, whereas Mrs. Eddy was so careful to call for an impartial thought, since she asked the members to pray for the peace and prosperity of both nations.

Where two nations are fighting, the world usually takes sides. Such an attitude personalizes error. In Dr. Baker's notes we find Mrs. Eddy giving him this simple rule, which in reality covers all strife and sin. She said, “Adam will again accuse Eve of being the tempter. John Smith did not tempt wife, or wife tempt John Smith. Error is always the tempter.”

In the case of Mr. Nixon, Mrs. Eddy did not ask the Directors to stop working, because she knew they would go right on thinking; so she outlined a mode of work that would be impersonal and weigh on the right side, just as she told the members to pause in special prayer for peace, and to have faith in God's disposal of events. If one is trained to work mentally and is given specific work to do, and it is found that his work is making the error more real instead of less, he should be told to cease doing special work, and make his thought as impersonal as possible.

When I detected that the aforementioned student's work was making the error more real as far as her husband was concerned, I told her to stop treating her husband personally, since she was unable to see it as an impersonal claim. Knowing that she could not stop working entirely, I told her in this one instance to hold an impersonal thought of faith in God; but I made it plain that this was not instruction to cover all of her future mental work.

Students who have trained themselves to work in mind cannot stop such work at will. Thus, when their work is not scientific — as is so often the case with us all — the right way to handle the situation is to direct such an effort in a way where it will do no harm, until thought is able to regain its scientific outlook. If a boy with a gun was shooting his neighbors' hens or windows, not because he was bent on mischief, but because he was not aiming straight at the target, you might provide him with blank cartridges for a time, until his marksmanship improved.

Impersonal mental work has its value. It is faith that brings blessings infinite, as we read on page 281 of Miscellany. When there is a specific need, however, mental work must be specific and direct. That is why this note from Mrs. Eddy would not have a good effect on students, if it was given to students separate from its nexus, namely, the problem of Mr. Nixon. The objective at this time was to handle a specific error, but because the bullets the Directors were firing were going wild and doing harm, Mrs. Eddy had to give them blank cartridges for the time being.

Blank cartridges would be as effective as loaded ones to frighten crows away from a corn field; but if one crow was spoiling one certain plant of corn and refused to be frightened by blank cartridges, it would be necessary to use bullets and aim to hit him directly.

When Mrs. Eddy found that her students were working erroneously, or permitting animal magnetism to reverse their endeavors, she did not try to shut them off from any mental work, and thus leave them in the doldrums; either she instructed them in a way that would correct the error, or gave them blank cartridges, so that they would continue to feel that they were accomplishing good; yet they would be working in a way that would endanger no one.

This note should never be handed to students — those who are capable of doing efficient mental work, because they are free from the pernicious influence of animal magnetism, as if to say that Mrs. Eddy did not feel that it was metaphysical to take up problems individually and specifically. She sent this note to the Directors at this time, not because her instruction had been incorrect in the first instance, or had been misunderstood by the students, but in order to render harmless the work that they were doing. They were making the error more real because they were working with resentment toward Mr. Nixon and his confreres. They did not use the Master's prayer, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

The Bible's admonition is to hurt not the oil and the wine. Oil is consecration and wine is inspiration. The lesson would appear to be that when we are handling error, we must never hold hatred or resentment toward the channel for the error, lest in so doing we hurt the channel. In reality our work is to bless the channel, and that can only be done through love.

On page 4 of Miscellany we have Mrs. Eddy's statement that, “A genuine Christian Scientist loves Protestant and Catholic, D.D. and M.D., — loves all who love God, good; and he loves his enemies.” Elsewhere we find her declaring that she loved the Catholics, which was the proof that she was ready and able to work on the Catholic problem in such a way that she could help to overthrow its false claims without hurting the oil and wine.

The main purpose of our work against Catholicism is to protect the members of the Catholic Church from the error embodied in its teachings, which include an unconscious prejudice against the Truth of being. If one works unscientifically on this problem, his work becomes mere malpractice on individuals, instead of a scientific effort to remove error from such individuals. It is a rule in Science that no one can work against personalized evil, unless they love the individual who is being used as a channel for that personalized evil, by seeing him as an idea of God.

The conclusion is that if Mrs. Eddy requested her students to work on the problem of Mr. Nixon and she felt that as they worked, they were not loving him as a child of God, no matter how grievous the results of the error were that was using him, she would have to stop them, lest they hurt the oil and the wine.




July 5, 1892

My dear Student:

You had better not reply to the Trustees' letter, even if they give you a list of the names of contributors, but stand still and see the salvation of our God. You have done your duty, and the rest our Father takes care of.

Lovingly,

(Signed) M. B. G. Eddy

Answer this. I am very busy and do not consult me any further. It all lies with the Trustees and contributors, and they must be responsible, not us, for the consequences.


In II Cor. 4:17 we read, “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.” Affliction that is the result of disobedience to God might be called dark affliction, in contrast to the affliction that comes because we have been obedient to Him, and have successfully handled animal magnetism. Light affliction, therefore, comes as the result of progress, and is described in Science and Health as sin's revenge on its destroyer. It is light because it is easy to bear, since it is the proof that one is pleasing God.

A young student calls all affliction dark, and struggles to overcome it, just as he calls all harmony demonstration. He has not yet learned that the most deterring phase of animal magnetism is that which presents itself as human harmony, or human good, because it would seek to make mortals so happy in hell, that they have no interest in heaven. The following parody illustrates this contrast between human evil and human good:


It is easy enough to fight,

When the devil frowns and is vile;

But the man with might,

Is the man who can fight

When the devil comes with a smile.


Once Mrs. Eddy wrote as follows to William P. McKenzie (July, 1897): “Do not sorrow over your tasks; all things work together for good to them that love God, Good. You are now learning how to meet mortal mind in all its false claims; and its evil is less dangerous than its seeming good. You have not nearly as much to meet now as when you cherished (as we all have done) its seeming good that was its greatest evil. Our Master said: fear ye not them that (would) destroy the body but rather them that destroy both soul and body — both the moral and physical. Your premonitions are what will save you if you employ them. The evil always works beforehand on the minds of those in health, to fear, or to believe they cannot help those it intends to slay; and if only this preparatory mental malpractice is understood, as I now trust it will be by you hereafter, it enables the individual to watch better and to have oil in his lamp, for each experience of this kind is a bridal that weds you to Life and Love everlasting.”

Here is Mrs. Eddy unfolding the deeper teachings of Science, endeavoring to support a student who is beginning to have his first lessons in the recognition that human good is a more dangerous deterrent than human evil, and that light affliction does us good, wedding us “to Life and Love everlasting.”

On page 233 of Miscellany we read, “Which should we prefer, ease or dis-ease in sin? Is not discomfort from sin better adapted to deliver mortals from the effects of belief in sin than ease in sin?” Discomfort from sin can be thought of as a light affliction, if it serves as a whip to drive us higher. A man whips a horse, not to punish him, but merely to get more speed out of him. The owner is not displeased with the horse; he merely wants him to do better than he is doing, and he knows he can. The moment the horse responds as he should, the whipping stops. It is only a light affliction which is but for a moment.

St. Paul could not be referring to those dark experiences which rob man of God, and sink him further into bondage to sense. Light affliction must be the proof that we are successfully demonstrating our way out of mortality. A right attitude toward it causes it to make us more watchful, and to drive us higher by exposing the soporific and lethargic nature of human harmony. Light affliction prevents us from going to sleep in this mortal dream, satisfied with the human good that has come to us as the result of what we call demonstration.

In the letter in question Mrs. Eddy is referring to light affliction, showing that she regarded the error in connection with the Trustees, if handled rightly, as conducive to progress. The Directors had done their duty, and they could rest in full faith that the Father would take care of the rest.

Twice in her published works Mrs. Eddy refers to the fact that error uncovered is two-thirds destroyed, and the remaining third kills itself. The indication from this note is that the error had been uncovered, and all that remained to be done was to “stand still and see the salvation of our God.”

If men attempt to repair a faulty dam when the water is rising, feverishly running hither and thither, it will do no good. If they are able to bolster it up a little while longer, what good will that do? What will awaken the town that owns the dam to vote funds to build a new one? The better plan is to let it alone until its unsafe condition becomes evident to all. Then the town will readily agree to put in a new one.

Mrs. Eddy had endeavored to bolster up the Trustees long enough, and now it was time to let the situation alone, and to trust that, the students having done their duty, our Father would take care of the rest.

Once a wife who was a Scientist worked for her husband who was not, in order to save him from suffering. Her mistaken sympathy would have had the power of God restore him at once to health and harmony. Yet it was obvious that he would never progress to the point of seeking God's help voluntarily and willingly, until he lost confidence in his own human sense of health, and in his ability to take care of himself in affliction. Thus, she would have robbed him of something that he needed, through her mistaken sense of sympathy.

It is our dislike of inharmony and pain, our sympathy for another's suffering and our desire to demonstrate Christian Science at all times, that impel us to work continually to keep human harmony at its highest peak. Yet our zeal may cause us to rob others. Many times it is scientifically Christian to leave others to work things out themselves, as Mrs. Eddy does in this letter. No doubt at first she worked to keep the thought of the church harmonious and free from everything disturbing, that the students might walk forward in freedom. Then she learned a better way.

A mother is tempted to watch over her child, so that it will not come in contact with evil associates. Yet if she keeps it tied to her apron strings, it will not grow up fitted to cope with life. Mrs. Eddy learned that sometimes it is wiser to let students suffer the results of their own deflections, rather than to try to protect them at every step, as the mother does her child.

Her further insight into the best way to handle some students, convinces one that often a branch church that is discordant with financial difficulties and dissension, offers a better proving ground on which a student may learn to demonstrate and to function under his own understanding, than a church that runs so smoothly that all the members need to do is to attend regularly, and obediently take part in all the activities.

Once a wealthy member assumed the entire financial burden for a branch church, and a resident teacher whom everyone loved and respected directed every step. The church ran smoothly and an observer might have called it a fine example of demonstration; but the members made little or no progress. Finally, problems arose that exposed the fact that the dear members of this church were almost helpless to go alone, because of their ignorance of the operation of animal magnetism. The surface smoothness of the church had lulled them to sleep and had fostered no growth in a knowledge of the operation of error.

It is apparent that Mrs. Eddy might have saved some students, had she been led to use her time in watching over them — a thing she never wearied of doing, as long as she felt that it would avail; but she had no jurisdiction over another's demonstration. It is up to each individual, whether he is going to take advantage of what he has been taught, and put it into practice.

A gymnasium provides many ways by which one's muscles may be developed. The ramifications of the Christian Science church offer opportunities for the members to develop spiritually; but the members must take advantage of them. Mrs. Eddy once wrote an article in which she arraigned what she called, “Christian Science Church Scientists.” Did she refer to those who believe that they will be saved by mere church attendance, as if the church would of itself make them more spiritual and mentally active? Nothing but man's own effort will spiritualize his thought. The value of the church to him, after it has acted as a bridge to lead his thought into active interest, is to provide opportunities for spiritual development, through the work it requires him to do for it. To believe, however, that mere church attendance brings spiritual growth, is as fallacious as it is to believe that one gets exercise by just going to the gymnasium and watching others perform.

Working for the church is what benefits a student — not mere church attendance. Through its problems the church offers the opportunity for practice. Hence when the church runs too smoothly, its value is lessened to the members, although it may still function as a means of interesting and blessing the stranger.

Sandpaper that was rubbed so smooth that it would not provide enough friction to light a match would have no value. The church is designed to provide enough friction so that it will help to light the spiritual light of its members; but if it provides no friction, it fosters little growth.

Mrs. Eddy once asked a branch church member how his church was getting along. When he said, “Very harmoniously,” she said, “That's too bad. If you were making progress, things would not be so harmonious.”

The problems of the church are always mental. The most important thing about the church in the eyes of God is the atmosphere. When it is spiritual enough to heal, then it proves that the members are being faithful in their duty to God and man. The prayers of the members, when they are scientific, bring out the radiance of Soul in the services that blesses and heals. The materially-minded may not be conscious of this mental aroma, but the needy ones know of its presence when it heals them.

The story of the woman who was healed by touching the hem of Jesus' garment is an important one, since it reveals the fact that he carried with him an atmosphere which healed. Were it not for this record, we might believe that his healing was always the result of a definite and direct effort, which he made when called upon to help; but from this story we know that he worked to put self aside, so that Love would shine through and permeate his atmosphere with its healing influence, so that when needy ones entered it, they would feel it and be healed.

The prayers of the saints that arise from the Church of Christ, Scientist, are the only proof that can be offered to God that the members appreciate and understand the object of church, and so are doing the mental work that makes them worthy to have their names removed from the category of being “Christian Science Church Scientists,” as our Leader used this term in a derogatory way. It is evident that this appellation could also be used to designate those who have such a correct concept of church, that they are seeking to utilize every opportunity that the church offers to work mentally. The entire membership of a branch church should be inspired with joy over the problems arising in the maintenance of the church, since they appreciate the spiritual growth that comes with the endeavor to solve such problems through spiritualization of thought, replacing the so-called human mind with divine Mind.

It is difficult to stimulate church members to work in divine Mind, when the human mind seems to function so harmoniously, that they see no special need of seeking recourse to a higher intelligence. Under such a circumstance they need to be told that the atmosphere of the human mind in any Church of Christ, Scientist, no matter how harmonious and prosperous it may seem, is obnoxious to God and indicates His absence. The presence of God can never be claimed in a church where thought is balanced on the side of mortal mind. No edifice can be rightly called a Christian Science church unless the members have made the demonstration to bring God, divine Mind, in, and the only way God can come in, is when members present a purified thought through which He can shine. This means the rejection and elimination of the so-called human mind.

No apparent success that is achieved through the human mind, should ever be accepted by branch church members as proof of its adequacy. If they are out of debt; if they have distributed many pieces of our literature; if they have held crowded lectures; if they have taken in new members; all this cannot be accepted as success from God's standpoint, unless it has been brought about through demonstration, since the human mind can put forth evidence of apparent success, just as the magicians matched the miracles of Moses up to a certain point.

That which makes a successful Christian Science church is the establishment of an atmosphere in which God can dwell; where lethargy and sleep have been excommunicated; where the services heal the sick; where the business meetings foster the aspiration to let divine Mind direct the meetings and provide the wisdom to conduct the business, even though the temptation arises to believe that the human mind is adequate for this purpose; where the members strive to send out with all the literature, a healing thought, so that those who receive and read it will experience not only physical healing, but a healing of prejudice as well. Such fruits will cause the church militant to become the church triumphant, and the warfare between the human and divine will be ended.




Concord, N. H., July 28, 1892

William B. Johnson

My dear Student:

I was hindered by company, lawyers, and etc., till almost the last minute, for the mail. This made my last communication to you quite incoherent. I hope the following By-laws will be passed by as large a vote as possible.

There shall be a Standing Committee named, Com. on Pastors or any other name for electing the pastor, and this Committee shall elect the pastor, the speaker, or the reader, for The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston.

The Committee on Pastors shall be Dr. E. J. Foster Eddy, William B. Johnson, Ira O. Knapp, Eugene H. Greene, Stephen A. Chase.

If from any cause a vacancy occurs in said Committee, they shall immediately elect another member to fill the place, one who strictly adheres to the doctrines and teachings contained in the sixty-ninth edition of the book, Science and Health by Mary Baker G. Eddy. This By-law shall not be altered or annulled except it be by a unanimous vote of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston.

The other propositions which I wrote to you relate to By-laws on the admission and dismission of members from the church.

Remember, dear student, that this church must be properly chartered, and its Constitution and By-laws correctly made, and accepted, and the whole proceeding be strictly legal. Then, we have complied with civil law (and I always recommend this being done, wisely done) and then, every Church of Christ, Scientist, will have a precedent to follow whereby to establish the Gospel of Christian Science.

May the God of peace be and abide in your midst, may brotherly love continue, and may this Church that has come out of much tribulation be built on the Rock of Truth and Love. In the words of Jesus, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end.”

With love,

Mary B. G. Eddy


Eugene H. Greene, C.S.D. was my first teacher in Christian Science, before I came under the instruction of Mrs. Eddy. The latter declared that all her students erred, either in making too much or too little of animal magnetism. In Mr. Greene's case I would say that he belonged in the first class, in that he seemed to be afraid of it. With this attitude he avoided as much as possible giving the devil a chance to get after him. For instance, here Mrs. Eddy appointed him to the Committee on Pastors, and yet as close as I was to him in our daily work together, he never divulged this fact to me. Thus, if this Committee was formed according to this letter, Mr. Greene by keeping silent on such an important matter, gave the devil of envy and jealousy as little chance as possible to become active.

This letter indicates that Mrs. Eddy was still clinging to the idea of having a pastor for her church, although the concept of a reader was taking form. She started with what custom had decreed was the suitable and proper modus for a Christian church, namely, to have a pastor. She did not stagnate with this concept, however, but advanced as God pointed out the way. Mortal mind is prone to crystallize into form, whereas divine Mind constantly ascends in infinite progression. Mrs. Eddy adopted the methods and customs of the old church, and then progressed into higher possibilities as God unfolded them to her. Mortal mind is characterized by inertia. The dictionary defines inertia as that property of matter by which it will remain at rest, or in uniform motion in the same direction. Mrs. Eddy never permitted inertia to hinder progress.

In the Deed of Trust dated September 1, 1892, Mrs. Eddy gives the qualification of a pastor, reader or speaker, that he “shall be a genuine Christian Scientist.” Later she defined what the demonstration must be for readers by stating (Church Manual, page 31), “They must keep themselves unspotted from the world, — uncontaminated with evil, — that the mental atmosphere they exhale shall promote health and holiness, even that spiritual animus so universally needed.”

Here Mrs. Eddy implies that the major part of the work a Reader is expected to do is mental. He is supposed to broaden his application of Truth from healing the body to healing the atmosphere of the meeting in which he is reading, so that the Spirit of God may prevail, heal, and bless the stranger.

In II Kings we read where Elisha healed the waters that had caused death and barren land, and the pottage, when there was death in the pot. Healing the waters symbolizes the possibility of changing and healing the atmosphere of mortal mind in a service. Mortal mind claims that the atmosphere in our services is barren of any spiritual element. Christian Scientists know how to refute this lie and to prove the presence of the Spirit of Love. Mortal mind claims that there is death in its atmosphere. For instance, we find a sick man apparently surrounded by an at­mosphere of fear, the fear of his family and his friends, plus the latent fear of the world regarding sickness and its fatality. A Christian Scientist knows how to heal this pottage of mortal mind, or this immoral atmosphere, so there is no death left in it, no malpractice from family, friends, medical thought or the world. A Reader is expected to apply this same demonstration to the atmosphere of the service in which he is reading, so that no illusion of God's absence shall prevail; then the barrenness of the waters and death in the pot will be healed.

The following line of argument unfolds the problem that confronts readers in our churches: Mrs. Eddy's students did not grow as fast as she did, although her teachings were so logical that anyone with a sincere desire should have been able to comprehend and to practice them. It was the claim of animal magnetism that affect­ed the students, especially the most promising ones, before they had gone very far in their understanding. It was as if the devil put wax in their ears. Mrs. Eddy could talk to them and they would seem to hear, but she discovered that they really did not. One would have been tempted to believe that they were a trifle stupid, or that they had no aptitude for Christian Science, unless one realized that the wax was put in their ears by animal magnetism. As Isaiah states, “...their ears (were) dull of hearing.”

The moment a student gives evidence of promise in Christian Science this claim of wax presents itself to be handled. For this reason a student who shows less promise may appear to be more receptive, since he is less touched by this claim. The suppositional action of animal magnetism must be met in every activity in our Cause. A practitioner must know that his patient, as a child of God, can hear and comprehend the truth. Likewise a teacher must know for his pupils that no action of animal magnetism can interfere with, or prevent their full comprehen­sion and retention of the Word that they are being taught; that there is no way by which this unreal mind can darken their thought, or prevent a full acceptance of the truth God is sending to them. Unless a teacher makes this demonstration for his pupils, he may find a lagging behind that he cannot understand. Having han­dled the claim of dullness for himself, the truths that he is teaching seem clear to him; but they will not seem so to his pupils, unless this claim is handled for them likewise.

In Isaiah 35:8 we read of the way where, “…the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.” Does this text not imply that even a fool can understand Christian Science, when the claim of dullness is handled; whereas those who are considered wise, will appear to be fools when they endeavor to understand Truth with wax still in their ears? Thus, spiritual teaching is not a question of education or intellect. The fool has the same chance as the wise man so-called, when the deterrent of animal magnetism is overcome.

Wayfaring men are usually thought of as drifters, those who cannot apply themselves to one thing long enough to acquire knowledge or skill. They wander in body, because they wander in mind. Yet when animal magnetism is handled, they will easily understand Christian Science.

This claim of dullness is present in our churches at every service. The congregation may desire to understand what they hear, and to grasp the full import of the Word, but they will find themselves more or less unable to do so, unless the deterrent of mental wax is taken out of the way; and the demonstration to do this rests upon the readers as well as the members.

Once a minister of the Gospel said to a student of Christian Science that he suffered continually from a series of sore throats and headaches. Being an outspoken individual and a close friend of the minister she said, “Well, I should think you would, the way you malpractice on your congregation! You hold them in thought as being dull and gross and hard of heart; then you try to preach the Word of God to this dullness and grossness and hardness of heart, which you yourself are helping to fasten on the people! No wonder it reacts on you!”

Would not a Reader be malpracticing on his congregation as he read, if he held them in thought as being dull, gross or hard of heart? Part of his sacred duty is to lift that veil of dullness, grossness and hardness of heart, so that he may see the child of God open to hear the truth; to overthrow the claim of animal magnetism in the form of mental wax, and thus to open the way for the truth to be accepted and understood by the hungry heart. Thus all practitioners, teachers, readers and church members should pledge before God to do their part — in dealing with promising students and church attendants — to protect them from this claim of mental wax that would shut them off from the very truth that they desire and need in order to do the works of the Father on earth.

What can one say about the fact that in this letter Mrs. Eddy calls for strictly legal processes in connection with the founding of the Church? Did not Mr. Nixon and Mr. Lang do the same thing? And did not Mrs. Eddy beg them to go ahead, in spite of the fact that the law said that the deed to the church land was faulty?

In Mrs. Eddy's case, however, she was using the law to subserve the ends of good. In the case of the deed the law was claiming to rise up to obstruct the establishment of God's kingdom on earth. For instance, one complaint about the deed was the fact that Mrs. Knapp had not signed away her dower rights. This is necessary in a deed only if the property is going to be sold or mortgaged. In the case of the land for Mrs. Eddy's Church, it was never to be sold or mortgaged, so the above point would make no difference. It was inconceivable that anyone in the Knapp family would ever rise up to claim equity in the land, feeling that they had a right to do so. And if they did, what sort of case could be made of it? It would be ruled out of court and have no standing. Mrs. Eddy was right, therefore, in declaring that her trust deed was sound, when the Trustees complained that it was not.

The difference between Mrs. Eddy's concept of law and that of the Trustees was, that a right demonstration would cause everything legal to be fulfilled; whereas with the Trustees, they were looking to law as the power that would found the Church and the Rock upon which it would rest secure. To Mrs. Eddy the law was merely effect, or shadow, and to the Trustees it was cause.

Christian Science teaches that mortal existence is a dream. As students begin to work in Spirit, however, and gain this recognition of mortality as merely an illusion, they must not feel that they can ignore the legal and moral obligations that mortals have set up, feeling that they amount to nothing, because the laws of mortal mind are a part of its dream. It is error that would suggest, “Why bother with legal processes, when mortal mind and its laws amount to nothing in the sight of God. Why be so strict in working out these problems of law and order, to have everything built on as secure a plane as possible?”

Years ago, cities in California were built with little regard for possible earthquakes, since there had not been any disastrous ones within the memory of that generation. When the major quake of 1906 came, it was so devastating that it changed the whole style of building. Today all houses are built to withstand earthquakes.

Mrs. Eddy desired to make her organization earthquake proof, as far as possible, so that it would endure. She had to impress this necessity upon the students, lest the logic of her teachings — that mortality is only a dream — prevent them from taking proper care to build upon as solid and enduring a foundation as possible.

A man may dream that he kills another and feel exactly like a murderer; yet when he awakens, he finds to his great relief that it was all a dream. Had he continued in the dream, he probably would have had to pay the penalty for his misdemeanor. He is freed from punishment only as he wakes up. Students should realize that as long as they remain in this dream, they must handle it in the way best calculated to make everything in connection with their organization uniform and solid, all the while remembering that it is an illusion as they see it, and so all the so-called permanent structures, which have been erected of matter, will eventually go the way of the temple, of which the Master said not one stone would be left upon another.

If we ever expect to win our salvation, we must hold in thought as unreal all that is part of mortality and yet seems to be substantial and permanent. We must do this, lest the thought of matter claim to renew itself constantly, because we have not handled and destroyed the foundation of belief upon which the illusion of matter subsists.

When Jesus declared that one stone would not be left upon another, he was exposing the way by which the claim of matter comes into being, and also how it may be destroyed. The claim of disease, for instance, is the result of one lie, or belief, being superimposed upon another. In destroying it, therefore, not one stone, or belief, can be left resting on another.

It would be inconsistent to try to recognize the unreality of disease, as one stone, and yet hold the stone underneath as real, namely matter and mortal ex­istence. Similarly the stone of the belief of sensation in matter supports the stones of pain and pleasure. The belief of material sensation cannot be overthrown, merely by trying to pull down the stone of pain, and leaving the stone of plea­sure. The stones in the temple of illusion must be pulied down consistently and in an orderly fashion. In answer to the question, “If all matter is unreal, why do we deny the existence of disease in the material body and not the body itself?” Mrs. Eddy replied (Miscellany, page 217), “He (Jesus) does not require the last step to be taken first.” In perceiving the nature of this mortal dream, so that we may awake from it, there is an order to be observed.

The difference between Mrs. Eddy's insistence on strictly legal processes and this same insistence on the part of the trustees, may be illustrated by the atti­tude of a teacher toward a scholar who has worked out an example and arrived at the correct answer, and a child that has merely copied the answer from the back of the book. The first one is marked one hundred percent, because he has worked out the example from the rules laid down, whereas the second one is marked zero.

Whatever steps Mrs. Eddy took in regard to the law were the result of dem­onstration, whereas the desire of the trustees to have everything done legally was because of their faith in the power of the human law. They fancied that if the Cause was established on human law, it could not be overthrown by human law; whereas there is no human law that cannot be overthrown. There is a saying, that what man has done, man can undo.

It is only when the law of God operates through the law of man, that results become positive and permanent. Students recognize this point in regard to what is called health. Health that is based on the fact that man recognizes God as the only power, the only Physician, and that His law forever expresses itself through man, is very different from the health that would be called natural, coming as the result of human functions operating normally. For example, let us suppose that Mrs. Eddy and the trustees both manifested health. If hers was the result of Science, no student would have asserted that it was the same as the trustees' if theirs was the result of exercise, fresh air, and strict adherence to the laws of health.

The trustees were advocating obedience to human law from the standpoint that it was protection and causation. Mrs. Eddy was advocating it from the stand­point of demonstration, under which human law becomes subservient to divine law. If the trustees had complained that Mrs. Eddy was advocating the very thing she condemned them for, it would show that they did not perceive the difference between the operation of the so-called human mind, and divine Mind.

In complying with civil law in founding the Church, Mrs. Eddy was not at­tempting to establish a permanent thing in what she herself taught was unreal. She was merely being guided by divine Mind to make her organization earth­quake proof, to establish it so firmly that no phenomenon of mortal mind or matter could overthrow it. She was placing it in the temple of mortal mind in such a place, that as one stone after another is torn down by Science, the Church would endure until the end of mortality. Science shows that both the body and the dis­ease on the body are unreal. Yet in tearing down the illusion of mortality, we deny and eliminate the disease first. Mrs. Eddy wanted her Church to be as permanent in its human manifestation as the body, or fundamental claim of mortality; not be like a disease on the body, which is moved off before the claim of matter itself is destroyed.

The church militant may be in the last analysis an unreal concept, but it serves a good purpose in Christian Science. Therefore, it should be made as per­manent as the last demonstration to be made in tearing down the temple of mat­ter, so that it will remain until the end of mortal illusion. Mrs. Eddy wrote that the church must be properly chartered, and the whole proceeding be made strictly legal. She knew that the laws of our country are foundational. Thus if the Chris­tian Science Church in its human expression is supported by the Constitution of the United States of America, it has the greatest chance of perpetuity of anything man-made. It will remain until the last stone of the temple is torn down.

Once a typhoon swept over a tropical island. The only survivors were na­tives who clung to the oldest and largest trees. Those who took refuge in the church, which was built of stone, were drowned! Mrs. Eddy selected the most en­during thing that our country has produced, — namely, its Constitution, — for her Cause to cling to. This will be the last belief to be overcome; and the world will be ready for spiritual freedom, when demonstration has been carried that far.

It may sound inconsistent for Mrs. Eddy to recommend a wise compliance with civil law, not only in founding her church, but in all things; but she was governed by God in all she did. In the early days of Science arguments were set forth which seemed irrefutable, and were designed to overthrow Science on this very basis, namely, that Science as Mrs. Eddy taught it was designed to flaunt the civil law. In a lawsuit brought against Christian Scientists for practicing heal­ing without a license in Rhode Island, the Attorney General argued that, since we did not believe in smallpox, for instance, we would ignore such a disease if we had it, and go about in public conveyances; whereas he, believing in it, was liable to catch it by contact with us.

In refuting this argument it was established that up to that time no spread of contagion had ever been traced to such neglect, and that Science had been used successfully in many cases of contagion to heal them. Furthermore, it was proved that in actual practice the students of this religion adhere to the laws of the land, in accordance with Mrs. Eddy's own recommendations.

Mrs. Eddy knew that she would have to protect students against the subtle suggestion, that if mortal existence is a dream, why should there be a penalty for breaking the human law? Men are not punished for crimes that they commit in their dreams. Similarly why should Mrs. Eddy be so particular about establishing her Church under the laws of the land? God guided her, however, to point out to her followers the need of taking steps in their order, and also of taking advantage of the most permanent beliefs of mortal mind, the last stones in the temple to be overthrown, on which to attach the human side of her organization.

In order to progress a student must take each forward step in order. He must not seek to eliminate the belief in matter before he has destroyed the belief of sickness, which is superimposed upon it. If a man needed to remove a worn and rusty drive shaft from his motorboat, he would first have to clean off all rust, be­fore he could draw it through the hole in which it is fastened. The shaft is fit only to be discarded, yet he must clean it carefully, before he can throw it away. In like manner we must work to purify matter or mortal mind, just as if it were val­uable and worth retaining, before it can be put off.

Mrs. Eddy ends her letter with the words of Jesus, “Lo, I am with you alway even unto the end.” Was this quoted in reference to Jesus or to herself? If we had lived at the time of the Master and he had bid us farewell, saying that he was going to the house next door, if we believed we had lost him, because he was sep­arated from us by the walls of the house, what a glad surprise it would be, if the walls suddenly vanished, and we found him near us, where we could both see and hear him!

Mrs. Eddy has made it plain that it is merely belief that separates the living and the so-called dead. Spiritualism endeavors to prove that immortality is a fact, by an alleged communication between the dead and the living. Christian Science proves this to be impossible, and shows that only through spiritual growth and un­derstanding are the barriers of belief broken down; then the fact that there is no separation between the children of God is recognized. Thus, the uniting of all mankind as ideas of God is demonstrated.

Mrs. Eddy quoted the Master's statement because she knew it was a spiritual fact, namely, that there is no separation between Mind and Mind's ideas. It was fit­ting, therefore, for her to set before the students the high goal, knowing that if they took the steps in spiritual growth in their scientific order, the finale would be the dissipation of the wall of partition erected by material belief, and her students would find that they would have her with them always, as the spiritual idea of Love, as well as the Master. In other words, the Master's statement covered God and all His ideas. Hence the “I” would refer to the fact of the ever-presence of Mind, and also Mind's ideas.

The last paragraph of this letter is a beautiful benediction, and when it was printed in the Christian Science Sentinel in April 25, 1936, accompanying it was the comment, “In their work of reorganization and building, the Directors had the comfort of the benediction set forth in this excerpt from Mrs. Eddy's letter.” Yet it is more than a benediction. It contained metaphysical instruction which was intended to neutralize and correct certain conditions and temptations which were assailing the Church.

First she says, “May the God of peace be and abide in your midst.” In the effort to reorganize the Church in 1892 there was anything but peace, so she gave this as the concept of God that they needed to demonstrate at this time.

The ancient mythological creature called the centaur, who was half man and half horse, forms a good illustration in an effort to dissect the troubles of the stu­dents at this time. One can imagine that to have a centaur as a guest would prove embarrassing, since if you treated him as a horse, he might be insulted; yet it would not be suitable to put him in one's guest room.

In Christian Science we have a dual problem; on the one hand, our recog­nition of the absolute Truth in which all is perfect now, and which contains no acknowledgment of any mortal dream; on the other hand, the need of doing some­thing about the human problems confronting us all. In trying to work out this hy­brid conception we declare bravely for the absolute perfection of God and man, and yet in practice we acknowledge and arrange for materiality. It is through this dual concept that a lack of peace comes in, since one student will discuss existence from the standpoint of the Adam dream, while another will refuse to acknowledge anything but absolute Science.

In an article entitled, “Temptation to the Advanced Individual,” Mrs. Eddy wrote as follows: “The healer in Christian Science carries two lines of thought; first, the approximation to the truth and, second, the final truth. He argues for all the manifestations of health of body, at the same time he argues that man is God's own image and likeness. In the words of St. John, ‘Now are we the sons of God.'”

Students who stress the approximation to the truth too heavily, observe things in the church from a human standpoint and insist upon the best material procedure, as if the human mind was adequate to take care of the outward or­ganization; those who stress the final truth try to be so scientific that they ignore the human side entirely, thinking that it is unscientific to take it into consideration at all. Mrs. Eddy knew that when the students made the demonstration to know that the God of peace abode in their midst, these two points of view would be reconciled, and harmony prevail.

Because she stated in her letter that all things should be strictly legal, that did not mean that she was stressing the approximation to the truth too heavily, since her teachings make it plain that she recognized human law as an attempt on the part of mortals to guide each other in this dream with as little friction as possible; her real adherence was to spiritual law — God's law — since she taught that man's real journey is spiritual.

An airplane in the air is independent of roads; yet it must have an under structure that is strongly built, because it must come down and land occasionally. Thus, there are many things that have to be taken into consideration that relate wholly to earth, even though the plane is designed to function in the air. Likewise Mrs. Eddy had to found her Cause on the best possible human foundation, al­though it relates entirely to man's spiritual nature and salvation. One can imagine in connection with an airplane, that there might be a lack of peace between those whose efforts relate wholly to flying it, and those who have the responsibility of building the flying field and keeping it in repair.

Mrs. Eddy in her letter enjoins that care be used in establishing the Cause in an orderly way, with due consideration for civil law. Yet no one ever lived whose ideals, and demonstration of those ideals in her daily life, were more metaphysi­cal. She never could be accused of stumbling on the rock of what she taught was unreal. The ending of her letter is a beautiful benediction, yet it also contains a warning which relates to the lack of peace involved in a failure to gauge effort properly. There must be an orderly consideration for the establishment of the material; at the same time bearing in mind that the true objective of the plane is to fly, and to continue to fly until it reaches its destination.

In her teaching, in her admonitions and practice, Mrs. Eddy never failed to rouse students to the importance of preserving at all times a spiritual attitude and altitude, since only in that way can the illusion of materiality be over­thrown. Therefore, her prayer was that peace might be and abide with the Church, because she knew that some students were tempted to ignore this dream exis­tence and stay continually in the realm of divine Mind; whereas others would feel that the spiritual would take care of itself more or less, if they were persistent and faithful in their present adherence to the best mortal laws and procedure. The possibility of friction always exists between these two ill-balanced classes.

In a branch church business meeting there will be those who, if you set forth the importance of demonstration, will accuse you of being overbalanced on the side of the spiritual, and neglectful of the human footsteps. They will call you impractical; whereas you will be tempted to accuse them of a lack of spirituality.

Mrs. Eddy says, “Let brotherly love continue.” This love must be what Paul is describing in the 12th and 13th chapters of I Corinthians. He says that there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. On page 507 of Science and Health we find the implication that each child of God has a nature that is particularly de­fined; otherwise creation would be full of nameless offspring. Brotherly love must include the recognition that the different gifts and several abilities of men are alike in origin; so there is no need for jealousy, envy or strife.

Brotherly love is loving one's neighbor as oneself, recognizing that everyone belongs to the great assembly of God's ideas. There is no brotherly love unless one has a meta-physical attitude towards his brother, and sees his brother having the same toward him. Brotherly love requires one member to know that the other members have the same Father and Mother that he has, that they have the same divine inheritance, the same love, the same possibilities. This does not mean that all members have reached the point where they demonstrate the same spiritual good; but all must be held in thought as having the same possibilities.

If you have a mirror that needs cleaning, and your neighbor has one too, you may work an hour before yours is clean, whereas it may take him two, or even three hours; but in the end you both achieve the same result, namely, reflection. In the parable of the vineyard (Matt. 20), each laborer received a penny as his wage, without regard for the length of time that he worked. Brotherly love is spiritual equality. A mirror that is spotless does not call another mirror worthless, merely because it has not yet been cleaned.

If one wanted an individual picture of himself, and the only picture he had was one in which he appeared with a group, if he cut his own picture out, it would spoil the rest of the picture. It undermines brotherly love, when one seeks to take himself out of the group, in order to emphasize himself as being good by con­trast. This becomes the very error of mortality reasserting itself even in the hal­lowed precincts of the church. Christian Science teaches the opposite of this, namely, that we must put ourselves back into the group, where we realize that we belong with all of God's ideas, and are no more important than any other of them. Pride should never cause us to take ourselves out of the group, or to strive to call attention to our own value at the expense of the group.

In the next statement in her letter Mrs. Eddy made a declaration which, when carefully examined, should have brought encouragement to the members who were struggling at that time, since she states that the church has come out of much tribulation, implying that the greater part of the error aimed at the establishment of truth on earth had already been overcome. Thereby she encouraged the church to go on — not as if the future would be free from the necessity for handling error — but that if they have come thus far and overcome as much as they have, then they need not feel disheartened because they have before them a prospect not entirely free from error.

If I was building a road through the wilderness and beginning to feel weary, because of the labor involved, it would be very encouraging to have a message from Mrs. Eddy, telling me that I had come out of much tribulation. It would en­courage me, since I had progressed successfully up to a certain point, to con­tinue, and to see how foolish it would be to give up, just because I found some rocks that needed to be removed that the enemy had dumped in the path. Why feel badly, when the very rocks put there to obstruct your way and to make things more difficult for you, can be utilized to make the road more enduring, provided you do not let discouragement slow up your efforts?

Mrs. Eddy's statement, therefore, must have been a hope for the weary mem­bers, who were worn with the struggle that must needs attend the founding of Christ's Cause. They had come out of much tribulation, and the present dem­onstration was sound, because it was built on the rock of Truth and Love.

Finally when she quoted, “Lo, I am with you alway even unto the end,” she referred to the Christ, or impersonal spiritual idea, which was with her always and would be with them always; but she used this saying of our Master in a way that would not offend her students, by making them believe that she was assum­ing to place herself on the same level with the Master. She often declared that it was not up to her to say what she was, in comparison with her Master. That was for God to say. Yet she once prophesied to Clara Shannon that the time would come when she would be more glorified than Jesus. It is to be noted that she did not declare that she was more worthy of such glorification; merely in the process of time greater glory would come to her because through her discovery the Master's teachings were made practical to all. Alexander Graham Bell did not invent the telephone, yet his name has been more glorified than that of the for­gotten inventor. This is because it was Bell's adaptation that finally made the telephone practical.

Many of the By-laws in our Church Manual require the approval of the Pastor Emeritus before they become operative. Adelaide Still was present when one of the Directors tried to get Mrs. Eddy to remove these restrictions from the Man­ual, but she refused. The conclusion is that in those days when her approval was sought, she turned to her reflection of God, or the Pastor Emeritus, and she knew that this spiritual idea would not depart, when she disappeared from our sight, but would remain with us alway. Hence today when her students seek to do things the way Mrs. Eddy did them, and make the demonstration to be animated by the same Christ-spirit that animated her, that is the Pastor Emeritus approv­ing. Thus, the By-laws in the Manual can still be executed, and Mrs. Eddy's ap­proval gained.

Mrs. Eddy's letters to her Church and to the Directors all embody the same spirit of the Pastor Emeritus, which she knew would be with us alway. There is not one letter that does not bear traces of that spirit. It reminds one of the sweep­ings from the floors of jewelry concerns. Every sweeping contains bits of gold that can be reclaimed. All through Mrs. Eddy's life gold is to be found. Students should regard themselves as gold reclaimers, and take not only that which she set forth as gold, but also that which mortal mind would declare was fit only to be thrown away, refine it and extract the gold. In these letters to her Church, many of which seem to relate wholly to business matters, may be found priceless nuggets. This gold must be extracted and saved, so that future generations may have it to profit by.

There was a time when no one thought that the sweepings from the floors of jewelry concerns were worth bothering with. Not until a man became prosperous reclaiming gold in that way, was thought awakened to this possibility. There are many uncomely parts in the Bible, described as such in I Cor. 12:23; yet through the teachings of Christian Science it is possible to take these parts and glean val­uable spiritual lessons. In like manner, it is important to take all of our Leader's life, even that which seems wholly mundane, and reclaim the gold that is to be found therein.




(Telegram)

August 9, 1892

To Wm. B. Johnson

41 G St.

Give notice of a meeting of the church at once.

Mary B. G. Eddy

(Telegram)

August 12, 1892

To Wm. B. Johnson

41 G St.

Will you meet Mr. Walker in Boston tomorrow at ten o'clock and where wire immediately.

Mary B. G. Eddy

(Telegram)

August 13, 1892

To Wm. B. Johnson

Care Ira O. Knapp

281 Col. Ave.

Tell Walker I forgot to say you can show him provisions made in By-laws for Church Building funds.

Mary B. G. Eddy

(Telegram)

August 16, 1892

To Wm. B. Johnson

41 G St.

No let Bartlett alone take the case understand me.

Mary B. G. Eddy


Part of Mrs. Eddy's demonstration was to hold guard over the minutiae in connection with founding the Cause, and to have everything humanly right. A failure to conform to civil law would have been a weak place in the armor of Science. Christian Scientists must follow their Leader's example, — in order that they give no occasion for stumbling, — by rightly fulfilling every legitimate demand made upon them by mortal mind. Even though mortal mind is unreal, yet they must leave no point at which they or the Cause would be vulnerable to attack.

Mrs. Eddy freely consulted with her lawyers when she found it necessary. Even to this day The Mother Church retains the entire services of three or four lawyers, who tend to all legal matters. At the same time Mrs. Eddy's warnings remain with us, namely, lest law and human ways and means take precedence over demonstration.

In following our Leader we must take the whole of her experience. If we do, we find that she never permitted things material to be a stumbling-block in the way of the spiritual. She never let her obedience to material law hinder her full obedience to spiritual law; yet she never unnecessarily antagonized the former with the latter. In fact, in establishing things as God directed, she made human law subserve the ends of spiritual good. When it was necessary she found laws that fulfilled her purpose, that even lawyers were not aware of, or else the law­yers found them under her demonstration. The Mr. Walker mentioned in the second telegram is the Notary Public whose name is found on page 135 of our Church Manual. It was he who found the law quoted on page 130 (ibid.), which formed the basis whereby the Christian Science Board of Directors were deemed a corporation for the purpose of holding the church property. It was the function­ing of God's law through Mrs. Eddy that used these selected human laws in be­half of good.

Mrs. Eddy did not expect blind obedience from her followers, nor did she advocate an obedience to material law that would hinder spiritual growth. To her the legal side was effect, not cause. She watched the legal side carefully, but only lest a vulnerable place be left in the fort of Christian Science, through which the enemy might enter to get a foothold, by finding a just cause of criticism and com­plaint.

The fourth telegram in this group is an example of Mrs. Eddy's ability to gauge thought. One who lived in her home would see how she had the ability, at any given time, to detect the spiritual quality of a student's thought. For instance, if Calvin Frye had a physical claim and needed help, she would look the house­hold over and select the one whose thought was highest. She would then give from fifteen to twenty minutes for this work. If one was unsuccessful,she would select one who could quickly lift his thought to the required healing level, until the results were obtained. Perhaps the twenty minute limit came to her as time enough to raise the dying, since that was just the time it took her to heal a dying man, as she related at the meeting of the Christian Scientist Association on January 17, 1883 (See page 166 of Historical Sketches by Clifford P. Smith).

Mrs. Eddy kept track of the state of thought of students outside her home as well. She often changed workers on a case, which was the indication that the first one was not ready when called upon. It was not a question of starting with a more or less human mental state and working up to a spiritual attitude. She sought the one who was ready. Perhaps she had put Miss Bartlett on a case, and found that she was not up to the mark, and so wanted Mr. Johnson to take it.

One important precept gleaned from this is the importance of always being ready for every condition and call. The Bible says of the unready one, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.” In other words, this night you will be called upon to demonstrate the power and presence of God. So, it is foolish of you not to be prepared in advance and be ready.

A student who today is functioning as he should, should feel as if Mrs. Eddy herself might call upon him at any moment to handle some condition, to meet some situation, to protect some student from being pulled down, and he wants to be ready. In this manner one can forward his spiritual growth and fulfill his ob­ligation to his Leader, which has not changed simply because she as a person has left our midst.




August 12, 1892

My dear Student:

Take all legal points to my lawyer for settlement and do not come to Concord again without my permission. Write your questions to me; if the letters are opened they can do no special harm now.

You confuse me, and I see now that M.A.M. confuses you for this purpose. The one suggestion you made is wrong. I can deed to the Church as safely as to Trustees, if you watch and are present at each annual meeting. For one vote perpetuates the Board of Directors as it now is to be formed.

Now if you had sent your questions and nothing more, this last movement would not have been made.

Stop it. I shall give the land to the Church.

M. B. G. E.


The most serious phase of error to our Leader was that which claimed the power to shut her off from God. The most serious thing that can happen to the battery of an automobile is to become disconnected from the generator that keeps it charged. Immediately it begins to weaken, until finally it is discharged.

Man united to God, is eternal. The continuity of man's life depends upon his union with God. When he finds himself apparently separated from God, he be­comes finite, in belief, and will last only as long as the energy, or belief of self­-contained life, lasts. Old age comes not because one has lived a long time, but because the energy contained in man as a finite form begins to run low, and he manifests the effects of that belief.

The claim of age might be likened to a plant that is not watered enough to sustain it properly. The branches and leaves begin to wither little by little. When mortal man discovers that his hair, his teeth, etc., are coming out, it is the claim that they are not getting sufficient nourishment to sustain them. The battery is running low. His only remedy is to reunite himself with the infinite source of intelligence, power, life, love and good.

The wisdom of God which our Leader reflected, was vitally needed to found the Cause, which was to reveal to all mankind down through the ages the way to reunite themselves with God. The help that her great organization gives its members might be likened to that which a mother gives her babe. She nourishes it, protects it and teaches it, until it becomes old enough to think and care for itself. Finally, it is able to maintain itself under its own ability.

In Science one's ability to function rightly depends upon his own connec­tion with God. For this reason, I believe that the course in Divinity which Mrs. Eddy rated as the most advanced teaching in Science, must be the fulfillment of the Bible promise, “And they shall be all taught of God.” She herself took this course as the wisdom of God flowed into her, and commended it to her followers.

Before one can establish this connection with God, he must discipline and subdue the belief in a human mind. The greatest help our Leader has given her followers in this direction is the Church Manual. One cannot make his connec­tion with the power plant until he has begun to master the claim that he is govern­ed by a mind other than divine Mind.

Once a famous prizefighter adopted the proposition that, if he wanted to do anything very much, he would not do it, just for the sake of the discipline this would give his mind. If this man were a Christian Scientist, and this control was being exercised in preparation for taking on the Mind that was in Christ Jesus, it would be a great attainment; whereas it does him no special good, since he has no goal in mind. If he were a Scientist, however, he would find the task harder, no doubt, since then he would have the error to meet that would attempt to cir­cumvent his efforts toward putting the human mind in subjection.

The most important attainment in Mrs. Eddy's life was to keep the flow of infinite wisdom coming into her. She could say with the Master, “Of myself I can do nothing.” Her students can hardly be blamed for not always realizing what an error it was, to pour into her their own confusion and innocent malpractice, by continually turning to her for the smallest details or telling her all the errors in the Cause, often at a time when her own thought was somewhat confused. At times she had to shut it all out vigorously, as she does in this letter, until she could return to the source of wisdom and once more demonstrate it.

There will never come a time when the demonstration of divine wisdom will not be needed to run our Cause. Hence that which was the acme of Mrs. Eddy's demonstration, namely, to be able to talk with God and receive His wisdom, re­mains today the acme of attainment. The Bible records the prosperity of the Chil­dren of Israel, when they talked with God; yet they had no knowledge of the Science of Being. We learn from this that that which opens the way to being taught of God, is one's willingness to be so guided, to see the vital importance of it, and to turn unreservedly to Him.

If this be so, where does Science come into the picture? Science enables one to reach the place where he recognizes that no wisdom is wise but His wisdom, that life or mind is reflected from Him, and, therefore, is not contained in a mortal body. From this standpoint one can easily turn to Him with confidence and trust. The Bible records but a few who naturally attained this ability to talk with God. Science is a teaching that will enable all who will to attain the mental receptivity necessary in order to receive from God. Christian Science by no means appropri­ates all phenomena of a spiritual nature, but it does claim to give an unerring rule, whereby anyone who is sincere may appropriate such spiritual phenomena.

Most of us handle the claim of confusion and interference too feebly. We have dominion over it, because all there is to it, as far as we are concerned, is what we permit to enter our consciousness. Hence, we can cast it out. Our Leader did so with vigor, and so would we, if we had a greater sense of the importance of reflecting divine wisdom at all times. She knew that the future of God's kingdom on earth depended on the continual clarity of her spiritual thought. Her attitude should be ours today. Then when the confusion of suggestion claims to darken, depress and materialize our consciousness by cutting off the divine light, we could rise up in protest with such vigor, activity and power, that the adversary would retreat at once into its native nothingness.

Much of the value of our Leader's private correspondence, such as the above letter, lies in the fact that it reveals periods where the enemy was assailing her. We learn how she operated when she seemed to lose God. She did not hesitate to shut herself off from everything and anything that might add to the confusion, or perpetuate this condition of thought. On page 177 of Powell's, Mary Baker Eddy, we find her own statement in this regard. “You can take my method, bar your doors, and then hold your solitude with moral dignity, by meeting the merci­less selfishness of callers with a fixed rule and the divine imperative Principle to be alone with God and never break this rule till you have your interval of study and prayer.”

These letters prove that Mrs. Eddy was tempted to let go of God as we are tempted; but she rated such a suggestion as more of a catastrophe than we do, and so she made a more violent effort to restore her soul. Here was a situation where one of her own students, William G. Nixon, was leading a movement against her, collecting money from her students which he had no right to use ac­cording to his own claim that the deed was not legal. Then Mr. Johnson came to Concord to fill her up with all the details of how the error was working, doing this in all innocence. She found it necessary to push him away, since the students nearest and dearest to her were channels for animal magnetism, when they did not recognize the error and so cast it out of themselves. The Master declared, “A man's foes are they of his own household.''

It is helpful to gain this intimate picture of the way Mrs. Eddy operated. When she lost God temporarily, it made no difference who the channel was through whom the error operated; she let nothing stand in her way of finding Him again. She did not hesitate to tell the truth; but she always told it in love. She was not like parents who rebuke and punish their children only when they are irritated. At times it seemed as though she rebuked in anger, but this was never the fact. She disciplined and rebuked students because she loved them and the Cause. She accepted or rejected those that in God's sight needed to be accepted or re­jected.




August 13, 1892

To Ira O. Knapp:

You are right. Theology, materia medica, human law and lawyers are the scourges that lash the person of Jesus and would annul the Gospel. But we must meet them and be careful not to give them occasion to hate us more for Christ's sake. I thank God that through it all I have known that you could not be made to do wrong knowingly, or to flinch one single duty. You have suffered more than the others, only because you have been nearer the Master's life who drank this cup.


On December 10, 1889, Mrs. Eddy deeded the church lot to Mr. Knapp to hold. On December 18, 1889, the deed of trust was executed which put the lot into the hands of Trustees, and which provided for the building of The Mother Church. On March 1, 1892, Mr. Nixon placed the trust deed in the hands of The Massachu­setts Title Insurance Co., for careful examination into its legal status. They found the deed defective in four particulars, among which was the fact that Mrs. Knapp had not released her dower rights when the deed was granted.

On May 10, 1892 Mrs. Eddy wrote to Mr. Knapp, “Go with witness to each Trustee and offer to make the deed legal if it is not already.” The consequent ex­perience that he had of being persecuted, caused Mrs. Eddy to write to him on July 31, 1892, “You are experiencing the blows that have fallen on all true follow­ers of Christ, and Jesus said, ‘Ye shall indeed drink of my cup.'”

In the early days when I discussed the subject of Christian Science with those who were prejudiced against it, I used to declare that I was seeking truth and trying to find the best; hence if they could show me something better, I would gladly accept it. This was an attitude that would disarm thought and cause them to feel that I had an open mind — although, of course, I knew that I already had the best.

In June of 1899 Mrs. Eddy wrote to Mr. Tomlinson: “Do not scare nor in any way drive away the fishes you would catch. Any too much explanation and not taking the right horn of the dilemma will defeat your good purpose. Animals we please by stroking them the way the hair grows, but stroking it the way we want it to grow will convince never a Prof. Kent! I got him once where he loved to hear me talk Science (at least he said so) and I like his frankness, but others have manipulated him out of it — at least his wife has and so has m.a.m. Be wise if you would win Concord folk. Go with them — as Jesus did — a part of the way and let them talk and then listen to what they are ready to hear.”

Mrs. Eddy wanted Mr. Knapp to take a pacific attitude towards the Trustees where he went with them, and to declare that, if the transfer of the property was not legal, he would do whatever they requested him to do, to make it so. If they refused, this would expose them as being handled by error, and not merely standing on a legal point.

One who reads the history of this matter in Bliss Knapp's book, can see that his father had to endure persecution because of the part he played in supporting his Leader. He was the rock that Mrs. Eddy used at this point, and error knew that it would have to break this rock, before it could accomplish its purpose. As long as there were students like Mr. Knapp who stood with Mrs. Eddy, the sit­uation was safe, and the enemy could not reach her. Had these faithful ones failed her, she might have been vulnerable.

Mrs. Eddy perceived that it would take some sort of pressure to move the Trustees from their erroneous position. She did not want the matter to come to a court decision, so she tried to have those who had contributed to the fund make a demand that the church be built. On June 7, 1892, she made the request that the contributors be advised to require the Trustees to start building, or to return their money until such time as the title to the land should be made sound. In this letter she advised Mr. Knapp to let the Trustees get out of their difficulties as best they could, and let them break the deed, inasmuch as the deed contained the condi­tions of the gift of land. She instructed him to refuse to do anything until they had broken the deed.

Here Mrs. Eddy put them in a position where either they would have to build the church on the lot, the deed to which they claimed was faulty, or else return the money, which would automatically terminate their trusteeship. This was the only way out of the dilemma, and one is tempted to feel that Mrs. Eddy was very clever to see it; but we know that it was not Mrs. Eddy who was clever; it was God. In Christian Science we worship a clever God. One of our earliest lessons is to trust Him, since He has not yet been beaten in anything!

Mrs. Eddy's appreciation of these early students like Mr. Knapp, was largely based on their fidelity. When the majority took a stand against her, she never for­got to be grateful to the minority who stood with her. Those who joined the Move­ment after these difficult problems were rightly disposed of, knowing little of the early history, might look upon some of the students with a critical eye, thinking that they were not very active or scientific. Yet praise was due them for their loy­alty in standing with their Leader in a crucial time, and in resisting the influence of the animal magnetism which was designed to make them disloyal.

An old horse put out to pasture may have been a great racer in his day, but one would never know it by merely observing him. Calvin Frye served our Leader and the Cause in ways that should cause his name to be revered by all students. Yet the fact that he seemed to fall into error during the short time he was without his Leader's protection, after she had left us, did not wipe out the twenty-eight years of important faithful service that he rendered. When Mrs. Eddy had gone, and with her, Mr. Frye's protection, the error aimed against him because of his great part in holding up Mrs. Eddy's hands continued. Whatever happened then should not be held against him. No one could blame him, if, after twenty-eight years of constant activity, never having a vacation, never knowing whether he would have a night's sleep unbroken, he sought a little diversion in travel and in association with friends.

In the letter of August 13 Mrs. Eddy indicates that Mr. Knapp had written to her and named theology, materia medica, human law and lawyers as the deter­rents from which came the error that had broken up the demonstration at this time, and caused his suffering. Science recognizes these phases as deterrents to spirituality, because they seek to put all things on a material basis. Theology strives to put worship on a material basis; materia medica strives to put healing on a material basis; lawyers strive to put everything on a legal basis. Theology repudiates spiritual healing, because it is not in accord with its human concep­tion of religion. Materia medica would shut out the healing, because it is on a spiritual basis, while it contends that matter should only be corrected by matter. Finally, human law and lawyers recognize no spiritual law which is above and beyond and more important than human law in every direction.

This triad would lash the one who attempts to put spiritual law, spiritual healing, and a spiritual understanding of God, above the material. Yet we have to meet them and be careful not to give them occasion to hate us. Wisdom de­mands that we be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.

It is a fact that error is easier to bear, if one knows that he is suffering for righteousness sake. Therefore, Mrs. Eddy assures Mr. Knapp that he is drinking the Master's cup. There is suffering that comes from sin, and also from righteous­ness. The first comes from animal magnetism and the other comes from God. One can endure suffering easily when he knows that it is not God punish­ing him, but rather animal magnetism trying to stop him from being loyal to God and doing His will.




Young's Hotel, Boston, August 13, 1892

(In Mrs. Eddy's handwriting)

FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST

The purpose for which this Corporation is constituted is to establish and maintain the worship of God, in accordance with the doctrines and teachings of Christian Science as contained in a certain book called Science and Health by Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, the sixty-ninth edition is particularly referred to, and in such subsequent editions thereof as the Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy may edit.

Mr. Walker's dictation

(Signed) Wm. B. Johnson

N. B. Have work done (as I have named before) to accomplish having our church chartered by the name God first gave it, and the others hold.

(Signed) M. B. G. Eddy

It must be called as I have written it below, and punctuated as follows:

First Church of Christ, Scientist


Mrs. Eddy left nothing to chance. She instructed her church in the minutiae of procedure, not omitting such a small detail as a comma. She directed that mental work be done, to have the church chartered. Such work was needed to neutralize the belief in fate, which is so fixed in mortal thought — i. e. that if a thing is going to happen, it will happen, and one is powerless to antici­pate or forestall it. It required Mrs. Eddy's patient and persistent prodding to keep the students awake to the fact that demonstration was needed, not only to reflect divine guidance, but to establish God's demands that error could not reverse nor thwart their permanent establishment.

Evidently Mrs. Eddy wanted the Directors to do the mental work to bring out this demonstration, and the rest of the students to hold, much as men will hold an unruly horse, while other men will put his saddle on, and finally one will mount him. Mrs. Eddy was calling upon the Directors to make a specific demonstration, while the rest held a right expectancy of good, and guarded against reversal.

The claim of reversal is something that must be analyzed and handled. That Mrs. Eddy considered it a vital point to be met is shown in her own statement to me as follows: “There is nothing present or has power apart from God, that has any reality. Error cannot strangle, smother or choke the Truth or its manifesta­tion, and Truth cannot be reversed. There is no belief of evil in the bodily senses that has any reality, and that is the Truth and cannot be reversed.” She said to Dr. Alfred Baker, “Handle reversal and obstruction; if you do not, you might as well sit in the gutter, where the blind, leading the blind, have fallen in belief.”

Counterfeit currency cannot be made until the genuine is created. There can be no reversal until there is something to reverse. If you make a statement of truth and do not handle reversal, you have given error something to reverse in belief. Students are sometimes baffled by having error overtake them, just when they are declaring the truth the most fervently, and their thoughts seem the most uplifted. They say, “Why should I suffer just when my thought is more uplifted to God than at some other time?”

The reason is that, when you put forth statements of truth without protecting them against reversal, you provide error with something to reverse. Thus, you have given error a chance to bring about a sense of discord through a reversal of the very statements you have made.

The superstitious belief in reversal is found throughout the history of mor­tals. After one has made a positive statement, such as, “I haven't been sick in a long time,” he feels the urge to knock on wood, as if in some way this act would protect him against having his statement reversed. This urge is a heritage of superstition, the origin of which is lost in the mists of time. When mortal man does it, he does not know the reason. Christian Science explains this action of belief, and enjoins its followers that this belief of reversal is so prevalent in mortal thought that one should never go to sleep over its action.

If the statement in Science and Health, page 442, is true, “...truth cannot be reversed, but the reverse of error is true,” then students have the authority for playing the game of reversal on animal magnetism. If error declares you are sick, you can know that you are well, since the reversal of error must be the truth. On page 120, line 7, (ibid.), Mrs. Eddy gives us this point.

Mrs. Eddy knew that if the Directors declared the truth in order to accomplish the chartering of the church, and the error of reversal was not handled, their very statements might become the means of bringing out the opposite error. Hence she wanted them to declare such statements with the assistance of others who un­derstood the operation of evil, and so would handle the error of reversal. Then the statements of truth would have the opportunity to operate without hindrance, and accomplish their spiritual purpose. This combination of work done by the Directors to declare metaphysical statements, plus the handling of the belief in reversal by others holding to its scientific nothingness, would make an effective demonstration and defence, through which the will of God would operate practically.

The question comes up in connection with this legal statement, whether there was any special significance in the sixty-ninth edition of Science and Health over previous editions. Mrs. Eddy's revelation first came to her in a form which she was capable of comprehending — it was truth stepped down to her own under­standing. Yet it was too profound for those less spiritually endowed, so she had to revise it, in order to put it into a form that would not chemicalize the average reader. One is compelled to conclude that, whereas truth is always truth, it may become error, if it is given in a form that is incomprehensible to the reader. Beef­steak is good food, but it would become a dangerous thing, if the attempt was made to feed it to a child of nursing age.

An understanding of the above fact will clarify some of the phases of Mrs. Eddy's life that have baffled students to the point of creating a controversy. For instance, Edward A. Kimball was a giant in a metaphysical sense and one of Mrs. Eddy's outstanding students. Yet he taught many things that seem questionable to the present student of Science and Health. A statement from his pen to illustrate this point is, “Every organ or function of the body is an idea of God, and all there is to stomach is the truth about it; it is all right at all times, imperishable, perfect.” Was this a correct statement of the teaching Mrs. Eddy had given him, or was it his own distortion of it? Apparently he had authority from her for it, since she told him at one time that it was permissible for him to state Christian Science in this way. Her words were, “Declare, ‘I have a perfect liver in God,' and let the spiritual import of this declaration destroy the false concept about liver. You may declare, ‘I have a perfect liver,' or ‘there is no liver,' provided the thought back of these declarations is right.”

If Mr. Kimball's statement, that the heart, stomach and liver are spiritual ideas, perfect in God, had Mrs. Eddy's authority, then why in the manuscript which he sent to her, containing the statement, “Every organ or function of the body is an idea of God,” did she draw a pencil line around it, and write in the margin A LIE? Is it not possible that it was a statement that was permissible if de­clared by an advanced metaphysician for the edification of advanced students; but that it became a lie if given out to young students or the public, who could not possibly understand it, and who, therefore, would chemicalize over it and choke on it? The manuscript in which Mrs. Eddy's correction is to be found was one that Mr. Kimball was preparing for publication. That it was an error from that standpoint is evident, since the article did find its way into print, and this state­ment may be found on page 206 of Teaching and Addresses by Edward A. Kimball, C.S.D., published in 1917 by Glenn Andrews Kratzer, a book which has had a wide circulation, although it has been very properly frowned upon by the Board of Directors. It was published long after Mr. Kimball's death, so that he never had a chance to edit his own sketchy notes.

Mrs. Eddy corrected some of Mr. Kimball's statements, therefore, not be­cause they were necessarily wrong, but because he was planning to give them to the public, who could not possibly distinguish between the real which as yet has not appeared, and the unreal which seems to be with us always. Students are constantly tempted to talk over the heads of people, and take that which applies only to the real, and make it appear as if it applied to the mortal sense of man.

Mrs. Eddy revised Science and Health, not because there was anything un­true about the first edition, but because it did not present Christian Science in a form sufficiently adapted to the needs of the world, with the least possible danger of causing a chemicalization. No one will ever know the spiritual thought and ef­fort Mrs. Eddy expended in order to step down and accommodate revelation as it came to her, so that it could be comprehended by the beginner, without losing its metaphysics or laying it open to criticism. In fact she once remarked that she had brought Science and Health or Christian Science down just as far as she could, without losing it.

We can assume that Mrs. Eddy continued to revise Science and Health year after year, in order to make its meaning plain to the beginner, but that she had not accomplished it to her satisfaction until she had printed the sixty-ninth edition; so she was ready at this point, to base her structure on this edition. This did not mean, however, that she could not work over it and make it still clearer; so she left this provision in the statement, which was evidently the form in which the ap­plication for a charter at this time was presented. She told me as late as 1905 that if she could be spared to us for a longer time, she could make the textbook still clearer; yet at this date in 1892 she felt that it was clear enough, so that any hon­est student could gain its simpler meanings, and not be confused by its novel ter­minology.

Mrs. Eddy's mission was not alone to reflect the spiritual idea in this age. She was called to take that revelation and bring it down to the material sense of man, in order to show him the way from that material sense to the spiritual. When she reached the sixty-ninth edition of her book, she was satisfied that at last the book was in a form that would fulfill the purpose of her mission. Of course, it was possible for her to improve it still more, since nothing that has any human ele­ments in it can ever be said to be perfect from a spiritual standpoint. But for all practical purposes her work was finished at this point. If she should never change another word in it, she was not afraid to leave it behind, as a method by which persons could gain a demonstrable understanding of Christian Science, which previous to this point required her personal teaching as well. The goal that she was working for was to have Science and Health replace her as the teacher. In fact she hoped that her Cause might some day go forward without personal teach­ing. Experience had shown her that human opinions of teachers could not be trusted, or, rather, teachers could not be trusted to teach without injecting into their teaching, at least to some degree, some human opinions. For this reason she hoped that the time would come when there would be no teaching except from Science and Health. When in 1897 she forbade Christian Scientists to teach a sin­gle student for one year, her notice said, “The Bible, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, and my other published works, are the only proper instructors for this hour.”

Why, therefore, did Mrs. Eddy finally leave her Cause in such a way that teaching would always continue? One reason may be that she knew that the fin­est way to learn a subject is to teach it. Teaching Christian Science is a means of great growth for the teacher. If she took away teaching entirely, she would be taking away one of the opportunities for gaining advanced knowledge on the part of teachers.

This same argument applies to the Readers in branch churches and The Mother Church. If it were not for the fact that the necessity for study that such a position carries with it, is a means of great growth, we could have an adequate reader transcribe the Lesson-Sermon on phonograph records, and have these re­cords run off at the Sunday service. This would spare many small churches the effort to find adequate readers every three years out of a small membership.

One argument, therefore, in favor of personal teaching is the fact that teachers gain an advanced knowledge of their subject through the very study they are compelled to make, in preparation for the clarification of the subject that they must present to their pupils.

The benefits that come to the little ones in our Christian Science Sunday Schools cannot be overestimated; yet the greatest benefits come to the teachers, through the demand that is made upon them to study and prepare to enlighten the thoughts of the children.

When the Deed of Trust was finally executed on September 2, 1892, the seventy-first edition was named as the standard. This does not mean that today we have got to go back to the sixty-ninth or the seventy-first to find truth, since every time Mrs. Eddy made a revision, it was an improvement, not in the metaphysics of the textbook, but in the expression of it. Her purpose was the greatest possible simplification of the expression of her revelation, and this is what we have today in the latest revision of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

In her postscript to this letter Mrs. Eddy states that the title of her Church was God-given. The future proved this to be true. No one has ever suggested a title that would be as adequate, explanatory or wise. Therefore, it must have come from God. When one is ready to acknowledge that the ideas, changes, revisions and directions which Mrs. Eddy set forth so carefully, came from God, it is plain why she was so insistent that they be brought out exactly as they came to her, without even a comma being changed.

As we accustom ourselves to realize that everything Mrs. Eddy put forth and held to, came from the Father, we can see that her punctilious regard for details was not human fussiness; she was merely following out the divine demand ex­actly as it was revealed to her. It was with her a matter of scientific obedience, and she expected her students to regard it thus.




August 22, 1892

Mr. Johnson

My dear Student:

Drop all further movements towards chartering a church in Boston! God is not pleased with this movement that has been forced on me to attempt.

Let there first be a Church of Christ in reality — and in the hearts of men — before one is organized.

You are not ready for His Church. What I prepared for such an one is suitable when you are fit for it.

Today I deed my land to W. B. Johnson, Ira O. Knapp, Stephen Chase, Eugene Greene, Joseph Eastaman.

Now incorporate at once by whatever name you please — so that the Building funds can be legally turned over to you. This absolves me from all future loss of God, from any dealings with infants in Christian Science.

With love unfailing,

(Signed) Mary B. G. Eddy

Answer by return mail if you will do as I have written and without delay.

M. B. G. E.

August 22, 1892

My dear Student:

Please make no change in your action relative to the Church meeting and incorporation until Mr. W. calls on the Commissioner and you hear from this call.

Lovingly,

M. B. G. E.

N. B. Say nothing of what I wrote today nor of this letter.


It is evident from these two letters that the effect upon Mrs. Eddy of the stu­dents' action, for which she had made herself responsible, proved that God was not pleased. She knew this, because of some effect upon her which she was able to recognize, and which after long experience she had come to know was infal­lible. The owner of a horse may say nothing that would indicate to the people who are driving with him, that he is not pleased with the way his horse is acting, but he is able to convey his displeasure to the horse through the reins, in such a way that the horse knows.

Mrs. Eddy became responsible for the moves of the Church, and through her God directed those moves. The students were not attuned to God sufficiently to detect whether they were following the right path; so, the rebuke of God for their lack, if there was one, had to fall on her. Those who lived in Mrs. Eddy's home, observed daily her careful demonstration of details. To some extent these letters give an idea of the constant effort she made to keep close to God, in order to know at all times what His will was, and whether He was pleased or displeased with what the students were doing.

When a student, who has learned the modes and methods of Christian Sci­ence to the point where he is able to demonstrate, neglects his work because of human harmony, and so loiters on the way, he has to have a sharp experience in the form of suffering, to bring to his remembrance the fact that he has a race to run, and that he must keep going. The very language of the New Testament gives him the authority to interpret his suffering as proof that God is not pleased.

At times Mrs. Eddy had certain sharp reminders, as has been previously stated, but they were not indications that she had been loitering, but came as directions from God to be interpreted for the guidance of the Movement. In Adam Dickey's book, “Memoirs of Mary Baker Eddy,” we read, “Mrs. Eddy told me that she had constantly watched the growth of this Church as would a parent the de­velopment of its offspring. She said that in all things while she was the Leader of the Christian Science Movement she actually felt the needs of the Movement in her body, just as the mother of a young infant would feel the needs of the infant and supply them....I learned from Mr. Frye that on many occasions, when our Leader instituted improvements for her Church government, her action had been accompanied by severe manifestations such as appeared in the present instance, and yet no word of complaint passed her lips. She was willing to take the suffer­ing if she could only succeed in obeying the voice of God.” Mr. Dickey goes on to record, “Our Leader had been suffering intensely for several days before this By-law (The By-law abolishing the Communion Service of The Mother Church) came out and even while she dictated to me the words included in it, she was lying on the lounge in her study wrestling with a malicious attack of unusual severity. I took the proposed By-law, as she dictated it, to my desk and after transcrib­ing it I returned with it immediately to her room and was overjoyed to find her seated at her desk, wreathed in smiles, and pursuing her regular work with her usual vigor.”

At one time canary birds were kept in submarines in order to protect the crew from dangerous fumes, the presence of which could not be detected by man, since they had no odor. When such fumes were present even in minute quantity, the birds would droop and thus warn the men. The correction of the fault, whatever it was, and the introduction of fresh air, would quickly revive them. Mrs. Eddy's mission included a protective function of this nature in rela­tion to her Church.

What a precious plea Mrs. Eddy makes in writing, “Let there be a Church of Christ in reality — and in the hearts of men — before one is organized.” One might fancy that when there were a number of persons interested in Christian Science in a community, there could be no possible objection to their building a church structure or obtaining some sort of meeting place in which to worship God. Mrs. Eddy, however, wanted a church founded on the Rock, Christ. When students reach the point where they recognize demonstration as the only basis for a Church, then they are ready for one; but not until then. She knew that when students failed to recognize the importance of using demonstration rather than human will, ways and means in conducting the Church, they were lacking in the spirituality which alone constitutes a Church of Christ in the heart.

Not only is the use of the human mind in a branch church the lazy way, but it is a definite deterrent to the presence of God. Mrs. Eddy did not want a church like the one which the colored man tried to join. After he had tried for some time to join and was refused, the Lord comforted him by saying, “Never mind, brother Rastus, I've been trying for years to get in there Myself!”

The only basis for a Christian Science Church is the basis on which every­thing in our religion is built, namely, divine Mind. If students founded a church wholly on the human mind, what would there be to distinguish it from any mortal mind church? As a matter of fact, the whole Christian Science Movement has for its intent the glorification of the Mind of God, and the elimination of the human mind as having any place in man or church. Since this is the foundation of our Church, when members permit this false sense of mind to dominate them, to carry them along, and to direct them, it strikes a blow at this foundation. When such an error enters in, it causes the church to become an enemy of God, that is, an influence that works against, rather than for, the reflection of His Mind. Under such a circumstance, a church cannot be called a Christian Science church! Such a result would be what Mrs. Eddy called a loss of God, from dealing with infants in Christian Science.

Mrs. Eddy had a right to refer to members as infants in Christian Science, who had not cast out the old idea of church, namely, as an edifice where men go to worship a human sense of God, rather than a state of consciousness that dem­onstrates a scientific sense of Him. The theological sense of church worship is like someone standing on the brink of a river, calling out lovely and agreeable things to those on the opposite shore who are in great need. The problem is to get over to them and to help them, and old theology does not know how to do this. The true demonstration of church makes a bridge over which mortals may pass to the infinite, so that mortality is swallowed up of Life.

Of what value is worship? It would be possible for the church to set forth a proper statement of spiritual facts; yet the functioning of the church could not be called true worship, unless it included the demonstration of those facts. When Christian Scientists claim to worship God through the admission of the teachings that they do not struggle to demonstrate at least in part, they are cheating. They are like children in school who copy their answers. A Christian Science church is no place for cheaters, those who profess to worship God with the human mind, without making any effort to throw off that false sense of mind. They deserve to be classified with the cook who is too lazy to bake a fresh cake; so she puts a lovely frosting on an old stale one.

We find this same cheating sense in some students who try to write for our periodicals with no fresh inspirational quality of their own; so they quote freely from Mrs. Eddy's works in such a way that their articles may sound as though they measured up to the standard of inspiration. Unless writers provide their own in­spiration, they have no right to present any article for publication. The purpose behind all of our publications is to represent the voice of inspiration, since our whole organization is founded on the demonstration of inspiration, in order to contrast its great value with whatever the human mind sets forth. To write an article on Christian Science solely with the human mind would be like one relat­ing a case of healing in a Wednesday Evening Meeting where he used a mate­rial medicine, as though the mere fact that the person involved called himself a Christian Scientist gave him the right to call the healing a spiritual one, even though he employed a material remedy.

As the pioneer and Leader, Mrs. Eddy saw farther than her students did. For instance, it was plain to her that mortal belief always claimed to be able to simulate whatever divine Mind could do. In I Kings 18 we read of the contest be­tween Elijah and the priests of Baal. Would the priests have permitted themselves to be drawn into such a contest, had they not confidently expected to be able to match whatever Elijah did?

The magicians of Egypt simulated the miracles of Moses up to a certain point. Had Moses had a more advanced understanding, he no doubt could have pre­vented this, as Elijah did. The latter's demonstration included not only setting forth the wonder of the operation of divine power, but rendering the action of mesmerism null and void. The priests' efforts to bring out the phenomena of the human mind were thus suppressed.

If the human mind is responsible for all of its phenomena, then it controls what it puts forth within the limits of its own dream. Therefore, whatever can be accomplished in changing human belief and material phenomena through the power of divine Mind, the human mind can duplicate, if it is not restrained. Theoretically, the point at which the human mind can no longer duplicate the phenomena of divine Mind, is when the latter begins to dissipate and destroy the mortal dream.

On page 83 of Science and Health we read, “There is mortal mind-reading and immortal Mind-reading.” Mrs. Eddy was metaphysically logical, when she realized that mortal mind might read the thoughts of unwatchful students and thus thwart divine plans; that important moves might be neutralized if students did not watch, and make the demonstration to prevent this mortal mind-reading.

If God has called you to do a certain thing and you realize that you must keep the matter secret, it is not enough to refrain from speaking about it. You must make a demonstration to realize that mortal mind cannot read your thoughts and so rob God of His purposes; that the so-called human mind cannot even ap­proach divine Mind, any more than darkness can approach light. You must know that the human mind does not exist, and divine Mind does not recognize its ex­istence; that it cannot read your thoughts, because you reflect divine Mind. Once Mrs. Eddy said that if you want to keep a secret, it is not enough not to repeat it; you must not even hold it in conscious thought, lest through the claim of mortal mind-reading someone pick it up.

Once the foregoing point is comprehended, one will see why it was right for Mrs. Eddy to warn Mr. Johnson to say nothing of what she wrote, or of the letter. One who reads even a portion of her vast correspondence is soon confronted with such statements as, “Let no one know what I write nor where you go; re­member this.'' Mrs. Eddy went even further. When she sent a letter or manuscript, she often had the mental workers in her home follow it mentally with a thought of protection, until it reached its destination, to be sure that animal magnetism would not divert it, delay it, or open it to discover its contents. Many messages were not entrusted to the mail at all, but sent by messenger.

Most of her students did not hesitate to entrust important letters to the mail, until she warned them. Few of us at that time appreciated, as she did, that the human mind, being causation in its own unreal dream, could produce phenomena detrimental to Christian Science. Spiritual understanding would enable one to see that Mrs. Eddy's over-precautionary measures were justified. For instance, she knew the possibility of what she was doing, referred to in this letter, being neutralized, if mortal mind got hold of it in advance.

Once a property owner kept constant vigil lest anything of a commercial nature enter his neighborhood and impair the value of his holdings. He per­suaded the rest of the community of the rightness of his stand, and was thus per­mitted to represent them at all hearings for such matters. In this way he thwarted many ventures. Finally, a man managed to secure permission for a gasoline filling station, which was a distinct advantage to everyone in that town. He was able to do it, however, only because he went about it so quietly that the chronic protest­er did not find out about it until it was too late.

Error works the same way as regards God's plans. If important moves that come from God leak out, error seems capable of thwarting them and so of pre­venting activities that are right and would foster spiritual progress. If we are wise and watch lest mortal mind discover what we are about, we can outwit it and accomplish our end. Mrs. Eddy's care about keeping things quiet, caused some students to feel that she was unnecessarily cautious. Yet, consider the man who erected the filling station. If one word about this project had reached the ear of the property owner, he could have thwarted the plan. Was the caution and secrecy of the first one foolish?

The human mind is the enemy of all things good. If a thing is God's plan, there is necessarily a deterrent in the way which must be removed. Every for­ward step that is metaphysical and scientific is met by opposition that must be handled. Mrs. Eddy expressed this point in a letter dated March 10, 1888, “The book Unity of Good was needed or it would never have taken about six months to get that little book published. The way is always blockaded in proportion to the weight of good that is to be carried over it, you know.”

What did Mrs. Eddy mean when she called a student an infant in Christian Science? An infant has no knowledge of what is going on, other than the fact that, when it is hungry, it knows its mother will feed it. Mrs. Eddy fed the infants, but for the sake of their own safety, she refused to divulge to them the higher teachings or the secret of her experience. She knew that the moment one had this higher knowledge, error would pounce upon it, just as a gang of thieves mark a man the moment he becomes the possessor of a valuable jewel.

When a student discovered any of the secrets of Mrs. Eddy's experience for himself, she knew he was safe in the possession of such knowledge, because he had earned the right to know and would exercise the protection that is necessary when one is the custodian of great spiritual truths. Once a lady started to tell a friend a secret, and the friend said, “Don't tell me; then I will have no secret to guard.”

Mrs. Eddy knew that if she did not give students too much truth to guard, they were more apt to remain loyal, yet she yearned to give them all she could. Many of her fine students did finally become disloyal. One reason for this must have been because the devil pounced upon them to make them so, when they had become custodians of higher truths. Mrs. Eddy knew that she could protect a student from the error that accompanies higher spiritual knowledge, by not sharing that knowledge. It is surprising to learn that Mrs. Eddy did not divulge the spiritual secret of her life to the students who lived with her in her home, when she could have done so — at least, it seems that way to us today to whom God has finally revealed this secret. She endured malpractice at the hands of some of her students, and suffered the possibility of misunderstanding, merely because her secret was too profound to divulge to infants in Christian Science.

Mrs. Eddy's insistence that there be a Church of Christ, Scientist in reality — ­and in the hearts of men — before one is organized, was her metaphysics applied to the church. The human mind would assert that a church could be formed when there were enough people interested to warrant such a step; but the mortal estimate of means and processes cannot be trusted in Christian Science, since a church formed after that fashion would be little else than the expression of mortal mind, regardless of what it was called. The metaphysics of cause and effect makes it plain that the outward church, to be a demonstration, must be the visible manifestation of inward spiritual growth. When church is established in the hearts of men rightly, it will inevitably have a visible expression.

What is the mental state that will bring forth a visible organization and structure that has the right to bear the name, Church of Christ, Scientist? What is the thought that Mrs. Eddy indicated would make such a church a scientific expression of causation? First of all one must acknowledge one God and gain some understanding of Him as divine Principle, Love. Next one must put this un­derstanding into practice by healing the sick. Yet more than this is required to establish the thought that would build a church. The Church of Christ, Scientist is the expression of an overflowing desire to spread the Gospel, or good news, to every creature, to give and share with the whole world the benefits and bless­ings one has received through this Science. It is the visible expression of the thought, “My cup runneth over.”

The tendency in the old Christian church was to make it a closed corpora­tion which functioned largely for the benefit of its members. It tried to be active in good works and sought to welcome the stranger, without really doing such works or giving a real welcome to the needy — not from lack of desire but of knowl­edge of the way. Mrs. Eddy did all she could to safeguard her church from false theology, as if it were just for the benefit of the members, who in turn become busy in good works for the world. The Church of Christ, Scientist functions for the benefit of all humanity. They are the ultimate beneficiaries of its largess. Mrs. Eddy organized her church for humanity and to humanity it belongs.

There is a false theological conception in attending services year after year, where one is grateful that he has a church home where he can go and receive good individually, unless one is outgrowing such a concept. The progressive student should see the need of outgrowing a sense that the church is a closed corporation where he goes to get good. He should feel that he has no more right to call the church his exclusively, than does a nurse in training, to call the hos­pital hers; it is a public hospital where she is privileged to receive training, so that in turn she may minister to the needy.

Mrs. Eddy knew that when students have established a church in their hearts, a right sense of good and a desire to share that good, there would evolve the outward ways and means to make that good practical. Such a thought could not help but find expression. Once she stated, “Our churches will spring up spontaneously from the soil of healing.” She wanted her Church to be the spon­taneous expression of a thought so filled with a desire to share healing in the best possible way — which today is by means of an organization — that it truly would be a Church of Christ, Scientist.

A sick patient is healed in thought first, before the visible expression of that healing appears. The rule of metaphysics is, that that which is established in cause, is made manifest in effect. Science and Health tells us that Jesus saw the perfect man and that this did the healing, because that correct concept in cause had an outward manifestation of health.

Mrs. Eddy knew that her Church not only had to be the expression of a spiritual thought, but it had to be continued by that same thought. With his whip of small cords, Jesus whipped those who represented the human mind out of the temple. There was a symbolism in the fact that the cords were small. Had they been large, it would have indicated that the large affairs of the temple were not being conducted through demonstration. Church members are usually betrayed by the human mind, because they strive to demonstrate the important matters, and neglect the small ones, leaving them for the human mind to do. The little foxes spoil the vines; doing the minutiae with the human mind hinders growth. Little things seem to them too trivial to bother to demonstrate them. So, the human mind should be excommunicated from the Church of Christ, Scientist, just as fast as possible, just as rapidly as students can be trained to see the error of the human mind, because it is God's enemy, being the belief of His absence.

It was a strong statement from our Leader when she wrote, “This absolves me from all future loss of God, from any dealings with infants in Christian Science.” Paul writes in Corinthians that “evil communications corrupt good manners.” He is referring to the contagious nature of animal magnetism. A practitioner cannot afford to remain in the atmosphere of the sick for long. He must retreat every now and then into his consciousness of God's allness, realizing that there is no room for aught but good in this allness. From this platform he can descend to grapple with the problem of uncovering mortal beliefs for patients. If he stays down too long, however, it is at the expense of this spiritual consciousness. He must continually resort to his absolute standpoint for his own safety, as well as for the good of the patient.

This is especially true in the case of a patient who does not respond to treat­ment. The Master tells us how to act in such a case, when he says that we are to shake the very dust from our feet. We are to watch lest we suffer a loss of God, by accepting the conclusion that there is an error that cannot be healed. Disease never existed in any form, no one ever has it, and no practitioner ever tries to heal it, because there is none. The sick man is merely in a state of mesmerism in which something that is not, appears to be. When one fails to lift the mesmerism for another, he must watch that he throws off every effect that the outcome of the case might have upon his own thought in robbing him of God, and to make him believe in the reality of the claim of disease and its stubborness under certain circumstances. Jesus knew that in coming in contact with error in others, a layer of their dust may settle on the bright surface of our reflecting thought; therefore, he instructs us to watch and to clean it off.

Mrs. Eddy's thought had concerned itself with this particular error involving the trustees to a point where she knew, if she continued to do so, it would lower her thought. Hence she wrote them to drop the movement to charter the church, and incorporate in such a way that the building fund might be turned over to the Directors. Then she could withdraw from the situation and have a chance to do her work, which was the daily spiritualization of her thinking. She felt the im­perative need of being absolved from any further call to touch this problem, and so experience a loss of God. She needed to be free for a time from dealing with im­mature thought, which had as little comprehension of the effect of its own im­maturity on her maturity, as an inveterate smoker has of the offensiveness of the odor he carries to non-smokers.

When members from all over the world were invited to Pleasant View at the time of the Annual Meeting, no one who did not live in the home could appre­ciate what this event cost our Leader in a loss of God, with the thought of hun­dreds turned toward her with a material and mortal mind curiosity, even to the point of hoping that they would receive a healing by touching the hem of her garment mentally, as it were. At the time of the dedication in 1906 Mrs. Eddy's instructions to the mental workers in her household included the following, as part of the work to be taken up, “We can and do help our Leader, and nothing can hinder us. She does help herself. God is her ever-present help. We are better every day and hour, healthier, higher, holier, better for the approaching dedica­tion. Good governs this hour and us.”

On December 6, 1893, we find Mrs. Eddy writing to James F. Gilman, while he was painting the pictures for Christ and Christmas, “Cannot see you before next week; a dressmaker keeps me from heaven this week. Wish it was so thoroughly in my heart that even dressfitting could not cast it out.”

Mrs. Eddy knew from long experience that dealing with infants in Christian Science was apt to cause her a loss of God for the time being. At the time of the pilgrimages of students to Concord, the workers in the home were called upon to watch and pray, to counteract the effect of the thought of Christian Scientists so-called, — although Mrs. Eddy did not call them that. How could she call them Christian Scientists, as long as she felt an inroad of mortal mind thinking coming from them, which was even worse in its effect than the emanation of straight mortal mind would have been? The mental situation could have been handled more readily, if she had had those to deal with who were not professing to be Christian Scientists, and not claiming to understand the power of Mind.

It is difficult to conceive of what a loss of God meant to our Leader. After addressing the audience in The Mother Church for the first time, she was heard to remark, “I looked over that whole audience, and I did not see a single Chris­tian Scientist.” She did not detect one student who was alert enough to see that she needed an inflow of inspirational thought to refresh and sustain her, and who worked mentally to this end. They were all carried away by the desire and curios­ity to hear and see her in the flesh. The effect of this on her was to make the flesh seem more, instead of less real, while her whole effort and desire was to dominate it, put it under foot and rise above it to the point of knowing and proving that it was incapable of standing in the way of her spiritual growth or her ability to see God. She was seeking to put the flesh where it belonged, under foot, while they were exalting it, from a loving motive.

Mrs. Eddy did not blame infants in Christian Science for not being more ad­vanced, but she did find it necessary to protect herself against them. When a mother has a headache, she does not expect her children to understand how she feels, but she does have to take steps for her own protection to compel them to keep quiet. The infants in Christian Science tried Mrs. Eddy's patience and caused her suffering. Nevertheless, she knew that, as they progressed, if they were working with right motives, they would work out of immaturity, and become helpful and constructive workers.

I shall always be grateful that my first teacher, Mr. Greene, had some in­sight into the error that tempted students at the times they gathered to see their Leader in Concord. At one time he had a group of his students with him, watch­ing to catch a glimpse of Mrs. Eddy as she went for her daily drive. Much to the disappointment of us all, he led us to a back street, where it was evident that we would miss seeing the one we all revered so much. His comment was in sub­stance, “This sort of thing does not help our Leader. We came up here hoping to get a blessing, and we will get it, if we hold a desire to help her, and to strive to see her as she is, spiritually, instead of yielding to the suggestion that we would enjoy seeing her in the flesh. There is a blessing waiting for us here, and we can get it if we listen for it, and expel from thought all material sense and all desire to see our Leader as a person. In this way we will be a help to her, rather than a hindrance.” Finally, Mrs. Eddy drove down this very street to avoid the crowds, and as she passed she spoke to us and to Mr. Greene, whom she recognized. Thus, we not only received the spiritual blessing coming from our right efforts, but were rewarded by seeing Mrs. Eddy.

Mrs. Eddy loved the infants in Science, although she did not expect a student like Mr. Greene, who had studied with her and worked with her in the early days, to be an infant; and I believe that he was above that classification. She did not blame the infants for giving her much to meet. She knew how difficult it is when a crowd gathers, not to yield to the majority of human thinking, the “mob mesmerism.” Therefore, at such times, even advanced students were liable for the moment to be influenced erroneously, and to add their weight on the wrong side.

In regard to the second letter of August 22, it can be said that, like the rest of the letters in this collection, it illustrates the steps taken by our Leader, in making the structure she was founding and erecting, so secure that it could never be shaken. It would appear as if, in the lawsuit which began in 1919, it was shak­en; but it stood. The lawyers for the opposition tried to claim that the records were inadequate to prove the legal existence of the Board of Directors, all of which they claimed nullified Mrs. Eddy's plan of organization. They declared the records were slim and incomplete, and that important links were missing, es­pecially in regard to what happened in August of 1892 relative to the reorganiza­tion of the Church. When the decision was finally handed down, however, the records were considered adequate enough to prove Mrs. Eddy's purpose, and this purpose prevailed, as outlined in the Church Manual.

Students who talk about Mrs. Eddy's wonderful foresightedness forget that she was not foresighted, as men count foresightedness. She trusted in the wisdom that came to her from God, and took each step as it was presented to her. Thus, this simple note directing Mr. Johnson to hold things in abeyance, is an indica­tion of the wisdom she reflected. Think how busy she was! Think how many de­tails she had to carry in thought! Think of the fact that every day everything that needed to be completed, was completed — every thread was knotted, as it were, no matter how unrelated or isolated it appeared to be — so that what she did could not be reversed, prevented or thwarted! Then it becomes plain that nothing but divine guidance in such details could have brought her the success she enjoyed.

It is certain that her mental ear was open to receive the wisdom that an­ticipated everything that was needful to be done. One illustration that helps one to understand how this wisdom works, is to consider how the rain fills every de­pression on the ground, omitting none. Not a single hole is neglected. Similarly, when infinite Mind covers the earth for you, as it does when you make a demon­stration, it meets every single need and anticipates every condition. Thus, it is not the human kind of watching that is needed. The right watching means bring­ing divine Mind into operation and being alert to its impulses. The fact that divine Mind fills all space and knows all is the reason why, when one makes a demonstration, there is never anything omitted, nothing forgotten or neglected.

Mrs. Eddy's experience would lead the average mortal to say that she had a wonderful human mind, with a large capacity for details. Yet it would have wearied the strongest mind on earth to try to remember the thousand and one details which Mrs. Eddy watched over. How could one brain have compassed it all? Here she was, all the time, founding a church, teaching, lecturing, writing, revising her books. We know that she was not constantly charging her thought to remember human details. She trusted God to bring to her each day what was to be done and she did it obediently. There is no weariness in the action of divine Mind. It is refreshing and restful at all times.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H., August 23, 1892

W. B. Johnson

Dear Brother:

In reply to your letter of the 22nd. Mrs. Eddy requests me to say that “as you have called the meeting you can let them come to it, and there inform them as to how the matter is disposed of, but do nothing more about obtaining a charter.” She also says, “I am succeeding in my plans beyond my most sanguine expectation, and hope to be able to give you full particulars within two or three days.”


The founding of the Cause of Christian Science was a matter of delicate balance, since it had to be established on a metaphysical basis, so that it could never be uprooted; and yet it had to have an expression that was tangible. Part of Mrs. Eddy's arduous labors necessitated training students to take charge of what she was founding, just as in time of war, a nation has to train young men to pilot the planes as fast as they are built. Otherwise the planes are of no use.

As Mrs. Eddy trained students, she cherished the hope that the time would come when she could step out of the picture, because there were those whom she had fitted, who were capable of conducting the church by the demonstra­tion of divine wisdom, as she did. Alas, she was destined to be disappointed in this! Every student who showed promise for this work, and who exhibited un­usual spiritual desires and leanings, brought down upon himself a pressure of animal magnetism that usually rendered him unfit to carry out Mrs. Eddy's plan.

The delicate balance which Mrs. Eddy had to maintain was on the one hand to realize that in founding the Cause everything must be done scientifically; and, on the other hand, to bear in mind that students must be educated along lines of taking individual responsibility. She must not watch over them too closely; at the same time she must not permit them to make mistakes. One might feel a great sense of pity for her labors which were so often unrequited, if one did not remember that God was governing the situation, and all things were working together for good.

A study of Mrs. Eddy's letters to students reveals the extent to which she gave her valuable time to training students, hoping to find at least one who could take the lead in her place. She wrote to Clara Choate that she hoped to be able to “look upon one instance of reaping where I have sown at such a cost to myself and with a patience and humility that you have not the experience of.” Again she wrote to her, “This is the whole of the disaster in all cases, — that my students will not accept in time my advice, or take only a part of it. What could a general do in a fight with such soldiers or officers? It would defeat every battle, and so it is doing. Last summer after I beat them at law, Miss Bartlett defeated half the good that would have been done by it. I shall never, under the control the mesmerists have of my students, carry out a full victory. How many times I say O, if only I had not a single student, I should have not a single enemy that it was anything to conquer. I am speaking of the cause, not myself as an individual. The only rea­son I take students now is in the hope of getting one that will remedy the others.” Here we find her breathing the hope that she might develop one student she could depend upon, without having him overthrown by the deterrent we call animal magnetism.

In the reorganization of the Church in August of 1892, she had to be especial­ly careful to maintain the delicate balance mentioned above, in her relation to the members of this newly formed group, to see that the demands of God were fulfilled without regard for human opinion; at the same time she had to watch that these members were developed spiritually, since the new organization would be of little use without members who were capable of running it. There­fore, she used the details of founding her Cause to test and develop the students, and put them in nominal control; at the same time she reserved for herself the right which enabled her to step in and execute God's plans whenever she found it necessary.

When I was elected a First Member, or Executive Member, of The Mother Church, I was surprised that nothing was done of an executive nature at the meetings. I had imagined that this committee practically ran the church. At the first meeting I attended the time was taken up in remarks about the work in the Field, and in composing a complimentary letter to send to Mrs. Eddy. I was forced to the conclusion that gradually she had found it necessary to take from this body all executive powers, since the members had been found incapable of ful­filling their original mission.

I believe that if she had found that these members, because they had no business of any moment to transact, had devoted themselves as a whole to working mentally for the Cause and the world, as no doubt many of them did as individuals, she would have continued them as a body, feeling that they had a right to exist.

Part of Mrs. Eddy's mission was to give her students tasks to see if they could carry them out successfully. When she found them making no progress in the right direction, and perhaps some in the wrong, she stood ready to ask them to desist, as she did in this letter of August 23, so that she might do the task herself. In this way she indicated their unfitness, as well as the fact that the demon­stration, whatever it was, could be made. She could make it, and, therefore, they should have made it. This became a salutary lesson to those students who could take it, albeit a source of hardship to the carnal mind.

Students in college who do not choose to work hard enough to get good marks, refer to those who excel as “bookworms.” In this way they imply that the students who get good marks love to study and are naturally smart; so they cannot hope to compete with them. Also by that term they hope to make the smart stu­dents appear to be undesirable specimens; all this to justify their own laziness.

The students who could not accept Mrs. Eddy's priceless lessons were apt to regard her after this fashion, as if to declare, “Just because she can do it, is no reason why we can. It is not fair to compare our work with hers. She is naturally spiritually-minded and close to God. Therefore, how can I be expected to ap­proximate her ability? It is not fair to expect the same of me.” Such arguments represented an alibi for failure.

Mortal mind, so-called, is made up of qualities which are offensive to divine Mind, such as laziness, greed, selfishness, self-love, self-justification, self-will. It includes the instinct to offer an excuse for failure, as well as to be jealous of an­other's success. When Mrs. Eddy's lessons and rebukes were not welcomed by a student, they often brought some of these characteristics into activity; but the honest and sincere students profited by her faithfulness in rebuking error, and were blessed in this way.

It is evident that this letter of August 23 covers an instance where she had given the students a task to do by demonstration, in connection with obtaining a charter. They had failed, and so she sent this message for them to stop, in order that she might make the demonstration herself. The history of her experience shows that this situation was repeated more than once. When she gave the stu­dents an important task — or even one that seemed unimportant — there were those with whom it seemed instinctive to bring to bear their best human ability, which was not the way to attain success in anything Mrs. Eddy gave one to do.

Such persons, if Mrs. Eddy had requested them to go out and fight Goliath, would have put on the very armor that David tried on and then rejected because he had not “proved” it. No one could have been successful against Goliath who used a knowledge of human methods of warfare, since Goliath typified one who had the greatest skill in that field. No individual could overcome this consolida­tion of all human minds, unless he opposed it with the Mind of God, which is what David did. It is a logical deduction, based on the axiom that the whole is greater than any of its parts, that the consolidation of all human minds which Goliath typified is, in belief, more powerful than, and superior to, any individual mind, no matter how well developed. Therefore, David chose the only possible way to victory in utilizing the power of God.

Every step of Mrs. Eddy's experience consisted in overcoming and out­witting Goliath. If a student, however, had gained some experience and reputation as a fighter before coming into Science, doing so on a human plane, it would be natural for him to turn to his human knowledge of fighting when she called upon him to fight. He would hope that this knowledge, combined with the ad­ditional faith in God he had gained in Science, would accomplish the result she desired.

Experience and revelation had shown Mrs. Eddy that such a mixture would not work in what she was attempting to do; only a radical reliance on God would enable one to overcome Goliath — a reliance that sought to use divine Mind alone, and to discard human sense as far as possible. Mrs. Eddy had seen many students beaten when they tried to use mixed weapons in this warfare, because with a mixture they could not lay hold of divine power sufficiently to be success­ful. When one tries to use both matter and Spirit, the latter tends to neutralize the former. On page 182 of Science and Health we read, “It is impossible to work from two standpoints. If we attempt it, we shall presently ‘hold to the one, and despise the other.'”

Part of Mrs. Eddy's problem in dealing with students was that, if students felt that they had any particular human ability, they drew on such a resource in trying to help her, feeling that in that way they could accomplish what she gave them to do; but they never could.

This letter, therefore, can be paraphrased as follows: “I gave you a problem to do, and you failed, because you worked from no higher standpoint than the human mind. Now drop it, since I have taken it over and am being successful, because I am doing it meta-physically. I am going way beyond any human ex­pectancy of success, because I am using divine Mind, and the results of divine Mind are infinite.”

One characteristic of the human mind that marks it as human, is its limited expectancy. Its basis being finite, it can never rise higher than finiteness. When one learns that expectancy is the open door to all results in healing, reformation, transformation, and restoration of good, it becomes plain that these can only come in their fulness through an infinite expectancy, which divine Mind alone can furnish.

The human mind was of little value to Mrs. Eddy because of the finite nature of its expectancy which always attempted to stand in God's way and to rule Him out. She was building for eternity, not time. She was establishing modes that would outdate time. If one only gets that which he expects, it is evident that her students could not expect enough with their human sense to satisfy her in­finite demands. There are mortals who attain a human optimism which trans­cends the average human expectancy. Such individuals are able to amass wealth beyond the rank and file of mortals, or develop themselves in other directions; but they are still limited by a finite expectancy, which has become slightly greater than the average limited sense, that is all; what they have attained is as nothing when compared with the expectancy one can demonstrate through divine Mind.

When one has a slight physical ill, and expects to heal it through Christian Science, that may not appear to be a very large expectancy, but it is a faith that is greater than anything any mortal has ever attained with the help of the human mind. The work Mrs. Eddy was doing required an expectancy greater than that which a student would need to heal a case of sickness. Mrs. Eddy would have made use of the human mind if she had found it of any value, just as a sculptor would use wet sand or ice as material for his statues if such material had any lasting quality. But if he wants them to endure, he has to choose some medium that will endure. Similarly, because what Mrs. Eddy was founding was a Church that was to endure throughout time, she had to build it out of material that exceed­ed the finite expectancy of the human mind.

We conclude, therefore, that in working on the problem of the charter, the students were not using the right expectancy; so she had to tell them to stop, and took over the task herself, as she so often had to do. She always gave the students the greatest possible chance to do things rightly, and when they did, she was grateful.

These letters are valuable to us today because they prove that every phase of the Cause, from its smallest to its largest detail, had to be supplied by divine expectancy. Knowing this, we can see why it is destined to endure. The very basis of Mrs. Eddy's revelation made it evident to her that what she founded would be permanent only in proportion as it was constructed out of enduring material.

How often Mrs. Eddy must have been tempted to be sad, when she found that the Cause was building up faster than she could develop students who were capable of continuing the work as she knew it should be continued. At times she must have been tempted to feel anxious for the future of her Church. She so often saw the animal magnetism of stupidity blinding students to much that was important for them to acquire in the way of understanding, when the Cause was calling for workers to go to all parts of the country.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H., August 25, 1892

Dear Student:

I have made the deed of my land ready for your acceptance. Please meet at 281 Columbus Ave., Boston at 11 o'clock A. M. for the hearing and acceptance of my deed on Monday next, Aug. 29.

It will be necessary to return their money to the donors. The circular you sent out unknown to me, promising them both reading rooms and a church, whereto the Trust deed gave no title whatever, demands this of you, although it must impede the purpose for which I gave my land.

Yours in Truth,

(Signed) Mary B. G. Eddy


This letter sets forth a precept which all branch churches should follow, namely, that metaphysics furnishes us a standard of action that is based on the categories of divine Mind, rather than on human precedent. The standard of honesty Mrs. Eddy insisted upon for her Church was far above anything mortal mind could ever know. She demanded a consideration for the purpose for which funds were contributed to the point where, if money was given for a specific purpose, it must be used for that purpose or be returned to the donors.

She was engaged in seeing that the foundation of her Cause was laid honest­ly as well as scientifically, so that it could never be broken up. It is well to re­member that the organization, as we term it, was no part of this foundation. Rather was the organization part of the superstructure. It is conceivable that at some time the organization may be torn down, but the foundation will remain always.

Mrs. Eddy must have realized that if she had suggested a change in the plan as set forth in the Trust Deed, the members who contributed the funds would gladly signify their willingness to have the change made; yet instead she insisted that the funds be returned. In her letter dated September 17 we find her going so far as to state that the effort to change the purpose back of funds donated for a specific end, was “a mild species of embezzlement!”

The branch church of which I am a member in Providence, R. I., had on hand twelve thousand dollars toward erecting a new edifice, when I lived with Mrs. Eddy in 1905. Eugene Greene wrote to me that of a sudden the trustees or church voted to send that money to The Mother Church to go toward building the extension. At once I wrote back that that was not a proper thing to do, since the money had been contributed for a different purpose. It is possible that Mr. Greene, believing that I had discussed the matter with Mrs. Eddy, persuaded the members to rescind their vote on that basis, when in reality I wrote the letter merely as a member of the church. However, the action of the church was wrong and this letter from Mrs. Eddy proves that fact.

When I wrote to Mr. Greene advising against his church donating their funds to The Mother Church, my action was largely prompted by the feeling that they were carried away by sentimentality. I did not have in mind the point of honesty. Yet, living in the atmosphere of Mrs. Eddy's home enabled me to have a clearer vision than the church members in Providence, and to give forth advice on a point I had not discussed with Mrs. Eddy, and yet voice her thought. One who was living with her would be far more apt to be governed by her wisdom, which came from God, than by his own human opinion. Years later, when I read this letter of August 25, I perceived that my advice to my church had been right, more so than I realized at the time. The members had no moral or legal right to take money that had been donated for one purpose, and divert it to another, without the consent of those who had given it.

Now comes the question: what is the metaphysics back of this point of hones­ty Mrs. Eddy insisted upon? It is possible to trace back from every outward pre­cedent she established to the spiritual idea of which the outward act was the ex­pression. In this case we know that The Mother Church and its extension were built by demonstration, rather than by material money. The money that was forth­coming represented the outward proof of the demonstration. Man's real needs are spiritual; yet demonstration always meets the present human need.

The Master gave the rule when he told us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things would be added unto us. God is the true and only source of supply; man's needs are fundamentally spiritual. Then demonstration means the realization and establishment of the fact that nothing can come between man and the source of his supply, or prevent that supply from reaching him without adulteration or reversal. Finally, he knows that that supply will manifest itself in the form that is needed humanly.

Hundreds of by-products are made from the soy bean. If one lacked any one of these, he would not need to go out and procure it, if he had a supply of the beans on hand, since he could make whatever it was that he needed. The by-­products of divine Mind can be said to be the many material things which man needs in his present stage of experience. In his next experience, his needs may be different; yet divine Mind will still be the source from which they will be supplied, since the specific need is the mold, as it were, that transforms Mind into whatever is needed. As long as man realizes that the substance of all good is in Mind, he will seek to reflect Mind, and in that reflection his human needs will always be met.

The human need of Mrs. Eddy's Church was for money; yet from her spirit­ual standpoint she was able to see that funds obtained through a mixed thought,­ — one that was not strictly honest, — would not build the church she had in mind. For instance, the funds the Providence church had collected would have been in the nature of a second-hand demonstration, which would not have had the same value in building the extension, as money that was contributed directly for the purpose. One might say that it was a “warmed over” demonstration. It would not have been the direct result of the prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread,” or, in other words, “Enable us each day to make the demonstration requisite for the needs of this day.” To take funds contributed previously for a different purpose, and use them as if they were a fresh influx, would represent a “warmed over” demonstration.

It is the claim of laziness that prompts mortals to use “warmed over” dem­onstrations, in order to avoid the work of making a fresh one — the one for the day. The demonstration that results in man's human needs being met is a simple one in Science, when the human obstacle — or argument of pessimism, fear and false desire — is removed, just as it is simple to drink from a bottle when the cork is pulled out. Every time one desires to drink of the living waters of Truth he may do so, by removing the cork of belief — the obstacle that animal magnetism would place between man and all good.

We do not want “warmed over” demonstrations in Science, any more than we want today the ginger ale that was poured out of the bottle last night. It has lost all its effervescence. The right way is to open a fresh bottle each time one wants a drink, and to pour out a sparkling glass full. Mrs. Eddy's rule was not to yield to human laziness and attempt to do a constructive thing with a demonstration of the past, even though the manifestation of that demonstration might still appear to be good. The funds that had been contributed looked very desirable to the students. They probably rebelled in their hearts against returning those funds; but Mrs. Eddy looked upon demonstration as the valuable thing, which one can make any time, anywhere, any moment that it is needed. Why cling to the fruit of a past demonstration, when one can make one today that will supply the bread of today?

To Mrs. Eddy the money that flowed in was merely the human evidence of the success of her attempt to unite herself to God; by means of that connection she received all that she needed to carry out the human program. A Christian Science church is not built by money, but by demonstration, and the money is only the outward manifestation. But it was a limited sense of demonstration to have God meet one human need, and then to use what was received for that need for something else; as if a man should order a bolt to fit a certain hole, and then later change the size of the hole, and expect the same bolt to fit it.

Mrs. Eddy saw that this hybrid sense was a species of dishonesty, being the expression of thinking that was not right before God, no matter how right mortal man might consider it to be; so it had to be cast out, and a fresh start had to be made. If you attempted to put into the foundation of a building a stone that was ill-shapen, you should not be disturbed or surprised if the contractor, detecting it, compelled you to discard it and replace it with a symmetrical one. God's ways are not our ways. Mrs. Eddy was safeguarding God's church, not from the kind of thinking man considers wrong, but from the kind that God considers wrong.

We learn from this incident that in Science we must deal with cause, and consider effect merely as an indicator that points to what is taking place in cause. If a demonstration is made which does not seem to be in perfect accord with truth and right, let us cast aside its manifestation without fear or regret, and start fresh, with full assurance that Love will approve and meet the need. What did a few dollars amount to in the founding of the Cause of Christian Science, if only thought was scientifically established on the basis of God's conception of right! Mrs. Eddy knew that if the foundation of a demonstration is faulty, it is far better to dig it out and start again, than to attempt to build a superstructure and then have the whole thing collapse, as it did in the case of Judas. There was a sense of dishonesty that he had never cast out of the foundation of his thought, and when the test came, this basic deficiency betrayed him.

Unquestionably many of Mrs. Eddy's letters to the Directors carry the intent to make them demonstrate to discover what the real meaning in her letter was, since in this way they would grow spiritually. One might almost conclude that she required them to demonstrate an understanding of her instead of an under­standing of God, as a simpler demonstration and one that was stepped down to the plane of their present ability. If they could have demonstrated God as she did, they could have led the Cause without her; but she knew that they were not able to do that. She knew that they could demonstrate to understand her, and thus be able to follow out what she wanted them to do, which was only what God wanted them to do, expressed through her.

It might seem as if it would take as much understanding to interpret the real meaning of Mrs. Eddy's instructions, as it did for her to get her instructions from God in the first instance, but this is not so. When one reads Daniel's interpreta­tions of the dreams of King Nebuchadnezzar, it would seem that to understand Daniel's interpretations required as much insight as to comprehend the real meaning of the dreams in the first instance. In reality, however, it was a simpler step for the Directors, and one that lay within the compass of their present state of growth, to interpret Mrs. Eddy's messages, than it would have been for them to reflect guidance directly from God. She was guided to write letters which would furnish them with the spiritual growth they needed; and through the providence of God enough of these precious letters have survived and been made available, so that students down through the ages may study them and gain spiritual growth in the same way as the Directors did.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H., August 27, 1892

W. B. Johnson

My dear Student:

Address duplicates of the enclosed letter immediately to all my loyal students and mail at once.

Affectionately,

(Signed) M. B. G. Eddy

Pleasant View

Concord, N. H., August 27, 1892

W. B. Johnson

Dear Student:

Please add to my letter, after the sentence, “send record of vote to me,” and the name of each voter, and attach to this name the sum he contributed.

(Signed) M. B. G. Eddy


As the chief present-day exponent of the Master's doctrine, Mrs. Eddy taught and lived the fact that each man has a divine destiny. Among other places in her writings, she states this fact on the last page of No and Yes, “Man has a noble destiny.” One difference between Mrs. Eddy and her followers was that she was much more interested in fulfilling her destiny than they were in fulfilling theirs. Many individuals who embrace Christian Science, appreciate it because it adds interest and flavor to the drabness of mortal existence. Mrs. Eddy's interest went much further than that. She was determined to live under what was God's destiny for her at whatever cost. Such an attitude is the only one that will enable a seeker to find and to fulfil such a destiny.

Many incidents and details of Mrs. Eddy's life that might appear unimpor­tant and valueless, take on a significance where it becomes apparent that they either assisted her in her obedience to Principle in carrying out her destiny, or became proofs of the operation of that destiny.

One might query as to the reason why valuable space is given in the Bible to record incidents in the Master's life, such as the time where he directed his disciples to go to a certain place, indicating that there they would find a colt; at another time he told them that they would meet a man bearing a pitcher of water, who would show them to an upper room. Why was it necessary to produce the ass and room after this fashion? The disciples could easily have hired an animal and found a room in the home of a friend; but these incidents became signs and prcofs to himself and to the world that he was following out a divine destiny, one that in­cluded the ass and the upper room just as the disciples found them. When one is taking a trip that has been planned in advance, he determines whether he is on the right road by signs which appear at certain strategic points.

One will never make progress in fulfilling his divine destiny until he rec­ognizes that he has one, and desires above all else to know what it is, and to follow it. The demonstration to voice truth and to write it, is not difficult, when one desires to do so with his whole heart. But when it comes to one's life, that is a different matter. We are all confronted with very definite ideas of what we want to do and what we want to be. Often we are like children who want to go to the drug store to buy ice cream, and, being afraid that if they ask their mother she will say no, they go without asking her, because they do not want to run the risk of disobeying her.

The reason we do not pray for guidance at every step of our way is because we have definite notions as to just what we would like to do. By not asking God and thus not receiving a leading that is contrary to what we want to do, we play safe. We will never get very far, until, like our Leader, we are so eager to walk exactly in the destiny of God, that we continually watch out for indications, even in minor ways, as both the Master and Mrs. Eddy did, that help us to de­termine whether we are asking for and receiving divine guidance.

God's plan for us is the only successful and right road that will take us out of this maze of evil that we seem to find ourselves in, and lead us into the eternal har­mony of spiritual existence. We will never find this way unless we want to, and we will never want to, until we are willing to be guided from above in every way. In order to achieve this guidance we must be flexible, and say, “What wilt Thou have me to do?” One who has had even a glimpse into the importance of seeking divine guidance, knows that there is nothing in his life too insignificant to be the occasion for him to pray for guidance.

One of the strong evidences that one is functioning under divine guidance, is when he has proved that he has attained the ability to receive it. Thus every one of the steps Mrs. Eddy took, even those that seemed unimportant and of no special significance outwardly, such as we find in letters like the two in question, becomes evidence that she was praying for guidance, that that guidance was being revealed to her, and that she was following it. Thus, such insignificant de­tails as noted in these two letters become proof for all time that Mary Baker Eddy was carrying out her divine destiny, and so they have a place in Christian Science history as important as the place accorded in the Bible to those details like the finding of the colt, which were needed as proof that the Master was following a destiny which divine Mind had planned for him.

In the days of the Indians it was possible for one of them stalking an enemy to know whether he was on the right trail, by such a small thing as a bent twig or the chattering of a bird. Similarly one who is seeking to follow a divine destiny, may know that he is successfully following it by small signs as well as large. The Bible promise is that we shall be governed by Him and He will direct our paths, in proportion as we acknowledge Him in all our ways.

One essential point in divine guidance is to establish the desire to be direct­ed by God in every way. To withhold any preconceived desires at any point and thus to be unwilling to yield to God's plan in its entirety, is to mar the demonstra­tion. When the potter selects a lump of clay for his work, he may reject it if it has a hard place in it that refuses to be molded. Complete flexibility under his hand is the requirement.

Once a man who was a heavy drinker succeeded in throwing off the habit through will-power, when he saw that otherwise he would lose his wife. He cited his own case to prove that one did not need Christian Science to overcome such a habit, provided one wanted to do it enough. I replied that he had won half the battle when he had gained a sincere desire to get rid of it, which is just what Christian Science provides. It is true that drunkards are desirous of getting rid of the suffering such a habit brings, but it is another matter for them to attain a whole­hearted desire to get rid of the belief in pleasure connected with the indulgence.

The difference between Mrs. Eddy and most of her students in regard to following out God's destiny was the strength of her desire. She wanted to be obedient to God in every way, and to follow where He led, while they did not. Their willingness to be led by God did not go very much further than a desire to be taken out of discord and difficulties.

The Bible itself records the history of a people who, when they were sincere­ly willing to let God lead them, were prosperous and successful, but who, when they hardened their hearts against God and followed out their own wills, reaped the results of such error in war, failure, and lack. The history of the Jews became a Bible because it was given a metaphysical explanation, that makes it of help to all who would follow where God leads. The life of Mary Baker Eddy becomes a Bible in proportion as it is given a spiritual explanation, and common every day happenings are analyzed metaphysically.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H., August 29, 1892

Beloved Students:

I have succeeded at last in getting the Trustees, Mr. Lang, Mr. Munroe and Mr. Nixon to return to me the title of the lot of land in Boston on which to erect a church building and have again through an indisputably legal deed conveyed it to Trustees for the purpose aforesaid and the object for which I had before donated it. This last title that I give of the building lot is sound and Mr. William B. Johnson is one of the Trustees for building and for receiving funds for building our church in Boston.

Now, dear student, will you aid me in recovering our funds in the following manner, which funds to be legally handled by the old Trustees must be returned to the contributors.

Call a meeting of all the contributors that you can get together and let them vote to return their contribution to William B. Johnson, 41 G. St. South Boston, and to send the record of this vote to me.

Your loving Teacher,

Mary B. G. Eddy

William B. Johnson

(This letter, the signature and name of Mr. Johnson, are all
in the handwriting of Calvin A. Frye.)


Students of the life of Mary Baker Eddy are required to make an effort men­tally and spiritually to perceive how the hand of the Lord was present with her, guiding her in her activities. It is not enough to conclude that, because of the harmony and success of her endeavors and methods, she must have been governed by divine Principle. To be sure, evidence of success is more or less proof of this fact; but it is also true that the sagacious and prudent human mind has often successfully started movements of various sorts, anticipating and overcoming obstacles.

The ultimate effect of demonstration is harmony, but it does not follow that all harmonious manifestation is a proof that spiritual thought is ruling and guid­ing. Harmony may also evince the fact that one is subject to the belief of har­monious matter; in the long run, however, truth will show forth which is the real harmony.

Mrs. Eddy placed her trust in these three trustees, and set the example for her church to do likewise. Was that a lack of demonstration on her part? Was it a lack of demonstration that caused the Master to select Judas as one of his disciples, or did he do it because God led him to do it, in spite of the fact that Judas was mate­rial put into the temple that would crack under pressure?

Many times one who joins the Christian Science organization believes that all the members who are apparently faithful and active in their love of Christian Science, can be trusted. Yet the same individual would not necessarily believe that a boat was seaworthy in a storm, merely because it had proved to be so in fair weather.

Could the Master foretell how Judas would act in a storm? Could Mrs. Eddy tell in advance how students would stand up under the pressure of error? Many students who have fallen by the wayside, were humanly and metaphysically ade­quate for the offices they were placed in, as long as there were no storms of error.

Mrs. Eddy was competent to select for responsible positions those whom God pointed out to her as the suitable candidates; but the moment she put a student in a key position — one where he became valuable to God, and thus came under the opposition of animal magnetism — error assailed him in order to render him hors de combat. It must be recalled that Mrs. Eddy had to select workers when the harvest was plenteous, but the laborers were few. Furthermore, she herself states that the one point she found most difficult to make her students understand was the subject of animal magnetism.

Stephen A. Chase was selected to fill the important position he held, not so much because of his understanding of error but because of his love and apprecia­tion for his Leader, which was strong enough to carry him through the storms of animal magnetism. It was largely through his faith in his Leader that William B. Johnson had the ability to resist the pressure of evil which would tend to make a student self-willed, disobedient, or disloyal. If he disagreed with her at first, he yielded to her judgment, and thus was safe.

As Mrs. Eddy gained more students, she had a larger number from which to select those fitted for the various positions. While it was quality rather than quantity she needed, the more students she had, the greater was the chance that she would find one with the ability to handle the animal magnetism that dogged the footsteps of those in high positions.

The three trustees which she first selected were men of unquestioned honesty and ability; but they yielded to animal magnetism. Therefore, Mrs. Eddy had to rip out all the work that had been done up to this time, and repeat it. In this letter we find her lovingly and willingly picking up the threads and starting afresh. Such was her great love, that she cherished no enmity towards those who betrayed her. She treasured every spiritual lesson which she learned through experience, and left records of them so that future generations might benefit by them.

The valuable and vital things that we are privileged to know today were the fruit of Mrs. Eddy's toilsome experiences in dealing with refractory students, experiences which cost her hours of extra work. Her own thought and demon­stration were sound and right, but she was confronted by the uncertainty of what a student would do under pressure. That was something she had to find out by experience.

If it is possible to reach the point of spiritual discernment that will enable us through demonstration to select for office those who are least liable to fail under pressure, then we are obligated before God never to select anyone for office apart from demonstration; since demonstration means gaining the approv­al of God for a candidate. Only when a candidate is approved of God can we have the assurance that either a student in office will not prove a traitor when pressure is laid upon him, or else, if he does, the wisdom of God will safeguard the situation in His own wise way, and bring out the highest good.




September 3, (1892)

My dear Student:

Don't omit to state in your letter to the contributors that in the first deed of Mrs. Eddy's land in Boston it was stated the lot was given on which to erect a Church edifice, and no mention was made in it of having publishing rooms on this lot. And she has never consented to having a church and publishing rooms built on it, and did not know that a circular letter was sent out requesting contributions to both, until her lawyer showed it to her about two weeks ago. (Do not send this scrap but copy it and sign your own name to it, for I can attest to its truth.)

(Signed) M. B. G. Eddy


Mrs. Eddy's entering into the minutiae of church government is a grand example for students, since error would send out the impression that it is not proper to seek God's guidance in relation to unimportant human things; yet her example proves that nothing is too insignificant to use as an occasion for seeking recourse to divine Mind's leading and guiding, rather than permitting the human mind to be in the saddle.

Mrs. Eddy was so jealous for the Lord, that she sought to rule out the human mind at every point. She knew that it was responsible for every bit of evil that exists in belief, and so she marked it for destruction. Her attitude toward it was that if you give it an inch, it will take an ell. If it was permitted in the saddle even in minor matters in her home, it would soon claim to rule the home, since by its very nature it is arrogant and domineering. Whatever room it claimed to occupy, to that degree God was ruled out. Therefore, it was her jealousy for the Lord that caused her to rule it out even in the smallest details in her life. Instead of ridicul­ing her for not even allowing her stockings to be ironed with the skill of the human mind for instance, we should stand in reverence before her faithfulness to Principle even in such a minor matter.

A great lesson can be learned from the story of Ananias and his wife, who joined the group of early Christians, and then lost their lives because they re­tained part of their funds for themselves, after they had agreed to contribute all they had to the common fund (Acts 5). Interpreted symbolically, the story would indicate that this couple had agreed to give up the use of the human mind in every direction, in order to utilize divine Mind; they gave up only part of it, however, and retained part of it; just as students will claim to have given up the human mind entirely, and then when they come to the church business meetings, they will flaunt the human mind without shame. The fate of Ananias and his wife should be sufficient to teach any Christian Scientist that it is a crime in God's sight to reserve any part of the human mind — which the Master told us is a murderer from the beginning — or to believe it to be worthy of retention and use in any direction whatsoever!

The Bible proves that if you reach far enough into the human mind, you find a murderer. Mrs. Eddy did not care to consort with a potential murderer. If an acquaintance came to visit you and you learned that, if he was pushed far enough, he would commit murder, you would certainly oust him from your home. Logically, if Mrs. Eddy wanted to make God all in her home, she had to rule out that which would claim to occupy the slightest portion of the space reserved for God alone.

One might claim that it was an unworthy use of the great and mighty power of God to put it into operation, for instance, to remove a wart or blemish on the skin; yet that slight discord is a gentle reminder that the human mind is claiming presence and power where only God rules and exists. Even so slight a thing as a wart provides an opportunity for one to develop one's demonstrating sense, and thereby rule out the human mind and rule in divine Mind, — which is always a right and worthy thing to do. It is true, however, that the results of such effort are not to be compared in value with the spiritual training and development such effort brings.

Motive is important in God's sight. It requires spiritual growth for one to attain the broad and unselfed motive our Leader had, and so rule out less lofty and miniature motives. A beginner in Science might seek merely to get rid of a wart, with no greater objective. A higher motive would seek to take advantage of every opportunity, no matter how small, to rule out the human mind, as well as to grow in the application of demonstration. Under such a motive, the smallest circumstance and detail become a sufficient occasion for the utilization of divine law.

It is proper to seek divine guidance in the smallest matters, if in so doing one forms the habit of challenging the human mind and becoming less depend­ent upon it, in order to lean more and more on divine Mind. Details of one's life or the church become unimportant only as they are regarded as unimportant by one without the insight to perceive the value they can be to him.

Mrs. Eddy created many hypothetical situations for students, in an effort to train them, and to help them to form habits of metaphysical thought and demon­stration. In this she would be criticized only by one who believed that it was results she was seeking, more than the training of students. In demonstrating the efficiency of a vacuum cleaner, a sales-man will put dirt on a corner of a rug and then clean if off. His object is neither to make the rug dirty nor to make it clean. Mrs. Eddy had discovered the scientific process whereby the human mind may be eliminated, in order that divine Mind may be found to be the only Mind. It was the value and efficiency of this process that she sought to set forth.

When Mrs. Eddy demonstrated divine guidance in little details, as she did in the letter in question, instead of leaving them for the Directors to work out, she was building her church and doing it scientifically and without mistakes or flaws. Also, she was leaving records for future generations that prove that every step she took was ordered by the Lord. Having established the church according to the divine pattern, she was leaving that pattern so that it might become ours. One outstanding precept included in it is the necessity for demonstrating divine leading in minor as well as major details, and for understanding the reason for this.

Mortal mind is a claim of reversal. Therefore, we must conclude that by its very nature, mesmerism would cause a serious temptation to appear to be so trivial that we would feel that it was not worth bothering with, and make one that amounted to very little, seem so serious, that we would expend most of our effort in a direction that wouid waste it. Part of Mrs. Eddy's wisdom is shown in the fact that she was not deceived by this claim of reversal. When error suggested that a matter was too trivial to bother with, she distrusted such a suggestion. She followed human law punctiliously even in the little matters, lest in the future error find some vulnerable place in her Cause.

Mortal mind would suggest that Mrs. Eddy made too much of this matter of the money that had been contributed, in insisting that every penny be returned to the contributors because the trustees planned to include publishing rooms in the same building with the church. She knew, however, that this was an instance where the human mind was claiming to put a stone into the foundation she was laying, a stone that was not sound. If she permitted it to go in, the day would come when it would give way, as everything human does. A weakness in the super­structure of a building is not as serious a flaw as one in the foundation. She saw the need of founding a Cause in such a way that later no one would be able to ferret out one weak place, one instance of either divine law or human law being infringed in the least degree.

Why did she send the letter in question on a scrap of paper? Was it in order that the Directors would not be tempted to use it as an authoritative document in their effort to straighten out this situation? She knew that the whole weight of error was aimed against her, and part of its trick was to try to prejudice the stu­dents against her. If her written word was used as authority in this matter, she knew that it might arouse a malpractice that would react unfavorably on her and on the situation as a whole. So by using a scrap of paper she helped to safeguard the situation.

Mrs. Eddy was training the Directors as well as the students to rely upon themselves. If the Board began to expect that God was governing them in their decisions, and the rest of the students held the Board in this high estimate, it would help to bring such a desirable result to pass. Thus, she did all she could to foster such an attitude. If you were a boxing instructor standing behind a nov­ice and moving his arms so that he was successful in warding off his opponent, — if in some way he could be made to believe that he did it himself without your aid,­ — that would greatly increase his confidence in his own prowess.

Mrs. Eddy stood back of the Board and instructed them in procedure; yet she did all she could to make it appear as if they had the full responsibility. When­ever she could, she let them take the credit for having guided the Cause with wis­dom and intelligence.

No disrespect is intended when I state that if the students had had the privilege of selecting the Board of Directors at that time, they might not have chosen the ones Mrs. Eddy did. She knew, however, that her demonstration was the real head of the Movement. Hence those that had the conduct of its affairs had to be guided by her. Therefore, the Board had to be composed of loyal and faith­ful students who were willing to take all manner of criticism, and yet execute her behests. Had they had ideas that clashed with Mrs. Eddy's, as the trustees did, a much worse tangle might have resulted, than the one that did in the case of the trustees. The Directors had to be pliable and yet strong; and they were.

Mrs. Eddy not only had to train the Board, but she had to train the Field to accept the ruling of the Board, since in years to come their decisions would be final. Her whole object in training the Directors was to help them to reach her standpoint, so that its decisions might be divinely wise.




(Telegram)

Received at 386 Broadway, So. Boston

September 4, 1892

To William B. Johnson 41 G. St.

Take one o'clock train Monday for Concord, Bring manuscript sent Saturday.

M. B. G. E.

(Telegram)

Received at 386 Broadway, So. Boston,

September 5, 1892

To William B. Johnson 41 G. St.

Do not come but return Saturday letter.

M. B. G. E.

(Telegram)

Received at Main Office, 234 Devonshire St.,

September 13, 1892

To William B. Johnson 41 G. St., South Boston

Have you got the list of contributors yet?

M.B. G. Eddy


Almost without exception, when a student finished a term of service in Mrs. Eddy's home, after he or she returned home, he would receive a letter from her demanding that he keep his thought away from her. One such letter was written by Mr. Adam Dickey as follows: “Our beloved Leader has asked me to write you with the request that in your work for her household, you will not allow your thought to rest upon her.” At another time she wrote to the same student (December 5, 1906), “Please remove your thoughts utterly away from me. Through the weak­ness of some students who have been here and report what I say, it is known that I have great faith in you, and so the enemy argues that you make me suffer. To meet this take it up that you can't make anyone suffer and no one can make you suffer. But do not think of me. Only break the law of the lie. You and the Com­mittee on Business keep me out of your thoughts. My great struggle is with so many turning to my personality for one thing or another. But that's a lie, so banish it all into oblivion, for God is all and there is no other Mind.”

When my term of service in her home was completed and I had been home but a short time, I received such a letter. It was severe and stern in tone, and seemed unjust, because it was unthinkable that I would deliberately malprac­tice on our beloved Leader. It required many years of spiritual growth and pray­er for me to catch a glimmer of the real reason behind her message.

Today I believe that Mrs. Eddy often sent such letters under the stress of some physical claim that she was called upon to meet, as part of her investigation concerning the source of the error. I believe that the letter she sent me did not necessarily accuse me of malpractice. Either she was probing thought in order to determine the one through whom the error was coming, or safeguarding the situation for the future.

My inability at the time to comprehend the letter she sent me caused me to burn it, lest it become a witness against her at some future time; but I answered it, assuring her that I had been striving to keep my thought away from her, but that I would seek harder than ever to do this. I wrote that she need not feel that I was keeping my thought wittingly or willfully where it did not belong.

When an organ is out of tune, the tuner tests each pipe to determine which one is off pitch. When Mrs. Eddy was conscious of an argument of discord, I believe she often tested students who were or had been close to her, to deter­mine whether they were in tune. I believe that she could tell unerringly by the way a student reacted to such a letter of admonition or accusation, whether he was guilty.

I am now convinced that such letters were a device our Leader used to de­termine the source of malpractice. She could tell by a student's reply just where he stood. If he was guilty, she knew just how to handle such an error.

This lesson has a bearing on these telegrams of September, 1892. It is pos­sible that the manuscript mentioned was the article that appeared in the October Journal, setting forth the complete history of the transaction in regard to the church property, and the need of the return of the funds, as previously stated. Perhaps after sending it to the Directors she felt a claim of suffering, and as usual she sought to trace the source of the error. If by chance the Directors were the ones through whom the error was coming, the return of the manuscript would quiet thought and she would get relief. Perhaps she queried whether the error she was feeling was the result of the exposure of the error, since the man­uscript plainly stated that the Directors and trustees were responsible for it, as well as her lawyer. In this article she wrote, “This sad delay to build, this necessity for returning the money so tenderly and generously bestowed, this lack of faith in God's providence and omnipotence, this straining at a gnat in one legal direction and swallowing a camel in another, have not been blessed by Divine Love.”

It is possible that Mrs. Eddy saw that this manuscript might produce a chemicalization as many matters do when they touch the question of finances. Here she was, demanding that good hard cash be returned to the donors, when there appeared to be no valid reason for so doing; and in addition to that, placing the responsibility for this demand on the Directors and trustees!

If, after this manuscript was sent, she felt a mental or physical stir, it is pos­sible that she sought to discover whether the manuscript or the letter of Septem­ber 3rd was responsible for it. By requesting a return of either, she might quiet the chemicalization and break the thought for the time being. As a matter of fact, the telegram alone might have accomplished the result she desired, so that Mr. Johnson did not have to make the trip to Concord.

The question of money is one of the most sensitive points in mortal mind. Mrs. Eddy's punctilious sense of mine and thine was far stricter than that of any of her students. Where would you find even today an executive board of a branch church that would consider it a demand of God to return funds to contributors, merely because they had been given to cover a debt, for instance, which was met in full, leaving a balance. It would appear orderly to appropriate the balance for whatever they saw fit. Yet I feel sure that Mrs. Eddy would have returned the balance, or else sought permission from the donors to use it for some other pur­pose.

It must have seemed hard to the Directors to have to return all the money that had been contributed, and also take the responsibility for it; but it was Mrs. Eddy's highest sense of right, which she had to suffer for so often. However, she never abandoned the right because she suffered for it. In the instance under discussion she might have withdrawn her instructions temporarily until the stir had quieted; but the third telegram shows her reviving the matter again.

Often when a suggestion or recommendation meets with opposition, it is wise to withdraw it and to wait for a season. Then, when it is put forth at a later date, it is often accepted without chemicalization or opposition.

Mrs. Eddy never gave up what she knew to be right, but she used wisdom in putting it forth, especially where she saw that it would arouse mortal thought. For instance, we find many statements in early editions of Science and Health that are softened in the present final revision. Mrs. Eddy made the changes, not be­cause the early statements were incorrect, but because in modified form they were better adapted to bring the truth to mortal mind without chemicalizing it.

The following record illustrates this point in a striking manner. Calvin Frye recorded on January 25, 1890: “From daily baths she entirely stopped bathing and never bathed for seven years. One of her students who roomed with her, one night said upon retiring, ‘Oh, Mrs. Glover, how sweet you smell,' to which she replied, ‘Why I use no cologne.' ‘No, I don't mean that,' was the reply, ‘but how sweet and clean your person is.' Mrs. Glover said, ‘Well, now I will tell you. I have not bathed for seven years.' ‘Oh, don't tell any one that,' was the reply, ‘for if you do, people will think you the dirtiest person that ever lived.'”

Here is a record which many would shrink from, and yet, when it is an­alyzed, it is found to be a proof by our Leader of the very essence of her doctrine. Part of her discovery was the fact that whatever the effects coming from drugs or matter might be, they were wholly the result of mortals' belief, and in no way due to any inherent power or intelligence in matter. This proposition is true in regard to a drug that seems to heal, to alcohol which seems to intoxicate, and to soap which seems to cleanse. This last point would appear to be startling only to one who had not carried the logic of Mrs. Eddy's teachings to that point. She makes it plain in her textbook that if mortal belief should agree that some liquid other than alcohol intoxicated man, it would be so. Would not the same reason­ing apply to soap and water?

It can be said, therefore, that by the very nature of things it was necessary for Mrs. Eddy to make the demonstration of cleanliness apart from soap and water, although the occasion for it may have been that during the seven years in question while writing Science and Health, she was living in boarding houses at a period when many homes had very meager facilities for bathing. Few homes had bathtubs in those days.

This brings us to a paragraph in the sixteenth edition of Science and Health, which may be found on page 355, which reads, “We need a clean body and a clean mind, — a body rendered pure by Mind, not by matter. One says, ‘I take good care of my body.' No doubt he attends to it with as much care as he would to the grooming of his horse; and possibly the animal sensation of scrubbing has more meaning, to such a man, than the pure and exalting influence of Mind; but the Scientist takes the best care of his body when he leaves it most out of his thought, and, like the Apostle Paul, is ‘willing rather to be absent from the body, and present with the Lord.'”

Here are Mrs. Eddy's own words which she proved to be true, when she pre­sented her body sweet and pure, according to the testimony of the student who was rooming with her, through the pure and exalting influence of Mind, not matter.

However, lest this drastic teaching chemicalize mortal mind and frighten away the fish she would catch, she changed the above paragraph, so that today it reads, “We need a clean body and a clean mind, — a body rendered pure by Mind, as well as washed by water.” This change in no way modified her met­aphysical teaching of the truth of what she had earlier proved to be true. It merely fulfilled her own words, when she wrote, “Use infinite tact and discre­tion, but never craft or policy; never compromise Truth with error. Never use deceit to carry a point.”

Mrs. Eddy's example in this regard provided a great lesson for students of future time. When they feel called of God to put forth a proposition that is so drastic in character that others cannot at once accommodate themselves to it, it is possible to use Mrs. Eddy's method of infinite tact and discretion. If a matter has been put forth and the result is a chemicalization, it can be withdrawn temporar­ily until the stir has subsided. Then when it is put forth again, it may be accepted.

No book ever had harsher criticism than did Science and Health, when it was first put forth. Critics were bitter and made all manner of unkind comments. Finally, through Mrs. Eddy's wisdom and untiring efforts in revising it, the world accepted it.

The telegram requesting Mr. Johnson to bring the manuscript to Concord touches the question of Mrs. Eddy's distrust of the mails, and her often insistence that letters be carried by messengers. That her fears in this direction were not unfounded is proved by a clipping from The Daily Globe, Fall River, Mass., dated December 12, 1902. Over a period of time many letters containing money sent to Stephen A. Chase, treasurer of The Mother Church, were lost. Finally, two postal inspectors, according to the despatch, investigated the loss by using decoy letters. The validity of Mr. Chase's complaint was proved when five out of thirteen decoy letters were stolen.

It can be said that Mrs. Eddy's thought in regard to the mail was one of pro­tection. The work that was being done was God's work, and animal magnetism must be given no opportunity to interfere with it. At the same time it is evident throughout Mrs. Eddy's history that she used every opportunity to stimulate dem­onstration on the part of students. When she directed students to work against Roman Catholicism, as she did when I was with her, she had no wish to harm Catholics in any way whatsoever. She only wished to rouse students and to cause them to put forth a greater effort to think scientifically because, if they did not present an active united front against the enemy, mortal mind, it would en­croach as the ocean often does, when no sea wall is erected against it.

It would have been inconsistent for Mrs. Eddy to denominate Roman Catholi­cism as a religion, more of an evil than any other phase of organized religious thought; but from her point of view it provided a symbol of mortal mind's use of fear and domination for her to employ in such a way, as to stimulate an active resistance on the part of students against mortal mind's claim to control this world and everything and everybody in it, even in its worship of God.

Much of the work that Mrs. Eddy gave her students to do was for purposes of training, instruction, and illustration. She was preparing warriors to go forth to battle with Goliath, and she conducted this training in the wisest way. She was not over fussy about the material details in her home; she by no means nurtured a fear of the very claims that she taught were powerless and unreal; but she sought to help students to throw off the yoke of bondage. Since this yoke is composed of a mass of small demands, habits, temptations and suggestions, all these erroneous threads must be cut.

Mrs. Eddy used every possible device to keep the students working mentally day after day. In order to do this, she had to make them feel that their very life de­pended on such effort, since they would not have put into such endeavor the prop­er unction, had they felt that it was merely for their training and instruction. One must believe that animal magnetism is threatening his very life, before he handles it with the authority that is needed. Had Mrs. Eddy said to the students, “Now I am calling you to work on this matter for the purpose of training you along lines of demonstration,” the work done might have been negative. Part of the training was the necessity for the students to feel that the emergency was real, when she set it forth. Furthermore, when I was at Pleasant View, she seldom told us what the error was that needed attention. She merely indicated that our mental work was needed; then she outlined the points we were to take up, and kept us working until she sent word for us to stop.

Was Mrs. Eddy wrong in causing the students to feel that their very lives de­pended on the work against error which she gave them to do? If Life is God, then whatever would dim man's conscious reflection of that Life is certainly a blow at his life and hence a serious claim to be resisted.

Mrs. Eddy's distrust of the mail as well as her insistence, when she did use it, that we follow her letters mentally as it were, until they had reached their des­tination successfully, were not only to train students; they were to stimulate in them an active demonstration, in order that she might be assured that it was divine Mind that was at work, rather than the human mind.

William Lyman Johnson relates the details of a trip which he took to Wash­ington at Mrs. Eddy's instance, in order to deliver certain pages of a new edition of Science and Health to Mr. E. E. Norwood, who was in charge of the work in that city. Mrs. Eddy worked out the details of the trip for him as though there were spies and robbers all along the route. She told him to buy a ticket to New London, and to stay in that city all night as if to outwit anyone who might be following him. The next day he was to depart for Washington. During the trip she told him to keep the precious package tied to his arm, even while he was sleeping, lest it be lost or stolen.

Why did Mrs. Eddy demand such a performance? Was not the new edition of the greatest import to humanity spiritually, and was it not necessary for Mr. John­son to keep this fact uppermost in his mind, in order that the mission might be ac­complished according to spiritual direction and protection? When one learns that alertness and awareness constitute protection, Mrs. Eddy's methods of stimulat­ing alertness appear logical.

Now that our Leader is no longer with us, is it necessary to continue to use such methods? One would reply in the negative, if he fancied that such precau­tions were taken merely to satisfy her unreasonable demands, and to quiet her imaginary fears. When one recognizes that anything that is done to enable a student to keep actively in mind the truth of being, is legitimate and wise, then he will admit that we should continue Mrs. Eddy's methods today as far as possible. If one feels that her methods of maintaining conscious awareness are outmoded, that proves that he believes that she was obsessed with exaggerated notions regarding evil, that she had dwelt with it, taught it and worked against it for so long, that her imagination was overstimulated; so she translated everything into terms of animal magnetism.

It is no argument against Mrs. Eddy's methods of keeping students aware of the need of working against animal magnetism, when one asserts that he has given up trying to handle it as she did, and he finds that nothing of a terrible nature happens to him. On page 97 of Science and Health she writes that the higher Truth lifts her voice, the louder will error scream. Also on page 63 of Retrospection and Introspection she quotes St. Augustine as having said, “The devil is but the ape of God.” The conclusion is that if one stops voicing truth, the screaming of error in imitation of truth, will cease; but if one wages a warfare against animal magnetism and seeks to overcome it, — as one must do if he hopes to progress spiritually, — by the very claim of reversal, it must seek to overcome him. Thus, its efforts to overcome the student are but the reflex of his own struggle against it. The greater one's effort to demonstrate the divine authority of Truth to sustain and govern man in the material realm so-called as well as in the spiritual, the greater the effort animal magnetism will make in this direction, claiming divine authority to bolster up a material sense of man. The height of this effort Mrs. Eddy labelled Roman Catholicism, and made it plain that for one to neglect to meet it from this standpoint would spell spiritual failure.

A great difficulty in Science is to get students to work as they should on the problem of the human mind. They are glad to work on certain abuses of it which are self-evidently bad, but it is another matter when it comes to those phases of it that man uses to sustain himself under fear, to face danger with courage, to get the better of competitors in business, and the like. He still considers such phases to be a valuable part of his equipment for which he is grateful, and which he seeks to cultivate and to strengthen. The world loves stories of meek men who in a des­perate hour have laid hold of the human mind in such a way that they have be­come courageous and strong-willed. It requires spiritual growth to perceive that when one has learned to reflect divine Mind, any use of the human mind becomes an abuse, and that the only safe place in which to abide is in the consciousness of the allness of divine Mind.

Mrs. Eddy knew that in order to get a student to work against the human mind as though he was fighting for his life, he must see it as a devastating and dangerous devil when unhandled. Jesus did not hesitate to stress this point; so Mrs. Eddy cannot be criticized for so doing. He called it the devil and asserted that it was a murderer from the beginning. Here he was talking about the human mind in such a way as to stimulate resistance against it.

However, if the students had discovered that when Mrs. Eddy called upon them to put forth their best efforts to fight this dangerous enemy called malicious animal magnetism, she was only calling attention to phases of the human mind which she had taught was powerless and imaginary, their fear of it might have left them to the extent that they would not have worked as hard against it as they did. Today we do not want Mrs. Eddy's influence and example to wane, so that students find that if they lose all fear of it, and stop working against it, they get along as well as their brothers in mortal mind do. Christian Scientists should know that their mortal mind brothers are doomed, and they will be likewise, if they yield to this error, since the inexorable action of so-called material law eventually overtakes everything that seems to be mortal, so that mortal mind and its creations are self-destroyed.

Cain lived a daily life of simple husbandry, yet when he murdered his brother, the depravity and wickedness of the mind he was functioning under were expos­ed. When you see the agony that marks the end of so many mortals on this plane, you can gain some insight into the devilish nature of the human mind which con­trols them. You can see that it is something that must be overcome. So we must hold it up to view, label it for what it is, talk and write about it, in order to expose it to those ready to receive this information; then will be built up gradually an army of Christian soldiers who are ready to fight against it, not only for their own life, but for the salvation of the whole world.

By animal magnetism Mrs. Eddy meant the human mind. This fact should not cause students to lose their fear of it to the point where they will cease to wage a endless and relentless warfare against it. No teacher or practitioner should be­tray his Leader's trust to the extent of taking away students' fear of that which, when they are afraid of it to a certain extent, becomes an essential part of their training in working to overcome it. The situation is a serious one for every student of Science, since the question of whether one will enter into the marriage of the Lamb, or go into outer darkness, as the Bible prophesies, depends upon whether one is faithful in overcoming the human mind.

In the parable of the wise and foolish virgins, Jesus said nothing about their daily lives; he merely declared that when it came to a point where there was a need for extra oil, only the five who had anticipated such a need had enough. When the Master came to the crucifixion, he had oil in his lamp; so he did not have to succumb. The two thieves that were crucified with him had no oil. While Jesus entered the marriage, the reuniting of man with his Father-Mother God, the others remained in darkness.

It is not wise to disclose prematurely Mrs. Eddy's true purpose in laying stress on malicious animal magnetism, and we would not be justified in doing it in this book, were it not for the fact that it has become necessary in order to justify our Leader in phases of her experience that have been misunderstood. The Field must never believe that she was not a consistent Christian Scientist — that having taught faith in God, trust in the activities of divine Mind, and the powerlessness and nothingness of all that claims to oppose Him, she thereafter feared animal magnetism operating either through persons, sects, or poisons, and showed by her life that she believed that they had more power to overthrow her, than God had to sustain her. Posterity has a right to know that she was at all times confident, at all times trusted God and feared no evil, no matter how much may be said to the contrary.

It was our Leader's great affection for humanity that caused her to do so much work for the world, and to have her students do likewise. She knew that the intro­duction of the truth into the world was responsible for the aggravation of error, and she was faithful in doing her part to meet this aggravation. She had set a spiritual feast for humanity, and she was loving enough to do her part in washing the dirty dishes that remained. She knew that her exposure of the nature of evil had the effect of unchaining the devil, and she felt the responsibility, and wanted her students to feel theirs, namely, to work to protect innocent humanity from this aggravation of evil.

In a dark cave full of people, even the light from a candle would be welcomed by those who longed to escape from the darkness. At the same time there would be those who loved darkness. They would hate the light, and would conspire, if possible, to destroy the light. There would be those whose eyes were hurt by the light, who would beg the one who brought it, to put it out. They would even rise up to use force to extinguish it. The one bearing the light would have to take these facts into consideration, and do her best to shade the light from those hurt by it, and to protect it from those who would seek to destroy it.




September 6, 1892

Dear Student:

I forgot to charge you not to name anyone having a tablet. Wait until the time arrives — then will be soon enough to consider such a question. I trust your good judgment has already guided you thus. Thanks for your kind letter on memory; hope you will always remember your friends.

Affectionately,

M. B. G. Eddy


This letter is evidence of our Leader's care in anticipating effects, and timing moves, lest a premature action do harm instead of good. She watched lest ideas be put forth for which the public might not be ready. Today the tablet on The Mother Church stating that it was erected as a testimonial to our beloved Teacher arouses no criticism of personality worship. Yet fifty years ago the cry on the part of the unknowing was that we worshipped Mrs. Eddy. They could not perceive the difference between appreciation and worship, nor realize the importance of perpetuating and studying Mrs. Eddy's life, because she herself was the best demonstrator of her own revelation, and the one selected by God to be the way­shower in this age, because she was found worthy.

One who wants to know how to demonstrate Christian Science correctly, must learn it from Mrs. Eddy's own life. But, says one, can this not be learned from our textbook? Is it not all contained therein, and is not that all that is necessary for the student? If that is true, why do we not have correspondence schools to take the place of personal teaching in colleges? Surely a student gains more under a teacher who understands a subject and has proved it, than by merely studying a textbook. Page 493, line 13, in Science and Health substantiates this contention.

Mrs. Eddy had to warn her students continually not to put forth ideas that were too revolutionary, until thought was prepared for the reception of them. In the matter of the tablet, she foresaw that, although it was necessary to have it, yet its execution must be delayed until thought was better prepared for it. In the Chris­tian Science Journal for November, 1890, when the suggestion was agitated by my first teacher, Eugene H. Greene, that the church be a memorial church, Mrs. Eddy wrote, “I object to such a departure from the Principle of Christian Science, as it would be, to be memorialized in a manner which should cause personal motives for building the First Church of Christ (Scientist) in Boston. Contributions to this Boston Building Fund should be made on a higher plane of thought.”

Mrs. Eddy had as much regard for the wisdom necessary in presenting truth, as she did for the truth itself. One might declare that the first edition of Science and Health gave forth truth without regard for its effect in chemicalizing mortal thought. As she revised it, she finally brought it to a point where she could guar­antee that it was sufficiently comprehensible for the youngest student to grasp, without unduly chemicalizing mortal thought. Her authorized works, therefore, are authorized for infants, so as not to give them indigestion; yet they in no way depart from her more profound revelations.

Mrs. Eddy had proved in her own experience that it is only the error of mes­merism that blinds mortals to the recognition of Truth. When she handled this mesmerism in her own classes, infants in Science were able to understand the deep things of God. In the class that began on November 12, 1888, there was present a mother and son, a boy of twelve, who had heard of Christian Science, but had never studied a word of it, nor had they ever seen a demonstration. There was present a Methodist minister who had never read a word of Science and Health. One has but to read the profound teachings given in this class to discover the extent of Mrs. Eddy's demonstration in opening their understanding. If she could have been present to make such a demonstration with each one who read Science and Health, she never would have been called upon to simplify its terminology as she did.

Mrs. Eddy not only taught young students in her classes, but she also made the demonstration so that her pupils could understand her teachings. Has not man as God's reflection an infinite capacity to understand the truth? If so, then it is possible to destroy the mesmerism, so that this native ability to understand may be released. When this is done, the youngest pupils in a class find no difficulty in comprehending the deepest spiritual teachings.

Teachers in our Sunday Schools should remember this vital point. They should make a demonstration, so that they will not consider that they are talk­ing to ignorant children, but that in reality they are addressing ideas of God, who possess a native capacity to understand and love the things of God. Under such a demonstration a teacher will have no trouble in teaching and in being understood.

Mrs. Eddy foresaw that any step that was beyond the comprehension of the world would meet with opposition and criticism. A study of Mrs. Eddy's letters makes it plain that trouble among her students or in the church did not disturb her as much as some unwise move that would tend to create prejudice, and to pre­vent the public from knowing Christian Science as it really is. She would go to any lengths to correct such false impressions. No doubt this is why she wrote to William McCrackan on June 29, 1901, as follows: “You have one of the most im­portant posts to fill there is in the field, and I have an abiding sense so far that you will fill it. Our cause only needs the right men and women in it to encompass the world. God grant us these — it is all I ask.” Then again we find her concern for the public expressed in another word to him on August 24, 1902, “Mrs. Stetson manages her students not as I do students, and to herself I thunder the law and gospel on this subject, but it must not be made public, lest the unity of our Churches be broken and thus our prestige and power in the right direction be hindered.” Also on November 25, 1902, “If Mrs. Stetson and her students would do their duty to the Press, these malicious articles against their Leader would not appear. This is doing more injury to our Cause than they may live long enough to counteract.''

Mrs. Eddy felt that every one in the world must have the opportunity to ap­proach Christian Science without prejudice. Then he is free to accept or reject it. It is our duty to see that whatever might prejudice him is removed, corrected or prevented from appearing.

Christian Scientists have no quarrel with Roman Catholics as individuals, but part of the obligation they have towards humanity is to protect Catholics from Catholicism, so that they may have a free opportunity to embrace Christian Science if they so desire. One error of Catholicism is the fact that prejudice against the truth is included in the very teaching that purports to be the truth. Its followers fancy that they are being taught the truth about Deity, when in reality they are being inoculated with a prejudice against the truth, which effectually ties them up in error. Christian Scientists have the responsibility for freeing them from this darkening influence. We have no outward method of doing this directly, but we have a mental method which eventually will be successful for Roman Catholics and Protestants alike. When this induced prejudice is broken down, mankind will recognize Christian Science for what it is, and will be free to accept or to reject it according to their own inclination, uninfluenced by any induced pre­judice.

It is significant to find Mrs. Eddy referring to Mr. Johnson's “good judg­ment,” in this letter, since we have so many instances in which she repudiates good human judgment, and insists that good judgment is the judgment of God, which man is always able to reflect, if he so desires. In order to do so, however, he must think lightly of his own opinion, and so much of God's that he is willing always to make the effort to bring forth God's judgment. Pride stands in the way of this attainment. One will never seek to reflect the judgment of God, as long as he values his own opinions and judgment more highly than he ought, so that in the business meetings of our branch churches, for instance, he seeks constantly to inject his own ideas, in a place where human opinions should always be ruled out.

The standard of attainment and greatness in Christian Science, is spiritual­ity. Yet those members who through training, education and opportunity have developed their human judgment, do not like to feel that all of that is wasted. They know that their lack of spirituality is quite evident at the Wednesday evening meetings; so they try to rehabilitate themselves in the eyes of their fellow-members, by showing how smart they are in the business meetings. Other mem­bers are tempted to accept such opinions because they seem clever and wise. Christian Science, however, is founded on demonstration, and so it exists solely for the purpose of exalting demonstration. Omit demonstration and you have left a mill that makes no cloth, or a tree that bears no fruit.




Concord, N. H.

September 17, 1892

To the Board of Directors

of Christian Science

Dear Students:

I have a request to make that it is your duty to grant, viz.

That malicious minds be not allowed again to cause you to sign a circular letter that you send out which in any way shall con­flict with the spirit and the letter of my trust deed.

There is a purpose in the minds of the mesmerists to do this again; and I ask that you guard your actions in this respect. Mr. Nixon is still waiting, and looking towards getting out of the Church Building Fund enough to start for the Publishing rooms a fund, — which is a mild species of embezzlement.

Yours in Christ,

(Signed) Mary B. G. Eddy


Jesus stated plainly that a man's foes are they of his own household. Analyzed in terms of thought this statement must mean that the human mind is man's foe — that the very member of his mental household that man uses to solve his problems, to gain ascendancy over others, and to acquire a living, is his foe when he begins to attempt to reflect divine Mind. It appears harmless under or­dinary circumstances, and this fact explains why Mrs. Eddy found it hard to get her students to work against it.

She took up the problem of setting forth the value of divine Mind, where the Master left off. To her divine Mind was not an emergency measure to be used when the human mind failed. She advocated seeking to reflect divine Mind, not merely for immediate benefits, but for the sake of the final demonstration, in which man is restored to sonship with the Father. What is the son of God but the expression of Mind — one who functions wholly with that Mind and acknowledges no belief in any other?

This leads to the proposition that Mrs. Eddy was rousing students to a fear of the human mind that would stimulate resistance to it. The students had faith in her and trusted her; so when she pointed to the human mind as a dangerous enemy that they must overcome, they obeyed her to the best of their ability.

If a pet dog goes mad and bites folks, the only right and neighborly thing for the owner to do is to put it out of the way. If he loves the animal so much that he will not do it, a neighbor would be justified in resorting to a trick. He might put a wolfskin over it, so that its owner shoots it, believing it to be a wolf.

The human mind is apt to go mad at any time, even though we are so ac­customed to its madness and have made such a friend of it, and have leaned on it so heavily, that we feel little disposition to get rid of it. We would gladly see it free of its evil effects, which appear from time to time, but we seldom go further than that.

It was this indifference that caused Mrs. Eddy to put the wolfskin of animal magnetism on the human mind, so that students would be faithful in their efforts to destroy it. Her reference to malicious minds in this letter is an illustration of this point.

Under ordinary circumstances, the stress Mrs. Eddy placed on the im­portance of returning the contributions which had been made to The Mother Church under the Trust Deed might seem uncalled for; but in founding her Church, she could not afford to take one step that might be questioned, since everything Christian Scientists did in those days was watched to see if one slip or mistake could be discovered. Furthermore, she detected in this matter the effort of the human mind to find a loophole through which it might enter. If she kept it out in the first instance, it could not get in in the second; therefore she was faithful and alert on this point.

She awakened the Directors to the error and to the importance of over­coming it, by giving them the instruction that it was finding expression through malicious minds. Such instruction would cause them to watch more carefully, to feel more keenly the inadequacy and danger of human intelligence, and to work harder to reflect divine Mind, which would preclude the possibility of mistakes being made.

Just as germs in drinking water are detected under a microscope, Mrs. Eddy's spiritual insight magnified errors to the point where their danger might be per­ceived. In this way she stimulated an effort to overcome them, when otherwise they might not seem worthy of consideration. Often her students struggled against that which Mrs. Eddy pointed out as being aggressively dangerous, merely because she told them to do so, and not because they truly believed in their hearts that the error was dangerous. She translated all the experiences of life into temptations to separate man from God, because she knew that in this way students would be in a far better position to overcome them.

If a child who could not swim was holding on to his father in the water, he would not permit anything to cause him to let go. Mrs. Eddy pointed out to students that everything in mortal life is a temptation to let go of God. She knew that they were trained to oppose error at all times; therefore, all she had to do to stimulate resistance on their part was to call a thing error, and they would at once go to work as they should. Since malicious minds meant error, it becomes plain what her purpose was in writing this letter.

Mrs. Eddy was putting into operation a wonderful process when she had students work against the human mind as error in whatever they undertook to do for God. They did not always understand what she was driving at, yet by not making things too plain she was helping them to grow spiritually. She perceived clearly the fundamental malevolence of the human mind in its determination to rule God out of this world, and she did all she could to awaken students to see the danger; but she knew that she could only go just so far in this exposure, since wisdom does not permit mortal mind to learn prematurely its latent possibilities for evil.

During the winter of 1937 the Ohio River rose to the unprecedented level of seventy-two feet. Newspaper headlines dubbed the river a demoniacal monster gone beserk; the loss of life and property was appalling. Yet the raging river was the same stream beside which people had so trustingly built their homes and lived for years in apparent safety.

Mrs. Eddy could be likened to one who, through a higher sense, foresaw the terrible potentialities for harm in the peaceful stream, and yet could only go so far in warning the people. The river in turn might be likened to the Biblical char­acter, Cain, who appeared a harmless and industrious farmer, until by committing murder he exposed the basis of his thought. When wisdom refused to accept his offering, it was spiritual sense that detected the latent error that did not appear on the surface.

From the negative point of view of a mortal, the human mind is harmless enough. It is the thought awakened and instructed by Science that perceives that one can never tell when one is being influenced erroneously by it, unless he employs spiritual sense as his protection. St. Paul revealed the treachery of the human mind when he voiced the cry that the things he did not want to do, he did, and vice versa. He saw his normal inclinations being so warped by the mesmerism of the human mind, that his true desires were not discernible.

Mrs. Eddy sought to have her students build up their defences against the river of mortal mind far higher than they believed would ever be necessary. She cried, “Danger,” when they could see no danger. Through spiritual sense, however, she foresaw the terrible possibilities latent in the error of a false mind accepted and believed in. The very human mind we all use and which we see flowing along more or less harmoniously every day, and which brings to mortals a degree of satisfaction and security, is not a pleasant thing to contemplate when, swollen by fear, greed, and ambition, it turns the world into a battlefield, and sweeps everything before it.

Mrs. Eddy provided that which enabled students to build their defences so high, that even the swollen river of mortal mind could not inundate their homes. She knew that those who did not listen were booked for a mortal destiny under the human mind, as are all who yield to it without a resistance that is the result of an enlightened understanding.

One who functions under divine Mind enjoys painless progress, until death is swallowed up in victory. So great was Mrs. Eddy's desire to have as many of her students as possible partake of this painless progress, that she exaggerated error in order that students might awaken to see it as she did, namely, as a constant temptation to accept the belief of separation from God.

One reflecting divine Mind has a perfect protection from any inroads of a false sense. If this sense assails him with the obvious intention of robbing him of this reflection, he is immediately aroused to resist; but what about this sense when it comes along with this same intention, yet appearing to be so insignif­icant that it does not seem worth bothering with?

Insurance companies have studied statistics until they are forced to the con­clusion that man is safer on the busiest street corner in the world, than he is in his own bathtub. This is because, where traffic is dangerous, man is alert and watchful, whereas in his tub he feels so secure that he often permits drowsi­ness and carelessness to overtake him.

It was Mrs. Eddy's mission to exaggerate the simple phases of the human mind, which she knew were just as deadly as its aggressive phases, in robbing students of their demonstrating thought. Householders take elaborate precau­tions against robbers, while they allow themselves to be robbed of hundreds of dollars worth of clothes every year through moths. It requires something by way of a stir to arouse mortals to see the necessity of checking these apparently small robbers. Mrs. Eddy found this proposition true in the mental realm. She had to ex­aggerate the claims of mortal mind — many of them — before students would admit that they were dangerous to one's reflection of God.

The Bible says that all the ways of a good man are ordered by the Lord. If Mrs. Eddy could get her students under all conditions to function under the dem­onstration of divine Mind, their steps would be enduring and synchronize with hers in the founding of the Cause. She taught that animal magnetism was merely the use and abuse of the human mind, as the avowed enemy of God, keeping God out of mortal affairs until the demonstration is made to let Him in. She knew that a poisonous snake without a rattle is more dangerous than a rattle­snake, since the former gives no warning of its approach; so the phases of the human mind against which she had to warn students were those that tended to put them to sleep in a false sense of security, as if in this dream of existence there could be a lasting peace and safety separate from God.

A new standard of right and wrong had been revealed to Mrs. Eddy. There­fore, when she warned students against the human mind and their indifference in handling it, she was not gauging their deflection from the standpoint of man, but of God. She was condemning students who knew how to think right and yet who were neglecting to do so.

Humanly, the word, embezzlement, covers the secret theft of funds and is punishable by law. It is a crime that emanates from wrong thinking, and is some­thing no student of Christian Science would commit, if he protected his thought from animal magnetism. Yet there are many other effects coming from the same unprotected thought that embezzlement comes from, which the world would consider hardly worthy of condemnation or even thought, yet from which the student needs to protect himself.

The world cannot understand how Mrs. Eddy felt about sin, since she gauged sin according to cause rather than effect. To her even such a simple thing as the impulse to be irritated, was a trick of animal magnetism to rob her of God; and she knew that when one is robbed of God, he can be disposed of without difficulty. Her teachings thus place irritation in the category of sin, since she taught that it is not only sin to do anything that causes one to be robbed of God, but a very silly thing as well.

It would be silly for the cub of a wild animal to wander outside of the range of its mother's protection, before it was old enough to care for itself and defend itself against its enemies. Likewise, it is a foolish act, to say the least, for a Christian Scientist to do anything that takes him out of the reflection of God, in which lies his protection and his ability to help his fellow-man.

Mrs. Eddy could see that it would be difficult for her to rouse students to perceive the serious nature of the mistakes of the human mind, its attempt to dominate, and its disregard for the presence of divine Mind, unless she called attention to its abuse by such a thought-arresting name as malicious animal magnetism. Likewise, when she called the handling of the funds by the Trustees a mild form of embezzlement, something which appeared to be no more than a mistake, — if indeed it was that, — she was awakening the students to perceive that in the eyes of God they were becoming a party to a sin that was equal to that which in the eyes of man would deserve a punishment of ten years in jail!

If one was guilty of being an embezzler in the eyes of God, he should not be surprised to have God's punishment descend upon him. If Mrs. Eddy could save him from such punishment, by opening his blind eyes in time, she could surely feel that she had done such a one a great service. Many punishments which seem drastic are really designed to save man from a greater punishment which he is on the way to deserve, if he continues in wrong doing. It is always kindness to discipline children sufficiently, so that they will be curbed in instincts which, if allowed to develop, would grow into lawlessness.

Mrs. Eddy saw what sin was in God's sight, and was able to convey this concept to students, when they would listen to her, so that they would perceive that they were committing offences in the mental and spiritual realm which were deserving of punishment. In the instance covered by the letter of September 17, 1892, she did this by comparing the offence to embezzlement in a mild form.

One of Mrs. Eddy's great services to her students was when she compared mental sin with material, so that they might gain a correct estimate of the nature of their offence, when they departed from God's demands upon them. In this way she often saved them from committing sin in God's sight and receiv­ing punishment from God. She knew that mortals consider it no crime to offend God, and that, apart from her teachings, mortals would have no correct con­cept of what it meant to offend Him.

The Bible gives the prayer of one who prayed, “Cleanse thou me from secret faults.” What are secret faults, but the faults hidden from material sense, or those of wrong thinking, which represent a serious departure in the eyes of God from what man should be and do.

The student of Christian Science soon learns the value of healing the sick, as a proof of the truth of his religion. At the same time he must recognize sick­ness as a punishment for wrong thinking. Just as, when he sees a man in jail, he knows that it is a punishment for material sin, so he must regard sickness as punishment for hidden sin, or wrong thinking. Furthermore, while a man may sin and at times escape going to jail, he cannot escape the effect of mental sin, which is a willingness or a determination to think with a mind which is the deadly enemy of God, and so of man.

When sin is contemplated from Mrs. Eddy's standpoint, it can be seen what an offence it is, when a misguided student brings the human mind into the business meeting of a branch church. To do so is an insult to God, and a failure to follow the admonition in the Bible, “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” If shoes represent human thinking, and the church is a place dedicated to the presence and service of God, then the Biblical rule applies in our business meetings, and students who disregard it cannot escape the punishment that follows spiritual wickedness in high places, or bringing the human mind into a place where the Mind of God alone should be and rule.

One who has no knowledge of any mind except that which he has always used, namely, the human mind, cannot be condemned for using it; but when one learns that God is the only Mind and is jealous of the claim of another mind, and that his work on earth is to deny and overthrow the belief in any Mind but God, he comes into a position where he is punished for any failure in this direc­tion.

When Mrs. Eddy wrote a By-law requiring members of The Mother Church to offer prayers in the church for the congregation, she did something that she knew would appeal to the loving sympathy in students and to their desire to bless and help the needy. At the same time she did something to help members to make the demonstration to bring God's Mind with them into the church. While the object of blessing the congregation was a grand idea and one that all should embrace, back of it was Mrs. Eddy's method of helping her followers to keep from sinning against God by failing to bring His mind into the church where no other mind should ever be. The act of blessing the congregation by working to estab­lish divine Mind as being present instead of the so-called mind of man, enables one to fulfil his obligation to God and to avoid the punishment that must descend upon the one who yields to the soporific tendency to indulge in the easier way to sense, namely, to use the mind of mortal man.

If mortal man should complain about the necessity laid upon him by Christian Science to give up the human mind, let him listen to my experience with a bowl of expensive English shaving soap, which, when I tried to use it, failed to make lather. I was about to condemn the soap as being worthless, when I discovered that it was wrapped in transparent cellophane, that I had not noticed, which prevented my using it. When it was removed, the soap was found to be satisfactory.

In giving up the cellophane, I was not losing something valuable; I was discarding that which was covering up something valuable. Similarly, when we are called to give up the human mind, let us not complain that we are called to give up that which has value. We are only called to dispense with that which, until it is eliminated, will hide from us the only thing that has any value what­soever, namely, divine Mind.




September 19, 1892

Dear Student:

I could not make out the meaning of your letter, (last one) till today. You remember you wrote me that Mr. Lang and you were about to send out letters. This was my reason for recalling mine. But now, as near as I can get the meaning of your letters, no information has been given them until this late date.

This is dreadful! Every time I have got things fixed right, to my astonishment M.A.M. has upset them, unless I could attend to it all myself. Now I beg that you see that your late advertising does not hinder the issue of the Journal. If this delay of the Journal is accomplished — it will give the ones who are bound to rob the fund, at least all the chance to do this they desire, this too, after keeping back all other means I had planned to have the money honestly returned for the fund to which it could only legally be given.

M. B. G. Eddy

Have the Journal issued the 25th of this month under all cir­cumstances. Once do this as I say precisely. Call the twelve who met at your last Church meeting together. Three days notice is enough. No legal form is necessary after that.

Immediately get together the twelve students that met at your last Church meeting. (No formal notice is required.) Elect a Chair­man and Sec. Then vote yourselves, Chairman included, members of the First Church of Christ, Scientist. Choose your officers for this Church. Then vote to receive whatever dismissed from other churches as members of this Church, (all but Mrs. Nixon and Miss Campbell,) whose names are on your first list of charter members.

The very next day have the Secretary inform all these mem­bers that as soon as they obtained dismission from the churches to which they may belong they have become First Members in regular standing of the First Church of Christ, Scientist of Boston. Remember to say in your notice to them, “First” Members.

Yours,

M. B. G. Eddy


This letter was used as an exhibit in the Master's report of May 1923, in the Suit in Equity, relating to the dismissal of John V. Dittemore as a member of the Christian Science Board of Directors; but the Master declared that he found nothing in it that was material to the case in question.

The student of Mrs. Eddy's life, however, can glean several important lessons from it. It illustrates her effort to construct a net with meshes so fine that no fish could escape. It proves that in matters which on the surface appeared to have no direct relation to what she was striving to demonstrate, she could detect the action and trick of mesmerism. Today in looking back, we should be able to recognize that which she perceived through spiritual sense.

In her attitude toward the building fund at this time, Mrs. Eddy indicated that there is an honesty the basis of which is higher than anything the world has ever known. She inaugurated the Science of honesty, one that is not based on one's being found out, if he is dishonest, but on one's obligation to God, as well as his love for his fellow-men. She knew that mortal man is willing to harbor thoughts of dishonesty, provided that they do not manifest themselves in such a way that he is liable to be caught and punished. She saw that she had a task to perform, namely, to establish a standard of honesty which was right according to divine Mind, rather than the human mind.

Mrs. Eddy also had a standard of timing, which meant doing the right thing at the right time. She never delayed when God gave the word. She never post­poned doing a thing, even though she might feel that it was beyond her at the time. She never made ill health, or rush of work, an excuse to neglect that which was important. There were times when the pressure of more important letters forced her to delay answering private correspondence, for which she might ask forgiveness; but she maintained such punctiliousness that the lack of taking responsibility on the part of students grieved her, as we see in this letter.

Part of the mission of Christian Science is to wake people out of this mortal state of lethargy, or inactivity — this continual procrastination. They must learn that if they desire to be Christian Scientists, they must master and overcome these tendencies, since they are obnoxious to God.

It was the way a matter displeased God that brought forth Mrs. Eddy's severe rebuke. She represented God; hence whatever offended Him, offended her. Today her demands have lost none of their force. The requirements which she left as an heritage for her Church were not hers, but God's, and God's demands are as urgent today as they were when she was here! Hence the demand for correct action and demonstrated effort is exactly the same today as it was when she was here. If one starts with the premise that these directions came from God, he can see that he can offend God just as much today by a failure to live up to them, as he could when Mrs. Eddy was here to rebuke him. It was much better, however, to receive Mrs. Eddy's rebuke, than to feel free to break God's commands, and then have to pay the penalty.

When a policeman sees boys about to throw stones at a street light, it is better for him to warn them, than to wait until they have broken the light, and then have to arrest them. No matter how severely Mrs. Eddy rebuked a student, she always stood between him and God's wrath. What stands between us and God's wrath today, if not Mrs. Eddy's precepts? We must strive to rebuke our­selves for poor work on this basis.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy might have told Mr. Johnson to wake up; yet she is consistent with her teaching and declares that it was M.A.M. that upset things, just when she got them fixed right. But she rebuked him indirectly, by implying how subtly it worked, and how her students were handled by it. It was her recognition that these errors were from without, and not part of man, that gave her the ability to help the students to free themselves from them. Had she held them as errors of character, as the effects of bad up-bringing, or as inherent in man, she would have been powerless to help anyone.

Mrs. Eddy detected that at this time the trick of mesmerism was to delay the arrival of copy for the advertising, so that the Journal could not be printed on time; or to force the printing of it without the advertising, which would mean a loss of funds necessary to carry on. If that happened, part of the money given for the building fund might have to be used to defray the expense of printing the Journal, which, from her point of view, would be dishonesty. God was her Judge, and she knew that it required a higher standard of honesty to be right with God than with man. Mental honesty is the highest form of honesty, and a form that is least recognized by the world.

It is always helpful to regard the fact that Mrs. Eddy put her finger on malicious animal magnetism as the reason for error, when a less scientific student might have personalized it. When error is personalized, the one accused feels depressed over the prospect of working out of the error, as though he was in­competent to carry on, so there is not much use trying. If he has certain tendencies which are not right, why try to overcome them? Mrs. Eddy avoided this effect of personalization by regarding every deflection on the part of a student as animal magnetism, or hypnotism. If a man should stutter, he would not feel that he had a lifetime of effort ahead of him to overcome such a tendency, if he learned that a hypnotist had produced this effect in him. Knowing that such a spell was temporary, he would have a firm hope that it could be broken in an instant.

When Mrs. Eddy insisted that The Mother Church be finished at a certain date, when the human circumstances appeared to make such an achievement impossible, she was calling on the students to utilize divine Mind, which recog­nizes no obstacles in the way of the execution of its plans, thus bringing them up to the standard of Christian Science. In this letter in which she requires the Journal to be issued on the 25th, she is doing the same thing. Human sense might excuse the Journal's being delayed by declaring that the copy for adver­tising did not come in on time, that there was a shortage of paper, or help; but in Science no excuses are accepted, since Science recognizes no conditions which demonstration cannot overcome.

Mrs. Eddy, when she set a time limit on some matter for the Cause, accepted no excuses. She made no allowances for unforeseen conditions, such as strikes, storms, fire, since she knew that students have in demonstration an infallible method of fulfilling their obligations. Once she gave the following arresting statement as the rule for her students: “Simplicity, accuracy, and economy. Excuses are intolerable.” Thus, when she said that the 25th was the date for the Journal to appear, she meant that it was possible through demonstration to issue it on that date even if the human mind said no; so the students must do it; other­wise it would be a failure in demonstration. In this way she made it impossible for her students to do it wholly through the human mind.

It is always interesting to find that Mrs. Eddy knew enough about proper procedure, that she could instruct the students what to do down to the smallest detail, with a clear touch and an unwavering certainty. She declared that no formal notice was required for this meeting. She knew that whatever was done at this meeting could not be abrogated merely because someone claimed that no formal notice had been sent out. There is no evidence that she had had any great experience in parliamentary matters; yet she outlined the exact form of meetings just as if she were a lawyer with years of experience in organized work.

While Mrs. Eddy at this time organized her church with a Board of Directors, she placed the running of the affairs largely in the hands of the First Members. Gradually it became evident to her that a large group could not function as satisfactorily as a committee. Truth is so vital to the race, that error is set against its establishment. When Mrs. Eddy put forth a matter of importance, she often found opposition to it on the part of the members. Whereas she could get some unimportant measure passed without difficulty, the moment something of im­portance was placed before them, there would be those who would oppose it. Finally, it became necessary for her to take all powers away from this group and place the government of the church in the hands of the Directors.

In conclusion, we have in this letter Mrs. Eddy's conception of honesty, which was one that would pass the scrutiny of God, without reference to legality or human opinion. To her honesty was a fundamental actuality included in divine Mind, which could only be known and practiced by man as he reflected this Mind.

In this letter we also have Mrs. Eddy's consistency, where, instead of berating individuals for mistakes or delays, she placed the blame on malicious animal magnetism. The individual was, therefore, not blamed for the sinful act, but for yielding to the influence of that which made him commit the act.

A third point to be found in this letter is the method by which she drove students to the use of demonstration, setting a standard for them which she wanted them to strive to live up to without excuses. Human contracts provide for non­fulfillment under circumstances which include so-called acts of God, strikes and similar unforeseen contingencies. There are no such excuses permitted in Science, since through the power of God the student has control over all things.

Finally, in this letter we find Mrs. Eddy laying out the procedure for the organization from its inception, doing it with such a sure touch that one is compelled to admit that her reflection of divine wisdom gave her authority and knowledge in every direction. Science teaches that all that man needs to know at any time is contained in his reflection of God. Hence in proportion to the clarity of his reflection man is equipped to go forth to fulfil God's plan on earth.




September 21, 1892

My dear Student:

Immediately I want you to see the 12 students that met at your last Church meeting and ask them to meet, if possible, on the evening of that very day to attend matters of the Church.

When you are collected, tell them my lawyer said they could at any time organize a Church and take out a charter if they wish to. But as the corporation is safe for our church title, which my deed has established, there is no special need of this.

But this do —

At this meeting of the twelve choose your Church officers. You organize no special organization by which to obtain a charter, but only for the purpose of having a president of your meeting and secretary, in order to vote on receiving members.

Then call on the meeting to vote on the persons named in your list, (all but the one who sent in request to have her name dropped) and Miss Campbell, who wished to wait. After this meeting inform these members who belong to our Church and that they are among the First Members of the First Church of Christ, Scientist. Also inform them that if they belong to other churches that they must withdraw from these churches. Send your notice simply that if they subscribe to our Tenets and their names are on your list, that they are members of this Church. This does not conflict with the deed and must be done if you have a church at all to build an edifice for, and done at once, or you will lose your contributors. Do not let M.A.M. prevent you carrying this out without any further orders from me.

M. B. G. Eddy

N. B. I never looked at your notice. There is no need of one. The meeting is informal in one sense.


These moves that Mrs. Eddy made and instructed her students to make, would easily be criticized by one who does not perceive that they were demands from God, and who fancies that they were the offshoot of Mrs. Eddy's own thought. Such a one would maintain that trained human minds could evolve ideas as constructive and helpful as these. So he would question why Mrs. Eddy sought so persistently and insistently to establish her own ideas, to the exclusion of wise and helpful suggestions from others. As a matter of fact, she was not arguing in behalf of her own ideas at all, but in behalf of God's.

When Mrs. Eddy added in the postscript that this meeting which was to take place was informal in one sense, she meant that it was one not necessarily governed by Robert's Rules of Order, which require that an advance notice be sent out stating the object of the meeting. Thus, even in such a routine matter as a church meeting may be seen the thread of divine wisdom which alone comes from God, and which guided Mrs. Eddy all the way in the establishment of her Cause. There were students who did not question her ability to establish the church spiritual, to heal the sick and to teach her doctrine, but who felt at times that the details of the material organization might have been as successfully established by others; that although she stood for the highest spiritual thought and revelation, yet that when it came to the material details of organization, trained human intelligence was needed. The Bible tells us that “all the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord;” then one who claims to be following the leadings of God must demonstrate every step. Thus, it required the same dem­onstration on Mrs. Eddy's part to found the organization as it did to heal the sick.

Our Leader was the pioneer in setting forth the breadth of demonstration­ — the importance of using it in all of one's ways. She taught that it could be used scientifically only as one first cleared the ground of the error that would always attempt to prevent effective work from being done. In spite of the fact that through her teachings many thousands of students have learned to heal the sick, yet when it comes to the application of Christian Science in the minutiae of daily life, these students are but babes in their understanding. Demonstration must become the foundation of all thought and action, for nothing is right, nothing is truly successful, nothing conforms to God's demands unless it is the product of demonstration.

According to Eugene H. Greene, my first teacher, Mrs. Eddy once said, “If you seem ill, handle animal magnetism. If your joy is lost, handle animal magnetism. If your horse runs away, handle animal magnetism. If you stub your toe, if your house is on fire, handle animal magnetism.” Edward A. Kimball reported this quotation further as follows: “If you lose something, handle animal magnetism; if your dog is ill, handle animal magnetism; if you hurt your finger or toe, or knock yourself in any way, handle animal magnetism. If you feel a pain, handle animal magnetism.”

One deduction from this instruction is that Mrs. Eddy was endeavoring to accustom students to think in terms of mental causation, and to realize that nothing but harmony can result from a scientifically correct state of mind. Even minor evidences of a deflection in one's metaphysical thinking become important to one who is endeavoring to be a right thinker, indicating a mental falling-away that he might not otherwise recognize.

The metaphysician knows that a constant watch must be maintained, to see that his spiritual thought is not invaded by mortal mind suggestions. The en­trance of such suggestions may be so stealthy that, were it not for some manifesta­tion of the presence of this human thinking, he might not detect the error. The higher one advances spiritually, the more immediate and definite become the outward indications of a thought invaded by error of any sort. This enables one immediately to reverse and cast out that which otherwise might multiply, and cast his thought down from its spiritual altitude.

Mrs. Eddy's insistence on a broader use of demonstration was in part a process of teaching the students protection, as well as a fulfillment of the demands of God as they came to her. She urged upon the students that which is vital to success in Christian Science, namely, the attainment of spiritual alertness which considers nothing too insignificant to warrant attention, when it lies in the line of the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on earth — the entrance of spiritual cause and effect to replace mortal mind cause and effect.

At times Mrs. Eddy put forth recommendations tentatively; yet she showed no hesitancy in retracting her steps if further spiritual light enabled her better to foresee the need, or to detect that she was being influenced by the thoughts of others. When she was certain that God spoke through her, however, she never backed down. When she put forth directions which later had to be retracted, such times were usually when her opinion had been sought in such haste that she did not have time to give the matter proper consideration and demonstration, to be sure that the answer came from God. Yet her steadfast effort to reflect divine Mind prevented her from departing very far from its guidance. An analy­sis of the things she put forth and then retracted, shows that often such acts prepared thought for the acceptance of similar propositions at a later date, when thought was better prepared. Another possibility is that at times she made a start in one direction to throw the enemy off the trail, just as a commander may make a sally in one direction merely to distract his opponents, before he launches his main offensive.

The proper attitude from which to regard our Leader is to declare that in all her ways she was divinely led. She loved God and, therefore, all things worked together for good. This leaves one free to carry on a spiritual investigation of her motives and the results that followed her inspirational thought. From such a standpoint there is no danger that one may lose the spiritual development which accrues from such study.

No man will work very long on a problem if he doubts his ability to solve it. On the other hand, if he knows that it can be solved, and if he has any deter­mination at all, he will continue until he has found the solution. If one starts with the premise that all of Mrs. Eddy's ways were ordered by the Lord, he will never give up seeking for the spiritual why and wherefore of any particular point in her life, until God reveals it to him, nor will he cast aside anything as being too trivial or worthless to merit his attention and study.

On November 26, 1918, it was proposed by a member of the Board of Directors that a portion of Mrs. Eddy's letters and papers be destroyed. Back of this sug­gestion was a mistaken desire to protect his Leader, on the basis that such items contained information which he feared might reflect against her in time to come. While this desire to protect Mrs. Eddy sprang from human loyalty, greater insight would have revealed to this Director that such letters and papers were being preserved under a divine mandate, whereby such items would prove as valuable in the course of time to advanced students, as her authorized works are today. In fact, had they been destroyed, Mrs. Eddy's mission might not be understood in its fulness. The right thought is not to wish to have these papers destroyed because of the inability of dull eyes to comprehend the sacred higher footsteps of the spiritual pioneer, but to pray earnestly and fervently for divine guidance in handling such material, so that the divine purpose and meanings in them may be revealed.

Traditional theology has failed to discover the hidden meaning of the Bible largely because it has either refused to believe in the existence of such meaning, or because it has regarded its discovery to be impossible to us. Will students of Christian Science be any more successful in perceiving the hidden meanings of Science and Health, or of Mrs. Eddy's life, unless they believe that they do exist, and that it is possible to discover them?

One of the outstanding features regarding the war in 1917 was the per­sistency of the Intelligence Departments of all the nations involved, in seeking to read the enemy's code messages. Seldom did they give up in an effort to decipher the message that might lie hidden in an apparently commonplace letter.

Once the student is convinced that there are hidden truths contained in every revelation from God, no matter to whom it may come, as well as in the life of the revelator, he will never cease in his effort to uncover them. The only way animal magnetism can prevent such an effort is to suggest either that no such message is present, or that it cannot be discovered. If either of these suggestions is accepted by man, he might as well destroy many papers and letters of Mrs. Eddy's in the effort to protect her good name.

In the twelfth chapter of Revelation we read of the woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars. The moon under her feet might symbolize the fact that Mrs. Eddy found herself with a measure of spiritual understanding and reflection naturally; but she attained a brighter reflection of divine Mind through Science, and thus clothed herself with the sun. The stars represent a composite of the twelve qualities of thought needed for complete reflection.

The twelve disciples symbolized the fact that Jesus had a complete reflec­tion of God. Similarly Mrs. Eddy embodied these twelve qualities in her reflec­tion of God, which she cast upon her students as a preliminary to their gaining divine reflection, each one for himself.

As long as it was necessary for her students to get their light from Mrs. Eddy's reflection, she called for blind obedience. As long as they represented the stars in her crown, they had to draw their light from her, since in her reflec­tion of God were the complete qualities necessary to make any demonstration in its fulness, such as to establish a church, as well as to watch over its pro­mulgation, continuation and growth.

This leads up to the point that we do not find Mrs. Eddy leaning very heavily on the demonstration of the twelve students chosen to start the Church, since they had to draw most of their spiritual light from her. Planets shine by the light that they reflect from the sun. Mrs. Eddy was the sun, or source of light, for these twelve, although they knew, of course, that her light came from God. When the Church was started, the chief requirement was for them to be obedient to her reflection. At times they were directed to do things the reasonableness and purpose of which they could not comprehend; but they were obedient. Mrs. Eddy herself was told things by God which at the time she could not compre­hend; but she obeyed the divine leading. The students bore a relationship to Mrs. Eddy that was similar to that which she bore to God. They became stars in her crown of rejoicing.

The woman in Revelation “prefigured no specialty or individuality,” as Mrs. Eddy herself once declared. Speaking of the Revelator she wrote, “His vision foretold a type, and this type applied to man as well as to woman. Another application or identification of his vision of the woman spoken of in the 12th chapter of Revelation is chimerical; it has no more validity than to fancy a statue of Liberty as represented by a woman resembling some individual form or face, then name it that individual. The application of this character or type to individuals is left to human conception.”

We can assert that this woman in Revelation represents the highest dem­onstration of reflection. We have to reflect from this woman, just as she reflected from God, pending the time when we can make the demonstration of direct reflection. The moon is symbolic of indirect reflection, whereas clothing oneself with the sun symbolizes the demonstration of direct reflection.

On page 68 of the Church Manual Mrs. Eddy mentions the course in Divinity. Today we understand this to mean the course taught by Divinity, which means the act of reflecting one's instruction directly from God. Before students can take this course, they must prove themselves ready for it by their success in reflecting their light from Mrs. Eddy's reflection. One who cannot be obedient to one who correctly and rightfully represents God, surely could not be obedient to the direct commands of God. If one cannot understand the one who reflects God, he surely cannot understand God. If one questioned the correctness and justification of what another received from God, he would be criticizing God, since what one gains from Him is forever incomprehensible to material sense.

It was part of Mrs. Eddy's reflection to provide the demonstration for these twelve who were to form the Church, rather than for her to let them come together and organize under their own demonstration. These twelve were in a measure puppets in Mrs. Eddy's hands. One might accuse Mrs. Eddy of domination and popery, controlling students so that they had no more initiative than puppets, no more independence of thought. And popery it would be outside of Science; but in Science it is always legitimate to restrain any action of the human mind, until divine Mind is attained. The Bible declares that once there was silence in heaven for half an hour. This is symbolic of the fact that if you cannot voice truth when truth is called for, you should be silent.

If a man was drowning, it would be legitimate for you to hold your hand over his face to prevent him from taking in any water, until you get him out into the air. Mrs. Eddy's apparent domination was merely giving the students no chance to voice human opinion or to introduce something which did not come from God, until His plan was executed. She demanded that they be quiet and say nothing of themselves, pending the time when they made the demonstration to voice God.

The twelve students who met that day had scant demonstrating power beyond their cultivated ability to heal the sick. They understood little of the application of demonstration to church organization. Today, fifty years later, students com­monly have not yet attained such an understanding.

One might think that, as long as Mrs. Eddy was educating and training students, she would have permitted them to work out some things in connection with this reorganization of the Church, in order to develop initiative; but in Science we are not striving to develop human initiative but to restrain it as much as possible, in order that students may develop spiritual initiative, and demonstrate their right to act, because of their proven ability to voice God. If a dangerous gas was present in time of war, civilians would have to wear gas masks. They could take them off only as they rose high enough to be above the gas.

Mortal mind is poisonous gas to the Christian Scientist. It is this poison that we find at times brought into our business meetings. In a place that is dedicated and consecrated to pure Mind, or God, this erroneous sense of mind is brought in by those members who permit themselves to be used by animal magnetism. The gas mask of Spirit is essential, and should be put on by those who seek truly to be faithful to their Leader's example and demonstration. While she was active in the church, she helped the students all she could to keep this baneful in­fluence from entering the Holiest of Holies.

Correctly analyzed, this letter of September 21, 1892, which, regarded his­torically, is the call from Mrs. Eddy that marked the actual beginning of THE FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST (See Manual, page 18), is metaphysi­cally and scientifically right. While one might ask if it was the student's part to be wholly subservient to Mrs. Eddy, let it be said that they had to be subservient to her until they had grown to the point where they could be subservient to God. They had to reflect the light from the twelve stars in her crown, pending the time when they could gain their wisdom from the divine source. Humanly this would have been domination and dictatorship. Spiritually it was the way to guard the church as well as the students against the adversary. No growth in grace follows when students are encouraged to voice mortal mind and human opinions. On page 399 of the textbook, Mrs. Eddy writes, “The one Mind, God, contains no mortal opinions.” Sincere students are expected to fight against voicing mortal opinions. The Christian Science Church is organized to teach its members how to rule out and keep out the human mind from any of the deliberations and activities of the Church. It is the human mind with its human opinions which students have pledged themselves to fight. How consistent would it be for a student to fight the human mind as animal magnetism all day, and then the same night go to a business meeting of the church and use this mind, insisting that it is right and good to do so?

Mrs. Eddy acknowledged and admitted no intermediate point. Hence where it was necessary, she restrained human initiative in students, until she found them ready to follow her method, which was to demonstrate every part of the activities of the church. Furthermore, when she dedicated her own home to this same proposition, she made it a part of the church. Hence when Sunday morning came, her students in her home did not have to go to church, they were already in church. Logically, when the church members failed to use demonstra­tion in the church, could it rightly continue to be called a church, since that which alone made it so in the eyes of God was absent? Mrs. Eddy made no idle statement to her students when she said, “Ill it is for us when we have failed to realize Truth's way of achieving all ends is altogether unlike man's.”

The minutes of the meeting of September 23 which resulted from this letter, will always be of great historical interest, being the Clerk's record of the first meeting of the newly organized church. The minutes start by stating that eleven persons met at 133 Dartmouth St. at 12 o'clock; yet when one counts the names of those present, he finds twelve. Also on page 18 of the Manual, we find the statement that on this date, at the request of the Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy, twelve of her students and Church members met. The explanation for this is that Mrs. Ellen L. Clarke was absent, and that the second vote taken was to the effect that “the secretary shall add Mrs. Ellen L. Clarke's name to the list of names of those present, which was done.”

The absence of Mrs. Clarke would indicate that error was striking at Mrs. Eddy's demonstration of completeness in founding the church, just as error attempted to break the Master's chain of completeness by striking at him through Judas. His disciples drew their spiritual light from his crown of twelve stars, and this group would have symbolized a complete reflection, had it not been for Judas. Yet Revelation contains no record of incompleteness, since in the 21st chapter we read of the foundations of the great city, “...and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.” This proves that in spite of Judas' betrayal, Jesus' demonstration was complete and was so recorded. Jesus filled in the vacancy left by Judas with his own demonstration.

In like manner, the effort of error to break up Mrs. Eddy's demonstration of completeness in founding her church was circumvented by including Mrs. Clarke's name in the list of those present. Her presence in person was not as important as to record for all time that the students which reorganized the church were the manifestation of the stars in Mrs. Eddy's crown, and since this contained twelve stars symbolizing completeness, it was fitting to record the meeting in the Manual as well as in the minutes, as having been attended by twelve students.




Instructions

If you please, at your first church meeting for making By­-laws, you can call for a vote of the church on having the church edifice of the First Church of Christ, Scientist, a Memorial Church for the Founder and Discoverer of Christian Science, the inscrip­tion to read as follows: Mary Baker G. Eddy Memorial, First Church of Christ Scientist.

You can propose this vote if you are not in the chair — but if you are —get Capt. Eastaman or Edward Bates to do it. You can read the letter that I will give you relating to this, after the vote is called.

(Note) Add to your statement of this vote: This vote shall not be changed or annulled except by a unani­mous vote of the charter members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston.

This must read, “unanimous vote of The First Church of Christ, Scientist,” as the above would insure the inscription only while the Charter members were living. This vote must be taken at a meeting after the Charter has been received.


A mortal who sought to have his name perpetuated as Mrs. Eddy does in this letter, could be rightly criticized as seeking personal aggrandizement, whereas Mrs. Eddy pleaded with her students to follow her only as she followed Christ. Then why was it necessary for her to have her name linked with the church as she demanded it?

She foresaw that posterity should never forget that she was not only the one through whom the revelation of Christian Science came, but that she was the best and most correct demonstrator of that revelation. She sought to have the highest demonstration of Christian Science associated with its central edifice, in order to avoid what happened to the Master, namely, a separation of his doctrine and his demonstration, so that those who accepted his teachings, but made no attempt to demonstrate them, were still called his followers.

It is not difficult to start a new religion in the name of Christ, and to get a certain number of followers who will attend church and worship God if no demonstration is required of them; but it takes spiritual understanding to outwit the claim of animal magnetism in order to found and to perpetuate the demonstra­tion of God which spells the death of error; and one method Mrs. Eddy used was to link her name with her church and her teaching in such a way that they could never be separated.

It would appear that animal magnetism does not care how much mortals acknowledge God and worship Him, as long as this action does not result in the demonstration of God. Mrs. Eddy sought to perpetuate the demonstration of her doctrine, as well as its protection, when she sought to have the church a memorial to her.

The instruction contained in this letter was never carried out exactly as given. Perhaps she realized that it would not accomplish her purpose as suc­cessfully as the title later selected, but would merely cause animal magnetism to keep alive the suggestion that she desired the aggrandizement of her person, or of herself as a person.

The Master saw the great need of doing something that would assure his disciples continuing the demonstration of Truth after he was in the tomb, since only in that way could they see him after his resurrection. The method he used was to associate in their minds eating together and instruction in the truth. Then after he had left them and they met at the table, his teaching being asso­ciated with their partaking of food, their thoughts would be elevated, and they would remember what he had taught them. In this simple way they would be reminded of the responsibility toward their Master.

An instance of how this law of association works is seen with students who lived with our Leader at Pleasant View, who go back to that sacred spot. When they do, they are reminded of many things concerning their Leader which perhaps they had not thought of in years.

It is legitimate to take advantage of this law of association in Christian Science in every way that will serve to remind students of spiritual matters and processes. Christmas and Easter are observances which should remind students of the Master's experience in a helpful way. Doubtless the disciples were greatly disturbed over what seemed to be the failure of the Master when he was crucified; yet when they gathered to eat, they were reminded of what he had taught them, and they were elevated into that altitude of thought that made it possible for them to perceive the risen Christ.

By having her church the Mary Baker G. Eddy Memorial, Mrs. Eddy was using this law of association, hoping that the church would serve as a perpetual reminder of her demonstration and that in this way its animus would be kept alive for all time. A similar use of this law of association is seen in the By-law that requires that every lecturer shall bear testimony to the facts of her life. It becomes evident that the lecturer who fulfils this duty in a perfunctory way does not really perceive the significance of this By-law. With rebellion in his heart against ful­filling this demand, how could he express it helpfully? Yet how gladly would each one do it, if he perceived that our Leader was merely striving in this way to perpetuate the right demonstration of Christian Science! She knew that it would be impossible for anyone to demonstrate her teachings correctly and suc­cessfully, and leave her out of the picture, since she made the pattern demonstra­tion.

Those lecturers who recognize their Leader as the greatest demonstrator of her revelation, as well as the Revelator, put into that portion of their lecture which is a tribute to her life, the greatest joy and inspiration, the greatest love and appreciation. Hence audiences look forward to this part of their lecture, instead of feeling relieved when it is over.

A deeper understanding of Mrs. Eddy and of her mission grows out of the realization that today she stands at the head of the Cause, as the Pastor Emeritus, as truly as she did when she was the visible Leader, and that we will never be able to demonstrate successfully without a study of her life, which is as much a part of the curriculum of demonstration as Science and Health.

The Master did not hesitate to declare, “No man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” He was saying in substance, “I have charted the way; more than that, I am the one who has walked in it. Therefore, you must follow me if you wish to walk in it.” His insistence on being the Way, the Truth and the Life was as helpful to his followers, as Mrs. Eddy's requirement that her name be associated with all the activities of the Christian Science movement.

The disciples and apostles, in their endeavor to fulfil this demand of the Master, adopted a certain phraseology, and prefaced their demonstrations with the statement, “In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth.” While there was a danger of this usage becoming a mere form, it was an effort to keep before their thought that the only way to demonstrate was the way he demonstrated; that if they departed one hair's breadth from his metaphysical method, they would forfeit deific power.

A symbol is always subject to misuse by mortals. Rightfully used it points to something, and reminds one of that which he should remember; but the moment a symbol is accredited with the slightest semblance of life, truth, intelligence or substance, it becomes error and idolatry. The visible church should always be regarded as a symbol. The Christian Science church is designed to point to God, as well as to Mrs. Eddy, since she mapped out the way to God. Hence no student can ignore her effort to demonstrate and live up to her standard, nor depart from her example.

When she was present in the flesh, she looked over her students and rebuked them, if necessary, when they failed to measure up to the standard she set for them. Today we must take ourselves to task, and work to bring our endeavors up to what she demanded. We will never progress if we become satisfied with our present growth. We must use our Leader to rouse us from lethargy; use her to fix in thought that the only right way to demonstrate Christian Science is to main­tain the standard that she maintained; use her to realize the importance of ex­tending our demonstration to cover all the minutiae of human experience.

The first thought that Mrs. Eddy had was that a memorial church would symbolize a permanency of scientific effort by the law of association, causing students to recall her demonstration down through the years. Later she realized that this would not be appropriate, since it would also carry the constant reminder that she had passed from sight, and perhaps wanted to be remembered per­sonally. So, she was guided to make the church a testimonial, a living witness to a living Leader, and she trusted the love and understanding of her students to keep her continually functioning as the real Leader of Christian Science, after she had gone from our sight.

A memorial recalls something of the past, whereas a testimonial is a living influence, an appreciation of benefits received, and a determination to keep that appreciation alive. A memorial is something erected for the dead, which was what Mrs. Eddy wished to avoid, since she knew that after she left our sight, she would be far from dead. She wanted students to feel that in her relation to the Cause she was not dead, but alive. She knew she would be dead to us only if we accepted her as dead; whereas the future safety and success of her Cause rests on her followers holding her in thought as alive, as still the Leader of her Movement, and as the only one who laid down the pattern demonstration for all to follow.

When she left many By-laws in her Manual requiring the consent of the Pastor Emeritus before they could operate, she indicated that she desired us to keep her demonstration of divine guidance constantly in mind, so that we would feel through the passing of her personal selfhood — which was unreal — that there has been no change in our aspirations, our methods, or the high standard which she demanded of the workers and students.




Mother's Instructions

September 28, 1892

Get a book for Church records. Paste the Tenets in it and the names of the members after it.

Have each member on becoming such subscribe to the Tenets. Put down a few items whereby to guide this church. State the Annual Meeting for the transaction of church business, choosing officers, etc. Also the form of admitting members. The applicant shall send through a letter his or her request to join the church to the Pastor of the church (if you have one); if not to the clerk. If to the Pastor he must hand the letter to the clerk and at the quarterly church meeting the members vote on admitting them. This is all requisite for receiving them into the church.

Every three months of each year hold a Saturday evening meeting for the above named purpose and the following Sunday read from the pulpit before Communion the names of those you have received. In your intercourse as brethren follow implicitly the teachings of Jesus laid down in the Bible. Give the members of the C.S.A. at your October meeting a loving invitation to unite with this church. Then proceed with all who give their names as appli­cants, as before named. It is best to receive members as herein named instead of observing the ceremony of the old church. Jesus simply called his followers. Let Christ call them now through you and the brethren and see to it that you are ready to serve Christ in all His ways.

Reconsider your vote that members of this church must not be members of any other. Amend to Voted that members of this church cannot be members of any other church unless it be the Church of Christ, Scientist. Whether they do or do not separate from this church shall be left optional with the persons applying for mem­bership.

This will avoid all unpleasant feelings.

Yours fraternally,

C. A. Frye


These instructions show the simple and orderly steps by which the Cause was established. Everything had to be done to ensure harmony and perpetuity, at the same time to avoid taking a single step that was not ordered by the Lord.

Mrs. Eddy was calling on the students in charge of reorganizing the church to apply their understanding to mundane matters. They had been thoroughly versed in the doctrine that matter is a human concept to be put under foot through the recognition of its unreality. Hence it must have been somewhat of a shock to find that Mrs. Eddy called upon them to apply what they had learned about Spirit, to the material details of an organization. Students love to soar in the realm of absolute Science, contemplating the majesty of infinity, but they do not always find it agreeable to apply their understanding in the little things of human life. Yet Mrs. Eddy herself once declared, “I pray and watch in the little details; someone must, as good is expressed in the minutiae of things.”

While the foundation of the organization was being laid, who could foresee the vast superstructure which later was to be erected upon it? During the pioneer days, Mrs. Eddy had to guide students in making the demonstration whereby the human becomes the humble servant of the divine. Often, when one is taking the necessary footsteps to bring about this result, he feels as though he was reverting to the belief in the reality of the human, and thus playing traitor to Christian Science. He has to learn that when Love guides, such steps become glorified, leading out of matter into Spirit, as he strives to promulgate and per­petuate the Cause in its adaptation to the needs of the world.

If occasionally the Directors expressed immaturity in their application of Christian Science to the human details of the organization, let it be said that those who knew them at that time were impressed by the depth of their spiritual understanding. Mrs. Eddy, however, was calling upon them to do a new thing, which involved demonstrating the material processes of organization. When one has learned the grandeur of Mind, Spirit, he yearns to dwell in that conscious­ness continuously. It appears as if he were forsaking this vision, when he is called upon to struggle to establish human modes and methods with the help of Spirit.

This argument would be tenable, were it not for the fact that all mankind must be saved, and the means for so doing established in a way that make them practical. Here in 1892, twenty-six years after her discovery of Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy's best students were infants when it came to establishing human procedure through demonstration. The reason for this was merely their inability to reconcile absolute Science with what seemed merely human demands. They were confronted with the problem of what to admit and what to deny, what to retain and what to eliminate, so that there might be a highway for our God. The mountains must be laid low and the valleys exalted, because the highway of our God must go right through the belief in a fleshly mind, to help and to save mortals.

Many of Mrs. Eddy's advanced students would fain have ignored the material entirely, in recognizing its fundamental unreality; but how would that have ensured the harmonious functioning of a great Cause, the purpose of which is to bear living waters to the thirsty, and food for the hungry ones? Mrs. Eddy was not unwilling to begin her instructions with the simple human statement, “Get a book for Church records.” Those who would wish that she had begun with some inspired and lofty statement about God, should open their eyes to the spiritual implications contained in that short sentence. The book was not merely for valueless records of routine business; it was to contain priceless data that would convey to future generations the demonstration of God's kingdom on earth, as well as the error which had to be overcome, which Mrs. Eddy alone detected and pointed out. She knew that it would be valuable and necessary for students in the future to know the difficulties animal magnetism placed in her path, as well as how through her spiritualized thought, she was able to thwart all that error attempted to do.

Today, Mrs. Eddy herself is our book; her life represents the record of the founding of the Cause according to the fundamental teachings she laid down. It is my conviction that when I wrote the book, Mary Baker Eddy, Her Spiritual Footsteps, I was fulfilling the spirit of this first statement, “Get a book....” It is no misinterpretation to take this as authority for writing her life from the standpoint of her being not only the Revelator of Christian Science, but its best demonstrator. Her demonstration must be this book in which may be found all the records of the founding of the spiritual Church, of which the outward or­ganization is the sign and symbol.

Mrs. Eddy had already written a book embodying the fundamental doc­trines of her revelation, the underlying truth from which all demonstration is to be made; but now she directs that a book be started in which to set forth the application of her revelation. It was to record the results of practise for the sake of generations yet unborn. It should be considered a rare privilege to have access to that book, since it would lead to the realization that Mrs. Eddy's demon­stration and application of her teachings in founding her Cause and living her daily life, was the real book of application, of which this book would be but the symbol. In the study of her life one is enabled to perceive the ways in which she applied metaphysical knowledge in the flesh — that is, to the human problem.

It is all joy for one to be able to study Christian Science, and to gain some realization that Mind is supreme and All, hence material belief is unreal and nothing. In this way a student grows away from, and gains a distaste for this mortal dream. He learns to live above it, so that it does not touch him. All this is very satisfactory and scientific. Yet man has a task in this dream which must be fulfilled, if he ever hopes to awaken from the dream. He must not only walk in the way himself, but he must help others to do so. He must do what he can to arouse an interest in others, by providing them with enough human harmony, so that they will desire to walk in the way just for the sake of human harmony. Yet a little human discord must appear at times for them to practise on and overthrow; but it must not be so much that they will be discouraged by it; until at last they walk the narrow way, not for the sake of human harmony, but for sheer love of good.

Mrs. Eddy found that, as students gained the joy of scaling metaphysical heights, they were apt to rebel at the need to come down from those heights, in order to demonstrate the minutiae of daily life, and to prove her words from page 427 of the textbook, “Immortal Mind, governing all, must be acknowledged as supreme in the physical realm, so-called, as well as in the spiritual.” It was this latter task that was exemplified in “Mother's Instructions,” and which was the least agreeable to her students. To them it seemed like drudgery brought into Christian Science.

These few, simple, foundational instructions might be called basic rules, since the success of our organization has resulted from the enlargement of these same simple rules. An enlargement in salaries paid to officials in our Movement, however, has not been as wholesome in its effect, since when a position becomes attractive because of the salary, it causes political wirepulling. If the small salaries Mrs. Eddy advocated were paid today, students would not struggle to obtain such positions, or to hold on to them after getting them. She constantly stood guard, lest the salary of any position become so large, that it would tempt students to strive and even malpractice to get it. She knew that under such circumstances, students may be appointed, not because of their real merit, but through personal favor.

One way Mrs. Eddy guarded against incumbents holding on to desirable positions for too long a time, was to establish rotation in office. Furthermore, when she named small salaries, she knew that in that way faithful office holders were enabled to give service to God in excess of what they were paid for, and thus to lay up treasure in heaven. The right-minded worker says, “I know that I may not be amply paid from the human standpoint, but I am glad to give the balance of my effort to such holy work as my contribution. This enables me to be what I should be, namely, a giver, and to lay up money in God's bank. Then when the need comes to call upon Him, I will feel that I have a balance to draw on.”

It is interesting to note in II Chronicles 29:7, that the wrath of the Lord came upon Judah and Jerusalem for four reasons, namely, because they shut up the doors of the porch, put out the lamps, and did not burn incense or offer burnt offerings in the holy place unto the God of Israel. Mrs. Eddy says in these instructions, “Jesus simply called his followers. Let Christ call them now through you and the brethren and see to it that you are ready to serve Christ in all His ways.” It is evident that members who were ready to serve Christ in all His ways would never be guilty of these four derelictions from duty.

Students who support the Wednesday evening meetings must come with their lamps trimmed and burning. They must do their part to contribute to the general atmosphere of healing, which must be established if the meeting is going to deserve the name of Christian Science. Then they must open the doors, which is symbolic of sending forth a mental call, so that the stranger may see the light shining, and be guided to the place where he will find rest and healing in the spiritual atmosphere. Also, in these meetings there must be audible testimony given in such a way that it combines the incense and burnt offering. The incense is the sweet hope given to the weary and suffering, the harrassed and the poor, showing them the advantages which the demonstration of Truth will give them in the flesh. Such testimony should also include the burnt offering, setting forth the purely spiritual blessing awaiting the soul-hungry thought, when it has been put through the fire, and materiality has been removed. Such testimonies reach both those who can only be touched at present by the prospect of a physical blessing, and those who are hungry after righteousness.

A good testimony will supply this two-fold feeding. A mere recounting of physical healing will not feed every hungry heart; there will always be present those who need the burnt offering, that which nourishes the famished af­fections.

The wrath of God comes upon those who remain receivers, when the time comes for them to become givers, — those who refrain from feeding the stranger, preferring to travel around from lecture to lecture, for instance, and to have the lecturer do their thinking for them, instead of making a sacrifice, by refusing to listen to the lecture, in order to do the mental work to carry the atmosphere on the side of God.

When the porch-door is shut and the lamp put out, the church may be holding services, but the weary traveller has nothing to guide him to the feast of Soul, and no open door through which to enter. Christian Scientists who fail to do this sacred work, are merely a great mass of receivers, who have forgotten that the public are the receivers of their benefactions, and Christian Scientists should be givers, in order to merit that name. Once Mrs. Eddy wrote to Irving Tomlinson this helpful benediction and prayer, “God bless you, prosper the seed you sow, make you a light that is set upon a hill that cannot be hid.” This was on February 14, 1898. Again in April of the next year she wrote to him, “More mental work for the field must be done.”

Mortals wonder how a God that is of too pure eyes to behold iniquity, can send forth to man the instruction that is needed to quench iniquity. Electricity, according to physics, is an imponderable essence that fills all space and knows only itself. Yet man has learned to appropriate this power for his own uses. Jesus appropriated divine Mind to meet the human need, when he obtained money from the fish's mouth. Mrs. Eddy received an influx of inspiration from God that not only enabled her to heal the sick and to teach others the process of healing, but to set forth simple instructions such as these under consideration, to illustrate how divine Love meets every human need. Regardless of what anyone might say, these simple instructions were as inspired as the loftiest writings from the pen of our Leader, and must be so regarded.

Jesus received an abundant influx from infinite Mind, which he reflected to others, and which likewise blessed him. Yet we learn in metaphysics that he could not voice that which his audience was not ready to receive. When in the course of time, Mrs. Eddy came along the thought of the world had been prepared through the influence of Jesus' teaching, for a larger influx of inspira­tion. It was ready for a more clarified and scientific statement of Truth. Mrs. Eddy was able to give the world Science and Health. But that did not mean that she knew more about the application of divine Principle than did the Master; it meant that she had a world before her that was ready to comprehend the deeper things of Spirit, so she was able to give what it could accept.

If a mother with a small baby who plans to be absent over a period of time, in some way could leave enough milk that would not spoil, to take care of the babe for a year or more, she would be wrong in thinking that that was enough to provide for the needs of the growing infant. The object of milk is to furnish growth that will carry the child beyond the milk stage. Mrs. Eddy had to do more than leave for her followers the milk of the Word. Advanced students require meat as well.

The marvel of Science and Health is that it supplies the right nutriment for every stage of growth, leading the student to the point where he is taught of God, and receives his food directly from the divine source. As he goes from rung to rung on the upward journey, however, Love provides him with many helps along the way, which include many statements by and concerning our Leader that will aid in his discernment of the deeper teachings contained in the textbook. The teaching is all there in its purity, to be sure, like a deep well of living water; but oftentimes priming water is necessary to start the flow.

Note the simple completeness with which Mrs. Eddy states the present and future requirements of our organization in these instructions. Any member would be helped by studying them, since they would help to resimplify his conception, that he might return to the primitive simplicity which was the divine concept of organization, as it first came to Mrs. Eddy through divine inspiration.

Organization is like a life preserver that saves a man's life when he cannot swim; but if he continues to wear it after he has learned to swim, it hinders and hampers him. It is like the iron guard that supports a young tree so that it will grow straight, but which will hinder the growth of the tree, if it is not removed at a certain point.

Does the correct usage of organization mean growing toward the simplicity set forth in these instructions, or away from them? Do we not find today super­fluous activities which tend to keep members so busy humanly, that they have little time for individual spiritualization? Is it not true that the increasing ramifi­cations of our Movement, which keep the nose of many officials forever to the grindstone, represent the subtle way the human mind takes to deplete spiritual thought?

Man's first obligation is to God. When one of the disciples wanted to bury his father, Jesus told him to follow him. What was this but the Master's call to turn away from the demands of organization? Mrs. Eddy's prophecy that the organization, being a temporary necessity, would not always be needed, was her effort to neutralize the temptation which with the passing of time would cause it to seem more and more of a necessity, instead of less and less, so that it would become more complicated instead of more simple. A man who has trained himself to live in the woods in stark simplicity, will gradually lose the knack, if he goes back to the luxuries of civilization.

It is said that the pelicans in Monterey, California, starved when, after having been fed by the fishermen for many years, they were left without such food because of the demands of the war. They had forgotten how to fish!

These instructions from Mother have a great value today, because they illustrate her concept of organization as having a few simple elements and needs which must be fulfilled; but we should make as little as possible of them, and think of the organization as the lattice we build to support our lovely rose bush. Our Cause should never become over-organized, so that we build the lattice and forget that its only purpose is to support the rose bush. Furthermore, the discipline meted out by the organization should never reach the point where it appears to be a scaffold to frighten naughty children.

On page 166 of the first edition of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy makes some very plain statements about organization. She writes, “We have no need of creeds and church organizations to sustain or explain a demonstrable platform, that defines itself in healing the sick, and casting out error....The mistake the dis­ciples of Jesus made to found religious organizations and church rites, if indeed they did this, was one the Master did not make….No time was lost by our Master in organizations, rites, and ceremonies....”

While Mrs. Eddy softened these statements in later editions of the textbook, she never took back anything she wrote in the first edition. A great deal has been made of the letter she wrote to Irving Tomlinson, on December 12, 1904, “I have not this edition and want it because I need it for reference. Besides it was spoiled by the publisher and it should not be in the minds of the students.” There have been those who have declared that in these words Mrs. Eddy does repudiate all she wrote in the first edition. But I prefer to believe that in this letter she does not refer to the text of the book so much as to the demonstration of it, which was not a perfect one. She did not want her students to keep in mind an imperfect demonstration, since the only way to bring out perfection is to hold perfection in thought.

It is a fact that our Leader desired students to study only the latest editions of her works; but at no time did she forbid them to use her earlier ones for purposes of reference, and that is the only use that is being made of them in these pages. No one can complain because we go back to the first edition and point out the fact that, in its pages, our Leader shows how little regard she had for forms of church worship, in comparison to the sure victory over matter, the caring less and less for earthly pleasures and pains, and being present with Spirit, present with Love and Truth, as she writes on page 167.

Will the time ever come when the beginner will not have to approach Christian Science through the orderly steps of the organization? If this be true, it were no argument for increasing the ramifications of the organization. One might liken the church to a pencil, where the wood is present wholly for the purpose of supporting the lead. But what would the pencil be worth, no matter how fine the wood, if it contained no lead? The tendency should always be toward simplicity in organization, in order to have more faith in God, with less attempts to steady the ark.

The Bible states that Uzzah died when he attempted to do that which God alone should do. Man should not be a back seat driver, and attempt to do that which God alone should be doing. No practitioner should ever “steady the ark.” He needs a clear sense of what his part in the healing work is, and what part belongs to God.

The sublime simplicity of these instructions by our Leader furnished the basis for our Church. First of all she required that the tenets and those who subscribed to them should never be separated, implying that members should never forget what they have subscribed to. The tenets should constantly be before thought, since each member has promised to live after them. They consti­tute a solemn and sacred agreement one makes with God. The Examining Committees in branch churches should say to each new member that he is taking a very serious step, and assuming a momentous obligation in signing the tenets.

The growth in numbers or prosperity should never cause the sanctity and seriousness of signing the tenets to be glossed over. When one signs them, he promises God that he will live up to a certain standard, which means that he will work daily to reflect to the world the spirit of God, and to protect this reflection from any encroachment of animal magnetism. He will allow nothing to take from him the recognition of the ever-present divine power, which is strong in him, because he has protected it against any suggestion of weakness; which is real to him, because he has protected it against any suggestion that would make it seem unreal; which is effective to him, because he has protected his realization of its effectiveness against the effort of evil to make him doubt or question its efficacy in any direction.

All that any Christian Scientist ever accomplished, was the result of en­throning divine Mind in his consciousness, and permitting it to govern. Mortals are under a constant temptation to believe that they can run things as well as God, if not a little bit better. They are like the owner of a racing yacht who hires an expert skipper. When he sees how simple the task appears to be to steer it and to maintain a lead over the other boats in the race, he takes over. At once he begins to fall behind, and is glad once more to have the skipper take charge.

We are under the temptation to believe that we can do what God alone can do. When things go well, the temptation comes to believe that we have es­tablished ourselves so permanently in divine harmony, that it is no longer necessary to be so active in maintaining demonstration. Yet the moment we let go, the devil begins to catch up, and we see how impossible it is ever to succeed without God's help.

The real Christian Scientist is one who is so alert, that he does not need to be prodded, even in times of harmony. He is one who keeps the substance of the tenets always before his thought. This does not mean that he has memorized them like a parrot. It means that he has grasped the spirit of them, and is striving to live by that.

Mrs. Eddy writes, “Put down a few items whereby to guide this church.” When my father changed from his horses to an automobile, he asked the company to furnish him with the finest chauffeur they could procure. They told him that in less than a month his own coachman could be trained to be as fine a driver as they could find. He protested that the man knew nothing about machinery. The company met his objections by saying that all he needed to know were a few simple things, such as keeping the car filled with gasoline and oil, washing it frequently, and watching the pressure in the tires. They declared that the trouble with many drivers was that they thought they knew something about machinery; so they tried to tinker with the engine, if something went wrong; whereas the company preferred to have the car brought in for repairs, if the slightest thing was out of adjustment.

If this admonition of our Leader, concerning the few items whereby to guide the organization, were heeded, we would not have the sad spectacle of members who, because they feel competent, try to tinker with it. Members require only a few simple instructions to run the church. If things do not go as they should, no one should try to tinker. God made the Church; let Him repair it. Trust Him to come in and adjust things. In Christian Science we have a God who is near — not afar off. When things do not run smoothly in a branch church, why should members write frantically to the Board of Directors in Boston, as if the latter knew so much more about repairing things than anyone else? If the Directors are given a problem, the only thing they can do is to go to God with it; why cannot the branch church do that?

Mrs. Eddy states for all time that just a few items will enable the Church to function. If anything more is required, the members must rely on demonstration, which is equivalent to sending the machine back to the factory that made it, and understands it. If the human mind attempts to tinker with it, it will only make things worse.

The Christian Science Church was founded by demonstration, it was built for demonstration, it is designed to foster and inspire demonstration. In propor­tion as it does will its value be demonstrated. But if it is tinkered with by the human mind, no matter how experienced or expert it may claim to be, things will not be rectified. It is an organization that cannot be tinkered with. If any­thing appears to be wrong, God is the one to repair it.

Uzzah, who steadied the ark (I Chron. 13:9), would not have died had he gone to God in order to sustain it. If one feels that death was an extreme penalty to pay for what he did, let him remember that to do things without God, is equiva­lent to being separated from God, Life. Mrs. Eddy's rebukes in her home were called forth because the students tinkered, or attempted to do things without God. Perhaps members of the Church of Christ, Scientist do not die, when they tinker, or steady the ark of God, but their sense of Science and demonstration soon becomes dead.

If the Board of Directors with love in their hearts for the Field, feeling that they are the chosen protectors for all the churches, respond when they are appealed to, and tinker with the organization, who can blame them? It would seem hard-hearted on their part if they did not respond. Yet members must learn that it is as serious a breach in the eyes of God to let another tinker with their church as it is to do it themselves. The sooner the members realize that the Christian Science organization came from God, and in proportion as He runs it, will it be successful, the sooner will they learn that God's requirement is that, instead of indulging in mental laziness and inviting the Directors to clean up their errors, they should make the demonstration to utilize the power of God to do it. Every discord and every mistake, every financial stringency, is a lack of demonstration on the members' part. If a working student came to a practitioner, with troubles which the latter knew were merely a lack of demonstration, would he attempt to straighten them out for him? Rather would he command him to wake up and demonstrate. Surely, if the student was one capable of demonstrat­ing, the practitioner would not demonstrate for him. It is a sin in our responsi­bility toward our neighbor to do his work for him, when it is his salvation to do it for himself.

When the Directors take their stand and refuse to tinker with the branch churches, they need only quote from the Church Manual, “The Mother Church of Christ, Scientist, shall assume no general official control of other churches, and it shall be controlled by none other.” The Directors should point out to them that they are in trouble because of a lack of demonstration, and that their future growth depends upon their making their own right effort to straighten things out. They should be reminded of the Christian Science way to handle error, namely, to expose it and then turn away from it to God; when they do that rightly, if they look back, they will find that there is no error.

When Mrs. Eddy told the church to have a few items to guide it, she did not mean that in future years, these items were to be multiplied to such an extent that the church would become cluttered with red tape, restrictions and regulations. She wanted the church to be a help, not a hindrance; a support, not a crutch.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

September 29, 1892

W. B. Johnson

Dear Brother:

Mother recommends now that The First Church of Christ, Scientist, has been semi-organized, that you drop all further forms of church membership and do as you have been doing, simply having an Annual Meeting of the present members for choice of officers.

Yours fraternally,

Calvin A. Frye


Each of these letters represents a thought-wire that traces back to Mrs. Eddy's thought and reveals some phase of her life and demonstration that is helpful and valuable to the student. Future generations will never know the extent of her watchful care over the flock, and her self-sacrifice in their behalf, if they are deprived of the privilege of studying them.

It is self-evident that it costs a Christian Scientist something, in the midst of confusion, in the midst of the clamor of mortal mind, to retire into the closet and to shut the door, in order to hear God's voice. Yet each time Mrs. Eddy was called upon to make a decision concerning some phase of the founding of the church, she had to do just that.

One person may ask another for his opinion, and it costs the latter nothing to give it. With the Christian Scientist, however, it involves the costly necessity and willingness to seek audience with Spirit, as well as the determination not to voice human opinion, in order to give a demonstrated answer to a question.

Mrs. Eddy was a specialist in her ability to go to God, in order to reflect wisdom and guidance. From this correspondence we gain some glimpse of her willingness to make the sacrifice to keep her thought spiritually balanced, in order that she might represent God to the Church, and be ready at all times to give divine instruction and guidance.

Future generations will be able to perceive the absolute wisdom that was employed in the founding of her Church. History records nothing like it — a movement brought to maturity by its founder, with nothing to start with other than a revelation from God; yet within her lifetime spreading until that revelation covered the world. The phenomenon is all the more remarkable, since Christian Science is a doctrine far beyond the comprehension of the average mind, being an absolute reversal of sense testimony, reactionary in its teaching, and one that demands its followers to do that against which mortal man naturally protests, namely, to correct and protect his thinking.

This letter is notable, because it describes The First Church of Christ, Scientist, as being semi-organized. It is outwardly controlled by a self-perpetua­ting committee; the membership have no voice in its government. Adherents become members, pay an annual tax; and then sit by while this committee conducts the business of the church, unhampered by parliamentary law, or vote of the members.

On the other hand, the branches of this parent church function as do other organized churches, under democratic government. The value of such democra­cy is the demand that it makes on each member to take part in the activities. The one who takes advantage of such opportunities, finds that in so doing he en­hances his own spiritual growth. The value of the organization as a training ground for the individual member might be compared to the sparring partners hired by a prizefighter. From them he gains experience in preparation for the big fight. Students require the organization as an artificial stimulus to growth, in preparation for the warfare with the world, the flesh and the devil, which awaits each soldier of the cross.

In constructing a foundation the builders pour cement into forms which hold it, until it has hardened. The Board of Directors is responsible for the form of our organization, and they never can be criticized for any effort they make to keep the form inviolate, exactly as Mrs. Eddy's revelation established it. Its purpose is to crystallize the thought of new members, so that when they outgrow the need of the form, they will still remain loyal and active, supporting the organization, even though they have outgrown dependence upon it.

If the forms designed to hold the cement are not exactly true, the symmetry of the entire building may be affected. No member should ever feel aggrieved because the Directors, in holding guard over the form, appear to hold a narrow view of things, and discourage many activities which might seem to be construc­tive and helpful, if they could only be introduced into the Church. The Directors under such circumstances are not trying to exercise ecclesiastical tyranny, but merely to guard the form Mrs. Eddy established through God's wisdom, for the sake of the new members that are constantly being admitted.

Whatever does not promote spiritual development has no place in the organization. Furthermore, when one has taken full advantage of all the help that the organization has to give, he is expected to continue his spiritual growth with the aid of every help that God gives him along the way, and reckon himself as having outgrown the organization, only in the sense that he is no longer a receiver from it.

Mrs. Eddy's purpose for her church was not that members, after years of membership, should wander around without any spiritual initiative, constantly requiring some outside stimulus like services and lectures to keep them mentally and spiritually active. The purpose of a life preserver is not to restrict one who can swim without it, but to save his life, at a time when he cannot keep afloat. The organization is designed to help the member to keep afloat spiritually, until he learns to swim, but not to hamper him thereafter.

It is not too harsh to call a student a part-time Scientist in his early footsteps, since we all go through the stage where we only work at being such at certain times. A full-time Scientist is the product of a development that only time and faithfulness can generate. The part-time student does not acknowledge God in all his ways. God may be his Sunday Mind, but the human mind is his week-day mind. He still needs the stimulus of the church to keep him demonstrating. He has yet to become a self-starter.

The church, which is a necessary help in the student's early experience, may become a remedy in his later experience. A material remedy is always an expression of laziness. If one was a member of a Methodist church, for instance, and always attended the church suppers and ate heartily, without ever con­tributing any food, he would be lazy and should be taken to task by the other members. Such suppers are not designed to give members, who are too lazy to cook, the chance to get an easy supper. They are part of an effort to attract strangers to the church and to raise money to support it. They call for hard work on the part of those who plan them.

The metaphysics back of Mrs. Eddy's semi-organized church is interesting, since it tells us that divine Mind operates in human affairs by means of a need existing or being created. In her reorganization of the church Mrs. Eddy created a need, which caused that need to be met by divine Mind. Even humanly this rule operates. When mortal man began to feel the need to fly, the airplane soon became a possibility; yet, as often happens, animal magnetism assumed control of this constructive invention, and used planes as a means of advanced warfare. Only Christian Science teaches how such things may be avoided, namely, by handling animal magnetism in its attempt to appropriate the blessings of God.

When a student is presented with a perplexing question, he thereby presents a need to divine Mind. Mind will answer the question if he refuses to toy with it himself, to try to answer it with human intelligence. When one tries to think out an answer for himself, he shuts himself off from God's answer. One cannot com­mune with God as one would talk with man, to pass the time of day or for enter­tainment. God answers our call when there is a need.

In putting forth a semi-organization, Mrs. Eddy created a need, with the result that the present form of church came as her answer from God.




List of First Members of First Church of Christ, Scientist


Ladies

Mrs. Josephine C. Otterson

Mrs. Augusta E. Stetson

Mrs. Annie V. C. Leavitt

Mrs. Caroline W. Frame

Mrs. Elizabeth P. Skinner

Mrs. Emily B. Hulin

Mrs. Henrietta E. Chanfrau

Mrs. Mary W. Monroe

Mrs. Ellen L. Clarke

Miss Julia S. Bartlett

Mrs. Janet T. Colman

Mrs. Flavia S. Knapp

Mrs. Laura E. Sargent

Mrs. Ann M. Otis

Mrs. Mary F. Berry

Miss Martha E. S. Morgan

Mrs. Grace A. Greene

Mrs. Caroline S. Bates

Mrs. Eldora O. Gragg

Mrs. Mary F. Eastaman

Mrs. Emily Meader

Mrs. B. H. Goodall

Gents

Dr. Ebenezer J. Foster Eddy

Mr. Edward P. Bates

William B. Johnson

Ira O. Knapp

Stephen A. Chase

Joseph S. Eastaman

Calvin A. Frye

Eugene H. Greene

David Anthony

Hanover P. Smith




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

October 2, 1892

W. B. Johnson

Dear Brother:

Mrs. Eddy requests that you add Mrs. Laura Lathrop and Mrs. P. J. Leonard to your list of first members of “First Church of Christ, Scientist.”

Yours fraternally,

C. A. Frye

Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

October 3, 1892

W. B. Johnson

Dear Brother:

Mrs. Eddy says to not have Mrs. Lathrop and Mrs. Leonard taken into church as first members. But have your book ready with Tenets pasted in it, and take it with you to the Association on Wednesday, and cordially invite all present to join the First Church of Christ, Scientist by signing their names in the book; there is to be no voting-in process except for those already sent you in previous letter who were to be called first members.

Yours fraternally,

C. A. Frye


As one studies Mrs. Eddy's communications and memoranda, such as this list of First Members, one is impressed with the fact that she used spiritual thought in such a way that everything necessary was recorded, remembered and noted, so that the history of the founding of our great Movement can be traced even to the smallest detail.

In this list there were thirty-two First Members. Mrs. Eddy added to this list from time to time, until, when I was elected to membership in 1901, there were over sixty. Not more than twenty more were added after that. Six or seven years later, the classification of First Members, or Executive Members, was abolished.

This group was unique. It did not necessarily contain those who had come into Christian Science first, but those who stood behind the Movement mentally as watchmen, to see that everything was done rightly.

It would be possible to say something complimentary about each name on this list, as I knew them all. My first teacher, Eugene H. Greene, considered Mrs. Frame, Mrs. Skinner, Mrs. Hulin and Mrs. Chanfrau to represent the highest ideal in the category of metaphysicians. When the honor of membership in this illustrious group was accorded to me, I realized that Mrs. Eddy sought to place the active students on this list.

It is novel to think of a committee composed of the best students, having no active duties to perform! At first these First Members did have some outward responsibilities, but these were taken away one by one. It would be a misnomer in any other organization to call such a group a committee, which had no duties to perform; but in Christian Science the real activity is mental. Thus, in reality this group of members had great responsibilities. They were expected to support mentally the organization with all of its ramifications. It is possible that as time went on, and no definite demand was made on them for specific mental work, the need for such work was not appreciated by them as it should have been, and for this reason Mrs. Eddy disbanded them as a group.

In most organizations, the appointment of committees or boards for any special work creates ill-feeling and jealousy among those not asked to join. I believe that Mrs. Eddy conferred the title of First Member as an honor, indicating her faith in a student, and also as an impulse toward a greater activity and use­fulness. It is fitting to have a system of rewards covering those who need such guerdons to spur them on to better and higher work. Here was an august body of students who represented the cream of the Cause, and any student might hope to be found worthy of the honor of being voted into membership at the recommenda­tion of the Leader. Yet the time must come for each student when he begins to seek spiritual growth for its own sake, and that time does not come until he struggles to progress, not because of any human reward, but voluntarily, because of his love for God and man.

It is possible that rewards bestowed over too long a time may become deterrents to students. It is fitting and necessary to inspire effort by holding up possible rewards; but since true progress does not begin until effort becomes voluntary, a continuation of the reward system may become a hindrance. No dog trainer could assert that a dog was trained properly, unless the animal would perform its tricks without being rewarded each time. Yet during its train­ing it is always rewarded, when it performs acceptably.

Sometimes the practice of healing the sick does not bring the spiritual growth to a practitioner over a period of time, that one would expect. One reason for this may be that, because such work carries with it recompense in the form of fees from patients, the practitioner falls into the way of working mechanically, largely because he or she needs the money. This does not mean that it is wrong for practitioners to charge for their work; but work done for others for the sake of the financial return is not motivated by the loftiest incentive, and so it does not result in the greatest spiritual growth. No marked spiritual growth can be attained until one's motivation becomes the love for God and man.

Mrs. Eddy suggests the names of Mrs. Lathrop and Mrs. Leonard for elec­tion to the group of First Members, and then withdraws her recommendation, and we do not find these two students made First Members until two years later. The reason for this may not be discernible at this date; but the notable point is Mrs. Eddy's sure touch in directing the steps and laying out the pattern for a unique organization for which there was no precedent.

One proof that something higher than Mrs. Eddy's human intelligence started the Cause is the fact that it included a pattern that was so flexible, that future growth, when it came, did not find it unprepared. Everything about it was so constructed and the foundation so laid, that when phenomenal growth came, it was found adequate to take care of it.

For instance, Mrs. Eddy's plan included no problem such as not having enough ministers to go around. When a group was ready to found a church, they had their pastors in the Bible and Science and Health. A church pattern and procedure was provided that was adequate for the need, and satisfactory for the type of people Mrs. Eddy knew would flock to it.

Mrs. Eddy saw the wisdom of not having students voted in by each other. She knew that animal magnetism in the form of jealousy had to be outwitted. By having the matter tended to by the Directors, the possibility of friction coming from business meetings of The Mother Church in voting in regular or First Members was obviated.

The element of animal magnetism that had to be considered in the building up of the Cause, is something no other church ever had to consider throughout all history. It was a unique provision that Mrs. Eddy had to make, so that this influence would be handled and not prove a deterrent.

She had to anticipate the possibility of one in high position being handled by animal magnetism, and betraying the Cause, by throwing it into the hands of mortal mind. It is plain that nothing would be left to chance in a God-directed organization. Wisdom that comes from God is intuitive and anticipatory, and thus prepares for every juncture.

It can be said that some of the members of our church are handled by animal magnetism all of the time, and all of the members are handled by it some of the time; but it will never be true that this deterrent can handle all of the members all of the time, or at the same time. If one starts with this more or less human conclusion, he can feel assured that those who are not handled by it at any given time will be privileged to care for the situation and save the Cause.




Concord, N. H.

October 13, 1892

My dear Student:

Have read your letter. How thankful I am that the lesson you learned relative to giving up MSS. will never be lost. The Tenets and Church Rules can be printed together and given to the mem­bers of The First Church of Christ, Scientist. But the six remain­ing rules must be private, not public, at present.

Give to our Editor, Judge Hanna, the Tenets and 7th. rule as corrected, for publication in the Christian Science Journal of October Read this letter and send it to the Editor with the above named copy.

With love,

(Signed) M. B. G. Eddy


One might gather from these letters that Mrs. Eddy did not trust her students to determine even minor matters to any great degree, without her help. The answer is that she trusted God alone. Yet at the same time she trusted anyone who was reflecting God. Likewise, she put no trust in one who was not reflecting God, no matter how high his status might be in her Cause or in the world.

Mrs. Eddy was a pioneer in church organization, yet having had no ex­perience in such matters on which to base her actions; at the same time her let­ters sound as though she were a lawyer whose entire experience had been along the line of creating organizations. She shows no uncertainty in giving orders, and no one has ever been able to prove that the directing thought by which she founded the church, ever failed in its objective, or led the Cause into any form of error. Anyone who understands organization will be amazed at the correct­ness and legality of every move she made, and of every policy she inaugurated.

These letters carry evidence that is important in meeting the temptation and tendency to relegate our Leader to the place of being the Revelator of Christian Science, at the same time to take from her the honor of being the best demonstrator of that revelation. Through this correspondence one can learn of the breadth and practicality of her demonstration, and thus realize that today she stands as a living proof to refute the notion that in the building up of a great organization, man is required to do what woman cannot do.

Those individuals who write her life, as if she were a prodigy, giving that as the reason why she was able to reveal Christian Science, ignore her individual demonstration of Christian Science, and thus belittle it. There are those who knew her in her daily walk and conversation, who failed to appreciate the true inwardness of her motives and the wonder of her application of Science, and who believe that she was guilty of petty fault-finding and ill-humor. Often these persons give the impression that there were things in her life that should be hidden, a procedure that works ill to the memory of this great woman who was guided by God in all her ways.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy is thankful for the lesson Mr. Johnson has learned. One remarkable thing about Mrs. Eddy's experience was her ability to keep aware of the mental history of all her students. She was like a florist with many plants under his care, who keeps alert to their needs, and is able to meet them, so that they all flourish. Mrs. Eddy followed the growth of her many students, discerning and meeting their needs. This was a stupendous task and one beyond the capacity of the human mind. Only her reflection of divine Mind with its limitless capabilities made it possible.

The rules that Mrs. Eddy gave her church, which finally formed her Manual, may be said to be her contribution to the students' effort to prepare the human mind for its final elimination. As a postage stamp sticks to an envelope, so the human mind seems to be stuck to man, and has to be softened before it can be removed. The By-laws help the one who obeys them to effect this result.

The discipline provided by the Manual differs from that of mortals, in that it relates to offences against God. The only laws that mortals know, relate to offences against man, since they do not really know what an offence against God is. When the rules covering such offences were first evolved by our Leader, they had to remain private, because they were of such a revolutionary nature that mortals could not comprehend them.

It should never be thought that the Manual contains rules to punish members of The Mother Church. Its sole purpose is to reform. The Manual seeks to bring to the attention of members that their first obligation is to God, and that cognizance must be taken of any offence against Him, in order to help the offender out of his error, so that he may escape the final punishment that awaits those who persist in offending God.

Mrs. Eddy's greatest task with her students was to help them to dispose of the human will. Since one cannot obey both God and mammon, it is obvious that the one who is functioning under a human will, is minus that most important thing, namely, the divine will. Furthermore, the belief in a human will can be destroyed only by a radical reliance on God, a complete yielding to Him. If we are properly balanced in our faith in our Father, and in our realization of His care and ability to relieve us from whatever is assailing us, in accordance with His wisdom, we will never doubt the outcome. A child that has been properly brought up never forgets that its father will look out for it. Instinctively it runs to him in time of trouble. If it has to go to the dentist, it is not frightened if the father is present. We must learn to feel this same way about God.

A Christian Scientist does not consider that it is an indication of fear, when he turns to God in time of stress. Traditional theology believes that things must be bad and a mortal filled with fear before he will cry, “Save, Lord, or I perish.” The follower of Mrs. Eddy feels that it is a matter of loyalty to God to trust in Him under all circumstances, and so he welcomes opportunities in order to draw nearer to Him and to establish an utter dependence upon Him.

This doctrine is offensive to the one who has developed a strong human will. To him it is an indication of weakness and softness to turn to God for help in all circumstances; but the wise man is doing that, so that when he gets into a posi­tion where his own human will fails him — as it always does — he knows how to go to God and receive the help he needs.

We can deduce that Mr. Johnson had a set opinion in regard to the manu­script in question. Perhaps it was matter Mrs. Eddy sent to be inserted in the Christian Science Journal. Then when her higher wisdom revealed to her that this should not be done he rebelled. So she taught him a lesson, namely, to give up what he considered his own will and opinion and have faith in her demonstra­tion of divine wisdom. She declared that this lesson would never be lost. We can never lose the value of a lesson in which we have sincerely said, “Not my will, but Thine be done.”

Evidently Mr. Johnson's strong conviction was an obstruction to the carrying out of Mrs. Eddy's orders. Now that it was removed, he could go ahead and carry out all the ramifications of the plan which in the beginning he had resisted.

It can be said that the Church Rules Mrs. Eddy mentions were intended to be used in disciplining the human mind and overthrowing the human will. The six remaining rules concerned the obligation of the members towards God. They had to remain private for a time, since the world cannot understand rules which have only to do with man's allegiance to God, and with the penalties for a failure to live up to that allegiance. It will chemicalize over such rules, until thought has been prepared to accept them.

There is nothing to be found in Mrs. Eddy's published Manual that would warrant taking away a man's family, money, friends and health for a failure to place God first in his thought and affections. Yet that was the penalty inflicted upon Job, when he had ceased to make God first; it was the wisdom of God made manifest in his life. One might hesitate to join or to be loyal to an organization or teaching, which would require him to go through the experience of Job, if he became disloyal to God. One would feel that that punishment was too severe.

We can assert that the above condition is in God's Manual, although it would not do to make this fact public. The advanced rules of God must remain hidden in the minds of advanced students of Christian Science, even though they are as imperative as any By-law that is published.

The time came when Mrs. Eddy thought that it would be safe to have the Church Rules mentioned in this letter, published. But when she left our sight there were still a few By-laws which had been passed by the Directors, which were kept private. One such By-law, which is still in force, was passed on August 31, 1901, and reads as follows: “As in state laws, one law supersedes another and virtually annuls it, so our present Church By-laws have annulled what has been published on page 47 of Retrospection and Introspection on the subject of teach­ing.”

The moment a student has even a slight understanding of Christian Science that is correct, he begins to teach others, but that kind of teaching is legitimate and does not come under the head of class teaching. Every practitioner teaches his patients in a measure. But the above private By-law was necessary in order to give the Directors the authority to restrain one who used Mrs. Eddy's state­ment in regard to teaching in Retrospection and Introspection as authority for holding classes in Christian Science.

Mrs. Eddy's attitude toward Mr. Johnson was the same as that toward her other students, namely, an effort to help them to put out human opinion and human will, so that they would be willing and glad to be guided by her demon­stration of divine wisdom. Yet this was but a first step in preparing them for the time when they would be called upon to demonstrate divine wisdom for them­selves. Nothing but divine wisdom can guide this great Cause aright, and every­thing Mrs. Eddy taught was to impress them with this fact, to improve their demonstrating ability, and to drive them to demonstration.

The organization has for its purpose the extending of the use of demonstra­tion, and making it uniform all over the world; but it should never curtail nor limit demonstration.




October 14, 1892

My dear Student:

You are placed by me in a very conspicuous responsible attitude on this field of Christian Science. God grant that in one instance of my students, and in many a one, the pinnacle does not cause them to cast themselves down!

You, so far, have been modest and meek, prayerful and watch­ful, and when you have blundered by means of — have generally heard from me as the mountain pioneer to call you back to the path.

May God keep you from straying and guide your footsteps.

In your book of church records, keep the name of each mem­ber, his P.O. Address, and the name of his teacher, and keep the book. I send you a list of such of my students as I at present know no reason for not becoming members themselves, and inviting their students (such as they know are fit) to become members of the Mother, and Mother's Church.

With love ever the same,

(Signed) Mary B. G. Eddy

(Note written in pencil on first page in margins):

I specify these students because they are teachers and can be trusted to send their students. Others are also fit for membership.


In the class which Mrs. Eddy taught in 1888 she said, that she so hated the name “mesmerism” that she had taken the name “hypnotism.” She hated it so, she did not like to call it at all, but she must meet the claim in order to destroy it, and it had been revealed to her that the term animal magnetism would make it nothing and keep it nothing. (Quoted from notes made by Martha Bogue).

In this letter we find Mrs. Eddy hating so to name the error, that she leaves it a blank. She was divinely skilled in naming error at any given time in a way that would bring forth from her students the maximum of scientific effort, without producing too great a fear.

In this instance Mrs. Eddy sets forth the error as a danger confronting those placed in high positions. Before Mr. Johnson came into Christian Science he had been a humble artisan. Hence there was nothing in his previous life and ex­perience that would make him feel that he was humanly adequate to fill the important place Mrs. Eddy called him to. Therefore, it was not the temptation of human aggrandizement that tempted him in his position, but a feeling of spiritual superiority. Members are apt to look up to one in a high position, as if the very fact that he holds such a post is proof that he has attained a spirituality in which they may safely trust.

No doubt it is well that those who are placed in important positions in Christian Science are often subject to a pressure of animal magnetism that they might not have to meet otherwise, since in this way they are aroused to a more active demonstration, and at the same time kept humble. The Bible declares, “Whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth.” Perhaps God's love is shown in this chastening, since it helps to save one in high position from the temptation of feeling a spiritual superiority, which might cast him down from the pinnacle.

Mrs. Eddy says that she will be grateful if he is saved from this error, so that she will have at least one faithful emissary, through whom she can work to convey God's directions and wisdom to the Field. She prayed that none of those in high places would yield to this error, and in order to be saved from it they would have to be modest and meek, prayerful and watchful.

It is evident that this letter must have been a great help to Mr. Johnson, crystallizing his thought in a greater determination to be modest and meek, prayerful and watchful. She comforts him with the assurance that if he has yielded to error at any point and blundered, this “blank” error was responsible, this animal magnetism which at this point in Christian Science history was usually pointed out by Mrs. Eddy as a personal influence exerted by someone like Josephine Woodbury.

She also points out to him how important it was to have her there to call him back to the path. In this statement he could learn that she was practically the only one who was able to discern the deflections of students and to help them to over­come them. It is important for every student to learn that if he is placed on a pinnacle, the devil is always present to try to cast him down. The pinnacle is as much a testing point for a student as is human harmony. The price one pays for being healed of discord in Christian Science is that thereafter he is expected to work to overcome human harmony. He cannot expect his healing to stand, if he fails to fulfil this obligation to God.

Sickness should be regarded as a call to throw off materiality, just as one would throw away a cake that was nicely frosted, if at one point the frosting fell off and exposed the fact that the entire body of the cake was so moldy that it was unfit to eat. It would be a misinterpretation of the purpose of healing in Science, if one fancied that it was to replace the frosting that had fallen off, so that once more one could forget the veritable nature of the cake, and be like the nine lepers that the Master healed. They so rejoiced in the restoration of the frosting, that they failed to learn the lesson as to the true nature of the belief of the flesh, namely, that it is fit only to be cast off, in order that the true substance of man may appear. The test of every student is whether, when the frosting is intact, he can still realize what the cake underneath is like, and so strive unceasingly to cast off all material belief.

The tenth leper caught a glimpse of what the experience was supposed to teach him, namely, not to be satisfied with the renewed frosting on his cake. He returned to Jesus to learn how to throw away the entire cake, or false material sense, and obtain a higher sense.

In a like manner the pinnacle is the testing point for students. The true pinnacle is the point where man reflects God. The footsteps leading to it are modesty, meekness, prayer and watchfulness. When one reaches this lofty height, marvelous wisdom, power and authority from God begin to flow to one. The student who passes the pinnacle test is one who remembers that of himself he is nothing, and that the wonder and glory that he has is all reflected from God.

It cannot be determined in advance whether a student will pass this test, any more than one can tell by watching a soldier in the training camp what he will do in actual combat. Therefore, this letter to Mr. Johnson is a warning to all students, to watch that the mental state that fits them for an exalted position and makes them worthy of it, remains with them when they reach the pinnacle. If one obtains a high position in the Cause, it is given him not because of what he is, but because of what he has fitted himself to reflect from God. Hence he must watch that he continues in well doing, and not yield to the temptation to believe that there is something required of him as an individual in his position apart from his reflection of God, and that he is expected to rise to the occasion humanly in some way.

The requirements for leadership in Christian Science are very different from those in mortal mind, since the former demands more humility instead of less, a realization that of yourself you can do nothing, but with God you can do all things.

Mr. Johnson had been placed on the pinnacle because of his meekness and modesty, his prayerfulness and watchfulness. If he carried these qualities with him and maintained them, he would be safe and satisfactory; but the moment he assumed the directing of other people's lives, or believed that, because of his position, his opinion was worth more than before, the moment he assumed watch and ward over the organization apart from demonstration, he would be handled by animal magnetism, — the pinnacle would be causing him to cast himself down. The remedy would lie in the Master's words, “But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased; and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted.”

What does Mrs. Eddy mean in this letter, when she writes about inviting the students of her students to become members “of the Mother, and Mother's Church?” In this statement she links her life and demonstration with the Church so accurately and definitely, that she indicates that no one is really fitted to become a member of that Church unless he has gained a spiritual perception of Mrs. Eddy in her relation to the Church as the Mother, the present-day exponent of the motherhood of God.

Every child at some stage of its experience believes its mother to be infalli­ble, and so turns to her for counsel and advice. Many children have more faith in their mothers than in their fathers. Mrs. Eddy set forth for the first time in history that God is as dependable as our Mother, as He is as our Father.

No one has the right to join The Mother Church unless he has a right sense of Mrs. Eddy, which is that she reflected the highest sense of God as Mother, which entitled her to the name “Mother,” a name which she permitted students to call her out of respect for her reflection of God, just as Jesus was called the Christ for this very same reason. In fact she included a By-law in the Manual to that effect, until she found that the world was misunderstanding the students' use of the term. That By-law read as follows: “In 1895 loyal Christian Scientists had given to the author of their textbook, the Founder of Christian Science, the individual, endearing term of Mother. Therefore if a student of Christian Science shall apply this title, either to herself or to others, except as the term for kinship according to the flesh, it shall be regarded by the Church as an indication of disrespect for their Pastor Emeritus and unfitness to be a member of the Mother Church.”

If one desires to join The Mother Church, it is plain that he must think of Mrs. Eddy as Mother, since her Church is for those who appreciate her, under­stand her and follow her teachings which set forth God as Mother. It is more important to find out how a candidate for membership in The Mother Church or a branch church feels about Mrs. Eddy, than to find out whether he smokes or drinks! Surely one must awaken to the importance of overcoming all bad habits through demonstration, before he is ready to join the Mother's Church; yet more important than this overcoming is his understanding and appreciation of the Mother who has made such demonstrations possible. He must learn what is expected of one who is invited to attend the great feast of Soul, as friends of the one who established it for all mankind. Only the loyal friends of its Founder are welcome as members.




October 15, 1892

My dear Student:

Erase from that communication for C.S. Jour. any reference to the 7th. Church Rule and then have the article printed and published in Journal, but be sure and not publish the Rule. Reason — the aim is to prejudice the contributors against me and to make them believe it is all personality in our motives for building a Church, and so stop their contributions. Send proof of your article to me.

With love,

M. B. G. E.

N.B. Be sure and publish the invitation to unite with our Church

Rule 7. To become a member of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, the applicant must be a believer in the doctrines of Christian Science according to the Platform and teaching contained in a book Science and Health, by Rev. Mary Baker G. Eddy. The Bible, and Science and Health with other works by the same author, must be his only textbooks for self-instruction in Christian Science, and for teaching and practicing metaphysical healing.


This letter prolongs the note of the letter of September 6, where Mrs. Eddy discourages the suggestion of a tablet. She understood the difficulties in the way of one understanding her relation to her Cause. Today, when we find young students who are vitally interested in Christian Science, but who do not like Mrs. Eddy, we know that this attitude traces back to teachers of Christian Science who have not held a right conception of their Leader before their pupils.

The Master did not hesitate to declare that he was the door, through which we might enter in. When he told his followers to do these things in his name, he meant for them to do them as he did them. Mrs. Eddy never would have left her life for us as an example, unless it had been her honest conviction that that life would teach us how to demonstrate her revelation. She was not deluding her followers, but stating a simple fact. She wrote as God directed her when she said, “When a student loses the true sense of me, and what I do, he is at the thresh­old of the plunge so many make into darkness, believing that darkness is a greater light.”

By not publishing this 7th. Church Rule Mrs. Eddy was seeking to remove any prejudice that might stand in the way of the students contributing to the building fund. She knew that the one who gives freely gets the greatest benefit. Therefore, she was helping to open the door for the blessing which they would not receive, if prejudice closed their pocketbooks. When it is seen that all these things in connection with the organization were ways and means of God's bless­ing the flock, it is plain why Mrs. Eddy did all she could to keep prejudice against herself and what she did away from them, so that they might receive the blessing which would come to them, if they were free to follow out their divine inclina­tions.

As a matter of history it is helpful to note that a meeting of the College Association was held on October 5, 1892, just twelve days after the final forma­tion of The Mother Church, with forty students present. At this meeting Mrs. Eddy's article on page 273 of the October Journal was read, which gave the final Deed of Trust as well as the facts concerning the final settlement of the controversy over the land.

This meeting was reported on page 371 of the Journal. Among the remarks from the floor were the following: “The sentiment was very generally expressed that Principle had guided, and that material organization was not a necessity in Truth; that indeed, its observance was a hindrance to growth, and demonstration....Another said, I see there is but one Baptism, and one church; there is no benefit in material organization.... Sometimes the Mother thought seems con­fused, but later we find that it was our thought that was confused....A sister said it seemed to her that there never had been a meeting where the senses had been so hushed, as at this meeting. Another sister spoke of the necessity of living Love, as well as talking it. Another remarked that on the battle field, the true soldier paid little attention to the personality of the general, but listened attentively to his commands.”

Unquestionably at this meeting there was in a measure a repetition of the disciples' experience, when they had a Pentecost. Here were students who had made trouble for their Leader, who had had differences of opinion in regard to church matters, getting together, and under the influence of the demonstration of this meeting, feeling God's presence and the unity of His spirit, which caused them to voice truth. This means that the mist of materiality, prejudice and op­position were ruled out of the meeting, and the students had a chance to speak as they really felt, untouched by the animal magnetism which was aimed against the establishment of the Cause. It was this freedom of thought to reflect God that Mrs. Eddy was guarding in the students, when she was led to have the 7th. Church Rule erased from the communication for the Journal, which was an account of the recent organization of the Church, including the Tenets and Rules.

One value of the account of this meeting is that it proves when students settle down to demonstrate the presence of one Mind, in order to rule out the belief in the presence of any other mind, that they find themselves in one Mind in one place. One can feel the beautiful atmosphere that must have pervaded this meeting, when he reads the account of it. Apparently there was not a dis­senting voice.

In tracing Mrs. Eddy's footsteps and discovering her precepts, it is well to remember that she was not trying to get students to agree with her, but to come into agreement with God. She sought to impress upon them that the demands she made upon them were the demands God made upon them. When students per­ceived this fact, it brought them into accord, and they listened to the commands of their general attentively.

This meeting of the students shows how carefully Mrs. Eddy had drilled them in the proposition that the Cause was going on without being materially or­ganized. The remarks to the effect that material organization was a hindrance to growth were spontaneous and inspirational. In like manner Mrs. Eddy saw that the use of argument would become a deterrent to healing by the Spirit if con­tinued too long, when she said, “I sometimes think argument hinders the work by materializing the thought. Hold to the spiritual.”

The question is what to do when one has not reached the point where he can carry on through spiritual organization, or where he can heal by the Spirit. The answer is that the human organization and argument have been provided as temporary helps, just as a scaffolding is provided for men who are building and need something for the time being to use in going up and down carrying ma­terials.

Every advancing student, however, must hold in thought the goal of spiritual organization and healing, since Science and Health says, “Man walks in the direction toward which he looks....” Man will never reach a goal he does not hold in thought. Those who heal the sick know that they must hold in thought what the Truth is going to accomplish; then it will be accomplished. They must constantly enlarge their recognition and expectation of the operation of divine Mind. One could work in a metaphysical thought all day, and if one expected nothing to happen as a result, nothing would happen.

A metaphysician must carry in thought the recognition that Truth works, that it operates through him to prevent accidents, to heal the sick, to bring about justice and peace on the earth. He must know that through it he is protected from the claims of evil. He must open his thought to the realization that progress will bring him to the point where he no longer needs either material organization, or the argument in healing. If this proposition disturbs young students, let them trust God, with the knowledge that the right minded student will never desert the organization nor cease to support it. His growth beyond it, is beyond a dependence on it, and a need for it, in order to keep in the right path. He is like a rocket that, when it leaves the trough that gives it direction, is able to continue in a straight line without any further help from the trough.

It might help young students to understand this point concerning organiza­tion if we used the term demonstrated organization as the goal, just as we speak of spiritual healing as the goal. This higher concept of organization does not mean doing away with meetings, church officers, etc.; it means that students stand ready to pour into every meeting and function the inspirational thought that enables everything to be done as God would have it done. Spiritual organi­zation is not a transcendental ideal; it is something very practical, that has to be worked for mentally; it means that we must support the church with a spiritual demonstration. Only in this way can the material sense of organization be out­grown and laid aside. It is similar to the demonstration the advanced student makes to rise above dependence on what is called the bodily organization. Young students use their understanding to heal their bodies; advanced students strive to rise above dependence on them, in order to reach the point where they can reflect God at all times, proving that this reflection is not at the mercy of any so-called material condition.

Mrs. Eddy expressed this higher demonstration when she said in her home, “We must come to see we do not depend upon eating, sleeping, etc., for life and health, but depend on Mind....She (Mrs. Eddy) at first demonstrated health in the flesh; now she is demonstrating health outside of the flesh.”




October 16, 1892

My dear Student:

Do you understand my last request? It is for you not to put into the Journal anything of the matter that I sent to you for publi­cation. Since I sent it I have heard, and discovered things that make this change necessary. How plain it is that my work was done when I said so, and this invitation and By-law should be private, not public. You can keep the list of names if you wish to for a guide to show you the ones that I can vouch for as can­didates, but some of them you have in the Church. They are teachers generally and could invite their students to join the Boston Church when you are ready to request this, but let this movement rest for the present; there is enough else to be done.

With love,

M. B. G. Eddy


Without doubt the “matter” which Mrs. Eddy sent for publication in the Journal was the Historical Sketch which appears today on page 17 of the Church Manual, together with the Tenets and Rules. In Mr. Johnson's diary under the date of Monday, October 17, 1892, is the following entry: “Went to see Judge Hanna, the Editor, to get proofs of Invitation article for Journal, but they had not come. Returned home. Letter came from Concord stopping the publication of all that had been sent. Went again to Judge Hanna and had all ordered out.”

No matter how much had been done on any project, this fact never in­terfered with Mrs. Eddy's obedience. When the work on her book, Christ and Christmas, was well along, she ordered it stopped, saying, “I have a request from God; it is this: Stop thinking of, or working on my picture....” Many times, because mortals have carried a thing so far, they want to carry it through to the end. This Mrs. Eddy never did. The demand from God to stop doing a thing was to her as important as the demand to do it.

In our progress in Science we all have to be freed from self-will, as well as mental habits and inhibitions of all sorts. Often in the midst of pressing work, the demand comes to drop it for the time being, in order that we may open our thought to God for further guidance. Hence it is part of the necessary attain­ment of the Christian Scientist to be flexible.

Mrs. Eddy was giving the students valuable training, when she had them carry her directions to a point where they were almost completed, and then made the students go to a lot of trouble to undo what had been done. She always ran the risk of being considered variable, notional and unreliable, since at the last moment she was liable to change her mind about anything; but it was always God who changed it.

Often the call seemed to be to reach the members with some important message or By-law through the periodicals, but she had to bear in mind that the literature was for public distribution. She sought to avoid putting in that which might chemicalize public thought, and produce a wrong impression, so she often ordered material out.

One might ask why she ordered this matter published in the first place. No doubt it seemed like a good idea to give the membership a little résumé of the founding of The Mother Church, which had just taken place. Mr. Johnson's diary contains this simple entry: “Friday, the 23rd. of September is a day of great moment in the history of Christian Science, the date of the founding of the Mother Church.” She probably felt that God had bidden her to give the students something she knew they would love, until a further demonstration gave her more light. Flexibility and obedience would be a lesson learned that would be of more value than the history. Historians record an incident where a famous general wished to impress a visitor with the obedience he had taught his soldiers. He ordered a detachment to march forward. The ocean lay in their path of march, and they continued until they were drowned, because he failed to give the command to halt!

If a nation has a right to expect such implicit obedience from her soldiers, how much more right has God to expect it, although His law is always loving. The business of a soldier is to be obedient. How much more is this quality required in Christian Science, since the so-called human mind is by nature unruly, defiant, stubborn and unmanageable. If it were not for this fact, Mrs. Eddy would never have had to give her organization a Church Manual.

When the government calls for men to enlist in the Navy, she paints a pic­ture that will attract, not repel. She appeals to the adventurous spirit by promis­ing volunteers that they will see the world, which they do — but often through a porthole! No mention is made of the hardships, the rigid discipline, the need of sleeping in hammocks, etc. Christian Science endeavors to paint an attractive picture to mortal mind, since, if mortal mind knew the rigid discipline and obe­dience demanded by God, it would rebel, and refuse to accept the truth. For this very reason Christian Scientists do not hold the Church Manual before the eyes of the public to any great extent; although, of course, it is on public sale.

The 7th. Church Rule which Mrs. Eddy included in her communication for the Journal, and then ordered to be erased, in her letter of October 15th., is a hard pill for mortal mind to swallow. The mortal element in students wants to feel free to read anything it pleases. It does not fancy being restricted to the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's works. Yet, before long students reach a place where they perceive the value of these textbooks, and learn that they contain the only statements of truth that are workable, and that deviate not at all from divine absolute metaphysics; at that point they require no By-law to force them to use these mediums alone for self-instruction, and none others.

Mortal mind judges the correctness of what it reads by how it sounds. Students who require the above By-law are those who fancy that they can read something written on Christian Science, and determine its correctness by the letter alone. Yet the only right way to judge is by the Spirit that is back of it. One who wants to learn about God, should seek to study only that which has God back of it! How foolish to fancy that one can learn about God by reading that which has the human mind back of it, even though it is presented in the exact terminology of Christian Science! If one wanted to learn cookery and had his choice between two cook books, which would he select, one written by an expert cook, or one compiled by someone who had never actually done any cooking in her life? God is back of the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings. Once a student finds this out, he wants nothing else for self-instruction.

The human mind does not like to be told what it must do or what it must not do. It dislikes to be confined in any way. Hence it is plain why a further demon­stration on Mrs. Eddy's part revealed the wisdom of not making public at that time this 7th. Church Rule in the Journal, which was intended for distribution to the public.

When a dog is being trained, each command that he learns makes it easier to teach him the next one. A man who learns a foreign language will always say that, if he tries to learn another, he finds it easier. Once a long story was written depicting the difficulties a trainer had in breaking the will of a very fine and high­bred dog. The trainer finally won out. God will finally win out, in the necessity to subdue and bind the stubborn will of mortals, so that mortality may be laid off. Furthermore, each lesson learned in this direction makes the next lesson easier. Students must attain that willingness to do whatever God demands of them, even when such demands come through some fellow-student who is inspired, whether he be in an official position or not, no matter whether such demands upset their preconceived plans or not. Let us suppose that God's demands come to a student in such a way that he feels as if there were no stability or security anywhere on earth. Is that such a terrible thing, when this mortal conception of earth must finally be destroyed anyway?

There are teachers of Christian Science who chafe under the fact that they cannot change their field of teaching without permission from the Christian Science Board of Directors. Is that not a divine provision, and should not teachers submit to it willingly? If they chafe under it, then they are not rendering to God true obedience. The right attitude does not brood over what appears unjust to the carnal mind. A dog cannot be said to be properly trained, if it obeys only through fear of the whip. Enforced obedience is never true obedience, never the obedience that God requires.

Let us suppose that in Mrs. Eddy's thought was no valid reason for with­drawing the historical sketch from publication other than to train the students. Think of how the value of these early students to God was enhanced as they learned the lesson of being instantly obedient to whatever Mrs. Eddy directed them to do. In such obedience the material senses were being hushed and the human mind lessening in them, which meant that divine Mind was more and more coming to the front.

In our textbook Mrs. Eddy tells us that we must labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love, the adamant of error which she names as self-will, self-justification and self-love. self-will is the determination one feels to follow out his own plans, irrespective of God. Habits indicate inflexibility, whether they be what the world would call good or bad. Mental habits — and in reality there are no others — must be broken down. Man must learn to be flexible with man, before he can be flexible with God.

Unless the students were ready to yield to Mrs. Eddy in all matters, she knew that they would never learn to yield to God, if His demand came to them to do something that they did not want to do, or something that was out of keeping with their habits of thought, or that would upset their human scheme of things.

One characteristic of Mrs. Eddy's letters to students was that often she couched her instructions in such a way, that the meaning of her words could not be comprehended without a demonstrating thought. It would seem unnecessary for her to write to Mr. Johnson, “Do you understand my last request?” Had she given the request in a humanly straight-forward manner, there would have been no necessity for this query on her part. She had given him a strong hint, that a demonstration on his part would have made plain, no doubt; but she saw that he did not fully grasp her meaning, and that obedience was necessary at once. Therefore, she had to come out in plain language and state what should be done.

Mrs. Eddy had to learn about animal magnetism, just as students today have to learn about it, through experience. The revelations of Truth had come to her as in one blinding light, but the knowledge of the operation of the lie came with experience. She learned that one of the subtle efforts of animal magnetism is to blind students to the demands of God upon them, either to shut them off from hearing them, or to confuse or distract thought, so that they will not comprehend them. God speaks freely to His children, but they hear thickly. Hence it is neces­sary for them to keep demonstrating, in order to prevent animal magnetism from producing this thickness of hearing, so that what God has to tell them will not be heard or understood. God's voice comes through to man so clearly, that no one could fail to hear it, if there was no claim of animal magnetism in the picture.

Perhaps Mrs. Eddy herself did not receive the divine direction as to His purpose concerning the Historical Sketch, clearly at once. But as she continued to work on it, handling the possibility of error interfering with her ability to hear and to follow God's demands, the higher and clearer wisdom of God came to her. Whatever the situation was, it worked out for good, since the students in­volved learned a valuable lesson in obedience.

When soldiers are being drilled, they are required to march forward, to turn about, and to march backward. They are going nowhere, but they are being trained in instant obedience. They are learning to be instant in season, and to be perfectly flexible. This fits them for the demands of actual warfare.

Mrs. Eddy's demand to let “this movement rest for the present” reminds one of the early days of making ice cream. One churned it up to a certain point; then he packed it and left it to harden. It is reasonable that some of the demands of God to which we yield, after we have gone a certain way in executing them, have to mellow before they are ready to appear in completion. This point was true when Mrs. Eddy agitated the idea of a Christian Science Home. She with­drew her demand soon after she had put it forth. This was no evidence that she had made a mistake; but merely proof that she had carried the plan as far as God intended her to. Then it had to mellow until it came forth into execution as our Christian Science Benevolent Association.

As a child I yearned for a gun. I knew that my parents would refuse me this request. Therefore, I began to talk about it in a perfectly natural way, until I had prepared their thoughts for the suggestion. When the idea had mellowed sufficiently I broached it and was rewarded by getting the permission I desired.

Mrs. Eddy's statement, “There is enough else to be done,” would be of great help to many members of the church today, who are tempted to believe that their great outward activity in our Movement exempts them from doing the mental work for it and giving it the spiritual support that it needs. It is a relic of scholastic theology that would estimate the outward organization as being more important than the mental activity of students. These members who are so active outwardly and rushing around smartly as Mrs. Eddy writes on page 230 of Miscellaneous Writings, should be told that it is not what one does, but the way he does it, that makes him a Christian Scientist. The finest activity possible that is not done from the standpoint of demonstration has scant value in our Movement.




October 19, 1892

My dear Student:

Tell Mr. Landy, and all who ask to join the Church who are proper candidates, that you will hand their names in and they will be voted on at the quarterly Church meeting and read from the pul­pit the following Sunday. I wrote this out as a Church Rule. Do you not remember it?

Keep a little memorandum book in your pocket and when eligible candidates apply or you invite them, put their names on this book and then be sure to have them brought in and voted on by the First Members of the Church as aforenamed.

I hope my last orders for invitations to join Church sent by Miss B. will be understood and carried out correctly.

With love,

M. B. G. E.


Part of Mrs. Eddy's demonstration regarding her Church was to keep alert to everything that was going on. Her demonstration of reflection enabled her to have a clear sense of everything humanly. A metaphysician knows that in Science this alertness is a necessary protection. One who is mentally alert cannot be hypnotized.

One cannot maintain this alertness without resisting the silent arguments of evil, and the mortal influence of belief that accompanies everything mortal. Every object cognized by the senses is a vehicle to carry mortal thinking, and this accounts for the mortality of the vehicle. A pipe that carries water is mortal, because the water causes rust. The same pipe will last indefinitely if it is used to convey oil. From this illustration we learn that our task is to turn everything in the universe back to being a channel for God, since this is the present truth about all things.

Mrs. Eddy could not help but impress one with her mental activity. She kept track of what was going on in The Mother Church, for instance, from the cellar to the pulpit. She was watchful to be sure that God's selection went into the pulpit. At the same time she saw to it that a demonstrating sense went into the cellar as well.

As evidence of her alertness, which obviously transcended the narrow limitations of the material senses, we have her experience when her house at Pleasant View was being painted, as told by her gardener, John Salchow. The painter was Mr. Frost, who was very skilled in matching colors. In those days this was a necessary attainment, since paint of uniform color in cans was unknown. Each batch of paint had to be mixed separately and matched as the work pro­gressed.

On the day in question, Mrs. Eddy returned from her drive after the house had been painted, and work had begun on the barn. She hardly glanced at the barn as her carriage drove by, yet her first words to August Mann were, “Tell Mr. Frost to be more careful about matching his color.” When Mr. Mann gave him Mrs. Eddy's message, he drew himself up as one whose skill has been challenged, as much as to say, “Who dares to suggest that I could possibly make a mistake in that direction.” But Mr. Mann said, “Remember, Mrs. Eddy said this, and you know how she is.” At once Mr. Frost became deflated as it were, and went and got his matching board, on which a sample of each mixing had been painted, and compared it with the color he was putting on the barn. At once he said, “By God, it is darker!”

How did Mrs. Eddy detect this discrepancy, especially since, when colors are perfectly matched, they may appear otherwise, under conditions of sunlight and shade? She relied on that which was beyond material sense in order to know things. Call it spiritual sense, Soul sense, or what you will, it was a charac­teristic of her spirituality and a proof thereof, which her followers will manifest as they approximate her point of growth, in putting off the “old man,” or mortal mind, with his limitations, and taking on the new man, part of whose equipment is alertness, and an ability to know at all times all that he needs to know. It was this fact about Mrs. Eddy that caused those who lived with her to declare with obvious sincerity, “You can't fool Mrs. Eddy.”

Perhaps Mrs. Eddy's perceptive sense, which operated in ways that mysti­fied mortal mind, probed Mr. Frost's thought and detected pride of attainment, a man with the highest confidence in his own skill; just as she was able to read John Salchow, just by seeing him working in her flower garden. She said to Mr. Mann, “Who is that working in my garden?” Mr. Mann said, “That is the new man you asked me to get for you.” She said, “I admire his unspoilable integrity.” The future proved that her judgment of him was correct. Later, when St. Paul's school attempted to hire him away from her, by offering him all kinds of inducements such as a thousand dollars in cash, a house to live in, a cow, and wages three times what she was paying him, he refused to leave her. Mrs. Eddy knew nothing of this offer, and yet very shortly she wrote him, offering him a thousand dollars, a cow and a house to live in!

An attitude of supreme self-confidence is dangerous. The Bible tells us that no man should think of himself more highly than he ought. Students should have the highest appreciation of their ability with God, and the lowest estimate of their ability without God. The man who is inflated because of his faith in his own human mind, should be deflated, and he will be. On the other hand, the one with what is called an inferiority complex should realize that with God all things are possible, that he reflects the power of God, and so has an infinite capacity to accomplish all things, to make all corrections, and to eliminate all that is unlike good — in short, to give the whole universe back to God, where it belongs.

Mr. Frost was an expert in his line, one who felt that his work was above criticism. We can believe that Mrs. Eddy perceived this sense of pride, that was out of place in her home which was dedicated to that humility which the Master defined when he said, “Of myself I can do nothing.” So she dealt Mr. Frost's pride a solar plexus blow, which could only be beneficial to him, whether he was a Christian Scientist or not.

I have often declared that Mrs. Eddy's life and thought made it practically impossible for anything to be done rightly for her unless it was done through demonstration. It was as if she established this point as a law for herself. Thus, a man who could match paint perfectly for anyone else in the world, might find himself unable to do it for her. Years of experience had shown her that this was true concerning those who worked for her. The human mind that ordinarily would display skill and intelligence, based on experience and confidence, in her atmosphere would falter.

I believe that students should adopt this law for themselves and extend it to the world, that nothing can be done rightly except through demonstration. As this is done, there will be a call for a higher reflection of God than ever before. Those who understand how to demonstrate will be in great demand. Others will be forced to learn how to demonstrate in order to live. Then demon­stration will be seen to be a gift of God that comes to a man who is worthy of it, so he will have to learn how to attain this worthiness. Synchronizing one's thought with God is what is required, and this must be learned through Christian Science.

One might claim that it was interference to attempt to enforce such a law upon the world, but if you are intent upon making the law of God popular as well as necessary, you have got to do all you can to belittle all efforts of mortal mind to prosper and succeed.

No doubt the whole family at Pleasant View soon heard about the incident in connection with Mr. Frost, and it was calculated to do them all good. It would be a word to the wise. They would rise up to give help to this man so that he might do that which otherwise he could not do. Of course, the deflating of his self­-confidence would be a wholesome lesson for him and at the same time the stu­dents would awaken to supply that which would help him, and fulfill the rule of the home, namely that to be right everything must be done by demonstration.

There was another element that entered into the picture, and that was the fact that everything in connection with our Leader was supposed to manifest human perfection. She herself established the fact that when divine Mind functions, it results in what we call human perfection. Hence it would be a black mark against a demonstrating thought, if the color of Mrs. Eddy's barn did not match that of her house.

From this story one must not deduce that Mrs. Eddy possessed a remarkable human ability to detect variation in colors. What Mrs. Eddy detected was mental rather than physical, namely, that a human sense had crept into the work, and since a human sense is always wrong in the sight of God, she knew unerringly that the work could not possibly be right. God gave her the right to declare that results could not possibly be humanly right, when she felt a lack of spiritual sense. Surely it is correct to assert that when one takes on the privilege of dem­onstration, knowing that right results must always follow, he knows that when he comes down from that high position and goes back to mortal mind, he is more likely to make mistakes than other mortals. Mortal mind is better capable of being humanly right under mortal mind, than under divine Mind. Those who obey and worship mortal mind are the ones who get whatever seeming benefits mortal mind has to give. A Christian Scientist repudiates mortal mind. Thus, he arrays it against himself, and cannot turn to it as a mortal can and get seem­ing benefits. Hence the rule for him becomes, demonstration or nothing.

Those who hire Christian Scientists should remember that, when the latter demonstrate, they are the best and most accurate workers; when they do not, they make more mistakes than mortal mind. Mrs. Eddy could detect the mental sense in those who worked for her. When the mental sense was not right, she could declare unerringly that the results were wrong.

It is interesting to note that Mrs. Eddy instructs Mr. Johnson to keep a little memorandum book in his pocket, in which to jot down the names of eligible candidates for membership. If a church is started with the right members, it will not be a serious matter if some wrong ones are taken in later. But it is essential that the foundation be solid to begin with. A teacher of Christian Science must be very careful whom he selects as pupils. Teaching Christian Science is more than giving students a certain number of lessons, accepting payment and then letting them shift for themselves. One would never adopt a child thoughtlessly, since he knows that the child is to be a member of his household. Similarly a teacher takes on a pupil as a lifelong responsibility. For this reason he should use great care in selection, and not be too ready to take on thirty new children every year.

Might not one say that it was a remedy for Mr. Johnson to keep this little book? Should he not have made a demonstration of memory? Mrs. Eddy knew, that if he depended on memory, he would have a lot more to meet from error since it would try to make him forget; whereas if he had the names written down, he would not be subject to forgetfulness. The error he would have to guard against then would be a trick to cause him to lose the little book, or mislay it. When one is doing God's work, he must be alert to forestall every obstacle, since he cannot afford to be unfaithful in a single detail that God commands him to perform.

When our Leader sent a letter of importance — and to her every letter was important — she called upon the students to work mentally to protect it until it reached its destination, lest it be lost or stolen. This care was not based on fear, nor did she feel that her letters were more apt to be lost than those sent by the ordinary person. But as God's representative she must forestall any possibility of error interfering with her work, and such a possibility existed, in belief, because it was God's work that she was doing.

When she had portions of the harness of her carriage made doubly thick, she did not do this from fear, but because she realized that her life belonged to humanity. Hence, she could not be careless with it at any point. As far as her personal demonstration went, she could demonstrate, live and teach Christian Science wherever she was. Passing through the claim of death would in no way interfere with her progress. But she had started on a job for God on earth and He demanded that she finish it. She was not permitted to pass on until it was completed.

Elderly people are tempted to look forward to the experience which they believe will start them young again, and thus lift from them the infirmities of age, and the only thing that they believe will do this is death. Christian Science tells us, however, that this result can be gained by a demonstration, and not until demonstration overcomes age, will the latter be laid aside permanently. When one throws off age through death, it creeps up on one again, and will continue to do so, until one takes on the demonstrating way. That is why Mrs. Eddy en­couraged this demonstration. On April 18, 1907, she said, “Old age is just as much of a claim to be overcome as cancer or any other belief. You have not come to it yet, but you will. Overcome the belief in it now; you have it to do sometime.”

Mrs. Eddy had no fear of death, because she knew that one can never be robbed of a spiritual purpose and understanding. Wherever one goes, he takes this with him. It was the Cause that concerned our Leader. Hence when she appeared to be unduly fearful about a letter, for instance, it was because she would not trust a single one of God's letters to chance, even if nine hundred and ninety-nine would arrive safely without demonstration. Her business was God's business, and it was a sacred matter to her to do it as God wanted it done.

Mrs. Eddy, therefore, had her harness straps made doubly thick, not through fear, but through a desire and an alertness on her part to see that, as long as God demanded her to be here, she would take every human step, so that no unforeseen happening would rise up to prevent her from finishing God's work and fulfilling His demands upon her. Every one of her followers should realize that when God says to them, “Stay here and work in My vineyard,” it is their business to stay. When they are ill, they should use Science to get well, not because they desire health but so that there will be no interruption in their work, and God will be assured of a continuous activity in behalf of Christian Science.

When Mrs. Eddy gave these careful instructions to Mr. Johnson about candidates for membership, she was protecting the situation from animal magnetism outwardly. Many students are aware of the need of protecting im­portant matters inwardly, but Mrs. Eddy was not satisfied with that. She exercised a protection that was both inward and outward.

She knew perfectly well how to make advice and orders clear. She knew, however, that animal magnetism was always seeking and claiming to bring about a sense of mental confusion in the minds of students, so that they would not understand her orders. That is why she writes in this letter that she hopes her last orders will be understood. If you were trying to give a drunken man instruction how to get home, no matter how clear you made it he could not grasp it in his foggy state of thought. So often Mrs. Eddy found her students to be as drunken men, because they were made so by animal magnetism. It was possible that when Miss Bartlett delivered Mrs. Eddy's instruction to them, they would be drunken, but not with wine, as we read in Isaiah 29:9. This letter was designed to penetrate the mist to reach Mr. Johnson's intelligence, so that there would be no mistake in carrying out her orders. This was another instance similar to her making the harness doubly thick. Instead of merely relying on Miss Bartlett, she wrote this statement, to awaken him to the fact that in order to understand what she wanted, it would require a metaphysical thought. He would probably go to work at once to clear his thought, at a time when he himself did not know that his thinking needed clearing, which would be of great value to him.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

November 27, (1892)

Mr. Johnson and Miss Bartlett

My dear Students:

Your inquiry in your, Mr. Johnson's, last letter relative to students uniting with the Church indicates a need that was not apparent on the basis of membership established in the seven simple Church Rules. You had better call at once a Church meeting and vote on what shall be your discipline with a member who proves himself unworthy to belong to The First Church of Christ, in Boston. Then write this “Form of Discipline” in your Church Book (that each member signs) under the Rules already printed.

With love,

Mary B. G. Eddy

P. S. It is not best to put this as above on the present circulars that you send out to merely inform the public how to unite with the Church. But if you get a new print in the form of a little book, you could include this if you wanted to and any other matter found best.


One of the human concepts that is changed and corrected by Christian Science is discipline. One need not investigate mortal mind's modes of punish­ment very far before he finds that its basic purpose is revenge rather than reform. When a man commits a crime, public sentiment demands that he pay the penalty; there is hardly any thought of reforming him. The Christian spirit of giving the wrong-doer the chance to reform is almost lost sight of in this feeling of revenge.

In Christian Science discipline does not mean simply requiring that a wrong-doer should suffer; it offers the opportunity for reformation. The ex­communication of one who proves himself unworthy to belong to The First Church of Christ, Scientist, includes the hope that that act will help to protect the erring brother or sister from the malpractice of other unwatchful members. It is meting out a form of punishment that will satisfy the ones who desire to see the offender punished, so that they will stop malpracticing on him, and thus give him a fair opportunity to reform.

Excommunication in Christian Science, therefore, is not meted out in the spirit of revenge, but of compassion, to give the erring one the chance to begin again, to step out of the organization and thus be freed from the malpractice that is usually indulged in. Then if the offender is honest and sincere, he may reform and be taken back when he has proven his worthiness.

It would appear as if death itself was a form of excommunication whereby one is relieved of the universal malpractice, since the moment one passes on, he is set free, in the sense that his family and friends no longer believe that he is sick, or old, or feeble —or even a sinner. Therefore, of two evils, the lesser would appear to be death for one who cannot handle the malpractice that is causing him to suffer, or weighing him down with a sense of sin that is heavier than he can carry. At this point he is free to make his own demonstration without interference.

When an honest student is tricked by animal magnetism so that he falls, he can rise again; but if his fellow students proceed to jump on him, can he be blamed if he is unable to rise. He is to be blamed for falling, but his fellow mem­bers are to be blamed for his failure to rise again.

Christian Scientists should ask themselves earnestly each day, “Am I mal­practicing on anyone? Am I believing that certain students have natural charac­teristics and tendencies which will forever limit their usefulness in our Cause?” If they are guilty in this respect, then they are not seeing their brothers as God sees them, because He sees them as His only begotten, perfect and immortal. God sees man as he is; when man sees man as he is, that will be a great help to the latter in living up to that ideal of perfection.

Christian Scientists have pledged themselves to help others out of their difficulties in every way they can, and this pledge includes the necessity to watch lest they themselves be found malpracticing on an erring brother. They should never be too lazy to look beneath the veil of animal magnetism, to see the son of God waiting to be released from falsity.

The man who owns a diamond mine is never too lazy to make the effort to see the perfect stones beneath the external roughness. He knows that if he should judge what he has wholly by the outward appearance, he would soon be bank­rupt. Although there is nothing valuable about the stones he gathers, according to their external appearance, by looking deeper, he sees the value. As a matter of fact, when you see a beautifully cut diamond, you know that the only reason you see it is because somewhere someone was alert enough to see the beauty and value that were not apparent to the untrained eye.

The average Christian believes that the beauty of the Master's character, his gentleness and goodness as the son of God were self-evident; but how many Christian Scientists today, if they had been face to face with Judas, would have seen his underlying perfection as God's child? Would they have seen the spirit­ual perfection of those who believed themselves to be Jesus' enemies? Mrs. Eddy tells us that Jesus beheld the perfect man, where sinning mortal man appeared to mortals, and that that was how Jesus was able to help and heal others. Students need to watch and pray lest they lay even a slight burden of malpractice on a brother, thus, perhaps, making it necessary for him to be ex­communicated from such malpractice, before he can reform or be healed. In God's sight the adding of the slightest malpractice to the burden of another is a sin.

In passing, it is of interest to note that this letter marks the evolution of a simple thought, since in the little book mentioned by Mrs. Eddy we find the birth of our Manual. It is instructive to know that it did not come to our Leader as a sudden blinding light, but as an evolution of thought, the growth of an idea.

The value of knowing this is that it proves the Bible statement, that if we are faithful over a few things, we shall be made rulers over many. Because Mrs. Eddy heeded the voice of wisdom and was faithful in taking each step as it presented itself in the development of the idea, we have the Manual today, which is such a vital document to all Christian Scientists, and which is without precedent. It provides that discipline for the false and the finite mentality which renders it ripe for destruction. It also furnishes rules which challenge thought, because their meaning seems obscure and hidden. Thus, in seeking to under­stand and obey them, the student is required to use spiritual thought, and in this way he gains spiritual growth.

Launching the Manual represented a very important step in establishing the organization. Within its pages is a compendium of instruction, guidance and discipline. An intelligent obedience to the Manual places the student in line with divine power, so that eventually divine Mind becomes his Manual as well as his All.

One precept gleaned from this letter is, that of faithful adherence to an idea which at first may seem simple and even non-essential. Yet it may start one on a road leading to that which has world-wide importance. For this reason it is essential to be faithful over a few things, or over what may seem to be small leadings. Little did the servant in the Master's parable dream when he buried his talent in the ground, that, had he been faithful over this small thing, he would have been made ruler over a city!

This letter represents Mrs. Eddy's punctilious observance of the demands of God in minor and simple ways, which at the same time led to tremendous results. Her thought was not so set on receiving great revelations from God, that she was not ready to listen for and to pay attention to what seemed to be simple demands.

The very first call that came to her from God, said, “Mary” three times. Although that call appeared to tell her nothing, yet as a little girl she was faith­ful in answering it. Today we can see that that call was a sort of spiritual radio signal which, because she did not disregard it, resolved itself into a connection with God which remained with her throughout the rest of her experience and enabled her to receive and put forth the marvelous wisdom of God. Today if we are as faithful as she was over the simple demands of God, we will find that we have established a connection with God, and will become recipients of the inspirational thought that is so needed in the world.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

December 4, 1892

My dear Student:

The discipline of the old Church is not practical for the new. I would make it simple and possible for dealing with absentees. Something after this manner:

If, through reliable testimony or proof, it be found that a member of this “The First Church of Christ, Scientist,” is living or teaching far apart from the doctrines of Christian Science, a meeting of this Church shall be notified from the pulpit, and the First Members thereof shall meet at the appointed time, and after due deliberation and Christian consultation, if it be found neces­sary to deal with the offender, the clerk shall address him or her a letter stating the charges. If the same are not disapproved before the next quarterly meeting, the Church shall quietly drop from its list of membership the name of this member.

A two-thirds vote of the First Members present shall decide the question.

With love,

Mary B. G. Eddy


Judas' betrayal of the Master arose from an error in him that was un­condemned and hence nurtured, as Mrs. Eddy says on page 448 of the textbook, whereas Peter's denial resulted because he was ignorant of the trickery of animal magnetism, and so was unprotected. Peter was impulsive, and yet loyal and faithful. Jesus saw that his defences needed strengthening, so he permitted him to be caught by error in order that he might learn the lesson.

When I was quite a boy I undertook to cure a group of painters, who were working for my father, of the habit of swearing. Amused by my earnestness they agreed to try to stop using profanity, and I checked their progress each day. Then one day when I became irritated at something my sister did, I used an oath such as I had heard the men use. I was shocked, since it was something so offensive to me that I had rebuked it in these painters; yet I had let it into my own thought by seeing it as real in them. In looking back I can see that I had not “shaken the dust off my feet,” as the Master has taught.

On page 233 of Miscellany Mrs. Eddy writes that you cannot “demonstrate over the effects of other people's sins by indifference thereto.” It requires an active and vigorous mental effort to cleanse our understanding from the dirt of materiality that is picked up through contact with the world. In my experience with profanity I was like Peter, in that I had no intention of manifesting the error that I was rebuking in others.

It is possible for one to be handled by an error that is foreign to one's natural inclinations, if one makes a reality of it or does not rebuke it. Peter needed the lesson, because of his impulsive nature. The Master warned him in a general way and then permitted him to learn from experience.

Mrs. Eddy did not consider the evil which obtains in the bodily senses, but which the heart condemns, in the same category with that which is uncondemned, and hence undenied, and nurtured. Yielding to this error would be “living or teaching far apart from the doctrines of Christian Science,” and might cause the one manifesting it to have his name dropped from the list of membership.

Sin may be inadvertent. Under the pressure of animal magnetism one may say and do things not native to his thought or inclination. Such a one could not be said to be living and teaching far apart from the doctrines of Christian Science. Like Peter, his sin is in the superstructure, and can be corrected, and not like Judas', in the foundation.

The Bible declares that Truth is a burning and a shining light. As it lights the traveller on his way, it also destroys the falsity of material sense. The honest student who formerly depended on material sense, rejoices to see this false sense beginning to disappear, because he knows that thus he will win his spiritual freedom. During this process he may at times make mistakes and yield to error, but he will continue to build up his recognition of spiritual reality, and thus will be sustained and protected during the destruction of error.

On page 151 of Miscellaneous Writings we read, “God is a consuming fire. He separates the dross from the gold, purifies the human character, through the furnace of affliction.” In line with this statement, what will happen to those who profess to be Christian Scientists, and yet continue to place reliance on material sense? Does not the Master warn us that we cannot serve God and mammon, that we cannot augment the fire that is destroying the earthly house of this tabernacle, which in reality is only an illusion, and at the same time settle down to make it our eternal home?

Man's true heart is in reality always right with God; but there are two phases of animal magnetism that present themselves for acceptance. To use baseball as an illustration, one might be defined as the “pitcher” error and the other the “catcher.” A mortal may believe that his heart is fundamentally right with God, but that he is subject to influences outside that send error to him which he accepts; or he may believe that fundamentally his heart is not right with God, and so the very foundation of his thinking is corrupt. While there is little choice between these two phases of belief, the “pitcher” error (the one where one believes that the error thrown at him is responsible for his deflec­tions) is handled more readily than the “catcher” error, (the one where one regards his own mentality as depraved). Thus, whatever comes to one, he dis­torts, and makes it appear sinful. It may be said that Mrs. Eddy sought to es­tablish a discipline for her church that would take care of the Judases, at the same time giving the Peters a chance to reform.

If the offenders covered by Mrs. Eddy's classification were permitted to remain within the borders of the organization, it would not be injurious for the church. If this be true, why should not the church take a tolerant view, and refrain from excommunicating such individuals? The answer to this question may sound radical, but it cannot be disputed, if the initial premise is accepted, namely, that “God is a consuming fire,” that is, a destroyer of falsity, having for its purpose the utter annihilation of every claim of existence, power and life apart from God.

If a band of campers were grouped around a brilliant but burning fire, they would be safe as long as they did not carry anything combustible; but if one was clinging to something highly inflammable, so that he might be severely burned, — and he refused to drop it or let it go, — the kindest thing would be to force him to leave the vicinity of the fire.

It was for the good and safety of the Judases in her church who believed that their errors were fundamental, so that either they could not get rid of them, or else they did not want to, — that Mrs. Eddy made the provision of discipline and excommunication. She preferred to send members away from the fire, than to have them remain nearby, and have the very light that was a blessing to the Peters, be a curse to them, so that they might even be self-destroyed, as Judas was.

When Mrs. Eddy criticized the editorial written by John B. Willis (see Miscellany, page 232), she did not state that this was the only questionable article that had appeared in the Christian Science periodicals. But she was guided by God to use this article as an example to teach students that the letter without the Spirit, or preaching without practice, has no place in Christian Science. A country may print beautifully engraved paper money, but unless it is supported by a gold or silver reserve, the money has no value. Our religion is founded on healing, and everything should heal, services, lectures, periodicals, as well as reading the Bible and Science and Health. Mr. Willis' editorial lacked the inspiration that heals, because it was not the fruit of demonstration; and, therefore, it had to be mightily rebuked. Thereby Mrs. Eddy set a standard for all time, namely, that the editors of the Publishing Society should never accept for publication an article that lacks inspiration and demonstration, no matter how correct or striking it may be from the intellectual and doctrinal standpoint.

Similarly, Judas was not the worst sinner the world produced in Jesus' time; but he served as an awful example of what will happen to one who con­tinues in Christian Science, and who does not meet the belief that he is not fundamentally sound. It was necessary for someone to go through the Judas experience, in order that the world might know the awful consequences of one remaining a member of the Christian Science church, without seeking to cast out the belief that he has some irremediable flaw in his mentality or character, some phase of materiality or inclination that he cannot cast out with God's help.

Therefore, the Judases in our Movement, those who believe that they have some streak of imperfection, some dishonesty, depravity or sensuality that it is incapable of being cast out (when Christian Science teaches that all sin is illusion and no more part of man than the rain that falls on him), must be excommunicated for their own sake, because of the danger they are in if they remain members and still cherish this belief regarding themselves. On page 81 of Retrospection and Introspection, Mrs. Eddy writes, “The letter of the law of God, separated from its spirit, tends to demoralize mortals....The enlightened heart loathes error, and casts it aside; or else that heart is consciously untrue to the light, faithless to itself and to others, and so sinks into deeper darkness.”

It was Mrs. Eddy's love for mankind that prompted her inauguration of discipline. A knowledge of this fact will help to perpetuate a right motive on the part of those who do the excommunicating, and to restrain all malpractice toward those who are found deserving of such a fate. It would appear as if it was an acknowledgment of the reality of error, to take one living far apart from the teachings of Christian Science, and to vote to dismiss him from church mem­bership. Mrs. Eddy teaches that man is the perfect child of God, and whatever error a mortal manifests, is animal magnetism. One might assert that Mrs. Eddy should have instructed her church to go to work and demonstrate for the one manifesting some evident error, that he might be brought back into the right path, and that he should be expelled only when this effort failed. Would one not feel that it was the duty of the Directors and of all right-minded members to strive to see the erring one rightly, and thus to help to free him from the mesmer­ism that was holding him?

These arguments are all true, but when a member reaches the point where he comes under the classification outlined by Mrs. Eddy in this letter, he is beyond being helped for the time being, because of his belief in the fixedness of his error, and he must be let alone until he awakens of his own accord.

When the English auto racer who raced in his car the “Bluebird” at Day­tona Beach, Florida, wanted to start in a race, a group of men had to push the car, since it could not start under its own power. The ratio of the driving gears was so high, that the power of the engine could not overcome the inertia of the machine when it was motionless. Thus, one pilgrim on the road from sense to Soul can give another a push that will help him to get started; but his actual growth is a matter of individual effort. Also, if one does not take advantage of the friendly pushes he is given from time to time, the point comes at which it is the part of kindness to cease giving him such help, until he is ready to take advan­tage of that which is so freely given to him.

When one becomes a member of a Church of Christ, Scientist, he receives a spiritual impetus, similar to what was given the “Bluebird” at the start of a race. At the same time, he is confronted with a certain amount of error which he must overcome if he desires to progress beyond a certain point. It is a mistake to believe that one can join the church, and thereafter be pushed into heaven, or find a perfectly smooth path upon which to progress. The organization as a concession to the needs of the age offers a limited measure of help. Once Mrs. Eddy wrote as follows: “You recall (Jesus') turning water into wine for the marriage feast, and even being baptized to meet the necessity of ‘suffer it to be so now for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.' His age or the age in which he lived required what he did and his wisdom caused his concession to its requirements in some instances. Just as this age requires organization to maintain Christian Science.” Page 311 of Powell's life of Mrs. Eddy.

The error that follows in the wake of organization must be met by the mem­ber, if he desires to progress spiritually. If he does not meet it, he will stagnate. When that happens, it may be the act of kindness to free him from that error by taking his name off the books, with the hope that such a procedure may cause him to see how he has been misled.

The organization might say to a member, “If you cannot continue in your demonstration with the impetus I give you, it is because you are not alert to handle the error that accompanies church membership. Hence it is for your good that your connection with me be severed for the time being, so that you may recover yourself and wake up. If separated from the church error you make your demonstration, I will lovingly welcome you back.”

The discipline of our organization is unlike that of other Christian churches, if it is correctly understood and constructively administered. It is rightly enforced only when those responsible for it, execute it solely for the good of the one disciplined. To Mrs. Eddy discipline was not a convenient means whereby the church might be purged of undesirable members, since she knew that the only right way to purify the church was for members to purify themselves, and in so doing they would demonstrate over the impurity of the church. Demonstration is for the purpose of overcoming error, not persons; and the error found in the organ­ization has a divine purpose, in that it provides the member something on which he can practice, and develop his ability.

Sometimes members feel depressed by the error that dogs their footsteps in the organization; but they should realize that the great Shepherd of the sheep loves them, and is guiding them into the sheepfold. Often the method of driving sheep is to unleash a dog that barks and nips the flanks of the sheep, when they stray from the path. Shepherds do this not because they hate the sheep, but because they have to keep the sheep on the right path.

Often the very circumstances which seem wrathful and afflictive in the organization, are made the angels of His presence, as Science and Health says, because they are seen to represent Love leading the sheep home. The way to overcome such circumstances, therefore, is not to remove the circumstances that are wrathful, but to remove the error in oneself that resists the leadings of Love and entices one to walk into by and forbidden paths.




Pleasant View

January 8, 1893

My dear Student:

All is right in your research. I want to see you, and will whenever I can, send for the Board of Directors to come to Con­cord.

No special reason for seeing you only that it will be a pleasant New Year Greeting.

With much love.

M. B. G. E.


When in 1905 Mrs. Eddy published in the Sentinel a strong criticism of an editorial by John B. Willis, many students were unable to find anything wrong with it. In view of the fact that there appears to be nothing incorrect about it as far as the letter of it is concerned, one is forced to conclude that Mrs. Eddy traced it back to Mr. Willis' thought, and failed to find that spirit of healing which must be present in any article, in order to have it worthy of the name Christian Science.

She knew that a healing thought accompanies everything that is written by one who is in touch with God. Since her thought was continually in touch with God, it follows that every letter she wrote, no matter how commonplace it may appear on the surface, traces back to an inspirational thought. Therefore, it is possible to take each letter and evolve the idea back of it, since each one was and is a road leading back into Mrs. Eddy's thought. One who questioned this fact would be questioning the very basis of Christian Science, namely, that Mind is cause, and that one can trace back to Mind through its expression.

The spiritual good which can be gained through a study of Mrs. Eddy's letters in this way cannot be overestimated; it is abundant because of the wealth of spiritual thought which she daily reflected from God.

When we find a letter to the Board that contained specific instruction, as well as something the meaning of which was not plain, we know that such a letter was designed to bring forth two things on the part of the Directors, namely, obedience and development. In fulfilling her request they would learn obedience, and in seeking to understand her meaning, they would gain spiritual growth. In this way they would receive the training that would best fit them to carry on the Cause, when she was no longer with them personally.

She never knew when her destiny on earth would be fulfilled. Hence, she sought not only to found her Cause, but to train students as fast as possible to carry it on. It follows that she must have written many letters with the hope that they would tend to this result. When human sense could not catch her meaning, that condition would be a prod to force them to seek to understand the letter through demonstration. In so doing they would be establishing an access to God which would bring an influx of His wisdom, which was just what Mrs. Eddy hoped for, since she knew that that alone could guide the Cause.

In judging the value of Mr. Willis' editorial by the thought back of it, Mrs. Eddy established the precedent for evaluating everything that is written on Christian Science. Those who pass on the articles sent in to our periodicals must always bear this in mind. As a matter of fact, it would be a wonderful training to help those at headquarters to learn how to detect whether an article sent in, had inspiration in it, or not, for them to take Mrs. Eddy's letters to the Directors, and endeavor to detect her thought back of each one.

One who aspires to be an art critic learns to appreciate art by first studying pictures that have true worth. After he has made some gains in this direction, he is confronted with an assortment, to see whether he can sort them according to their true value. Students of Christian Science must learn to do this with articles on Science, so that they can detect the genuine from the spurious, the latter being those which may be letter-perfect, — the best that mortal thought has to offer, — but which trace back to no real inspirational or healing thought, and hence are merely someone's human opinion about Christian Science.

When articles come to hand which have been circulating among students over Mrs. Eddy's signature, we should be able to determine whether Mrs. Eddy actually wrote them, by tracing them back to the thought of the writer. No article that lacks an inspirational healing thought should ever be attributed to our Leader's pen!

The following may be said about the letter in question: When Mrs. Eddy summoned a student to her home for any reason, it is evident that he would arrive more or less under tension, because he desired to appear at his best. He might be afraid, for instance, that he was going to be rebuked for some mistake. But when Mrs. Eddy wrote to the Board, as she does in this letter, saying that she is going to send for them with no special reason in mind other than a pleasant New Year's greeting, such an invitation would be designed to quiet their thought, and cause them to appear before her naturally and at ease.

Mrs. Eddy kept a careful check on the mental progress of those students to whom she entrusted the affairs of the Cause. In order to do this, she had to come face to face with them from time to time, to determine the quality of thinking they were indulging in, and to discover whether they were making spiritual progress. Her ability to analyze and to see deeply into a student's thought was notable and a great proof of the spiritual quality of her thought; but she often had to see a student in order to do it.

I frequently cite my own experience as an example, when one evening she asked me a question that I answered by quoting from the Bible. She was a little hard of hearing as is indicated by her letter of May 12, 1907 to General Frank S. Streeter, in which she wrote, “…my hearing with the ear is my weakest point.” Although I believe that I quoted the Bible to her correctly, she rebuked me for quoting it incorrectly. I am grateful that I did not try to justify myself ac­cording to the human impulse, and say, “But, Mother, I did quote it correctly and you simply did not hear it right.” At that moment God gave me the ability to see what the situation really was.

Mrs. Eddy's attention had not been called to me particularly; but when I quoted the Bible to her, as she thought, incorrectly, she was led to look deeply into my thought, in order to find what it was that caused me to make that incor­rect quotation, since she knew that when one's thought is right, all that proceeds from it is right. In this way she found something that needed to be rebuked, and she proceeded to give me scientific advice which was of great value.

It would have been the humanly natural thing for me to try to justify myself in her eyes, when actually she was reprimanding me, not for having quoted the passage incorrectly, but for what she detected in my thought that should not be there. This incident illustrates how, when it was necessary, Mrs. Eddy could look inside a student's thought and see what was going on. This ability was part of her great usefulness to her students and the Cause. Furthermore, when her at­tention was called to you, you could not fool her by pretending that your thought was otherwise than what it really was!

Without question Mrs. Eddy's thought in sending for the Directors at this time was to look them over in order to check on their mental state, and in order to do so, she wanted them to appear before her at ease and in a natural frame of mind. If she had wanted to look into a spring in order to see the bottom, she would have required that the surface be still, since if it was disturbed, she could not accomplish her purpose. She knew that if the Directors came to Concord questioning whether she was going to rebuke them, or place some new and difficult project before them, they would be in a more or less unnatural frame of mind. Hence by telling them in advance that it was merely a social visit, their minds would be put at ease, and she could accomplish her purpose.

It was not the thinking of the Directors when they were making a conscious effort to be scientific, that Mrs. Eddy was interested in, since she knew that that would be scientific according to her teachings; but she desired to find out the quality of their thought when they were off guard, rather than under pressure.

Because it is a practitioner's business to heal the sick and because he has sympathy for them, he seeks to attain a thought for that purpose that is more or less spiritual and scientific. If, however, you wished to learn the true moral and spiritual status of a practitioner — if you wanted to know how far he had advanced spiritually — you would have to learn what his ordinary thinking was. You would have to discover whether he was more and more making the effort to think scientifically about his patients when there was no need for it. The test of progress is not what a student does under pressure. The test of sincerity is whether a student is seeking to recognize the importance at all times of keeping his thought attuned to God. Is he ready to challenge the kind of thinking that seems natural and legitimate, when in reality such thinking is unnatural because it is material and human?

I repeat it was important for the Directors to bring to Mrs. Eddy their or­dinary line of human thinking, because only by examining that could she tell where they stood spiritually. In order to accomplish this, she stated that their visit would be of a social nature. Yet from my own knowledge of our Leader I can attest that she took no time for social amenities. Hence I can state with a measure of authority that there was some such purpose behind this call to the Board, and perhaps the Directors knew it; although even Mrs. Eddy's best students were not aware of how she regarded what they might think was harm­less human thinking.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

January 25, 1893

Dear Student:

Mr. Johnson has sent to me your letter of acceptance to remain Pastor of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston.

Your allegations that you base your decision on a knowledge of my desire that you continue with this church are foundationless. You have never asked me for my views on this subject and have no moral right to assume that you know them to be what you declare they are! Since you have stated my mind and I have not expressed it to you, and your statement is incorrect, it becomes my duty to say that I do not consider you, in the present condition of the church in Boston, equal to the responsibility that rests on its pastor. Your sermons have in several instances convinced me of this fact, and that your mind has become sadly beclouded.

Your faithful loving Teacher,

Mary B. G. Eddy

(Copy of letter to Rev. L. P. Norcross)


One error that at times tempted students — and still does — was to use Mrs. Eddy as a means of forwarding human desires. Mr. Norcross had a human desire to continue as Pastor of the church, but he knew that there was opposition to him. He knew the loyalty of the Directors to Mrs. Eddy, and that this loyalty would cause them to accept him, if she desired them to. He did not bargain on the fact that she would detect his stratagem. He did not count on her keen spiritual per­ception, which caused her to know or to find out all that she needed to know or to find out.

More than one of the students who had access to our Leader, attempted to abuse that fact in the endeavor to realize personal desires. When I left Pleasant View Mrs. Eddy told me plainly to go home and teach. I could have used this statement as authority to hold classes, and no one could have gainsaid my right, since I was the only witness to what she said to me. At the time, however, there was a By-law in the Manual, which was soon repealed, which forbade one to hold classes who had not taken a course of instruction in the Massachusetts Meta­physical College.

At the time I felt that my duty was loyalty to the Manual and to Mrs. Eddy's organization. I knew that if God wanted me to hold classes, He would open the way. Further-more, Mrs. Eddy's instruction to me was not to hold classes, but to teach, which is a privilege given to all practitioners within a restricted scope (See page 358 of Miscellaneous Writings). I believe she would state that I have been teaching ever since she gave me this admonition, although I have not taught classes, nor received any tuition for teaching.

Mr. Norcross attempted to hide behind Mrs. Eddy's skirts, instead of working out the problem of his reappointment through demonstration. This in itself was sufficient evid`ence to prove his unfitness for the position of Pastor. Had he presented the problem to Mrs. Eddy honestly, she would have turned to God for her answer,which was a privilege Mr. Norcross had, too. Had he turned to God for his answer, Mrs. Eddy would have approved of it, since it makes no difference who makes a demonstration. It is the same wisdom of God shining through anyone who becomes a clear windowpane. It was not a question of what Mr. Norcross wanted, or what Mrs. Eddy wanted, but what God wanted, and His will may be learned by any receptive heart.

The Bible consists of that which came to man from God recorded down through the ages. Therefore, it would be permissible to call whatever came to man from God, the Bible. It is for this very reason that Mrs. Eddy was justified in linking Science and Health with the Bible, because the former is the present­-day revelation of God to man. Science and Health is like a spade, which, when thrust into the garden of the Bible, breaks up the crust that has been formed down through the centuries, and enables it once more to put forth the rich spiritual fruitage that it is capable of growing.

The Bible has a background of centuries of human history, but its pith and essence is its spiritual teaching, apart from any history. It is the Science of God and man, which was revealed to man. Thus, each student has his chance to con­tinue the unbroken chain of the Bible and to contribute to it, since it is necessary to record that God is talking to His children in every age. There will always be those who are capable of hearing and voicing His messages. This ability was not confined to Mrs. Eddy.

Why was Mrs. Eddy justified in being sharp in her rebuke to Mr. Norcross? Was he not permitting the human mind to enter the situation? When any student does this, he deserves a sharp rebuke from God, and as His representative, Mrs. Eddy was called upon to administer it while she was with us. Had Mr. Norcross used demonstration in this matter, he would have had the key which unlocks the door to any position or problem. If one does not unlock the door to a position with God's key, he can never be said to be rightfully in that position, and he should stay out of it. Once Mrs. Eddy gave the rule for filling positions in these words, “He who supplies all good will fill all vacancies in His own way; and He will fill them with those who are spiritually equipped to take up the cross and follow whithersoever He leadeth.”

Individuals may be called to different positions in our churches, but the appointing is not correctly made, unless the individual in question has himself demonstrated the position. If he has, then it is God who has called him, and the church who selects him simply represents the execution of God's will in naming him for the position.

Thus, a precept growing out of this letter is that God does not rightly name anyone for a position, who has not demonstrated that position for himself, and if the position involves election by the church members, or the Directors, they merely represent the execution of God's plan which the candidate has brought into operation. Thus, the ideal of election to office is the candidate making his own demonstration of the position, which means God setting His seal of approval on the selection; then the church or Board recognizing God's choice in the appoint­ment of that one.

David was selected to go forth to meet Goliath, because he had made his demonstration and proved his faithfulness in caring for his flocks and protecting them at all times. This faithful effort constituted a preparation for the use of divine power, that made him eligible for the sacred task of meeting Goliath, who was a symbol of the consolidation of all error, and so of freeing the chosen people from the bondage to that which was a symbol of all falsity. If David had not made this preparation, it would have been foolhardy for him to have gone forth to face the foe, for he would have been overthrown.

Mrs. Eddy perceived that Mr. Norcross had not made the demonstration to have God send him forth to meet the foe; so it was kindness on her part to restrain him, since he was not spiritually ready for the work.




(Read this letter in your church next Sunday, tomorrow)

Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

Jan.28, 1893

To the Board of Directors

Dear Students:

Your entire action on calling a pastor to the Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston was independent of me, as it should be. Afterwards in a letter to me you stated that you had given Mr. Norcross a call to this pastorate for one year, and enclosed in your letter his answer which was not favorable to accepting your call. In this letter Mr. Norcross declared in substance that he did not feel ready or capable to meet the increasing responsibilities of the situation. Immediately afterwards you enclosed his letter to me in which he wrote that he had accepted your call, not because he thought he was equal to the growing responsibilities of the Boston church, but because he knew that it was my desire that he should accept your call.

Your action previously had been taken without my knowledge or advice. And I immediately wrote to Mr. Norcross that I enter­tained no such desire, and as I had expressed no such desire, and as I had been unjustly called to this issue, it became my duty to tell him so, and that I agreed with him in his own opinion as to it not being best for him to accept your call and assume the present respon­sibilities of the situation.

The Board of Directors must know for themselves what are the qualifications of the pastor which they call to this church. I hereby refuse my consent to be called upon to answer these momentous questions, which in no manner pertain to my labors or duties.

Faithfully

as affectionately yours,

Mary B. G. Eddy

N.B. I refuse to read any further correspondence on this subject.

M. B. G. E.

January 28

Dear Student:

Don't fail to read the enclosed from the platform in your church tomorrow. It is of great importance that you are honest in your great responsibilities and do me justice.

M. B. G. Eddy

N.B. Don't you let this enclosed letter that must be read tomorrow hinder you from sending to Norcross your letter, just as you have written without my knowledge, in reply to Mr. Norcross' last to you. But let him decide. You have no moral right to deceive him nor be unjust to me.

M. B. G. E.

(Telegram.)

Received at 386 W. Broadway, So. Boston 1/28/1893

Dated Concord, N. H.

To Wm. B. Johnson

41 G. St.

Don't read letter just sent publicly. Don't give N. your answer.

M. B. Eddy


Only a faithful, courageous and flexible thought can issue its highest sense of God's commands, and then countermand them. No one would do this who feared either criticism, or being considered wavering and uncertain. Mortal mind will take a stand and even if it discovers that it is not correct, it will cling to it through pride.

Mrs. Eddy was flexible under the hand of God, and that is why He could use her in His service. An inflexible nature is of little value in the work of Christian Science, since God's leadings must constantly change to meet changing cir­cumstances. A hunter must have a dog that is so nimble and flexible that it can follow the rabbit, no matter where it runs.

God's demands do not come to man so insistently that they are unmistakable, that is, in this dream of mortality. One must listen for them, and then work over them to make sure that they are genuine, and not the promptings of animal magnetism.

We know, therefore, that after Mrs. Eddy had written these letters and instructed the Directors exactly what to do, she continued to work over the situa­tion until it became clear to her that a wiser way was not to make the issue public.

Perhaps it became clear to her that to project the matter into the church body for discussion, where Mr. Norcross had both friends and enemies, would cause the former to be cast down and the latter to feel bolstered up, which would make them all incapable of handling the situation scientifically. No member could work on the situation in God's way if he was prejudiced one way or the other, since the demands of God always require one to take the middle road, which means to have no desires but those of God's directing, — to work only to have His will done. One cannot work impersonally or scientifically if he has a strong bias in any direction, or starts with the notion that a certain thing would be unwise on the one hand, or desirable on the other. Such a modus makes scien­tific demonstration impossible, since the latter demands that one present to God a blackboard that is cleared of everything human, in order that Mind may inscribe its dictum upon it.

Once Mrs. Eddy was giving vital instruction as to correct mental work, and she said to Laura Sargent, “Go write it, go write it.” When Laura returned with what she had written, Mrs. Eddy wrote upon the page, “Well done, Mother.” What Laura wrote reads in part, “She said when we take up our Watch, we do not help her with our thought; we simply clear our own thought of the belief of evil, and this is getting rid of our thought and getting out of God's way so the light can shine through, and this blessed light helps us and all in its shining. This is the blessed, blessed way from sense to Soul.” One does not get rid of his thought so that God's light may shine through, if he clings to any biased sense whatsoever. One must turn to God with the prayer, “Not my will, but thine be done.” He must cast out all desires or estimates, and also watch that a sense of prejudice either pro or con does not remain to shade God's light.

Mrs. Eddy was fitted to be the Leader of Christian Science because God could use her flexibility. The moment one permits human opinion to enter into a demonstration, even though that human opinion may coincide with what is right, that shuts out divine guidance. A demonstration might prompt you to vote “yes” to a question in a church business meeting, along with a large number of others who vote the same way; yet the affirmative of all the rest would be meta­physically wrong, if it was the expression of man's thought, rather than God's.

A member might feel convinced that his “yes” was the prompting of divine Mind; yet if he feels the impulse to persuade the entire membership to vote as he feels is best, he may know by that that the human mind is controlling him, since if he yielded to this impulse, he would be robbing the other members of the opportunity of making their individual demonstrations.

Part of Mrs. Eddy's fitness to be the Leader of Christian Science was the thorough-ness with which she silenced all of error's claims. She manifested the ability to demonstrate in every direction that was necessary. The Bible records that Moses and Aaron worked together in the government of the people, as if Moses could make a demonstration in one direction, but not in another. Perhaps he could see the people right, but could not see himself right; he needed Aaron to complement this effort. Aaron showed no hesitancy in voicing truth, whereas Moses accepted the belief that he could not do it, because he was slow of speech. He listened to and entertained this sense of limitation, which thereby handled him because he accepted it.

Mrs. Eddy rejected every argument of limitation in connection with God's demands upon her. She therefore was able not only to be the Revelator for this age, but the best demonstrator of that revelation. She was so inspired with the determination to let God govern the Cause, that, when she gave out instruction which she felt came from God, she continued to work until she was sure that it did. Furthermore, she never let pride stand in the way of her countermanding orders, when it became evident to her that in so doing, she was reflecting Mind.

In Adam H. Dickey's Memoirs of Mary Baker Eddy we read, “People say I am changeable, — that I change my mind frequently. I do change my mind frequently, but when I do, it is always God that changes me. Sometimes I will be headed in one direction, like a weather vane, and will stay that way for several days. The next time you see me, I will have turned completely around and am going the other way, but in the meantime God has given me additional light and has led me to make the change. There have been times in working out a problem when I have not known just what step to take and finding it necessary to make a move of some sort, I have taken a step as nearly as I could in the right direction. Perhaps I would find out shortly that it was wrong, but this step gave me a new point of view that I would not have had, had I not taken it as I did. I would not condemn myself, therefore, for what seemed to be a mistake, but would include it as part of the working out of the problem.”

Mr. Dickey goes on to say, “Mrs. Eddy realized that what was disturbing the Directors was the fact that she had changed her mind about something that they had considered quite important, but it seems that the changing of her mind was a privilege that our Leader reserved for herself, and she exercised it without any regard whatever for what had gone before, or what had been said. She declared, ‘Is a leader any less a leader because she changes her mind?'”

Mrs. Eddy was always seeking for a possible successor. I know this to be true, for she once named me as the one God had chosen to carry on, after she left us. Later God revealed to her that she was to have no successor other than man in the image and likeness of the Father-Mother God.

One difficulty she had with students who displayed qualities of leadership, was to inculcate in them humility and flexibility. Pride stands in the way of these two qualities, since it is pride that bolsters up a man's self-esteem, so that he feels competent to become a leader. When pride diminishes, a man may become humble and flexible, but at the same time the sense of leadership may wane. Thus humility, flexibility and courage are needed by the one God chooses to lead His people. He must have no fear to go where He directs, or to do what He commands.

I never heard our Leader apologize for changing her mind. Her attitude of doing a thing because God told her to, or suddenly not doing it for the same reason, even if the abrupt turnabout seemed to reflect upon her character as an intelligent Leader, proved that she was free from pride. In a letter to the Directors dated December 23, 1902, which will be considered in sequence, she wrote, “This is the cyclone hour with our cause, when my weather vane must steer with the wind in order to indicate the right course. What seems best today, tomorrow may make not best.” Again on June 6, 1902, she wrote to Archibald McLellan, “For the sake of our cause I ofttimes change orders and veer like a weather-vane. A direction that is right under existing circumstances may change the next hour, for circumstances alter cases, then I countermand my order and it works well.”

On June 9, 1898, she wrote to Irving Tomlinson, “Many times I project and God changes my plan and executes His through me which is so much better.” Also she wrote to him on December 10, 1906, “I find the way by experience, hence I am a Christian Science weathervane, constantly veering with the winds of Truth.” Finally we have her words written to William P. McKenzie, March 28, 1897, “I have no time of my own but like the weather vane change with the elements as perforce of the hand that invisibly is stretched out to point the way with a finger of light.”

As was often the case in Mrs. Eddy's experience, a student's deflection, — at this point that of Mr. Norcross, — was instrumental in teaching a lesson which was essential for her and the church to learn. No doubt this experience caused her to perceive more than ever that the affairs of the organization should be handled by the Board of Directors, rather than by the membership as a whole. It can be said that the Directors hold a very honorable position, but that in the sight of God they do not rate higher than the mental workers in the Field, who make the demonstration to reflect the spirit of God in all their ways. Part of the honor of the position of Directors is that this Board takes the responsibility for the proper discharge of the details of the Movement, which leaves the practitioners and mental workers free to do the higher mental work that is the life-blood of the Cause.

In like manner the students in Mrs. Eddy's home performed many and manifold tasks, in order that she might be left free to assimilate her thought to God. We should hold students like Calvin Frye in loving remembrance and gratitude for the help they were to their Leader, and hence to the Cause. Likewise we should hold a sense of profound gratitude towards the Directors for the labors they perform so efficiently and lovingly. The Field owes them great appreciation, since part of their loving sacrifice for the Movement is to take their precious time to carry on the business of The Mother Church, which gives them just that much less time in which to assimilate thought to God.

It cannot be said that our Leader ever feared the malpractice that her sudden moves at times brought forth. Yet in many things her experience was like that of Abraham. When he was found willing to sacrifice his son, it was accounted unto him for righteousness, and he did not have to do it. At this period we find Mrs. Eddy willing to take her stand against Mr. Norcross publicly, without regard for the extra burden that would be placed upon her shoulders, due to the chemicalization that was bound to follow. Then having proved her willingness to God, she did not have to do it.

Mrs. Eddy's purpose was to reserve her mental blackboard for God to write upon, and to guard it, lest animal magnetism write upon it. Her experience had taught her that at times error did write on it, which confused the issue and made extra work for her. Hence it required a great sense of humility and sacrifice for her to be willing to take a stand that would invite malpractice.

Much is said in Science about malpractice, but there is nothing very mysterious about it, when it is learned that it refers to the action of the human mind. At times, however, when it operates maliciously, it has the tendency to etch the mortal mind picture more deeply on consciousness, which causes the things of Spirit to seem less real. When it is malicious, it represents mortal mind freed somewhat from the universal limitations of belief, and working in a way to make its false impressions more aggressive. One mortal can reach the thought of another through malicious mental malpractice more readily than through what might be termed normal human thinking. Animal magnetism, or mal­practice, claims to write with an engraver's tool, thus scoring the blackboard of thought deeply, and making its errors more forcible and less easy to erase; and yet there is no such false action in reality. It is all mortal belief.

It was this action that Mrs. Eddy referred to in the sixteenth edition of Science and Health, when she wrote on page 428, “You will also learn that the transfer of mental pictures, from one mortal mind to another, tends to a speedy inoculation with the virus of error.” One may conclude that this sentence was revised to read as it does in our present edition, in order that this mental bugbear may not seem so real to a student, that he becomes fearful of it, or believes that its mental pictures become so etched in thought, that they cannot be removed by the constant recognition of God's power to dislodge them, as Mrs. Eddy once declared. Her words were, “Sometimes I seem to hear the voice of the Father like this — My child, there is nothing in mortal mind to fear, not even the educated thought that knows what it is doing. But these different claims must needs remain until thou art not afraid. They are here only for thee to learn that they cannot harm. When that is learned their mission is accomplished and away they go. The way to learn their powerlessness is through the constant recognition of God's power to dislodge them.” This statement is dated October 16, 1892.




February 20, 1893

My dear Student:

The mistake was in saying the time was summer only. I can show you this by-law relative to reading S. & H. in pulpit in copy last summer, and again after our Deed was recorded. All is right about this. Now comes the effect of a so-called C.S.'s mind on my Directors, causing them to give Bro. Norcross a premature call. I have read his letter. I advise you to give him permission to leave, but not until his term expires, unless you have already done so. You ought to have a pastor engaged before he leaves. What if you write a call to Mr. Easton for a year only to begin with. He was educated in Theology at Andover, Mass. (Address D. A. Easton, Pittsfield, Mass. Box 1327).

The enclosed by-law must be voted upon at once, by First Members, and recorded as a by-law in your Church records. I see the need of it.

With love,

M. B. G. Eddy


Mrs. Eddy's experience with pastors deserves a whole volume. At the time when the editor of Zion's Herald, Prof. Townsend, was launching a series of nine attacks against her, and some of the leading ministers in Boston were conspiring to attack her, she was able to make the demonstration to have other prominent ministers preach from her pulpit, among whom was Rev. Peabody, Pastor Emeritus of Harvard University. Thus, for a time she met fire with fire, even though these ministers gave her a great deal to meet.

Martha H. Bogue records that when she went through the Normal Class in November, 1888 she asked Mrs. Eddy why her child had not been healed. She replied, “You have to learn patience, child.” Mrs. Hogue said, “But I have been patient, Mrs. Eddy. I have been waiting almost three years.” The reply was, “You do not know what patience means. I have been waiting twenty years for an answer and I have not received it yet, but I will have it.” Then Mrs. Eddy ex­plained that she was waiting to find a pastor for her church that could stand against the wiles of the devil, animal magnetism, and preach clear Christian Science, unadulterated. Then Mrs. Bogue wrote in her record, “I knew, five years after this, when she ordained the Bible and Science and Health as the Pastor of this Movement, that she had found her answer — not in personality, but in Spirit.”

The working out of this problem can be likened to my experience with my dogs, at the time when due to the war there was a scarcity of the food they had been used to. I was advised not to give them a straight diet of the new food im­mediately, but to mix a little of the new with the old until gradually they became accustomed to it. Then the old could be eliminated entirely, and the dogs would get along all right with the new.

When Mrs. Eddy started her church, it was not possible to go at once in her pulpit from traditional theology to pure metaphysics. Students practiced the new revelation in healing the sick, but its extension beyond that was slow in coming. The birth of healing was much faster than the birth of the organization. For that reason, it became necessary for her to pass a By-law that insisted that in each service a measure of the new be mixed with the old. When a minister preached from her pulpit who perhaps knew little of metaphysics, she let him preach the Bible, but she insisted that he read a portion of Science and Health, so that he as well as the congregation would get a measure of Science. Then as time went on, she was able to get ministers who were Christian Scientists, until finally she was able to discard ministers entirely, and have the impersonal pastors that would give forth unmixed Science.

When a prominent minister like the Rev. Peabody preached for her, reading a portion of Science and Health along with his sermon, he could not fail to get some good out of it, along with the congregation. So, the evolution was carried out gently and scientifically, until the present status of ministry in the church was achieved. The twenty-five years that it took seemed a long time to Mrs. Eddy, but it taught her a valuable lesson in patience.

The importance of healing in Science should never be disregarded. If it is considered necessary to remind members once in a while of the importance of contributing money to the support of the church, it should likewise be thought essential to draw their attention to the need of working mentally for the services, lectures and other activities of the organization, so that a healing atmosphere may accompany them.

Men pay gladly for secular education. The contributions of members to the support of our organization represent a very small price to pay for the great knowledge that they receive in return. Therefore, members should constantly feel that they owe the church far more than they contribute, and that the only way they can pay this debt is by working spiritually for the congregation during the services and lectures. This work establishes a healing atmosphere, and gives the stranger the blessing of Christian Science healing for the first time, so that before he has come to appreciate the doctrine, he appreciates the healing. This prayerful work for the congregation also serves to open the pocketbooks of the strangers to contribute to the Cause and to interest more and more people in Christian Science. Therefore, it becomes a means whereby a member can make up to the church what he owes, and in a measure return the blessings to the church that he has received from it.

When a young man begins the study of dentistry, as soon as possible he joins a free clinic, where he begins to practice what he knows without receiving any compensation. In this way he benefits those who are too poor to pay for such service and also exercises his growing skill. Church members should be told that in God's sight it is as important, if not more so, to work for the congregation in order to give them a spiritual blessing, as it is to contribute money for the support of the running of the church. In this way they prove their fidelity and understanding, and also bless the stranger and encourage him to come again, in order to learn more of this blessed truth, so that eventually he may become a giver of the Word, and not a hearer only.

In this letter, when Mrs. Eddy says that the mistake made by the Directors was the effect of a so-called Christian Scientist's mind on them, she touched upon the subject of animal magnetism in her usual wise and enlightening way. She recognized it as a very delicate subject; yet she never failed to enlarge upon and discuss it with advancing students. Parents find it always difficult to instruct a child relative to the problem of sex. A child is naturally pure-minded, and is untouched by temptation. The parents know, however, that the time is going to come when such knowledge will be necessary, and therefore, ignorance may harm the child. So, they force themselves to instruct the child how to defend itself against that of which the child knows nothing. They try to do it in a way that will not be too great a shock, by using wisdom and tact; but at best it is a difficult thing to do.

It was a difficult thing for Mrs. Eddy to instruct students that they would have to meet in their experience a deterrent coming from the educated human mind, when it turned into erroneous channels. If she did not do this thing wisely, the effect on some students would be to make them afraid of everyone else's mind, even that of their friends. Occasionally today one finds a student of Science who will run out of a restaurant, if he finds a Roman Catholic priest in it. This proves that he is afraid that such a one might exercise a power that might touch him adversely, in spite of anything that he might do. Yet such a misconception is as far from what Mrs. Eddy was seeking to expound, as it would be to conclude that their thought had no influence whatsoever on anyone.

There is an old adage which says that if ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise. But in Science it is ignorance that is folly, and wisdom means freedom and protection. Mrs. Eddy makes it plain that the moment one recognizes that there is such a claim of erroneous influence coming from the educated and liberated mortal thought, and one is watchful, he is the master of it. When one who is about to go into the woods is instructed as to the character and appearance of a skunk, he will not be frightened, but watch to be sure that when he sees a cun­ning striped animal that looks like a harmless kitten, he does not mistake it for one. A skunk is very limited in its power to do harm, and when one is instructed in this regard, he is not filled with fear, but merely armed with a knowledge that becomes his adequate protection.

Mrs. Eddy exposed the nature and methods of evil, not to make her students afraid of it, but to awaken them to its awful possibilities when it is ignored. Today people are not instructed in the fatal nature of the carbon monoxide gas contained in the fumes from the automobile engine, in order to make them fearful and feel that their machine is a potential murderer or assassin. They are given instruc­tion in the fact in order that they may be protected. The simple instruction is, not to keep the engine running when the car is in any garage with the doors closed. Armed with a knowledge of this rule, the alert man is never in danger.

According to Mrs. Eddy's teachings, it is as simple a matter as that, for one to protect himself from animal magnetism. Yet she found that it was possible for one who did not gain a right conception of it, either to be afraid of it or to frighten others over it. She no doubt shrank from taking a student who was filled with faith in the power of God and expose to that one the hidden workings of the lie, but she knew that it had to be done. Yet she did not do it to startle students and to create a fear in them which would darken their experience, and for in­stance cause them to run out of a restaurant because there was a priest present!

When a country is at war, sometimes the most serious problem arises from those within its own borders who are secretly in league with the enemy. When the identity of such individuals is known, it is not difficult to take action against them; but when the presence of such persons is undetected, there is danger. In Christian Science such hidden enemies are represented by those so-called Christian Scientists whose criticism and malpractice become dangerous only because one would not expect to have anything to meet from such seemingly loyal and faithful members. It was important, therefore, for Mrs. Eddy to point out to the Directors that a man's foes are they of his own household, and that they would have more to meet from such individuals in their own ranks than from anyone outside.

One should not judge such persons too harshly. Let it be remembered that they become students of our religion armed with a determination to live up to the highest ideal and standard of Christian Science. Then with the passing of time they lose a little of that keen determination, and perhaps get a little careless. Under such circumstances it becomes a temptation to fall into the error of using the human mind erroneously. In fact such students may do it almost unconscious­ly. My experience which I often relate illustrates this point, when I sought to cure the painters working for my father of the habit of swearing. Then in a careless moment I found myself swearing, a thing which I had never done before. I did the very thing I was sincerely striving to overcome in them.

In Christian Science we have to work against animal magnetism in order to handle the claim comprehensively; we have to learn the possibilities of what the human mind can do in the way of malpractice and erroneous influence, lest when our thought gets down, we find ourselves using animal magnetism or malpractice!

This point explains the deflection of Mrs. Augusta Stetson. When her thought began to deteriorate in her latter experience, she did great harm, because she began to use the human mind. When she was active and sound in thought, she did fine healing and church founding that was a great help to Mrs. Eddy. It was her splendid ability that caused her teacher to appreciate her so much. But to her applies the Biblical statement that to whom much is given, of him much shall be required. When one is given a deep insight into the workings of the human mind called animal magnetism, he must watch that in an unguarded moment he does not use it unwittingly. It would be like my experience, when I used profanity without the slightest intention of so doing. Because there is a claim of power in the human mind, as we begin to recognize this point, unless we strive constantly to keep our thought balanced on the basis of divine Mind, we are liable to find ourselves malpracticing inadvertently, as Mrs. Stetson did.

Therefore, here in this letter to the Directors Mrs. Eddy is giving a hint of the fact that in the future, our foes will be those of our own household; that when the Directors follow out the dictates of God, if the quality of malpractice is latent in a student, he is liable to malpractice on them if he is off guard, since that which comes from God seems foolish, and even wrong to the human sense in man.

It is interesting to note that when the students in Mrs. Eddy's own home saw how obvious and dreadful Mrs. Stetson's error had become, they were eager that she should be exposed, and the situation be handled quickly. When Mrs. Eddy refused to do anything about it at all, or to permit anything to be done, they were quite upset. Finally she wrote for them the following stirring statement in order to quiet their thought, and to explain to them why she was taking the stand she did. Then John Lathrop went to her privately and said, “You mean, Mother, that if we are patient and let God work it out, He will do it in His own wise way at the right time, and in a better way than we could?” Mrs. Eddy said, “Yes, that is what I mean.”

Her message was, “Never notice publicly an error if it can be avoided. Never rejoice in victory over it nor lament. It gives power where it does not belong. Evil is not something. Then wherefore give it the honor of noticing it further than to remove it? Then let the dead bury their dead. Have no funeral knell or trumpet blast over nothing; otherwise you will make it something and consistency is especially desirable in dealing with nothingness. To talk of evil is as inconsistent as to talk of sickness, unless it be to untalk it and put it out of mind forever.”

Here she gives the Christianly scientific policy that she wanted students to follow for all time to come. She made no specific explanation as to why she took the stand she did in Mrs. Stetson's case, since Stetson's error was not the im­portant thing. But she used that error as an illustration of how such situations should be dealt with for all time.

When a member manifests a sense of error, there will be found other members who will “balloon” it, as Mrs. Eddy writes on page 129 of Miscellaneous Writings, and malpractice against the individual. But it may be declared that those who are found disobeying the very foundational teachings and example of their Leader in this way are not worthy to be called Christian Scientists. Yet it was because of these that Mrs. Eddy established excommunication. She dis­covered that, when a member like Mrs. Stetson indulged in error, she might eventually recover herself and continue to be a loyal member, were it not for the malpractice of other members holding her down. She found that at times the kindest thing was to excommunicate such a one, so that the desire for punish­ment on the part of the rest of the members might be satisfied, and they would drop the one in question from their thoughts and cease to talk about their evil. Then that one, if he or she was honest and desirous of straightening out, would reform, and Mrs. Eddy would take them back into her church without hesitation.

Death may be described in this same way, as being the excommunication provided by divine wisdom for those who are so malpracticed upon and held under universal disapproval because of sickness or sin, that only by being set free from it, can they rise up and be free. The moment one dies, others stop mal­practicing on them. The world no longer holds them as being sick, sinful or old. The deduction is that if a student can meet the claim of universal malprac­tice here and now, he will not have to be excommunicated by death from this present sense of things.

It is valuable to know that when we feel glad because an error is handled, or feel sorry because it is not, that is part of the effort of animal magnetism to cause us to resurrect and give life to an error that otherwise might remain dead. From Mrs. Eddy's statement we learn that an error may be dead to us, yet it may be resurrected if we continually rejoice in our victory over it, or lament because another has not handled it. We also learn that we should testify to what Science has done for us and others with the greatest care, since our anxiety to make the healing more convincing to the listeners might cause us to dramatize the case, with the result that we give power to error or illusion, where it does not belong. We give a trumpet blast over nothing, and we should not be surprised if in that way the error is resurrected!

The clear thinking Scientist regards it as a cross to have to give a testimony as to some error that has been overcome, since it requires him to come out of the secret place of the Most High, where he knows that error is nothing, in order to help humanity. It is almost an insult to the goodness of God to declare that we were sick and through Science we were healed, since we know that we never were sick, and so we never were healed! The whole experience was a mental illusion, a case of sheer insanity, in which something that was not, appeared to be. All that happened was the correction of that mental falsity. We must, there­fore, watch lest, in giving testimony, we fall into the error of rejoicing so in the victory, that we resurrect the lie, because it seemed important to dramatize the healing in order to help humanity, by declaring that the error was quite real, but Truth was powerful to overcome it. Actually the condition was not real, and Truth was not powerful in the human sense of power, although it appeared to be so. Truth was powerful in bringing the understanding that set us free from illusion. When we realize that we were never sick, we know that it took no power to heal us, since all that was required was to have our thought freed from the mesmerism that caused us to believe in the reality and presence of that which had no exis­tence.

When you know that there are no such things as ghosts, the recognition of that fact frees you from the superstitious fear of them. But you would not rejoice that you had had a victory over a ghost, nor would you lament because you believed that a ghost had conquered you! You would arrange for no funeral service for a ghost that had been killed! You do not even give it the honor of notic­ing it or talking about it, unless it be to help another out of his fear of nothingness. So, as Mrs. Eddy says, there is a “talk” about sickness that “untalks” it, where you give the explanation that helps one to rise out of a mental state in which he fancied the disease to be something, into that consciousness where he sees clearly that he was merely deceived by an illusion.

I can recall that Mrs. Stetson's errors formed the chief topic of conversation among many careless students. The gossip about her was equal to that in an old peoples' home! Yet she was a brilliant woman with a recognized ability and understanding of leadership far greater than any other student I ever knew outside of our Leader. The latter knew about the envy and jealousy aimed at Mrs. Stetson and perceived that the whole thing was animal magnetism; and animal magnetism is something we must be freed from, instead of having it fastened upon us, when it is no more we who carry the stigma of animal magnet­ism, than the white dress of a dancer carries the color, when a colored light is focused upon her.

Mrs. Eddy never had a fair chance nor an open field in her efforts to save Mrs. Stetson, and many of the students and members were to blame for it. Mrs. Eddy continued to hope that Mrs. Stetson might be saved from the error that she yielded to, and to strive to save her, because God told her it was possible. Mrs. Stetson had the finest church in the Field, she had the wealthiest and most socially prominent students in New York among her congregation and associa­tion. These students would give her anything she wanted, and they did give her much. Her students who were business men advised her in her investments so that she might be prosperous and live in elegance. All this served to inflame the envy of others, who were not as wealthy or prominent as she was. It is a sad commentary on the human heart to say that when error overtook Mrs. Stetson to the point that she had to be removed, there were many who were not exactly sorry; and lest the Field forget about it, they continued to toss her error and reputation about like a rubber ball, in order to be certain that forever afterwards both she and her students would be anathema.

Jesus admonished us to forgive our brother seventy times seven. No matter how often Mrs. Stetson departed from the rules of Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy forgave her and tried to help her, because she was worth being helped. The admonition she wrote for her students was one that she wanted them to follow, not only for the good of Mrs. Stetson, but for their own sakes as well, since no student should be found making a reality of that which he has pledged to reduce to nothingness.

The practice of Christian Science is a highly dangerous profession, since the practitioner is daily confronted by sick folks who have such a conviction of the seriousness of their afflictions, which are supported by the evidence of the senses, that, if the healer becomes careless or too mentally lazy to reject and challenge every illusion that attempts to fasten itself upon him, so that he ac­knowledges its existence, he may find himself partaking of the same error! It is plain, therefore, why Mrs. Eddy did not want the students to fall a victim to the error Mrs. Stetson was manifesting, by looking at it, “talking about it, thinking it over, and how to meet it,” as we read on page 130 of Miscellaneous Writings, since she says that this “has the same power to make you a sinner that acting thus regarding disease has to make a man sick.”




Pleasant View

Concord

February 28, 1893

To the Board of Christian Science Directors

My dear Students: —

The great sin of fearing to repeat history as it is you will have to attend to, as you are in a position which enables you to do this and demands this most important duty of you.

Our last C. S. Journal has in the Editor's table an historical sketch of the progress of Christian Science as quoted from Mr. Norcross' sermon, that would destroy all landmarks of Truth and leave the ages to conjecture and their own hypotheses as to the appearing of Truth in the 19th century!

Please call a meeting of the Directors of Christian Science and adopt by vote if you agree on this subject, the By-law that was prepared to be adopted by The First Church of Christ, Scien­tist, but afterwards omitted because it was deemed safer to place in the power of this Board all the government relative to the Pastor of this Church. Let this be the By-law:

It shall be the duty of the Pastor of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, to read from the pulpit each Sunday a portion of Science and Health and before reading it, to say to his hearers, “We will read from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Reverend Mary B. G. Eddy.” The Pastor who refuses or fails to do this as herein required shall be removed from the pastorate of this Church.

With great love,

Your Teacher,

Mary B. G. Eddy

N. B. Please inform me by mail when this is done, but do not repeat it; only say in your letter, “We met and it was adopted,” if it is.

M. B. G. E.


As far as advanced students are concerned, it makes little difference whether Mrs. Eddy's name is linked with Christian Science, since they know that it is an inspiration from God; that it is demonstrable; that it has been given to the world in a form that can be understood by any sincere student, and can be demonstrated by him so that remarkable results follow.

In passing it is of interest to note that in the early days, Mrs. Eddy's critics did all they could to prove that her system was wholly fallacious and illogical; then they bent every energy to prove that she was not the author of the textbook. The question is, if her discovery was so faulty and worthless, why were they unwilling to admit her to have been the author of it? One can interpret this to be a tacit admission that in their hearts they did perceive the value of Christian Science, even if they did not acknowledge it.

What difference would it make to an advanced Christian Scientist whether Mr. Quimby or anyone else was the channel for the revelation of Christian Science, so long as he was convinced that it came from God? Similarly with the Bible, would it be harmful, or retard the stately progress of Christianity, if it should suddenly be discovered that Hezekiah wrote the book commonly at­tributed to Ezekiel?

Yet here we find Mrs. Eddy greatly disturbed, because Mr. Norcross preached a sermon in which he outlined the footsteps of progress beginning with the first edition of Science and Health down to the new hymnal, which had just appeared, without mentioning Mrs. Eddy in any way. What was the cause of her disturbance?

On page 132 of Miscellany she writes, “Above all this fustian of either denying or asserting the personality and presence of Mary Baker Eddy, stands the eternal fact of Christian Science and the honest history of its Discoverer and Founder. It is self-evident that the discoverer of an eternal truth cannot be a temporal fraud.”

Mrs. Eddy's great value and importance to all students beyond her being the Revelator, lies in the fact that she correctly demonstrated her revelation. Even if she had been the Discoverer of Christian Science, yet if it could be proved that in her own life she was a liar and a fraud, this would prove that she did not demonstrate what she taught, or was not fitted to do so. Hence her life would not be the right one to follow.

Such is the nature of Truth, that if Mrs. Eddy revealed it without demonstrating it, what she taught would never enable anyone to work out his salvation. One's spiritual progress does not consist in learning more and more meta­physics through study. Demonstration is the only word that covers progress. If error could rob Mrs. Eddy of her claim of being the author of Science and Health, or the one through whom God wrote it, the great revelation of Christian Science would be rendered inoperative, separated from Mrs. Eddy's demonstration of it. It is true that God reveals Himself through the one who fits himself to reflect God, but it is through demonstration alone that one becomes fitted, through living the life that approaches the supreme good.

As a matter of fact, Mrs. Eddy's authorship is seldom questioned these days, and when it is, it does not provoke much discussion. If this indifference has resulted from an indifference to Mrs. Eddy's demonstration, then it becomes necessary to reassert that by every act of her life she was demonstrating Christian Science in its highest sense — the truth of her own revelation — as well as proving her own fitness to be both the Revelator and the demonstrator. It must be shown that Mrs. Eddy departed neither from the spirit nor from the letter of Christian Science in her life, not even in the few instances when in extreme pain she resorted to morphine, as is plainly stated on page 313 of Mr. Powell's book about Mrs. Eddy.

It is as important to establish the fact that she was justified in the sight of God when she had a hypodermic injection in extreme pain, as to prove that she was the author of her textbook, and that it was not Quimby or somebody else who wrote or discovered some of the propositions which she incorporated in her discovery. Students must learn that she was the consistent and correct demon­strator of Science, and that, when she took morphine in extreme pain, she was at a point in her spiritual growth where, should another reach the same place,­ — one animated by her life-purpose — and find that his own demonstration and that of others failed to relieve him of extreme suffering, a resort to morphine in order to regain the ability to think scientifically would be less of a concession to error, than a return to the human will in order to be able to endure. The rule is that whatever leads us to God is good.

Mrs. Eddy, when she took a hypodermic injection, was showing her nothing­ness without God, just as when she wrote Science and Health and demonstrated its scientific propositions, she showed her somethingness with God. She might have forced herself to endure the pain through human will, but morphine harmed her nothingness without God far less than would have a resurrection of the human mind. The so-called human mind is the very essence of falsity, whereas morphine is one of its simpler derivatives. Had Mrs. Eddy attempted to be something when God seemed to be withdrawn from her, that would have seriously impaired her ability to reflect Him, since reflection demands that man be nothing without it or apart from it.

Although the importance of proving Mrs. Eddy's authorship relates to her consistency, honesty and integrity, the most vital point before advancing students is her successful demonstration. She was the Leader in demonstration as well as in revelation. Of what value is her revelation, if she did not, or could not demon­strate it correctly? If Mrs. Eddy needs any defence, it is to set forth that the things for which she was criticized by those who learned of them either first hand or through those who lived with her, were all evidences of her higher demonstration of Christian Science, that were beyond the comprehension of those who knew about them. Mrs. Eddy gives a hint of this fact in Miscellany, page 180, where she indicates that the disguised or self-satisfied mind would misconstrue her best motives and call them unkind. Many a student in his heart never forgave Mrs. Eddy, because the truth she reflected penetrated to the very depth of his thought and stung him to the quick. Often such ones tried to turn the lie back on her, rather than to admit the error she uncovered.

Many students have taken the middle ground, where on one side they would have to repudiate certain things about our Leader and not believe them, in order to retain their faith in her, or on the other hand accept them and criticize her in their hearts, all the while endeavoring to be grateful because she gave them Christian Science; being willing to overlook her human frailties, because of her great gift to the world.

As the years go on, more and more of Mrs. Eddy's life will come to light and be known by the world. If with this uncovering, which cannot be prevented, the right explanation is not set forth, a growing element of criticism toward her will spring up, and awaken a doubt as to her integrity and honesty which will, at the same time, tend to shake people's faith in her demonstration as being cor­rect from start to finish.

When Mrs. Eddy was with us, she discovered that one effort of animal magnetism in picking off her students was to make a law that they would turn away from her, as the result of misunderstanding her motives and acts. Therefore, one way by which she could know that they were handled by animal magnetism was when they did turn away from her, even though apparently they remained loyal to her teachings. Thus, by requiring herself to be linked with her revelation, she left the means and method by which students' freedom from animal mag­netism could be gauged. Today if a student appears to be loyal, right and sound in every way except in his attitude toward the Leader, that is proof that he is not sound. On the other hand, the student who strives to maintain and retain a right sense of Mrs. Eddy and her life, will find that this will be of great help to him in keeping his thought free from the baneful effect of animal magnetism.

It follows that when Mrs. Eddy found Mr. Norcross delivering a sermon that appeared to be a fine exposition of gratitude and an accurate recapitulation of history, and yet leaving her out of the picture, she knew he was handled by animal magnetism. She needed no other proof.

Students should always remember that Christian Science means demon­stration, and that it always takes two elements to make demonstration, a proper vehicle and spiritual thought. Two elements are needed in a bullet, a cartridge that fits the gun and gunpowder. The letter of Christian Science, which is to be found in Science and Health, is important, and in that book it is to be found in all sizes to fit every gun. But it was Mrs. Eddy who supplied the spiritual thought which even today makes the cartridges of the Word effective. This spiritual gunpowder is the animus which cannot be written down, which even defies description, and which only Mrs. Eddy supplied. Hence if she is taken away from her revelation, the revelation becomes inoperative.

There have been many intelligent students of Christian Science who have given evidence of possessing an intellectual understanding of the subject and an ability to demonstrate; yet when they departed from Mrs. Eddy, they lost the right method of demonstration. Sometimes such students appeared to love everything about Christian Science, and merely felt aggrieved with the organiza­tion for some reason. But it always turned out that before they got through, they turned against her, and lost their power to demonstrate correctly.

Today we might say to a student that, although perhaps we cannot make it plain to him at present why it is so, yet it has been proved many times, that when one turns away from Mrs. Eddy, he gradually loses his ability to demonstrate, — ­even though he continues, as he believes, loyal to Christian Science in every other way.

The reason for this is that she was the best and only correct demonstrator of Christian Science, and so she supplied its entire impulsion. If a student begins to fancy that he has such a clear understanding of metaphysics that he can apply it better than she did, instead of endeavoring in humility to follow her life as well as her teachings, he proves by this arrogance that he is unfitted to demon­strate.

From this we see the serious error involved in a misunderstanding of Mrs. Eddy's life and demonstration. Because the human mind could not comprehend many things in her life, it tried to produce a prejudice against her. Based on what they heard about her, many students fancied that they were living a more con­sistent Christian life than she was, and that they were more capable of taking what she had written and taught, and demonstrating it.

When Mrs. Eddy, therefore, required Pastors and then Readers to read from Science and Health, and to announce her name as author, she was helping them as well as the church members to keep out of the toils of animal magnetism. A human mother when walking through the woods, tells her children to stay close to her, that they may be safe from harm. How much more should the spiritual Mother in this age strive to keep her children close to her, when her experience had shown her repeatedly the danger that lay in straying from her! Did she not once say, “When a student loses the true sense of me, and what I do, he is at the threshold of the plunge so many make into darkness, believing that darkness is a greater light.”

Mrs. Eddy knew that she was reflecting God in what she said and did, as well as in what she wrote. Therefore, it could only be the effect of animal magnetism, or sin, in a student that would cause him to criticize or misjudge her. It was as simple for her to gauge a student's thought by his attitude toward her, as it is for an optometrist to determine one's visual powers by the latter's descrip­tion of what he sees, when he looks at the chart designed for such a purpose.

Once a very brilliant man edited a magazine designed to do good. Yet the stories that circulated about this man's private life were of such a nature as to make what he wrote less impressive than it would have been, had the public felt that he lived up to his lofty sentiments. Such stories might have been the work of the evil one, but in his experience we find an illustration of what happened when some of Mrs. Eddy's students felt that she did not live consistently with her teach­ings, that although through an early reflection and demonstration of Truth she was able to discover Christian Science, yet when it to came her daily life, she was so set in her old ways, that she could not change. These old habits of thought were fancied to consist of domination, irritation, miserliness and an exaggerated sense of the importance of material things as well as an over-emphasis on order and cleanliness. They felt that this inconsistency was illustrated by the fact that when a modern bathroom was installed at Chestnut Hill, she made the students restore her washbowl and pitcher that she had used all her life. They failed to discern the rebuke to sensuality that was implied in this simple act.

Many students who believed in her doctrine, felt superior to Mrs. Eddy, because when they looked themselves over, their human lives appeared to exemplify goodness to a greater degree than did hers. So, they were willing to take her teachings in an impersonal way, by leaving her out of them. Mrs. Eddy was aware of this condition and perceived the error involved in it.

Mrs. Eddy knew that she had given out in her wriiings all she could regard­ing animal magnetism and its operation, but that it required her own experience, teaching and demonstration to uncover it in its subtlety, a thing which she could not fully set forth in her works, lest it chemicalize beginners.

Therefore we can say that it required Mrs. Eddy to demonstrate her revela­tion correctly; it required her to uncover the secret methods of evil, and also it required her to show us how to gain the inspiration, without which the letter is of no avail. When she was with us, it was as if she was the helmsman of the Cause, without which it would soon run aground. She was the only one who reflected the divine wisdom which could guide it aright; so to let go of her was to lose God's guidance. Today this same fact is true. There is no one who can steer the Cause successfully without her. Hence we must still regard her as the helmsman. Today this effort consists of the endeavor to understand her life and demonstra­tion, and to study all that she has left behind by way of teaching and admonition, which will be found sufficient to guide the Cause.

At one time my youngest daughter was at the brink of death. The greatest burden I had to bear was the suggestion of the harm it might do the Cause to have one of my children pass on without medical care. I fancied people saying, “There is a situation that came to a family, who gave up all for their religion and leaned upon God in every direction; yet He failed them in the greatest emergency! If they had had a doctor, the child would have lived.”

It is a devilish thought to believe that one who is striving consistently to apply his understanding of Christian Science in every direction and to trust God, can be left bereft — that it is possible for God to fail him. Therefore, when my little one recovered, it was a point of victory which involved more than just myself.

If you look deeply into Mrs. Eddy's daily intimate life as it is recalled by many who lived with her, or who have heard authenticated incidents, if you do so without spiritual understanding, you may get the impression that at times either she failed to live up to her teachings, or that God failed her. Knowing through my own experience that this was never true, I have a responsibility of going on record with this knowledge, and my reasons for it, which I believe are God-given and God-inspired.

I thank God that in the case of my daughter He did not fail me. I say this from the standpoint of the Cause as well as of my own faith. I found that even though one may go down into the valley of the shadow of death, one need fear no evil, for God is with him. In the last extremity, if one does not permit fear to control him, if he does not let doubt creep in, error can never penetrate that solid foundation.

God never failed to give Mrs. Eddy the divine guidance needed for the Cause, The definite connection between her and her Cause was, therefore, guidance. She must be constantly kept in thought not only as the real and only Discoverer of Christian Science, but as the only correct demonstrator of it. When animal magnetism causes one to doubt her in this connection, he stands in danger of losing God's guidance in his own life as well as in the Cause. If there is ever any failure in following the teachings of Science and Health, it is a lack of demonstration, and the pattern demonstration can be found in no other place than in Mrs. Eddy's life.

In this letter we read, “The great sin of fearing to repeat history as it is you will have to attend to, as you are in a position which enables you to do this and demands this most important duty of you.” She knew that it was sin in Mr. Norcross that made him afraid to cite her history in its correct and proper state­ment. His attitude toward her made him afraid to touch many things concerning her which he did not understand, lest they become deterrents to the stately progress of the Cause. Mrs. Eddy classified that as a sin. She knew he was handled by animal magnetism; otherwise he would recognize the fact that God had guided her footsteps all the way, and that when these were rightly under­stood, they could only redound to her credit and God's glory. She knew that only animal magnetism would cause a student to accept her revelation, claim to believe in it and live after it, and yet desire to leave her out of the picture. It was not a question of giving her human credit for her unrequited labors, but of having the spiritual vision of her as God's anointed.

She knew that history repeats itself. Think of what the Master had to endure at the hands of mortals, misunderstanding his purpose and not caring to be shaken out of their lethargy and profitless inactivity!

On page 224 of Science and Health we read, “Cold disdain, stubborn resist­ance, opposition from church, state laws, and the press, are still the harbingers of truth's full-orbed appearing.” Can one believe that this appearing is nigh, unless one sees the harbingers mentioned? Mrs. Eddy named it a sin to fear to repeat these harbingers as listed by her textbook, because students try to be at peace with the world. There is an innate tendency in some mortals that wants to be at peace with everyone. They dread conflict. If they are arrested for a traffic violation, they will do all possible to have it “fixed” up, rather than be hailed into court.

The temptation to make friends with mortal mind assails the Board of Directors. It is natural that they would want peace and try to avoid unnecessary trouble. After having the experience of costly lawsuits, they would naturally retain a corps of lawyers, in order to avoid the repetition of such sad happenings. Yet true religion never shrinks from conflict with material law, when it becomes necessary. In demonstrating over sickness, Christian Science must oppose and put down so-called medical law. It follows that there is nothing strange or sad about being brought before the courts of the land for truth's sake, as one of the harbingers of “truth's full-orbed appearing.”

No one can calculate the blessing it was to the Cause of Christian Science, when the law arrested a practitioner in Rhode Island for healing without a license. The winning of this case not only gave practitioners the right thereafter to practice in Rhode Island without interference from the medical monopoly, but it established a precedent that gave a basis for many such suits in the future in other states to be decided in our favor.

Even today the same fear tempts students that Mrs. Eddy refers to in this letter, namely, to fear to repeat history as it is, whether it be in the form of phases of Mrs. Eddy's life that might be misunderstood, or some of the trials of the early pioneer days. Such a fear is based on doubt, and such a doubt arises from one's own lack of spiritual growth and discernment. If one could see the hand of divine Love operating in all of our Leader's ways, he would never fear to repeat such history.

The historical sketch to which Mrs. Eddy referred in this letter may be found on page 423 of the Journal for December, 1892. It was a portion of Mr. Norcross' sermon hailing the new hymnal. While what he states was humanly correct, yet the “landmarks” it would destroy were to be found in her own experience, and Mr. Norcross carefully omitted all mention of her. In reality, however, she was so linked with the church, that her history constituted the only true report of those landmarks. His sketch merely recorded effect, and left out all mention of cause. Hence what he said had no value, and gave a wrong impression, since the whole teaching of Science is to turn thought from effect to cause; and Mrs. Eddy's demonstration was cause as far as the church was concerned.

Mental progress cannot be traced without noting its manifestation, but Mr. Norcross mistook effect for cause, and recounted effect as if it were cause, or an effect without a cause. Underground rivers are traced by an electrical device which gives accurate testimony of the direction of the flow of the water; but the device is not what interests people. It is the river. Mrs. Eddy's demonstration was the important thing, and the items to which Mr. Norcross alluded were important only because they pointed to that demonstration.

The true history of Christian Science is a mental one. Its platform is that everything external follows the advance of thought, as a shadow follows its object. Thus, progress has an external indication; but to portray effect without any relation to cause, as if effect stood alone, unsupported by cause, would be to destroy all the landmarks of Truth, and, as Mrs. Eddy writes in this letter, “leave the ages to conjecture and their own hypotheses as to the appearing of Truth in the 19th. century!”

The great history of Christian Science is Mrs. Eddy's own life! Hence the admonition in this letter about fearing to repeat history as it is, applied em­phatically to her history. Students must watch today, lest they still fear to give an accurate and correct transcript of her whole life, as if it might reflect on her Christianity and more or less detract from pure Christian Science. The true history of our Leader must set forth her motivation, or the thoughts that prompted what she did. Students must hold in thought what she wrote on page 298 of Miscellany, “...nothing has occurred in my life's experience which, if correctly narrated and understood, could injure me; and not a little is already reported of the good accomplished therein, the self-sacrifice, etc., that has distinguished all my working years.” She might have added, “When you write my history, fear not that it will put Christian Science in disrepute, or include anything to be ashamed of.”

When Mrs. Eddy safeguarded the reply to this letter by directing that the Board write back and say that the By-law was adopted, without repeating the gist of it, she was circumventing a very real danger. She knew that if this cor­respondence should go astray and become public, it would be possible to accuse her of seeking personal aggrandizement. One of her outstanding characteristics was modesty. She never desired to become prominent. She knew full well the envy, jealousy and malice that is aimed at those who take conspicuous places in the world. It was a great sacrifice for our Leader to take the prominent place God required her to. As far as she was concerned, she would have been only too glad to sink out of sight, with a chance to work out her own problem. But God compelled her to demand the recognition of herself as the author of Science and Health, since for all time this book was to be used as the textbook furnishing the underlying understanding from which all scientific demonstration has to be made.

Mr. Norcross had been a minister, and part of the old theology that ministers are trained in, is to expound doctrine as theory which is not susceptible of proof. A man might write a book on the operation of railroad engines without ever having been near an engine. Such a treatise would be mere theory in contrast to one written as the result of practical experience. Christian Science is demon­strable truth, and not an intellectual theory. The great point about Mrs. Eddy's setting forth of truth was that she did it from her own practical experience and demonstration. Yet when he described the new hymnal in his sermon Mr. Norcross said, “It expresses very faithfully, the earnest effort and pious care of the Committee, who for nearly two years have devoted so much time to its preparation.” It is obvious that in omitting Mrs. Eddy's part and in not showing the slightest appreciation of her labors, he exposed his old theological bias, in which pious labors are supposed to please God and win salvation, without regard for man's thinking. Had he recognized Christian Science to be a religion of scientific thought and demonstration, he would have noted the demonstration of Mrs. Eddy as being the mainspring and impulsion of the Cause, and would have given it due accord and gratitude.

It is always an easy thing in the orthodox church, and even in the Christian Science organization, to find plenty of members who are willing to engage in any amount of material labor, providing they can be made to feel that it is going to benefit the church and help them to win their salvation. It is not so easy to find students in Science who will do an equivalent amount of mental work in demon­stration. One reason for this is because no obstacles are placed in the way of human effort by animal magnetism, whereas the moment one tries to work, watch and pray in demonstration, one has the deterrent of animal magnetism to meet.

The Master taught us how to pray, and Mrs. Eddy taught us how to watch. Prayer that reaches the divine ear, is always answered, but few prayers do, because animal magnetism places obstacles in the path.

Every railroad has track guards to watch out for two things, obstructions that may land on the tracks through natural means, and those that may be put there maliciously. People either do not know how to pray aright, or they do not know how to remove the obstructions which stand between them and God. It requires a Christian to know how to pray, and a Scientist to know how to watch, — to keep the way to God open.

When Mrs. Eddy sent out a letter of importance, — and all the letters she wrote were important, — she followed it mentally and had the students do the same, lest animal magnetism prevent its safe arrival. A prayer is addressed to Deity, but a letter is sent to an individual. Yet if the letter contained a message from God, it would be subject to the same claim of interference as the prayer. Therefore, Mrs. Eddy watched her letters mentally as carefully as she did her prayers.

In concluding the analysis of this letter, I wish to reiterate its importance, since it emphasizes the sin of separating Mrs. Eddy from Christian Science. It can be said that when she had her fall in 1866 and was healed by reading from one of the Gospels, she was really healed by the Master, since it was his demon­stration that put healing into that part of the Bible. Mrs. Eddy made the demonstra­tion to add healing to everything she gave the organization. If one reads Science and Health and is healed in so doing, he can very properly say, even today, that he has been healed by Mary Baker Eddy. This is because she made the demonstra­tion to add healing to her book. That was her gift to the world. The textbook provides us with both understanding and healing.

Mrs. Eddy knew that as time went on, animal magnetism would seek to cause the healing in Science to diminish, just as it did three hundred years after the founding of Christianity; but she foresaw that as long as she was not separated from her book or her Cause, and the students cooperated to keep the recogni­tion alive that Science and Health heals, the healing would remain and increase. Hence it can be asserted that Mrs. Eddy's effort to unite herself to her book and her Cause, was her endeavor to keep the healing from ever being lost. A balsam pillow is treasured solely because of its sweet odor. If these two could be separated the pillow would become valueless. Mrs. Eddy's demonstration of healing is the sweet odor of healing that accompanies all that she left us as a rich heritage, and it is our obligation today to keep the recognition of this fact before thought.

Those who sell Science and Health in our Reading Rooms should point out to purchasers that in obtaining that book, they are getting two things; that the book contains the entire revelation of Christian Science as revealed to Mrs. Eddy, and also carries healing in its wings. In reading it, therefore, one should re­ceive enlightenment and healing. Those who are connected with publishing the Christian Science Monitor, as well as all students of Science, should recognize the paper as the mental antenna through which healing is sent out to the world to reach everyone that reads it. Mrs. Eddy started this demonstration, and it is the obligation of her followers to continue it.

Nothing can be called Christian Science, or a part of it, unless it carries healing, since Mrs. Eddy founded her organization by healing, to promote healing. When healing is extended through all its ramifications, even to the sample provided by the Monitor, then the Cause is fulfilling its divine objective.




(Please have this read from the pulpit)

Concord, N. H.

March 4, 1893

Beloved Brethren:

If The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston is un­timely in any movement, shall the result of this be imputed to me?

I was ignorant that a question had arisen between the church and its Pastor, until, informed thereof through copies of letters mailed to me, letters that had passed between the Directors and Pastor. The substance whereof was that brother Norcross had received a call to occupy the Boston pulpit another year, but he was not inclined to accept this call. I next learned that he had accepted their call, but had done so solely because I had desired it.

Being before ignorant of the whole matter, I had expressed no opinion on this subject, but I then wrote to the Directors, and to brother Norcross and feelingly alluded to the wrong of bringing me into this church question, or attaching to me the motive for what had been done without my knowledge. Now that this church and its much respected Pastor are about to separate, I trust they will part in Christian fellowship and love; also, that the Directors will immediately provide a pastor to fill this pulpit.

Yours in Christ,

Mary B. G. Eddy

(This notice was read from the pulpit by Mr. Norcross, Sunday, March 5, 1893).

Wm. B. Johnson


Mr. Norcross had really yielded to the sin of hypocrisy, since he had tried to create the impression that he did not want to continue in the position of pastor, when in reality he did. He took the stand that he was not seeking for a continuance in the position, but that he was willing to take it in obedience to Mrs. Eddy's wishes, because she wanted him to. Therefore, it was fitting that as an act of retribution for this error, he should read this letter publicly from the pulpit.

We are all more or less hypocrites in the sight of God. When we get into trouble, we declare that we want God more than anything else, while we really want physical healing. This is proved by the frequency with which we say, “Good-bye,” to God the moment we get from demonstration what we want humanly. It is self-deception and hypocrisy, when we claim that we want Truth for Truth's sake, when we have not established a desire above that of wanting what God can do for us to make the flesh more harmonious.

Students strive to establish oneness with God, in order that they may be guided by Him and become His mouthpiece to others; but do they always con­sider what a sacred and important demonstration this is, and how much it involves? In their eagerness, are they not apt to strive for this end before they have grown into a fitness to become God's representative on earth? How many students can be trusted with actual divine guidance?

Mrs. Eddy could be trusted with God's messages because she feared neither animal magnetism, nor the criticism of others. She merely feared lest she disobey or offend God. She had the fear of the Lord thoroughly implanted in her conscious­ness. She knew that she could not be called a faithful steward in God's sight, had she failed to put forth what God told her to put forth, to criticize or commend where He told her to, or to make the moves He told her to make.

The “still, small voice” in its guidance of man is so intangible to mortal sense, that it is possible for one who feels disinclined to obey it, to hide behind the assumption that perhaps he did not hear the guidance aright. Such subterfuge would be impossible, if one heard the voice of God as one hears the voice of man, or if one realized that it is neither still nor small. On the contrary it is “as when a lion roareth.”

In considering these letters to the church and the Directors, it is helpful at times to forget the channel, and think of them as the voice of God. If what is voiced seems inexplicable or out of harmony with what one would think God would voice, one must assume that the lack lies with him, and so he must bring himself up to a higher spiritual perception, in order to understand.

If, in the early days before you saw the fruition of Mrs. Eddy's efforts, you had heard even her best students criticize what she voiced, you might have felt that at times she made mistakes in what she wrote or said; but you never would feel that way about God. Therefore, in contemplating these letters, it is often wise to impersonalize them and consider them as divine wisdom that cannot be questioned.

It is necessary to feel that the demand upon Mr. Norcross to read this letter from the desk was a just demand from God. Whether he read it through loyalty and obedience, or through fear, cannot be determined; but if it was through fear, it was a discipline which he needed. A member's wholesome fear of the dis­cipline that the organization can exert, if not carried too far, helps him in meeting error. It should never cause him to forget the necessity for obedience to God. Given a choice between punishment that might await him at the hands of the organization if he disobeyed its rules, and punishment that would follow dis­obedience to God, — if such a situation could exist, — he should choose the former. Yet discipline by the organization seems very threatening, whereas God's punishment seems hypothetical.

Mr. Norcross might have read this letter because the organization had a certain power over his future, his person and his livelihood. It is necessary that the organization possess disciplinary powers for the good of the membership; but this is only in preparation for a direct obedience to God. The demands of the organization upon each member are clearly set forth, whereas God's higher demands can only be ascertained through demonstration and spiritual growth. It were better for a student to refrain from discovering what God's demands are upon him, unless in his heart he determines to obey them, when he learns what they are.

Some students deem it a part of loyalty and obedience to refrain from par­taking of tea and coffee, because Mrs. Eddy names these beverages in Science and Health with the marginal heading, “Morbid cravings.” Such obedience may seem commendable, yet it is apt to cause one to lose sight of the larger lesson, which involves one's spiritual development.

Blind obedience shows no comprehension of the divine wisdom that prompt­ed Mrs. Eddy to include tea and coffee in this list. If she considered the act of drinking coffee harmful, why did she include in Miscellaneous Writings on page 453 the testimony of a man who for years was not able to drink it without suffering untold agony; then through demonstration he was able to return to the daily use of it? This same testimony appeared in the back of Science and Health around 1894.

If we follow Mrs. Eddy's teachings understandingly, they help us to take out the nails that bind us to the belief of the flesh. We are admonished to begin with those things that suggest gratification or pleasure in the senses. Hence her statement about coffee is a timely hint for students to put into practice her words on page 198 (ibid.), namely, to “commence by turning away from material gods; denying material so-called laws and material sensation, — or mind in matter, in its varied forms of pleasure and pain.” From this we learn that a student who seeks a substitute for coffee shows an utter misunderstanding of metaphysics. If he is seeking to conquer the belief of pleasure in the senses, he surely will not try to find a substitute for coffee, so that he can retain as far as possible that form of gratification.

In January Mrs. Eddy had sent a letter concerning this problem of Mr. Norcross for him to read from the pulpit, and then had countermanded the order. Now in March she sends a letter that is read. This is an example of the great care she used to determine if a prompting came from God, by going over it again and again. Also, she may have realized that it is necessary when one is training sol­diers, to give commands that have no value other than to promote obedience. For her to direct the students to do something and then change it, and have them obey promptly and implicitly, was an important part of their training, in prepara­tion for obedience to God.

The end and aim of all true obedience is obedience to God. There is, therefore, a very important value in obedience to the organization, since it is a training that the human mind needs.

In these early days the Board of Directors were often torn between a desire to get Mrs. Eddy's wisdom and approval in regard to every move, and to relieve her of responsibility by striving to settle questions independently. It was neces­sary that the Church of Christ, Scientist, function under the wisdom of God. If the Directors or members did not do this, Mrs. Eddy had to do it for them. It was impossible for her well-meaning students to relieve her, unless they demon­strated what they did. When the church attempted to solve a problem with the human mind, confusion ensued.

Mrs. Eddy stood in relation to the Church as does a practitioner to his patient. The latter is unable to go to God directly; so, he appeals to one who can. Mrs. Eddy represented the one sure channel through which God talked to the Church. Either the members had to go to God directly, or go to her. In the case of Mr. Norcross they apparently did neither.

In this letter we find God guiding Mrs. Eddy to keep accurate records of events, since these letters were destined to become the guiding thought for future generations. Had this incident in reference to Mr. Norcross passed by without being properly recorded, it might have been lost. The lesson to be drawn is that the activity of the Church must be established and maintained under the thought of demonstration; otherwise it is faulty, and open to criticism from God, and from the Pastor Emeritus as His representative.

The letter implies that the move in connection with Mr. Norcross was not the result of wisdom, since it was untimely. Therefore, she, reflecting the wisdom of God, could not be made responsible for moves that were untimely. In order that this fact may go down in history, she has the letter read in the meeting, so that future generations may understand that when the membership depended on demonstration, hers or their own, the work went forward. When they did not, confusion followed.

Mrs. Eddy did not want an untimely move imputed to God, since He never makes mistakes. She did not want students to believe that there could be trouble in the Church as the result of anything but a lack of demonstration, or divine Mind's government.

Mrs. Eddy's letters to the Church are and always will be of vital importance. They might be called cause letters, since they had a divine cause, and were and are for the Cause, and the Cause should have the opportunity to study them, when any student proves that he is far enough advanced to be ready to do so.

This letter not only teaches that no one should ever assume in the slightest degree that such a confused situation as the one with Mr. Norcross, was the result of demonstration, but also that error uncovered destroys itself. It is true that perhaps no better pastor than Mr. Norcross was available at the time; but his experience proved that one way error attempted to control the students was by darkening their sense of the Leader. Christian Science was and always will be the demonstration of Mary Baker Eddy. It must always be recognized as such, and every attempt to take it from her must be recognized as animal magnetism. She reflected divine Mind, and if we make the demonstration to do likewise, one proof will be that we will see her in her God-given place and find our demonstration amplifying and supporting hers in every way.

While the Cause was being founded, Mrs. Eddy stood in relation to it as a spirit level does to bricks that are being laid in the foundation of a building. As the work progresses, the bricklayer must test the wall, to be sure it is level. If Mrs. Eddy could have been separated from her Cause, it could not have been constructed properly. Mr. Norcross' error of failing to accord the Leader her rightful place might have seemed a slight oversight to many, something she should have forgiven him for; but in her estimation it was not an error that was personal with Mr. Norcross, but the effect of the adversary to which he had yielded, which gave sure proof of his unfitness to continue in the position.

He was willing to leave Mrs. Eddy out of her Cause, at the time he gave from the pulpit a recapitulation of Christian Science history; yet when it came to continuing in his position – a thing he really wanted to do — he was willing to use her in order to do so. He knew that there was one sure way of being continued, and that was to indicate that he was her choice. He did not suspect that what he had done would reach her ears or that she would demand that he read a letter publicly, which made it plain that she had nothing whatever to do with the matter. This put him in the position where his dishonesty became evident to all, proving that he belonged, at least temporarily, not to the sheep, but to the goats.

The sheep represent those who love the truth because of the good that it enables them to do, whereas the goats are the self-seekers, who strive to get all the good they can out of Christian Science for themselves. The sheep live to give, whereas the goats merely love to live. The latter thank God for what Christian Science has done for them; whereas the sheep thank God that Christian Science has made giving truly effective. Sheep symbolize giving, because they furnish wool for man's protection. Also they are amenable to being led by the shepherd, whereas the goats are those who prefer to follow their own incli­nation.

Students who are represented by sheep are constantly seeking to bless their fellowmen. The goats may be put into important positions and may serve faith­fully, but searching into motive you find that often they merely want to prove their own worth.

Finally in this letter, Mrs. Eddy said that now that the affair was over, she wanted the church and Pastor to part in Christian fellowship and love. She knew that those of her students who were genuine metaphysicians, would know that the rebuke she had given Mr. Norcross was not personal; but had been given to uncover and to correct error. She was saying to those who could read between the lines, “Now that the error has been uncovered and corrected, be sure that you do not continue to hold it in thought as having been real or personal. Make nothing of it.”




March 21, 1893

My dear Student:

Read the enclosed, then seal it and give it yourself to Capt. Eastaman. I do not like to send it but for my desire to do right, I can send.

As soon as he resigns then elect Joseph Armstrong, my student, who is publisher, — to fill his place. Let me hear how Capt. E. takes this.

Affectionately yours,

Mary B. G. Eddy

Pleasant View

March 25, 1893

My dear Student:

Well done good and faithful. My hope is fulfilled and Capt. Eastaman is a greathearted, honest man. I thank God for this.

With love,

M. B. G. Eddy

The church must be built in 1894 Deo volente.


Once a member of a branch church who had been a thorn in the flesh of other members, withdrew from membership when she moved away from that locality. After a few years she returned and made application for a renewal of her membership. Whereas she appeared to be humbled and chastened, one said that it would be wise to put her to the test; that if the committee should ask her to wait six months, and she should lovingly agree, declaring that she realized that there were things in her past that she would have to live down, that would be proof of her reformation. Instead of that, she began to try to pull wires in order to influence prominent members to try to help her to regain her membership, which was proof that she had not changed.

Once Mrs. Eddy's adopted son was sent to Philadelphia to work in the Cause. The First Reader was asked to step out of her position in order to make room for Dr. Foster Eddy. She did this willingly without the slightest objection, although from a human standpoint it did not seem fair to be demoted without cause or warning. It was a test that proved this student's humility and obedience.

More than once Mrs. Eddy declared that part of the cross she had to bear was the necessity for rebuking, testing, and disciplining students. On page 242 of Lyman Powell's book she is quoted as having written to a student, “But none can know my necessity to reprove, rebuke, exhort, but the loving Father and Mother of us all.”

She might have added that another part of her cross was the need at times of taking students out of prominent positions for one reason or another, when she knew that they might be offended, if they did not understand that God required her to do it. When her adopted son insisted upon being the First Reader of The Mother Church, she asked Judge Hanna to step out of that position, which he did without complaint. Mrs. Eddy found it necessary to do this, because her son had permitted this ambition to use him; and until he was quieted, he would continue to pester her, and keep a countercurrent of error alive that would give her something to meet. He read one Sunday and then withdrew. I cite the experience to show what God required our Leader to do at times; but in this instance it was a test of Judge Hanna in which he proved himself to be a worthy student.

Let it be said that when Mrs. Eddy was called upon to do these things, she always kept a heart full of love to pour on the wounds she had to make, which helped to soften the blows. Many students accepted her rebukes because of the great love she poured on them. Our Leader's example should show us that we will never succeed as Christian Scientists in following in her footsteps, unless we have a plentiful amount of divine love to pour on the wounds of those we ofttimes must wound in order to heal. Only in that way can we follow our Leader and fulfill Christ's command to love one another.

In these letters we learn that Mrs. Eddy only made such moves because God required her to do so. She hated to offend Capt. Eastaman by removing him from the Board of Directors, yet God required her to make the change; so, she did not hesitate to do it.

Why was she so grateful to Mr. Johnson when his only part was to hand her letter to Capt. Eastaman? Because he did more than that. He had been well trained by Mrs. Eddy and was faithful in fulfilling all demands she made on him. Hence you may be sure that his mental work accompanied the letter, to help to keep the Captain from chemicalizing over its contents. He did his part to prevent the latter from being offended, and so turning against Mrs. Eddy, since that always meant malpractice on the part of those who knew how to malpractice.

No one knows how to malpractice as does the one who has learned of the nature of evil through the study of Science and Health. Honest, loyal students of that book would never wittingly indulge in malpractice, but Mrs. Eddy had had experiences where her own students turned against her and wittingly or un­wittingly malpracticed upon her, feeling that they were justified in so doing.

Mrs. Eddy knew that she always ran a risk when she entrusted students with a knowledge that they could use against her, if they should ever turn on her. So, it was always a delicate matter, when she was called upon to move the different pawns in the great chess game she was playing, to be sure that with the knowledge of evil she had given them, they were restrained if possible from doing evil against her and the Cause, if she found it necessary to remove them from some position, and as a result they turned on her. No mortal likes to have his ambition thwarted. Often students had to be removed because ambition ac­companied them in the office, rather than modesty and self-effacement. No student is fit for any position in our Cause who is looking for place or power.

The Master provided the example that all should follow when he washed his disciples' feet, which was the humblest service possible. The only reason anyone should accept any position in Science is because God gives it to him. His only ambition should be to try to measure up to God's expectancy of him. No other motive could be right, and if one had any other motive, he might have to be removed.

When God called upon Mrs. Eddy to make such moves, she never knew when these students with a knowledge of evil which she had given them, might become offended and join the ranks of her enemies, thereby helping to acceler­ate the possibilities of evil against her. Therefore, she was appreciative toward what Mr. Johnson had done, because she knew unfailingly that he had not only conformed to the outward requirements, but had gone further, and worked metaphysically to keep Capt. Eastaman from chemicalizing. When the latter felt no sense of error accompanying the notification of his dismissal from the Board, he did not become upset, and the real Capt. Eastaman had a chance to express itself. The real Capt. was always a greathearted, honest man, as is the real man in each one of us. Hence the whole problem was and is a question of handling error so that man's natural abilities, capacities and nature may have a chance to express themselves. When the claim of error is removed from anyone, he stands forth as honorable, desirable, faithful and hard working — everything he should be.

There is another point involved in the fact that Mrs. Eddy praised the Capt. in this second letter. In that way she would prevent Mr. Johnson from mal­practicing on the Capt. perhaps for the very reasons that made it necessary for Mrs. Eddy to ask the latter to resign from the Board. Mr. Johnson could and would do good work when the occasion required it, as we all can; but after one has done a good work, thought is often liable to slip back into human channels. So, in spite of the work she acknowledged that Mr. Johnson had done in delivering the message, there was still the possibility that he might let his thought down, and begin to mull over the situation, finally concluding that Mrs. Eddy considered the Capt. incapable of fulfilling this office, that she did not trust him, instead of seeing that the exigencies of the situation required her to have Mr. Armstrong, who was her publisher, in this position. Such conclusions would be a mild form of malpractice.

We can see with what great care Mrs. Eddy watched to see that her children did not misbehave one toward another, and to be sure that there would be as much harmony in the household as possible. We learn from these letters how our Leader was never lacking in alertness in anticipating what might happen and striving to forestall it.




April 16, 1893

To the First Members of

The First Church of Christ, Scientist:

Greeting —

The mistake in capitalization is not an immorality. But to allow the glamor of immoral minds to so cause it to be construed, is an offence to the Christ charity which ought to govern the acts of all my dear students and the members of this Church.

In patient love,

Yours,

Mary B. G. Eddy


This letter is an appeal for Christian charity — which Mrs. Eddy would have a right to expect even from adherents of scholastic theology. Somebody made a mistake. Perhaps the students began at once to malpractice on the one respon­sible. Mrs. Eddy seized upon this circumstance to rebuke the common tendency of the human mind, namely, to build oneself up by tearing another down.

Indulging a competitive sense in gaining spiritual understanding, one is apt to feel elated when he discovers an error in another. self-aggrandizement and self-righteousness are the products of such comparison. The tendency to com­pare oneself with those on a lower plane, has no place in the Christian Science doctrine of the impersonal nature of evil. If one envies another on a higher plane and discovers some mistake he has made, he must not secretly gloat and feel that he is above that one. Otherwise he makes error personal and real, and indulges in self-righteousness.

This is the error and tendency Mrs. Eddy is rebuking in this letter. On page 129 of Miscellaneous Writings we find her doing the same. In Christian Science one is striving to love his neighbor as himself, to give him the same considera­tion that one would give himself, striving to see him right with as much unction and sincerity as he does himself. Such teaching is far removed from the effort to find some flaw in another in order to indulge in self-satisfaction.

Science shows that the effort to spiritualize and purify one's thought con­cerning his neighbor is essential. One must form a spiritual model in thought, and one's neighbor seen spiritually must form part of this model. No effort to see one's neighbor in the right light is wasted as far as one's own salvation is concerned, and the harder this task seems to be, the more credit is due one for doing it.

In polishing silverware, the more tarnished a piece is, the more labor is required in cleaning it. If you wish to know how developed your ability is to see the perfect man of God, select one in whom the spiritual idea seems most hidden by materiality. If you can see the son of God where a sinner appears to the senses, you have accomplished a greater work than if you had selected one who gave more evidence of spiritual being.

The tendency through the glamor of immoral minds to construe an inad­vertent mistake as an immorality, and thus to balloon an atom of another man's indiscretion, as Mrs. Eddy says, is just the opposite of what we are taught in Christian Science. To lay emphasis on a mistake in capitalization to the point of calling it an immorality would break the rule expressed in the letter of December 4, 1892, in this series, and illustrate what Mrs. Eddy meant by living and teaching far apart from the doctrines of Christian Science. Only the one who is alert to impersonalize and to make nothing of evil can be said to be living and teaching Science properly.

Mrs. Eddy was so like a mother who notices whether her children have washed behind their ears, when nobody else would. Because they are her children, she is vitally interested in every detail of their life and growth. Mrs. Eddy by no means went around looking for trouble or for faults in students; but when her attention was called to an individual for any reason, she clearly saw the error that needed to be corrected.

When a man is stealing, you do not point out to him the error of smoking. As progress enables him to overcome the greater error, then the time comes when you can point out to him that the demonstration over smoking needs to be made, unless he wishes to experience a loss of spiritual growth. Mrs. Eddy ap­proached and treated the errors she saw in students in an orderly way. Perhaps those who made a fuss about a trivial mistake in capitalization — such as we find on page 536 of the Christian Science Journal, volume 10, in the sermon by Mr. Norcross, where Christian is spelled with a small c — felt that they were emulating their Leader in her strict attention to details; but she detected the error in those who were making the fuss as part of the malpractice against Mr. Norcross that had made all the trouble and caused him to lose the pastorate of the Church. She knew that when the human mind makes such an ado about nothing, it is usually prompted by jealousy, or by an effort to create a smoke­screen to hide the errors of those who are making the fuss.

Mrs. Eddy seldom jumped the way students anticipated. Probably they expected her to rebuke Mr. Norcross for making this blunder, if he did, or those on the staff who let the error get by, since they had known her to do so often. Instead she rebuked the members who were making the hue and cry, thereby establishing a precept, namely, that we should help sinners, instead of pouncing on them and denouncing them, as she once expressed it.

Animal magnetism operates like the stage show, where a man in back pokes his arms through the sleeves of a man in front, so that the man in front appears to be doing what the other one is really doing. The one in front would be blamed if the man in the rear should hit another man.

When an individual's actions are directed by a belief in a mind apart from God, we should detect this operation of the lie, and never attach the error to the individual. When a student permitted himself to be a witness for animal mag­netism Mrs. Eddy did not absolve him from all blame, but she laid the respon­sibility for the error at the door of animal magnetism.

To be sure, she did not hesitate to call students sinners, when they deserved it. This she did, however, not to fasten error upon them, but to waken and rouse them from the mesmerism of yielding to the lie and letting it use them.

One difficulty in handling sin according to Mrs. Eddy's higher definition was, and is, the fact that it makes its most insidious inroads unknown to the individual. Under its glamor it is possible for a student to go around blandly, believing that he is right in all he does and says, and that the error, if there is any, lies at the door of another. He is like a drunken man who believes that he is sober, and those about him are intoxicated.

Many students fancy that they are well informed in regard to animal mag­netism; but when they declare this, they mean the forms that are evident, and that ring a bell of warning, in the sense that they give a manifestation of their presence. In this letter to the Church, however, Mrs. Eddy was referring to animal magnetism to which the students were not awake, namely, a glamor of immoral minds under which they were holding Mr. Norcross in a wrong sense, fancying that he was wrong and that they were right. Once Mrs. Eddy wrote, “Jesus said, ‘Fear ye not them that destroy the body, etc.' Do Christian Scientists watch the inroads that evil in its new and aggravated means is making on their lives, their conscious sense of right and wrong, their proper sense of individuals, as closely as they would watch its ravages upon their health and life? If they are not, they are disobeying Jesus' command and I perceive that they are not as sensible of the demoralizing effects of psychic malpractice as they are of its physical effects.”

Evidently the members felt that it was legitimate for them to criticize a self-­evident mistake on the part of the Pastor, not recognizing that it was animal magnetism that made the mistake, and also that it was animal magnetism in them that was prompting the criticism. In this way they helped to strengthen the claim, which was just what error wanted. Mrs. Eddy knew that it was a trick of error to cause a simple matter to become inflated in the minds of the members, until it appeared to be a serious matter. Thus, she found it necessary to appeal to them for that Christian charity which she declared “ought to govern the acts of all my dear students and the members of this Church.”

If one was varnishing his floor, he would varnish over spots if he considered them to be defects in the wood, when investigation would have shown him that they were merely dirt that could be removed. When a student yields to animal magnetism, to hold him in the error as if it were a defect in his character, applies the varnish which crystallizes the error, and makes the one who holds him thus guilty of malpractice. It is necessary in Science to recognize dirt before you clean it off, but you must never make the mistake of holding error as inherent in man. When Noah's sons found their father in a drunken and naked condition (Gen. 9:23), they walked backwards with a garment and covered him up. This was symbolic of an effort to avoid making a reality of the error or seeing it as a part of their father. Mrs. Eddy wanted her students to bend over backwards in the effort to keep from attaching error to man.

The letters Mrs. Eddy wrote after she discovered Christian Science, most of which are in the archives of The Mother Church, will serve as valuable signposts for centuries to come. It can be said of them that they represent her effort to live and demonstrate the teachings of Science and Health, and to apply and express them to meet specific needs. It is true that one's need for these letters would appear only after he had taken advantage of all that she has left in her published works; but the time should come for the advancing student when they will be essential as his guide.

When our Leader wrote letters, she put into them the same inspiration that she did in all she wrote. This means that she added healing to the vehicle, and sent it forth with the demonstration that caused it to be a universal blessing and to have infinite applications, even though the vehicle itself might seem to apply to a specific need. Mrs. Eddy's letters were like Christian Science treatments, and students loved to receive them for that reason. I can recall sending our Leader a beautiful Wedgwood vase. It was a heavenly shade of blue and I felt that it would appeal to her. Yet the motive back in my thought was a desire to receive in return one of her priceless letters. One could hardly blame me for this, even though it was selfish of me to try to force her in this way to take even a few moments away from her precious work for humanity, to write to me. She must have sensed the selfishness in my thought, since she sent me no word acknowledging the gift of the pitcher, although it may be seen today in the dining room of her home.

The scientific practitioner looks upon his patient as the king pin in bowling, expecting that as the patient's error is knocked down, his work will help others who are accepting the same error. Knowing that omnipotence is back of his treatment, he does not limit it to one need or case. He opens his thought as wide as his conception of his ability to reflect divine power will permit, in an effort to wipe error of every sort from the face of the earth. Where would the Cause be if practitioners confined their sense of their work to individuals, with sick people multiplying faster than there are healers to take care of them? One sick patient should be regarded as an excuse to heal the world, and when such work is done successfully, the growth of the Cause and the salvation of the world is assured.

It is very short-sighted to fancy that the letters our Leader wrote were personal or finite in their intent and application. She wrote healing letters backed up by the authority of her own successful experience and application, and that healing is needed by the world. The problems confronting students are the same today as they were when she wrote to students, and the need for the wisdom she expressed is just as great. The needs to which she applied her letters represent all the problems of humanity. Thus, in her letters is to be found the remedy for every ill, the correction for every error. The Board of Directors will find over her own signature the answer to any and every decision they will ever be called upon to make.

The application of this one simple letter is very broad. From it we learn that when one finds a simple mistake, animal magnetism may induce that one to judge the brother who made it in such an erroneous way that it may become malpractice, and operate to harm the one who indulges in it. The one who de­tects the mistake may feel that his detection of it was important and legitimate; but he should realize that his judgment based on the mistake should not become so warped by animal magnetism that he incurs a loss of God.

This letter of April 16 becomes a universal remedy for malpractice, when it is resolved by the understanding. When you discover some error or mistake, it is natural for you to believe that what you say or think about it is justifiable; yet from this letter we learn how animal magnetism may affect one's judgment under such circumstances. You may have discovered a simple mistake; yet what you think, say or do about it may be the effect of animal magnetism without your realizing it. If you are awake to this possibility, the Christ charity which Mrs. Eddy enjoins, — if nothing else, — will cause you to watch your thinking and correct your attitude, for the good of your own soul at least, if not to bless your brother.

As an illustration of the vital value and the far-reaching application of just one letter by our Leader, consider the one she wrote to Samuel Bancroft on November 1, 1875, which he published in his book, Mrs. Eddy as I Knew Her in 1870. “I was glad when I heard at first you had begun to practice a little, but since then, I have been tracing the work of a mortal mind, in other words the fulfillment of a threat made to me by S–d (which I can show you in writing) and find his mesmeric influence he has been exercising over you the same as over others and its effect was to start you to practice before your own judgment had done this.”

What a valuable thing for generations to come for students to learn that one of the tricks of mesmerism, or animal magnetism, is to pose as an impulse of one's own thought to become practitioners before they are ready for this high calling! Those who listen to this subtle suggestion are not competent to demon­strate the truth in the way that will be so successful and so free from animal mag­netism, that the public will gain the proper impression of the worth of Christian Science. Those who go into the work prematurely under the influence of animal magnetism are incapable of handling this deterrent for themselves or their patients in such a way that the result will be a right growth.

Where students enter the practice at the instigation of animal magnetism, the effect of their work may be to drive people away from Science when they are not healed, so that when the time comes for them to take it up seriously, the memory of their previous experience may keep them from doing so.

Often Mrs. Eddy used the term immorality to cover those who had committed no acts that the world would condemn. The conclusion must be that to her it meant yielding to the control of the immoral or fleshly mind. To her even the effects of this mind that seemed good, were to be classified under the head of immorality. The conclusion is that there is only one true morality, which is to be found in the demonstration of Spirit. Hence the moral student is not merely one who refrains from doing anything wrong; he must be one who is well on his way to the reflection of divine Mind.

One might paraphrase Mrs. Eddy's letter and declare that she really was saying, that the mistake in capitalization should have offered no occasion for the fleshly mind to become rampant in those who discovered and called it to the attention of others. Mrs. Eddy's use of the term immoral was something the students were familiar with; they might conclude that the mistake on Mr. Nor­cross' part, because it was not the effect of right thinking, was immoral; but in this letter Mrs. Eddy rebuked this conclusion, stating that the mistake was not an immorality. It was the students' criticism of the mistake, based on the belief that the fleshly mind was responsible for it, that roused the fleshly mind in them to the point where it brought forth Mrs. Eddy's rebuke.

A dissertation on Mrs. Eddy's use of the word, glamor, might be helpful at this point. It may be said that the glamor about cheap music is that those who like it, may enjoy it without effort or training. It is music on the level of the un­educated senses, that appeals to those on that level.

In order for anything to escape Mrs. Eddy's classification of glamor, it would have to be that which would encourage in man some measure of spiritual striving and progress. Even Christian Science lectures would be glamor to a student who looked to them to provide him with what he needed, believing that he could gain growth in Science by injection rather than demonstration. It is sad to see large numbers of students under this glamor, since it tends to cause lecturers to try to accommodate their remarks to Christian Scientists, instead of to strangers, with the result that the lectures are too deep for the public to understand.

Working students of Science should go to lectures to work. They are really part of the performance. The lecturer furnishes the audible statements of truth and the workers support them by demonstration, which makes the perfect com­bination. Often at a theatrical performance certain people in the audience will constitute part of the show. Hence what they do contributes to the success of the vaudeville. The lecture in Christian Science requires the mental support that is given by the workers, so that the atmosphere will have a healing effect; but when students go to lectures and sit back supinely in blissful enjoyment of every word, when they know how to demonstrate and do not, that is glamor. In this way the public is robbed. What would be thought of the actors in the audience of the theatrical show if they became so interested in what was taking place on the stage, that they forgot to play their part?

To Mrs. Eddy the easy human way was the glamor way. It is always easier to criticize than it is to correct. It is easier for the human mind to see a fault than to see virtue. The glamor of the fleshly mind always urges students to take what mortal mind calls the easiest way. Any fool can criticize; but constructive criticism can emanate only from a wise man. Such criticism not only appreciates all the good in a thing, but it encourages and helps that good to increase.

Glamor is illustrated by the mother who fails to give her children the train­ing that they need, because she can do all the home tasks so much better than they can. The glamor of doing things better than her children can, causes her to rob them by not giving them the necessary training.

Humanly the glamor way is the easiest way. It is illustrated by the man who, although he would like to sail in a certain direction, lets the wind take him in another, rather than beat against it by tacking, because that would be the hard way.

The glamor way is the immoral way. It includes all that proceeds from the fleshly mind. It is glamor for a student to yield without resistance to any appetite which demands that one constantly provide it with agreeable sensation, when he has pledged himself to know and to demonstrate as fast as he can that there is no sensation in matter.

The glamor way is the critical way that personalizes error by fastening it on the individual. It pulls another down to build itself up. It compares man with man, when the only progressive way is for one to compare himself with per­fection, and realize that he is no better than his present demonstration makes him.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

May 8, 1893

To the C. S. Directors of

The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston.

Beloved Students:

I desire you to prepare to lay the foundation for the church edifice sooner than was expected. I feel that our loving God has bid me say to you, Lay the foundation of the Church of Christ, Scientist next October. I hope you will be pleased to commence this work then, even if you have not the full sum of $40,000 on hand. Let us be obedient and trust Him in all things, at all times. It will encourage the contributors to know you have commenced the work of building.

Yours in Christ,

M. B. G. Eddy

N. B. Please keep this matter wholly to yourselves until you begin the sacred task for which you have been appointed.

M. B. G. E.


Critics who have sought to debunk the Bible, have asserted that in many places it is contradictory. Mrs. Eddy herself once declared, “The Bible would seem to contradict itself, but it does not when you know what it means. They say my book contradicts itself, but it does not when you understand it.”

In Job 12 the patriarch attributes to God the creating and governing of the universe from a material standpoint. This would seem to contradict the teachings of Christian Science as to the nothingness of matter; but Job was taking one necessary step on the road back to God or Mind, by tracing all material phenome­na to mental causation. This step must always precede the final step of substi­tuting for a limited sense of mind expressed in a material universe, the unlimited divine Mind expressed in a spiritual universe. Science explains such seeming contradictions as merely representing ascending footsteps of human thought. Having made the error of dropping from Spirit to matter, thought must retrace its steps in order to regain true metaphysics, or a spiritual concept of all things.

Eugene H. Greene, my first teacher in Christian Science, informed me that Mrs. Eddy laid down precise restrictions in connection with the building of The Mother Church, requiring that the funds be on hand before the contracts were signed. This letter would seem to contradict what Mr. Greene told me.

In explanation of this point one might picture a regiment of soldiers who are fatigued. Instead of letting them rest, the one in charge requires them to run until they are thoroughly awake. Then he lets them walk once more. Mrs. Eddy brought out mental states in her students according to the need of the hour. When this was accomplished, they were no longer required to do what they had been doing to produce the desired end. When she put forth certain things, she had a purpose, and moved in order to accomplish that purpose.

Mrs. Eddy's methods were similar to those used in dog training. First the trainer uses only kindness, giving the dog food after each demand. After the routine is thoroughly understood, if the dog disobeys, it is whipped. It seems inconsistent to reward it with food and kindness at first, and later to withhold the rewards, and to punish it for disobedience.

Unless one understood how Mrs. Eddy functioned, what her aspirations, intents and desires were, he could never write a history of the founding of the Cause. A history written in the ordinary factual way would have little value, since its founding was so interwoven with the methods Mrs. Eddy employed to accomplish certain purposes, that one could never interpret the former, without clearly understanding the latter. Furthermore, whatever methods Mrs. Eddy employed were justified because they were successful.

Perhaps at the period marked by this letter, which is mentioned on the first page of the book by Joseph Armstrong, The Mother Church, the building fund became somewhat of a dead issue. It is hard to keep contributions flowing in from members, when the desired end seems to be postponed indefinitely. But the thought of giving is renewed when people begin to see the building actually under construction, and realize that it is something that is going to be com­pleted soon.

Christian Science was founded to encourage demonstration, or the use of divine Mind. During the war between the United Nations and the Axis powers in 1942, if one was found sowing the seeds of sedition in the United States, he was called a “fifth columnist.” Such a term could well be adopted in Christian Science to cover one who claimed to be loyal to divine Mind, and yet in church matters attempted to employ the unaided human mind, and thus to use an in­fluence against divine Mind. Students who hold important positions in our Movement should never become so lax, that they permit members to believe that they are contributing something of value to the Cause, when they merely give the result of their educated and experienced human mind. The very premise of Christian Science classifies the human mind as the avowed enemy of God!

One reason Mrs. Eddy's life is of such great value to the world is that she consistently refused to accept that which was done wholly by the human mind. She wanted no “fifth columnists” in her home! The sly suggestion that always emanates from the human mind is that with its help man can get along without God, and if Christian Scientists have any slogan, it is certainly that we cannot get along without God. Since Mrs. Eddy's life, her teachings, her Church and her home were dedicated to God, to the use of demonstration, it is obvious that she desired and demanded that everything be done in God's way, that apper­tained to any part of her life.

When this point is understood, it does not seem surprising that Mrs. Eddy should be so stern in her rebukes, when a place dedicated to God was dese­crated by the bringing in of that which was opposed to God. When the United States found herself at war with Japan, it was notable to see how quickly her citizens put a ban on all goods made in that country. The clerk in a store might complain at the refusal of a customer to buy something made in Japan. He might ask what was wrong with the article. The customer would reply that there might be nothing wrong with it per se, but that it was made by a people who were fighting that which Americans believe to be the rights and privileges that all men should enjoy.

In like manner a student might ask Mrs. Eddy what was wrong with the service he had rendered her, which she had refused to accept. She might reply that it was not the outward service she was rejecting, but the fact that it was done by the human mind which is the enemy of God, rather than done as a result of an effort to put off the human mind, in order that divine Mind might operate.

In line with this fact about the Founder, everyone who joins the Christian Science organization should have it impressed upon him that he is becoming a member of a church that is dedicated to divine Mind, — to demonstration. Hence he is pledging to bring to the church, to the best of his ability, demonstration. Even if he chooses to continue to be lax in his home and business life, and is too indifferent to attempt to put off the human mind there, nevertheless he must not be lax in the church. Otherwise he is failing in his pledge to God.

It would be a curious reversal if in a church where membership means a consecrated determination to use the demonstrating Mind in everything con­nected with the church, this standard should trail in the dust and be forgotten. It is true that non-members cannot be held up to such a standard; but the members can be; and if they are not, the church will disintegrate and cease to be a Christian Science Church. Although the outward form may continue as Mrs. Eddy planned it, the Christian Science will be gone, since that which makes it what it is, is not the form, but the spirit — the spirit in which it is conducted.

When Mrs. Eddy spoke in The Mother Church for the first time, she de­clared afterward, “I discerned every mentality there, but saw no personality.” See Christian Science Sentinel for July 6, 1940. At this same time she said, “I looked over the whole audience and I did not see one Christian Scientist!” This latter statement is an important contribution to our understanding of what our Leader considered a Christian Scientist to be. She searched in vain to feel that there was one student in that service who was working, watching and pray­ing to help to sustain the thought on the spiritual side. Human curiosity, ex­citement and love for her had caused them all to neglect and to forget their duty as Christian Scientists. For that reason she could not call them Christian Scientists! We can deduce that we are Christian Scientists, therefore, only as our understanding is backed up by a demonstrating thought.

How can a Church of Christ, Scientist be such in spirit, if it carries no demonstrating effect because no one is contributing a demonstrating thought? Can its members call themselves Christian Scientists just because their names are on the books of the church, when before God they are not, unless they are using His mind in the Church for the purpose of blessing, healing, regenerating and reforming?

Mrs. Eddy did not blame students whose introduction to Science was to discover what a great help it was to them in all walks of life, if they went no higher, but she was faithful in pointing the way to a higher concept. In the days of the horse car, a hill horse was provided on grades that were too steep for the horses to attain without help. Divine Mind becomes a hill horse for students in their novitiate. When the grade becomes too steep for the human mind, divine Mind is applied to pull it out of its difficulties. Mrs. Eddy did not find it hard to get students to use Christian Science when their human mind cried out, “Lord, save or I perish.” Her greatest task was to get students to use divine Mind at all times, even after they had joined her church and pledged themselves after this fashion, “And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus....”

As usual, this demand to lay the foundation for the church edifice was a demand for demonstration. It meant that the students had to make a demonstra­tion of supply, and you may be sure that Mrs. Eddy worked with them, told them how to do it, and started their thoughts along the demonstrating way.

The demonstration to open up channels of giving is like starting a snowball rolling. Once it begins to roll, it increases in size until it assumes large propor­tions. At this point the problem was to start the demonstration. She knew that her students desired to have a church that they need not be ashamed of, so that when they declared that they were Christian Scientists, it meant that they belonged to a church that had an edifice that was costly and beautiful; it meant that they belonged to an organization that amounted to something, one that had a foothold in the community, so that they would not be ridiculed. She knew that they stood ready to sacrifice in order to have such a church, and when they were assured that it was going to be erected, they would give freely.

It can be asserted that when Mrs. Eddy wrote this letter to the Directors, God told her that they had entered into the demonstrating way, and she knew that once one gets into God's groove, it is easy to continue in it. The most dif­ficult thing always is to get students into the realization that a thing should not be done unless it is done by demonstration. Mrs. Eddy always stood by with her whip of small cords, to whip the students back into the groove, if she saw them get out of it. She labored all her life against the tendency in students to do things the accustomed and “easy” way.

The superstitions of the human mind are hard to kill. People become civi­lized, they learn reason and common sense, and yet the roots of superstition remain. Many an intelligent person has refused to sit down at a table with thir­teen people present, forgetting that such a superstitious fear traces back to the darkest period in human history, when ignorance prevailed to such a degree that people believed in almost any fanciful proposition.

It is not surprising, therefore, that students who become Christian Scien­tists retain the roots of faith in the human mind, which are difficult to dispose of. It becomes a hard problem to lift them out of the old outworn notion of using their unaided human minds when they should not. The Church has no right to in­terfere in their private lives in this matter, but it can require incoming members to realize that in joining, they are pledging themselves to make this exchange in minds. It can start members looking in the direction of giving up the human mind. It can tell them that many times sickness and fear — the ordinary discords that come to mortals — are traceable in their lives to the fact that they have been disobedient and have brought into the House of God without protest or denial, a mind that is the enemy of God, — that is opposed to God.

The Bible contains instances of dire punishment descending upon those who brought that which was unholy into the holy place; and if there is anything unholy it is the human mind! It is the cause of all sin. It is the cause of man's separation from God. It is the cause of war. It is the cause of the instinct to kill and to murder. It is the cause of the determination to eject from this world the God that Jesus preached, so that Mars may hold sway. Yet the instinct seems to be present in members to bring that mind dressed up in fine clothes, into the church as if it were the divine Mind, and to object if anyone criticizes them for so doing!

It becomes plain that in this letter Mrs. Eddy's intention and effort was to drive the students out of the groove in which they were using the human mind with complaisance, fancying that it was their privilege to do so, and to make them realize that she refused to permit that mind to be used in connection with the building of the church except under the control of divine Mind. And she was setting forth by implication that the same rule which applied to building the church must be adhered to in running it.

When the church was finally built and she spoke in it for the first time, and made the astounding statement that she looked over the whole audience and did not see a single Christian Scientist, what are we to deduce? She proved that we are Christian Scientists only when we demonstrate Christian Science. In this manner she gave students a standard which is vastly higher than that com­monly accepted by members in relation to their church. If the church is built to prove the efficacy and need of demonstration, then nothing but demonstra­tion should be found being used in it. If shoes are a symbol of material intelli­gence and activity, then the Biblical admonition would surely apply to church members, namely, that they should take the shoes from off their feet before en­tering the church, for it is holy ground dedicated to demonstration. If members are faithful in this obligation, they will more easily reach the point where they no longer have a belief in a human mind to put in subjection. When that time comes, members will not be required to make a special effort in relation to the church. Living as they should during the week, they will be found acceptable in God's church on Sunday without making any specific effort.

In studying the history of The Mother Church, it should be remembered that the Directors had never built a church before. Furthermore, when a student is called upon to do a task for the first time, one that mortal mind is accustomed to do without any difficulty according to its methods, the first reaction is to do it in the efficient mortal mind way, even though he has been trained to use Christian Science in other directions. Mrs. Eddy knew this tendency. She knew that the thought of building the church through demonstration would have to be brought to their attention in a forcible way, in order to meet mortal mind's inertia.

In the manuscript that Mrs. Eddy used in teaching in 1875 which she called, The Science of Man, we find the following statements, which throw light on her methods, and which help one to understand how she adapted them to meet the need. “It is necessary sometimes to startle the patient, in order to move the mind from its position of belief, just as a large weight must be jerked in order to move it, unless you are strong enough in Truth to move it without this, by the still small voice, not uttered but felt. To startle a sick person, you are to use various methods. Sometimes it will move to tears or laughter, and, sometimes, surprise, by telling him, for instance, that nothing ails him, and that he is only as the insane person, holding to a belief to which there is no reality, but he is suffering the effects of this belief, or rather, the belief is suffering, or believes it is.”

If a large weight must be jerked in order to move it, it is plain why Mrs. Eddy found it necessary at times to treat students in that vigorous way. Often a student finds it difficult to move himself from his position of belief, and needs the strong hand of another to help him to do so.

When an automobile is stuck in the sand, and ordinary means have failed to start it moving, it is sometimes possible to jar or force it out of the ruts with another car. But the other car must be handled strenuously, lest it become stalled along with the one it is being used to help.

When Mrs. Eddy used vigorous means of awakening a patient or student, one might argue that she was not metaphysical, that she should have remained quiet and demonstrated silently, as her teachings set forth. But there is a load of error that stands between man and the entrance of Truth, and that load must be moved. Some way must be found to do it. It might be called the stone at the door of the sepulchre that must be jerked in order to roll it away. Whatever means or methods are used to move it become justifiable. When Mrs. Eddy could not do it by mild methods, she had to use drastic ones.

One who understands this gains insight into Mrs. Eddy's motivation in relation to students and patients. Her estimate of the error a student was under was not gauged by material, but by spiritual sense. When she saw a student accepting the material testimony that good was coming to him in the form of harmony, physical health, ease, prosperity, security and satisfaction, she knew that this was a greater stone to be rolled away than the beliefs of discomfort and disease. Hence the vigor of her efforts and the sharpness of her rebukes were in direct proportion to the belief in human good to which she saw them yielding, since that was the gauge of the danger they were in.

I never saw our Leader disturbed when her students were grappling with the claims of sickness. It was when she saw them under the glamor and mes­merism of human good that she went into action. When she could not rouse a student with gentle means, she had to use drastic ones.




Concord, N. H.

Pleasant View

July 21, 1893

To the First Members of “The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston.”

Beloved Students:

I recommend that you adopt the following rules for your church, namely:

1. That every member of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, shall pay a per capita tax annually of not less than $1.00.

2. That the pastor shall receive a salary of not less than $2,000 per year. This to take effect October 1st. 1893.

3. That no person shall be allowed to sit in the Sabbath School class, unless invited to do so by the teacher, or by the superinten­dent of this school.

These rules must be voted upon by the First Members of this church.

Omit reading publicly the enclosed. Say nothing of this matter until you have called a meeting of these First Members for business purposes, and do this immediately. Then bring it before them by reading my letter publicly.

With love,

Mary B. G. Eddy


The requirement that a per capita tax be paid each year of not less than $1.00 is a remarkably wise provision, since the payment of this tax gauges the con­tinuation of one's interest in Science. As long as one keeps up his payments, it is an indication that he has an active interest in the church and its success. When he lets the payments lapse, it proves that his active interest has abated. Paying or not paying that small sum each year gauges the mental status of each member.

There are branches of The Mother Church which have adopted By-laws to the effect that, if a member does not contribute for a period of one year or over, that may be sufficient cause to drop his or her name from the roll of mem­bership. This breach is thought to provide sufficient reason, apart from any other discipline, to subject him to dismissal. Experience alone will have to prove whether this is a wise provision.

By making the paying of a per capita tax obligatory according to the Manual, Mrs. Eddy provided a way by which the status of members all over the world might be gauged. Here is proof that back of all By-laws are purposes deeper than appear on the surface.

One is constantly impressed by the wisdom that governed Mrs. Eddy, and reminded of the instruction of Solomon in Proverbs 4: “Therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.” With all one's desire, study and prayer, he should remember that the reflection of divine wisdom is the ultimate of effort.

If one has a physical lack, he is sure that divine Mind can supply it. Similar­ly he should realize that the lack of wisdom, which in mortal man passes for wisdom, can be supplied by demonstration, providing one works for it. Pride in one's own humanly developed intelligence should never cause one to neglect to seek divine wisdom, since without this demonstration, the victory over the discords of mortal existence will not enable man to win his salvation.

Mrs. Eddy might have helped the world through an ability to heal the sick, but she never would have been able to show the world how to help themselves, by leaving behind an unerring system that others could learn and follow, without the demonstration of divine wisdom.

If one felt inclined to accuse Mrs. Eddy of being parsimonious in naming the salary that the pastor shall receive, he should note that she merely set a minimum, so that as the church grew, the salary could be increased propor­tionately.

One might wonder at the third rule, if he knew nothing of the circumstances at the time. Mrs. Eddy found that many students were so avid to receive instruc­tion in Christian Science, and impressed with the importance of learning a great deal of metaphysics, that they would sit in the Sabbath School classes, especially if the teacher was a practitioner, a Primary Class teacher or one of Mrs. Eddy's students. Therefore, she found it necessary to frame this rule, which finally took its present form that excludes all visitors over twenty.

Today students who wish to increase their understanding may take Class Instruction, which is limited to a two weeks course. Beyond that they must do their own digging. Back of this wise provision is Mrs. Eddy's recognition that growth in understanding is demonstration, rather than theory. One may learn the theory of Science, or its letter, but unless one demonstrates what one learns, it does not become fixed in the understanding. A builder erects a wooden stag­ing, but it is only a flimsy structure, designed to endure until the form is filled in with cement. Mrs. Eddy knew that the human mind is prone to take the lazy way, to sit at the feet of another and thereby believe that it is growing spiritually. She did all she could, therefore, to keep students from making this mistake. Theoretical knowledge is the staging, in contrast to demonstration which is the enduring cement structure.

Mrs. Eddy had seen students make a shipwreck because they fancied that they had an advanced knowledge of metaphysics, when they had only learned it theoretically. She knew that students might learn a great deal through Sunday School attendance, but to those over twenty such instruction might prove a deterrent, since it carries the implication that growth consists in build­ing one's staging higher and higher.

Systematic teaching in Christian Science to those over twenty, apart from the two weeks of class instruction, is of little value. In fact, if it fostered the notion that intellectual comprehension apart from demonstration is a correct attain­ment bringing spiritual growth, it would be harmful.

Demonstration that brings individual spiritual development, understanding and the ability to hear the voice of God, is the important thing in Christian Science. Sometimes people complain that more opportunities such as the Sunday School, where adults may be taught Christian Science, should be provided. If such were provided, the result might not be good, since growth in demonstra­tion and not knowledge is the goal in Science. Hence whatever fosters the notion that growth consists in learning more and more, rather than practicing, is not desirable.

Job said, “I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.” Job at first had a knowledge of God that was theoretical, but his eye was not opened to see God until he demonstrated that knowledge. A man might read a book on how to repair an automobile, but his knowledge will be theoretical unless he puts it into practice. When he does so, he proves what he knows, and then he may be called an automobile mechanic in proportion to his actual success.

If he should feel competent to write articles on how to repair automobiles, merely because he had studied the subject, he would be mistaken, since his articles would lack the authority of practice. In like manner articles written by those who have gained a theoretical knowledge of Christian Science, but have not demonstrated it, have little value. What Mrs. Eddy wrote on Science is practical and heals, because it was the outgrowth of her practice in healing. On page 1 of the textbook she says, “I speak from experience.” When one is healing the sick, what he writes concerning such practice carries healing; and since nothing is Christian Science in the strict sense of the word that does not carry healing, it follows that there is no such thing as a theoretical knowledge or exposition of Christian Science. When one believes that he understands Christian Science, but he cannot demonstrate that understanding, he proves by that lack that he does not understand the subject.

Once this point is understood, it can be seen why Mrs. Eddy framed a rule forbidding visitors to attend the Sunday School, unless they were invited. If a knowledge of Christian Science was the important thing, it would be difficult to understand why Mrs. Eddy should cut off a single opportunity whereby students might gain more knowledge. But the rule is that if a student will struggle to demonstrate the little he already knows, as he is successful in doing this, he thereby opens the way for an increase in that knowledge.

Why did Mrs. Eddy warn the Directors to say nothing of these three rules until the meeting of the First Members was called? These rules were important ones, even though on the surface they might not appear to be so. What comes from God is vital and must be handled in a way that will circumvent the claim of reversal and interference. Mrs. Eddy did not want any of the members to know in advance what they were going to vote on, since, if the members had a chance to discuss the pros and cons, the door might be opened for unfavorable pressure against passing the rules on the part of those who did not realize that they were being influenced by animal magnetism. By delaying the denouement until the meeting, Mrs. Eddy could help to hold the way open for God's will to be done.

When a plan of God's is let out into mortal thought prematurely, error may have a chance to reach those who are susceptible, and thus place obstacles in the path. Mrs. Eddy had learned that when she had something of importance to accomplish, it was wise to time it properly. There is a mob mesmerism that touches a group when they start to discuss matters pertaining to the church. It is characteristic of the human mind that it is apt to be less impressed by argu­ments on the positive side than on the negative. If you lay a project before ten people, and nine have excellent reasons in favor of it, while the tenth raises vigorous objections, these objections are liable to register in your thought more than the sound arguments in its favor. The reason is that mortal mind is by nature negative.

Once Mrs. Eddy said, “Students do not pray enough. They should go by themselves at least three times a day to pray. Their prayers should consist of much giving thanks, more realization of the perfect, as well as the denial of error. There is too much denial of error and too little realization of the perfect.”

She knew that the negative nature of the human mind would tempt students to spend too much time in denying error. When one does this, he cannot escape the implication that he is denying and attempting to destroy something real. When one denies the existence of error on the basis that God never made it, since He made all and called it good, and hence in a world inhabited and created by good, there is no such thing as error, one has done all that is necessary in that direction, and he should at once turn his thought toward the realization of the perfect. Arguments on the negative side are necessary merely to convince yourself that the admission of error or of any of its manifestations is absolutely impossible. Yet such is the nature of the negative mind, that it will trick even good students into denying error with such a heavy hand that their denials build it up, instead of tear it down.

It is a negative thought that claims to rule in this world. Mrs. Eddy had discovered that the moment a thing is let out into thought — if it be a plan of God — many will start at once to find objections. If, however, one waits for a meeting where it is possible to establish an atmosphere that is controlled by demonstra­tion, the members will see the value of the project and vote to accept it.

In order to hear the voice of God, one must not only make the demonstra­tion to eliminate from thought all that causes one to doubt God, but to remove any obstacles that would prevent one from executing His will. In the last para­graph of this letter we have a sample of Mrs. Eddy's effort to put God's demands into operation and to safeguard them against the possibility of error controlling them. Of what value would Mrs. Eddy have been to God, if she could not put into practical expression and operation what was revealed to her? She would have been like a man to whom is entrusted an important letter, the delivery of which involves the fate of a nation, who is not faithful enough to overcome all obstacles in order that the letter may reach its destination.

In stating that Mrs. Eddy was both the Revelator and the demonstrator, we realize that as the former she received God's messages, and as the latter she put them into operation. As the demonstrator she learned that animal mag­netism always stands ready to oppose the will of God. Hence the executor of God's will must be awake and alert to anticipate and circumvent this effort.

Mrs. Eddy was no theorist. She once declared, “Practical people are my kind of people.” In this statement she was not commending those who permit practicality to become an obsession, but she was showing that there is no such thing as “theory” in Christian Science, that unless one can prove what he claims to understand, he does not understand it. She might have received God's revelations, but only as she demonstrated and executed them, did she give practical proof that they were from God, since the rule is that “Truth is demon­strable when understood, and that good is not understood until demonstrated.” (Science and Health, page 323).




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

September 9, 1893

To the Christian Science Directors of
The First Church of Christ, Scientist

My beloved Students:

I thank you for the tender testimonial you and your church have seen fit to engrave on a tablet of stone. May the God of Israel support, guide and prosper you in this Christian endeavor which means much to the present and future generations; and will per­petuate the testimony to what each one of us has done.

Yours in Christ,

Mary Baker G. Eddy


The phraseology of this letter is important and instructive, since one might object that according to absolute divine Science, God does not prosper man in material endeavors. Could it be said that it is the work of Mind to build a material church? Is not even a church edifice only part of the Adam dream?

Mrs. Eddy was careful, however, to refer to the God of Israel, a term which might be said to represent guidance emanating from the divine source applica­ble to man's present needs. She invoked for them the God of Israel, or divine Love applied or adapted to meet every human need.

She realized that the demonstration necessary in connection with the build­ing of the church, was the demonstration of the God of Israel. Thus, she did not depart from metaphysics in calling upon God to prosper and guide the students in their Christian endeavor. She showed the possibility of applying spiritual and scientific truths to meet the human need, indicating that man has the ability to transform absolute truths into a form that will assist him upward, by improving his ideals and preparing his body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God.

The laying of a corner-stone to a building is merely preliminary to its con­struction. Those in charge must not become satisfied with what they have done, and go no further. In engraving the testimonial the students acknowledged that the Cause was conceived by Mrs. Eddy, that it was her demonstration that ex­tended it, and that it was her foresight that prepared for the future, in which thousands of persons would become interested and join the role of membership. Hence it was necessary to have an edifice in keeping with the dignity of the doctrine; but this acknowledgment must be the beginning and not the end of their effort.

If we look ahead to Mrs. Eddy's letter to the church dated September 29, 1893, we find her defining the function of the temple as being both worship and service. If a bird should get the notion that it was supposed to use only one wing, it would never fly. The error of mortality is that man considers himself to be a one-winged bird. Man's two wings are receiving and giving. Traditional theology erects church edifices in which to worship God. Christian Science accepts the need of worshipping God, but declares that one should do it in order to spiritualize his thought, that he may send it forth to bless the world. Therefore a church that does not carry with it the demand for the members to go out into all the world, mentally, to bless humanity, is like a one-winged bird.

In like manner the students had performed the office of only one wing, when they gave this testimonial to their Leader; it must have pleased her, for it was their acknowledgment of the part she had played in founding Christian Science; but having turned their faces to her, they must perform the office of the second wing by turning away from her to humanity, and using what they had received from her to bless the needy ones in the world. At this point the first step in this direction was to build the church.

A member of our church cannot be called a Christian Scientist, if he does not share with others, and recognize the necessity for sharing; if he does not work constantly to enlarge his capacity to share. The farmer who goes to the barn for seed, and then does not leave the barn in order to plant the seed, will never have a crop. Mrs. Eddy implied that the students had done a good thing in acknowledging her as the source of divine inspiration, as if they turned to her for the good seed; but now the demand was for them to scatter that seed, so that the soil might receive it and bear fruit.

This letter, therefore, is careful to make it plain that this testimonial was but a portion of the demonstration, and that the students needed to be supported, guided and prospered by the God of Israel in their future endeavors.

One of the strong points in Mrs. Eddy's teachings is her emphasis on divine guidance. Under the regimen of the human mind mortals fancy that they are making progress; but eventually they have to retrace their steps and start again. The error of human guidance is that it takes man away from divine guidance; just as the error of human courage is that it keeps man from recognizing the importance of spiritual courage. Under human courage man feels personally capable of taking the responsibility for doing whatever is necessary, and of standing up under whatever affliction may come to him. The error of this point of view is that it is wholly deceptive, since only spiritual courage will enable one to meet affliction, and to rise above it constructively.

The human mind is like sandstone. It may be easily cut into shape, but when you have painstakingly carved a statue, the erosion of the elements will soon cause it to crumble. Thus, no matter how strong human courage may seem to be, it cannot endure, because it is based on a belief of man's adequacy separated from God.

Spiritual courage does not rely on self. It is based on the recognition that God is with men, and that He takes care of His own. It is a leaning courage, and that is why it is scientific. Under it man recognizes his own inadequacy, in accordance with the Master's words, “I can of mine own self do nothing.” He knew that with God all things are possible. Therefore the courage that sustained him was the knowledge of his oneness with the Father. He used this courage to maintain this with-God-ness, when the full pressure of fear, discouragement, misunderstanding and suffering was present to tempt him to doubt God.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy speaks of present and future generations. Alert students discern the blessings that they are providing for future generations; so they provide for growth. In Providence less than two hundred members built an edifice to hold a thousand. If the same spiritual foresight that prompted this effort had been kept alive, the church would be filled to overflowing at every service; whereas while these pages are being written in 1942, the attendance is falling off. The trouble was that after making such a grand demonstration, the students settled down as if their work were finished. At that point this letter of our Leader's would have been valuable to them, since in it she implies that our work is continuous. You can feel her warning to the students not to be content or satisfied with present attainments. She implies that, although the church would forever remain a mute testimonial to what she and her students had done, the students must not rest on their oars, when the whole world needed to be saved.




September 29, 1893

My dear Students:

Do not delay one other day to lay the foundation of our church; the season will shut in upon you perhaps, and the frost hinder the work. God is with you, thrust in the spade, October 1st, 1893 and ad­vertise in next No. of Journal that you have begun to build His temple, for the worship and service of Divine Love, the living God.

With great love,

Mother

M. B. G. E.


Mrs. Eddy teaches that when one desires to make a demonstration, he must argue down every mortal claim from the start. In building The Mother Church, she illustrated this necessity by naming the frost as a possible hindrance.

Sometimes on a church lot there are trees and vines that must be uprooted and taken away before the building can commence. Metaphysically there is always animal magnetism that must be cleared out, before the building of the church can start.

This letter gives an illustration of how to meet the claim of obstruction and delay in the mental realm, namely, to go right ahead without admitting the possibility of delay or obstruction, on the basis that God is with you. This is needed advice, since the suggestion of delay is one of animal magnetism's favorite tools. It must be met mentally, as well as outwardly.

It is evident that there was much to be done before the spade could be thrust in, and the Directors could honestly advertise in the Journal that they had begun to build God's temple. If they had already hired a contractor, for instance, he might refuse to start on one job until he had finished another. Yet we know in Science that all things can be accomplished through demonstration; whereas without it arguments that seem reasonable may pile up until the situation ap­pears to be hopeless.

Mrs. Eddy always required that God's work be accomplished ahead of what mortal mind would declare could be done. She gave students not more than fifteen or twenty minutes to heal every case in the home; that limitation of time required a wealth of scientific thought to be poured into the case at once. Her demands gave one the feeling that God's work must be done at once, and when one feels that something must be done, he does it. He starts in with vigor and determination.

At one time John Salchow was ill. The students tried to keep her from finding out about him, but finally she said, “Where is my John?” Then they had to tell her and she put the students in the home to work on the case, as was her custom. When the third day came, however, he had not recovered. So, she sent word demanding that he appear before her on Wednesday at twelve noon, this being Monday. The interesting sequel is the fact that he was well enough to appear even before the time she set. Mrs. Eddy's demand was not peremp­tory, but calculated to help John to rise immediately out of the fear that had over­taken him.

When Mrs. Eddy made such a demand as this, the students knew that she would not ask it of them, unless it was possible of fulfillment. Hence their faith in her helped them to measure up to her demands. In the case of John's illness, she saw the need of furnishing the expectancy necessary to bring out the case at once, since it was beginning to lag.

Mortal mind might contend that she was merely making extra work and trouble for the students, when she made peremptory demands. For instance, what difference would it make in years to come whether the spade was thrust in on October or November first? Mrs. Eddy knew, however, that arguments of delay are always the work of the devil, and in Christian Science it is essential to get ahead of the devil and to keep ahead. The devil is a slow worker; so, by alertness and speed we keep ahead of him. Mortal mind's timing is slow when compared with that of immortal Mind. If we speed up, therefore, we will reach our goal before the devil has a chance to interfere. Mrs. Eddy once said, “We are not keeping pace with mesmerism; we must wake up.”

Observe Mrs. Eddy's skill in timing. She required students who were easy going to push themselves to greater effort, often when apparently there was no good reason for it. As a matter of fact, there is always a good reason for energetic mental effort, since in so doing one breaks up the plans of animal magnetism, and makes it possible to do that which otherwise would not be done. If one lets the devil in at the start of his effort, it will dog his footsteps all the way.

Once when I was feeling mentally negative and some physical symptoms were worrying me, I received a call from one in great need, that indicated that his life depended on my effort. I thought, “How silly for me to be dwelling on my own petty feelings, when I am the custodian of a power that will raise the dead!” I saw that I must not let my own feelings stand in the way of any task God gave me to do. I declared, “What difference does it make how I feel, when I can put into operation a power that will save a man's life?” Immediately I felt renewed and strengthened, the moment I realized that my own discordant physical condition could in no way diminish my power to reflect God. I saw clearly that this unselfed attitude was the right way for an advanced student to overcome his own afflictions.

Once I said to a patient who had badly injured her finger, “That accident was merely the indication of an erroneous state of thought, since Science shows us that when thought is right, nothing but right can occur. A right thinker cannot manifest wrong thinking. The only serious thing to a Christian Scientist is to be out of tune with God. When that happens, he wants to know it, even if it requires some severe phase of suffering to convince him of the serious nature of such a deflection. Mortal man, however, is more interested in getting rid of the effect of error, than correcting its cause.” I then asked this patient if she would be content to have her finger healed without a change in her thinking; she said that she most assuredly would. Then I pointed out to her the foolishness of that notion. I said, “A willingness to have the physical condition restored to harmony, while one is still separated from God, would resemble a willingness on the part of an automobile owner to have his oil gauge indicate that his oil pump was func­tioning properly, when it was not!”

In like manner, if we could maintain health in the body and at the same time indulge in wrong thinking, we would have a lying manifestation. We should never try merely to remove sickness from the body. Our goal should be to correct thought and unite it to God. Then the body will manifest harmony as speedily as food becomes tasty, the moment one adds a pinch of salt to it.

If we desire to follow our Leader's example, we will watch thought rather than body, and be ready to fulfill God's demands upon us. That will be the proof that we are listening for God's voice and ready to follow where He leads. We will strive to keep ahead of animal magnetism, by meeting all arguments of delay.

How wise Mrs. Eddy was, after demanding that ground be broken on a certain date, to instruct the Board to advertise this fact in the next Journal! In this way she obligated them so that they could not escape meeting her demand by some subterfuge, such as going to the lot with a spade and taking out one shovelful of earth, and declaring that they had done as she requested. When they said, as they did, “The ‘Christian Science Board of Directors' announce that the work of laying the foundation for The Mother Church is begun,” it had to be a fact!

Mrs. Eddy once declared that, “Inconsistency is progression.” She must have referred to the fact that when one is prompted and guided by divine Mind, he will often be regarded by mortal mind as being inconsistent. One might accuse Mrs. Eddy of inconsistency in this matter, since it was her custom to keep important moves secret even from her own students. According to her usual method, she would have said, “Start this work, but tell no one. Do not let error find out what you are doing and so interfere with it.” Instead, she ordered them to advertise what they had done! Her reason for so doing must have been, that in that way the Directors would involve themselves, so that they could no longer delay by arguing that it was not possible to start, that they had tried to get a contractor and could not find one, that one thing or another stood in the way. By making an actual start and advertising it, they would prevent the devil from further delaying the work by plausible arguments.

Mrs. Eddy states in her letter that the purpose of His temple is “for the worship and service of Divine Love, the living God.” This dual purpose must cover the needs of the “babes in Christ,” as well as those who have grown to be “men.”

The worship of God, the acknowledgment of Him as supreme and as the creator of all, and the realization that all that He made is perfect and that nothing else exists, is the foundation in Christian Science on which we build. After this comes service, or the application of this foundational truth to helping humanity and spreading a knowledge of it. One who has advanced to service, should not return to worship, unless he finds that error is claiming to rob him of his scientif­ic consciousness of God. Then he must go back and regain the recognition that comes from worship.

It can be said that worship prayer is a receiving prayer, and service prayer is a giving prayer. First, we pray for more grace, love and understanding. Yet our effort to receive from God should always include the realization that we receive to give. If we do not give, we cannot continue to receive. Many students tarry in the receiving stage, and go for years without striving to share. As a result, they become congested. On the other hand, one who strives to give without receiving proportionately, becomes depleted. Progress demands that worship and service go hand in hand.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

October 11, (1893)

My dear Student:

I have revised for the last time my Tenets.

I wished to make clearer my meaning and have.

Please circulate no more of the old one and print this at once. It will pay in the good done and the demand for the new one.

With Love,

M. B. G. Eddy


This letter illustrates how a few words can be made to convey a wealth of meaning, to the one who is able to use such words to trace back to what was in the thought of the one who wrote them. One who is striving to recognize the significance of every move Mrs. Eddy made in founding the great unified Cause of Christian Science, can see in a simple letter of this kind, that which would be unobserved by one who was accustomed to accept words at their face value.

Often the stones hewn out for a building are fitted together and numbered at the quarry. If one saw them piled in apparent confusion waiting to be used, he might feel that there was no unity or order to them; but that would be because he was judging superficially.

A faithful study of Mrs. Eddy's life and letters reveals the orderly nature of every step she took in founding her Church. It takes more than a casual reading to perceive the definite order involved in these letters, and to realize that each one has its place. If one of them should be left out, a gap in the spiritual chronol­ogy would occur, exactly as if someone should remove a numbered stone from the lot. In the final building this loss would appear, and the structure would be incomplete.

Mind was the Builder of the Cause of Christian Science. Therefore we have to trace every step back to Mind in order to grasp its significance. Mrs. Eddy had confidence in the success of every forward step she took, that came from Mind. When she received what she knew to be wisdom from God, she had an abiding faith that the execution of that wisdom would do good, a faith that her followers must emulate. When one feels that he is guided by God to follow a certain plan, and the results do not accord with his preconceived notions, he must not harbor fear or doubt. He must have confidence in the law that all things work together for good to them that love God. Those that love God understanding­ly are under His government. Therefore, everything they execute is sure of success, if they are faithful.

Mrs. Eddy does not merely hope that this last revision of her tenets will do good. She declares without hesitation that in discarding the old and printing the new, they will have a demand for the new that will pay in the good it will do.

It is not wise for one to pray to have all of his ways guided by God, unless he has confidence that such ways will all work for good. The timid human sense, which fears that divine guidance may lead one into dilemmas, has no place in Science.

Why did Mrs. Eddy declare that she had revised the tenets for the last time, when in her textbook she writes that progress is the law of God? Might not further inspiration have enabled her to revise them again at some future time? She perceived that in their present form they would suffice the students in their slow growth, for many years to come.

Nothing better than pure milk has ever been discovered for infants. Mrs. Eddy recognized that the tenets represented milk that would last her students until they outgrew them; and when they did, it would only be because God had provided them with a higher modus of thought to replace them. If one objected that it would be disloyal for a student to assert that some day he might outgrow the tenets, let him remember that the restrictions, By-laws and admonitions left us by our Leader, relate in the main to the problem of what to do in this mortal dream that will enable one to awaken from it. Mrs. Eddy could leave no advice as to how man is to function hereafter, since when that time comes, his reflection of God guides him unerringly.

Since there is no doubt that a student will know exactly how to function when he throws off the mesmerism of mortal belief, it follows that the instruction he needs relates to the problem of mesmerism; and surely he has a right to hope that if he uses this instruction rightly, he will be enabled to break the claim. When he does, he will no longer have to be instructed, since at that point he becomes a law unto himself.

No instruction that starts with the assumption that man is in a dream and needs to be awakened from the dream, is absolute teaching, although it may be based on the absolute. In the Adam-dream everything appears to be distorted and man is but a caricature of his true selfhood. When, however, he has thrown off this mesmerism, everything appears normal once more. He then perceives that he is in the kingdom of heaven, and always has been, and that error was merely mesmerism that caused him to believe that he was out of it, when he was not.

When it is understood that the human mind is a claim of limitation, it will be seen that there is a limit to the height this mind can go, just as there is a limit to the height mortal man can jump. Evidently Mrs. Eddy recognized that in this last revision of her tenets, she had set forth the highest point the human mind could reach in the present generation. To declare this does not limit the real man in any way, nor does it limit our hope that at some not too distant day a new man will spring forth that can walk on the water, because he is not limited by matter. Since Mind is unlimited in its action, there is nothing that it cannot accomplish.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

February 28, 1894

My dear Student:

I have thought best to have you assign the copyright of the Tenets to me and I will put them in S. & H. for safety. I see them published without even my name as author, and without your permission! I will give you the right to handle the Tenets as you now do, but I must have the right to protect them or I fear they will not be protected.

With love,

Mary Baker Eddy

This must be done at once as a new edition of S. & H. is coming out and it must be in this one as other changes are going in and now is the only time I can put them in.

M. B. Eddy


The religious tenets of the Christian Science denomination are of the utmost importance. They represent the bridge that must be kept open between our Cause and the world. They express Science in a form that concurs most nearly with what Christians believe is the teaching of the Bible. While they do not depart in any way from absolute metaphysics, they are sufficiently in accord with the fundamental doctrine of traditional theology, so that the Christian world feels that, having such a platform, Christian Scientists can be called Christians.

The wisdom of the tenets is evidenced in the fact that they successfully refute all the arguments against Christian Science being Christian. Thus, the traducer is left with no alternative, but to try to prove that Mrs. Eddy did not write them. Mrs. Eddy foresaw this possibility; so she made haste to have the tenets included in Science and Health.

Critics have tried to claim that Christian Scientists do not believe in God and repudiate Jesus Christ. The tenets refute both of these criticisms, and thus stand as an outpost, protecting the Cause and defending the faith. They are an epitome of Christian Science phrased in doctrinal language, and show just where it stands in regard to questions that might be raised.

Mrs. Eddy was the author of the tenets, although in reality God wrote them through her. She was the channel through which they came into expression; but if the enemies of the Cause could have made the world believe that some one else had written them, then the tenets would have lost their power to answer the objections made by critics to prejudice people against our doctrine.

The tenets represent Science put into a concrete form that may be under­stood by members of other denominations, so that in reading them they cannot fail to believe and accept the fact that we are a religious organization having the same objectives that other denominations have, although we may differ somewhat in our methods of achieving these objectives.

The world must know that the one who started Christian Science also wrote the tenets. An attempt by another to explain an author's meaning is not effective. We can understand from this why error would advocate a use of the tenets without attaching Mrs. Eddy's name to them. She was willing to have them used as long as it was recognized that they came from her, as being her explanation and declaration of her faith; but she knew that, separated from her, they would lose their value.

When we find error operating so cleverly that it taxed Mrs. Eddy's in­telligence and alertness in order to keep aware of its hidden moves and to thwart them, it gives the impression that error is intelligent. We have the oft-­quoted statement of the Master, declaring that the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. The children of light are not as keen in their diagnosis of error, as error appears to be, in its action against truth. Jesus' statement was intended to stimulate the children of light to see the need for gaining a knowledge of the machinations of falsity, and for being alert to every move of error. Error has no intelligence. Its trickery is exposed in Christian Science.

Students who love the sweet revealings of good, but who draw back from what Mrs. Eddy teaches about evil, are in danger. They must awaken to realize that, unless they handle error, it will appear to be intelligent in its attempt to thwart and prevent the operations of good. Could not the Master have said that a cat can find its way in the darkness more readily than can a man, if the man carries no light?

The great work that a Christian Scientist is called to do requires a scientific and intelligent knowledge of the operation of evil. Hence, he must bear in mind that he cannot cope with it, no matter how great may be his understanding of God, without making a special demonstration to use the wisdom of God to expose the effort of evil to thwart what he is trying to do.

The following statements, said to have been given by Mrs. Eddy in her last class, illustrate strikingly the fact that she taught the need of delving deeply into the impositions of the lie. “In every case we undertake we must know there is no law which says we cannot heal. There is no wish, rule, or interference that can prevent the healing of the sick. Neither animal magnetism, nor mesmerism, nor the influence of the so-called human mind can prevent or interfere with Christian Science Mind healing. Expect to heal. There is no matter, material substance, body or presence that can resist Christian Science healing. There is no law of matter, anatomy, hygiene, materia medica, or anything that can prevent or interfere with instantaneous healing through Christian Science. There is no form of process, development, decay, decomposition or failure, that can obstruct Christian Science healing, or protract the case. There is no matter, nor disease; sickness is nothing but error. Christian Science does heal the sick. There is never a failure. Man cannot be mesmerized or express in thought any doubt or question as to the power of Truth over error, or Christian Science over the belief of disease and sin. Among other things in healing a case, always declare at the outset, ‘I can know everything about this case that I need to know, and know it at once; know it now.' There are no slow demonstrations. Truth is not slow. Idea is spontaneous with Mind. In every case where the cause seems to be unknown, we must declare that there is no undeveloped, undis­covered, or unknown cause. In every treatment close with this: This treatment cannot be reversed; its effect cannot be reversed; it cannot be made to produce a result contrary to that which is intended; it cannot be arrested, obstructed, reverted, or controverted; the false claim of malicious animal magnetism has no law of reversal, and cannot act through any belief of law; there is no such law.”

When Jesus declared the superior wisdom of the children of this world, one might conclude that he was admiring the cleverness of animal magnetism, when in reality he was encouraging the children of light to make a better demonstra­tion of perceiving the operation of the lie. He knew that a simple knowledge of good was by no means sufficient to uncover and handle error. One must make a specific demonstration of God's wisdom in order to expose evil. Mrs. Eddy once made the remarkable statement, “The only excuse or justification of teaching, is to privately inform the student how to overcome error.”

Mrs. Eddy found it hard to teach the subject of animal magnetism, because students instinctively turn away from the subject. They come into Science because they are attracted and fed by the beautiful new sense of God — the renewed faith in His power and presence that removes fear. It is not agreeable to be called to contemplate the lie, as Mrs. Eddy required. She was impelled to impress them with the fact, that they must use the wisdom of God to gain a knowledge of the operation of the lie, before they could understand the Truth which destroys it. One might wonder if the purpose of Class Instruction was not to unfold the facts about God. These facts are given, however, only as one puts a heavy counterweight on a ditch digger, that when it delves into the earth to bring up a load, it will be balanced so that it will not topple over.

This letter proves that Mrs. Eddy considered the subject of evil and of its operations worthy of her highest consideration and demonstration of perception. Only through alertness was she able to see, for instance, how the devil was claiming to separate the tenets from her authorship. Every individual has a right to make his own statement regarding his own faith. Apart from her author­ship the tenets were of little value. She made haste, therefore, to guard them against misuse.

A deep insight into the workings of wickedness is not native to the good man. It was not native to our beloved Leader. On page 37 of Retrospection and Introspection she writes of her reluctance to give to the public the chapter on Animal Magnetism, in her textbook, and of the divine purpose that this should be done. She learned that the all-seeing eye of God was necessary to penetrate the darkness, and that when this spiritual insight was correctly employed, error would be exposed and reduced to nothing.




Concord, N. H.

March 13, 1894

My dear Student:

The first thing that I recommend you to do is this: Give Mr. Hanna a call for one year to fill your pulpit in Boston. He can carry on the Magazine all the same and each month publish one of his own sermons. That will help him to matter for the Journal. Dr. Talmage with his immense labors edits a weekly paper. Call a meeting of the Board of Directors and give the judge a call this week. Do not let the absence of a regular pastor diminish your audience.

Please keep what I write to you to yourself, and if they must hear from me, write and I will reply.

Lovingly,

Mother

N. B. I want you to have the Com. on preparing the S. S. Quarter­ly, stop the lessons in the Old Testament and begin at the 18th. verse of the last chap. of Matt. for your Scripture studies. I see your minds need this change to spiritualize thought, — greatly need it. Prepare your Quarterly on the same plan that you have adopted, simply change from the O. T. to the New.

Also I find the pulpit is making an unwise use of Science and Health by reading too much from it. The speaker should never select a portion of my book which treats of one topic especial­ly, and then turn and read other portions which include still more topics. This is confusing and they are not able to select more than one to advantage. Therefore I strictly forbid reading my book Science and Health in such a manner. Allow not over one page of the book to be read before the sermon that includes a new subject and whatever on this page is continued from, or to another page is to be left out of this service. Let the selection illustrate the sermon.

In haste,

Lovingly,

Mother


Up to 1894 Mrs. Eddy relied on putting into her pulpit those who had formerly been ministers but, having become interested in Christian Science had stepped down from their pulpits. Now for the first time she took the stand that it was possible for one who had not been trained for the ministry, to take up this work. In so doing she eliminated much of the error of old theology which ministers were prone to bring in with them. She took a definite step away from a personal pastor, and toward having the Bible and Science and Health take that place.

Mrs. Eddy instructed Mr. Johnson to keep this matter to himself, and if the congregation insisted upon hearing from her, she would write to them. It was a radical step to put a judge in the pulpit to deliver a sermon, but it helped to prepare the minds of the students for the final step. It was an intermediate move that God provided in the transition, so that the shock would not be too great to the human mind when the denouement came. Mrs. Eddy was accustomed to working in this way. Once when she felt that Alfred Farlow as Committee on Publication was trying to accomplish too much by one bound, she said to Adam Dickey, “Did you ever take such a long step that you fell to the ground? Would it not have been better if you had taken two steps and retained your equilibrium?”

Inspiration comes clearly to spiritual sense; its voice is loud and strong. In this human sense, however, it seems small and still. One often has to wait on the logic of events to put it forth. The preparation and flexibility of thought for following revelation and divine direction is as much part of the demonstration as it is to gain it from God in the first place. In these letters we see how God was gently leading the members to accept readers in place of personal pastors in all our churches for all time to come.

In studying Mrs. Eddy's letters one must bear in mind that she had to watch constantly lest animal magnetism turn thought against her for some apparently legitimate reason. So, here she mentions the enormous labors of Dr. Talmage, as an ideal, lest the members convict her of demanding too much from them.

She herself was a tremendous worker. Mortal mind does not believe that it is possible for any individual to work as hard as she did, and to avoid having some serious consequence. When she went to Washington in 1882, she wrote to Clara Choate, “God bless you; I press you to my heart and can encourage you with the fact that I am making the way for students in this City of fashion and pride. I have worked harder here than ever, 14 consecutive evenings I have lectured three hours every night, besides what else I am about. Get to bed at 12, rise at 6, and work. I have a goodly number already enlisted in the work. ‘I need Thee, O! I need Thee; every hour I need Thee.'”

It is plain why, when Mrs. Eddy was such a hard worker, protest might be made that she had no right to expect others to measure up to her capacity. For that reason, when she made large demands on Judge Hanna, she mentioned Dr. Talmage. He was a mortal mind thinker who did not have the resuscitating and resting power of Truth to depend on; yet with his immense labors he was able to edit a weekly paper. If mortal mind could do it, how much more should a Christian Scientist. In this way she sought to avoid the criticism that might be directed at her, if it was thought that she was overworking her students.

It seems odd to have Mrs. Eddy at this point direct the Committee on pre­paring the Sunday School Quarterly to omit the Old Testament, and confine themselves to the New, especially since these lessons were patterned after the International Bible Lesson Series. Furthermore, she had established her Science by proving it to be based on the Bible as a whole.

Today the Old Testament can be fully understood in the light of Christian Science; yet for centuries its meaning was hidden. There have been those who have argued, that with Science and Health they no longer need the Old Testa­ment, or possibly even the New. The alert student, however, knows that the Bible is the Word of God which has been provided in its entirety for his use and growth.

The Old Testament sets forth a simple method of interpreting the history of mankind. The history of the Jews, the “chosen people,” was chosen as a sample of what human history becomes under the searchlight of Truth. Sacred history is merely profane history with a spiritual interpretation attached to it, so that causes and effects are clearly seen.

In the Old Testament we find events taken out of the realm of the fortuitous, and shown to be the result of thought. Harmonious results are set forth as fol­lowing right thinking, whereas war, pestilence, earthquakes and other discords are recorded as the effects of thinking which has departed from God's standard and is displeasing to Him.

Students might conclude that the Old Testament had no present-day ap­plication. The Children of Israel, however, were living the same kind of lives as mortals are living today; but we have their history to study with a mental and spiritual explanation, which makes it invaluable. Through it we can understand why war comes to a peaceful world. It teaches us that when a man lets go of God as his ally, he becomes vulnerable. The only hope a nation has is to adhere to faith in God. It is a travesty for a Christian nation to spend billions of dollars arming itself, thereby trying to cover up a vulnerability which has resulted from turning away from God! While it may be necessary to build up human defences, these should never take the place of a renewal of faith in God.

Those who are trying to understand present-day world conditions, should study the history of the Jews and see how they were successful when they leaned upon God, even against nations that were much larger and stronger; whereas when they leaned upon an arm of flesh — their own material strength — they were conquered. If there ever is a time when a knowledge of the Old Testa­ment is needed, it is when a Christian nation is threatened with war and wonders why. Thinkers in such nations should be able to go to the Bible and say, “Here is our history, here we can learn how and where we have been failing in God's sight.”

The Old Testament cannot be interpreted without the teachings of the Master, and in turn the teachings of Christian Science are needed to make his words and deeds plain. At the time Mrs. Eddy wrote this letter in regard to the Quarterly, she perceived that the students were not holding a right attitude toward the Old Testament. They needed more spiritualization through studying the New. The deduction is that spiritualization of thought is an essential attainment, in order to understand and to find the deep spiritual treasures in the Old. A sense of human wisdom will never cause it to yield up its rich lessons. A study of the New in the light of Christian Science, however, will cause thought to be spiritualized. When that spiritualized thought is cast upon the pages of the Old, the lessons it contains will become plain.

When we recall that it was Mrs. Eddy's custom to turn to her Bible at random for inspiration and guidance, we can believe that she prayed for light on the matter of the Quarterly Lessons and opened to Matt. 28:18. Thus, she was led to advise the Committee to begin their Scripture studies here, since in verses 18, 19 and 20 we find the spiritual basis for the Lesson-Sermons that go forth girt with omnipotence to teach all nations, “baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” Then comes the metaphysical declaration of the permanency of the Christ as the indwelling selfhood of man, which is the basis for the entire activities of Christian Science, “...and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.”

The Father is God, the divine source of all good, of all understanding and of all wisdom. The Son is the expression of that infinite Mind, and the Holy Ghost is the divine Science through which is established that expectancy that brings forth the spiritual reality of all things.

It is possible when Mrs. Eddy opened to these verses, that she interpreted them as instruction from God that the lessons in the Quarterly were no longer to be used merely in the Sunday School, but that He intended them to be used to teach the nations. Perhaps it was at this point that she began to perceive that her Church was to inaugurate a new Bible teaching which was to spread over the world, and that these Bible lessons were henceforth to constitute the entire preaching.

Up to this time the Quarterly Lessons had been used in the Sunday School to which adults were admitted. When I first attended services in Providence, R.I., in 1894, they consisted wholly of an informal discussion of the lesson in the Quarterly led by Eugene H. Greene. When the time came that Mrs. Eddy ap­plied these lessons as the sermon, one might say that she made a Sunday School out of the entire service, the difference being that no comments or explanations are given at any time. The children need such comments, since they would not understand the lesson otherwise; whereas with adults it is part of their growth to work out the meaning for themselves.

Mrs. Eddy's statement that the pulpit was making an unwise use of Science and Health deserves comment, since today students are confronted with two dangers in regard to their textbook, namely, either leaning on it too much or too little. When one writes an article on Christian Science for the periodicals, if he leans too much on his textbook, he tries to sprinkle the article with profuse quotations from it, or to express its contents in his own words, hoping in this way to have it accepted for publication. If he leans too little on the textbook in writing an article, he will omit quotations from it, which would show that he felt such confidence in his own understanding, that he did not find it necessary to tie the article up with the book. This would not be wise or right, since those who read the periodicals must always have their thought turned to the textbook.

Mrs. Eddy established her Science by showing it to be from the Bible, and she quoted freely from it, in proof of the correctness of her interpretation. Her followers must do this with the textbook up to a certain point, since they must never deviate from its teachings, no matter how far they advance in under­standing.

Science and Health might be likened to a great aqueduct coming down from the mountains to convey water to the thirsty land. Each farmer is required to dig cross ditches which extend from the aqueduct to the extremities of his land, so that every part of his fields will be irrigated. If a farmer made the mistake of merely accepting the main stream, without digging the cross ditches, he could only plant that portion of his land that bordered it, and the rest of his land would be unproductive.

Mrs. Eddy discovered students that were talking so much about the aque­duct that they were giving the impression that nothing more was required of them than to possess it. It is true that people must be told that every bit of good we gain in Science comes from this great aqueduct, Science and Health; but students must also be encouraged to build their cross ditches, so that the water from the aqueduct may spread its healing effect to cover every phase of human experience.

Our periodicals should set forth both the value of the aqueduct, and how the cross ditches are to be built. Every article must indicate that the cross ditches obtain their water from but one source, and never refer to the cross ditches without indicating their relation to the aqueduct. Neither should an article be written which relates to the aqueduct, without naming the need of digging the cross ditches.

Mrs. Eddy's insistence in this letter that portions of Science and Health which illustrate the sermon be read, and no unrelated topics be introduced, shows that gradually thought was being led toward the new order, where the sermon would be the lesson from the Quarterly which treated of one subject each week. A capable minister sticks to his subject, and never forgets the point he wants to drive home. He does not take half a dozen topics, since then no one topic would make any impression on the congregation. One does not use a shot gun when he wants to kill a lion. An alert minister does not pepper his congregation with a lot of unrelated topics. He takes one point and drives it home. Mrs. Eddy wanted the speaker in The Mother Church to select one subject for his sermon, and illustrate it by reading one page from Science and Health, which treated of the same topic.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

July 12, 1894

(To Joseph Armstrong)

My dear Student:

I cannot say whether the big sum of 1,000 dollars will build the platform and pulpit and buy the chairs for it. You had better find this out and if it will, then I would have it thus appropriated. Have you got enough windows engaged to be made? And if not, tell Mrs. Baird about how the chairs are provided and offer the window to her. I wish you would tell the Scientists not to say there are already sufficient funds to build the church and furnish it. Who knows this? Let the contributions go on. The money will be safe for God's dear use. The 5 dollars was for you.

With love,

Mary Baker Eddy

N. B. Before the tablet is engraved let Mr. Wilson of Cambridge punctuate it. The Dr. my son can attend to this.


One cannot help but marvel at our Leader's tact, and at the way she taught and directed students by inference, which we know to be God's way. Often when you attempt to pull a puppy in the direction you want him to go, he will resist. If you release the pressure on the leash so that he does not feel any pull, he will trot along willingly.

Mrs. Eddy was able to handle the human mind so as to bring out the best there was in it, in preparation for its elimination. If she was leading the Directors in the way she wanted them to go, let it be said that she did it so lovingly and tactfully, that most of the time they were not aware of it.

How tactfully this letter placed a thousand dollar limit on the platform and pulpit for the new edifice by the use of the word “big”; at the same time its wording would cause the Board to feel that they were being given entire freedom in making their own decision!

Mrs. Eddy was the head of the Movement, and the Directors were subser­vient to her. Yet she did not want them to feel that way. Such was her innate love and gentleness, that she gave them all the leeway possible. She knew the mortal argument which rises up, when men feel that they are being bossed by a woman. In reality they were servants of God, since their Leader was His representative on earth.

There is no unity possible under the human mind. Mrs. Eddy's effort to have the Board work in unity was wholly from a spiritual standpoint. She loved each member and took pains to show it. At the same time, when it was necessary she did not hesitate to deflate the human ego. Mortals are impressed by the appearance of dignity and age; not so our Leader. Regardless of human ap­pearance, she searched the heart to detect the quality of thought. If it was human, she rebuked it.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy instructs the Directors to give Mrs. Baird the op­portunity to donate a window to The Mother Church, if this is necessary. Mrs. Eddy's attitude toward the project was that its purpose was right; hence it was a privilege for anyone to contribute to it. In this way she helped to increase the contributions. Had she doubted the purpose of the undertaking, or the ability of students to give, she would have thereby closed the door on their generosity. When she asked forty of them to contribute one thousand dollars each, she knew that she was bestowing a privilege upon them, which in turn would become a blessing to each one. Not one of them would have refused this request. Many of them borrowed this amount, and paid it up afterwards.

Oftentimes mortals will give to charity generously, if in some way they receive personal recognition. Mrs. Eddy tried to lift the standard of giving above this desire for human aggrandizement, by placing the name of each of these forty students in the cornerstone of the edifice. This carried the implication that, although future generations might never know these names, they were known to God, since every self-sacrifice is noted by Him.

Mrs. Eddy detected that it was animal magnetism that was attempting to spread the rumor that there were already sufficient funds on hand. She saw that it would be a sad thing to cut off any students or interested friends from the privilege of contributing, and the consequent blessing that would accrue to them. So, she met the error before it had a chance to spread.

In the Bible we read of the great wisdom of Solomon; yet we have no evi­dence that he was wise in every decision he made. With Mrs. Eddy, however, we have the proof that she was governed by God in all her ways. Her demonstra­tion of God's wisdom was consistent and continuous.




Concord, N. H.

July 16, 1894

To the Christian Science Board of Directors

My dear Students:

I know you realize that if one instance occurs in an example of mathematics, where you should have added instead of subtracted, you must go over that example and do it rightly or you cannot finish your sum in Science. As in mathematics so in Metaphysics you cannot obey the Principle through mistakes and so must correct your mistake. Therefore take back your gift from God, your task of contracting for building His temple and never more put it out of your hands. See yourself, dear Mr. Johnson, to the making of the iron, and to you all I again say build rapidly, suffer no delay. Remember this.

Your teacher in Christ,

Mary Baker Eddy


Mr. William B. Johnson had already been to Pottsville, Penn., in May to hasten the forwarding of the steel for the edifice, since Mrs. Eddy sent a message that it might be best to send one of the Directors for this purpose. This information is contained in Mr. Johnson's diary under the date of May 19. Then as a result of this letter from Mrs. Eddy dated July 16, he went again to Pottsville. On August 8 he wrote in his diary that he found “that nothing had been done on our work.”

It seems logical that Mrs. Eddy should have thought of Mr. Johnson in connection with the iron work, since it was something he could understand, he having been a machinist and iron worker before coming into Science. At the same time when she wrote, “See yourself, dear Mr. Johnson, to the making of the iron...” that was symbolic of a call to make a demonstration that would have the qualities of iron. He surely could comprehend this symbolism, knowing that iron has to be tempered so that it will stand whatever strain is put upon it. He also knew that beams and girders are designed to carry the weight of a building. So, it is not far-fetched to state that Mrs. Eddy wanted him to make himself so trustworthy and reliable, that he would hew to his demonstration of divine Mind, rather than allow anything from outside to influence him.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy says, “...you cannot obey the Principle through mistakes and so must correct your mistake.” Does this mean that if you have gained money through material labor and activity — your own effort — when you come into Science you must lose or give away that money, in order to make the demonstration to see God as the one and only source of all good? Here she says that if you have added instead of subtracted in an example of mathematics, you must do over that example and do it rightly, or you cannot finish your sum. In Science, all problems are mental. Therefore, whatever one has when he comes into Science needs not be gotten rid of but resolved into Spirit, in accordance with Mrs. Eddy's own words, “If you do not control your possessions through the understanding that they are spiritual, they will control you through the belief that they are material.”

When one comes into Science, he can take food which he has always believed to be a product of the ground, and realize that in reality it is spiritual and comes from divine Mind in accordance with Deut. 8:16-18. If he is well-to-do, he does not have to lose his wealth, if he is willing to demonstrate that it is not material, and that it was not his own hands that accumulated it, but that it was God that gave him the “power to get wealth”; so, it belongs to God, since it came from Him, and, being God's, it must be used rightly. Then he is scientific and has corrected his mistake.

It would be as foolish to believe that when one came into Science he had to lose his wealth, as it would be to conclude that he had to lose his health, merely because he had always considered it to be material — a condition of matter. It is true that one must lose his sense of wealth and health as being material; but this is not the losing of them, but the finding of them, since when we put wealth and health into matter, we surely lose them. We find health and wealth when we realize that they are never material, but mental and spiritual.

The mistake the Directors had made was, that in their zeal to hurry the work, they had made subcontracts. Instead of aiding in the work, these proved to be a hindrance, because when a contract is made, those involved must be permitted to do the work according to their conception of the contract. Thus, the immediate control of things went out of the hands of the Directors. Therefore, they had to correct this error and once more assume the direct control of the work.

Mrs. Eddy saw that it was human judgment and perhaps human advice given to them, that caused the Directors to make this mistake. One might have said, “You know nothing about building, so you had better leave that work to those who have had experience.” So, Mrs. Eddy writes, “Therefore take back your gift from God...and never more put it out of your hands.” In Science we cannot compass tomorrow. We have to march with God today, and be ready to add or subtract as He directs. Hence our affairs must be flexible at all times, and not bound by contracts that make changes impossible. Mrs. Eddy knew that at times students would permit self-will to come in, so they would misunderstand God's direction; that often they might believe a thing to be right and plan to execute it; then further insight and guidance might make a change necessary. So, they must be flexible in order to be able to change at a moment's notice.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.,

July 19, 1894

To the “Directors”

Dear Students:

God is speaking to you and these words are prophetic. Make your contracts in writing, stipulate the time allowed for the ful­fillment of contract, — the quality of the iron and work to be done on it, and whatever else is requisite. Then name the forfeiture that if it is not strictly kept, nothing will be paid thereon and no third attempt to do the job will be allowed them, and the contract will be rendered void.

Your wasting the money entrusted to you and God's time given you is a sin that God will punish. The disobedience to Him first, and second breaking a moral law in not doing to others as you would have others do by you. Oh! may this open your eyes before it is too late.

Mary Baker G. Eddy


It is a grave responsibility to interpret letters written privately, especially letters that appear to impugn the honesty and wisdom of those who were known to have been faithful. Yet it is right to assume, now that our Leader has left our midst, that valuable lessons can be learned from her every written or spoken word.

Someone may complain that we are reading new meanings into Mrs. Eddy's letters. Yet the task she has left us is to use inspiration to understand that which came forth from inspiration. She was governed by God in what she wrote; but it takes inspiration to detect inspiration. Hence in working to understand these letters through inspiration, we are following out her teachings consistently.

The Master's instruction was universal, and adapted to every age. The letters written by St. Paul are generally considered to have a universal application, and to be equally valuable to all Christians. Even though they were written to individuals or groups, it was not considered amiss to take them out of their nar­row use, and give them to all to study. Therefore, they were included in the Bible.

The same reasoning applies to Mrs. Eddy's letters. Each one can be shown to be of timeless value, when interpreted spiritually. Hence, they should be made available to those who are ready for them. Then students will cease to regard them as personal.

When general precepts and their application are being established, per­sonal deflections, as well as individual needs, are required to occasion letters of instruction. Such deflections and needs will continue as long as mortal mind continues. The way Mrs. Eddy handles such conditions in one instance, fur­nishes the precedent for all time.

Today each letter of our Leader is precious; but each one requires an inspirational unfoldment. Each one has its value and design which can be extended universally; even as a designer in textiles will create one pattern, which is then multiplied and printed on millions of yards of cloth.

It is the impersonalization of Mrs. Eddy's letters that frees them for general use. If the need which called forth the letter is impersonalized, the antidote which Mrs. Eddy gave can be likewise impersonalized, and seen in its universal appli­cation. Years ago a doctor might compound a prescription for a patient, and find it to be so efficacious (from his point of view) that he would put it on the mar­ket as a patent medicine.

What error was assailing the Directors to call forth this stirring rebuke, words spoken to them by God which were prophetic? Why did Mrs. Eddy neglect her usual loving conclusion? It would appear to be a letter where the usual social amenities had to be excluded, lest anything soften the rebuke or detract from the importance of the message. Was there a touch of sarcasm in putting the word, Directors, in quotation marks, as if to show that she was questioning their ability to direct the thought of the Field, because they had been found in an egregious error?

One can always demonstrate; but he will not find everyone he deals with amenable to demonstration. Some qualities of thought are inflamed by it and manifest opposition and even hatred. If demonstration had a uniform effect on all mortals, the problem of universal salvation would be simple; but in one's attempt to demonstrate, one never knows when mortal mind will revolt. For this reason Mrs. Eddy found it necessary to advise the Directors to deal with those who were hired to build the church, by means of contracts, in order to bind them in every way. At this time contracts containing forfeiture clauses were not in general use; hence Mrs. Eddy's demand for such was proof that she was governed by divine Mind even in such a mundane matter as the making of contracts.

Jesus said that the children of this world are wiser in their generation than the children of light. In this letter Mrs. Eddy is stating the same, namely, that when those who have repudiated the wisdom of this world fail to use God's wisdom, they are not as wise as those who rely on the wisdom of the human mind. The children of this world do not trust each other, they bind each other with legal contracts. The children of light have learned that all men are truly the children of God; hence, it is a part of their religion to trust all men. Because their word is honorable and because they would not break a verbal contract, they feel obligated to consider that mortal mind is just as honorable, — a foolish and blind attitude. Experience shows that mortal mind is not honorable. Mrs. Eddy never disregarded error in her effort to see the perfection of man. She once declared, “Mortals are mutable; you cannot trust them because they cannot trust themselves.”

The wisdom of this world is not to be disregarded, especially when one is dealing with the money of others. Students should use contracts which force mortal mind, and even brother Christian Scientists, to be honest. When Mrs. Eddy called Irving C. Tomlinson to come to her home, she had her lawyer, Frank S. Streeter, draw up a contract which bound him in the minutest details. It stated exactly what she agreed to furnish him, and what he was expected to furnish her in return. Had he lost his desire to serve his Leader at any time and so wanted to leave, he would still have been bound to remain with her until the contract was fulfilled. She did not doubt his faithfulness; but she had seen animal magnetism's attempt to demoralize her best students, especially after they had come to live with her.

Mrs. Eddy's instruction to use mortal mind's best methods was wise and necessary. Many students who have been too trusting with mortal mind, have found themselves betrayed. Once my father and I lost over thirty thousand dollars because we trusted a man who claimed to be a Christian Scientist. He thought he was; but the moment he was in a position where he had money to spend, he be­came unreliable. He had not learned of the subtlety of animal magnetism.

The faithful students who constituted the Board of Directors in 1894 had not been men of large affairs before they were elected to that committee. Why did Mrs. Eddy arraign them for not knowing that which they had not learned by practical experience? She taught that when students are called upon to perform certain duties, if they are faithful in their study and demonstration, God will supply them with the needed wisdom and ability.

Mrs. Eddy had had no chance to gain business experience. Yet Science made her a clever lawyer and a splendid business woman. Her insight into modes of investment brought her great respect from mortal mind. She had a guidance that was more reliable than anything mortal mind knows about.

The Board of Directors had had no opportunities to train themselves in building, or in business efficiency; yet Mrs. Eddy had a right to expect them to be efficient because she had given them that which would make them so, provided they used it. They were rebuked by God not for a human lack, but for a spiritual one.

God never rebukes students for a lack of human knowledge. Divine Mind enables man to develop human skill, and to cope with every situation more intelligently and in a more efficient and businesslike way, than the human mind.

Criticism, in order to be just, must relate wholly to a lack of demonstration. Mrs. Eddy was justified in chiding those who were supposed to be the leaders in demonstration, those who, although they had not had much experience in business ways, were the best Christian Scientists. Mrs. Eddy entrusted the building of the church to the Directors because they were good students of Christian Science, and for no other reason.

If Mrs. Eddy should visit our branch churches today, and observe the way the business is conducted, she would reprove the members as she does in this letter. She would chide any members of committees who might assume that they were competent to do the business of the church because they had had practical experience.

The Directors were not dishonest; they were not disloyal; they were not unfaithful. But God had called them to a responsibility that could be fulfilled only through demonstration. They were found neglecting to use it in directions where the average student would not even know that there was any demand for it. They had to be rebuked, since the Bible says that to whom much is given, of him shall much be required.

No one should feel, however, that this letter impugns the Directors, or their loving faithfulness, apart from the fact that they needed to be aroused to demon­strate. It was the old story of lethargy — forgetting and neglecting. Today ad­vanced students need this same arousing when they neglect to broaden their use of demonstration.

If an animal is being trained to do something that requires intelligence, after he has given it a preliminary instruction the trainer may make a demand on the animal without showing it what he wants. The reason for this is that if he showed the animal what was wanted each time, part of the training would be lacking. The time may come when the trainer will not be present. If the animal has not learned to do the trick when the call comes without being shown each time, he is of no use.

Mrs. Eddy had taught her students the rudiments of demonstration, setting it forth in her textbook which her students studied daily. She trained her students by making demands on them, rebuking, exhorting, but often she left to them the task of working out the metaphysics involved.

If we do not deal with mortal mind strictly, mortal mind may take advantage of us. Furthermore, a Christian Scientist might overlook abuses, make excep­tions, and be too lenient in his personal dealings with mortal mind, but when it comes to church matters, where he is dealing with money that does not belong to him, he must use his highest understanding.

Mrs. Eddy's sharp rebukes were not aimed against students personally or against what they were doing, but against mental lethargy and spiritual apathy. A man may be active physically and alert mentally from a human standpoint and still need to be chided for a lack of demonstration. Mrs. Eddy also knew the value of a shock, in dealing with error. It often shocked students to receive a vigorous rebuke from this gentle woman whose natural inclinations were to be loving and forgiving with all. Her experience had taught her that when one's thought becomes pinioned on error, it must be quickly moved off, and sometimes the best way to do this is through a shock, speaking sharply, commanding with authority, — at times moving to laughter or to tears.

Once I called on a patient who was in great suffering and almost in a coma. I looked at her and apparently in all seriousness I said, “The greatest enjoy­ment I get out of being a practitioner is to see people suffer!” She was shocked to hear me say such a thing, so that her thought was loosed from its bodily attachment, with the result that she was immediately relieved of her suffering, and sat right up in bed.

This letter was designed to shock the Directors out of a feeling of com­placence, out of a tendency to fulfil the letter of the law, but to omit the spirit. They were doing their human best, but omitting the vital part, and something was necessary to bring this lack forcibly to their attention. This lesson will always be the most vital one that the Field needs to learn. Members of branch churches still bring to bear their best human thought in doing the business of the church, believing that the building of churches and the spending of money for their upkeep, is material business that has to be done in the most efficient and intelligent way. They know that demonstration must be used in healing the sick, but they assume that good human methods will satisfy the demands of the situation, when it comes to the business of the church.

Mrs. Eddy could have found enough skilled business men among her students to have formed a Board of Directors who could have done the church business with efficiency and dispatch, but she selected men from humble walks of life, knowing that demonstration would equip them for any emergency. The most difficult task in her home and with her organization was to develop students to the point where they would see the need of demonstration in mundane matters.

One of the members of her household writes as follows: “Mrs. Eddy showed forth to an unusual degree the exactness and divine order of God — her Mind­ — and she required perfection of thought and action from those of her household. She herself never made a false movement. Even the different lengths of pins had their respective corners in her pin cushion, and she took out the pin she needed without taking out and putting back the different lengths. She believed that if one's thought was not orderly and exact in the things that make up pres­ent consciousness, that same thought would not be exact enough to give a treatment or to use an exact Science.

“These qualities in her mind were very pronounced — far beyond what my so-called human mind could comprehend and sense. She taught me that the Mind I then had was God, and that I was to show forth God — my own Mind — in order and exactness and perfection. We were to express man's dominion over all things. She knew that Mind's work and Mind always fit — they are one and the same. The sense of anything being too large or too small was not found in Mind. Excuses and alibis were of no avail with Mrs. Eddy.

“At one time she called me to be her personal maid, and as I knew nothing about the requirements of such a position, she gave me seven finely written pages stating the things that were to be done. These necessitated continuity of action without false moves or forgetting.

“When night came and I had tucked her in bed, I said, ‘Mother, I did not forget once nor make a mistake, did I?' She smiled up at me and replied, ‘No, you didn't. Nighty night.' About midnight she rang my bell. I went to her and she said, ‘Martha, do you ever forget?' I replied, ‘Mother, Mind never forgets.' She said, ‘Go back to bed.'

“The next morning she said, ‘Martha, if you had admitted last night that anyone can forget, you would have made yourself liable to forgetting. Whatever error you admit in yourself or in another, you make yourself liable to that error. Admitting error as real produces error and is all there is to it.'”

A machine built by demonstration requires demonstration to run it. No one expects a blacksmith to be able to keep a watch in repair. The Mother Church was built by demonstration; hence the use of demonstration is imperative to run it, not because the business to be transacted at any given time is of too great importance, but because students need to be trained to use what they have been taught. Much of the church business could be done by the human mind, and no one would know the difference; just as a student might take a material remedy for some slight ailment, instead of bothering to apply his mental remedy. The reason for a consistent use of demonstration is that the alert student does not intend to permit the human mind to wedge itself in in the slightest degree.

When a member feels the right obligation towards the organization, he seeks to meet all its needs by demonstration. He does not feel that he is following Mrs. Eddy's example, when he uses the human mind where it is adequate, and reserves divine Mind for emergencies.

The problem of the human mind is such that unless one is putting it off consistently, it will claim to make inroads that will finally rob one of his power to demonstrate. Mrs. Eddy once said, “If you do not control your possessions through the understanding that they are spiritual, they will control you through the belief that they are material.” She might also have said, “If you do not broaden your use of demonstration and put the human mind under foot, it will claim more and more to rule God out.”

When Mrs. Eddy accused the Directors of wasting God's time and money, she brought to their attention the fact that the only remedy for this condition was divine Mind. In mortal mind no one would have blamed the Directors for wasting some time and money, since they were called to do that for which they had had no human training, namely, to build a church. Everyone expects a man, when he is learning a new job, to make some mistakes and to waste a certain amount of time. But in Christian Science there is no reason to expect men to waste time and money on a new line of endeavor, since they are not expected to learn from experience. God knows all things. Hence as we trust God we will be able to use both time and money wisely, economically and successfully.

Sometimes students have the impression that to declare themselves Christian Scientists, means that all they do should prove wise and successful. They have to learn, however, that their study is merely learning how to use the tools of Christian Science. When tasks confront them, they are expected to use those tools. If they do not, they must expect to do a job no better than mortal mind would do it.

Mrs. Eddy once described the temptation to accept Christian Science theoretically as follows: “When Truth first comes to the consciousness of a mortal, it usually heals him physically. Then comes the demand to commence giving up material idols and to digest, assimilate, and demonstrate Truth for himself. At this period the conscious and unconscious efforts of evil strive to obstruct, to continue the bondage, and to cause the individual to simply handle his new-found treasure, talk about it perhaps with fervor or emotion, but to go no further.”

Students must learn that as they develop their ability to demonstrate, and then neglect to use it in all their ways, they are not only apt to make mistakes, but to make more than mortal mind. A man who learns to use a tractor and then tries to go back to a horse and plough, will do a poorer job than as though he never used a tractor.

Students learn to demonstrate. They must then extend this ability in an ever-widening circle, if they would fulfill Mrs. Eddy's hopes for her followers and merit the description she voiced in her article, “Material Church Activity”: — “This model Christian Scientist is the sharpest, the surest, the most successful business man or business woman that this earth can afford. Christian Scientists — what is your model? What is your model business man — he who begins with political economy, human plans, legal speculations, and ends with them, dust to dust, or the real Scientist who plants in Mind, God, who sows in Mind, and reaps in Mind?”




Concord, N. H.

July 19, 1894

To the Directors

Dear Students:

God is speaking to you and these words are prophetic. Your wasting the money entrusted to you and God's time given you is a sin that God will punish. The disobedience to Him first, and second breaking a moral law in not doing to others as you would have others do by you. Oh, may this open your eyes before it is too late.

I have no fear whatever of the passage of any law that can injure Christian Science and only fear the dishonor that comes from unwise measures taken by students. Christian Scientists have better remedy than material means for error.

M. B. Eddy

Be sure you do not lose your peace. “Shake off the dust of your feet.” Let none of their material thought disturb your under­standing. Let nothing retard your steady advancement.


While Mrs. Eddy wrote the above, there is doubt as to its genuineness as a letter, since the first paragraph is found in the previous letter, the second paragraph is similar to one in a letter written to Mrs. Stetson, and the postscript traces to a Bible lesson given in the College in 1887, recorded by Mrs. Keeley.

Whether the above was an actual letter, or a compilation of some student, no harm can come from a contemplation and analysis of Mrs. Eddy's words.

If the Christian Science Publishing Society should be operating under a loss, could it be said that the students were wasting God's money? A lack of support by the Field might be held up as the reason for this. If the Trustees were doing their human best, could they be blamed? All the same there should be no loss, and under demonstration there would be none. It is not God's plan that our Cause be financially embarrassed in the effort to establish Christ's kingdom. The only answer to Mrs. Eddy's accusation of wasting God's money and God's time is a lack of demonstration.

Mrs. Eddy was not implying that the Directors were wasting God's money in the effort to bless the world through Christian Science. Strict human economy does not fulfil God's requirements. Time and money wasted through a lack of demonstration is the sin that God punishes.

On August 18, 1895, Mrs. Eddy wrote to the Directors, “Note this — and let it save you. The mesmerists carry their points more or less every time and with all the students and Mother has to go over the ground and patch up the fissures as best she can. ‘These things ought not so to be.' Their purpose is to disgrace us and squander the Church funds. Note this every time you take one dollar out of this fund.”

Mrs. Eddy wrote this letter partly because the Directors had given her some very costly Persian rugs. Because there was a surplus of money on hand, the Board felt the impulse to spend it on a gift that would show their gratitude to the Leader. But she was never fond of material gifts. Furthermore when a humble member made a sacrifice to save five dollars to give to the Church, he had a right to feel that that money was to be used for a higher purpose than to buy expensive rugs for Mrs. Eddy which she did not need or want!

Edward P. Bates, who had been made president of The Mother Church in May of 1895, was the instigator of the gift. She wrote to him, “I refuse to receive another dollar's worth from the church. There are great offices of goodness for our church to perform which are of more importance to the world as a channel for the church fund, than these gifts to be continued to me. M.A.M. is trying to drain the church fund and I am prepared to look out for this end.”

Mrs. Eddy wanted the Board to feel as she did, namely, that the church fund belonged to God. Then they would dispense it rightly. She told more than one student that that was the way she regarded her own money. She said that it belonged to the Cause, since it came from God, and that she regarded herself merely as the custodian of it.

One of the conditions imposed on every student is a correct demonstration in the use of what is entrusted to him. If he believes that, because he has ample funds, he can indulge himself in selfish or extravagant expenditures, he must handle such suggestions as being animal magnetism enticing him to waste God's money. If he does not, he need not be surprised if he loses what he has!

The higher one goes in Science, the more he learns that he possesses nothing of himself, and that whatever he has is his only by reflection. Then the loss of reflection would mean the loss of possession. One must act from the basis of reflection, and not as though one had a separate mind or existence from God. According to God's law we are all given talents, with the obligation to use them to bring forth fruitage, and then to offer that fruitage to God. We must demand of ourselves to know that whatever we have belongs to God, and determine that we will listen for His voice and use what we have only as He directs.

No doubt, the Directors felt sad that Mrs. Eddy had to take her valuable time to chide them in this way. She knew, however, that no one likes the spec­tacle of the clergy living in luxury on the savings and contributions of the poor of the church, and she desired never to give occasion for such criticism against herself or any student.

The Directors would not have used church funds to buy such costly rugs for themselves, but it seemed all right to buy them for Mrs. Eddy. At the same time they knew her well enough to know that she had no desire for costly things.

More light is thrown on the incident of the rugs, when it is known that Mrs. Eddy had written the First Members a letter on May 14, 1895, that carried a most searching and sharp rebuke. It is plain that a superficial estimate of this chiding letter would be, that Mrs. Eddy was lacking in the love that should characterize the Leader of the Science of Love. Such thought would be inclined to say, “Now I will send her a gift to show that I love her, a gift of such proportions, that it will make up for all that she fancies I have done, that did not suit her, and show her that I can turn the other cheek.” A husband is very apt to try to appease his wife with some extravagant gift, after she has rebuked him severely. He feels that the more costly the gift, the greater appeasement it will carry.

The second paragraph of this letter of July 19 indicates that Mrs. Eddy never wanted lawyers to do the business of The Mother Church and its branches. Legal means, even though executed by those who call themselves Christian Scientists, are still legal means. When the Church retains a lawyer, it is because it values his understanding of law. For this reason he is apt to emphasize legal or material means at the expense of spiritual.

It is always arresting to find Mrs. Eddy fearlessly rebuking the Directors, men that the Field looked up to with awe as executives of this great Movement. When she saw something in them that needed correction, she corrected it. At the same time we find the statement in this letter, “Be sure you do not lose your peace.” When we permit a rebuke to rob us of our peace, we not only bear the blame for having done wrong, but we permit ourselves to be robbed of our dem­onstrating thought. When one has yielded to an error and been rebuked for it, he needs his peace in order to right himself; he needs his spiritual balance of thought, his recognition of his relation to God. Mrs. Eddy might have written, “You have yielded to an error so that you have become a witness for it. This must be brought to your attention, so I name it to you as a sin. At the same time, if you do not lose your peace because of having it exposed to you, you will have the understanding that will enable you to free yourself from it.”

One needs as much Science in receiving a rebuke as he does in giving it. There was no reason for the Directors to lose their peace over this letter, since they knew that Mrs. Eddy always rebuked in love, and from the standpoint that the error was impersonal.




Concord, N. H.

September 12, 1894

Beloved Students:

I hear of the costly finish you are giving the inside of our Temple. That is a good type and not pharisaical. But allow me to suggest that if you have the money to use, you give some additional touches to the outside of our church, which you would put inside for the above purpose. Advice is cheap. I shall not charge you a dollar for it; at least that would be more than it is worth.

With love,

Mary Baker Eddy


Did Mrs. Eddy mean to imply that it would be pharisaical to spend too much money in decorating the inside of the church? Does the pronoun, that, in the second sentence, refer to the word, finish, or the word, Temple? Evidently she meant that the Temple was a good type, solid, substantial and dignified, rep­resenting the place Christian Science has attained and its present success in the world. She does not declare that the costly finish inside is pharisaical, although she advises using any surplus funds to give additional touches to the outside, rather than to do more to the inside.

The literalist might complain at our effort to interpret this letter inspirational­ly, declaring that it meant just what it said and no more; but the teachings of Christian Science declare that whatever is written through inspiration, needs inspiration in order to be understood. In the class of 1898 Mrs. Eddy said, “You should translate every day, not only from the Bible, but from everything around you. Keep looking towards the things of Spirit, and translate every object of sense into an idea of Soul.” Therefore, even if we did not assert that everything Mrs. Eddy put forth was written from inspiration, and hence can be analyzed for an inspirational meaning, we would still have her authority in the above statement to translate her letters as objects of sense, into ideas of Soul.

She writes, “Advice is cheap. I shall not charge you a dollar for it; at least that would be more than it is worth.” Advice is worth nothing if it is not followed. So, even Mrs. Eddy's would not be worth a dollar if it fell on deaf ears or dull minds. She was the Leader and a leader is supposed to have influence and power, and to be obeyed. Hence, she had to be careful in giving orders, lest the students believe that obedience was more important than judgment, when these two should always go hand in hand. So, she gives advice in this letter, rather than an order. When one's judgment does not accord with obedience, and yet through loyalty he obeys, he has assented to something which is contrary to what he thinks is right; so his obedience accomplishes nothing.

When Mrs. Eddy listed tea and coffee with alcohol, tobacco and opium in Science and Health, many students gave these up through blind and loyal obedience, although they did not really see the significance of what they did. No doubt they had been drinking tea and coffee for years without noticeable harm. Why should one give up that which was harmless? Thousands of students, however, felt that they were being obedient to Mrs. Eddy, even though what they did did not accord with their judgment. Yet wisdom would enable a student to see the rightness of Mrs. Eddy's statement in regard to tea and coffee. It was as if she were saying, “Watch lest mortal mind increase its hold upon you through the argument of harmless pleasure. Watch against habits.”

In order for us to take on God's Mind, the human mind must be put off. The activity of our great Movement is designed to help its members to effect this change in minds. Christian Science is failing in its purpose, if it is not doing this. It may offer activity to many people, and so maintain peoples' interest, since one way to arouse interest in any movement is to give members something tangible to do. Yet unless that activity is crystallizing into the individual, scientific, daily effort to change minds, the object of Christian Science is lost sight of.

One cannot make the demonstration of reflecting divine Mind unless he strives to eliminate the belief in a human mind. If one has a habit of any kind, no matter how harmless it may seem, unless it be a habit of obedience to spiritual law, it indicates that he is controlled by the human mind, and so he cannot put it off. Since the entire purpose of Christian Science is to put off the false mind and to take on divine Mind, and since the hold the false mind has on mortals is largely through custom, habit, and education, Mrs. Eddy was divinely guided to awaken students to this fact. The human mind must be put in subjection at every point. Students must be aroused, therefore, to see the need of making mortal mind plastic and obedient, in preparation for its elimination.

A famous prizefighter once adopted the philosophy, as part of his rigid discipline, never to do a thing that he wanted to do very much. He trained himself to bring resistance to bear upon any aggressive inclination of his lower nature. This would have benefited him greatly, had he had Christian Science to help him to fill the vacuum with divine Mind.

In reality Mrs. Eddy is not decrying tea and coffee as much as she is warning students against habits. Once this is understood, reason and obedience will coincide, and growth will follow.

Mrs. Eddy wanted the Directors to realize that the finest interior ornamenta­tion that could be given the church was the healing atmosphere that comes through demonstration. She hoped to awaken them to this fact by suggesting that they do no more to the inside materially. The scientific deduction would be that the healing thought that was established would constitute the real drawing and holding power, not the attractiveness of matter.

It is certain that Mrs. Eddy would consider that it was pharisaical to neglect the outside as far as ornamentation is concerned, and to put it all on the inside, since that would indicate that the students expected matter to hold and interest attendants, rather than Spirit.

Christian Science practitioners try to dress so as not to offend; yet after a patient has felt the Spirit of God they reflect, he would not care what they wore. But it would be silly for a practitioner to say, “I am going to strive to impress my patients by my intellect, culture and education, and by my knowledge of current affairs, etc.” That would be like attracting people to a Christian Science church by making the interior beautiful. The wise practitioner seeks to impress the one who comes to him with the fact that he reflects God and that this reflection carries power and healing.

Mrs. Eddy would call it pharisaical to think to hold the interest of attendants by a costly finish inside the church, because that would indicate a lessening realization on the part of the working members of the need of giving everyone a taste of spiritual healing. The exterior of a building is noted by the public, so it is not pharisaical to make the outside attractive and impressive enough to attract people to come in; but once they are in, they should be fed with the bread of heaven and the water of Life, rather than with too much in the way of decora­tions, and beautiful windows.

Readers in our churches are confronted with the temptation to believe that, when they have taken lessons in elocution and have learned how to read beauti­fully, they are meeting the demands of the position, even though they are not sending forth the Spirit of healing with what they read. Yet students are judged in God's sight by the spirit they send out with their efforts. That was what concerned Mrs. Eddy in her home and out of it. To read in the pulpit without the Spirit of God would certainly bring forth a rebuke from our Leader. When students in her home patiently and intelligently did what she asked them to, and yet did it without the Spirit of God, she rebuked them. In so doing she laid down the basis for all effort in Science.

Thus, the letter of September 12 shows that to feed the hungry in our churches in any way other than by the demonstration of the presence of God is pharisaical, that is, placing effect ahead of cause and thinking that the stranger will be satisfied with a costly interior finish, with the excellence of the reading, or with the music.

I can well recall a day at Pleasant View when Mrs. Eddy said to me, “I go a fishing.” Her church in Boston had sent her the Easter flowers that had been used in the service, and she invited the notable men of Concord, the mayor and selectmen, to come to her home to see them. Her statement that she was going fishing indicates that she regarded the flowers as bait, but that her real pur­pose was to give these men a taste of God's atmosphere. There is no finer way to break down prejudice against Christian Science and its followers, than to let people feel the atmosphere of God — an experience so new and so vital, that after one has had it, one will never again be satisfied with anything else.

It follows that the outside, rather than the inside, of a church edifice cor­responds to bait. The inside atmosphere is the hook. If the bait is attractive, the fish will come, and the sweet presence of God will catch them. Mrs. Eddy at­tracted the fish with the lovely flowers, but she caught them on the hook of God's atmosphere.

It is a right goal to want everything connected with our services, that would be covered by the word, external, to be of high quality, but it becomes phari­saical when the members depend on the external to feed and satisfy the con­gregation. The hook that catches the fish must be present, namely, the Spirit of God, the Spirit of healing.

It was not pharisaical for the Directors to make the outside of the edifice as solid and substantial as possible, and to add touches that would make it im­posing, since that would be a good symbol of the solidity and beauty of the doc­trine on which the Church is founded. It was not pharisaical to make the interior rich and decorative; it would be so only if the ornamentation of the inside was so costly that it indicated an effort to satisfy the stranger within our gates through effect instead of cause, since the Bible declares that the error of the Pharisees was making clean merely the outside of the platter.




Memorandum of September 18, 1894

I herewith send a bit of Bible history to be illustrated on your church walls in the auditorium, according as they are numbered on successive windows. Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary anointing the head of Jesus, Mary first at the resurrection, Woman God crowned, (Rev. 12th chap.). Have these pictures arranged on windows that follow one after the other as above numbered.


On December 18, 1894, Mrs. Eddy supplemented this memorandum with another to the Directors as follows: “Pictures for windows. Order of arrangement. To be printed on the picture. 1st. Mary the mother of Jesus. 2nd. Mary anointing the head of Jesus. 3rd. Woman God crowned. Rev. 12th chap. On the windows in Mother's room according to number. The star of Bethlehem, Suffer little children to come unto me, Seeking and finding.”

The following letters to Dr. Foster Eddy must be considered with the above. The first one was dated September 12, 1894, after she had considered having the “Woman God Crowned,” in the “Mother's Room,” instead of the main audito­rium: “I see that it is not wisdom to tell so big a history in ‘Mother's Room' window. Leave out the woman picture as portrayed in Rev. 12, and put in its place the painting of my vignette on the first music sheet of ‘Christ My Refuge' which Mrs. Stetson appropriated, and with a slight change, put in Carol's poem which is published. The students, Mrs. Emma Silvester MacDonald and Mrs. Laura E. Sdrgent and their students, want to give this window for ‘Mother's Room' and will have it in the design aforenamed. There is a sweet pathetic in­cident in connection with this which we will tell you when you come home....The picture is a woman clinging to a rock midst the foaming waves and under­neath the picture is to be this verse from my poem: — ‘Thus Truth engrounds me on the Rock etc.'”

On October 7, 1894, she wrote to the Dr.: “Stop at once Mrs. Stetson's getting up the figure in marble. I have written to her that she must not do it. When I see you I will tell you why and you will see the great importance of what I say. See for Mother that this is stopped. There is too much personality getting into the Church. God allows nothing of this in C. S. Let us obey Him and be con­sistent with our doctrine teaching His revelation. I hear from a true source this word.

“Don't have ‘Seeking and Finding' in any window of The Mother Church. Have only the ‘Star of Bethlehem' and ‘Suffer little Children,' etc., and the Bible and Science and Health with the star shining over them in ‘Mother's Room.' Remember this is important to be done this way.”

The latter directions were changed by her later on the same day as follows: “I should like a picture such as I named of a woman, but without the serpent if you can make the artist do justice to the subject.” True to this word, the Directors put in the window without the serpent. At the same time she put forth her book, Christ and Christmas, with the serpent omitted from this picture. After about eighty copies had been sold, she sent word to have it put back, since she “guessed that the old serpent wasn't dead yet!”

It is a heartening example for us all, to see Mrs. Eddy going ahead and working up to her highest understanding, without fearing that she might make fatal mistakes. Her only fear was lest she let the human will rule rather than God's will. Many shipwrecks by students can be traced to the fact that they have not recognized the error of the improved human mind and have not made a con­sistent effort to get rid of it. When a student is able to function efficiently with his educated human mind, he is under the temptation to retain it.

No one would claim that Mrs. Eddy was able to live so perfectly under the inspiration of God, that His voice was all she heard, since she intimates that when it was necessary, she could hear the arguments of animal magnetism; but she recognized them for what they were. She knew the error in source, and knew how to work against it. She did not make the mistake, however, of functioning under the improved human mind, believing it to be divine Mind! To her a mis­take in hearing God's voice was an evil that was less than adhering fixedly to a mortal mind opinion.

In studying the history of the church windows we find that Mrs. Eddy went ahead according to the light God gave her. She knew that her desire to be gov­erned by Him would cause His plan to appear in its fullness, although it was revealed to her a step at a time. Abraham went ahead according to his highest light, even to the point where he was willing to kill his son, and it was accounted unto him for righteousness. His effort and desire to be obedient to Mind eventual­ly caused him to hear God's voice more plainly.

Mrs. Eddy practiced fearless following of one's highest light, and en­couraged it in others. She wrote to Clara Louise Burnham, “I count your ‘Jewel' among my favorite books, but I am not sure that this is the way of Christian Science. Nevertheless, you write as God guides you, and never fear the con­sequences.”

Mrs. Eddy had learned by experience that the mistakes one makes when he is striving to be guided by God are never serious, and are accounted unto him for righteousness. There is no justification in criticizing our Leader for her ex­perience in planning the windows for the church, merely because God did not reveal His final plan all at once. She went ahead as she felt led, and whatever was not God's final plan was revealed to her in time so that she could make the change. Often pride will cause one in a high place to adhere to his own ideas, even after they have been proved to be faulty, rather than to admit having made a mistake. Part of Mrs. Eddy's greatness was her willingness, when she realized that she had been led in a way that was not God's plan, or been in­fluenced by the wrong mind, to turn around and correct whatever was wrong at whatever cost. A notable instance of this was when she discarded the entire first edition of No and Yes (Mis. 285:3). Now we find her discarding an entire edition of Christ and Christmas after only eighty copies had been sold, because the serpent had been taken out of the picture, “Seeking and Finding.”

No doubt she received many complaints from students in regard to the serpent in this picture, that made her wonder whether she had made a mistake in putting something so repulsive as a snake into a book which children would read. When the opposition quieted, and the atmosphere cleared, she perceived that it was not divine Mind, but the students' dislike of the serpent, that had in­fluenced her.

Her experience with animal magnetism had shown her that people must be roused through fear to resist the error they do not recognize. If a house has been vacant for years because of the rumor that it is haunted, intelligent people know that such a rumor is foolishness. Yet that does not cause the house to be rented. You must do more than just know that it is an illusion. You must expose the illusion and show people that it is not haunted.

Mrs. Eddy knew that it was not enough to know that error in any form was an illusion. It must be exposed, the mask removed, and both cause and effect proved to be nothing. Thus, Mrs. Eddy knew that in reality there was no serpent in the room in the picture, “Seeking and Finding.” It was merely a symbol of animal magnetism, or the human subtlety of belief which hides in the darkness. It is nothing; but unless it is scientifically reduced to nothing, it still has the effect of something. Here is the subtlety of animal magnetism, namely, that until we have made nothing of it, it continues to have an effect as though it were something. Hence the scientific recognition of its nothingness is the only way to dispose of it. Ignoring it will not suffice. The recognition of its nothingness is the metaphysical process that Mrs. Eddy has given us, whereby we may eliminate that which, although not of God, claims to have reality and power.

Animal magnetism makes mortals want to worship something less than God, a propensity that is due to mental laziness. In Jesus' day the people wanted to worship him, but he discouraged this in every possible way. When Mrs. Eddy found students attempting to worship her, she rebuked them for it.

People desired to worship the Master because they were too lazy to follow him in the way he taught them. The inability of the human mind to conceive of God aright has caused it to fashion substitutes which, instead of being used as symbols to help to turn man to God, have been worshipped as God. Scholastic theology cannot escape the classification of fostering idolatry, merely because it does not teach the worship of images of wood and stone. It sets forth a human conception of God, which is little more than a magnified man.

Knowing this tendency, Mrs. Eddy had to be careful how she introduced symbols into Christian Science, lest students attribute significance to the symbols beyond being fingers pointing to what the symbols represent. It is plain, therefore, why she worked over the windows for The Mother Church and continued to pray for God's direction in regard to them. For the same reason she had to stop Mrs. Stetson in her plans to have a marble figure to represent the Leader.

Mrs. Eddy did not want to put an occasion for stumbling before those who attended The Mother Church, by what was depicted on the windows. Often that which would lead to a higher understanding, if rightly viewed, may have to be omitted, because without a demonstrating sense it might foster idolatry.

Thus, Mrs. Eddy's first suggestions as to these windows would have been proper, had she not realized that the impression might go forth that she was exalting her own personality, and setting it up to be worshipped.

The first window was to portray Mary, the mother of Jesus, the humble origin of the spiritual idea brought to earth in a fleshly form. The Christ was ever-present, yet waiting for one to embody it who demonstrated purity. It could come only through the highest sense of human purity. The mother of Jesus played a very noteworthy part. It is understandable why the Roman church set her up to be worshipped. The Master's correct inception depended on her recognition of the fatherhood of God. Then she left him free to fulfill his mission, without interference by human domination. Parents do not realize that their children could express the Christ qualities, if these were fostered in them, instead of being ruled out by human domination.

Once Mrs. Eddy wrote, “Mother, clasp thy nestling tenderly, rear thine offspring wisely, for thou knowest not when the mantle of Christ's presence shall fall upon thine own dear one.” When parents realize that every child could be the Christ, they see what an error it is not to give every child a chance to fulfill such a destiny. Every child should be considered sacred. Its thought should be developed so that it may be of spiritual value to the world.

Once a man told me that he never forgave his mother for not forcing him to practice his lessons on the piano when he was a boy. He said that he loved the piano, but he also loved to play out-of-doors. He resisted the need of practic­ing and his mother yielded to him. When he became a man, he blamed her for being too lenient with him.

It is so seldom that a mother does for a child what Jesus' mother did for him, that Mrs. Eddy wanted Mary to have the first place in her church. It was a fitting symbol to honor a mother who considered her child more than she did herself. Mrs. Eddy desired to establish this lesson in the minds of her followers, that the starting point of the Christ was not only Mary's conception of Jesus, but her freeing him, so that he might follow out the destiny of God.

Those who read about Mrs. Eddy's mother cannot help but feel a deep appreciation for what she did for her child Mary. When as a little girl she ran to her mother and declared that she heard a voice calling her, the mother might have said, “Oh, don't pay any attention to it. You know you are a nervous child, and I cannot have you made more so by any such nonsense.” Instead, she took her seriously, and read her the story from the Bible where little Samuel heard God calling him. She told her that if she heard the call again, to answer it as Samuel did. When a year later the voice came again, Mary answered as Samuel did.

At that early age her mother helped to impress little Mary's mind with the fact that she could hear God's voice. If her mother never did anything else to help the child spiritually, at that point she established something that was vital to her and her future mission, since to listen for God's voice became her domi­nant thought in later life, and the reason why the race has the book, Science and Health! Mrs. Eddy's mother could well be given a prominent place in the hall of fame.

The second window Mrs. Eddy planned in this memorandum was Mary anointing the head of Jesus. Mary had been a recognized sinner. Yet Jesus saw that her sin was not a fundamental depravity. Rather did she sin because she loved much. Jesus saw that she was heavenly homesick. She had a hunger for God which she did not know how to satisfy rightly, so she used unworthy means. Jesus turned her from this attempt to satisfy her yearning humanly, by giving her a consciousness of divine Love. Immediately she recognized that this was what she had been hungry for all the time, and she adhered to it thereafter.

Highly bred dogs are wont to manifest a pitiful state of homesickness, when away from those they love. They welcome a caress from any source, without discrimination. But what ecstasy they show, when at last they are taken home to the ones they love!

Mary had been away from God, and yearned for divine Love, so that she accepted its counterfeit without distinction. She had such a hunger that she could not endure it, and fell into error wholly through ignorance.

The Master with his spiritual insight, detected that her motivation was immaculate, and that the cause of her sin was heavenly homesickness, or spiritual hunger. He took her home to God and restored her happiness, just as if she were a homesick puppy being taken back to those who love it. The spiritual hunger that she had may be measured by the fact, that she was found worthy to be the first human being ever to bear witness to the overcoming of death!

Her anointing of the head of Jesus was symbolic of her complete satisfac­tion in finding what she had always wanted, but had not discovered. It is evi­dent why such a picture should have second place in The Mother Church.

The Bible declares that the Master did most of his work among sinners, because he knew that they sinned because they had a heavenly homesickness that they were attempting to gratify. Every Christian Scientist who takes a case of sin first recognizes that sin does not brand a person as bad. It means that he has been attempting to gratify a spiritual desire through human means. The practitioner knows that he can do a lot more with such an individual than with the so-called righteous, who feel satisfied with the limitations of this mortal dream. Our Master found it impossible to reach a self-righteous thought.

The third window Mrs. Eddy planned was Mary first at the resurrection. This is a perfect example of the order of Christian Science demonstration. In the mother of Jesus we have one who, through her tender ministrations and loving appreciation of his spiritual possibilities, brought into full development, qual­ities that are latent in every child. In Mary anointing the head of Jesus we have an example of the power of Christian Science to lead thought into right channels, as well as to inspire gratitude, since in the fulness of her appreciation she gave full credit to, and blessed, the helpful thought that had led her into the right way. Then, in being first at the resurrection she proved that she had an unshakeable faith in the Master and in his demonstration. He submitted to that which his own disciples were sure he could have avoided and overcome, had he wanted to, and they doubted him, and believed that he had shown a lack of courage and had ceased to use his spiritual authority to protect himself, when human au­thority arrested him; but Mary kept faith in him. His own disciples were offended in him; yet this woman, who had been a sinner, retained her conviction that in whatever he did, he was fulfilling God's destiny.

The fourth window planned by Mrs. Eddy was the Woman God crowned. This represents LOVE as the highest point of spiritual reflection. If a man built a machine that was perfect in every part, it would not run if he neglected to supply it with lubricating oil. Mrs. Eddy was able to rebuke her students when God led her to, because they all felt the love back of whatever she said. Children resent the punishment parents give when they are irritated. Mrs. Eddy never rebuked her adopted children through irritation. Hence they couid take her rebukes and profit by them.

It follows that this quality which is symbolized by woman, which is able to rebuke and to love at the same time, is crowned by God, and takes the highest place. It fulfils the Bible statement, “Whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.” It is the climax of divine reflection in the demonstration of Christian Science.

One can believe that Mrs. Eddy heard the divine direction when she plan­ned these four windows. The only reason the plan was not executed, was because further wisdom indicated that the public might accuse Mrs. Eddy of aggrandizing herself and favoring woman, because she was a woman; just as if, had the head of the Movement been a man, he would have placed a Man God crowned in this window. In these windows Mrs. Eddy was not differentiating between the sexes, but merely showing symbolically the qualities of thought most needed in pro­gressive demonstration. If Love ruled and reigned in the hearts of men, there would be no war. War is a lack of love. Thus, if love is the quality most needed, then love is the quality we should enthrone.

Mrs. Eddy was not enthroning or aggrandizing her sex, but love as sym­bolized by womanhood. Yet she saw that the public might feel that she was having a picture of herself placed where it would be worshipped. We learn from these letters that at first she planned to have this fourth window in the “Mother's Room.” She knew that only Christian Scientists would be permitted to go into this room, and so whatever would remind them of her would be legit­imate.

On September 12 she wrote that it was not wisdom to tell so big a history in “Mother's Room.” She therefore planned to have a reproduction of her vignette, which showed a woman clinging to a rock midst the foaming and dashing waves, to illustrate the verse, “Thus Truth engrounds me on the Rock.” In using this picture Mrs. Eddy would run less risk of being accused of deifying herself, or aggrandizing woman. The significance of this window would be to show that woman, being the weaker sex, has a greater need than man. Those who might find fault with a window showing woman enthroned, would not criticize one showing a woman in distress.

Yet to the Christian Scientist there is little difference between these two pictures, since the woman who is really first is the one who first recognizes her great need of help. Woman was crowned because she was the first to recognize her lack; this caused her to turn to God, and to be enthroned because of what she reflected from Him.

It is worth a comment to note that Mrs. Eddy wrote a letter to Dr. Foster-­Eddy that she knew he would share with other students, in which she plainly indicated an error in Mrs. Stetson. This proves that in letting her continue in good standing in the church for fifteen years after this, she was showing loving-­kindness to her. There were students who felt that, because the Leader con­tinued to accord her the same privileges that the other students had, even to the point of permitting her to furnish many of her clothes, she was blind to her error. This letter shows, however, that at this date Mrs. Eddy was fully aware of what was going on, and the only reason she did not move against Mrs. Stetson was because she would not do so until God told her to.

It was part of God's wisdom and love to give Mrs. Stetson every possible chance to reform. The world regards a sinner as one who is fundamentally bad. In Science we regard sin as no more part of man than the grease that adheres to a man's hands when he repairs an automobile. Thus, a student of Science has a chance to reform if he has sinned, when he learns that the sin is not a part of him. The only persons who should be excommunicated from our midst are those who, when they have been shown that they are handled by animal magnetism, con­tinue to accept its suggestions as their own, rather than io overcome them. If they fail to take advantage of the opportuniiy the exposure of the error gives them, even though the opportuniiy is given to them again and again, the time comes when they can no longer be helped, and must go on and suffer under their error. This describes what finally happened to Mrs. Stetson, when she was dropped from membership in 1909 at the insistance of her Leader who loved her to the end.

The vignette Mrs. Eddy wanted on the window is a very beautiful symbol of how the feminine sense of helplessness reaches out and clings to that which is enduring, solid and strong, so that even though the waves break over her, she is safe, because she is clinging to that which is permanent. It might appear to be a representation of fear and weakness, but it is a personification of divine wisdom and strength, since it portrays woman united to that which is real and eternal.

On page 80 of Vol. VII of the Christian Science Journal Mrs. Eddy writes, “If...we are temporarily in doubt as to what is just the right thing to do, we can stand still and wait on God; and in this waiting, remember what He has done for us in the past, and trust Him to do for us now.” Mrs. Eddy once said to me that if we reached a point where we felt unable to make any progress in helping ourselves, we should turn back in thought to some incident in the past where we were sure that the power of God was present and saved us; then we should rest for a while in that thought. This meant clinging to a rock in a storm, since the experience of being healed by God is a rock, something solid that the waves cannot overthow. She told me that such a proof of God's presence was something to hold to until the clouds lifted, as they always will. Then we could once more press on.




Concord, N. H.

September 18, 1894

My dear Student:

Yours at hand. Have looked at the plate drawing of our church and cannot see a chance for ornamentation, unless it be on the finish of the points on the steeple and roof. Even on these it may not be practical; the architect will know. One thing make certain, that you have your roof and steeple finished before the snow falls. Tell the architect to put all the workmen on this he can. It is easier to work inside than out in cold weather. Meet the saying, “It must be done this year.”

With much love,

Mother,

M. B. G. Eddy


Again and again we find proof of the fact that Mrs. Eddy insisted that The Mother Church be completed at a certain date. She taught that it is not Science, nor does it offer proof of the action of divine Mind, to permit human processes to prevail unchallenged. The very words applied to her Church, namely, Christ, Scientist, (or Christ, the Scientist) imply that it was to be built and main­tained by demonstration.

Human experience is divided into that which the human mind claims to be able to do without help, and that which it admits that it cannot do. Since the former greatly outweighs the latter, one's progress in Science will not be rapid if he confines demonstration to the effort to do that which the human mind admittedly cannot do. Students who are earnestly endeavoring to rule out the belief in a human mind, in favor of divine Mind, must extend this effort to all phases of experience, even to those where the human mind seems entirely adequate. Mrs. Eddy encouraged this breadth of effort by setting problems before students which ordinarily the human mind could do satisfactorily; but by hedging these problems with restrictions that forced the students to seek aid from a higher source. This explains why she insisted that the edifice be completed in 1894.

The human mind may be likened to a child that runs away from home because its parents do not treat it fairly — so it believes. It feels competent to look out for itself, although obviously when the cold night comes, it will be driven home. This wayward quality in mortal mind is exposed when members who feel that they are wise and clever, attempt to do the business in our branch churches in a way that will win the approval of their brethren, namely, from a sound business standpoint. Yet the entire object of Christian Science is to reflect divine Mind, since the cold night of materialism finally overthrows all that the human mind has done during the day. The main argument against the human mind is that it is finite in every way. Even if it attains good, it cannot retain it. Hence mortals must be persuaded to repudiate their belief in a mind apart from God, if for no other reason than that it is finite. That which is attained by demonstration alone is permanent.

Even if mortal mind can do many things in this human sense as adequately as divine Mind, what it does is never permanent. Only that which comes from God is permanent. One sculptor might fashion out of ice a statue as beautiful as that which another artist carves out of granite, but the first warm day melts the one made of ice.

One who feels that we are unduly harsh and drastic in condemning all the attainments of the unaided human mind, should realize that the basis of our condemnation is this lack of permanency in aught that does not proceed from God. Mrs. Eddy was building her church to endure. She knew that demonstra­tion alone would make this possible.

In the preface to Miscellaneous Writings we read, “To preserve a long course of years still and uniform, amid the uniform darkness of storm and cloud and tempest, requires strength from above, — deep draughts from the fount of divine Love.” A storage battery might light your lights adequately; yet you would not want it because of its finite nature. No matter how much one argues in favor of the ability of the human mind to attain, the power to maintain and retain can be found in demonstration alone.

A man may declare that because he is in robust health and feels vigorous and strong, he does not need Christian Science. Yet he does, because no matter how well he feels, in a short time (as God measures time) he will lose that health, because it is like electricity from a storage battery. According to Mrs. Eddy, that which can be lost or destroyed is destitute of permanence or Principle; hence, it is unreal (See page 7 of the Christian Science Series for May 1, 1889). A Christian Scientist may not manifest as vigorous a sense of health as a brother in mortal mind, but what he has demonstrated of health is real and permanent, and he can retain it, — which is more than his brother can do. So, the Scientist has the satisfaction of knowing that, as he builds up a sense of harmony, he is gaining that which will last, because it is real.

This line of argument should forever silence the temptation to envy the attainments of mortal mind, since no matter how desirable, they do not last. No matter how little the Scientist may have, he knows that he cannot be robbed of it.

This letter continues the thought of the letter of September 12, where Mrs. Eddy implied that it was more important to beautify the outside of the church and to make it solid and substantial, than to ornament the inside. Often a dull party will send people home feeling satisfied, because the refreshments were good. Christian Scientists, however, have a better way. They know how to provide spiritual refreshment, that will cause people to go away satisfied. Students and members should never forget that the finest decoration and ornamentation of the interior of a Christian Science church is the spiritual atmosphere. There would be no objection to beautifying the interior even to the point of preten­tiousness, were it not for the temptation to believe that that beauty is enough to satisfy the stranger. The only objection to elaborate beautification is lest it cause the workers to neglect the mental and spiritual side of the services.

Usually a plain interior in a church will help to remind the workers that they must make up for the lack of material beauty with the demonstration of a healing atmosphere. Then the stranger will go away feeling that he has attended the most beautiful church in the world. When the man who started the great First National stores attended a Christian Science service for the first time, at the urgency of his daughters, he said, “That was not a church; that was a home.” He made this remark because he felt a homelike atmosphere, in contrast to the austere coldness and conventionality that characterizes so many magnificent churches. It is this stiffness that causes many people to be prejudiced against going to church; but nobody is prejudiced against a home. Thus, the alert member of our faith strives through demonstration to make each service and lecture seem homelike, on the basis of the presence of God as man's dearest Friend.

Mrs. Eddy knew that if the ideal of the students was to make the interior of The Mother Church the richest possible, the demonstration of “home” might be neglected. She evidently thought it proper to make the exterior attractive, because often a fine looking church will attract people. These letters of our Leader show that she felt that the money contributed by students and friends could be used to ornament the outside, as well as the inside to some extent, but that in reality it was the demonstration provided by the members that would furnish the inside with that which would really satisfy the stranger and send him away rejoicing.

It is a rule in Science that there must always be a place left for demonstra­tion. A study of Mrs. Eddy's letters shows that almost without exception they illustrated the relationship of the outside and the inside, that we claim to have been her ideal for The Mother Church. She made the outside of her letters — the part visible — as straightforward as possible, so that the students might comprehend what she wanted them to do; at the same time she furnished an inside — the part the students were required to demonstrate in order to under­stand rightly what she wanted. It is possible that more than once the Directors felt the temptation to complain over her letters, and to wish that she would make them clearer; but she was providing for their spiritual growth as well as giving instructions. She furnished a place in each letter for demonstration, so that the students would form a habit of demonstrating to perceive the real import of her letters, since in that way they would mean far more to them, because they provided for their spiritual growth through the need for interpreting them spiritually.

Mrs. Eddy knew that, whereas the outside of the edifice would be completed when the construction and ornamentation were finished, the inside would never be finished, since at every service and lecture the members would be required to bring anew to the church the inspirational atmosphere, which the Bible tells us is fresh every morning and new every evening.

It is a rule in Science that whatever awakens thought to the necessity for mental work is good, and whatever tends to put man to sleep mentally, or to cause him to forget or to neglect his duty, is bad. When members become so pleased with or proud of the material beauty of the edifice, that they forget that it has to be refinished mentally at every service and meeting, that is not good. It becomes part of the hypnotism of the carnal mind, where man is drawn away from cause by satisfaction in effect.

The animal magnetism connected with too much internal ornamentation is that people will sit down, look about and rest in a sense of satisfaction with the beauty of the church. They go to sleep mentally, when they should stay awake. To be sure, there is a point where a too bare interior would bring forth criticism, and be as great a deterrent as the ornamentation which, when overdone, tends to keep the members from the realization of the necessity for demonstrating the atmosphere in the service.

Spiritual beauty and spiritual food alone satisfy permanently, and whatever of these man has humanly, should be but a symbol, or a hint, of the real. When Jesus fed the five thousand, the food he served was of the plainest variety, but because of the spiritual thought that he furnished, he served a rich banquet. What it lacked materially was compensated for spiritually.

When Augusta Stetson planned to build a church in New York City that would out-rival the extension of The Mother Church, Mrs. Eddy found it neces­sary to stop her in her undertaking. Her ambition to have the best and finest church in New York might have been acceptable, had her concept of the “best” been more spiritual. She wanted the edifice to be the best because of the cost, the ornamentation and the architect's conception. So, Mrs. Eddy had to write to her, “God knows all about our every need and will build your church edifice, if you do not make it a ‘skyscraper.' But the divine Mind makes the human meek, and lowly in spirit....”

As a leading metaphysician in the Field Mrs. Stetson should have desired to have the best demonstrating church, where people would flock because of the spiritual healing and inspirational atmosphere. Members have a right to desire the best demonstrating church in the world, one which will be pointed out as a place where those who are sick can go and be healed. This can never be attained, however, until students are aroused to the importance of doing the necessary mental work, and understanding the claim of a deterrent that would prevent such work from being done, until it is handled.

How can members be aroused to work for the services, unless at every opportunity the matter is put squarely before them, and they are asked whether they are fulfilling the object of the church — the obligation they assume when they join the church. Members should be asked whether they always go as receivers and as listeners, or as givers. The balance is on the wrong side, if everyone goes to receive.

Why is a plain interior in a church more conducive to mental work than one that is highly ornamented?

Because the human mind is forever losing sight of cause in effect. Anyone who determines that he will hold thought steadfastly to cause, will at once ex­perience the animal magnetism of effect, attempting to distract and revert his thought to the contemplation of that which is wholly external. Mortal existence can be defined as a dream where effect assumes the place of cause. It is an attitude where love for the creations of God over-balances love for God. It is illustrated by a girl who is married to a rich man, where her love for what he has overshadows her love for what he is. All that is required to correct the situation is a change in her attitude. When her love for her husband comes first, then no amount of appreciation for what he has will endanger her happiness. When our love for God comes first, we are entitled to have all the riches that accompany reflection.

This letter appears to carry no spiritual teaching, yet by analysis we have learned that the most essential finish that can be given to the interior of our churches, is the spiritual one that is furnished at each service by the work of the members. Pianists declare that when they practice a concerto without the orchestra, they can hear in the mind's ear as it were, the entire orchestral accompaniment. Mrs. Eddy's letters are similar to this, since if one listens mentally as he reads them, he can hear melodies and overtones which are not palpable to the literal­ist, — one who reads merely the words.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

September 29, 1894

Beloved Brethren:

Please receive the Rev. William P. McKenzie into the Mother Church as one of the First Members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston. Do this at my special request. I desire to have him at the meetings and associated with the deliberations of the members of our church.

Yours in Christ,

Mary Baker Eddy


There are many organizations where one blackball is sufficient to keep out an applicant. The result is that often men of worth — men who later attain high places — are ruled out because through their positive character they have made enemies. Mortal man functions in a negative world under negative con­trol. For that reason the man who is negative has a greater chance of dodging the blackball, than the one who is positive.

It is possible that in Mr. McKenzie Mrs. Eddy recognized a positive quality that might prevent his election to the First Members, if she did not make it her special request. He represented one to whom she might look, to keep her in­formed as to events, as well as to convey her directions to the members. She needed one among the First Members who could gauge, diagnose and report to her the mental ebbing and flowing of the thought, so that she would know what to meet.

It is essential to start with the premise that Mrs. Eddy's underlying purpose was to bless all, even those she caused to be excommunicated. In her eyes this act was for the good of the member, and not just a convenient purge for the church. She used it as a means of protecting an erring member from the malpractice of his fellow members. She also used it as a threat at times, when a stu­dent needed to be awakened from self-complacence and the self-righteousness, that assumed that he was right and everyone else was wrong.

Mrs. Eddy's life-purpose was to do the greatest good to the greatest number. Hence she never caused a member to be excommunicated for the purpose of damning that one. All of her admonitions and rules for discipline will be found to be a universal blessing, if properly understood and executed.

Thus, we know it was to bless Mr. McKenzie as well as the First Members, when she ordered them to elect him. Had the situation been reversed, so that she was requesting them to drop his name, her motive would have still been to bless all concerned.

A verification of this fact can be found in her own words, in a letter dated November 6, 1896, to Julia Field King. “You cannot include in your thought personality without a risk. So take none. You injure yourself if you injure another. This is my Golden Rule. I would no sooner knowingly harm Richard Kennedy or J. C. Woodbury than you or myself. I would never have consented to have her dismissed forever or a day from our church, had I not known it was better for her as well as for the church. I did all in my power to help her, even when I knew she was trying to injure me. Now I spoke to you of another student when you were here, but forgot to charge you not to name one word of it. I will tell you now be sure and not bring up these dead carcasses. Keep utterly silent on what I say to you alone and for the Cause. Also, dear one, turn your mind to God. Be calm and have no fear. Keep your mind strictly from turning to me in times of trouble. This could not stop your growth. Do not lean on me for advice as I said you could. I see now this would hinder your experience.”

One reason Mrs. Eddy desired to have Mr. McKenzie a First Member, was because she felt the need of having as many as possible on that committee who were in accord with her, that they might help to keep the others loyal. She hoped to find in him one who could be her representative at the meetings. But she knew that the moment the devil knew why she wanted him a member, it would bring an influence to bear to keep him out. If he had been up for election in the ordinary way, she would not have had to make this request; but because he was being elected specifically to help her, she had to meet error in this way.

There will never come a time when it will not be helpful for a member to realize, that every rule Mrs. Eddy laid down had for its purpose to bless her followers. When a member refuses to yield to the requirements of the Manual, he should be given an explanation in this wise: “Do you realize that as Christian Scientists we require obstacles for the sake of our growth, and the church pro­vides us with many of these? If you leave the church or have to be excommuni­cated because you do not like its government, you are missing the very opportu­nity for growth that the church is designed to provide. To run away, or to take a position that forces you to be dropped from membership, is to admit that, even though you claim to understand Mrs. Eddy's teachings, you cannot demonstrate them.

“Every branch church, as well as The Mother Church, provides problems of a disturbing nature, but the one who sticks by the church and overcomes them, is on the road to growth and salvation; whereas the one who runs away from them thereby exposes his utter lack of understanding, and impugns the wisdom and love of God. In Science the ideal church is not one that runs in human harmony, since under such circumstances there would be little to stimulate growth. The ideal church is one that provides problems for students to work and grow on. The church is not a haven of rest where members can go to sleep, but a place of activity, where one learns how to establish the supremacy of the divine Mind — a place of victory and scientific growth.”




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

October 19, 1894

My beloved Student:

Your letter is worth to me a priceless value. But I enclose only $5.00 for it. I know it can be done this year, but my anxiety is over. Three months have been lost, but your movement on the iron saved the result of a greater loss. Mr. Armstrong was here yesterday. I chose him because he is in Boston and because I had not talked with the others, to take the responsibility of seeing that God's order is carried out in the space of time allotted it.

I regret that you had not employed the highest priced plas­terer, or did not let me decide that question. Take no risks now. It is easier to supply money than time. Oh, remember that our time is not ours but in His hands and He appoints the periods. Help Armstrong by encouragement and mental support in his arduous tasks.

May the Love that is God, good, and omnipotent, guide you.

Mother


Why did Mrs. Eddy continually crowd the students to do things in a hurry? When they were tempted to feel that they had plenty of time, she indicated that they had very little time, and must move fast. One reason for this was that if mortal mind can take possession of a situation, its deterring influence begins. If you can keep ahead of it and complete your task in a hurry, you will find the whole accomplishment easier. If a man is building a cabin in the mountains in the fall, he knows that if he takes his time, the snow may set in and hinder the work. So, he hurries.

There were those who honestly believed that Mrs. Eddy enjoyed making things as difficult as possible for her students. When she hedged the building of The Mother Church with arbitrary restrictions, namely, that it had to be com­pleted within a certain alloted time, and that contracts could not be let unless the money was at hand, she was merely placing the task beyond the capacity of the human mind to accomplish. In this way the students were driven to use divine Mind.

In her home Mrs. Eddy frequently created difficult situations, but she only did so as part of her effort to wean students from the use of the human mind. Although she seldom said so plainly, yet it is deducible from a study of her life, that she put students “on the spot,” as it were, where demonstration alone would enable them to fulfil her demands.

Mrs. Eddy set the stage for her students in their efforts to build the church so that the final result would witness for Mind, rather than matter. Now that our Leader is no longer here, we should still feel her impulsion calling us to demon­strate everything in our relation to the church, whether it be the election of a member to office, the raising of funds, the election of new members, or the hold­ing of services and lectures. Every candidate for office should be a demonstra­tion of God's selection. Funds may come through certain individuals, but only as the result of the membership looking to God for the money that is needed by the church. The demonstration should be made that the atmosphere of God may permeate the church at every meeting and lecture, so that the sick will be healed. God dwells in every church that is truly dedicated to the service of God, since He is never absent from the blessings He bestows. But error would argue that He is absent, and we cannot declare that we have overcome this claim, and are conscious of His presence, unless we feel and prove His healing presence.

If the demonstration of God's presence is made at our services and lectures, there will never be an attendance problem. The priceless healing which is free in our churches will draw the needy ones to fill our services and meetings to overflowing.

Mrs. Eddy used various devices to foster the use of divine intelligence in building and maintaining the church. Today, the use of demonstration is a voluntary matter. There is no way by which it can be encouraged other than by admonition. We should never cease to stress this vital point in every business meeting. Members should be asked if they work metaphysically during the services and lectures, or whether they come to get all the good they can, even if the stranger thereby suffers and has to go without. Only in this way can we be faithful followers of our Leader. She required that the material structure be erected through demonstration. Today, in order to be called her followers, we must never let this demonstration cease, but continue it in increasing measure in connection with all the activities of the church.

At times it would appear as if we have a present day counterpart of the temple, where the true spirit is in danger of being lost because the Father's house is made “an house of merchandise.” This tendency is seen in the mul­tiplication of committees in our church. “Well,” says one, “would you have us do away with all that good work, and the opportunity it gives young students to become active in the church?” The answer is, “No, but I would have you careful to animate such activities with healing, since then and only then do they become of value. Otherwise they are like paintings that lack inspiration. To the layman they may appear to be works of art, but they are cast aside as worthless by those who know the true art.”

In studying the history of the building of The Mother Church, one should always realize that it was erected in less time than it could have been built by human ability alone. Nobody could have completed it on time under the restric­tions Mrs. Eddy put up, without the help of God. What is Christian Science, but applying to God for help, and receiving it, even in connection with the activities of the organization? And whenever members find themselves working without God, they should drive out that tendency with the whip of small cords. It may concern a very small matter, yet because it indicates a lack of demonstration, it has no place in a church dedicated to demonstration.

Mrs. Eddy did not usually pay the Directors for writing letters to her. But in this case she felt obliged to express appreciation in this way. Mr. Johnson had just been to Pottsville, and had made a demonstration of breaking the deadlock in connection with the ironwork. For this she was grateful.

When a faithful servant in the church is doing good work, even though he is adequately paid, there is an additional obligation on the part of the church. Faithful service should never be accepted as a matter of course. No one who has done good work should ever be permitted to go out of office without a note of appreciation from his fellow Trustees. To accept sacrifice, human effort and hours of demonstration without expressing loving appreciation is neither good for those who fail to give it, nor for those who should receive it.

Mrs. Eddy was most punctilious in sending letters of appreciation for service performed. She took her valuable time that was needed in other directions, and sent letters to those of her students who performed faithful service. She never failed to express appreciation for work that was done by demonstration. Herein she set a precedent.

Mrs. Eddy knew the increased interest and solidarity of effort which is brought forth by appreciation of work well done, and she herself was a wonderful example of faithfulness in this direction.

On one occasion, when I made a demonstration for her in a minor matter, it seemed strange to have Mrs. Eddy so appreciative about it; but she thereby indicated how little demonstration she received, so that when one did work according to divine Mind, her appreciation seemed almost extravagant. How­ever, work done with God is priceless. It cannot be bought, and it cannot be rewarded humanly. God alone provides the reward.

Why did Mrs. Eddy write to Mr. Johnson that her anxiety about the church being built on time was over? This anxiety was, lest the students, who largely confined their use of demonstration to healing the sick, should fail to enlarge their use of it to the building of the church. It was over when she saw them beginning to demonstrate, since she knew that when one demonstrates, he gets results; when one has courage, faith and expectancy based on understanding, the outcome is sure. When God takes hold, nothing can stop the final manifesta­tion of whatever the problem is. Therefore, when one has a problem, and he makes the demonstration to put God in charge, his anxiety is over, since he knows that its working out is sure.

Mrs. Eddy saw that the students were finally putting God in charge of the building. The church would be finished on time and dedicated as a witness and monument to the eternal value of the demonstration of divine Mind. When one's name is added to the list of its members, he enlists in the work of recognizing and continuing the mighty import of demonstration on earth.

Mrs. Eddy says in the letter that three months have been lost; but that, if the work was finally to be done by demonstration, instead of by the clever human mind, she was content. When she put forth a demand that came from God­ — one hedged with restrictions so that it seemed humanly insurmountable — she could not foretell whether the students would accept it as something to be demonstrated, or complain that it could not be done. Her best students could be called “best” because, when she asserted that a thing could and must be done, they did all within their power to accomplish it in the way they knew she wanted it accomplished.

Why did Mrs. Eddy take the pains to explain to Mr. Johnson why she chose Mr. Armstrong? She had to watch constantly lest it be thought that she was playing favorites, instead of shedding abroad her love impartially to all her students. They placed such value on her approval, that she was careful lest she arouse jealousy, inadvertently. She explained that she chose Mr. Armstrong because he was in Boston, while Mr. Johnson was in Pottsville. That was her reason for giving Mr. Armstrong the honor of seeing that God's order was “carried out in the space of time allotted it.” This was an honor, although it called for effort, understanding, and good metaphysical work.

Think of Mrs. Eddy being concerned with the grade of plasterer that was employed at this point! She regrets that they did not employ the highest priced one, or let her decide that question. Was there any phase of God's building that she felt was too insignificant to bother with? Surely, she was the highest priced laborer of them all! Her methods were so metaphysical that they were higher in the scale of excellence than those of any mortal. Hence, for her to bother with minute details would seem as incongruous as for an executive of a large corporation, to take his time to go out and buy a paper of tacks! Yet there might be a need for those tacks, as urgent as for a fifty-ton girder to be in its allotted place at the right time.

Mrs. Eddy did not feel that it was a waste of time to take minor matters into consideration, in order to employ divine Mind in all directions. She once said, “I pray and watch in the little details; someone must, as good is expressed in the minutiae of things.” Yet this attitude on her part placed the students in this dilem­ma: they might perform a simple act for her and be rebuked, while at another time they might refer a matter of importance to her, and likewise be rebuked. At times the human mind cried out, “Well, what does she want anyway?” The answer was, “She wants you to withdraw so that divine Mind may take your place!”

This dilemma existed because of the students' inability to see the nature of the tapestry Mrs. Eddy was weaving at God's direction. From the back side­ — that is, to the material senses which reverse all things — the significant seemed insignificant, and vice versa. The inability to perceive what was important and what was unimportant, caused them to try to execute the important things through metaphysical methods or refer them to her, and then to do the unim­portant things with the human mind. Humanly, they had no way of determining what they should leave to her, and what they should do themselves. For this reason they would be baffled by what she said and did.

Students of today need to watch and pray lest what she feared come to pass, namely, that the realization of the importance of demonstrating everything in connection with the Church diminish and fade in the minds of students, and the impulsion and momentum in this direction generated through her untiring labors gradually come to a stop. Her work was responsible for the spirituality in the Cause, which motivated it then, and which motivates it now. Yet students must work to perpetuate this momentum, in order that it may be sustained and increased.

Mrs. Eddy's statement, “It is easier to supply money than time,” is an im­portant precept. To her regret the students had lost time, in their efforts to be economical. When she told them to perform a task — which meant that God was telling them to do it — they should make every effort to do it in the time allotted. They should employ those who agree to finish it on time, even though they demand higher wages than slower workmen. The lesson is that when God gives the word, then is not the time to skimp. When God provides for a task to be performed in a hurry, one should not let his impulse to be economical prevent him from fulfilling God's demand.

The value of haste can be seen in Mrs. Eddy's requirement that in her home, when there was an acute need, the students heal each other in twenty minutes or less. It is evident that a student would put the unction of five or six treatments into that space of time, in his effort to please and satisfy his Leader. Each one of us wanted her to feel that, when she made a demand upon us, we could fulfill it. No student wanted to disappoint her; therefore, by making this restriction of time, she caused the students to put into twenty minutes all the unction, effort and metaphysics they had to give, thus making such a treatment worth a dozen listless ones.

Mark her statement in this letter, “Take no risks now.” They had taken a risk, for instance, in not employing the highest priced plasterer; but now there must not be the slightest possibility of a non-fulfillment of God's requirements. We learn from this fact that Mrs. Eddy was really working to fulfill God's de­mands upon her, through the students who had charge of the work. She did not want them to fail God.

Her statement, “Oh, remember that our time is not ours but in His hands and that He appoints the periods,” is proof that she was not the one who had set the time limit on the building of the church edifice; it was God. So, it became her demonstration to see that those under her were awakened to perceive this fact, and to realize that through demonstration and with her help, they could succeed. For a time, however, Mrs. Eddy wondered whether they could fulfill her expectations, and she had to know, so that she might go ahead and finish founding the Cause. Had the students failed at this point, it is possible that she would have seen that the world was not ready for the Christian Science or­ganization. What a source of sadness this would have been to her!

Why did she ask the other Directors to help Mr. Armstrong “by encourage­ment and mental support in his arduous task?” She knew that Mr. Johnson and the other two Directors might be tempted to think, “We know Mr. Armstrong better than she does, and she has selected the wrong man. Now let's just see what he will do.” In this attitude would be an unvoiced hope that he would fail, in order to vindicate their own judgment over Mrs. Eddy's. This would be a malpracticing attitude. In Science we are taught never to place limits on our brother man, but to know that he has the capacity to do whatever God calls him to do.

We should never hold others in the thought of being unable to make their demonstrations. We should know that God has endowed them with the ability to do all He requires of them, and hold them as being able to do all things through Christ which strengtheneth them. There is no problem that God cannot solve, and we should see our brother man as reflecting God.

This was the reason Mrs. Eddy wanted the three Directors to feel that it was her desire that they cooperate with Mr. Armstrong, and help him audibly and mentally. Then they would do their part to counteract any suggestion that he was incompetent, or that they could take a certain amount of satisfaction in having him fail.

God has called upon us to support our fellowmen, especially those who hold prominent positions. We must look upon the Directors today as our responsi­bility. They are our servants, called of God to conduct the business of this vast organization. Hence it is our solemn duty to support them, and to provide them with a spiritual consciousness. Students must learn to help and support the officials, instead of criticizing them. They must know that they have the spiritual thought that will enable them to do their work properly. We do not care who does the work for our Cause, as long as it is done in God's way; therefore it is our responsibility to see that it is done that way. The success of our Cause — God's Cause — is as vital to us as it is to Him. We want to hear the voice of God saying, “Well done, good and faithful servants.”

Outwardly those in important positions in our Movement would appear to rank high; but in God's sight the only important work is demonstration; and that is a work that is open to all students. If we leave both the outward and inward work to the Directors, then we have neglected to hold up their hands. Moses was given a great deal of credit for his attainments, yet we are told that his brother, Aaron, stood ready to hold up his hands. In God's sight the latter received full credit for this unselfish labor, but he would have had to be rebuked, had he neglected it.

Finally Mrs. Eddy writes, “May the Love that is God, good, and omnipotent, guide you.” Here she furnished the realization that if God guided them, they were supported by all power. If that was true, what problem would ever come up that they could not solve? What situation would arise that they could not handle?

Once Mrs. Eddy wrote to Mrs. Sherwood, “Never let a sense of lack of anything stay a moment with you. It is rank error and breeds all sorts of disease and difficulty. God is abundant and supplies only abundance. Mental mal­practice, error, cannot rob us of that abundance; it cannot impoverish us spiritually, mentally, financially, or physically. The demonstration of this is an abundance of light, love, truth, and intelligence for all our material needs.”

Here she is setting forth the abundance and omnipotence of good, and showing her followers that they need never unite with a universal claim of lack of any sort. One wrong figure in mathematics spoils a whole problem. Similarly, in building the church the admission of lack in one phase would have opened the door for a similar suggestion in some other phase. We see this same error in time of war, when the universal belief of lack spreads, until mortals believe that they are deprived of the essentials of life, even while God, infinite Spirit, is supplying the abundance of good to all His children at all times.

The primary suggestion of lack that breeds war is that of brotherly love. If there was no apparent lack of love there could be no war. War is never a fact. It is the result of a misunderstanding, that causes men to go forth to fight against that which their imagination conjures up, as the result of believing in lack. The only permissible warfare is against one's false sense of man.

Jesus proved when he fed the five thousand, the abundance and omni­potence of good. Therefore, in times of war students of Science should make the demonstration to know that all things come from God, and therefore, there can be no lack of anything. They should realize that there is an abundance of divine Love to neutralize the hate in men's hearts. The effect of this prayer is to banish war.

Finally Mrs. Eddy ends her letter, “Mother Mary.” If we are going to accept the proposition that there was a reason back of everything Mrs. Eddy did, then we can believe that with this conclusion she was not trusting the students wholly to their own demonstration, but encouraging them to take a few footsteps of their own.

She was like Mary, the mother of Jesus, who shielded and protected her son up to a certain point. In her relation with the students who were building the church, Mrs. Eddy was not so much the Teacher, the Pastor or the Leader as the Mother who was encouraging them to walk alone. She was reminding them of Mary's attitude toward her child. Mary caused him to function under her demonstration of protection, until he grew old enough to walk according to the spiritual light that was in him.

We can deduce that Mrs. Eddy was calling upon her children to take spir­itual initiative, to turn directly to God for advice and to follow it. As their Mother, she had taught them as far as she was able, and now she was hoping that they would make their own demonstration. She could not be with them every mo­ment; so, she would have them feel that she was depending upon them. Like Jesus' mother, she was being faithful in doing all she could to teach and pro­tect them in their spiritual infancy. But they were reaching the place where they were old enough to start functioning under their own spiritual thought. We might conclude that it was the demonstration of the Board of Directors that gave us the edifice; that Mrs. Eddy taught them, helped them, and cooperated with them at every point; but they were the ones who made the actual demonstra­tion. The following words in Joseph Armstrong's book, The Mother Church, the text of which had Mrs. Eddy's approval before it was printed, tell a different story, “Every step, up to this time, had been made through demonstration of divine Science, the work of our beloved Teacher and Mother. Not a point could be carried without her aid; for she alone could show the way — God's way — ­and make it possible to do what mortal sense declared impossible.”




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

October 24, 1894

Dear Student:

Please inform me why Mr. and Mrs. Nickerson's letter and that of my own — were not read at the last Quarterly meeting of our church. Give me the names of all who knew of this presenta­tion and its failure. It is not wise to deceive me or try to do this.

Affectionately,

Mary Baker Eddy


When one is dealing with children, he cannot appeal to them as he does to those of mature years. Adults must bear the brunt of their own mistakes, whereas children are given punishment, so that they may learn the right way. Mothers who are not faithful in this may live to see their children disciplined by law. Mrs. Eddy was the spiritual Mother, and sought to be faithful to her children, in order to spare them the results of their own folly.

To human sense the punishment of God is awful, although He is infinite divine Love. For this reason it is vital to teach students that they must never aspire to become servants of God, unless they are prepared to endure the punishment that comes of disobedience or neglect.

Part of Mrs. Eddy's wisdom was to provide forms of discipline and punish­ment, in order that her followers might learn the serious nature of disobedience and neglect. This would help them to walk in the straight and narrow path, and avoid the punishment that comes of disobedience to God.

When Mrs. Eddy rebuked students vigorously, she was merely teaching them that sin is always punished, as well as trying to spare them the more drastic punishment that she knew would come to them later, if, knowing God's demands, they failed to follow them.

She requested that Mr. and Mrs. Nickerson's letter as well as her own, be read at the Quarterly meeting, because she wanted the members to know the steps she was taking, and wanted them to take, in behalf of these repentant students. She may have foreseen that if the letters were not read, certain ones might continue to malpractice on the Nickersons, as members are always tempted to do with those who appear to deserve the discipline of the church.

Mrs. Eddy saw that those responsible for the failure to have the letters read must be reprimanded; so, she asked for their names. In this way she learned who were handled by the error, or animal magnetism. In the future she could avoid continuing these students in positions of trust, where a repetition of such an error might work ill to the Cause, and bring greater punishment upon them. She would be an unfaithful steward, if she did not do her part in disciplining such members, in preparation for their experience with God, with whom there is no forgiveness apart from reformation and the destruction of evil. The fiery punish­ment of the evil-doer necessary to this end cannot be avoided.

When we have yielded to error, we should never seek to dodge the con­sequences. Mrs. Eddy plainly taught that no amount of beseeching on the part of mortals can abrogate the penalty due for sin. When David disobeyed God and numbered the people, the Bible indicates that he repented; but because his sin was the expression of the sin of the whole nation, they all had to be punished. God would never have required this, unless David's disobedience had been the manifestation of their error, as well as of his own.

Mrs. Eddy writes, “It is not wise to deceive me or try to do this.” It was wise for her to establish the realization that she was alert, and could not be deceived. Thus, she restrained subversive activities on the part of those who plotted against her.

In Christian Science the human mind is recognized as the plotter that attempts to rule out the government of God. When our Saviour was born, there were those who sought the young child's life. Herod and others perceived that he might become an important figure and factor against the materialists — those who believed that inclination could overthrow inspiration. But when Herod finally decreed the death of every male child two years old and under, the child Jesus was safe in Egypt, and thus outside the power of Herod's authority.

Often in the early days of Christian Science, the life of the Cause was threatened by mortal mind. This threat was not physical violence, but an at­tempt to wrest the Cause out of the hands of God, and put it into the hands of man. In order to do this, mortal mind had to contrive against whatever spiritual sense demanded; but we had a Leader who was alert to this tendency, and at an early period made it very clear that she was awake to every attempt by the high priests of mortal mind, operating through her own students or others, to destroy this infant spiritual sense that she had brought down from God and was building up on earth.

John Salchow tells the following story: One Sunday morning, Mrs. Eddy sud­denly sent word to all her loyal students in Boston, to be in their places in church one hour ahead of time. Later it was exposed that the disgruntled students who had withdrawn from her leadership or who had been excommunicated, had plotted to come early and fill the hall, so that none of her loyal students would have a seat. Then Mrs. Eddy would have found herself in the embarrassing position of having to preach to a congregation of enemies. Her alert detection of this plot through spiritual intuition and her circumventing of it, were proof of her worthi­ness to be the Leader, and of the fact that it was not wise to try to deceive her.

During the founding of our Cause, Mrs. Eddy put forth much for the pur­pose of developing spiritual sense to the point where students could carry on, when the time came that she was no longer present, and there was no longer any danger of the human mind being able to prevent the establishment of the organization. Yet there will never come a time when we will not have to rally to the defence of the spiritual idea, since the temptation is always present to believe that the organization has an important existence in and of itself. At Annual Meeting in Boston it should be made clear that no matter how prosperous the outward activities are, the only worthy purpose behind them, and the only excuse for their existence, is the development of individual spiritual thought. Spiritual thought must operate for the good of the world. Without it, all the or­ganization in the world can never save mankind. Without it, Christian Science will reach the place that the Bible did, where, although it was the Word of God containing the secret of man's redemption, its vitality had gone because no one believed that it contained healing, or expected it to heal.

Students should never be so carried away by the increasing ramifications of the organization, that they forget to ask themselves, whether all this activity and work is resulting in individual spiritual growth. Are they drawing nearer to God as a result? Is the voice of God becoming clearer to them, so that they are able to discern its import and to follow its demands?

In this incident at the Quarterly meeting, when the students failed to read Mrs. Eddy's letter, she discerned the beginning of an attempt to keep that which she had written, which would be important for all time to come, out of circula­tion. We can well ask ourselves how Mrs. Eddy would feel if she found that human wisdom ever attempted to decide what part of her unauthorized writings should be considered right for people to have, and what part should not. In this early incident Mrs. Eddy detected mortal mind's effort to rule out her messages of good. Certainly she never planned that her writings, outside of those au­thorized for the “babes in Christ,” should be buried forever in the archives of The Mother Church.

Here a letter from our Leader, which she directed to have read to the membership, was withheld. It was a message that was not in Science and Health, to be sure. Some day students will awaken to realize how Mrs. Eddy hoped that her communications would receive the widest circulation among those who would profit by them, — those who are ready to understand the reason why each letter was written, and to make it practical. It is essential that the meaning back of each letter be unfolded; otherwise its spiritual lesson will remain hidden.

Surely if Mrs. Eddy, as God's representative, could have been deceived, it would not have been wise to attempt to deceive her; how much wiser it was not to try to do it, when it was impossible! Lydia Hall relates a time when she became out of patience with her Leader, because the latter called her down from her room two or three times to perform what seemed to be the unnecessary task of straightening a doily on the table. As she went up the stairs to her room after the second call, she said under her breath, “The old fuss!” When Mrs. Eddy called her down the third time, she said, “Lydia, did you call me an old fuss?” Lydia denied this to Mrs. Eddy, but in later years admitted to others that she had done so. It should be added that after the third call Lydia picked up Science and Health and began to study it earnestly, instead of resuming the reading of a gossipy letter she had received from home, which she was in the midst of perusing, when Mrs. Eddy's first call had come.

When a student attempted to deceive Mrs. Eddy, he exposed to her the nature of the error that was attempting to control him, which would put that one under her disapproval as well as God's, and require her rebuke. She had had too many experiences where it had been proved that she could not be deceived, for her to believe that she ever could be. Yet even if she could have been, she had enough faith in God to believe that He would rebuke and punish the one who tried to do so.

Looking deeply into this apparently simple letter one finds that Mrs. Eddy is making a strong plea that everything she wrote was needed by her fol­lowers, as they progressed from stage to stage. All her letters and manuscripts have value and must not be withheld from those who need them. Mortal mind has only a few fundamental variations. Those who draw from this false mind, are drawing from a limited source. Therefore, Mrs. Eddy's letters cover every phase of mortal thought, or animal magnetism, that is important and necessary for her followers to know about and to detect.

The most devilish form cf subtlety with which Mrs. Eddy had to contend, was to have a student handled by animal magnetism and not know it, going along in a placid contemplation of his own virtues without any consciousness of being in the toils of the adversary. Once a wealthy and prominent student of Mrs. Stetson decided that the daily defence against animal magnetism, as enjoined by Mrs. Eddy, was foolishness. So, he abandoned it, and suffered no ill effects whatsoever in the harmony and prosperity of his life. He was convinced that he was as active, as spiritually-minded and as safe afterwards as he was before. Yet it was obvious to his fellow-students that he was handled by animal magnetism and did not know it.

This student furnishes an example of why Mrs. Eddy's letters are so im­portant. Advanced students should have them and read them. They should take each rebuke to themselves, and ask themselves whether it applies to them. In this way they may escape the toils of some subtle error that otherwise they might yield to. A sample of such a letter is one written to Mrs. Stetson on July 7, 1906, in which Mrs. Eddy wrote, “Now let me say — that mental malpractice must be met daily by all the students; met by your mental protest that breaks the so­-called law of a lie, or you are liable to be affected by this lie all unconsciously. Dear one, remember this.”

When Mrs. Eddy refused to remove By-laws from the Manual that made the Directors' decisions inoperative without her consent, one can believe that a study of her letters will reveal, that she has covered every case where her con­sent would ever be needed. For this reason the Board of Directors should con­sult her letters freely and frequently, as well as seek to embody the same spirit of divine wisdom that rested upon her. They bear the same relationship to her that Elisha bore to Elijah, when the former's mantle fell upon the latter. Mrs. Eddy's mantle must fall on the Directors, and they must strive to reflect divine wisdom as she did, in whatever they are called upon to decide.

Mrs. Eddy was keenly aware of the spiritual value of the letters she sent out all over the Field. She knew how they would be regarded by those who received them, how they would be treasured, quoted from and copied. One might declare that she would forbear to write a letter, unless she knew that the one receiving it would consider that it was a communication that came indirectly from God through her; so it was a matter of loyalty to treasure such letters.

Mrs. Eddy knew that her letters would be collected, and would form a monitor of conduct. If advanced students retrograde and fall away from the high standard Mrs. Eddy has set for them, it will be largely because of a lack of the inspiration and understanding that these letters would furnish them, if they had access to them.

This letter of October 24, 1894, may be taken as authority for circulating Mrs. Eddy's letters among those who are ready for them. Students should study her letters, search deeply to find her reason for sending each one, and then mark well the spiritual antidote the letter contained for the error it was designed to correct.

How could one over-estimate the importance of the letter she wrote to Judge Hanna in regard to the fact that she could not be deceived, which was printed in his pamphlet, Christian Science History, in 1899 with her consent? “I possess a spiritual sense of what the malicious mental malpractitioner is mentally arguing, which cannot be deceived. I can discern in the human mind, thoughts, motives, and purpose; and neither mental arguments nor psychic power can affect this spiritual insight. It is as impossible to prevent this native perception as to open the door of a room and then prevent a man who is not blind from looking into the room and seeing all it contains. This mind-reading is first sight; it is the gift of God. And this phenomenon appeared in my child­hood; it is associated with my earliest memories, and has increased with years. It has enabled me to heal in a marvelous manner, to be just in judgment, to learn the divine Mind, — and it cannot be abused; no evil can be done by reason of it. If the human mind communicates with me in sleep, when I awake, this communication is as palpable as words audibly spoken.”

When Mrs. Eddy found that this letter was misunderstood and criticized, she had it cut out of the remaining copies of the pamphlet, and the following letter pasted in its place, “In justice to myself, and the readers of your booklet, I send a brief explanation of my writings, that appeared in your first editions and has been quoted by a clergyman and ignorantly or intentionally misconstrued. The spiritual sense referred to therein is, the discerning of the purpose of a mental malpractitioner whose thoughts turn on me with evil intent. This spiritual discernment is neither universal nor indiscriminate mind-reading. It is a consciousness wherewith good is done and no evil can be done. This phe­nomenon appeared in my childhood, is associated with my earliest memories and has increased with my spiritual increase. It has aided me in healing the sick, and subordinating the human to the Divine. While this metaphysical phenomenon puzzles poor philosophy, and is not in the slightest degree theoso­phy, hypnotism, clairvoyance, or an element of the human mind, I regard it as a component part of the Science of Mind not yet understood.”

Here we find Mrs. Eddy breathing her faith in her own spiritual sense and insight. She knew by experience that it was as foolish to try to deceive this sense, as it would be for one who was attempting to smuggle diamonds, to try to fool a government official who had an X-ray machine. She knew that she had es­tablished spiritual sense to the point where mortal mind could not hide its secrets from her, when she needed to know them.

It is easy for a student to perceive that it takes spiritual sense to understand God, but he is apt to conclude that he should be able to perceive the nature of evil and to fight against it, with his human sense and ability. Actually it requires a greater spiritual sense and insight to uncover the hidden secrets and evil than to unfold good. One must rise higher in order to detect its workings and purposes, than to heal the sick or to reflect good to humanity. Evil is a material belief, but that does not mean that material sense can cope with it.

More than once we find Mrs. Eddy asserting the impossibility of her being deceived in regard to error, or being influenced in regard to its efforts. She was like one on a plain, where every movement of an enemy is visible, no matter how cleverly he may camouflage himself, in contrast to being in a forest. Our thought is so full of mixed thinking, that error can hide behind suggestions that we admit and accept, and catch us unawares. We admit so much material thinking, that when the action of animal magnetism comes to us, we do not easily recognize it; it has the same hue as the rest of our thinking.

With Mrs. Eddy, however, the distinction between her normal thinking and the action of error was so marked, that nothing erroneous could escape her. We are apt to work vigorously to get rid of suggestions that are unpleasant, and thus to feel that we are very fine students; but when they are pleasant, we like them, and so we are apt to entertain them with complacence. Mrs. Eddy did not toy with error in any form. She cast it out, whether it presented itself in an agreeable or a disagreeable form. That put her in the position where she could detect error unerringly and know the moment it presented its false arguments.

It is noteworthy that Mrs. Eddy declared that this spiritual sense was not prying; it was not curiosity on her part; it was not an ability to read the human mind at will. It was the protective ability to detect the action of the human mind, whenever it began to agitate its false claims, so that they might be neutralized immediately. Whatever affected the Cause or her own spiritual sense she could detect instantly.

It was the part of wisdom for Mrs. Eddy to issue the statements in Judge Hanna's History, so that students would learn that they could never malpractice on the Leader without her knowing it. This was for their good, as well as Mrs. Eddy's protection. The students needed to credit what Mrs. Eddy wrote to Judge Hanna, since mortals are prone to believe that their inmost thoughts are hidden, and that if they desire to malpractice, they can do it without being detected. Mortal mind did not relish the idea that Mrs. Eddy possessed this unerring ability to read thought. Yet she was inaugurating an ability to discern thought that would spread, until the day would come when no man would be able to think evil thoughts and hide this fact from a metaphysician.

Once Mrs. Eddy said, “When I let my thought down, I can hear the mental arguments of error, or the devil (there is no devil); it cannot hide from me when I want to know what it is doing. I can lift my thought right above it and shut it all out, or I can find out what it is doing.”

It is clear why this letter in Judge Hanna's pamphlet chemicalized the stu­dents. They did not see that Mrs. Eddy's spiritual insight was their protection as well as hers, and that they could not indulge in malpractice, since if it was in any way detrimental to the Cause or to Mrs. Eddy, she would recognize it as clearly as though they sent her a present with their names attached.




Commands To The Children Of Israel

(November, 1894)



  1. Keep the men at work inside of the church every working day, besides your night work, until the inside is finished.



  2. Finish this church in 1894, even if you have to give up some of your gods such as mosaic floor in the auditorium or other decorations. You can hold services in the vestry this year.



  3. Retain your present architect by destroying the influence of hypnotism and then his sense of what can be done will be enlarged. Remember he has not been taught as you have been.


Nothing was too small for Mrs. Eddy to overlook as an indication of the ebbing or flowing of human thought. In the incident previously narrated where she was served apple pie without cheese and protested, she is reported to have declared, “If you permit mortal mind to rob you of your cheese, next time it will rob you of your pie.” Another version of her comment which has been quoted by some students is, “If they can rob you of your cheese, then they can rob you of your life!” Regardless of whether these are correct quotations from Mrs. Eddy's lips, the fact remains that she gauged the purposes of the enemy through that which another might overlook. To her a straw would show which way the wind was blowing.

At this point in the building of The Mother Church, Mrs. Eddy gauged the situation, and detected the claim of time. This was a proof to her that mortal mind was not being ruled out. Why did she fight time in this work? She did not fight time as effect; she fought the effort of animal magnetism to claim possession of that which she was determined should be controlled by divine Mind alone.

Mortals say, “Well, it takes a certain amount of time to build a church edifice;” but Mrs. Eddy once said, “We must take advantage of time, not time take advantage of us!” She could have let the students take their time; but had she done so, time would have controlled the finishing of the edifice, and since time is one of the weapons in the hands of error, that would have meant a triumph of animal magnetism.

Mrs. Eddy's demand that they deny the claim of time, was really another way of calling on the students to circumvent the subtle deterrent called animal magnetism. By giving them less time in which to build the church than the human mind said was necessary, she assured an active demonstration which would accomplish that which human judgment declared could not be done.

The question is, is demonstration overcoming time? Mrs. Eddy gives an example of demonstration on page 21 of Unity of Good, where she sets forth good and evil talking, and illustrates how good prevails by trampling on every argument put forth by evil. Mrs. Eddy knew that it was evil that argued delay and demanded time; hence when such arguments were met by good, the result would be completion in God's time.

Every demonstration over sickness requires the claim of time to be put down. Time may be called one of the symptoms of disease. Mortal mind argues in many cases that the disease will disappear of itself in time. Hence unless demonstration silences the claim of time, what proof is there that the healing was brought about by spiritual means? One's goal must be instantaneous healing such as our Master performed.

Instantaneous healing alone illustrates the possibility of putting down the claim of time. When one believes that a case requires time, his efforts are weak­ened; just as when one believes that it will take several blows to drive a nail, no one blow is given with full force. If he knew that one powerful blow would accomplish the result, he would give it. In Science we should always expect to accomplish healing instantaneously.

The cry of animal magnetism is voiced by Felix in Acts 24:25, “When I have a convenient season, I will call for thee.” In other words, “I must have time!” Mortal mind argues that time is necessary to accomplish all things. Hence before any notable demonstrations can be made, we must declare that with God's help they can be done now! We must know that man is spiritual now, and nothing can rob him of a knowledge of this fact; that man being God's reflec­tion, he cannot sin, be sick, or pass through a semblance of death; that there is not one moment when he can be unconscious of existence or of his relation to God; that the manifestation of this fact is possible now, and not something to be gained in the future with the help of time.

It is interesting to picture Mrs. Eddy in Concord, directing the Board in Boston to keep the men working inside of the church every working day, under the imposing title, Commands to the Children of Israel! In the second command she was indirectly stating that the active element of demonstration which would enable them to finish the church in 1894, was worth a lot more than certain interior embellishments, which she called their gods!

Mrs. Eddy was eminently the metaphysician in giving these commands which appeared to be material. She was merely demanding a practical manifesta­tion of demonstration, without losing sight of the fact that cause was more im­portant than effect. She knew that demonstration could not rightly be called such unless or until it had a practical expression, and that if these commands were regarded metaphysically, they would serve to quicken thought in the direc­tion of the utilization of divine Mind to support human ways and means.

In the apple pie and cheese incident, Mrs. Eddy knew that ordinarily the pie and cheese would be served together. When the cheese did not appear, she was like a man finding something out of place in his home, and thereby de­tecting that it had been disturbed by a marauder.

God's law of harmony is irrevocable. When harmonious thought is in control there can be no inharmony. As we read on page 58 of Miscellaneous Writings, “If God does not govern the action of man, it is inharmonious: if He does govern it, the action is Science.” To the metaphysician even a slight deviation in outward harmony indicates the presence of a divergence from God's law, either from a natural or a malicious cause. With Mrs. Eddy she could con­clude that it was always malicious, since she herself was never neglectful in striving to reflect that law.

If one living in the tropics should discover a harmless lizard in his room, he might create a stir that seemed unnecessary, until it was known that he had discovered a hole through which a deadly snake might enter. Mrs. Eddy taught that if error can find even the smallest entrance into thought, it has a start.

In the cheese incident Mrs. Eddy detected the suggestion of error attempt­ing to get a foothold in her thought. While the manifestation was trivial, she handled the situation with vigor, even though she might have appeared foolish to one who was unable to understand the scientific nature of her mental attitude.

Mrs. Eddy was determined that no error, large or small, should control the building of The Mother Church. With her watchful care it was to become a monument to an errorless demonstration, reminding future generations that, if students will keep awake and watch, they can overthrow an error the moment they detect its presence, and that, having been overthrown in the first instance, it will not control them in the second.

Mrs. Eddy saw that the students were tempted to feel that the work could go on only if contributions continued to come in. To her what mattered the most was the way the church was being built. It is by no means a stretch of things to declare that in writing these commands, she was calling for a more active demonstration. The building of The Mother Church was an example that was to go down in history, and it must be a suitable monument to the power of Mind, and its ability to rebuke every belief in a human mind so-called. She recognized the opposition mortal mind put in the way, and the temptation that assailed the students to believe that it was not possible to build a church wholly under the rules of God. Yet Mrs. Eddy was proving just this.

Animal magnetism can do very little to prevent students from using divine Mind in times of stress; but there is the greatest consolidation of argument to dissuade them from recognizing the fact that divine Mind is indispensable­ — not just helpful in times of need — but indispensable at all times. Orderly progress should bring a student to the place where he cannot get along without divine Mind, and this demand should increase. In the history of Kaspar Hauser as given in Science and Health, it is recorded that at first he could not endure the light nor any food other than his black bread. It is evident, however, that he gradually became accustomed to the sunshine and good food, so that finally he could not get along without them, and he would never again return to his black dungeon and crusts.

Students must become accustomed to living under divine Mind. At first this is a sporadic and intermittent effort, but the time will surely come when divine Mind is found to be indispensable. One must prove little by little that the human mind is not needed, and that man can live without it. It is a sign of immaturity in a student when he not only believes that the purified human mind is needed, but when he advocates its use in conducting the business of Christian Science.

Mrs. Eddy interpreted the absence of the cheese which she was paying for and had a right to expect, as the entrance of the suggestion that she was not being governed by God in all her ways, and she knew that not to be governed by God meant to be in danger. She admitted that if she did not make the demon­stration to get back to God's government, even in this minor instance, she might eventually be confronted by the argument of a complete separation from Him, which spelled death.

No one who recognizes that he is governed by God's law of harmony could yield to the suggestion of death. God Himself would have to be destroyed, before one bound to Him could be destroyed!

One who understands Mrs. Eddy's teachings can see why she permitted the absence of a piece of cheese to command her attention. Normally that which would have been provided for others, would also have been provided for her. When it was not, she interpreted it as a malicious attempt to separate her from God's law of harmony. She saw this as the first wedge of an argument that would cause her to become vulnerable to further erroneous suggestions. Therefore, she insisted on the cheese, not because she cared anything about it, but because she demanded the demonstration that would restore to her the evidence that she was under the infallible law of harmony — God's law, where alone she was safe.

It is true that Mrs. Eddy challenged the interpretative sense in students when she did things like demanding a piece of cheese that was not served to her, or requiring the workmen to work every working day in building the church. She ran the risk of being misunderstood by the world as well. But her nearness to God's guidance was proved in just such ways. At the same time she furnished students with incidents which would cause them to think deeply, and to trace from effect back to cause, in order to understand. In this way she fostered spiritual growth.

Students must become accustomed to living under and reflecting divine Mind. At first their efforts in this direction are intermittent, depending on how often they find themselves in trouble. As they become more and more accustomed to working in this way, they begin to realize that divine Mind is indispensable to them. Then comes the necessity to prove that the human mind is not needed, and that they can do without it. It is this latter point that animal magnetism opposes. While the conception obtains that the human mind in the main is efficient and indispensable, — that, whereas there is no doubt but what divine Mind adds much that is important to mortal man, yet he cannot expect to do without the human mind, — animal magnetism is not aroused to any vigorous aggression. At times students are so handled by the belief that the human mind is a necessity, that they advocate its use in Christian Science, although, of course in a purified, educated and developed form. The battleground where there is a real clinch with error, comes when a student endeavors to prove that divine Mind is indis­pensable.

Mrs. Eddy was establishing this fact in the building of The Mother Church. Only as she did this, would she know that it was being built under the protective law of God where it would be safe, and would furnish the students involved with a maximum of growth. Part of her effort in this direction was putting forth cryptic commands, which were designed to have the effect of making the students feel that divine Mind was indispensable to following out what Mrs. Eddy commanded. When her purpose was not plain to the human sense, the students were forced to demonstrate. To her the successful demonstration of building was not to have the workers go ahead with the human mind and do the best they could, as if demon­stration stood by in the offing ready to help out if anything went wrong, as prac­titioners sometimes do in cases of childbirth.

It is not a scientific point of view for a practitioner to feel that the doctor is present to superintend the birth, while Christian Science stands by, ready to add the help of God, should anything go wrong. The right point of view is to regard the entire case as being controlled by God's law of harmony, and medical law and fear as being wholly ruled out. It is a limited conception of the power of God and its application to the human need, to permit human law to function as long as the results are harmonious. The scientific attitude is to take the case wholly out of the hands of human law, and regard the entire experience for what it really is, — a divine expression and experience. Then the harmony that follows will be on a higher plane, mother and child will be safe, and the power of God correspondingly glorified.

The building of The Mother Church was like a childbirth case, in which Mrs. Eddy insisted that the law of God take complete possession. She was not content to let material law and intelligence operate as long as they carried out the building work harmoniously, with demonstration kept in the offing to be used in case of emergency. To know this makes it clear why Mrs. Eddy sent such commands as these, and why at times the Directors chemicalized and were disturbed, to have to do things the way she instructed them to, when from a human point of view things would have moved along all right if she had only let them alone.

God guided our Leader to select for the early Board, men who had never been called upon to exercise executive functions in any notable way; thus, they were ready to be more plastic in the hands of God. At the same time, when they had a task such as this, they required a great deal of help from their Leader, in order to give them the confidence that comes from the realization of spiritual supremacy, — not from a knowledge of one's human adequacy. It was easier for Mrs. Eddy to strengthen their spiritual backbone, because they had less human backbone, than it would have been, had they been men of more developed executive ability.

It would be hard to say what value there was in finishing the church in 1894; but we learn from Mrs. Eddy's teachings that the way to meet the claim of animal magnetism is to be active, since all hypnotism involves a slowing up. It is not a feeble protest or resistance that successfully withstands the human mind. A tepid denial of error is tantamount to an acquiescence with it. One must put all the unction and activity one has into his effort to overrule error. When salmon try to jump a rushing waterfall in the springtime, they put all the strength they have into each attempt, no matter how many times they are defeat­ed. A feeble or half-hearted effort is doomed.

The more impossible of accomplishment any task seems to be, the more human sense retires with a sense of its own inadequacy, and the more spiritual confidence rises to meet the need. Had Mrs. Eddy not set a limit of time, the work would have lagged, and animal magnetism would have had a full chance to argue interference and delay. The giving of funds would have slowed up, and the finale would have been a triumph of the inertia of the human mind; whereas under Mrs. Eddy's inspired prodding, it became a notable demonstration of the supremacy of divine Mind, when it is permitted to govern human affairs.

The rousing of thought in order to handle the inertia of the human mind, is illustrated by a man who is confronted with the necessity of discharging an incompetent servant. He dislikes to do it and postpones doing it. Finally he dis­covers that the servant is stealing and lying; at once he is aroused to do what is required of him.

Mrs. Eddy indicated to the Directors that she might lose confidence in them if they did not accomplish this work as she outlined it. Through their desire to please her, as well as through their fear of her rebuke, they were stimulated to overcome the lethargy and inertia of animal magnetism, which otherwise would have prevented the building from going forward harmoniously. There was a multiplicity of arguments presented to delay the work and make it seem im­possible of fulfillment, but these were met and the work done as Mrs. Eddy directed.

So great was Mrs. Eddy's impulsion to urgency, that the Directors speeded up mentally as well as physically, so that the devil could not catch up with them to hinder the work. This becomes a precept and example for all students, show­ing the value of feeling a sense of haste in doing God's work, since delay gives the devil a chance to thwart or reverse God's plans.

In 1941 the Germans conquered other nations by operating through haste. They kept their plans a secret and moved with great rapidity. This rule is as important in the warfare of Christian Science, as it is in human warfare. The dilly-dallying argument, which causes members to mull over a thing, to talk about it with other students, and to take plenty of time to make up their minds, gives the adversary a chance to learn of God's plans, and perhaps to circum­vent them.

The third command, in which Mrs. Eddy instructs the students to work mentally for the architect, is an interesting bit of history and teaches a valuable lesson. In reality there are no limitations to the capabilities of a child of God, reflecting as he does God's limitless, infinite power and intelligence. When Mrs. Eddy wrote Christ and Christmas, she proved that it was possible to take an untrained artist — one whom the world would declare was inferior because he was self-taught — to work mentally for him, and thereby to destroy the influence of hypnotism that would argue limitation. This enlarged his sense of what he could do to the point where he was able to draw illustrations which compared favorably with the old masters. Under the sense of his limited ability Mr. Gilman might never have amounted to anything; whereas under Mrs. Eddy's demon­stration he rose to heights of attainment which might have caused him to become one of the world's distinguished artists, had he been able to continue with her. But because the demonstration of increased capacity belonged largely to her, she could not be responsible for his future, after he came out from her protective wing. When the effect of her demonstration was over, he returned to his own standpoint of limitation.

Under the demonstration of the Directors, the architect for The Mother Church was able to do what ordinarily he never could have accomplished, and might never be able to do again by himself. Thus, Mrs. Eddy established a precedent that students should work mentally with persons who are employed to do work in the Cause. In proportion as their thought is permeated by divine Mind, will they operate on a level of attainment higher than would be possible otherwise. When First Church of Christ, Scientist, Providence, R. I. was built, the contractor's work was of a higher grade than he had ever done before. Eugene H. Greene worked for him mentally, and had other students of his do likewise, in order to enlarge his conception of his possibilities. Mr. Greene talked with him at length, expatiating on the grand capacities of man when imbued with spiritual understanding.

In seeking light on the third command to the Children of Israel, it is helpful to consider the prophesy Mrs. Eddy made on February 22, 1904, as follows: “In the year twenty-one hundred I think will be the end. Then Christian Scientists will have held crime in check as the book (S. & H.) says. At that time either the world will be saved through universal salvation, or those who now are working against us will burn up as the physical scientists say the world will be burned up, by volcanic action; we know what they call volcanic action is mortal mind destroying itself. All must learn they cannot sin and escape punishment, as they think they can. Those who have worked against this Cause and those who are then doing so will all be burned together. Those who work out now will be saved; the others will be hundreds of years; all the woes Jeremiah predicted will come to pass. God is making demands upon us.”

When a dam is built, one can estimate from the daily inflow of water the length of time it will take before the water will fill the empty space, and begin to overflow. Unusually heavy rains would speed up the time, just as droughts would slow it up. But engineers can estimate and predict the point at which the water will begin to flow over the dam, with some degree of accuracy.

Man's body manifests his thinking. When fear creeps into that thinking undetected, it soon has a manifestation. Disease is the expression on the body of latent fear. Mrs. Eddy once declared to Lady Victoria Murray, “There is no disease. If I dream there is a table in place of that chair, that is only a belief. The patient believes it, he does not feel it.”

There are dials on the instrument board of an automobile, to tell the driver what is going on in the realm of the unseen, which otherwise he would not know. The body is the “telltale” of the mind, and, therefore, a valuable source of information to one who is watching thought for the purpose of correcting it. He knows that as he reflects divine Mind more and more, he will manifest it. If one could know the rate at which divine Mind was flowing into consciousness, he could foretell exactly when a healing would take place, and the body change from manifesting mortal mind and its fears, to expressing divine Mind and its harmony.

Let us now consider the world as the body or manifestation of the universal mortal mind or man. If Mrs. Eddy saw that divine Mind was entering universal consciousness at a certain rate, she could prophesy that within a certain length of time divine Mind would come into the ascendency to such a degree, that the entire outward manifestation would change. In making this prophecy she wanted students to feel that this change would come in an appreciable length of time, since, if they felt that it would be millions of years before it would come, they might lag in their present effort.

Mrs. Eddy knew that in this process mortal mind's latent opposition to Truth would come to the surface and be manifested in war, pestilence, famine, want and woe. On page 96 of Science and Health she writes, “Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization. This mental fermentation has begun, and will continue until all errors of belief yield to understanding.”

Knowledge of what is taking place in the mental realm, a work which ac­cording to Mrs. Eddy will be completed in the year 2100, should cause students of today to work harder and to be more determined to keep divine Mind in the ascendency, since they have nothing to fear! The whole world is gradually coming over to the side of Truth, as error is being destroyed. It is true that mortals will gradually lose the manifestation of mortal mind, because mortal mind is losing its control in the mental realm.

It was as if Mrs. Eddy had said, “I can look ahead and see that as divine Mind comes into greater ascendency, the whole world will be saved, since the manifestation of general thought will change to accord with spiritual conscious­ness. Those who welcome it will be lifted up, while those who resist it will be cast down, as they see that which they prize disappearing, which is only part of a dream.”

Mrs. Eddy saw in the building of The Mother Church that the architect was manifesting a sense of limitation. So, she brought to the attention of the Directors and members in charge the fact that, if they would treat him in order to balance his thought on the side of spiritual good, he would manifest a larger conception of what could be accomplished. The connection between Mrs. Eddy's prophecy in regard to the year 2100 and her command to lift the in­fluence of hypnotism from the architect, is that if an individual thought can be so filled with truth that it overbalances on the side of God, the same can be done with universal thought; and if it is done faithfully, the end of error can be pro­phesied. Yet nothing that exists can be destroyed — only a false sense of it.

No matter what the activity is that a Christian Scientist may be called upon to supervise, he must realize that every phase of it is a manifestation of God, exactly as the Bible and Mrs. Eddy's writings are. The architect hired to draw up plans for a church edifice must be seen as a channel for God's intelligence. Every activity concerns the alert member, and he should take a hand in it, whether it be the acts of the Directors in Boston, or a lecturer coming to his city to give a lecture on Christian Science. He should consider that the entire Cause comes under his mental jurisdiction. Hence he should not sit by and criticize that which he does not like. This is a mental world, and the question that con­fronts each student is, “How important and influential am I in this mental world? Am I working, and does my work count?”

It is not scientific to feel that those who hold high positions in our Movement can stand in the way of progress, if they happen to be inferior demonstrators. As long as the workers in the Field are faithful in healing, the Cause will prosper. Furthermore, the real leaders are the ones who lead in the mental realm, who lead in healing the sick and reflecting divine Mind in and through all the ac­tivities of our Movement.

While one is accepting the infantile notion that those who visibly hold the reins of authority in our Cause are the real leaders, he is missing the chance to become a leader himself in the mental realm. The trick of animal magnetism is always to divert thought, so that instead of realizing that real leadership lies in the mental realm, he permits animal magnetism to blind him to the fact that he should be a leader.

On January 8, 1904, one in the household said to Mrs. Eddy, “God will raise up someone who will be faithful as was John at the cross.” She replied, “How do you know? Look within and see who that one should be. It is opium, ether...etc., that would cause you to suggest it should be someone else.”

Opium would stand for the influence of mortal mind that would make one indifferent to his duties and obligations, whereas ether would stand for that which would make him unconscious of them. When in the Manual Mrs. Eddy warns us not to neglect or to forget our duty to God, our Leader and mankind, she is warning us against opium and ether in the mental realm. Thus, we learn from her own lips that the true leader in Christian Science is the individual who is faith­ful in making the daily demonstration to destroy the influence of hypnotism on those at the head of our Cause and in all responsible positions.

No one can do God's work without demonstration. If he is appointed to do such work, and has an immature knowledge of how to demonstrate, we must demonstrate with him.

If a man had charge of watching a weak place in a dike, and should fall asleep, so that there was a danger that the dike might be washed away, would you sit by and let such a catastrophe happen? When we think of those in charge of the affairs of our Cause, we must always remember that those affairs are our affairs; we cannot afford to have anything happen that will retard our Cause, or that will perpetuate unfruitful activity. We do not want our Cause to fall into the hands of the enemy, while we sit back and criticize, feeling justified in doing nothing.

Mrs. Eddy did not tell the students to obtain another architect, which one might have expected her to do, if the first one was not satisfactory. Plans had been submitted by several Boston architects. Yet the plans selected evidently left something still to be desired. Mrs. Eddy pointed out that this man had not been taught Christian Science as the Directors had been. Hence the responsi­bility lay upon them to destroy the influence of hypnotism upon him.

I stress this point because in the third command Mrs. Eddy threw a small stone into the waters of thought which she hoped would have ever-widening circles, until it covered the world with its influence. If one sees another in au­thority yielding to hypnotism, he has Mrs. Eddy's authority for assuming that it is his privilege and obligation to do all he can to set the latter free, without actually giving him treatment without permission. There are few students who can take important posts, and without help, keep themselves so free from hyp­notism that they can function up to the expectancy of the Field. In Science this desire to help another is love, and love is the lubricant that oils the machinery of our Cause, and keeps it running harmoniously. Without this love, the heat of factions, hatred, envy and criticism, may be formed.

Everyone in a prominent position in our Movement must have the spiritual support of the membership. Some officials may not recognize this need. Pride may cause them to deny it. This support, however, should be given voluntarily by those who can perceive the need.

It is when one desires to be great in the mental realm, and not in the physical, that he is on the road to being a leader in Christian Science. Nothing pleased our Leader more than to find students who had no ambition for prominent positions, but simply desired to become better healers and to increase their ability to demonstrate.

I repeat that if anyone in a prominent position in our Movement is not measuring up to God's ideal, we must stand by and help. If we do such work faithfully, we thereby stand forth in God's estimation as being higher than the one we help, even if he is a member of the Board of Directors. In the case in point, who would be greater and more important in God's sight, the architect who put forth the plans, or the students who worked metaphysically to free his thought, so that he would be able to put forth a better conception?

In the days of the Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, he held a balance of power that was greater than that wielded by the king of England. Yet the only mark of identification that he carried was an old umbrella. In his day this was a very accurate symbol of what a man in such a position needs, since he is subject to a constant rain of criticism and unfavorable comment, largely because he must do many things without giving a full explanation to the public. Mr. Cham­berlain with his umbrella, rather than the king with his sceptre, was a symbol of the power of the empire. The real leader in Christian Science is the student with an umbrella in the mental realm, that is, one who has the understanding to protect himself and others from animal magnetism, the malpractice involved in criticism, human estimate and evil suggestions.

Few mortals are content to wield unseen power. They desire to have the visible manifestation. Yet even politics does not permit men to have both power and outward honor at the same time. The men who really wield the power in politics keep out of sight, and work through those that they have placed in prominent positions.

The student who becomes the real leader in our Movement today is the one who keeps his cloak of invisibility around him, and is content to have as a symbol of his power, an umbrella rather than a sceptre. The latter is a symbol of the adulation of the crowd, but an umbrella is an illustration of one's ability to keep himself free from those mental influences which would rob him of his power with God.

Why did Mrs. Eddy address these commands to the Children of Israel? One reason the Israelites were called the chosen people, is because their history was chosen out of all the histories of the world to be analyzed metaphysically as to cause and effect, and to be recorded for all time in order to show the way of salvation.

If one declared that God had chosen him to be saved above all others, that would impugn His impartiality. God never chooses certain mortals to have an easier way to salvation than others; but He does choose the lives of certain in­dividuals, or in this case, an entire nation, to be used as an example for the world. Such history becomes sacred because of the use it has been put to. Sacred history is profane history that is set forth in such a way, that cause and effect are made plain, in order that spiritual pilgrims may use it as a guide.

When we assayed to write the life of Mrs. Eddy in 1932, we took her history with the sole purpose of making it sacred, in accordance with her own words, “My history is a holy one.” We tried to overcome the temptation that confronts historians and biographers, namely, to record outward facts as if they were im­portant in and of themselves. History is helpful spiritually only when cause and effect are set forth in such a way as to guide seekers after truth.

Mrs. Eddy called the students to whom she sent these commands, Children of Israel, because they were pioneers journeying with a specific purpose, and living a history that was destined to be recorded, so that it would become an example for the future.

The experiences of all students in successfully demonstrating their way out of material sense are valuable to the world, and should be carefully noted. Christian Scientists should record the results of their own investigations and research. In the Christian Science Sentinel we find the following (July 18, 1942): “At one time when our Leader was talking with me of the importance of more and better healing work in our Movement, she asked if I had been careful to keep a record of my own cases of healing for future reference. I said it had never occurred to me to take any particular note of them. To this Mrs. Eddy replied with earnestness, as near as I can recall her words, ‘You should, dear, be faithful to keep an exact record of your demonstrations, for you never know when they might prove of value to the Cause in meeting attacks on Christian Science.'”

Here we have proof that our Leader considered the records of Christian Scientists of historical value. We know that she considered the history of the building of The Mother Church to be important, and that it would take its place as a further and important extension of the Master's teachings.

The history of the Children of Israel proves that nothing in human ex­perience just happens. The world suffers because of its inability to trace cause from effect. War comes to nations, and individuals remain in the dark as to its causes. They pray for peace without realizing that the causes for war must be removed before peace can be permanent. A cessation of war that comes because nations become too weak and depleted to fight is not peace.

Mrs. Eddy called these simple rules, Commands to the Children of Israel, because she was writing them for pilgrims whose history was to be recorded and interpreted spiritually in order to benefit and help mankind. From this simple fact comes the authority for declaring that the history of the Founder of Christian Science is a present-day extension of the Bible. The Bible is a record of lives and events that were interpreted spiritually by those who had the insight to do so. In its pages we find cause set forth and linked to manifestation. Thus, it proves that mortals are not the victims of circumstances. For every effect there is a mental cause that can be detected. This being the case, the correction of every discord and error becomes possible.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

November 3, 1894

My beloved Brethren:

In behalf of Mr. Henry G. Nickerson, and his wife, Mrs. Dora Mayo Nickerson — former members of your Church — I herewith present to you their letter of confession, and solicitation to be restored to membership and Christian fellowship with your Church.

The God of all grace will give you wisdom to emulate our Master's holy example of forgiveness, and so take back these sorrow­ing young members into the fold of The Mother Church. Also to encourage them by your own Christian example to consecrate their lives anew to the service of God and humanity.

We are loath to admit that individuals taking the name of Christian Scientists should for a moment step aside from the strait and narrow path. But now, as of old, divine compassion reiterates the tender rebuke: “Go, and sin no more”; and “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.''

This is my first, and I trust it shall be my very last occasion for having to direct any action of this Church pertaining to receiv­ing, or dismissing members.

Finally, brethren, I thank you for the evidence you bestow that so many among you desire to deal justly and love mercy. And I admonish you to love one another even as Christ loveth you.

May grace and peace be and abide with you evermore.

Mary Baker Eddy

Mr. Clerk:—

Read this letter at your church meeting.

M. B. Eddy


Old theology would interpret Mrs. Eddy's attitude in this letter to be Christian. Old theology would be correct, were it not for the fact that it does not know what Christian really means, since it sets forth a Christian life as something that primarily relates to man's outward acts, whereas everything in Christian Science has for its ultimate purpose the bringing of one's thinking under scien­tific control. Mrs. Eddy wrote this letter primarily to correct the thinking of her students.

In Matt. 5:23 we are told, when we bring our gift to the altar, if there we remember that our brother hath aught against us, to leave our gift and go and be reconciled to our brother. Our gift is the utilization of our spiritual understanding in order to heal and to bless. When you seek to bless another, if you hold him as having aught against you, you thereby entertain an unscientific thought toward him which renders your spiritual thought ineffective, and which opens you to the effects of erroneous thought, — just as though you held an erroneous thought toward him, — because you are acknowledging the reality of error. In order to help another, your thought must be scientific, and you are not scien­tific when you hold error as real either in yourself or in another.

Mrs. Eddy wanted the members not only to hold nothing in thought against the Nickersons, but to regard the Nickersons as holding nothing against them; and she sent their letter of contrition to prove it. Otherwise the members' at­titude would be malpractice.

When you malpractice, you endeavor to save yourself at the expense of your brother. When you strive to recognize man as your brother, and to know that he regards you in the same way, divine Love blesses such an effort. You are not only protected from the error, whatever it may be, but you help to protect and free him as well.

It cannot be too strongly emphasized that Mrs. Eddy's concept of excom­munication was not to protect her Church from erring members, but to protect erring members from the malpractice of the membership! When a member does that which is not right, there is a demand among the membership for some sort of discipline or punishment. The moment that erring one is excommunicated, that demand is fulfilled. If such a one remained a member, he might find it difficult to recover himself under the condemnation held over him by many brother members. Not that every member forgets his knowledge of Science at such times; but there always seems to be enough who do, to add weight to the burden the erring one is carrying.

The moment this erring one is excommunicated, however, he is put out of thought and the active malpractice stops. Then if he has an active desire and inclination to reform, by awakening to perceive how he has been handled by animal magnetism, and freeing himself from it, he can do it, when he might not have been able to do so, weighted down by the adverse thought in the minds of many of the church members. Then Mrs. Eddy, in her precious Christlike way, would promptly take such a one back into the fold.

Death may be regarded as a form of excommunication, where one who has been unable to rise above the malpractice of mortal mind held over him, is relieved of that conscious and unconscious burden, and freed to make his own demonstration. When an individual admits that he has some illness that material methods cannot heal, with that admission as the opening wedge, he comes under the universal malpractice of mortal belief which says that he must die. And he will, unless this weight of belief is lifted. All that was necessary to raise Lazarus was for Jesus and his disciples to handle this universal malpractice. When he was loosed from it, he was restored, after having been in the tomb four days!

In this letter Mrs. Eddy repeats Jesus' “tender rebuke, ‘Go, and sin no more.'” When one reads this, he should recall the higher definition of sin. Mortal mind says that sin is some deflection in conduct; Christian Science declares that it is descending from divine Mind to the human mind. No one can do that with any permanent satisfaction. Who would desire to remain in the mesmerism of mortal mind, after he has had a taste of God? In the majority of cases if a church member who has sinned is given a fair chance to regain his spiritual status, he is more than glad to do so. The greatest barrier that stands in the way of reformation by a church member who has erred, is the weight of condemnation from his fellow members. And in passing it is to be noted that those who participate in this condemnation, thereby become co-­sinners, according to Mrs. Eddy's definition of sin.

If a wife is ill and her husband sees her illness as a reality, while she is “feel-sick,” he is “see-sick.” Sickness is making a reality of sickness, whether one does it through one sense or another. We participate in an error when we make a reality of it. For this reason students are as careful to overcome the temptation to see disease, as they are to feel it. They are as watchful in rising above the tendency to make a reality of the errors committed by fellow members, as they are in watching that they themselves do not commit such errors.

When church members live up to Mrs. Eddy's teachings, and throw the mantle of scientific thought over an erring member, — as Noah's sons did to him when he erred, as recorded in Gen. 9, — then if the member desires to over­come his error, the membership cooperating with him will enable him to do it; and this cooperation was what Mrs. Eddy wanted her Church to stand for, namely, that the moment the devil enters into one member, everyone will quickly cooperate to cast him out. A Christian Science church is not worthy of the name, if, when a member errs, the other members join with the error in making it real, so keeping the fallen one down, when, without that malpractice, he might rise up and free himself.

A letter of this kind in regard to members who have sinned and reformed will always be of enormous help to our Movement. It could well be framed and hung in the Board room of each branch church. Then there would be less danger of members permitting old theology and self-righteousness to influence and direct their attitude of mind, when they are called upon to deal with erring brothers and sisters.

The Bible tells us that God is of too pure eyes to behold evil. Then as His reflection, we must make it unreal to ourselves, and refuse to acknowledge or to see it. Then we will be in no danger of trying to build ourselves up, by tearing others down, or by feeling glad when we see one who has been held up as a model student, exposed in some error.

Mrs. Eddy hopes that this will be her last occasion for having to direct the action of the church in regard to members being received or dismissed. Here she makes her point of view clear, the attitude that she wants her students to adopt on such matters, since it is a forever sample of the Christian Science attitude toward erring members who have repented and reformed.

Evidently Mrs. Eddy did not consider that the Christianity and the Science of her students were sufficiently united to cause them to act correctly in this matter, so she sets the precedent for all time. It is to be noted that the Nickersons did not attempt to brazen out the wrong they had committed, but acknowledged that they had fallen from the standard that Christian Science has set for action on the part of members. This in itself was a hopeful sign. They were willing to acknowledge their wrong and to express their desire to be restored to member­ship. They made no complaint that they had been unjustly treated. They did not demand that they should be taken back. They admitted that the church was justified in its action, since their conduct had been of such a nature as to make their excommunication a just act. Now in the spirit of humility they asked that they might have another chance.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy not only tells the Church how to function, but also indicates the attitude an erring member should have, if he expects kindly treatment. Sometimes a mernber who has been disciplined or dropped, will seek to be reinstated without manifesting proper humility. He may still believe in his heart that he was right in whatever he did. So he declares that the action was unjust and demands to be reinstated. Such an attitude betrays the human will at work, and should provide sufficient excuse for a refusal.

Mrs. Eddy expressed the prayer in this letter that the God of all grace give the students wisdom. One can never escape the necessity in Christian Science for being governed by wisdom. The Directors need to reflect God's wisdom as well as love. They need to recognize the inability of their own educated minds and human preparation and experience to conduct the business of the Cause, and so realize the importance of letting God direct them, and of declaring, “Not my will, but Thine be done.” Mrs. Eddy never lost an opportunity to im­press upon the Beard that the success and faithfulness of their efforts would always be in proportion to their recognition of the fact that the wisdom required in their position must come from God, and that unless it did, it was not wisdom. Because she was writing for eternity, she was addressing all Boards of Directors.

She intimates that it was God's wisdom that told her what was right in this matter, and she passes this on to the members, so that they may make it their wisdom, since they had shown that when the Board or members had decided such matters for themselves, — it was not always divine wisdom that had directed them. Mrs. Eddy did not imply that it was the demand of divine wisdom to take back everyone who applied for restitution. If that were the case, that would have been a rule. In following it they would have needed no divine wisdom to guide them.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy also placed an additional responsibility upon the members by enjoining them to encourage the Nickersons to consecrate their lives anew to the service of God and humanity, by their own Christian ex­ample. Thus the admonitions in this letter would not be fulfilled merely by readmitting these sorrowing young members, since they would need help and encouragement all along the line; they would need something to strengthen them, just as a man who has given up the habit of drinking liquor needs help thereafter. Above all he needs new friends who will not tempt him in the old way, but who will provide him with relaxation and recreation, and who will like him apart from liquor. A man who has had the habit of drinking, cannot stop at once and do nothing. He must find friends who will help him, since the only friends he has had are drinking friends. If he goes back to them, they will do all they can to make him drink again. In fact, they would not care for him if he did not drink, since his example would be a constant rebuke to them. For this reason, people who do not drink must be willing to befriend a man who has taken his stand against liquor; otherwise the latter may not be able to hold his position.

Mrs. Eddy saw that the Nickersons would need friendliness, encouragement and help. They would need as friends those who would regard the error, not as something to make them feel ashamed, but as a phase of animal magnetism that was no part of them, to which they had yielded, and of which they must acquire an understanding. The error must be exposed as something from outside, rather than from inside. Man is responsible, of course, when he yields to the outside suggestion, but students must be careful in their estimate of themselves and others to realize that it is animal magnetism that sins and never man. Of course, when a man permits animal magnetism to represent his individuality, he cannot avoid having a reputation for being a sinner; but it is always animal magnetism that does the sinning.

Next Mrs. Eddy says, “We are loath to admit that individuals taking the name of Christian Science should for a moment step aside from the strait and narrow path.” Sometimes students fail to recognize that a Scientist by the very stand he takes against all sin and material testimony, arrays against him mortal mind's resistance to truth's claims. The moment he associates himself with the Church, he faces an error that must be handled. Thereafter his temptations are not so-called normal ones; they become the result of his determination and effort to become a working Christian Scientist. When he takes up arms against the belief in a human mind and attempts to banish it from the earth, he cannot expect that it will not resist and retaliate. It is true that it has no real existence nor intelligence, but it has been built up by mortal belief to a point where apparently it is as real as any part of the Adam dream. Hence a working student must see that if he is active and successful he will have the retaliation of the human mind to meet. In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy calls it “...sin's revenge on its destroyer.”

A study of I Kings 13 furnishes an example of this revenge. A man of God was instructed by the Lord to cry against the altar in Bethel, which aroused the anger of the king. It was a dangerous mission for the man of God, thus to stir up the wrath of the one highest in authority; but under demonstration he did it without fear and the king saw the justice of it. In fact, he was so satisfied that he invited the prophet to come home with him and to refresh himself. The latter refused, saying that it was charged him by the word of the Lord to eat no bread and to drink no water. It is evident from this charge that the wisdom of God recog­nized that there would be a revenge by animal magnetism on this man of God for having taken such an important member of the nation out of sin, which meant that the devil had lost an important foothold. When we sit down to eat with friends, we are apt to be off guard, and to forget for the time being our demonstra­ting sense, in the midst of the atmosphere of enjoyment and friendliness.

Thus it was necessary for the man of God to watch and protect himself from sin's revenge, until he finished the demonstration and arrived home. But he disobeyed the charge of the Lord, and a lion slew him. He met an old prophet who lied to him, saying that God had told him to bring this man to his house for meat and drink. One might argue that the man of God was justified in listening to an older student, but one who has reached the point of demonstra­tion where he is able to do what he did, should know of himself the importance of protection and be able to differentiate between the promptings of Truth and the suggestions of error, regardless of who voiced them.

When a student has finished a term of readership in a branch church or The Mother Church, he should know that the devil does not stop its effort to wreak revenge upon him. It takes time to meet the situation, before the error is entirely thrown off that is, if one does the work of reader in the correct way, so that mortal mind feels the touch of Truth that spells its destruction.

Finally, in this letter Mrs. Eddy admonishes them “to love one another even as Christ loveth you.” Why should it be difficult for church members, or prac­titioners, to love one another? Unity of effort against the common enemy is vital, and the enemy knows this, and so works on the point of disunity more than any other. Jesus was insistent that the workers in the Field love one another. He knew that that and that alone would cause the work to be done in unity, and so effectively.

Members must always watch lest they under-estimate the seeming strength of animal magnetism. It is something they never had to meet before they joined the organization, and so often they have to learn by experience and by what they suffer. If coming home each night, one had to cross a small stream he could easily jump far enough so as not to wet his feet. Then one night the stream is swollen, and his ordinary jump lands him in the water! Such a one should not be excommunicated from the church on that account; he should be helped. Even if his clothes indicate that he has been in the water, the others should consider the fact that the accident happened because he did not properly gauge the claim of error that membership brought down upon him. The work he ordinarily did was not sufficient on this occasion to keep him free from error; so even with the evidence of the wet clothes, he should not be cast out, unless the lack of Christianity in the members makes them feel that they cannot stand to have such a person in their midst. Then it may be necessary to remove him from the weight of this malpractice, in order that he may have the chance to reform.

When no other means are successful in bringing forth divine compassion from members, it may be necessary to do as Mrs. Eddy did in this letter, namely to say, “Let every member whose life is so blameless that he can say that he has never done anything that he is ashamed of, vote to cast out this sinner, or refuse to take back a repentant one,” and then see how many do so.

Mrs. Eddy intended this letter to be a pattern for all time. Having once written it, she never wants to write it again, so she says, “This is my first, and I trust it shall be my very last occasion for having to direct any action of this Church pertaining to receiving, or dismissing members.” She makes her posi­tion clear, and she expects that from henceforth this letter will be used as a guide and a rule by her students.

In Judges 14 we find the incident where Samson found bees and honey in the carcass of a lion, which prompted him to put forth his riddle to the Philis­tines, “...out of the strong came forth sweetness.” Even from a human stand­point it can be noted that when a man increases in strength and influence over his fellows, he must balance these with sweetness, or he will lose them. When you find him letting the prominence and authority of his position crush out love, you know he is doomed to lose his power.

Here we find Mrs. Eddy ending her letter by saying, “Finally, brethren, I thank you for the evidence you bestow that so many among you desire to deal justly and love mercy. And I admonish you to love one another, even as Christ loveth you.” She always associated love and wisdom together, as though the feminine should be the motivation of the masculine. When she rebuked, she did so with love, that her students might accept it and be glad for it. She knew that rebuking from irritation (as many parents do) is of no value, since one can feel the irritation through the rebuke, and does not profit by it, but merely feels upset. When parents rebuke and punish their children when they feel irritable, and overlook things when they feel amiable, their children know this, and see no justice in the rebukes; hence the rebukes do little good.

It is noteworthy that Mrs. Eddy took time to appreciate good work, as well as to rebuke bad work. If one was to check on all her letters to the Directors, he would find that she sought to maintain a balance between her rebukes and her approval. In her home she sought to do the same thing, namely, to balance her rebukes with love. When she found that her rebukes were causing a student to regard her as a forbidding and stern taskmaster, she would neutralize this, or balance it by showing affection.

One night in the year 1906, after Caroline Foss, her maid, was ready for bed, Mr. Frye knocked at her door and said that Mrs. Eddy wanted to see her. Miss Foss went to her room with fear and trembling, wondering what she had done wrong, for which she was going to receive a rebuke. She put her head in Mrs. Eddy's door and said, “Did you want something, Mother?” “Yes, dear,” was Mrs. Eddy's reply, “I want to kiss you,” which she proceeded to do in a most tender way. Miss Foss' only comment was, “O Mother, isn't God good!”

If you wanted to feed pigeons, you would have to give constant indications that you loved them; otherwise they might become frightened and fly away. Mrs. Eddy realized that she had rebuked Miss Foss to the point where the latter was becoming afraid of her, so her wisdom guided her to re-establish her rela­tion with her through affection. She sensed that Miss Foss was regarding her as the stern rebuker, which was causing her to retreat from the place where she could feed her spiritually; so, she once more bound her with cords of love. In such ways she fulfilled Samson's riddle, that “...out of the strong came forth sweetness.”

Thus, while Mrs. Eddy was never forgetful in rebuking errors in the students, at the same time she never failed to praise them, when they did well. The Directors of our times would do well to emulate their Leader's example, and not be neglectful in showing appreciation for work well done, since such wise action always brings forth more and better work. The Directors should remember that often error creeps in and shuts the mouth of praise, so that students, not know­ing whether they are pleasing those in authority, come to look upon them as the “Board of Correctors,” whose sole function is to discipline and rebuke. Mrs. Eddy never let this error stop her mouth or pen. She balanced her rebukes with love and praise, where these were deserved.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

November 4, 1894

Beloved Brethren:

I submit four Rules for your consideration at this meeting and discussion as to adopting them. Also I request that Mrs. Laura Lathrop, and Mrs. Pamelia J. Leonard be at this meeting ad­mitted as First Members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, and immediately informed of their membership.

Also that Mr. and Mrs. Nickerson be instructed that they are restored to this Church as members in full fellowship.

Mary Baker Eddy


Were Mrs. Lathrop and Mrs. Leonard especially promising students at this time? They were Mrs. Eddy's own students of many years' standing, having taken the Normal Course in the Metaphysical College under her in 1886. They both served in her home. Mrs. Eddy proposed their names as First Members two years before this time, and then changed her mind.

One might well marvel at Mrs. Eddy's ability to take promising material and develop it into maturity, although at times the most promising students went astray. If one wonders why she did not detect in advance those that would betray her, let him realize that when one is buying trees for transplanting, he may select straight ones, and yet later some of these may become bent.

The fact remains that Mrs. Eddy selected many students who, under her guidance, became of value to the Cause. It is not becoming of historians to criticize the weaknesses or the strength of those Mrs. Eddy trained, unless it is done in order to point out lessons that future generations need to learn and profit by.

An article by Mrs. Lathrop telling of her experience in being healed by Mrs. Eddy, may be found in the Christian Science Sentinel for December 24, 1904, that is of interest.

There is a story of a woman who was so uncomplaining, that when a neigh­bor, in an attempt to break through her unfailing optimism, brought wood for her stove that was twisted and gnarled, she merely remarked how nicely her pots would fit into a fire made of such pieces. When some of her students ap­peared to be twisted in thought, instead of complaining, Mrs. Eddy used them as best she could. She was unfailing in her effort to see the best in people, take advantage of it, and so bring out more fruitage. Thus she helped them to do better and to be better.

Jesus evidently handled Judas in this way. Judas had qualities that were important and helpful. As long as Jesus watched over him, he played his part well. It was only when Jesus had to withdraw his help, that the error that had never been cast out, ripened into action and caused his downfall.

Both Peter and Judas were handled by animal magnetism, when the Master withdrew his protection. Judas' error, however, was a belief in a foundational flaw, whereas Peter's was in superstructure. All error is false belief, but when one believes that he has a fundamental flaw in his character, such a belief is more tenacious than one where the individual merely believes that for the time being he becomes the victim of an error that is no part of himself.

Peter was strengthened by his experience, whereas Judas was self-de­stroyed. Students who have to be excommunicated because they believe that they have some error in foundation, are like Judas, and must remain apart, unless the error is finally exposed in such a way that it is seen as false and unreal, and so is dropped. A study of these letters indicates that Mr. and Mrs. Nickerson would come under the classification of Peter, rather than Judas. Hence when their error was seen, repented of, and dropped, they were ready to be restored as members in full fellowship.

Everyone is destined to be saved, because all error is animal magne­tism, or impersonal belief that is never part of the real man. Error never clings to man; man clings to it. Sometimes one can remove spots from his clothes by his own efforts; at other times the clothes must be sent to the cleaners. There are errors which assail man, the overcoming of which is facilitated by church mem­bership. There are also errors attending membership which become a greater deterrent because of such membership. Error works in two ways: Either it be­comes a whip to spur the student to greater effort in the right direction, or it tends to produce depression and discouragement.

When sickness or suffering assail a student, if he feels that he deserves it because of sin, he accepts it, and if honest, will make the thought correction that casts out the error. If, on the other hand, he feels that the suffering is not deserved, he then can use the error as a whip to forward his spiritual growth.

Our Leader never took revenge on a student because he had harmed her or the Church by his actions. She never attempted to damn an individual because he yielded to error. Her entire effort was to heal and save. She inau­gurated excommunication wholly with the thought of helping and saving erring members. She never used the threat of excommunication as a club to hold members in line and to force blind obedience, unless she knew that such a mode would help the student in his warfare against error.

A certain amount of error attends church membership. If one is unable to rise with that extra burden, the kindest thing to do is to relieve him of it. Member­ship in the church is intended to be a blessing and a help to each member in his endeavor to make spiritual progress, and it is in the majority of instances. No doubt the Nickersons were excommunicated because for the time being the error became too much for them to handle. Thus the severing of their connection with the organization was for their regeneration, not damnation.

Love must always be present when those in authority deal with erring members. When love is absent, Christian Science itself is absent! The motive to help and the consideration of the needs of members must always actuate those whose responsibility is to discipline members.

Mrs. Eddy never enforced church rules in such a way that they became stumbling-blocks in a brother's or sister's path. She was guided by God to write the rules, and then Love caused her to execute them in such a loving and wise way that she established the example for her followers for all time.

Before leaving this letter of November 4, I wish to conjecture why Mrs. Lathrop and Mrs. Leonard were proposed by Mrs. Eddy as candidates for membership in the group known as First Members two years before this time. At times in­dividuals may be fitted and entitled to join a group from every standpoint but that of adaptability. Their names may be proposed, but the effect of electing them on those comprising the group may be such, that the election has to be delayed. We must believe that when Mr. Frye wrote to the Board requesting them to elect these ladies First Members, he did so at Mrs. Eddy's instigation. Perhaps there might have been prejudice against them on the part of one or two of the Directors, which Mrs. Eddy instantly became aware of, that caused her to delay the action.

When readers are elected in branch churches, it is important to elect those who will work together in unity with each other and with the entire mem­bership. If readers are elected and there is a feeling of animosity between them, they do not symbolize the unity between the Bible and Science and Health, which is so essential to the success of the Lesson-Sermon. The work of the readers must fuse in order to set forth the unity of these books as the masculine and feminine uniting. When a man reads Science and Health, which may be called feminine, and a woman reads the Bible, which may be called masculine, the greatest fusing of these books is illustrated. This harmony would be impaired, however, if there was no solidarity between the readers. It follows that a can­didate suitable from every other standpoint, might have to be rejected if there was any feeling of prejudice on his or her part against the other incumbent.

Readers who do not coalesce cannot do effective mental work, since they are working from adverse standpoints. When mental workers are grouped together, as they were in Mrs. Eddy's home, if they do not work together, they work against each other, which means that the work savors of the human mind. There is only one basis of unity in mental work, which is divine Mind. Workers in a group do not have to know how the others are working, in order to be in harmony with them; they do not even have to be trained to work the same way; they merely need to work in the one Mind.

In Mrs. Eddy's home we all worked mentally in exactly the same way, as far as the declarations we used were concerned, since she furnished those; yet she had to stop us from working time after time, because she sensed that we were working one against another, which indicated that the thought back of the work was becoming human.

When Mrs. Eddy named Mrs. Lathrop and Mrs. Leonard as First Members in 1892, she felt a mental repercussion. This made her realize that while the work these ladies had done for the Cause entitled them to this honor, yet they had not made the demonstration that would cause them to be acceptable to all of the First Members, a fact that the Directors were aware of, since the latter had their fingers on the pulse of the Movement and had an accurate knowledge of such matters.

When Mrs. Eddy named the Building Committee in 1902, she included Edward P. Bates as a member. He had proved his ability in the matter of building when The Mother Church was erected. Yet at once the Directors felt that it was not wise to have him on the committee, since he was not acceptable to the majority of students in Boston. Joseph Armstrong suggested that I as chairman ask Mr. Bates to resign. He declared that he knew many well-to-do students who would not give a penny toward building the extension, if they discovered that Mr. Bates was a member of the Building Committee.

I had the impulse to tell Mr. Armstrong that the money was being contributed to the Cause of Christian Science and not to Mr. Bates, and that if the Leader selected him, that alone should make him acceptable to the students in Boston. I felt like declaring that if a member would not contribute merely because Mr. Bates was on the Building Committee, he had better keep his money, since it would not be a welcome contribution, backed up by an unscientific and unloving sense.

I knew, however, that Mr. Armstrong was naming the situation honestly as it appeared to the Directors. So, I sought to make a demonstration of asking Mr. Bates to resign. He did so in a kindly manner, and Calvin Hill was named to take his place. No word was ever received from Mrs. Eddy regarding this change, so I felt that she was satisfied. One point, however, remains in my memory that deserves mention. I said to Mr. Armstrong, “Mrs. Eddy selected this committee. Therefore, I should think the Board of Directors was running a risk to go contrary to her selection. Suppose you are making a mistake?” He replied, “Well, I probably would be sick, but I would get well again.” He recognized the fact that if he was making a mistake, he would have to pay for it, but that he would recover. This simple statement has helped me many times through the years.

Had I been tempted to believe that Mr. Armstrong was asking me to do that which might make me appear in Mrs. Eddy's eyes as the instigator of a move that was contrary to her wishes, I merely had to recall that no one needed to fear anything of that kind when dealing with Mrs. Eddy, since she saw things rightly and justly.

The Directors felt that this committee would have opposition from many students, as long as Mr. Bates was a member. The effect of this would be to put an added mental load on all of us. In fact, it is possible that we could not have built the extension with Mr. Bates on the committee; yet it seemed as if we could not do it without him, since neither Mr. Hatten, nor myself had had any ex­perience in building. Finally, the Directors assumed active charge of the build­ing, leaving the Building Committee to function as mental workers. Today I can see the hand of God in this, since before long I was called to Pleasant View. Mrs. Eddy might not have felt free to call me, had I been functioning on this committee in an active way. She might not have wished to take one who was doing important work, and who would have to be replaced in the middle of the building operations by one who did not have the same grasp of the situation as one who had followed the work from the beginning.

Mr. Bates was eminently fitted to be a member of this committee by his ability and experience. He and his wife did heroic work when The Mother Church was built, so much so that Mrs. Eddy referred to what they had done in her dedicatory sermon. See Pulpit and Press, 9:9. It was Mr. Bates' appliances that warmed the edifice, and it was Mrs. Bates who climbed to the top of the tower to help settle a certain question.

By 1902, however, the Bates did not fit into the Boston picture as har­moniously as they had in 1895. One reason for this was that they did not return to their own field of labor, after their work was done in Boston. They stayed on and on, and thus antagonized many local students. Why was this? The answer is that it was natural for the Boston students to assume that the Boston field belonged to them; hence one coming from outside was an interloper, who might rob them of patients, and pupils also, if that one happened to be a teacher.

Students should realize that a good demonstrator coming into a Field will always increase the work for themselves and for everybody else; just as a good worker in a service will handle the error of inertia for all, so that all may work mentally with success and ease. The reason students in Mrs. Eddy's home could work mentally for such long periods, was because she handled the error that would make such work difficult. In races where a bicycle paces behind a motor­cycle, the speed the former is able to attain is wholly because the latter meets the resistance of the air.

In Christian Science the harvest is plenteous, but the laborers who know how to meet the claims of inertia and prejudice, so that the minds of people are opened to Christian Science, are few. It should be self-evident that any seasoned practitioner going into a field, will increase the possibilities in that field for everyone. He knows that the only way to have patients is to do the mental work, that breaks down the error and prejudice that would keep patients and inquirers away. When he is successful in doing this for himself, he does it for all, since what blesses one, blesses all.

Mrs. Eddy saw this tendency to stay away from their own Field, to seek activity and excitement elsewhere, when she wrote to Mr. and Mrs. Bates in March, 1888 in part: “I see no outlook that God will bless when my students are willing to tear down, but are not ready to fill the breeches. I am almost discouraged looking for true Christianity. Miss Crosse is no doubt doing what you say, and if so, it is sure she is backsliding. But where shall I turn for one who is doing their duty and living up to their light?...You could no doubt get Miss Estes by writing all about the place she is offered, but where or what are you and your wife doing? Even so much her seniors, Normal Class Graduates, old members of the Church and standing still in this hour, when such important orders come from God: ‘Occupy until I come.' Oh! is it nothing to you all, ye that pass by? Two years longer in which to be paying debts to men and all your years in­debted to God without paying Him yet by obeying His command — Go work in my vineyard. Heartily disgusted with error, I am, Your teacher, M. B. G. Eddy.”

The Bates' sojourn in Boston was not a desire for place and power; but they were geared to such wide accomplishments and charged with such energy, that it seemed too tame just to remain in their own field and heal and teach year after year. Mrs. Eddy had such students as the Bates in mind when she wrote on page 230 of Miscellaneous Writings, “Rushing around smartly is no proof of accomplishing much.”

The time comes with each advancing student when he gains his entire satisfaction from the effort to reflect God. Until that time comes, he will seek satisfaction in many ways. The Bates in doing their part in helping to build The Mother Church, were like soldiers who acquitted themselves nobly in battle, but who found it difficult after the battle had been won, to go home and resume the humdrum of ordinary life — the drab work of merely earning a living.

The Bates were people of large affairs. They could cope with sizable prob­lems. Often those with such abilities and qualities find it difficult to be content with the basic work of Christian Science. Those who work well in the limelight, crave to be in it continually, when the real work of Christian Science is done in the closet.

The qualifications of a good Christian Scientist are many and varied. He must be flexible. He must be able to work in the sunshine as well as in the storm. He must be able to speak with authority when it is necessary, and yet like the Master be humble enough to wash the feet of those who need it. He must main­tain a balance between being too active outwardly on the one hand, and being too passive on the other. He must be like an engine that can do a big job when necessary, and yet be throttled down to do a small one. The Bates were gifted with a wide vision and great energy, which gave them the ability to handle important matters with dispatch and efficiency; but they found it difficult to throttle down to the point where they were contented in doing the so-called smaller tasks God called them to do.

These letters written by our Leader are of enormous value to posterity. Through them we can see how she measured up to every requirement of God. In them she set forth the human qualities in students that, when yielded to, will cause their downfall, — even though they are the very salt of the earth. None of her students fulfilled the measure of God's destiny as did their Leader; and it is through these letters that we learn why. When we read that Mrs. Lathrop and Mrs. Leonard did not join the First Members for two years, we should not think of the incident as happening to persons, but to qualities of thought, in line with what Calvin Hill said to Mrs. Eddy when he was searching for helpers to work in her home: “Mother, I am not looking for persons, but for qualities of thought.” We should learn from Mrs. Lathrop's and Mrs. Leonard's experience that our work of fitting ourselves for whatever place God has for us, must include the demonstration of adaptability, co-operation and compatibility, so that we can work with our brethren in harmony.

Had these two ladies in 1892 made the demonstration that would have endeared them to all of the First Members, as our Leader did, they would have been elected to that group. Had the Bates met the error that caused them to become unpopular in Boston, the husband would have been retained as a member of the Building Committee. In studying their history, however, one should not think of them as persons who did not measure up to the standard, but as qualities of thought that perhaps did not have the advantage we have today, namely, of being able to look back and perceive in the history of other students, qualities that proved to be deterrents in the path.

The history and experiences of pioneers are exceedingly valuable to generations who follow after. When a pioneer leaves a record of his difficulties in finding a ford across a river, those coming after can take advantage of his final discovery of the right path, and avoid his extra labors and experiments. Thus these letters of our Leader, which deal with her pioneer experiences, should not be studied from curiosity, but through a sincere desire to profit by the mistakes of other students.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

November 7, 1894

Dear Student:

I thank you for the detailed report and By-law. But most of all I thank God and you for the awakening to the sense you ex­pressed of what is so important for your present and future pro­gress, welfare, safety. For all this I tried to prepare in the By­-law relating to your office.

As ever lovingly,

Your Teacher,

Mary Baker Eddy


In the days of the pony express, fresh mounts were provided at predeter­mined points, so that when one horse was spent, another could be used. The drivers also carried weapons. Thus armed and provided with a fresh mount, they could protect the mail.

Mary Baker Eddy did three things for her followers. First she opened their eyes to the enemy and exposed how it relies on a surprise attack for its success. For instance, one may wonder how he could come down with a particular sickness, when he was not thinking about it, or harboring conscious fear of it. Mortal belief hides its claims so that they will not be detected, but will come as a surprise. Mortals touch poison ivy, that to the ignorant one appears to be a harm­less leaf, and are poisoned. In like manner mortals accept suggestions that ap­pear to be harmless and even good, when contained in them is some hidden claim of sin or sickness.

The second thing Mrs. Eddy did was to furnish her followers with weapons that, rightly used, will always overthrow the enemy. In this way they may prevent the enemy from stealing that incalculably valuable thing, namely, their spiritual thought and conscious oneness with God.

The purpose of animal magnetism is not to make us sick or poor or sinful. It is always to rob us of that precious thing, our consciousness of God, with which we can conquer the world, the flesh and the devil, and help to restore all humanity to their right relation to God.

Finally Mrs. Eddy provided her followers with fresh mounts along the way, giving them thoughts to refresh them and keep them active for the fray. In the work of demonstration that Science and Health sets forth, parts of the book are intended to lighten and refresh thought; but one should never enjoy that re­vivifying sense to the point where he neglects the rest of the work. For instance, one should not enjoy the Lesson-Sermons on God, Life, Truth and Love to the extent that he neglects those on animal magnetism. It is true that the latter call for practical demonstration, in contrast to the refreshment that comes from the former; but in order for the refreshment to fulfil its purpose, one must use it to keep ahead of the enemy, exactly as the rider of the pony express would use a fresh mount, when his old one was fatigued.

At times, when students work mentally, they are driven by an excess of fear, and so do not work scientifically or correctly. They approach the error through fear rather than through expectancy, and soon become so mentally weary that their work is not only ineffective, but not intelligent. It is not intelli­gent to work against error as if it were real and needed the mighty power of God to crush it, when it is merely a claim of nothingness, a dream, or an hal­lucination.

It is a trick of animal magnetism to tempt one with the argument of mental weariness, so that his work becomes mechanical and fruitless. Refreshment and relaxation of thought are permissible at intervals, if one believes that he needs to recuperate from the vain attempt to apply Science with a weary sense. When thought is refreshed, it rises up to overthrow the claim of evil with the needed expectancy and clarity of vision.

Some battle-scarred practitioners at times permit thought to become so weighed down with an excess of effort and a weary beating of the air, that they do not think intelligently. They possess the necessary knowledge and ability to handle the error, but in belief they become worn with the strife and need a fresh mount. The moment they gain the needed refreshment, thought rises spontaneously to destroy fear, their vision becomes clear, and the problem is solved. They know the truth and the truth makes them free.

Christian Science is not a prizefight, where one opponent continually strikes another, until he overthrows him. The contest is with oneself. It consists of throwing off the false beliefs that hold thought down. When thought is fresh, this can be done with ease; but when thought is weighed down and weary, it needs refreshment, not work.

Samson furnishes an illustration of one with an understanding which enabled him to meet daily all the error that presented itself. Then through subtlety and trickery, he was robbed of his spiritual thinking, as symbolized by his hair. He was overthrown and retired from any further fighting. Yet after a while his hair grew again; his thought became refreshed, and he was able to rise up again and to overthrow the enemy.

This line of thought leads up to the concept of safety as expressed in this letter, showing that it is not enough for a student to embrace the first two points Mrs. Eddy has furnished, namely, a knowledge of evil and the weapons to use against it. In order to awaken his thought and handle error, one must have a rested sense. Once Mrs. Eddy expressed this by saying, “Touch lightly on evil when treating, as you would upon the grace notes on a piano.” It requires a light thought in order to do this, since one characteristic of the claim of mental weariness is that it bears down heavily on the claim at error, and thus tends to make it more real, instead of less.

The By-law referred to in this letter is no doubt the one that read, “If the clerk of this Church shall receive a communication from the Pastor Emeritus, that he does not fully understand, before presenting it to the Church he shall inform said Pastor of this fact, and obtain a clear understanding of the matter, and act in accordance therewith. Failing to adhere to this by-law, the clerk must resign his office.”

A thought weighed down with responsibilities becomes so heavy that it cannot comprehend things. Practitioners who become weary in well doing, may believe that they are applying their metaphysics as they have been taught. But they are merely tiring their thought with constant repetition of arguments, not realizing that what they lack is inspiration. It is foolish to believe that one can accomplish by repetition that which can only be done by inspiration.

Practitioners sometimes get into a rut where they give patients the same treatment day after day, feeling that that is all that is necessary. What makes the healer believe that the treatment that did not heal the patient yesterday is going to do so today? What is needed is that lightness, or yeast, that lifts thought to the point of reflection. The effect of a heavy thought is to rob one of his expectancy, and to magnify error until it appears to be real. Under such circumstances a continuation of arguments is not only ineffective, but not intelligent.

In regard to the above By-law one can say that Mrs. Eddy realized that Mr. Johnson's thought had become weary in a human effort to understand her letters. He was vibrating between the fear of being reprimanded if he misunderstood a letter and did something wrong, or if he consulted her unnecessarily, and added to her burden by bringing to her his error and confusion. This had happened once as we learned in the letter of August 12, 1892, where she had to write to him, “You confuse me, and I see now that M. A. M. confuses you for this purpose.”

Hence the moment this By-law was written which required him to obtain a clear understanding of her letters, and to consult her for this purpose, a great load of fear was lifted from his mind, and this rested him. Mrs. Eddy watched the mental state of her students, and probably felt his sense of uncertainty, weariness and fear, so she found it necessary to correct the situation with a By-law.

No one could realize what it meant to have daily dealings with our Leader, unless he had actually experienced them. More than once students sat up all night trying to satisfy her demands, rather than to have her criticize them, or assert that they had failed in any direction. Perhaps her demand that Mr. Johnson demonstrate in order to understand her letters, pressed on him too hard at this point, so she lightened the burden with this By-law.

It was essential that Mrs. Eddy make her communications somewhat cryptic and obscure, in order to encourage the Directors along lines of meta­physical analysis, since the time was coming when they would be driven to the demonstration of Mind, by the fact that she was no longer in their midst. If she could drive them to God when she was with them, they would be certain to go to Him after she had gone. In writing this By-law for the clerk's office, however, she realized that he was not far enough advanced to depend consistently upon his own demonstration of oneness with God in order to understand her letters. He had become weary and depressed in an honest desire and effort to comprehend all that she wrote. This By-law, therefore, was intended to give him a sense of rest, that would enable him to continue his duties with renewed vigor.

Mrs. Eddy was disappointed when students did not measure up to her ex­pectations; yet she always expected of them more than they could fulfill. Had she not done so, they would not have developed. The right way to bring forth better effort is to hold individuals as having more intelligence and ability than they manifest at present. The students did not want Mrs. Eddy's faith in them misplaced; so by expecting much of them, she brought forth the best they had.

When I state that Mrs. Eddy was grooming students to carry on after she had gone, I do not imply that she expected them to outlive her. She wanted to es­tablish in the various offices of the organization the ability and requirement to seek and to obtain wisdom from God to guide the Movement. In this letter she expressed the fact that what interested her was the present and future progress, welfare and safety of her students in office, as well as out of office.

When it came to safety, Mrs. Eddy knew that the students could protect themselves from obvious forms of error; but she saw the need of opening their eyes to the action of hidden error, just as a householder examines the foundation at intervals, lest termites work undetected until his house comes crashing down about his head!

What makes this action of termites possible in the physical realm, is the fact that mental suggestions claim to work in the dark undetected. What one sees in the universe is a visible replica of what goes on in the mental realm. So the greatest element in safety is the use of spiritual sense to detect hidden error.

One of the problems that confronted Mrs. Eddy was the fact that she knew that human language could never convey to uninspired thought the spiritual message she had to impart. There may be those of her followers who believe that it is possible to couch the spiritual message of Christian Science in terms that will enable human thought to comprehend it; but Mrs. Eddy never made this mistake.

However, when she perceived the degree to which Mr. Johnson was troubled over her letters to the Board, she was guided to frame this By-law. Then she was thankful because Mr. Johnson caught a glimpse of the spiritual intent that underlay the By-law, which would result in his safety and the safety of the Cause. This gave her a renewed hope that, if one student could awaken to hear and understand spiritually, others might. If a mother hen has one egg that hatches, that gives her a right to expect that the rest will.

Mrs. Eddy was always filled with hope when a student caught a spiritual vision. We find this exemplified in a letter she wrote to Mrs. Helen Nixon on October 11, 1892: “It was comforting to read the divine record of your com­munion with God. He has shown you the Truth on every topic you wrote....Is it not wonderful and glorious to watch the signs of the times! I hope dear Miss Gorham is clear in her spiritual sense by this time, and that dear Miss Campbell and Mrs. King will have sweet communion with God and His angels.” It is evident that Mrs. Nixon had caught a spiritual vision, and Mrs. Eddy had a right to expect that these other students would likewise peck open their shells and gain the same spiritual light and freedom.

It did not take much to please or to encourage our Leader. If the limited human sense in a student lifted sufficiently to let in a measure of truth, she was thereby made glad. She was like one called upon to talk to primitive people about electric lighting. When she found that opaque mortal thinking could gain but little conception of spiritual facts, it was not an encouraging outlook.

Once a man was trapped in a gold mine in Nova Scotia. His rescuers realized that he would smother before they could dig him out, so they drove down a pipe through which they sent him air and food. Mrs. Eddy found her students buried in materiality. When she found that through a small aperture in thought a student was receiving a spiritual inflow, she rejoiced. When she saw one student manifesting spiritual qualities to any degree, she could look forward with some assurance to the future success of the Cause.

When the students wrote to her and said, “Dear Mother, we received your letter and promptly obeyed,” that pleased her and promised well for the present, but it did not necessarily indicate the spiritual development that boded well for the future of the Cause; but when a student indicated that he was beginning to function with the same spiritual sense that she employed, even if it was only to a small degree, she thanked God and the student for such an awakening.




Friday, 10 A. M.

November 23, 1894

To the C. S. Board of Directors

When the mists have risen above us,

As our Father knows His own,

Face to face with those who love us,

We shall know as we are known.

Love, beyond the Orient meadows,

Floats the golden fringe of day;

Heart to heart we bide the shadows,

Till the mists have cleared away.

Mother


It would seem fitting to include this poem in Mrs. Eddy's letters to the Board since valuable thoughts and precepts can be deduced from it. It may be found on page 39 of Joseph Armstrong's book, The Mother Church, and is taken largely from an old Gospel hymn. Proof of her love for it may be found in a letter she wrote to E. J. Smith of Washington, D. C., which reads in part: “They are singing the same songs you sang at Washington, in the parlor here, and I am writing you in the midst of music very sweet. One song is my favorite and it fairly takes me from my subject. This is the caption: ‘We shall know each other better when the mists have rolled away.' Oh, I love it! My tears dim my eyes as they sing with joy and with a sense of the beauty and truth of the words of that song.''

When spiritual perception enables one to understand the motivation of Mrs. Eddy's thought, and to discover why she moved as she did, he will be better able to understand her teachings, as well as to have a more intelligent and direct knowledge of its application. It is valuable, therefore, to ponder why she sent this verse to the Directors at this time.

Mrs. Eddy told me with her own lips that she did all of her healing work instantaneously. Why have her followers not reached this high attainment? Have they not the same power to work with? Has the Leader not shared with her followers all of her knowledge? Why are their results inferior to hers? Was it the thought that accompanied her declarations, which made them more effective for her than for them? If that is true, her followers must strive harder to gain her position of spiritual skill and power.

The Spirit of God demonstrated to meet the needs of our Cause, provided the wisdom necessary to establish and to perpetuate it. Mrs. Eddy named this demonstration of wisdom, the Pastor Emeritus, and left the requirement for this same impersonal demonstration in the future running of the Cause, by stating in the Church Manual that many of the By-laws could not be obeyed without obtaining her consent.

The greatest demonstration of wisdom is required in running the Christian Science organization. Its progress is like that of a great vessel. It must be piloted by none other than God, lest it go aground on a reef. All its members should apply their demonstration of divine wisdom to the organization, as well as to their own experience. Mrs. Eddy's insistence that before the members could apply certain By-laws, her consent would have to be gained, means that in the present-day administering of the Manual, students must strive to attain the inspirational thought that Mrs. Eddy had when she guided the Cause.

This requirement which Mrs. Eddy left in the Manual does not apply to those only who stand legally at the head of our Cause. The Board of Directors might be likened to five men in a boat. If the tide may stand for the rising and falling demonstration of the members, it follows that the Directors as a unit cannot at any given point rise higher than the demonstration of the whole Field carries them, no matter how well they may demonstrate as individuals. If the members in general are unfaithful, the Directors cannot be held respon­sible, just as a thermometer is not responsible when a room becomes hot or cold.

This same point applies to branch churches. For instance, when there is a financial lack, the treasurer cannot be held responsible. The human tendency is to elect someone, and then expect that one to make the financial demonstration. But because every opportunity to demonstrate is a means of spiritual growth, no member should deprive himself of the privilege of growth coming from the effort to demonstrate supply for the church of which he is a member. If the treasurer did all the demonstrating, he would be the only one who would benefit. In reality every member is responsible before God for the financial support of his church. Man may look to the treasurer, but God looks to the entire membership. In God's sight every member is as responsible as the treasurer.

The members of The Mother Church are responsible for demonstrating the thought that holds its officers up to the high point where they belong. If an error appears among the officials, the members must blame themselves for a lack of demonstration. When David numbered the people in disobedience to God's demand, the people were punished. This proves that the lack of demonstration among the people was responsible for his error, since he was their representa­tive; thus, it was for their own sin that the people were punished.

Therefore, if we do not feel that the Cause is being conducted properly, we should silence criticism of its officials, asking ourselves whether we are doing our part to pour in the spiritual thought that is needed to sustain the Cause, and to put it under the direction of God.

Whatever would blind a member to this fact is an argument of animal mag­netism. Hence it is possible that in sending this verse to the Board, Mrs. Eddy desired to awaken them to the need of handling animal magnetism — the mists of error. While the poem conveys comfort and encouragement, a deeper reason for her sending it might have been that she saw that they were not handling the “mists” as they should. This was a call for them to do so, couched in such a way that it would take spiritual discernment on their part to detect her purpose. This would foster spiritual growth.

Animal magnetism is the mist that went up from the earth, causing a mis­conception concerning man and the universe. It follows that to handle this mist is all that is necessary in order to bring into focus the reality that is here and now. Perfection is already with us; in clearing away the mists, therefore, we are not trying to change anything, but merely to disclose the eternal facts of being. Our reward for so doing is not that we gain something we have not had; our reward is the reality that appears as ever-present, when the illusion, which is looking at perfection imperfectly, is taken away.

In handling the mists, it is essential to establish the fact that a child of God has no capacity to believe a lie, or to perceive perfection imperfectly. On page 357 of Science and Health we read, “Truth creates neither a lie, a capacity to lie, nor a liar.” We must establish the fact that there is no mist, that there is no mesmerism to make us believe in any mist, to fear it, or fight it. Nothing can interfere with our correct perception of all things, which is given to us of God.

The poem declares that the Father knows His own. To extend this thought we must realize that His own must know the Father and they must know each other. “We shall know as we are known.” This was Mrs. Eddy's gentle way of telling the Directors that as they handled animal magnetism, they would under­stand her, in line with a statement she made to them in a letter a little over a month later, “Do not let the constant dropping change your true sense of ‘Mother.'”

The most difficult thing to understand about our Leader was her sharp rebukes; yet those who were privileged to receive these rebukes could gain some hint as to how God regards mortal man, and what a sin it is in His sight to en­tertain the human mind — His only enemy — even in those phases which seem legitimate and right.

Thus one deduction from this poem, which no doubt Mrs. Eddy hoped the Directors would make, was that as they handled the mists of animal magnetism, they would know her better, and perceive that her rebukes and chastenings were based on divine Love.

One point in Mrs. Eddy's experience which seemed hard for the students to understand, since she often appeared to be unfair and unjust, was in connection with her clothes. It was hard for some students close to her to realize that she was just, since her judgment was based on what she saw in the minds of her students, rather than on what they did for her outwardly. When they leaned on the human mind in her home, which was dedicated to the Mind of God, they had to be rebuked. Surely it would be an offence to bring the human mind into the presence of God — if such a thing were possible? Then was it not equally an offence to bring the human mind into Mrs. Eddy's presence, since she rep­resented God?

When Mrs. Eddy rebuked her dressmaker, when apparently there was no reason for so doing, she was merely being consistent with her fundamental teaching, namely, that when one's thought is wrong, nothing he does is right, because what he does carries or conveys that wrong thought. She stressed this point when she said to Mr. Kimball (as quoted in his letter to Judge Hanna dated November 19, 1907), “You may declare, ‘I have a perfect liver,' or ‘there is no liver,' provided the thought back of these declarations is right.” Also on page 58 of Miscellaneous Writings is the statement, “If God does not govern the action of man, it is inharmonious....”

When her dressmaker fashioned a garment for her, the dress carried the quality of the worker's thinking; and this was as palpable to Mrs. Eddy's keen sense, as perfume would be to the ordinary individual. Mrs. Eddy once declared, “I may have no sense of smell, but I can detect error a thousand miles off.”

In Ezekiel 13:18 we read, “And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Woe to the women that sew pillows to all armholes...to hunt souls!” This is a Biblical assertion that there is no good in the dressmaking done by an unregenerate thought. Mrs. Eddy, however, had the ability to detect the difference between the fruit of demonstration and the product of the human mind. Garments made for her from a human mind standpoint, were of little value. She had taken her stand early in her experience against that which was not governed by God, and she was consistent with this stand. She appeared to be unjust only to those who were looking at effect without regard for cause.

To please Mrs. Eddy was the same as pleasing God, since she reflected God. When one is seeking to please God, and to put forth that which will endure, right thinking, or demonstration must be included, since demonstra­tion is the only immortal or Godlike quality. Water will rust a pipe, while oil will preserve it. The difference between mortality and immortality is the dif­ference in thinking. In taking her stand with God, Mrs. Eddy set herself against everything of a finite nature, including all that proceeded from human activity, or from an unregenerate thought.

When the sugar maple is gashed in the springtime, it bleeds sweet sap. It is possible to differentiate between the genuine Scientist and the false claimant by the fact that under affliction the former will bleed sweet, and become more loving and thoughtful. It is the one who is not well grounded in Christian Science who will become irritated when affliction comes. It is as natural for the genuine Christian Scientist to soften and become more considerate under affliction, as it is for a mirror to reflect the sunlight. At times when Mrs. Eddy rebuked her students, she was testing them to see if under affliction they bled sweet. She produced an artificial pressure of chastisement which told her much about a student's thought.

In this poem one can feel an effort to convey to the Directors that, when they handled the mist, or the mistification, of the human mind which causes mortals to misunderstand each other, they would come face to face with the fact that Mother's rebukes were given entirely because of her great desire to help them to measure up to God's ideal. It was not easy for her to rebuke students, but her desire to see them take advantage of every opportunity to rise higher, drove her to give the necessary instruction and reproof, which, if taken in the right spirit, would accomplish this end. When the mists had cleared away, they would come face to face with the understanding that she rebuked them from love, and never because she was irritated with them.

It is reported that in her class of 1898 Mrs. Eddy was asked if a student ought to reprove error in another, or whether the realization of Love would destroy it without audible rebuke. Instead of giving a direct answer, she said, “One of the hardest things I have had to do was to deal with this very question. I would rather at any time dwell on Love alone and get away from error. But that would not do. It would allow error to increase. Jesus rebuked error sharply. I must do so until I arrive at that place in Mind where I cannot see error, where God, Spirit, is All-in-all. The omnipresence of good involves the nothingness of evil, but the mental argument must be used until you can heal instantaneously without it. Being is knowing. Knowing what? Infinite — Love.”

Once I had an interesting and vivid dream about our Leader, in which I said to her that she made it difficult for students to understand many letters that she wrote; but that I had come to see that she often included something in a letter which could not be understood without spiritual analysis. I declared that I had come to see that she did this in order to foster growth on the part of the students. She replied in my dream, “Did you find that out?”

Mrs. Eddy expected obedience on the part of the Directors, but in her communications we find much that was designed for their spiritual growth. Human sense may conclude that Mrs. Eddy sent this verse to comfort the Direc­tors in a dark hour, whereas spiritual sense would perceive that she sent it with the hope that they would ponder it spiritually, and discover the message that she had in mind for them. In this way they would not only gain her message but spiritual growth as well.

The poem refers to “Orient meadows.” These may refer to human harmony, that humanly desirable condition which is not scientific because it is limited. Thus divine Love would have man look beyond the satisfaction found in material sense. The supposed harmony of matter is no more real than the dream of the opium addict, where the mists of mesmerism color the drabness of ma­teriality so that he feels stimulated pleasurably.

When the prodigal son came to himself in Egypt and his normal thinking was restored, the Orient meadows were seen to be no more desirable than a pig pen. The exciting food that he had been eating was discovered to be husks. There is a symbolism growing out of the fact that, when the dehydrating of all sorts of food was discovered, a soldier could carry many weeks' supply on his back, so light did the food become when the water in it was dried out. In like manner the husks that the prodigal son ate, might represent matter from which had been extracted the mesmeric belief of desirability, substance and intelli­gence, so that it no longer acted as a weight to keep him down in Egypt. So, he rose spontaneously, like a balloon from which the weight of the ballast bags has been cut away.

The poem ends with the lines, “Heart to heart we bide the shadows, till the mists have cleared away.” This indicates that if the students would unite heart to heart with Mrs. Eddy's demonstration, this unity would hold them securely and safely until error had been handled. She had no immediate expectancy that even with an active determination to handle the claim of animal magnetism, they could do it without her help. But supported by her demonstration, they could begin this work and continue therein. To her everything that indicated that man is not the perfect idea of God, living in eternal harmony, was part of the mists that had to be cleared away.

While no one would accuse Mrs. Eddy of plagiarism because she sent the Directors this verse adapted by herself without giving the author credit, yet there have been instances where she was accused of this; so it is not amiss to ask the question: If a man's dog should die, and I should bring it back to life, does it belong to him or to me? When Mrs. Eddy took that which had no life in it, and gave it life, did that constitute plagiarism? A man might find a new use for old safety-razor blades without infringing the patent of the man who made them, since the patent only covered one use. Mrs. Eddy took a verse from an old Gospel hymn and put it to a new use, namely, to arouse the Directors to the need of handling animal magnetism in order to catch a glimpse of the real man and his motives. She did not need to apologize for doing this, since she put inspirational thought back of the hymn, thereby infusing it with new life.

Those who reflect God are often plagiarists involuntarily, when they give out as their own what they receive from God. Mortal mind really has nothing of its own to put forth, although it fancies that it has. Mrs. Eddy has never claimed to be anything more than the voice of one crying in the wilderness, and what she cried came from God. To her belongs merely the credit of being the one through whom Science and Health came. She states herself that God was its real Author.

There are instances in her writings where statements are to be found that are expressed in the same words as used by other authors before her. One example is in Miscellaneous Writings, page 147:14 to 3, next page. These exact words may be found in Murray's English Reader dated 1825, as quoted from a sermon by Hugh Blair. Yet when this was once called to Mrs. Eddy's attention she did nothing to change it.

What flows from God to man is inexhaustible. Students who have made the demonstration to reflect inspirational ideas, find that they have an unlimited source to draw from, and do not need to steal ideas from others in order to com­pensate for the paucity of their own thinking. When one reflects God, he can talk and write day after day without repeating himself, and never be at a loss for ideas.

There is a possibility that God might give something valuable to one of His witnesses for him to use to bless others, and that he failed to do this; so God gave the identical message to another to use rightly. Two individuals attuned to God might reflect the same thought in exactly the same language.

It is possible that Mrs. Eddy memorized this part of Blair's sermon when she was a girl, and years later gave it out word for word without realizing that it was something in her memory. When this fact was called to her attention, she may have realized that she had simply taken that which was dead and given it life, so that it would become a perpetual blessing to the race. She put back of it a healing, regenerating thought that made it fresh and new. What she did was done at the impulsion of divine wisdom. God gave His approval and consent. Could she change that?

One cannot be accused of plagiarism, if the motive to plagiarize is absent. Mrs. Eddy was animated by the desire to obey God and to bless mankind. No other motive would have caused her to make the nameless sacrifice that she did.




Concord, N. H.

November 23, 1894

(To Mr. Chase and Mr. Armstrong)

Beloved Students:

I fear you did not quite understand me, so will put down the strong points in their order. 1. First and last of all is this im­portant one, finish the church on Saturday night or Sunday morn­ing and hold services in it the last Sunday in this year.

2. $12,000 was the sum stated as a limit, but I do not mean you should put that full sum into the finishing of the church, if by so doing you could not complete the church this year.

3. Get the roof and tower done if possible, and I know it can be by putting enough men at work on the roof. The inside must be done and will, so that you can hold your service in the church this year, even if the outside is not entirely finished.

4. God has to keep changing His orders to you; by reason of so many advisers you are swayed from abiding by just what He says. Now finish as was named by us here. Have the chimes as was agreed upon (without electric connection). Paint the walls if you can get it all done this year. I do not care to have this done, and only say this to gratify the students, as I see it would be a great disappointment to them not to have it so, but if this painting will prevent your getting into the church at the time stated, don't have it done. Remember this. Also if you can get the more expensive organ into the church and achieve the first change herein named, namely to finish the church this year, do that and leave the tuning to be done, the next year.

Let me know at once when your outside work is done and I implore you to keep the commandments in this letter.

With love,

Mary Baker Eddy


In Mrs. Eddy's letters to her Church and the Board may be found instruc­tion sufficient to cover every point that the Directors need to know. To be sure, this important knowledge is not set forth in plain terms. For that reason the letters have to be studied and pondered from a spiritual standpoint, with the realization that each one has a meaning that does not appear in a casual reading.

If a question should ever come up that is not covered by these letters, that might be indication enough that such a question should not be taken into con­sideration. For instance, when she writes on December 14, 1909, “Do nothing in statuary, in writing, or in action, to perpetuate or immortalize the thought of personal being,” that should be reason enough to question the wisdom of pub­lishing a child's biography of the Leader, as was done in 1942.

When Mrs. Eddy left the requirement in the Manual that certain acts could not be performed by the Directors without the consent of the Pastor Emeritus, she was merely indicating that the spirit of God that animated her should animate her followers. There is but one robe of righteousness that can be worn at the marriage feast, and this is the robe our Leader wore; we must wear the same robe. She gave this robe to us in her daily demonstration of divine wisdom and love, and if we wish to wear it, we must find it in her life. This robe was nothing per­sonal with our Leader; it was the spirit of God that animated her, the “Pastor Emeritus” which governed her throughout her earthly experience as the Reve­lator, Founder and demonstrator. In all her decisions, recommendations and rebukes, it was the Pastor Emeritus that was functioning, and not human opinion; and this heavenly robe of righteousness remains for each of her followers to wear.

In regard to this letter urging the Directors to finish the church before the new year, it can be said that in her own life, Mrs. Eddy never permitted the work of yesterday to overlap today's. She finished all her tasks, no matter how long they took, and started each morning with a clean sheet. When there was a claim of error confronting her, she worked to eliminate it and had her students do likewise, until the work was done. Once she had us work for three days and three nights, before she announced that the work was completed. In this instance we were not told what the error was.

Mrs. Eddy emphasizes the fact that the demonstration for the students is to finish the building, so that services can be held on the last Sunday of the year, even if every detail is not completed. It was necessary to make a demonstration over a limited sense, in order to prove that God's intelligence and power were at work, rather than the human mind, no matter how purified by Truth. Some day students will understand more clearly that the purified human mind is not divine Mind, but merely the preparation of the human mind for its elimination. In this process it must be put under discipline and control, even as it contests its right to govern man in harmless ways. Students must use it less and less, even in minor matters. Finally they will recognize that divine Mind is not something that enters one's human life to sweeten it, and to remove limitation, fear and disease, in order that one may continue in material harmony. On the contrary, discords and limitations of every name and nature are to be regarded as opportunities to es­tablish divine Mind as the only Mind, since only in that way the kingdom of heaven will be disclosed.

Mrs. Eddy knew that spirituality would be obtained only as students were forced to use divine Mind, rather than their human capabilities. That is why she ordered them to finish the edifice in spite of mortal mind's argument of delay. She thereby forced the use of divine Mind, since that alone could make such a result possible. The only proof that could be given to the world that they were using something higher than the human mind, was to overrule its lying claims.

On the other hand Mrs. Eddy appreciated that there was a limit to the pres­sure that she should bring to bear, so she eased the load slightly. She saw that the responsibility of doing more than the students felt they could, was a little too much for them. So she re-assured them in a way that would make them forge ahead, and at the same time would not weigh them down with the feeling that every detail must be completed at the time specified.

Mrs. Eddy realized that if the students felt less responsibility for the non-­essentials, and more for having the interior suitable for the holding of a service at the appointed time, this would aid them in completing the entire work, whereas under too much pressure they might fail. It is wise not to make students feel too much responsibility, but to let them be faithful in the work they feel they can handle, since many times under such wise treatment they will accomplish the whole.

Mrs. Eddy knew that the students felt burdened by all the ramifications of the work confronting them, much as a practitioner would who contemplated the symptoms of a patient. She knew that demonstration would finish the building, but if the workers felt that there were too many details to tend to, they might fail. So she called their attention to one goal, just as the practitioner says to him­self, “Now all these symptoms point to just one thing, namely, that the patient's thought is out of tune with God. All I have to do is to re-establish his consciousness of man's relation to God, and that demonstration will take care of all his needs.”

I repeat that no plan of God can be called a demonstration of Christian Sci­ence unless it is finished in less time than the human mind argues is necessary. Otherwise what proof is there that something greater than the human mind is at work? When Moses' miracles were duplicated by the magicians, the value of what he did seemed lost; he had to rise until his demonstrations exceeded those of the magicians. Elijah had a greater spiritual understanding than Moses; when he had his contest with the priests of Baal, he not only was able to show forth the power of God in bringing down fire from heaven, but also to prevent the priests from accomplishing anything. This was done exactly as a Christian Scientist once rendered void the power of a hypnotist, at a public exhibition, so that the latter came forward and said, “There is an adverse thought in the audi­ence which is preventing me from performing. Now what I am doing is harmless and is purely for entertainment; so I beg whoever it is, to stop this adverse in­fluence.”

In their efforts to heal the sick by spiritual means, students should establish the fact that there is no other correct healing method, and that no other method does heal. While this might seem like a “dog in the manger” attitude, it is right­ly part of one's effort to establish the supremacy of divine Mind on earth, since in order to do so, the human mind so-called must be exposed as powerless. Material methods are a sin against man's spiritual progress, dealing as they do wholly with effect. It is an effort to take away the effect of wrong thinking, without correcting that thinking. If one's battery became disconnected from the gener­ator on his automobile, and this fact was noted by the indicator on his instrument board, he would not want a mechanic to tinker with its wiring until the indicator showed that everything was normal, when in reality the battery was still being discharged. Would a man be pleased with this deception, if he knew what had been done? At any time his car might stall without warning, miles from help.

Man disconnected from God, the source of all life, becomes, in belief, a storage battery that will finally die. Is it not essential for his salvation that this belief of separation and finiteness be destroyed? Is not sickness one of the main evidences that brings the belief of separation sharply to his attention, so that he may correct it at once? If the discord is taken away without the mental correc­tion being made, he may settle back into blind satisfaction in the belief of self-con­tainment, — that desperate situation in which mortals are separated, in belief, from the infinite source of good. Material methods, therefore, are an effort to plunge man deeper into hell, instead of a help to lift him out.

Christian Science practice would descend to the same level, if practitioners should fall into the lamentable habit of attempting to treat patients for disease instead of for erroneous thinking. Under such practice they might attempt to take away the evidence of man's being disconnected from God, without restoring the patient to Him.

In this letter to the Directors Mrs. Eddy writes, “God has to keep changing His orders to you; by reason of so many advisers you are swayed from abiding by just what He says.” She did not want this letter to be too metaphysical in phrase­ology; otherwise its effect in stimulating growth and demonstration might have been lessened; but this statement is surely a hint that these “advisers” were in the last analysis mental suggestions, so that instead of clinging to a purpose which was scientific and correct, they listened to arguments which caused them to be unstable and changeable.

Finally Mrs. Eddy writes, “...I implore you to keep the commandments in this letter.” Over and over she states in her letters that what she put forth was what God demanded of her, and it was her loyalty to Him that caused her to see that her Church fulfilled His demands. Here the wonder of Mrs. Eddy is seen. It was a marvel that she was able to put self aside sufficiently to reflect the wisdom of God, which is recorded in Science and Health; but it was a greater marvel that she was able to execute that wisdom in spite of the resistance of the carnal mind, and get it into the bloodstream of the Cause, and thus into the nation, and the world. For all time her teaching will go forth in ever-increasing volume, leavening the whole lump and changing the thoughts of humanity. It was a miracle for Mrs. Eddy to be able to take what God revealed to her, and put it forth in such a way that wise, educated and intelligent men and women would accept it, believe it, recognize it as the truth from God, and then demonstrate it.




Concord, N. H.

November 26, 1894

Dear Students:

The only reason I consented to painted walls for our church was the absurd look it must present to see mosaic floors and un­painted walls. The bells I want, and dear Mrs. Gragg supplies these the Dr. tells me. I have directed the students Mr. and Mrs. Bates, Mrs. Frame and Mrs. Hulin to put no silk walls or onyx stone into Mother's Room. I hope now you will abide by this last limit stated on paper that I send by the Dr. today as the boundary for all monies laid out in our Church.

Affectionately,

Mother

Mary B. Eddy


Some of Mrs. Eddy's instructions to the Directors bear a resemblance to orders given to soldiers in training. The men are told to march, then to halt, then to right dress, then to present arms, and this goes on and on. Yet there is not one man who does not comprehend the purpose of what seems to be aimless procedure. It is all designed to make the men alert and obedient. The orders come so fast that no man has a chance to let his mind wander. Each one must be attentive every moment.

The deduction is that much that seemed changeable in our Leader in her dealing with students, was designed to produce flexibility and to bring forth alertness. There are many instances where she declared that God told her to do one thing one day, and something else the next.

Here we have an instance. On October 27, she wrote to one of the students to go ahead and decorate the church without consulting her, and then a month later wrote this letter in which she took a different stand.

The letter of October 27 written to Mrs. Stetson is beautiful and deserves to be quoted in full. “My precious Student: Your dear letter breathing the pure spirit of love and loyalty in the truest sense is duly considered. This, however, is a fixed conclusion to which I have recently arrived, viz., to have the students form and consummate alone their plans. I want my time, and must have it at this late date, to appropriate as God, not man, arranges. So dear one, write not another word to me as to the measures and means (the object you have is right already) of whatever you undertake, if it is not breaking the rules laid down in my books. And these you already know, and are held responsible, as every student is, morally and religiously to obey, without consulting me. Obedience to the inspired teachings, and the desire your heart cherishes constantly to do good and to erect our church in Boston and decorate it as your heart and hands are directed — will be blessed and God will guide you and give you prosperity in His way. Darling, keep this letter and remember it when tempted to call on me to participate longer with the students in worldly measures.”

Plaster of paris forms a good illustration of one of the tendencies of the hu­man mind which our Leader took into consideration. If you continue to stir it, it will stay soft for a longer period than if you let it alone. Once you stop stirring it, it sets and becomes hard. Mrs. Eddy saw the need of stirring the students often in order to keep their thinking flexible; so she countermanded orders and chal­lenged their best thought, so that the human sense would not “set.” When the human mind “sets” it becomes difficult to change.

Mrs. Eddy likened herself to one training soldiers, or leading them into bat­tle when she wrote in the preface of Miscellaneous Writings, “With armor on, I continue the march, command and countermand.” In this she was wonderfully wise, in knowing the best way to handle and deal with the human mind. An un­derstanding of this one point would help many students to feel that she was justi­fied in that which previously they had criticized.

One difficulty Mrs. Eddy had in dealing with students, was due to the fact that in Science there can be no stereotyped application of its teachings to all human problems. It is true that there is a formulated or authorized teaching that is given to all beginners and students, which Mrs. Eddy laid out; but when it comes to the problem of animal magnetism, it can only be sketchily touched upon in Primary Class teaching.

When the subject of animal magnetism is being set forth to a patient or a student, the one exposing it must know that it is nothing, since it is no part of the divine creation. At the same time he must admit that it appears to operate in human affairs as a deterrent to spiritual progress and success, until it is exposed and met. So in setting it forth he must use spiritual sense, to gauge the degree of lethargy in the thought of the student from which the latter needs to be aroused. Mrs. Eddy once said, “You should not treat a lymphatic temperament as you would a nervous temperament. What it would take to move the former, would overdo with the latter.” The phlegmatic student is not awakened and quickened to a constructive action against animal magnetism by your description of it, un­less you bring it home to him sufficiently to cause him to feel at least some de­gree of fear.

Although in our textbook fear is set forth as the great enemy of mankind, yet in teaching the subject of animal magnetism, one must arouse a certain amount of fear. If students were not beset by fear to a certain degree, the whole Christian Science organization would go to sleep mentally. Fear as a wholesome whip can be dispensed with only when the permanent activity which is the re­flection of divine Mind has been established. When man's timing synchronizes with God, fear will no longer be needed.

It requires great skill to know how much fear is needed to waken an indi­vidual student without incurring the danger of frightening him into over-ac­tivity. If too much shortening is put into muffins, they crumble; whereas if not enough is used, they are too stiff. If too much fear is put into thought, it wilts. If too little is used, it remains stiff and unyielding.

These essential points must be kept in mind when studying Mrs. Eddy's letters, since in dealing with individual students, she sought to meet the need of the hour, even though she might appear to be somewhat inconsistent when her letters to different students were compared.

This letter of November 26 indicates that there was a balance in the spend­ing of money, that Mrs. Eddy was striving to establish for the students in relation to The Mother Church. Under demonstration a certain amount would be permit­ted, but nothing beyond that.

Let us anticipate the incident where Mr. and Mrs. Bates, representing the Directors, purchased expensive rugs and presented them to Mrs. Eddy in behalf of the Church. In rebuking them for spending the church funds in this way, she realized that they were swayed by sentimentality, and that they felt so much love and appreciation toward her, that they wanted to properly express their affection. They felt that an ordinary gift would not express their depth of fervour but they overstepped the boundary line of wise expenditure and had to be re­buked for it.

Metaphysically it is a fact that if you feel a genuine sense of gratitude toward an individual, even an inexpensive gift or a Christmas card may carry such a wealth of love and appreciation, that the recipient will wish to keep it.

It is the thought back of a thing that makes it important. It is the thought back of a practitioner that heals, and not what he says or argues. Even unedu­cated mortal mind can often detect the quality of thought back of a gift that it receives.

The Directors had been given the responsibility of spending money for the church in the way of adornment, and they knew that it was right to spend up to a certain amount. No doubt they felt that it was difficult to determine just what the boundary was. When she consented to painted walls for the church, because mosaic floors and unpainted walls would look absurd, she was watching lest anything incon­gruous be put into the building, that would so distract the stranger, that he would lose the spiritual message he came to receive, or that would disturb the members, so that they would neglect the work they were expected to do for the atmosphere of the meeting.

Those who come to our churches should find the surroundings so tasteful and harmonious, that they will feel a restful sense. There should be nothing ex­treme or incongruous to divert thought. The highest art lies in putting into an edifice gracious lines and furnishings that blend in such a way that thought is almost unconscious of them. When anything obtrudes so that it draws attention, it is not in good taste.

In August of 1902 Mrs. Eddy wrote to a student: “I want you to give most of your time to healing. This department of Christian Science is the one in which no student has equalled me. It is the one to which every student should aspire more than to any other. It is the one most vacant at present. Oh, how I wish my best students would strive to attain the standard of Scientific healing! I pray daily for all the members of my church and hope and pray they will lead in healing the sick, more than in teaching or church making. Why? Because, my darling student, healing is the foundation of Christian Science. A poor healer can never be a good teacher.”

One's first conception of healing in Science is that sickness is an affliction that Truth removes, and it is this proposition that attracts and satisfies the stranger. He is attracted by the human harmony coming from the demonstration of Mind. The fact that there is a higher interpretation of healing should never be set be­fore the public in any form that departs from the authorized form Mrs. Eddy estab­lished. Yet scientific healing, as Mrs Eddy names it in this letter, must include the effort to heal humanity of the belief in a human mind. One might know the letter of Christian Science and be able to heal cases of physical illness and still be a poor healer, since to be a good healer, one must have reached a place where he is assailing the human mind in other directions — not one who merely con­fines himself to healing sickness. A good teacher must have the Spirit as well as the letter of Science. He must not only talk correctly, but think correctly. What he says must come from a proven ability to heal, and from a recognition of the spiritual thought necessary to do Scientific healing.

It is illuminating to realize that the same Mind that enabled Mrs. Eddy to heal the sick in such a marvellous manner that no student has yet equalled her, also enabled her to know that no silk walls or onyx stone should go into Mother's Room, and to gauge exactly the boundary for all monies laid out in the building. She knew also that students could make the demonstration to hear God's direc­tions as she did, and so leave her free to do the higher work, since the wisdom of God for one is the wisdom of God for all. This is why she wrote in the letter of October 27, 1894, “Obedience to the inspired teachings, and the desire your heart cherishes constantly to do good and to erect our church in Boston and decorate it as your heart and hands are directed — will be blessed and God will guide you and give you prosperity in His way. Darling, keep this letter and remember it when tempted to call on me to participate longer with the students in worldly measures.” Her implication is that if they went ahead on the basis of demonstration and let God direct them, they would not have to consult her at all. Yet a month later we find her consulting with the students over the decorating of the church. She was like a mother who takes the baby's hand when it is learning to walk. She drops it when she can, but takes it up again lovingly if it becomes necessary. She did all she could to encourage the “babes in Christ” to do a little walking without Mother.

Mrs. Eddy's phrase, “obedience to the inspired teachings” implies that the students were to follow any teaching that was inspired, because it came from God. To be sure, this teaching all came through her and was included in Science and Health; yet its application was to be found in all that she said, wrote and did.

The letter of November 26 following that of October 27 sounds as if the students, in­stead of doing what their hearts and hands were directed to do by God, were allowing themselves to be governed by human opinion. As usual Mrs. Eddy had to step into the breech. As the Leader and teacher she had to keep testing stu­dents by telling them what she wanted, to see if they would follow out her desires. If they did, all was well; if they did not, she stepped into the picture, lest God's pattern be marred.

Mrs. Eddy has made it plain that in Science the great demand is for active progress. I am reminded of the time when my forty-foot motorboat ran aground in the mud. I was able to haul the boat into the channel by carrying the anchor in my rowboat as far as the chain would permit, and letting it down. Then I pulled the boat up to the anchor by using the windlass. By repeating this process the boat was soon afloat.

Mrs. Eddy continually threw the anchor of her expectation beyond what the students were able to accomplish, but they progressed spiritually through their effort to measure up to what she set before them. It is divinely wise to en­courage students to go beyond their present ability, since in this way they make larger and larger demands on their reflection of God. To be sure, Mrs. Eddy did not want her followers to attempt more than they understood, in the sense of staying in a storm when the body was freezing, or in a burning building, when the flesh was being consumed, — as we find her saying in the little Bible that Mrs. Mary Beecher Longyear found in the Bagley homestead, — but she did require students to make progress.

Once an ambitious Roman undertook to increase his strength by carrying a calf around the arena every day. He miscalculated, however, the increase of his strength, since one day the calf was too heavy for him to lift.

There is no limit to the endurance man can develop, when he recognizes that it comes, not from muscle, but from Mind. Having learned how to demon­strate, one finds that as one's spiritual understanding increases, one is given the strength to take care of every responsibility. Christian Scientists daily carry bur­dens greater than mortal mind ever conceived of; but they do it easily when their spiritual growth increases proportionately. Thus, under demonstration the student is always capable of doing what he is called upon to do. The only impossibility would be if he tried to carry his load without divine help.

Sometimes when a student feels completely weighed down, the reason is that he has turned away from God and is trying to carry his burden by his own strength. All failures in Christian Science can be traced to students turning away from God's help, since He never sends us anything we cannot handle, if we use the strength He gives us.




December 10, 1894

To Dr. Foster-Eddy

I would take Mrs. Stetson's singers for she has done well for the Church fund. But if Miss Lincoln wishes to attend the dedication, honor her by permitting her to go on to the platform and sing a solo, or in any other proper way.


This extract from a letter to Dr. Foster-Eddy has its place in this series, since it covers an incident in which the Directors were involved which has received various interpretations, but which redounds to Mrs. Eddy's credit when viewed from God's standpoint.

In a book called Reminiscences, Sermons and Correspondence published by Mrs. Stetson in 1913, she relates that Mrs. Eddy wrote to her at the same time she wrote the above extract, as follows: “Present my thanks to Mr. Case for his fine music. I have just written to the Dr. to have your singers for the occasion when the church is dedicated. But I do not know but they will delay this for sometime yet. I do not interest myself in such matters, any more than is possible to avoid. I feel no interest (comparatively) in them. I dedicated The Mother Church to God and humanity, spiritually, when the Corner-stone was lain — did it alone in my sweet quiet communion with Him. P. S. I forgot to say I do not expect to hear you at the Dedication discourse music, much as I love it. When I go into the public assemblies, there is such a desire to do me honor, it spoils all my joy. Hence I prefer not to be there. Meekness and love and home are my elements.”

Mrs. Stetson writes that Mrs. Eddy said that she would tell Dr. Foster-Eddy and Mr. Johnson what she had done, and charge them that malicious animal magnetism should not prevent the New York church from presenting the anthem that Mr. Case had dedicated to Mrs. Eddy. When Mrs. Stetson and her singers arrived at The Mother Church to rehearse the day before the dedication, the Directors refused to permit her to go in, because of the confusion and dirt in the building. Later they told her that the program was so long that her singers would not be needed.

In William Lyman Johnson's History of the Christian Science Movement on page 491 of Volume II we read of this incident. He describes how his father hur­ried to Concord to see Mrs. Eddy this very Saturday. He writes, “The result of the interview was that the anthem was omitted and the order which Mrs. Eddy de­sired was restored.”

To complete the picture it is necessary to quote the letter that Mrs. Eddy wrote to Mrs. Stetson on January 9 in which she said, “I was at a loss to know what you meant by your last despatch, or should have said by all means do not omit that fine anthem of Mr. Case's. I had seen the first order of the day and charged Mr. Johnson to allow your choir two pieces to sing and the Boston two, so as to be impartial. I was not shown the changed programme until the Dedica­tion was over. It shocked me to see Norcross' name the only one with mine on that programme and be told that the music that was dedicated to me was excluded! Three weeks before that occasion I kept charging the Dr. to see that M.A.M. should not interfere with my order as to the music and Miss Shannon heard me tell him and heard him say that Johnson should do as I requested. He, the Dr. never wrote or telegraphed a word to me as to programme or perform­ance.”

In considering this incident, it is necessary to bear in mind that Mrs. Stetson had many enemies. Her success and prosperity aroused envy and jealousy, and the fact that Mrs. Eddy did not discipline her was a source of much speculation. I myself felt that in some way Mrs. Eddy was deceived as to her real character, and that some day the latter's eyes would be opened in this direction.

Today I can see how blind we were, since Mrs. Eddy knew Mrs. Stetson better than any of us, and was doing all she could to save and bless her. This proposition must be accepted, before the problem of Mrs. Stetson can be solved and Mrs. Eddy vindicated. One must realize that when Mrs. Eddy rebuked a stu­dent it was with a conviction of his or her innocence, whereas, when mortal mind rebukes, it is with a conviction of his or her sin. Mrs. Eddy's rebukes were con­structive, rather than destructive. Mrs. Eddy taught that man is sinless, but that, when he yields to mesmerism, he does that which his right sense would never tolerate. Therefore, if you can help him to regain and to hold his right sense, that right sense will eventually overthrow the wrong sense.

Mrs. Eddy deplored the fact that many students envied Mrs. Stetson, that they thought she was outrageous, and that she should be disciplined and sum­marily excommunicated. Many of them felt resentful at her apparent determina­tion to take part in the dedicatory service of The Mother Church; they concluded that she wanted to make a public display of herself for purposes of self-aggran­dizement, and in order to rehabilitate herself in the minds of the Field at large, by indicating that she was in great favor with the Leader.

In regard to the interview Mr. Johnson had with Mrs. Eddy on the day before the dedication, where he reported her to have given him orders not to have Mrs. Stetson's choir sing the anthem, it may be stated that he shared the general distrust of Mrs. Stetson. It is possible that Mrs. Eddy did not catch the full import of what he was asking her, since her hearing was not always keen, and Mr. Johnson's voice was not very loud. I state this merely because I know that Mrs. Eddy's love for her students was impartial. She loved Mrs. Stetson to the end. While the church was in the process of disciplining Mrs. Stetson in 1909, Adelaide Still declares that she was horrified one day to observe Mrs. Eddy writing a letter to her beginning, “My darling Student!”

Mrs. Eddy would not have said one thing to Mrs. Stetson and another to Mr. Johnson; yet it does not follow that Mr. Johnson was guilty of double dealing. He felt that it was a great error to have Mrs. Stetson participate in the dedication services, because of her doubtful standing in the Field, and this strong feeling made it possible for him to come away from his interview with Mrs. Eddy con­vinced that she agreed with his side of the question.

We can assume that in Mrs. Eddy's loving efforts to save Mrs. Stetson, she felt that it would be a small matter to let her have a part in the dedication, if the result would be that it would help her to stay in the Cause as a loyal member, rather than to be excommunicated. She included among her students many influential people, and Mrs. Eddy had no wish to have them harmed.

In working with Mrs. Stetson, Mrs. Eddy was true to her teachings, namely, that it was animal magnetism that was controlling her, and if she could be freed from this influence, she would be restored to the constructive position she was capable of filling in the Cause. Mrs. Eddy's heartfelt wish for her was, “O, if she would only awaken to throw off the error to which she is yielding.''

This incident, therefore, illustrates both sides of the situation. On the one hand students were striving to exclude Mrs. Stetson from their midst because they felt that she was in error; on the other, Mrs. Eddy was trying to place responsibilities on her, so that she and the other students would feel that Mrs. Eddy expected much of her. In this way she would have an ideal to live up to, which would help her to rise above the error that was tempting her. It was always a help to a student to feel that Mrs. Eddy expected much of him. Furthermore, Mrs. Eddy had a right to feel that if Mrs. Stetson played an acceptable part in the dedication at the Leader's own request, that would help to stop much of the malpractice against her. Finally, it would be a great lesson in brotherly love, for those who were not manifesting such love toward the one they felt was in error.

The dedication offered those who felt an animosity toward Mrs. Stetson, the opportunity to be real Christian Scientists, and to express to her the Christly forgiveness enjoined in Mrs. Eddy's teachings. There is no authority in the latter's writings for “thumbs down” on a student. Christian Science is not a repetition of the Spanish inquisition, where one who appeared to be wrong in his convictions was put on the rack and tortured.

It appears as if this incident marked the line between Mrs. Eddy's ideal of Christian Science and that practiced by many of her students. The breach be­tween them and Mrs. Stetson was never healed, but grew wider until her ex­communication. I do not contend that the latter was not an erring sister, but I do assert that we students did not make the same Christly effort to help her that our Leader did. We did not hold the attitude that a true Christian Scientist should toward an erring brother or sister.

Mrs. Eddy prayed that her teachings would forever rule out of her church the old theological attitude toward the erring, as if they should be disciplined without consideration or love. All sincere students strive to fulfill their Leader's prayer. It is sad to record, however, that this love was not shown toward Mrs. Stetson in its fulness by anyone except Mrs. Eddy.

I do not mean to give the impression that Mrs. Eddy's students were without exception arrayed against their Leader on this question; but it was generally believed that she was mistaken in regard to Mrs. Stetson, and so needed to be protected from her. They felt that in some way Mrs. Stetson had managed to “pull the wool” over Mrs. Eddy's eyes. Today I perceive that Mrs. Eddy knew all about Mrs. Stetson, but that she was holding a metaphysical and scientific attitude toward her. No matter how many times the latter fell away from grace, Mrs. Eddy was ready to forgive her, even if it be seventy times seven, always hop­ing that the time would come when she would meet her error. Thereby she set a wonderful example for all Christian Scientists. As late as April 11, 1903, we find her writing to Mrs. Stetson, “My precious Student: I want my church to act in unity and each one to prefer another, and to love one another, even as I have loved them. Darling, I love to think of your cheerful face that I saw to-day — to think of you as happy and prosperous. O, may God bless you, dear, and crown your life with His love. Ever tenderly, lovingly thine, M. B. Eddy.”

In his dealing with Judas, the Master set a wonderful example of the Chris­tianly scientific way to deal with students. The more Jesus recognized the error in Judas' thought, the more he tried to save him. From this we learn an important lesson, that even though we may be called upon to deal with some qualities of thought that cannot be redeemed at the present time, we should never give up trying. Even though human sense may declare that certain ones are beyond the pale, we must be as untiring as the Master and Mrs. Eddy were, in our effort to express the love that characterizes the genuine Christian Scientist.

Error might have argued to Mr. Johnson in this fashion: “This is just another trick of Stetson's. She has once more “pulled the wool'' over Mrs. Eddy's eyes in get­ting the latter's permission to take part in the dedication, and in presuming to put herself on the same level with the loyal and faithful students who have ac­complished so much for the Cause. Therefore we must act in order to save Mrs. Eddy from herself.” If these sentiments represented Mr. Johnson's line of thought, then it is possible that Mrs. Eddy may have said something that he felt was suffi­cient authority for preventing Mrs. Stetson from doing what Mrs. Eddy had invited her to do.

Mrs. Eddy was shocked to learn what had happened, as we learn in her letter to Mrs. Stetson, but forgiveness was so native to her, that she did not hold anything against the Directors. She knew that the love she was expressing toward Mrs. Stetson was a truly Christian spirit that could not be found anywhere ex­cept in Christian Science, and that her students had not yet grown to her ability to demonstrate it; but she hoped that they would. She could rebuke Mrs. Stetson from the standpoint of the latter's innocence, realizing that the error was animal magnetism controlling her, whereas when the majority of the students condemned her, they did not maintain the assumption that she was fundamental­ly innocent. Hence they felt that they could not tolerate her in their midst; neither did they want her accorded any privileges.

One may ask, if Mrs. Eddy was reflecting God's will in having Mrs. Stetson's singers perform at the dedication, why was error able to thwart this plan. The answer is that all things work together for good to them that love God. Mrs. Eddy accepted the finale as the working out of good, since she had been faithful in doing her duty to Mrs. Stetson. Furthermore, Mrs. Eddy gives the rule of Sci­ence in its present application to human life, as choosing the lesser of two evils. See Miscellaneous Writings, pages 288 and 289. Without doubt the way the situation worked out at the dedication was the nearest right under the circum­stances, although Mrs. Eddy's love was so impartial and all-embracing, that she would have had Mrs. Stetson accorded the honor that the latter craved.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.,

December 11, 1894

Christian Science Directors

My beloved Students,

Permit me to make this request relative to the Mother's Room, and if you think best, grant it. On the marble floor at the entrance engrave the word, Mother; and on the arch above the word, Love.

Ever affectionately yours,

Mary Baker Eddy


This letter may be found on page 70 of Joseph Armstrong's book, The Mother Church. It is interesting to interpret and analyze it in connection with two facts, namely, that on October 7, 1894, Mrs. Eddy wrote to the Directors, “Stop at once Mrs. Stetson's getting up the figure in marble. I have written to her that she must not do it,” and that on December 14, 1909, she wrote to them relative to the marble statue that had been prepared for the extension, “No picture of a female in attitude of prayer or in any other attitude shall be made or put into our Church, or any of our buildings with my consent.”

This latter statue depicts a woman kneeling, with her right hand on her heart and her left hand holding a book. There is a symbolic relationship between the statue and the words at the entrance of the Mother's Room. The right hand on the heart symbolizes the fact that Mrs. Eddy's entire motivation was love, the reflection of divine Love.

The book in her left hand corresponds to the word, Mother, engraven on the marble floor, indicating that as the lowly servant of all in the reflection of God's motherhood, Mrs. Eddy was the humble channel through which God gave the truth to the world.

Katherine Yates once wrote a series of books setting forth metaphysical teaching in the experiences of a little girl, Marjorie, and a brown dwarf which was called a dream. Mrs. Eddy loved these books and gave my wife and me two of them. In one called Up the Sunbeams, which was written shortly after our Leader had left us, Marjorie sees the beauty of the sunlight on the grass. Lest she fall in love with the grass because of the radiance it reflected, the dream tells her to put her head close to the grass and look up. The dazzling brilliance and beauty that she sees, cause her to forget the grass in her rapture in beholding the sunlight.

Mrs. Eddy knew that when we looked at the word, Mother, on the marble floor, we would be tempted to fall in love with her because of the wondrous wisdom and love she manifested. Therefore she put the word, Love, on the arch above, in order to lift our thoughts to the source, or divine Principle, Love, from which she derived all that she gave forth. She wanted us to be like Marjorie, so that when we contemplated the wonder and sweetness of the Mother, we would look up and perceive the true Mother, or God, which she reflected.

In 1909 Mrs. Eddy rejected the idea of the statue for the extension of The Mother Church. Previously she had consented to have it made, and permitted the church to pay for the artist's expenses of studying a year in Paris under St. Gaudens in preparation. Now, seeing how prone mortals are to worship symbols instead of using them as signs pointing to what they represent, she reversed her decision. In leaving the words, Love and Mother, at the entrance of her room, she presented an impersonal statue which would serve the pur­pose of the personal statue, and at the same time avoid the temptation of per­sonal worship. Otherwise the public would have declared that Mrs. Eddy's students worshipped her.

Hell may be defined as one's thought stopping with the symbol, resting contentedly in the shadow of reality, believing it to be substance; heaven, on the other hand, is looking through the symbol to God, the source of all, and finding all satisfaction in Him.

When Mrs. Eddy spoke in The Mother Church for the first time, she is reported to have said, “I looked over that entire audience, and I did not see a single Christian Scientist.” One might feel that this was a harsh arraignment of her faithful followers. Yet as usual she was setting forth a valuable lesson, namely, that she did not find one student in that whole audience who was look­ing through her, as it were, to see God. They were all looking at her, loving her as a person, satisfied to let their thought rest on the symbol.

An experience of this kind would give her scant faith that her followers could attend The Mother Church, see a marble statue of a woman kneeling, and remember at every service to look through it to what it represented. She saw that the statue might become an occasion for stumbling, and lead to idolatry; so God showed her a better way.

To have the word, Mother, on the floor would help to impersonalize her relationship to her Cause, as being based on that humble mother-love that caused her to feel for the Church what a mother does for her child. Her love for the child causes her to think of the child first, and to do for it that which best promotes its growth and usefulness at all times, at whatever cost to herself.

Those who lived in Mrs. Eddy's home will testify to the scorn with which she treated a desire on the part of an advanced student to attend church merely for the good that he might receive. She expected that when a student had reached the point of development that would fit him or her to be called to her home, he had outgrown the selfishness connected with church attendance based on the desire to receive an uplift by such means. Yet, behold her love and care for the Church, her untiring effort to make it as efficient and perfect as possible! To her it represented the place where the stranger received his first acquaintance with Christian Science, where he came to drink the holy draught, the healing atmosphere that is established by those who are alert, loving and unselfish enough to do this work.

It is interesting that once Mrs. Eddy wrote an article that referred to Christian Science Church Scientists in a disparaging way, as if those who indulged in a restricted use of Science and retained a narrow viewpoint toward church year after year, deserved some derogatory title, when they should be progressing and throwing off such limits. Orderly growth must always be hedged about with right restrictions, but such restrictions become deterrents if one stagnates with them, when God's demand comes to outgrow them.

I recall when my entire interest centered in the branch church to which I belonged. Therefore, it was a big step for me, when the time came that my thought began to expand to the point, where I realized that the progress and success of the organization as a whole was as near and dear to my heart, as was my own branch church.

The time never comes when a right-minded student ceases to be definitely interested and active in watching over the organization, to see that it maintains the attitude toward the beginner and young students that is scientifically correct, as it was established by our Leader.

It was her mother-love for the infants in Christ that Mrs. Eddy exemplified, that became crystallized in the Pastor Emeritus, or the impersonal spiritual guide. To the beginners, or “babes in Christ,” Mrs. Eddy must always epitomize Mother-love. Only through love could she have been the Mother of the Cause, and made the sacrifice to watch over it so tenderly. It is necessary that the “babes in Christ” still think of her as present in this impersonal way. As one progresses, his conception expands to the Pastor Emeritus, or the spirit of God that must animate all those who would do God's work in God's way, so that they may merit the approval of the Pastor Emeritus.

In 1938 it was reported to me that young students in the West did not have the reverence for our Leader that they should have. An official in Boston, to whom I stated this condition, said that he did not condemn the young people for this, but that he considered that the old students and teachers were to blame, because they were not faithful in inspiring and instilling in the rising generation, the proper love, reverence, and appreciation for the Leader. He also said that one point that characterized teachers who were Mrs. Eddy's own students, was that they always sought to bring out in pupils a profound love and appreciation for the one who gave us the truth.

In my home my son and I talk of Mrs. Eddy every day. He hands me letters and manuscripts supposed to have come from her pen, for me to analyze and to evaluate inspirationally, and then he records my findings in shorthand. Some students might be bored by my constant effort to weave



her into every phase of Christian Science; but one who is seeking to establish a true love for her and a true estimate of her mission, would never tire of hearing about her. He has an insatiable hunger for a deeper insight into her life and demonstration.

If the Cause ever finds itself going through deep waters, this condition may be traced to a lack of appreciation and understanding of its Leader. If this sounds like an exaggerated statement, let us consider what she wrote to a student on October 3, 1897, “I name the foregoing simply to shield you from the effect of a wrong sense of me.” She knew the necessity of a right estimate of her whom God had chosen for this mission. Once she said, “My children, if you had not seen, I would have had to teach you this, I could not have avoided telling you that when my students become blinded to me as the one through whom Truth has come to this age, they go straight down. I would have had to tell you.”

She was careful to link herself to the Cause, as she does with these words graven outside the Mother's Room. As the Mother she was the lowly one who gave birth to Science; but we must never forget to look up to see that her love for us was a love that was reflected from divine Love. As the Mother, Mrs. Eddy was the humble servant of all; but allied to divine Love she represented the ideal of exalted thought, the model for all to hold in thought as the goal. Once she declared, “Mother is the Christ-consciousness, in heaven and on earth; on earth as our Leader.”

She wanted the Board of Directors to vote to put these words where she instructed them to, even if the suggestion came to them that she might appear to be seeking human aggrandizement. She often had to risk misunderstanding, in order to be sure that future generations might have that appreciation for her successful demonstration of Christian Science which she knew was essential to all students. Trying to succeed in Science without a right concept of Mrs. Eddy is like trying to make machinery run without the proper lubricant.

Love for Mrs. Eddy is a necessary lubricant for the machinery of Christian Science. This fount must never be permitted to dry up. One must, therefore, keep before his gaze the threefold nature of the revelation. On April 5, 1907, Mrs. Eddy expressed it to her household as follows: “I live with the Bible. I have not another thing on earth to be one with but the Bible and Science and Health. I, the Bible and S. & H., the trinity, three in one.”

Those who think of our Leader and her nameless sacrifice, as humbly following in the footsteps of the Master, thereby help to keep alive their affection for her. When one thinks rightly about her, tears come to the eyes and the heart softens. This is not sentimentality, if it is based on a right appreciation and a true love for her as God's idea. She embodied the conception of God as Mother; hence she stands in the path all must tread from sense to Love.

One helpful interpretation of Jesus' parable concerning Lazarus and the rich man, “Dives,” — as he has since been called, — is that the former represents man's spiritual selfhood — his divine nature — and the latter is symbolic of mate­rial sense. This lying nature of man, is merely the way man appears to be in the Adam dream. In the meeting where Mrs. Eddy saw no Christian Scientists, her statement to this effect conveyed that her Lazarus was hungry to be fed with a true concept; but that it received only a few crumbs; whereas the students fed Dives sumptuously — that is, they allowed themselves to feel a deep appreciation for Mrs. Eddy in the flesh. But she knew that in reality she was living in the Spirit; so she needed a continual consciousness of God's love in order to live and breathe. Her need was so great that she kept a household of students working daily and hourly to maintain the realization of God's presence in her home, since only under such a demonstration could she function. At the meeting in The Mother Church she asked for bread and received a stone; hence her scathing summary of the situation as it appeared to her. All the same she laid it not to the students charge. She knew it was the effect of animal magnetism unhandled.

The lesson taught in three words, which our Leader spoke when first enter­ing her new home at Chestnut Hill, will remain throughout time. She said, “What splendid misery!” She indicated that she appreciated the splendid furnishings which had been supplied by the faithful efforts of the students. She appreciated the good taste and the fact that it was suitable to show the world. But one thing had been omitted, which made it misery for her, namely, God Himself! In their zeal to make the home right materially, the students had forgotten to do the work necessary to establish the atmosphere of divine Mind, which alone could make her feel at home.

Had the students been as thoughtful and conscientious about furnishing the home with God, as they had been to furnish it with beautiful draperies, and the like, when she entered it for the first time, she might have said, “This is home because God is here, and the demonstration has been made for this fact to be felt.” Her Lazarus would then have been fed with the bread from heaven, which would have meant more to her than to have had Dives pleased by luxurious surroundings.

Eugene H. Greene took Mrs. Eddy's teachings seriously. When she taught him to look away from personality to see the real man, he strove earnestly to do so, and to teach his students to do likewise. She taught him to work mentally when he attended the church services, lectures and business meetings, and he perpetuated this teaching. After the meetings we would gather around him, to hear whether in his estimation we had been successful in bringing out a heal­ing atmosphere. He stressed the point that the meeting was not satisfactory if we had neglected to pray for the congregation aright. Those of his students who sought to be faithful to his teachings would never go to a meeting just to listen. They worked until the atmosphere was balanced on the spiritual side.

If such work is not done in our services, what is there to counteract the belief in the presence of mortal mind? What is done to give a taste of the sweet­ness of God's presence to the stranger? A stranger may attend the meetings and hear read ideas that are in advance of what he would hear elsewhere, yet the real attraction is the healing atmosphere, and not mere metaphysics, however logical. The stranger always feels at home in our church, when he feels a healing thought and he will want more of it. In reality everyone has an insatiable desire for spiritual harmony — the consciousness of God. One cannot get enough of it, once having tasted of it.

Mrs. Eddy hoped that her followers would never neglect the denial of the illusion of personality. It was God that caused her to act with such unerring wisdom and to voice Truth. What she put forth did not find its source in her personal­ity. God alone enabled her to deal accurately with all situations, to diagnose error expertly and to put her finger on that which was hidden from others, so that it might be exposed and destroyed. Thus, she wanted us to worship, not her as a person but the God she brought to us, the practical loving God that was the motivation and basis of all her thoughts and actions.

In these two words on the floor and the arch outside of the Mother's Room, she gave us a rule which tells us exactly how we should regard her. She pointed to God, Love, and not to herself; so, we must look where she pointed. She knew that the effect of having the Mother's Room would be to draw the thoughts of many toward her as a person, if she did not forestall such an error; and that in proportion as people turned to her spiritual nature, they would attain their own, and help her to attain hers more permanently; whereas if they turned to her as a person apart from God, they would add to her burden.

Mrs. Eddy found it more difficult to rise above the sense of her own personality, when her students made a reality of it. Hence she sought in every way possible to turn thought away from her as a person to her spiritual nature, be­cause she knew what a help it would be not only to herself, but to her followers. Once she said, “Malicious animal magnetism cannot express itself through the Directors that there is any Leader but Truth. There is but one Leader — God — Mother's thought. They must know there is but one Leader, and that Leader is established forever in the eternal Love, which is eternal Life. To think otherwise is now and forever abnormal and impossible. This is the absolute law governing church, followers and Directors. They must realize that I AM.”

Mrs. Eddy knew that she had to come into the picture with every student, since God had chosen her to be the wayshower in this age. Only by following her example in Christian Science can a student live it, since she was the one who lived it consistently. Thus, she could not be ignored as an individual. Yet she prayed that students would hold her in thought in a right relationship to God, or source. Once she told the students to realize, “Mother is not here in the flesh.”

Before entering the Mother's Room the first thing a student would think of would be Mrs. Eddy as the Mother. A mother is a wayshower for her children, guiding them in the right path. They look to her for everything; they come to her for help and guidance. It is the mother who rebukes and punishes; it is the mother who gives them her teachings that fit them to cope with life.

The thought of mother would provide students with the best way to regard Mrs. Eddy in her relationship to her Cause; but lest thought stop there, she placed the word, Love, on the arch above, in order that thought might finally rest in the Principle which supported and animated the Mother, which is Love. The value of Mother was the love of Mother, and if that love was to express all that it should, it had to come from God. If it was divine, it expressed wisdom, and carried a rebuke which sprang from love and not anger. Rebukes and punish­ment spring from the love the mother has for her children. When they feel this love, the children are willing to listen to the rebuke and take the punishment, which they would not do if they found that the mother rebuked them only when she herself felt irritated.

Just as an airplane field provides a take-off, so Mrs. Eddy is a take-off in the mental realm, so that when students think of her as they should, their thoughts soar to God, instead of dwelling on her as a personality. Knowing that mother­-love represented the highest point the human mind could grasp in its own realm, she used that concept as the take-off, from whence thought could rise to the reality of Love, of which mother-love is only a faint conception. The world needs the concept of God as Love more than any other. Because God is not re­garded as Love, mortals are never certain that their prayers will be answered. Thus their hearts seldom go out to God in a full sincerity of worship and love.

Mrs. Eddy took the weakest point in mortal man's comprehension of God and sought to strengthen it. She placed the word, Love, on the arch, not because it fully conveys the thought of God, but because it represents the sense of God that most needs to be strengthened. When a person loves you, you know that you can rely upon him to help you and to forward your best interest. So the thought of God as Love causes mortals to trust in Him more than any other quality.

These two words, Mother and Love, give us a train on tracks. The right thought of Mother puts the train on the tracks of Love, which in turn take it to its destination.

If idolatry is defined as thought resting with the symbol, then students would have indulged in idolatry, if their thoughts had remained on the statue of the woman at prayer, which was planned for the extension of The Mother Church. Idolatry takes a symbol of Deity and then makes a god out of that symbol. When Mrs. Eddy declared that she did not see a single Christian Scientist in the audi­ence when she first spoke in The Mother Church, she was accusing her students and followers of idolatry, since they were all permitting their thoughts to rest on her as a person, instead of looking higher to observe her real selfhood as the Christ idea.

If a boy is given a pencil and a knife, he may find satisfaction in the pos­session of both, but they will not be of much help to him unless he uses the knife to keep the pencil sharp. Students rejoice in what they believe to be the possession of an understanding of Christian Science; but of what value is it to them unless they use it to keep thought sharp. Mrs. Eddy knew that her students possessed this knife. The question was, were they using it to cut away their belief in personality?

No student is ready for progress until he uses his Science to put every phase of the human mind — that which seems good as well as that which is manifestly bad — into the incinerator of Truth, where it will be burned up, and God's mind shines forth as the only Mind. Even Mrs. Eddy's sweet human personality must be included in the unreal.

Mrs. Eddy would have called her students who were present at the first meeting, Christian Scientists if they had been working and striving to establish the kingdom of heaven in that meeting. Had they done so, instead of leaving it all to her, she would have known it. A policeman is not a policeman when he has taken off all the appurtenances pertaining to such work, and is wearing civilian clothing. Mrs. Eddy did not wish her students to live double lives, being Chris­tian Scientists part of the time, then taking off the Christly garments as if they visited with God for a while, and then, being weary, visited with the devil. A Christian Scientist is one who has pledged himself to devote all his time to re­flecting divine Mind, by striving to put off every phase of the human mind, even those phases that seem harmless.

Not much progress results from the determination on the part of a student to use his understanding in sickness and other phases of error where the human mind is admittedly helpless, unless this determination broadens to the point where Science becomes the rule of life.

Surely Mrs. Eddy, when she claimed that she did not see one Christian Scientist in the audience, was not implying that if a need arose, the students would not at once put on the habiliments of Science and rise to meet the situation prayerfully and rightly; but from her point of view there was such a need at that moment, and no one was alert to it. They were blinded by human satisfaction in the presence of their beloved Leader. It might have been this experience which caused her to have placed on the wall in back of the readers in the extension, the quotation from Science and Health, “When error confronts you, withhold not the rebuke or the explanation which destroys error. Never breathe an immoral atmosphere, unless in the attempt to purify it.” To Mrs. Eddy any atmosphere in which the human mind was claiming to hold sway, even in the sacred precincts of the church, was immoral and required the rebuke of Science.

The temptation assailed students then as it does now, to feel that they were being good Christian Scientists when they were resting in a great appreciation of the personal Mrs. Eddy and her great work, instead of making the demonstra­tion to perceive the spiritual idea of Love, which was her only real selfhood. The good student is one who actively recognizes that she pointed to God, to what He is and the way to Him. The progressive student is one who uses her teaching to gain an individual demonstration comparable to hers of divine re­flection, guidance and healing.

The alert student perceives that in these two words, Mother and Love, Mrs. Eddy was pointing to God as the infinite source, and to His reflection on earth, as the loving and humble channel of good to all. It proves how far from our Leader's thought was the desire to be worshipped or aggrandized, when she put the word, Mother, on the floor, since we do not aggrandize or worship that which is under our feet.




Concord, N. H.

December 18, 1894

To the Directors, Mr. Edward P. Bates and Dr. Foster-Eddy

Dear Students:

Have the first service in God's Temple December 30, '94 consist of a Sunday School, no sermon. God has spoken plainly to me that the Bible and Science and Health are to be the only preachers in this House of His.

M. B. Eddy


The Christian Science Quarterly, which was first printed in the Christian Science Journal in 1888, was used in the Sunday School until The Mother Church was dedicated. Adults, however, were admitted to the Sunday School as members and guests. When Mrs. Eddy wrote that the first service in God's temple was to consist of a Sunday School, therefore, she did not imply that the present form of service is a Sunday School; but we can deduce that she intended to have the Lesson-Sermon regarded as teaching. Those who study it during the week and hear it read on Sunday, learn the rules of Science and its demonstration.

Everything in Science is intended to be educational, and to establish the student firmly on the basis, from whence he can demonstrate what he understands in healing the sick. Its study is like storing up coal in the summer, whereas the use of Science in practice, is like burning the coal to keep the house warm in winter. No student can be said to be “in the practice,” until he utilizes the warmth of God's love in healing the sick, destroying sin, and in bringing to others a knowledge of the Truth.

When Mrs. Eddy asked to have the first service in The Mother Church a Sunday School, she was making a marked distinction between the service of traditional theology and that of the new order. To be sure, we have church edi­fices where people may come and hear our preachers preach; but the main intent is that of a school.

Once a student of Science advocated that our churches be turned into schools. He based this proposition on what he knew to be Mrs. Eddy's intent. For doing this he was properly rebuked by the Directors. His error was in attempt­ing to interpret what Mrs. Eddy had written, according to his own human under­standing. In the archives of The Mother Church is a letter in which is contained directions from Mrs. Eddy specifically forbidding anyone to interpret in this way what she has written. Thus he became disloyal and had to be excommuni­cated. It was fitting that Mrs. Eddy should forbid a student to interpret accord­ing to his own human understanding what God gave the Cause through her.

If this student had had a deeper insight, he would have seen that our church­es are now schools in the sense that in them is taught the Science of the Bible. They are educational centers for the attaining of religious knowledge, where the teachers are the Bible and Science and Health.

In the Quarterly Mrs. Eddy has given us a list of subjects, which are ex­pounded from every standpoint conceivable within the pages of the books used, in order that everything they contain relative to the subjects be put before the congregation.

In the Sentinel for September 7, 1936, we find this interesting bit of history. “On one occasion, it was proposed that Mrs. Eddy add another set of subjects to the twenty-six upon which the Lesson-Sermons are now based. Mrs. Eddy replied: ‘It will never do. The additional list of topics for the Lessons sent me are not needed. The subjects which you already have, include every one of those which you gave me. These topics proposed can all be used under the present list of subjects. Tell the Committee these subjects were given of God. They are suffi­cient and will remain.'”

Any effort to change what Mrs. Eddy has established would be human interpretation, which she forbad. When the above mentioned student advocated turning churches into schools, he brought forth to those who would listen many arguments that sounded convincing; but clear thinking on the part of his listeners would have shown them the fallacy of his contentions.

Far too many students are glad to have others do their thinking for them, even though this makes them Roman Catholics in spirit. Allowing others to think for us puts us into a classification that has no place in our church.

When Mrs. Eddy appointed the Bible and Science and Health to be the preachers, she knew that these would never depart from the strict truth of Sci­ence; so they could always be depended upon to keep thought on the right side. She never anticipated a time when the churches would be literally made into schools. Yet preaching became teaching when these two books were made the preachers; and doubtless she anticipated the time when other denominations would follow her lead, and in the same way make their churches schools for the dissemination of a scientific knowledge of good and its demonstration.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

December 19, 1894

Christian Science Directors —

My beloved Students:

The day is well-nigh won. You will soon rest on your arms. Thank God you have been valiant soldiers — loyal to the heart's core. “Who is so great a God as our God?”

Present no contribution box on Dedication day. When you know the amount requisite and have received it for finishing the church building — close all contributions and give public notice thereof.

Hold your services in The Mother Church December 30, 1894, and dedicate this church January 6th. The Bible and “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” shall henceforth be the Pastor of The Mother Church. This will tend to spiritualize thought. Personal preaching has more or less of human views grafted into it. Whereas the pure Word contains only the living, health-giving Truth.

With love, Mother,

Mary Baker Eddy


An interesting fact about this letter, that may be found on page 75 of Joseph Armstrong's book, The Mother Church, is that as the Directors first received it, the first paragraph was missing. The conclusion is that it was added when Mrs. Eddy rewrote the letter, in order that it might be reproduced in the above book.

The sentiments expressed in the first paragraph were important, if the letter was going forth to the public, since it gave credit to the Directors for their great labors. After a work is finished, there is always criticism; and in Science there is apt to be more when the work is well done, than when it is inferior. When we read in Miscellaneous Writings, pages 129-132, the letter Mrs. Eddy wrote to the Church at this time, we learn that there were certain discrepancies in the funds that disturbed some of the students, so that they demanded an investiga­tion.

Hence, to have the Leader declare that she was content and satisfied with the work, would help to silence criticism and to protect the Directors. It was not unnatural that in the struggle to overthrow animal magnetism in connection with building the church, some of the students should be wounded. There might be those who, like Peter, in the heat of the struggle, listened to false arguments; but this fact should be overlooked. It is safe to say that, after Peter had denied his Master and repented, no one taunted him afterwards about his deflection.

The disciples had been taught the lesson of the impersonal nature of error so well, that when Jesus declared that one of them would betray him, they did not look at each other suspiciously, but asked, “Is it I?” Jesus had taught them the possibilities of animal magnetism. So Judas' as well as Peter's experience became a mighty lesson to show how, even with a great loyalty to good, one may be disaffected by false argument, if he does not protect himself from it. If a student feels strongly entrenched in a humanly moral sense, that were no reason for his neglecting to protect himself from animal magnetism, lest he be enticed to yield to that which in his right mind he never would assent to.

The question is whether Mrs. Eddy's students would have said, “Is it I?” if she had declared that one of them was to betray her. Most of them were so convinced of their loyalty to her and to her teachings, that they did not realize that it was possible for them ever to be disloyal.

I do not believe that I will be misunderstood if I declare that there were certain students of our Leader who carried a hidden disloyalty toward her. They really believed that they were loyal because they had great respect for her on account of the position she occupied, and the truth she had discovered; yet in their hearts they criticized her at times, because their interpretation of certain things she said and did indicated that she was not living Christian Science as she taught it.

It is necessary for students to realize that no one can be sure of his position in relation to Science, if he does not handle the belief in animal magnetism. He may live for years and be steadfast on some particular point; then, if he is not watchful, he may be thrown off by mesmerism.

Once a group of dentists entertained themselves by taking laughing gas in order to observe their reactions under its influence. Invariably the most pious of their number would become the most profane. In this way they illustrated the action of mesmerism, or reversal.

What is this claim of reversal but the action of malpractice? No doubt the less pious members of this group fully expected that the more moral and re­ligious ones would do exactly as they did, since the average man holds the atti­tude toward the one who seeks to live a moral and religious life, that it is more or less an affectation with him, and that in reality he is not consistent with what he appears to be. Mortals do not trust the motives of others, because they cannot trust their own. They believe that a man will often strive to be religious and moral because of the standing and trust it gives him, that is denied others. Believing goodness to be a surface pose, they are not surprised when what they think is the real nature of a man is exposed under the influence of laughing gas. Yet the moral men who betray a certain coarseness at such times are not necessarily so by nature. They may be the victims of the malpractice of their brethren, against which they have no protection.

At a certain point in demonstration it is helpful to realize what Mrs. Eddy writes, “The day is well nigh won.” When a practitioner sees a patient recover­ing from an illness, he has a right to be confident; in fact, confidence is the men­tal element that contributes most to the success of a demonstration, provided it is based on a sure faith in God. When a practitioner feels a sense of hope and expectancy in regard to a patient, that does not mean that he is neglecting his patient. On the contrary, that sense of spiritual optimism is an additional help to him and his patient in the recovery. It is when the case presents no evidence of being healed, that he must work to establish confidence. The world says, “How can you know that your patient is not sick, when you see the evidence of sickness before you?” To the Scientist it is the ancient warfare between the testimony of the false material senses and scientific knowledge. The latter must triumph over the former in order to bring forth a healing. The practitioner himself becomes part of the lie that is holding the patient, if he accepts sense testimony.

By December 19 the building of The Mother Church had reached the point where the opposition had been handled to such a degree, that animal magnetism recognized the impossibility of stopping the work, interfering with it or prevent­ing it from being finished. It was a point at which Mrs. Eddy could have written to them that the day was well nigh won; yet she did not. The statement was not added to the letter until over a year after the dedication of the church. It was not Mrs. Eddy's way to write a statement of this kind before a demonstration had been completed, although she could have done so. She had had experience, however, with the subtlety of animal magnetism that would tempt students to relax in watchfulness just before a demonstration is completed, in order that the work might be reversed or rendered ineffectual. This point is covered in Mis­cellaneous Writings, 280:30: “The doors of animal magnetism open wide for the entrance of error, sometimes just at the moment when you are ready to enter on the fruition of your labors, and with laudable ambition are about to chant hymns of victory for triumphs.”

In this letter Mrs. Eddy wrote that, when the amount requisite to finish the church had been received, they were to close all contributions and give public notice thereof. I shall never forget the electric effect it had on me when I read this notice in the Journal for January, 1895! Was there ever a church in all history that had taken such a stand, that it would not let people give any more money, even though they wanted to?

It must be recognized that it was God's wisdom that prompted Mrs. Eddy to take this stand, and the great good that resulted lay largely in the fact that it killed the lie that would assert that back of Christian Science was a mercenary motive, and that it was just another scheme to defraud the public.

Flint and steel struck together produce a spark. The Bible might be called the flint that gives forth the fire of inspiration, when used with Science and Health. Mrs. Eddy was led to establish these two books as the preachers in her church, knowing that they would forever give forth the light of inspiration to the con­gregation.

When a minister preaches that which does not coincide with the views of his flock, they feel an inward rebellion. Yet they expect his sermons to stir them each Sunday. If he fails to do this, they call him a mediocre preacher. In Chris­tian Science, however, the Word is impersonal and inspirational, because, as Mrs. Eddy says in this letter, it “contains only the living, health-giving Truth.” In making these two books her only preachers, Mrs. Eddy was safeguarding her church against “human views.”

When Mrs. Eddy came upon the scene, the Bible was a closed book that needed a key to open it. People had lost hope that it ever could be opened, and so tried to receive what good they could by standing without expectancy in front of the locked door. The Bible was and is primitive truth from God, but in order to be made available and practical, it had to be brought to life by Science and Health. Thus, we have a living three-fold Pastor, where the truth is supplied by the Bible, the life is brought forth by Science and Health, and the love is supplied by the demonstration of the members in the meeting, who voluntarily do this work. These three spiritual elements working as one enable the congregation to hear the Lesson-Sermon as the voice of God.

Years ago oculists held the theory that the way to correct cross-eyes was to cut down the muscles in the strong eye to correspond to those in the weak one. Today the effort is made to strengthen the weak muscles. One might say that prior to Mrs. Eddy's discovery, the attempt was made to cut down the Bible to suit man's limited ability to comprehend it. Contrariwise, when she came upon the scene, she sought to strengthen man's comprehension of the things of Spirit to the point where he could understand the truth of the Bible.




Concord, N. H.

December 23, 1894

To the Directors

Dear Students:

There is not sufficient time now to arrange a proper program for our Church services on December 30th. No one has conferred with me on the subject. I have named it to the Dr. but nothing has been given me till today, just as I was leaving, to know even if you had arranged for it yourselves. But it is quite enough to say that I alone in consultation with the Directors was the one to have arranged so important a matter as this.

Now I object to pushing into this week, this muddled move­ment of setting up a precedent for worship in The Mother Church without the Mother who has originated all that belongs to this new Church, even knowing what your formula is! The thing must be stopped right now. I must see a program of your order of service, how you announce the reading of the Bible and the reading of Science and Health, etc. in every particular. I thought that this small right was registered a long time ago.

Have printed circular ready for notifying the public that only the S. School will be held in the new church December 30. Then make arrangements for the Church services according to the Deed and vote on the Church rule enclosed.

Lovingly yours,

Mother

N. B. I open my letter to say I had not read Mr. Knapp's letter through and Mr. Frye has just brought it to me and I see that he wrote to me on this subject. But I will send the letter because God does guide me and so it must be needed for some purpose.

(Rule concerned change from sermon by Pastor to sermon prepared from the Bible and Science and Health.)


Here we have a letter, the value of which cannot be estimated, since it car­ries definite proof that when Mrs. Eddy wrote a letter that rebuked the students or that related to what seemed to be merely human details of the organization, it was God that guided her.

At this point Mrs. Eddy detected error arguing to the Directors in this wise: “Mrs. Eddy's work for the church is done. So now it becomes entirely our re­sponsibility. She has helped to build it, but now it is ours to run without consult­ing her.”

In this letter she rebuked them for the temptation to exclude her. Yet in the N. B. she wrote that when she read Mr. Knapp's letter through, she found that she was consulted. “But I will send the letter because God does guide me and so it must be needed for some purpose.” Here is a paradox! Why send the Directors a letter giving them a strong rebuke, when, before the letter could be sent, she discovered that they did not deserve it?

The reason must be that, while they were obedient outwardly in consulting her, yet God detected that they were disobedient in their thinking. Thus their outward obedience must have been through fear, and not from the firm convic­tion that she alone could settle these matters, since they had to be done through demonstration.

It would seem as if the announcing of the reading from the Bible and Science and Health was a small matter that the Directors could have tended to, but it all added up to something that was vitally important.

If Mrs. Eddy had sent this letter without reading all of Mr. Knapp's letter, the Directors would have considered her rebuke unjust, and its benefit would have been lessened. By adding the N. B. she says in substance, “I absolve you from the blame of going ahead without consulting me, because I find that you did consult me; but God tells me that you need His rebuke in spite of your out­ward show of obedience.”

There are other instances in Mrs. Eddy's experience where she rebuked students when the outward circumstances did not seem to warrant doing so. Laura Goodwin tells how Mrs. Eddy accused her of attempting to teach Chris­tian Science to a friend, when, as she asserts, she had no such intention. On April 4, 1880 Mrs. Eddy wrote to her, “I was so sadly impressed with the great change I feel in you under the demoralizing influence of mesmerism. I pity you but I must do my duty to you and have tried to do it so far. I read in your mind that you have been trying to teach that lady that was with you and who is paying you for herself and you are intending to pay me for yourself. Now do you not see this is wrong to begin with? You know if by teaching her the little you under­stand has hindered her as it has no doubt from learning it correctly from the right source, that you have broken a moral law and have not done as you would be done by? I hope you see this even now, better late than never, and also realize the terrible effect of the falsehoods poured into your mind is producing, for if Truth heals and saves as we know it does, error is taking the opposite ground in its effects unless you are enough of a Christian to be a law to yourself of right that none can weaken or destroy.”

When Miss Goodwin wrote in reply that she had made no effort to teach her friend, Miss Poyen, and cherished no such intention, Mrs. Eddy wrote back, “I am sometimes astonished at what I do myself, but this must comfort you and reconcile me to all these terrible risks I take in losing the friendship of those I love, that I have always found it come out right and work for the good of us all....He leadeth me, but I know not whither until I see what has been gained, and the crown comes after the cross. I think it was a thought latent in the unconscious mind, and I only outlined it. Perhaps I did not get it precisely as it would have been after germination; but this I know: what I did get will certainly do us all good in some way. You know the prophets of old ‘went up in a cloud;' we rise through the mists of the senses into the spiritual atmosphere of Soul, and ‘no night is there.'”

My own experience with our Leader, oft repeated, illustrates this same point. Once she asked me a question and I replied by quoting a passage of Scripture. I knew that I had quoted it correctly and yet she proceeded to give me a strong rebuke for having quoted it incorrectly! My impulse was to protest that I had quoted it accurately, and that she had not heard me aright, but spiritual insight saved the day. It enabled me to see in an instant that through my answer to her question, her thought was directed to me, and she perceived something in my thought that did need a rebuke, which she proceeded to give me. In taking it without a murmur I was able to derive the benefit from it, which I might have lost had I attempted to convince her that she was wrong.

James F. Gilman, after he had had many experiences of this nature with our Leader in painting the pictures for Christ and Christmas, declared, “The value of a spiritual rebuke I have learned lies not in the literal reasonableness of it, or in the one from whom it seems to come, but rather in our acceptance of its claims upon our humble consideration. We shall not be subject to resentment or the claims of humiliation when we can see it the friend that it is. Then the larger sense of the Christ is found in the understanding of the omnipotence of Love.”

Mrs. Eddy's attention was called to the Directors at this time, and she de­tected the error that was arguing to them that now the edifice was finished, they were perfectly competent to run things. This error would have, if possible, relegated Mrs. Eddy to a position of Pastor Emeritus, rather than the active Leader of the Cause. For this error the Directors needed to be rebuked. Yet the value of the rebuke might have been lost had the Directors been able to declare that it was entirely unfounded. So, Mrs. Eddy took care of this point in her N. B.

After Mrs. Eddy rebuked me for misquoting the Bible, had I complained that I did quote it correctly, but that she did not hear me correctly, she might have said, “But the rebuke goes just the same.” She would not have taken her valuable time to give me such a rebuke merely because I misquoted a few words from the Bible. The fact was, that when her attention was drawn to my thought, she detected error that needed to be wiped out, and she proceeded to help me to do so.

If she had sent the rebuke in question to the Directors without the N. B., they could have said that the rebuke was void, because she was complaining that they had not done something which they had; but the hand of God was in it. Her attention might not have been called to the Directors, if she had not felt that they failed to consult her when they should have. When her thought did consider them and she rebuked them, the rebuke was needed. God saw that it was needed, even though, as Mr. Gilman declared, there was no literal reasonableness to it. Her letter was not really the result of the fact that they had failed to consult her in regard to the program for the church service, but the result of her mental investigation. So her rebuke was not justified because of something the Directors had failed to do, but because of what her spiritual sense detected when her atten­tion was drawn to them.

This letter is a fine example of the wonderful ability of our Leader to detect hidden error and to rebuke it, even though she baffled material sense and mortal mind because of the way she did it. An incident that took place in 1906 at which my wife was a witness, is another illustration. Mrs. Eddy told Caroline Foss to get down on her knees and confess to her that she had lied. Miss Foss was utterly bewildered by this sudden demand and started to protest, “But, Mother —.” Mrs. Eddy repeated her demand. Finally after some of the students in the room behind Mrs. Eddy motioned to her to do as she was told, she got down on her knees and said, “Mother, if I have lied, I am sorry.” Where was there any literal reasonable­ness in this incident, when Miss Foss was utterly unconscious of having done anything to warrant such a rebuke? Yet one who would hold it against our Leader, as proof that she was unjust at times and controlled by her human imagination, would show that he doubted her mission on earth, and failed to recognize her entire motivation.

God was governing our Leader in all that she said and did, even if she baffled material sense and drove mortal mind mad. True, there was no human reasonableness about much that our Leader did in relation to error. It is a ques­tion whether she herself could always give a reasonable explanation for these experiences; but when one reaches the point where he makes his mental black­board a blank for God to write upon, he learns to have such trust in what God writes upon it, that he takes it on faith and seeks no human explanation.

Mrs. Eddy had reached the point where what was written on her blackboard was infallible because God had charge of it. He alone wrote on it and she knew it. Hence when she read upon it that Miss Foss had lied, she asked no human explanation. She merely took the right steps to rebuke the error. It did not matter to her if human sense protested, and complained, and declared that she was wrong; she had such faith in God that she trusted what He wrote on her black­board, no matter how much the human mind protested.

One who has the right concept of our Leader will see that in God's sight Miss Foss had lied in that she functioned under mortal mind, and God, through our Leader, knew it. All mortal mind and material sense is a lie, and the one who follows it and believes that he lives in it, is living a constant lie. Those who saw Mrs. Eddy as an old lady who acted in a very unreasonable manner at times, were lying. Mrs. Eddy was the highest representative of the Christ on earth, and she knew this, even if at times her most faithful students permitted themselves to be blinded to this fact. Future generations will acknowledge this and gain some insight into the marvelous workings of God through His faithful witness. At times she sought to meet this error of a false concept of her, by asking students if she was not the Leader and if she was not perfect. Once she directed Dr. Alfred Baker to take up the argument, “Mother cannot be made to believe that she is a person of this world.”

It is a precious and wonderful thing to see a child with such trust in its par­ents that it accepts all that they do without question, even though it has not the slightest understanding of what they are doing. Mrs. Eddy's trust in God was like that, and she yearned to have students put the same unreserved trust in her. When she took steps in regard to John B. Willis' editorial in the Sentinel of September 23, 1905, steps which the students could not comprehend, she wrote to Archibald McLellan that it was not requisite to have her article in regard to it explanatory. Why? “Because in the words of Jesus, ‘Why do ye not understand my speech? Even because ye cannot hear my word.' A little child does not understand the sayings or doings of his mother; hence my positive position on this point and the good that will result from it, or the evil that would follow the opposite course. The student is no more capable of explaining my sayings or my life than the stu­dent in the first two rules of arithmetic is of explaining or commenting on prob­lems in Euclid.”

If an airplane spotter in time of war should hear a plane through the sen­sitive mechanical ears set up for this use, the men nearby might ask what he heard. He might reply that all he knew was that he heard something. They might scoff and say, “Oh, you just think you hear something, because we cannot see a thing.” But the spotter has such faith in his detector that he continues to declare that there is something approaching. Mrs. Eddy had such faith in her spiritual sense that, had the whole world tried to tell her she was mistaken, when for instance she thought she detected an error, she would have stood by what she believed God was telling her. Was she not continually scoffed at because she denied material sense and trusted God? If Caroline Foss had been sick, Mrs. Eddy would have vigorously declared that God told her that that was a lie and that in reality she was well, notwithstanding the testimony of the deceitful senses. In like manner Mrs. Eddy was able to affirm that a lying error was lurking in Miss Foss' consciousness, when material sense denied it, and tried to assert that everything was all right. In this way she taught her students to deny human har­mony as well as discord.

All of these experiences in our Leader's life can be understood on the basis of her own words on page 571 of Science and Health, “Who is telling mankind of the foe in ambush? Is the informer one who sees the foe? If so, listen and be wise.”

Mrs. Eddy did not judge error by actions, but by thought. She did not rely on material sense, but spiritual sense; she had faith to believe that the testimony of spiritual sense was infallibly right, just as the testimony of material sense was consistently wrong. When a manifestation came to her that for some reason caused her attention to be directed toward an individual, she could look into thought as easily as we can look to the bottom of a quiet spring.

Mrs. Eddy had many lessons to teach the students, that had to be taught by inculcating an absolute faith in her and a blind obedience to her commands. The first lesson she taught was the denial of the testimony of the material senses; but there was a far deeper lesson waiting for them when they were ready for it, and that was, the denial of the false sense of mind that is back of the senses, the mind that she saw claimed to be the entire motivation and impulsion of mortal man. She knew what an egregious lie it was for mortal mind to claim an existence for man apart from God, and when she taught the students to deny this lie, she was showing them the process of how to get rid of mortal mind, by breaking its backbone.

A dentist may fill a decaying tooth several times, but finally the nerve must be killed, and the tooth extracted. The nerve of matter is mortal mind. The denial of the testimony of the senses is among the first lessons of Christian Science, and, although it seems a difficult thing to do, yet students gain the ability to do this with conviction. In this way the discords of matter are healed. Man can never win his salvation, however, unless he progresses to the point where he kills the nerve of matter, or mortal mind.

When Mrs. Eddy ordered Miss Foss to confess that she had lied, she was not referring to what mortal mind calls lies. It went far deeper than that. She was referring to mortal mind itself, and the lie it tells when it asserts that man can exist apart from God. If Miss Foss had been sick and Mrs. Eddy had told her to deny such evidence, Miss Foss would have called that scientific; but Mrs. Eddy was leading her higher, from the denial of discord to the denial of mortal mind itself, which is a step necessary in order to break the claim of power in this “strong man.”

It is an advanced step when a student reaches the point where he is ready to deny causation in falsity, since it means denying mortal mind even when it appears to be harmless and agreeable. A man might declare that he was a miner, when he was merely washing out surface gold in the process called placer min­ing. Many students believe themselves to be Christian Scientists when they go no deeper in their denial of error than the common beliefs of discord. A man is a miner when he understands geology enough to detect the presence of gold when it is mixed with rock, when he labors in the earth to dig out the ore, and when he understands metallurgy enough to extract the gold from the ore. Mrs. Eddy was giving Miss Foss a lesson in what it meant to be a real Christian Scientist — not just a surface miner — when the latter probably thought she knew a great deal about mining because she understood placer mining. Mrs. Eddy saw that she was ready for a taste of real Christian Science, that which penetrates to the depths of this false claim that to God is a lie throughout, even when mortal thought cannot comprehend this. A right understanding of this episode, which was so baffling to Miss Foss as well as my wife, would have revealed the most valuable lesson Mrs. Eddy could have given a student.

We feel sure that after the Directors received this letter of December 23, they were more loyal to their Leader than ever before, and more ready to silence the suggestion that it was not still necessary to consult her on every matter that came up. She saw better than they what a vitally important thing it was, to start everything in The Mother Church rightly, since it was going to be the pattern for the ages. Today we see the wonder and importance of this right start, since it has remained the pattern and always will. It was a wonderful thing to start an entirely new conception of a church service, and to have it so correct according to God's plan that it has remained the standard.

When one studies Mrs. Eddy's experience, he learns how meticulous she was with whatever was to be presented to the public, and sees what a remarkable demonstration the first services in The Mother Church were. It was essential for the Directors to consult her, and not even cherish a suggestion that they had the ability to look out for things apart from her demonstration.

Why did Mrs. Eddy say that only the Sunday School would be held in the new church December 30? In this way she would give the public that which would indicate the evolution from the old idea of service to the new. It would be shown that there was nothing about the old that Mrs. Eddy condemned. She merely cast it aside because it had proved inadequate and so she had outgrown it.




Concord, N. H.

January 1, 1895

Dear Student:

I forgot to say I shall be able to inform you tomorrow who will read my Sermon on dedication day. Don't delay circulars. Print, Sermon by etc. — will be read. Also have children “Busy Bees” seated in the front pews. They will wear badges simply “Mother's Room.” I have named them in my Sermon.

Do not let the constant dropping change your true sense of “Mother.”

N. B. To arrange rightly and get the best reader is difficult, so it is best not to name who shall read on Sunday the Scriptures or S.&H.

M. B. E.


This letter is important, since it furnishes the proof that it was Mrs. Eddy herself who selected the one who read her sermon on dedication day. The in­dividual chosen was Mrs. Bemis, a very fine elocutionist, whose delivery was so studied and professional that many students and attendants at the services were keenly disappointed. I can recall that I was anticipating a most inspired communi­cation from our Leader on this day of days; but what Mrs. Bemis read sounded stilted and stereotyped. The amazing thing was, that when I finally obtained a copy of the sermon to read and study for myself, it seemed impossible to believe that it was the same one Mrs. Bemis had read, so inspired did it sound!

It is a rule in Science that the man or woman best fitted to take his or her place in the pulpit, is not necessarily the one who is the most highly trained reader. If one demonstrates as he should, that brings with it the ability to read correctly, as well as to convey through that reading the healing power of Spirit. No human training or education can match such powerful reading.

If this be true, why should readers take elocution lessons? Why should members try to select from their midst readers who are well educated, and who will make a good appearance before the public? The answer is that these minor matters receive scant attention, by a membership that has enough demonstra­tion to bring out excellence in reading through metaphysical means. It is only when demonstration is lacking that it becomes necessary to consider the educa­tion and appearance of the candidate, as being the essential qualifications. Under such circumstances elocution lessons may be helpful.

There have been many students since that memorable day who have wondered why Mrs. Eddy selected Mrs. Bemis to read her address. The question is whether she made a mistake in hearing God's direction. Yet God often works in mysterious ways — mysterious to human sense. It is possible that God selected this occasion to establish a lesson for the church that would endure for all time, namely, that with the finest kind of excellence in skill, education, technique and elocution, no reader or speaker can bring forth scientific results, who lacks the spiritual thought or understanding that links his performance to divine Mind. Mrs. Bemis' fiasco should teach for all time that the thought back of reading is the vital and important thing, since all reading is impressive and helpful according to the understanding of the reader. The greater his under­standing, the more power the reading carries with it.

Mrs. Eddy never reflected a greater wisdom than in the selection of Mrs. Bemis, so that her students might have the experience of hearing the magnificent message read by one who knew how to read it as perfectly as possible through human skill, and of discovering how little it meant spiritually under such cir­cumstances. The students were not robbed in learning this lesson, since they had the message to read and study for themselves, and could learn how full of meat and drink — Truth and Love — it was.

In this simple act Mrs. Eddy set the standard as to what students should look for in readers. She wished candidates selected not because they had ability along lines of outward technique of reading, but because they were animated by a spiritual understanding which carries a healing thought. In what wiser and more striking way could Mrs. Eddy have set forth at the very outset of the establishment of the Lesson-Sermon in place of personal preaching in her Church, what the result would be, if the members should forget the importance of the scientific thinking that should accompany all reading and speaking in the services? Had she attempted to teach the lesson by using what another had written, the lesson would not have been as noticeable. She had to take something she herself had written, which contained the Spirit of God, in order to make the lesson so striking that it could not be mistaken.

Students are required to learn this same lesson in connection with food. When one eats from the standpoint that what he has eaten is a product of earth and was raised by man's patience and skill, he loses sight of the fact that every good gift and every perfect gift cometh down from the Father of lights. The food may appear to come from beneath, but in reality it comes from above. When Jesus fed the five thousand, he demonstrated that the earth never created food. Just as the ventriloquist's dummy is used to deceive people into thinking that it is the source of the former's voice, so mortal mind uses the land and sea to deceive mortals into believing that these are the sources of bread and fish.

The food that we eat every day is manna from heaven as truly as was the food that sustained the Children of Israel in the wilderness. The fact that they picked it up off the ground, whereas we grow ours from seed, does not alter the fact that all food comes from Mind.

Mrs. Eddy's message was manna from heaven that carried the spirit of healing; but because it was appropriated by mortal thought, it appeared to come from the ground of a trained mortal inteiligence, and so carried scant spiritual uplift or healing. Even though Mrs. Eddy made the demonstration to receive it from heaven, the good was almost lost because it was appropriated by mortal mind.

The food that sustained the Children of Israel came down from heaven. In Deuteronomy 8 we find a warning that in the process of time the temptation would come to believe that food came as the result of mortal man's skill and intelligence, rather than the demonstration of God's giving. So it becomes necessary to state that it is not material food that sustains man's life, but the thought back of it, the Mind of God that accompanies it. It is the task of the stu­dent of Christian Science to learn to receive the Spirit of God through every human channel, since only in that way will he become a perpetual recipient of God's constant blessings, which bring to man all that he needs to sustain him.

The Children of Israel admitted that the food they gathered and called manna, was a vehicle which carried the Mind of God. Today we must extend this admission to cover everything. When the Lesson-Sermon is read on Sunday, we must realize that it carries to its listeners the Spirit of God. Otherwise it cannot be called a Sermon, even though it is read from the Bible and Science and Health. Even Mrs. Eddy's magnificent address did not carry the inspiration she put into it, when Mrs. Bemis read it, because the Mind of God was shut out by the material thought that she embodied.

Another query raised by the letter in question is, what did Mrs. Eddy mean by the statement, “Do not let the constant dropping change your true sense of ‘Mother'”? What connection did this admonition have with the fact that the “Busy Bees” were to wear badges marked “Mother's Room”? By “dropping” Mrs. Eddy must have meant the constant temptation to let one's thought drop, which accompanies the necessity for material activity in connection with the organization. This temptation would be especially active at this time. The dedication of such a splendid edifice, the thrill of achievement, the plaudits of the world, would all conspire to cause the Directors to be off guard and to let thought drop, just when the need to hold it to the highest peak of spiritual perception and demonstration was present.

The human sense of mother carries with it malpractice, and at times Mrs. Eddy felt this from certain students. Calvin Hill has confessed to the writer that he, having lost his mother according to the flesh, adopted Mrs. Eddy as his foster mother, even though she told him plainly that at times when her thought was sensitive, she felt this human sense of her held by him. Ordinarily the loving thought back of this malpractice would tend to neutralize any discord coming from it, but when her thought was not quite high enough, and he was harboring error, she felt the malpractice in his conception and told him so, — the human mind holding her in a human sense, when she was trying to free herself from its grasp.

If a caterpillar had a husband, and he should see her preparing to enter alone into the silence and stillness of the cocoon, in order to be transformed into a beautiful butterfly, he might try to prevent her from fulfilling that destiny. This illustrates the malpractice Mrs. Eddy felt. The desire for his own comfort and happiness would selfishly cause the caterpillar's husband to try to keep his wife in the caterpillar stage, when it was her destiny soon to become a butterfly.

It is thus that mortals hold one another. Even the suggestion of any trans­formation or change in their established relation one with another seems like an error. Yet it is malpractice for one to take a stand either outwardly or mentally against the destiny of another.

The disciples had to be severely rebuked when they took a stand against the Master's destiny. When he told them, in Matt. 16, that he was to be killed, Peter said, “This shall not be unto thee.” Jesus' rebuke was, “Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” He recognized the action of the human mind trying to interfere with the destiny that God had for him.

Thus for Mr. Hill to hold Mrs. Eddy in this human relationship, when she was working to free herself from all earthly relationships, was a malpractice for which he had to be rebuked, although it was an innocent malpractice.

A great deal of the work that the students at Pleasant View were called upon to do, was to help their Leader to realize her freedom from the strong hold that human affection and human relationships claimed to have upon her, in holding her back from making her demonstration of freedom.

Jesus demanded of his disciples that they loose Lazarus and let him go. The Master had made the demonstration of Life for him, and they had to take the next step, namely, to loose him from the claim of malpractice holding Lazarus in death. Mortals hold each other in a sense of material life; but when one dies, they hold such a one just as strongly and tenaciously in a sense of death. Animal magnetism operates in two ways. Sympathetically it attempts to hold a mortal in this false sense of life, and then attempts to drive him out of this false sense into another sense that is equally false.

When a student has reached the point where spiritual progress is his one concern and desire, and his life is consistent in conforming to this desire, part of his effort must be a protection, lest others attempt, through a human estimate of what is right for him, to interfere with his divine destiny. This describes our Leader's experience, and explains in part why she warned the students against a change in their true sense of “Mother.”

The Directors represented the leading thought. Therefore, what they thought about “Mother” would influence many other students, even the “Busy Bees” — those children who had done so nobly in helping to raise money towards “Mother's Room.”

When the students and the Directors were faithful at each service in working for the health and harmony of those who were present, this would help to bring out a spiritual sense in the congregation, which would result in a wonderful uplift, and make the service a great blessing to all. The Directors were supposed to be the most faithful and consistent mental workers among the students at that time. When you attended the services and saw them present, you could depend upon them to be working for all. It was their task and they performed it faithfully.

It can be seen, therefore, why Mrs. Eddy felt it necessary to start with those who could be relied upon to do the mental work, to be sure that in this work they held a right sense of Mother, since that would help to disseminate that right sense throughout the whole congregation. Contrariwise, if their thought became confused and disturbed, and they worked for the service from that standpoint, it would tend to spread a feeling of disturbance throughout the entire congre­gation.

Those upon whom the responsibility falls of working and praying men­tally for others, should never fancy that they are ready to do such work in what­ever mental state they find themselves at the moment. They must resolve before doing such work, to rise to that altitude of mind in which they can do it scientif­ically. It is far better for a practitioner not to treat a patient, than to do it as a gesture, when his thought is so confused and disturbed that he cannot reflect any real spiritual light. The rule is, if you have no light, do not attempt to give it out, because in reality you are giving out darkness. A practitioner may be tempted to feel that, because a patient wants a treatment every day, he should give it, even when he has not made the proper preparation to spiritualize his thought, so that he has something truly spiritual to give the patient. Treatment that is not given from a spiritual standpoint is wasted effort.

Thus Mrs. Eddy knew that in the excitement of the dedication and the pres­sure to finish the edifice on time, there would be a temptation to the students to drop their spiritual sense, and to take on a material sense of Mother. She felt as great a responsibility in the mental realm for the success of the church and its services, as the Directors felt in the material realm. What they carried materially, she carried mentally. Thus, their correct mental attitude toward her as Mother would be a great help to her, whereas a wrong sense would act as a deterrent in her demonstration.

Part of the value of the lesson we learn from this today is, that when we are cumbered with material work in the organization, we must watch lest we be robbed of our conception of the importance of the spiritual work. We must keep alert lest like Job, we become “full of matter,” and the superabundance of the effects of demonstration crowd out the Christ, Spirit, which is the source of all good and the only Guide.

Today the same temptation exists, namely, lest students, under the pressure of the material side of our organization, lose the right sense of our Leader. This is one lesson to be found in this letter; and we have as much right to declare this, as we would to turn to some letter of St. Paul's in the Bible, and to glean from it a vital spiritual lesson applicable for all time.

Mrs. Eddy can be heard saying today, “Do not let the necessity for human activity in my church cause you to let your thought drop, so that you lose the right idea and understanding of your Leader, since thereby you may lose your spiritual light.”

Those who retain a true sense of “Mother” today, realize that she is still leading this Cause as the Mother Emeritus. If they have a right sense toward her, they will realize that the change from one room to another, which mortals call death, has had no affect upon her leadership of her Cause. If the time comes when the president of a business has an office built, where he cannot be seen by the employees, in no way does that mean that he has ceased to direct the busi­ness. Mrs. Eddy is still running her Cause, whether we see her or not. If she was the Mother Emeritus when she was with us, then she certainly is forever the Mother Emeritus; whereas if one had a human sense of her when she was here, when that was gone what would he have left? Nothing. Mrs. Eddy as the Mother Emeritus is an idea of God, and that could never die, or be lost. It is the spiritual idea that governed the Cause in 1895 and it is still present to govern it.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

January 13, 1895

Dear Student:

The Judge you write is your candidate so you can appoint him to read S. & H. and his wife, or Mrs. Gragg, or Miss Daphne Knapp, or any other woman that is a better reader and attends your church, to read the Bible till we get permanent readers just for this office.

With love,

M. B. Eddy


It was not to be expected that at this time the qualifications for good readers should be clearly recognized, since the students were delving into the realm of the unknown. So Mrs. Eddy suggests that they appoint someone tentatively, until the demonstration be made.

When I went to Chicago during the teachers' association in the 90's, I found that churches tested candidates for the readership by having them read experimentally; then the best ones were chosen. No one was taken on faith. This showed that these churches had not arrived at the place where the members felt that they could demonstrate with a sure touch. The wise metaphysi­cian knows that there are other qualifications besides being able to read ac­ceptably for one Sunday; but where there is little or no access to divine wisdom, it would appear to be a humanly intelligent process to find out how an individual reads before you appoint him. When the demonstrating ability becomes firmer and surer, then God is the One who selects the readers.

When I saw our Leader at her desk receive and then discard a list of can­didates for the readership in The Mother Church, and do it so quickly, that it would appear as if she gave no consideration to any single name, saying, “Entirely unsuitable,” I was forced to deduce that she sensed that not one name had been chosen by demonstration. When demonstration was finally employed, one of the names on this very list she discarded, might be chosen; yet the entire selection of the Directors had to be repudiated before that could be done, and a new start made, where no human effort was put forth to think of a suitable person, so that God could name His choice.

This letter from our Leader implies that it was permissible to try out can­didates, pending the appointment of the right ones. Yet we know that the only right method in her eyes was the demonstrating one; but when students have scant confidence in their demonstrating ability, and feel that they could sit a week waiting for God to tell them whom to appoint, without results, some method has to be used to replace that lack, until demonstration is proved to be the only practical method.

For many years I have declared that, if I should ever need to call on another student for help, I would make the demonstration to know that God would raise up the right one for me to turn to; and that no matter how far advanced spiritually that one might be, in the position of representing God to me he would be the perfect manifestation of God's power, wisdom and love. I would know that nothing could prevent him from fulfilling this important place in his relation to me and so meeting my need. Practitioners and patients who know enough to do so, should always realize that the former represent God to the latter, since the former are entering into the secret place of the Most High, and bringing the wisdom and love of God to the relief of the ignorance of the latter. The results of this will always carry a healing affect.

The wise patient, however, will always look forward to the time when he can depend upon God directly, and dispense with the practitioner entirely. It is legitimate, however, before this time arrives, for him to appeal to the practi­tioner as God's representative.

In like manner, it was a legitimate step for the Directors to depend upon Mrs. Eddy as the one they could trust to demonstrate God's selection of readers, but they must do it always bearing in mind that they must eventually make the demonstration to go to God directly for each selection.

The question comes up whether at this point the Directors were fully aware that even Mrs. Eddy could always go to God to determine what His choice was. In this short note we can sense that she was testing them, wanting them to feel their own inadequacy to make the selection, hoping that they would perceive the possibility of their doing it only with God's help, and hence would work for that end. Meanwhile she wanted them to trust her with this task.

There were three points that she wanted fulfilled. First, she hoped to prove to them their own inability to make this or any other selection with the unaided human mind. Second, she sought to prove to them her ability to make selections unerringly, since in the future they were to send her lists of candidates for office. Therefore, she wanted a voluntary turning to her on their part, as being fully adequate to determine God's selection. Finally she desired them to realize the possibility of their making the demonstration themselves in the future, even though they could not always do it at that time. She knew that if they perceived this possibility and necessity, they would work for it, and this very attitude would make it a possibility.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

January 13, 1895

My dear Student:

I have always guarded that you so kindly, wisely, named in all other churches. Strange to say, this writing or typing the matter read without guarding it the Dr. proposed, and says the students told him so to do. Now I see it was from M. A. M. even as other plans. But the dear Father never lets me even amidst my Babel let a mistake go uncorrected. Do this correction as I have in the Rule I herewith enclose. I am only wanting time to have a Church Manual written and published to answer all questions. I hope to soon. Tell questioners to keep on as now till instructed otherwise by me.

With love,

Mary B. Eddy


In the beginning the students found it difficult to read citations from the Bible and Science and Health in such a way that it would sound like a continuous narrative. So it is understandable why they wanted to write out the material in the form of a continuous manuscript.

One notable thing about our Leader was the wise way in which she safe­guarded the Cause, lest error creep in. She perceived that readers might become careless in their copying of Science and Health, and such copies get into circulation. In this way wrong conceptions might be spread abroad.

This incident shows that our Leader did not wait for error to manifest itself, before she took steps to correct it. She knew that misconceptions, when they once get out, are difficult to correct. So she took wise and strenuous means to pre­vent the possibility of erroneous notions getting into public thought in regard to Christian Science.

It is truly amazing how the safety of our Cause has been maintained through the alert work of Committees on Publication all over the world. The result is that when we make the effort to interest anyone in Christian Science, there is not as much foolish prejudice to break through, as there might have been, had not Mrs. Eddy set the pace for such committees by being instant in correcting, neutralizing and opposing all lies that appeared in print, since lies are all that could ever influence the public against our religion. The truth about Christian Science could not fail to impress any honest thought; but a wall of lies is a dif­ficult thing to break through.

Then she speaks of her Babel, but says that even in the midst of it, the dear Father never permitted her to let a mistake go uncorrected. If you were present to observe the Babel in an army camp, that attends the period when the soldiers get up in the morning, you would know that in spite of the apparent confusion, those in charge never permit one mistake of any kind to go uncorrected. The soldiers, knowing this, are alert to have everything shipshape in order that it may pass inspection. It is possible that a recruit might feel at first, that in such confusion he should be excused if he makes a mistake, but he soon finds that perfection is required of him at all times.

One could believe that in Mrs. Eddy's experience, or Babel, as she calls it, there might have been some excuse or leeway for a slight error. She was under a tremendous pressure of animal magnetism a great part of the time; she was sub­ject to demands from students and from the organization; she had all the details of the work to keep track of, the proof sheets of the periodicals to examine each week and month. Yet she says that in the midst of it all, God did not permit her to let one mistake go uncorrected.

Surely it was reasonable for the students to believe, that at least for a time they would be permitted to copy the material read, until ways were provided by which they could turn to each selection rapidly and thus read the Lesson­-Sermon smoothly; but Mrs. Eddy says this is a mistake which God will not per­mit to go uncorrected. On page 298 of Miscellaneous Writings, we find a long and helpful article that covers this point in detail.

Students felt that they could copy Science and Health in writing or typ­ing without making a mistake, and they probably could if it were not for animal magnetism; but Mrs. Eddy had learned that this baneful influence claimed to take advantage of every opportunity to cause all sorts of difficulties — so it would this one, if she did not safeguard it at the outset. She knew that it would seem a small point to others, but she expected them to accept it when she stated that it was God who required her to correct all mistakes.

Mrs. Eddy entered into a careful discussion of why it was wrong to copy her works and read from a manuscript, because she realized that there would be many students who would not believe that it was wrong. Furthermore, she realized that she could not state the salient reason, but would have to leave it to future generations to grow to the point where they could understand it through their own demonstrations. Yet one can judge the importance of the explanation by the fact that she states it on page 299, and then repeats it on page 301 of Miscellaneous Writings.

Mrs. Eddy saw that for one to copy her textbook, and then read his copy, was to leave her thought which she put back of the words, out of it; that, therefore, to read directly from the book would be the only way to bear in mind the fact, that her healing thought attends what is read. One might not believe that when he copies the textbook, in some curious way the copy becomes what he has written, so that his thought is back of it instead of the author's; but it does. In this way the thought of God which she put into it, would be replaced by the thought of man, and the realization that God wrote the book would wane.

It is important that a church reader realize that Science and Health came from God, and that in reading it, he is reading what God is saying to the world. Unless he does realize that it came from God through our Leader, the value of God as the origin of all truth, and of our Leader as the one who applied truth to the needs of humanity, will be lost.

She detected back of the scenes the working of error, that would seek to rule God out of the letter of Christian Science, and put the human mind in its place. In Science we are only channels of truth. Whatever lessens this realiza­tion must be avoided.

Mrs. Eddy had the ability to receive her revelation from God; she also reflected the wisdom that enabled her to use what God had given her, in the manner that would cause it to be the most effective agent for good in the world. Hence she had the right to refuse to allow her revelation to be used in a way that she could foresee might result in confusion, adulteration, and cause it to become a skeleton without a heart.

Error as the great red dragon was waiting for the opportunity to destroy Christian Science, and Mrs. Eddy did not propose to give it the slightest loophole. Even in this apparently minor matter, she saw its “purpose to kill the reformation begun and increasing through the instructions of ‘Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.'”

Mrs. Eddy made the demonstration to put healing into the textbook, and she was determined that error should not upset it. She wanted the world given the book, because that was where the healing was. If one cannot see how copying the words of the book and giving them out, would upset her demonstration, let him take it on faith until he has grown to understand. Science and Health not only sets forth metaphysics; it is a medicine chest, as well, not only giving the reader understanding, but healing. A sick man may not be in a frame of mind that enables him to grasp the meaning of what he is reading; yet he will be healed just the same. People must be instructed in this important fact, namely, that when they read Science and Health, they are not only instructed in the truth, but they are healed, as well.

When attendants at our Reading Rooms sell copies of this book, or practi­tioners recommend the purchase of it to patients, they should make it plain that the book is a healing agency in and of itself. Mrs. Eddy knew that her book had this property, and that copies from it would not necessarily have. She knew what it had cost her to make this gift to the world, a book that healed as well as in­structed, and she was determined not to let her costly demonstration be broken up.

When it is realized that the spirit is the important thing in Christian Science, rather than the letter, and that this copying of her works threatened the spirit, one can understand why she made such an ado about it. A famous painter would not want the country flooded with exact copies of his paintings, if he knew that only his originals carried his inspiration. The copies might be accurate tech­nically, but would lack the essential element which characterized his work and made it great.

Mrs. Eddy's sense of justice and right was highly developed. Science and Health was her book, given her of God, and in this letter to the Directors she does not hesitate to claim her rights — her privilege of saying how her book shall be used.

One cannot understand her life until he perceives this quality in her. In the Next Friends' Suit much was made of the fact that it was uncovered that she had not paid her taxes in full, as one would have expected the highest expo­nent of good on earth to do. She had the money to do so, and yet did not; but she paid what she felt was just and right, and the city did not press her for the unpaid balance.

This country belongs to its citizens, and the government of country, state and city functions solely for the benefit of the common citizen. When she found that prejudice against her teachings caused the city fathers to embrace the op­portunity to “mulct” her, when it came to taxes, she protested in the only way at her command, and that was to refuse to pay them in full. And her attitude is an example for her followers. Whereas they should be willing to do all that is right to support their country in every way, they should never sit back and submit to injustice without a protest, especially when that injustice is perpetrated by those who are our servants, and is a manifestation of prejudice against our religion.

The very prosperity of Concord could be traced to the fact that Mrs. Eddy lived there, and was the reason for thousands of persons visiting the city every year. She was full of public spirit, and spent her own money to have many city streets paved. In spite of all this, the city taxed her beyond what was just, and she was justified in what she did by way of protest, and standing on her rights as a citizen.

The same argument holds true in her organization. She wanted her followers always to support the Board of Directors, but she wanted the latter to be regarded as the servants of the Field, and not its masters. By her example she showed that it is not the part of a genuine Christian Scientist to sit back and tamely submit to injustice of any sort. She left her Cause to her followers, and she left them her example. To follow it means to support her Cause in every way, even to the point of protesting when any injustice is done in the name of might or right. It should never come to pass that her Cause represents anything less than the highest thought of the majority.




Concord, N. H.

January 15, 1895

To the Church of Christ, Scientist

Beloved Students:

Make broader your bounds for blessing the people. Have Friday evening meetings to benefit the people. Learn to forget what you should not remember, namely, self, and live for the good you do. Conduct your meetings by repeating and demonstrating prac­tical Christian Science. Tell what this Science does for yourself, and will do for others. Speak from experience of its Founder — ­noting her self-sacrifice as the way in Christian Science. Be meek. Let your mottoes for this meeting be — Who shall be least, and servant, and Little children, love one another.

Affectionately yours,

Mary Baker Eddy


If it is true that animal magnetism must be detected and handled before the demonstration of truth can shine forth, it follows that, when Mrs. Eddy called upon the Church to make broader her bounds for blessing the people, she was calling them to handle the animal magnetism which would claim to prevent such a goal from being attained.

The demonstration of healing in Science is simple and straightforward. It merely requires a clear consciousness of truth — the knowing that makes us free. This simple sense is not as successful as we would like to have it, however, because we do not sufficiently perceive the deterrent which must be removed.

Animal magnetism is the name Mrs. Eddy has given to cover the entire action of error. Specifically, it is the term that describes the action of mortal mind in its attempt to reverse or interfere with the demonstration of Truth. It is never aggressive of its own accord. When it appears to be so, it is really rising up to prevent its annihilation by Truth. The skillful metaphysician never approaches a problem without handling this deterrent.

When Jesus gave the parable of the devil that was cast out of a man, and that, when it found the house swept and garnished, returned with seven other devils, he indicated that the handling of animal magnetism relieves a case temporarily. If, however, when the error is cast out, one goes no further, the patient will be left in a sense of human harmony. This state is illustrated by seven devils, since it is error in its most dangerous form. It carries the temptation to believe that one can be comfortable and happy in hell, that one is safe separated in belief from God.

The only right motive for casting out error, is that the space may be filled with the Spirit of God. Had this man's house been filled with spiritual good, the devil would not have found it empty, and so could not have returned with his friends. In healing the sick, the danger is, that when he is relieved of the suf­fering and disease, the patient receives what he wants humanly. He is, therefore, tempted to neglect the second step, which is placing himself under the govern­ment of God alone. It is a rule that, after error has been cast out, one must fill the space with Truth and Love. When one does this, the healing is permanent and scientific, and there is no room left for error to return to.

What is the nature of the deterrent that must be cast out in every case? It is the suggestion that you have a problem that you cannot solve, that you have a patient that you cannot heal (when in reality you have not). It is the claim that a falsity exists that can defy God, that must be destroyed through His power (when in reality it does not exist at all). It is the whisper that one becomes weary in right thinking after a period, and must drop down to a mortal level in order to be refreshed (which is an exact reversal of the fact).

These suggestions must be met with the truth. Nothing brings more refresh­ment than right thinking, when the false law is broken which claims that it is hard work to watch and pray, that we become weary in well doing, and that after a length of time we must stop, and rest in human thinking, — as if after a commun­ion with God, we must come down to have a visit with the devil!

Mrs. Eddy's call to a broader demonstration can be heeded and obeyed, only as we handle the animal magnetism which suggests that the influence of the right thinker can be limited, that students can be made so short-focused mentally, that they do not include the stranger — nay, the whole world — in their effort to reflect God. This letter is a demand to realize that our mind is God's Mind, and since Mind is unlimited, our reflection of that Mind is unlimited likewise. We must declare that we are rested and refreshed in doing this larger work, so that we rejoice constantly in it. Such work is the recognition of the fact that there is but one Mind; that no other claim of mind exists; that no one expresses a belief in any other mind; that nobody has a human mind to ac­knowledge such a belief — something that is utterly foreign to the Mind which is God.

Our Wednesday meetings teach us how to broaden our use of Science, and to share it with the world. Those who testify should always consider how their testimony is going to sound to the stranger. One should not talk over the head of the stranger, nor use the terminology of Science, that is like a foreign language to one who does not understand it. He must watch lest he say that which will cause people to chemicalize. Testimonies that do the most good are those that are sincere, simple and convincing. They are given in the language that the stranger will understand. The healings that are set forth should be clearcut and of value, since they represent the first proof that the stranger accepts of the truth of Christian Science. Having accepted its truth, he is then ready to learn of its doctrine, and see that it is true because it comes from God.

It is necessary to remember that Mrs. Eddy once said of these testimonies, “It is not wise to tell your methods of destroying animal magnetism. It is a mis­take to give your methods in a Wednesday evening meeting, saying, ‘I realized this and that.'”

When one says in his testimony, “I realized the truth and the patient was healed,” or “I realized this or that and was healed,” it tends to belittle the heal­ing work in the eyes of the stranger, and does not foster that reverence and respect with which he should approach Christian Science. It is always God who does the healing in Science, if it is done scientifically, and this fact should be stressed above everything else in testimonies. If one feels guided to state that he realized some specific truth, he should indicate that this brought him into tune with God, so that the power of God flowed through him and did the healing. The stranger is not interested in methods. He wants proof. He wants to know that God is ready to heal him when he turns to Him rightly.

As one broadens his bounds for blessing others as Mrs. Eddy directs, he benefits the people and learns to forget self. His work becomes truly effective. If, when he would share his good with others in these meetings, the error of fear keeps him from speaking, he may know that he is remembering self. He is wondering whether he will forget, or whether he will be criticized for what he says, or the way he says it. He listens to the suggestion that what he has to say is of no value. All this is the result of a consciousness of self. The remedy is to forget self, and the moment one does, he becomes a channel for God to speak through. Then what he says is inspiring, helpful and meets the need.

Mrs. Eddy's next admonition is to conduct the meetings “by repeating and demonstrating practical Christian Science.” Evidently telling what this Science does for oneself and will do for others, as she writes, will not fulfill her concep­tion unless one demonstrates. On page 1 of Science and Health she writes, “I speak from experience.” Here we learn from her own pen that nothing she wrote was merely theoretical. She demonstrated Christian Science, and then wrote and spoke from experience. This gave her utterances the authority of her own practice and proof. This is why one may read her writings and find himself healed; or may learn from them the scientific method of healing.

When students wrote articles on Christian Science based largely on an intellectual comprehension, rather than their own demonstration of the subject, Mrs. Eddy was quick to detect and to rebuke such efforts. To her the letter was nothing without the Spirit, and the Spirit was supplied wholly through one's own successful demonstration. On March 19, 1888, she wrote to Mary Philbrick, “It sounds to me strangely when I listen, to hear the material or technical explanation of that which is redolent of life, and must come into our experience to be demonstrated.”

When in 1905 she rebuked publicly John B. Willis' editorial, “Watching versus Watching Out” (See Miscellany, page 232), she recognized that Mr. Willis had written it from the standpoint of his intellectual comprehension of the letter of Christian Science, rather than from his own experience in suc­cessfully putting it into practice. To her, mere theory was not Christian Science. Likewise she would rebuke a testimony given in a Wednesday meeting that was theoretical, and not the fruit of “demonstrating practical Christian Science.”

In this letter she writes, “...live for the good you do.” Once she said, “God's law is life-giving and life-sustaining eternally. Doing good and thinking good sustains life.” The deduction from this statement is, that as long as we watch to see that we are useful to God and man on earth in a constructive way, we may expect the demonstration of God's reflection to sustain our human sense of life. If we become sick and recognize the sickness as a temptation to rob us of our usefulness, we must meet it from that standpoint, so that we are able to continue our work in spite of the sickness; then we will soon be free. We will have thwarted the devil. Therefore, if we wish to continue to live, we must watch that no form of animal magnetism, — confusion, unhappiness, sick­ness or material prosperity, — keeps us from doing our work for God. Then we will live by reason of the good we do.

“Conduct your meetings by...demonstrating practical Christian Science.” Telling what this Science does for oneself and will do for others, will not fulfill this demand. One must outgrow the conception of attending services merely for the good one can receive. He must work mentally during the services, in order that the cloud of falsity and mesmerism, which comes in with the stranger, may be lifted. Then the latter will be able to partake of the feast which is prepared for him, which he cannot do unless this demonstration is made for him. The stranger comes more or less under the influence of mortal belief, so that the good things that are said will not take root, unless he is freed to a degree from this influence.

The lazy human mind always tries to find the demonstration of another to lean on. It loves to eat the cake another has gone to the trouble to prepare. “Demonstrating practical Christian Science” in our meetings and lectures is not eating cake, however. It is making it for others to eat.

Our testimonial meetings are a free clinic, where we invite the stranger to come and to partake of our healing atmosphere free of charge. In these meet­ings we tell of the healing that Christian Science has performed, and at the same time give the stranger a sample of the healing. We really say to him, “Here you may learn of the miracles Truth is performing on earth today. Here you may also experience a foretaste of that healing, which you will receive if you are receptive.”

The editor of the Journal used this letter by our Leader as the basis of his editorial in the April, 1895, issue. Yet he omitted the three sentences in the body of the letter, the last one of which reads, “Speak from experience of its Founder — noting her self-sacrifice as the way in Christian Science.” This omis­sion was an instance of the claim of animal magnetism, that would separate the revelation from the Revelator. Mrs. Eddy not only discovered and founded Christian Science, but she was the only correct demonstrator of her teachings. If one cannot understand her life, — if he fails to comprehend how she took her own revelation and utilized it correctly, — he will not be able to demonstrate it rightly.

Jesus taught that unless he was brought into his teachings, and his method of demonstration kept before thought, his followers would not be able to demon­strate successfully. Their efforts must be done in his name. Only as they demon­strated as he did, would they succeed. In like manner Mrs. Eddy restored his truth to the world, and through her own demonstration, she embodied it. Hence her understanding of it was not an intellectual comprehension, that passes for understanding with so many students. The truth had actually entered into her consciousness and possessed her, so that whatever she said or did, was from the basis of Christian Science.

The editor's omission of this salient point in Mrs. Eddy's letter, reminds the historian that most of the shipwrecks that occurred in her time sprang from an unwillingness to include her in the effort to understand and demonstrate Science. When she insisted on being included in the picture, one might accuse her of a fear that she might be moved out of her position of leadership; but she knew that it was part of man's salvation to know how to demonstrate, and in order to do so, he must follow one who knew how to do so correctly. For this reason, those who fancied that they understood Christian Science, and yet held the Leader as being incorrect or lacking in her own demonstration of it, were doomed to failure.

It was always a sad thing when a student judged her from a human stand­point, since she lived a life that defied any comprehension from this point of view. Such a student might appear to be loyal, since he might not voice what he was really thinking about the Leader. He would declare to all that Mrs. Eddy was a remarkable and wonderful woman. Yet in his heart he believed that she did not live consistently with her teachings.

What one thinks is always more important than what one says. In fact, whatever one says is permeated with what one thinks. Even though a student were unwilling to say anything disparaging against his Leader, or voice any criticism, yet if such criticism be in his thought, it inoculates what he says, so that the effect on others would be to cause them to doubt the Science of Mrs. Eddy's own life.

Through the years there were many things that God required her to do, that she would not have done otherwise. It was her implicit obedience to God that caused her to do them. In fact it was a cross to have to do them.

Mrs. Eddy laid the obligation upon every student to study her life and to strive to understand it, — just as they do the Bible and Science and Health,­ — when she placed upon them the obligation to speak of her in the meetings, and to note her self-sacrifice as the way in Christian Science. She expected students to demonstrate as she did, using her method and example as the only correct and successful way. The primary motive of her life-work was self-sacrifice, showing that a student who is unwilling to sacrifice time, ease and effort, as well as lazy human thinking in order to bless others, can never be a real Christian Scientist.

When Mrs. Eddy enjoined the students to be meek, she saw that ambitious students might essay to use the Wednesday meetings to exalt themselves, by advertising their success in healing. To her the only right motive in speaking was to share with others. Again, she did not want students setting themselves up as being better than the members of other denominations. When we boast, because of the contrast between ourselves and members of other sects, the public is unfavorably impressed.

Meekness is always becoming. When a man does some heroic deed, it is impressive to have him humbly declare that he did just what was in the line of his duty. People regard him more highly for his modesty.

Finally Mrs. Eddy gives two mottoes for these meetings, “Who shall be least and servant,” and, “Little children, love one another.” The first one incul­cates the fact that in Science greatness is not based on the development of the human mind, since the right effect of Science is to belittle the human sense, so that man may reflect God. The man nearest to God is the one who claims to have nothing and to know nothing apart from God, the one who regards himself as the servant of all. This one is in the best mental state to throw off the servitude of the so-called human mind, in order to reflect divine Mind.

Many ambitious mortals who join our church do not lose that ambition immediately. The result is that they desire to attain prominence in our ranks. Mrs. Eddy saw that personal ambition was animal magnetism, and must be handled as such.

The Master's teachings show the necessity for subjecting the human mind before it is put off. Part of this process is the willingness to be the servant of all. In fact he warned us, when we were smitten on one cheek, to present the other, as part of the way by which the human mind is subjugated.

Finally comes the admonition to love one another. Students can never obey this motto until they gain a metaphysical understanding of love, which shows that what the senses behold is not the real man. One cannot love in Christian Science, until he perceives the lovable nature of the true selfhood of all — even the one who is the most offensive humanly. No spiritual good can go out to the world, until students love each other and humanity. A spiritual blessing must go out from a united thought. The spiritual efficiency of those who are striving to love the poor sinners and the suffering sick, is greatly impaired if they lack in love one toward another. Sometimes workers are jealous of each other. Jealousy is a disabling claim of animal magnetism which prevents workers from uniting on the platform of one Mind, so that they may work unselfishly and without desire for aggrandizement.

Love for humanity is scientific only as it springs from love for our brethren in Christ. Spiritual thought, in order to bless the world, must go out from a united thought. When uniting with The Mother Church, members pledge to have that Mind in them which was also in Christ Jesus. Love is a synonym for Mind. Scientific love requires members to forget personal differences and jealousies, and to work shoulder to shoulder in a common effort to destroy error and to bless humanity.

Mrs. Eddy trained the students in her home to work metaphysically in groups. Yet she was often disappointed in such work and had to stop it, because she detected one or more working from the standpoint of the human mind. She likened the work of many minds to wild beasts fighting, locking horns. Group work to be done rightly, must be done in one Mind. Part of this requirement means love for one another.




January 23, 1895

Dear Student:

I have not time to attend to this at present. Fix something that you want as you want it, and I can then look it over after I get through with the printer that has my pamphlet in two weeks. Be sure that you admit no member that is not vouched for by an unquestioned student of mine or a First Member of our church in Boston. Be more than ever careful who you let into our church. And do not get in debt. Remember these two points steadfastly.

With love,

Mother


This letter sets forth two points that required watchfulness at the stage of the founding of the church, and today should still be stressed as vital. Those who vouch for applicants for membership should follow this precept of our Leader, and hold in thought the solemn charge laid upon them, when they undertake to sponsor a new member. They should be sure that the candidate is right and sound metaphysically, and is one the church runs no risk in admitting. It is well to consider the possibility of mortal mind sending spies into our midst.

The second question of debt is an important one, since when demonstra­tion is unfolding footsteps according to God's plan, He provides the means at every step of the way. Therefore, to get into debt beyond current expenses without a speedy prospect of payment, is to indicate that the members are not perceiving and following aright the leadings of Truth.

It is true that when members undertake to sponsor a plan that appears to be far beyond a present possibility, it may become an opportunity for bringing them all up to a higher standpoint of demonstration. Yet if such a plan was the result of demonstration, it would not come under the classification of getting into debt.

It is noteworthy how Mrs. Eddy could set forth procedure covering a specif­ic situation, which by implication could be given a universal application. In this she was like a mathematics book that gives one example of a rule, implying that all problems involving this rule are solvable in like manner.

There are students who may be surprised by the following excerpt from a letter Mrs. Eddy wrote Caroline Frame: “The first experience of mine in entering upon the discovery of Christian Science was the entire stoppage of the periods that are believed to be concurrent with the moon. Hence that saying of the Revelator of the spiritual idea, ‘The moon was under her feet.' Often it seems to be discouraging to hear my female students talk of this period as if it was part of their life, normal and scientific.” Here we find our Leader proving that, because it was possible to make the demonstration over one phase of human experience that is considered normal, students should cherish the realization that through divine Mind every fleshly belief can be destroyed.

The healing of sickness in Science is used as an illustration of the power of divine Mind, that should become an urge to use divine power to include and destroy all illusion. Mrs. Eddy showed great wisdom in giving forth the application of truth to specific problems, and then leaving the students to evolve by implication its larger applications. She knew the unreal nature of the entire fabric foisted upon mortal man by animal magnetism, and taught that it had to be destroyed every whit. But by stressing the handling of one phase of it, she hoped students would take the hint and be encouraged to extend their efforts to cover the whole, much as the overseer goes ahead, and puts a cross on the trees he wants his loggers to cut down. Mrs. Eddy marked mortality for destruc­tion.

If animal magnetism attempted to put an individual into membership in The Mother Church or a branch church in order to make trouble, the tempta­tion would necessarily include the suggestion of unwatchfulness on the part of those in charge. So in this letter she called for watchfulness on this point. She knew that the practice and habit of being mentally alert, and applying one's Science in all things, was necessary to growth as well as to protection.

One might contend that it was not a serious matter if fifty thousand members bent on trouble should be admitted to membership in The Mother Church, since none of them would have any voice or vote in the running of the organization. Yet they would represent a mental influence on the wrong side, and bear mute testimony to the lack of alertness and demonstration on the part of their spon­sors and the Directors.

Once I trained a pet dog to follow me at all times, so that I would never need to think of it when taking it for a stroll. I accomplished this by hiding from it at every opportunity, and making it find me, until it learned never to let me out of its sight. Mrs. Eddy trained students by setting forth situations where she declared that serious results would happen if the students were not alert. She trained them to be watchful. The value of this can be understood when it is realized that only through watchfulness can the demonstration of divine Mind be attained. Mrs. Eddy's alertness was a pattern for her followers. She watched to determine the thought back of everything. In such a small matter as the making of her clothes, she watched to determine whether they were the manifestation of a humanly efficient thought, or of spiritual thought. If they were the former, she could not accept them, since they could never become part of her demonstra­tion unless they partook of the elements of demonstration. She once said, “Matter in the final analysis is human will; substance is the will of God made manifest. To have a new heaven and a new earth is to change our thought from matter to substance. Then heaven and earth will pass away, there will be no sin, sorrow, disease or death, and man will recognize himself universal being.”

It follows that in her effort to embody the divine will, she could not include the human will in any form. Whatever lacked divine will was offensive to her. When Mr. John Willis wrote the editorial, “Watching versus Watching Out,” that appeared in the Sentinel of September 23, 1905, she unerringly detected that he had sewn together a garment composed of human efficiency, intellectuality, and theory: so it had no place in a demonstrable Science. Hence she rebuked it strongly. Christian Science is not a theory.

A dress shop that advertized hand-sewn garments would have no right to try to pass off a machine-made dress as the hand-made article, even though it might resemble the latter so that only an expert could detect the fraud. When Mrs. Eddy rejected work done by her students, even when it appeared to be good work, it was because she detected that it was man-made, instead of God-­made.

When Mrs. Eddy directed Mr. Johnson to prepare a printed form for ap­plication for membership in The Mother Church the way he wanted it, as she did in this letter, he was too wise to believe that something put forth by the human will or intelligence would satisfy her, or that she would permit an item of that nature to be woven into the fabric of the organization! She expressed the matter casually as if it was of no special moment, but perhaps she did this to detect whether he was napping. Nothing was more important than the blanks or forms to be sent out to applicants, and if he was alert, as we trust he was, he would realize this.

My experience with our Leader taught me, that in her estimation the great­est temptation to a student was the impulse to fall asleep mentally the moment things go smoothly, since that is just what error wants. She was training students to be watchmen on the walls of Zion. Upon them rested the responsibility of keeping in abeyance the various illusions that might tempt the unwary, until scientific education brings the world to the point where individuals are no longer susceptible to mesmerism. Reality cannot be touched by animal mag­netism. Hence, as the Christian Science knight arms himself inside, he becomes impervious to all the attacks of hypnotism from outside.

Mrs. Eddy's admonition not to get into debt, is a precept that has a universal as well as a metaphysical implication and application. One who permits himself to get into debt, feels a foolish optimism that impels him to try to force results before he has made his demonstration. In so doing he uses human will as a sub­stitute for divine will, instead of using divine will to overcome human will. When a student is willing to use demonstration instead of debt, in order to obtain what he needs, he is worthy to receive whatever comes to him in this way. When he uses debt, however, he is building on sand, since even if he does obtain what he desires, it is a manifestation of that which is insecure and constantly changing — that which cannot be relied upon — namely, the human will.

In Science we not only must not seek to obtain that which we have not demonstrated, but we must not even cherish a desire for it. One who is sick should not even want to recover, unless the health and harmony that comes is the result of the demonstration, or thought correction, that entitles him to get well. It breaks a moral precept for a student to desire what he does not deserve, and he does not deserve that which he has not demonstrated or cannot pay for.

Mortals are willing to run into debt, in order to buy that which they cannot afford to pay for. We have a parallel in Science in those who are willing, when they are sick or get into trouble, to run to another for help, and yet are not willing to make the slightest effort to help themselves. Sickness in a student is always the evidence that he does not deserve health. He has permitted the thought of which health is the manifestation, to be submerged or overruled. Unless one thinks enough of God to be willing to maintain a spiritual thought as far as he is able, he does not deserve health.

Students should not wait until they are sick, before they go to work to clean up the mental debris which carelessness permits to accumulate in thought. That means getting out of debt in the mental realm. When Mrs. Eddy says, “Do not get in debt,” she might add, “Do not owe God. Let Him owe you. Lay up treasure in heaven. In other words, work in such a way that God owes you. Be faithful; then when you are in need, you will have a balance in His bank to draw on.”

It is true that Science shows health to be a gift of God. Yet it is bought with a price, which is the willingness to stand porter at the door of thought. We deserve health when we have done this work successfully, and have per­mitted nothing of an alien nature to invade consciousness.

Another way to express the precept not to run into debt is: never permit effect to get ahead of cause in your estimation. If you keep a surplus of divine Mind on hand, you will have the expression of all your needs; but the attempt to obtain effect apart from cause is running into debt. The Bible warns us not to covet. What one's neighbor has in Science is the manifestation of his demonstration; a similar supply will be yours when you make a similar demonstration. You break the commandment, however, when you covet, since that means that you not only desire the manifestation without making the demonstration, but that you would be willing to have it, and thus run into debt to God. To covet means to be willing to have God's rewards without making the effort to deserve them. Progress comes only when we desire right thinking and work for it, and are willing to have the fruit of that right thinking in proportion as we earn it.

When one envies another in Science, he is not envying him his right thinking, but the fruitage of it. Students do not envy the method another has used to gain right results, since that method is open to all. They envy the results, and the error of envy is that in such an attitude of thought one cannot utilize the method that will bring him what he needs. Right thinking alone brings abundance that is permanent, and envy is not right thinking, but its absence.

Scholastic theology might not condemn a Christian if he envied the Master his ability to speak with great wisdom and to perform great miracles; yet Science proves that envy of that sort never yet enabled a student to go and do likewise. Envy is mental laziness. Jesus attained what he did by eliminating his own opinions, and by sweeping away all the rubbish that material training forces upon mortals. In this mentally empty state he reflected God, and what came to him thereafter was the result of this reflection. When one understands this, he is in a position to go and do likewise, since all have the latent ability to reflect God that the Master brought forth into activity. So instead of thinking that all these things came to the Master as gifts of God, we must realize that they were gifts that God will bestow on anyone who fits himself to receive them.

If God's gifts are available to all, there is no reason for envy. The one who covets is misled, and sees effect as if it were cause. Thus the metaphysical in­terpretation of going into debt, means overestimating the results of demonstra­tion to the point where one is willing to have them before he has earned them. The limitation that results from mistaking effect for cause is seen in every de­partment of mortal existence. Cause always means freedom. It is an open high­way to the one that walks toward it, since it offers limitless progress.

Mrs. Eddy knew how important activity is to the advancing student. Hence the ramifications of the Cause constituted a legitimate occasion to require and acquire activity and watchfulness. The Field will be greatly blessed in propor­tion as the Board of Directors follow the Leader's example in this respect, and seek occasion to quicken the demonstration of students.

Let us suppose the Monitor to be showing unhealthy symptoms. If the Board should call on prominent workers in its behalf, they would be employing the very means Mrs. Eddy used to bring forth a more active demonstration in the Field. In this way the Cause would be carried to greater success, and the Direc­tors would unite the leading students to them with cords of appreciation. When working students feel that the Directors lean on them, that brings out a unity that is highly desirable.

The letter in question is valuable because it shows that Mrs. Eddy called on the students to make their own demonstration, and also advised them to be watchful in church matters. How it must have endeared their Leader to them to have her lean on them and trust them in this way! How it must have quickened their spiritual growth, which in turn blessed the whole Cause! If Mrs. Eddy used matters in the Cause to instil and inspire activity and watchfulness in students, the Directors may follow her example today, and the good results which follow will surely be a proof of the wisdom involved in so doing.




To The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston

My Beloved Students: — I cannot conscientiously lend my counsel to direct your action on receiving or dismissing candidates. To do this, I should need to be with you. I cannot accept hearsay, and would need to know the circumstances and facts regarding both sides of the subject, to form a proper judgment. This is not my present province; hence I have hitherto declined to be consulted on these subjects, and still maintain this position.

These are matters of grave import; and you cannot be in­different to this, but will give them immediate attention, and be governed therein by the spirit and the letter of this Scripture: “Whatsoever ye would that men should do unto you, do ye even so to them.”

I cannot be the conscience for this church; but if I were, I would gather every reformed mortal that desired to come, into its fold, and counsel and help him to walk in the footsteps of His flock. I feel sure that as Christian Scientists you will act, relative to this matter, up to your highest understanding of justice and mercy.

Affectionately yours,

Mary Baker Eddy

February 12, 1895


This wonderfully inspired letter may be found on page 146 of Miscella­neous Writings, and in the Journal for March, 1895. How could any Board of Directors of The Mother Church function properly without a knowledge of the contents of these letters, since until each member of that committee has demon­strated a clear sense of individual divine guidance equal to that which our Leader had, he must have a model or an example to follow, in order to know whether he is being governed by Truth or by error?

One might question whether what Mrs. Eddy writes in this letter as to know­ing circumstances was strictly true, since she had a way of discovering things which was above the human. Yet this letter was necessary to warn students for all time to come, not to form opinions based merely on one side of a question. Even what is called a judicial mind never permits itself to form a final opinion, until both sides of a case have been presented. The presentation of the accusa­tion may be a fraud — a malicious attempt to injure and pull down — and this must be determined.

Mrs. Eddy is calling for a judicial attitude of mind on the part of the mem­bers, in dealing with cases involving the need of discipline. It requires great wisdom and love — great consideration — as well as a judicial attitude, in dealing with those who depart from the tenets and demonstration of Christian Science. In dealing with cases of discipline, the point to be considered is not whether a member is making, or might make, trouble for the church. The question always is and should be, what is best for him? Will he have a better chance to reform if he is released from the pressure of error that is placed on him, when he has done something to bring down upon him the condemnation of the membership?

When a horse goes lame, the owner does not whip it. He investigates, and if he finds a stone in its shoe, he takes it out. When we find a brother member accused of some error, we should not join in a general condemnation. We know that whatever it is, whether it be false or true, it is animal magnetism, and should be regarded as an error that is separate from man.

Mrs. Eddy says these are matters of grave import and then tells the students to be governed by the spirit and the letter of the Golden Rule. For instance, let us suppose you were convicted of something of which you were innocent. What kind of justice would you want from your fellow members? Whatever you would want is what you should extend. The Golden Rule represents the highest appeal that can be made to man's sense of justice, giving to others what he would want in return from them.

What a wonderful appeal in behalf of reformed mortals Mrs. Eddy gives in this letter! It is one that will ring down through the ages. It implies that whatever action the church takes in dealing with the erring, it is for their good, and is not intended to damn them or to put them outside the pale. In including the word “reformed,” however, she lays down the necessity for a careful investigation in order to be certain of reformation. Once this is established for a surety, there should be no hesitancy about taking one back. Thus she sets forth a pattern of action based on a love for one's neighbor and the Golden Rule, where the mem­bers act up to their highest understanding of justice and mercy.

Proof that Mrs. Eddy inaugurated discipline and excommunication for the good of the erring member, rather than to cleanse the roster of membership from disloyal members, is found in a letter that she wrote to Julia Field-King on November 11, 1896. She recognized that a member might sink under the pres­sure of malpractice held over him by other members; so it would be an act of mercy as well as justice to release one for the time being from membership, and thus give him a chance to right himself.

Mrs. Eddy was not watching with an eagle eye to dismiss erring members. She wrote to the Directors in a letter dated November 8, 1902, “If I were to have the students that break faith all excommunicated without sufficient effort on my part and on yours to save them, how many members think you would be left in it?”

The letter to Mrs. King is as follows: “You cannot include in your thought personality without a risk. So take none. You injure yourself if you injure another. This is my golden rule: I would no sooner harm Richard Kennedy or J. C. Woodbury than you or myself. I would never have consented to have her dis­missed forever or a day from our church had I not known that it was better for her as well as for the church. I did all in my power to help her even when I knew she was trying to injure me. Now I spoke to you of another student when you were here, but forgot to charge you not to name one word of it. But I will tell you now, be sure and not bring up these dead carcasses. Keep utterly silent on what I say to you alone and for the Cause. Also, dear one, turn your mind to God. Be calm and have no fear.”

In answering the question raised by this letter of February 12, 1895, as to why Mrs. Eddy did not assert her ability to know things through the reflection of God, it can be said that she was establishing precedent for future action on the part of the Directors. Mrs. Eddy surely possessed a spiritually intuitive sense that had proved itself to be infallible. If the Directors had this, they would not need to know the human facts and circumstances relative to receiving or dismissing candidates, any more than they would need to argue in healing disease if they could heal by the Spirit alone.

Mrs. Eddy was too wise to set a precedent of healing by the Spirit for those who had not yet attained this ability, although we know that that was the way she healed. In like manner she did not set a precedent for the Directors to deal with candidates based wholly on a spiritual ability to know all things, although she possessed that ability, and hoped that her followers would likewise develop it in time to come.

Pending that time, she wanted to be sure that the Directors would listen to both sides of each case that came up for discipline, since she knew that it would create ill feeling, if erring members were disciplined or excommunicated without being given a chance to present their side of the case.

Mrs. Eddy taught that the real judgment and justice that Christian Scien­tists should exercise, comes from God. Students should look forward to the time when they will so manifest divine justice that they will make no mistakes. By her own example and demonstration, she set forth the ideal, but indicated that at the present time it was necessary to take the human footsteps of learning the circumstances and facts regarding both sides of a case.

Mrs. Eddy was careful to set forth the ideal in every direction, even while she permitted many things as temporary expedients. She made it very plain that she disapproved of a material organization, intimating that the time would come when a church under a wholly spiritual organization would be a possi­bility. Yet she permitted a material organization and made all arrangements for it to be continued.

While she could conduct a Cause through her own demonstration without an organization, the students could not. So she had to arrange for a limited demonstration, or a lack of it, on the part of her followers.

In dealing with erring students, for which she arranged in this letter, it is important to determine whether one is a Peter, with an error in his superstruc­ture, or a Judas, with an error in his foundation. It is always possible to repair an error in superstructure, but an error in foundation is more serious, since if one advances too far without correcting it, there may be too great a load laid on it, to make any changes. The situation may require a fresh start.

It is not wise for one to continue in Science, if he has an error in his founda­tion that he fails to correct, or is unwilling to cast out, since he is destined to have a sad experience, and perhaps do the Cause harm. It would appear as if the error that finally overthrew Augusta Stetson, was in her foundation, since she manifested a certain ambition for human aggrandizement and power. Such individuals gain power by leaning on God, which is good; but when that power comes to them, they let go of God, which is not good. From that standpoint they may do things which are not good, and much harm may result, as happened in Mrs. Stetson's case.

A great deal of the error that students manifest comes from mental laziness. They may be driven through a sense of lack to make a demonstration of supply; but if the moment that lack is taken care of, they stop working, it is the claim of mental laziness. They lay hold of God when they need something, and let go of Him the moment they receive it. They are like the man who wanted to join a Christian Science church. In order to do so he stopped smoking. After he was taken in, he soon began smoking again. The Bible records that Job received the rewards that come to anyone who turns wholeheartedly to God; but then he turned away from God to enjoy them. The only way for him to learn the lesson, namely, that one must never neglect the Giver, God, because of His gifts, was to have those rewards temporarily taken away.

The spiritual man is not mentally lazy. Therefore mental laziness is part of the garment of mortality that has been put upon mortal man. Every student has the task of handling it. Often those who are the most active humanly, have the greatest argument of mental inertia to meet when they become right thinkers. The only way to handle mental laziness is to realize that it is not a normal con­dition for man, and it does not belong to him. It is just as much the action of animal magnetism for one to forget or to neglect his duty in Science, as it is to be sick or sinful.

In dealing with refractory students, Mrs. Eddy applied punishment wholly for purposes of reformation, and her followers should do likewise. Often students are tempted to believe that God sends them hard experiences for purposes of punishment; but that is never true. Whatever experiences come to one as a result of divine wisdom, are for purposes of reformation. They seem like punish­ment only when one resists them, and fails to take advantage of them. All God can send His children is divine Love, and that Love seems like punishment only when man rejects or resists it.

This same rule holds when a Christian Scientist loves his enemies. If they accept this love, it blesses them. If they reject it, its effect upon them is wrathful.

As she often does, in this letter Mrs. Eddy stresses the need of the union of justice and mercy. Justice attaches to error the penalty that is deserved by the one who has harbored the error, while mercy makes the punishment constructive rather than destructive, reformatory rather than the result of a desire for revenge.

Mrs. Eddy was well aware of the tendency of mortal thought to adopt the Science of Christian Science, and to leave the Christian side out of its applica­tion. This very thought was voiced by the lecturer who, on December 7, 1900, went to Mrs. Eddy and asserted that men were essential to take the lead of the Cause of Christian Science. He even declared that they should be free to assert their rights without her dictation. He merely voiced the conception that was latent in the minds of many, that wisdom was sufficient to guide the Movement without love. She answered this error by writing her wonderful book, Man and Woman. In this letter in 1895 we find her stressing the great need of mercy and love in dealing with wrong doers, seeking to reform and help them, rather than giving them just ice, as she once put it (See Sentinel, June 16, 1906).

It is the masculine thought that feels free to run things with justice, and to forget mercy. It fancies that love is a temptation against which it must harden itself, that it must rule love out of the heart before it can judge righteous judg­ment.

It is interesting to consider Samson's riddle as found in Judges 14:14, where he said, “Out of the strong came forth sweetness.” Christian Science proves that strength and sweetness must go hand in hand. History proves that every so-called great man that has flourished for a time, and finally been dethroned, either lacked sweetness, or else he had it but lost it. When you find a man in authority losing his sweetness, it is inevitable that he go down. Mrs. Eddy was the Leader because she had both wisdom and love, strength and sweetness, and she never permitted one to be overshadowed by the other. She taught her fol­lowers to distrust any individual, or committee, who found it necessary to bury their sweetness before executing justice.

When students learn the Science of reflecting the power, wisdom and jus­tice of God, they must never forget that it is equally important to reflect divine Love. The Master combined these two qualities. He manifested a wisdom that enabled him to overthrow his enemies. What he asserted to them proved that he was motivated by a wisdom that they did not possess; yet he never forgot to manifest divine Love at the same time. The very name given to his doctrine, name­ly, Christianity, has come to mean a type of spiritual love, to which Mrs. Eddy added the wisdom of Science, so that no one can truly call himself her follower who does not act up to his highest understanding of justice and mercy.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

March 11, 1895

Dear Student:

Enclosed please find “Rule” and “By-law” to be acted on at your next meeting of the Church and C. S. Association. I find it necessary to limit the action of mortal mind to immortal Mind laws, as the former cannot be trusted to forward our cause.

With love,

Mother,

M. B. Eddy

Be sure to send me the next MSS. of the S. S. Lessons in time to examine the selections before going to press.

M. B. E.

BY-LAW

The present Reader of the Scriptures, Judge S. J. Hanna, shall remain this Reader as long as he is acceptable, and remains Editor of the Christian Science Journal. Each president of this Church shall hold his or her office but one consecutive year, and once in three years. This Church shall have no leader but its Pastor — the Bible and Science and Health. One member of this Church shall not be guided by another. One good member is no more than another good member of this Church. Personal attach­ments, or enmity shall not influence the action of the members of The Mother Church toward each other. God alone shall be their God.


The Church Manual was copyrighted on September 11, 1895. Here in March we find the By-law being passed that was the forerunner of our present, “Rule for Motives and Acts.” The statement that Judge Hanna was the Reader of the Scriptures indicates that when Mrs. Eddy ordained the Bible and her textbook as the Pastors of her Church, it was the man at the desk who read the Bible, and the woman, Science and Health. At this time Mrs. Eddy placed no limit on the term of office, since the Judge was to remain Reader as long as he was accept­able, and remained Editor of the Christian Science Journal. One gathers from this that she wanted the First Reader of The Mother Church to be an active, work­ing student.

Perhaps one reason back of the provision that the president hold office for only one year, was the fact that this position is largely an honorable one, and therefore the opportunity to appoint worthy students should come each year. It must be noted, however, that at this time the president of The Mother Church was Mrs. Eddy's adopted son, and the error that assailed him because of the prominence of his position, was already in evidence. How she handled this error may be learned by studying the letters to the Directors that follow.

It is interesting to note that the circumstances connected with Judge Hanna and Dr. Foster Eddy, formed the occasion for writing this important By-law, which gave the initial impulsion to a conception that was to become part of the founda­tional platform of the Church. Today even young students have some realization of the fact that, because our Pastors are the Bible and Science and Health, one member of The Mother Church shall not be guided by another. Each member is required to acquaint himself with the method of receiving wisdom and inspira­tion from God. Any attempt to substitute for divine unfoldment one's own human opinion is an offence. It is disobedience and interference.

The error that caused Dr. Foster Eddy to assume to some extent the prerog­atives of leadership, and to be unwilling to relinquish the position of president was that of self-aggrandizement. It is always noteworthy to discover that By-laws which were to have the most far-reaching effect, were often occasioned by some specific need. This was because the universal need always finds expression, and is drawn to one's attention, through some personal or individual experience.

In Zech. 4:10 we read, “For who hath despised the day of small things?” Mrs. Eddy lived this verse, since incidents that seemed relatively unimportant in her life led up to, and formed part of, the most important revelation that has come to earth since the time of the Master. When wisdom led her to make a cor­rection in a small thing, she never despised it, since experience and intuition showed her that she was in reality dealing with the infinite.

When she wrote, “This Church shall have no leader but its Pastor, — the Bible and Science and Health, —” she indicated that in cases of dispute or misunder­standing, these books should be cited as authority, since they contain wisdom, and teach man how to turn to the source of wisdom.

When Mrs. Eddy wrote, “One good member is no more than another good member to this Church,” she was making an important metaphysical statement which officials in Boston would always need to keep in mind, since error would tempt them to esteem members with money, influence, social position or educa­tion, more than those without these human acquirements. It is true that Mrs. Eddy's history shows that she recognized the importance of interesting people in Science who were influential — such as clergymen, jurists, and educators­ — but her motive was always the hope that, because of their sphere of influence, they might interest more persons in her teachings. She did not esteem such in­dividuals more highly than the poor and humble member.

Equality in Science is based on demonstration, rather than on sense testi­mony. When Mrs. Eddy wrote, “Personal attachments, or enmity shall not in­fluence the action of the members of The Mother Church toward each other. God alone shall be their God,” she was pleading for a scientific attitude. In Sci­ence we recognize the importance of endeavoring to see the real man back of the person, whether we like him or not.

Under personal attachment we are apt to neglect the effort to bring out the real man, because we like him — the person — as he is. Under animosity we neg­lect to do so, because we harbor a desire to have our enemy suffer. With our friends we make human qualities real because we like them; with our enemies we make human qualities real because we do not like them. In either case our attitude helps to make a reality of, and to perpetuate, the human mind, or animal magnetism.

It is interesting to note the stupendous task Mrs. Eddy took upon herself, in her desire and effort to check on everything that went out to the public concern­ing Christian Science. Here we find her checking the Sunday School lessons in the Quarterly, which were soon to be called the Lesson-Sermons. These lessons began in the Journal for August, 1888, under the authorship of Frank Mason. On page 152 of Volume 6 appears the announcement by Mr. Mason in which he writes, “These notes are issued at the request of our beloved Teacher and Pastor, Rev. M. B. G. Eddy. The object is to avoid conflict of ideas, and establish unity of thought....These notes on the International Lessons are the open sesame to the secret place of the Most High.”

In July, 1889, these Bible Lessons were reprinted from the plates of the Journal in leaflet form for the convenience of the pupils in the Sunday School. They were included in the Journal until January, 1890. They were called the “Christian Science Quarterly” for the first time in April, 1890. In January of that year Mr. Mason's part in preparing them ceased, and a committee was formed that worked out the lessons in rotation. For instance, David Anthony worked out the first one, Mrs. Monroe the second, Ira Knapp the third, and William B. John­son the fourth. Then this order was repeated.

Further proof of Mrs. Eddy's continued interest in the Quarterly Lessons, is found in a letter she wrote in 1897 to the Bible Lesson Committee, as it was finally called, stating that in the first lesson of the year they had included the verse, the meaning of which is so dark, namely, John 6:35; and then failed to include the correlative passage in Science and Health, which throws so much light on it, in stating that the bread which cometh down from heaven is Truth (page 35 in our present edition).

In this letter of March 11 Mrs. Eddy writes, “I find it necessary to limit the action of mortal mind to immortal Mind laws, as the former cannot be trusted to forward our cause.” Here is a statement that has profound significance. She is instructing us not to trust mortal mind laws in any direction, unless we put them under a demonstrating sense. If we have a lawsuit, we should never trust mortal mind as to the outcome. If our country is at war, we should never trust our men and our armament to win. We should not even trust what is called the American spirit that loves liberty. We should put everyone and everything under subjection to God's law, which is the law of the real and only Mind.

Let us suppose that a student of Science was arrested for a slight traffic viola­tion and haled into court. He is called before the magistrate merely to pay a small fine perhaps; yet he should not trust mortal mind laws even in so slight a matter. He should never depend upon them for justice or right treatment.

Mrs. Eddy's statement should also be applied to the business meetings of branch churches. The human mind in the membership should never be trusted to run things. The controlling influence of divine Mind should be demonstrated by the student whenever and wherever he comes in contact with mortal law, since he can never trust mortal mind laws to bring any degree of reliability, justice or security. His very adherence to Christian Science subjects him to the injustice of mortal law.

The first Christian Scientist to prove that mortal mind cannot be trusted to forward God's Cause was the Master. His goodness, gentleness and unselfish devotion to the effort to save mortals from themselves and from their enemies, did not protect him from the action of mortal mind's injustice and hatred; yet he made it plain that no one could have laid hands on him to crucify him, if he had used demonstration. But it was essential for him to submit to the worst that mortal mind could inflict upon him, to prove that it could not harm him. He ex­posed the illusion of mortal mind processes, by awakening from the dream of suffering untouched and unharmed. Today, as his followers, we must awaken from the dream of mortality, but as the result of his great sacrifice, we do not have to suffer in the process, unless we are so negligent and stultified that we refuse to make the demonstration unless we are driven to it.

The only reason any student has to cope with the problem of sickness, is when he does not or cannot rouse himself to make the demonstration over matter, unless it becomes such a torment to him and presents such a claim of suffering and disorder that he is compelled to rise up and overthrow it. There are three courses open to mortal man when matter presents a suffering sense. He can strive to be brave and suffer it out; he can commit suicide and thus momentarily avoid it, or he can handle it as he should in Christian Science. This latter way does not mean to try to handle the suffering, but to handle that which really needs correction, namely, one's thinking.

When an automobile driver is suspected of being drunk, he is told to walk a straight line. If he cannot do it, he is considered drunk. We have a similar test in the mental realm. If a student cannot maintain a straight line of spiritual and scientific thinking, he is drunken. In accusing her students of drunkenness, as she so often did, Mrs. Eddy was referring to their inability to walk a straight line mentally. It was her intention to save her students from unnecessary suffering if possible, by quickening them to correct their faulty thinking, before it manifested itself in some form of sickness and suffering.

When Mrs. Eddy wrote that mortal mind could not be trusted to forward the Cause, she included her followers in this category, since the life of every indi­vidual that is loyal is wrapped up in the Cause. When a person joins the Cause, thereafter he is a part of it. If a mortal is opposed to Christian Science, he in­cludes all members of the Cause in this opposition. Hence if material law cannot be trusted to forward our Cause in any direction, it cannot be trusted to forward the growth of an individual member. Therefore, the student must habituate him­self to appeal to divine law on every occasion. As long as we are in the world we cannot entirely abrogate or throw off material law, but we can put it under the control of divine law, so that it is forced to operate as an agent of divine law. In that way does the Christian Scientist obtain justice and protection.

One who studies Mrs. Eddy's life recognizes how her demonstration of divine law caused the human mind and its laws to operate in her behalf. When she sought to make a move where material law said, “No,” if divine law said, “Yes,” then some way was found where the human law was compelled to func­tion under the control of divine law to make it possible. Her experience proved that whenever she brought divine law to bear, human law became flexible and operated for her. No one should ever conclude that this happened just because she was a Christian Scientist; it happened because she demonstrated Christian Science. Knowing this, her followers should be alert, active, and work to dupli­cate her demonstration.

It is evident that the statement in this letter in regard to mortal mind and immortal Mind laws came to her from God, and her own experience had proved to her the truth of it. Her followers need to be reminded of it often, and to bear in mind that they cannot trust material law. When they do, it only operates like a boomerang that reacts upon them. If they want to know the reason for this, they can find it in this statement by our Leader. Then they will learn the impor­tance of making the demonstration to limit the action of mortal mind to immortal Mind laws; then mortal mind laws will no longer be able to manifest the injustice that is back of them, in the life of the student. Mortal mind laws are a combination of justice and injustice, so that they can be used to help one's friends and to con­demn one's enemies. When one puts mortal mind laws under the control of divine law, however, they can manifest only justice. Under such circumstances they can be trusted to forward our Cause.




Received March 13, 1895

To First Members and

Clerk of The Mother Church

If you have not a rule or By-law already that defines your position as to the receiving or rejecting those who have left this church, draw one up, call a meeting and adopt it; then publish this rule or By-law through the C. S. Jour. I have minds to answer on these subjects, and cannot do it because it is not my duty, but it is yours.

M. B. Eddy


By “minds” in this letter, Mrs. Eddy could have referred to those who were looking to her to intercede when they were being disciplined. Such students were constantly writing to her, stating their side of the issue, attempting justi­fication and eliciting her aid. She felt this mental interference and saw that a By-law was needed. No doubt she yearned to settle all such questions, but this was the duty of the First Members, since they had been appointed to tend to such matters. It was an important part of their training to learn how to handle the cases of those who deviated from her teachings.

In 1895 the organization was rapidly being brought into a state where it could function after Mrs. Eddy was no longer present as the active Leader, and one of the earliest lessons, for which Mrs. Josephine Woodbury furnished the oc­casion at this time, was the matter of discipline. Mrs. Eddy sought to place this responsibility on the students, although she kept close watch over them, ready to rebuke them if they failed to exercise spiritual sense in doing it. A search of the Journal fails to disclose the printing of such a rule as this letter called for, and on April 18 we find Mrs. Eddy framing the rule herself, requesting its adoption, and declaring, “You will bring my white hairs into remembrance in years to come, when you remember the unchristian acts that keep me in perpetual broils.”

Nothing could be plainer than the fact that cases of discipline should be handled with love and consideration, with justice and a desire to help the straying brother. Mrs. Eddy knew that it would be a travesty on her teachings, if a tendency to cold legality or petty criticism should take possession of the governing committee of her organization, in dealing with erring members.

If a man or woman who formerly has lived an exemplary life does wrong, there is a tendency in the human mind to permit one mistake to offset years of right living or faithful service. When Calvin Frye was in the throes of readjust­ment, after he lost his Leader, he was like a ship without a rudder. Only the short-sighted human mind would permit any folly he might have committed at that time, to neutralize and negative twenty-eight years of the hardest and most exacting kind of service, as a faithful member of Mrs. Eddy's home. If there is one spot on an otherwise white sheet, mortal mind will see that spot.

No one is perfect until he demonstrates perfection. There are spots on the otherwise clean sheet of every student's life. Anyone who is forging ahead constructively is bound to make mistakes. The Directors take this fact into consideration and judge accordingly. If the honesty and integrity of a student is evident, if he has proved that he has no desire for place or power, but simply yearns to be about the Father's business of freeing humanity from the so-called bondage of mesmerism, the Directors are usually willing to trust such a one to God's unerring guidance, and conclude that whatever mistakes he makes, will only serve to open his eyes so that he may avoid them in the future; that through such honest mistakes he will be led to the right ideal. Anything short of per­fection will always be criticized; yet the only road to perfection consists in cross­ing swords with the adversary, and in this warfare the student is bound to have defeats, as well as joys and victories, as Mrs. Eddy says.

Those who have studied Mrs. Eddy's life, often contend that she made mistakes. If one should assert that she made a mistake in accepting Augusta E. Stetson as a student, he would have to contend that the Master made a mistake in accepting Judas as a disciple. Yet it can be proved that every step she took had a spiritual value, and hence was important. The fact that she brought her work to a successful conclusion is proof enough that she harbored no errors, and suc­cessfully handled whatsver assailed her. Otherwise unhandled error would show up at some point in the great tapestry which she wove.

Let us assume for a moment that it would be legitimate to declare that she made mistakes, but later rectified them, because her motive and purpose were so pure and correct. Then when her followers make mistakes because they desire to keep active, and to work for the world in a constructive way, should they be damned, since mistakes growing out of a deep sincerity God will care for, as Mrs. Eddy implies on page 203 of Miscellany? The Field may feel that it is a disgrace for a student to come under criticism for any reason, and that it were far better to do nothing and avoid it. Yet no student can honestly strive to follow what he believes God demands of him in his life, without criticism springing up. He must learn not to fear it, and to rise above it. Surely it is not Love's plan that a student do nothing merely to avoid unfavorable criticism.

The only student who has a right to feel that he is living and demonstrating in a way that would satisfy Mrs. Eddy, if she were personally here to observe him, is the one who feels that the demands of God come first. When he believes that God is guiding him, he must consider it the most important thing for him to follow. He must let no fear of human opinion or mortal judgment deter him.

Honest mistakes should cause those in authority to say, “Here is a student that has a great deal of good in him. He is active and shows a loving desire to demonstrate Christian Science. He loves his Leader and seeks to abide by her teachings. Let us encourage him, and in that way he will see his mistakes and correct them.” Where singleness of purpose is manifested, God can be trusted to clarify and purify method and motive, until this student is walking safely in the right path. Of course, such an attitude would not cover one who came under the classification of the following statement by our Leader, “I never allow hearsay against an individual to influence my judgment so far as to deny that one a chance to be heard on the right side unless that one is openly disloyal. In this latter case he is eschewed pen and presence.”

Niagara Falls is a scene of violent and vast power; yet when it was partially har-nessed, it became the means of producing a large flow of electricity. No harmless, sluggish stream would ever have enough force for such a purpose. St. Paul was like Niagara Falls in the zeal with which he persecuted the Christians; yet when that activity was put under the control of God it became a source of great good.

If a student should feel that he is being persecuted by other students for what he feels is merely his effort to be actively about his Father's business, let him recall that John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's Progress in jail! This was proof that, although the jail restrained him physically, it did not fetter his mind. Nothing can stop the mental work it is one's obligation to do, unless one consents. It would be nothing short of an alibi for a student to assert that his ability to function for the good of all, and his desire to bless the world, is shut off, merely because of persecution or discipline that is meted out to him by his fellow students. No matter what happens outwardly, a student's mind is free to do its part in reflecting the power that will free humanity from the mesmerism of materiality. This is his important contribution to the world, and no external circumstances can shut if off without one's own consent.

A study of Mrs. Eddy's life proves that it was her custom to gauge the mental status of students, by calling upon them to do that which recourse to divine Mind alone would accomplish to her satisfaction. It is obvious that after they had formulated the By-law that this letter demanded, and had sent it to her, she could tell whether they had evolved it through demonstration or through human processes. The fact that the By-law did not appear, and that later she was com­pelled to write it, proves that they must have failed to come up to her expectations.

One could call this letter a device to catch the First Members off guard if they were so, since the wording of the By-law which they sent her would disclose to her exactly how they felt toward those who erred, and specifically toward Josephine Woodbury, whose status as a Christian Scientist was a question at the moment.

It was important for Mrs. Eddy to know whether the First Members were dealing with Mrs. Woodbury scientifically and compassionately. Were they loving her as God's child, and seeking to help her, or were they personalizing her error and mulling over it as real? If so, then they were not fit to be trusted to deal with such a case of discipline.

If they had a scientific attitude toward Mrs. Woodbury, the By-law written to cover her case would prove this to Mrs. Eddy. Mrs. Eddy was building a bridge, and testing the soundness of the timbers that were to be used. If human sense sees the necessity for testing the strength and soundness of timbers where human lives are at stake, a divine sense should see the need of testing those who are acting as God's representatives in His Cause.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

March 24, 1895

To the C. S. Directors

My dear Students:

One good, strong, faithful janitor for the Church is enough, with this in addition: A man to come in and clean up one day each week, and Mr. Colman to be usher for one day on which the Church shall be open for visitors. Advertise in the Christian Science Journal that the Church will be open to visitors on the day you name. Economy must be used until the Church Building debt is paid. No payments must be made for anything further out of the fund till you pay up all that you owe for building, and perhaps some that you do not owe! The Publishing Society must pay each member on Committee for Sunday School Lessons at least 300 dollars annually. This is the most important duty now on record and must take time and attention to perform it. Also the Reader of Science and Health must be paid not less than 1000 dollars. A good reader is requisite. Many thanks for your kindness and courtesy in offering to meet me at the depot with a coach and per­haps six! But I have not seen a day that I could find time to go to Boston since the church was dedicated, although I work Sundays, too, for our Cause.

With love, Mother

M. B. Eddy


It seems extraordinary that Mrs. Eddy should have taken such intimate care of the details of the organization as this letter reveals, especially when the Directors were appointed to do this. It was her way, however, of setting the pace for them, and illustrating how even the little things should be a matter of demonstration. On March 8, 1907, she said to her students, “I pray and watch in the little details; someone must, as good is expressed in the minutiae of things.”

Students are well aware that the supporting thought in Christian Science is a spiritual one, when it comes to large issues and emergencies; but it requires growth to realize that if one demonstrates in the small ways which seem unim­portant, he will find that they contribute to the support of the larger matters, just as the small fibres of a rope unite to give it strength, or as a mass of figures, each computed correctly, finally become a solved problem in mathematics.

As these pages are being written, there comes word that at one time Mrs. Eddy found it necessary to forbid students attempting to interpret her letters, and that her communication to this effect reposes in the archives of The Mother Church. It is obvious that she must have had the experience where the trained human intellect assumed the right and ability to interpret what her letters meant, and this presumption was something she could not tolerate. On the other hand, she herself has stated that that which comes through inspiration, needs inspira­tion in order to be understood. It is unthinkable that our Leader would ever forbid a student to strive to understand inspirationally what she wrote through inspiration. The real point at issue is, did she write these letters through inspira­tion, that on the surface appear to deal only with the mundane details of her organization? If one answers in the negative, he impugns the spiritual continuity and consistency of our Leader's demonstration. If he answers in the affirmative, he cannot criticise any effort a student makes to understand such letters inspira­tionally, which means asking God to reveal what they really signify.

The demonstration of the janitor, of the payment of debts, of the size of the salaries of the various workers, all represented the sturdy framework upon which a spiritually-organized church was founded. Mrs. Eddy recognized that she had loyal students ready to care for these details; yet it was her part to set the pace for them, since she could not expect them at once to make the broader demonstra­tion and application of Science that she did. Sometimes individuals know how to knit, but they do not know how to start a piece for knitting. The moment an article is started, they can continue it. Mrs. Eddy was starting the demonstra­tion, which embraced every detail of the Cause from a spiritual standpoint, so that not a single stitch would be dropped.

She did not intend to continue to take the responsibility for all the details of the organization; but if she started everything on a right basis, — that of demonstration, —she could hope that the students would continue on that basis.

Why did she write that the Directors were to make no payments for anything until they had paid what they owed for the building, and perhaps some that they did not owe? Under demonstration bills that one is not obliged to pay, some­times represent the most important payments that he makes. If one recognizes only the debts that he is legally or humanly obligated to pay, how will he ever become a Christian Scientist governed by God? One must recognize that he has an obligation to all mankind, and that he must be willing to fulfill that obliga­tion as God points it out to him.

It is a point of growth for a student to realize that he has assumed obligations to God which include His creation, man and the universe. It is part of his growth to make the demonstration to know what this obligation is from day to day, and to meet it. According to the Scriptures he owes the poor consideration, since the strong should help the weak. Much of the work one does in Christian Science consists in giving to those to whom he owes nothing humanly; yet according to the admonition to love one another, he must give them of his spiritual treasure. When one gains an understanding of Christian Science, and learns how to demonstrate for the good of other people, he is obligated in God's sight to do this. In this way he pays much he does not owe humanly.

It is interesting to find Mrs. Eddy writing a letter that would appear to be wholly human, yet not hesitating to include a metaphysical point, so that the Directors might understand that, even though nothing is said in the letter that is particularly striking in a spiritual way, yet their thought would be reminded of the fact that the real obligations of the Christian Scientist are mental. From the world's standpoint he owes nothing in the mental realm. What he gives mentally must be a voluntary offering; yet God demands the payment of it.

A Scientist reading this letter would never forget that the payment of his material debts is not sufficient. He has a mental debt which he does not owe in man's sight; yet which must be paid.

This letter is an example of the fact that Mrs. Eddy seldom wrote a letter without including in it something of a spiritually educational nature, something that challenged thought. The absurdity of the Directors being obligated to pay bills that they did not owe, would demand an attempt to analyze what she meant, and through this effort would come spiritual growth.

The question comes up, “what right has one to assume that in enumerating these human requirements in connection with the running of The Mother Church, in regard to how it was to be cleaned, what days it was to be open to visitors, and the like, Mrs. Eddy was starting such things on a demonstrable basis?” She writes nothing in the letter to indicate this point. It appears to be a communication relating wholly to business matters, with the exception of one small statement tucked in as a bone to gnaw on, as it were.

When I was at Pleasant View I soon learned that, when Mrs. Eddy gave me a letter to mail, she expected me to follow it with a protective thought until it arrived at its destination. Finally she did not have to order me to do this each time she handed me a letter.

Students who had an understanding of their Leader knew that all her ways were the ways of demonstration. When one lives a demonstrating thought, he does not always have to make a specific demonstration in order to gain God's guidance in each specific matter, since all the ways of a good man are ordered by the Lord. When one is reflecting divine Mind daily, it becomes natural for him to voice God. Mrs. Eddy lived so habitually in the realm of inspirational thought, that what she said or wrote was inspirational even though she made no specific effort in this direction. If there were times when this was not true about her, it was only when some specific error touched her, which she soon threw off. Normally she functioned as naturally under a demonstrating thought, as a mortal does under the human mind.

When Mrs. Eddy wrote this letter, she had a right to expect that the Directors would at once recognize the fact that she had taken these details into thought, and the directions that she gave were stated positively, because they came from God. She was living in Concord where she could not know all the details con­nected with running The Mother Church. Yet when she took the matter into thought, God told her what was needed, and she passed this direction on to the Directors.

A passenger on a sailing vessel can learn a great deal about handling such a craft, if he is interested enough to observe what goes on under his eyes. The most important teaching Mrs. Eddy gave was her teaching by example. If precepts are valuable, example is always more valuable. Anyone who harbors doubts as to the metaphysics of Mrs. Eddy's daily life, thereby loses a very important part of the understanding of Christian Science. They fail to see in her life the operation of divine Principle. Such individuals are willing to learn by her pre­cepts, which are important; but these are not adequate unless complemented by her life understood as the example for all.

When Mrs. Eddy gave directions in matters which were really the responsi­bility of the Directors, she expected them to realize that she was giving the fruit of her demonstration. It is obvious that their human opinions might have been just as good as hers, and in some instances, better; but her demonstrated conclusions could never be equalled by anyone who had not acquired her spiritual ability to voice God, and to be governed by divine Principle in all her ways.

It is possible that at this point Mrs. Eddy felt it necessary to test the Directors, by sending them a communication which on the surface appeared to be wholly human, and in which she gave no indication of its being her demonstration. She did not write, as she did at other times, “I can assure you that God told me to do this, as setting an example for you.” The time came when it was the part of wisdom to see what the Directors would do, without being reminded specif­ically to demonstrate. There is a value in letting students assume certain things, if you have told them often enough in the past exactly the way they should be. No student will ever become trustworthy, who needs to be continually reminded of that which he should know so thoroughly, that it has become second nature to him.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy asserts that the Committee for Sunday School Lessons had the most important duty on record at that time. These lessons were for the purpose of uniting the Bible and Science and Health as one would train two horses to go in double harness. Mrs. Eddy found a Christian world believing and accepting the fact that the Bible was an inspiration from God, while she knew that the Science she taught was a similar inspiration; but how was she to convince the world of this fact, when her teachings were so contrary to what the world accepts as true, declaring as they did that that which seems solid sub­stance to mortal mind, has no existence, and that mortals who seem to be real as matter, are merely being seen through senses that are unreal? It was revealed to Mrs. Eddy that the way to cause the world to accept her doctrine was to prove that it was founded on the Bible. So she established Lesson-Sermons in which Science and Health goes in double harness with the Bible.

These Lesson-Sermons prove that everything Mrs. Eddy has set forth in Science and Health is based on the Bible, and the authority may be found therein. It is plain why the most important duty on record was the work of a committee, whose task was to put these two books together so intelligently, that the con­nection between them would be apparent to the unillumined human mind. In this way prejudice against Science and Health would be destroyed, by setting before the world the fact that the teachings of Christian Science are merely the teachings of the Bible understood, accompanied by a proof to show that the right understanding of the Bible heals the sick. Everything that goes to make up the New Testament traces back to Jesus' healing of the sick. This same fact must be proven true in regard to Christian Science.

Another point of interest in this letter, is the fact that Mrs. Eddy enjoins economy until the Church Building debt is paid. Her sense of economy was not based on niggardliness, since it had divine Principle back of it. God showed her that she must set a precedent of not paying students all that they are human­ly worth, because when they are, they are robbed of something important to their spiritual growth.

Students have a right to live comfortably, but they should never be paid so much that there is nothing left for God to owe them, since what God owes one is the most important investment that can be made, since it becomes a resource that one can draw on both here and hereafter. Wherever man finds himself, God's bank will be there. Think of the satisfaction of knowing that one has ample funds in that bank!

When the man in Jesus' parable worked all day and received the same amount that was paid the man who worked only one hour, that was to show that whatever man fails to receive for labor, God will make up to him adequately; so it becomes money in God's bank. In regard to Mrs. Eddy and her economy, one must consider that she knew she was doing a faithful student a favor, when she kept his or her salary down to an amount that was merely enough to live on comfortably, since the rest that they earned would be credited to them in God's bank, to be payable when they needed it.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

March 25, 1895

Beloved Directors and Brethren:

I thank you for a great offering, even your grand Temple and the place of Pastor.

But God pierces the veil, and bids me say I cannot accept the former, and the latter, only nominally.

Lovingly yours,

Mary Baker Eddy

Beloved Directors and Brethren:

For your costly offering, and kind call to the pastorate of “The First Church of Christ, Scientist,” in Boston — accept my pro­found thanks. But permit me, respectfully, to decline their ac­ceptance, while I fully appreciate your kind intentions. If it will comfort you in the least, make me your Pastor Emeritus, nominal­ly. Through my book, your textbook, I already speak to you each Sunday. You ask too much when asking me to accept your grand church edifice. I have more of earth now, than I desire, and less of heaven; so pardon my refusal of that as a material offering. More effectual than the forum are our states of mind, to bless mankind. This wish stops not with my pen — God give you grace. As our church's tall tower detains the sun, so may luminous lines from your lives linger, a legacy to our race.

Mary Baker Eddy

March 25, 1895


Apparently Mrs. Eddy wrote the first of these two letters, as her answer to the Directors on the point in question. Then when the book, Pulpit and Press, was being prepared, and she included this letter, she rewrote and amplified it for publication. She saw, no doubt, that her short note to the Board would not convey to the public what she really felt about such a momentous offer.

She took the liberty of rewriting and correcting whatever she put forth to meet the public eye. In her busy hours she might write a short note like this to the Board, knowing that they would understand, whereas it would require a fuller explanation in order for the public to appreciate what her feelings were in the matter.

The Directors made a grand gesture when they offered her The Mother Church and the place of Pastor; yet in a certain sense they had no right to offer her the church in this way, since it belonged to the Field. The students had contributed the money to build it, and when they did this, they were not told that it might be presented to the Leader, although not one of them would have refused, had he or she been asked for permission to offer it to her. The Directors, however, had no permission from the members to offer her the edifice. They could not really give it to her; but she knew that this offer was the expression of the well-spring of gratitude in their hearts for all that they had received from her, so she did not rebuke them directly.

In like manner they had no basis from which to offer her the position of Pastor, since she had already established the Bible and Science and Health as the Pastors, as the unchangeable precedent for all branch churches to follow. This arrangement was the result of Mrs. Eddy's own revelation from God which could not be altered.

When she wrote to the Board that “God pierces the veil,” she wanted them to know that she was guided by Principle, and under that guidance she could not accept their offer. She was not a modest woman declining an honor, but one who was fulfilling a divine destiny, and she had to be punctilious in seeing and following that destiny. She knew that each one of us has a divine destiny in the sight of God, and that nothing should ever be considered as having the power to interfere with one's fulfilling that destiny.

The first note, therefore, told the Directors that in fulfilling her destiny, Mrs. Eddy made the demonstration so that God would pierce the veil that blinds mortals to their divine destiny, that she might see His plan and follow it. In this way she gave the Board an indirect but gentle rebuke, as if to say that, if they had made the same demonstration that she did to see through the veil, they would have known what God's plan was, and would not have voted to present the Temple and place of Pastor to her. At the same time her letter is an encourage­ment to all her followers to pierce the veil, since in that way they may always know what is right and what is wrong. Doubtless she hoped that as a result of this letter, the Directors would make a more prayerful effort in the future to pierce the veil in all they did.

In the revised form of this letter that was to be made public, she refused the Directors' offer in language that mortals could understand, and omitted that which is so important to Christian Scientists, and so misunderstood by mortals, namely, the fact that by letting God pierce the veil, we are striving to be guided in all we do. Mrs. Eddy teaches that every individual must be treated with respect and consideration because he has a divine destiny, and if he is at­tempting to order his life as God would have him, it is a sin to attempt to thwart that effort, or to put any stumbling-block in the way.

When one student attempts to influence another, it is always because he does not really believe it is possible for one to talk with God, or to reflect His guidance. He may know that it is an aspiration in Science, but he does not believe that it can be fulfilled practically in this age to any great degree. So, he feels that it is presumptuous for a student to claim that he is being guided by God. Yet the whole teaching of Science stresses this fact. Can a student be said to under­stand that teaching correctly, unless he is making some progress toward being led by God?

In the revised letter Mrs. Eddy says, “Through my book, your textbook, I already speak to you each Sunday.” Had she been the personal Pastor, speaking to them from the pulpit each Sunday, she would have voiced the guidance and understanding that came to her from revelation; but she had already put these into her textbook. So, in that sense they had her speaking to them each Sunday. In a similar way we can declare that we have her personal healing in her book. What she would have given to a patient in a treatment we find today in that book. Therefore, if we go to that book expecting to receive healing from it — ­the healing that Mrs. Eddy established in it — we will receive that healing.

Mrs. Eddy was careful to refuse the church edifice as a material offering, saying that she had more of earth than she desired, and less of heaven. The error of human experience lies in the degree to which we permit it to replace the consciousness of God in our thought, so that we have more of earth and less of heaven. In many ways and to many people that does not seem like an error. Men and women who get along on earth comfortably, would not be frightened by the loss of the kingdom of heaven entirely. There are very few Christian Scientists who, unless they have a problem of physical suffering, can say that earth weighs them down as it did Mrs. Eddy, so that they continuously realize its falsity and burdensomeness. All must learn, as she did, that to be happy apart from God is impossible. If mortals believe themselves to be happy in matter, that is an illusion that is the result of animal magnetism, or mesmerism. Earth is like a Christmas tree, where all the gifts and beautiful ornamentation are illusion. We look at the tree and exclaim, “How beautiful!” Then when the mesmerism lifts, we see only bare branches, on which there is nothing attrac­tive.

Mrs. Eddy teaches that not only are the sickness, sorrow, sadness, lack, fear and death that come to mortals, unreal, but likewise the belief that there is or can be any satisfaction, pleasure or attractiveness in material sense. For this reason students must work specifically to strip human experience of all satisfac­tion, in order that they may find their satisfaction in the things of good. If a mortal was put under a state of hypnotism, and the argument established that he had everything he could want, so that he was perfectly contented, if he believed it, he would be satisfied to remain in that state of mesmerism. Those who know the facts, however, would understand that his sense of satisfaction was fleeting, since his sense of possession and contentment was wholly the result of mesmerism.

In like manner, the satisfaction that comes through finite material sense is the manifestation of mesmerism. When the effect of this fleeting sense passes, earth is seen to be desolate and dreary; yet Jesus tells us that when this happens through demonstration, it is a sign of the coming of the kingdom of heaven. It is impossible for one to experience heaven, until he has removed from earth all satisfaction, since therein lies the holding power of matter. The pleasure of material sense is as much mesmerism as is its pain and sickness. Heaven can be defined as what is left when all mesmerism is lifted; and this lifting would be more readily done, if mortals had as much impulsion to break its pleasant aspects, as they do its unpleasant side.

When we arrive at the point Mrs. Eddy was at, perceiving the utter fallacy of matter and desiring less of it, rather than more, we will be near the kingdom of heaven. Material pleasure can be likened to the candy a child eats that spoils its appetite for dinner. We all have a natural and intense desire for God; but animal magnetism has introduced into thought the effect of mesmerism, so that temporarily this hunger for God is interpreted materially. Many students who fancy that they have brought out a great desire for God and who, when they are sick, work hard in Christian Science, really desire no more than to avoid the unpleasant phases of human experience, and strive to do so through the help of God.

The first thing for students to know is that they have a fundamental and keen desire for God that is natural. Then by using Mrs. Eddy's instructions they can bring that desire into expression. When that is accomplished, the way becomes comparatively simple. One reason Mrs. Eddy stood apart from her students, was because of the singleness of her desire for God, that caused her to work constantly to realize her oneness with Him. When students establish within themselves the realization that they desire God as she did, they will work for God as hard as she did. That time will not come, however, as long as they believe that there are material crumbs on the way, that are harmless and satis­fying, — which, when eaten, tend to lessen their appetite for God's feast.

We know that in this letter Mrs. Eddy was merely refusing the church edifice as a material offering, since she has taught us that the real Church is a divine state of mind, and that we cannot have too much of that; but viewed as a material structure, The Mother Church is no different than any church edifice. When Mrs. Eddy wrote in this letter, “More effectual than the forum are our states of mind, to bless mankind,” she was rebuking the old theology that constantly tempts students to think of the church in terms of stone and brick­ — as a place where the public gathers — instead of as the manifestation of a right state of mind, which must be obtained and retained, in order to have the church continue to be a Christian Science Church. Students must watch lest they make the demonstration to build the church, and then carelessly let it pass into the control of mortal mind through their neglect or unwillingness to continue to support it by Mind, instead of matter. Surely the church without spiritual thought back of it has no more utility than an automobile without an engine!

Next Mrs. Eddy writes, “This wish stops not with my pen — God give you grace.” Like many of her precepts, this one contains an implied rebuke to that form of desire to heal, help and bless others that goes no further than talk. Talking about mental work is not doing it. When Mrs. Eddy said, “This wish stops not with my pen,” she indicated to the wise that she had a right to talk and write about blessing others, because she gave so much time and loving effort to this work. In this way she indirectly rebuked students who permitted their desire to bless others to stop with talk.

The word, grace, is a difficult one to define. On page 10 of Christian Science versus Pantheism Mrs. Eddy defines grace as, “the effect of God understood.” No amount of flexibility and technique would make the performance of a dancer attractive, unless it was done gracefully. Thus the word, grace, indicates that in Science the way we do things is as important as what we do.

In Judges 14:14 we have Samson's riddle, “...out of the strong came forth sweetness.” Grace must be sweetness. Thus no man or woman should ever permit himself or herself to lose grace or sweetness, no matter to what high position they find themselves appointed. If they do, they will finally lose their strength also.

Grace would appear to define the sincerity of feeling and affection that must be present, when one does loving things for others, or says pleasant things to them. We learn in Science that profound statements miss their mark and are overlooked, when they are said without the right thought back of them. Grace must signify the beauty and sweetness of a sincere heart, which are needed to support all that the student says or does.

Finally Mrs. Eddy writes in the second letter, “As our church's tall tower detains the sun, so may luminous lines from your lives linger, a legacy to our race.” The sun never changes, but the tower of a church may cause its rays to appear to be detained for a moment. This indicates that as our lives are governed by God's unerring law, it is possible to make a demonstration whereby the reflec­tion of His presence may bless the world by being detained in this human sense. The Master was like a ray from God that was detained on earth long enough to share the blessing of understanding and demonstration with the needy.

In this sentence Mrs. Eddy wonderfully expressed the fact that man's immortal destiny is going on, and that nothing can stop it; yet man has the ability to detain this destiny on earth in order that he may bless the world, and teach mankind how to release their spiritual destiny and to be obedient to it.

The Bible records that Joshua made the sun to stand still, so that the earth, which had been turning for countless decades, lingered for a day. This demon­stration was made so that mortals might realize that, when man functions with God, His power operating through man is as strong and able to perform miracles, as mortals believe that it is apart from man. It is sad to realize that most readers of the Bible do not believe in their hearts that this miracle ever happened. They do not believe that man ever did such a thing, and they are right, if they mean unaided man; but it was done through God's power to prove that His infinite power can be exercised by man.

Man can press a button and blow off the top of a mountain; yet no one believes that he does it. The dynamite does it. Similarly, it is God that does the work, but man is able to reflect and to direct this power.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

March 28, 1895

Dictated

Mr. E. P. Bates

My dear Student:

What the Directors said when I saw them last as to Mr. Hanna's salary being raised I approve.

With love,

Mary Baker Eddy


Mrs. Eddy sought to keep a balanced relationship between recompense and labor, that was based on demonstration, rather than on the effort to satisfy the demands of the carnal mind. If one receives all that the human mind demands, for what he does for God, he thereby lays up scant treasure in heaven. By receiving his full compensation in matter, he thereby proves that he wants matter to the extent that his desire for Spirit is almost extinguished. It is charac­teristic of the human mind to want full value in matter in return for all services rendered. In Christian Science it is right that the one who works for God should receive enough materially to live suitably; but there should always be a balance left to be paid by God in the currency of Mind. What God pays man is en­during substance, whereas matter flees away. Furthermore, if one receives a surplus of matter, he finds himself confronted with problems which otherwise he would never have to meet.

The question arises at times whether, if our Leader were with us today; would she cut down some of the salaries that are paid officials in our Move­ment? It is my conviction that she probably would not do this, because she would not wish to impair the efficiency of her workers. The moment a man feels that he is not receiving the pay for his services that he is entitled to, he is apt to cease to do the good work that he would do, if he had the conviction that he was being paid adequately.

Mrs. Eddy might not feel that it was right to pay officials excessive salaries; yet she might feel that under certain circumstances it was right for them. When officials demand high wages, they may honestly believe that the reward for working for God is matter; yet large salaries put them under the pressure of jealousy, which gives them much to meet.

Once a lady living near Mrs. Eddy, heard that the latter was having dif­ficulty in finding someone to scrub her floors. So she volunteered to do this work, and Mrs. Eddy was pleased. She often watched this neighbor at her work and smiled her pleasure. One day when the lady had finished her work, Mrs. Eddy gave her a motto, “Stand by the right. God is right. Right is always right; never can change.” The lady treasured this motto for over thirty years, and declared that it was a greater reward for the work she did than any amount of money Mrs. Eddy might have given her.

Some practitioners have charged large fees for long continued treatments, because on page 237 of Miscellany, Mrs. Eddy says that practitioners should make their charges for treatment equal to those of reputable physicians in their respective localities. Such individuals should have their attention called to page 46 of the Church Manual, where Mrs. Eddy writes of a member of The Mother Church, “And he shall reasonably reduce his price in chronic cases of recovery, and in cases where he has not effected a cure.”

There is no way from a human standpoint for a practitioner to know just what to charge a patient; but God knows. Hence if he seeks God's guidance, he will charge an amount that is scientific rather than what he humanly thinks is enough.

One impressive thing about Mrs. Eddy's early history is the fact that, when she was almost in want for the simple necessities of life, she did not charge at all for healing the sick. She began to charge only when God revealed to her that it was for the good of the patient for her to do so; but her desire for supply and the recognition of her own need, did not influence her at all. She said, “I thought it was a gift from God to be able to heal as Christ healed, and that I ought not to take money for it.”

When Mrs. Eddy tells us to make charges that are equal to those of reputable physicians, and yet to reduce our price in chronic cases or in cases we have not healed, what are we to deduce? She must mean that in cases where we have brought out a quick healing, we are privileged to charge a fee that is equal to what a doctor would charge either for an office call or for a visit to the patient. In such cases a patient is grateful and glad to pay a fair sum for value received. It is obvious, however, that Mrs. Eddy's recommendation covers only instances where we have brought out healings. Furthermore, it is obvious that we cannot expect to stay at home and treat a patient for fifteen or twenty minutes, and then charge as much as a doctor who goes out and calls on a patient. It should be noted that reputable physicians reduce their fees for those who cannot pay in full.

The moment anything in Science becomes standardized or stereotyped, the impulsion for demonstration is gone. One might argue that the purpose of the organization is to bring about standardization. The answer is that the organiza­tion is designed to give students right methods of operating, only until they have advanced to the point where they can function under their own demonstration. It is illogical to expect one who is truly reflecting God to follow stereotyped rules! Rules are made to help one until he is able to learn what God wants.

It is possible to believe that when Mrs. Eddy indicated that practitioners should make their charges equal to those of doctors, she was endeavoring to place the practice of Christian Science on a dignified footing, so that students, feeling that they needed a certain amount of money in order to live comfortably, would be attracted to the practice. In this way she would encourage students to become practitioners, whereas they might feel discouraged at the prospect, if they felt that the income from the practice would be too small to live on.

It is sad when patients have an occasion to say, “I had treatment for a month and received a bill for ninety dollars; yet I felt no benefit.” This would not happen if a practitioner made a demonstration of what to charge in each case in accordance with Mrs. Eddy's instructions. If he is a humanitarian, benevolent, forgiving, long-suffering, and seeking to overcome evil with good, as the Manual states, he will deal with each patient compassionately, and endeavor to mete out divine justice in his charges.

The wise Christian Scientist, whether he be an important official, or a hum­ble practitioner, will never cherish a desire to get more than a modest living out of work for God. In this way he spares himself much of the malpractice of envy that mortals indulge in towards those who are prosperous above the average. He also runs less risk of being tempted by ease through a surplus of matter. A wise horse would know that he works better with a lean stomach; whereas greed would cause him to overeat, if he had the chance, so that he would soon become too fat and lazy to work.

When a practitioner regards his patients as the source of his income, that does not necessarily mean that he is demonstrating supply. Demonstration calls for a daily realization that God is the source of all good, and that that good comes to one through the channels God appoints. When one looks to his practice as the source of his income, what is there in that attitude to distinguish it from that of any professional man who is dependent upon fees for a living? Demonstra­tion means establishing God as the source of all good, and having faith that God will always raise up channels through which that good will come to man to meet his every need. Material sense always demands to know in advance the source of its supply. Spiritual sense requires one to take the channel on faith as a test of faith.

This letter of March 28 proves that Mrs. Eddy kept a watchful eye over the salaries, and sought to be wise and loving. She knew that there would be faithful ones who would go to the other extreme, and try to live on less than they could or should. This would be as much a lack of demonstration, as would be salaries that were too large.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

April 9, 1895

Beloved Board of Directors:

“Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath day?” Yes. — Selling doves — is to slander or gossip in God's house. Selling Quarterlies and S. & H. is to give or sell and take money for the Word of God — and the workman is worthy of his hire. You have my hearty thanks for doing the latter.

Mother

N. B. I suppose the C. B. Directors are aware that they own legally the Mother Church in Boston, whereas the church owns it beneficially.

Mary Baker Eddy


Mrs. Eddy interprets selling doves in God's house as slandering or gos­siping. That means selling people's reputation, loyalty and innocence, and receiving in return the doubtful satisfaction of ventilating one's own self-right­eousness. It is absurd for students to yield to the temptation to do this in church, justifying their action by the fact that merely being in God's house, sanctifies all they do.

Mortals should awake to the awful sin involved in ruining another's reputa­tion, or in starting a current of malpractice against him. Christian Scientists have a great responsibility towards others, namely, to hold the same attitude toward them that God does. Then they will be ready to rebuke slander, criticism or gossip in God's house.

Selling Quarterlies and Science and Health on Sunday was a different matter. At this point it was legitimate to spread the sale of this literature in the church on Sunday, because centralized Reading Rooms had not yet been es­tablished for the sale of such items.

Mrs. Eddy knew how error in effect loomed up as greater than error in cause in the minds of mortals. Members who would gossip in the church on Sunday without compunction, would protest against the sale of literature, main­taining that it was wrong to have commercial transactions in the church on that day. Mrs. Eddy took the opposite stand. To her it was right to take money for the Word of God even on the Sabbath. When a man has had his desire for Science stimulated, it is wise to meet that desire as soon as possible, lest it diminish with the passing of time. This letter proves that Mrs. Eddy's underlying thought was that there was no harm in selling literature in our churches on Sunday.

Yet later there was so much opposition and criticism on the part of the more conservative members, that she saw the wisdom of prohibiting such practice. She never wished to offend others unnecessarily, and she was aware that there was an old theological bias of thought which, while it did not object to taking a collection on Sunday, considered that in some way it defiled the church and fostered the very thing the Master found it necessary to whip out of the temple, to have commercial transactions on Sunday. But in this brief note Mrs. Eddy teaches the important lesson that the thing that needs to be whipped out of the temple is the evil in the human heart!

It is my conviction that Mrs. Eddy did not reverse this order in regard to selling literature on Sunday because it was wrong, but because of the strong prejudice on the part of public opinion against such a thing. It became evident that the convenience and time-liness of such sales, was counteracted by a feel­ing on the part of many that it was wrong to bring into the church on the Sabbath anything of an unsanctified nature. Yet in reality selling Quarterlies and Science and Health is always sanctified, regardless of what mortal mind may say. On the other hand the offence of gossip and slander in our churches is a serious one, because it marks the offender as believing that error is man rather than animal magnetism. The effect of gossip is to injure and never to bless. It is like calling for help for a man, while holding his head under water. Yet in reality gossip harms its perpetrator more than its victim.

Science teaches that the traducer is really the one handled by error, and needs the help. Science is forever beneficially retroactive from the outside to the inside, since it forever exposes error as unreal and never part of man.

Mrs. Eddy signs this letter “Mother” as if to indicate that she was not the dictator, arbiter, or ruler, but the mother who presented things to her children, so that they might have the opportunity to know what an older and wiser person thought about the matter under discussion. Then she left them free, merely saying that they had her hearty thanks for doing what they did.

She signs the “N. B.” with her full name, however, as if to denote her rela­tionship to the Church, as the one through whom the authority of God was exe­cuted. Then she gives an example of that authority in setting forth the exact status of The Mother Church, as being owned by the Directors legally and the members beneficially. In a sense this fact is exemplified at the Annual Meeting, where the Directors conduct the meeting without consulting the membership in any way; yet the members have the obligation of making the demonstration of Immanuel, or God with us. What does a member amount to who attends this meeting, and who does not demonstrate?

Members must learn that in Science they are called upon to demonstrate their rights, not to claim them. Since one with God is a majority, the demonstrat­ing student carries the majority of the influence in the Annual Meeting.

When Mrs. Eddy declared that the Directors owned the church edifice legally, she was indicating that they exercised authority in the outward conduct of the organization; when she told the membership that they owned it benefi­cially, she hoped that they would exercise a mighty spiritual influence in the government of The Mother Church for the benefit of themselves and the world; yet she provided that they exercise their power through demonstration, since she left them no alternative.

The bow of a boat may feel that it is more important than the stern, yet if the stern desires to go in a certain direction, the bow cannot protest; but if the stern does not choose to take advantage of its privilege of determining the direc­tion the bow goes, the bow may appear to be running things. The Directors control the organization legally and appear to be the only head; and they are when the membership is too lazy to exercise its rights and powers that come through demonstration. If the members are faithful in using demonstration in their branch churches, however, they will be made rulers over many things, which will include helping The Mother Church spiritually.

Mrs. Eddy hoped that the time would come when students would recognize that demonstration is a privilege, and not merely an obligation; that it is a uni­versal benefaction that blesses the giver and receiver alike; that it means the spiritual growth of each member who demonstrates. Before this recognition can come, members must gain a knowledge of how to handle animal magnetism, of how to break through the lethargic temptation that puts thought to sleep in order to keep it from demonstrating, and of how to handle the error that causes one to forget and neglect to do it.

A member of The Mother Church does not remain a continuous beneficiary merely because his name is on the books. He must claim the benefit due him, recognize it as his privilege and prerogative, and demonstrate in order to have it. No Christian Scientist can be called such unless he works at it, any more than a policeman is such unless he is dressed in his uniform and guarding the city.

The Master speaks of the wedding garment, which is symbolic of the mental state that indicates man's unity with God, from which comes the demonstration of power, activity, freedom and understanding. No demonstration can be made until one first establishes his unity with God. A member can be busy mentally, but if it is with the human mind, he is a deterrent to the church and is certainly not a beneficiary of its blessings. The only way for a member to continue to be of value to the organization is to demonstrate from the basis of oneness with God.

Mrs. Eddy gives us a hint that the real Church is in Mind, and so we are beneficiaries only as we demonstrate our unity with that Mind. When we lose sight of that relationship, we are no longer owners of The Mother Church bene­ficially. Should one expect to continue to receive spiritual benefits from the Church when he is thinking erroneously, any more than he would expect to continue to be well under the same circumstances? The remedy in both cases is to correct his thinking.

The difficulty in correcting one's thinking when it is manifested in some disease, lies in the fact that mortal man is more interested in getting back his human harmony, than he is in correcting his thinking. Changing one's think­ing is a simple thing to do in Christian Science. It becomes difficult only when one is burdened with a desire to get rid of effect more than to correct cause. A man trying to unravel a knot would not be successful if he were wearing heavy gloves. When mortal man puts on the gloves of effect in his effort to untie the knot of cause, he finds that, while he may perceive what has to be done, he cannot do it until he takes the gloves off.

It is old theology in students that tempts them, after they have demonstrated the one Mind in building a church, to become so infatuated with the edifice Mind has built, that they thereafter exclude Mind and deal with effect. The moment they do, they turn the church back to old theology, and the meetings are conducted as old theology would run them, namely, by giving one's entire attention to the outward form, and neglecting the mental part. To avoid this, alert members must remind themselves and others constantly that the error that confronts students in their church life is old theology — the tendency to go back to old church methods. When the Ku Klux Klan meet together, the members always wear white robes. When Christian Scientists meet together, they should always wear the robes of demonstration. This will keep divine Mind in the ascendancy, rule out the human mind and save the church from falling back into mortal mind ways. The fact must be kept before the membership that the effort to run any meeting wholly from a human standpoint is a retrograde step, whereas as long as demonstration is exalted as the only right way, and healing is provided in its meetings, the church is safe.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

(Received April 18, 1895)

Mr. Wm. B. Johnson, C. S. B.

My dear Student:

I request that you pass out notices at once for a special church meeting and convene as soon as possible. Read this letter to the church and thus give, as Jesus did, a chance for sinners to reform. You take no risks when doing right.

Lovingly yours,

M. B. Eddy

(Received April 18, 1895)

To The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston

My dear Students:

Adopt at this meeting a By-law that all members who with­draw from your church or who have been put out of it and there­after apply to be taken back into it, and are anxious to live according to its requirements, be received on probation for two years. Then if found unworthy, you can deal with them as you think best for our Cause. But I also require you to remember Jesus' words, “Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.”

You will bring my white hairs into remembrance in years to come, when you remember the unchristian acts that keep me in perpetual broils. I order that after this By-law is passed, you vote to accept the application of Mrs. J. C. Woodbury to join this church.

Concord, N. H

April 17, 1895


Wherever Boards of Directors or Trustees of Christian Science churches assemble, this statement should be framed and hung, “You Take No Risks When Doing Right.” It was reprinted as an excerpt in the Sentinel for June 6, 1936.

Some interpretation of it is necessary, however, since experience shows that to do right causes one to run the risk of animal magnetism's hatred; but Mrs. Eddy knew that animal magnetism was only part of the Adam-dream, and hence no more real than the dream. At the same time, it is as real as is our sense of mortal existence. Hence in arguing for the unreality of animal magnetism, it becomes necessary to recognize the unreality of all that is mortal. Yet during the time when one is unable to make all of mortal existence unreal, he can still hold animal magnetism in check by taking up specific phases of it and realizing their nothingness.

Animal magnetism constitutes an illusion in the dream of mortality, where mortal mind, feeling its existence threatened, mobilizes for its own protection. In the warfare against this error one may receive help from a strong brother who takes hold of his side, as if there was a tug of war with error. The tug of war is only a dream; yet the conviction that one is receiving assistance adds to one's sense of conscious power, and enables him to be the victor over specific phases of animal magnetism. The complete victory over it, however, comes only when one has made the entire claim of mortality unreal.

When I became interested in Christian Science in 1894 Josephine Wood­bury was considered a dangerous malpractitioner by many. She was thought to be a living embodiment of evil. Loyal students felt that it was part of their daily duty to work to neutralize her harmful influence. Yet in these letters Mrs. Eddy says in referring to her, that she is giving a chance for sinners to reform; then she directs the church to reinstate her name on the list of membership. Did not Mrs. Eddy already know the true character of the woman? Did she believe that it was better to have a trouble-maker inside the ranks than outside? Did she feel that Mrs. Woodbury would not hesitate to malpractice to accom­plish her purposes, and that it would be wiser to quiet such malpractice by taking her back?

Jesus did not hesitate to retain Judas as a member of the group of disciples as long as possible. Evidently he proved to be no deterrent to the growth and spiritual development of the Master, his students, or the promulgation of the Cause of Christianity.

When a student has a quality of thought that is liable to run rampant and do harm, it is sometimes wise to retain him as a member, until the error comes to a head where it will be self-destroyed. One can deduce that the reason Mrs. Eddy ordered Mrs. Woodbury's reinstatement, was to stop “the perpetual broils” in the church which resulted from “the unchristian acts” of the members. Mrs. Eddy quotes Jesus' words concerning mercy and sacrifice, indicating that to take her back into the fold at this time represented the greatest good to the greatest number.

In the case of Augusta Stetson, Mrs. Eddy showed that it was wisdom to retain a member under the wing of the organization, — even though such a one was a trouble-maker, — until every effort had been made to help her and to give her a chance to reform. The church would have excommunicated her ten or fifteen years before Mrs. Eddy did, had the latter not been present to restrain them. She acted with divine wisdom, and this wisdom indicated that until the time came for ousting her, Mrs. Stetson could do less harm inside the organiza­tion, than she could outside, even though she was misteaching students.

Was it not a serious thing for her to be misteaching loyal students? It must be remembered, however, that she taught the letter of Christian Science cor­rectly, and that the misteaching lay in the wrong sense Mrs. Stetson held of Mrs. Eddy's teachings. She was outwardly loyal to these teachings and truly fancied that she was more scientific than her traducers; but she was becoming a victim of the subtlety of animal magnetism, from which her teacher did every­thing possible to save her.

Mrs. Stetson did not lead her students astray on the fundamentals of Christian Science. She had some students who were alert enough to perceive that she entertained a misconception of their application. As time went on, it became more and more evident to many clear-minded members of her church and as­sociation that she was being misled by the human mind, and they turned away from her, thus proving that her personal domination over them did not weigh against the hold Christian Science had on them. Where a number of innocent members believe in their teacher, it is often wise to let time expose such a one, before taking action that might do harm to these innocent ones, by causing them to believe that the organization is capable of moving against one who is ab­solutely right in the sight of God. No one can prove that while our Leader was with us, she permitted the organization to act against one single student who was undeserving of such action!

Mrs. Eddy was not deceived by Mrs. Woodbury, but she was guided to give her a probationary period of two years as a member. She knew that during that period, she would either reform, or expose herself; so that if there were innocent students who believed in her, they would have their eyes opened, and Mrs. Woodbury's power to work through innocent channels would be gone. It would also be a wholesome lesson to the members who were holding a wrong sense of Mrs. Woodbury, to be forced to have her in their midst, where her presence would be a constant rebuke to them, until they woke up to their error of per­sonalizing animal magnetism.

When Mrs. Eddy declared, “You will bring my white hairs into remem­brance in years to come, when you remember the unchristian acts that keep me in perpetual broils,” she was intimating that her white hair was the result of her inability to maintain a full sense of the inflow of divine protection at all times. Mrs. Eddy expected opposition to her teachings from the world at large, and she was fully armed to meet it. What made her problem difficult and often robbed her of God for the moment, were the deflections of her own students on whom she placed such responsibility, and with whom she hoped to work in perfect unity, in order to increase the spread and value of Christian Science. Their unchris­tian acts often caused her individual demonstration, which might have kept her hair from turning white, to falter. Some day they would be able to read cause from effect, and remember the evidence in Mrs. Eddy of their malpractice, disobedience and failure to appreciate and support her as they should. Back of the scenes, of course, was the error that purposed to bring confusion, misunder­standing, and separation in the ranks, in order to prevent the action of Truth from going out to the world, supported by a united conviction of its power and by a desire to extend it to all those who were ready to receive it.

The Master declared that a man's foes were of his own household. Because we expect that our enemies will give us something to meet, we are on guard and watchful. It is when error appears in our own ranks, that we are more apt to be touched by it. It was error in her nearest and dearest that tended to bring Mrs. Eddy's head in sorrow to the grave, as the old saying goes.

Mrs. Eddy had cause for regret when people rejected Science for per­sonal reasons, or attacked her as its Founder, because she knew that Christian Science would untangle the snarls in the lives of mortals, give them an objective in life that was worth working for, and provide them with an accurate and cor­rect method of solving all problems, which, unsolved, would bring constant fear and agitation. But when her own students, who had been helpful in building up the Cause, became channels for error that caused them to weigh on the wrong side, it is little wonder that her hair turned white! We might look upon such a happening as inevitable, but she knew that it was the action of animal magnetism.

One might consider that it was natural for an electric battery to run down after a while. If one learned, however, that it was possible to connect it with a generator, so that it would be constantly replenished, and if after he did so, it still showed signs of weakening, he would know that something was wrong with the connection. One of the signs that man as a storage battery is weakening, is his hair turning white. Mortals believe this to be an inevitable result of old age. When a Scientist learns, however, that he is joined to the source of eternal life, God, and that from this source pours into him a constant renewal of being, if he shows any symptom of age such as his hair turning white, he knows that it is the result of malpractice, the effort to make out of him a storage battery cut off from source.

Mortals believe that the conditions of the body which indicate age are natural and inevitable; but the Scientist who has an accurate and demonstrable knowledge of his relation to God, regards them wholly as the result of mal­practice. He knows that the only way by which such conditions could arise in his life would be the influence of animal magnetism, since he has an understanding of Christian Science which, when rightly applied, would prevent such evidences of waning life. When power, life, energy, immortality and all good from God flow into man perpetually, why should he ever have evidences of wearing out? When the Children of Israel functioned to some degree under this scientific realization, even their shoes did not wear out in forty years. A sense of eternal life so affected their garments that they could not deteriorate. Thus, if anything about the Israelites had manifested age, it would have been malprac­tice, or a definite effort to rob them of the spirit of God which they had attained, in order to throw them back to the point where they would finally die.

Things that are natural to mortal mind are unnatural for the Christian Scientist. If he manifests that which mortal belief calls inevitable for mortals, he should realize that in his case it is a malicious effort of animal magnetism to aggravate mortal belief, and he must handle it from that basis. By the term Christian Scientist I mean an advanced student, since Mrs. Eddy in one of her classes put the beginner in the category of mortals as far as animal magnetism was concerned. She said, “Beginners are not in that plane where animal mag­netism touches them; they have only an impersonal belief.” This is a comfort to the metaphysician, since he can realize that by the time he has developed an understanding that is prominent enough in the mental realm to subject him to the attacks of animal magnetism, he is sufficiently armed to defend himself successfully. Animal magnetism is always too late. It is like a nation that waits until another nation is fully armed for war and able to defend itself, before it attacks.

It is only when a student begins to have some success in freeing the world from the action of the human mind, that he becomes the object of animal mag­netism's efforts to overthrow him. Animal magnetism is never capable of nip­ping a good worker in the bud, as it were, by anticipating his possibilities. The latter does not have it to meet, until he is able to meet it. So, when we define it as too late, we keep in mind the fact that error is always held in abeyance until we have gained the understanding that will enable us to overthrow it, before it attacks us. So, we are always ready for it before it comes. And it is well to bear in mind that it comes in a form that would appear to be a natural phenomenon to a mortal. If we told him that our white hairs were the result of animal mag­netism, he would laugh at us.

In conclusion it is well to say that Mrs. Eddy set no precedent for taking unworthy students back into membership, once they had been cast out, when she instructed the members to reinstate Mrs. Woodbury. Mrs. Eddy was not de­ceived as to her status as a Scientist, but some of the members were. Perhaps Mrs. Woodbury believed that if she could be taken in once more, and have the stigma of excommunication removed, she would have power to influence the members, and gain a stronger foothold in the organization; but Mrs. Eddy knew that the reverse would be true. As a member she would gradually give herself away, until all sympathy for her and faith in her supposed greater understanding of Science would be gone. Then her name could again be dropped. The second time, however, Mrs. Eddy would not have to meet the pressure of so many of her students feeling that she was moving unjustly against a fine and loyal student, or ousting a rival, — one who was so brilliant and spiritual that, as long as she was a member, she would be a menace to Mrs. Eddy's position as Leader.

When her own students felt that she was wrong in regard to a student like Mrs. Woodbury, Mrs. Eddy had to meet an aggravation of mental pressure that might claim to separate her from God. She knew that her church needed the healing, instructive, guiding messages which she received from God, but she could not receive them, when she was cast down from her exalted place. Feeling, therefore, that nothing could equal the importance of keeping on that pedestal of thought, she did everything that was possible and wise to thwart error in its effort to pull her down. Malpractice represented the only way her thought could be disturbed. Thus, when a storm arose, she abated it in every wise way, lest temporarily she be thrown down by the darkening effect of malpractice from the place where she could translate spiritual good to the people.

The menace of an octopus lies in its tentacles or “feelers.” Cut them off and it is helpless to harm anyone. The strength of Mrs. Woodbury's power came through a group of innocent and ignorant students who believed that she was a rare and brilliant metaphysician, and that Mrs. Eddy was jealous of her. If Mrs. Woodbury had been stripped of those who believed in her and who accepted her ideas as Christian and scientific, she would not have been a problem.

Mrs. Eddy was by no means jealous of brilliant or prominent students; but when honest students were made to believe that she was, or could be, that constituted a malpractice that gave Mrs. Eddy a problem. So, she was led to take Mrs. Woodbury back into membership, trusting that the latter would expose herself in her true colors and lose her following. She was to be feared only in the sense that the thoughts of honest students misled by her, seemed to be able to darken Mrs. Eddy's mental atmosphere.

The power (suppositional) of malpractice lies in conviction. The effort to accomplish that which is not right is always weak; but when honest people take up a wrong cause because they have been influenced to believe that it is right, they carry a conviction that has to be reckoned with. Mrs. Eddy allotted two years' probation for Mrs. Woodbury, because she knew that as a member she would come under observation, and her true charac­ter would be disclosed, whether she reformed, or continued to serve evil in the name of good. As an enemy of her Leader, Mrs. Woodbury had no power to produce the slightest darkness in Mrs. Eddy's thought through malpractice, but she exercised an indirect power through her influence over some honest students who were asleep to evil's subtle mental operations.

In like manner, if one of Mrs. Eddy's enemies had tried to hold the thought that she was dead, when he knew she was not, that would be an ineffectual error, but when honest people could be made to believe that she had passed on, she had something to meet from that mental conviction. For that reason she went for a daily drive and showed herself on the busy streets of Concord — when she might have preferred to go out into the quiet countryside — so that she might neutralize the lie spread abroad that she was dead.

Mrs. Eddy was not deceived in regard to Mrs. Woodbury. She could read character and probe motive, because she used divine insight in order to do so. She knew that there was no danger to the church connected with taking Mrs. Woodbury back into membership, since there was too much genuine Science among honest students to have any harm result. Furthermore, it was necessary for the latter to expose herself in her true colors. Jesus made no effort to ex­communicate Judas from the group of disciples, even though he knew, as Mrs. Eddy once declared, that his sin was of such a nature that it would not give up until destroyed.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

April 23, 1895

To the Christian Science Board of Directors

My beloved Students:

Your ordination of your former teacher and preacher — as Pastor Emeritus of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, is concise, simple, ample. I thank you, and accept the honor you confer. I shall go to you when I am permitted by the circumstances which at present determine my speaking to you from the platform of your beautiful costly church.

If all expectation of seeing me is suppressed, and no proph­ecies as to my presence with you indulged, it will aid in my hope's fulfillment.

In love yours,

Mary Baker Eddy


The ordination of Mrs. Eddy as the Pastor Emeritus opened the way for her to embody in the Church Manual the proposition that, whether she was present in the flesh or absent, the spiritual idea must always approve of the acts of the Directors. When she was with us, she sought God's guidance in everything she did, including the time she was to speak from the platform of The Mother Church, and she wanted her followers to make the same demonstration.

The Pastor Emeritus represents the spirit of Mrs. Eddy, which is to remain with us forever. No thoughtful student could help admitting that the spirit that animated her, must animate her followers for all time. In order to do this, they must seek recourse to God for wisdom as she did. She maintained a line of demonstration that included the smallest detail or decision in her experience. What but the Spirit of God could enable one to follow and be obedient to the Pastor Emeritus? When Mrs. Eddy told her followers to follow her only as she followed Christ, she might have said, “Follow me only as I function as the Pastor Emeritus.” It was not the personal Mrs. Eddy that she wanted them to follow, but the spirit that she demonstrated. The Pastor Emeritus represented Mrs. Eddy's effort to perpetuate the spirit of demonstration as the leading and guiding thought in her organization.

The aim and determination of those in authority in the Movement to fol­low their Leader must never wane. Everything she did and said was the ex­emplification of the Spirit of God that she reflected. She wanted her followers to pledge themselves as Christian Scientists to function from the standpoint of demonstration, since it is the infallible and only correct way. It is the way that keeps one from want and saves him from useless suffering. It is the way that indicates that one is walking in the right path, the path of destiny that God has laid out.

No one can ever understand Mrs. Eddy with the human mind, no matter how trained and educated it may be, since God's ways are not man's ways. As St. Paul avers, spiritual processes are foolishness to those who have only a human sense. When a student strives to understand Mrs. Eddy's life from the same spiritual standpoint that he does her writings and the Bible, he will detect in her life that same infallible guidance that was exemplified when she wrote Science and Health. On the other hand, the student who avers that the textbook was written from the standpoint of inspiration, and then finds things in her life to criticize, — her rebukes and the like, — proves thereby that he is being con­trolled by human opinion, and is fulfilling his human destiny which dooms him to failure as a follower of Mrs. Eddy.

It is surprising that Mrs. Eddy should intimate that her ability to hear God's guidance in the matter of speaking in The Mother Church, depended on the mental attitude of the members! Yet we know that an intense desire on the part of mortals always gives rise to the claim of reversal through fear, so that what they most want may be reversed into that which they do not want. Mrs. Eddy was sensitive enough to feel this thought of reversal keeping her away from the church. If she did not hear God's voice calling her, she could not come. Hence she sought to restrain any countercurrent of thought produced by the anxiety and fear of the members concerning her coming, which might hang like a cloud between her and the light of Truth.

We live in a world of thought. Hence, obstructions and obstacles, as well as interference, come from others' thoughts and conclusions, not from their outward acts. Hence the over-anxiety and prophecy as to Mrs. Eddy's coming would tend to confuse her thought, and interfere with her clear perception of God's will. She implied that when the members overcame this expectation of seeing her in person every Sunday, that would open the way for her to come.

Her letter says in substance, “Watch lest, in your anxiety to see me, you interfere with God's telling me when to come. If you allow yourselves to think or talk about it too much, as if I were a mortal governed by chance or whim, you will interfere, so that I will not be able to determine what God wants me to do.” In fine she begged them not to affect her sensitive ability to hear God, through an inflow of human desire and fear.

She hoped that God would guide her to come to them and give them a message of hope and understanding from Him. He surely had a message for the Church, the giving of which depended on them. Furthermore, she was the only one who could hear that message and convey it to them; but she had to wait until she could hear the wisdom of God directing her to come. So she recom­mends that the interfering thoughts of the members be stilled, in order to give her the chance to hear God.

This is an instructive letter from our Leader, since it carries the precept that all students, especially those in authority, should retire into the secret place of the Most High, as Mrs. Eddy did, in order that the Spirit of God may constant­ly guide them. They may be misunderstood in their subsequent actions, as she was. The penalty for being guided by God is that those on a lower plane are liable to misunderstand and criticize. The spiritual pioneer may do right, because God governs him; but he cannot bestow upon others the perception to see that he is doing right. If he works from the standpoint of Spirit, he cannot be under­stood by those who lack spiritual discernment. He must perforce endure the experience of being misunderstood, until the results of his being governed by God are so unmistakable, that his critics are compelled to acknowledge that what they considered to be mistakes were the result of being guided by God.

One wonders why Mrs. Eddy referred to The Mother Church as beautiful, yet costly. Perhaps this was her way of stating that the edifice was as costly in proportion to its size as any Christian Science church ever should be. The Field requires money to extend the work of Science and every bit of that money that is put into an edifice over and above what is really needed, in a sense, robs the Field. So Mrs. Eddy's use of that word, costly, is a hint that should be a check on expenditures for branch churches. While she did not declare that The Mother Church cost too much, yet she indicated that it cost an amount that created a standard that in the future should not be exceeded.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

May 3, 1895

Beloved Brethren:

I ask you to act on this By-law for two reasons viz. (1st.) I cannot be your Leader unless I have the power to guide you when you need this guidance.

(2nd.) Because I will pray earnestly and watch for God to guide me in knowing that I am right in my decision before entering a complaint against a member of this church. And from long tests, I know that He will show me the way that is just and then I will follow it.

With love,

Your Mother in Israel,

Mary Baker Eddy

My dear Clerk:

Do not read the following in meeting:

Write me at once as soon as the meeting is over the action and what the Dr. said, if anything. He and Mrs. C. are attacking me mentally with apparent intent to kill. This is proven beyond a doubt.

Read this in meeting before voting on By-law:

Beloved Students:

When a student tells you that I am influenced in my con­clusions or work in this field by anyone but God, or when he says I am mistaken in my knowledge of who is attacking me mentally and thus malpracticing — know then that this student is disloyal to the core and is not to be trusted. This I have proven true 30 years.

With love,

Mother


Again and again in her correspondence we find Mrs. Eddy writing for posterity, setting forth precepts and modes which she must have known were going to stand for all time. Her life is wonderful to consider, even from the stand­point of her letter writing alone. If we go back to letters written in her girlhood, we find nothing in them that reflects adversely on her character. On the con­trary, they reveal that from earliest childhood, her life was consecrated to good.

An innate impulse guided her to perceive that one must write letters with care, even those written in strictest confidence. Most young girls in the throes of foolish sentiment write silly letters; but not Mrs. Eddy. There is nothing to be discovered in any of her letters that are extant, that is at cross purposes with the spiritual import of her whole life.

All students should anticipate the time when what they write of Christian Science in letters will be found helpful. Their letters may be collected for this very reason. When that time comes, how gratifying it would be if the adversary could find nothing in any past letters that would reflect adversely on the present! Thoughtless and careless letter writing is a dangerous form of yielding to animal magnetism, that may some day rise up to cast a shadow on one's life.

It hardly seems possible that everything Mrs. Eddy wrote that has survived, could stand the inspection of hostile critics, and show that she was ever thought­ful and high-minded; yet such is the fact.

This letter of May 3, 1895, gives the impression that Mrs. Eddy realized that she was writing for the future as well as the present. It is a letter that would help any Board of Directors to understand her motivation. It gives an inkling of her character, and of the way she functioned spiritually. It was intended to foster confidence in all that she said and did.

No greater offence before God could have been committed by Mrs. Eddy, than to have made assertions such as these, if they were not true. It would have been an unforgivable presumption for her to use the argument of God's infal­lible guidance, in order to force her students to be obedient to her wishes, unless she had actually demonstrated such guidance. When Herod stood up as the mouthpiece of God, when he had not made a demonstration to become such, the Bible declares in Acts 12 that he was eaten of worms.

When Mrs. Eddy found it necessary to expose and handle some error,­ — where this exposure concerned one of her students, — she moved as slowly as she could, in order to give that student every opportunity to reform. When she adopted Dr. Foster Eddy, he became subject to a portion of the error that was aimed against her. That he could stand against it no longer than he did, should not be held against him. The error appeared to reach him through such a simple characteristic as the desire for self-aggrandizement. As this desire grew upon him, he assumed an attitude toward his mother that from her point of view was malpractice and interference.

Mrs. Eddy found that he was using the office of President of The Mother Church to extend his personal influence, — so he had to be removed. She plan­ned the necessary steps with great care, displaying no fear that she might call down upon her head a storm of protest. She knew that God would never forsake her in helping her to bring about what He directed, and in taking each necessary step in its order.

Men who are hired to dig tunnels that are constructed under rivers, can work only for a limited time, due to the increased air pressure. Mrs. Eddy dis­covered that students could be protected, so that they might aid her in founding the Cause, only for limited periods of time, depending on the student. We should be grateful if Dr. Eddy helped her to place one stone in her building. Furthermore, when we learn of the heartaches Dr. Eddy and his ilk caused her, we can feel an added gratitude for loyal students like Mr. Johnson, Mr. Knapp, and Mr. Chase, who were outstanding in their unswerving loyalty and obedience to her. Many were the students Mrs. Eddy trained for positions of responsibility­ — as she did Dr. Foster Eddy. When they made trouble, she had to replace them. Yet the work they did before the error overtook them, helped to advance the Cause.

In her unpublished book, Footprints Fadeless, Mrs. Eddy devotes a whole chapter to Dr. Foster Eddy, calling it by the title, A Matter of Hearts. In it she quotes from a sweet letter dated October 22, 1901, in which he wrote, “Believe me when I say nothing whatsoever shall diminish the pure love and esteem I have for you.” She writes, “There is no quarrel between us.” She did not have it in her heart to cherish error against anyone, no matter how much animal mag­netism had used him or her as a channel to hurt her. It is to Dr. Eddy's credit that he harbored no personal grievance against his mother.

Students of today who read these pages, should remember that the tempta­tion to be unfaithful to Mrs. Eddy will always be present. Can one be called loyal to her who in his thought moves her out of the Cause as the active, working pulsating heart of the whole Movement? Students should ask themselves, “Am I loyal and faithful to Mrs. Eddy?” To be loyal to her means to strive to carry on the Cause in the same spirit she used. True loyalty means cooperation with her in her effort to carry out God's wishes, and this demand is as real to-day, and always will be as real as it was when she was with us.

The entire narrative of the church minutes covering the meeting of the First Members on May 4, 1895, must be quoted, in order to understand the way Mrs. Eddy handled the problem of Dr. Foster Eddy at this time:


A special meeting of The First Members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, was held this day in the vestry of the Church. The meeting was opened by reading selections from the Scriptures and from Science and Health, silent prayer, the Lord's prayer, and its spiritual interpretation at 10 o'clock and six minutes a.m. The president and twenty-three members present. The following letter and By-law were read. (Letter of May 3 was read.)

By-law: A member of this church who is a student of Rev. Mary Baker Eddy and refuses to leave a place in the field that she knows it is for his or her interest to leave and so advise him or her, yet they do not comply with my request, this member shall be dropped from this Church membership and treated by this Church as a disloyal student. Also, if a member of this Church is proven by me to be treating me mentally without my consent, the name of this member shall be dropped from the roll of membership and he or she treated by this Church as a disloyal student. This By-law can only be amended or annulled by the unanimous vote of every member of this Church.

The following letter from our Teacher — Rev. Mary Baker Eddy — was read: (Letter beginning, “When a student tells you that I am influenced ...”).

Upon the recommendation of our Teacher it was voted that the service for the children shall be held once in four months on the second Sunday in the month.

A letter from our teacher, The Rev. Mary Baker Eddy, addressed to Dr. E. J. Foster Eddy was read by the secretary. In said letter Mrs. Eddy demands Dr. E. J. Foster Eddy to comply with the demands of the publishing committee and owners of the Christian Science publishing building.

At the close of the meeting the members, 21 in number, went directly to the Union Station and took the cars for Concord, New Hampshire, and upon reaching Concord immediately took carriages to go to Pleasant View, where we arrived at 3:30 p.m. We were gathered in the back parlor and upon our Teacher entering the room, all arose to greet her.

She then told us why she had called us to her: to inform us of the awful error that is working in our midst, and warn us of our danger. She spoke of those who are constantly working against the success of the Cause, and instructed us how to meet scientifically the error of this hour. Her instructions were of incalculable value to us, and if duly heeded will save us from falling into the evil that is plotted against us.

Mrs. Eddy presented a By-law and some other business to be acted upon by the Church.

Upon our return to Boston, we went directly to the Church, reopened the meet­ing of this morning and transacted the following business: By a unanimous vote — the members rising — the following By-law was adopted:

Voted unanimously — the members rising — that: The present Reader of the Scriptures, Judge S. J. Hanna., shall remain this Reader as long as he is accept­able and remains editor of the Christian Science Journal.

Each president of this Church shall hold his or her office but one consecutive year, and once in three years.

This Church shall have no leader but its Pastor, the Bible, and Science and Health. One member of this Church shall not be guided by another.

One good member is no more than another good member to this Church. Per­sonal attachments or enmity shall not influence the action of the members of The Mother Church toward each other. God alone shall be their God.

Voted: That in accordance with our Teacher's recommendation The Mother Church shall have a Church Manual.

Voted: That this Church shall elect an executive committee whose special duty it shall be to see that the Rules and By-laws of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, as contained in the Church Manual are carried out by each member that attends this Church, in their letter and spirit. And this committee, which shall also prepare the Church Manual, shall consist of those persons named by Mrs. Eddy: Mr. Edward P.Bates, Miss Julia S. Bartlett, Judge Septimus J. Hanna, William B. Johnson.

Voted: That in accordance with our Mother's wish this Church shall see that the Christian Science textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” and other books by its author, shall be handled by no one that is not known to the author and selected by her.

Voted: That Edward P. Bates be and is hereby elected President of the Church for one year beginning May 4, 1895.

The clerk was instructed to notify Dr. Eddy that according to the foregoing By-law, his term of office as president of this Church has expired, and that Mr. Bates is elected to that position. The minutes of this meeting were read and ap­proved. The meeting then adjourned at 10 o'clock and 30 minutes p.m. Respect­fully submitted, William B. Johnson, Clerk.


Error as a claim is ever the same, but it assumes different phases according to circumstances; so it requires constant watchfulness on the part of students. When Mrs. Eddy saw her students relaxing in the feeling that they had met an error successfully, she had to arouse them and “refear” them, as it were. She had to bring home to them in some fresh way, the serious nature of the activity of the lie in opposing Truth in its many forms, so that they would resume their active efforts to overcome it.

A man who collapses in a blizzard may have a feeling of warmth steal over him, but that warmth does not signify security, but the greatest danger. His companion, therefore, imitates the howl of a wolf. The former, being unwilling to be torn to pieces by wolves, puts forth a supreme effort, which enables him to rise up and resume his journey.

Whenever a sense of lethargy overtook her students, Mrs. Eddy stood ready to call their attention to the terrible error working in their midst. This was her wise way of giving the “wolf cry.” She knew that as a claim error remains constant. It may appear to ebb and flow, but it does not. It is our attitude toward it that ebbs and flows. When we neglect to meet it, it may appear to increase in size through our neglect, until we are forced to rise up and meet it by the suf­fering that it brings.

Mrs. Eddy kept an accurate watch on her students. When they kept ahead of error, she let them alone; but the moment they began to lag, she took action. It seems amazing that she should send for the whole body of First Members to come to Pleasant View, in order to warn them of the terrible error working in their midst, when on the surface it appeared to be merely a sense of unwilling­ness on the part of Dr. Foster Eddy to give up his position of President of The Mother Church. Her purpose, however, was to take advantage of the situation to quicken the students to a greater victory over the lie.

Often students were tempted to feel that the Leader was mistaken in her findings in regard to error, and had the habit of exaggerating and crying, “Wolf, wolf,” when there was none; yet, she was the one who was most suc­cessful, and survived the longest as a working student — in spite of the fact that she had the largest task and carried the greatest burden. From time to time her most promising students passed out of the picture, and new ones had to take their place; yet she continued. Often the very ones who discredited her findings in regard to evil, were the ones to fall by the wayside.

Mrs. Eddy knew that the students would be tempted to believe, when she warned them in regard to some terrible error, like the Dr. and Mrs. C. attacking her mentally with apparent intent to kill, that she was merely misinterpreting her own fear of animal magnetism, and attempting to convey this fear to her students; so she guarded against this temptation on their part by writing the letter, which accused of disloyalty any students who declared that she was mistaken in her knowledge of who was attacking her mentally.

It is truly remarkable how Mrs. Eddy used this circumstance of Dr. Foster Eddy's deflection, to build up the students' faith in her demonstration. Those who might have had the temerity to question her as a person, would not question God.

All the preliminaries on this eventful day of May 4 seemed designed to lead up to the exposure of the error to the First Members that she made in her home. Her letters were intended to cause them to feel that any questioning of her statements, or failure to follow her, would be disloyalty to God.

Mrs. Eddy found that error was using her adopted son, tempting him to assume power that amounted to leadership, and because of his position as her son, to feel that he had preferment and priority over other students, and even over the By-laws; also to hold a sense toward his mother that amounted to mal­practice and an intent to kill, because he was toying with the suggestion that if she should die, — he would be left to run things as he chose, and to be head of the Movement.

Mrs. Eddy put into the hands of the First Members the means whereby to handle this error, so that Dr. Eddy would be considered disloyal and his name be dropped from membership, if he failed to obey. Mrs. Eddy was fearless when it came to error, yet she had had enough experience with malpractice, not to stir it up needlessly. She knew that Dr. Eddy was exerting mental pressure on her, perhaps on the basis that he could thus change her attitude toward him, so that she would let him continue in the responsible and prominent position he then occupied.

Dr. Eddy may have been perfectly honest in believing that his mother had been influenced against him. For him to believe this, or that her judgment and discernment were personal, rather than being her infallible reflection of God, would be malpractice on his part. The only safe student was one who would follow her through sunshine and storm, believing that she was right in all her ways (as she was), and that in the end what she said and did would work out for the best and highest good of all concerned (as it did). On June 18, 1892, she wrote to Julia Field-King. “I thank God for your faith in Him and your true sense of me. Why? Because in over one quarter of a century I have never in one single in­stance seen these fail to carry a student safely on in growth and prosperity. But in every single instance the loss of those menial conditions has wrecked the student.”

An architect who has not proved his skill can command no attention; but when he has erected a sturdy structure that has stood the test of time, and that is outstanding for its utility and beauty, it becomes a monument to his skill. As we contemplate the vast structure Mrs. Eddy erected, we feel full confidence in her. We perceive that all that she did was right, and was proof of her reflection of God's unerring wisdom. No human being could ever have promulgated such radical ideas successfully unless God was with him.

During her earthly sojourn, however, there were occasions when her best students were tempted to doubt her. In 1895 she had not written the statement, “Follow your Leader only so far as she follows Christ.” She inculcated this proposition in her teachings, however, and did all she could to prove that she was uniform in following Christ. Nevertheless Dr. Foster Eddy was honest in believing that she was being influenced against him, but this proved that he himself was being influenced by animal magnetism unwittingly. When self-will and self-confidence control a student, so that he does not fear to go ahead on his own initiative, when others move to restrain him, he is apt to fall back on the weak assertion that those in charge are being influenced and prejudiced against him. Part of Dr. Eddy's responsibility toward his Leader and adopted mother was to realize that she could not be influenced erroneously, even for a moment.

Mrs. Eddy could feel Dr. Eddy's effort to manipulate her thought. She saw the need of exposing the error, and did so by the methods we see recorded in these church minutes. She had the members pass a By-law in regard to mental manipulation, even though she was the only one capable of unerringly detecting whether such manipulation was going on. Yet in this episode we can trace the beginning of our “Rule for Motives and Acts,” that today we are required to hold before our thought continually, lest we be found influencing or being influenced erroneously. In these minutes we find the statements, “One good member is no more than another good member to this Church. Personal attachments or enmity shall not influence the action of the members of The Mother Church toward each other. God alone shall be their God.”

Mrs. Eddy included herself in these statements, in the sense that God is no respecter of persons. Yet the immediate occasion for them was the necessity to neutralize Dr. Eddy's effort to capitalize on the fact that she had selected him out of all her students to make him her adopted son. He reached the point where, if he wanted anything, he applied for it or claimed it, on the basis that he was Mrs. Eddy's son, and hence it was all right for him to have it.

The Rule for Motives and Acts is a great help to restrain members from experimenting with humanly mental processes of influencing others in the name of Christian Science, to act in ways other than what their own conclusions would cause them to do. Viewed scientifically, this By-law helps to awaken students to the realization that God judges us according to our thoughts. This enables us to see that Dr. Eddy was being ousted from his position, not through a whim of his mother's, but because his thoughts were not acceptable before God.

The By-law that was passed on May 4, 1895, forbidding students to treat Mrs. Eddy without her consent, implies that she could detect when a student's thoughts were not right toward her. Does not this carry the implication that God knows our thoughts; and we must watch to have them acceptable before Him?

Error used Dr. Eddy so that his apparent desire to be a Christian Scientist for the sake of the good that he might do, began to be overshadowed by an effort to use his Science and position to attain what he wanted humanly. The same error that used him, causes students to covet important positions, and to feel that it is legitimate to use the world's means to gain such positions. It was to neutralize this claim that Mrs. Eddy sent a notice to be printed in the periodicals on July 10, 1908 (although it was withdrawn before it appeared): “Are her fol­lowers willing to take up their crosses, as she has taken up hers, in order to follow Christ, or do they demand all that they humanly want?”

The rule in Science is to put human ambition under foot, and refuse to consider any position unless one is sure that God wants him to take it. Mrs. Eddy keenly detected the error involved in human ambition, since it claims to take the place of a sincere and unselfish desire to bless humanity. She yearned to have a student motivated wholly by the desire to help mankind, since she knew that the mental bondage of the world could be lifted in no other way than through Christian Science. When she detected that Dr. Eddy's inclination to be prominent in the Cause, was outweighing his desire to be active in God's service and avid in his effort to bless others, she knew that this error had to be checked. She was willing to have the First Members spend a whole day doing it!

Why did Mrs. Eddy write that Dr. Eddy was attacking her mentally with apparent intent to kill? Did she feel that his human ambition was so aggressive, that he was toying with the idea that due to her age, she would not live long, and of what it would mean to have her pass on, namely, that he would become the head of the Cause? Was she feeling the error that was possessing him and was it clouding her mental horizon?

Life is God reflected by man. To the Scientist the effort to kill is not the effort to destroy his physical life, so-called, but to separate him from God, to rob him of his hold upon that which sustains him.

All who ever lived at Pleasant View will testify that Mrs. Eddy absolutely depended upon her demonstration of divine Mind. Without it she could ac­complish nothing. Her sense of malpractice with the intent to kill was anything that clouded her spiritual thought; and she could feel the error that was using Dr. Eddy having this effect upon her.

Mrs. Eddy was led to adopt Dr. Foster Eddy, because she saw qualities in him which might prove valuable to the Cause, and perhaps fit him to be her successor; but the poison of personal ambition claimed him as its victim, even as it did some of her other students. Is it any wonder that she wrote the following and called it “Low Ambition”? “The question, Who shall be greatest? when allowed to take root in thought and purpose, is a poison the virus whereof is more deadly and more defiant to spiritual growth and the life of the soul than the sting of the moccasin is to the body. This subtle thought entertained pos­sesses the very nature of that serpent which watches his victim, and stings him only when he sleepeth; for the poison thus communicated (induced) is believed to spread itself over the entire system before the sleeper is sufficiently awake to help himself or to call for aid.”

Jesus included as a qualification for leadership, the willingness to wash another's feet. He set forth that his willingness to wash his disciples' feet con­stituted part of his fitness to lead them. He defended himself against human am­bition, and avoided personal aggrandizement, because he knew that if he per­mitted himself to be exalted personally, it would cost him a loss of God that might prove fatal to his mission.

Dr. Eddy's friends might have chemicalized over Mrs. Eddy's designation of him as a murderer or an assassin, but she forestalled their criticism by having her letter read in which she convicted of disloyalty anyone who would assert that she was mistaken in her knowledge of the source of the malpractice. Often students are conscious of malpractice, but they do not make the demonstration of spiritual discernment which our Leader did, that enables them unerringly to detect its source.

Dr. Eddy knew how dependent his mother was on her spiritual reflection, and how carefully she guarded the atmosphere of her home, and had her stu­dents do likewise, in order that nothing might claim to rob her of God. Hence the very fact that he disregarded what she had taught him in this direction, and what he had learned by living in her home, gave her the right to convict him of being a channel for that which would kill her. He invaded her peace with his demands; he pestered her for the position of First Reader in The Mother Church until she gave it to him. He reached the place where he was willing to try to influence her to disobey God, for the sake of feeding his human ambition and desires; and she knew that such an attitude had to be shocked into self-awareness by drastic means. She hoped that to call it attempted murder would be salutary. Her purpose in writing this letter, however, was not entirely to convict Dr. Eddy and Mrs. C. She also wanted to establish the realization on the part of the other students, that anyone became a party to the effort to murder her, who stirred her up and annoyed her with church broils or problems. The letter she wrote put the finger on Dr. Eddy and Mrs. C., but it included all those who kept her in a state of disturbance and discord, who troubled her and weighed her down with needless responsibility and care. If she passed on, because tempo­rarily the influx of divine Life was shut off, all who did this would have con­tributed to her demise. Perhaps this is why she dictated on November 28, 1910, the following statement and signed it, “It took a combination of sinners that was fast to harm me.”

While it is true that our Leader did not leave our sight until her work was done, and so it became part of God's plan for her to have her release, never­theless she had to leave a record to show that the malpractice that darkened her thought was not personal, but a consolidated error that had for its purpose the forcing of her thought down to a mortal level. While the Master's crucifixion lay in the line of his destiny, that did not lessen the sin of those who participated in it. Likewise, because the time came when Mrs. Eddy as a battle-scarred warrior, who had fought every engagement with animal magnetism success­fully, was released from further warfare, that did not relieve certain students from the onus of having failed her in her greatest need.

The sinners who stood fast were merely those who yielded to animal mag­netism as a unit and did not work out of it. In Christian Science a sinner is not one who does wrong outwardly, so much as one who yields to the influence of mesmerism that has for its intent the shutting off of God's children from Him. If one does not break loose from this influence, he cannot expect that another who is constantly going up higher, can remain in his company. Mrs. Eddy was progressing, while the students in her home, at least to some degree, permitted themselves to remain on a mortal level. The time came, therefore, when she was no longer required to endure the darkening influence of those around her who were not faithful in meeting every phase of error.

At the time of her passing on, the students close to her observed that she was struggling with error, but they were not alarmed, since they had seen her struggling many times before, and she had always come out successfully. This time, however, as she sat up in bed obviously working with determination to see the nothingness of the error, with her students under instructions to do the same, all at once she stopped her work, and a heavenly expression of peace appeared on her face. At the same time she instructed the students to stop their work and said, “Drop the argument; just leave me with divine Love, that is all I need.” Within a few hours she had passed on.

What is the explanation for this incident, unless when the error appeared, Mrs. Eddy marshalled the forces of good to meet it, as she always did; until God revealed to her that it was not the action of evil, but of her divine destiny that was operating? No wonder she stopped fighting it and had her students do likewise! No wonder a heavenly expression of peace came upon her face, when she learned that her work was done, and she was permitted to go on to her next experience! She had made the successful effort to stay in this mortal dream as long as her work was needed to found the Cause. When that work was done, she could leave.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

May 3, 1895

Dictated

Wm. B. Johnson, C. S. B.

Clerk of The First Church of Christ, Scientist

Boston, Mass.

The services for the children shall be held once in four months on the second Sunday in the month, as once monthly is too often in order to perpetuate harmony in the general services of the Church.

Mary Baker Eddy

Per Clara M. S. Shannon


It required over twelve hundred experiments on the part of Edison before he found the proper substance from which to make the filament for his incandes­cent lamp; but the compensation for this labor was the fact that no one will ever again have to experiment with the materials that he proved unsuitable.

Why did not God always direct our Leader along exact lines and tell her the best way at once, instead of necessitating her at times to try one thing and then another, until the right way was evolved through experience? Because all such experience was valuable and necessary. It was as much part of the divine plan for her to prove certain things unsuitable, as it was for her to demonstrate the right way, so that she would forever silence any suggestions in the future that there might be better ways to demonstrate the problem of the organization. If some loving but unwise student in the future, for instance, should suggest that a service be held just for the children, in order to train them along lines of church attendance, Mrs. Eddy's own experience can be cited as proof that once that was tried, and found to be unwise in the long run.

Mrs. Eddy was demonstrating for the future, establishing precedent, and thereby preventing the organization from changing, as might happen when intelligent and active members believed that they could contribute something by suggesting innovations and improvements in procedure. When a man is made the head of a business, he is never satisfied to carry on under present methods. He wants to introduce changes and new ideas. Then if the business increases, the credit and glory will redound to him.

Our Leader was helping posterity in trying out various modes and methods, as well as keeping abreast of the changes in thought. Obviously her experiments were not mistakes, but integral and necessary parts of the founding of the church; they were proofs that the final form was the best possible way to function. God directed her in all her ways and she always acted on His guidance. Hence when she tried out ways and means that eventually proved to be unsatisfactory, she was following out God's plan, which was to put a quietus on everything that she was not led to include in the final form, so that zealots in the future would be restrained from trying to improve her program.

Children learn to love good readily when it is presented to them honestly and correctly. They are also keen to detect insincerity, and are easily prejudiced on that account. Hence everything in connection with their spiritual education must be handled with great care. They must not be driven so hard to go to Sunday School, that they make up their minds that as soon as they are old enough, they are going to drop religion with relief. It is possible for parents to treat their chil­dren with love and kindness, tact and firmness, so that they foster in them a de­sire for Christian Science; but parents cannot do this unless they themselves feel a genuine love for the things of God.

Perhaps Mrs. Eddy thought the children would not be particularly interested in unexplained Christian Science, as read in the Lesson-Sermon; and she de­vised a service that would form a bridge, so that the children would learn to love to go to church. She found, however, that this can be done by a wise teacher. He or she can prepare the class for church attendance by showing it to be a continuation of the Sunday School on a larger scale. The children can be shown that, having received much good from the Sunday School, they are now ready to give to the church.

When the Church of Christ, Scientist, fulfils the divine plan so perfectly that the Sunday School children of today become the church members of tomor­row, then the organization is functioning as it should. Out of the Sunday School comes those who will support the church mentally, those who have been trained regarding their obligations, so that they become a band of mental workers that can be relied upon.

It is especially wise to train children to approach the thought of church at­tendance from the standpoint of giving rather than receiving. Advanced students know how their interest in the church services increases when they attend to give, rather than to receive. If a distraction looms up, the thought of attending church as a receiver may have little holding power; whereas if one feels that he represents an important contribution to the demonstration of the church, and that if he neglects this work, he is not fulfilling his obligation to God and his brother-man, he will disregard the distraction and attend.

If a member of a branch church serving on the governing board, was notified to attend a meeting in order to handle some question that seemed trivial, he might be tempted to skip the meeting in favor of something he would prefer to do; but when he realizes that the real reason in God's sight for his presence at the meeting is that he may contribute to its mental support, he will let nothing keep him away. This point proves that the strength of the obligation to partici­pate in the activities of the Christian Science organization, comes through the realization that one is a spiritual giver, and so his mental support is a vital necessity.

No matter how strong a hold the church may have on a member, because of his desire to attend in order to receive, it becomes stronger when he recog­nizes that his highest obligation lies in supporting the services mentally, since the success of the services, — their penetrating power as far as the public is concerned, — depends upon the work done by the members who attend, in order to drive home the truth to those who are ready for the blessing.

The orderly way is to educate the children to understand that, after they have learned how to demonstrate Christian Science during the term of Sunday School attendance, they graduate to a higher training, which is to attend the services, in order to do their part in carrying the atmosphere on the side of Spirit. Through such training members are raised up who can be depended upon to do the healing work the church needs. It is hardly necessary to add that such members will attend the meetings faithfully when they attend from this stand­point, since they will look upon such attendance as a sacred obligation.

There are those who argue that it is right to use any means to start young people fresh out of the Sunday School attending the services, even if you have to make them do so, if possible, by telling them that it is a duty that they owe to God and man. Such an attitude savors of old theology and often tends to drive them away from the church. If the church cannot carry its own demonstration of attractiveness, it becomes as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals.

When our services become mere form without the spirit, it will be time to close our doors. The true worth of our services lies in the spiritual vitality of the atmosphere which carries healing. If this is absent, no member should ever consider that the service is effective merely as a form. When the Spirit of God is left out, the form is liable to produce prejudice in the minds of strangers, since the letter killeth.

It becomes deception when a large number of members continue to attend services from which the spirit is absent, since the church appears to be pros­perous, when actually it is not. When our Leader was with us, she appealed to students to attend in order to give, to pray constantly for the Spirit of God to be present and not to forget their obligation to the services mentally. One who is infused with this concept would not miss a service any more than he would miss a meal. In fact he could well do without a meal, but not without the spiritual exaltation that comes from having been faithful over a few things.

Our Leader recognized the error that would tempt members to go to sleep over the vital part of Christian Science, namely, the effort to infuse all its ac­tivities with a healing consciousness, when she framed the By-law, “Alertness to Duty.” In this rule she lays forth the three duties of each member that he must not be made to forget nor to neglect.

The first duty to God is the realization that divine Mind is all causation, which is a fact that he must demonstrate in the physical realm so-called. He must prove that it is not natural for man to forget his obligations to God, to his Leader and to mankind, but that such forgetfulness is aggressive mental suggestion to which man yields. One's duty to God is to strive to establish the fact that divine Mind alone governs and has all power. Mrs. Eddy, in framing this By-law, had in mind the fact that if one neglects these three duties, he may attend church, but he will go fast asleep mentally. Otherwise why, when she framed this By-law on June 24, 1899, did she write, “Alas for the sleepers and for me?” Such sleepers attend services with a selfish attitude, striving merely to get something for them­selves, forgetting that to the awakened student every activity in Science repre­sents an opportunity to give.

In fulfilling one's duty to God, one must realize Him as the only healer of the sick, since He is the only cause. One must not stop at this point, however, but realize that He alone feeds man, since food is not matter, but the manifestation of His love and care for His children; he must know that divine Mind alone gives man rest, so that he is refreshed, not by mesmeric sleep, but by the rest that comes from a childlike trust in Him. One cannot be said to be fulfilling one's duty to God when he limits his sense of God's power to healing sick bodies. It is a small proportion of one's duty to divinity to assume that His will is being done on earth as in heaven, when the sick are healed through His power, but that His influence largely ends there.

A portion of one's duty to his Leader is the recognition that she was the correct, as well as the most successful demonstrator of Christian Science. If one studies this Science with the intention of striving to demonstrate it correctly, he can never do this and leave Mrs. Eddy's individual demonstration out of the picture. Students who are making imperfect demonstrations, will find that one reason is because they lack a correct understanding of their Leader's demonstra­tion and life. One should never claim to understand her revelation until he can explain her life. One may claim that he has studied a textbook on how to fly an airplane and so knows how to fly; but can he watch an expert fly and can he understand and explain the reason for each of his maneuvres?

The final duty to mankind cannot be fulfilled until one has fulfilled the first two, — the recognition of infinite Mind as perpetually flowing to man, and of the highest standard of reception and demonstration of that Mind, as exem­plified in our Leader's life. The government trains men with the understanding that they will enter the Army or Navy, in readiness to protect the nation in time of war. In Christian Science a student is trained in his duty to God and to his Leader, in preparation for his great duty to mankind, which is the effort to free the world from the bondage of mortality. In doing this he learns how to break the claim of mesmerism, which causes mortals to believe that a world that is wholly of the imagination is real. Under mesmerism, that which has no existence seems real, and mortals set themselves the task, which is endless and hopeless, of trying to preserve, purify and protect this nothingness, which cannot help but be eventually destroyed, since it is finite and unreal.

If boys should cover some beautiful statues with snow, until they became grotesque figures, it is obvious that this distortion would last only during the freezing weather. The boys might boast of what they had done, but they have done nothing, since soon the snow will melt. Furthermore, they have not harmed the beautiful figures; and one with an understanding of this fact, would never believe otherwise, no matter how much it might appear to be so.

When Jesus ordered his disciples to loose Lazarus and let him go, he was setting forth the necessity for removing the falsity that hides the real man, so that the perfect and permanent image that God created, might be revealed. The mesmerism that hides the real man has no more reality or substantiality than the snow covering the statues. The warmth of divine Love will melt it away. When that begins to take place, man need never fear that he will be unclothed, for he will thereby be clothed upon.

The conclusion from Mrs. Eddy's letter in regard to the children's services is, that it is a delicate and sacred matter to deal with young people. They should be taught in our Sunday Schools so that, when they graduate, they will become a working body for the church, and attend each service for the purpose of im­pregnating it with the healing thought, which alone makes it a Christian Science service.

As the children are trained to work correctly in the services, there will be ensured a more faithful attendance; since when one goes merely to receive, if some distraction tempts him, he can say, “If I want to miss the blessing, that is my business.” When one is a giver, however, he realizes that he has no right to deprive the public of the blessing that it is his privilege to extend.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

May 14, 1895

Read this in open meeting

To the First Members

My beloved only in the Lord:

How doth my heart wrestle with the angel of the Lord for you all! You are weighed in the balance and who of you are found with doors guarded when the thief cometh?

A man is said to be no stronger than is his very weakest point. What then shall be said if there is in one of you a vulnerable spot to malicious mesmerism so exposed as to admit its influence and rob you of free moral agency? Or one of you in the bonds of iniquity, yet having on the mask that hides your face and the Father's face from you?

I know there are some among you that are not by reason of their sins and lack of truth and love cast out of this vineyard of our God. Oh! let not the senses drown your hearts in the depths of apathy; or sear your consciences with the heat of pride, envy and revenge. God grant that a word to the wise be sufficient.

With love as ever,

Your afflicted Mother


The salutation of this letter is interesting because it implies that the members of her church were beloved of her only as they reflected divine wisdom and Love — since rightly understood the term, Lord, means divine Mind reflected by man. In her scientific attitude Mrs. Eddy did not love a mortal, one who was disobedient to God, and permitted error to use him.

Why did Mrs. Eddy declare that her heart was wrestling with the angel of the Lord for them, rather than saying that she had been wrestling with animal mag­netism, so that they might be freed from its subtle and little-understood influence?

We can say either that we destroy error and thereby let in Truth, or that we let in Truth, and thereby destroy error. Mrs. Eddy's statement of the situation was that she was letting in Truth, wrestling to bring in a metaphysical conscious­ness, and that at this point it was a struggle because of the blindness and apathy which she found present in her choicest students. She might have said that she was wrestling to overcome the suggestions of disturbance and discouragement that came to her, when she detected that the First Members as a body were off guard. They had wrought valiantly and made a grand demonstration, in build­ing The Mother Church, but now she found them resting in accomplishment, as the human mind is always prone to do. She alone was alert enough to see that they had yet to handle sin's revenge on its destroyer; so she sought to break up this induced apathy.

Just because a student makes a fine demonstration and stops working, that does not mean that the error stops. When horses finish a race, their momentum carries them a distance beyond the finish line. Mrs. Eddy realized that merely because the students had finished The Mother Church, that did not mean that the error they had to handle had stopped, but that they must continue to work on it. When a reader finishes his term of readership, the error that dogs his heels does not end. Sometimes he will find it necessary to continue to meet it for quite a while afterwards. The temptation to let down after a good demonstration is a subtle one in Science, and one that students must be alert to.

It was necessary for Mrs. Eddy to wrestle with the angel of the Lord, until the fear, which she was tempted to feel when she saw students letting down after a fine demonstration, was mastered. It was a struggle for her to have faith in God and in the future of the Cause — in the ultimate spiritualization of the faithful­ — when she saw evidence of such dullness and apathy on the part of those who above all should have remained alert and watchful.

When Mrs. Eddy called on the angel of the Lord to wrestle with her heart, in order to cast out of it the fear that she was tempted to feel, when she saw the students off guard, it proves that one does not cast error out of himself by means of the human mind. When he finds unscientific thoughts assailing him, he calls upon the angel of the Lord to wrestle with him, until the seeming strength of the error yields.

Mrs. Eddy's faith in the future of her Cause depended on her assurance that there were always some students who were faithful. So she declares in this letter that she knew there were some, who by reason of their sins were not cast out of this vineyard of our God. In this way she softened the criticism and rebuke contained in this letter, and yet wrote nothing to diminish its good effect.

A teacher in school gives a high mark for good work. When Mrs. Eddy said, “My beloved only in the Lord,” she was giving her students a high mark for all the scientific work that they had done, showing that it was appreciated by her. At the same time she implied that she deprecated all that was still human about them and their work. One can hear her saying, “You have been active and successful in this demonstration of building The Mother Church; you have given liberally of your time and money. The work that you have done that was scien­tifically right I appreciate, because God appreciates it. You must not be dis­turbed, however, if I rebuke you for that which is not scientific.”

In peace-time when a ship is built and launched, those who have done the work are given a testimonial dinner, where good food is served and speeches of mutual congratulation are made. In time of war, however, men can spare neither the time nor the money for such functions. The moment one vessel is launched, the keel for the next one must be laid. To Mrs. Eddy Christian Science meant an active warfare against evil. Hence to her, one task completed meant the necessity of starting the next one immediately.

Mrs. Eddy detected that the members were being tempted to settle down in the sense of a beautiful new church all paid for, and to congratulate each other for a task well done. She knew how the devil claims to follow up a good demon­stration, since then thought is more apt to be relaxed, and susceptible to being entered by evil suggestions without putting forth much active resistance.

Mrs. Eddy does not accuse the First Members of any specific sins in this letter, since it was not designed to point out sins that had been committed, but to rouse them at a dangerous point, so that they would not be caught in the toils of the enemy. Once a dumb child was brought to Mrs. Eddy. The latter said to her, “It is fortunate that God has shut your mouth, to keep you from uttering the terrible and sinful thoughts that are in your mind.” Mrs. Eddy saw at once the purity of the girl's thought, but she said this to rouse and trick her, to cause her to become so indignant over the false accusation, that she would stop mal­practicing on herself and so be able to speak. That is just what happened. The child said, “Its a lie!” Thereafter she was able to speak; so Mrs. Eddy's method of rousing her was justified. Afterwards she explained to the child her reasons for what she did.

At this point Mrs. Eddy realized that something of a vigorous nature must be done, to rouse the First Members from the self-complacence which she saw was holding them. When a man makes a large investment, he feels satisfied that he can sit back and let the dividends support him. The First Members had in­vested time and money in The Mother Church, and now they were tempted to sit back and enjoy the fruits of their labor. At the same time many members still had work to do after the edifice was finished, since Mrs. Eddy had called upon forty of them to contribute one thousand dollars apiece. My teacher, Eugene Greene, did not find it an easy matter to make this large contribution. He had to borrow the money, and pay it back by degrees over several years. He had to demonstrate in order to do this; but Mrs. Eddy knew that it would be of value to him and the others, to have to carry on such a demonstration after the edifice was built. It would help to keep them awake and alert.

Mrs. Eddy was never afraid to place the necessity for demonstration on a student, any more than God is afraid to have a good Christian Scientist sick, since when he is, it is merely a call for a higher demonstration. If one has not gained the understanding to demonstrate over some ill after years of study, the sooner he finds it out the better. If a student of advanced years has not developed his spiritually intuitive sense, so that he can uncover the error and so know how to handle his own case — if he cannot overcome the consequent fear and mental disturbance, as well as the temptation to feel ashamed when other students criticize him — if he cannot settle down and apply successfully the truth he knows, he had better discover this lack. God in His wisdom may give him the opportunity to find this out.

Does the metaphysician object that it is unscientific to declare that God is not afraid to have His children tested by discord? How about the parable of the prodigal son, where Jesus made it plain that the father trusted the prodigal to go down into Egypt, and to come back unharmed and victorious after his ex­periences? Does it not help us to think of God as saying, “My son, you have strayed away from Me, but you do not realize it? Since you must retrace your steps to Me, My wisdom permits a measure of discord to awaken you to your deflection.”

From this point of view, this letter from our Leader was calculated to make the First Members feel unhappy, just at a point when they thought everything was going smoothly, and that they all should have been given medals, or even crowns, for having accomplished anything as important as building The Mother Church! Yet, if they were loyal students and loved their Leader, this letter would arouse them to an increased activity and effort that would be highly beneficial, and might even save their lives. Mrs. Eddy might well have quoted to them the story of the man of God in I Kings 13, who lost his life because he tarried, after having made a fine demonstration.

After he had been successful in demonstration, God knew that he would be tempted to relax and even celebrate. So he commanded him not to dine until he had returned home. The man of God, seeing no harm in relaxing and having dinner with a fellow Christian Scientist, — especially one who told him that God had instructed him that it was all right to do so (thereby lying to him), — dis­obeyed what God had instructed him to do. The lion of animal magnetism caught up with him and destroyed him.

The First Members were tempted to sit down and feast after their arduous labors, to relax in the mental luxury of “well done.” When a practitioner has had a prolonged and difficult case that has cost hours of effort, and the patient is healed, he yearns to take a vacation from further mental work; yet that is just the time when his work is needed more than ever. He has stirred up the armies of hell by his victory over evil; so if he quits at that point, what is to prevent the adversary from getting in his destructive work? Experience had taught our Leader that there is no more dangerous point than when a student has finished a good work.

Once at Pleasant View, Mrs. Eddy kept us working mentally for three con­secutive days, with no time out for sleep other than fifteen minute periods. When the work was done and the devil routed, we all felt like relaxing into a satisfied rest of “well done.” Mrs. Eddy detected this, and called each one of us to her. Then she proceeded to wake us up, and did not relax her efforts until we were once more on our metaphysical toes, so to speak.

When a Christian Science lecturer has made the demonstration of giving a fine and helpful lecture, he is under a great temptation to become mentally drunk when it is over. He yearns to drop everything, to be effusive and expan­sive, and drink in the plaudits of the people. One cannot blame him for this, yet the wise student knows that the time the latter's work is most needed is after the lecture has been given. There is sin's revenge on its destroyer to be met, as well as a great deal of protective work to be done. If one neglects this part of his obligation, the error is liable to take possession of him, because he is off guard and does not realize his danger.

Mrs. Eddy wrote this strong letter, not because she saw that all of the First Members had gone astray, but because she perceived that if they did not handle the error at this point, they were all in danger. Her letter exemplified the Biblical statement, “Before they call I will answer.” She gave them the remedy before they had the disease. The student who takes the remedy before he is sick, will not be sick!

When she stated, “How doth my heart wrestle with the angel of the Lord for you all,” she might have indicated that what she was writing was not her own opinion. She was as interested in having a beautiful church as they were. She appreciated the demonstration that brought it forth, since she made the major part of it herself. She would love to have written them a letter of loving con­gratulation, and to have rejoiced with them in one of the greatest victories for God that had ever been made upon the earth; but God would not let her! Her heart wrestled with the angel of the Lord, until this heavenly intuition had over­come her disinclination to write a scolding letter, and had forced her to do so. Such a letter was not the kind that her heart wanted to write. She would be as eager to write them a letter of congratulation, as they would be to receive one. She would love to have written, “Let us rejoice because we have overcome the devil that tried to say we could not build this church; we have handled the lie which asserts, ‘You can help others, but you cannot help yourself.'” Yet God would not permit this. The angel of the Lord wrestled with her heart, until she realized that she must do what God told her to do. So she wrote that they were weighed in the balance; and who of them was found in a state of thought in which they desired to rejoice over results, instead of being watchful that error did not rob them of the fruit of their labor, and take away their crown?

She writes, “What then shall be said if there is in one of you a vulnerable spot to malicious mesmerism so exposed as to admit its influence...?” This question would cause us to believe that one's vulnerable spot is not what one's fellows perceive, but what animal magnetism perceives. One's neighbors and friends may fancy that one's house is completely locked against thieves, but a “cat” burglar may detect a window unlocked in an upper story, and also a strong vine that enables him to gain egress very readily. The serious deflections of a student are not those that are apparent to others, but those which animal mag­netism recognizes as opportunities to enter. Mrs. Eddy once wrote to Emma Lane (March 10, 1889), “It is no small matter to me to see this Cause that would uplift the world, hidden again under the wilful purpose of those who wish to crush it, and of those many whose ignorance and egotism coursed so deeply they knew it not themselves, cooperate with our enemies.”

In I Kings 13 the harmless act of one Christian Scientist dining with another, and talking Christian Science, was not an evident weakness in the former; but to animal magnetism it represented a point where it could enter, so that the former had to pay for his unwatchfulness with his human sense of life; and this happened merely because he was not awake to protect himself after the demon­stration had been made.

It is interesting to have Mrs. Eddy soften the blow in this letter, by declaring that there were some among them who had not been cast out of the vineyard by reason of their sins, and lack of truth and love. There are many fine students who have been cast out of the vineyard and been lost to Christian Science, either through ignorance of the operation of evil, or because of an unwilling­ness to learn. Often church members dislike the Lesson-Sermon on animal mag­netism when it comes, and are glad to return to the subjects that they like. Yet everyone who has such an attitude, is in danger. If an unwilling thought is forced to learn about the subject of animal magnetism, that one will never gain a clear concept of it. One must realize that the finest quality of thought is vulnerable to this error if it is unprotected. Success in Christian Science depends upon watch­fulness, on one's recognition of the operation of evil, its purposes and plans, as well as of the unreality and powerlessness of these purposes and plans, so that he may neutralize any belief in the possibility of its successfully carrying out what it is attempting to do.

Then Mrs. Eddy says, “Oh! let not the senses drown your hearts in the depths of apathy....” Mortal mind is constantly attempting to establish the suggestion that we become weary in Truth, and so need an occasional vacation in the senses, or in apathy, when the reverse is the fact. As Christian Scientists we constantly need a vacation from the senses, and that vacation should be taken in Truth.

Finally the letter ends, “God grant that a word to the wise be sufficient.” If Mrs. Eddy was accusing the First Members of having committed the sins named in this letter, it would have taken more than a word to the wise to have straightened them out. A word to the wise is a warning, and they needed that warning at this point, since having completed such a magnificent demonstration, they were tempted by the natural human instinct, that would suggest that they did not have to demonstrate any longer.

When a student is confronted with the argument of sickness in himself, he makes a strong effort to overcome it through the power of God; but the moment he is well, he is tempted to take a vacation from God. Mrs. Eddy wrote this letter and had it read in open meeting, for the purpose of preventing the members from taking a vacation from God, when the temptation to do so would be the most aggressive, namely, immediately after having made a splendid demonstration.

Why did Mrs. Eddy sign this letter, “Your afflicted Mother?” She was keeping watch over the world, and when she saw in her students a tendency to go to sleep or to become callous to the demands of conscience, it afflicted her. By naming herself as afflicted, she was appealing to them to awaken and be watchful. If their own sense of right, or of their obligation to God, was not suf­ficient to cause them to wake up and watch, perhaps their love and loyalty for their Leader would cause them to do so.

If a loyal son sees indications that his mother is afflicted and suffers every time he stays out late with foolish companions, he may be willing to give up his own pleasure for her sake. Mrs. Eddy never left a stone unturned in her effort to appeal to students to do what they should, so that they might be saved from themselves. When men doing essential work in time of total war go on a strike, the government is afflicted by such an attitude. With Mrs. Eddy Christian Science meant total war with error. It afflicted her when students who had enlisted in this warfare became indifferent, apathetic or callous. At such times she knew how to phrase an appeal that was best calculated to rouse them to a right ap­preciation of their obligations.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

June 7, 1895

To the First Church of Christ, Scientist

Boston

My beloved Brethren:

Your royal gifts to me are such refreshing types of your loyalty to God, your love of Love, and “good will to men,” — that I thank you from the depths of a grateful heart.

Lovingly yours in Christ,

Mary Baker Eddy


Mrs. Eddy was pleased and grateful when the members sent her a gift that expressed the fact that they recognized her as the real head of the Church, and that through her unfailing love, loyalty to God and labor for humanity, the Church had been founded, so that an opportunity was given to all mankind for all time to come and drink at the fountain of Truth. As long as the members kept her in mind in a scientific way, and expressed their love by sending her gifts that were not too costly, she was grateful. Gifts that showed simple appreciation were acceptable to her, since a knowledge of them might help the world to have a right estimate of the Founder of Christian Science; but if such gifts had become too costly, the criticism that Mrs. Eddy was avaricious and seeking to enrich herself at the expense of her people, would have had some basis in fact.

When one gives time and effort in any direction, most people search for an ulterior motive. There is so little unselfishness in the world, that, when the real thing appears, people doubt it. Mrs. Eddy was unselfish; yet her demonstration finally brought her affluence. This was merely because her demonstration of supply included the needs of her church; hence the greater manifestation of the affluence of our God which came to her. She told her students that the money she had really belonged to the church, and that she was only the custodian of it, and responsible to God for its wise use.

It was necessary for her to watch lest some suggestion of acquisitiveness or love of beautiful matter be associated with her. It would be necessary for her to leave a record of rebuke, if the members or Directors should give her gifts of too great value; also mortal mind might thereby find an occasion for accusing her of being grasping.

It hurt our Leader to have to rebuke her faithful and loving students for a lack of wisdom in giving her gifts, but at times it was necessary. Later she found it necessary to state that the very gifts she commends in this letter were “started by the thought and for the purpose of Theosophy....Their purpose is to disgrace us and squander the Church funds.”

Was it not inconsistent for our Leader to express an unqualified apprecia­tion for these gifts, and then later to criticize them? It must be remembered, however, that it was not a simple thing for the students to demonstrate over the animal magnetism that would prevent them from sending Mrs. Eddy symbols of their love and loyalty, of their appreciation of her spiritual worth and absolute importance to the Cause.

On the other hand there was the subtle suggestion that, if gifts were costly enough, she could be bribed by them, and her wrath, which appeared to be expressed in the letter of May 14, be appeased. In the case of these gifts, which were beautiful rugs, she did not discover at once how costly they were.

Her grateful appreciation for these rugs tells us, that she knew how un­remitting would be animal magnetism's effort to remove her from her rightful place as the revelator and demonstrator in this age. She knew that unless one's study of Science and Health led to her as the impersonal Leader, one would have nothing to lead him to God, since she alone could do that. She was the living, demonstrating, active embodiment of Science and Health, hence a study of the latter must lead to an understanding of her; otherwise it could not be fully under­stood.

The Master declared that he was the door. This proves that what he taught led to him, as in turn he led to God. The New Testament is of little value, unless it leads to an understanding of the Master. When we understand him aright, we are led to God. This same fact is true in this age of Mrs. Eddy. A right under­standing of her teachings leads to a right understanding of her. Since her true self was the Christ-idea, through that we are led to God. If one is not led to a true understanding of her by his study of Science, this is proof that he has not gained a correct understanding of Science.

Mrs. Eddy knew the mesmerism that was connected with doing anything for her. There was such a determination on the part of the adversary to keep students from properly showing their appreciation of her, that she realized that in a measure it was a demonstration for the First Members to have this feeling for her, and to be able to express it in some tangible way. Yet when she learned how much the rugs cost, she saw that there was a claim of animal magnetism on the reverse side, namely, to squander the church funds; so she had to rebuke them for that. The desire to show appreciation was good, but in that appreciation they were tempted to do what they never should have done, — to use a large amount of the church funds for that purpose.

There are three points in this incident that we can profit by in retrospect. In the first place we can realize that often, when people do or say things in which a human sense appears, they are prompted by a kindly appreciative thought; so we should give thanks for that. In the second place, in analysis we can perceive the error and rebuke it.

In the third place Mrs. Eddy relieved the students from being willing sin­ners, by calling the error, Theosophy. This was a more specific term than animal magnetism, but it indicated that she realized that behind the scenes was the determination of error to cause them to be careless, to waste the church funds, and thus to bring down criticism on the church.

When our Leader expressed appreciation which was followed by rebuke, she was following the pattern laid down by John in his letters to the churches. For instance, in his letter to the church of Ephesus, he commends them for their good works. Then having praised them for what was praiseworthy, he rebukes them for that which needed to be rebuked. Mrs. Eddy followed this pattern. She recognized that much that was done for her incorrectly, was done from love and faithful service, so she expressed thanks for that. She knew that usually when students made mistakes, these were not intentional, nor was there a lack of right desire. It was not her way to rebuke a student if he made a failure, and hold him in thought as if there was something wrong in his make-up. Her only motive in rebuking students was to help them to do better.

Students should take a hint from their Leader, and express appreciation for every effort to serve the Cause. There is no money that can compensate a member for what he goes through in doing something constructive for the or­ganization, since active service brings upon him a claim of evil that menaces his happiness, health and very life, unless he handles it. At the same time, members often need loving rebukes to help them along the way. So these can be given, provided that the one giving them recognizes the error as impersonal animal magnetism.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

June 8, 1895

To My beloved Church &

My beloved Students:

Your exquisite addition to the finest manufactures of Persia is safely put in its place in my home, Pleasant View.

I did not dream of the value of these royal rugs until Mrs. Kimball told my household. I estimated the one that hangs in the library at $1000, but was afterwards told it was $300, and next by Mrs. Kimball, $3000! What a price, what a gift, what a type of your estimate of Christian Science, God's gift to you, and my life-long purchase for you!

Beloved, I can only say I thank you deeply, and may the God who gave all, and most of all his dear Son, also give you the daughter of His appointing by covenant and adoption — to help the sons and daughters of Adam (of which she is one) out of sense into the liberty of Soul.

Please send me nothing more of this earth, but send a token of Heaven as often as you please, viz., love one for another. And the God of all grace be with you,

Mother,

M. B. Eddy


Mrs. Eddy could not fail lovingly to acknowledge this gift of rugs from her church. It was a gift of self-denial, the outward manifestation of a desire to ex­press what the students felt, and to show their human gratitude and appreciation of the great part she had played in the building of The Mother Church. The members took the money that without her teachings they might have paid for doctor's bills, and turned it into rugs for their Leader. Mrs. Eddy knew that a claim of animal magnetism had to be handled before students could show proper appreciation for her and her mission; when this was done she was grateful.

However, Mrs. Eddy did not feel that all was right about the rugs, as we learn in the letter dated August 18, in which she traces them back to Theosophy. The cost of them indicates that the students felt that she should have a home and furnishings that would impress even lords and ladies who came to call on her.

Human pride desires that the one it loves and feels is humanly great, have material surroundings that are commensurate with that greatness. Yet to weigh matter in the scale with Spirit would be the direct opposite of Mrs. Eddy's teachings. When the students furnished Chestnut Hill — her last earthly home — ­they did it with respect and love in their hearts. Everything possible was done to furnish it in a way that was at once simple and luxurious, comfortable and yet impressive. The day she was to arrive saw the home garlanded with exquisite blooms, in readiness for the great one who was to occupy it.

Mrs. Eddy's first comment when she entered the house and seated herself on the sofa in the upstairs parlor, is destined to ring its way into eternity for the ears of those who have ears to hear. She said, “What splendid misery!”

To her, matter was a frail substitute for the beauty and reality, the sanctity and odor of spiritual thought. The greatest effort to bring out human beauty was misery to her, when the one lowly offering that she demanded — the offering of demonstration, or the Spirit of God — was practically forgotten in the excite­ment of preparing the external. The home as it stood was the outward manifesta­tion of human affection rather than demonstration — the desire on the part of the students to give her the best in matter, as her reward for giving them the best in Spirit. Yet she could be sustained and satisfied only by Spirit. So her comment carried both her appreciation for the conscientious efforts of her students, and her rebuke, since the reason that the home had the effect of misery upon her, was because God had been more or less left out of it.

Those who truly understood our Leader knew that she would have been satisfied and pleased in any home, no matter how humble, where the demonstra­tion was made to establish the presence of God; and without that demonstra­tion, the atmosphere of a palace would be misery to her. Those who lived with her can testify that any gift was acceptable to her that was the expression of demonstration, and traced back to God, no matter how lowly the gift itself might be.

In this respect Mrs. Eddy might be likened to a humble mother whose son leaves home and becomes rich. He sends her a costly gift that he delegates his secretary to buy; when she would much prefer to have him send her a simple token, that he took the time and trouble to select and buy himself. It is not his money, or matter, that she wants, but his love and devotion. Mrs. Eddy prized the love of her students and their devotion to God more highly than their human affection for her as a person.

In reality this letter in regard to the rugs is a great rebuke. She was not too concerned when she was told that a single rug cost three hundred dollars; but when she learned that one had cost three thousand dollars, that was another matter. She wrote, “What a price! What a gift!” Think of weighing Mrs. Eddy's “life-long purchase” in the same scale with a three thousand dollar rug! Yet she wrote all that anyone could ask for, to show her appreciation for the stu­dents' effort to express their love for her in this way. She wrote nothing that would directly rebuke them; yet the wise can see and know how she really felt. Those who were merely looking for appreciation for what they had done, would not be disappointed; but those who were wise could detect that she was far from being overwhelmed by the magnitude of the gift. She sought to turn thought from matter to Spirit, from pride to humility, and from the thought of presenting her with valuable unreality, to reality, when she wrote, “Please send me nothing more of this earth, but send a token of Heaven as often as you please, viz., love one for another. And the God of all grace be with you.”

She lovingly couched her thanks and rebuke so that it would give no offence. Yet how could she truly appreciate an effort to overwhelm her with matter, when she was striving to work out of it, and to get along with as little as possible? It would have been like presenting John the Baptist with a marble palace. He lived as simply as a mortal could, wearing one garment and feeding on locusts and wild honey. This was his sense of seeking to live in the Spirit, and to sur­round himself with as little temptation as possible to enjoy or depend upon matter.

What would have been thought of an effort to present our Master with a lovely home and costly furniture, in appreciation for what he was, and was doing spiritually — in order to bring to the attention of the world his divinity as a son of God? It would have seemed like an insult, to burden him with a greater temptation in matter, when he was putting it off as rapidly as possible.

Those who truly perceived that Mrs. Eddy was striving to live in Spirit, knew that she was not looking for gifts in matter. On August 7, 1897, she wrote to Julia Field-King, “My life is a perpetual slavery to the world and it is a hard matter. So much the students demand of me, and yet I need help above all persons on earth in everything but Christian Science. But the law is not yet broken by them — that they ‘can do nothing for me.' So I have the care of my house, my grounds, my clothes, my entire mass of what I despise and want to lose sight of. Presents are sent me in profusion, but they are not what I need. May God give me grace to live.”

Those who give expensive presents, often do so with the hope that they will thereby place themselves favorably before the one to whom the gifts are given. It does not require too costly a gift to be a symbol of true affection and apprecia­tion. The two mites put into the treasury of the temple by the poor widow, as related in the Gospel of Mark, have rung down the centuries as being in the Master's sight a sufficient symbol of service and love, of a deep and abiding devotion to the church.

Mrs. Eddy welcomed all evidence of the students' true appreciation for the nameless sacrifice she had made, in order to bring them a knowledge of God. She yearned for a token of heaven — but not for costly rugs that would be a bur­den to her.

Mary Magdalene was criticized by the disciples for pouring out precious ointment on the Master's feet. They said that it should have been sold and the money given to the poor. Yet Jesus accepted it because he detected that, while it was costly, it was a proper symbol of the woman's depth of love and grati­tude. On the other hand, the attempt to cover up a lack of demonstration by a valuable offering is unscientific and epitomized by the saying of Shakespeare, “Rich gifts wax poor when givers prove unkind.”

Once when the students in New York presented her with two hundred dollars worth of floral offerings, Mrs. Eddy looked at them sadly and said, with tears in her eyes, “But they are not doing the work as I want it. ‘If ye love me keep my commandments.'”

I sent Mrs. Eddy many gifts, but never did I yield to a temptation to send her something where the thought of matter predominated. She treasured all that was given to her, that was the spontaneous expression of a true and correct appreciation for her and her mission.

If one is on a hill at night observing a town in the valley, if a single light goes on, he can note it. Mrs. Eddy was able to perceive when a student in the Field was working unselfishly and faithfully, without hope of reward, but merely from the motive of love for God and man. Such a life carried an illumination that from her mental height Mrs. Eddy could detect.

In Christian Science love impels the utilization of divine power in order to bless one another. Mrs. Eddy was content when she detected that the students were loving one another, because she knew that that meant that they were demonstrating the spirit of Christ. The mental aroma that arose from such minis­try reached our Leader and was as precious to her, as was the perfume of the ointment which Mary used on Jesus' feet. She required no expensive gifts to prove to her the presence of such unselfish devotion.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

June 28, 1895

My dear Student:

I direct you to get the Manual published soon. I mean just as soon as it can be. It must be hurried. Send me all your copy. Write me on return mail how much you have put into the printer's hands. Hurry up your printer. My correspondents must be answered. It is of great importance that the By-laws of our church are ready for me to send out in answer to questions. I have not gotten them all and cannot remember them. Now do not neglect this work for any other, but push it as I say.

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy


Mrs. Eddy considered her writings to be revelations from God, and herself merely a scribe under orders. When in her home I asked her a question on metaphysics, she would often say to me, “What does the book say?” She had little use for her own opinion, or anyone else's.

She held the same attitude toward the Manual that she did toward Science and Health. The world would say, “But she wrote the Manual.” Yet this letter proves that she felt that she needed it in order to answer correspondents, show­ing that she placed the revelation of Truth above any personal authority she might have assumed.

The world would say that if she made a By-law, she could unmake one at will; but God made the By-laws and she could not unmake them, unless He directed her to. If any of the By-laws seem outdated or impractical today, it should be remembered that the Manual stands as it does, not as the result of a personal whim of the Leader, but of her demonstration of God's wisdom.

Adelaide Still relates the circumstances when in 1910 some of the students talked with Mrs. Eddy, and suggested to her that she change or remove the By-laws requiring her consent or signature. After thinking the matter over, she sent for those who had talked with her, and told them that her decision was in the negative.

One wonders if those who made this suggestion to Mrs. Eddy, thought of her as the personal author of the Manual, so that she could change it at will to accord with their desire to provide for the time when she might not be present. As a matter of fact, when her approval was sought on matters that required it, according to the Manual, she never gave her personal approval. As the faithful translator of God's demands, she demonstrated His approval when the need arose. This requirement remains with us, even though our Leader is no longer personally with us.

The Pastor Emeritus may be defined as the spirit of Christ that governed Mrs. Eddy. Anyone who has the interests of our Cause at heart, may make the demonstration to be guided by this same spirit. He may not appear as a leader in a human sense, but God will use him to guide the spiritual destiny of our Move­ment.

When Mrs. Eddy refused to change the Manual, she made no explanation. Perhaps she felt that the students were not ready for a spiritual explanation. Humanly she could not anticipate how things would be worked out after she had gone, but she knew that God knew, and that was enough. She trusted that God had guided her so unerringly, that she had left no “loose ends” in the Cause.

In our effort to reflect the guidance of Mind, it is essential to realize that God knows no limitations. He can see ahead as easily as He can see behind. The application of this to Mrs. Eddy's experience is, that we must conclude that everything has already been provided for that will ever arise in the future of our Cause. For this reason, those at the head of our Movement must become familiar with Mrs. Eddy's letters and writings in the archives, since in them will be found all that is necessary for all time.

I find it essential to stress again and again Mrs. Eddy's skillful use of correct “timing.” Once she wrote, “There is as much in when a thing is done as in what is done.” I can testify to the fact that when God called upon her to do anything, she did it quickly, lest error claim to discover what it was and so thwart it. Once an inventor told me that he might work for years on an invention and take his time, but that when the idea finally came, he had to hurry in taking out a patent, or someone else might obtain it ahead of him. The same idea would seem to come to more than one at the same time. The demonstration of finishing things on time, which usually meant in a hurry, was a characteristic of our Leader's. There were times when, if students did not do things when she directed them to, she would not have them bother any further, but let the matter drop.

Mrs. Eddy's use of speed to keep ahead of the devil, is illustrated in this letter in which she urged Mr. Johnson to hurry with the Manual. She knew that when one is working for God, it is not optional with him whether he takes his time. God makes no allowances for mistakes or delays. As in time of war, war business takes priority over all other business, so God's business comes ahead of any other.

This letter also conveys the importance of the Manual to the Cause, as a check on and an interpreter of the acts of Christian Scientists in relation to The Mother Church and its branches. At times soldiers believe that their manoeuvres are silly, until actual combat reveals to them their value. Their purpose is to bring about unity in action, alertness and instant obedience. They serve to develop stamina and flexibility.

Mrs. Eddy knew the value of unified right thinking. The value of Christian Science to the world lies in the volume of scientific right thinking that goes forth from its adherents to combat falsity and to establish the reign of truth on the earth. The effect of this leaven may be appreciated slowly, but it is sure. Ministers find themselves putting forth sermons that are impregnated with the doctrines of Christian Science, and nobody is surprised. Some day this unified right thinking will leaven the whole lump, and the result will be universal salvation.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

July 1, 1895

My dear Students and

First Members of the Church:

The reports from the field show that the purpose for which I designed to have the Executive Com. elected, is not carried out; and is not understood by those applying to this Committee to in­vestigate their charges against any member of this Church; thus opening a gap through which misled minds can rush in their blind opinions and perhaps uncharitable conceptions of any member, and the Church be kept constantly judging one another, which is contrary to Scripture.

I therefore request that this Committee be dissolved at this quarterly meeting of the Church.

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy


A necessary part of all teaching is to test pupils, in order to determine their progress. The first time Mrs. Eddy asked me to help her after I went to her home, was a test, I feel sure. She wanted to learn how much understanding I had of the claim of animal magnetism, since this knowledge was essential to a student, if he hoped to do effective work for her.

When in 1908 Mrs. Eddy organized a business committee for the purpose of working on the weather, this move may be interpreted as a test, to see whether the so-called best students were capable of working in the one Mind, or whether, when it came to mental work apart from healing the sick, they would begin on their human level of thought and stay there. Under such a mode, a committee would become a house divided against itself.

Mrs. Eddy did all of her work from the standpoint of demonstration, and her hope was to develop her students to do likewise. She knew that when they were sick, they were forced to seek divine help, since early in Science the inability of the human mind to heal is made plain. Yet when this fact becomes known by a Scientist, he is without excuse if he fails to extend his effort to use divine methods in connection with all the business of the organization. When he runs to demon­stration the moment he is sick, that shows that he has some faith in it, and a meas­ure of understanding of its use. Then what excuse can he offer, if he fails to use it in other ways, such as in conducting the business of the organization?

Mrs. Eddy hoped that each recurring year would mean a broader growth on the part of her students, and a greater skill in functioning under the Science they had been taught. She knew that it was not too difficult to gain a demonstra­ble sense of Truth, but that the difficulty lay in its application. So she continued to test the students from time to time, and this Executive Committee referred to in this letter of July 1 was one of such tests.

One reason why Mrs. Eddy's life at Pleasant View and Chestnut Hill is something that all students should study, is because it covers the varied ap­plications of Science outside of healing the sick. It lays bare its broader uses in the everyday experience of students and the ramifications of the organization. It shows how to apply Science in the simple tasks of life. A student begins his practice of Science by healing sickness and sin, and meeting the problem of lack. Next in order comes the need of conducting the organization by spiritual means. Then comes the call to use Science in all the simple tasks of daily life; finally comes his work for humanity. When in her home Mrs. Eddy included working for the weather, she intended such to be part of one's training in help­ing the world.

This letter of July 1 proves that the students failed this test that Mrs. Eddy gave them, and she was disappointed. She knew that the Church Rules came from God; hence they demand spiritual understanding on the part of the one who is striving to live up to them. When she formed an Executive Committee, she knew that it would require as much spiritual thought in order to judge whether the rules were being carried out, as it would to carry them out. They came through revelation. Therefore it required revelation to understand them.

Uninspired thought was incapable of performing the task that Mrs. Eddy assigned to this committee. It would be serious enough to have an uninspired use of the Church Rules taking place in the church, but to have a committee that was making an uninspired criticism of the failure of members to live up to them, would only add to the confusion, and open a gap, as Mrs. Eddy writes, “through which misled minds can rush in their blind opinions and perhaps uncharitable conceptions of any member, and the Church be kept constantly judging one another, which is contrary to Scripture.”

Mrs. Eddy did not test students as to their knowledge of Science and Health, but in their application of it to the needs of their daily experience, and their activities in connection with the church. The curriculum of Science furnishes the student with a few examples of the way to demonstrate, which he is expected to use as a model; but as he progresses, he is expected to broaden his effort. One who studies Mrs. Eddy's life is apprised of new ways to use demonstration, which otherwise he might be unaware of.

Mrs. Eddy does not inject a note of sadness into this letter, because the com­mittee failed to use demonstration; but we know that she was disappointed to find that they had not attained the growth she hoped that they had, along the lines of a broadening use of demonstration. Yet she waited patiently, and later tried again, only to be disappointed, since in spite of her teaching and example, it would appear as if this lesson of demonstration in all the affairs of the church was never thoroughly learned.

Why did Mrs. Eddy form this committee? For the purpose of demonstrating. Yet through the results she learned that they were not demonstrating. The tone of the salutation of the letter, however, does not indicate that the failure of the committee had produced any rift between her and her students. It was as if Mrs. Eddy had sent forth a dove, to discover if the demonstration of her students had increased to the place where it had evolved a truly spiritual sense of peace, as the result of a victory over the human mind, and the dove had returned without evidence of such spiritual peace.

Mrs. Eddy had faith that, even if she did not remain among her students long enough to see her higher teachings demonstrated, divine Love was watch­ing over all, and when students who had learned how to demonstrate neglected to do so in all the broad ways that were set before them, some hint would be given them of this lack — even if it had to be a sharp or unpleasant hint. If they could interpret the hint correctly, they would understand it and so be guided into the right path — the path all students desire to travel, but which animal magnetism tries to keep hidden from them.

Nothing concerned Mrs. Eddy more than the need of her students to understand the claim of animal magnetism. She taught them its operation through what might be termed the flagrant abuses of the human mind, that produce fear, suffering and dismay. Her teachings show, however, that its most dangerous phases carry no apparent indications that differ greatly from the experiences of the ordinary mortal. The serious effects of animal magnetism are seen in the tendency to indifference and sleep when one should be awake, to give up the fight just when one is winning, and to use the developed abilities of the unaided human mind, which cause one to fail to broaden his use of demon­stration. No student is progressing who uses God's help when he has to, and then returns to the human level when all seems well. Animal magnetism argues strongly that the human mind is just as good as divine Mind, except in emergen­cies; yet in proportion as mortals depend upon the human mind, they are kept out of heaven.

Our forefathers were in constant danger from the Indians; so they were alert and carried their guns with them, when they went into the fields to plant, hoe or reap. When the danger from Indians was over, they no longer carried their guns. Are Christian Scientists going to follow that example, — and the moment there seems to be no danger from aggressive mental suggestion, go to sleep and cease their active warfare? If so, they will have to learn the sad lesson of what a serious error it is to be shunted from the straight and narrow path into the broad highway of human harmony which leads to destruction.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

July 2, 1895

Christian Science Board of Directors

Dear Brethren:

I have received a letter from one of your number in reference to collecting pew rents. I think your honorable body abundantly able to adjust this matter on business principles without any advice from me.

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy


The final decision in regard to renting pews in The Mother Church was, of course, in the negative. The future proved that Mrs. Eddy did not favor that method of raising money to support the church. She retained only those methods that would carry the greatest incentive to demonstrate supply, since the dif­ference between her church and all other churches, was that hers was in­tended to set forth the possibility of running a church by demonstration, instead of using the commonly accepted human modes of raising money to meet the expenses of a church. The value of our organization to its members is, that it affords numerous ways to use demonstration. Even dissensions are sometimes helpful, since they force members to eliminate them by demonstration, which in turn brings forth brotherly love and unity in the one Mind.

A member has a wrong concept of the organization, and fails to see the true value of its influence, when he fails to realize that the demonstrating way is the right and only way to meet every problem. Mrs. Eddy was opposed to any method that would provide a steady income for the church, — such as pew renting, — that could be continued without demonstration.

When Mrs. Eddy suggested the use of business principles to collect pew rents, she might have known even then that renting pews was not a desirable way to raise money in Christian Science, but for the sake of their growth she let the Directors try it out. Business ethics as applied to our church would not mean that if a member failed to pay his pew rent, the church could use legal means to collect it. Mrs. Eddy called for the use of business principles according to the spirit of her Church, which surely implied that the organization would fail of its object, unless all of its activities were carried on by demonstration.

Whatever suggests scientific thought is helpful in Science. One might contend that this letter suggested business principles alone, but Mrs. Eddy was calling for business principles worked out according to scientific and spiritual thought, not according to mortal mind's methods. She wanted her church to prove that demonstration was the successful and common sense way to do all things, so that the affairs of man might be conducted in a manner that would help him toward heaven, not away from it. The only way any business of the church could help a man toward heaven, would be when he used it as an occa­sion to demonstrate.

Mrs. Eddy's home and everything connected with it helped the students who lived there toward heaven, because they did even the simplest tasks by demonstration. Thus, the way the tasks were done ennobled every one of them. The world differentiates between tasks by the degree of human intelligence and skill required to do them. As every task in Science calls for a demonstration of intelligence and an understanding of God, what the task is fades into in­significance, before the importance of the way it is done.

Here is a letter which the literalist could use to prove that Mrs. Eddy ap­proved of good human methods in her organization, and which the metaphysi­cian could use to prove that she demanded demonstration, on the basis that the difficulties other churches have along financial lines are because they do not understand the demonstrating way. One might contend that there is no demon­stration connected with business principles, but that would be as foolish as to assert that there is no water in a pipe. There is water in a pipe when man con­nects it with some source, and lets the water flow through; and it is pure or im­pure, according to the source. In like manner one may express human or divine thought through business principles, according as he will.

Mortal mind considers demonstration to be impractical. Its motto is, “Pray, but keep rowing.” This motto is based on men lost at sea. The question is, how do such men know whether they should row or not, when they do not know where they are, or whether rowing will do any good? Perhaps if they remain where they are, without rowing, a boat will come along and pick them up. Mortal mind's motto, however, is to do something. If you wish, you can add your prayers to what you are doing; but they cannot be relied upon.

It sounds impractical to the human mind to support a church by demonstra­tion, and to abandon all such human methods as making pledges, renting pews, having church suppers and bazaars, and the like, all of which are processes that have been brought into the church by experienced business men. The human mind declines to believe that prayer could ever accomplish more than these proven methods have done. Yet it is admitted that they are far from being one hundred percent efficient, whereas the demonstrating way, being God's way, is one hundred percent efficient, and it is up to all Scientists to prove it to be so.

Once Mrs. Eddy pencilled in the margin of her copy of the Journal during the year of 1886, the statement, “We the lever, God the power.” From this we know that prayer provides the lever, and God provides the power that moves the lever. The vast power of Niagara is of no practical value until it is harnessed. Mrs. Eddy has taught man how to harness divine power, — how to be the lever, so that God's power may be utilized in every direction in human affairs. Her teaching is not merely practical, as mortal mind might believe, nor is it merely idealistic, as common theology might aver. It is a combination of the two that works.

Common theology regards God as a being to be worshipped, but makes no connection with His power. It attempts to appease God, and to attract His attention to man. It believes that He may consider man more favorably, if man talks well about Him; but such notions have nothing practical in them. Christian Science shows how through a meta-physical and scientific process, man may appropriate God's power. It sets Him forth as the divine source, as the Principle from which all things proceed.

Students need to watch lest the human activity of the organization bring thought to the point, where it accepts the old theological conception of prayer as praise instead of demonstration. The only possible growth in Science comes when one recognizes God as the only source of power, and uses his divinely bestowed intelligence to appropriate that power, and utilize it for the salvation of the world.

The greatest deterrent within our organization are members who have not been healed of false theology, and who believe that church attendance is a means of salvation. Actually, the Christian Science Church is designed to be an illustration to the world of the practical nature of demonstration. One might call it a home under glass, where everyone may come and examine how it works. If people can observe, through the operation of the church, how prac­tical demonstration is, they will be encouraged to stop merely worshipping God, and to begin to demonstrate Him, which is the only true worship.

When members bear in mind that in the success of the organization, they are setting forth an example of the practical use of demonstration, they will never conclude that the church is successful for any other reason than that it is supported and sustained by demonstration. New members should not be per­mitted to forget that the organization means opportunity. If it can be proved that demonstration is the best way to conduct a church, that will encourage mortals to adopt the same method in their homes. The church should be run not so much as an institution, as an example to prove that, when one uses demonstra­tion, he is assisted on the road to heaven, that the demonstrating way makes of everything he does, the heavenly way.

The introduction of means and methods in Science that do not emanate from demonstration, or do not promote and require it, becomes a backward step, on the basis of the Bible admonition, “In all thy ways acknowledge Him.” In all thy ways use demonstration, and then you will have an organization governed and directed by Principle.

Members rarely forget that part of the obligation they owe the church, is to prove that they do not need a doctor; that God is sufficient for every need, and that the demonstrating way takes care of them in sickness. They know that people look askance at one of their number who, because of a lack of faith or persistence, or because he is too easily discouraged, turns to medical processes, and thereby destroys the continuity of the doctrine that God is sufficient for all of man's needs in sickness.

Similarly, the church as a whole is required to give the world this same proof. The church has many needs, and when members unite to give to the church the best demonstration possible, they prove that the power of God is sufficient to take care of every need of the church, and that she needs no human physician to give her human remedies.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

July 4, 1895

Dictated

W. B. Johnson

My dear Student:

Please put the following into my request to dissolve Com­mittee which I sent, namely, that what the Committee has done is admirable, but the purpose for which the Committee has been used was not what I designed as its legitimate function.

In our meeting at Concord I said distinctly “Form a com­mittee called an Executive Committee whose duty it shall be to see that the Church Rules are carried out.”

Please add the above, to my letter under N. B.

Yours truly,

M. B. Eddy

C. A. F.


Each of Mrs. Eddy's letters gives insight into the way she functioned under divine inspiration, and strengthens our faith in the fact that at all points she measured up to the spiritual ideal. This letter sets forth the unfailing kindliness of her thought. In fact when the constancy of her love begins to dawn on thought, it becomes impossible to believe that at any time was she motivated by any other consideration or impulse.

On page 194 of Lyman P. Powell's book about our Leader, she is quoted as having said, “There is a flower whose language is ‘I wound to heal.' There is a physician who loves those whom He chastens. There is a woman who chastens most those she loves. Why? Because like a surgeon she makes her incisions on the tender spot to remove the cold lead that is dangerous there.”

When individuals are surly and irritable at times, showing scant considera­tion for others, such propensities grow on them, and become more pronounced as they grow older. With Mrs. Eddy her love was a constant and active charac­teristic, and expressed itself in an evident desire to help others — never to hurt them. Once she wrote in pencil at the end of the section in our Manual called Daily Prayer, “Save me from hurting anyone or harming myself.”

Here is a Committee which obviously was not functioning under demonstra­tion, as Mrs. Eddy hoped that it would. So, she dissolved it by a letter which was stern in tone, and which would be a strong rebuke to the members of the Com­mittee. After three or four days she wondered if her letter was too harsh; so, she sent an N. B. in which she was careful to say, “Not but what the Com­mittee has done admirably.” Thus, she took the sting out of her action, lest she hurt any of the students.

Mrs. Eddy was a pioneer and established a new Christian ideal. She trav­ersed a new road. Those who stood aside and criticized her, had no clear con­ception of what she was accomplishing. Even when they admitted that what she had accomplished was commendable, they believed that she often might have done it in a much better way than she did. Yet she did everything possible not to hurt others, in doing what God called her to do. Her daily prayer was to be saved from hurting anyone!

Her letter proves this point. She appointed a committee largely with the intention of testing the students; and instead of operating constructively, it caused trouble. So, in strong language she made it necessary to dissolve it. Then before the letter could be presented to the church, she made haste to send this addendum, which took the sting out of her action by praising the com­mittee for what it had done.

Yet the members of the committee had reason to feel sad over the dismissal, since she made it plain that they had failed her.

To us who have accustomed ourselves to the proposition that in God's sight the way a thing is done counts more than what is done, the dissolving of this committee was a logical step growing out of the fact that the members largely substituted their own way of functioning for the demonstrating way. Once when I tucked our Leader's robe around her as she started for a drive in her sleigh, she rebuked me for the way I did it. Nevertheless, she gave me the same task to perform the next day, and expressed her commendation when as far as I could tell, I did it exactly the same way. Here is proof that her rebuke and her praise related to cause rather than effect, to means rather than ends.

Human sense would be tempted to conclude that Mrs. Eddy was having a bad day, and did not feel very amiable; so, she vented her ill-feeling on those who happened to be near her. If I had listened to that suggestion, I would have been as unsuccessful in my second performance as I was in the first, and would have concluded that Mrs. Eddy was irritable or humanly fussy. My faith in my Leader, however, enabled me to realize that the first day she criticized, not what I did, but the way I did it. My thought was humanly balanced. Human methods have their place in the world only because mankind knows no better; but they had no rightful place in Mrs. Eddy's home. The next day I realized that I was not tucking matter around an aged material personality, in order to keep her warm; I was ministering to an idea of God who was above frailty and limitation. This realiza­tion lifted my effort into a higher and more scientific realm, and brought forth her commendation.

When Mrs. Eddy rebuked students without explanation, it was always with the hope that they would not let human opinion cause a misunderstanding and criticism, but that they would say, “This is the Leader and she knows what she is doing; so I will open my thought to God, and He will reveal to me the hidden purpose of it all.” God will always reveal to anyone all he needs to know, if he will only hold his question in thought and make no effort to think it out himself, but leave it to God. It is not easy, however, to put aside one's own thinking proc­esses and opinions, and wait patiently on God.

This same rule applies in healing the sick. When the healer takes up a case with self-assurance and confidence, he does not usually put very much of God into the work. He must strive to realize that the method of healing is God's; that the truth which destroys the error comes from God; that he is merely the humble instrument by which the power of God in heaven is made manifest on earth, and that divine intelligence alone can reveal to him what he needs to know regarding the case. From that modest standpoint alone can he bring the full power of divine Mind into operation. His motto is, “Of myself I can do nothing; but with God all things are possible.”

By her own life and by her dealing with students in her home Mrs. Eddy made it plain that there is no place in her organization for the unaided human mind. There is no point at which one who does anything from a purely human standpoint is justified. Had this new committee on the Church Rules followed out the spirit of Mrs. Eddy's request in starting it, instead of the letter, it would not have had to be dissolved.

Mrs. Eddy said that the purpose of this committee was to see that the Church Rules were carried out. It requires more demonstration to deal with those who depart from the path of rectitude, or forget the obligation to live up to the Manual, than to heal the sick. It demands the spirit of our Master to approach and deal with such individuals constructively. The human impulse on the part of those rebuked is to ask, “Who made thee a ruler over us? What right have you to judge me, when, if all the facts of your life were known, there would be plenty of grounds for criticism there?”

There is only one way for a committee to function in dealing with infrac­tions of the Church Rules, and that is by demonstration. In writing the letter of July 1, Mrs. Eddy gave the committee a chance to see that their failure in func­tioning arose from the fact, that they did not appreciate that in dealing with discipline, one needs as much demonstration if not more, than is required to heal the sick. Those who regard the chief function of our religion to be healing the sick, would not be apt to perceive that in dealing with cases of discipline, demonstration would also be required.

Mrs. Eddy may have felt that the first letter as it was written was not under­stood, so she added the N. B. One might aver that the N. B. said nothing that clarified the situation. Sometimes in school a child will be asked to spell a word that it really knows. When it fails to do so, the teacher waits a while and then comes back to the child again. This time it succeeds. In like manner, if the stu­dents did not understand the first letter, they might understand the N. B. even though it merely reiterated the fact that the committee had failed to function as Mrs. Eddy wanted it to.




BY-LAW

The Reader in the church who conducts the other parts of the Sunday services, and the Friday evening meetings, shall examine the candidates for admission to the church.

—————————

The above By-law is the one that is not understood.

William B. Johnson

July 5, 1895

M y dear Student:

The above means that you shall have no Examining Com. on candidates, but you must dissolve your Com. and adopt the above By-law.

With love,

Mother


When one is called to the position of Reader in The Mother Church, it is because he has given proof of his ability to demonstrate, and has the necessary qualifications. It was logical, therefore, to appoint him to examine candidates for membership, with the hope that he would perform the task through demonstra­tion, especially since Mrs. Eddy had just had such a painful experience with the lack of demonstration on the part of the Committee on Church Rules.

When the Directors did not understand this new By-law in regard to ex­amining candidates, one might aver that Mrs. Eddy did not offer much ex­planation in her reply to their query. The reason for this might have been that she knew that the By-law was part of God's plan, not the result of her own opinion; and since all have access to divine Mind, it was possible for the Direc­tors to find out what the By-law meant by turning to Mind. Mrs. Eddy might have detected that they turned to her for an explanation because they had care­lessly concluded that the By-law was one of her own evolving, and so she was the one to appeal to for an explanation. It would be instinctive for her to rebuke this false assumption, if not audibly, at least mentally, and her short answer was a mild rebuke.

Christian Science is the process whereby man, as a spiritual idea, reflects his Father-Mother God. Mrs. Eddy knew that it was not difficult for a student to use the scientific process she had taught, and so be guided by God and learn what God's plans are. If he did so, he would be able to understand what Mrs. Eddy did, without asking her. Furthermore, he would grow spiritually through this effort.

One may assume that the Directors were tempted to take the human at­titude that this By-law was of Mrs. Eddy's evolving, rather than a plan of God for the church, since, had they admitted that it was God's plan, they would have gone to Him to find out its whys and wherefores. By feeling that it was Mrs. Eddy's plan, rather than God's, they could rest in ignorance of its meaning and feel justified. Then they could say, “She wrote the rule; let her explain it.” Such an attitude would lose sight of the vital fact that Mrs. Eddy was inspired by God in all that she said, wrote and did.

The examining of candidates for membership is a matter of great im­portance to our Movement. Where mortal thought enters the picture, members are apt to put those on the examining committee who are not fitted. Those who do this work should be able to instruct the candidates as well as to examine them, and set forth to them what membership in a branch church involves. Candidates should be told that they are not joining an organization to be saved, as old theology avers, but to become workers. They must be asked if they can demonstrate, since as members, they are expected to do so at every service and in the business meetings. They should be told that they are joining a body of people who are pledged to work metaphysically and prayerfully for the world, and for the congregation at all meetings.

Candidates may be told that undemonstrated business meetings of branch churches are not pleasing to those who have accepted the proposition that everything connected with Science should be a demonstration of divine wisdom. Too many members do not begin their membership with the right conception, and so permit the business meeting to fall into the hands of mortal mind. This becomes an offence to those sanctified workers who know that every activity in Science should further spiritual understanding. One might define the business meeting as the test God has given through Mrs. Eddy, to determine regularly how practical the members' demonstration of divine Mind is becoming, since if it is improving, the members will certainly show this fact by using divine Mind in the business meetings. In these meetings the chaff is separated from the wheat, since those who have a knowledge of the letter of Christian Science without a demonstrable use of it, are exposed.

If the First Reader of The Mother Church was selected through demonstra­tion, he would surely be capable of testing the readiness of the candidates for membership, and of giving them the instruction that is necessary for them. So, this By-law seemed a logical one; although it was changed. Often a temporary By-law, making an important change, helped to open the way for the permanent procedure, and so could be counted as part of the founding of the organization. Sometimes such a By-law would help to break up the inertia of accustomed procedure, and thus pave the way for the new order.

Mortal mind is governed by habits of thought. The tendency to follow stereotyped modes of procedure characterizes all organizations. The membership settles into the habit of doing things in a certain way and then opposes any change. Under such fixedness and rigidity of thought the members fail to see the value of new suggestions. At times our Leader found it necessary to break up inertia by introducing changes, which would render thought more flexible, and ca­pable of seeing and deciding on the final change. The temporary plan might be called a least trial divisor.

One need not conclude that the By-law under discussion did not serve its purpose, merely because it did not remain. It had its place in the order of things. Sometimes a group cannot go directly from an old method to a new one, if the change is too great a shock. Some sort of measure is necessary to free thought from the old routine. Not understanding this fact one might believe that Mrs. Eddy made mistakes, or that just when things were running smoothly, she might arbitrarily upset this harmony. Some of her students actually believed that when she felt upset, she did things to make others feel likewise, as do mortals, who dislike to see others happy, when they are not; and do all they can to make them unhappy, too.

Anyone who saw Mrs. Eddy as she really was, would understand that she was animated by a spiritual and constructive thought at all times. Her Cause has suffered a great loss in not having her with us today to rebuke and to criticize constructively. She kept her students awake every moment, by causing them to feel that, if at any time they departed from a metaphysical method of perpetuating the Cause, they would receive her sharp rebuke, since they could not hide such an error from her. They lived under the wholesome fear that they could not indulge in self-seeking, in political wire-pulling, in human opinion or un­demonstrated work, without calling down on their heads the righteous wrath of the one they loved so dearly — the one who loved them so deeply that she would not tolerate the adversary in any form.

No student should ever feel that he is above criticism. While our Leader is not here to watch over us, she left in the Manual the conception of the Pastor Emeritus as a check on many of the acts of the students. She might have said, “If you realize that I blessed you by keeping you alert, since I could always detect the basis of all that you did, whether it was human or divine, you will appreciate having God as your Mentor in the form of the Pastor Emeritus. You will find Him even more punctilious than was I, and keener in recognizing poor work, since He knows every man's thought. Thus I leave the Pastor Emeritus, or the fear of the Lord, as my successor, so that you will feel that you cannot live apart from demonstration without my personal rebuke, any more than you could when I was present, in the flesh. Your motto must be, ‘God Watches Your Thoughts; So Beware!' You must be ready to challenge every thought to determine if it comes from God, and if it does not, to cast it out with the realiza­tion that there is but one Mind, and that Mind is your Mind here and now.”

A bank examiner stands between the bank and the depositors. After he has examined the funds, if he approves, the bank is known to be sound.

When Mrs. Eddy taught her first students, she prepared a manuscript which she called “The Soul's Enquiries of Man.” It consisted of seventeen searching questions which Soul asked man as to his understanding and practice of truth. The questions were asked to determine if the student was sound in understand­ing, and if others could deposit their faith in him without having it misplaced. It was as if Mrs. Eddy provided a bank examiner, who would check on them at intervals, to discover if they were proving sound in doctrine and practice.

In later years Mrs. Eddy appointed the Pastor Emeritus as the bank ex­aminer for the whole Cause, after she would no longer be with us in person. This Pastor Emeritus, which she left to be the Guardian and Mentor of her followers, is the spirit of Truth which she reflected from God. This was the same spiritual Mentor which she gave her students in 1870 and called it Soul. She merely adapted it to a growing Cause, so that it would remain throughout time.

If one marvels at Mrs. Eddy's constant ability to reflect God, and to express His wisdom adapted to the business of the Cause, as she does in her letter to the Church, he should remember that it is not a difficult attainment to receive wisdom from God. One merely needs a singleness of desire, the constant realization that divine wisdom is what he wants and needs, and that he will be content with nothing less. He must also have a determination that, when he receives that instruction, he will follow it, no matter where it leads. He must realize that his telephone connection with God has never been dis-connected, but merely lost sight of.

All of one's activity in Christian Science is designed to bring about a radical reliance on God, on His power and wisdom. Students may not develop this at once after they have begun their study; but if they are faithful and honest, and work as they should, it will come. Sometimes it is the part of wisdom for them to be afflicted, to bring to their attention the fact that they have not at­tained this radical reliance that their study and practice should bring to them. At such a time they should use all the forces of good that they have developed within, to attain this mental attitude which the affliction is designed to show that they lack.

Advanced students who find themselves afflicted, should regard the afflic­tion dispassionately, and not look upon it as mortal mind does, as if it were the result of circumstances over which they have no control. They should know that it is merely an indication that they need a more radical reliance on God, a recognition that they are governed by His law, that His infinite arms are around them and there is nothing to fear. This restoration of the realization of their per­manent relation to Him will then be seen to be the remedy. Hence, instead of trying to get rid of the disease directly, they will work to add to themselves what they lack, namely, a radical reliance on God, the realization of His all power, the fact that there is no problem He cannot solve, that He loves all of His children, and that He is not merely standing by to help in case of affliction, but that He is operating to bring to each one the greatest happiness and satis­faction possible.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

August 11, 1895

C. S. Board

My dear Students:

I say give up the chimes Westminster, even as all else that does not talk of Heaven on all occasions, and chime for proper occasions, meetings, etc., such as you were calling through chimes before the clock came — hymns suggesting what C. S. is, namely, spiritual, and not material in a single suggestion.

With love,

Mother


This letter was in confirmation of a telegram Mrs. Eddy sent the Board of Directors on July 26, which read, “Better stop chimes than cause disturbance by them.” Here she shows plainly her concern for the public at large, lest anything in her church unnecessarily arouse prejudice against the doctrine which she knew was destined to save the world.

A student may feel that Mrs. Eddy's greatest value lay in the fact that she was the Revelator of God's truth; but he must not forget that she was also the demonstrator, since in this latter capacity she set the example of how her revela­tion was to be applied to the human need. Students may attain a knowledge of her foundational teachings without difficulty; but then comes the question of how to apply an absolute Science to the human need in such a way that it will encourage, and not discourage people to start on the task of right thinking, that it will not shock them and cause them to throw up their hands before they have begun, but will lead them gently to the first steps toward the final understanding of metaphysics.

Mrs. Eddy was watchful that no act of her Church offend the public, and so create a prejudice against her and her teachings. She had two reasons for this. She did not desire to place a stumbling-block in her brother's path towards his gaining a knowledge of God, nor did she wish to arouse mortal mind in any way that would darken her atmosphere and so add to her difficulty in clinging steadfastly to God each day. When one reaches the point where the main­tenance of spiritual thought is the most important thing, he stands ready to defend the spiritual adjustment of his thought against all that would claim to affect it.

A knowledge of this fact would prove to any open-minded student that, when Mrs. Eddy appeared to be scolding her students, it was not because she was giving way to irritation or temper, but because she saw evil approaching in the guise of good, and knew that they needed the protection of an awakened thought. Had she customarily given way to irritation, she would have endangered her reflection of God, which was the pearl of great price in her estimation.

Mrs. Eddy expected her students to regard the whole world as prospective Christian Scientists. She wanted them to do everything possible, both mentally and outwardly, to win people to her teachings; yet never to make concessions in doctrine in order to keep peace with them. As she writes in this letter, “Chris­tian Science is...spiritual, and not material in a single suggestion.”

On August 5 the Boston Herald published the following letter by Mrs. Eddy to the Editor:


“With your permission, and through your columns, to confess my part in the tragi-comedy of the Londonshire, Westminster chimes, would ease my conscience.

“The Board of Directors sent this inquiry to me, ‘Shall we have the West­minster chimes, in our church?' I answered in substance, ‘If you want them, Yes.' Now our presidential administration makes it wise and popular to act like unto the London folk. So the Directors, purposing to show their generosity to the public, fell into the ignorant atrocity of calling the costly clock from across the waters to disturb the peace of Boston.

“The faint-hearted, and the sensitive auditories, could not stand that sort of Salvation Army heraldry, and the one who keenly sympathizes with such dis­tress was wholly ignorant that she had lent her hand to give unto others ‘too much of a good thing'; but in extenuation of this crime will now say she advised that the soft chimes be let loose but thrice per day.

“The question now is ‘To be, or not to be,' that is, would not three lesser doses of sweet sounds sent forth at morning, noon and even-tide, instead of disturbing it, serve to rest the tired thought and to soothe the sufferings of the sick and suggest to the heavenly homesick the call to a better land, the welcome of saints and angels, the final bliss of our harvest home?”


After an interval Mrs. Eddy wrote another letter to the Editor as follows, which was printed in the Boston Herald:


“‘O the bells, bells, bells.' Poe. Ac­cept my thanks for giving my suggestions on the Westminster chimes a good outing and airing in your popular daily.

“There is another side of this question, ‘To be, or not to be' — namely, Shall our church clock ring on betimes, or shall it be rung entirely out of the question?

“If its less frequent voice is a relief to the sick, perhaps the latter may find more rest by suppressing it altogether. The sick, sooner than all others, should decide as to the quantum sufficit for their pillow.

“St. Paul wrote: ‘If meat make my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh while the world standeth.' Now the good Directors of our church will certainly concur with the writer in wishing to do likewise in this, as in all Christian endeavors, except, peradventure, the ‘eating of the flesh.'

“When the danger ebbs and flows and the less of the bells is the better, it is well to be willing to drop the Westminster chimes and accept the West­minster catechism so far, at least, as its first question extends: ‘What is the chief end of man?' ‘To glorify God.' This must mean, or include, to return good for evil; ‘and all things whatsoever ye would that men shall do to you, do ye even so to them.'

“To this end, be it understood, that the Westminster chimes will be heard no more in the old Bay State. May it rest pacific on the shores of the Atlantic.”


There were times when Mrs. Eddy was accused of being a pope, although she was exactly unlike one, as these two letters show. A pope is one who through his own wisdom attempts to direct the destinies of his church, whereas Mrs. Eddy was more the high priest, the one who translates God's will to the people.

When a mother is teaching her child to walk, she lets it take a few steps alone. If she sees it begin to fall, she catches it and starts it upright again. Mrs. Eddy stood by her students, always with the thought that as they demonstrated God's will, they would become independent of her. When she stepped in and told them exactly what to do, it was only because God told her to. When she left them alone to demonstrate their own wisdom, that was also part of God's direction.

The only possible way to attain divine guidance is to follow what one believes to be divine guidance; then when the time comes that one gains the ability to hear His voice, he must follow under all circumstances. He may have to be tested to see whether he can be shaken loose from his determination to follow God. There are instances of Mrs. Eddy's testing her students, to see if their recognition of the importance of following God preceded all other obli­gations.

In the large issues of our Cause Mrs. Eddy perforce let her demonstration prevail, since future generations would be dependent on the scientific correct­ness of the early steps the Church took. At the same time students had to be trained to rely on their own demonstrations. In the matter of the chimes Mrs. Eddy threw some measure of responsibility on the Directors. When the matter turned out badly, it became necessary for her to step in and make some explana­tion to the public. So she wrote letters to the press that would cause right-­minded people to smile in appreciation of her delicate humor, and so help to break down any ill feelings the playing of the chimes might have aroused.

Yet as usual there was a scientific lesson contained in these letters to the paper for students of Christian Science. When she writes about “Salvation Army heraldry,” she is giving a word to the wise, hinting that the chimes represented a noisy way of calling attention to Christian Science. The deduction is that it was the chimes without demonstration back of them that caused them to stir the people of Boston. In her letters she admits that she is fond of quietness. One of the privileges of all Christians should be, to be able to shut out the world and be at peace. At the same time she calls them “soft” chimes. If playing them three times a day would serve to rest the tired thought and soothe the sufferings of the sick, why would they not have this effect each time they were played?

The crux of the whole matter is that had the chimes been made a matter of demonstration, the majority of people would have felt this spiritual animus, and would have been delighted with them. Then instead of the jangle animal mag­netism attached to them to produce prejudice, the demonstration of the students would have ruled this out; and with God back of them, the chimes would have produced healing.

When the Christian Science Monitor was launched, Mrs. Eddy is reported to have said that it was the greatest gift since Science and Health. This might seem like a surprising statement in view of the self-evident value of her other writings and periodicals. Yet when we realize that Mrs. Eddy made the demonstra­tion to make Science and Health a channel for healing, so that whether the reader understands it or not, he receives a healing effect merely by reading it, we can believe that Mrs. Eddy expected her followers to make the same demonstration for the Monitor. When this is done, it places the value of the Monitor second to the textbook as a missionary.

The plant called poison oak or poison ivy possesses no inherent power to poison mortals. When one touches this plant, he is poisoned because of universal mortal belief that has attached to it the effect of poison.

Science and Health heals the one who reads it, because Mrs. Eddy made the demonstration to attach a healing thought to it. One is healed by reading it long before he understands it. When he does understand it, he also receives healing from reading it.

Science and Health was God's gift to the world. Mrs. Eddy's gift was the healing that she put with it, the law of God which she brought to bear on it. When she provided her followers with the Monitor, she gave them the op­portunity to extend this same healing to all who read this paper. Hence the Monitor will become the greatest gift since Science and Health when students at large do for the Monitor what our Leader did for her book, — make a law that everyone who reads it will be healed by it, until this expectancy of being healed in this way becomes universal.

If the statement is true that God is never absent from the blessings He bestows, then He is never absent from His gift, Science and Health, since that book with its healing thought is a blessing that came from Him. In a similar way students must prove that God is never absent from the Christian Science Monitor, and that people cannot read it without being touched by the demonstration of Christian Scientists, who unselfishly and devotedly accentuate the law of heal­ing for that paper.

Students of Science must realize that if on the wrong side mortal belief can claim to make a law that those who touch ivy shall be poisoned, and that those who touch alcohol shall be intoxicated, surely on the right side a law can be made that the Monitor heals those who read it, in the same way that Mrs. Eddy made this law for Science and Health that is still operative.

The deduction is that the value of anything in Christian Science is the spiritual healing thought that accompanies it. By the same token the chimes would have been a valuable addition to Christian Science activities, had the students made the law that, every time people heard them, they would feel a healing, uplifting thought that would refresh them, and suggest a call to a better land — the final bliss of our harvest home, as Mrs. Eddy writes.

Students with eyes to see could detect in these letters to the Boston Post the obligation Mrs. Eddy expected the church members to fulfill toward the chimes. They could have said, “I see now that my task was to demonstrate, so that the chimes would have had the effect of blessing those who heard them. If I had made such a law, animal magnetism could not have suggested the op­posite law, that all who heard them would be disturbed, and so be prejudiced against the religion that sponsored them.”

This episode of the chimes teaches clearly the basic proposition of Christian Science that is expressed by Shakespeare, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” It also shows that unless students are alert enough to associate everything connected with our organization with right thinking and its harmonious effect, animal magnetism stands ready to claim the opposite. If the students were not alert enough to make the chimes good through their thinking, the chimes would not have a good effect, merely because they were sponsored by Christian Science. Had the right work been done, every time people listened to the chimes, their thoughts would have been uplifted, and they would have felt a healing sense, that would have caused them to look forward to hearing them.

Music has the effect of opening the mind of the listener to the reception of whatever the thought is that accompanies it. The finest music in the world performed by one with a sensual thought, has a deleterious effect on the listener. The implication does not follow that, because there was not enough demonstra­tion made for the chimes to prevent a chemicalization in the thought of the people, there was a sensual thought back of them. The point is, that whatever the demonstration was that accompanied their ringing, it was not protected from the animal magnetism of reversal; hence error was able to claim that what the church did to give pleasure by buying and running the expensive chimes, had the opposite effect; so they had to be silenced.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

August 18, 1895

C. S. Board of Directors

My beloved Students:

Your obedience is proving that you will conquer the world, the flesh and evil. “In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world,” said our Master. It is enough that the servant should be as his Master.

Each article of mine to the press had the word, “Directors” with a capital, but each time it appeared with a small letter. Now, I had gotten the press on our side and the M. A. M's were waiting and watching to get them back on their side. Your expensive pur­chase of the clock and its too frequent voice gave them this chance; and it was malicious animal magnetism that caused you to buy it. Now, why did I consent? It was Mary that answered without waiting for God. Oh, the pity! I will watch, — that she does this not again. She did not even know what Westminster chimes were. Had she known, she would have seen at once that it was just what the enemy wanted for the purpose of breaking the thought that she left in the minds of the pressmen as to the chimes from our church. Do you remember it?

Again I must tell you that your royal gift of rugs that are so beautiful, and all of which I so appreciate from my beloved church — was started by the thought, and for the purpose of, Theosophy. Hence, my first feeling when the first ones came to my house was from the right side, — (it was a feeling I do not want them around my home). But I have conquered this feeling and also their motives so far as to have no thought or care about matter or its pros and cons. Still I intend to send them sooner or later to 385 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston.

The moral of my letter is to help you, dear ones. Before you act again, watch and pray that you enter not into their temptation. I am much wiser from what God has taught me, and you certainly will be.

The beautiful Souvenir, I shrunk from correcting. But I was displeased with the copyist. He must have seen that “than” should not be written tham, as he wrote, and “antique,” antigue, and “with,” written twice for one word, and three other words misspelled. Also, do you not see that Judge Hanna and Mr. Kimball would have seen those things, had not “their eyes been holden” by mesmerism? Note this — and let it save you. The mes­merists carry their points more or less every time, and with all the students, and Mother has to go over the ground and patch up the fissures as best she can. “These things ought not so to be.” Their purpose is to disgrace us and squander the Church funds. Note this every time you take one dollar out of this fund.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


First in this letter Mrs. Eddy mentions the world, the flesh and evil. This corresponds to the beast mentioned in Rev.13, his image or mark, and the number of his name. It is the world's belief in evil that gives it apparent power. So in meeting it we must realize that universal acceptance does not make it real, that the number of people believing a lie does not give it greater power, any more than adding more zeros to zero ever makes a unit, or increases number. Once the whole civilized race believed that the world was flat, but this did not make it so, neither did it give that false belief greater power to influence an enlightened thought.

The flesh, or image of the beast, represents the individualized blackboard, on which mortal beliefs find expression in such a way, that mortal man is con­vinced that they are real. When both cause and effect are seen as mental, and all evil is recognized as having the common denominator of nothingness, it falls, never to rise. Jesus gave his followers power over serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy. The power of the enemy must be the seeming ability of mortal belief to control mortals through universal mesmerism; yet this power is wholly sustained by the serpents or scorpions, which represent the testimony of the senses through which that which has no existence, seems to be real and substantial.

If a pond is frozen, one must break through the ice before he can catch any fish. Physical symptoms and suffering represent the ice which must be broken through, before one can meet the error from a mental standpoint. Matter is the barrier to this effort, merely because, as a manifestation of mesmerism, it appears to establish the reality of universal belief, or the beast. If the beast had no image, nor common consent to support it, it would be without a witness, and would fall.

Mrs. Eddy would write a strong rebuking letter, when she felt that students in important positions were permitting the thought and practice of demonstra­tion to recede. In her sight they held these important posts not because they had been successful in some human field, or had developed keen judgment, but because they had given some proof of their ability as Christian Scientists. When they were found using the easier human way of opinions and impressions, instead of casting them out, in order that they might reflect divine Mind, they needed to be rebuked.

Mrs. Eddy set the example of using divine Mind in every direction, and when she momentarily slipped back to a human sense, as she admits in this letter, it was never intentional, but due solely to the pressure of labor demanded of her, or the lack of support from her own students, whose duty it was to help in keeping the atmosphere clear for her. When she concluded that she had received God's guidance, she never closed the door at that point, but left it open so that as she continued to pray and work scientifically over the leading, she might withdraw or change it, if it proved to be other than the action of divine Mind.

The Master tells of the good seed that “...fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them.” It seems a hard fate for the good seed, that has bravely and faithfully pushed its way toward the sun, to be choked by thorns; but in applying Jesus' symbolic teaching metaphysically, one should conclude that it is possible for the good seed to recognize its enemies and to destroy them.

In the same soil in which it germinates is found the thorn-producing seeds; so it must use its spiritual growth to return to the earth from whence it came, and so spiritualize the soil, that nothing but good can flourish therein.

If a student has a right desire, he must guard it against thorns, for it to have a free and right expression. Mrs. Eddy was faithful in training students that in every instance they must watch and handle the error that prevents man's normal recognition of the truth, and his ability to function according to God's leading. When they failed to do so, and Mrs. Eddy detected this fact through the work they brought to her, she rebuked them as part of her mission as Leader and teacher. In explanation of her rebukes and strong admonitions, we find her writing on page 18 of Miscellaneous Writings, “...to believe...that those whom He commissions bring you at His demand that which is unjust,­ — is wrong and cruel....the rod of God, and the obedience demanded of His servants in carrying out what He teaches them, — these are never unmerciful, never unwise.”

When Mrs. Eddy rebuked students for right efforts, such as the chimes, the rugs, and the Souvenir mentioned in this letter, it was because they had not handled the thorns. If a boy brings an apple to his teacher that has been stolen, he ought not to feel aggrieved when she punishes him, instead of thanking him for his gift. When Mrs. Eddy rebuked the Directors for the gift of costly rugs, it was not because she did not appreciate the kindly thought that prompted them, but she detected that they had permitted a human sense to influence them to squander the church funds. This was a thorny sense that should have been cast out. Had the students cast it out, she would have appreciated such a moral victory more than a gift of a million dollars!

It was a most needed lesson, namely, that the good seed, or right desire, may be choked by the thorns, if these are not handled. At this time this over­sight caused the Directors to send to Mrs. Eddy that which carried an element of discord, to put before the public that which only caused a stir, and finally to send her an article in which many mistakes were apparent. These mistakes were nothing in and of themselves, but to Mrs. Eddy they were not the result of human carelessness, but unhandled animal magnetism.

It is not too much to expect perfection in human details from Christian Scientists, when the pith of their religion is claiming a perfect Mind. On page 193 of Mr. Powell's book in regard to Mrs. Eddy we find her saying to Grace Greene, “If you are an ordinary cook, dressmaker, or milliner, Christian Science will make you perfect in any of these lines, and everyone should seek to perfect himself wherever he is, or whatever his calling.” Students learn in Science how to overcome the thorns, or deterrents, which prevent work from being perfect.

Mrs. Eddy did not put forth the suggestion of having Westminster chimes in the first place, but she did give her approval. She acknowledged, however, that it was her human sense that consented. The request for her approval might have come at a time when she was unusually busy, and it seemed the most ex­peditious thing to consent without working over it at length; but she learned of her mistake, when she found that she had unwittingly approved of that which she should have stopped, because it caused the public to feel that the new church in their midst was more or less of a nuisance.

It is helpful to an understanding of her life to have her explain that it was Mary, rather than God, who gave the consent for the chimes. Under the date of September 3, 1889, she wrote to Mr. Nixon as follows: “God, our God, has just told me who to recommend to you for Editor of the C. S. Journal....” The next day she wrote: “I regret having named the one I did to you for Editor. It is a mistake, he is not fit. It was not God evidently that suggested that thought, but this person who suggests many things mentally, but I have before been able to discriminate. I wrote too soon after it came to my thought. He has not been taught C. S. and I hear refuses to be taught by anyone but me.”

Many times when a thought seems to come from God, it may come from the human mind. When one places himself in the position of listening for God's voice, he opens himself to the possibility of being influenced by the thoughts of others. Hence one must watch, and learn to differentiate between the human suggestion and the divine impartation. Mrs. Eddy indicates that if she took time enough to demonstrate, she could not be misled by suggestion. The reason for this is that demonstration continued long enough, will surely silence the voice of suggestion, and leave God's voice alone holding the field. When Elijah had his contest with the priests of Baal, his demonstration proved to be on a higher plane than that of Moses, because the latter did not prevent the magicians of Egypt from giving exhibitions of their powers to match his, up to a certain point. Elijah, however, not only caused fire to come down from heaven, but prevented the priests from bringing forth phenomena of any sort. Mrs. Eddy never regarded the demonstration of hearing God's voice completed, until it had silenced any suggestions claiming to come from mortal mind. The very fact that she admits that at times she mistook mortal mind's suggestions for the voice of God, should encourage her followers, and at the same time cause them to make a more careful and prolonged demonstration to be sure it is Mind's voice, in accordance with her instruction in Miscellaneous Writings, 117:4.

Years ago when a photographer's proof of a picture was exposed to the sunlight, it began to fade at once, whereas the finished picture did not. When Mrs. Eddy heard what she thought was God's direction, she exposed it to the light of demonstration. Only as it stayed fast, did she know for sure that it was God's direction. The only instances when she mistook His directions were when she was pressed for time, or thought was confused.

The editor Mrs. Eddy recommended to Mr. Nixon was Rev. Macomber Smith. When she learned that he was unwilling to be taught Christian Science by anyone but her, it showed her that he had such a sense of his own human value and superiority, that he was unfit to take the position of editor. A child in the Sunday School might have known more practical Christian Science than he did; yet he would not humble himself to receive instruction except from Mrs. Eddy. It is necessary, if one ever hopes to learn about God, to realize that instruction about Him that is worth listening to, may come through the hum­blest channel that is unselfed and spiritualized.

Another letter that throws light on this question of hearing God's voice was written to Mr. Nixon on July 14, 1892. In this letter she writes, “Do not treat me mentally and all will be well...God will settle this matter and you shall have a legal claim if you are ready for Him to govern this church building in accord with law and gospel.” This letter was part of Mrs. Eddy's effort to bring about an amicable settlement of the dispute over the trust deed.

Mrs. Eddy knew full well the teaching she had given her students in regard to the use of Mind and its possibilities. She realized that if Mr. Nixon thought that she was stubborn about this question, or in error, he might attempt to treat her mentally, in order to help her to see what he had concluded was the right of the matter. She, therefore, was in the dilemma of striving to cling to what God had told her was right, while one of her own students believed that her ideas were of her own devising, or of the devil, and hence treated her for this error. Surely it was remarkable that she was able to stand against such pressure, and make the demonstration of one Mind, with so much mental opposition being brought to bear upon her.

The Directors might well have wept tears of sadness over this letter of August 18, since it implies how little Mrs. Eddy felt that she could rely on their demonstration. She might just as well have said that no matter what they sug­gested to her, she had to make the demonstration herself, before she could be convinced that it was right. She had trusted them in the matter of the chimes, only to be sadly disappointed. She found them so prone to be governed by the human mind, that she had to be more watchful than ever in assenting to their propositions.

When Mrs. Eddy wrote that she had assented to the chimes without waiting on God, one might believe that she was merely rebuking her own lack of demonstration; but she was also rebuking herself for not recognizing that the demonstration of the Directors was not trustworthy. If this sounds too drastic, it must be remembered that it is a wholesome thing for any student to be called to account on the matter of demonstration, since it is in this way that he is im­pelled to bring forth better fruitage.

Why in the letter in question did Mrs. Eddy declare that the rugs the church sent her were “started by the thought, and for the purpose of, Theosophy”? The most subtle deception that confronts a mortal is when the human mind, freed somewhat from limitations, appears to function as the divine Mind. Because mortals have lived with the evil called the human mind so long, it is difficult for them to estimate it from the standpoint of divine Mind. It is true that the demonstration of Christian Science enables one to improve the human mind to a great degree, but one should never lose sight of the fact that he is improving it so that he may throw it off, not so that he may retain it, since it is an evil in God's sight.

Mrs. Eddy used the term theosophy for the human mind, in order to pro­duce a healthy scare in the minds of the Directors, since theosophy covers the use of the human mind in a more or less liberated and educated way. All evil is embraced in this so-called mind, and Mrs. Eddy did her best to open the thought of students to this fact. Let us suppose she had found a student wearing a pair of stockings, the dye of which was deadly poison. Her warnings would be designed to cause the student to be afraid, not of the stockings, but only of wearing them. She would be justified in whatever she said, no matter how prophetic of dire consequences, that would alarm the student to the point where the latter would discard the stockings. One unacquainted with the facts might suppose Mrs. Eddy's statements to be false and greatly exaggerated, instead of seeing that all she said was based on certain knowledge and a love for her neighbor.

Mrs. Eddy probed so-called good matter, or human harmony, and found the devil disguised. Thus her warfare was not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in high places. She sought to disrobe and expose the human mind. In the case of the rugs, she called it theosophy; later she named it Roman Catholicism. She did this in order to open the eyes of the students to its nature, and to stimulate their resistance against it. She wanted them to know what Christian Science would become, if demonstration was ever lost from it. An analagous incident was when doctors in Panama labelled the lowly mosquito a carrier of the deadly yellow fever, in order to stimulate the populace to work to eliminate that which heretofore they had tolerated.

Mrs. Eddy aroused the fighting spirit in students by developing in them a love for good, and then teaching them that the human mind was an enemy of this good and would rob them of it, or prevent its demonstration, unless it was handled.

In the matter of the rugs, Mrs. Eddy knew that if the students were freed from the action of the human mind, they would have realized that she wanted every penny to be used to give the world the opportunity to learn of Christian Science, that a faithful and conscientious following of her teachings would be an infinitely greater gift to her than the most costly object they might have pur­chased.

When she wrote that she had conquered the feeling that she did not want the rugs around her home, she meant that she had made the demonstration to overcome the human suggestion which largely prompted the gift, even though it was appreciation and love for her in the minds of the Directors. She was able to neutralize its effect upon her, and contemplate the loving thought that prompt­ed the gift.

Then Mrs. Eddy gives the Directors a warning, and tells them to protect themselves from animal magnetism, lest they make the mistakes it would tempt them to make, with the result that the Cause would be disgraced.

Mrs. Eddy uses the words, “watch and pray.” When putting in a screw, one must first decide where it is to go, and watch to see that it goes in the right place. So one must watch to see what the problem is, and then pray in a manner to meet the need. The act of praying impersonally is not effective in meeting specific exigencies. Watchfulness is needed to determine how prayer should be applied.

The Christian Scientist must be a watchman, and also operate through prayer. The Committees on Publication all over the world which were organized by our Leader, watch the pulpit and press for attacks on our religion; but without prayer, what effectual influence could be brought to bear to arrest such unjust and unfair action, or to obtain a hearing in order to refute the lies?

It is through prayer that mortal mind's perversity is compelled to melt before God's determination. Through prayer mortal mind's claim to thwart the plans of God is destroyed. Through prayer one gains the conviction of the im­possibility of prejudice, malice, envy or falsity putting a stumbling-block in the line of the onward march of Truth propelled by God, purposed by God, and ac­complished through His power. Through the power of scientific prayer, the world is made to see the hopelessness of continuing the dangerous effort of attacking the coming of the kingdom of heaven on earth. It is through prayer that all attacks against our Cause are successfully met and silenced.

Once Mrs. Eddy said, “Jesus said, ‘Watch and pray.' The watching comes first. You must watch, see the enemy before it comes and strikes; destroy before it approaches.”

In killing a lion, one must aim his gun and pull the trigger. Impersonal and undirected prayer would be like fancying that it was enough protection against the lion to fire one's gun at random into the air.

Finally Mrs. Eddy states that Judge Hanna and Mr. Kimball would never have sent her the beautiful Souvenir with glaring errors, had not “their eyes been holden by mesmerism.” It was their scientific progress that caused them to become incapable of bringing forth correct results without demonstration. It is always a sign of spiritual growth when those with human capabilities such as these two students had developed, find themselves unable to bring forth correct results even in such a simple matter as copying a manuscript, without demonstration. When a farmer buys a tractor, whereas formerly he was skillful in ploughing with a horse-drawn plough, if he goes back to the horse, he finds that he has lost the knack.

Finally Mrs. Eddy slates in this letter that the purpose of mesmerism was to cause the students to bring disgrace to the Cause, by squandering the church funds, and by spending them extravagantly instead of wisely. It would be well for everyone empowered to spend church funds to have this letter to refer to, that they might watch lest they spend them unwisely, and do something that would bring disgrace to the Cause. Mortals spend money in order to feed pride and to make matter attractive. In Christian Science matter is not the bait used to draw people. It can be said that no attendant is a very desirable one, who is drawn to our church by the seeming attractiveness of matter. The drawing power of divine Spirit and its healing influence are our sufficient means of attracting the stranger to our doctrine.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.,

August 19, 1895

The C. S. Board of Directors

My dear Students:

To relieve me of some worldly care I ship to you in care of Mr. Moore four of my Persian rugs with this request: Will each of the Directors take one of these rugs to his home, use it, and care for it, and keep it until Mother calls for it?

Do not remove the labels.

I shall keep in Concord six of these rugs and send to Commonwealth Ave. four to be taken good care of till I call for them.

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy


At times Mrs. Eddy rebuked an over-appreciation of matter; and at other times, when the demonstration was made so that matter so-called became the medium of carrying and expressing a true appreciation of good, she accepted it gratefully. It was impossible, however, for mortal mind to understand Mrs. Eddy's ability to gauge the spiritual quality of thought, or lack of it, back of a gift or service rendered. Without insight into Mrs. Eddy's mental action, one might think that at times she was unjust or unappreciative; that she played favorites among her students; or that the effect of a gift upon her largely depend­ed upon the state of mind she happened to be in. She gave the impression to some of her household that if she was disturbed, everything seemed wrong to her; but if you could only catch her on one of her good days, when she felt harmoni­ous, she would greatly appreciate whatever you did for her, or presented to her.

There were students who knew our Leader who interpreted her and her actions humanly. In order to understand her aright, one must assume that she had a right reason for everything she did. The moves she made with students were prompted by a sincere and loving desire to be God's witness to them, to train them metaphysically, and to show them how to overcome all deterrents, that they might be free to function as spiritually normal beings, rather than as mortals under the control of human thinking.

The Board of Directors had sent her costly rugs. They had used the church funds to buy them. They had a legal right to do this, but Mrs. Eddy sensed that animal magnetism had prompted them to make the gift, rather than a demon­strated sense of loyalty and love, which would have caused them to remember that the gift Mrs. Eddy appreciated most of all was the effort at all times to main­tain a spiritual thought.

She had compassion for the Directors and students, because she saw how much like sheep they were, and how easily at times they became victims of animal magnetism, through their lack of understanding her method of handling it. In the parable of the sun and wind that conspired to remove a man's coat, the man resisted the action of the latter, as it blew with force; but he yielded to the warmth of the former. Mrs. Eddy saw her students resisting valiantly when animal magnetism attacked them in forms of discord and sin; but she saw them often go to sleep, when the effect of soothing mortal mentality stole over them.

At times the feeling of love and gratitude for Mrs. Eddy touched the senti­mental and emotional nature in students to such a degree that they became soft. She once said “Some of my students are as soft as mush!” In such a state of thought mere service for her and the Cause did not seem a sufficient way of expressing their feelings. Yet what Mrs. Eddy wanted was not a sentimental manifestation of human gifts, but a greater watchfulness and assimilation to God on the part of her followers. When the students in New York presented her with two hundred dollars worth of floral offerings, she looked at them sadly, and afterward with tears in her eyes said, “But they are not doing the work as I want it done. ‘If ye love me, keep my commandments.'”

If you sent a bunch of brightly colored autumn leaves to a friend, unaware that they were poison ivy, you might fancy that your friend was imagining things when he complained about your gift, instead of thanking you. Hence he might send you some of the leaves, hoping in that way to awaken you to perceive the error you had committed.

It was difficult to appreciate the offence it was, to send Mrs. Eddy anything that had the poison of mortal mind associated with it. She was sensitive beyond belief! No one knows how many years it will be, before an individual will again appear in the human picture who approximates her sensitivity. She knew that it was hard for the Directors to comprehend what the gift of rugs gave her to meet, so she sent one to each of them, hoping that in that way they might catch a glimpse of her problem, and be forced to make a demonstration to be more careful in the future, not to burden their Leader with that which did not have back of it enough divine Love to neutralize human sense.

Mrs. Eddy perceived that the Directors were carried away by an over­whelming desire to show their appreciation, when they sent the rugs; yet there was pride and extravagance mixed with it. In a more sober moment they would have seen that it was not fitting to send her rugs that she did not need, the quality of which was out of keeping with the rest of her modest furnishings. It was logical, therefore, that she should send some to them to care for, and thus let them assume part of the responsibility for the thought back of the rugs that troubled her. Should they not shoulder at least part of it?

The Bible illustrates teaching by symbols, and Mrs. Eddy renewed that form of teaching. Such a mode of teaching puts a matter indirectly before an in­dividual. If he is open to receive the rebuke, he will do so; otherwise it will pass him by and no harm will be done by telling him that which was beyond his comprehension.

The Directors would profit by having Mrs. Eddy send them each a rug, if thereby their eyes were opened to realize what they had sent her with the gift, and to see that, because the thought was wrong, it was necessary for them to bear part of the responsibility for it. If they did not see this, no harm would be done.

Mrs. Eddy stated that she was sending them these rugs, to relieve her of some worldly care. It was worldly, because anyone would feel a sense of human respon­sibility to have a very costly rug on the floor, thinking about it constantly, lest something happen to it. All costly things in matter represent a worldly care. When it becomes generally known that you have things of value in your home, the cupidity and greed of those who steal from others is aroused. Hence an added watch must be kept to guard the house, in contrast to the home where the doors are never locked, because it contains nothing that anyone would want to steal.

When a Christian Scientist attains a treasure in understanding — an ability to demonstrate — that becomes a care, albeit a spiritual one, since the enemies of good in the mental realm are as aggressive and instant to attempt to rob man of spiritual treasure, as thieves are sure to attempt to rob him of material posses­sions, when they have great value. Mrs. Eddy had her hands full to protect her spiritual treasure. Surely she did not care to take on the additional responsi­bility of caring for and protecting costly material treasure.

Why is it that gifts of great value are not as apt to carry a spiritual blessing from the giver to the receiver, as things of less value? It is because the sense of their material worth stands out so prominently, that it overshadows the appre­ciative and inspirational thought that may accompany them. It is a fact that the costliness of a gift may shut off the realization of the loving thought that ac­companies it, which in reality has far more value than the gift itself. The moment the intrinsic or material value of a gift overbalances the thought that accom­panies it, it breaks the command of the Master, who told us to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness — which is right thinking — and then let the things be added. The thought is the important thing, and the gift is merely that which is added to the thought. The gift should be no more prominent than the tail of a dog, where the dog symbolizes the scientific thought conveyed from the giver to the receiver.

Mrs. Eddy's teachings make it clear that God is never absent from the blessings He bestows. Hence it is proper to declare that God never sends us gifts; He always brings them. It is up to us to watch lest we accept the gifts, but remain blind to the presence of the Giver!

When it is realized that this thought applies to food, we shall perceive that the thought of God, good, which accompanies food is more important than the food itself. When this realization comes to us, we will not eat until we have it clearly in consciousness. If God is the Giver of all good gifts, then the Giver is always ahead of the gift in importance and value.

The alert follower of Mrs. Eddy is as careful to send out a healing thought, with every gift, as he is to wrap it suitably and attractively. Then the contents of the package will become more than a desirable material gift; it will also be constructive and healing. If God's thoughts accompany all the blessings that emanate from Him, — if we reflect God — then His thoughts should accompany all that we send out. Mrs. Eddy wanted her students to be careful to make such a demonstration, especially with what they sent her. When they loaded her with gifts that did not have the love of God back of them, they had to be rebuked.

When Mr. and Mrs. Miller sent her a copy of Wyclif, as told in her Message for 1902, she wrote and thanked them in these words: “For your precious gift, Wyclif's translation of the New Testament, I thank you beyond expression. I often decline to receive presents. Last summer I returned shares of mining stock valued at $1,000 each, and other gifts magnificent from afar and near because I had no need of them; and were as grateful for the offer as I could have been for the presents. Not so with your dear gift, sacred to the memory of the past, and to your tender thought of the Christian Science textbook with its hal­lowed meaning, ‘knowledge of Salvation.'”

Had Mrs. Eddy indicated that material presents would be acceptable to her, she would have been flooded with them. If Mrs. Mary Beecher Longyear could have had her way, she would have given her the most magnificent home in the country. Mrs. Eddy knew that many people would prefer to express their appreciation in material gifts, rather than in service, or in the attempt to follow her. She had to be constantly alert in the direction of gifts, since she knew that the intention of mortal mind, or matter, was always to try to shut out the impor­tance of demonstrating good.

One who finds his entire satisfaction in the demonstration of good, and of doing good, has very little desire for other means of enjoyment. If he should find that he yearned for material means of satisfaction, he would conclude that error was suggesting that he was becoming weary of the constant demands of Christian Science upon him. He would recognize this as an error that he should handle.

When Mrs. Eddy indicated in this letter to the Millers that the offer of a gift was as acceptable to her as the gift itself, she showed that one's desire to express gratitude to her, and to acknowledge the one who had done so much for humanity by showing them the way out of mortality, was a constructive attitude.

When one's heart overflows with gratitude, and one seeks to express it by a gift, he knows that he does not have to spend a large sum of money to find that which will convey that appreciation. Furthermore, he knows that an ex­pensive gift often detracts from the heartfelt affection that is conveyed by a simple gift. Both the giver and the receiver may become so impressed with the value of the gift that the true spirit of gratitude may be lost sight of.

A gift that is too insignificant might also signify a lack of proper apprecia­tion; so the deduction is that a gift designed to carry true gratitude must cost something; but not so much that one forgets that the real value in sending it is not in the gift itself, but in the loving thought that accompanies it.

Mrs. Eddy kept many simple gifts that her students sent to her, and used them to recapture the atmosphere of love and appreciation that had accom­panied them, by looking at them from time to time. She took many things from her home in Concord, to her new home in Chestnut Hill which some students would have had her discard, because they did not seem to be in harmony with her new surroundings; but she kept them because they carried a loving at­mosphere, which she knew was far more important than the gifts themselves.

There have been persons with a developed appreciation of the beauty of architecture, who have complained because the extension of The Mother Church was joined to the original edifice, so that the two together made an architectural incongruity, two buildings of entirely different style and material, each a gem in its own right, linked together like Siamese twins.

Yet there is a higher law and purpose in this union that transcends merely satisfying mortal mind's taste for beauty and consistency. Like the modest and sometimes incongruous gifts that Mrs. Eddy insisted be placed in her new home at Chestnut Hill because of the atmosphere they carried, the original church edifice had to be joined to the magnificent new building, because the former carried the atmosphere of Mrs. Eddy's original demonstration, and became a symbol of the fact that, no matter how the Cause progressed, it should never be separated from Mrs. Eddy's original, suitable, but more modest demonstration.




Concord, N. H.

September 4, 1895

To the Christian Science Board of Directors

My beloved Students:

I want to say this morning that the suit you have at law you alone had better decide as to its continuance and the result. I am not willing to decide those matters. I can only say in the words of Jesus, “If they sue you at law etc.”

To avoid those necessities would be my mode of procedure, but as matters now stand, I beg that you four Directors will act your own judgment in carrying out your lawsuit, or compromis­ing.

What I said to Mr. Bates I really did not mean, if it meant a lawsuit. I meant to settle it but not unjustly. I beg that you will not consult me on such matters again. You as well as I have a God to direct you. Perhaps my more spiritual thought cannot be carried out in such matters at present, wisely.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


During the building of The Mother Church the workmen struck for higher wages, and Mr. Edward P. Bates settled the matter. Evidently there was a similar matter to be decided at this time. It might have been a settlement growing out of the strike, since there were forfeiture clauses in all the contracts, calling for penalties in case the work was delayed. Whatever the lawsuit was, it was a minor matter.

When a patient calls a practitioner and asks for help on a minor ill, the practitioner often says, “Don't call me every time you have a little problem. Try to work it out yourself. What you are learning should enable you to demon­strate for yourself; so go ahead and try.” If the matter was of a more serious nature, however, the practitioner knows that the extra fear involved, coming from what mortal mind would say was the seriousness of the situation, would make it necessary for him to take hold and help.

This lawsuit must have been a minor matter which Mrs. Eddy felt that the Directors were capable of handling without her help. From this letter we learn that it required divine wisdom for her to know when to leave a matter to her students to settle, and when to work it out for them. A practitioner must use wisdom in dealing with patients, so that he will know when it is right to require his patients to demonstrate for themselves, and when he should take hold.

Mrs. Eddy gives the answer to many problems that confront her followers, when she writes in this letter, “Perhaps my more spiritual thought cannot be carried out in such matters at present, wisely.” From this statement one can conclude that if he sees something that is right for the organization, he may find that it is on too high a plane to be carried out wisely at the present time. So he should willingly cooperate to carry out the next best plan. This precept does not call for the use of material processes, if demonstration does not appear to work; it merely implies that when a more spiritual way cannot be carried out, it is wise to do the next best thing, in order that harmony and unity in the ranks may prevail.

Human sense could not interpret aright the apparently contradictory moves made by our Leader. Where a problem was of such a nature that if the students failed to work it out, the result would not be serious, she encouraged them to do so, as an excellent opportunity for them to experiment and to practice, since it was necessary for their growth that they demonstrate whenever they could. Yet when it came to matters where a more mature spiritual understanding was requisite, these often had to be left to Mrs. Eddy.

It was when students relied on their human abilities, that they got into trouble. Then they had to be rebuked. This appeared to be a hard matter to human sense, to be called down for doing one's best. To spiritual sense, however, one's human best is not one's scientific best, since if it were, it would always be right. Mrs. Eddy's rebukes were intended to encourage students to dispense with their human efforts, no matter how sincere, in order to use demonstration.

When a sheep dog is driving the flock, the sheep do not know which way to go. They find out, however, because when they make a wrong move, the dog nips them or barks. Mrs. Eddy did not always tell the students the way to go, but they could learn which way was wrong, by her rebukes. If every effort they made to do things humanly was rejected by her, they might discover that the demonstrating way was what she wanted and insisted upon, even if she did not say so plainly.

In Scotland, sheep herding contests are held yearly, in order to determine the relative ability of dogs that are entered. If the group of sheep knew in advance the prescribed course over which they were to be driven, there would be no contest. Unquestionably it was divine wisdom that caused our Leader to refrain from setting forth to students the exact nature of the problems she set before them, since it was part of their spiritual growth to learn to be observant, and to receive training in analysis and diagnosis. It was as necessary for them to learn how to do everything rightly, as it was to do it. Of primary importance was the spiritual development that came to students, through the pressure Mrs. Eddy put upon them to learn and to perceive that the demonstrating way of doing everything was the only way that was acceptable to her. It was necessary growth for each one to discover this fact for himself, a growth which would have been lost, had she told each one plainly. She was a spiritual diagnostician par excel­lence, and she sought to develop this ability in her household, by requiring them to come to the conclusion through their own observation and experience, that her home was dedicated to demonstration, and only demonstration was accept­able to her.

This letter is another proof that Mrs. Eddy always advocated spirituality as the best and only way to handle materiality, since the former was not too tran­scendental to be practical. As she writes here, “You as well as I have a God to direct you.”




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

September 23, 1895

Christian Science Board of Directors

My dear Students:

I have accepted, after serious consideration, the resignation of Mr. E. P. Bates as a member of your Board, dated Aug. 30, 1895. I also recommend that you elect Judge S. J. Hanna to fill the vacancy.

Also I recommend that you elect Dr. Foster Eddy for the First Reader of our church.

God bids me fulfill the command in the Sermon of our Master, to all Christians. I ask dear Mr. Bates to give this example to the church and then God will take care of the rest, and the wrath of man will praise Him and the remaining wrath He will restrain.

The vote on the time for offices to expire must first be taken at a special church meeting. I have notified Johnson. Then you can elect as above, and show yourselves followers of Christ's com­mand.

Please say to Mr. Bates that I especially request him to nomi­nate Dr. Foster Eddy for First Reader, and have it voted on, before his resignation is accepted by the Board.

Please let me hear immediately from your Board. “What I do ye know not now but shall know hereafter.”

With love, Mother,

Mary Baker Eddy


Dr. Eddy had been pestering his mother and disturbing her thought, because he had permitted the ambition to be First Reader in The Mother Church to use him. Therefore she sent this word recommending that he be elected. He read for one Sunday and then retired. That was enough, and Judge Hanna was reinstated. In this way Mrs. Eddy wisely quenched the error. Dr. Eddy had acted like a child teasing its mother for something it wants. After one Sunday Mrs. Eddy was relieved of the mental pressure his intense desire for the position brought upon her.

It seems pathetic that Mrs. Eddy's thought was continually disturbed by error using her students and members of her household in such ways; yet thereby she was driven higher, and given a greater insight into the operation of animal magnetism.

She perceived the error in personal ambition. Furthermore she knew that high positions were never beds of roses, since they involve hard work, as well as the constant handling of animal magnetism. The self-sacrifice demanded, more than overbalances the doubtful reward of being elevated in the esteem of the Field. It is reported that Mrs. Eddy once said that the suggestion, Who shall be greatest? was an evil which first puts the person whom it uses, to sleep, and then poisons the whole system. It is thought, also, that she said, “The human sense of leadership...sets up a mind and mental activity separate from God and His idea. In other words, substitutes itself and its sense for Principle and its reflection, nnd thereby becomes a belief of another god and reflection — though sensual instead of spiritual — all error.”

From my contact with Mr. Edward Bates I can bear testimony to the fact that he was a natural executive, but that he did not always demonstrate the humility that is needed to counterbalance self-will. He was like the strong bulls of Bashan mentioned in the Psalms. When he was given a task to do, he did it with a fearlessness that was often more courageous than wise. Yet he accom­plished a vast amount for our Cause and its Leader, and she recognized it gratefully. Otherwise she never would have approved of his appointment to the Building Committee of the extension to The Mother Church seven years later.

It appeared to be Mrs. Eddy's fate in dealing with those possessing the qualities of leadership, to find other elements in them that disqualified them to take her place. Finally she learned that there was no one to be found such as she was looking for, and that it was part of the Father's plan to have it so. It was not His will that she have a personal successor, other than the spiritual idea which all are privileged to reflect. Therefore she left the way open for anyone to be her successor in reflection, who is willing to take her place listening at the telephone of God, in order to hear what He is saying that is vital and important to the growth and progress of His Cause and the world.

While she was with us, students were privileged to receive her sharp rebukes, as well as her grateful thanks for work well done. When they deviated from true metaphysics, or needed special attention, it was their necessity to receive letters from her that rebuked the error. Today these letters reveal much concerning those to whom she wrote them, and contain precepts priceless.

For instance, we find her expressing the tenderest love to Augusta Stetson. Excerpts from some of her letters to the latter are, “Yes, do all that you can for universal love, one God and the brotherhood of man. I love you as words can never tell on paper. I love you because you love good and are loyal to its pioneer....Take courage, dear heart, God loves you, Mother loves you, and evil has no more power than what you give it. We all need to know this....I cannot sufficiently thank you for what you are doing. Oh, what a child you are to watch and work so faithfully for Mother!”

Many students who believed that Mrs. Stetson was not what she should have been, have wondered at the love Mrs. Eddy expressed toward her. There were some who concluded that the latter was deceived by her, and wondered at this. Mrs. Eddy was far from being deceived by Mrs. Stetson. But just as one who is trying to place the bridle on a skittish, nervous colt, has to speak comfort­ing and coaxing words to him, and stroke him, so Mrs. Eddy had to express much love in order to win Mrs. Stetson's loyalty, since hers was the nature that was liable to bolt, the moment it felt the bridle. Mrs. Eddy kept Mrs. Stetson in line for many years, and drew forth from her much that was helpful and construc­tive, by the infinite wisdom, love and tact she used in handling her.

Now that we no longer have our Leader with us to rebuke us when we need it, we are under the necessity to rebuke ourselves, or to accept physical dis­orders as being God's rebukes, since these do not come to us unless our thought sloughs off, or slows up. When Mrs. Eddy was here, and one of her students let error overshadow his thinking, he may have thought that it was hard to receive her severe rebuke; yet today students receive similar rebukes in the form of sharp physical problems or disorders. The nearer one comes to walking the straight and narrow path of Science, the surer he is to have a quick and sharp notification, if he deviates from it.

On December 11, 1898, Mrs. Eddy wrote to Mrs. Stetson, “No one can know me really, or can see what I have to meet, or meet it for me. All are far from seeing or understanding what I am at work all the time, and in every direction, to destroy; and so I am met by all in a certain sense, with antagonism. It is the errors that my students do not see, either in themselves or others, that I am constantly confronting and at war with. If they and the world did see these errors which I do, they would take up arms against them, and I could lay down mine.”

In dealing with students Mrs. Eddy may be likened to a sergeant who has charge of a group of soldiers. It is his duty to keep them up to the highest point of efficiency, and on that account he is seldom popular. He is met with a sense of antagonism, since his demands seem unreasonable, and often foolish. When the men are lined up in dress parade, it is his duty to inspect them down to the smallest detail, not because he cares personally, but because he has been given the duty of keeping them up to the standard of the army.

God had given Mrs. Eddy the task of bringing up her students to the highest ideal possible. She could not do this without arousing to some degree the an­tagonism of the carnal mind. At the same time she never forgot to commend students for all that they did that was praiseworthy. She found some students able to take her rebukes without resentment, because they had faith that these sprang from an overwhelming spiritual love. With others the rebukes had to be sent, as it were, in a bouquet of roses; then wanting the roses, they would take the rebuke. A sample of this is a letter in which she thanks Augusta Stetson for gifts as follows: “Accept, dear one, thanks from the depths of a lone, loving heart, whom the world hath not yet half known, but which you value and seek to comfort. Please write to me relative to the meeting of some of the members of The Mother Church in your city. Strange indeed, that at this momentous hour they should have met thus, without informing me.” The deduction is that Mrs. Stetson herself was responsible for this meeting, and yet Mrs. Eddy rebuked her for it in this indirect and loving manner.

To return to the letter in question, Mrs. Eddy says that, after serious con­sideration, she has accepted the resignation of Mr. Bates as a member of the Board. With her, serious consideration meant that she must be absolutely certain whether it was a step that God required her to take. She knew that each in­dividual has a divine destiny to fulfill, and that it is his solemn necessity to discover it, since it constitutes the way and the only way to heaven for him. In finding and following it, he must never permit human desire to outweigh his determination to let the wisdom of God guide him, and to follow wherever it leads.

Such following requires utter flexibility of thought and action. When a blind man purchases a “seeing-eye” dog, he has to be trained as well as the dog. The dog is trained to lead him safely through all dangers, but he must be so responsive to the dog's slightest direction, that he has no impulses of his own. The dog sees and knows the dangers, while he does not. He must, therefore, be willing to be flexible in his action, and responsive to the dog.

In following his dog he has an advantage over a mortal striving to be led by God, since the former never imagines for a moment that he knows the path better than the dog, whereas the mortal sense in man continually rises up to declare that it can and does see the right way. Hence before one can follow God as his guide, he must realize that mortal sense cannot see the way, and so it must be silenced. He must realize that human sense knows nothing about his divine destiny, and so cannot perceive the way. Then we have the perfect combination, which our Leader exemplified, namely, one who knows that, unaided, he cannot see, and follows God who can see.

With Mrs. Eddy, therefore, serious consideration meant the determination to recognize her own inability to see, to know where God was leading her, and to follow Him, by taking the steps as He set them before her. Therefore, in con­sidering Mr. Bates' resignation, she had to decide whether he was such an important member of the Board, that error was trying to remove him, or whether demonstration was removing him in the interests of harmony. In the first in­stance, no attempt of error to accomplish its purpose should be allowed.

Mr. Bates appeared to be a strong-minded man, with whom flexibility of thought was not a strong point. Mrs. Eddy could not communicate God's com­mands to the Board and have them speedily executed, unless each member was flexible; so God indicated to her that it was a right step to accept Mr. Bates' resignation.

When she wrote, “God bids me fulfill the command in the Sermon of our Master, to all Christians,” we can assume that she meant the Golden Rule. By this statement she withdrew from all personal responsibility for accepting Mr. Bates' resignation, since God gave her the final decision. No one can ever follow her leadership or understand her life, unless he believes that she followed God. The reason everything she said and wrote is valuable, is because it came from God. One might discard much that she has written if he believed that it applied only to the situation at the time it was written, but one cannot discard anything she said or wrote that came from God, since every part of it is needed to make up the whole that comprises her life.

From the vantage point of fifty years, it would appear as if divine wisdom removed a member of the Board of Directors in whom a sense of human will still predominated, to replace him with one who had subdued that propen­sity to a greater degree. Judge Hanna was a wise and thoughtful man, but never aggressive in thrusting forth his own opinions. One could be sure that if a dif­ference of opinion arose on the Board, he would choose the conciliatory rather than the contentious way.

Mrs. Eddy's recommendation that Dr. Foster Eddy be nominated as First Reader in The Mother Church was quite a test for the Directors, since my recol­lection is that they did not regard him very highly. Mrs. Eddy had adopted him legally at God's direction. When she did, he perforce had to share in the error that was part of her destiny. Sad to say, he did not stand up under it very long. Gradually his desire to promote the Cause of Christ became submerged by an ambition to aggrandize Foster Eddy. In this demoralization we see the action of temptation as it comes to one in a high place. In his desire to be first reader was exposed the action of the temptation for self-aggrandizement. He was like a child that wants to become a great pianist because of the adulation such a one receives. The child has no knowledge of the labor and self-sacrifice in­volved. Drudgery in itself is not attractive. All Dr. Eddy saw was the picture of himself standing up as the reader, receiving the emoluments of that position. He did not perceive the drudgery of handling the animal magnetism involved, in order that he might retain his demonstrating thought through the heat of the day, and thus be able to give forth the intangible spirit as well as the tangible word to the congregation.

Truly it was a fulfillment of the Golden Rule for Mr. Bates, as his last act, to nominate Dr. Foster Eddy for first reader, but it was all part of the effort of our Leader to follow God's directions as they came to her. As a matter of fact, Judge Hanna was not put on the Board of Directors, since Dr. Eddy read in The Mother Church only one Sunday. William B. Johnson was elected to fill the vacancy left by Mr. Bates.

As I have frequently stated, one of the tests God gave many students through our Leader was to provide one with the fulfillment of his ambition, and then after a time to remove him, in order to see how he would act under such circumstances. The test of a real Christian Scientist is a willingness to take what­ever comes to him, and not be upset by it. His motto is that of the Master, “Not my will but thine be done.” No one is truly fitted to be entrusted with the higher opportunities God gives, unless he can have his human ambition either thwarted or fulfilled, and take it in the right spirit. When one has set his heart on some­thing, and just as he attains it the cup is dashed from his lips, if he can take it in a truly Christian spirit, that becomes a preparation for higher responsibilities.

When Mrs. Eddy moved her students around in various positions, she was often providing them with this test. At times she was helping them to acquire the flexibility that helps one to perceive the importance of and willingness to obey his divine destiny as it is pointed out to him.

In stating that God bade her follow the Golden Rule, Mrs. Eddy was re­assuring the Directors that she was following out the demands of God upon her, that what she did was not an expression of favoritism, nor did she militate against one student, in order to give another a chance.

In the founding of the organization God's part was to tell our Leader what to do, and her part was to see that His demands were executed without stir or chemicalization, if possible. God's part may be likened to the sun and rain, and man's part to the task of preparing and planting his garden. If he does his part faithfully, the sun and rain will bring the increase. In the instance in question Mrs. Eddy was convinced that wisdom had told her what to do, and this letter was her appeal to the Directors, so that in executing the will of God, no one would be offended. She appealed to their Christian spirit in order to achieve this end. The Golden Rule was a precept they had been brought up on, and not an acquisition that had just come to them through Science. She wisely went back to the solid foundation of the Golden Rule as the basis of conduct — the willingness to treat others as you would have them treat you.

Today we know Mrs. Eddy insisted upon having her organization governed by Principle. Nothing was too small for her to care for in letting God lead and direct the way. This attitude on her part created a human problem. She knew what God wanted done, but she had the human factor to contend with, in order to have it executed. The question was, how to appeal to her students so that they would accept without protest directions that so often ran contrary to their best human sense of things. There were instances where she was unable to do this; so she had to wait for more favorable circumstances to make it possible to establish what God told her to.

Mrs. Eddy could not merely say to her students, “God told me to do this.” They did not all believe that God always directed her. Too often they believed that these things were her own ideas, and not always very good ones. It was Mrs. Eddy's individual problem to demonstrate so that God's demands might be put forth into expression.

In dealing with her students she had to recognize human characteristics. Mr. Bates' fitness to remain as a member of the Board of Directors largely de­pended on whether he could or would readily accept everything Mrs. Eddy told this committee, and act upon it, so that all of God's demands would be speedily executed. When this point is understood, it will be seen why it was out of the question for any member who was an obstructionist, to continue in office. Mr. Johnson, who was elected in Mr. Bates' stead, never objected to anything that Mrs. Eddy desired as far as is known. Her admonition was to follow her only as she followed Christ; hence this was not necessarily blind obedience on his part.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

September 29, 1895

Mr. I. O. Knapp

My dear Student:

Under the circumstances perhaps you had better take the key of the Mother's Room into your care, but you must decide this matter. Mrs. Laura E. Sargent will be in Boston soon. Nothing would please her more than to care for my Room, but you must pay enough for this to remunerate her for the time spent.

I would let the local children contribute for flower fund for one day per week, but drop fund for keeping the lamp aflame. I had no idea you were running into debt for flowers.

With love,

Mother

M. B. E.

Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

October 29, 1895

C. S. Board Directors

Beloved Students:

I have sent Mrs. Sargent to Boston and given her directions to obtain the key that I sent to Mrs. Munroe of Mother's Room and remain subject to your orders. I ask that the salary of the one who has charge of this room be not less than $500 annually and it be paid monthly.

Also I have selected Mrs. Sargent to take charge of this room if such be the mind of this honorable body.

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy


To the world it might appear unnecessary for Mrs. Eddy to pay so much attention to the details connected with the Mother's Room as these letters reveal that she did, but it all had a deep significance. The Mother's Room was started as a right idea, and it had to be closed only when material thought misunderstood it. It was once suggested that the Board of Directors have an empty chair at all their deliberations, so that they might always think of Mrs. Eddy as occupying it, and listening to them, and approving or disapproving of what was done. While back of this suggestion was a desire to run the organization exactly as she would have wished, yet it was an unwise suggestion, since had it been done, mortal thought would have found out about it and misinterpreted it.

Mrs. Eddy's care to see that the right person had charge of her Room, indicated that its usefulness was dependent largely on the demonstration of the one who had charge of it. In order for it to fulfill a constructive purpose, the demonstration would have to be made on the side of good, that those visiting the Room would feel Mrs. Eddy's spiritual atmosphere and be healed of physical ills, as well as of any prejudice they might have towards God's anointed. If Mrs. Sargent had cared for the Room rightly — as no doubt she did — those who came to it would find themselves ushered into a better understanding of the spirit that animated Mrs. Eddy, which should animate them as well as the church. Part of the purpose of the organization is to have as many things to remind its members of Mrs. Eddy as possible, not of her personality, but of the spirit of her life and demonstration. If she had the right to repeat the Master's words, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father,” then to be reminded of her in a scientific way was to be reminded of God.

When Mrs. Eddy finally closed the Mother's Room, it was because she had learned that the Room could continue to be a blessing, only as its true purpose was maintained and protected from abuse and misunderstanding. She found that it would take the demonstration of a student like Mrs. Sargent who had known her in all walks of life to do it. No student who did not have a correct idea of Mrs. Eddy could care for the Room. This duty not only required a trained mental worker, but one who loved and understood our Leader, not only as the Revela­tor, but as the demonstrator.

It is said that when Mrs. Augusta Stetson taught a class, she had a vacant chair in the room as a reminder of our Leader. If any teacher did this today to remind the class that the teaching should be done as if Mrs. Eddy were present to give her approval, it would be a right idea, since all teaching should be done with the determination to give it in just the spirit Mrs. Eddy would want it given. But it would be a doubtful practice, since it would be liable to misunderstanding on the part of those who found out about it, and did not understand that its purpose was merely to help each pupil to go forth into the work of the organiza­tion, determined as far as possible to use and encourage others to use demonstra­tion in every direction, exactly as Mrs. Eddy wanted all members to do.

It must have saddened Mrs. Eddy when she saw material thought mis­understanding the purpose of her Room, but it was the same blindness that caused students to misunderstand her rebukes. There were times when they wished that she would let them alone, but she could not let them alone in sin, which is what all mortal mindedness was to her. She never interposed her demonstration to set aside the demonstration of one of her students; she used her demonstration merely to set aside human opinion.

When she bothered to write so carefully about the disposition of the key to the Mother's Room, we can interpret this key as having a profound significance.

She gave the world the Key to the Scriptures to instruct them in the meta­physics of the Bible, which she had discovered in this age and called Christian Science. The key to the Mother's Room was a symbol of the key to herself, that which would unlock the mystery of her life and her own demonstration. If the Bible needed a key to unlock its hidden treasures, surely her life needed one. Her Room was a symbol of her daily demonstration. It was not a guest room used on rare occasions, but the one in which she functioned day by day. The key to this Room would be that which unlocked the motivation of her daily life. When she wrote a By-law closing the Room, it was as if she finally saw that her life could never be unlocked by the human mind; and so she locked the door forever on any effort of the human mind to conceive of her rightly. She perceived that because of the superstitious and idolatrous tendency in human thought, it would always have to remain in darkness as to the motivation of her daily life. It could never be trusted with the key to her life.

This concept makes clearer the reason for Mrs. Eddy's putting in charge of the Room, one who had the most intimate knowledge and understanding of her life. By requiring that she be well paid, Mrs. Eddy was showing how important this position was. In a measure the one in charge would help to keep Mrs. Eddy in her proper relation to the Cause, by setting her right before all those who visited the Room. The Mother's Room, to fulfill a constructive purpose, must stand as a constant reminder of Mrs. Eddy's place in the Movement, as the one who gave Christian Science its initial spiritual impulsion through her demonstra­tion of its teachings.

It is worth noting that Mrs. Eddy was troubled because the church was running into debt for flowers. In the midst of working on matters of great im­port, she takes time to note a small one. All through her experience she gave strict attention to details. Ofttimes little errors unhandled have more effect in opening a way for the entrance of evil, than the big ones. To Mrs. Eddy the failure to watch the little foxes, constituted a serious deflection in a student. It is possible that error argued to Judas that his little irregularities in regard to the money bag that he carried, could be no serious deterrent to his spiritual growth, as long as he fulfilled the larger requirements of the Master's teachings; yet his failure to meet the little errors caused him to trip and lose the race.

On page 228 of Powell's life of Mrs. Eddy we find a note written to August Mann in which she says, “Pull up the strawberries — they are not in the proper place.” Accompanying Mrs. Eddy's spiritual sense was a keen appreciation of the practical. Even though she acknowledged that material sense was a deter­rent to spiritual growth, because it had mortal mind back of it, yet this did not cause her to disregard or to omit doing necessary things. On the contrary she made them part of her scientific and spiritual demonstration, and encouraged others to do so. Even with such a small detail as strawberries, she made the need of planting them in their proper place a matter of demonstration.

Mrs. Eddy's home was given over to demonstration, which is another way of saying that it was a place where every human action became an occasion for restoring spiritual sense as the basis for all thinking. Thus even to have the strawberries planted in the wrong place became a matter worthy of correction. The effort to know where God would have them planted, meant an overcoming of human opinion and human will, and an advance in the recognition of the importance of letting one's life be governed by the divine will.

Mrs. Eddy taught that the same watchfulness that causes students to be awake to the little things, will take care of the big things. To her such a simple matter as going in debt for flowers pointed to what would mean the success or failure of our Cause. One explanation for her attention to little errors, may be that she knew that material testimony reversed all things. Hence that which to material sense might seem an insignificant error, was to the metaphysician a big thing, when it came to protecting his spiritual thought from invasion and rob­bery, and retaining his determination to let God direct him in all things.

Another explanation of her care for the little things, can be drawn from electricity. When a magnet approaches a pile of iron filings, each tiny particle takes its place according to the lines of force, until perfect order is established. Divine Love was the magnet that Mrs. Eddy's demonstration brought to her home. She knew that the effect of God's government was to bring out orderliness even in so-called matter, and in the little things. Like the iron filings under the in­fluence of the magnet, everything lines up in order; one thing does not inter­fere with another; and nothing is too small to witness to this phenomenon.

Once Mrs. Eddy said, “If you seem ill, handle animal magnetism. If your joy is lost, handle animal magnetism. If your horse runs away, handle animal magnetism. If you stub your toe, if your house is on fire, handle animal mag­netism.” One conclusion from such statements is that a small wire will connect one's house with the source of electrical power as well as a large wire. In the metaphysical realm we must conclude that the claim of universal false law or belief may touch one through a small medium or happening, as well as through a large. A genuine metaphysician watches lest he be robbed of his spiritual thought. He knows that the claim of robbery may touch him through the stubbing of his toe as readily and stealthily as through his house being on fire.




(Telegram)

Received at 147 Mass. Ave., September 30, 1895

Dated Concord, N. H. 30

To Jos. Armstrong

Care Board of Directors

95 Falmouth St.

Re-elect the same president.

M. B. Eddy

(Telegram)

Received at 86 Mass. Ave., October 1, 1895

Dated Concord, N. H. 1

To E. P. Bates

97 Falmouth St.

I telegraphed yesterday re-elect Bates. Tell Armstrong to get express letter sent yesterday this noon sure.

M. B. Eddy


Mrs. Eddy adopted rotation in office as the result of her demonstration of divine wisdom and guidance. It is an ideal that is desirable in Christian Science. A dictator who assumes the position of sole guide, mentor and judge of a nation, may cause the nation to prosper during his lifetime, but he offers it no future security, since there is no guarantee of an adequate successor. In Christian Science, where each individual is called upon to measure up to the demands of God, it is essential to extend to as many as possible the privilege and oppor­tunity of taking positions where they will develop initiative, as well as gain faith in their own ability to function under demonstration.

The possibility of people being swayed by the thinking of the mass is lessened as individual and independent thinking is encouraged, since in­dependent thinkers protest against mob mesmerism. Carlyle said, “Great is the combined voice of men; he who can resist that, has his footing somewhere beyond time.” Rotation in office even in human affairs, helps to develop many individuals along independent lines of thought. In the Colonial days the superiority of the American troops over the British came in some degree from the training the former had had in Indian wars, where each soldier had to be a unit and follow his best judgment, in contrast to fighting under mass direction, which characterized the British way of warfare.

Once our Leader instructed me to write a letter to Second Church of Christ, Scientist, New York City, giving them permission to re-elect the former First Reader, and stating that if they had no candidate for that position who could express the dignity of Christian Science, it was better to re-elect the present incumbent. The reply to this letter by John Lathrop may be found on page 378 of the Sentinel, Vol. VIII. In this letter he thanks Mrs. Eddy for waiving the rule of “rotation in office,” and bows to her higher wisdom.

As Mrs. Eddy dictated her letter to Mr. Lathrop, she stated that the Manual was not intended to limit growth or demonstration, but to constitute a help to the budding thought, so that it might expand in the right direction. She did not purpose that students adhere rigidly to the letter of the law, if thereby hardship was placed on the Cause and the public was made to suffer.

In 1895 the Manual stated plainly that the President of The Mother Church was to hold his office for one year only; but Mrs. Eddy was guided by divine wisdom, and she knew when to follow the written rules and when to claim an exemption. She knew that the rule of progress was rotation in office; but that wisdom provided an addendum to that demand, so that if no suitable candidate could be found, the incumbent might continue.

There are entrances to a ball park which the public is expected to use; yet when an official of the park arrives, he is admitted through a private gate. Mrs. Eddy formulated By-laws which were designed for the Field at large, in order that they might be hedged about by restrictions, where discipline could be enforced without creating too great a hardship. Yet when it seemed the part of wisdom, Mrs. Eddy waived the rules, so that an incumbent might continue in office, provided it would not create too much criticism.

Edward P. Bates was a very capable man. He had a background of achieve­ment and education that would naturally tempt him to have less patience with those in our Cause who had had less opportunities than he. He had been sig­nally honored by the United States government by being selected to represent his country in Europe, at a meeting of an international engineering society. Such a man finds it difficult to associate with men of more humble attainments, like Mr. Johnson, Mr. Chase and Mr. Armstrong.

Mrs. Eddy selected many students for office, whose previous education and training apparently had not fitted them for the work they were called upon to do; so they had to rely on the demonstration of divine wisdom.

It is obvious that the more humanly capable one is before being elected to such office, the less it is liable to occur to him that he cannot serve unless he receives a great amount of help from God. When the human mind has received a high degree of training and development, in that proportion it loses humility. Yet Mrs. Eddy once wrote to Maria Newcombe, “It is by humility that mortals reach the exaltation of understanding God as in Christian Science.” The humble ones who feel inadequate are those that are driven to seek God's help, because of their inability to accomplish from the human standpoint, what they are called upon to do.

The fact that Mr. Bates had been such a big man humanly was in this sense a handicap. He might be likened to a great engine that could turn out an im­mense amount of work as long as it was being used; but which would rack itself to pieces if given no work. When Mr. Bates had no specific work to do, his very energy of thought that was trained to activity, became a deterrent, on the basis of the old adage, “Satan finds mischief (malpractice) for idle hands (minds) to do.”

Mr. Bates needed large responsibilities in order to keep on an even keel, and it may be for this reason that Mrs. Eddy continued him in the office of president. He loved having a task where he was confronted with obstacles that he could over-ride. Yet he could be handled by animal magnetism when he had nothing to do. He reminded one of a hunting dog that is miserable and makes trouble, if he is kept idle in his kennel; but the moment he is put in the chase, he is happy and performs magnificently.

The fact that at times Mrs. Eddy waived her own By-laws needs careful explanation. Apparently she felt that the need of doing something God told her to do in an emergency, was more compelling than the By-law which forbad it. The conclusion is that the only one with the right to negative a By-law is God Himself. It is correct to say that He made them and that He can break them. Logically if God should direct a student to do that which was not in accord with the Manual, if he demonstrated so that he was certain that the demand came from God, he should obey, and not let the Manual stand in the way of his obedience to God. Practically it is inconceivable that such an occasion would ever arise again; yet it came to Mrs. Eddy. At those times when she apparently acted contrary to the Manual, she showed what the only possible exceptions to it could ever be, so that all thoughtful students would understand that one's obligations to God are always of prime importance, and that the direct demands from Him come even ahead of His rules as stated in the Manual.

While Mrs. Eddy wrote the Manual through demonstration and inspiration of divine Mind, yet she left a precedent for the By-laws to be over-ruled where demonstration demanded it. It is true that the Manual represents the demands of God upon Christian Scientists for all time to come; yet if God demanded an obedience of a student that was in a direction that caused a By-law to be over­ruled, that would be legitimate.

When Mrs. Eddy waived a By-law, she was acting under divine wisdom. Therefore it becomes an important part of church history to know this, since it shows that it is conceivable that circumstances might arise that would justify waiving portions of the Manual, but beware of human opinion and God's wrath.

When Mrs. Eddy consented to have John Lathrop read another term, it was a concession to the times. Today thought has expanded to the point where at times we are amazed and astonished to see members who have never attracted our attention, and who from the human standpoint seem inadequate for the posi­tion of reader, rise to the occasion under the necessities laid upon them and read acceptably.

Had Mrs. Eddy been writing to Mr. Lathrop today she might have said, “Let God direct you, and do not fear that the one He selects will fail to do the work acceptably. Even if the candidate has never done anything of the kind before, with the spiritual support of the church he will be able lo read well.”

In 1905 there was still the memory that the minister of a church required years of theological training and public speaking. In order to deliver an ac­ceptable sermon, he had to be a profound student. It is my impression that Mrs. Eddy yielded at that time to the limited sense of members, that readers must be old students who had been taught by her, teachers, practitioners, or those who were outstanding in their testimonies, indicating their ability to speak and read acceptably. She did not want to recommend a candidate who would be limited by the malpractice of the congregation, feeling convinced of his inadequacy. Yet today thought has grown to the place where many churches feel that humble members will be found adequate to read, when they receive the support of the membership. It has become proverbial that anyone the church supports mentally will be adequate for the position, if they are true Christian Scientists at heart. Time and time again one is surprised at the undeveloped material in the church that under mental support blossoms into splendid readers.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

October 1, 1895

My dear Student:

I knew that I erased much of that By-law but thought I left enough to be understood.

Sometimes when Mary would get out of sight, her heavenly Father returns her to the scenes. This is one such instance. Please print it.

With love,

M. B. Eddy


From this simple letter we learn that a human estimate of the relative im­portance of things is not reliable. For instance, at times we may feel that the handling of our own problem is the most important thing. Then we discover that error's intent was to keep our nose to the grindstone, so that we would neglect that which in God's sight was more important work.

When I was called to our beloved Leader's home, God called me to cov­enant with Him that while there I would never treat myself for sickness. At the time I did not know the whys and wherefores of this demand. It came to me as a solemn charge, that I fulfilled faithfully. When I felt a need to work for my own health, I turned my thought to pray for all mankind, for the sick and helpless, for those ignorant of the fact that they had a heavenly Father to care for them. I tried to feel that God's blessing was flowing through me to reach the world. After returning from these mental journeys, I always found myself well.

It was not until after the year was over that it became clear that, had I been unfaithful to this charge, error would have kept me working for myself physi­cally so much, that I would have had to neglect the work for our Leader. I would have had to use a portion of my time for myself, instead of putting it all at her disposal. As it was, I never neglected her work. In all the hours of mental work which she gave me to do — sometimes as many as nine hours in the day — I never “short changed” her as much as five minutes.

As a matter of fact, the alert student always recognizes that the larger work for humanity is the most important obligation laid upon him, and if he finds it necessary to neglect himself in doing this larger work, he will find himself blessed for such unselfish-ness. Often animal magnetism tempts the worker to regard his own problems as of prime importance, so that he will neglect larger issues.

This letter refers to a By-law which Mrs. Eddy was required to draw up at this time, and which may be found on page 384 of the Journal, Vol. 13. It relates to the founding of branch churches, and the maintenance of harmony among them.1 Perhaps Mrs. Eddy felt that this By-law related to details that she wanted to have out of the way as quickly as possible, so that she might return to more important work. When she wrote, “Sometimes when Mary would get out of sight, her heavenly Father returns her to the scenes,” she indicated that she had hastened to put this By-law and matters pertaining to it out of thought, so that she could resume what she felt was larger service and more spiritual activity; but her heavenly Father made her come back, as if to say, “Mary, you must work over these By-laws until they are right — until they are as simply stated and as easily understood as it is possible to make them, since they are of great importance. Then the human sense in students will see how valuable they are, and their spiritual sense will comprehend their true significance; then they will hasten to obey them as they should be obeyed.''

When it comes to matters that concern conduct, or the business of the organization; when it comes to handling animal magnetism or to understanding Mrs. Eddy's life, the suggestion is present that human knowledge is adequate. Often uninspired thought feels that it is perfectly capable with its human equip­ment of judging correctly Mrs. Eddy's action. One with a knowledge of the letter of Science feels able to expose and handle the claim of evil. He believes that he can successfully understand and obey the Manual. This is not true. The human mind deserves nothing more than to be called “the mind that always misunderstands,” since that is what it always does. It is never reliable. All of these matters noted above require spiritual understanding in order to be com­prehended. A knowledge of the letter is not sufficient. If there is anything in Christian Science that needs spiritual contemplation and pondering, it is a By-law that on the surface applies merely to conduct.

The divine or final purpose expressed in the Manual, is not merely to bring the human mind up to a standard of goodness, but to prepare it for burial. Unless one realizes this, he may give up drinking tea and coffee for instance, because Mrs. Eddy mentions them in Science and Health, and then feel that in some way he is better mentally, morally or spiritually. The right attitude is to appreciate that one is freer to lose the human mind in divine Mind, after the claim of habits has been dislodged from it.

The human mind might be called a “pump primer.” Often before a pump will bring up the cool clear water from the depths, it has to be primed with water that is not of itself fit to drink. The human mind instructed in the letter of Truth can be of benefit in helping one to reflect divine Mind; but when divine Mind floods in, the human mind is lost sight of.

This illustration will help to neutralize the impression that Mrs. Eddy's own mind was highly spiritualized, that through her years of devotion to good it had become spiritualized far above that of any mortal; so that she was able to do what she did. This was not true. She was able to do what she did wholly through divine Mind. She used her so-called human mind only as a “pump primer.” What she gave forth to the Cause and the world was divine Mind. When one watches a pump, he might see no way of distinguishing between the priming water and the well water. Hence one might question how we can know that it was divine Mind that Mrs. Eddy gave forth. The answer is that since the Mind she used was found to be correct, infallible and adequate, we must con­clude it was divine Mind. Yet uninspired thought might assume that it was her own mind, — purified and spiritualized in Christian Science, to be sure, but still her mind.

One could not blame our Leader for feeling that the higher work she was doing was more important than framing a By-law, and that she would frame the law quickly, so that she might return to the higher work. But God compelled her to come back out of the higher communion, and complete the demonstration which appertained to the human mind and its discipline.

It is a grave error for a member to fancy that the Manual is a book, the only purpose of which is to control the action of Christian Scientists and the Cause. It has in addition a profound spiritual intent and meaning. It was written through inspiration, and Mrs. Eddy has told us that whatever came through inspiration, needs inspiration in order to be understood.

This short and simple letter from our Leader proves that at times God makes demands upon us that relate to things which seem less important in our eyes, but are important in His sight until they are rightly completed. When a foundation for a house is being laid in soft ground, it may seem tedious to have to drive in spiles until a solid base is formed, but the future of the house depends upon the conscientious way in which this preliminary work is done. Mrs. Eddy was driving spiles when she wrote By-laws, which were creating a solid founda­tion for her Cause to rest upon.

When human sense fancies that it should be able to understand spiritual revelation, it is mistaken. Part of one's spiritual growth springs from his effort to understand spiritually that which is obscure to human sense, even when imbued with a knowledge of the letter of Christian Science.

In the book of Daniel the king's dreams, as they are recorded, are dark and obscure in meaning. Yet when Daniel interprets them spiritually, his inter­pretations seem as obscure as the dreams themselves. We deduce that nearness to God does not bring a simplification of revelation to an intellectual sense. When it is once seen that the effort to interpret brings spiritual growth, it is clear that obscurity is valuable in driving human sense out of itself.

Often people complain, wishing that things in Science might be made clearer. They wonder why in the great mercy of God, the Bible was not made more comprehensible. Yet the fact about the Bible is, that it is dispensing growth, as well as knowledge, and growth comes from difficulties in the way of interpretation surmounted, difficulties which force one to seek enlightenment from the unfailing source of all intelligence.

Often the Directors were fearful lest they misinterpret Mrs. Eddy's instruc­tions and By-laws; so they wrote her for confirmation and explanation, when they would have gained more growth, had they sought to interpret for themselves that which was obscure to human sense, but clear to divine Mind.

When Mrs. Eddy wrote the By-law in question, her thought was clear; but to the Board the human medium through which her thought was expressed was not comprehensible. Yet spiritual thought would have enabled them to trace back to Mind and to learn what her intent was, without requiring further effort from her.

The literalist never gains spiritual growth, since he demands that everything be simplified to human sense. He wants words to mean just what they say. He is the one who would declare that Mrs. Eddy was confused in thought, when she wrote some of the things that appeared to be obscure.

Thus it was that sometimes when Mary would get out of sight, so that God could talk through her, she was called back to clarify what had been revealed through her, because students were incapable of understanding.

Once when Mrs. Eddy was giving a lecture on Christian Science, she stop­ped and asked everyone in the audience who understood her, to stand. Not one person stood up (See page 20 of Mr. Powell's book). She taught profoundly in her early classes, confident that pupils would be able to understand her revela­tions, but they failed to do so at times. Finally Mary had to return to the scenes, as she says in this letter, and reduce the revelation to the comprehension of students who were more or less limited in their capacity to understand. As a matter of fact, one might say that she spent over thirty-five years in stating her revelation in the clearest and simplest way. This was Mary's part, although even this part was performed through inspirational rather than intellectual effort.

In her unpublished book, Footprints Fadeless, she wrote: “In my revisions of Science and Health, its entire key-note has grown steadily clearer, and louder, and sweeter. Not a single vibration of its melodious strings has been lost. I have more and more clearly elucidated my subject as year after year has flown, until now its claims may not be misunderstood. Was Newton capable of satisfactorily stating the laws of gravitation when first he discovered that ponderous principle? Much less could I, at first, formulate and express the infinite Principle and the divine Laws of which God gave me the first faint gleam in my hour of physical agony and mental illumination.”




Please read this to the full Board

Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

October 8, 1895

My dear Board of Directors:

Mr. Chase is a precious Christian Scientist, he is my student, and I see no cause for auditing his accounts. But if a fight is waged because of my confidence in him, you have the By-laws of our church, and the church, not I, must settle this question.

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy

N. B. I open this letter to say, Let the clock be silent till God speaks and tells you when to restore its speech. Let the chemical produced by it subside. Say nothing of what I write. But when the time comes let the clock strike the hour at 7 in the morning, at 12 M., at 6 P.M. No more. When this shall be done I cannot say, but God will tell me when it is right to have it strike again.

With love,

Mother

I open again this letter to say, Do your mental duty towards the Editor of the Herald and counteract the effect on the press. “These things ought ye to have done and not to have left the other undone,” are the words of our Master.

M. B. E.


It was never divulged what the trouble with Mr. Chase's accounts was, but one feature that aroused suspicion was the fact, that as the treasurer he did not give a detailed account of receipts and expenditures of the Building Fund at the Annual Meeting that took place October 13. There is a reference to this matter in Miscellaneous Writings, pages 129-131. Mrs. Eddy was aware of the service he had performed for her and the Movement. She knew that if he had done anything that was questionable, he had done it under the impulse of animal magnetism, which was in no way a measure of his devotion to her and to the Cause.

In his reminiscences Calvin C. Hill mentions a time when the Directors were in dispute about Mr. Chase and wanted to remove him from office. He does not name the date. He merely writes, “Mrs. Eddy told me about it and asked me what I thought about Mr. Chase. I said, ‘I believe that he is the most honest one of the whole lot.' Mrs. Eddy then closed one hand and with a wide sweep placed it in the other hand, saying as she did so, ‘I would bank my life on Stephen A. Chase.'” Mr. Hill goes on to say that he told the Directors of this talk with Mrs. Eddy when Mr. Chase was actually present.

Mrs. Eddy was so practical in her application of Science that she imperson­alized error and never condemned persons. Her faith in Mr. Chase was not misplaced. Whatever good he had accomplished was credited to his account, and nothing was ever held against him. He dearly loved his Leader and wanted to talk about her constantly. I have seen tears come to his eyes many times as he did so, because of his loving and appreciative thought of her. This childlike loyalty was a rare quality, and Mrs. Eddy valued it.

It was Mrs. Eddy's necessity growing out of her Christly love, to protect the lambs that needed protection. In Matt. 12:20 we read, “A bruised reed shall he not break, and smoking flax shall he not quench, till he send forth judgment unto victory.” Analysis of this statement will show that Mrs. Eddy regarded Mr. Chase as a bruised reed, and she was careful that he should not be broken.

When Peter denied the Master, he yielded to the influence of evil inad­vertently; so he was a bruised reed, in contrast to Judas who was harboring evil in the name of good. Peter was subject to the fiery darts of the evil one, because of the good he was accomplishing; but he was not a wilful sinner.

On the other hand, Judas had been harboring phases of the human mind that seemed good to him, and nothing but the fire of suffering would awaken him to see the error of his way, and thus rouse him to reformation. He was a smoking flax that should not be quenched, until the fire of purification had done its work.

Thus the Master's statement is a call to use spiritual judgment in dealing with mortals, lest on the one hand we seek to break one who has already been bruised by error, or on the other to “spare through false pity the consuming tares,” as Mrs. Eddy writes on page 18 of her Message for 1902.

Once the wife of a practitioner and teacher felt that, because he was impractical in relation to money matters, she must take hold on the basis that someone had to be practical in the family, if they were to get along. It was as if she said, “We may be Christian Scientists and Mrs. Eddy's students, but someone has to keep his feet on the ground, if this family is going to continue to eat!” In this “practical” attitude she was harboring a phase of the human mind in the name of good, since it finally proved to be the Judas which betrayed her.

Judas had charge of the money bag for Jesus and his disciples. Evidently he was considered to be a trustworthy student. Perhaps he was highly regarded by the others for the efficient way in which he safeguarded their funds. It is possible that he regarded his scheme to obtain thirty pieces of silver for the little band as evidence of his practical-mindedness, an act that would not harm the Master at all. He may have been as surprised as the rest at the awful conse­quences of his deed, which exposed to him how he had been harboring evil in the name of good.

This “practical” sense which he harbored, which was uncondemned and hence nurtured, caused him to become a smoking flax, since the fire of suffering was the only way he could be aroused to the nature of the error he had cherished.

Had Mr. Chase's error been of this nature, Mrs. Eddy's spiritual judgment would have detected it and given it the needed rebuke; but she perceived that he was a bruised reed, and she watched over him tenderly, calling him a precious Christian Scientist, lest he be broken by mortal mind's erring and superficial judgment.

Mrs. Eddy harbored no remnant of old theology. She had respect for honest persons who lived up to what they believed, but she never let error trick her into condemning a student or casting him out, merely because he had been temporarily tricked by animal magnetism.

When she judged a student, she weighed all his accomplishments. Mr. Chase had fulfilled to a great degree what Mrs. Eddy expected of him. She needed affection, loyalty and obedience in the early students, far more than a self-assurance and intellectuality which enabled them to stand up with faith in their own ability and attainments, so that at times they might oppose what God was advocating through her.

In Genesis 9 we read about Noah becoming drunk. His sons, Shem and Japheth, knew that their father was a good man, and that this lapse was not wilful sin. So they helped to protect him against the error; whereas the youngest son, Ham, indulged in malpractice upon the father for which he was punished. It is a false theological tendency in mortal thought that would take a single departure from the right path in a person's life, emphasize it, and start everyone gossiping about it, until it becomes a millstone around the neck of the poor victim.

It is reasonable to suppose that the fellow Directors of Mr. Chase felt that they had evidence that things were not entirely right in his accounts; otherwise they would not have insisted that they be audited. According to Mrs. Eddy's method of dealing with the situation, the error, whatever it was, was healed, and Mr. Chase's long and faithful term of service had its proper appreciation and reward.

I shall always believe that Mrs. Eddy had a prescience of what might happen to Calvin Frye, when he was left without her daily protection. She left letters which indicated how she hoped the Field would think about him. She went out of her way to ask the Executive Members to deal justly with him and to appreciate his services. Yet many students did what Mrs. Eddy described on page 129 of Miscellaneous Writings. They ballooned an atom of his indiscretion, inflated it, and sent it into the atmosphere of mortal mind — for other green eyes to gaze on. They took a man who had spent twenty-eight years of his life in giving the most valuable kind of service to his Leader, and criticized him for what he did during a brief period under conditions which he was wholly unprepared to meet, because he knew so little about the world's pressure. Mrs. Eddy had taken care of him for so many years, that he doubtless assumed that her demonstra­tion of protection was his own. Furthermore, he had sin's revenge on its destroyer to handle, as the result of the grand work he had done for his Leader and the Cause.

Sometimes a reader will find the period after his term of service a more difficult time, than he did the actual reading. This is because while reading he is alert to meet whatever presents itself, since he recognizes that the devil is at his heels. When the term of service is over, however, the error continues for a season, whereas his efforts are apt to lag, since he feels that his work is done. After Mrs. Eddy passed on, Mr. Frye still had the same error for a time to meet as the result of his position, without the incentive and impetus to keep working. Without the help of his Leader, he slowed up.

After a horse has put in a hard working day in harness, the moment the harness is taken off and he is let loose in the field, he will prance and roll and kick, as an expression of relief. While Mr. Frye was in the harness he never did one thing that disqualified him in Mrs. Eddy's eyes — never kicked over the traces, as it were. It was only when his life-work with his Leader was completed that he did that which brought him under criticism. He came under the temptation to celebrate, as all mortals do, when they are released from a heavy strain or burden.

Mrs. Eddy knew that there was no lack of love or loyalty for her in Mr. Chase. No matter what might take place in his relationship to the Church, the cord that bound him to her was not severed. So she wrote that he was a precious Christian Scientist, and ordered that her letter be read to the full Board, so that he would hear it and know that she was supporting him. Hence if his fellow Directors saw fit to call him to account, he would know that his Leader had no hand in it.

There have been students who, when the cord of loyalty to Mrs. Eddy had been almost severed, have continued in the Movement, high in the esteem of many, even though in their hearts they have criticized their Leader because they fancied that through her materiality (as it seemed to them) she failed to live up to the standard of Christian Science. Mrs. Eddy counted it as righteous­ness to Mr. Chase because he retained his implicit faith in her. She saw that whatever he had done, it was because he was temporarily handled by animal magnetism, and not because there was a basic error in his make-up.

This letter makes it clear that Mrs. Eddy would not oppose the determination of the Board to act against Mr. Chase, if they so voted; yet if they had any faith in her wisdom, if they had any respect for her scientific method of discipline, they would listen to this letter and follow it. In it Mrs. Eddy not only sought to direct their action at that time, but to form a precept for all time as to how we should deal with those who inadvertently yield to the claim of animal mag­netism, yet who still remain loyal toward their Leader and her teachings and organization. All students have been handled at times by this claim; this should make them tolerant of others, especially since they are obligated before God to help their brother man. When a member has been handled, and his brother members refuse to help to free him from the error he is under, that is sure proof that the members themselves are handled. They are not functioning as real Christian Scientists.

The work of the Christian Scientist is to help to free others from the foils of animal magnetism. If one has been thus freed, and yields again, in some other direction, that were no occasion for turning around and condemning him, when the Master tells us to forgive seventy times seven. This is equivalent to saying that we should continue to help those who repeatedly yield to error until after employing the most loving methods, we are convinced by their refusal to accept help and their unwillingness to change, that there is nothing left for them but to find out through suffering the penalty such yielding brings.

As a student of Mrs. Eddy and a member of the Board of Directors, Mr. Chase was always encouraging his fellow-members to follow whatever Mrs. Eddy recommended, and to help her establish the Cause in whatever way God directed. His very strength on this important point of helping to keep the others appreciative and loving toward Mrs. Eddy, would cause him to be a special target for the shafts of error.

When a man has worked hard to build a ship, and it is successfully launch­ed, he may celebrate by getting drunk; that is not as serious a deflection as if he had done so while he was needed on the job. It is a natural reaction in mortal mind, when it has worked hard, to want to do something exciting and wild. Yet such is the nature of this carnal mentality, that the world will forget a life of good works in condemning one indiscretion.

Reading between the lines in the N. B. to this letter, in which she says, “Let the clock be silent until God speaks...,” one might say that she was calling on the Directors to handle the human sense of time, since it represents the method by which mortal mind perpetuates its illusions. It indicates the relentless hand of fate taking all mortals down to their destiny — the grave. When a man is condemned to die in one hour, the clock does not slow up out of consideration for him. It beats out its measures inexorably.

One can perceive that the same material law so-called that gives us time, was demanding that Mr. Chase be investigated and punished, if it was found that he had mismanaged the funds. The fact that he was one who was precious in Mrs. Eddy's sight made no difference. Human justice says that if you let one man off, when he has done wrong, — even though his life otherwise has been full of good works, — you condone sin and thereby open the way for and en­courage others to do wrong, because they then feel that they can sin and not be punished. As an example to frighten others and keep them honest, one who has been dishonest must be investigated and punished, even though he be the President of the United States. This was not our Leader's way.

Mrs. Eddy wrote them that God would tell her when it was right to have the clock strike again. When that time came, it was to strike only at seven in the morning, at twelve noon, and at six P. M. This indicates symbolically that Mrs. Eddy was not telling them to overthrow the sense of time entirely, since, when we take advantage of it properly, we can use it in putting off mortality. The error comes when we let time take advantage of us. A man who goes out in a rowboat with an outboard motor, also takes along a pair of oars. So students should not discard all human props until their work for God is finished. We are not ready to break up the human sense of time entirely. So Mrs. Eddy told them to retain the three important points of time, when mortals begin their work, when they stop for lunch, and when they quit at night.

Mrs. Eddy made this solemn plea to the Directors not to judge Mr. Chase according to the inexorable law of mortal judgment that carries no affection, nor consideration, — no spiritual insight or truth. It is just a claim of law that crushes mortals as relentlessly as the pendulum of a clock beats out the time. She wrote them to let the clock be silent. While she meant the clock in The Mother Church, one may also catch the thought that the Directors were to put the human significance of time out of thought, since in Science we have entered into a new sense of things, in which all material law is relegated to a minor place pending its annihilation, and mortals begin to function according to God's methods, time, and love.

It is interesting to note, according to this letter, that although Mrs. Eddy wrote the By-laws, she came under them, except at such times when God over­ruled them. She was the wayshower and example for all. One of the necessary things for her to do was to show her desire and willingness to function under the By-laws herself, unless God guided her to do otherwise. When He did, she was superior to the Manual; although she never disobeyed the By-laws to suit her own whims. In this letter she sets forth how she would handle the situation. Then she states that if her confidence in Mr. Chase causes a fight to be waged, the members have the By-laws to go by.

One would desire to linger on this letter, since it lays down the precept of Christly tolerance, that students should ponder deeply before condemning anyone. It is a call for them to make a practical application of their religion, and to be consistent. If sin and sickness are alike unreal, and the same method heals both, they should not depart from this rule, merely because sin appears in a new guise. Does a student endeavor to make sickness unreal because it in­volves suffering, and does not offend his moral sense; and then does he make sin real, because his moral sense is offended? Mrs. Eddy declares, “You heal disease by knowing there is none; you heal sin the same way.” We must never depart from this rule.

With Mrs. Eddy's probity and strict sense of morality, one would expect that she would have been offended with Mr. Chase for having mismanaged the church funds — if that was what he did. She was often scathing in her rebuke for offences which seemed far less flagrant than this. Mrs. Eddy was a Christian Scientist. She was not like students who, when something comes along that offends them, forget that they are Scientists, and indulge in the same con­demnation toward the erring ones that mortals do who have no knowledge of the right way.

This letter gave the Directors a chance to be governed by Christly love; if they could not be, they must be governed by law — the law which Mrs. Eddy had laid down and sought to make as righteous and just as possible. Yet she knew that love was the Christianly scientific way, since Love is the redeemer, while law merely disciplines.

When this letter is considered as a whole, its three parts are seen to be an effort on Mrs. Eddy's part to protect the Cause from criticism. Had Mr. Chase's accounts been audited and found awry, the matter would have had to be made pub­lic, and in this way, criticism would descend upon the Cause. In the case of the clock, she wanted the chemical produced by the chimes to subside, before its speech was restored. To her the public represented possible future members of her church, and she desired the church to do nothing that might offend anyone.

Finally she desired the students to do their “mental duty towards the Editor of the Herald and counteract the effect on the press.” While it was right to make a protest against his maligning something as good as Christian Science, yet they must do their mental duty in knowing that animal magnetism could not use anyone to harm God's Cause.

One untutored in Christian Science might interpret this “mental duty” as an attempted manipulation of the thought of the Editor, but Mrs. Eddy was merely calling for demonstration. The only successful way prejudice toward Christian Science can be lifted, and its spread be prevented, is by a mental process. Yet she had to be careful lest the world accuse her of using hypnotism; but she recognized no condition of error as beyond the reach of Mind. Where erroneous states of thought existed, she knew that Mind could neutralize and correct them.

Thus this “mental duty” toward the Editor was the effort to eliminate from his thought a prejudice against Christian Science, arising from the mesmerism that was causing him to believe that Science was something that was bad for people, that its purpose was not good, and that it was a graft in which healers tried to defraud the public. Mrs. Eddy knew that anything that appeared in the Herald against Science, would be the result of an unrighteous prejudice which had no reason to exist, since it was based on falsity and illusion. It being wholly a creation of mesmerism, Mrs. Eddy had a right to challenge and destroy it, and to demand her students to do likewise.

At the same time she expected her students to make the demonstration to have articles that were favorable to Science printed in the papers, to counteract the effect of the Herald's article on the press, since when a statement is issued and denied, other papers are not so apt to copy and spread it.

It is well for those who keep watch over our Cause, to remember that they watch the press largely to keep the outlets free and open through which the truth should be dispensed. Mrs. Eddy considered the Committee on Publication the most important office in our church, not just because it was instrumental in silencing attacks against Science, but because through this office the truth reached the world. Such officers of our denomination must be watchful that they themselves do not put forth the truth in a form that cannot be understood, and that might provoke prejudice. A truth set forth unwisely may be as bad as an attack or a misrepresentation. Mrs. Eddy wanted Science set before the world in such a way that everyone might have the privilege of knowing what it is. Then if one declines it, it will not be because of prejudice due to misrepresentation.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

October 10, 1895

My dear Student:

First business of your Church meeting is to adopt the enclosed By-laws. Then close the meeting by adjourning to meet in Concord at my house the same day, October 13, and afterwards in Boston. Bring all the members but Dr. Foster-Eddy with you; he cannot come.

N. B. I charge you to say nothing of this last till your meeting convenes.

If the circumstances admit of any change in this program I will let you know in time.

With love,

Mary Baker Eddy


Dr. Foster Eddy more or less played the part of a present-day Judas. We are all Judases, in that we all have faults that need to be overcome. There are faults that resist and close the door on Truth, more than others. A fault may be called a “Judas fault” when a student harbors it, because he does not see or acknowl­edge the need of demonstrating over it.

The Bible indicates that it was Judas' love of money that betrayed him. He saw no harm in retaining an appreciation of its value and purchasing power, as well as of his practical ability in handling it. It was as if he felt that this trait fitted in with his spiritual activities, enabling him to be the one who watched over the finances of the disciples; so he did not handle the error, and finally it became the obstacle that shut him off from God.

Every student of Mrs. Eddy who failed, who became disloyal or who went apart in paths devious, did so because of human traits that they could or would not see were inimical to spiritual progress. Finally these errors created a de­terrent that barred further progress. Knowing this fact students should look themselves over for any lurking “Judas faults.” As Mrs. Eddy writes on page 128 of Miscellany, “Ofttimes examine yourselves, and see if there be found anywhere a deterrent of Truth and Love, and ‘hold fast that which is good.'”

Students must be scientific in thinking about Judas. Animal magnetism betrayed the Master, but Judas was himself betrayed by unhandled animal magnetism. Human law, in demanding penalty, takes into consideration the fact that if a man was drunk when he committed a crime, he is sentenced more for getting drunk, than he is for what he did while in that state. It may be said that Judas became drunk and betrayed his Master. When he awoke from his drunkenness, he was so conscience-stricken that he committed suicide. He could not bear to have that dreadful experience haunting his memory and staring him in the face. His self-destruction indicates that he had a genuine affection and appreciation for the Master. When he found that he had been the means of betraying him, he could no longer endure to live.

Had Judas been a secret sinner, he would have joined the enemies of the Master openly and profited by the money he had received. His retribution proved that when he betrayed Jesus he was in a state of mental drunkenness, and that what he did was the result of mesmerism. He acted under the impulsion of animal magnetism in the first instance; then when he realized what he had done, he acted under a secondary form of animal magnetism and committed suicide.

Mrs. Eddy's history shows that she was true to her own teachings, and that when a student did wrong, she laid the sin at the door of animal magnetism. It was her custom to give such a one every chance to reform, by giving him mental help, as well as instruction and warning, so that there would be no recurrence of the error. If the erring one did not take her warning, and continually turned away from her admonitions — persisted in yielding to this influence — he finally had to pay the penalty and be banished from the ranks of Christian Scientists.

Dr. Eddy — sad to relate — reached the point where his adopted mother found it necessary to deal with him, by calling a meeting of the First Members to which he was not permitted to come. Thus he did not even have a chance to raise his voice in protest against what went on. It was a delicate situation, since Mrs. Eddy did not care to have his errors and deflections discussed to his face.

In requesting the members to meet by adjourning to her home, she showed that she did not wholly trust them to handle this matter in such a way, that the error would not be personalized. She wanted no criticism as to the metaphysics used in the treatment of her son. She did not want future generations to have a chance to look back and to feel that Dr. Eddy was treated in an unscientific way, since such a mistake would reflect on her and her teachings.

In law the phrase, nuisance value, is commonly used. Judas had a nuisance value in that he illustrated for all the suffering and punishment that must surely follow unhandled error of any sort. Also, by contrast, he caused the faithfulness of the other disciples to stand out in greater relief. Had it not been for Judas we might believe that, under the Master's watch and care, it was easy to demonstrate good. In like manner one might believe that it was a simple matter to be a good Christian Scientist, when one lived with our Leader; whereas her history proves that students in her home were often subject to phases of error intended to render them spiritually useless, which were more subtle than those that they would have encountered in their ordinary run of experience. The reason for this was because the greater opportunity to do good that being in the Leader's home offered, aroused a greater opposition to prevent that good from being done. If Mrs. Eddy had not adopted Foster Eddy, he might never have been subjected to the subtlety of animal magnetism which caused his downfall. The greater the value of the jewels entrusted to a man, the more active and subtle become the efforts of thieves to rob him. The poor man is not molested.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

October 28, 1895

C. S. Directors

Beloved Board and Students:

I want you to meet tomorrow A. M. and appoint Dr. Foster Eddy the mission to fill immediately the vacancy in Phila. Miss Anna Osgood has left, and it is a most important post to hold and have strongly guarded.

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy

Send missionaries to only destitute places, and recall all others sent into other fields, and change the By-law at your next meeting to read thus, so you will not again break an important By-law. Oh when? and how long, Oh Lord, how long? I cannot carry this church, or in other words, I will not unless the members do better.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy

N. B. Do not do such an outrage as to appoint a missionary that you do not know well.


This letter was a masterpiece of healing, and one reason for this is the fact that it appeared on the surface to be nothing of the sort. Mrs. Eddy had prayed over Foster Eddy as the Master of old prayed over Judas. As her son he showed great promise, and she had every right to expect great things of him, until she indicated outwardly that she had great hopes for him. At once he was put to the test, and animal magnetism tried to break down the fulfilment of such hopes. It succeeded, as it did in many instances. In the case of her husband, Dr. Eddy, error could not deviate him from perfect loyalty; so he had to be removed. In the case of Foster Eddy, his downfall took the form of human folly.

Mrs. Eddy was like one designing a metal chassis for an airplane and testing the metal that was going into its manufacture. It is always a disappointment to have the metal break at a point lower than the required tensile strength, but it is better to have it do so before than after planes have gone into production and are in the air.

Mrs. Eddy often placed students in positions as tests, to discover whether they had an unhandled “Judas” error in their foundation. A “Peter” error was never serious, since it could be remedied; but a “Judas” error was a founda­tional weakness that would show up under pressure, and work ill for the Cause, because the superstructure was already built on it.

It is well to remember that error is self-destructive. Judas developed truth in him until it caused his error to be self-destroyed; but the error was so much a part of him, that to human sense he perished with it. Once a patient had nervous prostration. After a time she found what she thought to be a healing by being absent from the body, although she did not fulfil this statement by being present with the Lord. Instead, she found herself able to forget herself by indulging in many harmless human activities. This all seemed legitimate enough, and cer­tainly nothing to condemn her for. Yet finally circumstances robbed her of this chance for continued outward distraction, and she discovered that the nervous claim had not been healed at all. She had merely been able to be unconscious of it, by being absent from the body. At that point the demand was that she be present with the Lord, which finally brought her complete healing.

To understand this case is to understand Judas' experience. It throws light on Foster Eddy's downfall, and also explains the enigma of those whom Mrs. Eddy considered as candidates for workers in her home, and then rejected when she discovered that formerly they had had some distressing disease and been healed of it. She detected that in a busy human life where one was constantly absent from the body, he might fancy that he was healed of some condition, merely because he had fulfilled only half of Paul's command. She had no fear that students might pick up a serious case of disease in her home; but she did not want a worker suddenly to come face to face with a disease which he had thought was healed, but which was not. One may fancy that he is healed of some condition, because he is able to be absent from the body; but no one is per­manently healed in Christian Science until he is present with the Lord.

Judas might have believed that he was free from certain tendencies because, under the activity of the Master's spiritual thought, he was no longer conscious of them. As soon as the Master had to drop him, however, and he was no longer carried along in a spiritual way, his unhandled materiality rose up to mock him.

Foster Eddy loved Christian Science and its Founder. In the warmth of its glow he felt that so much of his materiality had been overcome, that he was able to live close to its Founder and be a daily help to her. But finally unhandled error rose up to mock him, and brought down criticism on his head. At this point Mrs. Eddy was true to her teachings, namely, that when a good student who is working along right lines is thrown off, it is the influence of animal mag­netism, so he must be given every chance to recover, since he is healable. She did not pounce on the culprit and demand his excommunication. She took precious time, hours and hours of it, and used it in trying to free good students like Foster Eddy from the effect of animal magnetism and mental malpractice.

Many loving students at this time would have had to confess that they con­sidered Foster Eddy to be such a thorn in Mrs. Eddy's side, that she had to take action to remove him from her sight and environment. He was not good enough to be retained and yet not bad enough to be excommunicated; so she shipped him off to a convenient place to get rid of him, where his malpractice would no longer affect her work! What a mockery of interpretation this was of the act of one striving to be motivated by God as our Leader was!

Today I prefer to believe that Mrs. Eddy sought God's guidance in sending him to a place where he would have less to meet than in Boston or Concord. She hoped that the malpractice would not follow him there, or at least be so eased up that he might have the greatest opportunity to reform.

I stated that this letter was a masterpiece of healing. Truly the human mind would be worthy to be called clever, if it could conceive of such ways of working; but our Leader was reflecting the cleverness of divine Mind. God told her how to operate in order to give Foster Eddy another chance. If he could not stand up under the pressure at Pleasant View, it was wisdom that he be sent where he would be on his own. Then if he was honest and sincere, and if he had enough understanding, he would be able to meet whatever error assailed him. If he could not, that would be the final proof of his unfitness to continue as a Scientist.

How wisely this letter indicated to the Directors that Mrs. Eddy considered her son to be an able man, by pointing out Philadelphia as an important post to hold and have strongly guarded! In this way she restrained malpractice on Foster Eddy — any conclusion that she was attempting to put him out of her sight because he was worthless. There was the possibility that she might be criticized for unloading him on a church that did not deserve to have such a quality of thought unloaded on them; but she healed the whole matter in this letter. She proved that the best defence is offence, by launching an attack on the Directors. By doing this, she caused their attention to be turned away from Foster Eddy to their own shortcomings. Instead of giving them time to argue against Foster Eddy, she worked up a case against them where she might well have said, “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at Foster Eddy!” In this wise way she sought to assure Foster Eddy of a square deal in his new position.

When Mrs. Eddy adopted him, she knew him to be a fine Christian Scientist. At once he joined the noble company of those who were working effectually against animal magnetism. But as is always the case, error attempted to destroy its destroyer, and Foster Eddy was not sufficiently awake to this to defend himself properly. Perhaps up to this time he had thought of the Christian Science war­fare as striking at an enemy that had no power to hit back. Now he discovered that in belief the devil could strike back, if one was not watchful. One should learn from his experience that it is dangerous to attempt to overthrow animal magnetism unless one is equipped for the warfare. In a snake farm, the one in charge is thoroughly capable of handling the most dangerous specimens without harm; but a novice had better keep away from them.

Mrs. Eddy knew that his signal ability as well as her preferment were what had brought Foster Eddy under the blight of animal magnetism, so she sought to remove much of the pressure, so that he would be able to break the seeming strength of his own error. Then the question comes up, Why did God permit her to adopt a man who would prove faithless? Did she override divine wisdom, and follow her own human opinion?

Mrs. Eddy called many students to her home during the years, and if any of them proved unsuitable, she did not hesitate to send them away. Yet she adopted Foster Eddy, and thus made it a very difficult thing to dispose of him, if she wanted to. But God guided her all the way, and provided her with those who would help her the most, even if that help at times consisted in having exhibited to her how certain qualities of thought would react under the pressure of animal magnetism. Foster Eddy stands as a warning for all time that one is liable to make a shipwreck in Science, when he takes any position beyond what he is able to demonstrate. His example should forever quench personal ambition.

Personal ambition is a great evil. Mrs. Eddy is reported to have said, “Who shall be greatest is an evil which first puts the person who uses it to sleep, and then poisons the whole system.” In order to counteract this evil Jesus called upon his followers to become foot-washers, and indicated that he was one. One who was merely a foot-washer could not claim much aggrandizement in the eyes of people. Jesus' whole effort was to keep his followers humble, to make them realize that of themselves they were nothing, and that only with God did they become great.

No student should ever demand respect and appreciation for his greatness apart from God. The nursery rhyme of the little girl who, when she was good, was very very good, but when she was bad, was horrid, should be adopted by all. In other words, all should feel worthy of respect and consideration when they permit God to govern them; but they should feel that when they are not governed by God, they are worse than mortal mind, since they know better, whereas mortals do not. The rule in Science is that we are great only as we are good. The greatness stops when the goodness stops. One error connected with personal ambition is a desire to be established in a position where one can go to sleep and forget God, and still remain great in the eyes of man.

This points to the tendency on the part of some students to demonstrate to get rid of the need of God. This may sound far-fetched, but there is truth in it. How would a student feel if he reached the place where he could not rest at night without God; where he could not eat and digest his food without God; where he could not survive without the conscious realization of God? He might feel that he was in a desperate situation; when if he realized it, that is the true goal. A true desire should be that if one loses God, he will receive such an immediate shock, that it will cause him to be unwilling ever to lose Him again. Then healing would become the effort to establish a perpetual need of God, not an ability to get along without Him. At such a point no one would have an am­bition to be something of himself. He would crave no greatness apart from goodness.

One definition for a Judas might be one who was willing to take a position in Science that he had not earned through demonstration. A man who is blind­folded should never attempt or desire to climb a steep mountain. A member who has not demonstrated some insight into the action of animal magnetism, is not ready to take positions which naturally subject one to this influence. Foster Eddy's experience shows that one should never be advanced in Christian Science because of any natural ability, if he has not demonstrated to a point of readiness for such advancement.

Mrs. Eddy prayed that Dr. Foster Eddy might represent a strong help to her, and might become her successor; but he could not endure the grind of the daily routine of mental work which Mrs. Eddy did and expected her students to do, just for love of God and man, without hope of praise or reward, but with full faith that God knows and rewards according to motive. The senses crave some­thing more tangible and exciting than that. They demand something new con­stantly. Unless they are silenced, they claim to interfere with and to prevent this mental work.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy takes up the subject of missionaries. To her the primary work of a Christian Science missionary was mental. She recognized the privilege Christian Scientists have in blessing humanity; but she also saw that animal magnetism would attempt to blind the eyes, so that many would neglect this sacred work. Our organization does not of itself represent salvation, but correctly utilized it becomes a unified effort to spread the teachings of Christian Science which unfold the way of salvation.

After a student has received richly of the blessings Mrs. Eddy has made available for all, he cannot afford not to unite with those standardized ways which she had revealed to her as the most effective processes for reaching and blessing humanity.

Once a man had the morphine habit. In his effort to master it, he deliberate­ly placed himself where he could not procure the drug when the craving as­serted itself. In this way the desire was curbed. The organization furnishes a discipline for the human mind. When one joins it, he places himself in a position which demands unselfish service, where he is forced to give continuous spiritual support. Many times without this demand from the organization, inclination might cause a member to neglect what God expects of him.

In joining the organization every member becomes a mental missionary, who must be faithful in doing daily the mental work which reforms and converts the world to the Christ mode of thinking. Only in this way does the Christian Science Church save itself from the criticism that it supports no foreign mission­aries, such as the Protestant faith deems necessary.

Before this missionary work can be carried out successfully, the deterrent of animal magnetism must be handled. Once a student complained to her prac­titioner that she could not handle animal magnetism. He asserted that God had given her the power to resist the devil, with the promise in the Bible, that if she would do so, it would flee from her. He told her not to believe that she was or could be a victim of this evil, since she had within her grasp, through her faithful demonstration of Christian Science, the ability to resist and overcome all sug­gestions of the carnal mind.

Faust, in the opera by that name, exorcises the devil by making the sign of the cross. God gave Mrs. Eddy the true sign of the cross. He taught her the true method of making the devil shrink, shudder and flee away, since it is the one thing that he fears, and that will destroy him. It is to look at him squarely and know that he is nothing, that he does not exist, that he is only a figment of the imagination, and hence has no power.

When one finds himself afraid, he should declare firmly and insistently, ‘‘Error is not real; it does not exist, since God is All; therefore I am not afraid of it.” David used this method with Goliath. That ponderous belief seemed deadly and powerful; yet David detected and demonstrated the nothingness of the enemy which he had to overthrow.

When one is confronted by some Goliath of error or disease, the correctness of his mental attitude is detected in the weapon one uses. If he scientifically knows the nothingness of the falsity, he realizes that he requires no complicated arguments, no mighty thunderings from Sinai. He needs only the spiritual thouqht of which David's pebble was the symbol — the peaceful recognition that the error is not real or true, since it has no foundation. When one attempts to use a sword and spear, that is proof that he believes the error to be both real and powerful. It would take courage as well as faith to approach a real error; but in Christian Science such courage is out of place. Since disease is merely being fearfully conscious of the flesh as man, the remedy is to be absent from this falsity and to be present with the Lord. Man meets this error of being fearfully aware of the flesh by losing his fear of it, his respect and love for it. He recognizes it as a false argument that needs only the awareness of its falsity to meet it. Mrs. Eddy once said, “God heals the sick by revealing good. To stop feeling that the patient is sick is the healing.”

Since the missionaries were mental workers, they had to be advanced students. Mrs. Eddy warns the Directors not to commit such an outrage as to appoint one they do not know well. They probably thought they knew Dr. Foster Eddy well. Yet in God's sight he was found worthy to be made a missionary and to be given the chance to prove himself, unhampered by the malpractice of the Boston students who were jealous of him, because he was Mrs. Eddy's son. It is obvious that when Mrs. Eddy called for the Directors to know the mis­sionaries well, she was calling for demonstration, since how can one person know another well, even if he is close to him humanly, unless he knows him as God knows him?

A missionary was expected to start an individual healing practice, and to build up a church in some city where there was a need. This could not be done without mental work, since such work is necessary to open the minds in the community best fitted to support the Cause. A Christian Science church, if it is to endure, must always be started among right-minded people. In any city a start can be made through mental work and demonstration, and a church be founded that will grow and endure; but a successful start cannot be made unless the natural or induced prejudice against Christian Science is handled meta­physically.

When you see a branch church supported by people who are active, alive, and keenly interested in lofty things, you may know that they were active in good works before they became Christian Scientists. They were individuals whose influence would have been felt in any community; but it required demon­stration to enlist that activity and influence in behalf of Christian Science.

Mrs. Eddy called for missionaries to be sent only to destitute places. A destitute place miqht be defined as one where students were striving to do good and to give others the benefit of what they had received, but through a lack of mental work in handling animal magnetism, their endeavors were destitute of success. I recall a practitioner who once felt a call to locate in Norwich, Con­necticut. He stayed three months. Then his funds gave out, and no patients came to him; so he had to leave. Norwich was a place that needed workers in Christian Science, and I believe that this practitioner could have made good, had he understood the workings of animal magnetism and handled them through mental work. This cannot be done by one who considers that time is his friend. He was relying on time to bring him a practice; yet it was time that finally drove him away. Time can never do for a Christian Scientist what demonstration can.

It is good to deduce from this letter by our Leader that if a church is not successful, it is a lack of demonstration; if it is destitute in any way, it is a lack of demonstration. The Manual requires that there be at least one practitioner in founding a branch church. A practitioner represents a mental worker, one who, if he is faithful, is knowing that the world is ready for Christian Science. He is not only healing the sick, but healing the thought of the community, so that it will embrace Christian Science gladly.

Stephen Chase was a loyal, active and consecrated student; yet the history of Christian Science in his home town, Fall River, does not indicate that he had a very broad knowledge of mental work. While he was tearfully tender in his love for his Leader, he did not apply his understanding to building up the Fall River church. Had he utilized the wealth of understanding that his Leader so liberally showered upon him, in good sound mental work for the church in Fall River, it might have been one of the strongest churches in New England today; but after sixty years of existence, in 1943 it is still a small struggling group.

Mrs. Eddy found that, while students loved the sweet revealings of good, they did not generally relish what she taught about animal magnetism. This is proved by the fact that many members rhapsodize over the Lesson-Sermons when the subject relates to God; but they take as a necessary medicine those that relate to the topic of error. Yet the latter are necessary. A student might not be able to declare that he enjoyed the lesson on animal magnetism, yet if he realized that the only way to discover the pearl of great price is through the handling of error, he would surely be willing to take up this cross. In pearl fishing, divers need to know how to find the oysters as well as how to avoid the sharks, since only in that way can the pearls be gained. It is the overcoming of evil that releases and reveals good. Hence students should be interested in this process. They should be glad to know that when the devil is cast out, divine Mind speaks.

No one would be fitted to be a missionary who was not willing and able to take up the cross, in the sense of meeting the evil that would claim to rule out of a community the healing influence of Christian Science.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

October 30, 1895

C. S. Board Directors

My dear Students:

I was told by a student that Mr. Metcalf was a member of our church. I hope as it now is situated that Judge Hanna will remain on the Board. The only reason that I named a substitute in case of vacancy was that he had so many offices already.

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy


On October 28 Mrs. Eddy had sent a telegram to Joseph Armstrong which read, “Make Judge Hanna First Reader, and Albert Metcalf Director.” Evidently Mrs. Eddy named a man as a director who was not a member of The Mother Church. When one learns that Mr. Metcalf was wealthy, he may be tempted to believe that Mrs. Eddy was catering to wealth. Yet her life and teachings prove that she regarded Mind as the source of all supply. Knowing this, she watched lest she ignore any of the channels God raised up as the medium through which His provision was to come. She did all in her power to bring such individuals to the recognition of what a privilege it is to be a channel for God's supply, and the attendant spiritual growth and blessings that result.

Mrs. Eddy saw that one of the ways by which the Cause would be continued, was by having people of wealth dedicate that wealth to the uses of Christian Science. Mr. Metcalf was one who did that very thing. He was a generous giver, and made many things possible by his giving. Mrs. Eddy had to watch, however, lest she force the situation. When such a man becomes interested in Science, it cannot be suggested to him that his support will be acceptable, since he is liable to feel that all that is wanted of him is his money. The situation must be left to God's prompting.

Mr. Metcalf the man was worth more to God than his money. The fact that he had money was important, to be sure, but even more important was the fact, that he was a type of man who was receptive to the truth of Science. He had a large circle of friends, and a great deal of influence among those who respected him because of the fineness of his character.

When Mrs. Eddy recognized the fact that an individual was an answer to prayer, she had to watch, lest she move too fast. He should become a member of the church before he is elected to the Board of Directors. Had he been pushed too rapidly, Mr. Metcalf might have chemicalized. It was necessary to wait until he began to feel such a personal interest in Christian Science, that he would voluntarily begin to offer it the support that he was in a position to give.

First he must feel that the Scientists were sincerely interested in him because they wanted to help him for his own sake and not because he had money; then he would open his heart to give. Daniel Spofford was one of Mrs. Eddy's early followers and admirers. As long as he remained loyal, he was a channel for great good. When he finally became disaffected, he complained of Mrs. Eddy's previous treatment of him. In an affidavit which he drew up he wrote in part, that she “selected at different times three persons which she wished me to marry, each being as she termed it ‘a fish with a piece of money in its mouth,' she saying that as she must have money, or the book would go out of edition and all her work stop, ‘a sacrifice must be laid upon the altar,' and she called upon me to offer myself as said sacrifice. After the fish was caught and the money taken from its mouth, the work would go on.”

After making allowances for the spirit of revenge and recrimination which prompted this attack on Mrs. Eddy, it is still believable that Mrs. Eddy was striving at that time to find channels through which God would support her work. She knew that no matter what sacrifice one made in order to forward God's work, he would be proportionably blessed. Her experience had already shown her, that one cannot know what channel God is going to raise up, to be the means of forwarding His work.

Had Mrs. Eddy's motive been to benefit herself by Spofford's enforced marriage, instead of all humanity, she would have been subject to severe criti­cism; but as time went on, her life proved more and more that she had no use for money except as she could use it to further her Cause and to bless humanity. When one is a great reformer, he recognizes money as providing the means needed to carry on his work, and he is glad to obtain it in any legitimate way. In his early struggles he may be tempted to use desperate means.

Mrs. Eddy early proved the truth of Christian Science in healing, but the breadth of its possibilities was not at once established. She knew that there was a demonstration which would bring her money; yet James Gilman records a con­versation in which she said, “Oh, Mr. Gilman, I sometimes used to wonder, Why does not God provide for my needs, I who was raising the incurably sick (to medical sense) to health and strength so speedily as to cause amazement, even from death's door; and, in the families of the wealthy, while I was often hungry for the want of simple things that I craved, ordinarily considered neces­sities of life, because I lacked the material means for obtaining them.”

Mrs. Eddy started her career by developing the ability to heal the sick through the power of divine Mind; but it took time for her to test the possibility of the demonstration of finances. She knew that she was responsible for the continuation of her great work, and that it must not be held back for lack of money. Was it so serious an error for her to feel that perhaps it was God's plan for Spofford to marry someone with money, in order to save the Cause and thus assure its continuation in the world? One characteristic of reformers is that they are willing to make any kind of a sacrifice to forward their chosen en­deavor. Mrs. Eddy possessed an unselfishness that made her willing to do any­thing that would increase her ability to share and spread the good she had to give. She would have embraced any means that was presented to her, no matter what self-sacrifice was involved, that would have enabled her to bless the world, and she expected Spofford to be animated by this same spirit. In striving to discover by what means God was going to meet her needs, she left no stone unturned.

Truth protected the situation so that Spofford was not permitted to do what Mrs. Eddy suggested. Yet what she called upon him to do was not such a great sacrifice, when one compares it with what people consider perfectly legitimate in time of war. Our government does not hesitate to ask men of the highest calibre and education to perform missions that spell almost certain death. In comparison, Mrs. Eddy's request that Spofford make the sacrifice of marrying for money for the sake of furnishing the Cause with what it needed in order to carry it on, and to bless and free humanity for all time, seems mild.

The Bible declares that when Abraham was ready to sacrifice his son at what he believed was God's request, it was accounted unto him for righteous­ness. Perhaps Mrs. Eddy was ready to sacrifice Spofford for a similar reason. In both cases God intervened; yet later Abraham's enemies could have used the fact against him, that at one point he was ready to kill his son. They might have said, “How can a man be the founder of a great religion who in his heart is a potential murderer?” Yet his heart was right in God's sight. Similarly, the fact that at this time, Mrs. Eddy's highest sense of how to raise money was to ask Spofford to make this sacrifice, can never be held against her. The very fact that it never took place, shows that a clearer discernment of God's way to raise money replaced this lower sense. Furthermore, there is the possibility that she made this suggestion, not because she wanted Spofford to follow it, but to test his fidelity and willingness to sacrifice for the Cause he professed to love so dearly.

In calling on Spofford in this way, Mrs. Eddy was only being obedient to her highest sense of God in striving to meet the question of supply that was pressing so hard upon her. Why should she hesitate to ask a student to make this sacrifice, when she knew that no greater blessing could accrue to anyone, than that which followed a sincere effort to forward God's Cause? If what Spofford did was done from the unselfish standpoint of furthering God's Cause, it would only prove a lifelong blessing to him.

A specific work that Mrs. Eddy did not neglect to do, was to know that faithful channels who had sacrificed for the Cause and so earned a blessing from God, could not be robbed. Today we can still know that animal magnetism cannot hold back the rewards that God is bestowing on all those who deserve them. Once when one of Mrs. Eddy's maids came to me in need, I realized that she had given her Leader the best service she knew how to give; because of her loving effort to minister to the one God appointed to bring salvation to the world, a great blessing was her portion; thus it was part of my duty to see that she was not robbed.

We must realize every day that the adversary cannot prevent worthy faithful students from receiving God's blessings. Students who have given all their active years to the Cause of Christian Science must be protected, so that they may receive their full reward, if for no other reason than that the world may learn that one cannot labor for God without being richly rewarded by Him. The accumulated blessings for service should not be withheld from faithful workers, because of our lack of meeting the lie that would claim to rob them of such blessings.

There is an abundance of good waiting for every student who is faithful in giving his time and labor to God. Think how Christian Science will rise in the estimation of the world, when it is proved that when age overtakes a faithful worker, it brings to him that peace of God which passeth all understanding, the absence of fear and lack, so that he or she can face the future and its problems with equanimity and confidence!

When Mrs. Eddy wrote in this letter that she hoped that Judge Hanna would remain on the Board, and named Mr. Metcalf as a substitute because the Judge had so many offices already, she was making a suggestion, hoping that the Directors would make the decision. One could not guess what she wanted done; in this manner she was forcing the Board to seek their answer in Mind. She was conferring a blessing on them in reality, since nothing can exceed in value an experience where one is forced to repudiate the human mind, and to resort to divine Mind to solve his problem.

Mrs. Eddy was untiring in her effort to drive her students to use Science in ways that they might not employ it otherwise. It is a strange phenomenon of animal magnetism, that it has created a prejudice difficult to break down, against the use of demonstration unless the need is sufficient to force one to use it. When one sees no special need, he is apt to let a sense of apathy overtake him toward the use of demonstration. Logically one would think, that as a student gains the wonderful ability to use spiritual power, he would be eager to use it on all occasions, if for no other reason than sheer joy. When a boy ac­quires a rifle for the first time, he can hardly resist the temptation to shoot everything that comes within the range of his vision. Similarly, when a student comes into the realization of reflection, which is so simple to apply, one would expect him to use it on all occasions, as a proof to himself and his friends of its efficacy. The only reason he does not is due to the opposition of animal mag­netism. It becomes part of one's effort, therefore, to know that animal magnetism has no power to create discouragement or a prejudice against the use of demon­stration on all occasions and for every purpose; that students are glad to use it, that it uplifts and blesses them to do so, that it does not weary or tire them, for in reality it is the easiest way to accomplish everything.

When I was in our Leader's home I caught a glimpse of this fact. I remarked to the older workers that demonstration was the easy way, and that we were the ones who made it hard. These students remonstrated with me. Mr. Frye implied that I was only a babe in the work, and had not learned by experience how dif­ficult demonstration is. Yet through the years I have continued to assert that demonstration is the easy way, and that only an argument of animal magnetism listened to, can ever make it seem like a task.

Of course, at Pleasant View we were confronted with difficult problems. When Mrs. Eddy presented them to us, however, she did so with the expectancy that through God's help we would be able to solve them. I felt a distinct leading to train myself to assert, that my burdens were easy and that my work was light, that the consciousness of Truth would show me how insignificant a human problem became with God's help.

Every student must meet the lie which would tempt him to reserve demon­stration for emergencies, on the ground that it is hard work to apply the power of God. One's sense of the application of spiritual power should be like a watch­dog that awakens at the slightest disturbance — not one that requires a major happening to rouse him. A watch-dog that sleeps too soundly is of little use. Students should have the same wide-awake appreciation of the importance of a daily use of demonstration, and of the fact that it is the easiest way to accomplish all things.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

November 6, 1895

My dear Directors:

Will you have a fire kept in the church day and night to save the moisture affecting the church? It is necessary — for you must look sharply after the iron rust.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


On page 157 of Dr. Powell's book about our Leader, we read an incident where the housekeeper made a delicious strawberry shortcake. Mrs. Eddy remarked, “There's a Scientist that isn't soaring o'er the church steeples.” One's natural conclusion would be, that when a student is uplifted spiritually, he would be conscious only of the things of God, and his thought would be above the human side of the picture. Our Leader's thought was on a higher plane than that of her students; yet every detail in her life shows that she was pre­eminently practical. Her nearness to God did not rob her of her appreciation of the human need. Her example shows that we must develop from matter to Spirit, and not attempt to jump the gap.

Once after a fanatical student attempted to force an entrance into Mrs. Eddy's home, she asked Minnie Scott, “Minnie, if you knew that someone was trying to get into your home to bother you and take up your time, would you know that divine Love protected you, and that no harm could come to you?” Minnie replied, “That is just what I would know; but I would also take care that the doors and windows were carefully bolted.” Mrs. Eddy said, “There! You have given me the spirit and the letter, and there is nothing more to say.” This shows that to her, a true sortie into the realm of Spirit, included a demonstration of harmony and protection in the physical realm so-called, and not a neglect of the human footsteps.

The dampness that causes the walls to sweat and the pipes to rust in an unheated church, is a human replica of the disintegrating effect of human thinking, and points to the need of a daily protection. If Mrs. Eddy once found it necessary to remind the Directors, to keep the dampness out of the church with a furnace fire, we should remind ourselves that we have a spiritual fire which dissipates error, and we should never permit this fire to go out or to grow cold. Students must keep themselves daily in a state of thought that dispels the illu­sion called evil.

When one observes the deteriorating effect of dampness, if he is a metaphy­sician, he will be reminded that mortal mind is finite in every respect. One may shudder to read of the brutal murder of Abel in the Bible, yet, if one is harboring mortal mind, he is entertaining Cain, or a mind that is capable of murder. So he realizes that he must protect himself, not only from the man that murders, but from the mind that is capable of murdering.

Surely it is not amiss to believe that when Mrs. Eddy recommended a fire as a remedy for the deteriorating effects of dampness, she hoped that this might awaken thought to the fact, that the only metaphysical way to meet mortal mind in its disintegrating influence, is through the effort to cast out of thought all destructive elements, and to reduce the claim of a human mind to the point where divine Mind replaces it. She was an approved metaphysician; yet she took time to tell the Directors to keep a fire in the church day and night. Surely they must have perceived that there was a metaphysical lesson attached to her direction. Everything that a good man says and does is ordered by the Lord, according to the Scriptures, and so must contain a metaphysical lesson.

Mrs. Eddy might have written plainly to the Directors that they must watch, control and eliminate the suggestions of mortal mind, which claim to become destructive to that which renders a service in our Movement. This rule applies to students who employ non-Scientists. They recognize that they have an obliga­tion to such employees, to protect them from the deteriorating effects of mortal mind. A Christian Scientist might own some dogs which guard his home from thieves. He would not call his dogs Christian Scientists; yet if they were sick, he would restore them through Christian Science. To him they are faithful friends; so he feels obligated to make an effort to protect them.

In like manner the pipes and various appurtenances in The Mother Church operate as faithful friends; so the Directors are obligated to watch over and to protect them. Also they are required to guard the situation mentally, in order that the error that would manifest itself in deterioration may be removed from thought. Then it will not appear in effect.

This simple letter by our Leader stands a great object lesson, for it proves that as one rises higher in the scale of demonstration, he becomes more alert to the human need in order to meet it through divine Love. Her example is a constant rebuke to the student who fancies, that it is a siqn of increasing spiritual­ity, when he ignores the human need and feels that it is beneath his attention.

As one awakens to his reflection of divine Mind, he manifests no neglect or forgetfulness of practical matters. If one's thought is in tune with divine intelligence, and he starts the water running into the boiler of his furnace, he does not fly off into such a dreamy state that he forgets to turn it off before it begins to overflow into the cellar. As one handles the lie of dullness and apathy, his native acuteness and alertness expand into expression. Hence the lesson that Mrs. Eddy's letter teaches, is that the way to keep alert and awake to the needs of man in this human experience, is to keep thought free from the in­fluence of animal magnetism. The Directors had entered into responsibilities that God had placed upon them, that they could not neglect. The only way to meet these was to rise into a higher sense of spiritual activity.

The customary conclusion is, that as one watches over the material details of the organization, he must necessarily suffer a loss of spirituality. Mrs. Eddy hoped that the Directors would realize that such was not the case; that with her the spiritual heights to which she rose, conferred upon her a greater ability to detect and to meet the human need in its minutest detail. She offered her awareness of such needs as a proof of her spirituality. She did not need to neglect God in order to come down to earth to tend to practical matters. The evidence that she was governed by God, was seen in the alertness with which she was aware of every way in which error might claim to disrupt or destroy that which was working for good in the organization. One proof that she was handling animal magnetism successfully, was the fact that she could not be made to neglect a single necessary detail in watching over the Cause. When one is rightly awake and guarding the Cause against the inroads of animal magnetism, his thought embraces the minutiae. He cannot fail to observe and forestall every evidence that points to a falling away in thought.

Jesus taught important spiritual lessons through parables. In Mrs. Eddy's call to keep a fire in the church to eliminate the moisture, we have a parable. Moisture that would cause deterioration in a building, symbolizes mortal mind which stands ready to destroy the substance of every effort in Science. Fire is a figure of divine Love. Those who function as members of the Board of Directors can learn from Mrs. Eddy's letter, that unless they function under divine Love, the claim of mortal mind will disintegrate the spiritual foundation of the or­ganization. The only hope of preserving the spirit of the Church of Christ, Scientist is to have it function from the standpoint of divine Love.

The Directors might well ask themselves these searching questions at times, “While we are tempted to be concerned with the number of churches, with the amount of literature sold, are we neglecting to keep the fire of divine Love alight? When we are writing severe letters to those members who seem to be moving ahead too fast, or chafing under the discipline of our strict supervi­sion, are we seeing their need of divine Love and meeting it?”

Surely the moisture of mortal mind may be said to be deteriorating the spirit of our church when discipline and justice are meted out without love. Nothing but divine Love can preserve this great religion which is founded on Love. That which gnaws at the roots of a tree is often more fatal than that which attacks its superstructure, since the former works unseen. Mrs. Eddy was faith­ful in pointing out the unseen and hidden workings of evil. In that way she sought to save the very lives of her followers, as well as the life of her Cause.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

December 3, 1895

Mr. Clerk,

My dear Student:

Please call even another special church meeting, (and I hope this will suffice until the Quarterly comes in order). Call this meeting at once. Read my letter to church. Then see that my direc­tions are carried out. Hand copy of the By-law to the Editor of our Journal, and request him to publish this By-law in the January number of the Journal and hand page 2 to Judge or Mrs. Hanna.

With love,

M. B. Eddy

Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

December 3, 1895

My beloved Brethren: —

You have already reaped the good result of executing the stern By-law in Article VI, Sec. III. It has relieved you of a large portion of the plottings and machinations to destroy the unity of your church. But I foresee the danger of a future possible misuse and abuse of this uncompromising By-law, which I would have you avoid. Therefore I have asked the clerk to call a special meeting at which you will reconsider your vote on that By-law, and vote to amend it by striking out the words on page 23, “and the offence shall include what is prohibited and specified in Article IV, Sec. 1, of Church Rules”; and by striking out from page 24 in line 2 the word “forever” and inserting the word “full” in place of “a” on the first line. Also, you are requested to amend Church Rule on pp 10 and 11, Article IV, by striking out the last sentence, which begins, “No person shall become a member of this church etc.”

I am led to request this, that we may never knowingly deprive a single mortal of a single hope that may be an incentive to his reformation; or involve at present a precedent for settling the question of mental malpractice.

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy


Nothing that God called our Leader to do was more difficult, than to have the Manual adopted without creating dissension or a sentiment against many By-laws. One of the difficulties our branch churches find themselves in, results from endless discussions which characterize the business meetings. How can the government of Mind be demonstrated under such circumstances, unless the situation is resolved by alert thinking?

The very fact that these By-laws were important, meant that there would be an opposition aimed by animal magnetism against their acceptance. For this reason Mrs. Eddy insisted upon their immediate consideration. She did not wish to give the devil a chance to enter in through the claim of time. Otherwise why could she not wait for the regular meeting, which was soon to come? Her im­plication was, that there might be an immediate occasion for the use of these By-laws in their revised form. This was a legitimate method on her part of having them passed without opposition or discussion.

The Master said to Judas, “What thou doest do quickly.” Mrs. Eddy always gave the impression of requiring haste in matters pertaining to God. The anti­dote for error must always be given quickly, before the error has a chance to get a foothold.

At times Mrs. Eddy met with opposition to the passing of By-laws, because they apparently admitted the reality of that which her teachings and writings classed as unreal. A strong argument was, that if all mortality is a dream, why do we have to do anything about it? Why do we need to reckon with illusions or even come in contact with them? Such an attitude does not take into considera­tion the fact that at the stage where illusions are still accepted and believed in, they have the same effect as though they were real.

The stern By-law referred to in this letter read: “If an individual on proba­tion or a member of this church is found to be unworthy of this church's mem­bership, and another member in good standing shall, from Christian motives, make this evident, and the offense shall include what is prohibited and speci­fied in Article IV, Section l of Church Rules, a meeting of this church shall be called and the name of that probationary member or a member of this Church, dropped forever from its list of membership.” It is evident that Mrs. Eddy found that at times animal magnetism took members beyond the reach of demonstra­tion; so they had to be kept in line by discipline. Yet it must have been a very obnoxious thought to conclude that anyone must be excommunicated forever, as if all chances of reformation were forever taken away. Should we ever admit that one is so sunk in error that he cannot change? When a member has given proof of his reformation that is convincing, should he not be taken back into membership, even if he has had to wait twenty years?

Mrs. Eddy's difficulty with the Manual can be appreciated by considering the importance of thought. The members were in a position where they could not refuse to pass whatever rules Mrs. Eddy directed them to pass; but she en­deavored to avoid a situation where they would pass her suggested By-laws because they had to without giving them their approval. There was a double necessity, to have By-laws passed, and to contrive to make the members approve of them. Often laws are passed which policemen feel are unjust or foolish, and so they do not enforce them. Thus such laws become of none effect, even though those in authority have passed them.

One method by which our Leader gained approval for By-laws was to make them uncompromising, and later to soften them, as she did in the case in question. In this letter she removes the word, forever, and gives as her reason, “...that we may never knowingly deprive a single mortal of a single hope that may be an incentive to his reformation.” As a matter of fact this By-law was softened still more within a short time, since in the fifth edition of the Manual dated 1896 the following sentence appears, “A full member, or a probationary member of this Church that has been excommunicated, and afterwards, when sufficient time has elapsed to thoroughly test his sincerity, gives due evidence of having genuinely repented and of being radically reformed, — shall be eli­gible to probationary membership upon a unanimous vote of the First members of this Church.”

Whether Mrs. Eddy herself or her students did not like this word “forever,” it was evidently God's purpose to have it in our Manual, since later, when animal magnetism had quieted down in regard to it, it was reinserted. From our Leader's standpoint it was necessary to have everything just as God wanted it, although she had to use her demonstration of intelligence to establish His will in such a way that her followers accepted and approved. Wisdom may see the need of a By-law, but it also takes the demonstration of wisdom to have it ac­cepted by the church without discussion or chemicalization, and so get it into the blood-stream of the Cause. It was one thing for Mrs. Eddy to know what to do and another for her to know how to do it.

Though it was God's plan to have the word “forever” in our Manual in relation to expelling a student for malpractice, yet it required Mrs. Eddy's demonstration of wisdom to know how it was possible to have such a drastic By-law accepted by the members, and at the same time win their approval. One can see that this softening of it for the time being helped thought to become reconciled to it. Later this made it possible to restore its stern and uncompro­mising feature.

Once a man suffered with eczema everytime he went to his summer home by the seashore. Finally his doctor forbad him to live by the ocean. This man was still able to take a yearly vacation, but had to go somewhere away from the salt air. He was excommunicated forever from the seashore.

There is a claim of animal magnetism to meet in connection with church membership. When Mrs. Eddy found a quality of thought that under this pressure was liable to do that which was detrimental to his own and others' spiritual growth, such a one had to be severed from that error, and this severance had to be forever, if this tendency could not be healed. Such an act on Mrs. Eddy's part was a kindness, and in no way put a stumbling block in the way of salvation for such a one.

A mother riding with her child on a train, might forbid the child to go into the baggage car, for fear it might get into mischief; but that prohibition would not prevent the child from arriving at its destination along with the mother.

Once in one of our states death was the penalty for the act of stealing, with the result that this evil, even in its mild forms, was virtually eliminated. A man could leave his gold watch in plain sight on his porch for a week, and no one would touch it. Evidently divine wisdom saw the need of introducing a sense of extreme fear in connection with the penalty for malpractice, and making it a crime of such magnitude, that members would be restrained from indulging in it. While no sinner is reformed by the fear of punishment, at the same time fear may drive a man to make a demonstration over animal magnetism that otherwise he would not make. A chronic sinner may indulge in his favorite sin because he thinks he is undetected; but the moment he sees that he is going to be ex­posed and lose the respect of people, he may rise up and overcome his error. Thus fear often becomes a wholesome means to help people to rise up and handle animal magnetism.

A member whose underlying motivation and inclination is to do right, does wrong only when he is handled by animal magnetism. Whatever brings up re-enforcements that will help him to handle such error is helpful and legitimate, whether it be a fear of exposure or of being expelled forever from church membership.

When the law requires a man's life for petty larceny, that helps to re­strain him, when he is tempted. Yet if he was found guilty, you would not want to take his life for such a small offence, since his chances for reformation would be lost. In like manner the By-law including the word, “forever,” was intended to restrain malpractice, more than it was to be enforced.

The By-laws in the Manual were made necessary, because Mrs. Eddy found tendencies in the human mind which were harmful when not put under God's control. She saw that these qualities would have to be restrained in some manner, pending the time when the students would make the demonstration to throw them off. For instance, a teacher of Christian Science who makes an actual demonstration of selecting pupils, needs no By-law restraining him from teaching Roman Catholics without the consent of the authority of their church. Teachers who do not make such a demonstration, must be restrained, until they have grown to the point where such demonstration is possible. Until they can reflect their judgment from God in regard to the fitness of one who has once been a Catholic to be taught Christian Science, they are required by the Manual to withhold such judgment.

The letter of December 3 written to the church also requests the last sentence of the Rule, Article IV, to be stricken out. This sentence reads, “No person shall become a member of this church, or remain a member thereof, who is proven guilty of malicious mental malpractice to the extent of injuring the health, reputation, or the morals of men.”

One may ask why Mrs. Eddy ever included such a statement in the Manual, since it implies the possibility of students malpracticing, and the reality of its effects in injuring others. Mrs. Eddy plainly teaches that the power of malprac­tice is a myth; then why should she turn around and indicate that a member could be proved guilty of malpractice to the extent of injuring others?

In 1692 twenty men and women of Salem were adjudged guilty of prac­ticing witchcraft, and were hung. A study of the trials that brought about the conviction of these unfortunate people, indicates an obvious sincerity on the part of many who were involved in bringing them to trial. They honestly believed in the power of witchcraft, and that these twenty people were guilty of prac­ticing it. Yet the report of the French commission appointed in 1784 to investi­gate the theory of the existence of animal magnetism, would seem to cover witchcraft: “In regard to the existence and utility of animal magnetism, we have come to the unanimous conclusions that there is no proof of the existence of the animal magnetic fluid; that the violent effects, which are observed in the public practice of magnetism, are due to manipulations, or to the excitement of the imagination and the impressions made upon the senses; and that there is one more fact to be recorded in the history of the errors of the human mind, and an important experiment upon the power of the imagination.”

Salem witchcraft was no more than an hysterical mania based on imagination and fear. It illustrated the power of suggestion operating to affect mortals, and to cause them to believe in the reality of illusion. Mrs. Eddy foresaw the possibil­ity of a renewal of this mental abuse, when she acknowledged the possibility of individuals learning the operation of mind and then misusing it. She knew that right-minded students would be restrained from misusing their liberated mental powers in any direction that might harm others; but she framed this By-law in order to awaken students to the awful possibilities latent in the human mind, and thus to prevent evil being done by this method.

In Science and Health Mrs. Eddy indicates that the day will come when the courts in our land will take cognizance of mental crime in the form of mal­practice; but the question arises as to how this could be done, until there are individuals who have reached a state of spiritual growth where they could not be deceived, and so could detect what was going on in the mental realm. Mrs. Eddy could do this unerringly, and her ability in this direction grew out of the fact that she was in tune with divine Mind.

In the Salem tragedy, the stigma. of guilt was fastened on innocent people because there was no one who could read thought correctly, or who understood self-hypnosis. In court the supposed victims exhibited symptoms of being bewitched, declaring that the accused was the cause of such phenomena. Who was present who could see through the cloud of fear, false belief, hysteria and self-mesmerism in order to fasten the guilt where it belonged?

In the Christian Science Journal for February, 1889, there is an article by Mrs. Eddy on animal magnetism which plainly states that “Science fastens guilt upon its author through mind, with the certainty and directness of the eye of God Himself.” She was guided to frame this By-law dealing with mental mal­practice in order to help to restrain it, and undoubtedly it accomplished its mission. Then she was led to withdraw it, lest it foster the belief in students that they might think wrongly about others, and in this way injure their health, reputation or morals. She wanted no revival of Salem witchcraft, even though she had discovered that the sum total of all evil lay in mortal mind, and that every belief in the action of this mind is “evil, occultism, necromancy, mesmerism, animal magnetism, hypnotism” (Science and Health, page 104).

If the “eye of God” is essential in determining the source of malpractice, what are students to do, if there is no one who has demonstrated the “eye of God”? Might not innocent people be excommunicated, and thus the By-law be turned into an abuse?

Yet it was necessary for a hint to be given the members that from a human standpoint they might malpractice upon each other, and that if God sent such a By-law to warn them, there must be a punishment from God for this crime, since He knows whether one is malpracticing or not. And surely His punishment is more severe, more just and inexorable than any human punishment could be. It must be concluded that the wisdom of God gave this By-law to Mrs. Eddy, even though she ruled it out of the Manual temporarily. It is in the present Manual as Sec. 8 of Art. VIII.

It would appear as if the Salem witchcraft farce proved for all time that the courts of our land cannot determine mental crime. Yet Mrs. Eddy indicates that the day will come when this will be done. In the meantime it will be found wholesome for members to feel that God knows and punishes mental crime. Also it can do no harm for students to prepare for the time when they will be able to probe the action of thought, so that they can detect the action of mal­practice unerringly and without abuse.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

December 11, 1895

To the C. S. Board of Directors

My dear Students: —

I said in the first place that the painting of the chair should not be itinerant, nor placed in the vestibule, but placed per­manently in the auditorium or in Mother's Room.

The present arrangement is M. A. M. giving another oc­casion for saying, “Personal worship of Mrs. Eddy!” Pulling it up and down for exhibition is enough to make people say you are gone wild on Mother, and the church is turned into a theatre, while the fact is if you loved Mother, you would keep her com­mandments.

It destroys the dignity of the history associated with the chair to twaddle it up and down the walls.

With love,

Mother

Rev. Mary Baker Eddy

per Frye


This letter yields a rich spiritual lesson to one seeking to understand our Leader's life spiritually, and aids him in understanding her place in the Move­ment. She was divinely impelled to associate herself with the Cause in a way that the carnal mind could not understand, and so would criticize. What she demanded was not hero worship. She only required that her name be linked to the Cause, to her teachings and to her textbook in such a way, that the two would never be separated in the minds of students. In so doing she was fol­lowing the Master, and declaring in present-day terms what he said two thou­sand years ago, “I am the way.”

As a woman she had no desire to be worshipped. She did what she could to prevent such worship; but she knew that her demonstration of her revelation was the standard, and must remain for all time for all to follow. Had she not linked her teachings to her practical application of them, the danger would always exist that those teachings might become mere theory. As such they would lose their vital spark, and exactly the same thing would happen that happened three hundred years after the Master's time. The essential healing power of his teachings was lost for the time being.

The painting of the armchair in its original intent, was to portray Mrs. Eddy's workshop, where she sat when she wrote Science and Health. Rightly used and understood, it would help to keep alive the importance of the demon­strator, and remind students that Christian Science is more than a revelation, more than a reflection of God applied to write a book. In her own life Mrs. Eddy's effort was to put revelation into practice. She used it continuously in every direction, to guide her own steps as well as those of her students, to direct the Cause, to perfect the healing, to establish By-laws which would tend to keep thought on a spiritual plane, to feed the hungry, and to bless the world, all as part of the preparation for each student to take the course in Divinity.

The manner in which the painting was treated, however, caused Mrs. Eddy to see that the true idea back of it was being lost sight of, and that hero worship was taking the place of a right conception of her as the Revelator and demonstrator. The painting was placed above the middle doors opposite the Mother's Room and attached to pulleys. Draperies covered it during the services. When they were over, it was lowered and the draperies drawn aside. This is what she called twaddling it up and down the walls, and was what proved to her that, as a finger pointing to a right idea, it was failing in its mission.

On page 495 of the textbook we are told, “Study thoroughly the letter and imbibe the spirit.” In a certain sense Science and Health is the letter of Christian Science, and Mrs. Eddy is its spirit, on the very basis that Jesus spoke of himself as the “Way.” It follows that the study of Mrs. Eddy's life shares an equal im­portance with one's study of her textbook. It is also true that students who make a sincere study of her textbook, and yet refuse to study her life, are quite evi­dently the ones who lack the spirit of Science. This spirit cannot be gained apart from our Leader and her life.

History repeats itself. All through the ages, when man has set up some symbol to represent God, or one of God's messengers, ere long he has been found worshipping the symbol. Since Mrs. Eddy tells us that the human mind has been an idolater from the beginning, it is to be expected that it will always be found measuring up to this definition.

Take the question of food. In its primitive use it was designed to be a symbol of the great fact that God feeds and nourishes His child, man. The human mind perverts this right conception, and regards food as the source of life, claiming that man cannot live without it. In this way it makes a god out of food, and worships the inanimate, looking to effect rather than cause for that which will sustain life.

Mrs. Eddy perceived so keenly the departure from the estimate of food as merely a symbol, to the belief that in inanimate matter lay the issues of life and death for man, that at one time she was guided to design a souvenir spoon, and to recommend that all students buy one. In the Christian Science Journal for February, 1899, she wrote, “On each of these most beautiful spoons is a motto in bas-relief that every person on earth needs to hold in thought. Mother requests that Christian Scientists shall not ask to be informed what this motto is, but each Scientist shall purchase one spoon, and those who can afford it, one dozen spoons, that their families may read this motto at every meal, and their guests be made partakers of its simple truth.”

The wonderful motto she had written was, “Not matter but Mind satisfieth.” She well knew that God had given her that motto, and that it represented a mighty power to correct error. She hoped that students would use the spoons, so that they would be reminded of what they needed to know at every meal.

What was the result? Mrs. Eddy learned that through common use the spoons soon lost much of their power as symbols pointing to a right idea. No human symbol of spiritual reality remains perpetually free from the danger of idolatry.

Jesus was a symbol of the Christ, — a finger pointing to God. Yet before long the human mind was worshipping him as visible God. When the human mind is provided with a symbol that points to reality, and then it worships it, the value of the symbol is gone.

Mrs. Eddy provided the painting of the chair as a symbol of the fact that the demonstration of Christian Science is not confined to healing the sick, or even bringing forth an inspired book; it is but an application of understanding that must broaden, until one can be said to be taking the course in Divinity, which is the highest course in the curriculum of Christian Science. It is the course that God is teaching continually, but which man cannot take until he prepares himself for it.

There is no point in the experience of the Christian Scientist, where he does not require guidance from on High. No one is adequate to travel the heavenly path, nor can one know his divine destiny, without it. No student should forget or neglect for a day to strive to take the course in Divinity, with the expectancy that he is going to receive his lesson for that day. Mrs. Eddy's chair was a symbol of this act, in the sense that as she sat in it quietly, God's teaching flooded into her.

As time goes by, one's faith that he is daily receiving this course increases, and he never neglects to make a faithful and daily preparation to receive it. He takes time to sit quietly, and to think of nothing except the possibility of hearing God's voice. He stops all effort, even to heal the sick or to help the world, so that his entire thought is attuned to one end.

Once Mrs. Eddy declared in class, “I am only an Ambassador, a voice to lead you into your own kingdom where God, the Truth, alone illumines every one according to his own degree.” Mrs. Eddy yearned to be understood as one with a message from God, as the intermediary between God and man. She knew that it would be beneficial for the spiritual growth of any student to understand her to be such. Furthermore, it was the only way for students to avoid malpracticing on her. The moment you emphasize the human qualities of a person, you malpractice on them. You outweigh your sense of their spiritual nature with human attributes. It follows that those who suffer the most under malpractice are the humanly good individuals. Others are continually declaring how good they are, meaning good in a human sense. Then when they seek to rise above that material sense of goodness, they find that they have been saddled with a weight that is difficult to throw off.

Idolatry is blind worship, that carries no understanding or knowledge of what one is worshipping. If the students could have stood the shock, Mrs. Eddy would have told them that their treatment of the picture of the chair was idolatry and a species of Roman Catholicism. The attitude of the Catholic thought turns a church into a veritable theatre, and conducts a service that tends to bring all of man's material senses into unison. It strives to connect mortals with the true origin and facts of being, through matter, which is the exact opposite of what Science and Health declares can be done. See 491:11-12. Also in Mis. 124:4, “It is also plain, that we should not seek and cannot find God in matter, or through material methods.” Catholicism must needs use the material senses of man in order to hold him in its sense of worship. It is built on the effort to mold man's material senses, whereas in Christian Science the whole effort is to get rid of those senses.

When I was hardly five years old, a man stopped me on the street and said, patting my head, “Be a good boy, learn your abc's and go to the Roman Catholic church.” Today it is evident that his effort was to associate in my mind goodness and education with that particular form of religion, so that I would believe that in order to be good and to be learned, one must be a Catholic.

Idolatry stresses the unimportant, and relegates the important into the dis­card. Mrs. Eddy did not want to be worshipped, nor did she wish anything done that would give the public occasion to declare that she was worshipped. Pulling the picture of the chair up and down the walls, was material worship creeping into The Mother Church, since it was appealing to the senses. Mrs. Eddy saw that it was a Catholic trick being used in a Science church. Hence it required a strong rebuke on her part, not so much for this particular error, but so that a similar error would never again be repeated in her church in any form.

Mrs. Eddy yearned to have the students “keep her commandments.” It is hard for any mother to have a child constantly declare what a beautiful mother it has, and how much it loves her, and yet not obey her. Had the students generally recognized Mrs. Eddy as the spirit of Christian Science, they would have regarded the picture of the chair as a symbol of this fact. They would not have worshipped her, but would have regarded her im­personally as the one who embodied the spirit from which the true sense of Science must be gained. The chair in which she wrote Science and Health was the repository for the woman who demonstrated herself to be the spirit of Christian Science. The Scriptures say, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God.” This verse encourages us to strive to let our spirit bear witness with Mrs. Eddy's spirit, that we are both children of God.2




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

December 15, 1895

C. S. Directors

My beloved Students:

Excuse pencil; my pens are worn out and I am having them repaired.

Accept my deepfelt thanks for your gift of curtains. They are beautiful and I prize them for your kindness and being like the coverings at our church.

With much love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy


That which is written in pencil is temporary and easily rubs out, in com­parison with the more lasting quality of what is written with a pen. In declaring that her pens were worn out, Mrs. Eddy might have been conveying to the Board of Directors, that she felt worn out in her effort to establish permanently what she desired to with them.

It was odd that she should have found herself without means of writing with ink, with Mr. Frye as her secretary to attend to such things. It would be more understandable, to believe that she was teaching the lesson, that to find time to acknowledge gifts, which had little true understanding, loyalty and demonstra­tion back of them, and more of a human sense of trying to please the woman, was an unnecessary burden.

Humanly the Directors' gifts required a kindly written acknowledgment from her; but she sent this one in pencil, because pencil more nearly symbolized the fleeting nature of the human sense that stands ready to overbalance the spiritual, than would her thanks written in ink, or with a pen that had the point of a diamond, as we read about in Jeremiah 17 — representing that which is valuable and enduring.

Mrs. Eddy felt the burden of having to write such letters as this one, which was an acknowledgment of that which, instead of springing from a true under­standing and appreciation of her, came largely from a human estimate of her. She felt weighed down by the necessity for accepting and acknowledging that which indicated dullness rather than spiritual alertness, on the part of the students, whom she relied upon to keep awake and alive to the foe.

Our Leader was not socially inclined. She was not wont to take her valuable time to write that which had no significance. She did not write pages of in­consequential news and gossip, as mortals do, in order to repay an obligation in the line of correspondence. Whatever she wrote had a purpose behind it, as well as what she did. Inspiration alone can unfold such purposes. We may conclude, therefore, that this letter is subject to analysis and interpretation, and contains a profound lesson. There never was a revelation from God, but what the apparent surface meaning covered the real profundity of its lesson. The Bible is, of course, the most notable instance of this point, representing an inexhaustible field for inspirational investigation.

When in 1934 we wrote our book, Mary Baker Eddy, Her Spiritual Foot­steps, we received criticism, because we commenced the book by unfolding the spiritual significance of a note which she wrote her coachman, Adolph Stevenson, in which she merely said that the barber had cut his hair poorly. We were told by some that we went too far afield in striving to find spiritual symbolism in such a letter. Yet would to God that I had been able, when I lived with our Leader, to see the spiritual symbolism in all that she said and did! Some day the world will recognize what a remarkable life she lived and the degree to which she was governed by God. Then our humble efforts to interpret such incidents spiritually, will be found to be but a beginning in this direction.

This letter of December 15 declares that her excuse for writing with a pencil was because her pens were worn out, — but she was having them repaired. In other words, she promises soon to be back to normal. She would not be without her fresh, active, helpful teaching thought for long, even if it seemed to fall on deaf ears. She was implying that at this point she was tempted with the argument that she was wearied with the inconsequential doings of the students, as well as their failure to understand and to demonstrate, when it came to the real and important things.

What is strange about our Leader using a temporary writing medium to correspond to the temporary nature of what she was forced to write about? She had the example of her Master before her, who, when he wanted to write about that which was unreal and partook wholly of the nature of this mortal dream which was passing away, wrote in sand.

In regard to the curtains which the Directors sent to Mrs. Eddy, it was thoughtful of them to match the coverings at the church. Mrs. Eddy habitually looked for the thought back of all gifts, and appreciated it when it was lofty. Would that we were as trained along this line as she was, as determined to detect what prompts all gifts given to us!

There is a popular saying, “Beware of Greeks bearing gifts.” This no doubt refers to the Trojan horse which the Greeks left behind, when they apparently retreated from their unsuccessful effort to capture the city of Troy. The people of that city looked upon it as a beautiful gift that had been made to them — a work of art that appealed to them — so they took it into the city. Yet inside of the horse was that which was dangerous, namely, spies who were determined to open the gates of the city from the inside, when the Greek army returned. The result was that Troy was captured.

Mrs. Eddy knew that a gift could carry mental poison as definitely as could food mixed with material poison. When one knows that there is such poison in food, he can refuse to eat it; or if by chance he has eaten it, he can neutralize its effect with some antidote. With mental poison, however, one is apt to be entirely unaware of the fact that he has been inoculated, since its effect is usually a soporific sluggish mental sense which is agreeable.

It is a common theme in fiction, to tell about a man in a contest who is given some drug in his food by an enemy, that affects him in such a way that he loses his keen sense and also the contest. In like manner the poison of animal magnetism affects the operation of man's spiritual thought, so that he will lose in his contest against error. Mrs. Eddy could not afford to lose a single battle against the adversary; so she watched at all times, lest she be rendered hors de combat by animal magnetism introduced into her thought when she was off guard. Part of her watchfulness in this direction covered the thought back of all gifts that were sent to her.

Mrs. Eddy borrowed Shakespeare's statement, “There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so,” because she recognized it as a remarkable and concise statement, which takes all cause away from matter, and returns it to mind where it belongs.

At times Mrs. Eddy detected back of a gift the desire on the part of the donor either to be presented favorably before her, to put her under obligation to him, or even to receive in return a letter that would be worth much more than the gift. Back of these curtains, however, she detected a genuine desire to give her something that would remind her of the church which she was unable to attend, and that would bring some of its atmosphere into her home. Perhaps the Direc­tors had gained a glimpse of the fact, that it was her endeavor to make a church out of her home, and that curtains made from the same material as the cov­erings in The Mother Church would help to this end.

Mrs. Eddy saw something constructive in the gift of curtains that the eye could not see, and she was proportionately appreciative. When students gave her gifts, she did not hesitate to rebuke them, if she felt a wrong sense animating them. She could not help but evaluate gifts wholly because of what accom­panied them. She checked on them in order to detect the motive that prompted them, and was glad or sad because of what she saw. We should follow her example, and learn to gauge the thought back of things, so that we will estimate more and more from her standpoint, rather than because of the external quality.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

January 2, 1896

Christian Science Board of Directors

My dear Students:

Please hand the enclosed letter containing gift of $50.00 to Mr. Frank
Barndollar for me.

Yours affectionately,

M. B. Eddy

Frye


The giving of this simple gift to Mr. Barndollar became part of the tapestry Mrs. Eddy was weaving. In ancient times whole histories were woven into price­less tapestries, as the most enduring form of record known. Mrs. Eddy's tapestry could be said to have a background which expressed the fact that she maintained a right spiritual balance. That is, she was willing, when it was necessary, to come down from her spiritual height in order to recognize the human needs of others, and to do what was necessary to supply them.

In a previous letter we find her in the midst of a large correspondence, which was largely of a metaphysical nature, writing with a pencil. It was as if she wanted to express the temporary nature of her attitude toward the Directors at that time, in order to show that at times she found it difficult to be patient with them, and that she wondered if it was ever going to be possible to establish in them the correct sense of the application of Science. She said, however, that she was having her pens repaired, showing that soon she would be able to resume her metaphysical attitude toward them.

All advanced metaphysicians have periods of similar despair, when they look over the Field, and see disparity between teaching and application. At times it seems as if the majority of students never touched the hem of the gar­ment of Mrs. Eddy's veritable teachings. Yet this attitude of mind comes only occasionally with advanced students. They soon recover their metaphysical balance of thought, in which the future of the Cause looks bright.

Now we find a simple letter which was one thread in Mrs. Eddy's tapestry, indicating her attention to the human need of a student, and giving a gift to meet that need. In this manner she teaches the lesson that, where it is the wise and thoughtful thing to do, students have an obligation to give money. Even though this material sense of things is unreal, yet in the application of the spirit of God, the human need must be taken into consideration and met.

Application is the greatest problem that confronts students. One may grasp the meta-physical teachings of Science readily and clearly, but the burning question is how to apply these teachings. How shall one best live a life that exemplifies the demonstration of Christian Science? What relation does human goodness bear to divine goodness? If one sees too keenly the human side of the picture, and gives too much time to benevolence and charity, may he not be in danger of neglecting the “better part”? Yet at one time Mrs. Eddy said, “Chris­tian Science establishes the standard of perfection mortal mind calls for.” At another time her words were, “When you reach out to the beyond for the real, you instantly express it, but because we are still in matter in belief, and subject to the laws of matter in belief, this absolute truth outlines itself to meet the present human need.”

There have been students who have almost permitted a human sense of goodness to rob them of their metaphysics, because they have carried benevo­lence and charity to such an extreme. The Christianity that emanates from an active demonstration of Christian Science is legitimate and proper, but where human goodness becomes one's goal, and is not the spontaneous expression of his demonstration, it is deceptive. Goodness that is the manifestation of spiritual growth, is right and necessary. Human goodness that is not the result of demon­stration, is but part of the deception of the human mind. It is tying apples on one's tree, instead of growing them. Individuals full of good works and alms deeds have always been highly esteemed by their fellowmen. It requires spir­itual growth, however, to discern whether one's human goodness is the result of his increasing spirituality, or the effort on the part of the human mind to cover up a lack of it.

Mrs. Eddy kept within the bounds as far as human goodness was concerned. She never gave the impression that it was the goal in Science. She knew that when human goodness is overdone, it proves that the human mind has crept into one's understanding, creating a phase of error that is more deceptive and subtle than downright sin. This deception is what Mrs. Eddy had reference to, when she had a notice printed in the Sentinel for November 12, 1904, “Good deeds overdone numerically, and bad deeds, are remedied by reading the Manual.”

When one finds himself expressing the carnal mind in its self-evidently unpleasant phases, the phenomenon is definite and plain. One is manifesting the wrong mind and he knows it; but the charity and goodness that the purified human mind is able to express, is deceptive in the extreme, — as deceptive as the human health that many students congratulate themselves upon — a health which is merely the expression of belief or the absence of a sense of sickness. They offer such health on the altar as if it were scientific demonstration, when it is not, since it does not rise above a human sense. The true sense of health rises above the human level which is merely exchanging one belief for another, into that atmosphere of Soul, where the impartation of divine Mind floods into being and governs it.

One great value of the record of our Leader's good deeds, is that they furnish the proof to students that her humanity was the expression of her divinity, and never a cloak to hide her lack of divinity. To her it was as essential for one to demonstrate one's benevolence and goodness, as it was to demonstrate over his badness. Only in this way may one avoid overdoing good deeds numerically.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

January 10, 1896

C. S. Board of Directors

My beloved Students:

I return a check for $200 as I cannot accept a private car and your liberal sum besides, and should not keep this sum only that one of the church members needs it, and I am going to give it to this one.

With much thanks,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


It was part of the divine plan that these letters Mrs. Eddy wrote to her church become permanent records. Each one has its value. For instance, this one carries proof that her object in founding Christian Science was not to acquire money, as has often been asserted. Here was a liberal sum of money to which she was entitled, and which she would not have been criticized for taking; yet she goes on record, declaring that she would keep it; but only in order to give it to a church member who needed it.

It is important for future generations to know that Mrs. Eddy cared nothing for money as money, She valued it only in relation to the constructive good it might do in this human dream. She stated plainly that she did not consider that her wealth belonged to her; that she merely held it in trust, and sought to use it wisely and economically. She told me that she intended it to go back to those who gave it, in the sense that it came from the church members, and so she provided that it be returned to them for the continued support of the organization.

Once I witnessed our Leader's refusal to accept liberal sums for short articles on Christian Science, to be published in two current magazines. Those who pioneer in the explorative field are not considered mercenary, when they lecture on their travels, and thus rehabilitate their purse for further explorations. Yet Mrs. Eddy, who was often accused of starting her church as a financial graft, refused at times to accept sums that she could have taken without the slightest criticism coming to her. In so doing she silenced forever any criticism that she had started a money-making scheme in the religious field.

At times her economy was interpreted as a love of money, like a miser who has plenty, but finds satisfaction in hoarding. As a matter of fact she lived plainly and conducted her affairs with great economy, as a proof of her correct applica­tion of Christian Science. Nevertheless she was not hesitant to spend a large sum yearly, in order to pay students to come to her home to do work that was primarily for the good of the Cause and the world. There was not one of these students but who would have been glad to pay her for the privilege of coming to her home, and of receiving her personal instruction.

Students working in her home constituted an important phase of the church activity, and so the church could have been called upon to pay the salaries of such workers; yet Mrs. Eddy was glad to pay such salaries out of her own funds. A knowledge of these facts should forever silence any criticism that she was penurious or cherished a love for money.

It is interesting to note that in returning the check for $200.00 Mrs. Eddy was indicating to the Board that her financial problem was her own. Her history proves that she was never fond of an abundance of material gifts, nor did she want the church to support her, even though her demonstration had made the church prosperous.

On the other hand, it was a good indication for the Directors to feel that they owed the Leader a salary, and that it was as right for her to have one from the church as it was for them. No other individual had the value to the organization that she did. It could not be estimated in terms of money. Therefore it was right that they should strive to make up to her what she was worth, by sending her sums of money, valuable gifts, — in fact, whatever they could, that would express their proper appreciation for her and her great work. They would have merited a rebuke, had they failed to show appreciation. Mrs. Eddy wanted the students to express their appreciation, but she wanted it expressed, not in the easy way, — ­by giving gifts, — but in the hard way to material sense, namely, being ready to take up the cross, and through patient effort to help her to establish the Cause.

Mrs. Eddy avoided being thought lacking in appreciation, by saying that she would keep part of the money to give to a needy member. In that way the Board would feel as though they had accomplished something by sending it to her. At the same time the letter carried the implication, that she detected that there was a tendency to show appreciation to her in ways that were profitless. If she permitted such a tendency to grow, the students might lose sight of what the true obligation was that was laid upon them, which was, in the Master's words, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” Mrs. Eddy could have said, “If ye love me, do not send me an abundance of material gifts; but follow the instruction that God has given me for you. Be faithful in that work. When you are, I will know about it and appreciate it.”

It was a highly significant statement that Mrs. Eddy published in the Sen­tinel, Vol. 7, page 168, “Good deeds overdone numerically, and bad deeds, are remedied by reading the Manual.” She had no wish to rebuke anyone who had a heart full of love for her, and who felt that in a measure he had given her evi­dence of that affection. When a husband has neglected his wife, and tries to make up for that neglect by buying her an expensive fur coat or diamond ring, she dislikes to rebuke him. Yet no amount of presents can take the place of the daily consideration and appreciation for her labors that she yearns for from him. To her his gifts could become good deeds overdone numerically. She might even say, “Dear, I wish you would take the gift back. It is beautiful and I appreciate it, but I would so much prefer a little more of that daily attention and affection that a wife hopes for and expects from the right kind of a husband.”

Sometimes a man will give money to anyone who begs for it, even when it is obvious that the money is only going to be spent for liquor. The world may applaud such generosity; yet actually it often does more harm than good, since wisdom does not attend such giving. Therefore it is numerically unsound.

Good deeds overdone numerically represent love without wisdom. They indicate that the human rather than the divine is prompting one's giving. A one-winged bird cannot fly. Love and wisdom must go together in order to have giving prompted by demonstration. It is possible, when Mrs. Eddy returned the check for two hundred dollars to the Directors, that she classified it as being a good deed overdone numerically, one that was prompted by love without wisdom.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

January 21, 1896

My dear Student:

Settle your questions with W's students at once. It must be done for reasons most important. Call Anna's case up, notify a meeting as soon as legal, and settle her case. A rebuke should be sufficient. Anna is not an old sinner. Forgiveness and advice; then try her and let her teach her students to avoid her errors.

This will work better than to drop her name now. But I am not the one to influence in this case; the Church must decide it. But do not adjourn the meeting that tries her case until it is decided by vote. Finish up this awful stir; if you do not, you will regret it.

With love,

Mother

Don't wait for Anna to attend the Church meeting. Simply decide her case as I would, if you want to follow my example. There is no rule for having members present and fighting in my church.

The rule is if you, the First Members, wish to drop her name, do it, and if not, vote to let her go on and see how she does hereafter.


There should be a sharp severance in our Church between the treatment given the member who continues to yield to animal magnetism, after he has been rebuked, and the one who is handled by animal magnetism temporarily. The former can be said to be smoking flax, in contrast to the bruised reed, of which our Master spoke, and of which Mrs. Eddy wrote, on page 18 of her Message for 1902, “...the life of him...who caused not the feeble to fall, nor spared through false pity the consuming tares.”

Much Christian charity is needed in dealing with the feeble. Who knows when one may be temporarily handled in some way? Often the one who errs unwittingly is a promising member, and error attacks him for this very reason. With proper treatment he will work out of his error, and become a valuable and useful member. In Science it is necessary to be extremely careful in dealing with error, since when one has spiritual possibilities, these appear to be known to the devil, or mortal mind. It seems as though error knew in advance the ones who would make the best error — destroying students, and steals in upon such early in their experience, in order to prevent this result.

On the other hand, when a member has a propensity for falling into error, this fact cannot be overlooked. For the good of the Church as well as of himself as an offending member, he must be dealt with, lest he influence other members erroneously.

Mrs. Eddy hoped that the students would deal with Anna Osgood through prayer and fasting, denying themselves the luxury of entertaining human opinions, and letting spiritual guidance lead the way. The use of the human mind seems so easy, that unless one seeks determinedly to shut himself off from it, and to stand unreservedly on demonstration, he will fail to act from the spiritual standpoint.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy shows herself as the demonstrator of her teachings, insisting upon the same demonstration from her students. She offers a sample of the application of Christian Science as she would apply it, giving her idea of the way to handle the situation, because she feels that God has told her. Yet, because it is the responsibility of the members, they must make the demonstration of having God tell them what to do. Proof that they have heard God's direction will come when what they hear concurs with what Mrs. Eddy recommends.

Mrs. Eddy states that there is no rule for fighting in her church. Yet there is fighting done in many a branch church, even though it is a dangerous place to fight. A branch church is in reality dedicated to divine Mind. The presence in it of the angelic thoughts of God, may be likened to the presence of doves around the spire of a church. If while these doves are feeding or nesting quietly, you start a hubbub or a fight, they will fly away.

A branch church of Christ, Scientist represents a state of mind where God dwells. When we realize this, we will refrain in the business meetings from ex­pressing pride, jealousy, or the human mind in any form, and from asserting ourselves in a place where God alone should be expressed. The inspirational presence of God must be treated with great care, respect and consideration. It is a sacred and wonderful thing to attain even a little of God's presence and power. We should never treat it lightly. We should never consider it anything but the greatest achievement, and so make ourselves worthy of this privilege that, when we attain it, we shall make our one aim in life to hold on to it. It is an in­fluence against God's presence, when we indulge in pride, in the feeling that it is our province to direct the destiny of our church, when God. alone should do that.

Mrs. Eddy is warning the students against fighting in a place where God should dwell. Yet the temptation to fight seems ever-present. The reflection of God is like a red flag waved before a bull, to those who are too lazy or neglectful to demonstrate the one Mind, and therefore who bring the best of their human mind as their offering to the church. They even fight those who strive to reflect God.

Mrs. Eddy could not write such a letter as this to her Church without setting a precedent. She could not always lay down rules that would cover action under all circumstances, but she pointed the way, always hoping that the students would take the hint, and perceive that demonstration alone would cover every case.

She could properly and easily gauge the situation with her student, Anna Osgood; yet she knew the time would come when the Church would have to settle its own questions, and she sought to do all she could to forward this necessity. She used each situation as an opportunity to test the members, and to place them in a situation where it would devolve upon them to “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve.”

The students were in a difficult position. They were eager to please their Leader; yet her hope was that they would please God. It was to some degree an error to try to please Mrs. Eddy as a person, since in Christian Science the goal should always be to please God. In this letter Mrs. Eddy gave the students an outline of what would please her; yet she knew that if they followed her direc­tions blindly, that would prove that they were chiefly animated by the desire to please her as a person. She would have preferred to have them take a stand that was not in harmony with hers, if it was the result of an honest effort to be guided by God. On page 181 of Miscellaneous Writings we read, “A personal require­ment of blind obedience to the law of being, would tend to obscure the order of Science, unless this requirement should express the claims of the divine Prin­ciple.”

One who is satisfied to follow another blindly never develops any spiritual strength of his own. He is like a patient who when he is in need, continually relies on treatment from a practitioner. A wise practitioner seeks to wean patients from his help as soon as this is practical, just as Mrs. Eddy sought by every way to wean the students from relying on her.

This letter calls for haste in deciding matters concerning Mrs. Woodbury's students. The reason haste is essential in such matters is that, when they drag along, gossip and malpractice pile up, with the result that the thought of the entire membership may become darkened, and true justice is not done.

It is worth while to ponder what Mrs. Eddy meant by the term “old sinner.” One who had reached the stage Mrs. Woodbury had, where she was impervious to Mrs. Eddy's rebukes, would be an “old sinner.” Judas was an “old sinner,” in the sense that he was satisfied in his sin, and beyond the point where he could be rebuked and helped. He was a smoking flax, — one who could be awakened only by suffering, — in contrast to Peter. Peter was a bruised reed, — one who had been temporarily deceived by animal magnetism, — hence he was not an “old sinner.” When he saw his error, he quickly came out of it.

When Mrs. Eddy begged the Church to deal with Anna at once, she might have written, “She may become an ‘old sinner,' so we must help her against such a possibility.” The reason for haste, however, might have been largely because she saw how important it was to avoid unnecessary stir, criticism, gossip and malpractice, since such errors stand in the way of the growth of those who accept them as real.

Augusta Stetson became an “old sinner,” when she passed the stage where she could be helped by a rebuke. Carrie Fowler reported that she talked with Mrs. Stetson at one time immediately after the latter had had an interview with Mrs. Eddy. The import of her words was, that she saw that Mother was right and just in her rebukes, but that when she returned to New York, she went right back to her old ways, doing what the students wanted her to do, and expected her to do. All that her Leader said to her was insufficient to turn her from her ways. To know this makes it plain why she finally had to be dropped from membership in the organization.

A study of her experience indicates that she was surrounded by a group of admiring students, who caused her to feel that she was right in all she did. The moment her name was dropped from membership, many of them rallied around her, assuring her that she was being abused, and that the move against her was prompted by jealousy of her success. Thus her students made a martyr out of her. Largely for this reason her excommunication failed to humble her spirit, as it should have done.

A student who is not an “old sinner” will take a rebuke in the right spirit and profit by it. Where there is an underlying honesty of purpose, we need never despair of a student. He will finally right himself and press on safely. Mrs. Eddy in this letter hints that they vote to rebuke Anna, and then ob­serve how she conducts herself. She writes, “Let her teach her students how to avoid her errors.” Often one who has made mistakes and is honest enough to admit such a fact, can use his own experience as a means of helping others to avoid similar errors. In her writings Mrs. Eddy mentions John B. Gough, who never was able to overcome the appetite for strong drink. Yet he became a suc­cessful temperance lecturer, and used himself as an awful example to warn others. He was not ashamed to admit his weakness, and in this way he helped thousands.

One precept growing out of this letter is that, if a branch church has a problem to straighten out, it should do so as quickly as possible, and not leave it hovering like a dark cloud to produce a stir and depression in the minds of the members. Whatever might mar reflection should be eliminated as speedily as possible, both in the experience of the individual, and the church.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

January 22, 1896

C. S. Board of Directors

My dear Students:

I want you to give me your promise in writing signed by the entire Board: That the clock in the church shall not be chimed but three times daily, striking the hour. This is important. It will save future trouble.

Lovingly,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


On page 182 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy tells us that the demands of God appeal to thought only. It was a surprise to me, when I first went to Mrs. Eddy's home, to discover that the important work I was called upon to do in her home was mental, and that all the workers were expected to work mentally in unison for three hours each day, as well as an additional hour alone. Thus at least four hours and usually more, were spent each day in silent prayer, in an effort to establish Truth in the home and upon the earth.

The first time I sat down to work an hour, I was not instructed what to do beyond being given a few words in Mrs. Eddy's handwriting as the basis for the hour's work. After I had repeated these words over and over a few moments, I was ready to stop, and I wondered what I would do for the rest of the hour; but I knew that I was in the home to train for a higher understanding and application in Christian Science, so I struggled on. Before many days I learned that when Mrs. Eddy's brief instructions were properly used, they opened the wellspring of inspiration, so that an unlimited measure of spiritual thought flooded in, rich and abundant. It was not long before these hours of mental work flew by on wings. Thus when a sudden emergency arose, in which all the household were called upon to work for nine consecutive hours in one day, I found myself able to unite with the others in this demand. I recall one instance where the house­hold workers were required to continue their mental ministrations for seventy-­two hours without a break (except for a few brief recesses), because of the tenacity of the error which had to be met.

One might wonder how this was humanly possible. Yet a battalion with a band marches for thirty miles with no mere fatigue than a regiment would feel, if it marched ten miles without a band. A bicycle can be pedalled with surprising speed, when paced by a motorcycle. In a similar manner, Mrs. Eddy forged ahead of us, and removed a great deal of the error that normally makes it difficult for one to sit for long periods and do mental work, without the mind wandering. Mrs. Eddy furnished the music for our march.

Whereas I found it possible in Mrs. Eddy's home to sustain spiritual thought for an hour several times a day, based on a few lines of thought which she furnished, I found when I returned home that I could not do this. I missed her as a bicyclist would miss a motorcycle going before him to cleave the wind. At home the entire pressure of animal magnetism's wind was mine to combat alone. It was more difficult to do fifteen minutes mental work at home, than it was to do an hour in Mrs. Eddy's home, where we worked in unison most of the time, with the Leader pointing the way. Thus was poured out to the world a current of spiritual thought flowing from heaven, that became a world-wide blessing. We found that in unity was strength. With each one supporting the other, and Mrs. Eddy leading the way, a greater endurance and volume became possible. The world has been the loser, for having this mighty work cease, when she left our midst.

It is necessary to realize that the Board of Directors did not have this daily training in mental work under Mrs. Eddy's supervision in her home, where her spiritual thought pierced the darkness to such an extent, that those who followed, walked in the light. With her demonstration illumining the way, we were enabled to express the unlabored motion of the divine energy, as our textbook says. Since the Directors did not have this training, she did not trust them very far, apart from her supervision. This was one reason why she required a signed docu­ment in regard to the chiming of the clock.

The church had gone to great expense in purchasing the chimes. A large number of people declared how well they sounded. Mrs. Eddy sensed that there might be a temptation to depart from her instructions in the future, with the argument, why keep the clock silent merely to satisfy a few disgruntled people?

Had Mrs. Eddy recognized no future danger of disobedience, she would not have required a signed document relating to this matter. It was her ability to read mental states that caused her to make this demand. It is necessary as part of the history of our Cause to know, that the Board harbored the reservation that the time would come when her directions in regard to the chimes might be dis­regarded; and that she was able to detect and thwart this possibility.

Had the Directors been required merely to take a voice vote on this matter, that would have bound them as long as they remained in office; but by requiring a signed promise, Mrs. Eddy bound all future Boards. We can assume, therefore, that she wanted the edict in regard to the chimes to stand perpetually, lest, when the organization became so powerful that it could defy public opinion, it would start the chimes again. Mrs. Eddy did not want the students to look forward to a time when they might restore them, contrary to public opinion, and thus con­sider that her order was a temporary one.

It is a question how much of a deterrent to growth the opposition of the carnal mind is. Mrs. Eddy certainly wished her new-born church to arouse as little opposition as possible. In 1896 it was a small organization struggling for a start, and continual playing of the chimes served to recall to people, that they had a lusty young rooster in their midst that was growing rapidly. It is when people are satisfied that Christian Science is dying out, that they give us a breathing spell in which we can take forward steps rapidly. Furthermore, Mrs. Eddy knew that the very people who were complaining about the chimes, were those we needed as our friends; hence everything permissible must be done to pacify them. In Science we are striving to make friends with people; so it is im­portant that we do as little as possible to antagonize them. We should not boast unduly that we do not drink or smoke, for instance. The best way is to let them see our lives, and not chemicalize them, by making it appear as if we wish them to think that we are better than they.

Salesmen who go from door to door, are given special training as to how to break down people's unwillingness to let them into their homes. In Christian Science we are salesmen, and the method of approach we use with the world is highly important. The first requirement, of course, is that we be able to demon­strate what we know in our own lives. Then we are ready to learn the wisest approach to the minds of others.

Mrs. Eddy saw how unintelligent it was to persist in doing that which was of no real moment, and yet was creating a counter-current against her religion, since when people believe that they have good grounds for criticism against us, they feel free to talk about it; and so the prejudice spreads. If Scientists live as they should, all that is needed is time, and the opportunity to bring before people the truth about our doctrine, to break down any prejudice the public might have against Science. But time will not cure a prejudice which is being created, and kept alive by something which people in general consider to be a public nuisance.

Students who in giving testimonies, talk over the heads of people, and who publicly make statements as to the possibilities of Science beyond the credulity of strangers, are not far from being public nuisances. One reason Mrs. Eddy created the office of Committee on Publication was, that the public might be pro­tected from unwise members in our own Movement. It may not be exactly fair to say that the above students are public nuisances; but that is the way they ap­pear to the public. Hence the public must be safeguarded against them.

One value of a letter of this kind is that it illustrates the broad policies of our Leader. She was striving to interest the public in what she had to offer, and she constantly had to meet the error that would attempt to put up obstacles to this effort, and to create an unnecessary prejudice that would blind the public to the value of what she had to offer them.




January 22, 1896

Vote to amend article 6, Sec. 4 — on page 24, and adopt the By-law I enclose. Hand a copy of it to Judge Hanna, tell him to publish it in February Journal.

When you call a special meeting for business — require the President to take with him to this meeting the Church Manual. Then to refer to its rules and By-laws when you are not clear on any question and see that they are strictly adhered to.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


In these instructions we find proof of Mrs. Eddy's remarkable knowledge of the minutiae of the Cause. It is a great lesson for students to realize, that she made a demonstration of every step she took, and enlarged her human ca­pacities thereby.

Once in talking to her maid, Clara Shannon, about the Mammon of un­righteousness, Mrs. Eddy defined it as the menial tasks which appear to keep us from spirituality. Then she made the declaration that there is in reality no ma­terial work, and that making friends with Mammon, was making a demonstra­tion of doing small things scientifically, implying an increase of spirituality as the result.

On page 267 of Miscellaneous Writings may be found the rule of her life, that also describes the basis upon which her home rested: “The predisposing and exciting cause of all defeat and victory under the sun, rests on this scientific basis: that action, in obedience to God, spiritualizes man's motives and methods, and crowns them with success; while disobedience to this divine Principle ma­terializes human modes and consciousness, and defeats them.”

These instructions prove that one, checking on our Leader's life, could never find a single thing in her temple that needed to be whipped out because it did not proceed from demonstration. She followed the operation of the Cause so closely, that minor matters which another might conclude could have been tended to humanly by those in authority, were checked by her to be sure that they were the product of demonstration.

Because the human mind is the enemy of God, it follows that, whenever the officials in our Movement attempt to do their work wholly by its means, they work against rather than for the establishment of good. For this reason Mrs. Eddy knew that it was necessary for her to superintend even the most minute details, such as the mistake the President of The Mother Church made in not taking the Manual with him to a special meeting of the members. Nothing could be more pointed than our Leader's example as shown by these letters, namely, that the smallest detail in order to be handled rightly, must be demonstrated.

If a student has only harmonious effect as his goal, he will usually neglect to take thought spiritually about the minor details in a branch church, which he can easily perform with the human mind. On the other hand, if his goal is to train himself to use and to establish in his thinking, a continuous demonstrating thought, he will consider every opportunity no matter how small, as too valuable to turn over to the enemy, since he can use it to train himself to think in terms of the one Mind.

When a doctor recommends that a man take exercise, the latter is apt to do it in a perfunctory manner, — perhaps joining a class where such exercise is enforced. Let him actually desire to exercise, however, and he will find op­portunities everywhere to do so.

The student who is determined to attain a demonstrating thought, will find opportunities on every hand; no hour goes by without something confronting him that he can do better with God's help than without. If he desires to overcome the tendency of the carnal mind to forgetfulness, neglect, laziness and apathy, he will take advantage of every juncture that arises. He will be like a man who is so intent upon becoming a real artist, that he carries a small sketch book with him at all times, in order that he may utilize every opportunity which lends itself to his talent, in order to increase his ability along artistic lines.

The student who earnestly desires to be a genuine Christian Scientist, will form the habit of thinking with God at all times, instead of with himself, or with the devil. He will see in his daily life constant opportunities to improve, and to continue the demonstration which will eventually enable him to take on per­manently the one Mind — the perpetual ability to reflect God, which, manifested, is the kingdom of heaven. He will demonstrate for the sake of enlarging his demonstrating ability, rather than attaining that which he believes is of sufficient importance to cause him to go to the bother of demonstrating.

How will one ever attain heaven unless he increases his ability to see heaven everywhere? If he waits for large opportunities to come to him, instead of using small ones, he will find that the instances where he permits mortal mind to get the victory, will more than counterbalance the ones where he endeavors to use his Science.

One who comprehends Mrs. Eddy's teachings in regard to the human mind, would agree that whatever the Directors had done or were doing from the standpoint of this false mind, would have to be undone, since the human mind is never right. Had they told Mrs. Eddy that they were doing their best, when they were not demonstrating, no doubt she would have said, as she once did, “No; your best would be perfect; it may be the best you know.”

Whatever one does in a branch church from a wholly human standpoint must be wrong in God's sight, since it is the perpetuation of this mortal dream, through an effort to make it more harmonious. Demonstration does bring forth human harmony, but it should come as the result of the effort to awaken from this Adam dream, not to remain asleep in it.




The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass.

Cor. Falmouth and Norway Streets.

(2d page of letter)

In your letter to the Board January 29, 1896 you say, “You are the first to name chimes to me and if you are willing, I am, to let the clock chime 3 times per day when the clock strikes the hour.” That we may make no mistake, the Directors wished me to ask if you are willing, when the clock strikes the hour of seven A. M., 12 M., and 6 P. M. that the chimes may be rung also at those hours. We agree with you that they “would sound sweetly and could not disturb anyone.”

When they ring on the hour, they ring four changes on four bells, 16 notes, then the clock immediately strikes the hour.

Your loving Student,

William B. Johnson

I am willing

Mary Baker Eddy


It is evident that the Directors cherished the thought that Mrs. Eddy's ban on the chimes would be temporary, and that it would not be long before they could over-rule it. In her alert spiritual watchfulness she detected this intent, and corrected it. Now we see the proper reaction, in which they are punctilious in striving to do exactly as she directed.

Such incidents as this were no reflection on the faithfulness of these precious workers in the vineyard. They were making important history for future genera­tions. Often they were like children, in the sense that a child has little concep­tion of why its teacher requires it to play scales on the piano. It does not realize that such effort is important preparation for playing beautiful and difficult pieces in the future.

As one studies the history of our Movement with the keynote clearly in thought, everything fits into its proper place, and the goal Mrs. Eddy was striving for becomes plain. In her estimation, the most serious lack on the part of her students, was their failure to realize that it was God talking to and through her. She was like one who has climbed a high mountain, and is describing what those below cannot see. She saw that it was the action of animal magnetism when anyone doubted her vision, or her ability to describe what she saw. She knew that if students could see from her vantage point, they would understand her and her life, and see that in all she did, she had one thought and one purpose. They would perceive that the foundation on which she was founding the Cause was correct, since it was authorized by Christ.

Her double task was difficult. Her demonstration of founding had to be faultless, so that the Cause would be left in such a way, that nothing would ever happen that would bring forth the assumption that another Cause might be started on a better basis, because the first one was faulty. At the same time, she had to train students by giving them important work to do, yet of such a nature, that if they failed to do it correctly, that failure would not affect the correct establishment of the organization. She had to build and train; build in training and train in building.

Once more from the letter in question we are made to realize that Mrs. Eddy's specific precaution, was to see that nothing was done by her organization that might produce unnecessary prejudice, and so interfere with the acceptance of her teachings by those ready to accept them.

One reason why the teachings of Roman Catholicism become an issue in Christian Science, is because Mrs. Eddy saw the need of freeing the innocent followers of that religion, because it includes in its very foundation a prejudice against a right understanding of God. She knew that any religion that even approximated a correct teaching about God, would help its adherents to recog­nize a better sense of God when it was offered to them; but any religion that fosters ignorance, and a wrong conception of God is a serious influence for harm.

It was her concern for the innocent public that caused Mrs. Eddy to make such an issue of the chimes in The Mother Church. She knew that the members of her church were recruited from the ranks of mortal mind; so she had to take her stand in behalf of mortal mind, to protect them from being chemicalized by anything her church might do. The incident of the chimes was not important of itself, but the lesson taught was far reaching. Through it was revealed Mrs. Eddy's tolerance for and interest in the public. She started Publication Com­mittees in order to protect the public even from Christian Scientists, since if the latter made any statements that chemicalized the public, these committees stood ready to correct them.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

February 12, 1896

W. B. Johnson

My dear Student:

Your letter was received last night. I have sent for the right one. Also remailed those applications for church membership from Mr. and Mrs. Buswell. I am thankful for the By-law that gives me exemption from knowing what you do in Boston with applicants and with members under discipline. If there is aught to abhor it is quarreling. Love is our God. Let us obey Him as I said to you when here. Take no defensive steps. I shall not notice Mr. Woodbury's false statements in his letter. I taught him Christian Science and if I did him good that satisfies me.

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy

P. S. The hardest thing I had to bear was his declaration that I tortured his wife! When I never knowingly gave her the least trouble. But have as my church knows and she knows tried to restore her to the church and to save her character. But I am done touching her case.

Again,

Mother


In this letter Mrs. Eddy implies, that the important work in Science is the work we do daily for the spiritualization of our thought; also that in cases of discipline, the effect of the situation on both the accuser and the accused is to darken thought, and to retard spiritual growth, unless we obey God as Love, and make nothing of the error.

Our goal in Science is to be able to say, “None of these things move me.” The Master proved this statement to such a degree, that even a dreadful and fearful experience such as the crucifixion, had no power to hinder his demon­stration of spiritualization. He showed that from God's standpoint, nothing in this human dream, either sickness or discord of any kind, should hold enough reality to retard our work for humanity, or for our own spiritualization. Yet we can gather from Mrs. Eddy's experience, that there were matters which she had to attend to, and steps she had to take, which tended to darken her thought. So she performed them and withdrew as soon as possible, in order to return to her effort to spiritualize her thought, and assimilate it to God. Dealing with applicants and with members under discipline came under this category, since she wrote that she was grateful for the By-law which exempted her from this necessity.

One might assert that Mrs. Eddy should have been able to deal with cases of discipline such as Josephine Woodbury's, without any loss of spiritual thought. One has no basis from which to declare this, however, judging from the fact that in this letter she expressed gratitude for exemption. What other conclusion can we come to, but that she was glad that she did not have to risk her spiritual thought too often in these matters?

When one deals with cases of discipline, one comes face to face with the belief in evil, which carries the temptation to conclude that there are two sides to such cases. With the acceptance of such a conclusion comes quarreling. It is well to remember that in Science there are not two sides, and it is only error that argues that there are. When we see that there is but one side, there can be no quarreling. The Christian Scientist sides with God, and to Him there is no other side.

Mrs. Eddy perceived that the necessity to deal with cases of discipline, con­stituted a subtle temptation to cause one to accept falsity as real. Hence she was grateful that wisdom had prompted her to make a By-law that exempted her from such cases, so that there would be less interruption in her higher work, and that error would have less claim upon her attention in a way that would tend to unspiritualize her thought.

After a metaphysician has found it necessary to deal with falsity and criticism for a time, he feels that he is being depleted spiritually, which is something he cannot tolerate, since he knows that spiritual thought is the one important thing for him to retain. Once my youngest daughter asked me to give her a scientific conclusion in regard to pleasure, as to whether it was permitted in Science. I told her that she must never let her demonstrating thought be so submerged by anything, that she did not have it ready to use at a moment's notice, on the basis of Jesus' statement, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.”

One can give his whole attention to the human side of things only so long, without a spiritual loss. Mrs. Eddy knew that she had given all the attention to Mrs. Woodbury's case that she could give safely. If she gave more, she would run the risk of losing that which she needed in order to carry on the work of the Cause under God's direction. Furthermore, she knew that if she had not written the By-law which gave her exemption, the students would insist upon taking up the matter with her until she had to decide it, and provide the penalty.

“If there is aught to abhor it is quarreling.” In this statement Mrs. Eddy shows that the moment error becomes real to us, we quarrel with it. The moment we personalize it, we fight with persons. Hence if the Directors made a reality of Mrs. Woodbury's error, or personalized it, no matter what they did, it would come under the head of quarreling. In Science we cannot take sides, since error is always wrong, while man is never wrong. So we do not quarrel either with man or with error. We do not fight error other than to dissipate it by making nothing of it. How can you quarrel with that which you are duty bound before God to see as nothing? There can be no quarrel, when you see that there is nothing to quarrel with. Mrs. Eddy once wrote to Caroline Frame about her “six months fight.” But she referred to the struggle she made to reduce error to nothing.

When you hold an abhorrent sense toward another, — such as the Directors were tempted to hold toward Mrs. Woodbury, — you are quarreling. You are facing him with his own error, while you are making it as real as he is. At such times you must retreat into the consciousness of God as Love and see the error apart from man, as nothing. Nothing less will do.

“Let us obey Him as I said to you when here.” These words to Mr. Johnson indicated, that what Mrs. Eddy said to him of a spiritual and scientific nature, was something to be lived up to, and not just something to be accepted with the comment, “How true that is!” Members may fancy that they are living up to the spirit of Christian Science when they make such a comment, when they are liv­ing a long way from the practice of what they admit. Merely to see the truth of Science and to appreciate it, is not living up to it, nor obeying God.

“Take no defensive steps.” In these words Mrs. Eddy indicates that a Christian Scientist has nothing external against which to defend himself. If he is striving honestly to obey God, he need take no defensive steps. God will take care of him. If he is not obeying Him, that is where the correction must be made. Once a Roman priest remarked, “When Christian Scientists live up to their religion, they are the salt of the earth.” This would indicate that students who feel that in the Roman church they have a great enemy against which they must defend themselves, would make a better defence if they strove to live up to their religion, and to be consistent Christian Scientists. One who is busy defending himself all the time from external enemies, does not have much time for living the truth. Example is the best defense.

Finally Mrs. Eddy writes, “I shall not notice Mr. Woodbury's false state­ments in his letter. I taught him Christian Science and if I did him good that satisfies me.” Teachers of Christian Science would be helped to know of this statement, since they are all liable to have a Judas among their pupils. Judas probably appeared to be the right kind of a student, before he was put under pressure. Then his flaw was discovered. A man may buy a bag of apples and pick out the best; yet when he opens a good looking one, it may be rotten or wormy inside.

Mrs. Eddy selected her students by demonstration; yet under pressure many of them turned against her and became Judases. Perhaps this was part of wisdom's plan for her, since she gained valuable spiritual lessons and growth under the opposition that was created in this way. A teacher of Christian Science rejoices in his loyal and active students, but they do not force him to grow spiritually, nor teach him the lessons that those do who give him trouble.

One can glean a helpful precept at this point for all teachers of Christian Science. When pupils turn out badly and make false assertions, the best way is not to notice them. A teacher should take refuge in the realization that he did these individuals good, and let that satisfy him. That will save him from spending too much time in regret.

In this letter we learn that Mrs. Eddy's tender loving thought was most readily reached, and hurt by such an assertion as Mr. Woodbury made, that she tortured his wife, even though that was probably the fact as it appeared to him. If one trespasses in your yard and injures himself on your barbed wire, he should not complain. You had a right to put the wire there, even though he could main­tain that it was your wire that injured him.

There is no doubt but what, when Josephine Woodbury failed to live up to the truth Mrs. Eddy taught her, it tortured her. Hence her husband had reason to state that his wife was tortured. When a practitioner chemicalizes a patient, the latter may be tortured; but it is the Truth that does it. Furthermore, if the patient and practitioner are right minded, that Truth blesses and heals him, and does not torture him. The chemicalization is painless.

What really tortured Mrs. Woodbury was her own failure to live up to Mrs. Eddy's teachings. Augusta Stetson had the same experience. Mrs. Eddy held before her the ideal that Mrs. Stetson knew was right, and it tortured her because she could not bring herself to live up to it. Mrs. Stetson had built her­self up with her students by threatening them with malpractice if they failed to be loyal to her, and could not bring herself to change this custom. Perhaps she felt that it was legitimate to rule her students in this way, as long as she never actually malpracticed on them; but what she failed to discern was, that when she threatened a student with malpractice, that in itself constituted malpractice. What more is there to the claim of malpractice, than to frighten another into believing that you are malpracticing on him?

Mrs. Woodbury knew what genuine Christian Science was. She had gained a knowledge of it from the fountain head. She was pleased with what she learned, and determined to live and practice it. When the test came, however, she did not have the understanding to stand firmly on the side of God against mortal mind. Her teacher had taken her over to the side of God, but when mortal mind's subtle suggestions presented themselves, instead of defending herself as she had been taught to do, she went back to mortal mind. Then the very teach­ings that she had loved became her torment.

Now Mrs. Eddy says that after having done all she could to save Mrs. Wood­bury's character, she is done touching her case. Mrs. Eddy had done all God called upon her to do, and now she was permitted to leave this one in the hands of God. She did not say “She is hopeless,” but merely implied that she had turned her over to the wisdom of God, much as a lower court that has sought to deal with a case and failed, turns it over to a higher court.

Practitioners may take a hint from this attitude on Mrs. Eddy's part. When they fail to heal a case and the patient turns to a doctor, they should not condemn that patient, and declare that he or she is never going to receive help. It is far better to say that they have turned them over to the higher wisdom of God, knowing that He will deal with them justly, and in the way that will bring them the greatest good, and perhaps lead them back to Christian Science.

  1. Handwritten note in the margin of the original print version of this book reads as follows: “No! It refers to By-law relative to adopting spiritual children.”↩︎

  2. At the bottom of this chapter in the original text is the following, in Gilbert C. Carpenter Jr.'s handwriting:

    “8/1/48 — The picture of the chair proves that Mrs. Eddy wrote Science and Health, so she has the right to say what shall be done with everything concerning it. — Gilbert C. Carpenter, Jr. (said by Gilbert C. Carpenter, Sr.)”↩︎




Telegram

Received at the Brunswick, 520 Boylston St., Boston

February 18, 1896

Concord, N. H.

To Mr. Joseph Armstrong

95 Falmouth St.

Ring the chimes for all good occasions all hail.

Mary Baker Eddy


Mrs. Eddy concerned herself with a matter as long as it was necessary. Then she would close the books on it and clean house. It was her custom to cast out the old, in order to make room for the new.

She had taken up the problem of the chimes, uncovered the paucity of any broad demonstration among her students, and healed the thought of the people in Boston. Now she cleans house. With this telegram she puts finis on the whole matter. Yet she knew that the lesson would endure throughout time.

To the Christian Scientist the care of public thought is a very important trust. His motto must be, “If meat causes my brother to offend, I will eat no flesh.” If he lives up to this, he will say or do nothing unnecessarily that will disturb or aggravate outsiders, and so perhaps prejudice them against Science.

Everyone is a prospective Christian Scientist. There is no one who would not accept our religion, if he knew exactly what it taught. No one can be prejudiced against what it really is. Thus all students have a work to do to break down prejudice, which is all that keeps anyone from accepting Science. It is an apho­rism that people are never opposed to Christian Science, but only to what they fancy it is. Thus no student of this Science has any right to say or do anything that will bring criticism, or reproach upon his religion. He is duty bound to watch, that he does not bring out anything in his life that might turn the public against what he professes.

The lesson of the chimes, however, is not intended to restrain any normal or right activity on the part of Christian Scientists. Christian Science would be a pitiful thing, if it hid every time mortal mind pointed a finger at it. It requires wisdom for members to know how to conduct themselves with dignity, and to prove that Science has a scientific basis which is founded on the Bible, so that people will be compelled to acknowledge it. Included in this effort, as Mrs. Eddy taught, must be certain concessions, lest the public be prejudiced against us, and what we profess. Nevertheless this does not mean that we should go the way of the world, in order to keep them from being opposed to us as Christian Scientists. It requires wisdom to know what to hold on to, and what to let go of, in one's life. Mrs. Eddy showed that no matter how much money had been paid for the chimes, she could let go of them with good grace, because they were unimportant; at the same time she was adamant when it came to important issues.

There are instances in the Church Manual where the Directors are for­bidden to act without the consent of Mrs. Eddy given in her own handwriting. In fulfilling the spirit of this request, they cannot ignore a single one of the many letters the Leader wrote to them. For instance, if they should ever feel that the Cause of Christian Science has grown so powerful, that they need not concern themselves if they do something that might chemicalize the public, they should go back to the lesson of the chimes and regard it as a sample experience, in­dicating how Mrs. Eddy would want all such matters handled for all time. From it they can learn how she expected Christian Scientists to behave on all occa­sions, when what they are doing affects the general public. She taught an im­portant lesson with the chimes, and then expected the Directors to substitute for the word, chimes, whatever the situation was that would come under the pre­cedent laid down.

The lesson covers acts on the part of the Church which do not necessarily bear on the advancement of the Cause of Christian Science, and which might be subject to misunderstanding on the part of the public. When in the spring of 1942 the Trustees of the Publishing House voted to accept for The Christian Science Monitor, advertisements for vitamin pills, on the ground that these pellets were a form of food, they found that students of Science, and even the public, criticized them. These chemical pills were actually a medical fad, and this fact was well known to many thinking people. Had the Trustees had a knowl­edge of the incident of the chimes, they might have hesitated to do what they did, since when Christian Scientists begin to turn away from what they profess, they open themselves to criticism; and surely it appeared strange to the public to find many Scientists beginning to watch their diets and to take vitamin pills, based on the fact that the Monitor approved of them and sponsored them. It is gratifying to know that the Trustees of the Publishing Society were not long in perceiving their mistake, and in correcting the matter to the satisfaction of all.

Mrs. Eddy's letters to the Board indicate for all time the attitude that the Directors should adopt in relation to matters that come before them for considera­tion. The incident of the chimes shows clearly Mrs. Eddy's watchfulness and effort to protect the public from any prejudice that might shut them off from accepting her religion, and so rob them of the tremendous value, comfort and help that it would be to them.




March 15, 1896

To Clerk of the “Mother Church”

Boston

My dear Student:

I request you to call a church meeting as soon as legal. Also to read the first page of the enclosed letter at the opening of the meeting. Then adopt the By-laws. Next read the 2nd and 3rd pages and vote to act as therein requested.

With love

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy

Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

March 15, 1896

Children of the Mother Church:

I ask that at this meeting you adopt the following four By­-laws which God has given you to save you from much sin.

Mary Baker Eddy

I also at God's command (as I discern it) order you to dissolve the Board of Trustees of the Lynn property, and to re­fund to each contributor every dollar in their hands contributed for the purchase of this property; and to pay from the income of your church to Mr. Eastaman the money that Mr. Eastaman has paid already for said property. And if an individual mem­ber of this church desires to possess said property, let him or her purchase it, but not the church.

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy

The last of this letter is to be read in open meeting after the By-laws are adopted.

Mother

Telegram received at 147 Mass. Ave., Boston March 16, 1896

To William B. Johnson

Care J. Armstrong

95 Falmouth St.

Don't read number one in meeting. Return it by Laura. Ask members through Lynn estate, are you worshipping matter or Spirit? You cannot serve two masters.

M. B. Eddy


Mrs. Eddy's salutation, Children of The Mother Church, indicated the re­lationship of the members to her. Her higher spiritual insight qualified her as their spiritual guide, and the one to whom they must be obedient. Her followers were not spiritually ready to accept or to reject on their own initiative, what she gave them as directions from God. They were required without argument or comment to adopt the By-laws, even though they saw no need for them. They must take these laws of God on faith.

Mrs. Eddy perceived the error involved in The Mother Church buying and maintaining property, merely because it was in some way connected historically with the Leader. Mrs. Eddy's homes — places where she lived or boarded — were finally purchased by Mary Beecher Longyear. This was an orderly procedure; but had The Mother Church started a precedent of buying every place that had any connection with Mrs. Eddy, the church would have found itself maintaining a mass of property in memory of its Founder, when in reality Christian Science is an active demonstrable religion, based, not on a dead Leader, but on a living reality that can never fade.

It was at God's command that she ordered the Church to desist from a program that, had it been followed out, would have resulted in its being cluttered with human memorials. She thereby set a precedent for the Directors not to buy, or maintain property that had no use, apart trom satisfying human sentiment and a desire for memorials. Obviously such a prognm would prove a deterrent. The value of symbols is limited and often doubtful. The danger connected with them is strikingly illustrated in the idoltary found in the Catholic Church.

During the year 1905, Mrs. Eddy presented beautiful lockets containing her picture to some of her male students. Each locket had set in it a large blue-white diamond. Among those who received them besides myself were Calvin Frye, Calvin Hill, George Kinter, Lewis Strang, and Ezekiel Morrill. The locket given to Mr. Frye differed from the others (which were square) in that it was heart-­shaped. At another time she presented me with a scarf pin holding a lustrous pearl surrounded by diamonds.

I mention these mementos, as symbols of her love and appreciation which were beyond price. When the locket was stolen from my home, and the pin lost, I was inconsolable. I nearly sank down under the sense of grief at the loss of that which I treasured most of earth. When through demonstration I was able to rise above it, I found myself freed forever from any desire to possess anything material in the way of mementos.

I realized that I had reached the point where, if I were given my choice between losing the symbols, or the spiritual thought they conveyed, I would prefer to lose the symbols. Also I saw the possibility, that the possession of the symbols might make me so satisfied, that I would not perceive the demonstration necessary to retain the spiritual thought that they expressed. Losing the gifts, I was driven to do the work necessary to retain the spirit that accompanied them. The result was, that the spiritual thought became so precious and real to me, that I did not care whether I had the symbols or not. The loss of these treasures became a blessing, because it drove me as nothing else could have done, to make an inspirational effort to understand our Leader, and to set her forth as I saw her, in a clearer spiritual light.

Mrs. Eddy presented these lockets to students, most of whom had already given evidence of having a demonstrable understanding of Christian Science and of her life; but she did not expect them to rest, satisfied with a symbol of her appreciation and love. Obviously she expected them to continue to grow in grace, and give proof of an ever-increasing understanding and demonstration.

Mrs. Eddy knew that in the future there would be a temptation to honor her through memorials, and to establish her various homes as shrines. She per­ceived that the error connected with the acquisition of symbols, was the possible loss of the effort to keep alive the spirit of demonstration that animated her. Since the error of symbols is spiritual stagnation, she wanted nothing of that sort to enter her church. For centuries ministers and other devout people have traveled to Jerusalem and Bethlehem, striving to immerse themselves in a sentimental remembrance of Jesus' life and experience. They have tried to recapture the human side of his life through symbols. How futile such an effort is, in comparison with the endeavor to understand the spirit that animated him, and to follow him in demonstration!

It is materiality that causes one to seek a sentimental reaction out of memorials connected with the Master and Mrs. Eddy. The spiritually hungry strive to enter into the same realm of thought in which these great teachers lived. Of what lasting value is an emotional uplift coming from the contemplation of such memorials? It is not conductive to spiritual growth. It is human sentiment and emotionalism, which through the ages have been mistaken for spirituality. People seek emotionalism because from a human standpoint it is a desirable sensation; but it weighs not one jot in the balance of God, nor can it compare with the faithful effort to have that Mind “which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2 :5).

The following letter to Mrs. Eddy from the Rev. Irving C. Tomlinson is in­teresting:


“Memorial Day, 1907. Beloved Leader: I thank you for your helpful words. They will meet the need for the work in hand. There is a slight service I wish that you might entrust to my care, should you deem me worthy. This Memorial Day, when dear hands lay fragrant blossoms on the resting places of forms beloved, I am reminded that I should be glad if I might have the oversight of those sacred spots where rest those of your family near and dear. I have visited your pretty plot in the well-kept Tilton cemetery. I have also gone with General Baker to the spot in Bow where sleep your grandmother, Mary Ann Baker, and other members of the family. I have also visited with the General the Pembroke rest­ing place of your father's uncle, Thomas Baker, and others of his family, May I be allowed to see that these dear places are properly cared for and that upon Memorial Day they also have their symbols of beauty and eternity?”


Mrs. Eddy's reply to this proposal was terse.


“I love you and thank you, but they sleep not there. ‘Let the dead bury their dead' (Jesus). Ever and forever thine in Christ.”


Mrs. Eddy recognized the loving thought that impelled Mr. Tomlinson to write this letter, so she did not rebuke him in strong language; nevertheless, her reply was a forever rebuke to scholastic theology and its worship of symbols. Every minister who comes into Christian Science has this claim to handle, — a halo of sacredness placed around symbols and memorials.

Our Leader wanted no memorials of death while she was with us, or after she had left us. She was making an active demonstration of Life, and she ex­pected her students to do likewise. She was teaching them how to work to bring reality to light, and her teaching included no foolishness such as to regard this mortal dream, or any part of it, as sacred. When you know that mortality is a dream, you never forget this fact, as Mr. Tomlinson appeared to do, even though you may have to consider the feelings of the public at times, and go through certain forms.

Mrs. Eddy taught that even the most sacred symbols are but part of the Adam dream, and must be left behind as thought progresses toward reality. In reference to Mrs. Eddy's statement that God had given the members four By-­laws to save them from much sin, it is necessary to repeat that, as one changes his definition of sin from wrong acting to wrong thinking, he recognizes the impersonal nature of sin. While this does not reduce it to nothingness, as must finally be done, it is a step higher than regarding man as a miserable sinner, with an unremovable millstone of guilt around his neck. When a mother declares that her child's neck is dirty, she is not referring to the dirt as if it were some dark pigment in the skin that could not be removed; she is calling attention to that which she knows can be washed off.

The whole intent of Mrs. Eddy's teaching is to save mortals from sin, — to educate and train them in the understanding that will arm them with power over the mesmerism of wrong thinking, — so that they will not yield to it. This teaching includes the recognition of its unreality and falsity, as well as of its impersonal nature. When one understands Jesus' doctrine of salvation, he sees that to be saved from sin, means to be freed from mesmerism. This freedom brings a normal attitude in which one recognizes that he is perfect now, and that the kingdom of heaven is within.

Hypnotism claims to be a state of mental manipulation in which the operator has control of his victim, and can cause him to accept any of his suggestions. The moment the spell is lifted, the individual once more sees everything from a normal standpoint. If salvation consists in freeing man from the universal mes­merism of false belief through the power of divine Mind, then to be saved from sin must mean to be saved from wrong thinking.

It is a remarkable thing to realize that the Manual was written not so much to direct outward action or conduct, as to save mortals from mesmerism. There­fore, what Mrs. Eddy declares in this letter is, that if a member is obedient to the Manual, it will save him from much mesmerism. Therefore, when the Manual enjoins that a member shall not join societies other than those specified in that book, we can deduce that all organizations represent group thought, which exercises a greater influence than individual thought. One may have time and money to belong to some club, the purposes of which may be harmless; but when he does so, he puts himself under a greater mob mesmerism, than he is already under, to which he is liable to yield his thought. Yet one's salvation depends upon his training himself to resist the mental influence exerted by groups, as well as by individuals. It is only as one learns to hold back the aggressive mental suggestions of fear and error which present themselves each day, that he is equipped to overcome death.

Mrs. Eddy knew that the effect of all clubs and organizations is to cause their members to think alike. So in the Manual she indicates that, if members of her Church avoid such affiliations, — even when on the surface these appear to be harmless, — their spiritual progress, which calls upon them to overcome the influence of individual, as well as of collective human thinking, will be more rapid.

False theology would suggest that it was narrow and foolish for Mrs. Eddy to forbid members to join groups, where they would meet people and make new friends. Yet a man training to be a concert singer must avoid many things, ­— such as smoking, — which the ordinary citizen would not have to. The sincere Christian Scientist, by virtue of his high calling, must be willing to avoid much that the ordinary citizen feels is harmless. The Scientist is in training. He is one with a definite destination, who has no time to tarry in the pleasures of sense, no matter how simple or harmless. He must avoid all that stands in the way of his attaining his ideal. He must learn to hold back the influence that comes through individuals or groups, or through the world thought.

The Manual represents to the Christian Scientist what a manual of training would represent to a prize fighter. The latter is directed to abstain from anything that might affect his prime physical condition, which he must have in order to become a victor. Our Manual helps us to refrain from all that would cause us to forget or neglect our duty to God, to our Leader and to mankind. When we realize that this task is difficult enough without deliberately putting ourselves under additional adverse influences, — which is what all organizations repre­sent, — the wisdom in its provisions is clearly seen.




Concord, N. H.

March 18, 1896

My beloved Brethren:

I hereby request that you reconsider your vote of excom­munication of Mrs. Josephine C. Woodbury and receive her again into your church. This Christian forgiveness can do you no harm, and if it will help her spiritually, this effort will be worthy of your Christian endeavors and of my sincere hope and inexhaustible charity.

With love,

Yours in Christ,

Mary Baker Eddy


Mrs. Eddy knew that she, as well as her Church, had a divine destiny which was under the Father's care. Hence the opposition which manifested itself through individuals, like Mrs. Woodbury, was not to be feared, since, when it was met scientifically, it only served to enhance this divine destiny. Further­more, such opposition is never power; it is mesmerism. It can only trick man into being a suicide, by causing him to inflict wounds upon himself, and then to impute the result to animal magnetism. Animal magnetism can never touch or wound anyone. It merely conveys to mortals the subtlety of suggestion to which man voluntarily yields.

A metaphysician declares to himself, “No one can make me hate another. If animal magnetism suggests that I do, or whispers untruths for me to believe, and I yield to their suggestions, it is a voluntary act on my part, and I am to blame for the results in my life. I need not yield to any such suggestions, nor does any­one have the power to control or influence me in any direction.”

One can appreciate Mrs. Eddy's demonstration in asking that Mrs. Wood­bury be restored to full fellowship in the church, only when he knows what it had cost her to hold back the error that Mrs. Woodbury represented, and what a temptation to hate her, the latter presented. Yet Mrs. Eddy's request was for the healing of the church, as well as for Mrs. Woodbury's good. If the members could make the demonstration over hate and rise to forgive her, they would thereby be protected from her influence.

Forgiveness is always a healing and a protecting attitude. If a baseball player stiffens his hands when he reaches to catch the ball, it may hurt him. If he relaxes his hands and draws them in, this action absorbs the force of the ball so that its sting is taken away. When one regards another who expresses animal magnetism, as an enemy to hate, he hardens his thought against him, and so, he opens himself to being hurt. Mrs. Eddy once said, “It is not self-hardening but humility under trouble, that ripens us for deliverance.” In self-hardening one hates one's enemy, and becomes indignant at the unfair treatment he is receiv­ing, when trying to do his best. The only thing one should become indignant at, is his own lethargic state of thought, which he should be lifting to God, by refus­ing to believe the lie.

The world would regard this letter concerning Mrs. Woodbury as a Chris­tian act on Mrs. Eddy's part; but it was far more than that. It is a Christian act to bless those that curse you; but Mrs. Eddy was also directing the situation so that the members would be humble under this experience, and not harden against Mrs. Woodbury. In humility they would find protection. Our Leader was enfold­ing her Church in the armor of God, the panoply of Love, so that human hatred could not reach it. She may have foreseen, that the time would come when Mrs. Woodbury would be permanently ousted, and was preparing the way for this act, by calling upon the members to treat the enemy in their midst with scientific love.

As the woman, the Founder of our faith was kindness itself. We learn from her words on page 118 of Miscellaneous Writings, that her human affections yearned to forgive all mistakes, and to pass over them smoothly. Hence when she used the rod, it was God who compelled her to do so. She was willing to use inexhaustible patience and love, in an effort to give wrong-doers every chance to reform, and she left her example for her Church for all time.

If the body of a man is seen at the foot of a steep cliff, those who see it cannot assume that he is dead, until one of their number dares the perilous descent to make certain. If a spark of life is left in him, those who find him are obligated to make every effort to save him. Similarly, if there remains one spark of re­generation in the wrong-doer in our midst, — the slightest chance of his seeing his errors and turning from them, — we, his fellow-members, are called upon to use inexhaustible charity in dealing with him. Two blessings flow from such an effort: The highest ideals of Christianity are thus set before the sinner, and those who exercise such Christian forbearance and love, strengthen themselves spiritually. They thereby help to put the so-called human mind under the benefi­cent domination of the divine Mind, by restraining the natural tendency of the sinner to be discouraged, and of themselves to be disgusted with a chronic sinner.

Mrs. Eddy taught by precept and example that no one is going to be kept out of the kingdom of heaven forever. As Christian Scientists, her followers must show the world that they have the true spirit of the Master, by their Christian tolerance, and by their willingness to use the utmost patience in working with sinners. In her attitude toward Mrs. Woodbury, Mrs. Eddy was showing her Church the attitude its members should take for all time toward those whom they believe to be erring brothers and sisters. Even if a member has done wrong, the requirements of the situation are not satisfied merely by excommunication. The spirit that the Founder of Christian Science manifested, was the same as the Founder of Christianity, and it must become the spirit of all those who strive to follow in their footsteps.




To be read in open meeting of First Members

Also read the enclosed

Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.,

April 1, 1896

My beloved Students and Brethren:

I wish to thank you for indulging my request to give Mrs. Woodbury one more trial on probation. This you have nobly done.

Now, it behooves you as Christians to consider her case at this meeting, and the evidences of her character and present con­duct, fairly and finally, and act as becomes this church, justly. Since your last acceptance of her on probation, instead of gratitude therefore, she has been circulating letters, wherein the specific charges are against me and our church. But I make no complaint. Now it is requisite for the members to speak out and testify of what they have heard her say and give due evidence that their action to-day is just and proper.

With love,

Mother,

Mary Baker Eddy


In circulating letters containing specific charges against Mrs. Eddy, after the church had been lenient enough to forgive her and to take her back on probation, Mrs. Woodbury exposed the intent of the animal magnetism which was using her, namely, if possible to separate Mrs. Eddy from her church. She evidently fancied that she could make accusations against the Leader, and still be retained as a member of the Leader's church. Hence, the decision Mrs. Eddy called upon the First Members to make, was highly significant and far-reaching, namely, to decide whether Mrs. Woodbury's accusations against the Leader were in effect an attack against Christian Science and the Church, that unfitted her for membership. Here is a profound question that brings this letter up to date. If a member is ever found attempting to separate the Leader, as the correct demonstrator of her teachings, from her church, so making other members be­lieve that they should not study her life in order to gain from it its demonstrated value, does he thereby mark himself as unfit for membership?

Mrs. Eddy could have decided Mrs. Woodbury's fate, and told the church exactly what to do, and they would have done it; but she was very careful to make the First Members responsible, as if they were a jury called upon to decide a case impersonally, and entirely on the evidence presented. In this request she outlines the foundation for just judgment in her church for all time to come. They are to consider her case “fairly and finally, and act as becomes this church, justly.”

Another important point in this letter, is the fact that Mrs. Eddy called upon the members to consider Mrs. Woodbury's present conduct. The implication was, that no matter what her conduct had been in the past, they were to forget that, and without prejudice judge her case according to present evidence.

Our modern wayshower manifested a fair sense toward everyone. Never did she want a person accused unjustly. Wherever she knew that it would be of value to the individual, she forgave all wrongs. Yet she never permitted herself to be swayed by emotionalism, when just judgment was required of her. Once a judge forgave a boy a series of crimes on the basis that the boy was so young, that he hated to punish him, and take his liberty away from him. This judge's act was maudlin sentimentality. He left at liberty a boy who was dangerous to have in the community, one whose influence on other boys would be bad. Mrs. Eddy never inflicted an unworthy individual on her church through maudlin sentimentality. She did not jeopardize the morale of the members by taking in, or retaining one who was manifestly unfit for membership.

No one can say that Mrs. Eddy was not just and kind, that she was not generous and fair; but in all she did she was motivated by wisdom, as well as love. A right sense of love expresses no maudlin sentimentality. She had no thought but helpfulness. She labored steadfastly and patiently to save erring students. Her letters to Augusta Stetson prove, that she never relaxed in her efforts to free this student from the animal magnetism, that was claiming to rob her of her earnest spiritual desire and sincerity. Hence when the latter finally proved her unfitness to continue in membership, Mrs. Eddy had nothing to regret. Nor did she leave one stone unturned in her endeavors to help Mrs. Woodbury. So again she had nothing to regret. She knew that when one is determined not to be saved from animal magnetism, no one can save him.

A study of Mrs. Eddy's letters proves, that those who have the present-day administration of our Cause, should saturate their thought with all that she wrote to the church in regard to dealing with delinquents and erring members, since her methods were beyond reproach. They came from God. No Board of Directors can function properly, unless each of its members is motivated by the same spirit as she was. A correct study and interpretation of her letters alone will perpetuate her methods, and that is exactly what she hoped would be done.

Mrs. Eddy's methods were important, because at each juncture she prayed to know how God would have her act. She knew that was the only safe way for a Christian Scientist to act under all circumstances.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.,

April 2, 1896

C. S. Board

My beloved Students:

I have taken your kind advice, at least Mr. Armstrong's, and as I really need Laura — with your permission will keep her here all but the Friday on which she will be in Boston to tend Mother's Room. She will go there on Thursday and return to Concord on Sat., and pay Mrs. Weller for opening the Room on Sunday, tending guests and closing it. Also will leave the key with Mr. Irving, where Mrs. Weller can find it and leave it. Now if you think best thus to accommodate me, please return this reply. Again I will remind you that Mrs. Sargent must go on the Com. for preparing the S. S. Lessons. She is important there and will send or leave with you her Mss. You can have 5 members if you so desire, and each are to receive $500 annually for their work. And good work and much time must be given to this most important branch of labor.

With love,

Mother,

M. B. Eddy


Mrs. Eddy required a sound student to take charge of Mother's Room, one who knew her and loved her, since the room represented an opportunity to keep alive a right appreciation and love for her, — not that she sought personal ag­grandizement or affection, — but she knew that the success of her Cause largely depended upon her being given the most important place in it; also, that the moment interest in and love for her as the Revelator and Demonstrator began to lessen, at the same time the spirituality in the Cause would begin to diminish. When students begin to believe that their obligation toward their Leader is fulfilled merely by acknowledging her as the Revelator, and studying her writ­ings, they are committing an error that is far more serious than appears on the surface. The tendency to ignore her life, — her demonstration of her own teach­ings, — is an error that would eat at the very heart of her Movement, and seek to rule out of it its spiritual vitality, — exactly as the spiritual vitality was ruled out of the early Christian Church when the life of the Master was misinterpreted, and he was deified. He was placed on a pedestal, and the steps by which he rose to his spiritual heights were taken away, thus preventing anyone following after from climbing those same steps.

Mrs. Eddy considered impersonally and spiritually, is the heart of Christian Science. When the heart weakens, the whole body is affected. Medical law rules that under such circumstances the body may become fat. The Cause of Christian Science may increase in size and wealth, and yet that may not be a spiritually healthy condition. Certainly it may be said to have heart trouble, when error succeeds in pushing the Leader out of her place as the heart of the Cause.

The illusion of death did not move the impersonal Mrs. Eddy from her place in her Movement. Those who suppose that it did, are confronted with the necessity of making the demonstration of resurrecting her in their hearts, before they can succeed in their endeavors to demonstrate Christian Science. While Mrs. Eddy discredited any suggestion that she was a second Christ, nevertheless as the successful demonstrator of her own revelation, she had a right to say, “I am the door.” She said to Laura Sargent, “Do not teach young students that I am the Way. I am the wayshower. The Life, Truth and Love that I teach are the Way, and I am the wayshower. Teach them this thought through to the Principle.”

It is always interesting to note how careful Mrs. Eddy was to take personal charge of such matters as this key to the Mother's Room, since she knew by ex­perience that it was possible for her students to become drunk under animal magnetism. At such times they became unfitted to do even minor things cor­rectly; and a small thing done incorrectly often opens the door to error, as much as a large thing. She knew that when one held an important position in Science, if he did not support it mentally, she must watch out for everything. Hence, if there were two or three keys to the Mother's Room, error might thereby find means of getting hold of the situation.

Laura Sargent was given charge of the Mother's Room because her strong point was her love for Mrs. Eddy. For this reason she would strive to represent her correctly to all visitors to the Room. She had lived with the Leader, and had known her under intimate circumstances; and she seldom cherished the thought that her teacher was wrong in what she said or did. Never was she known to criticise her to a single individual either inside or outside of the home. Once Mrs. Eddy said of Laura, that she had been with her under more trying condi­tions, than any other student.

Mrs. Eddy recognized that Mrs. Sargent had a well-spring of love for her that never failed. The former had no desire for self-aggrandisement, recognition or appreciation as a person, but she realized that for the sake of the growth of the students, error must never be permitted to exclude her from her rightful place in the Cause. She saw that if such a thing came to pass, it would mark the be­ginning of the spiritual disintegration of the organization.

Only as we keep Mrs. Eddy before us, study her life and strive to understand her demonstration of Christian Science, can we approximate her oneness with the Father. We can become successful only as we seek to know what her underlying motivation was, and what she was endeavoring to accomplish and attain. Once this point is granted, one can understand clearly why Mrs. Eddy made such a great effort to safeguard her demonstration, so that it would not be ruled out of her Church. God had made it plain to her that, if animal magnetism ever succeeded in ruling her out, her Church would cease to be a Christian Science Church.

No doubt Mrs. Sargent discussed Mrs. Eddy properly and helpfully with those who came to visit the Mother's Room. She was in a position to do a tre­mendous amount of missionary work in this way.

In the letter in question Mrs. Eddy says that she has taken Mr. Armstrong's kind advice. In just such a simple way does she teach the Board an important lesson, by assuming that when one member gives advice as a Director, he thereby pledges the entire Board. When one member of a business firm makes a contract, he binds the whole firm. Mrs. Eddy gives a warning for the Directors to be care­ful in what they say, since they pledge the Board, when they give advice in­dividually on matters that are the province of the Board.

In reading these letters of our Leader, it is always impressive to note the care she took in making the most minute arrangement of things. She realized that when one directs others to do things, he must anticipate everything that they should do, since the responsibility is his if such matters go awry. One who has the task of mapping out work for others, must be careful to make his direc­tions perfectly clear. Yet Science teaches that the demonstrating way is the only and right way to do anything. The deduction is, that Mrs. Eddy gave explicit instructions which she expected the students to obey, but at the same time she assumed that they would put demonstration into all that they did. In fact her explicit directions were really her call for demonstration.

If this be a correct assumption, then we can deduce that, when it comes to the matter of giving a testimony in a Wednesday evening meeting, it would not be amiss for one to make a careful preparation of what one intends to say. He should bear in mind that he must speak so simply that the stranger or the youngest member can understand. He commits an error if he ignores the stranger or young member, and says things which only advanced students can grasp, but which might chemicalize the others. One of the greatest responsibilities we have in Science, is to watch that we do nothing to upset the early understanding of the beginner.

Mrs. Eddy's lesson is that, having made a careful outline of details, one must put demonstration and inspiration into the giving of his testimony. Then it will be correct and helpful both in the letter and the spirit.

Another point worth noting in this letter is the fact that she says, “Now if you think best thus to accommodate me....” She wrote in this manner because she wanted obedience to be voluntary on the part of the Directors. So she tried to make them feel that they did not have to follow what she recommended, unless they thought best to do so. It was not her natural desire to coerce, and to demand that they do so and so. She was not a pope. In this she was wise, since you do not develop initiative in those you try to dominate and always tell exactly what to do.

When in this letter she named five hundred dollars as the salary for a member of the Committee for preparing the Sunday School lessons, she knew that the sum would arouse comment, and perhaps even criticism. So she im­mediately said that it must be earned by the members by giving much good work and much time to “this most important branch of labor.” She knew that it would appear to be unnecessary to pay a committee such a sum just to study their Bibles and Science and Health, a thing which they would do anyway, as all active students do. The payment, however, was not for the study and labor involved, but for the demonstration Mrs. Eddy expected them to make. As far as time was concerned, what difference would it make how long it took, if one could bring out an intelligent and helpful Sunday lesson? Hence we know that the “much time” Mrs. Eddy called for, was not the time consumed in looking up references, but the time spent in demonstration. She was always consistent in demanding that everything in Christian Science be done from the standpoint of demonstration, and surely the weekly Lesson-Sermons were no exception to this rule. The result of her rule not only ensured that everything done would be done rightly, but it helped students to establish divine Mind as the only Mind in their own lives.

The Christian Science organization primarily sets forth the importance of each individual embodying the one Mind. Each new member in signing the tenets, pledges himself to the effort to have that Mind “which was also in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 2:5). Every branch of the organization, therefore, should present work to be done that, if performed from the standpoint of demonstration, will help every member to establish the Mind of God as the only Mind. Who can say that the organization is fulfilling its Founder's purpose, if this goal is lost sight of?

One who has an exhaustive knowledge of the Bible or of Science and Health, does not necessarily thereby qualify as a member of the Lesson Sermon Com­mittee. Browsing through the Bible and Science and Health is not a spiritual act, unless one makes it so. It is possible that too great a familiarity with the letter of these books might become a deterrent to spiritualization, since what one knows by rote may lose its meaning.

Once a doctor declared that my father's life was saved by a drink of brandy. He also said that the brandy would not have had the desired effect, had my father been a drinking man. This illustration is not intended to be an argument in favor of abstaining from a study of the Bible and Science and Health, but it is evident that after one has laid his foundation based on the teaching of these volumes, he should read them only as he strives to demonstrate what he reads.

Mrs. Eddy once asked Laura Sargent what she was doing. She replied that she was reading Miscellaneous Writings. Mrs. Eddy's reply was, “Go to your room and do more mental work.” Perhaps Laura expected the Leader to com­mend her because she was doing something constructive, instead of reading the daily paper, or knitting. Everything Mrs. Eddy has written was given us to enable us to do better mental work. If Laura had been sharpening a scythe in prepara­tion to cutting hay, Mrs. Eddy would have told her to go out and do some cutting, since her scythe was already sharp enough, and it was a waste of time to con­tinue to sharpen it, unless it became dull through use and needed to be sharp­ened.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

April 10, 1896

C. S. Board

Beloved Students:

God bids me say to you: Tell Judge Hanna to appoint next Sunday from the pulpit, That our services, one in the A. M., the other in the P. M., will be held thenceforth in the Mother Church in Boston. Confer with the Judge as to the hour of the afternoon service and appoint the hour when you give out the notice.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy

N. B. Let me hear from this as soon as attended to.

M. B. E.


This is one of the letters where Mrs. Eddy stated unequivocally that God told her to do something. Where a thing was imperative, and she had worked over it to a point where it came to her without question, she said so plainly. She was not afraid to put God back of her, since she knew that He was. She could have had no doubts, otherwise she would not have sent a letter that would stand for all time, containing such a declaration, “God bids me say....”

Mrs. Eddy knew when God spoke to her, so that she was willing to risk her reputation on the accuracy and sureness of the impartation. For the most part revelation came to her so clearly, that she could not doubt its authenticity.

Students who cherish an immature conception of their Leader, would gain great good, if they should read and understand these letters. Such study would enable them to see above and beyond the human concept they have cherished. There were some of her own helpers who fancied that her seeming over-concern about details in her home was a human idiosyncrasy. Yet it is inconceivable that one who could hear the voice of God day after day, would allow herself to jeopardize or lose that precious communion, by becoming disturbed over such a trifle, for instance, as the fact that the furniture was not replaced exactly in the right place after her rooms had been cleaned. The only way to maintain a spiritual thought and consciousness of oneness with God, is to stand ready to meet every temptation to let human thought come in, especially suggestions of irritation and discord.

Mrs. Eddy habitually rebuked her advanced students (when they deserved it,) with a vigor and sternness. She must have been able to do this without loss of God, since her motive in doing so was wholly to bless the students, to awaken them spiritually, and to bring them closer to God. Mortals rebuke each other in anger. In their ordinary moments they are too complacent and agreeable to be sharp to others. Thus when they do rebuke, they rebuke from weakness, whereas Mrs. Eddy rebuked from strength. Does not the Apostle Paul tell us “be ye angry and sin not...” (Eph. 4:26), — to rebuke the evil but to realize no reality in it?

Once Mrs. Eddy said to the ones in her home, “If you watch me carefully when I am rebuking you, you will see that I am only voicing to you audibly what the mental malpractitioner is arguing to you mentally, and you are asleep to.” Here is a startling proposition which one might disbelieve, until he reminded himself that the real man is spiritual, and needs no rebukes. There is nothing to rebuke in God's man. Hence if Mrs. Eddy was voicing the truth, she would be declaring only for the perfection of man. She would be affirming that man was spiritual, not material. A rebuke must assume the need of a rebuke, and the need of a rebuke must be based on something in man that is imperfect. It is plain, therefore, that her rebukes were not spiritual, although they had a spiritual purpose; but they were an audible exposure of the malpractice aimed against the one rebuked. That which saved her rebukes from being malpractice, was the fact that they were only given to help students, that they might escape from the wiles of the tempter.

It is animal magnetism that declares that man is a sinner, that he has done wrong, and that he needs to be rebuked; it is not God. Yet divine wisdom re­quires that sin be punished. When Mrs. Eddy assumed that you were a sinner and needed a rebuke, it was because she detected that animal magnetism had already victimized you, and she knew that the only way for you to win your release, was for you to recognize this fact, and assume the responsibility for it long enough to deny it and throw it off.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

April 11, 1896

C. S. Board

My beloved Students:

I discern the need of having two services, one in the forenoon, the other in the afternoon in order to feed the multitude on Sunday. To do this there must be a change in the salaries of your Readers in Church. Mrs. Hanna has lost her income from the Committee service; and I consider it but just that the Judge have $5000 annually for his services for the Church. He does for us unpaid much, beside his labors that are remunerated; and other Churches pay larger salaries for their pastor than you for both Readers. As your Pastor preaches to you without money and without price­ — save the salvation of sense — you can afford to raise his salary and Mrs. Gragg's also. Also dear Laura's wages should be raised to $1000, the sum you first named. She proves herself worthy of it, — and her car tickets supplied her for going on errands for our Church and for her weekly trips to Mother's Room. When the Doctor is restored to his place on the Committee and the hogs are all fed, then can mother have her one hour?

With love,

M. B. Eddy


In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the former represents material sense, or the swinish element, which demands to be catered to, while spiritual sense remains half-starved and covered with sores. The students felt that The Mother Church had reached a point where it should pay larger salaries. Mrs. Eddy recognized this demand and met it. At the same time she did not hesitate to declare that it was feeding the hogs, or meeting the demands of material sense. She yearned to have the students realize that they would receive more spiritually, in proportion as they were underpaid humanly. It is a rule in Science, that the less reward in matter one receives for his labors, the less obligated he is to the Adam dream, — the less in bondage to it, — and the more treasure he lays up in heaven.

The workers required money to live on, to be sure, but Mrs. Eddy taught her students to yield less and less to the demands of mortal mind, in order that they might yield more and more to the demands of God. When one is underpaid, he is far more apt to demonstrate the residue in order to meet his expenses, which causes the balance of his thought to weigh more and more on the side of divine Mind. The Master required no large recompense for his work for God, with the result that he was under very little obligation to matter.

Actually, Mrs. Eddy did not care how large a salary a student received. What did concern her, was the degree to which he desired matter instead of Spirit. When a student watched to see that he received a full material compensa­tion for what he did for God, she knew that that was an indication of a desire for matter. Such a one forgets that when he does more than he is paid for, he lays up treasure in heaven. She had learned from her own experience, that when one desires just enough matter to meet his simple needs, and seeks to demonstrate each step of the way, this becomes a tremendous help in the salvation of sense, or throwing off of all materiality.

The hog is a good illustration of material sense, since it is all flesh. All it demands is food and plenty of it. A dog asks for more than that. It wants affec­tion and kind treatment. To be sure, a dog likes to eat, but there are instances where, when driven to choose between affection and food, it has chosen affec­tion, and starved to death. The hog wants nothing but food, and forms a good illustration of those who yield to the suggestion that Christian Science is merely a good way of earning a substantial living.

Mrs. Eddy is careful to remove from Judge Hanna the stigma of being a “hog,” by declaring that he does “unpaid much” for the church. When she wrote the following extract to Archibald Mclellan in 1908, she was describing the “hog” thought. “I left house, home and friends, and I gave up a large salary, as a writer, in order to serve the Cause of Christian Science. I have endured all shame and blame in its behalf, and I have lived these down. This is the experi­ence of your Leader. Are her followers willing to take up their crosses, as she has taken up hers, in order to follow Christ, or do they demand all that they humanly want? Sad, sad thought that money regulates the actions of so many students. Had your Leader been governed thus, Christian Science would be minus today, and instead of overcoming all opposition, ruling and reigning.” See page 126 of Mr. Tomlinson's book.

On page 413 of Science and Health we read, “The act of yielding one's thoughts to the undue contemplation of physical wants or conditions induces those very conditions. A single requirement, beyond what is necessary to meet the simplest needs of a babe is harmful.”

In this statement Mrs. Eddy goes back to the babe, and teaches that what the parents induce in the infant by way of material expectancy, usually decides whether it will become a human hog or not. With the hog it is always give, give, give, to me. We find this swinish element expressed in some so-called Christian Scientists who, after a few years, look themselves over and ask, “What has Christian Science really done for me? What have I gotten out of it? I have given liberally to its support and attended the services; yet I guess I would have been just as well off, had I never taken it up.”

The hog thought always reckons service in terms of what am I going to get out of it? It tries to reflect God only as a means to an end, that end being physical health and prosperity. When health is not speedily restored through Christian Science, it feels that it has wasted its time, and toys with the possibility of medical methods. Its search for God is wholly in terms of matter and material rewards.

Progress requires a student to reach the place where he uses sickness, lack and discord as a help to find God. Then any clearer sense of God or a greater trust in Him gained will make him grateful, and cause him to feel that he is progressing, even if the physical benefit is not made manifest at once.

Physical harmony is not the ultimate of Christian Science; it is merely a temporary alleviative from fear and distress, and is designed to help a student to continue in his effort to build up spiritual existence, without the interference or nagging of discord, suffering or ill health. If one does not strive to build up a spiritual sense of existence as he continues in Christian Science, he may find that his best demonstration will fail to keep him in continuous physical harmony. This is because he has used Christian Science not to help him to escape from his human destiny, but merely to make the human path smoother. What difference does it make whether a cow is led to the slaughter over a smooth path or a rough one? Material sense is doomed to slaughter. The demonstration of relief from suffering in the body is not intended to prevent the destruction of material sense. As Mrs. Eddy writes in Unity of Good, page 40, “Material sense, or the belief of life in matter, must perish, in order to prove man deathless.”

Mrs. Eddy left nothing to chance in her organization. She neglected nothing. It became part of her demonstration to see that each worker received due con­sideration for his labor. She did not want the world declaring that Christian Scientists were niggardly in giving their people less than they earned, in com­parison with the amount rendered for service by mortal mind. Yet in no way does mortal mind's standard of payment represent that which should take the place of the Christian Science standard, which is always demonstration. When demonstration is attained, each worker receives what God wants him to have, and he is contented. Each worker then demonstrates his own salary.

There is much in the Christian Science organization that is a “suffer-it-to-be-so-now,” awaiting the time when demonstration shall enter in as the obligation laid on each student and member. Progress means that students are developing to the point where they are taught of God. No student has the right conception unless he looks forward to the day when he receives his instruction from God. When Science and Health tells us that we walk in the direction toward which we look, and that where our treasure is, there will our heart be also, it means that what we consider to be the valuable attainment becomes our treasure, — what we put our heart into attaining.

We can deduce from this statement that Mrs. Eddy, in referring to Judge Hanna's “unpaid much,” was calling attention to the “intangible,” that mental work which students in important positions (as well as those in lesser places), are expected to do. It has a great value, and, where it is possible to do so, it should be suitably recompensed.

One might think that the money paid a First Reader remunerated all his labors in connection with being a reader; but Mrs. Eddy hints that there is a great deal that a reader has to do, that does not appear to those who look upon his work as merely preparing to read the Lesson on Sunday. He is under the necessity for keeping his thought free from animal magnetism, and being sure that it is animated by the spirit of God, so that when he reads, he will have some­thing of God to give the congregation.

Because of the great need of money to build up the Cause, Mrs. Eddy paid those who worked in the organization small salaries, in the early days. Yet they were blessed because of this, since a small salary with man may be a big salary with God. He rewards us for doing His work, even though we are underpaid humanly. When large amounts of money began to pour into the coffers, Mrs. Eddy realized that the time had come to increase salaries, that those who lov­ingly did important work for the Cause should be paid adequately from a human standpoint, in order that they might not be troubled over any financial problem.

Mrs. Eddy's grasp of affairs was remarkable. She found time to spiritualize her thought, and to meet all attacks of animal magnetism in her home. At the same time she spent hours in going over Science and Health in an effort to im­prove and simplify its terminology in order that the beginner could understand it to some degree. She watched over the articles that appeared in the period­icals. She wrote a number of letters each day. At the same time she was able to keep in mind the needs of the church. When she saw the need, she did not hesitate to write to the church indicating that any position that was fulfilled by demonstration was ennobled, so that it became as important as another position that mortals would consider much higher in the range of responsibility. Her timing was amazing. She knew exactly when the moment had come for the members to take larger responsibilities in regard to faithful workers in their own ranks.

Among other things, demonstration brings correct timing. There is a time to do a thing, and if it is not done at that time, the opportunity is lost. On page 12 of Miscellany, we read, “...that which can be done now, but is not, increases our indebtedness to God.” Then in writing about the children, Mrs. Eddy says, ‘‘The good they desire to do, they insist upon doing now.''

“When...the hogs are all fed, then can mother have her one hour?” Mrs. Eddy was striving to find time to make the demonstration over old age. So by “her one hour” she might have referred to her hope that, when mortal mind was satisfied, she might be left alone mentally, at least for one hour, in order to do her own work. She could not help but feel the sense of criticism and dis­satisfaction among the students, because of what they considered to be the inadequacy of the salaries paid at that time. They were not awake to perceive the tremendous spiritual value of being underpaid. Because the students could not do their best work if they were not satisfied, and because she could not quell the feeling of mental unrest that disturbed her quiet hours, she wrote this letter, in which she clearly indicated that it was to satisfy the hoggish sense in her students, — that which always cries out for a more harmonious condition in the flesh, — that she raised the salaries. Larger salaries enable those who receive them to cater more and more to the flesh. When one has enough to eat and clothes to wear, if he asks for more money, it is usually because he wants to be able to cater to the flesh in some form. Mrs. Eddy called this “feeding the hogs.”




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

July 24, 1896

My dear Student:

I have embodied the two By-laws into one. You need not vote on them again. I have not changed my meaning in them, but made it clearer and also removed repetition. This By-law must go into the next edition of the Manual.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


Mrs. Eddy's task was two-fold. She had to receive the truth from God and then give it forth to the people. In this latter effort she always had to take into consideration whether it should be taken back, if its effect was an undue chemi­calization. When she did recall a By-law, as we find her doing in her letter of March 15, 1896, some might conclude that she had made a mistake in hearing God's voice. They might condemn her out of her own mouth, since she declared that the four By-laws came from God, and then she recalled one. Yet part of her necessary demonstration was to put forth that which came from God, and then to observe the effect of it by tuning into the general thought of the membership. If she found that the effect of a By-law was the reverse of what was intended, and that it was building up the human rather than the spiritual sense in the members, — because thought was balanced on the material side, — she would often recall the By-law, or revise it.

The parable of Dives and Lazarus is significant, because it unfolds the effect of feeding the material nature of mortal man, and neglecting the spiritual. The only way to escape God's condemnation, is to feed the spiritual nature more and more, and gradually to starve the material into subjection and then nothing­ness. With this rule as a guide, students will naturally avoid more and more all that serves to feed the material nature, and will need less and less instruction on this point. Students who are progressively starving the material nature and feed­ing the spiritual, will find that they require the discipline of the Manual less and less, since Mrs. Eddy plainly states on page 148 of Miscellaneous Writings, that the Rules and By-laws contained therein are not absolute doctrines. They were put forth from the “immediate demand for them as a help that must be supplied to maintain the dignity and defense of our Cause.”

In order for Mrs. Eddy to know whether a By-law would chemicalize, as an indication that the students were not ready for it, she had to tune in to the thought of the church to discover its spiritual balance. If a By-law resulted in strengthen­ing the spiritual sense in the students, she knew that they would accept it, obtain the required lesson from it, and it would stand.




July 31, 1896

My beloved Board of Directors:

Please read this in meeting. When you voted to adjourn all the meetings one month, you should also have voted to close the church building to all visitors during that month! Our Master asked, “Which is greater, the temple or the gift that sanctifieth the temple?”

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy

Mother says this can't take effect this month of course because of notice in Journal.


Those who join our organization should be told that they do so, not merely as a proof of their sincerity, or just in order to partake indefinitely of the spiritual blessings poured forth in the services. They should be warned that the correct conception of church membership, includes the fact that they are a body of mental workers, pledged to do their part to provide a healing atmosphere for all the activities of our organization. They should be willing to fulfil this obligation without being specifically requested to do so, as well as to sacrifice their desire to listen to the service, meeting or lecture in order to provide the spiritual animus, that attracts people to our services and keeps them coming. One of the requirements for membership must be a knowledge of the importance of pray­ing for the congregations.

In this letter we can sense Mrs. Eddy's ideal, namely, that the services carry this free-will offering of mental work that spiritualizes thought, and also that the church edifice itself carry it, apart from the service. From her point of view, it was a vain thing to have the public visit the edifice, when no effort was being made to sanctify it with the blessing of spiritual healing.

What is the true temple? It is a thing of thought rather than of brick or stone. Hence there is no value in having a visitor enter the church merely to observe its appearance. The Mother Church was opened to visitors with the hope that they might perceive and partake of the spiritual atmosphere which sanctified the temple. Then and only then would they be attracted to Christian Science.

Mrs. Eddy implies all this in her letter, as if, when every one left the church for one month in the summer, the mental work for the church would cease. She makes it plain that the gift, — or the mental work which the members freely give, — is greater than the temple. Hence to allow the edifice to be on exhibition without constant sanctification, would show a misunderstanding of the intent and purpose of having it open to visitors. Mrs. Eddy valued the temple in pro­portion to the mental work which was performed therein. The invitation to view it, which was given the public, was primarily to allow them to taste and feel the spiritual atmosphere, and not merely to see the decorations and furnishings.

When in 1905 Mrs. Eddy invited the prominent men of Concord to come to her home to view the beautiful Easter flowers her church had sent to her, she said to me, “I go afishing.”

It is my conviction that she desired these officials of the town to experience the spirit that everyone in her home, under her direction, worked daily to establish, hoping that a sample might cause them to desire more. The flowers were the bait, and the spiritual atmosphere was the hook on which she hoped to catch the fish.

A young man would not present his sweetheart with a ring which contained no jewel. The temple is but the setting to hold the jewel of spiritual healing. To exhibit the temple when the gift that sanctifieth the temple was absent, would be like a present of a setting without a jewel.

Because mental work for our organization is of primary importance, it becomes the first thing that error tempts us to forget or neglect. If error can induce a lethargic, indifferent state of mind in the workers, or cause them to attend the meetings from a sense of duty alone, the church then becomes a setting without its jewel.

This brief letter is important, since in it Mrs. Eddy broadens the need for mental work from the meetings to the edifice itself. When this is done, it will never be known how many visitors are healed and so become interested in Christian Science, merely by visiting the structure.

When I had regular office hours, scores of sick persons were healed merely by coming into the waiting room of my office. They would leave without seeing me. This proves that the atmosphere of my waiting room itself carried healing. Likewise The Mother Church, as a place where visitors come, should carry healing. Mrs. Eddy implied, however, that there would be no healing when there was no work done in that direction; so it should be closed to visitors during that period when all work stopped.

Sincere and right-minded members should always be willing to make any sacrifice, in order to pour a right mental sense into everything connected with our vast organization. Then and only then will the world learn that our trade­mark is healing. While it is not possible to check up to discover the faithfulness of members in this direction, or how much work of this sort they do, we can have faith that God knows and rewards according to true worth. Members should feel that they are answerable to God in this direction, and that He is a righteous Judge.

God save our organization from “duty” attendants, since “duty” Christian Science is a battery without power! It may appear to be all right, but when it is called upon to furnish power, it is found not to have a spark.

Christian Scientists are divided into receivers and givers. When one joins the organization, he must be told that he must prepare to become a giver, since membership obligates him to spend time in giving. He becomes the host who prepares the feast of healing for his guests, — the strangers, — who come to our meetings. When people attend a Christian Science service, and feel that they would have been happier, had they remained at home, that is proof that the balance of thought in such a service is on the side of the receivers, and the small amount of giving was not sufficient to take care of the needs of the congregation. When one who has a need attends a service and he finds that need taken care of, that one is happy, and will come again and again. His attendance will be from desire, and not duty.

It is worth while to note, that it was only part of Mrs. Eddy's demonstration to receive inspirational guidance from God. When she passed this guidance on to the Directors or students by letter, it was also necessary for her to preserve this inspiration, lest they chemicalize over what she wrote. In other words, she had to write down the actual direction, and at the same time make the demonstra­tion that would preserve the inspiration back of those words. The reason for this is that error stands ready at all times to rob words of their inspiration. It is our part to see that this is not done, since the message robbed of its spirit, fails to have the right effect, — “...the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life” (2 Cor. 3:6).




Christian Science Publishing Society

95 Falmouth Street

Boston, Mass.

August 1, 1896

Reverend Mary Baker Eddy

Beloved Mother:

With By-law No. 2 came Mr. Frye's letter which reads: “Mother has changed the enclosed somewhat from what it was when adopted by the Church. Please have it adopted into its present form and put into the Manual, but do not publish it in the Journal. This is Mother's request.”

I showed the By-law No. 2 and Mr. Frye's letter to the Judge and Mr. Armstrong and asked them if they thought it was intended to have No. 2 added as a supplement to No. 1, or is No. 2 to be substituted for No. 1. They thought inasmuch as No. 1 has not yet been entered in the books, I had better ask you before doing so.

The By-law No 2 will be adopted to-day and I can leave the records out of the books until I hear from you.

In regard to keeping the Church open Friday will say that, no notice has been published in the Journal that it would be open to visitors, but it was so announced from the pulpit. If it is thought best to have it closed Fridays to visitors, we think it can be done very easily and without causing any stir among the students. Shall it be closed?

As ever, your loving student,

William B. Johnson

My beloved Student:

I thank you for faithfulness. Adopt By-law No. 2, leave out No. 1. Yes, dear Student, when the wind ceases, close the doors to visitors.

Lovingly,

Mother

I recommend that now you take two thirds more matter from S & H than from the Bible for your C. S. Quarterly.

Mary Baker Eddy


It were no slur at the early Directors, to say that they were men with no marked initiative in executive affairs; but they were unfailingly obedient to their Leader. No doubt she helped them to realize their human inability to fulfill their exalted office, and so to turn at least to some extent to demonstration. In so doing they had to turn to her for guidance, since she it was who heard the com­mands of God clearly.

Greatness and power, in order to remain constructive, must be preserved in sweetness and humility. The Directors doubted their own intelligence enough so that they humbly leaned on Mrs. Eddy for guidance.

Mrs. Eddy never appointed Edward A. Kimball as a member of the Board of Directors; yet he was a student of much understanding and forcefulness. He would have made a brilliant member of the Board. In fact on July 26, 1901, she wrote to him, “I want to make you one of our Church Directors in Boston”; but she never made the appointment. Perhaps, he was lacking in humility. She set a precedent, when she conferred that exalted office on those who furnished her with an open mind and an obedient heart, — a loyal and a humble spirit, as well as some recognition of their own inability to fulfil their office without God's help. When, in this letter, she thanked them all through Mr. Johnson for faithfulness, she was giving recognition to the quality that best served her in that office. In the early days she had suffered much from unfaithfulness. Her own students fought every advanced step she took. So it was a joy to find the Directors faith­ful in helping her to bring forth that which God gave her to bring forth.

In using the word “wind” in this letter, Mrs. Eddy was perhaps likening the stir in thought over the new edifice, to pressure in the mental realm. She was always alert to thwart any idolatrous tendencies of the human mind. She did not want the edifice to become a shrine, to which the faithful all over the Field made pilgrimages.

It was natural that students in the Field whose money had helped to build the church, should desire to see it; but when she detected this natural curiosity giving place to idolatry, she knew that it was time for her to act. It may be that, while the “wind” was blowing, she felt that it was necessary to yield to it; but when it ceased, it was time to close the church to visitors. As we find in the 53rd edition of the Manual, page 77, “If, as we declare, matter is a mortal dream, nothing, let us not emulate dreams.”

At times I am asked the question, why I have never visited Mrs. Eddy's home at Chestnut Hill. My answer always is, that I feel no “wind” or pressure to urge me to go to a place associated with our Leader, to refresh my thought of her.

I find that I need no symbol of any sort to help me to think of her, or to remind me of her. She is in my heart, and will remain there.

Viewed from a material standpoint, The Mother Church is merely a material structure. Mrs. Eddy likened the urge of curiosity on the part of students to view it, to “wind.” She was striving at every point to turn thought away from matter to Mind, but she knew that, for a time, it would do no harm to permit students to come and view that which they had helped to erect; but she did not want them to make a “god” out of it.

The “wind” of curiosity impelled the Queen of Sheba to visit Solomon, in order to see his vast possessions, and to listen to his wisdom; but it would not have been in the line of progress for anyone to continue to admire merely his outward trappings, without growing into an appreciation of the demonstration that made his great prosperity possible.

When one first comes to Christian Science, the “wind” blows him toward physical healing. This must soon be outgrown, since physical healing is merely an incident in Christian Science. It is an outward evidence of that which is important in the mental realm; but where students continue to yield to that “wind,” they over-evaluate health, and under-evaluate spiritual consciousness. A student who continues to regard Christian Science as a healer of the sick only, is not progressing spiritually. Those who visit The Mother Church with a superstitious sense of its sacredness merely as a building, are missing the mark. When Mrs. Eddy took her drive and found students haunting it, hoping thereby to receive a healing, she rebuked them with a By-law forbidding such practice, since it betrayed personality worship and mental laziness.

Evidently when The Mother Church was new, and students wished the opportunity to look at it, Mrs. Eddy was willing to yield to their demand. In that way a certain degree of loyalty might be encouraged; but during the period when the edifice was an empty shell with the workers away for a month, she wished it closed.

That which is permissible in the beginning, is not permissible in the end. A runner is allowed to crouch, but only at the start of a race. Students in the beginning are permitted to regard all discord as error, and to insist upon an immediate disposal of it; but as they progress, when any error appears, they are called upon to analyze the reason for it, and to correct that reason. Instead of calling all discord evil, they must begin to appreciate the divine wisdom that permits that which causes all satisfaction in sense to be gradually swallowed up in the joys of Soul. They must learn that the demonstration over error, is less im­portant than the scientific way in which it is performed. Then, the value of results will be overshadowed by the correctness of method.

In Mrs. Eddy's home, this “wind” was what caused students to strive to do their tasks correctly, without due regard for the scientific basis of their thinking. She might overlook this tendency in a student in the beginning, but before long she would feel justified in holding him up to her standard, namely, “If when you are doing a thing, your thought is not right, no matter how perfectly it is done outwardly, it is not done rightly” (Reported by Lydia Hall).

The worship of The Mother Church as a material edifice, would be a de­terrent to spiritual growth. Mrs. Eddy guarded against everything that tended to keep the worship of matter alive. When she used the word “wind,” she may have used it as we use the word “fad.” She knew how mob mesmerism could keep a trivial desire uppermost in the thought of people, and also how prone mortal mind is to try short cuts. In other words, in Christian Science, right results must be accomplished by a metaphysical method that is worked out correctly. Yet mortals look for short cuts. When students haunted Mrs. Eddy's drive to get a healing, they were looking for a short cut. She did not want students visiting the church edifice for such a purpose. It is the lazy human mind, that seeks short cuts. The error in haunting Mrs. Eddy's drive to get a healing, for instance, was that sickness is the evidence of unscientific thinking, and one could not change his unscientific thinking, merely by seeing Mrs. Eddy drive by.

Mrs. Eddy saw these things as the effort to climb up some other way, to take the kingdom of heaven by force.

What prompted Mrs. Eddy to suggest that, henceforth, the Bible Lesson Committee take two-thirds more matter from Science and Health than from the Bible, for the Lesson-Sermons? Is there a connection between this order and her statement on page 210 of Miscellaneous Writings, “...error, when found out, is two-thirds destroyed, and the remaining third kills itself”?

If one regarded the teachings of Science and Health as expounding the subtle ways and means of evil, he could say that the inclusion of two-thirds more matter from that book, than from the Bible, was symbolic of the presence of a greater need for the Lesson-Sermon to free listeners from the claims of evil by exposing them, than to state spiritual truths.

If one regarded the teachings of Science and Health, as setting forth the application of the truths of the Bible, then he would see that twice as much effort must be given to the application of Principle, as is given to the effort to under­stand it.

If a student, after he had grasped the teachings of Science and Health, should feel that he could neglect its study, and cling more and more to the Bible, and, perhaps, increase the citations from the latter, and lessen those from the former, then this word from Mrs. Eddy would correct that notion. On the other hand, if one thought that, because the teachings of the Bible are embodied in Science and Health, he did not need the Bible any more, this false notion would have to be corrected.

Why do students need the Bible? Because it is the Word of God, the revela­tion of Truth, and is recognized to be such by all Christians. To the Christian Scientist, it might be likened to the flying field from which Science and Health takes off. It is important that strangers to our services learn how the Bible is used by Christian Scientists. They will then be relieved of the fear that there is any departure in Christian Science from the teachings of the Bible. Our Sunday service starts with the Bible and ends with the Bible and returns to it many times during the service. The Bible is solid ground to which people are ac­customed, and on which they feel safe. Yet Mrs. Eddy saw that the time had come, when it was possible to spend two-thirds more time in the air, than on the land­ing field.

A painter might spend a certain amount of time in studying his model, and then spend twice that time in working on the canvas, before turning back to the model. In Christian Science, the Bible is our model, and Science and Health is the demonstration, or reproduction of that model. In dealing with the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lessons, perhaps Mrs. Eddy encountered an old theological attitude in some students, that would reduce the amount of matter from Science and Health, and increase the amount from the Bible, so she found it necessary to establish the relationship of two-thirds to one-third.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

August 7, 1896

C. S. Board

My beloved Students:

Call a church meeting at once and put this By-law in the Manual. I sent the Mother's Evening Prayer on sheet music com­posed by Mr. Case, by the Dr. to Miss Lincoln, telling him to have her sing it and return word to me what she thought of the music. I had not accepted the music, but was having it examined, and never dreamed of having it sung in church till I did conclude to have it published in that music. The mistake has been made by m. a. m. causing my directions to be mistaken or knowingly disobeyed. I have not yet heard Miss Lincoln's opinion of the music, although that was what I expressly sent it to her for, and my only purpose. Now it has furnished a bone of contention as the demons direct. But I declare this subject shall be dropped and no more be thought or said of it.

Next follows another picture hung up in the pub. office for examination! Which is shocking after what has already been said on this subject. This forces me to turn from my paths of duty on hand, and make another By-law for the rebellious Israelites. Look up any By-law that has been made relative to the matter of music to be sung in church and send it to me.

When, if ever, will all the members of this church, even while under the rod, behave themselves as Christian Scientists, and not have to be put into straight jackets to keep them from quarreling in the sackcloth of this solemn hour?

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy

N. B. Have this By-law added to Article 14, Sec. 1 on page 30 of the Manual. Begin with a 2nd paragraph commencing after the 5th. line of first paragraph.

M. B. Eddy


Mrs. Eddy preceded this letter with a telegram to Mr. Johnson which read: “Call church meeting at once; will send message.” She often did things in a hurry, because she saw the need of getting ahead of the devil. Often she de­tected the devil's plans, and hurried in order to circumvent them, or to prevent the devil from thwarting God's plans; or she recognized the action of the devil in its incipiency, and hastened to correct it in its first appearance.

Had the Japanese beetle been discovered when it was first brought into this country, it could have been destroyed at that point, and the country would have been saved from any costly ravages of that pest.

When Mrs. Eddy detected the beginnings of a sense of dissension, she hastened to meet it. She perceived what it might mean, if these individuals were given a chance to spread a bone of contention “as the demons direct,” to the point where it was beyond control. She could detect the signs, when error was seeking to start a countercurrent to good that would prove detrimental to the Cause, so she rose to meet it. Today we are grateful for her patient and alert watchfulness, which spared no effort in order to nip error in the bud.

Music is a symbol of harmony. For that very reason under the claim of reversal it becomes an open door to discord in our churches, if it is not put under demonstration. On page 11 of Mrs. Eddy's Message for 1900 we read, “Beloved brethren, have no discord over music. Hold in yourselves the true sense of har­mony, and this sense will harmonize, unify, and unself you.”

All mortals long for harmony; but mortal belief has imitated spiritual harmony, and thus has put forth the most subtle claim of error, namely, human harmony. Spiritual harmony is the result of an awakened and active thought, attuned to God. Conversely, human harmony represents an inactivity of thought that is tuned to the devil or demons, as Mrs. Eddy writes. Here we find the essential difference between human and divine harmony. Divine harmony being the presence of the active divine Mind, it follows that human harmony repre­sents God's absence, a sense of inactivity in which man is content to stagnate.

Human harmony claims to make the path of mortal man's human destiny which leads to destruction, more bearable and satisfactory; but his end is the same as that of the sick man. Contrariwise, increasing spiritual harmony is the sign that man is overcoming his human destiny, and getting into line with God.

Human harmony is akin to the hypnotism in which the operator puts his subject to sleep. In this state, he becomes susceptible to any suggestion the operator desires to present.

Mrs. Eddy saw that it was of the utmost importance that demonstration characterize the music in her church. Otherwise it might become a basis for discord, or the expression of an apathetic mental sense, that would be hypnotic in its effect.

In all disobedience, Mrs. Eddy detected the action of animal magnetism, either ignorant or intentional. It would seem a small matter, to have Mr. Case's music sung in The Mother Church without having been accepted by her, but she considered such disobedience to be of sufficient importance that she covered the case by writing a By-law. Mrs. Eddy often learned through little things what animal magnetism was trying to do. When it tried to introduce a bone of conten­tion into the church, her rule was, “See what it is trying to do. Know that it cannot do it. See that it is not done.”

At times the chief executive of our nation will formulate constructive plans, which in turn are executed by self-seeking politicians for their own gain. The very lines of action that might have been of great value to the country thereby become deterrents. Mrs. Eddy was guided by God to formulate wise and intelligent plans for the Cause, but she did not leave the matter there. Had she done so, her church might never have been founded on the Rock; so she guarded the carrying out of God's demands so carefully, that they became rightly ful­filled. The moment she saw even a tendency toward disobedience, she rebuked it, and required that her demands be obeyed. She knew that a good idea, im­properly executed, might become harmful.

Mrs. Eddy always sought to determine the thought back of the outward form. She seldom trusted her students to do this for her. The music in question was sent to Miss Lincoln, not to have her estimate the spiritual thought in it, but its human excellence. Mrs. Eddy herself did not feel competent to pass on it, — to determine whether it was up to the standard of musical form. She left that task to one who was trained in that direc-tion, but reserved for herself the privilege of determining whether in permitting this music to be sung, she would be introducing that which, under the guise of harmony, would have the human mind back of it. If so, then she knew that it would produce discord.

When music which has a balance of the human mind back of it, is intro­duced into our church, there will be those who rally to its support, being unable to determine the spiritual lack. Others will turn away from it, because they recognize the lack; and an occasion for dissension is formed.

Had Miss Lincoln reported to Mrs. Eddy that the form of this composition was suitable from the musical standard, that would have still left the need of determining whether God wanted it sung in His church. It was Mrs. Eddy's province to put the final approval on it, — to decide whether it had the human mind or the divine Mind back of it. In this instance, however, the “demons” took it out of her hands, and prevented her from passing on it from God's stand­point.

This letter teaches us, that whatever is introduced into our church business meetings, or services, no matter how correct it may be according to the standard of mortal mind, if demonstration is not behind it, may furnish a bone of conten­tion. The wrangling in business meetings results from the introduction of truth, opposing the human mind. When truth is being demonstrated, the advocates of mortal mind are chemicalized; as Truth urges its claims, they become voluble. At such a point the alert metaphysician knows that he is becoming successful in his efiort to rule out mortal mind, and to let in divine Mind.

What did Mrs. Eddy mean by “demons” in this letter? A “demon” is the human mind calling itself God. If our Leader had found her students alert to the depredations of rats and mice in the mental realm, and asleep to the destruc­tion carried on by moths, it would have been necessary for her to emphasize and magnify the possibilities for evil, in the direction which was being over­looked. She found her students differentiating between phases of the human mind, — calling some good and some bad, — when, according to absolute Science, it must all be destroyed, even though in the process it becomes improved. She had discovered the way by which mortal mind could be eliminated, and she knew that it was important that her students follow this way. Sometimes students fancy that the human mind, purified by Christian Science, is the actual divine Mind, when it is not, — it is merely a state of the human mind ripe for destruction.

Mrs. Eddy found it necessary to indicate to the students that, if they were not reflecting the Mind of God, they were controlled by “demons,” — the mis­chievous, desperate, erroneous suggestions that would oppose divine Mind at every point. She was not indicating that as a demon the human mind was more difficult to meet and handle than as plain error, but she sought to have the students realize, that the human mind can have no worse effect on anyone than to cause him to lose God, since God is his very Life. The worst thing that can happen to a storage battery is to be cut off from the generator that keeps it fully charged. The moment man lets go of God, by believing that he is cut off from Him, he begins to die. He is then functioning under his own belief in life, instead of relying on that which brings a continual renewal of life. Hence it is the maxi­mum of error to be robbed of God, since it means the loss of intelligence, life, health, happiness, and all good. Mrs. Eddy certainly had a right to put a magni­fying glass on evil, and to call it the work of “demons,” when even a seemingly good or harmless phase of the carnal mentality succeeded in triumphing for the moment.

Many a man drinks a glass of water and relishes it; yet he would throw it away with horror if he should be shown the teeming, revolting organisms it contains. It was an important lesson for our Leader to teach, namely, that unless one is subject to God, he is subject to the devil, or “demons.” It was as if she had said, “Now let us examine this matter of Mr. Case's music, diagnose the error and learn the lesson, since, if you yield to human suggestions in the same manner again, it may have a very serious effect upon the Cause.” All error begins by one yielding in small ways. One forms bad habits because he first yields to suggestion in minor ways. In Science the error in habits is not so much in the outward act, as in the fact that one is being dominated by his own belief of mind. Thus when one conquers a habit through will power, he is worse off, since he has strengthened his human mind so that it may be used against him­self. It is as if he was on the bottom of the ocean with his foot caught in a giant clam, and he found himself unable to extricate it with his own strength. So he seeks help from an octopus, and with this help he pulls his foot free only to find that he is in the grasp of the octopus, and much worse off than he was before. The only right way to overcome habits is through demonstration, which is the process that renders the human mind ripe for elimination. By extinguishing a bad habit through demonstration, one prepares the human mind for extinction and so advances spiritually.

What can be said about Mrs. Eddy's disturbance because the picture of the chair she sat in when she wrote Science and Health, — which had already fur­nished a basis for controversy when it was put on the walls of the church, — was now hung in the office of the Publishing Society for examination? She considered the matter to be of such a serious nature, that she wrote the following By-law, “No pictures coming from outsiders shall be exhibited in the room where the Christian Science textbook is published. No idle gossip, no slander, no mis­chief-making, no evil speaking, shall be allowed in this room or any other in the publishing house.” See Manual of 1896.

The fact that this picture was hung up for examination, probably did not seem shocking at all to the students, but in order to understand our Leader, we must recall that the Master took a whip of small cords, and drove out of the temple everything that did not have for its intent, demonstration. There is no activity in the Christian Science organization that has any value, unless it pro­motes demonstration. Hence students must watch lest any such activity be stressed to a point, where it appears to be an integral and important part of Christian Science, of itself.

One reason the Founder of our Movement yearned to give up organization, was because it always tends to aggrandize the seen, and to minimize the unseen. It carries the temptation to stress the value of organic structure to the point, where one loses sight of the fact, that its main purpose is to hold together a uniform demonstrating sense. Applicants for membership should be asked if they know how to demonstrate, and if they are willing to give up the pleasure of listening at the services and lectures, in order to become part of the group who make it their solemn obligation to work mentally for all meetings. Then, they will not join under the delusion that old theology holds forth, namely, that one joins the church to be saved. If an individual is not negatively wrong, and yet not positively right, old theology is willing to accept him as a member. In Christian Science, however, members should be required to be positively right before being accepted, so that they may add to the volume of scientific thought that is being sent out to bless the world.

It is always interesting to note how much Mrs. Eddy made of some minor thing that was introduced into the church, — that turned thought away from heal­ing, — and how vehemently she whipped it out. Her whole purpose was to found a church, every activity of which, should direct thought along lines of healing.

On page 283 of Miscellaneous Writings we read, “As a rule, one has no more right to enter the mind of a person, stir, upset, and adjust his thoughts without his knowledge or consent, than one has to enter a house, unlock the desk, displace the furniture, and suit one's self in the arrangement and manage­ment of another man's property.” This same thought applies to the church. God dwells in the church; it belongs to Him. Hence in our dealings with the church, our first thought should be, “What does God want?” In selecting members to office we should ask, “Whom does God want to serve Him in His church?” We should feel that we are blameworthy, if we seek to arrange or rearrange things in God's house without consulting Him.

Mrs. Eddy recognized that the picture of the chair had become a channel through which error was trying to find a lodging place in the activities of Christian Science, and she knew that that was an error that should be magnified until students could see it for what it was, and cast it out.

Often children will beg for candy just before dinner. Their mother points out that the error involved, is not so much in eating the candy, as it is in the fact that doing so will take away their appetite for their regular meal. Mortals are heavenly homesick. Many of the things Mrs. Eddy pointed to as error, were not error in and of themselves, so much as channels through which error would attempt to feed man with materiality, so that his appetite for God would be diminished. Perhaps the picture of the chair the Revelator sat in when she wrote Science and Health, was in danger of becoming a human means of partially satisfying a heavenly yearning, when the only right way to worship Spirit is in spirit. Idolatry is worshipping something as God, or something less than God. Carelessness, laziness and indifference cause man to worship symbols. The painting of the chair was intended to suggest Mrs. Eddy's marvelous revela­tion, which would bring to thought her spiritual activity, devotion, reflection and nameless sacrifice; but she knew that it would cease to have value when it ceased to suggest her atonement with Mind, and became a meaningless symbol as seen through the students' inactivity and materiality of thought.

After criticizing the exhibition of the picture as shocking, after what had been said on the subject, Mrs. Eddy mentions music again. She always shrank from the necessity for mixing up in such problems, since they caused her to be­come a target for the cross fire of animal magnetism. Both the ones who wanted certain music sung and those who did not, for instance, would reach out to her to decide the matter their way. They both wanted the Leader's approval, and ob­viously she could not please all.

“When, if ever, will all the members of this church, even while under the rod, behave themselves as Christian Scientists, and not have to be put into strait jackets to keep them from quarreling in the sackcloth of this solemn hour?” A student or member is under the rod as long as he needs to be controlled by another's demonstration. The question in Christian Science is, if one cannot be obedient to the demonstration of another, how can he ever become obedient to God and so be governed by Him?

One might call the Manual a strait jacket, since when a patient refuses to be obedient or rebels against taking food, he is put into a strait jacket, where obedience is forced upon him and he is forcefully fed.

The author of the Manual in forbidding idle gossip, slander, mischief, or evil speaking, in the rooms where the textbook was sold was applying a strait jacket, making a By-law out of that which should have been, and should always be a voluntary act on the part of a student. A student who is governed by the spirit of God, needs no such By-law. For the good of his own soul, as the old saying goes, he will keep silent in those directions, since he knows how they tend to rob him of God. A student who has an alert and scientific apprecia­tion of his own well-being, is not going to do that which will rob him of God; but if he does not know that indulging in such errors is a conspiracy against his own health, harmony and success, then he must be put into the strait jacket of a By-law, that will restrain him, until he sees what he should see through his own growth.

The advancing student should hold the attitude toward his own con­sciousness that Mrs. Eddy enjoins us to hold toward our Reading Rooms and Publishing House. He should watch that nothing enter there that suggests the existence of a power apart from God, or power in evil, or human thinking of any sort. His consciousness is in a sense a Publishing House, because through the constant reiteration of the reflected truths of being, they are sent forth or pub­lished to all the world. So he watches lest anything enter the room of his thought that suggests aught but God, and His goodness and power. In this way he broadens and impersonalizes the lesson taught by this By-law. Then when the By-law is no longer needed as a strait jacket to govern action, its higher lesson will remain forever as a spiritual guide. The outward form will fall away, as one makes the spiritual lesson a part of his life. When students keep their thoughts as free from error, as Mrs. Eddy instructed them to keep the Reading Rooms or Publishing House, the true spiritual intent of the By-law will be fulfilled; but when students obey it literally and outwardly, and then indulge in these errors mentally, such obedience counts for very little. It is a rule that is deduced from Science and Health, that unless obedience to the By-laws coincides with a cor­rection of one's thinking, no permanent good is done.

It is worthwhile to note, that because Mrs. Eddy mentions tea and coffee in Science and Health, many students have put themselves in strait jackets, by voluntarily forbidding themselves indulgence in these beverages. While this may appear to be discipline for the human mind, yet if students permit such refraining to take the place of active demonstration, which awakens them to strive for a victory over matter, and its claims to intelligence and sensation, they have not bettered themselves spiritually.

By-laws are strait jackets, which members need because of immaturity in demonstration; but such laws may become deterrents, if they cause workers to feel that they are forever relieved from making the demonstration to know what God's demands upon them are, since in their spiritual progress, God's direct demands represent the most important phases of their experience.

As long as there remains the temptation to be lawless on the part of students, they will require the strait jacket of By-laws. As no mortal in a normal state of mind needs to be put into a strait jacket, so members in a spiritually normal state of thought, — which means that they are reflecting God, — do not need By­-laws for discipline or restraint, but merely for spiritual development. They do not need the Manual as a strait jacket, when they have grown beyond the danger of being handled by animal magnetism.

Man's individual reflection of wisdom is as correct as any formulated in­struction or restriction, that is known to be of divine origin. It is necessary to declare this, lest students stagnate in the fatuous notion that they are better spiritually for wearing the strait jacket of the Manual. Is a student bettered spiritually by giving up tea and coffee, apart from the effort to make a demonstra­tion of so doing? A continued blind obedience to the Manual may become a deterrent to a student. This very letter indicates, that one of the uses of the Manual is to check members who need to be held in check, lest they quarrel, and make inroads into the unity and harmony of the Cause. Demonstration will always rank higher than the Manual. Yet it would be a gross error for a student to claim freedom from the restrictions of the Manual, as a cloak to hide the fact that his undisciplined human mind chafed at its divine bonds.

Cities need traffic laws, and streets must have stop signs that require auto­mobiles to come to a full stop; but the law recognizes that due caution is more important than such laws. Blind obedience is better than disobedience, but intelligence properly exercised is safer than all laws, and hence superior to them. Even the most intelligently devised laws cannot make the streets of cities safe, unless some measure of individual intelligence is used. Laws are made primarily for those who need strait jackets, who without them, would not properly regard the rights of others. Law is for the lawless.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

August 18, 1896

Mr. Johnson

My beloved Student:

Call a church meeting as soon as possible and pass this By-­law and publish it in this Manual on hand. Have the business done that I name in Mr. Armstrong's letter.

N. B. A hymn is a song or ode composed for the church. An ode includes the music as well as words, hence, the By-law has been broken, for neither the words nor music were in our Hymnal at the time Mother's Prayer was sung. See Webster's dictionary. Both the By-laws you send are right.


As we study the efforts of the Founder to establish her church, we find that the subject of music was one that gave her concern. One studying her footsteps sees that she considered that music required scientific steering, to direct it into its proper place and form, where as a part of the services, it would be a channel for harmony, rather than dissension. One should strive to understand the place it occupies in our services, and what Mrs. Eddy expected it to accomplish.

Congregational singing tends to bring about unity of thought, so that the mental workers and those they are working for, may be in harmony. It helps the former to make a scientific demonstration for the atmosphere, and the latter are put into a more receptive frame of mind.

It is arresting to find Mrs. Eddy declaring that the By-law in regard to music had been broken, because her own hymn had been sung in the church to a setting of which she had not as yet approved. The deduction is, that one reason she wrote By-laws, was to protect students, until they were able to function under their own spiritual sense unerringly. Hence today members must function under the laws she has given them, until they have reached the point where they can accurately detect the thought back of whatever they are considering, whether it be a piece of music, a book, or an article.

A child is placed in a baby-tender after it has learned to walk, since it has no wisdom to direct its footsteps. Otherwise its little feet would take it into trouble. The Manual represents that which hedges about the awakened thought in students, who have not yet learned how to demonstrate beyond healing the sick, or how to use demonstration correctly, or who do not see the importance and the necessity of its broader use.

The thought back of anything is of prime importance. Often those who com­pose music are motivated by a desire for self-aggrandizement. There were students in the early days who wrote either words or music with the hope of having them put into the hymnal, since in that way they would be brought favorably before the congregation. They would thus have a perpetual advertise­ment that would declare that they were good Christian Scientists. Our Leader did not want any words or music put in the hymnal or sung in the church, that did not have the right thought back of them.

One problem that confronted Mrs. Eddy in regard to the music was that, when she permitted the work of one student to be used, that would cause others to submit their efforts, and if such efforts were rejected, a basis of dissension might be formed. The latter might declare that the work rejected was just as good as that which had been accepted. She foresaw that error would strive to bring discord into the organization through the medium of music, so she wrote a By-law, the purpose of which was to close the door on any necessity for the Directors to pass on either new words or music composed by Christian Scien­tists. Then to show that she was not favoring herself, she declared that this By-­law was broken when her own hymn was sung! She indicated that even her own poems were included in the ban created by the By-law. This By-law is found in Sec. 11 of Art. VIII of the 1896 edition of the Manual. “No hymns nor words com­posed by students of Christian Science that are not at this date, January 22, 1896, in the Christian Science Hymnal shall be sung in the Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston. As a necessary barrier to inharmony in the Church this By-law has become requisite.”

From the incident where this By-law was broken, can be deduced the precept, that until students have reached the point of growth where they can detect the thought back of a thing, they must function under a restriction given by one who can. This precept not only covers solos, hymns and music, but articles written by students and others.

Music in our churches has one purpose, and that is to bring out an har­monious and unified thought in the congregation, a basis of thought that best enables scientific work to be done in the service. Hence the question regarding any music is not whether it is beautiful, or desirable, or musical, but rather whether it will tend to harmonize the thought of the congregation. If it does not bring forth this result, it should be ruled out in favor of that which does. Accord­ing to this assertion, readers should avoid selecting often unfamiliar hymns. They should rather choose familiar ones for the services, and call the members together at other times in order that they may learn new ones. Otherwise, when the congregation is called upon to sing unfamiliar hymns, they have to pay so much attention to the music, that the good effect is largely lost.

When it comes to the solo on Sunday, a singer who over-emphasizes the voice at the expense of the words, needs to be corrected, since the words con­stitute an effort to bring out harmony and unity of thought, more than the musical setting. The music might be said to hold and open thought, in order that it may receive the spiritual message conveyed by the words. If this result is not at­tained, the solo fails to perform its intended function.

Mrs. Eddy herself declared that she was once passionately fond of material music, but that she had been weaned from that love. She had grown to the point where she did not care about music, except as the old idea molded into the new, in which the harmony of Soul is expressed. Hence she wished all the music played or sung in her Church to be of a nature that would tend to spiritualize thought. All other music, no matter how beautiful, that did not tend to this result, was to be ruled out.




August 27, 1896

My beloved Student:

Mr. Frye did not catch your meaning. When he named it to me I had not read your letter. This morning I have read it and send you the enclosed to print in the Manual on page 9, Art. 2, Sec. 4 in place of that section. You must vote at your next meeting to adopt it.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy

(Enclosure)

Sect. 4. Seven First Members shall constitute a quorum for trans­acting the church business. A majority of all the First Members elects a First Member.


One who is seeking to demonstrate God's directions, takes on the obliga­tion to reflect divine intelligence; also, he is required to extend that demonstra­tion to know that those to whom he sends God's requests will understand them, and will execute them speedily and correctly. The metaphysician recognizes that he has both elements to demonstrate correctly, namely, the reception of God's demands by himself, and also by those to whom he transmits them.

Mrs. Eddy made no apology in this letter, therefore, since the error of misunderstanding did not necessarily lie at Mr. Frye's door. The Directors should have realized that in their relation to their Leader and the work of the Cause, they must make the demonstration that would forestall any misunder­standing. It was not sufficient merely to send a communication to Mrs. Eddy. Along with the letter should have gone the spiritual thought of protection, so that animal magnetism could not reverse its intent, or cause a misunderstanding in the minds of those receiving it.

Today this precept is still needed. All communications from headquarters should go forth with the demonstration of protection, that will forestall the possibility of any misunderstanding of their intent or meaning. Surely it should be no more of a task to think rightly than wrongly; so this requirement should not seem a burden. In fact right thinking, as it has its source in God, is always a spiritual and mental refreshment.

To Mrs. Eddy everything in her Cause deserved demonstration, whether it was great or small. Two horses deserve equal care, even if one is a race horse and runs only ten minutes out of the entire day, whereas the other pulls a plough all day. Mrs. Eddy gave all By-laws equal attention in bringing them forth. Nothing would be more incongruous than a By-law that was not demonstrated, in a demonstrating church. It would be like the man in the Bible who went to a wedding without a wedding garment.

The unity with God which brings an influx of His power, was our Leader's concept of the wedding garment. Once she wrote as follows: “Your inquiry­ — what is the wedding garment? — embraces a long answer, but I can name its hem for you to touch. It is first the desire above all to be Christlike, to be tender, merciful, forgetting self, and caring for others' salvation; to be temperate, humble, pure, whereby appetite and passion cease to claim your attention, and you are not discouraged to wait on God — to wait for the tests of your sincerity — ­longing to be good, and seeking through daily prayer for divine teaching. If you continue to ask, you will receive, provided you comply with what you must do for yourself, in order to be thus blessed. Reading or listening to my teaching the truths of Christian Science will not do for you what the constant seeking and knowing and following will do for you.”

In Smith's Historical Sketches, we find the following which Mrs. Eddy related on January 17, 1883, at a meeting of the Christian Scientist Association, “One of the best cures I ever performed was, apparently, under the most ad­verse circumstances. I had spent one year of incessant toil upon the MSS. of my book, ‘Science and Health', and put it into the hands of a printer for publica­tion, who, I found, had allowed it to be taken from his possession, and I was thus obliged to return, in the sackcloth of disappointment, without it. A student soon called desiring me to assist in a case that was dying. I put on the wedding gar­ments at once, and healed the case in twenty minutes.”

The wedding garment is symbolic of man's uniting himself with God, which he must do in order to demonstrate. Certainly he cannot demonstrate by himself. When one seeks to put on this garment through knowing that he is spiritual, not material, and that his entire intelligence is reflected from Mind, for the time being that garment subdues and covers up what he has not yet eliminated of materiality, pending the time when all mortal mind will be swallowed up in divine reality.

Under date of December 20, 1889, Mrs. Eddy wrote to a student, “Twenty-­three years have shown that everything that I have done has had back of it a higher wisdom than mine.” She knew that it would prevent failures and pitfalls, and establish the church on an enduring basis, if she and others conformed to what God told her. Hence she set forth His directions without hesitation or timidity. She had faith to set forth the fact that seven members constituted a quorum, even though the number of First Members was increasing. A quorum is a definite proportion of an entire group, whose decisions are the voice of the majority. Yet a quorum of seven might meet and transact business in a way the rest would object to. The First Members, however, were expected to demonstrate everything they did, and function only under Mrs. Eddy's supervision. Hence the business at any given time would be safe in the hands of seven; and the more Mrs. Eddy instilled into them the fear of the Lord, — the fear of the Lord being the realization of the awful penalty of allowing human inclination and animal magnetism to use one, when he is supposed to be executing God's plans, — the safer it would be.

The “fear of the Lord” is properly engendered through the realization that, whereas our actions are known to man, our thoughts are known to God. Students who knew Mrs. Eddy, and judged her by her actions or speech, without realizing that her thoughts were known to God, and were acceptable to Him, could not be relied upon to bear reliable testimony in regard to her life and demonstration. It is certain that Mrs. Eddy never departed from her effort to establish her Cause on a solid foundation, or to spiritualize her own thought and life. She never relinquished her purpose and endeavor to lift humanity to a higher level of meta­physical and scientific thinking. She never criticized a student who was dem­onstrating his actions. Her rebukes were given to those who knew how to demonstrate whatever the task was, and were not doing so. She never rebuked any one who was ignorant of her methods. It was the materiality in the thought of students that caused them to be offended by what she said or did. The carnal mind cannot understand spiritual things.

Cain was offended when his seemingly pure thought on a merely material plane, was rebuked, because a spiritual diagnosis convicted the human mind, even at its best, of being basically a murderer. The human mind was a potential murderer, just as much when it animated Cain in his peaceful pursuit of hus­bandry, as when it caused him to kill his brother. Mrs. Eddy's attitude toward the human mind differed from ours, in that she did not wait for it to commit murder, before branding it as a murderer. She treated it as a murderer from the beginning, whereas we treat it as a friend, until it shows itself to be otherwise. Yet when one accepts the favors of the human mind when it expresses itself agreeably, he is not in a strong position to combat it successfully with divine power, when it is guilty of abuses. One who becomes a fast friend of a criminal who is on good behaviour, thereby renders himself less able to exercise the power of law and order, to restrain his friend when he commits a crime.

Mrs. Eddy was so spiritually attuned, that she felt the murderous intent emanating from the carnal mentality, even when it appeared to be the most harmless and desirable. She used drastic and rigorous means to rule out of the temple that which always carries the intent and determination, to kill out the spiritual life and thought in anyone who is gaining even a slight ability to reflect life from God.

Taking human life is a light crime, in comparison to the effort to rob a man of spiritual light which is his true life. The attempt to kill out spiritual reflection is murder indeed. One may function as an animal on earth, but without spiritual reflection, one cannot be said to be living.

There is a wide difference between the concept of wrong held by mortals, and that established by Christian Science. From God's standpoint the greatest error is that which has the greatest effect in causing one to lose his spiritual consciousness. Whatever most tempts one to depart from metaphysical thinking, is the greatest wrong, and constitutes the greatest danger to man's true life, being, action and harmony.

Mrs. Eddy was guided by God in rebuking students. Perhaps she herself was often surprised to find how God led her to thunder His law, on occasions that humanly did not seem to merit such treatment. Her wisdom in so doing cannot be comprehended, until one has grown to perceive the danger con­nected with certain phases of mesmerism, as well as the darkened sense that comes to one who lets go of spiritual sense. Even young students are incapable of under­standing such rebukes as she gave. They must accept on faith the rightness of her being upset over students return to, or unwatchful acceptance of, the harmonious side of mortal mind.

From page 13 of We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, we quote an incident of this nature, where she severely rebuked John Lathrop for not doing his mental work. “One day she called me to her study and asked me if I was doing my work. I replied, ‘I am trying to do it, Mother.' She repeated her question. I replied as before, and attempted to explain. She said, ‘Stop, stop!' and gave me one of her penetrating looks which went right through one. ‘I asked you if you were doing what I gave you to do. You replied, ‘I am trying to do it.' Now you are either doing a thing or you are not doing it. Were you doing it?' ‘No, Mother, I was not doing it,' I replied. She said quickly, ‘When are you going to do it?' ‘Now,' I replied. ‘Let me see you do it now,' she said sternly.”

A young student would not comprehend this incident, because he would assume that Mr. Lathrop was soldiering on the job of doing the mental work Mrs. Eddy gave him to do, when as a matter of fact he was in his room striving faith­fully to do it. Then what occasioned Mrs. Eddy's rebuke? His work must have been perfunctory and mechanical. It was like a practitioner treating a patient, and going through the mental motions, without putting into the effort the unction, the spiritual inspiration, that marks effective treatment. He was striving to be obedient to Mrs. Eddy's demand that he work mentally, but she could sense that he was accomplishing nothing of any value. What emanated from him was not demonstration. It was effort without accomplishment, — the letter without the spirit.

Work in Science amounts to nothing unless it produces results, and all mental workers must hold this goal in mind. Otherwise they are liable to spend much time in the effort to help patients and to bless the world, and accomplish little, because they are not doing it from the standpoint of inspiration. They might be said to be trying to break a rock with a rubber hammer.

Mrs. Eddy knew when to encourage students and when to rebuke them; she rebuked them when they failed to do that which she knew they understood how to do, and should be doing.

There is another helpful statement by our Leader on page 40 of the book, We Knew Mrs. Eddy. “All the people need to love and adopt Christian Science, is a true sense of its founder. In proportion as they have found it, will our Cause advance.” Mankind in general strives to love God in vain. Scholastic theology commands its adherents to love God, and then sets forth such an unlovely con­ception of Him, that no one could possibly love Him.

In like manner we are commanded to gain a true sense of Mrs. Eddy, so that we may love her and Christian Science. Yet this cannot be done unless one understands her life aright. There are many things which happened in her life which have been related by students who lived in her home, which give an unlovely picture of her, and tend to make one feel that she was to some degree materially minded, in spite of the great value of the revelation she had had from God. Many of these stories, set her forth as having been unjust at times in her treatment of students, who did not deserve such treatment. The implication is that they gave Mrs. Eddy their best, and received in return little else than rebukes and criticism.

A right explanation of our Leader causes any right minded student to love her, just as a right understanding of God causes people to love Him. Mrs. Eddy did only that which God told her to do. She was obedient to Him in all her ways. Hence if one learns to understand and love her, at the same time he will be learning to understand and to love God. Mrs. Eddy's life must be explained in such a way, that one will not lose his love for God, but will find it enhanced. As a matter of fact, a right explanation of Mrs. Eddy's life is an effort to set God aright, since He was the motivation of her life. If what she did was done under God's direction (as she herself declares), then when her life is correctly explained, at the same time God will be set forth as being lovable and adorable in every way.

When a student criticizes our Leader, and declares that at times she was harsh and unreasonable, he is also declaring that at times God is harsh and un­reasonable, since Mrs. Eddy only followed out God's demands upon her. If God is a just God, then she was just in all her ways; if God is unjust, then she permitted herself to be governed by an unjust God.

A right understanding of Mrs. Eddy is essential to an advancing student. In order to progress, he must be convinced that she was obedient to God in all her ways. At the same time he must know that it was God's unchanging love for His children that she manifested. When a child is punished, it must know that its father is both loving and just. If the father withholds the explanation as to why the child is being punished, the child is apt to believe that the father is unjust and unkind, and so resentment creeps in. Similarly, mortals often feel resentful toward God, because they do not understand the reasons why calamities over­take them.

We quote from a letter to Irving Tomlinson, “Mother's darling: How can she ever touch him with the rod? Oh, it is hard to do it, but if I reflect the power that rebukes, then I must use the rod.” In another letter to him, she wrote, July 8, 1899, “I wish mother could be excused by divine Love from speaking as I did to my fresh happy callers! I thought I was done when I went to my room but the Scripture I opened to and the leadings spiritual sent me back. What I said I no more expected to say than when I wrote S. & H. Afterwards I recalled your kind care of me, getting everything ready, etc., when I went to Boston and said — O what have I said! I also knew that these Sinai detonations make the student grow most rapidly into the holy fitness for every demonstration; or they (under the fire of the enemy) cause him by degrees to dislike mother and keep aloof from her counsel.”

Our Master's rebukes could not be understood by those who concluded that they were directed toward wicked men. The Scribes and Pharisees were the best citizens of the day, the teachers, scholars, Bible students, etc. His rebukes were directed at materiality. Those who know that Mrs. Eddy reflected the Holy Ghost, or the same spirit of Life, Truth and Love that our Master did, realize that it was the Holy Ghost that rebuked the evil of materiality through her, as it did through the Master. Such rebukes were not personal. They were not one person rebuking another. They were the outward manifestation of the innate antipathy of good toward evil.

When Jesus talked with Moses and Elias, the effect of the experience on the disciples who were with him was, that they fell as dead men. Who will deny that the rebuke of the Holy Ghost for the materiality they harbored, was greater than they could endure? Yet they were men of high spiritual attainments.

When students entered Mrs. Eddy's spiritual atmosphere, whatever ma­teriality they cherished felt the rebuke of her reflection of the Holy Ghost. This often chemicalized them, and caused them to feel resentful, because they did not receive from her the proper appreciation for the self-sacrifice they made for her and her Cause. They did not perceive that Mrs. Eddy had purified her thought and atmosphere to such an extent, that it was an automatic rebuke to all error, even to that purified materiality which mortals cherish in the name of good.

The student who broadens his atmosphere to the point where it is a constant rebuke to the common beliefs of sin, sickness and fear, brings relief to those suffering under this triad of errors, and they rejoice; but when one increases his demonstration of the Holy Ghost to the point where it rebukes errors that others are unwilling to part with because they seem desirable, he causes them to chemicalize. Mortals rejoice in the rebuke that truth gives to the beliefs that make them suffer, but they are not so apt to relish the rebuke truth gives to those phases of the human mind that they still cling to.

The atmosphere of many practitioners brings little chemicalization to patients, because it is not strong enough spiritually. The former hold a limited conception of what God expects them to give the sick. When they give the latter divine Mind, they think of it in terms of physical healing. When Mrs. Eddy gave you divine Mind, she thought of it in terms of a complete regeneration, which was more than many could stand. If the Holy Ghost be thought of as a rare essence, it can be understood that there is a difference between giving people just a whiff of it, or allowing it to escape, so that it absorbs all other odors. When Jesus healed the woman who touched the hem of his garment, this would be called an “atmosphere” healing, showing that he disseminated the spirit of God so universally, that it healed needy ones who came into his presence.

If one believes that Mrs. Eddy's atmosphere was charged with the spirit of God to a degree beyond what her students had attained, or understood, he can understand why a student coming into her presence, might accuse her of giving an unduly strong rebuke, when in reality the rebuke was the effect of strong truth on undestroyed error.

Young students differentiate between good mortal mind and bad mortal mind, assuming that the bad needs an active rebuke, and the good does not. They reserve their denials of animal magnetism until it disturbs them, or makes them suffer. They wait until error torments them, and then they try to torment it in return. Mrs. Eddy rebuked animal magnetism for claiming to exist at all. To her, mortal mind calling itself good was a more subtle and dangerous de­terrent than the obviously bad, since the good side carried the belief of igno­rance of what needed to be overcome.

Mrs. Eddy never said or did anything that was not intended to bring out the highest spiritual good. Her alert detection of whatever in her atmosphere was alien to truth, is not difficult to understand by one who has attained even a small degree of spiritual insight. It was based to a degree on the following statement by Carlyle, “A lie should be trampled on and extinguished wherever found. I am for fumigating the atmosphere, when I suspect that falsehood, like pestilence, breathes around me.”

It is well to remember that Mrs. Eddy's goal was to regard man from the standpoint of God rather than man. If one puts forth a supreme effort to be right with man, and fails to make the effort to be right with God, he deserves God's rebuke. Thus she rebuked the way students did their work, rather than what they did.

One might give a friend a painful hit on the back, and the latter might resent it, until he discovered that his friend had killed a dangerous spider. The students who recognized the danger of yielding to animal magnetism, were the ones who were grateful when Mrs. Eddy rebuked them, since they saw the value of what she was doing for them.

Mrs. Eddy's rebukes might be thought of as sentinels along the path of demonstration, which taught students that one misstep off this path would bring forth a sharp reminder. The world at large do not know why they suffer. They blame God for their troubles, and become confused and discouraged. They do not realize that in a world governed by God, they would not be punished, unless wisdom saw the need of their knowing when they were straying from the right path. Mrs. Eddy did not punish students from the standard of old theology con­cerning right and wrong, but from the Christian Science standard of demonstra­tion, which goes beyond the purification of the human mind, to its total elimina­tion.

Doubtless no student ever received a reprimand from his Leader, when he functioned as he should, under demonstration. If one can prove that when a student demonstrated as he should, Mrs. Eddy ever complained, then I will assent to the criticism that has been put forth against her, that at times she was unjust, unkind, and that she acted from her own state of thought. For instance, if she felt in an irritable mood, she took it out on those nearest to her.

Mrs. Eddy was training students to learn the lesson that human life itself is designed to teach, namely, that the only path without suffering is the path of demonstration; that the only way to avoid the bumps of life is to demonstrate divine Mind; and that to be bumped for wrong thinking is a necessary sequel that divine wisdom and Love would never remove.

Let us suppose that our Leader had called me to her and given me a sharp reprimand, and one of the students in the home had said to me, “Don't be dis­turbed. There are times when our beloved Leader is not quite normal, when the pressure of animal magnetism is so great, that it affects her, and she hardly knows what she is saying. She gets over it, and then everything is sweet and serene once more; so don't be upset at what she says at such times.” If I listened to such pronouncements and believed them, I would be tempted to continue to regard myself with that foolish optimism which Mrs. Eddy had seen the need of rebuking sharply, in order to awaken me to my danger.




(Telegram)

Received at 420 West Broadway, So. Boston, Mass.

August 29, 1896

Concord, N. H.

To William B. Johnson

41 G. St.

In By-law just sent change five to three years.

M. B. Eddy


There are times when it is necessary to make a demonstration in two steps, because one step would be too drastic a change, and would chemicalize students. Therefore, it is possible that the leading which first caused Mrs. Eddy to an­nounce the term of five years, was as correct as the later direction that came, causing her to change it to three years.

If no limit had previously been placed on the reader's term of office, and Mrs. Eddy was suddenly led to limit it to three years, this short period might not seem long enough in which to attain the full proficiency necessary to do the work. A sudden limit of five years would be less of a shock than three years.

Old theology fosters the idea of divine service to benefit the church. This is super-seded in Christian Science by the conception of divine service to the church, to benefit the one who serves as well. Every position in Christian Science represents individual development as well as a universal blessing. For this reason one can attain in three years what any office has to teach. At that point one may step down, and give another a similar opportunity to serve and grow.

One may feel that it requires three years in any office, before one begins to function in a way that he feels is acceptable; but Science shows that that is just the point at which one should step out, and let another take up the work.

Whatever gives one the opportunity to serve and grow in understanding, is a blessing. Office holders are not expected to give the organization their human ability so much as their demonstrating power; yet it may take experience and time to teach one this fact. When it is learned, one is ready to step out and let another partake of the blessing.

Today it is interesting to find the idea of rotation in office that Mrs. Eddy inaugurated, being extensively adopted by the world at large. In many organizations, young people become discouraged because their elders seize the im­portant offices, and hold them through a desire to run things. The latter feel that they can manage things properly because of their greater experience, and so they do not lay responsibilities on the shoulders of the young. The result is that the young do not receive the training they should have.

When young people are trained and responsibilities are put on their shoulders, organizations turn out new material with executive ability that proves valuable. Many organizations would have a better excuse for existing, if they took in youth and trained them along executive lines, instead of retaining age in important positions.

Mrs. Eddy carried the spirit of rotation in office into her home, setting the length of time students were to remain with her at one year, and later at three years. This would indicate that many students were called to her home in order to learn her higher conception of Science. It is possible that her greatest purpose in calling students to come to her was for individual training and development, so that they might go forth into the Field, and help to perpetuate the organiza­tion in a more progressive way.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

August 29, 1896

My beloved Student:

It is necessary to have the enclosed By-law voted on; and then vote on the one before this. Call a meeting at once for this purpose.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy

N. B. Have both these By-laws published in this edition of the Manual.

M. B. E.


Mrs. Eddy, like an architect, knew that if any mistakes crept into the con­struction of the building, she would be held responsible before God. An architect must delegate the work to others when it comes to construction; yet he is re­sponsible for what is done. Mrs. Eddy watched, lest she leave one loophole that error might discover through which to start a disrupting influence.

The inertia of the human mind in its continued faith in and use of human opinion, is illustrated by one who continues to call on a doctor, even though he has never received the slightest help from him. Similarly, the plans of the human mind have never amounted to anything, nor advanced the race. Yet mortals cling to them. Christian Scientists learn by experience, that this tendency to cling to human opinion confronts them whenever they introduce any directions which come from God, and which, therefore, would be efficient and successful. Members who have never wholly weaned themselves from old theology, will advocate the opinions of the educated human mind in the business meetings, and the following of that which they feel must be right, because it has always been followed by religious folk. These human means have never accomplished anything; yet they have the odor of sanctity and precedent.

The greatest blessing comes to and goes forth from the Christian Science organization, when a vigorous warfare is waged against the use of the human mind, as our Leader waged it, in order that divine intelligence may prevail.

Mrs. Eddy's greatness was made manifest in many ways, among which was the fact that she never neglected minor matters or details. There was no ramifica­tion of organization of which she was ignorant, and she kept alert so that every phase of the great structure she was founding was established at the moment it was ready for operation. Her reflection of Mind gave her a knowledge of build­ing, of decorating, and even of janitor service, so that everything in the organiza­tion went forward in an orderly way, as one would weave cloth, thread after thread.

Much that is helpful can be said about the By-laws. They became necessary as Mrs. Eddy recognized how prone members were to cling to the human mind. Experience taught her that they would continue to cling to it in many of its phases, until they were pried loose from it. When that point arrived, she knew that they would not need a Manual to compel them to use demonstration in all their ways.

The Manual no more represents a permanent document for each student, than does an infant's bottle a permanent mode of feeding for each baby. The time comes when the child outgrows the need of being fed with a bottle. The best definition of the purpose of the Manual is found on page 104. The words, form, and hedge, imply development and protection.

The time must come when each student will outgrow the use of the human mind; at that point he will need no Manual. It should never be thought, however, that freedom from the Manual means freedom to disobey its rules. Such freedom means freedom to obey God directly, rather than through His formulated laws. One of the most important steps to this end is the overcoming of habits. Habits expose the fact that the human mind is still in the ascendency; yet when one overcomes a habit through the human mind, it serves to strengthen the hold of the human mind, just as if one should seek help from an octopus to help him to free his foot from the grasp of a giant clam. When his foot is free, he finds him­self in the clutches of a greater enemy.

When one overcomes a habit by puncturing the human mind with truth, he not only eliminates the habit, but he renders the human mind itself ripe for elimination.

All habits are really habits of thinking, and should be assailed with that understanding. Furthermore, students should inspect some of their so-called good habits, to be certain that they are not phases of bondage that need to be thrown off.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

September 1, 1896

C. S. Directors

My beloved Students:

Will you take my estate 385 Commonwealth Ave., Boston, into your hands and thus help me in carnal things, while I min­ister you in spiritual, even as St. Paul said? If you do, I shall refuse to take any remuneration from you when I may speak in our Church, and not take a car to myself.

This is my request, That you rent of me my estate on Com­monwealth Ave., and at $2000 per annum. The rent there of the adjacent house was $3000 annually when I left Boston. Also I give you the right to sub-rent to parties that I would not object to­ — I having the privilege of occupying it for one week if desired, at the cold season perhaps. The rentor paying nothing for rent, but paying the city and water taxes. One room is never to be rented, that is, my chamber; and your rentee is not to rent any part of my house, or to let a family but his own occupy the house and to take no boarder, to take no class, and have no practise with patients in my house. He is to keep it in good order and repair any dam­age done to it.

With love,

Mother,

Mary Baker Eddy

P. S. and N. B. Please make two writings as rentor that includes the conditions named in my letter, sign and send them to me by express. I will return one of them to you by Laura. Name the length of lease 5 years.

With deep love,

Mother

I desire to have Judge Hanna and family occupy it as long as they want to, or rather as we want them to.

M. B. E.

Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

September 5, 1896

Christian Science Board of Directors

My beloved Students:

No words can express my thanks for your relieving me of the rent of my house 385 Commonwealth Ave.

The present occupant remains in it at my request on the terms I wrote you. No other lessee has the house on such terms. I do this, or rather, make this exception because of the purpose to support the First Reader and leader in Boston for the welfare of our cause. When Rev. Mr. Norcross went out of the city proper to make his home, it worked ill for him and the church. Keep the Judge in Boston near the Church as long as he acts wisely and does as much good as at present, be sure. With tender thanks for your kind help in relieving me of the care and burden of real estate,

Ever lovingly,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy

P. S. I will rent my estate at 385 Commonwealth Ave., to the C. S. Board of Directors at $2000 per annum for five years subject to my occupancy, at which time this rent ceases. When I occupy it they pay no rent for my house.

M. B. Eddy


The need of the First Reader in Boston to have a residence which was under the auspices of the church was beginning to take shape in Mrs. Eddy's thought. Judge Hanna and his family were already living in her home, and she wanted them to remain there, as long as he continued to act wisely and to do as much good as he was doing.

Here is illustrated the point in Mrs. Eddy's dealing with students, namely, that she could not prognosticate loyalty in her students, any more than Peter of old could presage his own loyalty to the Master. In Peter's case, Jesus saw the wisdom of giving him a little insight into the workings of animal magnetism; so at a certain point he withheld his demonstration of protection. Then, because Peter was Jesus' student and came under the same opposition he did, but did not have Jesus' knowledge of protection, it manifested itself in his denial of the Master.

It is a striking note, that Mrs. Eddy should have had any doubt as to the con­tinued loyalty of one as faithful and as obedient as Judge Hanna, who was occupy­ing such an important position in the church. But she had had unfortunate experiences with students whom she trusted, — who appeared to be sincere and loyal, — wherein they failed her. These apostate students were not inferior persons, humanly or spiritually. Most of them were brilliant, and could have accomplished a great deal of good in the world, had they grasped her uncover­ing of error, and so used the understanding of Christian Science she had given them, to keep themselves free of animal magnetism.

Through these letters concerning her house, Mrs. Eddy was charging the minds of the Directors with the fact that they should never give any student un­bounded trust, since it was impossible to tell when one might under the influence of animal magnetism, turn against the Cause. Hence, they could see from these letters, that it would be wisdom to make provision for this possibility. No finer student lived at that time than Judge Hanna; yet the privilege of living in Mrs. Eddy's Boston home was to be his, only as long as he continued to do good and to act wisely.

A secondary point in connection with this transaction is, that Mrs. Eddy was led to place this extra burden of caring for her home on the Directors, be­cause she foresaw that it would be a preparation for the future, in which they would have large quantities of real estate to care for. Church workers should take a hint from this, and encourage new members to accept positions in the organization as soon as they are fitted, since in that way, experience is gained, and a foundation laid for future responsibilities.

One might easily feel that this matter of her home and the line of procedure in regard to it which Mrs. Eddy insisted upon, were relatively unimportant; that they were no part of the foundation or the superstructure of her organization, least of all, a factor for the students to consider. However, in making these demands she was giving the Directors the necessary training for larger responsibilities, hoping that they would execute her directions intelligently, and with a sense of demonstration.

Mrs. Eddy was really expounding metaphysics in this letter, in which she outlined exactly the restrictions connected with Judge Hanna's leasing of her home, because she made it evident that in order to keep the atmosphere scien­tific, no boarders were to be allowed, nor was the lessee to teach classes, or have any practice with patients. Also, she required one room to be reserved, where she could stay at times, and she wanted the atmosphere of that room, as well as the whole house, to be such that she could stay there in peace. This would only be possible under a demonstration that maintained the atmosphere of God continuously.

When our Leader entered her new home at Chestnut Hill for the first time, and said, “What splendid misery,” — she used the term “splendid” to show that it was an adequate home materially. She spoke of it as “misery,” because it had not occurred to the students to do the necessary work to permeate the atmosphere with divine Love, in order for her to feel at peace in it. A committee of students should have been formed, whose task it would have been to work mentally, until they had established God's presence in the home. Had this been done successfully, there would have been no “misery” for her. She would have asserted, “God is dwelling here and so can I.”

The restrictions that Mrs. Eddy laid down in these letters, in regard to her Common-wealth Avenue home, were significant and necessary from a meta­physical standpoint. She wanted the atmosphere of God maintained in that home; then, when she visited there, she would feel His support and care. Only in the demonstration of God's atmosphere could she find rest or refreshment. When one understands this, her restrictions do not sound arbitrary, but reason­able and necessary.

The highest conception of membership in the Christian Science Church, is a uniting of those who have advanced to the point where they have a knowledge of demonstration, wherein they pledge themselves to do the mental work for the services and meetings, in order that the atmosphere of God may be instituted and maintained. When policemen are detailed to keep order during a parade, they do not have to be told that they are not present to watch the parade. Church members should feel that God has appointed them to keep mental order at the meetings; hence they have no time to sit back and merely listen. They should use the club of Science to rule out every attempt of the human mind to possess the atmosphere, in order that divine Mind may be demonstrated as supreme. A vigorous mental offense and defense is required to preserve spiritual order, and to bring out the healing presence of Mind.

It is an axiom that, when at a church meeting or gathering God is per­mitted to enter, that meeting or gathering becomes a healing service. Students must learn this fact, and teachers must hold their pupils responsible for the spiritual success of all meetings. Members of the Church should be told, that it is their business to see that the mental doors of all meetings are kept open in order that God may enter. Mrs. Eddy made it evident that the thought accom­panying the services, or resident in her home, determined whether she would find there a refuge, or whether it would be a place where she would be sub­jected to the attacks of error. Her restrictions in regard to her Commonwealth Avenue home, were intended to make and to keep it a place of refuge for her, if she needed one. Only under such conditions could she stay in it.

All students of Christian Science should work to establish, and to keep alive in their homes, the realization that God dwells there. To this end, they must lay down restrictive edicts as Mrs. Eddy did, and live up to them. They must require others in their homes to do likewise. Perhaps our Leader had this in thought when she wrote in the textbook (p. 254), “Pilgrim on earth, thy home is heaven; stranger, thou art the guest of God.”

Metaphysically speaking, God dwells in every home, since He is every­where. The student knows that his work is to break through error's claim that God is not there; that there is a separation between God and His children; and that His presence can be hidden. To demonstrate God's presence, one must be awake and conscious of it, and realize the consequent absence of all that is un­like Him. One must “feel the unspeakable peace which comes from an all-absorb­ing spiritual love” (S. & H. 264). That is what Mrs. Eddy demanded in her home, and it should be what all her followers strive for. They should preserve the atmosphere of their homes as they know Mrs. Eddy would want it. They should feel that it would be possible for them to invite her to visit them at any time, and they would not feel ashamed of what she found. If a student lived the proposition that any day Mrs. Eddy might make him an unexpected visit, and that she would judge the quality of his demonstration by the consciousness of God which she felt, he would be careful to maintain a daily and a lively sense of the Father's presence in his home. And who knows but what, if he maintains an atmosphere in which Mrs. Eddy could live and be happy, she may make him such a visit at any time, — not in the flesh, but in the spirit?

Mrs. Eddy's statement that when Rev. Mr. Norcross went out of the city proper to make his home, “it worked ill for him and the church,” sets a prec­edent in regard to Readers. Churches sometimes seek Readers from adjacent fields, because of the scarcity of suitable material in their midst. Mrs. Eddy's statement implies that those who live close by the church are the most suitable candidates. The reason for this is, that more than anything else one's fitness to do the work of a Reader successfully depends upon his knowledge of the claims of animal magnetism in the church, and his ability to handle them. For that reason he should live within the mental precincts of the church, so that he will be kept alive to the varied arguments evil is claiming to put forth.

Animal magnetism may be likened to a drop of water in one's ear after he has been swimming. It is nothing but a drop of water that can easily be dislodged. Yet, until it is removed, it has an unpleasant effect. Animal magnetism has no perpetuity! It has nothing to support or to sustain it, but it must be detected and exposed.

Obviously Rev. Norcross, living as he did at a distance from The Mother Church, was not close enough to be keenly aware of the animal magnetism assailing the flock, and so he was not doing his share to handle it. The penalty a student pays for not detecting and handling animal magnetism is, that he be­comes a tool to voice it. More than all others in a church, a Reader must keep his thought free from this baneful influence. Otherwise instead of being an advocate for Truth, he will promote error. What is error but the absence of Truth? There­fore, when Truth is absent (in belief), one is under the claim of error.

In order for a Reader to detect at any given time the special phase of op­position that must be handled, and the kind of error from which he must work to free himself and his congregation, he needs to keep in close mental touch with his church. No student could have gone to Mrs. Eddy's home, and, without experience and instruction, gained any conception of what Mrs. Eddy had to handle, or what those who came under the shelter of her thought had to handle. One had to live in her home in order to know the problem.

It would not be the physical, as much as the mental distance from his Church, that would cause a Reader to be out of touch with the errors which are his part to handle. This very point required Mrs. Eddy to write the By-law on page 70 of the Manual in which she says, “The Mother Church of Christ, Scientist, shall assume no general official control of other churches....” She knew that the Directors could not gain an accurate appreciation of the problems of branch churches or their members from a distance; hence, if they assumed an official control of them, they might be guilty of trying to steady the ark.

Despite the use of American salesmen, our automobile manufacturers signally failed in their efforts to sell cars in foreign countries, as long as they dictated the policies of salesmanship. Those countries required a technique wholly foreign to what our salesmen had learned. Only when they were per­mitted to have a free hand in adopting the customs of each country, did the automobile business prosper.

One further point to be gleaned from these letters is the fact, that Mrs. Eddy refers to the First Reader in Boston as a leader. As usual with so many of the moves she made, the question is, was she inspired of God when she so designated the Reader, when later she reversed her intention in this regard? When Augusta Stetson assumed the position of leader in the New York field, in due time Mrs. Eddy required her to withdraw from the leadership. Today we find the Manual reading (page 32). “It shall be the duty of every member of The Mother Church, who is a First Reader in a Church of Christ, Scientist, to enforce the discipline and By-laws of the church in which he is a Reader. The Church Reader shall not be a Leader, but he shall maintain the Tenets, Rule and discipline of the church.”

If the conception of a Reader as a leader was a mistake from God's standpoint, then how could Mrs. Eddy declare that she was guided by God in all her ways, as we find her doing in a letter to Archibald McLellan dated August 5, 1908:

“Our Leader wishes you would have some thoroughly responsible outside person, write an article to the Sentinel setting forth Mrs. Eddy's unexampled leadership in the interests of Christian Science. Let the article be entitled COMPETENCE, and have it point out the fact that from the inception of this movement until the present time, not one false step has marred the long line of successful efforts put forth by her in support of her religion. From the time when stones were thrown through the windows and Church doors were closed against her, until today when Christian Science Churches are encircling the globe, the wisdom of her every act has been abundantly sustained by the complete suc­cess that has followed every new move she has made. No special attention need be given to the above wording, the object being to impress thought with our Leader's unerring wisdom and entire competency in every branch of life's work she has undertaken. Let the article be strong, and carry with it complete con­viction as to her ability to lead under divine guidance.”

It is to be remembered that on March 11, 1895, she put forth a By-law which said, “This Church shall have no leader but its Pastor — The Bible and Science and Health.”

Mrs. Eddy knew that all of her moves were God-inspired, and that each one had a purpose and a meaning; so none of them could be called mistakes. Again I repeat the illustration of Thomas A. Edison who tested over twelve hundred materials in seeking a filament for his incandescent bulb. His success consisted not only in finding the right substance, but in establishing the fact that the remainder were unsuitable and could never be used. His experiments were not mistakes; he was a pioneer discovering the way.

There is a difference between a student who takes the lead in the demonstra­tion of divine Mind, and one who attempts to set himself up as a leader of others. The former is in the line of progress, whereas the latter is sliding down the hill of personal adulation, and is disobedient to Mrs. Eddy's inspired directions.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

September 22, 1896

My beloved Student:

Please vote on the enclosed at your next business meeting of the Church, and then give it to Hatten for the Church Manual.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


Even such a simple communication as this, is added proof of the fact, that in spite of the stupendous amount of work Mrs. Eddy had on hand, she kept track of each thread that went into the founding of her Cause, that it might be woven into the right place at the right time, and make a complete fabric to give to humanity. To anyone who desires to study her life, even this one letter proves her mental alertness and watchfulness, and shows that she was no impractical dreamer. She did not spend hours in a self-satisfied communion with God, for­getting that she was expected to establish the Cause on a sound basis.

Perhaps this letter covered the By-law on page 15 of the fifth edition of the Manual, which reads, “Any member who cannot nor will not live in Christian fellowship with another member who is in good and regular standing with this Church, — shall either withdraw from Church membership, or he shall be ex­communicated. It is the duty of any member to complain to the Church of another member who does not live up to the above named requirement; and it shall be the duty of the Church to enforce this By-law.”

It is possible that this By-law had an intent which does not appear on the surface, namely, to give recourse to a church member, who found himself com­plained of through motives of jealousy, hatred, and the like. In other words, if one member should continually complain to the Directors of another, and these complaints should be found groundless and based on a wrong motive, the latter could in turn complain, on the basis of the above By-law, and thereby gain relief.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

October 24, 1896

C. S. Directors

Beloved Students:

God has spoken to me on fat salaries, and to the end that they are too big in some cases in carrying out the offices of church members. Hence I enclose a poor sketch of the discount on some and a slight increase on the bell ringers. I have no legal right to say it shall be so. But will say I will give all my services which are not a few for the fare, and have discounted $1000 on the rent of my house.

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy


Annual Salaries

Mr. Armstrong for Publishing $1500
Mr. Johnson, Clerk of Church $1500
Miss Lincoln, total $6000
Mr. William L. Johnson, total $1200
Mr. S. A. Chase for Treas. $1500
Mr. Lewis, organist $900
Discount on Salaries $2000
Rent for House 385 Commonwealth Ave. $2000

No pay to Pastor Emeritus but carfare for herself and two students when she goes to Boston to speak to the church.


Salaries for S. S. Lessons

Mr. Hanna $700
Mr. Knapp $700
Mr. Johnson $700
Mrs. Munroe $700
Mrs. Armstrong $700

In this letter Mrs. Eddy decreases most of the salaries, when on April 11 she had written a letter increasing some of them. It is possible that she found the Directors taking advantage of her instruction in the April letter to increase salaries all along the line; so she had to call a halt.

One thing is certain; the moment positions become desirable because of the salary involved, unworthy aspirants begin to pull wires to obtain them. Positions that do not pay as well, awaken less cupidity in people, and only draw those whom God has called.

Large salaries are apt to arouse jealousy. This means that the individual holding office, may array a malpractice against himself that gives him a burden to carry beyond what the salary can compensate.

When Mrs. Eddy increased the salaries, it was perhaps because she felt a weight of criticism from those who believed that her meagre sense of money was responsible for the small salaries the church was then paying. Her refer­ence, in her April letter, to the “hogs” being fed, proves that she detected a swinish element that caused students to believe she was penny-wise, and even a little tight-fisted. Such individuals were willing to admit that she was a wonder­ful woman when it came to inspiration and demonstration, but believed that when it came to business matters of the church, she was still a country woman. She had never had a great deal of money; so it seemed as though she had failed to develop the broad point of view wherein the cost of living in keeping with the standard of the church, was taken into consideration.

This letter of October 24th gives the lie to such aspersions, since you may be sure that when Mrs. Eddy wrote, “God has spoken to me...,” He truly had. God had spoken to her on “fat salaries”; a fat salary being one where the rec­ompense is so large that the position becomes the object of ambition rather than of service. It is a truism, that a large salary causes the man to seek the office; whereas a small salary causes the office to seek the man.

When a student in some position is not well-paid, if he has a well-balanced meta-physical thought, it is not too serious a matter, since it is certain that God will always compensate one for services for which he is not remunerated. It is desirable that a position in our organization should leave some part of the rec­ompense to be taken care of by God, as He always will. There is less danger of jealousy overtaking the office holder.

Sooner or later every student of Christian Science must demonstrate his supply as coming from God. Even practitioners whose patients pay them ade­quately, have this demonstration to make. The means by which one believes he is paid humanly, are always temporary, pending the time when he proves that God is the source of all supply; therefore, even those who are well paid, should realize that they still have the demonstration of supply to make.

The correct way to make the transition from human to divine sight, is to use the human to gain the divine, or to establish the real, while one has the unreal. Everyone must demonstrate spiritual sight, before he can realize his presence in the kingdom of heaven. This rule holds true in regard to hearing, and supply, as well. In the question of supply, no matter how adequate it may be, the student should be making the demonstration that establishes the realization of the permanent income of God's ideas, using the temporary as a stepping-stone to the divine.

From this unfoldment comes the all-important deduction that the harmony and abundance of human sight, hearing and supply, should never be permitted to put one to sleep over the necessity for establishing these qualities on a spiritual basis.

It might be argued that this schedule of salaries suggested by Mrs. Eddy, covers the earliest history of the church, when the work entailed was small. Yet in it the wisdom of our Leader that favored small rather than large salaries for church positions, can be felt. She decided as she did because God so moved her.

Ministers as a rule, are underpaid; yet, that very fact tends to restrain un­worthy aspirants for such a position. It is certain that Mrs. Eddy hoped this same rule would hold good in her church, namely, that its members would not seek office from unworthy motives.

The term “bell ringers” that Mrs. Eddy uses in this letter, might well be used to indicate the mental workers, — the faithful ones who do the silent work in our services, — since one hears the sound when a bell is rung, but does not see the one who rings it. Church members should never lose sight of the enor­mous value of consecrated mental work for and in our Cause. Mental workers may be called “bell ringers,” since their whole endeavor is to bring out har­mony. Without demonstration there is no true harmony. Hence, any worker may be termed a “bell ringer” who is faithful in striving to bring out harmony through demonstration, and who sees that he has a greater responsibility in this direction than in his outward service.

“Bell ringers” is a fitting name for those who prepare the Lesson-Sermons, since when their work is done rightly, — although they remain in the background and are not generally known by the Field, — the Lesson-Sermons carry the har­mony-producing effect of a healing thought throughout the world.

The most important post in Christian Science is that of a “bell ringer.” An individual worthy to be called such, may remain in the background; but if he is faithful, he is doing the work that balances the Cause on the spiritual side. It cannot be repeated too often, that the value of our meetings to the stranger is dependent on the work of these faithful ones, — the “bell ringers,” — whose in­fluence is felt, because of the sweet harmony their efforts exhale.

The exact amount the “bell ringers” received was not the important point in this letter, but the fact that when the salaries of other office holders were reduced, the “bell ringers” were given an increase. This act showed Mrs. Eddy's estimate of the value of their work. One can deduce that she was calling upon the Directors to approximate her appreciation of the value of mental work. Reading between the lines, we can hear her declaring, “If there is to be any cutting down, do not cut down on your mental work, or your mental workers. Realize more and more that such work is the very foundation of Christian Science. Those who faithfully fill this post are the foundation pillars upon which the temple rests. Never temper your estimate of the vital nature of the impersonal work done by students, who have consecrated themselves to that form of effort.” These apostles are more valuable than the “silk-hatters” and the “frock-coaters,” — ­those who outwardly make a good show, but who, sad to relate, do not always rightly evaluate the silent efforts of their more spiritually-minded brothers.

One does not need a silk hat or a frock coat when he enters into his closet, in order to pray to the Father. The frosting on a cake dresses it up, but at best is only a surface addition. What we want is a good cake! The error lies in using frosting to hide a stale cake. Of course, students who make a good appearance may also be faithful in doing the unseen mental work, and thus merit the title of “bell ringers.” The vital point, however, is that when one is a “bell ringer,” he knows that cause is more important than effect; also that if the “bell ringers” shirk their work, the spiritual foundation upon which the Christian Science Church is erected is thereby weakened, and so begins to sag.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

December 4, 1896

C. S. Directors

My beloved Students:

Please admit these applicants to our church that are endorsed by Mrs. Kent. And at your next meeting pass a By-law if this is not done already: That my name in my handwriting will admit a member to this Church. Word the By-law suitably. In great haste.

With love,

M. B. Eddy


The requirement of both an approver and a countersigner on applications for membership in The Mother Church, arises from the specific nature of the investigation. When a teacher vouches for a candidate, no other signature is necessary; but when the approver is merely a member, the signature of a teacher is required. Thus the teacher vouches for the approver. It is not necessary that he even know the candidate.

Mrs. Eddy judged by cause rather than effect. In this way she was able to be just in all her judgments. When she was called upon to endorse a candidate, she judged by the quality of his thinking, and in this judgment she could not be deceived. Hence she was competent to pass on any candidate without another signature, and she left this privilege for those advanced students who are teachers.

When Mrs. Eddy signed an application, she was not alone in her approval; she was yoked to God in this, as in everything she did. Her name did not repre­sent an individual, but a demonstration; and she expected everyone who was privileged to sign applications, to make a demonstration of the privilege.

Reading this simple letter, therefore, should impel those who have this sacred obligation to perform, to make a demonstration of investigating all those whose applications they are asked to endorse or countersign.

Mrs. Eddy estimated students from the standpoint of their spiritual progress, which is the correct and accurate approach in Science. Under such circum­stances, one name alone on an application would be sufficient, since the one signing would be a representative of God, signing for Him. This would mean that each application would have two signers, in the sense that one of them would always be God; but if a student cannot make the demonstration to have God sign through him, the signature of one who lives close to God would be the next best. Mrs. Eddy, as the Leader, never departed from her relation to God when she signed an application, to do it on her own responsibility. With her, God was always the co-signer.

The slogan on the walls of the hearts, — if not the churches, — of all students, from the approving of candidates for membership, to the selection of the janitor, should always be, Everything By Demonstration. If there is any phase of activity that is not worthy or important enough to be demonstrated, it is not worthy to be in the church and does not belong there. Jesus' whip of small cords should be used to cast it out.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

December 19, 1896

The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston

My beloved Brethren:

For several reasons I see it would be advantageous to the branch churches, for The Mother Church to amend her By-Laws re­lating to the quarterly and annual meetings so as to hold the quarterly meetings semi-annually and the annual meetings bi­-annually. This will enable the leaders of the several churches to meet with you and also to attend to their own duties in the in­tervals.

It is important that a By-law be made and passed at this meeting concerning the student's students, empowering them to sign applications for membership with this church to be counter signed by their teacher, who must also be a member of this church. Mrs. Rose E. Kent's son, Morgan B. Kent, must be admitted to this church at this quarterly meeting. He rises each morning at the St. Paul's School in this city, earlier than the others, for the purpose of reading Science and Health, one hour. The St. Paul's Church has requested him to unite with them, hoping thereby to prevent his becoming a Scientist.

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy


A boy sacrificing an hour of sleep in order to read Science and Health may seem like a small matter, but this incident carries implications of great import. One cannot handle animal magnetism when his thought is drowsy, and he lets mesmeric sleep conquer him. The act of rising early in the morning, and sacrific­ing sleep in order to study Christian Science, was significant not merely because this boy was instructed in Science thereby, but because it revealed his quality of thought. One need never be concerned about the spiritual progress of the student, who finds it more important to arouse himself in order to study Christian Science, than to enjoy his sleep.

The one who is wide-awake is the one who is protected from the inroads of animal magnetism. It is those who yield to, and permit themselves to enjoy, the soporific atmosphere animal magnetism induces, who are in danger of being handled by it.

A snake could never catch a bird while it was on the wing. Yet, it is said that on the ground, a snake can charm a bird into immovability. Man has the power to maintain a sense of mental activity that renders him immune to animal magnetism. The delightful sense of inactivity which steals over one just before he goes to sleep, illustrates the hypnotic influence on man of the action of animal magnetism.

The wise student, therefore, is watchful in differentiating between mesmeric sleep and demonstrated rest. He strives to go to sleep from the standpoint of being mentally and spiritually wide awake. Mesmeric sleep causes the wits and senses to become befuddled or dormant. The Christian Scientist finds his true rest on the basis of a thorough spiritual arousing. As Mrs. Eddy once wrote, “When you lay down to sleep, know that you have self-control, and that the ever­lasting arms are about you, and nothing can intrude into your quiet sanctuary,­ your peace and rest. You say you cannot sleep — why not rather say, you rest in God who does not sleep! You need no sleep. Realize this, and the fear that you will not sleep will disappear, and you will sleep. It is the assurance of knowing that makes us master of the situation.”

Thus the desire on the part of this boy to rise one hour earlier in order to study Science, points to the very heart of Science, which teaches that man's triumph over the material senses in all their phases, is effected on the basis of Mind's supremacy and activity. The inharmonious phases of mortal mind natural­ly carry a stimulus to activity, much as the rushing in of the tide in the Bay of Fundy brings the water that floats the ships and enables them to make port, whereas the sleep-inducing phases of mortal mind expressed in ease and pleas­ure, resemble the low tides whereby the water disappears, and the boats are left stranded and immovable.

On January 4, 1891, Mrs. Eddy wrote to Hannah Larminie, “My heart goes out to you with a prayer ‘comfort ye my people,' give her an abundance of love this year and love so divine that a human sense of love would only mar it, and spoil its joy. Oh! Father, make her home here sweet, a resting place from the world, and where no memory of mortal joy or sorrow can come to cloud the immortal peace, for there is no peace, no pleasure, no bliss in mortal things. However dear they may be to sense, to Soul they are not permitted. Now my loved one, which do you choose, for both you cannot have? I would rather drink the cup of pain and anguish than sip the chalice of sensual pleasures in even their mildest and best forms. Why? Because they are God's high tides that hourly waft us nearer and nearer the shore of eternal bliss, ‘where no arrow wounds the dove, where no partings are for love.' Even though the waves are dark and tumultuous, in this heavenward course as we are reaching the sweet haven home, they will grow calm, and Oh! then, it is home at last and there is no night there and no more sea.”

Here, Mrs. Eddy unfolds to her student that the mesmerism of the senses which needs the sharpest rebuke, — because it carries the greatest danger, — ­is the illusion of apathy and lethargy, this proffer of mortal mind of “the chalice of sensual pleasures,” even in forms that seem harmless. It was when she found her students at peace in the senses, that she sharply rebuked them.

On page 277 of Miscellaneous Writings she writes, “I thunder His law to the sinner, and sharply lighten on the cloud of the intoxicated senses. I cannot help loathing the phenomena of drunkenness produced by animality. I rebuke it wherever I see it.” It is plain that she did not confine her application of the word “drunkenness” to the effect of alcohol on the system. On July 31, 1903, she said to her household, “The drunkenness produced by belief in wine is not to be compared with the drunkenness in thought — ‘mental drunkenness.' ‘Drunken, but not with wine.' (Isaiah 51:21). Keep awake by loving more.”

At one time she said to Calvin Frye, “Do you believe that Love is all?” He replied, “No, I must be frank and confess I do not, although theoretically I do.” She said, “If you did believe it fully you could have no apathy, for Love is ever active. It neither slumbers nor sleeps, is at work all the time and watching.” This conversation took place July 17, 1899.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy writes that St. Paul's Church had requested Morgan Kent to unite with them, “hoping thereby to prevent his becoming a Scientist.” The deduction is that Mrs. Eddy wished to teach that membership in the Christian Science organization carries with it a degree of protection from animal magnet­ism. The right candidate for membership, therefore, is one who is learning the importance of an awakened thought, and who is ready to take advantage of the protection church membership offers from some of the wiles of animal magnetism.

Morgan Kent was only a boy; but Mrs. Eddy was using his case to set a precedent. To this end she was employing the indirect method, of which she was so fond, because it brings a lesson home without arraying resistance. Here was a lad whose sole qualification appeared to be such a love for Science, that it enabled him to meet the temptation of apathy and sleep. She asked no in­vestigation into his moral character. Evidently she knew that one who was so alert, could be relied upon to overcome each error as he came to it. All he needed was to be associated with those who would be able to aid him, those whose mental influence and verbal help would assist him, no matter what temptation assailed.

In lessening the number of meetings of The Mother Church, Mrs. Eddy was paring down the activities of the organization. It seems as if the trend of her thought was not to increase the human activities in her church organization, but to reduce them to a minimum. Mrs. Eddy's main object was to so educate stu­dents, that they would live their Science in their homes, in their places of busi­ness, and in their contacts with the world. She once said, “As we are healed and observe the good, we must reflect that good, — we must begin at home.” Thus each student would become an advertisement for Christian Science. There is no mass activity that can ever compare with individual effort. Hence mass work should never be permitted to increase to the extent that it swallows up individual accomplishment. If allowed to, the organization will always emphasize itself to the point where it tends to replace the individual demonstration of inspiration. It would cause church members to feel that in fulfilling its demands, they are accomplishing all that Christian Science expects of its adherents, — which is not true.

Another deduction from this letter is, that when one is carrying a case, or a church, mentally, he should stay with it, and not run to Boston at every op­portunity. He should realize that his own church needs his mental support at every meeting. He should not feel that he can slip away, and his absence not be felt.

A church edifice would grow cold, if fresh coal was not periodically fed to the furnace during the cold weather. Likewise, mental work done at all meetings helps to prevent the thought of people from growing cold; and there should never be any cessation of such work in our churches. Any demand to travel to Boston as often as this letter indicates, that would take practitioners and active workers away from the branch churches, is to be deplored. If the mem­bership at large could always be relied upon to do this important work of carry­ing the thought on the side of Truth, the occasional absence of the practitioners and leading members would not be a serious thing; but when these workers are absent, the church is apt to grow cold. An invitation for strangers to come to a physically cold church would not be considered proper; neither should we invite the public to come to a church that is cold mentally.

Mrs. Eddy appears to have regarded the organization as one would regard a seed. When the germ of life has sprung forth, to the extent that it is sustained without the protective covering of the seed, it can be said to have graduated from the seed. Members of the Christian Science Church must graduate from the organization, but only in the sense that they perceive that individual effort to attain spirituality transcends all mass effort. This advance beyond organiza­tion means no more than a change of attitude. Else we might have students withdrawing from membership to the detriment of the church. Mrs. Eddy puts it clearly in Miscellaneous Writings, page 138, where she writes that “...when­ever they are equal to the march triumphant, God will give to all His soldiers the proper command, and…we shall take step and march on in spiritual or­ganization.”

One important office the organization has, is making it possible for young students to have an association with those who have a more mature under­standing, — with those who stand ready to protect, correct, admonish and en­courage. If the beginner had no chance to meet with his elders in the faith, when situations arose that tended to shock his newborn faith, he might be so shaken that he would drop it.

This point should be kept in mind when candidates present themselves for election to membership. Where beginners are progressing in Science, and have given a proof of their sincerity, the time comes when it is right to permit them to join the company of those who can help and encourage them. It is true that the ideal membership is a working body of those who know how to demonstrate, and thereby pledge themselves to support mentally all the activities of our organization. Yet, we should be able to recognize promising material and elect such individuals to membership, even though they are not as yet developed mental workers. There is greater opportunity on the inside than on the outside of the organization, to acquire a knowledge and practice of mental work. Our Leader writes on page 135 of Miscellaneous Writings, “Christians, and all true Scientists ...come into the ranks of Christian Science.”

Mrs. Eddy's treatment of Morgan Kent indicates that it is permissible for our Church to admit apprentices. Once one is accepted, the older members who have learned how to work mentally through practical experience, should be willing to take these young members in hand, and train them to become full-­fledged mental workers.

Great care must be taken, however, in selecting apprentices. They must be individuals who show an affinity for the kind of work the organization requires.




Concord, N. H.

December 31, 1896

To the First Members of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston

My beloved Students:

For your last Christmas gift I feel quite bankrupt in thanks. You have made me a timely present, one that gives a new tongue to time, that calls my attention to the loss of moments, and to the gain of what is timeless, even eternity. It speaks to me in cathedral tones of The Mother Church, the temple of our God, and of the dear worshippers therein.

Although I am not with you as of old, the music of mind is not missing, and the chiming of our thoughts calls us together in one general assembly where hearts keep time in love one for another.

The blessings vouchsafed to us as a denomination are super­abundant. The uplifted cry of the people seem poured forth with this one utterance, “Give us to know Christian Science, to know more of Soul, man's origin and being.”

We cannot sufficiently thank God for all His great goodness to us. But we can acknowledge this by conforming our lives more to the divine image, and thereby feebly expressing His praise.

I feel a great sense of gratitude to you for what you are trying to do, and have already done. From the depths of a loving, lonely heart, I thank you for your rare Christmas gift to me and for your labors in the vineyard of our Lord.

Gratefully and lovingly,

Mother,

Mary Baker Eddy

N. B. I herewith recommend the following four candidates for First Members of The Mother Church, First, for their faithfulness in the field. Second, for the advantage to them individually. Third, from a desire to have them grow up with the First Members of The Mother Church who receive more directly my counsel and assistance.

James A. Neal, Carol Norton, John Carrol Lathrop, Daphne S. Knapp.

M. B. Eddy


In this gift of the clock, Mrs. Eddy felt a thought that was more spiritual than that back of the gift of costly rugs given her at an earlier date. The members gave her the expensive rugs to prove their faithfulness, but she saw pride back of them. They represented worldliness controlling affection, rather than affec­tion dropping the fetters of worldliness.

In Mrs. Eddy's letter acknowledging the rugs, one can sense her underlying criticism, whereas in this letter regarding the clock, there is nothing but un­stinted praise.

Christian Scientists are under the necessity for overcoming the claim of time. Time is a phase of mortal belief, not a divine fact. Divine Mind is instant in its action, requiring no time in which to operate. Among the notes left by one of Mrs. Eddy's students, is one which records the following statement from her lips, “It does not take time to think right.”

When a patient comes to be healed and gives the practitioner plenty of time, the latter is apt to feel grateful. Yet a higher demand on the part of the patient would be to be healed instantaneously.

One difference between the ordinary spiritual healing, and that practiced by our Master and by our Leader, is that they eliminated the sense of time. Once Mrs. Eddy asked me if I healed my patients instantaneously and I replied that as a rule I did not. She declared, “I always did.”

In Christian Science there is nothing which says that we must have a sense of time mixed with our efforts, in order to make them efficacious. In this letter Mrs. Eddy sets forth a new way to think about a clock. She did not wish a clock to suggest to her how easy it was to rest on one's laurels, or to take time off for rest and refreshment. She knew that true rest and refreshment come from the utilization of time in spiritual thinking.

The way to have instantaneous healing, is to overcome the belief in time. When time claims to lengthen that which should be instantaneous, it makes the action of Truth in healing, less imperative. It causes thought to question whether or not some contributory elements might have entered into the healing beside the action of Truth. Time is a weapon in the hands of animal magnetism, to persuade us to take more time for our healing, so that it will fail to prove to the world the fact that Truth is an instantaneous blessing to man, the moment he tunes into it.

The priceless nature of this letter makes it evident that Mrs. Eddy took a great deal of care in writing it. The First Members spent a thousand dollars to give her a beautiful clock, and in return she gave them a million dollars worth of spiritual advice! This advice was similar to that she gave her household on December 7, 1903, “We must take advantage of time, not time of us. There is a time to do everything; a time to speak to students; a time to speak to the world; and we must have wisdom and know when to speak and act. Jesus said, ‘Can ye not discern the signs of the times?'”

When the clock is worn out and no longer tells time, this wonderful letter will still be fresh and new, telling for all time its scientific thoughts that are age­less and endless.

Mrs. Eddy was perfectly capable of detecting whether a gift was intended to bribe her, as children bribe their parents to avoid deserved punishment. She could tell whether back in the giver's thought was the desire and motive to present himself before her in a favorable light. Here was a gift, however, that she felt was the overflowing of an exceedingly grateful, self-forgetful and loving thought. So she wrote that she felt “quite bankrupt in thanks.” The letter con­tains no rebuke, direct or indirect, unless it be the fact that one cannot read it without being struck by how much time he wastes every day.

“Although I am not with you as of old, the music of mind is not missing, and the chiming of our thoughts calls us together in one general assembly where hearts keep time in love one for another.”

Growth in spiritual understanding brings the realization that the proximity of personalities does not unite individuals. When students of Christian Science have the right sense of each other, the elimination of sense testimony, which in­cludes the sense of a material body, brings the closest communion possible.

It disturbed our Leader, when she was striving to awaken students to this communion of Soul and Spirit, to feel a strong desire on the part of some to see her person, in order to observe how she looked, what she wore and how she functioned. When a student believed that it was necessary to see her personality in order to partake of the blessing of her reflection, such a one would lose out on the possibility of seeing her rightly, apart from her person.

I shall always be grateful to my teacher for what he did, when he took a group of his students to Concord to see Mrs. Eddy. He begged us to turn our thought away from her as a person. Then he took us down an unused road where there was little chance of her passing, and induced us to lower our heads, in a solemn effort to partake of the spiritual atmosphere that Mrs. Eddy radiated, in order that we might have something to take home with us that was genuine and real, something more tangible than a fleeting sense impression. We had a sense of disappointment to overcome, but our reward was to have Mrs. Eddy drive right by on that unused road, and bow to us lovingly and approvingly, as if she sensed the rightness of our effort.

“The blessings vouchsafed to us as a denomination are superabundant. The uplifted cry of the people seems poured forth with this one utterance, ‘Give us to know Christian Science, to know more of Soul, man's origin and being.'”

In this paragraph Mrs. Eddy teaches the lesson, that we should never permit ourselves to be so carried away by our success and abundant blessings in Science, that we forget that the human need remains as something that must be supplied — the need of all mankind to know more of God.

Even within the Movement it is not wise to conclude that, because the organization is large and successful, the individual members are all being satisfied, and that the organization is accomplishing what it should, and meeting everyone's need. It is necessary to look away from the activities of the Move­ment to individual members, to see if their hunger to know more about God, about Christian Science in its higher teachings, and about its Founder, is being satisfied. If there is a great yearning on the part of advanced workers to know more about Mrs. Eddy, as the one who brought the true idea of Soul to humanity, that yearning should be satisfied.

Even while students who are active in the organization, may be rejoicing in the superabundance of human good that is vouchsafed them, others may cry, “Give us to know more of Mrs. Eddy, of the true Christian Science and its demonstration that she taught and lived; give us more of the higher spiritual unfoldments that we need to satisfy our growing hunger.”

Great care must be taken to feed the beginner the pure milk of the Word. The advanced student must be fed with equal care, however, since the effect of advanced teaching should not be to satisfy students with what they are given, but to whet their appetite, so that they will be encouraged each one for him­self, to go to source, and gain the measureless satisfaction that alone comes directly therefrom. The textbook Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, is designed to stimulate this appetite for God. It introduces the subject of the Supreme Being, corrects the false notions about Him, presents Him aright, and so makes it possible for everyone to seek and to find Him.

When this purpose is understood, it will be seen why the vast amount of material that Mrs. Eddy left behind on the subject of Christian Science, should not be made generally available to students. The effect of spiritual food should always be to whet the appetite for God, not to satisfy it. If one has too much material to read and study, he may not take time off to go to God directly for wisdom and inspiration.

“We cannot sufficiently thank God for all His great goodness to us. But we can acknowledge this by conforming our lives more to the divine image, and thereby feebly expressing His praise.” In these words Mrs. Eddy shows the need of flexibil­ity in conformation. The only way one can give due appreciation for blessings re­ceived, and even feebly express His praise, is to conform his life to the divine image.

More than one who went to Mrs. Eddy's home as a worker, not finding her the kind of a woman he had idealized in his mind, wished to leave. This was because such a one was not willing to soften his own will to conform to the situa­tion; but determined to hold to his own opinion, and make everything conform to it. Such students failed to discern the true significance of what they were learning and observing; and of what this knowledge would mean to them and to the world in future time.

“I feel a great sense of gratitude to you for what you are trying to do, and have already done. From the depths of a loving, lonely heart, I thank you for your rare Christmas gift to me and for your labors in the vineyard of our Lord.”

Mrs. Eddy turned away from the clock to peer into the lives and demonstra­tions of the First Members who gave it to her, and acknowledged what she saw with gratitude. She perceived that they were striving to satisfy her in their effort to devote and sanctify their lives to the work of Christian Science. This activity expressed itself in a spontaneous desire to let her know how they felt; so they made her a gift, hoping that it would convey to her some measure of their gratitude. For this she was grateful and returned her thanks.

Why did she refer to herself as lonely, as she often did in her letters, and even in her articles? It was one device she used to restrain jealousy, and to advise the students to keep their thoughts away from her. She had a beautiful home in the country, servants to wait on her, and loving students to cheer her. Her means were adequate. She had horses and carriages to take her wherever she wanted to go. She knew that such a picture of her was calculated to arouse envy, and there is nothing more darkening than the constant suggestions and effects of jealousy. Therefore, if the students learned that in the midst of such abundance she was lonely, they would be less apt to be jealous.

Most people have troubles of one sort or another that are sufficient to tempt them to feel jealous, when they find anyone who appears to be happy, prosperous and well. Such jealousy is not necessarily mean or malicious; yet the effect of all jealousy and envy is to produce hell, wherever the thought of it rests. Knowing all this and having experienced it, Mrs. Eddy practically said to the students in this one word, lonely, “You can have all I have, if you are willing to take my loneliness along with it.” Nothing would kill their desire to change places with her more than the knowledge that with it all, she was lonely. People envy the rich who live in big houses, surrounded by luxury, until they learn that the wealthy are often lonely. That realization helps to restrain jealousy.

Finally, we have Mrs. Eddy recommending four candidates for First Mem­bers. First she implies that because of their faithfulness in the Field, they will help to carry the balance of thought on the side of God in that group. This is an important point, since the spiritual balance of any meeting is what determines its success. Students who attend meetings without making any positive spiritual or mental effort, are of no value to the meeting. Yet, when even a few workers are awake and alert to the necessity of handling error and clearing up the atmosphere so that divine Mind may prevail, the balance is carried on the side of God, since spiritual thinking always outweighs material thinking. The conclu­sion, therefore, is, that when there is a poor meeting, the reason is not that error has become more active and powerful than good, but that truth has been less actively employed by those capable of so doing.

Error seems more rampant at certain times than at others; but Science shows that error grows more aggressive only as Truth lifts her voice. When error is properly removed, we have meetings that are spiritually worth while. The true gauge of a meeting is not the amount of error that is felt or expressed, but the lack of the presence of scientific demonstration. Hence, we should not say, “There is a good deal of error here tonight”; but rather, “there is less of truth being manifested by the students who should be alert to do their work.”

These four candidates might have had little practical knowledge of how the church affairs should be handled, yet Mrs. Eddy recommended them because she knew that their faithfulness would help to balance the thought on the right side at the meetings they attended.

Next as a reason, she cites the advantage such membership would be to them individually. Mrs. Eddy not only expected that they would give their best thought to their work, but that they would receive an education and training by association with older students, who were more closely in touch with her, and brought to the meetings the effect of what she had taught them. In this way her teaching would hold the floor.

Mrs. Eddy expected students who had learned Science from her lips, to do all they could to keep the Field straight in regard to her teachings. How were these young members to be benefited by their association with those who re­ceived more directly Mrs. Eddy's counsel and assistance, unless the latter shared at the meetings what she had given them?

The first demand in Christian Science is individual purification and spirit­ualization. One must be right himself, before he can make others right. Then comes faithfulness in demonstration not only in helping oneself, but also in helping others and the church. It is through this faithfulness that one is entitled to associate with other students of more mature growth and understanding.

Mrs. Eddy desired to have these four promising students grow up with the First Members. Today this same thought is perpetuated in the privilege of a student who has been faithful both in his own growth and in forwarding the growth of the Field, to receive counsel and assistance from more advanced students. The First Members have been disbanded and our Leader is no longer with us to give personal instruction. Yet, students who are making the demonstra­tion to put God first in everything, and to subordinate all material demands to those of God, still merit the title of First Members; and the opportunity still remains for faithful students to associate themselves with those more mature, who are receiving their counsel and assistance directly from God.




The First Church of Christ, Scientist

in Boston, Mass.

Cor. Falmouth and Norway Streets

Now I want to ask a favor.

I am constantly beset with the question: “Can Branch Churches have First Members?” Many of them have them already. The Manual does not forbid them only as it may be inferred in Sect. 6. page 19, 1897 edition of the Manual. I do not know whether or not the same power is invested in the First Members of Branch Churches as is given to those of The Mother Church.

Will you kindly give me some word that I may help these in­quirers, and thus help me very much.

As ever your loving Student,

William B. Johnson

My beloved Student:

I have answered all letters to me on this question, shall Branch Churches have First Members? No! and explained the reason why. The best way is for you to form a church By-law, call a meeting and vote on this By-law prohibiting Branch Churches having that form of our church government. Also adopt the amendment to be made on page 36 and have the Hymnal arranged as you propose.

With love,

M. B. Eddy


Once again we find Mrs. Eddy paring down the ramifications of the organ­ization, simplifying it as much as possible. She was aware of the danger of students becoming so absorbed in the modes of church government, that they lost sight of individual spiritualization. If one attended an Annual Meeting in Boston, and heard no mention of spiritualization in what was said, he might con­clude that it had been lost sight of; yet it is the heart and soul of Christian Science.

When one purchases a ring, his attention is called to the setting only as it enhances the beauty of the jewel. Similarly, church government and organiza­tion are intended to forward the attainment of spirituality, but never to take the place of it. If Mrs. Eddy foresaw the danger of inspiration being relegated to an inferior place in her church, she would certainly make every possible provision to prevent such a catastrophe.

Possibly she anticipated the day when the First Members were to be dis­banded. One of their functions appears to have been to check on the acts of the Directors. It was difficult for one who was a member of the Board to attain dis­tinction as an outstanding metaphysician, due to the fact that so much of his time was taken up in detail work for the organization. For this very reason Mrs. Eddy may have felt that it was necessary to have a group of metaphysicians to hold watch and ward over the Board. Above everything else, Mrs. Eddy required that they be loyal to her and her teachings; it was her prayer that in future years they would retain this loyalty, and never lose sight of it in the trappings of authority.

It will always be a major demand on the Directors as well as on all students, to be loyal to Mrs. Eddy and the spirit of her teachings, even though she is no longer visible to the human eye.

If the First Members were expected to do metaphysical work for the Di­rectors, which the latter did not have time to do for themselves, why were they finally disbanded? Often branch churches will form groups of selected members into committees to work metaphysically for various phases of church activity. Yet, if Mrs. Eddy finally saw fit to dissolve the group called First Members, and to forbid branch churches to have them, may we not conclude that such commit­tees would not come under her approval, if she were with us in person today?

First let it be said that mental work benefits those who do it, as much as those for whom it is done. The members who create the healing atmosphere in our services benefit as much by such work, as do those who come and partake of that atmosphere, if not more so. The ideal organization in Science is one where each member feels and assumes the obligation of the requisite mental work for all of its activities. The creation of metaphysical committees, or of First Members, who become responsible for such work, would at once give the remaining members a lessening impulse to follow suit. They would feel as if they could relax in the assurance that enough of such work was being done by others. Thus they would become receivers of the Word, rather than givers. A small group of workers would thereby appropriate much of the growth in the church, whereas the right way is to have the opportunities for growth bestowed upon all in equal measure.

Wisdom finally required that the First Members be dissolved. Perhaps the main reason for this was that the Directors might be forced to feel the responsi­bility for doing their own mental work; notwithstanding the fact that they had so much business to attend to. It was not wisdom's way for them to continue to lean on the First Members, or anyone else, to do this work for them. At first Mrs. Eddy found it necessary to have selected members who would take the responsi­bility of working metaphysically for the Directors — just as she found it necessary to have certain persons delegated to work at the services, — in order to be sure that the atmosphere was maintained in its scientific purity; but the day came when she could place this matter of mental work squarely on the shoulders of the Board. Mrs. Eddy hoped that the entire membership would feel that they must do such work for the church, since only in this way could the democracy of Science be illustrated. Democracy in Science is not merely government by the many, — it is the awakened awareness of each individual to his responsibility for doing the mental work which the humblest member of the church is capable of doing. Consequently, Mrs. Eddy saw that it was not wise for branch churches to have First Members, who would take the responsibility of doing for the church what each member should do, since a few doing the work tends to rob the many of the blessing such effort brings.

It is not expecting too much of new members, to require that they know how to work metaphysically for our services, since the first fruits of studying the text­book is a knowledge of how to correct or heal erroneous thought. Hence it is legitimate to enjoin them, when they unite with the church, to do the impersonal and general healing work in the services that the Manual requires. If a student can demonstrate individually — that is, if he knows how to help himself or another — it follows that he can do such work generally and impersonally. He only needs to be told to work for the congregations. When he learns that such work is ex­pected of him, he will find that he can do it, for he has merely to enlarge his thought to cover the church instead of an individual. When he enters the church he should be shown that all individual needs are submerged in the universal. He will then give up for the time being working against individual errors, and will take up the work against a common enemy; the struggle ceases to be an individual one, and becomes a community matter.

In the Colonial days of our country individual settlers warred against the Indians. Then blockhouses were built to which everyone repaired, in order to take a united stand against the Indians. The higher concept of Church in Chris­tian Science does not concern a material structure; rather, is it a community spirit, which causes the membership to unite and work for the good of the whole, in order that all may have a conscious sense of their unity with God. The com­mon enemy is mental evil or aggressive mental suggestion, which creeps into thought with more stealth than the Indians ever exhibited.

In order to fulfil its mission, the Church must be supported by all, for the protection of all. That this ideal may be realized, each member must become a Christian warrior. He must attend all meetings with this attitude: he does not come to listen or to sleep, he comes to fight against the common enemy, the claim of mortal suggestion, that would attempt to rob the church membership of God, and cause them to neglect or forget the necessity for maintaining con­sciously the realization of God's supremacy and government over all things.

This letter in regard to the First Members is also important, because it illustrates Mrs. Eddy's patience in dealing with students. Every time she had to answer a letter, it took her valuable time and thought; and here was one that seemed unnecessary, since she had already made clear her thought on branch church members.

Mrs. Eddy had a standard for censure and rebuke, but this standard in­cluded no impatience on her part, such as the world knows it. She did not reply to Mr. Johnson, “Why can't you wake up? I have already answered this question, and yet you ask it again, and cause me to take my valuable time to answer you. Can't I drill these matters into your dull mind so that you will remember them, and not force me to waste my time in unnecessary labors? If you can't, I shall put another in your place.” Instead of that, she wrote him a kindly letter, as if he had asked a new question, thus proving that she was consistently a loving and patient person, who did not habitually take offence at the slightest pretext.

A querulous and quarrelsome person might have taken this letter as an occasion to express his ill feelings. When one is as busy as Mrs. Eddy was, it is not pleasant to be obliged to repeat an answer regarding a question that has already been taken care of; but Mrs. Eddy saw nothing in Mr. Johnson's thought that needed a rebuke. All she saw was an over-conscientious sense that was so eager to be right and to please, that it was unwilling to draw any inferences from rules already laid down, which, in this case, plainly declared that no branch church was to adopt the form of government of The Mother Church.

This letter, therefore, proves that Mrs. Eddy did not rebuke because her time was encroached upon and she was irritated. She had a definite standard of rebuke, which was the opposite of that of mortals. Hence, the world could not understand her basis of rebuke, the intent of which was to arouse and save one from falling unwittingly into the toils of falsity.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

May 1, 1897

Dear Bro. Johnson:

In reply to your request to frame my letter, I am willing pro­vided you will first have Prof. McKenzie examine it and if he sees any errors in it, he may note them and return it to me, and I will rewrite it for you to frame.

Tell him please that I wrote it in 10 minutes and did not take the pains I should.

Yours truly,

M. B. Eddy

per F.


The letter in question may be found in Lyman P. Powell's book, Mary Baker Eddy, A Life Size Portrait, and reads as follows:


“My beloved Students:


Accept from your teacher and former pastor a trifling memento of her affection that derives its sole value from the associations connected therewith. This silent picture can speak from your walls of one conquest. But may the better trophy of victories, be each one of our lives gathered into one signal, for future history to float over this church.

With love,

mother,

Mary Baker Eddy”

Accompanying the letter was a picture of The Mother Church.

Mrs. Eddy was so alive to her ability to reflect God and to the necessity for doing so at all times, that even if she wrote a letter in ten minutes, it would surely contain a spiritual lesson, and have a purpose beyond its literal reading.

To be sure, she might not have written this letter in the best literary style. While divine Mind is perfect, insuring God's part to be always right, man's part may yet be imperfect. The more time one takes in expressing a revelation, the more apt he is to improve the vessel in which the precious oil may be contained; notwithstanding, the oil is always perfect and is the important thing.

Mrs. Eddy names Mr. McKenzie as professor, although that was not his title by law; but she was calling upon him as one who had a knowledge of English grammar, which made him adequate to criticize the form in which this message was written.

In this way Mrs. Eddy was carrying her scientific method of healing into practical use. Metaphysics show that if you want a patient to be well, you must think of him as well now; you must declare that he is well and realize that he is well. As a child of God Mr. McKenzie reflected intelligence in every direction, but he had only proved it in certain ways. Mrs. Eddy was calling upon this ability in the direction of examining her letter, so that it would pass muster from the standpoint of grammar; and she addressed him as professor. Thus she illus­trated her metaphysical teaching.

There were times when she addressed students as C.S.B. who had not earned that degree. Early in my Science experience I had the joy of receiving a copy of Science and Health inscribed by her, in which she called my wife and me, C.S.B.'s. We had not earned this title humanly, but by naming us such, she was calling us to be such. If we thereby measured up to that title, then we were such in the spirit, if not the letter. To measure up to the Christian Science ideal is to become a C.S.B. in God's sight, even if one has not earned the title in man's sight. Mrs. Eddy's metaphysics led her to address students according to what she wished them to be. Her precept was that whatever you wish a person to be, consider him to be so, declare him to be so; then you are helping him to be so.

In regard to the picture of The Mother Church, Mrs. Eddy stated that its sole value came from association. When she gave a gift, she put back of it that which gave it a spiritual value beyond price. Her own concept of the law of association was expressed in a letter she wrote on January 31, 1900, “Your letter interested me only because it was a moment wherein an action arrested thought and reproduced a fact already understood by you, — to memory. God bless you, is my prayer. S. & H. describes this attitude of mind and classifies it, not as dis­covery, but association of thoughts. As when musical tones are brought before the thought by the verses to which they have been set.”

Mrs. Eddy sent the Directors this picture, in order that they might have it before them constantly, read her letter, and let both be a mentor to watch over them. This would help them to regard the edifice symbolically rather than ob­jectively. Disease can never be handled in Science as long as it is regarded objectively. In like manner the organization cannot be watched over meta­physically by one who regards it objectively. It must be seen wholly as a mental concept. Then and only then can it be sustained scientifically.

The material world is but the outward expression of what man believes and conceives, and his conception will never be permanent and enduring, until it is derived of God. The true government of the Church is a demonstration of God's will being done on earth as in heaven. Its only progress in manifestation can come through what the members think about it. If they reflect God's concept, there will be a scientific expression. The human mind conceiving it, adulterates the expression, and to that degree prevents it from being wholly the temple of the living God.

Vegetables and fruit trees transplanted from our country to tropical climates, often run to lush foliage with little or no fruitage. It would work ill for our de­nomination, if it grew large materially, at the expense of spirituality. In such a case much of that growth would have to be cut away, until the flower and fruit began to appear; and what is the flower of Christian Science but the desire to become acquainted with God, and to be able to talk with Him? And what is the fruit but actual communion with Him?

Mrs. Eddy has provided us with periodicals, which should always keep before the minds of their readers the importance of spirituality, and remind them that the heart and soul of Christian Science is inspiration. These publica­tions should constantly reiterate the fact that there is no value in a plant that runs to leaves, and that the fruit in Science is healing, or the demonstration of that connection with God over which flows all that man is, and all that keeps him as he is.

Mrs. Eddy intended her letter and the picture to be a permanent reminder to the Directors, through the law of association, of the right relationship between the triumphs of the organization as a whole, and those of individual students living scientific lives. “This silent picture can speak from your walls of one con­quest.” The victory in building The Mother Church consisted in destroying opposition that would always seek to prevent the growth of the outward form of the organization. “But may the better trophy of victories, be each one of our lives gathered into one signal, for future history to float over this church.”

In other words, individual victory is the conquest over the opposition that would prevent one from measuring up to the spiritual ideal in his own life, from healing himself and others, and from maintaining the desire and effort to fulfil his obligation on earth as a son of God. Mrs. Eddy pictures the uniting of all such victories on the part of students into one great signal to float above the church.

Here we have illustrated the right relationship between the demonstrations of the membership in their own lives, and those made for the organization. More significant than the victories that develop the organization, are those its in­dividual members make in measuring up to Mrs. Eddy's ideal gathered into one signal.

How wisely she called the Directors' attention to her estimate of their success in uniting their efforts in the great work of building The Mother Church, and to the fact that she considered of more importance the demonstration that would build up their own lives according to the metaphysical ideal!

In connection with the building of The Mother Church, it is worthy to note that Mrs. Eddy once told her students that, if each one of them demonstrated his own problems as they came to him, that would make it possible to erect the edifice. Consequently, when one of them lost a diamond ring, she said to herself that, according to Mrs. Eddy, she must make the demonstration to find it, if she wanted the church to be built. This ring had been lost in the snow, and as the student worked on the problem, she saw it sparkle in a rut left by a team.

Mrs. Eddy knew that every time a student was confronted with a sense of limitation, an insufficiency of time or money, or a suggestion of the inability of Truth to accomplish its purpose in less time than with mortal mind methods, for him to demonstrate the fact that nothing is impossible to God, or divine Mind, would be opening the way for the same demonstration to be made on a larger scale, namely, that Mind is the source of all money, the master of all time, and includes all intelligence, power and activity. Hence, Mind is the master of every suggestion of failure in any and every direction, either in an individual or a collective problem. The value of building The Mother Church, was the demand it put upon each member to realize that it depended on the consolidation of his daily efforts to deny every belief and suggestion that Mind could not do what Mind can do. Mind can do all things without difficulty and at once, notwithstand­ing the material evidence. Mind controls and takes care of Mind's own. It is only the false testimony of material sense putting forth a false argument for the material sense in mortals to accept and believe, that claims to stand in the way of spiritual success. If each member did his part in his own experience, the sum­mation of such endeavor would manifest itself in a group demonstration, when needed.

In Science we do not fight a real enemy, but merely our belief that there is something to fight. And in being faithful over a few things, we are making the larger demonstrations possible. For that reason, the immediate recovery of a lost diamond ring through Mind, was a definite addition to the group demonstration. Each member had an obligation toward the building of the edifice, not only to contribute financially, but to meet the slightest suggestion that for any reason the erection of it was not possible through Mind, in the time Mind allotted.

Whatever error comes to us through our senses we are required to correct. Hence the students were responsible for putting down every suggestion of failure to build the church on time that presented itself. When they were faithful as a body in doing this, the building would be built on time, since there would be no obstacles left in the path.

The mere building of the edifice was not the problem. The difficulty lay in meeting metaphysically that which would claim to prevent it from being built in the time set by our Leader. She knew that demonstration was required to meet the obstacles that animal magnetism would place in the path.

Mortal mind asserts that little errors and discords are of no importance. Yet, the metaphysician knows that little errors as well as big, point to an erroneous state of mind. So he knows that he should be as punctilious in meeting the little errors as the big. Nevertheless, who will demonstrate until driven to do so by a sense of fear? And since one has less fear of a little error, he is apt to neglect it. The alert student, however, does not neglect a single error. It was, therefore, wisdom that prompted our Leader to indicate that the greater demonstration of building the church edifice, would be the sum total of the students' daily demon­strations over each error, large or small, that confronted them.

When the demonstration was finally completed, it became necessary for Mrs. Eddy to take cognizance of the fact, that the Directors were in danger of settling back in a satisfaction therewith, so that they were tempted to forget that it was the sum of individual demonstrations that made the building possible, and that as the organization increased in outward prosperity, the signal that was to fly above it, was a continual increase in the students' demonstrations of individual spirituality. Otherwise individual purification and effort might be swallowed up in outward prosperity. When organization becomes prosperous and ponderous, the temptation comes to ignore the individuals that comprise it, so that individual progression and spiritual growth are no longer encouraged.

Students who take pride and satisfaction in the increase in the activities of the organization, and advocate unthinking obedience to its mandates, rather than to seek to know the will of God, blind themselves to the importance of individual sanctification, the need of going to God in humility for wisdom. Under power and authority, students are liable to be carried away and forget to cherish humility. Mrs. Eddy knew that future generations would be aided in holding a right attitude toward organization, if they thought of the lives of in­dividual members gathered into one signal, as the great flag flying above the Church, reminding them of the importance of their individual efforts, and the place they occupy in the scheme of things.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

December 16, 1897

My beloved Church:

For your love I have no words to express my thanks. But I can say of your money, it was munificent, and it more than pays for my beautiful little organ; therefore will you please receive from me the balance through Mr. Neal who has my check for it, and take with it Mother's gratitude to God and man for such a dear church, that ere long will form forever with her in a body trium­phant.

Always thine,

Mary Baker Eddy


Mrs. Eddy's letters fall under three headings: those which carried apprecia­tion, those which carried encouragement, and those which carried teaching, admonition, and instruction. This letter in regard to the money for the organ for Christian Science Hall, Concord, carries appreciation and encouragement. She knew that it represented a demonstration that deserved her thanks, for the mem­bers to rise above the continual hammering of suggestion, — the purpose of which was to separate them from their Leader, — and to unite in a desire to do something helpful for her, as an indication of their love and appreciation.

The Bible instructs us that appreciative multitudes followed the Master in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, thus indicating the spontaneity of gratitude, before animal magnetism has had a chance to tamper with it. Error had not yet fully awakened to see the far reaching effect of what Jesus was planning to do, and to teach others to do. Animal magnetism is not aroused to put forth organized resistance, until it finds that its reign and rule over mortal man is threatened. The ancient prophets brought a measure of spiritual good to mankind, without rousing systematic resistance. This phenomenon may be explained on the basis that these worthies left no way to perpetuate their doctrines by systematic teach­ing. Hence the cohorts of evil had only to wait until in the course of time these witnesses for God passed out of the picture, without having seriously impaired the kingdom of evil in its despotic control of the world. Their accomplishments were negligible, when it came to preparing an army who would take part in a campaign to excommunicate evil from the earth, as did our Master.

The ancient prophets gave proof that Truth was still existent and present, much as a man will find indications of a pool of oil that lies beneath the surface of the earth. No one will deny that such proof is important; but how much more important it is to start drilling wells that will bring up the oil and make it available for all!

When animal magnetism realized the scope of the Master's work, it sent forth a shadow that covered the face of the sun as it were, and for the time being withheld from the vision of the people the importance of this work. In that way their active appreciation was suddenly shut off, and only a handful followed him. In the Master's experience, therefore, we have an example of how freely grati­tude is expressed before animal magnetism is aroused, and of how it is suppressed by erroneous influence. The value of this illustration is, that it should stimulate us to keep before students the importance of being alert to the claims of animal magnetism and handling them. In no other way can students as a whole be kept active in the truth, and grateful for Mrs. Eddy's priceless discovery.

Investigation might have indicated that this letter was addressed to an ideal that Mrs. Eddy held, rather than to a church that actually existed at that time; but in this she was being scientific, as a practitioner is, when he declares his patient to be the perfect idea of a perfect God, a child of Love, expressing harmony, activity, and a love for and a consciousness of good. A human diagnosis would not substantiate such declarations, or indicate that the patient was yet manifesting such perfection and harmony; but the practitioner makes such affirmations, because he knows that they are true spiritually, and that to declare them helps the patient to manifest them. In metaphysics one must start from the basis of the highest ideal, and not try to work up to it. Furthermore, the highest ideal is more certain to be manifested than a lesser ideal. A practitioner need never fear that he will assume a mental attitude toward a patient that is too high for realization. The rule is that the higher it is, the surer it is to be manifested. Mrs. Eddy once declared, “Meet every false claim with the absolute Truth; nothing short of that will answer.”

One reason for Mrs. Eddy's wonderful healing was because the ideal she held was so high, — much higher than that assumed by her followers, — with the result that she brought it out with more certainty and speed than her students did theirs. Their ideal was not as high as hers, and so it did not operate with the immediate power that hers did.

In writing this letter, Mrs. Eddy evidently hoped the church would maintain a continuous sense of what they felt at that moment. If one can feel an exalted spiritual sense even for a moment, that is proof that it is possible to maintain it continuously. Hence this letter was truly a treatment on Mrs. Eddy's part, the assumption of a metaphysical attitude of mind that indicated the truth about the members.

Yet, one cannot maintain such a true attitude, unless he has first recognized the effort of the lie to interfere, if possible, with the truth, and then has handled it.

The action of the church in sending Mrs. Eddy the funds to buy the organ, was a unity of gratitude that corresponded to the appreciation of the multitudes for the Master in his triumphal entry into Jerusalem. It was a state of thought that Mrs. Eddy hoped would crystallize; she knew that it would do so only as the in­fluence of animal magnetism was detected and cast out.

This sum of money sent to Mrs. Eddy in order to buy an organ for the Chris­tian Science Hall in Concord, was acknowledged by her as if it were a personal gift. In other words, she was so linked with the Cause, that whatever was done for the Cause, she considered was done for her. She wished the students to con­clude that one way to please her, was to work for and to support the organization; that in giving to the church, they were giving to her.

This letter is proof that Mrs. Eddy looked forward to the time when the church would “form forever with her in a body triumphant.” Animal magnet­ism, however, discovered her hope, and sought to prevent such unity between her and her church. She hoped that she and the church would become as one, in order that nobody could think or conceive of the church apart from her and vice versa. It becomes obvious that no student should ever be made a member of the Christian Science Board of Directors, unless he has a correct and abiding appreciation of our Leader, and her continued value and importance to her organization, since it lies within the power of the Directors to do a great deal toward the fulfilment of the prediction she made in this letter.

Mrs. Eddy valued cause above effect, just as one would value the goose that laid the golden eggs above the eggs. She declared that she had no words to express her thanks for the love of her Church; but she did have words to thank them for the human expression of that love, which took care of the purchase of the organ.

Women spend hours in beauty parlors, hoping thereby to enhance their beauty. True beauty results from the cultivation of spiritual thinking. Of what value is external attractiveness, if it hides mental barrenness? “The recipe for beauty,” our Leader reminds us “is to have less illusion and more Soul” (S.&H. 247:31). As the world comes to adopt Christian Science, people will pay more and more attention to causation, or thinking, since they will learn that the true beauty of the individual lies in the development of his spiritual thinking. Finally there will be no ugly people. God is the only judge of beauty, and He judges man by the heart — by what he thinks, and not by the way he looks.

The proof that one is becoming Godlike, is that his thinking is growing Godlike; and one characteristic of Godlike thinking is the valuing of cause above effect. Hence this letter is proof that Mrs. Eddy was becoming Godlike. The lov­ing thought back of this gift she placed above price, even while she showed her human appreciation for the form in which the love manifested itself.

Since this letter refers to the organ for the Christian Science Hall, it is not amiss to quote from Miscellany, page 145, “From that time, October 29, 1897, until the remodelling of the house was finished, I inspected the work every day, suggested the details outside and inside from the foundations to the tower, and saw them carried out. One day the carpenters' foreman said to me: ‘I want to be let off for a few days. I do not feel able to keep about, I am feeling an old ailment my mother had.' I healed him on the spot.''

The fact that Mrs. Eddy took the trouble to inspect the remodelling of this hall every day, proves how dear to her heart it was. The metaphysician also recognizes that this remodelling was accomplished by demonstration that was a direct and daily application of her spiritual thought to the work at hand. There are cases which a metaphysician may handle by sitting at home and demon­strating, but in an instance of this kind, Mrs. Eddy perceived that the demonstra­tion required a direct and daily application to the work that was being done; so she must be on the spot.

At this point let us consider the demonstration in connection with food, where one endeavors to realize that all food is a gift of God, that it cannot be matter; hence mortal mind cannot be back of it, since divine Mind is forever present with it. One may see the need of such a demonstration at each meal; yet he may easily forget to make it at the time. It is one that should consist of the scientific realization and declaration applied directly to the human sense. While it is good to make general affirmations concerning the true nature of food, they do not cover one's individual need unless he is conscious of them when the need is present. One may know in a general way that true rest is a gift of God, but a more scientific way is to go to sleep from the standpoint of an alert demon­stration, and not by reading oneself to sleep, or dropping off through sheer weariness.

When Mrs. Eddy commissioned me to superintend the building of a carriage for her, I went to the shop in Taunton, Mass., every morning to inspect the work, and to carry the thought on the spiritual side. I did not fancy that I could sit at home and demonstrate, and in that way accomplish what I could by my presence. I can assert that if all the individuals in the factory had been amenable and susceptible to the demonstration of Science, absent work would have sufficed; but mortal mind cannot be relied upon to be amenable. So it is sometimes necessary to be on hand in order to apply demonstration directly to the need.

Mrs. Eddy was not boasting when she wrote concerning the instantaneous healing of the carpenters' foreman; she was merely indicating that, when she went to inspect the building, she carried a constructive healing thought. The fact that she healed this man on the spot without any delay, proves that, while the remodelling of the hall claimed her human interest, at the same time she brought to it a demonstrating sense. The sick man really touched “the hem” of her garment, the garment of spiritual thought — the reflection of God — which she brought each day to the work that was going on, and which carried a healing effect.

The opposition to Christian Science in conservative Concord was at first very strong. It was as if Mrs. Eddy was turning over ground that had never been ploughed before. It required a greater demonstration to remodel Christian Science Hall in 1897, than it did to build the beautiful granite edifice in 1904,­ — a more direct application of watchfulness and consecration, — since the conscious opposition that had to be met in 1897, lessened in a degree as the years went by.

Mrs. Eddy did not trust her absent work to carry the thought of the workmen on the right side. She could not tell what they might do, if she withdrew her spiritual thought, and they were left to the influence of the opposing thought. She took no chances, lest they do some of the work wrong, and an imperfect demonstration result. She applied her declarations each day directly to the human need. She had to do this, in order to fulfill her metaphysical purpose of establishing the actual building under demonstration. The proof that she brought a healing thought, rather than just a building thought to the work, was evident in the immediate healing of the foreman.

Students sometimes feel that all they need to do for a case is to sit at home, and work absently; but this is not always true. There are instances where a direct application of truth to a situation is called for. To be sure, the mental work is the essential feature, but such work should awaken one to the importance of watch­fulness, in line with Jesus' admonition to “watch and pray.” Mrs. Eddy went to the hall to watch the work; but as she did so, she prayed.




To The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, Mass.

January 15, 1898

My beloved Students:

I appreciate your uniform loyalty and courtesy to Mother, who desires to know no partiality for one or another of her children, but to earnestly consider the welfare of all. I have asked for a small Board of Trustees (to keep peace in the family) and as I believe a strong board; one is a business man, another is a doctor, and still another a scholar.

I now recommend that these trustees continue at present Mr. Armstrong as the business manager of the Publishing House, for the benefit of The Mother Church in Boston, Mass.

Please to hand an attested copy of this letter and documents to the editors of the Christian Science Journal for publication in the March number of the Christian Science Journal.

With love,

Mother,

Mary Baker Eddy


In order to comment on this letter, I must recapitulate a bit of its history. When the Proceedings in Equity were instituted in 1919, in order that the rela­tionship between the Board of Directors and the Trustees be interpreted by law, this letter was introduced as exhibit No. 463. Then it was read from the Trustees' records, and found to be slightly different in form from the original. It was pre­ceded by the title, Gift to The Mother Church and a Grant of Trusteeship. The clause, to keep peace in the family, was omitted, as well as the word mother, from the signature. Furthermore, the recorded letter read, the February number of the Journal, rather than March. The words, her children, were changed to Christian Scientists, and before Mr. Armstrong's name were the words, the efficient service of.

It is evident that Mrs. Eddy intended this letter to be published in the Journal, together with the trust deed dated January 15, 1898. However, this was not done, and a new trust deed was formed ten days later. It is obvious that the changes in the letter were made by Mrs. Eddy herself with the intention of publishing it. Then evi­dently she was led to make still another change, and to discard it entirely.

The hope of the Trustees was that it could be proved in court that Mrs. Eddy's purpose was to create two committees, neither of which had complete control of the other, and that this letter would help to substantiate this conten­tion, since in it she writes that she “desires to know no partiality for one or another of her children.” The metaphysician would know that by the words, no parti­ality, she was laying down a scientific, not a legal precept. She knew that in God's sight all positions are equal; that the janitor who demonstrates his work is as important in His sight as the Directors or Trustees who do so. Mrs. Eddy regarded her children impartially. When they demonstrated their work, they were equal in her sight.

When she placed a student in a position which humanly appeared to be of less importance than another, she hoped that he would not feel that his work was unworthy of scientific effort. She took Mr. Bates, Mr. Neal and Mr. Mc­Kenzie, men who rated high in human attainment, and made them Trustees, hoping that they would perceive that if they demonstrated their work, they would rate as high in God's sight as the Directors; so they need not feel disappointed, thinking that she was offering them a lesser position.

The progressive student in Science is not one who is looking for human authority, but for larger opportunities to demonstrate. Jesus equalized the con­ception of master and servant by washing his disciples' feet, showing that humble service demonstrated elevated one to approval in the eyes of God.

A person might wonder why the Christian Science organization had to have such a costly lawsuit as that of 1919; yet the rule of the Bible is that all things work together for good to them that love God. Perhaps it was part of the divine plan that a legal decision be rendered, as to the supremacy of the Church Manual and its relation to the Deed of Trust constituting the Trustees. One might assert that demonstrating Christian Scientists would never have sought a legal opinion on such a matter; but it is evident that the decision served to provide an additional anchor to hold the ship of Science. Mrs. Eddy did not object to strengthening the position of Science legally, wherever it was possible, and one reason she established the office of Committee on Publication, was so that he might watch that the law be used for us, rather than against us.

When in 1897 the State of Rhode Island sent spies to the Christian Science practitioners to get evidence against them, it seemed a great error when one of the latter accepted money for treatment, an act which was against the law at that time. Yet, in this way the question of the legal side of our work was brought to a head and settled. Otherwise it might have threatened the work of practi­tioners in many states for years to come.

Mrs. Eddy declared in her letter that she believed she had a strong board in these three men, implying that she could not make such an assertion positively. No one knows what a student is going to do under pressure. Evidently none of the disciples knew in advance that it would be Judas who would give way under pressure.

In its secret operation, animal magnetism claims to influence mortals with­out their knowledge. When under its influence Peter denied his Master, he might have concluded that he had a weakness in his character which needed to be strengthened; but we know that the lesson he needed to learn was how to protect himself from animal magnetism. Christian Scientists must learn that, when they manifest error, it is because there is a need to exercise protection. If they believe that it is correction that is called for, in the sense that they have fundamental flaws in character which must be eliminated, they will find that they have an endless and impossible job; but when they seek to protect and to release themselves from false beliefs about man, the finale will be that all limitations will roll away, and man will shine forth with an infinite capacity to understand all things, and will be found immortal and eternal.

In using the words, strong board, Mrs. Eddy was setting forth an ideal which she hoped the Trustees would live up to. In Science we state the ideal, in order to inspire students with the desire to fulfil it. If these three men truly appreciated Mrs. Eddy; if they looked upon her as representing the ideal of God; if they felt that through her stripes the whole world was being healed; if they had a glimpse of the vast blessings which were coming to humanity through the unselfish labors of the one who never took any thought for self; then they would strive for her sake to be a strong board. Mrs. Eddy knew how to appeal to students to bring forth their best efforts, to cause them to feel that she was guided by God,­ — that it was God who told her to put them in whatever position she appointed them to, because He knew that they would not fail. As a result they would watch continuously to be sure they did not.

One might believe that these men would form a strong board because they were respectively a doctor, a business man and a scholar; but usually such men are never in agreement mentally. Therefore, the only basis for unity would be for them to unite spiritually. Had these men tried to unite on the basis of good, sound, human judgment, they would have been yielding to one of the dangers in Science, since so often such judgment passes for demonstration, because its results seem humanly satisfactory.

Pride, and fear of criticism, are barriers to demonstration. One may employ unaided human intelligence because he is proud of the point of development to which he has been able to bring it, or, he may forbear to demonstrate, through fear of criticism, lest his activity bring denunciation. It is a sign of weakness when one does nothing through fear of criticism. Why should a Christian Scientist fear criticism, unless it is God that does the criticizing? One can never be a strong student until he rises above fear of human criticism on the one hand, and pride of intellect on the other. Then in humility he will endeavor to reflect God in all his ways.

Why did Mrs. Eddy recommend that the Trustees continue Mr. Armstrong as the business manager, when it was understood that this new committee would have to be sub-servient to her? Was she saying, “I want you to be a strong board; yet here is something I want you to do, and you must do it; otherwise it will mean the end of you as a board.” Did she wish them to regard her as the big boss? No, but she knew that God was her Head and that of her church, and that no position in the organization should carry authority above that of God. It is a rule in Science that when God directs us, we must be humbly obedient. Mrs. Eddy was the voice of God to the Church. Hence when she directed that a thing be done, it was God telling the students to do it. Today they are as obligated to obey God, as they were when God spoke to them through their Leader. For this reason students need to take the course in Divinity — the God-taught course — as soon as they are able. Why? Because through this course they learn to translate the demands of God to the people. Why does one take a course in telegraphy? So that he can send and receive messages over the wire. The student takes the course in Divinity so that he may receive messages over God's telegraph. In this way each student learns to take Mrs. Eddy's place in reflecting God to the Cause.

The time will never come when students will not be obligated to regard God as the Head of the Cause, and themselves as His servants. They should be eager and willing to discover at any cost what His demands upon them are, no matter through whom He may speak.

Part of God's wisdom displayed by Mrs. Eddy, was seen in giving as much responsibility as possible to students, in order to develop them in their ability to reflect God. When the Trustees wrote to her in February, 1898, in regard to the office of assistant publisher and asked her advice, she directed Mr. Frye to telegraph back, “She cannot further direct that business. Follow Deed of Trust.” She knew that the greatest growth would come to students when they sought God's guidance directly. Yet she stood ready to expound God's wisdom where it became necessary.

Why did our Leader put into this letter the parenthetical clause, to keep peace in the family, and then omit it in the revision intended for publication? In order to understand what she meant by the phrase in the first place, we must go back in thought to the time when the Children of Israel desired a king to rule over them. They cried, “Give us a king to judge us.” This demand was contrary to divine wisdom. Yet, even when the graphic picture of the burden such government would become, was spread before them they cried out, “Nay; but we will have a king over us.” So, to keep peace in the family, God permitted them to have a king.

In like manner Mrs. Eddy did not wish her church to have a material organ­ization. She well knew the perils of organization. But when she found the students determined to have one, she saw that it would be the part of divine wisdom to yield to that demand to keep peace in the family. The desire of students for organization, when yielded to, causes them to feel that the more committees formed, the more human activity indulged in, the more successful will be the church. Mrs. Eddy found it wise to yield to this demand to some degree, in order to prevent dissension and unfavorable criticism. She knew that thought would be quieted, when she put a doctor, a business man and a scholar to rule over the Publishing House as kings. She called it a strong Board, not because they were primarily metaphysicians, but because of their human attainments. This family of hers was far more apt to be impressed, if their kings were a committee of recognized human ability, than if they were less capable humanly, and yet lived close to God, and habitually turned to Him for wisdom.

The human bias of the situation was exposed by the fact that the demand was for rulers who were greater in man's sight than in God's sight. The unre­liable nature of organization is patent to a metaphysician, when two candidates for office are placed before a congregation, one a man of recognized human ability, and the other a student with a good demonstrating thought; and the members select the former by a large majority.

Once an outstanding metaphysician was elected as Committee on Publica­tion in Boston, and some individuals in his office protested so vigorously to the Directors (behind his back), that he was replaced by a smart lawyer. Of what use would the latter have been, if there was not an intricate organization to run? On the other hand, a metaphysician who did good mental work would be of more value in a group where there was a less complicated organization, since the only way our Cause could be maintained with little or no organization would be by demonstration. Let it be added that the smart lawyer ran the office to the satisfaction of those who had demanded such a man.

This metaphysician may have erred on the side of believing that he could run his office largely through mental work, and overlooked the side where demonstration is applied directly to the problem. Alfred Farlow once directed all Committees on Publication under him to make personal calls on editors, when attacks were made on Christian Science. Presumably he received his instruction from Mrs. Eddy herself, showing that she was an exponent of a direct application of truth. One might believe that he could sit at home on a Sunday morning and work mentally for the church service, and be as successful as though he were present in the meeting; but that is not so. When one is present he recognizes the error to be overcome; he feels the opposition to truth, and senses whether a mental deadness is pervading the atmosphere. In this way he is aroused to meet the particular phases of human error which he could not detect if he sat at home.

Did Mrs. Eddy anticipate that in her day the material organization could be dissolved, that through her teaching, training and example, the time would come when the students would be able to function through demonstration, rather than edict, By-law, or man's opinion? If so, it is evident that she came to realize that growth in demonstration in larger ways than healing the sick, was slow. She saw students who were willing to practice Christian Science in healing the sick, neglect its larger or broader applications.

As a matter of fact, when in a branch church one experiences an almost fanatical resistance to his effort to turn a business meeting over to God, he must realize that even today our Movement is not ready to demonstrate the govern­ment of The Mother Church and its branches; students are not ready to graduate from the modus operandi of complicated material organization.

Let it be forever known that it was the demand on the part of members for a material organization, that brought it forth, and not Mrs. Eddy's wisdom; and the trouble that has resulted may well be likened to that which was foretold when the Children of Israel demanded a king, — trouble which God Himself told them would follow.

Mrs. Eddy prayed that her church might escape the dangers besetting an organized group. What are these dangers? Organization tends to take religion, which should be lived in daily life, and to confine it to Sunday observance! The result is that people are liable to narrow their religion to church-going; leaving it behind when they return home, and then, picking it up again for an hour the next Sunday. To Mrs. Eddy, Christian Science was a rule of life. She anticipated the time when students would live their religion, and their true service would be in their homes and places of business — a service to God!

Listening to our church services is not Christian Science. The snare of organization is to be satisfied with words instead of deeds. Faithful attendance at church, may cause members to feel so satisfied, that they fancy that in being faithful and active in the church, they thereby fulfil their obligations to their Leader and to God. Such an attitude loses sight of the fact that true worship as taught in Christian Science, is growth in spiritualization, — it is not a part of religion in the old sense of the word. Mrs. Eddy describes it in Science and Health, page 272, “It is the spiritualization of thought and Christianization of daily life, in contrast with the results of the ghastly farce of material existence….”

Mrs. Eddy regarded the organization as a convenient and efficient means of interesting the public in her doctrine and of guiding the budding thought; but she prayed that each member would grow to the place where he would regard Christian Science as a divine rule to be lived in the daily life — a method of working out of materiality into spirituality. That is something that church-going alone will never accomplish. It is attained only by daily demonstration. One danger of organization is that members may neglect demonstration, and still feel satisfied in maintaining and supporting the outward form; whereas the only right purpose of organization is to support and maintain demonstration. What is left but the frame, when the latter fades; and what good is a frame without a picture?

When Mrs. Eddy revised her letter and left out the clause, to keep peace in the family, it is possible that she saw that it would not be well to spread before the students and the world, the fact that divine wisdom was calling on her to take a forward step that was largely devoid of metaphysics, in order to meet a human demand on the part of the students. She substituted the name, Christian Scien­tists, for children, as if it was not wise to let it be known that the demand she was conceding to, was one made by students who were not as advanced in under­standing as she would wish them to be. Such a disclosure would not be impres­sive to the public.

Yet Mrs. Eddy had students who understood that this step on her part did not represent her highest sense of Science, which included the final elimination of all material ways and means. Her ideal was simplicity of organization, while this move was necessarily making the machinery more complex. Read Miscel­laneous Writings, page 91:4-20.

Her primary thought in creating the Board of Trustees was one of protection for her demonstration, by keeping peace in the family. Then she saw that to have this purpose generally known, might weaken the effect of what she was establish­ing; so she removed that clause from the letter, thus avoiding any implication that the step she was taking was not the result of her highest impartation of divine wisdom.

It was important that this letter be preserved in both the Directors' files and the Trustees' records, since to advanced students it is an impressive thing to read the original draft, and to realize that to Mrs. Eddy the creation of the Board of Trustees was merely a suffer-it-to-be-so-now. The deduction is that much that concerns the material organization, was established because the students were not ready for the higher demands of God upon them. Hence students need not feel that all that concerns the material organization represents a permanent demand on them. As they grow more spiritually-minded and begin to receive their wisdom directly from God, they find less and less need of any outward form. God's daily guidance is found sufficient to lead them in the way, and to keep them in the way.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

January 17, 1898

Beloved Student:

I will attend to that business. Have had so much on hand, could not before. Confidential.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy

Please find the amendment to By-law for next edition of Manual. I read and showed my woman document to lawyer of Concord who is considered smart. And he said, “There is nothing incorrect in it”

Well, had I been its author, I scarcely could have believed it. But I was not more the author of that than of S. & H. as I regard it.


This is another letter which was used as an exhibit in the lawsuit of 1919. While it was written to Judge Hanna, it must take its place as part of Mrs. Eddy's letters to her Church, since it proves that she used demonstration to formulate the Deed of Trust which created the Christian Science Publishing Society. This was a difhcult thing for her to do without legal help, in that it must be done so that it would stand all tests. History shows that it was adequate in the litigation of 1919, and won the admiration of legal minds.

Mrs. Eddy declared that she was able to draft the document, so that a smart lawyer considered it correct. The important point, however, is that she laid the authorship of a purely legal document to God. As a woman she wrote the docu­ment from the standpoint of the actual penmanship; but she claimed unre­servedly that God was its Author. Was not the writing of this document a cir­cumstance similar to that of Moses when on Mt. Sinai he received the Ten Com­mandments from God?

The Master was careful to state that of himself he could do nothing. When a meta-physician knows that what he writes or voices comes from God, but finds the majority of people believing that it originates in him as source, he recognizes this attitude as a temptation to accept adulation and praise for being able to put forth such wonderful things, or to perform such mighty works. It requires a constant reiteration of the Master's statement, lest he fall into the greatest of all errors, namely, a self-appropriation of God's wisdom and power.

Mrs. Eddy's statement in this letter may be paraphrased to read, “I can of mine own self do nothing; but with God I am able to put forth that which trained legal minds recognize as correct, and this in spite of the fact that I never had any legal training.” The Deed of Trust, therefore, stands as a proof of Christian Science as notable as would be the healing of the most difficult case of disease.

Mrs. Eddy experienced a constant pressure to be aggrandized as the author of what she put forth. It became so aggressive that she finally dubbed it, personal contagion, because she saw the possibility of the mighty influence of her career being dwarfed, as the Master's was, and declared that this article was one of the most important things of thought she ever expressed. The moment one believes that what Jesus said and did sprang from himself, he becomes a victim of that personal contagion which shuts him off from following in the Master's footsteps, as he commanded us all to do. When one recognizes that all that Jesus was, he reflected from God, that understanding opens the way for him to follow in word and in deed.

Personal contagion is illustrated by one believing that his radio receiving set is the author and source of all that comes through it. Every child of God may be called a spiritual radio tuned in to God. Jesus did his best to make his followers see this point. He sought to show that of himself he did not possess nor originate wisdom; he did not possess power; he did not originate love. He reflected these qualities from God. For one to do likewise requires more than the mere develop­ment of knowledge, or of the intellect; it necessitates self-abnegation, the clean­ing off of one's mental blackboard, so that the finger of God may write upon it.

For many years I have contended that students in general should not cir­cumscribe their efforts to the utilization of divine power in healing the sick. Jesus made no such limited use of God's power. In addition to healing the sick and raising the dead, he proved God to be the source of wealth and food, by demonstrating the silver coin and the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. He proved Mind to be the only true substance, when he walked on the water. He gave the broadest proof of the utilization of spiritual understanding, which made his example truly effective as a demonstration of man's ability to reflect, not a portion of, but all of God.

Mrs. Eddy was always appreciative when any of her students departed from the standardized and primary use of demonstration, and began to apply it in broader ways that are not commonly regarded as being part of what one's effort should embrace. The Bible commands us to acknowledge Him in all our ways; then and only then can we be sure of divine protection. The progressive student constantly looks for new opportunities wherein to apply demonstration. If one is faithful and really desirous of improving his demonstrative ability, each hour furnishes fresh occasions to take advantage of.

Mrs. Eddy teaches that the man who is best equipped to do all things cor­rectly, even such a prosaic thing as to execute a deed, is the one who does them from the standpoint of divine wisdom. Whatever it is, no matter how human, when it is done from that point of view, it becomes a means of grace, rather than a deterrent to spiritual growth. In this way the human is outgrown, much as an apple is evolved from a blossom. At a certain point the petals fall away, and the fruit appears. One who demonstrates the human side of the picture correctly, will find it to be a flower that bears the fruit of spiritual progress. Here is set forth the order of divine unfoldment, in which divine wisdom was made manifest in the forming of a successful organization; for it was established by one who had no legal business training, all of which was proof that in order to accomplish it, she had to tune in to the divine source. When in the order of progress the full fruitage of Christian Science appears, matter will disappear and Spirit alone be left. Thus will the Biblical statement be fulfilled: “All things work together for good to them that love God....”

It is safe to venture that this simple letter is as fraught with spiritual implica­tions, as any that our Leader ever wrote to a church official. She indicates in plain terms that the execution of a purely material instrument like the Deed of Trust, was as much a demonstration in its day and generation, as one of a more spiritual nature, thus proving that all the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. According to the best ruling of the law, the document was correct. Hence, it follows that she was showing that it is possible to demonstrate a knowledge of law, with more ease than one can acquire it by study. Mortal mind declares that it requires years of hard study, while one lays away in a retentive memory a prodigious amount of facts, in order to become a lawyer. She proved that one may fill his mind with God, and yet, when it becomes necessary to draw up a legal document, he can do so, without having to acquire a mass of legal knowl­edge through years of study, training and experience.

For many years after the invention of the storage battery for automobiles, it required two or three days on a power line to recharge an exhausted one. Then a method was evolved whereby, without removing the battery from the car, it could be renewed in less than half an hour. Similarly the Christian Science method of demonstrating knowledge is simple and immediate, and does not require the mental exclusion of other important matters. Mrs. Eddy proved that through the reflection of divine Mind one may become an excellent business man and financier. When she purchased bonds, for instance, she let God select the right ones. Through demonstration she was able to know what she needed to know, when the time came for it to be known. Think of what a wonderful thing it is, to be able to know what you need to know, without having to become a specialist in any line except in reflecting divine Mind!

Ordinarily it requires years to become an experienced lawyer; Mrs. Eddy could become one in a moment. She did not have to stow away in her memory thousands of facts that she might never use. It reminds one of the up-to-date and simple method of turning salt water into fresh, which makes it unnecessary for a ship to carry large stocks of fresh water on long voyages.

Mrs. Eddy stated plainly that God was the author of this document. She had learned in 1866 that she could turn to God instead of a doctor; now she was find­ing that she could turn to Him instead of to a lawyer. She was discovering new occasions for demonstration, and getting results that were superior to those obtained by mortal mind's methods. Time has shown that God was the author of the Deed of Trust, as well as the source of all that she put forth. When she put Mind to work on any matter, Mind never failed her. She was a pioneer in the application of divine power; her career was one long list of successes in every direction. Yet she could not tell in advance what Truth would do.

When it came to healing the sick, and matters requiring a spiritual touch, such as the writing of inspirational articles and books, it was logical to expect that she would demonstrate successfully; but now in 1898 we come to a deed in which there was nothing spiritual — no new revelation of Truth. It involved purely legal matters. Mrs. Eddy knew that her human knowledge was not sufficient to enable her to draw up such an instrument, but she must have believed that it could be done by a spiritual method; otherwise she would not have attempted it.

To be lasting and effective, a legal document must be couched in phrase­ology that will stand the test of time. Such phraseology has been evolved through many decades of effort to make such matters so sound, that they will survive all efforts to reverse and nullify them. Years of experience have enabled legal minds to compose documents that are in the main proof against attacks; yet under inspiration such legal terms flowed from Mrs. Eddy's pen as naturally as the truth flowed when she healed the sick. It was a forward step of great moment, when she discovered that Truth would operate to put forth that which appeared to have no spiritual significance, other than to become a legal bulwark for the organization.

It was a wonderful thing for Mrs. Eddy to discover that Truth was as im­portant in doing so-called human things, as in healing the sick, that it would give to the one who reflected it, a knowledge of whatever was needed, that was superior to that attained through years of patient hard work along lines of ma­terial study.

Evidently the drawing up of this deed was a pioneering experience for Mrs. Eddy, since her description of it differs from what it would have been, had it been something she had proved many times. It was like the first case of disease that a student heals, which becomes to him the first evidence that as a student, he has gained a sufficient understanding of God to be able to utilize His power in dissipating some material malady.

The beauty of Mrs. Eddy's first proof that she could heal the sick through the power of God, was the evidence that such healing work was possible to all. Now her proof with her Deed of Trust sets forth the possibility of any student trusting in Truth along much broader lines, in instances where the human temptation would be to feel that only a trained lawyer could do what was nec­essary.

Once Mrs. Eddy declared, “The divine Mind is yours to draw from and to execute with.” Her very experience in successfully executing this Deed of Trust through demonstration, may have prompted that statement, in order that her followers might grasp in its fulness the wondrous possibilities of reflection.

It is possible that when this letter was introduced as an exhibit in the lawsuit of 1919, it was confusing to the judge, since to him it might have appeared as if Mrs. Eddy was denying her authorship of the Deed of Trust, when she was merely attributing its authorship to God, disclaiming that as a mortal she could have written it.

Once she stated, “God is a business God. He attends to the business of the universe, and you reflect this business ability.” She made this statement, be­cause she had proved it to be true, and also because she desired to broaden the concept her students held of Deity. She might have used the term, legal, instead of business, or called God the supreme Judge, — as she once did. To her God was All, and the concept of Him as the Healer of the sick was merely an introduction to His infinite nature.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

January 18, 1898

Beloved Student:

For special reasons and to prevent unhappy results this trans­action had to be rattled off that night in time for the meeting as called. I employed a lawyer called smart. His father was our Senator at Congress. I had scribbled it for a schedule but there was not time for the lawyer to read and rewrite it and mail it in time, so I read it to him and he said it was “right” and I signed and Mr. Ladd, my 2nd cousin, treasurer of The Loan and Trust Savings Bank, Concord, put down his signature. The lawyer is of the firm of Stevens and Leach, city. Names, Fred. N. Ladd, Henry W. Stevens. Do as you think best about adding the signa­tures.

With love,

M. B. Eddy


Once a colored man was honored merely because he adapted the lowly peanut to new and practical uses. Mrs. Eddy's notable contribution to the world was the discovery that scientifically applied the divine Mind destroys fear, the cause of disease. She also deserves honor for the many by-products of this dis­covery, one of which was illustrated in her execution of the Deed of Trust. She took the very method that would heal the sick, and applied it for the purpose of bringing forth a legal document that would be proof against annulment.

This letter gives us insight into the fact that the writing of the document was not a matter of an all-night session, proving that when one has formed the habit of expecting divine Mind to help him under all circumstances, he does not always need to enter the closet and shut the door, and go through a prolonged period of prayer and supplication, in order to gain this help and guidance.

This letter also notes a situation where speed was essential. If the meeting had taken place before the deed was ready, perhaps it would have been too late to draw it up, since the Board might have bound the organization to some procedure without it. So the “rattling off” of the document was an illustration of correct timing. When one is going to take a train, if he is late, the train may also be late, so that he does not miss it; but in Truth there are never any late trains. If you are not on time, things move on without you.

In 1892 a movement was started among the students in Chicago to dis­organize the Church of Christ, Scientist, no doubt as a result of Mrs. Eddy's own action. I cite the incident as an example of improper timing. Mrs. Eddy was severe in her letter dated January 5, saying “The whole movement to disorganize in Chicago is started by M.A.M., and if you attempt this, it will ruin the present prosperity of the Cause there and let in the old element that broke you up in the first place.” The organization corresponds to a trellis upon which a rose bush grows. It is incorrect timing to remove the trellis before the bush has grown strong enough to stand alone.

Once I was deprived of the priceless privilege of hearing Mrs. Eddy speak from the pulpit in Boston through incorrect timing. I was apprised of the possi­bility of her appearance in Boston on one of two consecutive Sundays. My intuition told me that it would be the second Sunday, of the two, and I was so situated that I could be absent but one Sunday from the local church. Suddenly on the first Sunday I became stampeded, and permitted a sense of doubt to enter my thought. I dashed to the train just in time to catch it, only to find when I arrived at the service, that Mrs. Eddy was not present. The next Sunday she spoke from the pulpit, but I was not there. This became a valuable, though bitter lesson to me, showing me that there is a correct timing for everything.

To Mrs. Eddy it was important to do God's work immediately; so when God gave the word, she permitted nothing to interfere. The demand for the Deed of Trust was sudden and imperative, so that it “had to be rattled off,” without wait­ing to have it revised. Yet, it proved to be correct. Then she marvelled to find that it could not be improved upon, when lawyers would have taken days to have drawn up a similar instrument. Thus it became another proof that her surplus thinking was so controlled by wisdom that what she did in haste, proved to be right.

In this letter was Mrs. Eddy apologizing for the more or less sketchy result of having to rattle the deed off in a hurry? No, because the result was not sketchy. She was showing that when instruction from God is needed quickly, one can have it immediately; that one need not always go through a long and varied process, in order to be in tune with God.

The question of correct timing is such an important one in Science, that it deserves frequent and careful mention. An example of it may be found in Mrs. Eddy's letter to the Trustees dated April 8, 1901: “You must put him (Mr. Willis) in as first editor now, not wait a day, so as to let him have the run of things. Have the Trustees attend to this business at once.”




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

January 21, 1898

My beloved Student:

After adopting this Church Rule and you have looked over the list of First Members, then drop the names of those that reside not within the distance specified for First Members. I am con­strained to have a limit named because of the calls of distant ap­plicants to be made First Members; also an answer must be given those asking to be added to list of lecturers.

Please look up William B. Dickson; he has applied to me for a place on the Board of Lectureship. I am willing he should have one if he is the right candidate. The far distant West ought by right to have one lecturer in its precincts. Call a church meeting as soon as convenient and vote on these matters.

With love,

M. B. Eddy


The early Board of Directors were willing to let Mrs. Eddy in the main make the demonstration of reflection for them, which they obediently followed without question. It is a rule in Science that if you cannot or do not make your own demonstration of reflection, you should recognize one who is making it, and be ready to profit thereby. It required humility for the Directors to recognize their own inability to make any notable demonstration of God's plan for His Church, and then be willing to follow Mrs. Eddy's. Yet she demanded that they make the demonstration to discern the inspirational nature of her directions.

It would be sad if at some future time, the Directors should not only be lack­ing in the ability to demonstrate, but should fail to recognize inspiration when it came to their attention, since that would mean that they were blinded to the fact that Mrs. Eddy's Cause must function under demonstration, or go on the rocks for a time. Human will is incapable of guiding aright either an individual student or the Movement as a whole.

Mrs. Eddy was the High Priestess who entered into the Holiest of Holies to receive inspiration from God, which the Directors were required to accept and follow. She wrote this letter, embodying God's directions to them, without implying the slightest question as to their willingness to follow what she directed. Her task was to be sure that what she sent them came from God, and their part was to recognize and follow it.

Did Mrs. Eddy ever send the Church directions that did not come from God? It is possible that at times she was guided to send them that which was designed to test them, where she would assent to something one day and then dissent to it the next, that they might realize they had an obligation to fulfill, to determine whether it was inspired. At no point were they expected to sit back and be blindly obedient, since there is no spiritual growth in that.

The clerk who seldom makes an error is a liability, since, because of their absolute faith in his ability, the examiners become negligent; then when he does make a mistake (as all mortals do), it is liable to pass undetected. Mrs. Eddy did not wish the Directors to accept her directions blindly, and if she did not reflect God at any time, to fail to notice the lack. The Directors were expected to be aware that they had an obligation that required demonstration, namely, to check on our Leader, in line with her own statement, “Follow me only as I follow Christ”; and how could they do so, unless they made a secondary demonstration to determine whether she was following Christ?

The study of Mrs. Eddy's life and letters takes on an added value, when one perceives the spiritual growth that comes to him, as he checks on his Leader, to see if in all her ways she was following Christ. She did not wish to stunt the growth of the Directors, by calling upon them to accept blindly whatever she sent them. How would they gain spiritual growth from their relationship with the Leader, if they merely took everything that she said and did as coming from God? She wished them to feel that at times under the pressure of duties, she might make mistakes, which they could catch, if they were alert.

When Mrs. Eddy directed her maid, Caroline Foss, to shorten the sleeves of some new underwear, and then refused to let her measure her forearm, in order to determine how much to take off, she was providing Miss Foss with an opportunity to gain spiritual growth from a mundane and human duty. Miss Foss went to her room and prayed to Mind for over an hour to be shown the right amount to cut from the sleeves. The result was that the sleeves were shortened to the exact length Mrs. Eddy required.

This incident is an illustration of the opportunities for spiritual growth that attended Mrs. Eddy's contact with her students, and of how students may still profit from a study of her life, if it is done correctly. The result of their findings may not have the importance of the growth they gain, but spirituality is, after all, the consummation devoutly to be wished.

When Mrs. Eddy restricted First Members to those living within a radius of five hundred miles of Boston, she indicated that she did not wish students to leave their Fields of labor often. The members of this group were looked upon as the choicest students, those upon whom the demonstrating life of the Cause depended. Let us suppose a member of this group lived in Washington or Chicago, and was so faithful that he could be depended upon to demonstrate whatever was put before him. Mrs. Eddy would not approve of such a one leav­ing his Field of labor at frequent intervals in order to come to Boston. In her eyes one's first obligation was to one's own church and patients, those at home who might need help.

The First Members had a right to feel that they must be choice students, to have been elected to that group, but my experience with them indicated that we were hardly more alert to do the work assigned to us, by demonstration, than other students in the Field. One reason Mrs. Eddy finally disbanded us was because we failed to demonstrate as she expected.

Before leaving this letter, the writer should anticipate the query as to why, if God appointed the lecturers, Mrs. Eddy should find it necessary to ask the Directors to look up Mr. Dickson. The process of letting God select candidates for positions is as old as the Bible. Yet in the democratic government of a branch church, each member feels that he has a right to his intelligent vote on such a question. But if God selects a candidate, he is the right one, and investigation will prove this fact. Hence the two should agree, namely, God's selection and man's investigation. In that way God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven.

Mrs. Eddy did not forget that she was dealing on the one hand with God, and on the other with man. She accepted what God told her, and then appealed to the highest sense in her followers, with the hope that they might take her directions in the right spirit.

When students are unable to demonstrate church matters, the next best course is for them to use their highest human sense. In this latter action they are liable to be swayed by mesmerism. Hence an impartial investigation of a nominee may help to free students from the danger of voting for an unsuitable candidate.

In all selections of candidates both the spirit and the bride should say, “come.” The spirit is the wisdom which comes from God, while the bride represents one's human fitness for the position. The two should be in accord.

Mrs. Eddy was able to select candidates through the spirit alone, — by trust­ing in God alone. Knowing that her students and followers could not always do that, she guided them to take every right human footstep, as a concession to their spiritual lack.

When God pointed out a candidate to her, she knew that he or she was the right one; but she gave the Directors the privilege of making an investigation, since she knew that that would enable them to feel more satisfied about the ap­pointment, and to learn how infallible her demonstration of divine guidance was.




My beloved Students:

I have conveyed the Christian Science Journal, etc., to The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts — hold­ing its services at this date in The Mother Church — and that shall continue to hold its meetings at this First Church edifice, erected by the Christian Scientists in Boston, Massachusetts.

The real estate that is quitclaimed to me by the Christian Science Publishing Society I deed to The Mother Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass., and not to the Board of Trustees who are to conduct the publishing business. I reserve, however, so much room, well located, in these buildings, as may be necessary to carry on the publishing and sales of the works of which I am the author.

With love,

Mary Baker Eddy

Pleasant View

January 22, 1898

Please publish this letter in February Journal.

M. B. E.


This article published in the February Journal announcing Mrs. Eddy's gift of the Journal to the church, the land and buildings of the Publishing Society, gave her the opportunity to show the world that she was not making capital out of her Cause. From time to time there was talk about how much property she had, since mortal mind is prone to believe that every new religious fad or cult is started largely with the purpose to make money. When it called Christian Science a graft, it was only repeating the ancient accusation against every new movement. Mortal mind cannot be depended upon to state the facts concerning anything of a spiritual nature.

When one becomes a leader, especially if that leadership is in a religious field, he must watch lest falsehood and gossip interfere with the value of his life, teaching, works and example. Malicious thought was constantly asserting that Mrs. Eddy was not consistent, that she said one thing and did another. When she became prosperous, mortal mind felt that at last it had discovered the underlying motive that had prompted her to start Christian Science. It was for this reason that she permitted this article to state: “And suppose, as the result of her long years of toil, Mrs. Eddy did accumulate somewhat of this world's wealth. Has that wealth become her kingdom? Has she yielded to it, or, like her great Ex­emplar, has she said, ‘Get thee hence, Satan...'?”

Mrs. Eddy saw the need of taking this step, to stop the growth of the error that was attempting to build up the belief in the minds of the public that she was mercenary. Had that error been allowed to gain ground, it might have seriously affected the future of Christian Science. She would have been dubbed insincere, and many who were ready for help from her teachings, might have been cut off from that help.

One might say that if Mrs. Eddy was sincere, and in no way mercenary, she needed no defence; that the truth would inevitably come to light. Such a state­ment would have been true, had she been dealing with ignorant misunderstand­ing, but she was dealing with malicious animal magnetism, with the resistance of the carnal mind to Truth. She recognized that animal magnetism claimed to be able to control a situation, and create false impressions that were the exact opposite of the truth. This phenomenon was illustrated in the case of the Master, when he was crucified for that which was the furthest removed from his real character. His experience proved that even if one is faithful and successful in living close to God and putting down error, that does not prevent animal mag­netism from attempting to attach error to him in such a way as to cause even his friends to turn against him. Mrs. Eddy recognized this possibility, and took every legitimate step to forestall such insidious action from blighting her influence and career.

She knew what mesmerism claimed to do, and that no alert Scientist should sit back supinely, and feel that his own honesty and integrity alone will declare what he is. He must be active, and do all that he can to stem the influence of the lie. Certainly Mrs. Eddy did all that she could in regard to such matters in her own experience. Here we find her transferring valuable holdings to her church, and doing it in such a way that her act would receive wide publicity. Thus she set an example for her followers, since no active student should permit his reputation to be blackened without a protest. He may be right in God's sight, but he must do all that he can to be right in man's sight, since if animal magnetism can succeed in establishing a wrong concept of him, it may definitely interfere with his sphere of influence.

The Bible states that the devil was aware of the identity of the Master and of his goodness; yet that did not prevent its effort to influence people against him. The world has spent over nineteen hundred years in regretting an action that came about, because people permitted themselves to be handled by erroneous suggestions and an induced argument, that convicted the Master of consorting with winebibbers and sinners. He did consort with such, but only to bless and heal them. Whenever he had an opportunity to bless an individual, he never failed to do so.

How grateful students of Science should be, to learn through the history of their Leader, that she was always faithful to God! She stood ready to protect herself from any erroneous impression that was put forth, which she knew had for its purpose the limiting and checking of the good that her teachings could do for the world. The devil could not prevent Christian Science from being good, nor its Leader from being honest and consistent; but it could prevent the world from receiving that good, unless the action of mesmerism was restrained.

It is helpful to note the varied means Mrs. Eddy used to offset the action of animal magnetism, in its attempt to close in upon the truth, in order to prevent its acceptance by the people. This effort of error has by no means ceased. One method that is repeated today is to try to make it appear that individuals who are faithful to God, do not receive from Him the protection and healing to which they are entitled. Knowing this suggestion, we should nullify the error speedily and intelligently.

Mrs. Eddy's executing of the Deed of Trust would have received scant attention, had she not taken advantage of the transaction to put it into the form of a gift, and then named it in the Journal in order to refute what was being said about her large holdings.

Now that she has passed on, it is plain that her entire fortune went to the Cause, and that she did not profit by any of it. While she was with us, however, she was forced to protect what she had by demonstration; otherwise it might have been taken from her. So the article in the February Journal was intended to turn thought away from the fact that she was the recipient of a large income, to the good use she was making of it. This was wisdom. When a child is hurt, the mother at once turns the attention of the child away from the injury. Mrs. Eddy turned the thought of people away from the amount of money she was receiving, to the fact that most of it was being used in various ways for the benefit of her church.

She ends this article in the February Journal in a strange way. Through it she conveys her thanks to those who gave her gifts at Christmas time. In this way she helps the members to see that in this transfer of properties to the Church, she was making them all a gift that was prompted by her love and affection. It was her wish that students form the habit of being appreciative of all good that comes to them from whatever source. In fact, the very basis of her teachings calls for gratitude for everything that indicates a right thought, wherever found. And, of course, Mrs. Eddy wished her students to rejoice in any evidence of spiritual growth in others, and in their willingness to sacrifice time and effort to bless the world.

Such a quality is much too rare to let pass without appreciation. How sad it is to see students who accept all that devoted workers do for the Cause, and who give nothing in return but criticism! This error was illustrated in the case of Calvin Frye. He bore the same relation to his Leader that Aaron did to Moses, when he held up the latter's hands at a time when his brother needed such support. Mr. Frye came to Mrs. Eddy's rescue many times when she became weary in well doing, because of the pressure of animal magnetism. Yet, his twenty-eight years of faithful, loyal and loving service were completely wiped out in the minds of many students, because of the brief time after 1910 in which he consorted with mortal mind in preference to his fellow Scientists. Who knows the good that might have been done at this difficult point in his career, had a proper sense of grntitude been shown to him!

It should have been realized, that the very fact that Mr. Frye had lived under the shelterinq wing of his Leader, for so long, unfitted him to cope with the world when her protection was withdrawn. Jesus protected Peter as long as he could from the animal magnetism that assailed him because of his place as a disciple supporting God's representative. Those who feel tempted to condemn Mr. Frye, should remember that when he lost his Leader, he was like a lamb in the midst of wolves, or a soft-shelled crab, without the protection of a hard­shelled friend. Hence, he should be held in memory with gratitude for all that he accomplished; and if he was finally overtaken by some manner of folly, let that deflection be covered with the mantle of scientific forgiveness.




Telegram

February 10, 1898

William B. Johnson

95 Milk St.,

Boston, Mass.

Correct By-law just sent to read, and her testimony or the testimony of a member of the Christian Science Board of Directors shall be found sufficient evidence in the case.

Mary Baker Eddy

Church By-law

The Christian Science Board of Directors of this Church shall not fill a vacancy occurring on that Board except by a unanimous vote of all the First Members of this Church. The Board of Trustees of this Church shall not fill a vacancy occurring on their board except by a unanimous vote of all the First Members of this Church. The Readers of this Church shall not be elected except by a unani­mous vote of all the First Members of this Church. And no person shall be a member of this Church or be eligible to the said offices who has made attempts to greatly injure Mrs. Eddy and hers or any member thereof and their testimony thereto shall be received as sufficient evidence in the case. This Church By-law can neither be amended or annulled except by the consent of Mrs. Eddy, the Pastor Emeritus, of this Church over her own handwriting.

Mary Baker Eddy


Here is a By-law so uncompromising, that if a First Member wished to make trouble, he could interfere with the entire machinery of the organization, merely by one dissenting vote. The question is, by writing such a drastic By-law as this, was Mrs. Eddy striving to prevent a repetiton of what she had just been through with Josephine Woodbury, — one who had tried to greatly injure her? Surely it would tend to establish in the minds of those responsible for the perpetuity of our Cause, the fact that it was a heinous error to attempt “to greatly injure Mrs. Eddy,” one that forever would prevent one who indulged in it from becoming a member of the Board of Directors, the Board of Trustees, a Reader, or even a member of the Church.

The question still persists, however, why she felt it necessary to go to such a length, to protect herself from injury. But it may be a metaphysical explanation to assert, that her concern was not for any injury to herself, but for the effects upon the Cause and upon the one who attempted to “greatly injure” her. Was she not trying to protect the one who might permit animal magnetism to influence him to a point, where he would make an attempt to sully her fair name in some way?

Let us consider the case of Elisha as recorded in II Kings 2. He was a prophet of God, chosen by Him and pleasing in His sight. When little children mocked him, two she-bears came and killed forty and two of them. Upon discovering what a dangerous thing it was to mock him, would not Elisha have been justified in issuing orders forbidding children thereafter to attempt to injure him? In so doing would he have been protecting himself, or those who might not realize what disastrous results followed any attempt to injure one who was God's anointed?

A child is symbolic of a beginning. Elisha's experience proves that even the beginning of an error that would attempt to injure one of God's anointed, subjected those who expressed it to great danger.

Mrs. Eddy found this same phenomenon in her experience. She was chosen of God, and those who attempted to injure her, placed themselves in a position where they were subject to God's wrath. It was no satisfaction to her to see God's punishment descend upon her enemies. Rather was it her loving way to strive to save them, if possible. Experience had shown her what the results would be, when individuals attempted to malign and persecute her falsely; so she wrote this By-law, hoping that it would help to restrain the Josephine Woodburys of the future. By writing it, she continued to slip in a human penalty ahead of God's punishment, so that those who were not so blind but that they would heed her warning, might be spared the greater punishment.

The Bible declares that it is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. Does such a view of God impugn Mrs. Eddy's definition of Him as divine unchanging Love? The possession of a buzzsaw might be a man's means of supporting his large family, causing him to regard it as a productive and constructive agent. But that would not prevent him from warning his children against it, by describing the dire results which would follow, if they meddled with it.

Was it illogical that, when Mrs. Eddy discovered that the attempt to malign and to injure her, and to interfere with her destiny, placed her traducers in a position where they brought down upon themselves God's penalty in the form of suffering or discord, she should have desired to frame a By-law, which would awaken them, if possible, to see that they must refrain from such attempts, lest they unfit themselves for membership and church offices? She considered the attempt to injure her such a serious act, that she stood ready to defend its per­petrators to the best of her ability against any further temptation.

Mrs. Eddy had enough faith in God to know that she would survive under persecutions, as she would under the favor of people; so why should she be concerned about attempts to injure her? Was not God caring for and protecting her? However, she had to do something to awaken students to the danger that lay in maligning her. She did not feel that it was a serious matter to call down upon one's head the wrath of man, but she saw that it was highly dangerous to risk God's displeasure.

She might have said, “I do not fear persecution, since I have proved many times that malice is powerless to harm the one reflecting Love; but if possible I would save those who would attempt to injure me, since the results of such action are serious in the extreme. God has chosen me to be His witness; hence those who would harm me incur His wrath.”




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

February 12, 1898

My beloved Student:

You must have The Mother Church i.e. The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, accept the Trust by a legal vote at a cor­porate meeting.

With love,

Mother

M. B. E.


Mrs. Eddy's correspondence reveals her constant activity of thought. She did not permit herself to go to sleep one day, and then wake herself up the next. She demonstrated a daily activity, and was continually listening for God's voice.

She knew that the voice of Truth would direct her when to take a step, but she must keep alert and listen, lest she miss the divine direction. The telegraph operator in a small town may be tempted to go to sleep, since his instrument is often silent. As a spiritual telegraph operator, Mrs. Eddy was always alert to listen, so that whenever the messages came, she was waiting and watching.

This letter is evidence that, as Mrs. Eddy built up protection for her Cause, she did so on the side of the letter as well as the Spirit, of the external as well as the internal, and of the seen as well as the unseen. A fighting ship has to be armored above and below the water-line. While Mrs. Eddy knew that God took care of her and her Church, and she could trust in Him at all times, at the same time she took humanly protective footsteps where they seemed necessary or were possible.

Once she said to her maid, Minnie Scott, at a time when she was being annoyed by the attempts of a fanatical student to gain entrance into the home, “Minnie, if you knew that someone was trying to get into your home to bother you, would you just know that Love was your protection, and that no harm could come to you?” Minnie replied, “Yes, Mother, that is what I would know; but at the same time I would see to it that the doors and windows were all tightly locked.” Mrs. Eddy's reply was, “There, you have given me both the Spirit and the letter, and there is nothing more to be said.”

Mrs. Eddy indicated that protection in the mental realm was a state of unshakeable trust in God, and she also made it plain that such protection should cover the human realm so-called. Thus, by having the Deed of Trust accepted by a legal vote at a corporate meeting, she forestalled the possibility of the legality of the ownership or management of the Publishing Society being assailed.

When a gift is conveyed, the giving is not completed legally unless the gift is duly received, and some note or acknowledgment is made of it. Mrs. Eddy had offered the Deed of Trust to the Church, but she required evidence of her act that would hold in a court of law.

It is heartening to note the great care our Leader used to avoid every possibility of future inharmony, in founding her Cause, so that if later error of any sort might suggest to people that which was not true, it would not affect the Cause, nor bring any loss. Thanks to the complete protection Mrs. Eddy estab­lished, that which belongs to the Cause can never be taken from us.

It is but fair to say, that if one feels the need of protection from the stand­point of the letter as well as the spirit, it is because his thought is still over­balanced on the side of the material. For that reason he is aided in his demonstra­tion by the feeling that he has done everything humanly possible. In other words, the human steps our Leader took to safeguard her Cause, were concessions which she herself did not need, but which the immature sense in her students did need.

When a sick man is thirsty, it is scientific to strive to quench his thirst spiritually. If you are actually able to do so, he will thirst no more. On the other hand, it would be part of wisdom to give him a cup of water while you work to give him the spiritual draught that will forever quench his thirst. Then you will have supplied the letter as well as the spirit.

In the case of Minnie Scott and the woman trying to force an entrance into Mrs. Eddy's home, it must have been evident to our Leader that Minnie would be far more capable of making the demonstration, if her mind was at rest as to her human duties in the matter of protection. Certainly one cannot picture Mrs. Eddy considering the human side necessary to bolster up the spiritual; nor did she teach that as part of God's army, we should forever advance materially as well as spiritually.

Students should remember when they find themselves saying, “Demonstra­tion is all right, but you must take the human footsteps,” that this statement exposes the surplus of materiality that demands to be taken care of. Temporarily it has to be reckoned with, but only until we grow strong enough spiritually, so that we can rise above the material.

When one feeds his body and at the same time demonstrates spiritual feed­ing, he has both the letter and the spirit. He is taking care of his surplus of belief in matter, putting it at rest, in order that his thought may be free to operate spiritually, and attend to the important part. As this surplus of belief diminishes however, the need of caring for it diminishes.

Mrs. Eddy perceived that Minnie still had a surplus of material belief that had to be considered. If Minnie was working for protection against intrusion, and in going over the situation, she should remember that she left a window unlocked, that recollection might disturb her and rob her of her ability to do the metaphysical work which is the real protection. No doubt the only protection Mrs. Eddy herself would have needed, would have been the realization that no child of God wanted to annoy or rob her, and that no child of God could rob or annoy her, since divine Love governed all.

When one works metaphysically, he strives to obliterate all belief in matter; yet the clamor of matter must be silenced before that can be done. For that reason Christian Science nurses must be trained to minister to the sick in meet­ing their human needs, since spiritual sense cannot be set free, until the surplus of materiality has been taken care of in the way mortal mind believes to be right, — “to that standard which mortal mind has decided upon as essential....” (S.& H. 373:32-1).

One might protest that this line of argument opens the way for students who desire to, to take remedies. The answer is, that when it comes to medicine and the like, the flesh lusteth against the Spirit. Hence in taking care of the surplus of materially, it is necessary to watch that the letter be made to subserve the Spirit, and not lust against it, and thereby interfere with Spirit's task!

This point may be illustrated by a girl who prefers to use perfume rather than to take a bath. She is trying to hide a lack of cleanliness by means of the sweet odor of a perfume. One act is lusting against the other. Had she taken the bath, and then used the perfume, she would have been consistent. In Science it is not wise to strive to work out a problem spiritually, and at the same time neglect to do that which right minded people consider to be ordinary good judgment and care.

Why did Mrs. Eddy order the breeching straps on all the harness she bought to be made doubly thick? At least one may be certain that she did not stop at that point, merely because she had taken such a precaution. She could not have felt that that act took away the necessity for a demonstration of protection. Yet she would not have accepted harness made with weak or poor leather, and tried to make up for that lack with demonstration alone.

It is an absolute fact that the real does not require any help from the unreal in order to maintain harmony. At the same time, in our present immature sense of Truth, we do not neglect to do all that we can to be watchful in a human way, and take all necessary steps. Truth may protect us through many dangers and avert many accidents; but it is not wisdom in our present stage of growth to neglect any part of our human experience. Having done all in a human way, we should make the demonstration of God's protective power and presence, by knowing that He is “supreme in the physical realm, so-called, as well as in the spiritual” (S. & H. page 427:24-25).

In the early days of Science many practitioners and patients in obstetric cases, failed to register newly-born infants with the proper authorities. It was a human step that was neglected. Some students may have considered that it was an unscientific act. The result was that many young Christian Scientists found themselves in a dilemma when our Country began to draft soldiers in 1942, because they had no birth certificates.

Wisdom taught Mrs. Eddy that in founding the Cause, she must cover every point, the letter as well as the spirit. Today this wisdom is justified, in the fact that nothing our Leader gave us, can ever be taken from us. Probably it was not necessary as far as Mrs. Eddy herself was concerned, that she cover every human point, but she was alert to the needs of the future as well as those of the present. She was listening to God, who directed her, and this accounted for her great accomplishment.

The turtle has a twofold protection, namely, its ability to bury itself in the river bottom, as well as to hide itself in its thick shell. Mrs. Eddy sought to make a spiritual demonstration for her Cause, against which no enemy could prosper; at the same time she did not lose her appreciation of the importance of covering all outward points, so that the legality of God would conform to the legality of man, — “to that standard...decided upon as essential.... “ (S. & H. 373).

When we study these phases of our Leader's experience, they become an appeal for us to become mere Christlike, as well as scientific, and to have sufficient faith in her demonstration and in the life she lived, to desire with our whole hearts to follow her.

These letters of our Leader become windows in her life-structure, through which may be seen the wonderful spiritual demonstration that caused it to be erected perfectly; but we should also be encouraged to go inside, and look out through these same windows, that we may acquire for ourselves the spiritual vision of the one who built the structure, and not just admire it.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

March 11, 1898

C. S. Directors

My dear Students:

Some ones, and you seem to be the ones, must look after the “Lecturers,” who are liable to make mistakes because not familiar with the circumstances that surround them. I cannot take the Board of Lectureship on my hands, and our cause demands that the teachers of the students (if the students have confidence in them) should look after their students; and that you should inform them, the teachers, of any impending danger that surrounds their stu­dents, and they should at once inform them thereof.

With love,

Mother,

Mary Baker Eddy.

N. B. It is of the utmost importance that The Mother Church retain no members that are not strict adherents to its Tenets.

Again,

M. B. E.


The Tenets represent that to which each member subscribes, and when he does this, he must live up to them. He should never join The Mother Church unless he intends to try to do this. If he is unwilling to do so, after being duly admonished, he should be dropped from membership, since such an unwilling attitude indicates that he is not a true Christian Scientist.

Church members in Christian Science should be expected to be willing to take up mental work for all occasions. Many churches have a committee called Ladies' Aid, which provides refreshments when these are called for. Mrs. Eddy planned that the membership of the Christian Science Church should represent a standing committee, ready to provide the spiritual atmosphere which everyone who comes to a Christian Science church is entitled to enjoy. This healing atmosphere is the trademark of our denomination. It is the spiritual refreshment we offer the public.

There was once a colored preacher who attracted a large following. One explanation of at least part of his drawing-power lay in the fact that he provided meals of high quality at low cost for his followers. The Christian Science organi­zation is similarly founded; its object is to give spiritual refreshment to all who seek it.

In regard to the lecturers, there are temptations which are peculiar to their work. Wherever they go they are highly regarded. If they do not watch, they may regard themselves to be further advanced in understanding than they are.

A lecturer comes to a church, gives his lecture, and the members are up­lifted and blessed. Often they thank the lecturer profusely, without giving thought to those members who were faithful in doing the mental work, upon which the success of the lecture largely depended. The result is, that the lec­turer comes under the temptation of self-aggrandizement. It would help him to avoid this danger, if he recognized just how much he owed to the mental workers who support him in his work.

Modesty is essential to all success in Christian Science. Without it one can do nothing rightly from God's standpoint. When one recognizes himself merely as the one through whom God works, he cannot feel aggrandized, any more than a bank teller feels set up, because he handles the wealth of the bank.

Another danger to lecturers, and to all who are successful in Science, is jealousy. The error of jealousy, like all error, is not difficult to handle when one recognizes such a necessity. It becomes so only when one fails to recognize its nature, and concludes that his disorders are material in origin — the result of over­work, age, environment, exposure, or something physical in nature — instead of perceiving that they are the manifestation of suggestions or arguments of jealousy.

A study of Mrs. Eddy's private instructions to students, reveals that she often named various sorts of poison to be taken up. For instance, one such treatment reads, “Find out the leading fear in the patient's mind and if that be mental malpractice or poisoning, judge from the symptoms what the poison is; then declare against this. Name it; say, ‘There is no such poison, no fear of it; no belief that you are poisoned; and awake from this dream! God is your only Mind; divine Love is caring for you. You have no loss of appetite, but a relish for your food and there are no arsenical symptoms present, or that of narcotics, or cyanide of potassium, or any other poison, etc., etc.'”

The persistence of the temptation to regard bodily afflictions as physical rather than mental, makes anything important that helps one to mentalize his sense of his condition. Since Mrs. Eddy was not dealing with cases where material poison of any sort had been taken, we must conclude that the directions she gave to take up poison, were her method of helping students to take up error from a mental, rather than a physical standpoint. She was not trying to frighten students over dangerous poisons; she was calling attention to the fact that all causation is mental, and doing it in a way that would arrest and challenge thought.

In like manner when one recognizes that the claim of jealousy is really an impersonal one, and relates wholly to the belief that man achieves good through luck, or his own unaided efforts, it is easily handled through the realization of Mind as the only source, of man reflecting all good from that source, and of the impossibility of man being robbed of aught that comes to him from God.

The implication from this letter in regard to the lecturers is, that Mrs. Eddy did not regard the lecturers as little gods, nor did she wish the Field to do so. In fact, she did not wish any student to be aggrandized because of the office he held. One who is faithful in demonstration, will fulfil any office in the way God expects him to, but in so doing, he should not be aggrandized.

Mrs. Eddy saw that the lecturers through the very nature of their work, would endear themselves to large numbers of people. But at the same time they would awaken jealousy and be tempted with pride; so they must be watched over. What was more natural than that their teachers should take up this re­sponsibility, those who through their teaching had helped to bring the lecturers to the point of excellence they had attained? If a teacher saw his pupil who was a lecturer, beginning to manifest some error, he should call his attention to it in the spirit of love and consideration. If the teacher did so, the lecturer would not feel that he had become a better metaphysician than his teacher; so he would take a rebuke from him in the right spirit of humility.

Writing of the lecturers, Mrs. Eddy's use of the term, impending danger, is interesting. Sometimes a lecturer's loss of humility and modesty is so gradual, that he is unaware of it. Little by little he forgets that in Science we function successfully only in proportion to our modesty, — as the result of realizing that the greater part of every good work is done by God, and that we are only the channels through which His power reaches the needy.

It would help any lecturer to keep modest, if he constantly ascribed his success to God, and affirmed his gratitude for the faithful mental workers in his audiences who do their part in establishing the spirit of God, and in realizing that the lecturer himself is animated by divine inspiration alone. Then such lectures would heal the sick, as every activity in Christian Science is expected to do, and will do, when both the spirit and the letter are present. If the students are faithful in doing this work for the various activities, the Christian Science Monitor will heal those who read it; those who visit the Benevolent homes will feel and receive the combined healing thought of active students all over the world. Those who sing our Leader's hymns will be healed. As she once wrote: “I long for music spiritual with healing in its wings — only thus can my hymns reach hearts ready for them.”

In response to the question as to how often her hymns should be sung in the Church services, our Leader wrote the Directors of The Mother Church on March 3, 1903, that “it would be a good thing to have one of my hymns read and sung about every Sunday. It would spiritualize the thought of your audience and this is more needed in the Church than aught else can be.” (C. S. Sentinel, Vol. 33, p. 650, April 18, 1931)

Everything in Science should carry healing. Take the healing out of Science, and you have the form without the substance, the cartridge without the gun powder. You have that which is no better than scholastic theology or Roman Catholicism. When our meetings and lectures fall off in number, it is because the attendants are not receiving healing. Hence we know where the correction must be made.

Mrs. Eddy once declared, “Preaching in Christian Science churches must carry the spirit.” She might well have reiterated this statement in regard to lecturing. To show her anxious care in regard to the lecturers, one has but to read some of the letters she wrote to Henrietta Chanfrau. For instance, on April 10, 1902, she wrote, “Take up at once the so-called C. S. Lecturers that they do their duty to their God and their poor unworthy Leader and Friend. A city that is set upon a hill cannot be hid, and the life of their Leader must be shown as it is. Never did I neglect Jesus in my sermons in the first days of Christian Science; now they must not forget me. The scandalous attacks on the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science will stop if the truth about her be shown to the world.”

Again on February 2, 1906, she wrote to her: “Take up clear voice, strong, clear, for Christian Science lecturers. Error tries to hinder Truth being heard in public. His Word must be shouted from housetops, not buried in soft voices to tickle ears. The lambs of His pasture must be fed and the sheep also.”

Our Leader once remarked about the reading in Christian Science churches that “the reading should be clear and distinct, intelligent, powerful, sympathetic, scientific in interpretation, loving and artistic, but the art should be covered up so that the reading will sound natural and simple.” Is not this apropos of our lecturers?




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

March 14, 1898

My beloved Student:

The Church Manual in Article No. II, Sec. 3, must be restored to its original form at the close of this Sec. Circumstances require this. Vote to amend so as to read as it was in the revised edition of 1897.

I hope not to trouble you again in this wise. Have it cor­rected as above in the last edition, if this has not already gone to press.

With love,

M. B. Eddy.


Mortal mind cannot understand the modes and methods of Truth. It fancies that important By-laws should find their origin in large exigencies, rather than individual circumstances. Yet on page 148 of Miscellaneous Writings, we read, “They sprang from necessity, the logic of events....”

When a man manifests symptoms of sickness that are peculiar and personal, it appears to him as if the symptoms came out of nothing. He cannot understand how they came, since he was not thinking about them, nor fearing them. He may thus find his faith shaken in what Christian Science teaches, namely, that all disease has its origin in fear and sin. Yet Mrs. Eddy once declared, “Fear is the foundation of all sickness and produces what is called inflammation. Inflamma­tion is of mortal mind and not of matter. The sick know nothing of this fear, but believe and suppose the body is the cause.”

For example: A man may be carrying three or four ingredients to a factory, not knowing that when these are mixed, they will form a dangerous explosive. So a mortal may harbor several mental ingredients of belief, which, when they combine, create fear that in turn creates disease. He may be entertaining a belief in heredity, in medical law, the power of contagion, or some other phase of false belief. Then suddenly these beliefs combine and produce fear and disease, while he may assert that he knows nothing about the fear that produced the disease, or the fact that he was harboring such beliefs.

When a sick man discovers that his symptoms are merely a reduplication or expression of some standardized belief of mortal mind, he understands how it is possible to catch or to pick up any belief of sickness, when one's thought drops to a mortal level, and harbors material belief.

Mrs. Eddy repeatedly devised By-laws of a general nature, to meet in­dividual circumstances, since a universal need was brought to her attention by some specific need. One learns about mortal mind's general beliefs, by observing even one case of sickness.

The section of the Manual referred to in this letter includes the requirement that membership in The Mother Church is forbidden to one who has been twice excommunicated. The purpose of this rule cannot be seen until one learns that excommunication is intended to help the individual rather than to purge the organization. If there is a consolidation of right thinking among the members, certainly they need no protection from any individual erring member; but such a one may need protection from those careless members who permit themselves to depart from a scientific and loving attitude of mind, and malpractice upon him, thus making his problem harder to handle. The motto of our churches must be, “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Our work in Science is to do all we can to help those who make mistakes. What was our Leader's example, but to help all who found themselves in trouble? Her insight told her that when members erred, it was animal magnetism; hence she knew that if they could be freed from this influence (as all must be freed), they would sin no more.

A study of Mrs. Eddy's history proves that she did not use excommunication as a cold means of discipline, or for purifying the church from undesirable members. She had discovered that when a member erred, there would be other members who would at once malpractice on him, making it more difficult for that one to recover himself. Therefore, she provided excommunication, in order that the erring one might to some extent be freed from that pressure. Then, when he had recovered himself, he would be at liberty to apply for reinstatement. The By-law in question, however, indicates that after an individual (like Josephine Woodbury, for instance), has had opportunity to break loose from animal mag­netism by excommunication, and again falls under it, the assumption must be that such a one is better out of the organization permanently.

Yet it is certain that Mrs. Eddy would have thrown anyone a lifeline, if possible, even though they had been excommunicated twice. At the same time she would undoubtedly have realized that circumstances had proven that be­longing to the organization brought the student under a pressure that they could not handle; therefore, it were wiser for them not to be taken into membership again. If such a one had not taken advantage of her teachings sufficiently to be able to function in unity with the organization constructively and safely, they had better work out their salvation alone.

At the same time, in such a By-law, Mrs. Eddy was not damning the one who was forbidden further membership. It should never be assumed that one who is denied church membership, is thereby barred from the kingdom of heaven. One does not need to belong to the Christian Science organization in order to be saved, although it is a great help to the student who takes advantage of it.




(Telegram)

Received at Hotel Victoria

April 8, 1898

Dated Concord, N. H.

To Christian Science Board of Directors,

95 Falmouth St., Boston.

Accept my heartfelt thanks for your Easter gift triplicate mirror. I shall remember thee.

Mary Baker Eddy


A volume published in 1932 by Knopf, written by John V. Dittimore and Ernest S. Bates, that was a vicious attack on Mrs. Eddy, illustrates how the wrath of man shall praise Him. This book attempts to disparage our Leader at every point; yet, where the authors attempted to belittle Edward P. Bates, the result is a vindication of Mrs. Eddy (See page 339). We read that when Mr. Bates was made President of The Mother Church, he began to shower Mrs. Eddy with so many gifts on behalf of the church, that at last she protested as follows: “I refuse to receive another dollar's worth from the church. There are great offices of goodness for our church to perform, which are of more importance to the world as a channel for the church funds, than these gifts to be continued to me. M.A.M. is trying to drain the church funds and I am prepared to look out for this end.”

Here is testimony to the fact that Mrs. Eddy in no way desired to benefit personally by the prosperity of her church, and refused to receive an undue number of gifts. On the other hand, she did accept a few gifts that carried the right thought back of them. When she perceived that they were the result of an overflowing necessity to manifest love and gratitude for her, she appreciated and acknowledged them.

This Easter gift from the Board was a symbol of their desire to show her a little of what they felt toward her. It was a renewal of their pledge to strive to be obedient, and to learn the lessons she taught them. They wanted her to write, “I shall remember thee,” since they hoped she would remember that they were trying to do their best, and hoped that the mirror would be a reminder of this fact.

Those times when Mrs. Eddy felt that to some extent the Directors under­stood her, were precious to her, since she was so often misunderstood. Yet is it strange that, functioning under God, she should have been misunderstood, when one realizes how for centuries, the action of God has been misunderstood by man? He has been thought to be harsh and unfeeling, for permitting catastrophes, and allowing His children to suffer, when it is an eternal fact that He is all wise, all good, and all Love.

Mrs. Eddy, reflecting God, would necessarily be misunderstood by human thought. If one misunderstood God, he would be bound to misunderstand Mrs. Eddy, since she reflected His wisdom. Therefore, one who unfolds and explains the life of Mrs. Eddy correctly, at the same time is unfolding God aright.




Concord, N. H.

May 28, 1898

Received of Christian Science Board of Directors, Boston, Mass., one thousand no/100 dollars, to be applied to building a church edifice in Concord, N. H. $1000.

Mary Baker Eddy

Frye


Here is a simple receipt that put on record what the Directors did in this instance with the funds under their care, illustrating how each penny was properly accounted for. The Cause is one body, so the needs of one are the needs of all. The Mother Church has for its intent the furtherance of the Cause of Christian Science all over the world. It was fitting, therefore, that the Board con­tribute toward an edifice in Concord.

As long as Mrs. Eddy kept her residence in Concord, that branch church was of more concern to the Directors than any other. The local members were small in number, and not prosperous enough to erect a large building. Yet, it was necessary that there be a church in Concord sufficiently imposing, to be an out­ward indication of the importance of the Leader of the Christian Science Move­ment, and of the esteem in which she was held by her followers and the world.

A right interpretation of the Manual shows that a branch church should not hold an afternoon or an evening service, except as an overflow from the morning service. Otherwise, with only a few attendants at such a service, the stranger would be apt to feel that Christian Science was not flourishing in that particular community. Thus the good done by keeping the church open for a second Sunday service, might be offset by the harm done in advertising Christian Science as a dying religion. In Science the demand is to put our best foot foremost at all times. If a church cannot demonstrate one full service, why should it fancy that it can demonstrate two?

Similarly, it would have been a poor advertisement for our Leader and her religion, to continue to use Christian Science Hall in Concord, even though it was large enough to hold all those who desired to attend. The new edifice was more elaborate than what the local members could have built, or were ready to support; but it was necessary to have a church in the city in which Mrs. Eddy lived, that would be a fitting symbol of her place in the estimation of the world.

Is it wrong to assume that the same motive that would cause Mrs. Eddy to desire an imposing edifice in Concord, would cause her to deplore a poorly attended second Sunday service in a branch church, where the morning service was not filled to overflowing?

If the members of a branch church are successful in establishing a healing atmosphere in their services, the church will grow, since people are looking for a healing thought, wherever it may be found. When a church holds a second Sunday service year after year that does not grow, that is proof that the members are not willing to support it mentally as they should. Hence they should not hold it at all, for it represents a willingness to sacrifice the reputation of the church in the public eye, for the sake of a selfish desire to attend a service on the part of a few, like the Sunday-School teachers, who are not willing to work metaphysically to build it up. This is not as harsh a criticism as it may sound, when it is under­stood that this disinclination to work is induced by animal magnetism. It simply means that the motive in attending is selfishly to partake of the blessings, rather than to work metaphysically, in order that others may be uplifted and blessed.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

May 31, 1898

C. S. Board Directors

My beloved Students:

Your generous check for $1000 is received. I thank you! but most of all do I give thanks that you still go on in this office and our old tender church relations are not severed. God grant that they may remain worthy to be perpetuated.

Oh! what a shock was my information relative to my beloved student, Mrs. Knapp! When others could not help her, why did you not try Mr. Neal and Mrs. Laura E. Sargent? I ought not to murmur and especially to the one most bereaved.

With love,

Mother,

Mary Baker Eddy

Mr. E. A. Kimball of Chicago I name to supply the vacancy on the Board of Education.

M. B. E.


In this letter Mrs. Eddy thanks God that the old tender church relations between her and the Directors, are not severed. Then she writes these heartfelt words, “God grant that they may remain worthy to be perpetuated.” In this sentence we find the proof that she considered her demands on the Board to be of prime importance. On July 10, 1898, she wrote to Mr. Knapp, “No greater mistake can be made than to disobey or to delay to obey a single message of mine. God does speak through me to this age. This I discern more clearly each year of my sojourn with you.”

The vital point today is to realize that this relation between Mrs. Eddy and the Board was not severed by her leaving the human scene. Her prayer was that it be perpetuated through all time. Hence, the primary obligation on the part of each Board of Directors must be to realize that Mrs. Eddy's demands on them always come ahead of everything else. Then they will seek to learn what those demands are and obey them. Then and only then will the right relation be perpetuated.

It would be disloyalty for any Board of Directors to fancy that they had the right to ignore Mrs. Eddy's directions, as contained in her voluminous corre­spondence as well as writings, and to put forth their own ideas as to how the Cause is to function. No Board should ever feel that they are any more than servants, whose duty it is to carry out Mrs. Eddy's wishes, which are veritably the will of God.

The passing on of Mrs. Knapp on March 15th needs to be carefully analyzed. On page 134 of the book written by Bliss Knapp about his father and mother, we learn that Mrs. Knapp was doing magnificent healing work at this time. He goes on to write, “In the latter part of February, 1898, she gave a most impressive testimony in The Mother Church. She spoke briefly of some of these healings, and then told of her own experience as an invalid, and of her quick recovery under Christian Science treatment….After she had seated herself, she again arose, and in a tone never to be forgotten, said, ‘For which of these works do ye stone me.'” These words indicate that she had progressed to a point, where she was feeling the opposition of animal magnetism for her good works. Her sudden passing on two weeks later, showed that she fell a victim of it.

Did animal magnetism kill Mrs. Knapp? Nothing can ever affect man apart from his own fear and belief; but when one reaches the point in growth where he believes and fears that the dogs of animal magnetism are after him, that belief will finish him on earth, if he does not change his thinking about it.

In her instructions in regard to animal magnetism, Mrs. Eddy was not educating her followers to believe that something was after them, but to awaken to realize that nothing was after them! Her task became difficult, not because mortals are not glad to be released from suffering, but because as they go through life with a rich appreciation of all of its pleasures and resources, they are unwilling to be told that they are to a great degree handled by animal magnetism. The end of every phase of mortal sense is the same, whether one is taken to that end through steps that are agreeable or disagreeable.

It was necessary for Mrs. Eddy to uncover the fact, that the human mind in whatever guise leads to the same mortal destiny; and then to implore us to make nothing of it, by the realization that, since God is All, His opposite has no power or reality. So we should never fear it; only detect it; and this is the vital necessity.

Mrs. Knapp arose in The Mother Church, and stated publicly that the devil of animal magnetism was after her, and for no reason, other than that she was doing good work in God's name. By such an action she added to her error, since she thereby caused many students who were her friends, to believe that she was being unjustly maligned, persecuted, and pursued by error. Thus they added their conviction to her belief. She became a martyr to the fact, that she pro­gressed to the point where she had aroused the dogs of error, without thereupon perceiving their nothingness.

After studying the experiences of the Master and of our Leader, students sometimes make the mistake of accounting for their own afflictions by calling them persecution, or animal magnetism; and going no further. Also, they often amplify and aggravate that belief by causing other students to re-enforce it by their convictions. It is permissible to recognize the dogs of animal magnetism, only when one follows this uncovering with the perception of their nothingness. One should never start the work of exposing animal magnetism, unless he goes the whole way. If one puts a corkscrew into a cork, and then fails to pull out the cork, he has made matters worse instead of better, since he has left a hole through which the contents of the bottle may spill or spoil. It is a rule in Science never to uncover the claim of animal magnetism, and bring it out into the open, unless at that point it is recognized as nothing!

Here it may be helpful to repeat that, if it had been a straightforward task, it would have been a simple thing for Mrs. Eddy to have uncovered evil to mortals; but the task is intricate because mortals resist Truth, and are not willing to be told that everything they fancy to be humanly lovely and desirable, and that contributes to a rich and glowing experience in human living, is animal magnetism.

Christian Science exposes the claim of animal magnetism, not so that what­ever happens, a student may say, “That is animal magnetism;” but so that he may assert and affirm: “That is a claim of animal magnetism coming to me for acceptance; but there is no such claim, since God is all”; and so make an end to it. When a lion keeper is transferring his charge from a delivery truck to the cage, — to its permanent home, — he must watch that the beast does not escape. Students must watch, in discussing and handling the claim of animal magnetism, that they do not at that point permit it to get the best of them. This happens when they assert, “That is animal magnetism,” without carrying the uncovering through to its finale — elimination by substitution.

Sometimes teachers of Christian Science expound animal magnetism as though it were a mental reality, stressing the fact as they know Mrs. Eddy did, that all poisons are mental and not physical, and that in the mental realm poisons are far more subtle and effective than in the physical. Such teaching may enable the student to learn the truth about the lie, but it comes short of the vital point of Mrs. Eddy's revelation, namely, of showing error's nothingness, and only suc­ceeds in aggravating fear in the pupils' minds; unless at that point one makes it nothing.

Once Mrs. Eddy wrote to Caroline Frame: “Go and realize that M.A.M. does not exist at all. It is not Mind nor matter. It is only illusion. Recognize this and have faith in the good and none in aught else. Mrs. Price says she has mastered it by calling it Spiritism, Witchcraft and Theosophy in her argument. I succeeded by knowing as I wrote in my books that it is nothing.”

Mrs. Eddy did translate all poison into mental terms; but only because as mental poison, she knew it could be disposed of. Waste paper is burned, because in the process it is turned into gas that disappears. We translate all error into the realm of the mental, only because in that form we are enabled to let go of it, in order that divine Mind may dispose of it.

Why did Mrs. Eddy mention James Neal and Laura Sargent as two that might have helped Mrs. Knapp? Were they metaphysicians that stood head and shoulders above all others? There is nothing in their subsequent history to indicate their superiority over other students of our Leader.

When Mary Beecher Longyear moved to Brookline, she asked Mrs. Eddy to recommend a student near at hand to whom she might turn in time of need. Our Leader declined to do so, telling her to select one who knew Christian Science history. The deduction is that a knowledge of how error attacked Mrs. Eddy and the Cause down through the years, would give a worker an advantage in handling error for another, beyond what an understanding of Science gained through a mere study of the textbook would give. He would be one who knew the more subtle modes of error's activities, and be aware of its claims, as it had been apparently successful for a time in dogging Mrs. Eddy's footsteps, until she was able to see its nothingness.

Both Laura Sargent and Mr. Neal knew Christian Science history. They could easily have diagnosed Mrs. Knapp's trouble as an obsession of animal magnetism; a continual suggestion that she was being persecuted through jealousy, that this persecution was real and that it was something from which she needed protection, — since without it she could not stand up against the suggestion. Obviously she hoped, by standing in the church and asserting what she did, that those who were persecuting her, would stop doing so, or see how unjust such persecution was.

Mrs. Knapp mistook the action of error. Immediately those who had not been aware of the situation, became aware of it, and through sympathy began to malpractice on her inadvertently, by holding her in the sense that she was being persecuted, and hence that she was to be pitied. It was a metaphysical mistake for her to rise up, and call for reinforcements to help her to fight animal mag­netism. Her act proved that, while she was loyal to her Leader's demand to un­cover error, she had overlooked the vital sequel as expressed in the textbook, page 346, “Disbelief in error destroys error and leads to the discernment of Truth.” Her sickness was self-mesmerism.

There were other students in Boston who were thoroughly versed in Mrs. Eddy's methods of treatment, but such help was not what Mrs. Knapp needed in her dark hour. She needed to be instructed in what Mrs. Eddy once expressed in a letter, “We must cease to admit in our thinking the reality in themselves of sin, sickness, death, of misery, pain, poverty, of evil in all forms, and we must think steadily and persistently the truth that stands opposite to them.” It was the suggestion appearing in her own thinking, that caused Mrs. Knapp to believe in the reality of the dogs of animal magnetism at her heels, and which prompted her to enter her public protest against animal magnetism; when she should have entered her protest against her own belief in the reality of these conditions. She passed on under her own belief, since no unaided mortal could have stood up against the pressure of what she believed to be at work, — jealousy, envy, malice, hate, and persecution.

It is possible that through Mrs. Knapp's stripes, countless students will be healed and saved in the future, since her experience will become a universal blessing to those who analyze it, enabling them to avoid the shipwreck that she made. So we can bless her for having been one of the early martyrs in the Cause, since she was one who had a sincere and honest desire to be faithful to her Leader and her teachings, and who made great strides heavenward; but fell a victim because she did not grasp what Mrs. Eddy taught about animal magnetism.

The difference between Laura Sargent, Mr. Neal, and the students who worked for Mrs. Knapp, lay in the clearer understanding of animal magnetism which Mrs. Eddy knew that these two had. She had worked with them faithfully, until she was convinced that they had some correct insight into the claim.

On page 292 of Miscellaneous Writings Mrs. Eddy makes the broad state­ment, “I never knew a student who fully understood my instructions on this point of handling evil, — as to just how this should be done, — and carried out my ideal.” Her experience was that student, either would make too much of it, and so build it up, or make too little of it, and so fail to handle it. Hence, when she looked over the students in Boston, she did not feel much confidence in their ability to help Mrs. Knapp who was confronted with error in its higher modes.

In class Mrs. Eddy once said, “Today we are going to talk something up, to talk it down.” In dealing with students, she watched both sides of the balance. If she found them neglecting to talk animal magnetism up, to the point where they perceived and acknowledged its every claim, she pointed out this lack. On the other hand, if the sequel was lacking, namely, talking it down to the point of knowing its nothingness, she rebuked the student, as she did Mrs. Frame, in the above quoted letter.

At this point there is a secondary phase of error to be noted, and that is, that error started an opposition against all students that Mrs. Eddy specially trained in the modes of evil, so that a good student like Mrs. Knapp would be cut off from receiving help from the very ones who could help her. This prejudice had its origin in jealousy on the part of those who had not had Mrs. Eddy's special training.

Once when Mrs. Eddy was unfolding Revelation 21:11 to the students, she said, “The constant handling of malicious animal magnetism enables the student of divine Science to discern the great white throne of pure good....” It is re­markable that she did not state that this vision would come to those who over­come and destroy animal magnetism. It is as if she had said, “The spiritual strengthening that comes to the one who daily exercises his demonstrating consciousness by arguing down the claims of the lie, will find that the strength he thus gains enables him to grasp and to hold the spiritual vision of pure good.”

On this basis Mrs. Sargent or Mr. Neal could have told Mrs. Knapp that the error that appeared to be at her heels was not something to fear or even to try to get rid of; it was to be regarded as a means of grace, something to cause her to press on through a daily effort to handle the lie, so that she would gain the spiritual strength needed to hold the heavenly vision of good against error's effort to rob her of it.

What did Mrs. Eddy mean when, upon being told of Mrs. Knapp's death, she said that, “Mrs. Knapp and her practitioner were treating the case as pneumonia, which was only the decoy; but had they handled mental assassina­tion, they would have healed the case”? This is found on page 135 of Bliss Knapp's book.

Mrs. Eddy did not teach that there existed such a reality as mental as­sassination; but she did show that there was a belief in it which had to be handled. If a man being taken to the top of a high cliff, believed that he was going to be pushed off to his death, he would be terrified; if he was shown, however, that he was being taken to this height, not to be killed, but so that he might learn to look down from such a high place without fear, since he was as safe there as on level ground, his fear would be dissipated. The experience would then serve to create courage, instead of stimulate fear. Mrs. Eddy knew that every problem an advanced student has, may be explained in this way. It removes fear when one can hear Love gently whispering, “You are being permitted to look out from the heights, not so that you will fall, or be afraid of falling, but so that you may lose your fear; if you learn to view the situation in this light, you will understand, and be equipped to go up higher.”

Mrs. Eddy was saying in substance that Mrs. Knapp could have been saved, had the effort been to make nothing of the error as cause rather than as effect. It is true that the cause of the error was mortal mind maliciously applied, but Mrs. Knapp's own fear gave it all the power it had. Mortals give matter power; when they come into Christian Science, and develop to a point where they can translate disease into malicious thought, then comes the temptation to give it power. It was proof that Mrs. Knapp was a progressing Christian Scientist, be­cause she admitted that she was being persecuted maliciously, rather than being physically afflicted, since such an experience lies on the road of progress; but unless one goes further, he is still in bondage to belief. He may be out of the jail where he was guarded by locks and bars, but he is still in the jail yard, where he is guarded by men with machine guns. Mortals believe that they are subject to matter as material belief. Scientists learn that they are subject to malicious animal magnetism, or mental assassination; these two are really one, but one must see the nothingness of both aspects, in this order, first the physical and then the mental, before he is free.

A side-light on Mrs. Knapp's passing on may be gained from a letter Calvin Frye wrote Thomas W. Hatten dated September 15, 1898, which reads, “Mother says she had much rather have you go back and take the place you had before on her books, than to leave the Publishing Office. She calls your attention to the case of Mrs. Knapp and asks, ‘Did she do better because she devoted all her time to C. S. practice?'”

How can one reconcile our Leader's attitude toward Mrs. Knapp in this message, with such statements of hers as the one recorded by Clara Choate, “Healing is what the world needs. Christ taught this healing. Our religious advancement or righteous living, one and the same, can be better gained by good healing than in any other way”?

Nowhere does Mrs. Eddy assert that the mission of Christian Science is to heal the world of disease as the world uses that term. Its purpose is to uncover to humanity why they are sick, and to cure them of that which causes sickness. This includes dealing with what she calls sin. Years ago a desultory effort was made to cure yellow fever in Panama, by treating individual cases. Finally the spread of the disease was traced to the mosquito; so the effort was made to wipe out the cause by mosquito control. This experience forms a good illustration of the difference between dealing with effect and with cause. In Christian Science we endeavor to destroy the cause of disease as well as of all sin and discord, namely, the mosquito of wrong thinking. In order to engage in this healing effort, one does not need to open an office and announce himself as a practi­tioner. He can apply it in every walk of life.

When Caroline Foss was told to shorten the sleeves of some underwear, and Mrs. Eddy refused permission to measure her forearm, it is possible that the latter herself did not know how much should be taken off; but she knew that all things are known to divine Mind. When Miss Foss cut off the right amount merely through prayer, this was proof that Christian Science is applicable in all walks of life. If one can find the healing of a cold in divine Mind, he surely can find the knowledge of how to do all things well, from that same source.

Every follower of Mrs. Eddy has the fullest opportunity to practice Christian Science right where he finds himself. It would appear that in her message to Mr. Hatten, she was endeavoring to impress upon him that whatever work in Christian Science he was called upon to do, it was healing work; so he must do it heartily as unto the Lord, — as being God's work, and worthy of being done through prayer.

Here is a searching question: Because practitioners gain skill in healing others, are they better able to take care of themselves in sickness on that account? If the treasurer of a branch church does his work by demonstration, is he thereby fitting himself to help himself in times of sickness? Is the same true of the clerk or any other officer? The answer is, that if they do such work correctly, they are learning how to help themselves in time of trouble; but just because Mrs. Knapp was a practitioner and was successful in helping others, that was no proof that she could help herself in an emergency.

One reason for this is that, when one is helping another, he is dealing with an error that has two dimensions, as it were. He can both see it and hear it; but when it comes to an error of his own, the dimension of feeling is added, the effect of which is to dissipate his scientific thought, if possible. He is like a man who has been accustomed to doing jobs through the use of a full kit of tools; suddenly he imagines that some of his tools are taken from him, and that he is called upon to do a job without adequate equipment. Another reason is that, just as a doctor might heal a patient with an unmedicated pill — but surely could not thereby help himself — so a practitioner may help a patient with faith cure, but he will find that such a mode fails, when he applies it to himself. Work for oneself is a check on one's scientific thought, since there must be some measure of reflection of divine Mind in order to have work for oneself efficacious.

We can deduce from Mrs. Eddy's message to Mr. Hatten, that she was inform­ing him that every task a student is called upon to do, furnishes an opportunity for spiritual growth and healing; and, if done by demonstration, becomes a prepara­tion for the self-help that we all should understand. Many students learn very little about how to help themselves, although they work for years to help others. If Mrs. Knapp did not avoid the pitfall of death by her great success in healing others, it would indicate that one may heal the sick for years, and yet not neces­sarily progress in the understanding of self-help. To know this would help to take away Mr. Hatten's ambition to give up everything to become a practitioner, which was standing in the way of his doing what Mrs. Eddy wanted him to do for our Cause.

Mrs. Eddy might have written to Mr. Hatten, “Practice Christian Science wherever you are, and in whatever you are doing. Make every job you are called upon to do a practitioner's job. Then you will be ready to do what God wants you to do, and you will progress spiritually and be prepared to meet the argument of error which says, ‘He saved others; himself he cannot save.'”

All that stands between a practitioner and helping a patient or himself, is animal magnetism. If this is intelligently exposed and met, the healing takes place. When it comes to helping oneself, however, the animal magnetism in the picture relates not so much to the symptoms, as to one's ability to think intelligently. The error is not so much a kink in one's thinking, as a kink in one's thinker! When one's clear vision of Truth is disrupted, the restoration of scientific thought becomes a problem; but when the error relates to his ability to gain the vision, this ability must be restored. In order to help oneself, one must understand how to free his thought, so that he can give his own problem the scientific work that heals his patients.

A man may be on the shore, and find it a comparatively simple matter to throw a rope to a man who is sinking in quicksand. When he himself falls into the quicksand, however, he has quite a different problem on his hands. In con­nection with a personal problem, he must not only know the allness of God, but see the nothingness of the deterrent called animal magnetism; he must be able to make nothing of it. Mrs. Knapp may have under-stood that Christian Science teaches that animal magnetism is nothing, but her testimony in The Mother Church indicated, that she was tempted to cherish quite a marked sense of the reality of the persecution she was feeling, and in this way she was robbed of her ability to think scientifically herself. When she was under fire, she could not use the same right thinking that she used for patients, for herself or her so-called enemies.

A clearer understanding of the operation of animal magnetism might have caused her to rise in the meeting and say, “An evil suggestion is haunting me that I am being persecuted for the good I am doing, and I am having difficulty in seeing its nothingness. I am, therefore, calling on my fellow-members to join with me in the effort to make nothing of it.” This would have been more scientific than what she did say; yet to say it wouid not have been wise.

When Mrs. Eddy asked the Directors why they had not tried Mr. Neal and Mrs. Sargent for Mrs. Knapp's case, she might have wished to establish the precept, that we should never limit our sense of the action of demonstration, by admitting that one who has passed on might not have been saved. Had she acknowledged that there was an insurmountable reason for Mrs. Knapp's death, she would have opened the door for her followers to differentiate between patients, and to let go in some cases by believing in the impossibility of a healing, when the right attitude should be, that a healing is always possible, so omnipo­tent is the power of divine Mind in enabling us to uncover hidden error.

It is always helpful, when a practitioner treats a case, for him to assume that each treatment is the first and last one to be given; otherwise the suggestion is liable to creep in, that a treatment that did not work yesterday, may not work today, or that the element of time is necessary in order to make a demonstration possible. If a treatment did not heal yesterday, why should it heal today? Con­trariwise, if one considers that his treatment is the first, last and only treatment, and that the patient is healed already, since in reality he has never been sick, such an attitude will handle the suggestion of time, and thought will have its full unction and expectancy.

Sometimes a practitioner is tempted to feel that for some reason or other a patient does not deserve help. We learn from Mrs. Eddy that we should never hold the thought that there is some reason why a patient cannot or could not be healed. It is none of the practitioner's business to speculate as to whether a patient deserves to be healed. When a patient asks for help, and a practitioner feels led to take the case, he should give him the best work he has to give, with the expectancy that he is going to be healed. Jesus said, “Who made me a judge or a divider over you?” Who gave me the right to speculate or to decide whether God wants a man to be healed? God does not play favorities, so I have no right to. God alone searches the heart.

Sometimes a practitioner finds it more difficult to treat the case of a wealthy or influential citizen, one who could apparently do a great deal for the Cause, if he was healed, than one who is a more humble citizen. God's command is to regard all men as equal in His sight. Then a practitioner will not feel limited in his work by a belief in the human desirability of healing certain patients more than others. One mortal is no more desirable in God's sight than another, since to Him mortality does not exist.

Mrs. Eddy displayed great wisdom in this letter, since she gave the lesson, and then appeared to take it back by writing, “I ought not to murmur and especially to the one most bereaved.” This referred to Mr. Knapp, who was one of the Directors.

In court a lawyer will say something that is out of order. He knows that it will be objected to, and not admitted as testimony; yet it will have its effect upon the jury. In like manner Mrs. Eddy said what she wanted to, and at once took it back.

When Mrs. Eddy wrote in this letter that she gave thanks that the old tender church relations between her and the Directors were not severed, it can be deduced that she was warning them that error would attempt to sever these relations, and that they must be awake to this claim. She did not wish to state it plainly, lest she perturb them too much on this point, or cause them to accuse her of being too fearful, or of letting her imagination run riot. Had she acknowl­edged such a temptation plainly, she might have helped to create it.

Some students mistake the action of animal magnetism. They work against its effect, instead of realizing that such effects are illusion, and that it is one's belief in its power and reality that must be destroyed. Mrs. Eddy phrased her warning in this indirect way, so that it would have the right effect, and yet not weigh one jot on the wrong side.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

July 7, 1898

C. S. Board of Directors

My beloved Students:

Your triplicate mirror that you present to me, arrived safely. Its “three-in-one” is noticeable. My heart thanks you. May this mirror reflect the unity of spirit that shall characterize our friendship; and oft remind me, not of age and personality, but of what we have won on the field of battle — and of God's great good­ness.

With love,

Mother,

Mary Baker Eddy


Mrs. Eddy's attitude toward material things was the result of her effort to bring the human picture of matter, with its sin, sickness and death, back into spiritual focus; hence it had little relation to the intrinsic value or utilitarian use of an article. For example, she did not write in this letter that this mirror would be a human convenience to her, a thing to aid in smoothing her human path.

When she expressed appreciation for some gift, she revealed the modus of her thought in regarding material objects as symbols pointing to God. What a wonderful goal to work for, what a soul-satisfying platform to reach, where every human thing hints to us of God! This attitude suggests the proper use of matter by the student, pending its final dissolution.

When, instead of taking our thought away from God, material objects only serve to turn it to Him, they do us good and not harm. As we associate objects with God, they begin to lose their material seeming, and appear more and more as spiritual ideas.

When Mrs. Eddy looked in this mirror she had received from the Directors, she hoped that it would help to turn her thought away from age and personality, towards God's great goodness, as well as towards what had been won on the field of battle. She wished the mirror to become a symbol of the unity existing between herself, the Directors and the Church — three united as one.

My own experience with our Leader proved that for her to be reminded of what had been won on the field of battle, was always a sustaining thought. There were times in the night when she called me to work with her, to help to free her thought from a sense of depression, when animal magnetism claimed to have robbed her of her spiritual consciousness. I found that it helped to scatter the mist, to affirm audibly that she was God's anointed, ordained of Him, that He had brought her through the wilderness, and would continue to sustain her, and would never forsake her. It strengthened her to look back in thought, and to be reminded that she alone and unaided, except by God, had faced and met all opposition, and established her Cause.

Once she said to Janet Colman that there were two extremes her students had to contend with: one was pride, the other fear. She said when pride came to her, she remembered her origin in matter, and pride fled; and added that, when fear came to us, we were to remember our past successes, to remember all the times that Christian Science had helped us. This would still fear. She declared, “What God has done once, He will do again.” This same thought is expressed on page 90 of the Christian Science Journal of May, 1889.

It is a necessary attainment on the part of the student, to be able to think of all things in terms of suggesting God. The Master taught his disciples to do this in connection with food. When they met together at supper, he turned their thoughts to spiritual matters, so that after he left them, through the association of ideas, they would think of God when they gathered together for a meal. In this way a blow was struck at their bondage to matter — the belief that man lives by bread alone.

Once when I was called to address a Christian Science Association, I asked the students a question, the purpose of which was to help them to develop spiritual insight. There were those who, failing to discern my purpose, accused me of a departure from metaphysics. The question, based on a picture hanging in Mrs. Eddy's home, was, What is the spiritual significance of the Sphinx? The answer that I wanted was that, having the head of a woman and the body of a lion, it typified the uniting in one individual of the qualities of God as Father and Mother, as Mrs. Eddy brings out on page 64 of Science and Health, where she prophesies the time when marriage will be no more. “Then white-robed purity will unite in one person masculine wisdom and feminine love, spiritual under­standing and perpetual peace.”

Is it not orderly for an advancing student to look at things to find their spiritual significance, when he learns that that is what our Leader did? The gift of a triplicate mirror became a blessing to her, because she was able to give it a spiritual meaning.

On page 326 (ibid.) she writes that all nature teaches God's love to man. On page 240 she says, “Arctic regions, sunny tropics, giant hills, winged winds, mighty billows, verdant vales, festive flowers, and glorious heavens, — all point to Mind, the spiritual intelligence they reflect.” Here she translates matter back into Mind, by reckoning it as pointing to God's goodness and love.

It is an offence to a metaphysician to regard the beauties of the flowers, the perfume and colors that they manifest, the flavors of the fruit, as if they all sprang from the black muck called the earth. To him Mind is the source and cause of all, and his task is to see this fact.

It is always entertaining to observe the skill with which a ventriloquist deceives his audience into believing that his dummy is the source of the talking. In like manner the ground and the sea appear to be the source of food. Yet God is the source of all goodness, and the metaphysician knows that all that seems to come to him through matter, really comes through Mind. Thus he reaches the point where all that comes to him apparently from the fields and streams, only serves to remind him of God as the source of all goodness, beneficence and love. In this way matter loses its power to blind him to God as the ever-present source of all good, and becomes a means of pointing to His presence.

Properly viewed, everything suggests God. Those individuals who criticized me for my question in regard to Mrs. Eddy's picture of the Sphinx, might be surprised to read this letter from her to her Board, in which she refers to a mirror, which is usually the means of tempting mortals to regard matter and personality as real, — as something pointing to God's great goodness. Thus it was that out of it she received a blessing, and passed it on to the Directors, helping them to take a forward step in metaphysics, in looking away from matter to Mind.

A study of this letter reveals the reason Mrs. Eddy treasured many gifts that seemed of small worth either artistically or intrinsically. Back of them she felt the true gratitude and appreciation which had prompted them. Thus in her eyes they were too valuable to throw away, since they not only helped to turn her thoughts upward, but also indicated that there were students who had a deep and profound appreciation for what she had done for them and the world. And so, with all the things of artistic taste that the students provided in her home at Chestnut Hill, which they considered to be befitting a woman of her position, Mrs. Eddy insisted upon including many things the students averred were out of keeping, since to them these gifts seemed to jar with the furnishings. Our Leader, however, insisted upon keeping them, because every time she looked at them, what they stood for would flood her thought, warm her heart, and re­assure her that God had indeed provided her with many true and loyal friends and students, who were unshakeable in their devotion and understanding.

On page 71 of Memoirs of Mary Baker Eddy by Adam H. Dickey, we read that Mrs. Eddy put Mr. Dickey to the test by asking him if he did not think that she had better part with some of these knicknacks. She said, “It seems too childish....” But she approved of his reply, “Mother, everything on that what-­not represents some one's love and appreciation for you, and there is no reason why you should not have it.”

This letter proves that it was our Leader's custom with material objects, to see the spiritual truth back of them. It was not difficult, therefore, for her to take a mirror, and transform it into a symbol of God's love. Because it was in triplicate form, she realized that we need to have the three dimensions of the real man brought to our attention. She knew students may be alert and punctil­ious in striving for the spiritual understanding of God's reflection; they may desire to reflect Him for the purpose of healing; but that they are not so quick to perceive the need of broadening their use of demonstration. It might even be said that the three meetings in our branch churches correspond to these three dimensions; the Sunday service being symbolic of man's thought going upward; the Wednesday evening meeting of his reflection, as it goes forward in healing; and the business meeting symbolic of his demonstration as it expands and goes outward.

Surely if one is striving to fulfil the three demands of Spirit Mrs. Eddy en­joins in Science and Health, to be obedient to God, to have one Mind, and to love his neighbor as himself, he will labor to reach the place where everything reminds him of God, and of the fact that all things are working together for the ultimate good of every individual.

When a man's wife dies, he often disposes of everything that would serve to remind him of her, clothes, furnishings, and even their home. Even the dishpan in which she was accustomed to wash the dishes, might be such a poignant reminder of his loss, that he would dispose of it. Now, suppose the situation is reversed, so that everything in the home serves to remind him of her in an agree­able and happy way. This will give a glimpse of what it meant to Mrs. Eddy to have everything in her home remind her of God.

It is part of the spiritual education and scientific growth of each student, to reach this point where everything reminds him of God. His bed, for instance, should remind him of the fact that, in the economy of spiritual being, man has the privilege at times of throwing off responsibility and care, in order to rest in the sweet consciousness of God's love. If he sees this point clearly it will super­sede the belief of rest, as a state of mesmerism in which mortals are so off guard, that they fall easy victims to whatever suggestions are floating around. Then he will never go to sleep at night, without realizing that true rest is the silencing of the material senses, in order that divine Mind may hold him in perfect and harmonious control.

In like manner, the food that the student eats should remind him of God's love for His children, as it comes to them and is assimilated by them, nourishing and resuscitating their sense of life. Then he will find a healing sense accompany­ing his food, and will be able to annul the so-called laws of belief which mortals are constantly putting on food, so that it apparently has effects God never in­tended it to have.

What a valuable heritage this letter is, proving as it does, that nothing seemed too material, or had too mundane a use, but that our Leader could see in it a spiritual significance, and transform it into a signpost to remind her of God!

When Mrs. Eddy wrote, “All nature teaches God's love to man...,” she was imparting this very point to her followers, making it plain that the inter­pretation of nature whereby it reminds one of God's love for him, is a necessary step in his spiritual growth and development.

Once when Mrs. Eddy was preaching in Chickering Hall, she was asked why she wore purple and diamonds. Her answer was, “You call this a diamond. I call it a metaphysical thought. A lady who had been long years bedridden I was able to heal through God, so that she arose and walked. She gave me this out of gratitude to remember her by.” Here is another instance where Mrs. Eddy's estimate of the value of a gift was in proportion to the love and gratitude it expressed. Whenever she looked at this ring, she was reminded of that lady's appreciation, and of the great miracle God had performed through her in this healing. We must recall that there were times when it seemed as if the whole world was against her, attempting to pull her down and questioning her Science. At such times she could look at gifts such as her diamond ring, and renew her assurance of God's love, since they were expressions of a loving thought that had received the blessing of Christian Science. In this way, she would be heartened in the midst of the temptation to despair. Therefore, the diamond had value in her eyes, not because of its intrinsic worth, but because of the meta­physical thought it represented.

The student should find it valuable to know, that Mrs. Eddy taught by example that the way to regard material objects, was to let them suggest spiritual truth, by knowing that they are mental, and in reality represent spiritual ideas.

“May this mirror reflect the unity of spirit that shall characterize our friend­ship.” From these words we learn the secret of true unity. One reason Mrs. Eddy found it difficult to get students to work together metaphysically and con­structively, was because they did not put enough reflection into their demonstra­tion. Each human mind in belief is different from every other human mind. Hence as long as the claim of a human mind enters into one's demonstration, he will fail to work in unity with others. But when students all reflect the one Mind, any number may work together and bring out right results, each one adding to the power and effectiveness of the work.

This same hope might well be voiced by the Field to the Directors today. Ideals do not change in Science; consequently, neither do the warnings that may avert a student's downfall. But the higher the spiritual demand, the more watchful one must be, lest anything prevent his fulfilling what God expects and demands of him.

Thus, today, the Directors must still maintain a unity of spirit with the Leader. In order to carry on her Cause as she would have them, they must study and ponder her correspondence. Only in that way will they be able to perceive the consistency of her mental attitude, and carry out her wishes. If they admit that she was always successful, then they must see that they can have the same success only as they carry on as she did, by clinging steadfastly to God and His idea, and by letting His wisdom completely govern them. As they do this, the opinions of men will become obsolete, and be recognized as having no place or part in the Christian Science organization.

This line of reasoning proves that in this letter Mrs. Eddy was endeavoring to send back to the Directors some insight into the spiritual significance of what they had given her. If they profited by the instruction, they would see that the unity of spirit, which she was calling for, could only be gained by reflecting the same God she reflected — the same Mind. This effort would exclude the human mind.

“May this mirror...oft remind me, not of age and personality, but...of God's great goodness.” She hoped that by holding the mirror as a spiritual idea, it would enable her to see in it God's idea of herself reflected, instead of signs of advancing years. In that way she would circumvent the human and reach the divine. All students should perceive what a mirror stands for spiritually. Then they will never forget that reflection means man in the image and likeness of God, rather than the human belief of age and personality. Every experience — ­even war — would thus indicate God's great goodness made manifest.

How can a student regard war as a sign of God's goodness, when Mrs. Eddy declares on page 278 of Miscellany, “War is in itself an evil, barbarous, devilish”? In some countries women wash their soiled clothes in natural pools, using the rough stones on which to rub and to slap the clothes clean. The clothes receive rough treatment, but they come forth clean and unharmed. It is possible to regard this human experience as God's laundry, where, when He cannot purify His children by gentle means, He permits materiality to be purged out by more violent means. To get their clothes clean at any cost is the purpose back of all that the women do who wash their clothes in the pools. Hence whatever they do to that end, that does not harm the clothes, is legitimate. Anything God does or permits (if one can make such a statement without departing from metaphysics) is legitimate, if it results in the purification of mankind.

The Bible speaks of a vine being purged, “that it may bring forth more fruit.” Is not the holy purpose back of many of our human experiences, a prun­ing that we may bear more fruit? Then should we complain at the divine wisdom that permits such experiences?




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

August 22, 1898

Dear Brother Johnson:

Mother requests that you have this adopted immediately.

Fraternally,

C. A. Frye

Church By-Law

If a weekly newspaper shall at any time be published by the Christian Science Publishing Society, it shall be owned by The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, and shall be copy­righted and conducted according to the By-law relating to the Christian Science Journal.


It may be inferred from this letter that the church membership should feel responsible for the publications of the Publishing Society, by way of giving our periodicals the necessary mental support. Each member is part of The Mother Church, and should work to support its every activity. Merely subscribing for and reading the periodicals does not fulfil this obligation.

Every Science activity needs mental support; needs to be tied up with God. Other-wise, such activities are as sounding brass and tinkling cymbals, — they are the letter without the Spirit. Those who are faithful in working daily for the Monitor, for Science and Health, the Bible, for the Publishing Society, and the Lesson-Sermons, do so by knowing that God's healing power always accom­panies them, and that this power cannot be lost nor obscured by any action of suppositional evil.

How can our Christian Science missionaries be expected to fulfil their mission, unless they are sent forth with the support from God that they need, in order to heal and to bless mankind?

A wise and alert student also does such daily work on the matter of food, and this, not only for his own sake, but for the sake of the whole world. As he relates food to God, by taking it out of the grasp of matter, he thereby spares himself and others much discord and suffering. One of the wiles of animal magnetism is to take that which students need at the present time, and to attach beliefs to it that cause it to become a medium for inharmony and fear; whereas it should be a channel for the manifestation of God's love and care.

It is a deduction from Mrs. Eddy's teachings, that God is never separate from the blessings He bestows. Therefore, if one makes a demonstration to relate food to God, he will feel God's presence when he eats, and will gain a blessing through the human necessity for food. If he neglects to do this, how can he ex­pect to avoid the effects of the manifold false beliefs mortal mind has attached to food?

Everything in God's universe must be turned back to Him, since it was created by Him, and so belongs wholly to Him. In reality one idea is as much a channel for infinite good as another. The beauty of the flower, for instance, is not in nor of matter, but in and of Spirit that created it. Its fragrance is the odor of God. Even through material sense one gains a faint hint of what God is, as the Author of such loveliness.

We grow spiritually in proportion as all things become representatives of God to us. Then the consolidation of all created things, including man, and all the good that they bring to us, will be seen to constitute the whole of God ex­pressed; and since God embraces no ideas that are not expressed, man can gain an understanding of God through each idea. The Master declared, “If ye have seen me, ye have seen the Father.”

It is part of the work of every student, to know that everything and every one is a channel for good to him, and for nothing else. Such work must be done for the Bible, since it has been appropriated by belief, or rather, by unbelief, superstition, fear and scholastic theology, until as the expression of Truth it has failed to convey the true idea of God, man and the universe. The true idea, of course, has never been lost; it has merely been hidden by the mesmerism of reversal. As this is detected and handled, the healing power of the Bible will once more shine forth, and be conveyed to the people. In this effort, we cannot say that truth is being restored to the Bible, since it was never lost from it; it is being brought into activity. This same line of reasoning is a rule for all things in Christian Science.

Mrs. Eddy started the Christian Science Sentinel as a right idea emanating from Mind, and this By-law was really part of her effort to link this new project to the spiritual support she required her followers to give all the activities of her Movement. It was evident to her that only as they realized that these activities were supported by God, would they convey His healing power, and hasten the coming of the kingdom of heaven.

It would do our Cause no good to publish a newspaper unless it was done through demonstration. Just because we believe in demonstration means little unless we use it, and unless we do use it, we “can do no more for mortals than can moonbeams to melt a river of ice” as the textbook says. She further states that “the error of the ages is preaching without practice.” True growth in our denomination can be noted only as the use of demonstration increases and broadens; and this growth will not come until the students recognize and handle the claim of animal magnetism which would tend to stop it.

Mrs. Eddy clearly recognized this deterrent. In fact, it would appear as if the main part of her mission was to uncover the secret action of evil, as an addendum to the Master's unfoldment of the nature of good. She learned that, if possible, error would secretly strike a blow at the vital part of her discovery,­ — as it did in the earliest days of Christianity, when the healing power of Truth was lost for over fifteen hundred years. Once Mrs. Eddy wrote to William D. Mc­Cracken, “The thief is ready to rob and to steal all treasures. But our Master saith, ‘Had the good man watched, his house would not have been broken open.' I beg you to watch and pray to this end. You are in danger unless you do. The more useful and prominent you become, the harder the mental robbers will work to rob you of good thoughts, a strong purpose and wise efforts to do God's will.”

Rightly viewed, there is nothing so desirable, peaceful and easy as to bring God to earth, and restore Him to that which has apparently lost Him. In reality He is here already, and everything belongs to Him as His creation; but before one can gain the joy and unlabored motion that attends the understanding of this truth, the suggestion must be uncovered and cast out, that it is a hard, if not impossible, task.

The recognition must be constantly renewed in our Movement that its activities can only be sustained by demonstration; otherwise we are liable to lose our fruitage. Then, the effort to do this must be seen as unlabored and re­freshing.

This new By-law requiring that the coming newspaper be owned by the Church, put the full responsibility for supporting it metaphysically upon its members, and, by implication, this obligation extends to all the ramifications of the Cause.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

September 12, 1898

C. S. Directors

My dear Students:

I am informed that the experience meeting flags. You are directed to advertise through the C. S. weekly and monthly that the Wed. eve meeting will be changed to a meeting of interest on other subjects as well as personal experience, and will hereafter be called the Wed. Evening Meeting. Also a member of the Board of Lectureship will lecture at these meetings as often as once in three months annually and the Directors will select the lecturer and request him where and when to deliver his lecture within the boundary of his section or precinct.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy

Advertise this in this weekly.

M. B. E.


This letter reveals Mrs. Eddy's larger purpose for the Wednesday Evening Meeting. While it was to be confined to matters pertaining to Christian Science, at the same time she wanted it to include some evidences of demonstration in directions other than merely the effect of truth in healing the sick. As she writes on page 51 of Science and Health, “(Jesus') purpose in healing was not alone to restore health, but to demonstrate his divine Principle.”

Mrs. Eddy was able to gauge accurately the growth of her students as well as of her church. When she wrote that she was informed that the experience meeting flagged, she did not necessarily mean that there was a dearth of testi­monies, since to flag, means to grow spiritless. In other words, there was a lack of demonstration of the Spirit of God in the meetings. Yet this lack did show itself as a lack of testimonies. One meeting near this date did not have a single testimony.

Any testimony that is filled with the Spirit is impressive and carries healing. In fact, should a Wednesday Evening Meeting be held in which the students worked faithfully and rightly for that hour, if it was filled with the Spirit, it would heal the sick and thus bear fruit, even though the audible testimonies were few. The burden of mesmerism would lift, and this would satisfy the strangers; there­after they would attend gladly.

A practitioner treats a patient silently as well as audibly, and if the patient is healed, he is satisfied. Mrs. Eddy knew that if the thought in the meetings was carried on the side of God, the meetings would be a success, because the sick would be healed, and all would feel an uplift.

Then the question arises, why did Mrs. Eddy handle the matter in this veiled way, instead of stating the trouble plainly? She knew that those with spiritual insight would see the real need, while mortal mind would be none the wiser. In Christian Science, mental work to be efficacious, must be the spontaneous outgrowth of desire as well as understanding, the natural inclination of those who recognize that, because they have freely received, they should freely give. The effect is not scientific when mental work is forced, when it is done through zeal without knowledge, or from a selfish motive.

Nothing will ever be more interesting to the stranger in our meetings, than the record of the sick having been healed in Christian Science. Hearing such testimonies, they go away satisfied. Then the only question that comes up is, can they believe them? Are they true? It is helpful for them in this direction to observe the caliber of the persons who give them. They must realize that such meetings could not be supported by lies very long. Unless healings took place as stated, the lies would soon catch up with the organization, since the penalty for lying is that people do not believe you, when you tell the truth.

When a pump fails to produce a suction, it is necessary to prime it. It was evident to Mrs. Eddy that if a stranger could be induced by any means to attend the meeting, that would open the way for him to come again; so she endeavored to make the meetings as interesting as possible.

There may be times in the future of our Movement when such pump priming will become necessary, if congregations fall off, or the interest wanes. One way to do this would be to stimulate a renewed interest in our Leader, to set forth an understanding of her life and mission. People's hunger for Christian Science is not something that has to be injected, or induced in them; they have it naturally, and it appears when thought is freed from ignorance on the subject. Yet this hunger for the truth must include a hunger to know more about the one through whom the truth came. It has been the privilege of the writer to note the renewed interest and activity that many advanced students have shown in the organiza­tion, when they were given a clearer insight into the life of the Founder of Christian Science.

If students of many years standing who have grown lukewarm, can be brought back to their first love of Christian Science, and to expressing a fervent activity, by being given more truth about our Leader, it follows that if the inter­est on the part of the public wanes, even though we continue to heal the sick and to set forth such healings in our mid-week meetings, it is possible that a renewed interest will be aroused, by setting forth the facts of her life, her sac­rifices, her self-denial and consecration, and some spiritual insight into those facts.

When Mrs. Eddy stated that the experience meeting in The Mother Church flagged, she knew that this was happening because animal magnetism had caused the members to forget and neglect the necessary spiritual support. Hence more mental work was the real remedy; yet, her letter proves that there are human processes that may be adopted that will temporarily aid a situation. Furthermore, by writing the letter in this form, she safeguarded the situation, lest mortal mind discover the secret of our success.

It is reported that at the meeting in which not a single testimony was given, Judge Hanna rose to his feet and said, “If there is no one here who has a single word to say for God, we will close the meeting.” No wonder it was reported to Mrs. Eddy that the meetings were flagging! No wonder she felt the need for action!




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

September 21, 1898

C. S. Board of Directors

My beloved Students:

Please give Rev. Mr. Tomlinson a call to lecture before the Boston audience at the Wed. Evening meeting next week and notify all you can to be present. Also call Mr. Carol Norton to lecture at the Wed. Evening meeting at Mrs. Frame's church the 1st. Sabbath in October.

With love,

M. B. Eddy


In the evolution of the organization Mrs. Eddy finally discovered, that the mere giving of testimonies of healing at the Wednesday evening meetings proved so satisfying to the public, that attendance increased without an occa­sional lecture being given. This working out was similar to that of the Sunday services, when Mrs. Eddy inaugurated the Bible and Science and Health as the Pastor of the Church. It was asserted that a sermon given by such a Pastor would provoke little interest. Yet, under this impersonal preaching, congregations increased everywhere.

An unpublished statement by Mrs. Eddy in regard to the inauguration of these impersonal Pastors, conveys her thought relative to this important step. “Friends, I have little to say to you, since I have already written all there is to be said of genuine truth until the last trump is sounded. The time cometh and is not far off when the Czar of Russia, the Emperor of China, the Queen of Eng­land, the Mikado of Japan, the Sultan of Turkey, the King of Italy, the presidents of France and United States, and all potentates, together with every mortal man and woman within their domains, shall bow before the little book whose right foot is set upon the sea and his left foot on the earth, and whose hands compass the universe. And wherefore? Because it is the Word of the one God, the one crowned Head of the universe, the Mind, Spirit, and Soul of man. It hath the words of eternal life; it giveth health; it destroyeth death; it hath victory over the grave; it is the unction of Spirit; it hath the law of the spirit of Life which through Christ freeth men from the law of sin and death; yea, it interpreteth the divine Principle of all that is real and eternal, and giveth the divine rule of the application of this Spirit and its demonstration with signs following. Let this book and the Bible be forever the Pastor of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston.”

Evidently the lectures that were given at these mid-week meetings, tem­porarily bridged a gap for those who believed that the public would not be in­terested simply in testimonies of healing.

It was as much part of Mrs. Eddy's reflected wisdom to be able to guide wisely the members of her church as it was to direct public thought. In fact, it was not difficult to meet the needs of those who were hungering and thirsting for something they did not have— those who were lost in a maze of fear looking for help — not as difficult as it was to lead students to discern the wisdom of the moves which God prompted her to make.

Logic informs us that the staunchest supporters of materia medica, are the healthy people who have never needed the help of a doctor, but who believe, if they should ever be seriously ill, that he could help them. It is those who have called in vain for such help, who have had their faith in material methods shaken. In Science the reverse is true, for it finds its supporters among those who have tried it and proved its healing efficacy.

The mid-week meeting is designed to draw those who have never had any experience with the healing power of God in Christian Science, but who hope that what they are going to hear is true. The main desire of the stranger is to be healed, or to find that which will heal him when he is in need; hence to feed him with anything but clear-cut cases of healing in our meetings is largely superfluous. He does not care to know how the sick are healed; he only wants to know whether they are healed, and can be healed by prayer. Mrs. Eddy is credited with once having said, “It is a mistake to give your methods in a Wed­nesday evening meeting, saying, ‘I realized this and that.'”

Thus the mid-week meeting is primarily designed for the stranger who is seeking help. In fact, no matter how large an audience of Christian Scientists we may have in our meetings, the size of the congregation should be measured wholly by the number of strangers present. Strictly speaking the members do not constitute an audience, since they are the workers — they are part of the performance. The waiters in a restaurant are not patrons, but part of the organization.

Since this letter mentions Rev. Irving Tomlinson, it will not be amiss to discuss some phases of the lecture work that were touched upon in letters written to him by his Leader. In passing, it may be noted in his book, Twelve Years with Mary Baker Eddy, that he was the first to lecture under the auspices of the Board of Lectureship as it now exists. In an undated letter Mrs. Eddy wrote to him, “Beloved: I must call your attention to the tautology in your lecture in Lawrence; it is grand but for this weakening element. In 15 lines ‘Christian Science' is repeated 4 times and so throughout the lecture. Pardon me; but the lecture is too good and useful to be so dimmed. Eliminate that word sufficiently to give the high-toned sentiments a hearing and not stoppage every few lines.”

It is surprising to find Mrs. Eddy criticizing a lecture for a too frequent use of the words, Christian Science. Ordinarily a lecturer might feel that it was essential to repeat those words fairly often, in order to give his lecture the proper force; but Mrs. Eddy implies that a continual reference to Christian Science was a barrier to the flow of clear logic the lecturer was striving to impart to the public. The reason for this is, that there is an underlying prejudice against the truth in human thought, even though one may be unconscious of this fact. There are people who would eat frogs' legs and consider them delicious, if they did not know what they were eating. A wise host will not name them when he serves them. It is the purpose of a Christian Science lecturer to lead the thought of his audience along lines of metaphysical logic, and to unfold the fallacy contained in their previous beliefs. Thus he sets forth how much common sense as well as logic is contained in the teachings of Christian Science; but if he continually draws attention to his purpose, he is apt to defeat it in a measure.

The first effect of Mr. Tomlinson's words would be to quiet the bull of mortal mind, to soothe it, and to make it feel friendly; then suddenly to cause it to stamp and snort in opposition, and this would go on throughout the lecture. Mrs. Eddy's clear sense anticipated this effect, and so she counselled him to revise his lecture, in order that it might not overemphasize that which the strangers in his audiences might be prejudiced against.

We can thank Mr. Tomlinson for having made this error, since through it a necessary precept was laid down. Had he not made it, a procedure which was out of harmony with God's wisdom might have become customary.

In a letter dated April 11, 1899, Mrs. Eddy wrote, “Dearest Parson: Christ, the idea of Love, is more to you than mortal's ipsi dixit. I enclose in pen marks what must be left out. You can thrust in the sickle and reap the grain, but spare the oil, the balm of repentance, and the wine, the newly inspired love for C.S. The press was just returning to us, and this untimely present sharpness cuts some old Christians to the heart and turns away others. With changing the lecture a little and removing the marked passages, you can repeat it.”

In calling Mr. Tomlinson “Parson” Mrs. Eddy no doubt was letting him know that what she was going to write, was a criticism based on the remnants of scholastic theology that still clung to him. In a class that she taught in 1888 she said, “Theology is the most bitter enemy of all the schools that Truth has to fight against — it will crucify the hardest and be the last to yield — it is worse than medicine.” Another recording of the same words by another pupil in the same class reads, “Scholastic theology is Truth's most bitter enemy. It would crucify Truth and will be the last enemy to yield. It is far more obdurate than materia medica.”

It is possible, had we known Judas, that the trait which finally caused him to betray his Master — his unhandled belief in the value and necessity of money — ­would not have seemed very offensive to us. I doubt if he gave any outward indication of an inordinate love for it, other than what would seem a normal desire and appreciation for it as a medium of exchange, whereby the modest needs of the Master and his disciples might be supplied. His error was not a serious one, humanly considered, even though the Bible calls him a thief. But students who came to Mrs. Eddy's home cherishing human traits, even though these were not considered serious errors humanly, were convicted of sin.

Any leaning toward materiality becomes a serious error as one progresses spiritually. Errors which in the beginning of our career of demonstration may not seem serious, become so as we ascend. A man who was slightly intoxicated might be able to drive his automobile; yet he would stumble and fall, if he was required to climb a steep cliff.

When, in I Kings 13, the man of God followed his desire to eat with the old prophet, he merely followed a natural inclination, but it was a disobedience to God which cost him his human life. It is not considered wrong for one to eat when he is hungry; but when one is making a demonstration where he is re­quired to handle every human inclination as an effort to throw him back under the control of the human mind, any failure to do so spoils the entire problem. To whom much is given, of him shall much be required.

The conclusion is that for Mr. Tomlinson to harbor remnants of theology on a lower plane of thought, might not have been a serious deterrent to his growth; whereas as he ascended in thought, it might have betrayed him. For her to call him “Parson” therefore, was an implication that the errors in his lecture for which she was going to criticize him, were the result of his early training for the ministry, the remnants of scholasticism which he had not cast out.

The common conception of a minister is one to whom mortal's ipsi dixit means more than Christ, since he must preach his salary out of the pocketbooks of his hearers. There are two extremes in the way ministers deal with sin. Either they soften their sense of it, so that sinners to whom they preach will not be offended, or they make a grim reality of it, preach hell-fire and damnation, and pay little attention to the offices of love and forgiveness.

In Christian Science the spiritual idea of love must outweigh mortal's ipse dixit, and yet this attitude does not mean a disreqarding of sin's claims. It means to uncover them, but to do so with love. Mrs. Eddy saw the need of probing sin; at the same time she was wooing the stranger with love; hence she warned Mr. Tomlinson against that sharpness that might cut some old Christians to the heart, — that effort to bring men to repentence by preaching the awfulness of sin, as well as the error involved in hypocrisy and ritualism.

The mission of Christian Science is to uncover the claims of error, but in so doing, to see to it that one does not hurt the oil or the wine. Christian Science uncovers animal magnetism, not to make it real, but to make it unreal, and to turn thought to the realization of God's allness, and of man in His image and likeness.

It is possible that in his lectures Mr. Tomlinson was not pouring out enough of the oil of love to heal the wounds truth was making. The object of our lectures is to bring forth in the stranger a love for Christian Science. He was failing a little in this respect, although Mrs. Eddy's criticism is not very harsh. But she wished him to thrust in the sickle with love. Her ideal of a lecture was one that was so filled with the oil of gladness, goodness and love — of inspiration and consecration — that instead of chemicalizing over the sharpness of the sickle, the stranger would welcome it. We can summarize her criticism of Mr. Tomlinson, by saying that it was occasioned by the fact that he did not put enough sugar on the bitter pill. Christian Science is a bitter pill to material sense. The sugar coat is needed in a lecture in order to make the pill acceptable.

Mrs. Eddy attached an “N.B.” to this letter to Mr. Tomlinson as follows: “When I speak of men or women afraid to meet the defence, I mean afraid to come out in open noble loving rebuke to certain secret crimes or immoralities — ­uncover them and show the remedy. By this I do not mean mental or written or audible attacks, but kind strong rebuke that will heal and not wound the good folks.”

There is a “Parson” thought in each one of us that must be overcome, that tends to attach sin to person, and to make a reality of sin when it rebukes it. In Science the uncovering of evil is always to help the individual to escape from it. In this way the Scientist wounds to heal.

On January 7, 1898, Mrs. Eddy wrote to him, “My dear Brother: You can lecture occasionally as you see the need thereof, if not called upon to do thus by the churches. Be careful and not berate any religion; be charitable towards all men. Make a strong point showing the practical excellence of Christian Science. Arm yourself with divine Love; then when you ‘are lifted up you will draw all men unto you.' My New Year Gift.”

There was a rule contained in this “New Year Gift” to Mr. Tomlinson, but it was a gift from God, and so held the purpose and power to bless him. If one had a piece of silver that was tarnished, the best gift he could give it, would be to polish it. Through her relationship to God, Mrs. Eddy became polish to tarnished silver.

One who is naturally loving does not have to be warned not to berate any religion. This lack of love on Mr. Tomlinson's part was not a real lack of love. It was the tarnish of human belief which she knew could be wiped away.

Christian Science is the only true religion, not because it exposes other religions, but because it makes men better than any system can — makes them more Christlike and more loving. One who delivered a lecture on Christian Science in which he berated another religion, would really be attacking Chris­tian Science itself, since he would be failing to practice the kindness and con­sideration that it teaches.

Mrs. Eddy could rebuke in love without offending. Her concept of a rebuke is set forth in her article Love, as it first appeared in the Journal for May, 1885, as follows: “Sometimes this gentle evangel comes to burst the pent-up storm of error with one mighty thunder-bolt, and clears the moral atmosphere, foul with human exhalations. It is a born blessing at all times, either as a rebuke or benediction.”

On February 14, 1898, Mrs. Eddy wrote to Mr. Tomlinson, “My dear dis­ciple: I was glad to know you were called to Bethlehem of Mass., and am wait­ing to hear from you again on this subject so near my heart. The first called to lecture on the basis of the Lectureship and to one of the most important fields in the vineyard of our God! Well, it is ominous, full of promise. Once that city resounded with my cures. But if there is a hope eternal I feel it. God bless you, prosper the seed you sow, make you a light that is set upon a hill that cannot be hid.”

Mrs. Eddy's abbreviation for Massachusetts reminds one of the Christ mass, which represented the first step in the birth of the spiritual idea of man on earth. This beginning of the recognition of the Christ, represents what should and must be the birth of Christ for all.

Lynn was the place where the spiritual idea had come to our Leader; so it is the Bethlehem of this age. The attendance at a lecture such as Mr. Tomlinson gave might be small; but she wished him to feel the significance of what he was doing, in spite of the small number present. Lynn represented a place that was very near to her heart. She knew that if he would remember that Lynn was the place where Christian Science was born, he would appreciate the honor con­ferred upon him, and learn that a small attendance — if it was the result of demonstration — would be as significantly metaphysical as a large one. Then he would put into his lecture the same unction that he would if he was lecturing before a large audience.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

September 28, 1898

C. S. Directors

My beloved Students:

I told Laura when here last she must not call on you to help us; you have all you can do. I send a list of names for you to consider in your choice of missionaries according to the By-law last sent. Please do not let people know that I selected them. You will be perhaps puzzled to know why one name is on this list. But you will learn in future why.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy

Missionaries

Prof. McKenzie

John F. Linscott

Mr. Ira O. Knapp

Mrs. Ellen B. Linscott

I leave the purchase of either building to the decision of your own good judgment. No, it was not Mrs. K. Yes, I do.

M. B. E.


Possibly, at this time, there was a severe situation at Pleasant View which called for help, and Laura Sargent felt that the Directors should be notified to take hold; but nobody was competent to do any work for the situation at Pleasant View who did not understand it thoroughly, and who was not spiritually on his toes, at the time. Even in the home, when a worker like Calvin Frye needed help, Mrs. Eddy looked over each one, and delegated the work only to the one who was spiritually ready to do it.

Mrs. Eddy knew that the Directors had been appointed, not necessarily because they were outstanding metaphysicians, but because they had a certain degree of understanding of Christian Science, and above all would be obedient to her directions. She reflected wisdom from God, and it was necessary that this wisdom be obeyed. Furthermore, Mrs. Eddy made it plain that the spirit that animated her must always animate the Directors in the future. This is set forth in the Manual, where she calls that which enabled her to be guided by God's wisdom, the Pastor Emeritus. The implication is that the Cause must be perpetuated by demonstration.

Laura Sargent may have regarded the Directors as representing the leading thought of demonstration in the Field; therefore she would very naturally feel that they were the ones to call on for help in an emergency. Mrs. Eddy declared that Laura must not call upon them, since they already had all they could attend to. What she really meant was, that as a rule they were not up to doing such special work.

When help was needed at Pleasant View, Mrs. Eddy was the one capable of determining who was up to the mark. If she was guided to seek help from one in Boston, she might find a member of the Board of Directors ready to give such help; but the fact that he held such an exalted position, would not necessarily have any relation to his spiritual status at the moment.

Why would the Directors be puzzled by one name on this list? The mis­sionaries were mental workers, and Mrs. Eddy had named one of their own number, one who perhaps showed the least ability in this direction of any of them. Mr. Knapp was a fine metaphysician, but he did not appear to have as alert and active a thought as the other members of the Board.

Two reasons come to mind that might have been back of this appointment. Mrs. Eddy might have wished to have one member on this committee through whom she could direct the work of the whole, and also through whom she could learn the value of the work of the rest. She might have appointed Mr. Knapp because, more than the other Directors, he needed training in daily mental work. It would be natural, therefore, for her to give him outside work to do, in order to turn his thought more actively to demonstration and its value, in order to get it into what might be called a demonstrating groove.

It is no criticism of the spiritual status of the Directors to declare that in general they did not know how to work for, — to meet, — the error at Pleasant View. Perhaps by appointing Mr. Knapp to this committee of mental workers called missionaries, Mrs. Eddy hoped that he might discover his shortcomings in the direction of mental activity, and so become aware of why she found it wise not to let Laura call on the Board for help. They had a great desire to help their Leader in every way possible, as well as a great willingness to do so. Yet, the situation at Pleasant View demanded a quality of mental help that their spiritual status at that time prevented them from giving. Even those who lived with her and worked mentally for hours each day under her close supervision, were often found unfit to do the work she required of them.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

September 30, 1898

C. S. Board of Directors

My beloved Students:

I call your attention to an important point. Mr. Metcalf gave us the church organ; he is dissatisfied with the organist's playing. Now it is but just and right that we satisfy him if we can. To this end and to show him our appreciation of what he has done for us, I direct you to call a meeting of your Board and appoint a Com. of one (and that one Albert Metcalf) to engage for our church the organist. Then at the expiration of this present one's term of service, he can suit himself to the man that shall play our church organ. After your appointment of him on Com. write a kind re­spectful letter to him informing him of your appointment, and that it was my request.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


We should never be lax in showing appreciation for what others do for the Cause. Such an attitude costs nothing, and does a great deal to bring forth a willingness to do more. The official attitude that accepts gifts, sacrifice and service, and gives only criticism in return, has no place in our organization. It is a travesty on Science for students to give their all to the Cause for years, and then for other students not only to fail to show the proper appreciation, but to assume the right to criticize, and even to persecute. Yet it must be said that no organization, as such, has a heart.

Here was a wealthy member who had made a gesture of generosity to the church, and Mrs. Eddy declared that they owed him something as a result, — consideration and gratitude. If he was not satisfied with the way his gift was being played, it was a small matter to do everything possible to appease him.

Once a wealthy man named William Slater who lived in Norwich, Con­necticut, did a great deal for his home town, and gave generously to its beauti­fication. Finally he offered to donate land for an academy, with the reservation that he be consulted as to where it should be located. The committee for the town felt that it was generous of him to give the land, but that he should do so without attaching any strings to the gift. They flatly refused to give him the courtesy of consulting with them as to where the school was to be located. The result was, that he never gave anything more to the town, and finally moved away. Had the town fathers been wise and humble enough to grant him this slight consideration, his benefactions to the town might have continued for many more years. As it was, they killed the “goose that laid the golden eggs,” and the town was the loser.

When Mrs. Eddy wrote in this letter that she was calling the Directors' attention to an important point, she knew that she was setting forth a procedure that would influence future boards, since it is quite natural to expect that those who do a great deal for our Cause, will desire to have some say as to how matters in the organization shall be administered.

Mrs. Eddy might easily have taken the opposite stand, and asserted that if a man was not willing to make a gift to the church without attaching strings to it, it were better to refuse it; but she did not. Here was the gift of an organ to which no strings had been attached; but the donor was dissatisfied with the organist. It was the official duty and office of the Directors to select the organist. Yet Mrs. Eddy saw fit to let Mr. Metcalf take entire charge of selecting another. In this way she established a policy which is destined to be far-reaching in its effects, since situations of this nature are constantly arising in the Cause. Evi­dently Mrs. Eddy felt that when a man or a woman makes a generous contribu­tion to our Movement, he or she is entitled to some consideration, since it may help to keep alive an active interest, and to encourage more gifts.

Mr. Metcalf was undoubtedly a man of good taste, and one who was as competent to select an organist as the Directors. At any rate he would seek the ­advice of some recognized musician, thus insuring a satisfactory choice. The chances were very slight that he would hire an inferior artist. As a matter of fact he might have selected one who commanded more salary than the Directors felt they could pay. In that case, being a wealthy man, he might pay the difference in salary out of appreciation for the consideration shown him, and in this way the church enjoy music of a higher grade than otherwise. Such a situation might occur in a branch church, with the same possibility of good.

It is obvious that this policy approved of and followed by our Leader, would operate for the benefit of our organization, and result in a larger measure of generosity being shown our churches by those interested. Mr. Slater might have continued to give to the town of Norwich for many years, had it been followed by the town fathers. Yet, it is a procedure that Mrs. Eddy would never have recommended being carried to an extreme. It might be argued that it would have done the people of Norwich more good to have had to pay for their own land and buildings; yet in the long run, they never would have been able to afford such artistic or enduring structures as Mr. Slater donated; nor would they have had the interest to do so.

Mrs. Eddy's policies were always plus demonstration. She might recommend a work-able and intelligent human policy; yet students might make mistakes in following it, — mistakes which she never would have made, since she never acted in any direction without demonstration.

Once a wealthy member of our local branch church came to my son con­fidentially, and declared that she wished to contribute five thousand dollars toward the redecoration of the interior of the edifice. She said she would make the gift on the condition that she be permitted to select the color scheme. In­stead of chiding her for putting strings on her gift (which he felt tempted to do), my son thanked her in behalf of the church. Then he prayed to make a demonstra­tion of the matter, with the result, that when the recommendation of the committee formed to confer with the decorator, was presented to the Board of Trustees, it was found to agree exactly with the color scheme stipulated by the donor. Thus demonstration worked out a very delicate situation to the satisfaction of all. Had the Trustees been informed as to the limitation that accompanied this member's offer, they might have turned it down, feeling that her attitude was an infringe­ment on their province; but when the recommendation of the committee was found to agree with what the donor desired, the entire matter worked out harmoniously.

The possibility existed, that this lady without being put under the action of demonstration, might have selected a poor color scheme; whereas under it, both her taste and the taste of the committee were good. Man's taste is funda­mentally good until it temporarily becomes bad under the action of animal magnetism. When that is handled, his good taste returns to him.

Mrs. Eddy did not make the policy set forth in this letter a matter of a By­-law in the Manual, because it was not one that could be followed on every occasion; but by following it in this instance, she made sure that future boards would know how her thought inclined.

Another wealthy member of our local church once gave generously to the treasury, and then made it known that he would like the church to contribute to the support of certain indigent members. The church refused to do this, be­cause such action would have established a precedent which was out of harmony with Christian Science. In an emergency a branch church may give temporary financial aid to a member, but no branch church should ever assume to support poor members merely because they happen to be members. This wealthy member was offended, however, because what he thought was a reasonable request was refused. It would have solved the problem, had he been temporarily appointed to distribute funds as an emergency measure.

Mrs. Eddy left a pregnant example for her followers in her loving considera­tion for others. Here was a member who did something for the church; he gave the organ. She felt that as a result the church owed him consideration. There­fore, she had him made a committee of one to select an organist, and she directed that he be sent a kind respectful letter.

Mrs. Eddy was punctilious in taking her limited time to write with her own hand, letters of appreciation to those who bestowed gifts on her and the church. Often she received things that she cared little about; students sent presents that only added to her burden. Yet, she appreciated the love that motivated them — ­the desire to support and cooperate with her. So, in the midst of pressing duties she took time to write letters of gratitude such as this one.

Had students understood Mrs. Eddy's situation, they might have refrained from doing many things and from making gifts, lest they obligate her to write even one unnecessary letter; yet, so all-wise is the law of Love in compensating for human woe and toil, that today these thousands of letters remain to constitute a supplementary teaching to Science and Health, and to give a knowledge of the practical application of its instruction as our Leader applied it, that is of such priceless value, as to cause one to feel that the precious moments she spent in writing such letters each day were not wasted. In one such letter written to Mrs. Nixon, dated December 21, 1892, she writes that she could trust God to guide her poor pen. If this be true, today we can trust that the contents of these letters remain as inspirational teaching from God. She wrote, “I know not why I write as I am writing....But I can trust the God that succors me in battle against all the world, to guide my poor pen.”

Mrs. Eddy's letters reveal as nothing else could, her thought processes, and they will remain to bless students down through the centuries, just as have St. Paul's epistles. A sample of such a letter was written on December 3, 1897, to Mrs. Harriet Betts, and Mr. Sim, the Readers in Troy, N. Y. Later they presented the letter to the church, and today it may be read by all, since it hangs framed on the walls of the edifice.

It is as follows:


“Beloved Students: Your excellent letters were duly re­ceived, and each day thereafter I tried to find moments in which to answer them. Today is my very first opportunity. I rejoice to read a notice of the dedication of your chapel pending the erection of a church.

“Your quiet, efficient labors specially commended themselves to me. I hope the Church shows are now over. I saw the advantage of giving emphasis to the Chicago dedication; beyond this I recommend to all Churches to give no publicity and particularly no public pictures of their Churches. It is too com­mercial, too cheap looking, too little like things that come in the course to stay, and too much like a surprise that one can have a church edifice. These have always been my views on this subject. I feel so even in regard to The Mother Church, although that is an exception to all others.

“In His light you have all models, all example, and this light is for the illumination of all taste, culture, scholarship, morals, physics, and metaphysics. A Christian Scientist is as much perfected in the above whole, or in any part of those. My desire and prayer is, ‘Father, make them perfect even as thou art perfect.' Give my love to your dear church, lead thou its members into light. With love, Mother, M. Baker Eddy.”


This letter finds a parallel in Mrs. Eddy's remarks to her household on May 21, 1903: “The true Science — divine Science — will be lost sight of again unless we arouse ourselves. This demonstrating to make matter build up is not Science. The building up of churches, the writing of articles and the speaking in public is the old way of building up a Cause. The way I brought this Cause into sight was through healing; and now these other things would come in and hide it, just as was done in the time of Jesus. Now this Cause must be saved and I pray God to be spared for this work.”

Man's ability to tap the divine source of all knowledge, represents all that man knows or ever will need to know, that is real or important. Mrs. Eddy's rebukes to her students were not so much for acts of commission as omission. She did not rebuke material activity, so much as spiritual inactivity. She rebuked the building up of churches through human ways and means, because it showed the absence of the spiritual modus which builds up through healing. When she wrote, “I hope the church shows are now over,” she was indicating that growth in numbers, in the amount of literature distributed, etc., is not growth. Spiritual growth alone commends itself to God. Material activity may be the expression of spiritual activity, or of spiritual inactivity. Mrs. Eddy encouraged spiritual activity; and then she knew that the expression of that would be right, and not deceptive.

In her home Mrs. Eddy told students that Christian Scientists should be the best in every direction, because under demonstration one reflects divine Mind. Mrs. Eddy's letter to Mrs. Betts and Mr. Sim tells us that under demonstration one will express good taste in all things, show forth the best culture, represent the finest scholarship, and the highest standard of morality. The implication is, that demonstration should provide a student with a preparation for being a Reader that would satisfy the most critical listener, without recourse to instruc­tion from elocution teachers. While it is important for a Reader to read in a way that will not cause criticism from the public, the finest and only consistent way for a Scientist to attain such proficiency, is through the method taught by his religion.

This letter to the Readers in Troy sets a high standard for students, and shows what measure of good will become theirs, under the illumination of meta­physics. It carries demonstration beyond the narrow limits of its application to sick folk, and answers the question of whether students who feel a lack of culture, should take courses with human teachers to supply that need. A right demonstra­tion of divine Mind will bring a student a well rounded experience, and enable him to bring forth a standard of scholarship, culture, taste, etc., that will measure up to what the world believes to be the best. In fact, it should surpass it. Thus in this letter Mrs. Eddy puts the mark of a lack of demonstration on those who feel that it is essential to use human means to attain proficiency along these lines. Yet, where the spiritual way is not employed, human means should be used.




(Rec'd October 29, 1898)

I hereby appoint for Lecturers for the Pacific Coast F. J. Fluno, M. D., C. S. D., of Oakland, California, and A. A. Sulcer, M. D., C. S., of Riverside, California.

Mary Baker Eddy


When Mrs. Eddy made an appointnent of any kind, her sure touch was proof of the breadth of her utilization of demonstration. It is to be expected, that as her followers learn of such incidents in her life, they will be impelled to follow her example. This would always be the case, were it not for the obstacle that animal magnetism puts forth to prevent it. This obstacle is the suggestion that leadership involves certain natural qualities and abilities that followers neither possess, nor can they ever develop. Those who accept such a suggestion, are blinded to the fact that a leader in Christian Science is merely one who manifests the larger possibilities of a correct demonstration of Truth that is open to all to make.

Unless this suggestion of error is met, which carries a sense of hopelessness and discouragement as far as following Mrs. Eddy in her demonstration is con­cerned, her life will fail to be the strong impulsion to everyone to go and do like­wise, that it should be. It would help to meet this error, if the world of Christian Scientists were alert to appreciate, that as the Leader Mrs. Eddy was manifesting her conscious and developed demonstration of Christian Science based on the methods set forth in Science and Health, rather than her natural reflection of it.

There have been blind pianists who were “naturals”; they appeared to be born with the ability to play. Yet, if such a one should strive to forget all that he knew naturally, and study some approved method, it would be difficult for another to determine whether he was playing according to his natural ability, or the approved method he was learning. To listen to him as a “natural” would discourage anyone from attempting to attain a similar ability. To listen to him as to one who has learned through an understood method, would encourage another to believe that he might follow in like achievement.

Mrs. Eddy was not an example for her followers, from the standpoint of being a natural Christian Scientist; but she made it plain that what she brought forth through demonstration, we can and must bring forth, and that in her rela­tion to us as our example, she was the demonstrator; hence we have no excuse for not following her.

There was another point involved in being the example that she had to take into consideration, and that was the possibility of students failing in demon­stration in certain directions, and then using her seeming failure in the same direction as their excuse or alibi. Specifically there was the question of age which she admitted that she had not met successfully. It was to Irving Tomlinson that she wrote on April 15, 1899, “I see His hand resting in this hour, and that my need, not the churches', is what should be regarded, till I have overcome mental malpractice and age, but which I am not given time sufficient to attend to as I need.”

Also on April 26, 1905, she said to Calvin Hill: “The first thing I do in the morning when I awake, is to declare I shall have no other mind before divine Mind, and become fully conscious of this and then the evil cannot touch me. I have done it, but am a poor specimen of preservation. But the greatest miracle of the age is that I am alive.”

When Calvin Frye was President of The Mother Church in 1916, his ad­dress at the Annual Meeting was a beautiful tribute to his Leader. Among other things he quoted her as having said to him, “Tell my followers that this is not a natural result with me (referring to the effects of age), but this is the work of malicious animal magnetism which I do not seem to have overcome.”

There were many members who, hearing these words, were troubled be­cause they believed that they were an admission of failure in demonstration on the part of the Leader of Christian Science, and should not have been made public. Actually in these words she was giving encouragement to her followers, so that they would not feel down-hearted in their work against the claim of age, merely because she was not more successful herself in this one direction. She wished to indicate to the Field that the results of age which she manifested, were not natural effects which appear in the lives of all mortals, but were suggestions which came from the hatred of the world arrayed against the Truth, which she was unable to banish completely.

If a student should feel discouraged in his work against age, as if to say, “How can I expect to make this demonstration, when one like Mrs. Eddy, who was so far beyond me spiritually, was unable to make it?”, he would surely fail, since his work would lack that expectancy which alone makes successful demonstration possible. Practitioners do not heal, when they do not expect to heal. We accomplish that which we expect to accomplish.

Mrs. Eddy did not wish her experience to have such an effect on her fol­lowers, so she made an explanation, as if to say that God did not permit her to take the opportunity to work for herself exclusively, because there was so much else that had to be done in the short time at her disposal. It was the measure of malicious thought aimed against her, which prevented her from taking enough time to overcome age. To paraphrase the matter we can think of Mrs. Eddy as saying, “My children, as I endeavored to cut out my paper patterns, it rained so hard that it became difficult for me to do what otherwise would have been a simple task. I beg you not to let my experience in this direction discourage you, since you will be privileged to cut out your patterns where you will have more shelter.”

The weight of outside error that was constantly knocking at Mrs. Eddy's door, gave her all she could do. The Cause took so much of her attention, that she did not have the time to care for herself as she should. She was like the proverbial shoemaker, whose children go around barefoot. He is so busy making shoes for the children of others, that he has no time to make them for his own. Mrs. Eddy was so busy protecting the Cause from animal magnetism (which she did successfully with God's help), that she had to neglect herself to some degree; but that were no reason for her followers neglecting themselves, even as they work for others and the world.

Mrs. Eddy made the explanation in regard to age so that her followers would not be deterred in their own efforts. She did not wish a suggestion of failure to enter their minds because of her experience, and so to discourage them from making a demonstration which otherwise they would and should make. In like manner, when she taught the Primary Class in November, 1888, she made an explanation as to why she found it necessary to wear glasses at times, so that her followers would not submit without resistance to the demand for glasses, with the excuse that the Leader had to wear them. It is but fair for me to state, that more than once, during the year I lived at Pleasant View, Mrs. Eddy called us to her and showed us that she could read the fine print in a magazine without her glasses. We were always very much gratified at this exhibition of her demonstration. Once she said to my wife, “I have three pairs of glasses, but when I have my spiritual sight, I do not need them.”

In 1888 she made the explanation that when she was healed in 1866, she was healed of the need of wearing glasses. Before that time she had worn a pair, the weakest that could be made. Later she was caught by a trick. Her naturally sensitive thought shrank from facing the public; so one time when she was asked to speak in public, Satan tempted her to resort to a means of saving herself. She found by putting on glasses that they shut out the audience, and made speaking easier for her. Then suddenly she found that she could see through them as she had done before she had been healed; and from that time on she found the need of using them at times. In this class of 1888 she declared that glasses were a double lie; that the trouble was back of that — that we used the eye to see with at all. But she said that it was the lesser of two evils to use them and to do one's work well, than not to use them and to slight one's work. She said, “If anyone in this room believes that he has good eyesight and is seeing with his eyes, he is in a worse position than the ones who are having to prove their spiritual sight — that the eye really does not see at all. Sight made the eye — ­the eye did not make the sight! Every Scientist should dispense with glasses.”

Mrs. Eddy's appointment of Dr. Sulcer and Dr. Fluno as lecturers is an in­teresting touch. By referring to the list of the members of the class of 70 taught on November 20, 1898, we find Dr. Sulcer's name included.

Dr. Fluno was a member of Mrs. Eddy's household during part of the year I was in her home. One interesting incident I recall is, that when he was seventy years old, he sent Mrs. Eddy three lectures for her approval. She turned down one of them, declaring that the public was not ready for it. She said that he must not give it for twenty years. The question assailed him as to whether he would be lecturing when he was ninety years old, but he did not doubt. He was able to give the lecture as Mrs. Eddy directed him. It was called, “Christian Science: Pure Metaphysics,” and was printed in pamphlet form in 1917.

Mrs. Eddy's commissioning him to give this lecture twenty years hence, helped him to prolong his earthly span of usefulness, since it created in him an expectancy of a long and useful life, by realizing that his Leader knew he was going to live and be useful for such a long time. Whatever creates in us an ex­pectancy of doing a thing enables us to do it, since in Science we do what we know we can do. What we cannot do, is only that which we fear or believe we cannot do.

Mrs. Eddy saw that it was impressive to have a man who was thoroughly versed in medical practice, turn to Christian Science. In the early days the im­pression prevailed that Christian Scientists were a crazy lot. Hence when a reputable minister or doctor adopted it, it was a great help in creating a public respect for its teachings.

A doctor is supposed to be one who can diagnose disease, and really determine when people are sick, as well as when they are healed. The public is not apt to believe that a doctor would give up a practice where he occasion­ally healed the sick, for one where no healing was possible. Neither would he adopt a method of healing like Christian Science, if it healed only minor ills or those wholly imaginary, the sort of things which would disappear, even if they had no medical attention.

Both ministers and doctors are known to be highly educated men. Hence, wherever it was possible, Mrs. Eddy included them in such a way, that the public would see that Christian Science appealed to these professional men, as well as to the layman.

Mrs. Eddy knew that when a doctor investigated a case healed in Christian Science, and accepted it as veritable, his verdict would satisfy a layman. A layman might believe a case to be healed when it was not, but a doctor cannot be fooled in this way — such is the popular thought. So the ministers and the doctors served our Leader well, even if they might not always have been so spiritually minded as she wished. What they declared, had weight with the public, and that was the important thing.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

October 30, 1898

My beloved Students:

The Missionary Board is to be dissolved and the By-law annulled at your next meeting and left out of your Manual. Why? I saw at a glance on receipt of proceedings how it would be prolific of discord. Missionaries are needed in the field but Mother had better recommend the ones adapted to it — to the work — to go where they are needed, and then leave it to them to decide whether or not they are willing. “God loveth the willing cheerful consent.” Your prompt kind return to Readership I appreciate.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


Under the By-law relating to missionaries, students could be arbitrarily moved by the Church from place to place, and Mrs. Eddy saw this procedure as a possible opening for error. She realized that it required the greatest delicacy in demonstrating, to let wisdom determine who was ready to be appointed to this post, because of his preparedness and willingness. Even though the By-law required that the Directors appoint these missionaries in consultation with her, still she saw that many students would be far more willing to make a move if she directed them to than if the Board of Directors informed them that they must.

The Field was coming to see that Mrs. Eddy's demonstration of an appoint­ment meant that the candidate was selected by God. When God gives the word, one will let nothing stand in the way of obedience, if one is wise; but if one is appointed by the Directors, and doubts if they have made a demonstration, what is he going to do? Must he cooperate with human opinion? Yet obedience to the Board is a discipline enjoined by our heavenly Father for the good of every student.

Christian Scientists must follow where God leads, or make a shipwreck of their faith. Had Noah not built his ark at the divine direction, he and his family would have been destroyed. Yet, on the spot where he built it, there seemed to be no possibility of a flood. We save our lives by being obedient, not by “kicking against the pricks.”

When Mrs. Eddy instructed a student to go out as a missionary, it was not a question of personality, but of recognizing her appointment as God's demand. Hence, if a student felt that the Directors, in appointing him to some post, had made the same demonstration to hear God's voice that Mrs. Eddy did, he would go with the same obedient willingness and alacrity, that he would show toward the demand if she made it.

When Mrs. Eddy asserted that her guidance came from God, most students were willing to obey her orders. When the Directors were able to give to the Field a measure of the same assurance, there would be no question on the part of the majority of students of a willingness to obey. Hence, it was natural for them to refrain from moving, until they were convinced that God moved them. In order to bring forth willing obedience, the Board had to strive in every way to let God govern them.

Mrs. Eddy knew that the missionaries, in order to be successful, could not do their work merely as a matter of form or compulsion. To be effective, mis­sionary work must spring from the heart. If the mental work one does for a com­munity or the world is done perfunctorily or unwillingly, it is not effective. It requires the attitude on the part of the worker, which springs from the realiza­tion that he has a wonderful gift which he desires to share with the needy, and to use to free the world from error.

The conception of missionaries in Christian Science is an important one, and points to the very pith of its teachings; but like all great ideas, it is subject to abuse. Workers in any branch church would be tempted to rebel at having a stranger come into their midst, and tell them how to function properly, unless such a one was impelled by the spirit of our Master. The workers who needed a missionary to straighten them out, would be in a rebellious and touchy mood by the very nature of the error to which they had yielded. Had they been more amenable, they would not have been so apt to fall into the error in the first place. There should be a number of good workers in every branch church, who know Science well enough to be able to help the rest of the membership to function properly. Therefore, if the situation reaches a point where it calls for a missionary, it is plain that the correction will require much tact and love. For an outsider to come into such a situation and assume authority in order to straighten it out, might make matters worse. It is hard to believe that an entire branch church can fall into error, when one realizes the amount of instruction Mrs. Eddy has provided for her followers, and the fact that members have teachers, practi­tioners and the Directors to appeal to for help; and in 1898 they had Mrs. Eddy to write to for instruction.

The post of missionary required one to strive to correct a very delicate situation. One not selected by wisdom could make the situation worse. It was not a question of feeling that it would be better to have God select the mission­ary; but of realizing that if He did not, things would be made worse.

The idea of having missionaries was an excellent one. Mrs. Eddy had many fine ideas come to her through demonstration, but the Field often failed her, because they did not do the work necessary to select their candidates through inspiration.

Mrs. Eddy never failed to emphasize at all times the need of demonstration in selecting candidates. I often repeat the practical lesson she taught me in this direction, when she rejected a list of candidates for First Reader sent her by the Directors, with the comment, “Entirely unsuitable.” She did not take time to consider a single individual. This indicated that she had nothing against any one name on the list; but recognized that none had been selected by demonstra­tion. Hence, they were not acceptable to her, and should not have been to the organization.

The importance of this lesson becomes apparent when it is learned that, unless they are constantly reminded or driven to make selections of candidates for membership and office by demonstration, students are apt to fall into slack ways, and to content themselves with human judgment.

Let us consider a man as a candidate for the position of First Reader. He dresses well; he has had a good education; he gives clear and helpful testi­monies in the mid-week meetings. The membership assumes that he is the proper man for the position. Why is it necessary to go to God to find out whether he is the right man? Does any judgment of his suitability that is merely superficial, fill the bill? The important point in God's sight is, is he right mentally? Do the meditations of his heart correspond with the words of his mouth? Mortals judge by externals, but the Lord looketh on the heart, as the Bible says.

In order to have the candidate the right one, the inside as well as the out­side must be right. So it becomes necessary to gain a knowledge of the inside from God, since He alone can judge the heart. He alone knows if man's thoughts are what they should be.

Mrs. Eddy's letter concerning the Missionary Board merely illustrates another of those sad experiences that came to her, when she realized how slack her students were apt to be, in carrying out what she had so faithfully enjoined upon them, regarding the only way to select candidates for a position.

It would sadden Mrs. Eddy at any era of her Cause, if the Directors should assume that they could select students for office, merely by knowing the words of their mouth, without finding out from God the nature of the meditations of their heart. Let us assume that an individual was elected to the Board of Directors whose thought was not right concerning Mrs. Eddy herself and her place in the Cause. One who was prejudiced against the Founder could never be trusted faithfully to follow her in all her ways. He would no doubt strive to follow out what he thought was best, and to influence his fellow members to do likewise, but without sufficient regard for what Mrs. Eddy laid down as the way. No one would honestly seek to follow out what she wished or demanded, unless he was convinced that what she enjoined came as orders from God. Under a cloud of prejudice against Mrs. Eddy, no Director could honestly believe that she con­stantly functioned under divine wisdom; hence he would not strive to learn and to follow her plan in full.

If selection of candidates by demonstration could not be brought about more successfully than it was, with Mrs. Eddy present, — teaching, admonishing and insisting upon it, — certainly when she is no longer present, her followers need to be exceedingly watchful, lest they fall down on this essential point. Here in 1898 we find her giving up an important activity, because the Directors were not to be trusted to recommend suitable candidates.

It would cause a serious deterioration in our Leader's standard, if the custom should ever prevail of appointing candidates, without ascertaining from God the meditations of their hearts. It may be assumed that her followers will always long to do right, and to follow what she desired. Therefore, an effort must be made constantly to set before the Field through admonitions and articles what her standard was. If her standard is kept before the people, they will be without excuse, if they fail to follow it.

Future generations must know what the Founder wanted, since the Cause, to be successful, must carry out her wishes, for without exception she desired only God's will.

To sum up, why did Mrs. Eddy direct that the By-law in regard to the Mis­sionary Board be annulled? Because the appointment of the members of the Board was not being made through demonstration! This simply means that the Directors did not appoint those whom God told them to. The situation was a delicate one, requiring tact and love on the part of the one moved into the Field that needed help. If animated by these qualities, the missionary could be of enormous help; but if man's selection was put in rather than God's, he or she would be an influence for bad rather than good, since no one is to be trusted unless God so indicates.

Thus it came about that Mrs. Eddy had to reserve for herself the appointing of the missionaries. They had to have an individual willingness to take up the work, since one accomplishes nothing for God, unless what he does, he does willingly. When the meditations of one's heart are right, he is willing to do what God asks of him.

Sometimes the fear of being unable to do what God demands of one, rises up to limit endeavor. One lacks faith in himself. It should be recognized that when God calls upon one to perform a service, He can be depended upon to take care of him in the doing of the task. God never sends His child away from Himself!

When God gives the word to go, error argues either an unwillingness on the part of the individual, or a fear lest he cannot accomplish the task assigned. Thus Mrs. Eddy had to watch that those whom she selected had faith in themselves and were willing to go where she directed them. The perfect combination is God selecting, and man being willing. When that combination is functioning, only good can result.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

December 19, 1898

C. S. Board of Directors

Beloved Students:

This question of churches opening up around Boston is one to be deeply considered, and you should look to God for guidance in its sacred interest.

If The Mother Church is full in the A.M. on Sundays and the dear little churches would relieve her of this surplus so she need have but one service — would it not be a good thing, provided, the churches in the suburbs of Boston only take from our church those that come from the suburbs to attend it?

Be careful and not monopolize the reading of our textbooks, the Bible and Science & Health. I want to encourage the building of all the church edifices that can be built; and the organization of as many churches as do not interfere with each others' interest, but rather promote it. Read this letter in your church meeting called for discussing this subject.

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy


Here we learn exactly how Mrs. Eddy regarded the Sunday afternoon or evening service. It was her stipulation that the second service in a branch church should always be an overflow from the morning service, as the Manual indicates. It is old theology that argues that if one person desires to attend the second service, it should be held, since the church is a place where souls are saved; hence, if one soul is saved, the holding of the service is justified. The matter of a second service, however, was something Mrs. Eddy had to leave each church to decide for itself.

Children play the game hunt the thimble; the mother plays a piano and directs a child by loud or soft playing. When the child finally finds the thimble, it feels pleased; yet, it is the mother at the piano who is responsible for the thimble being found.

Mrs. Eddy wished her church to follow out God's plan in all things. At the same time, in order for the members to grow, they had to be called upon to make decisions based on their own reflection of wisdom, rather than Mrs. Eddy's.

Mrs. Eddy could reflect at any point the knowledge of God's will and plan for her church. Hence, she knew the answer to the question as to churches opening up around Boston. Furthermore, the final plan established would be her plan. Yet, behold her wisdom in dealing with the students! She stood by, encouraging them to listen for God's guidance, and greatly approving as they approached the right plan or decision.

It was possible for the students to tell how near they were to the right action, or how far from it, by heeding Mrs. Eddy's words of approval or rebuke. One might assert, therefore, that it was she who was really making all decisions. At the same time it was God's wisdom that guided her to handle the students in such a way, that they had the impression that they were responsible for much that was done that was wise. It was necessary that the students feel this way, in order for them to give whole-hearted support to all that was done; otherwise they might sit back and criticize what they did not approve of. Had all the decisions obvi­ously emanated from Mrs. Eddy, — such is the perversity of the human mind — they would not all have been given the whole-hearted support they needed.

One might think it strange that students were tempted at times to believe that Mrs. Eddy could be trusted in spiritual matters, but that when it came to matters of business she was lacking. Yet even today her followers have need to guard against this temptation, lest they fail to perceive that in all her ways she was divinely guided.

In her memoirs Julia S. Bartlett relates the following:


“In the year 1889, when our teacher had decided to close the Massachusetts Metaphysical College at the height of its prosperity, there were those among her students who did not see the wisdom of this move, and three of the number consulted as to what should be done. One of these was considered a successful business man, another was a general of Civil War fame, and the third was our Pastor. They said as far as spiritual things were concerned, that there was no question as to our teacher's judgment and ability, but in matters of business it was not expected she would understand; and to close the College when a large number were only waiting the opportunity to enter, was to them a great mistake, and they decided it was their duty to go to Concord, and advise her what to do.

“Accordingly on the day appointed the three men went to 62 North State Street, where Mrs. Eddy then resided, and asked to see her. They were told she was busy, but would see them soon. When she entered the room, she sat down and had a few minutes conversation with them, which opened their eyes and their understanding. When she was through, she turned to one and asked what it was he wished to see her about. He hesitated, not knowing what to say, and replied, ‘Oh, nothing in particular.' The other two said the same thing. When they related this occurrence to me, they said that they would have been glad, had the floor opened and let them down out of sight. Their own lack was uncovered, and they were ashamed of the step they had taken. Surely ‘the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God.'”


Mrs. Eddy no doubt knew that these three men had come to challenge what they believed was a step not in accord with the divine plan. She also knew that scientifically speaking, everyone of God's children is amenable to His plan, recognizes it and wants to see it fulfilled. Hence if a disagreement appeared, the dissipation of the mist, or darkness of error, would be all that was needed. She saw the situation and applied the remedy. The result was that these three men immediately found themselves in unity with their Leader, in a desire to have the Cause governed in every direction by the wisdom of God, rather than by the experienced judgment of men.

Mrs. Eddy perceived the temptation on the part of students to believe that her business judgment was not sound, as though God was not a God of business — not a smart God, as she once said. So from time to time she did what she could to prove that God was a smart business God, that her followers might perceive that the reflection of God carried the best possible business judgment, as well as an understanding of legal matters.

The lesson to be learned is, that when human opinion disagrees with in­spiration (as it always does), it must be dissipated by inspiration, since it is an impersonal claim that belongs to no one. If a friend should come to your home followed by a strange dog, you would cast the dog out. Just because the dog had attached itself to your friend, would not mean that it belonged to him. Thus the opinions of animal magnetism, no matter where they are voiced, or by whom, are never part of man. If you are alert to realize this, you will do as Mrs. Eddy did in this instance, and use demonstration to send such opinions into “limbo” from whence they come.

No human explanation by Mrs. Eddy as to why she closed her college, has ever come to my attention. Perhaps it was revealed to her that it was not the wisest thing for a student's growth, to have the work that would enable him to understand the deeper things of God, done in his behalf by another — a work which he must do for himself. The rule in Science that one must obtain is, that one may be helped by another to lay his own foundation. Then he can build on that foundation; but he should be required to erect his own superstructure.

Mrs. Eddy's teaching in the college proved, that there was a mode of demonstration that would open the minds of mature students to the higher revelations of Science, which they had not grown to perceive through their own efforts. After she had proved this, she may have hoped that there would be no more such teaching, since it does not represent the best growth for the Field to be taught the “meat” of Science. She saw the need of primary teaching, — ­the dispensing of “milk,” — however, since through it a student gains a certain standing in the Field that enlarges his opportunities for service, and also an association with a teacher and his students which becomes mutually helpful. Primary teaching gives “milk” to babes and helps to point out the right path, as well as to foster the incentive to walk in that path.

When one learns that Mrs. Eddy was governed by inspiration in all her ways, he knows that whatever matter came under her attention, whether it was the closing of her college, or the building of churches in and around Boston, received inspirational handling. Each item was directed by the intelligence of God rather than of man. Thus our Leader proved that all the ways of a good man are ordered by the Lord. When she sat down to write a letter, even if she made no specific demonstration at the moment, the letter came from God; therefore it had an application, use and purpose that will extend throughout time.

It is said that grains of wheat found in the tombs of the Pharaohs, will germinate, even though they were grown thousands of years ago. The material from our Leader's pen that has been preserved in the archives, will never lose its power to bear fruit.

When Mrs. Eddy wrote, “Be careful and not monopolize the reading of our textbooks, the Bible and Science & Health,” it was, of course, with the recogni­tion that the smallest churches have the same service as the largest. This being so, the temptation to attend a service in a large church because one might gain more good from it than from attendance in a small church, would have no weight, provided the small church had devoted, consecrated readers, who made the demonstration to put inspiration into their reading. There is an important point, however, which Mrs. Eddy must have considered, and that is, that numbers count as far as the public is concerned. They believe that numbers indicate success, and they always want to be found following what is successful. When a movement appears to be successful because of numbers, many people flock to it, merely that they may partake of its prosperity, and be in style.

The Mother Church has an import that no branch church has. It represents the dignity and center of our Movement, as well as its growth and success. Hence, it would not be desirable for small churches around Boston to make inroads on its attendance, since Mrs. Eddy wished it always to be well attended.

On the other hand, she was warning the members against the supposition that The Mother Church could put forth a service, that in point of excellence could not be emulated by a small branch church. One excellent feature of the organization Mrs. Eddy founded, is that the same service in all its high quality may be found in every branch, where the demonstration is made to have it so.

It was significant for Mrs. Eddy in this letter to call the Bible and Science and Health, our textbooks. There was a point in the development of Science, when many students were tempted to conclude that Science and Health replaced the Bible, since in the textbook was contained the sure and complete way of salvation. Actually these two textbooks corroborate each other. Both are essen­tial, since one unlocks the treasures of the other. They are like two wings on a bird, or the two candlesticks mentioned in Zechariah. Both are essential.

Mrs. Eddy stated that she wanted to encourage the building of as many church edifices as could be built. She knew that each branch would comprise a group of students who would have every opportunity to broaden their use of demonstration, in the various ways that an active member is given work to do. At the same time, remembering that the church is all the public has to indicate the growth of and interest in our Movement, she did not want poorly attended services to be held anywhere.

Mrs. Eddy knew the correct answers to the questions propounded in this letter, but she desired the Directors to give them free discussion, with the hope that they, of themselves, would arrive at the right conclusions. If they did, she would know that thought was being carried on the spiritual side, and that the demonstrators in her church were alive and awake to their obligations. On the other hand, if their deductions were not scientific, she would know that it pointed to a deadness of thought which would call for further effort on her part to correct.

A father will place his son in the family business, hoping that the boy will learn to carry it on, so that the father may gradually retire. Every indication of sound judgment on the part of the son, pleases the father; whereas he is sad when the boy indicates that his judgment is still infantile, since it means that the father still has work to do and responsibilities to meet which he had hoped soon to lay upon his son's shoulders.

Mrs. Eddy watched her Boston students who held responsible positions, in much the same way. She moved to Concord because she felt that the students could carry on without her. She returned to Boston because she found that this was not the fact. I feel that she passed from our sight without having gained the actual assurance that her demonstration would be perpetuated in the Cause, apart from her faith in God's disposal of all things.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

January 1st, 1899

C. S. Board of Directors

My beloved Students:

Have Mr. Johnson call a church meeting and read this to the brethren, as my special desire. Make no refusals to reasonably advertise C. S. Churches for loyal Christian Scientists. Explain to them the reason for not having too many societies and but one church in small towns, and the churches not too near The Mother Church. Ask the applicants for advertising to consider this. Then at your church meeting decide the distance to be maintained be­tween The Mother Church or Boston and the churches outside of Boston proper. Have all done in love, unity and fellowship with each church. This is Mother's request.

With love,

Yours in Christ

M. B. Eddy


At no point could Mrs. Eddy function without divine guidance. One reason for this lay in the fact that the whole plan is known only to divine Mind; the individual never sees more than a part of it at any given time. Since we cannot hope to know the whole plan until our individual task is completed, it follows that in order to work successfully, we must continually refer to the One who does know the whole, just as workmen on a building must receive instructions from the foreman, who has a complete set of blueprints.

Did Mrs. Eddy make a distinction between the demands of God and her own highest judgment, when she stated, “This is Mother's request”? Surely she never put forth anything of her own intentionally. If she sent a request to the Board about which there was any doubt, she continued to work over the matter until God's way was unmistakable. What she was writing in this letter, however, was something to be executed without the Directors or members having the privilege of deciding whether it was wise or not.

Mrs. Eddy considered nothing too insignificant to employ divine power in its inception and promulgation. She was set against the use of the unaided human mind in any direction, because of its limited capacities, and because of the fact that it is the enemy of God. She recognized that it costs no more to use divine wisdom in whole, than it does in part; although to use it even in part means that one must pay the requisite price. Did she not write in Science and Health (p. 6), that “God is not separate from the wisdom He bestows”?

What is the price that must be paid for the use of divine wisdom? God demands of man service, in exchange for the use of His power. The only legiti­mate motive in employing demonstration, is to use it as God requires, namely, as part of the campaign to overcome all evil, and to set the world free. To illus­trate: A pilot is trained to fly a plane, in order that he may protect his country from invading foes; but when he uses the plane for his own convenience, — which he may be permitted to do in practice, — he must not forget that it is part of his training. Students have the privilege of using divine power in practice; but be­fore long they must enter the great battle where they use it to help free humanity from the illusion of evil. Mrs. Eddy never forgot that it cost something for the privilege of using divine intelligence and power. If one does not pay this price of service, he may ere long lose the privilege.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy says, “Have all done in love, unity and fellowship with each church.” These are qualities every student must manifest, if he desires to call himself a Christian Scientist. One who accepts an office in the organiza­tion, must call himself by that name; therefore, he is obligated to measure up to Mrs. Eddy's standard, which is set forth in the three words, “love, unity and fellowship.”

The incident covered by this letter is not important in comparison to the precedent that it establishes as to the way all church officers, as well as members, should function. The necessity for this precedent is made impressive by the fact, that Mrs. Eddy does not suggest that it might be advisable to have the matter done in “love, unity and fellowship.” She writes, “This is Mother's request.” It was something that she as God's representative demanded to be done.

Mrs. Eddy, knowing the characteristics of the human mind, foresaw that jealousy would have to be handled among churches as well as among members. A small group might envy a large one, while a large one might look down upon the small one. Even if the large group did not intentionally malpractice on the small one, it might regard it as having little worth, because of its lack of demon­stration or prestige. Mrs. Eddy did not want such a condition to exist in her Cause. She once declared, “When the Christian Scientists stop shooting at each other, the Cause will make some progress.” She knew that “love, unity and fellowship” were the antidote for the error that would claim to enter the picture, for the purpose of separating the brethren.

Protestantism has many weak churches which ought to unite, since they do not differ on fundamental doctrines to a point of irreconcilability; but they cannot unite, because they know nothing of the error that prevents “love, unity and fellowship.” In Science we understand this deterrent; so we are without excuse. Yet, this letter indicates that in general Mrs. Eddy's followers could not be trusted to demonstrate in church matters; she knew that gathered into groups they would not always manifest the Christian Science spirit. Therefore, she had to make this request, establish this precedent and give this antidote as the remedy. Had she felt that her more or less tried and true students could have been trusted to make this demonstration of oneness and love, she would not have considered it necessary to step into the picture; but she realized that they could not, and that their failure would be largely due to the old theological thought which they had not cast out after coming into Science.

Children are often sent to a school to learn to dance. This is done in order that they may acquire deportment and good manners. Mrs. Eddy through simple letters such as this one, taught her followers the general practice which would entitle them to stand before the world as Christian Scientists.

Mrs. Eddy's awareness of the method of error, which would strike at the “unity, love and fellowship” within the ranks of her organization, is evident in the following words which she spoke to a reporter sometime in the year 1901: “The method of error, to divide and conquer, prevails like an epidemic in the Field, and no office is high enough to be beyond its reach. That is why I have taken a hand in church affairs and intervened. I have been called a pope, but authority has been forced upon me by necessity. Why, the Board had five dear churches under discipline at one time, and to what end? Good people do not change at once from good to evil, any more than bad from evil to good. And who of us can cast the first stone? Our organization is made up of members, and if we do not understand this, must it not disappear from the face of the earth? Is it not simple? When one sees that Christian Science is the Way and the only way, he is ready for church membership, and there is no other requirement. Then one's ability to heal the sick through Christian Science, and this alone, shows his position as a Christian Scientist. Not the cries of Lord! Lord! not the bowing to ecclesiastical despotism; but by their fruits ye shall know them.”




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

February 6, 1899

To the C. S. Directors

My beloved Students:

The call from Littleton, N. H. for a lecturer is not a breach of church By-laws, when you carefully study all of them.

This call must be met, and in this manner. Have our dear brother McKenzie fill one of Mr. Tomlinson's appointments in Mass. and send Rev. Tomlinson to Littleton. As he has gone to the capital of our state to work for C.S., he should do the lecturing in N. H. This will be best for our cause.

With love,

Mother and teacher,

M. Baker Eddy

P. S. Write to Mr. Tomlinson this that I have written to you and inform Mr. McKenzie also of it at once.

Eddy


The Cause grew so quickly that it was not possible to continue the procedure started by Mrs. Eddy, namely, of meeting a call for a lecture with one especially fitted to the need of the community in question; but it was a good idea.

Another custom of our Leader's which might well be emulated, was her consideration for small communities. Apparently she gave this call from Littleton more attention than she would have given a call from a large city.

Mrs. Eddy herself was born in a small community. She knew that people in rural sections have a more positive attitude toward religion, than the inhabitants of the big cities. The latter become careless about such matters. It was evident to her that a man like Mr. Tomlinson, who had been a minister and then turned to Christian Science, would have a great deal of influence in a town like Littleton, even if he was not as brilliant a lecturer as another might have been.

Mrs. Eddy was interested in small places. Our Master worked in small localities. There people are more individual, and less swayed by mass thought. Yet, the day came when Mrs. Eddy wrote the advice found on page 82 of Retrospection and Introspection, “At this period my students should locate in large cities, in order to do the greatest good to the greatest number, and therein abide.” She knew that in the long run large cities offered a bigger field for action and greater opportunity for healing the sick; despite the fact that when those in small communities became interested in Christian Science, they were apt to be more steadfast and ardent than those from crowded areas.

Many of the great men in the history of our nation have sprung from small communities. Their early upbringing may have been a contributing factor to their greatness, in which they had less in the way of distracting amusements, and more need of assuming responsibilities at an early age.

It is helpful to find Mrs. Eddy so aware of this call for a lecturer, considering all the aspects of the situation, checking it with the By-laws, and finding it so important that she was willing to change the schedules of the speakers, in order to send to a small town the one best fitted. The lecturers should know of this aspect of Mrs. Eddy's thought, lest they be tempted to look with more or less scorn on the urban, unschooled communities which comprise such a large portion of their itinerary. Our small communities are important, and they should be furnished with the best lecturers we have to offer. The very people in small towns that they may be tempted to look down upon, may make better Christian Scientists in the long run, than dwellers in large cities, who are more sophisti­cated and highly educated.

It is also good to know that apparently there was a strain put upon the By-­laws, to meet this call for a lecturer, but that Mrs. Eddy declared that there would be no breach, when they were all carefully studied. Our By-laws must be taken as a whole. One cannot be selected to operate without reference to the rest. It was a helpful precept Mrs. Eddy laid down, namely, that each By-law must always be taken in conjunction with the whole.

In this instance she stated that what appeared to be a breach of one, was not contrary to the intent of the whole. Mrs. Eddy said in my hearing that the Manual was not intended to obstruct the work of the Cause, but to help and to forward it. The essential and important part of any By-law is the spirit of it. It is an offence against God to use the letter of His By-laws without the spirit. Such a misuse belongs in the same category with the use of human laws, — that were passed wholly to restrain crime, — to enable criminals to avoid punishment.

The horde of lawyers that make a fat living interpreting law, would not be necessary if people followed the spirit of the laws of our land. It is a literal in­terpretation of the letter of the law, that enables many who deserve punishment, to go unpunished.

Mrs. Eddy wished the spirit of her By-laws followed out, and this letter makes it plain, that in order to do so, one must have a knowledge of all of them. He must carefully study them as a whole. Had her students done so, she would not have needed to have written this letter, which implied that even if they had read them, they had not studied them all, nor yet gained their spiritual import.

Mrs. Eddy recognized her By-laws as having come from God. Whatever comes from God needs not only to be studied, but pondered. One cannot gain a correct interpretation of what comes from Him without both studying and pondering it.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

February 16, 1899

C. S. Directors

My beloved Students:

At last I have found a few moments in which to write my old “body guard” with whom I have fought many a battle. But better late than never, is it not — to thank you for my Com. on Help? At present I am provided for. Dr. Baker has named a florist and sent for him. The Com. is needed all the same, for the next blow that foils the m.a.m's may take him away from me. But they can­not take away my God.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


In this letter Mrs. Eddy writes to her old “body guard.” There is only one battle in Christian Science, — the battle against animal magnetism. So she includes all that she has had to write and say to the Board, the instruction, warn­ings and rebukes, as part of the great warfare Christian Science is waging against animal magnetism, in which she sought their help. We are all Christian soldiers, and everything that we do correctly, is part of the fight to put down the hold that the so-called enemy of God has on mortals.

This letter also touches on what might be called the reprisal. When Mrs. Eddy foiled the m.a.m.'s, there was always a reprisal, which in this case she said might rob her of her new florist. In wartime when an enemy has been routed, they sometimes leave behind what have been named “booby traps,” set to catch the unwary. A fine-looking gun or camera on a dead soldier, when grabbed as a souvenir, may set off a land mine. This trap is a reprisal. Mrs. Eddy once directed Maria Newcombe to declare, ‘‘There is no rebound of hatred, after the baptism of love. Destroy hatred.”

When one accomplishes something by foiling animal magnetism, animal magnetism is stirred to make a reprisal. So Mrs. Eddy declares that, while the m.a.m's cannot take away her God, they might handle one who had been sent to help her, so that he might leave, or have to be sent away. Perhaps the florist in prospect was not a Christian Scientist, or at least, a beginner. He could not be expected to understand the problem at Pleasant View, until Mrs. Eddy had instructed him.

It is necessary to learn that a blow successfully applied to animal magnetism, is followed by a reprisal. After one has done yeoman service in the destruction of animal magnetism, he must watch lest this so-called law begin to operate, namely, that one must suffer for the good he does. The impression should not prevail that one has to pay so heavily for doing good, that it were safer not to do it. It is true that every advanced step is followed by persecution, but it is possible to make the demonstration to render this persecution harmless, by knowing that it helps rather than hinders one's progress.

Mrs. Eddy had to do much fault-finding with her students, such as rebuking the Directors for lethargy and a failure to see what was sometimes going on right around them. When a person's sight is not normal, it is often alarming and even irritating, to see him walk into the path of approaching automobiles. When you realize what the trouble is, however, you seek to help and heal him. At first, however, you rebuke him, so that he will be more careful; but you realize why he was careless. Could he see as you do, he would be aware of the danger, and guard himself against it.

This letter might be named, interlude between rebukes, in which Mrs. Eddy expresses the confidence she has in the Directors because of what they have done to guard her and the Cause. Yet, her desire and determination that they measure up constantly to a higher standpoint, caused her to continue to rebuke them, when it was necessary.

The attitude in which she rebuked students, was made plain in the illustra­tion she gave me in 1905, when she said that it seemed a shame to whip a fine pair of horses which were doing their best to pull a load up a hill, but who would fail to reach the top without using the last ounce of energy which the whipping brought out.

The whip of sickness is often needed to drive students of Science to a higher standpoint. There are records of instances where Mrs. Eddy rose to a lofty state of thought after some severe experience. For instance, in 1881 a group of her students — her nearest and dearest — united to write a letter of false accusations against her, which one of their number read at a meeting of the Christian Scientists' Association. After a night of sorrow she rose to a state which bordered on transfiguration. Julia Bartlett described it as follows: “I found Mrs. Eddy...talking with a power such as I had never heard before. They were wonderful words she was speaking, while we young students were receiving of the great spiritual illumination which had come through her glorious triumph over evil. Just before I had entered the room, she was sitting with the others, and the burden was still heavy upon her, when all at once she rose from her chair, and stepped out in the room, her face radiant, and with a far-away look as if she was beholding things the eye could not see. When she was through speaking, she put down her hand and said, ‘Why, I haven't any body,' and as she came back to the thought of those about her, they were so moved by what they had seen and heard, their eyes were filled with tears, and one was kneeling by the couch sobbing. When she was through, she said, ‘I want you three to stay with me three days.' Those three days were wonderful. It was as if God was talking to her, and she would come to us and tell us the wonderful revelations that came.”

We learn from this account that Mrs. Eddy rose mentally to a standpoint, which might have been unattainable without the shock which drove her there. In the illustration of the horses, the driver thoroughly appreciates the effort that they are putting forth, but he whips them because it is essential that they make the grade. In Science students must make the grade; yet the question is, whether they can do so, until they are driven by circumstances.

Mrs. Eddy did not hesitate to lay the whip on the Directors. Then when they had made the grade, she commended them, just as the driver might pat his horses and tell them what a splendid job they had done, in pulling the load up the hill. At times Mrs. Eddy explained why she whipped students. On January 5, 1892, she wrote to Julia Field-King, “As it is, let me say surgery in Science I do dread and suffer from performing my part; but it has fallen on me to do this many long dreary years, cheered only by the approving love of God and the gratitude and growth of my students.”

It is evident from her words in her letter to the Board that Mrs. Eddy had learned by experience, that the moment she found one who was able to help her in her home, the devil would plot to remove him. She found that one way to foil this attempt, was to have another worker ready to step into the breach. Error would be less active in its effort to rob her of a helper, if there was one to take his or her place.

Mrs. Eddy had so imbued the household with this attitude that Joseph Mann, when he saw signs that her horses were becoming unmanageable, took steps to have another pair to fill in the breach. Thus it came about that, when the need suddenly appeared for new horses, a suitable pair was already in the stable.

Now we find Mrs. Eddy inculcating this same point of view in the Directors. Had they lived at Pleasant View, they would have learned by experience how important it was to keep alert at all points, and to plan ahead, in order to thwart what error might attempt to do. Under such foresight, error is least able to pro­duce discord; its plans are foiled.

Why did Mrs. Eddy end the letter with the statement, “But they cannot take away my God”? She foresaw that, when she disclosed the situation at Pleasant View, — in which unless the students were alert and foreseeing, she might find herself in a difficult position, unable to function as she should, — it was liable to start malpractice against her. All thought that is turned toward you that does not recognize the truth about you, is malpractice. For this reason she counteracted all that she had written, by affirming the truth about God and her relationship to Him, and showing that she realized she had a court of last resort which would never fail her. While it was the duty of the Board to do all they could to care for her, — and in so doing they would profit by growing spiritually, — at the same time she knew that truth of the Bible statement, “When my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me up,” Psalms 27:10. In other words, when those who by reason of their human relationship and connection with her, were expected to do their spiritual duty by her, failed her, she knew that she still had God's help at hand.

In this brief statement Mrs. Eddy gave a valuable precept. She wished her students to avoid any impulse to malpractice on her by holding her in thought as bereft, or without help, unless they made their demonstration to help her. Thus she indicated that it always helps to restrain malpractice, and to make demonstra­tion easier, when a helper feels that if he fails to do his part, God is still on the field to help the needy one.

In making this statement, Mrs. Eddy was putting forth the thought that would neutralize any tendency on the part of the Board to malpractice on her, by hold­ing her in a sense of limitation or danger, unless she received proper help.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

February 26, 1899

C. S. Directors

My beloved Students:

I thank you for your kind invitation to be at the Hall in Boston. But I have not the time to give myself this opportunity, as I think it would be better form to see you all and speak to my dear church whenever I can visit Boston.

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy


It was orderly and fitting that the Board should ask Mrs. Eddy to attend the annual meeting in Mechanics Hall and speak, and she takes the time to write and thank them for the opportunity, as well as to state the reason why she cannot come.

The relation between Mrs. Eddy and the Cause, namely, that of Founder, Discoverer, Leader and teacher was permanent. In this relation was included the opportunity to come to the church occasionally to speak to her people.

There was always a great desire among the members to see and hear her in person. At times they journeyed to Concord to try to catch a glimpse of her. After 1895 she was guided to come to the church to speak a few times, but no more. If one desires to know the reasons for these visits, he may discover them whenever he tunes in to the same inspiration that prompted her to make them.

There was a reason for everything she did, albeit she herself could not always tell what it was at the time. But all her reasons bulked together, spelled demonstration, — the will of God, — the way by which she was able to be divinely led in all her ways. Once that conclusion is reached by anyone, her entire life is seen to transcend criticism.

It is essential for the growth of every follower of Mrs. Eddy, to acknowledge that the results of her life indicate that she attained a loftiness and spirituality that proves the consistency of her entire Science life. If one hears stories about her that point to inconsistency, and believes them, the unfortunate result of such an attitude is that one fancies that he himself could be inconsistent in his life with the teachings of Christian Science, and the demands of God, and at the same time accomplish things of great spiritual portent — which is manifestly an impossibility. The rule in Science and Health is, “To begin rightly is to end rightly.” Consistency is essential. Mrs. Eddy once said to her household, “...consistency is especially most desirable in dealing with nothingness.”

If one believes that Mrs. Eddy was at times inconsistent with her teachings in her own life, yet made a magnificent demonstration, what is there to prevent one from believing that he may do the same? The rule of the Bible is that all things work together for good to them that love God. So if you do not love Him, — which you do not if you do not strive to live consistently with every part of His instructions, — then you cannot accomplish what the love of God alone can accomplish.

When a horse has just won a race over a field of wonderful runners, that is not the time to begin to pick his gait to pieces, and to criticize it. The fact that he won is enough to silence all criticism, since it is proof that his gait must have been consistently correct. Spiritual sense will bear testimony to Mrs. Eddy's consistency. What more is needed?

In this letter Mrs. Eddy writes of “form.” By this term she was making a distinction between a spiritual demand, and conforming to custom, or what the world would look upon as the proper and right thing to do. And yet from my own experience with Mrs. Eddy, I state here that I believe she was using this word to hide the actual situation.

The higher one goes in his demonstration of truth, the more the action of the human mind as malpractice becomes evident. He realizes that it is all about him, although the active thought — the busy mind — is the one least likely to indulge in it. But tired minds, lazy minds, empty minds, and minds with nothing to do, are the ones most apt to think erroneously about themselves and others. There were hardly any lengths to which Mrs. Eddy would not go, to keep students from malpracticing on her, since more than any other error, malpractice claimed the power to darken her thought and to rob her of God. She also knew what an erroneous effect it had on those indulging in it.

Had she accepted the invitation of the Directors to speak in Mechanics Hall at the Annual Meeting, it would have been impossible to keep the news a secret. It was inevitable that it would leak out in advance, and then the unwitting mal­practice which she sought to avoid, would commence. Yet, when the time came in June, she appeared at the meeting, unannounced.

The conclusion should never prevail that Mrs. Eddy feared malpractice, or animal magnetism. Furthermore, she knew that its discordant effects were less dangerous than its alluring features. If a man is in jail and his only hope of escape is to plan a jail break, the one thing that would be most effectual in diverting his efforts, would be to make the jail seem so attractive and comfortable that he would forget that he was being punished, and the sooner he broke out, the better.

Mortal existence is punishment. Matter and its discords are mortal man's punishment for having turned away from Spirit. So-called existence in the flesh is hell. When animal magnetism claims to affect the thinking of mortals to the point where they do not realize that they are being punished, but feel fairly well satisfied in this material world, then the incentive for escaping from hell is taken away. If a criminal was locked in jail, and then hypnotized so that he believed that he was being rewarded for his sins, and was in a place where he could be happy, such an experience would illustrate the action of mesmerism in its most devilish aspects. No one should feel contented or happy in hell.

Mrs. Eddy discerned the action of mesmerism in both its alluring and dis­cordant action; but she did not fear it. Yet it was the part of wisdom for her to move in such a way, that she would avoid as much malpractice as she could. I believe that every student who lived in her home, when he left, immediately received a letter from her in which she directed him in vigorous language not to malpractice on her, but to keep his thought away from her. She knew that care­lessness or neglect might cause a student to let his thought continually return to her and the home, to mull over the situation, and to wonder what was going on. She never wished to be in a position where she would be the recipient of error, the origin of which was unknown to her; so she sent letters that were pointed and strong, so that those who received them would determine that they would never be guilty of any such interference. At times it required a strong argument to bring students to a point, where they were ready to forsake lines of thought which they considered harmless.

Mrs. Eddy hoped to be able to come to Boston to her church without anyone knowing in advance, not even the Directors. She might indicate that she would probably come during a certain period, but that would not be definite enough to give anyone a chance to be notified, so that general thought would be focused upon her. When she was in a sensitive state, curious mortal thought would have the effect of throwing her thought off.

I am convinced that this letter in regard to her coming to Boston, was written to restrain the Directors from concluding that she was afraid of animal magnetism, because she was so watchful lest her coming be known in advance. What she really wanted was when she came, to have a free sense, and she knew she was more apt to have this, if the students had no foreknowledge of her coming. Then there would be no expectancy, no curiosity and hence no inter­ference. When people know in advance what you are going to do, that gives error the opportunity to do something about it that may not be agreeable.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

March 4, 1899

C. S. Board of Directors

My beloved Students:

I thank you for appointing a committee on Pleasant View and especially for the one named for Superintendent. At first I felt a touch of memory, and afterwards saw that has nothing to do with the present, and would engage him at once; but we are so un­settled now and have no gardener or florist and no definite state of things, and all the help we have need of till things are arranged, I concluded to wait till we got things ready to be superintended. Then I shall apply again to you and if I can get him, be pleased to have you send him here and settle his terms and take charge of my real estate.

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy


It is certain that no one ever took charge of Mrs. Eddy's real estate apart from her daily supervision. Her personal business came under the same category as that of her church, and she was as punctilious and faithful in looking out for one in the right way, as the other. She directed what was to be planted on her estate, what flowers were to be put into the various beds, and she did not neglect a single detail. Everything about her home had to be kept up to the highest pitch of order and repair.

However, while she loved flowers, she yearned to be able to turn over the entire care of things to one who could be trusted to superintend them. We learn this from her letter to Julia Field-King, dated August 7, 1897, “My life is a per­petual slavery to the world and it is a hard matter. So much the students demand of me and yet I need help above all persons on earth in everything but Christian Science. But the law is not yet broken by them, — that they ‘can do nothing for me.' So I have the care of my house, my grounds, my clothes, my entire mass of what I despise, and want to lose sight of.”

When one has a reputation to uphold, he must maintain his house and grounds at a certain standard of excellence. If no gardener is available to help him, he may have to do some of the work himself. The Christian Scientist has a standard to maintain, since the public expects a good follower of Mrs. Eddy to be consistent.

The public is apt to criticize a Christian Scientist when he is sick. While he may be going through an experience of inharmony wherein he is being tested and trained, it is just as well for him to keep out of sight, since mortal mind is liable to misunderstand. Outsiders expect Christian Scientists always to be well, since their religion teaches such a possibility.

Mrs. Eddy's home had to be kept up to a certain standard of orderliness, since people came from all walks of life to see it. As they observed her grounds, they expected to see that which would indicate the metaphysical importance of the owner. Thus, their condition was something she could not ignore. When she was unable to find someone to care for them, she had to do what she could her­self despite the fact that her time was too valuable to waste in material directions.

Why did she not retreat from such a necessity, and let her grounds run to grass, when it is certain that she outgrew her love for gardening? Her attitude toward flowers by the time she moved to Chestnut Hill, was expressed in a letter she wrote her coachman, Adolph Stevenson, March 17, 1908, “I hereby tell you that no garden or flowers shall be cultivated on my place. Make no road for one to see such things on this place; the road to heaven is not one of flowers, but it is straight and narrow; it is bearing the cross and turning away from things that lure the material sense, denying them and finding all in Spirit, in God, in good and doing good.”

Yet she could not ignore what the world expected of her. Her home had a unique significance, and there had to be embellishments which indicated this fact. People came from all over the world to see it, and its famous mistress. She could not let anyone go away with an incorrect impression of Christian Science merely because the house lacked paint, the grass needed cutting, or the flower gardens needed to be weeded. She knew that the moment one becomes a public servant, things are expected of him that private individuals may ignore. So she was forced to cultivate flowers at Chestnut Hill, in spite of what her letter above stated.

Even at the expense of her time and peace of mind, Mrs. Eddy had to care for her home, and try to make it as attractive as possible. At one time she asked for a pair of century plants for the driveway. It was difficult for me to locate two that matched, but I finally found them in Boston, and sent them to her. Later I inquired how they were thriving, and I was told that they had died, because someone had neglected to water them. This incident illustrated to me Mrs. Eddy's difficulty. She desired something to grace her driveway; yet she could depend upon others so little, that these rare and costly plants were neglected. Yet the reason for this was never personal. It was always animal magnetism lurking in the background.

Without a windshield wiper, one cannot see clearly to drive his automobile in the rain. The handling of animal magnetism corresponds to that which clears one's vision, when otherwise it would be obscured.

Men who dig tunnels under rivers, are required to spend enough time in a pressure chamber, before going to work, so that they will be accustomed to the increased air pressure that has to be maintained in the tunnel. When intelligent and faithful students came to Pleasant View to work for Mrs. Eddy, they were called to work under an increased urgency which was unnatural. Unless the demonstration was made to enable them to function under this accelerated activity, they could not be consistently depended upon to serve in a trustworthy way. Mrs. Eddy herself had learned to work successfully under a pressure that other students could not have endured. That is why she could say to Adam Dickey, “I am now working on a plane that would mean instantaneous death to any of you.” Yet everyone who came to her home had to work under that same pressure, at least to a degree. If they were not adjusted mentally to be able to do this, they did not remain. This pressure was the need to keep ahead of error.

Mrs. Eddy kept her home up to a high human standard in order to avoid mal­practice and criticism. Had people found nothing to distinguish her home from other homes, they might have harbored a criticism that would have amounted to malpractice. She went to great lengths to avoid thought being arrayed against her, for reasons that have already been set forth many times in these pages.

When the Queen of Sheba went to visit Solomon, because the fame of his wisdom had reached her ears, she expected to see in his home that which would accord with his great mental attainments, and she was not disappointed. Yet, the one thing that made him great was his wisdom. While she did not see his wisdom, she saw that with which his wisdom had provided him. In that way she caught some glimpse of the man himself, and went away greatly impressed in his favor.

Mrs. Eddy was willing to take time which was valuable, to interest herself in matters which she would have preferred to forget, and to turn over to the care of others. But the need was too great. Those who under ordinary circum­stances could have been trusted to do such work satisfactorily, were unable to do so at Pleasant View without Mrs. Eddy's watchful care.

We learn that Mrs. Eddy regarded such matters as the care of her grounds to be so important that, if she could find no one to take charge, she would take charge herself rather than let them be neglected. Those who are seeking to follow in her footsteps and carry on her work, must heed this lesson, and order their lives as befits representatives of God on earth.

Mrs. Eddy could have found hosts of students who were competent to heal the sick, had she been seeking a healer; but there were few to be found whose ability to demonstrate had extended to those ways that were important in Mrs. Eddy's home. There she required an all-around demonstrating ability. She ex­pected her food to be made a matter of demonstration; her clothes; the care of her grounds — in fact, all the minutiae of her daily existence. She required that everything manifest the glory of God and His healing power. As His representa­tive, she assumed the right to make laws for herself, in the sense that she sought to have God's will done on earth as it is in heaven. This she did on the basis of her own teaching, that prayer avails nothing on earth, unless one utilizes the power of God in an active and practical way. In fact she once defined prayer as the practice of the presence and power of God.

Mrs. Eddy made a law that when people read her textbook, they would receive healing, and she left her followers to perpetuate and to accentuate this law. She taught them that they had a right to do this, since God is the lawmaker, and man represents Him. She wanted them to realize that there is no limit to the extent of the spiritual law that man may emphasize, and bring into activity.

All of this unfoldment leads up to the fact that Mrs. Eddy was so consistent, that she desired even her estate and home to carry healing with it, to manifest the atmosphere of God to such an extent, that those entering her grounds would feel it and be healed. When in 1905 she invited the notables of the city of Con­cord to come to her home, and view the beautiful flowers which had been sent her by her church, her purpose was, that they might “taste and see” that God was present there, that they might become conscious of the fact that He dwelt in her home.

Mrs. Eddy was aware that when one makes the demonstration to open the eyes of people to important facts, such as the presence of God, they know it. They cannot be deceived. Even a Roman Catholic girl who came to interview Mrs. Eddy, felt God's presence, and saw Him manifested to such a degree, that her whole life was changed in an instant. Her name was Sibyl Wilbur. She entered the home as a pert and aggressive reporter, having scant regard for the feelings of others, if she could only get a story, take it to her paper and receive her pay. She was so impressed by the atmosphere of Mrs. Eddy's presence as indicating the reflection of God, that she felt it within herself. Nothing, not even her religion, could have argued her out of her conviction. She had an experience to which I was a witness, which she was never to forget as long as she lived.

The privilege of making laws is a very sacred one. To be sure, all real laws are already God's laws, but the inhabitants of earth are unconscious of them, and so fail to be governed by them. It is the business of the student of Science to make those on earth conscious of them, even as those who are in heaven are.

Obviously Mrs. Eddy was not interested in flowers as matter; but she hoped to find a florist who knew enough to invest her flowers with healing properties, which real flowers always have; just as she wanted her cook to invest the food served her with what real food always has, namely, a healing, regenerating and refreshing blessing. Had this work not been done, the food served Mrs. Eddy would have been on the same level as food served any mortal — carrying all the mortal laws and beliefs that matter is supposed to carry.

“There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” This motto from Shakespeare printed in our textbook, covers the whole ground. Mrs. Eddy required those who served her in her home, to accompany all that they did with good thinking. Only when they did so, did they fulfil Mrs. Eddy's hope and expectation. There is only one kind of true thinking, and that is God's thinking. When the students associated everything they did in her home with right think­ing, then Mrs. Eddy knew that it would be a place dedicated to the Most High, where God indeed dwelt on the very earth, and that the value of such a demon­stration would be far reaching.

It was the “pressure” in Mrs. Eddy's home that made this effort difficult. There are students who are successful in right thinking, until they find them­selves under the pressure of sickness, for instance. They do not realize that one's ability to think right is not worth much, until he has proved that he can maintain it under pressure, — affliction, fear and distress. Advancing students need to be tested, to enable them to develop to the point where they can declare that none of these things move them. When they can think as correctly under the pressure of sickness, as they do under health, they will find themselves well. Then comes the greater test, the need to think right under human harmony.

Students must learn to maintain right thinking under pressure of every sort. Those who went to Mrs. Eddy's home, had a grand chance to learn this lesson, since there they experienced pressure such as they would not find anywhere else.

An advancing student of Science comes to regard sickness, not as some­thing to be disposed of, so much as an opportunity to prove to God that his ability to think right is so stable, that he can exercise it under stress. One should regard everything as his enemy that attempts to interfere with, or to destroy this ability.

Why did Mrs. Eddy write in this letter, when the Board named a superin­tendent for her grounds, “At first I felt a touch of memory...”? Perhaps her thought went back to the days when she first came to Pleasant View, where she took entire care of her flowers, and gained a great deal of pleasure in so doing. She might even have remembered the days when she lived in Tilton. Sara Kimball, who was one of the children who attended Mrs. Eddy's infant school, writes, “It was the fashion at that time to make herbariums, and I remember Mrs. Eddy working over hers for several years. The flowers were pressed, tabulated, dated, and pasted in an album.” Mrs. Eddy may have felt a pang to realize that she had reached the place where it was necessary for her to hire someone to tend to this part of her home, when it still might have been a pleasure to her to have done the work if she had had the time, — despite the fact that she was out­growing any personal satisfaction in flowers.

She realized that her estate must be kept up to the standard expected of a person in her position. A king may not like to wear a crown, but he does it at those times when it is necessary, because it is a symbol of his relation to the people. He may be very simple in his personal tastes, yet he yields to necessity because of his position.

Mrs. Eddy knew that the more Christian Science was recognized by the world as being what it is, the more visitors would expect to find her home a place in keeping with her position. No longer could she have the pleasure of amateur gardening. She had to have a professional florist to care for her place. She was no longer a free agent to do as she wished with her home, and this realization brought a pang of memory, when she looked back at the pleasure she had once taken in raising flowers.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

March 24, 1899

C. S. Directors

My dear Students:

I want you to give due notice to the suburban C. S. churches around Boston, inviting them to attend Mr. Tomlinson's lecture in Music Hall, Boston, April 6, 1899. We want a good large audience; he is a remarkable expounder of Christian Science, and these lectures do much good.

With love,

Mother,

M. B. Eddy


Mrs. Eddy knew that the success of Mr. Tomlinson's lecture would be en­sured, if the students rallied to his support mentally; but she could not issue a call for such support, lest students incompetent to do so, should undertake this work and make matters worse instead of better. So she endeavored to ensure their attendance by stating that he was a remarkable expounder of Christian Science, knowing, as she did, that when they arrived, it would make little difference to them what was said, since they would recognize their obligation to support the lecture mentally, and would do so, and have little time to listen.

Mrs. Eddy was correct in stating that Mr. Tomlinson was a remarkable ex­pounder of Christian Science, since every lecturer can be so characterized, when the mental work is done that silences animal magnetism's arguments of limitation, boredom and fear. We should not become so accustomed to hearing our doctrine explained, that we forget that any lecturer who refutes the false testimony of the senses with the arguments of Science, and at the same time causes the public to like what he is saying, — when actually it is calculated to drive all evil from the earth, — is a remarkable expounder.

It is an interesting sidelight to know that there were those who considered that Mr. Tomlinson's lecture in Music Hall was well-nigh a failure, because Mrs. Eddy had to run to his defence, when the Boston Herald criticized it. This defence may be found on page 338 of Miscellany.

First let it be said that if there was any failure, it was largely on the part of the students to support the lecture mentally. Yet advanced students often criticize a simple lecture, from which the beginner gains a great deal of good; and then they commend one, the main substance of which is over the heads of the public.

Mrs. Eddy's letter to Mr. Tomlinson dated April 9, 1889, tells an interesting story. “I had not read your lecture when I saw you last evening. Read it in bed after retiring. Laughed aloud at your ‘Unchristian Beatitudes.' Throughout it is self-evidently Divine logic, clear-cut as a diamond. Here is an instance of God's care! Had I seen or heard that lecture before you delivered it, believe I might have asked you to tone down its sharpest points. But I was led to deny myself this opportunity. Hence the world has it and probably not too soon. I can see why the Herald referred to it as it did. With love for my modern David who meets the Goliaths.”

Mrs. Eddy wished this lecture to be well received; so she drew an audience by declaring that the lecturer was a remarkable expounder of Christian Science. She wanted to fill the hall; but above all she wanted the lecture given the right mental support.

Those who know the history of this lecture, should not feel that God failed in His wisdom as expressed through our Leader because of the stir the lecture created, which would have been averted, had she corrected it beforehand. Who knows but what it was His purpose to create the opportunity for Mrs. Eddy to put forth the authorized statement of her doctrine in the Herald ? The rule is that “all things work together for good to them that love God.”

Therefore, even if the lecture created a stir, her demonstration turned it to good account, and took advantage of an opportunity to set forth her views to the public. In passing it is interesting to note that this lecture was the occasion of Mrs. Eddy writing the By-law on page 41 of the Manual, Christ Jesus the Ensample. See page 78 of the Christian Science Journal, Volume 17.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

March 30, 1899

(To Rev. I. C. Tomlinson)

My beloved Student:

I had not time to write you. I am trying to attend to my book, but do not get over one hour in the day to read proof. I should have said, have Mr. Farlow read the letter to you.

This was in substance its contents to Board of Directors and Pub. Com. Do your duty mentally for the Press. Break the spell of W. on it; defend the constitutional rights of ours. See if you cannot do as much good as others evil. The first plan included to work mentally; if this has been carried out, are the best and lead­ing Scientists showing by their works they are unequal to so small a task mentally? And if it has been neglected, why is it? More mental work for the field must be done.

With love always,

Mother,

M. B. Eddy

N. B. The letter I sent to Mr. F. was not addressed to you and did not include you. He is a gem of character; so is the Judge; but they are not watching with me in this crucial hour. I am as usual alone.

Again,

Mother


This letter belongs to the group under consideration, since it includes a summary of the contents of a letter to the Board which does not appear in its original form, and it is valuable, since it inculcates the importance of mental work for the Cause. For two thousand years the effort has been made to establish Christianity; but as a whole has humanity progressed? The reason for this lack is that thought needs to be set aright, and until the advent of Christian Science, little was known about the correction of thought.

The world's effort to put down sin, resembles a group of zealots so eager to have a church edifice with a beautiful exterior, that they spend all their money ornamenting the outside, and have none left with which to beautify the interior. The world attempts to regulate sinful action, and so neglects sinful thinking, which is the seat of all action.

Mrs. Eddy writes to Mr. Tomlinson that, as usual, she is the only one who is doing mental work for the Cause as it should be done. She admits that the students who have been taught by her, are good students, but that they fail when it comes to co-operating with her in working for the Field. We learn from this letter that, if there is any lack of progress in our Cause, it may be traced to a lack of direct mental support by its adherents. That the Directors do mental work for the Cause, should go without saying; but they cannot do it all. In fact, they have time to do only a small portion of it. They have a right to expect the Field to do its share in carrying the Movement mentally, and the day will come when they will not hesitate to take measures (as our Leader did) to remind students of this obligation. Mrs. Eddy went so far as to write a By-law requiring students not to forget nor to neglect this sacred duty.

One phase of error lurking back of this neglecting and forgetting mental work, is the use of the word, work. Singing presents an illustration. It should be easy for everyone to sing. One should be able to sing as tirelessly as he talks; but it becomes tireless only after one has had years of proper training. Spiritual thinking should rest and not weary one; and this will be the effect, when this suggestion that it is work, is handled.

Surely if one finds himself disliking to do a half hour of mental work for the Cause, seeking to think with God, and to relate, in his thought, God's children to their heavenly Parent in a scientific, healing way, he should know that some­thing is wrong. He should recognize that error is striving to make him believe an impossible supposition, namely, that one can be wearied or bored in thinking God's thoughts. If such a proposition were true, then those who gain heaven, are destined to be the weariest people possible, since the whole of heaven is em­braced in the maintenance of spiritual thought.

When this false argument of work in regard to right thinking is handled, one will find complete rest and great joy in thinking with God. It brings a wonderful uplift and illumination to think God's thoughts after Him!

Back of the failure of most students to do more mental work for the Field, is an induced disinclination, part of which is the suggestion that it is too much labor. When this is handled, one's mental work will become a spontaneous ex­pression of love, and no longer seem like work.

In 1907 Mrs. Eddy said to her household, “I forbid the use of the expression in this house, ‘I am going to do my work!' ‘Seek and ye shall find, Knock and it shall be opened unto you.'”

One reason she said this may have been because she saw that the use of the word, work, carried the implication that the labor she was demanding from students was a mere repetition of the arguments of Science, as mechanically as the Lord's Prayer is repeated in the old church.

It may seem like work for a plant to push its way into the light, but after that, its growth is a symbol of an effortless activity that corresponds to a student's unlabored assimilating of his thought to God. Mrs. Eddy felt that the students in her home had reached the point where they were beyond the concept of work, and should be entering into the effortless and glorious realization of the presence and continuation of divine sonship. So she had a right to forbid them to go back to the pushing period, when they were now capable and ready of letting thought joyously soar with God.

After one has gone through the work of climbing a mountain, it is not work to enjoy the vast scene that opens before him. Unless a student, in his mental work, reaches the point where he asks himself, “What am I working for when God's work is already done and I am merely called to rest in this sublime con­sciousness?” he does not have a clear sense of Science and may need to be told that once Mrs. Eddy forbad her household to use the expression, “I am going to do my work.” If our work is already done, then the work we do to realize that fact, should not seem like work.

If a man plans to build a house, he knows that to do so will be work; but if you know that the house is already built, and all he needs to do is to realize that fact and go to see the house, you would forbid him to say, “I am going to build my house,” since he is not going to do so. He does not need to do so. The only work he needs to do is to get rid of the notion that he has to build it, since it is already built.

In citing to Mr. Tomlinson that the Directors should do their duty mentally for the press, Mrs. Eddy shows that she considered that the office of Director and Committee on Publication included the obligation to work mentally when the occasion demanded, for whatever problem was presenting itself.

Newspapers have a potential power for good. They should, therefore, be found advocating what is right and welcome the opportunity to herald the com­ing of a doctrine which, when followed out, will mean the salvation of mankind. Yet, such is the nature of the carnal mind, that it causes newspapers to attack the world's best friend, namely, Christian Science; that is, unless this erroneous influence is handled. That such work was part of the obligation of the officials in Boston, is proved by Mrs. Eddy's letter.

Mrs. Eddy sought to groom students to be mental workers, in order that en masse they might meet the resistance of the carnal mind with the powerful recognition of the allness of divine Mind; the fact that there is no other mind, that this Mind is universal and eternal, and that it is the only Mind that exists, or can be voiced, expressed or used by man. Such group work spreads the good news and helps to bring salvation to the world.

While Mrs. Eddy taught a doctrine whereby all evil is separated from one's sense of man, we find her apparently personalizing it in this letter, in which she instructs the students to break the spell of Josephine Woodbury on the press. When a soldier is being trained, he learns to shoot by aiming his gun at specific targets. A general error is expressed through individual channels, and these channels must be taken care of, even though the error itself is impersonal. A student must learn to aim at the error that an individual is expressing, without personalizing it.

When a man detonates a charge of dynamite, he does not question the result. The student must learn to have faith in the power of God to which he has access, and to know that in its operation it is as dynamite against evil. He also must have faith in his own ability to accomplish the purposes of good because of the power that he reflects.

An important statement in Mrs. Eddy's letter is, “See if you cannot do as much good as others evil.” Surely if one has faith in God, he ought to believe that at least His power equals the claim of evil in the world. Such a conviction would be a step toward the final recognition of good as all, and evil as naught.

Her statement, “More mental work for the field must be done,” must have included all the activities of the organization. It would include the daily recogni­tion that the world is ready for Christian Science, and that no induced prejudice can blind the eyes of people to the presence of their friend, namely, the Christ, Truth, as set forth in Christian Science. Our field is really the world, and so work for the world that will speed the universal acceptance of Truth by all mankind, is surely a necessity.

The N. B. of this letter to Mr. Tomlinson contains an important lesson. Mrs. Eddy tells him that her letter of rebuke to Mr. Farlow did not include him. If there is poison in a dish, whatever is put into the dish, no matter how sweet and good, will be poisoned. Metaphysics shows all poison to be mental; hence the neutralizing process must be mental. Mrs. Eddy was calling Mr. Farlow to account for not doing his mental duty in neutralizing the poison of prejudice, for which Josephine Woodbury was the channel at this period. The lesson is found in the fact that our Leader did not condemn individuals, but error. She took pains to speak of Mr. Farlow as a gem of character; and also the Judge. She admired the man but condemned the error, which is the Science rule.




(Written on back of letter from Ira O. Knapp, President, dated April 8, 1899)

My beloved Student:

You, the C. S. Directors, must attend to this matter of mis­sionaries according to your own best judgment. Hire a hall for the annual meeting, if necessary.

With love,

M. B. Eddy

N. B. I write on your page to save time; please explain it. Please call a meeting of your Board and elect Judge Ewing of Chicago as one of its members and inform him at once of this election.

Again,

Mother


Here we find Mrs. Eddy willing to instruct the Directors just what to do about the Annual Meeting, and yet calling upon them to use their own best judgment, when it came to the matter of the missionaries. In this wise way she mingled her demands upon them with the necessity for using their own demon­stration. If they were tempted at times to be afraid, lest they do something that might bring them under her displeasure, they could always fall back on the realization that she would never criticize them for what they did under God's direction.

Mrs. Eddy inaugurated a committee unique in the history of the world, when she established the post of missionary. Its primary purpose had to be more or less secret, even from Christian Scientists at large. One interesting thing about it was that, even though Mrs. Eddy was wholly responsible for it, yet she turned around and required the Directors to attend to it according to their own best judgment! But once more she was using the device of which she was so fond, that of placing students in a position where they would be forced to demonstrate in order to fulfil her demands. Thus she wisely took care of the spiritual growth of students.

Under the classification of Missionaries, students were to be sent into towns and cities that needed someone well grounded enough in Science, to bring out a better sense of it than was being expressed in that locality. The establishment of this office carried the implication that it would never be wise for the Directors to attempt to correct the errors in a branch church from their vantage point in Boston. The remedy should always be to send a good student to become one with the members of that church, in order that he may exert a good influence upon them — yet never divulging that he had been sent by authority of headquarters. In that way there would be no feeling that the Field was being dominated by The Mother Church.

Above all, however, Mrs. Eddy considered the Missionaries to be mental workers who, if they developed sufficient understanding of the scope of mental work in meeting the thought of the world, would be able to introduce the thought of truth where one might not be able otherwise to do so. She knew that if a committee of mental workers were sufficiently skilled and faithful, they could straighten out an erroneous church situation from a distance, as well as one could who was personally present — and perhaps even better.

By having the missionaries perform this dual office, Mrs. Eddy indicated that as Christian Scientists we are greatly interested in the missionary spirit. Our real missionaries, however, are mental; they bless those who are receptive, honest and ready for the blessing. Yet, who is to say who receives the greatest benefit from such missionary work, those who do it, or those who are the recipients thereof?

It is possible that Mrs. Eddy named this Missionary Committee, as a con­cession to those who, coming into Christian Science from the old church, still believed that old theology is good, but that Christian Science is better. For the sake of such individuals she would strive to embody in her church everything that she could from the old church that was considered good. Many of the ramifications of our organization exist because of the demand on the part of the old Christian for that which he has left behind in the way of church activities, committees, and the like. These help to satisfy him, until he outgrows the sugges­tion that such things of themselves are necessary to one's salvation. Then he settles down to the task of living Christian Science.

One who is not outgrowing the need of the outward activities of our organ­ization, is not progressing spiritually. Yet, this point needs to be touched upon with great wisdom, lest it be misunderstood by young students. A supporting fence is placed around a sapling, in order that it may grow straight and to be protected in its early stages. But the time comes when it outgrows such a sup­port. While young students need the protection of the organization, more ad­vanced students must learn that while their first growth is out of materiality into spirituality, their second growth is out of human organization into God, into the wise law of God that never restricts growth, but offers measureless progress.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

April 30, 1899

C. S. Board of Directors

Beloved Students:

Appoint at once Judge J. R. Clarkson of my last class and residing in Omaha, Neb. a member of the Board of Lectureship. He is not a First Reader but a first and grand man.

The lectures are doing much for our Cause, but the Readers must not be called so much away from their churches; hence my putting the new candidate in to fill the appointments that the dear Readers give up of lectures on file.

With love,

M. B. Eddy


The purpose behind our lectures is to stimulate interest in Christian Science. How successfully this is done depends largely upon the demonstration with which the lecture is given. Then comes the demand upon the local church to sustain this increased interest through further demonstration. If a large company should spend five thousand dollars on an advertising campaign in a city in order to stimulate local business, and then the local business houses only offered in­ferior merchandise, the whole campaign would be wasted. Likewise, if an evangelist should conduct a two weeks' revival in some city, to reawaken interest in a church, and then the church did not strive to hold the interest of the new people he had brought in, his campaign would have been in vain.

Should the time ever come when Christian Science lectures were no longer necessary, it would be because the healing had become so universal and suc­cessful, and the prejudice so swept away, that people would require no extra stimulus to draw them to the Truth.

It may be said that year after year attendance at lectures by students who go merely to receive, breaks the spirit of the By-law that forbids attendance at Sunday School for those twenty and over. The Sunday School is planned so that young pupils may gain some knowledge of Christian Science, with a minimum of effort on their part; but as one becomes of age, the Truth must be studied, pondered and then demonstrated, in order to be retained, and have a lasting effect upon his whole thought and life. Mrs. Eddy knew that the habit of going to Sunday School and being taught by another would retard one's spiritual growth, if it was carried beyond the point where one is expected to work things out in truth for himself.

Does it not break the spirit of Mrs. Eddy's By-law, when Christian Scientists attend every lecture that they can, for the purpose of receiving all the good possible? When I lived with our Leader, she plainly indicated that she deplored advanced students attending church services merely for the good they might get. Her standard was giving. She hoped that the advancing pilgrim would be­come more and more dependent on God and his own demonstration for his spiritual good, and that the services and lectures being for the beginner, would be attended by the members in order that they might provide the spiritual heal­ing atmosphere, which is an attainment required of all believers.

It may sound somewhat like a fanciful proposition to say that those students who break the spirit of Mrs. Eddy's By-law by trying to gain a knowledge of Christian Science through selfish attendance at the lectures, may gain an abundance of the letter through the hearing of the ear, but they will have no enduring knowledge, nor can they gain the spirit in such a fashion. One who fancies himself to be a devout and successful Christian Scientist because of the number of lectures and services he has attended, is misled. The student becomes such, and progresses, only by working things out for himself. Our Leader writes in Science and Health (pp. 495 and 457) that one must “study thoroughly the letter and imbibe the spirit. Adhere to the divine Principle of Christian Science and follow the behests of God, abiding steadfastly in wisdom, Truth, and Love” and, that “Christian Science is not an exception to the general rule, that there is no excellence without labor in a direct line.”

It is interesting that at all times Mrs. Eddy withholds the explanations that would make her letters to the Directors appear to be class teaching, lest in any way they interfere with the students' necessity for demonstrating an understand­ing for themselves. She had more regard for the growth of her followers than for anything else, even her own comfort. When she delegated me to bring her luncheon tray each noon, she could easily have told me that she desired me to make a demonstration that would infuse the food with the spirit of God, and that otherwise it would not be acceptable to her, since it might be a channel through which the fearful sense of the cook would reach her; but she let me find it out for myself, at the risk of her personal comfort.

A copy of a great painting, while correct in every detail, usually lacks the spark that makes the original great. Matter is a counterfeit because it is a copy of the creation of God, with the inspiration left out. So, as we restore inspiration to every part of this mortal seeming, it loses its mortal and material nature, and appears once more as it really is, the perfect creation of Mind.

Had Mrs. Eddy made this explanation in regard to the food I carried to her, she might have had a pleasanter time, but I would have lost the opportunity to grow spiritually through discovering this point for myself, and demonstrating from my own convictions.

Mrs. Eddy could have filled her letters to the Directors with precious spiritual teaching that would have supplemented that in Science and Health; yet how scanty of such spiritual pearls they appear to be. Without doubt she did not intend to make her Directors helplessly dependent on her. She knew that artificial feeding belonged only to the infant stages of one's growth.

Once a man undertook to raise a baby robin. For one year he fed it worms by hand. Then, when he was called away for a few days, he left the cage well stocked with worms. When he returned he found that the robin had not eaten one, and was almost starved. It had never learned to forage for itself.

How much growth do students gain by continued artificial feeding in our organization, where, for instance, a lecturer drops spiritual truth into their minds year after year? It takes individual study, determination, the handling of fear and evil, and a consequent effort to reflect God, to enable a student to demonstrate his own spiritual food. Only as he does this will he gain a growth that is genuine. True growth is not in acquiring the letter alone, but in imbibing the spirit. See Science and Health, 451:8.

Mrs. Eddy usually withheld an explanation of her rebukes, lest they fail of their purpose, and the good effect be lost; although on January 2, 1895, she wrote to Mrs. Philbrick, “This is not scolding; it is only showing you your duty, and claiming for once my own individual rights, even as I would do by others whom I ask not to do my work for me.” Also, to Helen Nixon on October 1, 1892, “I have to probe many hearts, to heal them; but love, love only, drives me to do this — and I have to talk and write what God bids me, often when I feel myself praying that this cup might pass from me, yet I yield lovingly, or try to, to the Divine will,­ — and do and write and talk as I understand God would have me. This, dear one, is my mission, even if it is a cross under which one may faint as did our Master, yet say — ‘not my will but Thine be done.'”

A mother hiring a maid to care for her children, might set a trap for the applicant by speaking to her harshly. If the maid lost her temper, it would prove at once that she was not a suitable person to care for children. If the test was ex­plained in advance, the good effect would be lost.

It requires love for one to risk being misunderstood, misrepresented and often persecuted, for the sake of probing error and inculcating righteousness. A music teacher might hesitate to rebuke a pupil who has learned to play a piece perfectly, because it is being performed mechanically and lacks feeling — the soul or inspiration that is needed to make it art. The child, not understanding, might feel baffled, resentful and aggrieved; but nothing is achieved, no matter how much effort is expended, unless the music is played with expression.

It was a cross for Mrs. Eddy to have to rebuke students, when they had put heartfelt zeal into their efforts. Nevertheless, reproval was necessary, for they were omitting the essential ingredient, namely, God. To Mrs. Eddy, nothing was good, no matter how humanly commendable, that did not include the spirit of God.

Because of human resistance, it was a cross for Mrs. Eddy to pull down the ideals of mortals. Like her Master, she had to declare, “One thing thou lackest” (Mark 10:21). This was a hard thing for the Master to say, since the young man to whom he said it represented the acme of religious attainment. It was a cross for the Master to set up a standard which the human mind could not comprehend, since he thereby risked being misunderstood. A rebuke of human good, and of material harmony, will always chemicalize those who do not understand. As long as Mrs. Eddy healed human discord, her work was welcomed. It was when she had to heal human harmony, that she came to know persecution and mis­understanding. In a letter to Helen Nixon dated May 23, 1893, she wrote, “My task to lead this ‘peculiar people' is inconceivable; it gives me no respite from the cross....I seem to be the only one who understands yet what Christian Science includes.” On page 214 of Miscellaneous Writings we read, “While Jesus' life was full of Love, and a demonstration of Love, it appeared hate to the carnal mind, or mortal thought, of his time.”

When we learn that the cross Mrs. Eddy had to bear was the necessity laid upon her to condemn endeavors that seemed humanly satisfactory, (because they lacked the inspirational thought of good), let us remember Martha of old. Jesus rebuked her burdened housekeeping endeavor, not because it was outwardly unsatisfactory, but because it lacked spiritual thought. Her work was not done from the standpoint of demonstration, or putting God first.

If puppets should fancy that they operated independently of the operator, the only step necessary to correct this notion would be to get them to perceive and acknowledge their connection with an outside intelligence, which causes them to manifest activity. What value is anything to a Christian Scientist, unless it aids him in his attempt to return to his recognition of his relation to God, and of his complete control by God? “For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). In this case soul might be defined as one's spiritual consciousness of himself in his relation to God as source or Principle. What is service, action, success worth, unless one uses it as an opportunity to restore his soul, — to regain his perception of reality?

In her rebukes, Mrs. Eddy never lost sight of the fact that the prime work of a student is to place himself under the control of divine Mind, by recognizing this control as a present reality. How could she commend any action that neg­lected this essential effort?

If a cook omitted salt in her cooking, should she not expect to be rebuked, even if the food was perfect from every other standpoint? Mrs. Eddy knew whether what was done for her contained the essential ingredient of demonstra­tion, since she had developed spiritual sense to the point where any lack of God could not hide itself from her by appearing in the guise of good. The more one becomes acquainted with the perfume of roses, the more readily he can detect an artificial rose odor. As one senses the odor of divinity, he gradually learns the undesirable nature of all the products of mortal mind; but before one has experienced a true demonstration, he is apt to be deceived by the activity of the purified human mind calling itself good. The moment one tastes the fruit of the Spirit, however, all else is seen to be deserving only of being cast out as fast as possible.

Mrs. Eddy was the hardest person in the world to please, and at the same time the easiest. She could not be pleased with the finest product of the human mind; yet the simplest and humblest manifestation of Spirit was dear to her.

Because this letter of April 30 appointed Judge Clarkson to the Lecture Board, the following bit of history must be included at this point, since a talk he had with our Leader was the occasion of her writing one of her unpublished works, Man and Woman, the title for which was copyrighted December 19, 1900. Under the date of December 7, 1900, in Calvin Frye's diary is the following memorandum in his handwriting: “Judge Clarkson dined with Mrs. Eddy today and after dinner tried to convince her again that she was mistaken, and the cause was going to ruin, and the men were essential to take the lead of the cause of Christian Science, and to assert their rights without her dictation. He declared that he and she must come together.”

Mrs. Eddy felt at once impelled to write a work, in which she declared: “God is All-in-all. He is masculine, feminine, neuter. He is the Father and Mother of the universe. What need, then, of procreation or sex, since God is the only creator, and all is made that can be made quite unconsciously of sex or gender? Herein we show no usurpation of power on the part of woman, either in the Principle, the rules, or the organization of Christian Science. The equality of man and woman is established in the premises of this Science. God made them male and female from the beginning, and they were in His image and likeness — not images, but image. In the divine Mind there is no sex, no sexuality, and no procreation; the infinite Mind includes all in Mind.”

Judge Clarkson failed to discern that the Cause was being run by a man, but this man was Mrs. Eddy's reflection of the fatherhood of God, and this reflection contained all the wisdom necessary to lead the Cause successfully.





Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

May 10, 1899

Christian Science Board of Directors

My beloved Students:

One thing has been delayed for months owing to so much else I have on hand. It is this: to have my hymn “Shepherd, Show me How to Go” either taken out of the Hymnal, or set to better music. It must not be sung again with that tune. When Miss White sang it to me in Concord a few weeks ago in the music, or rather, no music, published in your Hymnal, I was shocked. The spirit of the words was gone.

This is another special order. Remove it from your Hymnal or give music that I will approve. It may be sung as arranged on the sheet music if you desire to have it.

With love,

Mother

N. B. Have this matter attended to in time for your next edition of the Hymnal. I have not heard my other hymns sung according to the music given them in the Hymnal, but if it is not better than the one I have referred to, they shall all be served in the same manner — left out of your Hymnal Book — which certainly would be a disaster to The Mother Church.

Mother


Above all, Mrs. Eddy's hymns breathe the spirit of God or inspiration that heals the sick. So it was essential that she watch lest error claim to rule out this vital element, by arousing a sense of discord over the tunes.

One might conclude that Miss White herself did not like the tune of “Shepherd,” considering it trivial from a musical standpoint, and that thought was what Mrs. Eddy detected when she heard it sung; but could one individual rule the healing spirit out of any of her hymns merely through a dislike of the tune, and in spite of her demonstration to put it in?

The conclusion is, that Mrs. Eddy recognized Miss White as a channel for the opposition to her hymn that was claiming to operate through an induced prejudice against the music, and which was sufficiently widespread that she had to take action against it, lest it darken the healing effect of the hymn.

It was Mrs. Eddy's task to make a highway for our God, and to keep this highway open; and she has passed that same responsibility on to her followers. In this case, however, she saw that it was not possible to arouse the students to handle the prejudice against the music; so she had to meet the situation by demanding a new tune. As usual, error was endeavoring to place an obstacle in God's highway.

Today, one can gain no hint of this episode by playing the old tune, since the error was not in the tune. As a matter of fact, students were fond of it, and never gave it much thought. I myself could see only healing in the hymn; and that was what we all were supposed to see and feel.

The musical settings for her hymns provided Mrs. Eddy with a means whereby words that healed were made part of the service. They were beautiful words and they carried a healing message. Without the music, however, they could not have found a place in the service. For this reason the music was im­portant, and Mrs. Eddy had to watch that it fulfilled its function. When she found, through Miss White's rendering of one of the tunes, that error had claimed to possess the music in its attack on the spirit of the hymn, she had to take im­mediate action.

It is possible to imagine Mrs. Eddy applying this same proposition to Science and Health. Let us suppose that she discovered that error was attacking the book through a criticism of the binding as not being in good taste, so that peoples' dislike of it was causing the spirit to fail in its healing mission. She might issue a call for a new binding and ask students to return their copies to the publishing house to be rebound, using such a method to circumvent the action of error's opposition to the spirit of her book, as it endeavored to stay its healing influence.

Error's opposition to all that comes from God, as evidenced in its action against her hymn, tried to rule out the spirit by attacking the music. She had to watch lest this prejudice develop to the point where those individuals whom the hymn would bless would be robbed of it; so she corrected the situation by send­ing the Board this letter in which she made known her wish for a new setting.

Mrs. Eddy's wishes were far from whims. They were edicts based on divine wisdom. The moment a student felt free to disregard them, he became a disloyal student. That is why she said in the Class of 1898, “My children, if you had not seen, I would have had to teach you this, — I could not have avoided telling you — ­that when my students become blinded to me as the one through whom Truth has come to this age, they go straight down. I would have had to tell you.”

This same test for loyalty holds good today. It would be animal magnetism that would tempt students to give an outward appearance of conformity and obedience to their Leader, while their hearts were not in harmony with all of her wishes for her Cause. Loyalty requires that a student's thoughts as well as his actions conform to what Mrs. Eddy set forth as the right way.

Because her students in Boston were not always awake to the wiles of the devil, Mrs. Eddy had to take account of any antagonism to her teachings and writings, and wherever it was possible, to silence, or circumvent it. She knew that her hymn, “Shepherd,” was a priceless contribution to the hymnal. In fact, her hymns constitute the vital part of our hymnal. If even one was omitted, some­what of its healing influence would be lost. Next to the Lesson-Sermon itself, her hymns are the greatest factor in spiritualizing the thought of the congregations. For that reason she wrote the letter of March 3, 1903, that has been frequently quoted in the Sentinel, to the effect that it would be a good thing to have one of her hymns read and sung about every Sunday. “It would spiritualize the thought of your audience and this is more needed in the church than aught else can be.” Yet it must not be overlooked that she wrote the Directors on March 11, “Be ye governed by your own convictions and wisdom in the use of my Hymns,” thus throwing the responsibility for the use of her hymns squarely on the demonstra­tion of her followers, rather than making any demand of hers compulsory.

Mrs. Eddy desired the Directors and her students to make their own demon­strations, but she hoped that they would always coincide with hers; and she trained the first Directors in this attitude, until the lesson was well learned. Proof of this may be found in an experience which I had, when on a certain day I received a letter from the Directors, sending me to Tennessee to watch over the shipments of stone for the extension of The Mother Church, and requesting me to stay until the stone had all been shipped. In the morning of the day I was to depart, I received a letter from Mrs. Eddy, inviting my wife and me to Pleasant View for a week's visit. At once I telephoned the Directors and informed them of this letter, asking their advice as to what to do. The reply was that Mrs. Eddy's invitation superseded their orders.

Here is proof that the Board recognized what they owed their Leader, when they told me that her invitation had precedence over their commission. In this statement they laid down an axiom to serve all Boards for all time. No Board can ever be said to be loyal to Mrs. Eddy, if it turns away either in the letter or spirit from her, or her wishes. In fact, rightly understood she is the spirit of Christian Science! The spirit of God was manifested through Mrs. Eddy and came forth as Christian Science. Hence, when one turns away from one of this triad, he turns away from the other two.

When Miss White sang Feed My Sheep for Mrs. Eddy, our Leader saw that she was merely expressing the opposition to her hymn that error was endeavor­ing to establish, by arguing a dislike for the music. Wisdom told her that the best way to circumvent this would be by demanding a new setting for the hymn, and starting afresh.

A husband may love his wife; yet he enjoys seeing her in a new dress. At times students may enjoy the teaching of Science and Health presented in a new dress, as we find it in Mrs. Eddy's many letters and unpublished articles and books. The teaching is the same but the phraseology being different, is refreshing. In like manner, Mrs. Eddy called for a new dress for her hymn, knowing that in that way students would have a fresh appreciation of it. If her people believed that they were getting a little tired of the hymn in the old dress, they would gain a renewed interest in it, especially if the new dress was more attractive than the old.

One might argue that the words of Mrs. Eddy's hymns transcend the music to such a degree, that it would make little difference what the music was, since there is the spirit of healing in all of her poems. But Mrs. Eddy knew the good that a new dress would do and also saw the need for it; so this incident became the immediate excuse for an action that the Directors should always bear in mind. As she so often did, Mrs. Eddy made a move that was occasioned by some small need, which laid down a precedent for the future. Directors may learn from this incident, that one way to keep ahead of the devil, is to put new music to Mrs. Eddy's hymns from time to time in subsequent editions of the Hymnal.

It would be absurd to interpret this incident as merely Mrs. Eddy's effort to have music for her hymn that would please her, or Miss White. Her acts always had a universal interpretation and implication.

Proof that Mrs. Eddy's move needs to be interpreted is found in the fact that if today one plays the original tunes from the 1898 edition of the Hymnal, they sound attractive and musical. In fact, one can discover no musical basis for Mrs. Eddy's dislike or denunciation of the setting of her hymn; but the meta­physician knows that her condemnation was not based on anything that formed an intrinsic part of music.

If you should accidentally break an inexpensive vase in a friend's home, and say, “Never mind; I will purchase a new one for you exactly like it,” the friend might reply, “But you can never replace it, since it was given to me by my mother who has passed on.” The vase was estimated by your friend, not accord­ing to its intrinsic value, but by the love and memories associated with it. This illustration should always be borne in mind when one undertakes to understand Mrs. Eddy's point of view. Error was endeavoring to rob her hymn of its precious association with the healing power of Mind, and she discovered it in time to thwart it.

When she condemned the editorial by John Willis that appeared in the Sentinel of September 16, 1905, she criticized it, not for any lack of intrinsic correctness, but because he had not associated it with the spirit of God sufficient­ly to give it that inspiration and healing power, which all things must have in order to be truly Christianly scientific. One proof of this contention lies in the fact that later Mrs. Eddy said to Mr. Willis, (according to the testimony of John Lathrop), that the article was “probably all right.” No doubt she saw that Mr. Willis had gone over the article with a “fine tooth comb,” and found nothing wrong with it. He had scrutinized his whole Science thought, and found nothing wrong with it, and was tempted to be confused, feeling that either he was off in his Science and did not know it, or that Mrs. Eddy herself was wrong in her denunciation of his editorial. So, to comfort him, she finally indicated that the article was all right intrinsically, — which it was. Nevertheless, it was the letter without the spirit, preaching without practice.

Future generations will be blessed by knowing what Mrs. Eddy's message was to Mr. Willis regarding this incident. On September 14, 1905, she wrote, “You will accept my thanks for your favors of September 7 and 13. I trusted God to bless my loving motive in writing to you as I did and your grand reply is my reward. It reassures me of your safety in Christian Science, and that also of your dear wife, for which I devoutly thank Divine Love and yourselves.

“When met as you have done, the so-called subtlety of sin falls powerless at the feet of Truth. This glorious fact enables your Leader, in some degree, to rest in labor.”




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

May 30, 1899

C. S. Board of Directors

Beloved Students:

I request that under the present circumstances you suspend the church By-law and without the preliminaries permit Lord and Lady Dunmore's son, Viscount Fincastle, to become a member of The Mother Church — The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass.

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy


The Bible warns us that “the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” The spirit is always greater than the letter. Mrs. Eddy gave me two commands when I was with her; one to go home and teach Christian Science; the other to write her life. While I have never felt that it was God's plan for me to obey these two commands in the letter, I believe I have obeyed them in the spirit. I have never held formal classes in Primary Class Instruction, but I have taught in a broader and more impersonal way, which bears the same relation to individual teaching that general mental work for the world, bears to individual healing.

In writing these pages I feel that I am obeying both of Mrs. Eddy's commands to me. If I merely wrote the human facts about her life with no effort to interpret them spiritually, one might conclude that I was writing her life. I might be doing so from the standpoint of the letter, but not the spirit. If I did no more than that, I would feel that I was failing her, since her true life and history was mental, not physical, cause and not effect. I have endeavored to obey her commands from the standpoint of cause. Had I written her life from the standpoint of effect, as many others have done, I would have left readers to furnish their own cause, which would be erroneous if supplied from a human standpoint of reasoning, especially when we recognize how inadequate the human mind is to explain the seeming inconsistencies between her teachings and many of her actions.

It required twenty-five years of spiritual growth after I left Mrs. Eddy's home, for me to see clearly that her true life was a mental one, the nexus of which was a spiritual purity and selflessness of motivation which ennobled all she did, and made it definitely and infinitely wise.

The request to write her life was made to other students, and I believe that by it she meant among other things, that she desired loyal students to record all they knew about her. Even if such writings were never published, the effort to write them would be spiritually helpful to the writer, especially if he therein included an effort to understand her spiritually.

Perhaps Mrs. Eddy was calling upon the Directors to make Lord Fincastle a member of The Mother Church before he had dissolved his membership in the Church of England, which was contrary to the provisions of the Manual. In seeking to understand this move on Mrs. Eddy's part, it is necessary to hold in mind the fact that she always regarded what was best for her organization in its relation to the public at large. She expected the activities of members to touch the public in a way that would best help them to become interested in Christian Science. She knew that God had given her the truth of salvation, which did not need to be corrected, improved, or doctored up to suit people. What was revealed to her when she first discovered Christian Science, was as correct and metaphysical as what she reflected when she had later attained her highest spiritual sense, but the demonstration of application occupied her attention all her days after her discovery.

Viscount Fincastle was the son of Lord and Lady Dunmore. The Dunmore family had served in the King's household for over three hundred years, and bore one of the proudest names in English history. Fincastle was the heir of the lordship. Mrs. Eddy saw the great help it would be to Science in breaking down prejudice, to have such a man a member of The Mother Church.

That which stands in the way of the public accepting Christian Science, has nothing to do with its actual truth, utility or value. It is induced prejudice. For this reason Mrs. Eddy was always watching to see how she could bait the hook of Christian Science, in order to catch more people. Did she not bait her hook with Lord Fincastle?

One value of studying this correspondence of our Leader's, is that in it is revealed her policies, which enable us to know the legitimate procedure when such matters come up again. If a matter is going to be of definite value and to help to bring people into Christian Science, it is legitimate, even if it temporarily runs contrary to established usage, or the minor provisions of the Manual.

The Field must come into an appreciation of the motive back of all that Mrs. Eddy did. A prejudiced and critical thought might feel that in overriding a By-law in order to accept Lord Fincastle into membership she was catering to royalty; whereas one who understands her life, knows better than that. She was using royalty as bait to catch the masses, which was a legitimate move, since the great work of Science is intended for humanity. Jesus indicated this when he declared that he came, not “to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matt. 9:13).

There are those who believe that the By-laws in the Manual are irrevocable as far as the letter is concerned, and that under no circumstances should they ever be abrogated; that they came from God and therefore are as permanent as the everlasting hills. Yet no law which appertains to what man does in this Adam dream can be permanent, since the dream is not permanent.

Is it not the spirit of the Manual rather than its letter that is irrevocable? Mrs. Eddy wrote, “The real Christian Science compact is love for one another. This bond is wholly spiritual and inviolate. It should never be violated in thought or action even for the sake of maintaining the purity of the letter of Christian Science; for the spirit, the reflection of divine Love, is always more important than the letter.”

The spiritual law of God, or Mind, is irrevocable; but the human applica­tion of that divine law cannot be said to be eternal or inflexible. Young students in Science feel that any violation of the letter of the Manual would be sacrile­gious, and it is well for them to feel this way; yet in this letter concerning Viscount Fincastle, Mrs. Eddy sets a precedent for overruling the minor provisions of the Manual, when circumstances warrant it.

Lord Fincastle was eager to join The Mother Church. As an army man, he was dependent on a leave of absence to come to the Annual Meeting. At the time he was with His Majesty's troops in India, and he made the long trip to Boston merely for the sake of attending the meeting, stayed three days, and then returned. By suspending the By-law, Mrs. Eddy made possible his attendance, which was what he desired.

Thus it came about that Mrs. Eddy was willing to suspend a By-law and establish a precedent, in order to inculcate this vital point. It is plain that God raised up people like Lord Fincastle in order that Christian Science might be given an impetus. His adoption of Science helped to break down prejudice and to encourage many people to join.

In 1901 Mrs. Eddy had an interview with Joseph Clarke of the New York Herald which was printed in its issue of May 5. He indicated how pleased she was with her aristocratic converts, writing that she referred with great pleasure to Lord Dunmore, “who often visits her at Pleasant View with his family. Like Moore, she evidently ‘dearly loves a lord.'”

On the margin of her copy of this paper she pencilled the note, “Many times she has dismissed a lord at her door to help a poor widow in her debility.”

Mrs. Eddy saw that Mr. Clarke had misunderstood her feeling in regard to her prominent followers. She used them as bait, to be sure, but she had no human pride in regard to them. She merely hoped that it might help to destroy prejudice against her teachings, for the world to find out that they appealed to such eminent persons.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

June 7, 1899

My beloved Student:

I want to assure you again of my gratitude for your efficiency in all your wise movements yesterday, even to arranging the flowers instead of plants in front of me on the platform. Rest assured of my appreciation of all that is so nice in you and the honest goodness of your every purpose.

Do not let aught trouble you. I have much, everything to rejoice over. I never thought why I wrote a longer and stronger Message to my church than ever before, and did feel desirous to go to the Communion and not the annual meeting.

But now see it was God's dear purpose to connect me more intimately with my dear church and to have me address such a full number of communicants in the very hall where I was introduced by Joseph Cooke to an audience as the so-called Christian Scientist and allowed ten minutes in which to speak on this infinite topic. The hall in which I was so abused was destroyed by fire and the honor of yesterday conferred in a new hall. They are laying him “in a new sepulchre” surely. I had a happy and remarkable return on the cars yesterday. May love divine bless and strengthen you. All things will work for your good.

With love,

M. B. Eddy


It is an interesting question why Mrs. Eddy preferred flowers to plants on the platform. Of course plants may be hired at small expense and returned the day after they are used, whereas flowers represent a greater outlay. So in her eyes the flowers may have symbolized a deeper appreciation of her and her mission than the mere hiring of plants.

One's application of Science to the human problem must be more like flowers which are beautiful, but which must be constantly renewed, than like plants which last. What helped one today, he may no longer need tomorrow; so it must be discarded. One never discards his understanding of Principle, but constantly increases it. What he discards are the weapons that he no longer needs, as he gains new and higher views of God.

At this point Mrs. Eddy perceived that Mr. Johnson needed a word of com­fort and encouragement; and perhaps his fellow Directors did also. She knew how important it was to live in the present. Yet at times, when the clouds look dark, it is encouraging to look back and see what one has accomplished.

She also may have caught the thought among those close to her that they were holding her in a sense of being persecuted, especially with the clouds of the Woodbury Suit hanging over her so ominously. Those who held her thus would feel great sympathy for the one who was doing so much for others, and yet who was receiving such a vicious attack in return for all that she had sacri­ficed in her effort to bless Mrs. Woodbury.

Mrs. Eddy would recognize the love that prompted such sympathy. At the same time to her it was a mild form of malpractice. When in 1907 John Salchow declared that he would like to go to New York and find the reporter who was assailing her so cruelly, and give him the beating he deserved, she showed her appreciation for his loving loyalty; yet she knew how unscientific such a thought was, and gently rebuked it by saying, “God blesses righteous anger, but right­eous prayer is still more precious in His sight.”

The most precious possession of the student of Science is his realization of his relation to God. Whatever would jeopardize this thought should be avoided as much as possible. Animal magnetism stands ready with tricks of all kinds to steal away his consciousness of his oneness with God, since all he is and has depends upon this consciousness and his faithfulness in guarding it. It is the hen that lays the golden eggs that must never be neglected. Mrs. Eddy wished her students never to endanger this realization, even by worrying about her or sympathizing with her in her trials. So in this letter she wrote that she had every­thing to rejoice over.

It was difficult for the students not to feel disturbed and worried when she was so sorely beset by her enemies. Soldiers would worry if they saw their general in danger, since the battle might be lost if aught should happen to put him out of active duty.

Mrs. Eddy was the only one whose wisdom could guide the Cause rightly. Without her the Cause would have been a ship without a rudder. Hence the students were greatly tempted to fear, when she was assailed. For that reason she wrote, “Do not let aught trouble you.”

Experience had taught Mrs. Eddy to be exceedingly careful in what she gave out to students and to the world. She had found that the capacity of even her advanced students to comprehend the deep things of God was limited. Hence she could rejoice when, without conscious intention, she found her Message was stronger than what she had previously given out, because this was proof to her that the students were ready for more profound teaching; other­wise God would not have revealed it to her as she indited the Message. A mother rejoices when she finds the capacity of her little one to eat increasing. It means that it is growing up.

Evidently Mrs. Eddy saw great spiritual significance in the fact that in the very spot where she was so maligned in 1885 by Joseph Cooke and given the mockery of ten minutes to reply to her accusers, she was able to give out such a strong Message in 1899 in a new hall — the old one having been destroyed by fire as a symbol of the demonstration that had wiped out the old in order to give place to the new.

The fact that the Master was laid in a new sepulchre had significance, be­cause it meant that it had no lingering associations with the past, so there was no darkening atmosphere present to be overcome as there would have been, had it been used before. In his struggle to overcome death, he was given a free field.

Similarly, Mrs. Eddy felt a freedom — a release from all associations with the past in a new hall, as if the past had been wiped away and all things had become new. She rejoiced as any metaphysician would, at any symbolism pointing to spiritual reality as supplanting the human dream, and wiping out even the memory of any temporary success of malice or hatred.




The First Church of Christ, Scientist,

in Boston, Massachusetts,

Cor. Falmouth and Norway Streets

June 23, 1899

Our Beloved Mother:

Your letter to the Directors received, and the work is now being attended to.

Shall we report progress from time to time or wait for you to ask for information?

I ask this because we do not know how mortal mind is work­ing as well as you do, and we do not want to lose the fruition of our labors by any unnecessary act on our part.

Your loving student as ever,

William B. Johnson

Beloved Student:

You alone as students must do this. God demands of me other thoughts and other duties than these. And you must seek wisdom for those occasions — and with faith you will find it. You may report occasionally.

Lovingly,

M. B. Eddy

Never report through mail and do not report often. Work out your own salvation.

Mother


Mrs. Eddy's letter to the Directors which is referred to by Mr. Johnson, was undoubtedly one of those destroyed by him at her request, as described in the introduction to these pages. According to Lyman Johnson's recollection, the letter called upon the Directors to make an investigation into the moral character of Josephine Woodbury, by interviewing those who knew her well. It was neces­sary to do this work with the greatest care and secrecy, since it was to form part of Mrs. Eddy's defense in the suit for libel, which had been brought by Mrs. Woodbury.

Mr. Johnson's letter must have pleased his Leader, since in it he admitted that the Directors had less knowledge of the workings of mortal mind than she did, which was the fact. Also, he showed that he had thoroughly learned the lesson which Mrs. Eddy so carefully enjoined, of keeping one's plans a secret from mortal mind, lest error claim to thwart them.

Mrs. Eddy was placing definite signs along the path she was traveling, which would enable her followers to walk more surely in that way. Every sign might be said to carry the burden of this refrain, “Reflect wisdom from God; turn to Him for wisdom.” In this letter she writes, “You must seek wisdom....”

Then she writes, “...with faith you will find it.” Faith is expectancy, and expectancy makes all things possible in Science. When a practitioner is able to bring expectancy to his patient, the healing is certain. Mrs. Eddy was able to make them this promise because she knew that when the Directors sought wisdom with expectancy, they would surely find it. That they did so in this case is probable, because in 1901 Mrs. Woodbury withdrew her suit.

Part of Mrs. Eddy's great labor was her effort to keep alive to what error was attempting to do, and to meet and overthrow the action and intent of animal magnetism, as it claimed to limit, misrepresent, and prevent truth from reaching its goal, and fulfilling its beneficent purpose on earth. She showed that it is not enough to send out the reflection of God into the world, but that it is necessary to protect it and direct it to its finale, so that it reaches its object and accomplishes its purpose, without being reversed, misunderstood, or interfered with.

When she directed Mr. Johnson not to report to her on this secret matter through the mail, she was anticipating what error might claim to do. She once expressed this point in these words, “We should anticipate error; otherwise error will get the advantage. How shall the Christian Scientist guard himself in advance? Ask yourself what mortal mind would do to prevent Truth's appearing in the project about to be undertaken, and then destroy the belief in its power to do anything.” She saw that it might endanger her winning this libel suit, if these secret findings by the Directors as to Mrs. Woodbury's moral status, were to fall into the hands of the enemy and be made public.

Mrs. Eddy's attitude toward all that God gave her to do, was expressed in her own words as follows: “Keep in your own hands the work that God has entrusted to you, and all will be well; for you will, can, hear His voice and none can pluck you out of His hands.” It was her resolve to keep under her control all that God gave her to do, and at no point let it fall into the hands of the enemy, mortal mind. For instance, if she had an obstetric case, her way would not be to let mortal mind take charge, while she stood by with the truth, ready to apply it if anything went wrong. She would use the truth to control the entire case, and to rule out mortal mind in every way, so that nothing could go wrong.

In her home Mrs. Eddy insisted that every one of her letters be followed to its destination mentally. She would not permit students to feel that in sending her letters by mail, they were sending that which belonged to God, by a conveyance over which He had no control. Her purpose was to have His will done on earth­ — the whole earth — as in heaven. So she instructed students to put the entire ma­chinery of the postal service under God's control.

I was tempted to feel that she called for a more or less unnecessary protec­tion for her letters. 1 could not visualize anyone in the post office daring to tamper with her letters, or even being interested enough to do so, especially when that one knew the penalty if he was caught; but experience had taught her that when a letter is functioning in God's service, it must never be permitted to get out of His control.

If one cannot conceive of the possibility of animal magnetism operating to divert mail, so that it is tampered with or lost, he will not be able to conceive of how animal magnetism can claim to divert spiritual thought and neutralize it, unless one protects it. Mrs. Eddy hoped that her students would have faith to believe what she said about the mail, and be faithful in following her letters with the realization that they were under the protection of God, and that error could not divert, tamper with, or cause them to be lost; neither could it prevent them from reaching their destination on time and accomplishing the intent for which they were sent. A student who was conscientious in this regard, would be ready to take the same stand in regard to mental work for patients or the Cause, with the result that he would do the same protective work, and thus render his effort effectual and efficient.

It was Mrs. Eddy's wise way to say little about the fact that the training she was giving us was an instruction and preparation for a larger work, and that if we were faithful over a few things, we would be made rulers over many, — since had we known it, it would have lessened the good effect; but it is evident that if a student was faithful to her instruction, and obedient to what she told him to do in regard to the mail, he would be preparing himself to be made a ruler over many things in the mental realm. When it came to important work for the Cause or for the world, by neutralizing falsity, or the effort of animal magnetism to hold mankind in mesmerism, such a one would be able to send forth messages of good, and to protect them, so that they would accomplish that whereunto they were sent. Therefore, even if the mental work to follow Mrs. Eddy's letters had not been essential, if it was done faithfully, it would prove a blessing to those who did it, as well as a training for more important duties.

An interesting incident in connection with Mrs. Eddy's mail occurred when she once wrote a letter to Mrs. Helen A. Nixon. For some reason the date and signature are cut off of the original letter, but the envelope is postmarked July 30, 1901. Enclosed with the letter was a slip of paper on which she had written, “Please let me know if you receive this. My letters have been tampered with of late.” Then in the body of the letter she wrote, “I want to say your article on that flying visit to Concord does you honor. The good folk of this city are staunch. They are just what they appear to be, New England's genuine stock. I have not had the time to receive calls from them or to return them and their goodness to me is spontaneous. I would dearly love to be with them in society, had I not duties that call me away....”

Here is evidence of Mrs. Eddy's wisdom, and also of her strategy. One may believe that this letter was sent as a device, since the people of Concord had treated her with scant respect. Instead of appreciating that she was humanity's benefactor, and had come to put life into religion and to give reality to a scientific sense of God, they had persecuted her, and made life hard for her. The little slip of paper in the letter tells the story. She expected the letter to be tampered with, so she wrote one she would not mind having read, since it was calculated to soften the heart of any Concord resident toward her, to find out how she felt about them, even after the treatment she had received at their hands.

Later it developed that Mrs. Eddy was not wrong in her suspicion that her mail was being read, since I was called to Concord to be present, when Joseph Mann accused one of the employees of the post-office of such tactics and endeavored to point out to him the serious nature of his error.

One opening and reading this letter would realize that any suggestion that Mrs. Eddy did not like the people of Concord, was false. So it would help to destroy any sense of prejudice that had resulted from animal magnetism's effort to make the townspeople believe that she held them in disrespect, which would have been a normal reaction, after the way many of them had treated her.

Mrs. Eddy's demonstration of love would not permit her to harbor aught but a forgiving thought. On January 29, 1904, she said to her household, “Wrongs are done to me, and yet I turn right around and do them a kindness; not because I intend to do so, but I cannot help it; I do it without thinking.”

Here we have our Leader revealing a great metaphysical point about her­self, in a way that to the thoughtless might seem merely a declaration of senti­ment, or of an inherently sweet nature. In reality it was her declaration that she functioned under God, so that whatever she said or did by way of treating people in a kindly way, was not because she was a good woman, moral, unselfish and sweet tempered, but because she had demonstrated God's government to such an extent that it had become second nature; whatever God required her to do, she had to do it.

To think of Mrs. Eddy as doing good because it was an inherent human instinct, was not the right conception of her. In Christian Science students should not express unselfishness and share with others, just because they believe they have loving natures of themselves; but because they know they are governed by God. To be sure, they should always act in a way that will call forth human commendation and regard, but they should do it wholly as Mrs. Eddy did. She made a law for herself that she could not help being kind, because she was governed by a kind God. Christian Science does not merely engender the development of human virtues; it requires one to reflect God. Mrs. Eddy claimed no self-derived virtue. She did not express love from a human motivation of un­selfishness and kindness, but from the basis of obedience to and the reflection of God. She did what He told her to do. When He told her to be stern, she had to be stern, no matter how much she might have wished to be otherwise.

In her famous class of '98 she was asked if Scientists ought to reprove error in others, or if the realization of Love would destroy it without an audible rebuke. She answered, “One of the hardest things I have had to do was to deal with this very question. I would rather at any time dwell on Love alone, and get away from error; but that would not do. It would allow error to increase. Jesus rebuked sharply. I must do so until I arrive at that place in Mind where I cannot see error, where God, Spirit, is All-in-all.”

It was wise of Mrs. Eddy to answer the above question, by giving the class a page out of her own experience. The answer thus resolved itself into one of the application of demonstration, where a Scientist would stand ready to rebuke error in another only when God told him to, but do it always with love back of it. Otherwise such rebukes would only make matters worse. One who goes around rebuking error in others, apart from divine impulsion, only makes trouble and accomplishes nothing.

No surgeon should attempt to perform delicate operations until he has gained great skill. Otherwise he will only be taking human lives. In Science the necessity to probe sin in order to help mortals, is one that requires even more preparation and devotion to the task, than a surgeon requires to gain his skill.

If we would be followers of Mrs. Eddy, we must follow her in all her ways. We must be guided by God to know when to commend, when to rebuke, when to speak forcefully or when to give the soft answer that turneth away wrath.

Our Leader's own inclination was never to rebuke — but God required her to do so, and it was a cross she had to bear. What she said to the class of 1898 indicates that she wished to open their thoughts to the possibility of God calling upon them to rebuke likewise. If their thoughts were closed to this possibility, they would say, “I will leave rebukes to another. I am not perfect myself; so if I rebuke another, he will only try to retaliate by showing up my faults.”

Mrs. Eddy's rebukes did not come forth because she was irritated, or be­cause her pride was hurt. Such a motivation only widens the breach between people and accomplishes nothing constructive. Students should have known how much Mrs. Eddy loved them, and how difficult it was for her to rebuke them; that she did it only for their good. Such an attitude would have enabled them to take her rebukes, and to profit by them. She was scientific enough to rebuke students, not for the wrong they had done, but for yielding to the error which made them do it. It is yielding to animal magnetism that inevitably causes one to depart from God's demands. The student is never wrong; it is what he lets in that is wrong. She once said, “When I rebuke a student, if that student receives it gently, and recognizes its justice, he is thankful for it and he will continually progress.”

It is interesting to think that perhaps Mrs. Eddy wrote this letter to Mrs. Nixon as a stratagem, as you might write a letter to a brother whose wife was estranged from you. You would write it in such a way that, should she happen to read it, it might soften her thought, and destroy her prejudice against you.

How alert Mrs. Eddy was to write this complimentary letter, and send it through the post office in Concord! If she had had a letter of criticism of the townsfolk to write, she would not have trusted it to the mail; but here was a letter, which, if they read it, would cause them to feel that Mrs. Eddy was telling a friend just how she felt about them; so there might be no further curiosity to open her letters.

To return to a discussion of the letter of June 23, one can draw a parallel between what Mr. Johnson wrote Mrs. Eddy, and what every wise patient should ask his practitioner. He should say, “I know that you are turning away from ma­terial evidence, in order to rebuild me spiritually. You are restoring to my con­sciousness the recognition of my perfect selfhood. So I want to ask you, ‘How much information do you want me to give you in regard to my human progress? Do you want to know when I feel better or worse? How often should I bring you down from your spiritual building, to consider the human expression of that building?'”

When Mr. Johnson asked, “Shall we report progress from time to time...?” he knew that Mrs. Eddy's part in building up the Cause was spiritual. She was erecting the spiritual structure. Yet it had to have its human expression that could be seen by the people. It is as much demonstration to bring forth the human expression, as it is to heal the sick, where the world unites in perceiving the exchange of a false sense of man for a true sense.

Thus Mr. Johnson wanted to know how much Mrs. Eddy could touch the material side of the picture without losing her demonstrating thought, since she was the one who was making the demonstration in connection with Mrs. Wood­bury. How much could they report and yet not disturb her demonstration?

“And you must seek wisdom....” In these words Mrs. Eddy showed that when wisdom governed them, they would consult with her when it was necessary without harm to her thought, and when it did not, they would let her alone.

“Work out your own salvation.” Why did Mrs. Eddy end her letter with these words? She knew that every demonstration that confronts students, if properly worked out, becomes a step in their salvation. If the Directors were able to listen to all the testimony and gossip against Mrs. Woodbury, and still know that the error was animal magnetism, while Mrs. Woodbury was in truth a perfect child of God, that would be a powerful influence for good in their lives to forward their growth.

How full of spiritual teaching are Mrs. Eddy's few words to the Directors! Mr. Johnson, as their spokesman, had asked a very natural question, one that is asked often in Science. For instance, a nurse might say to a practitioner on a case, “I know you do not recognize any phase of the patient's error, since in order to heal him, you must make nothing of it. So how much do you want me to tell you about the progress of the case, in order that your scientific thinking may not be affected?”

The sick man believes in the reality and existence of disease; whether he realizes it, he has an hypnotic effect on all with whom he comes in contact, to influence them to believe in his insanity. In the realm of materia medica it is probable that there is a greater hypnotic influence exerted by the patient upon the doctor than vice versa. For this reason a Christian Science practitioner has to be watchful that he does not come under his patient's mesmerism, and so find himself believing in the latter's insane attitude — that disease can be real. It is important for him to decide just how much he wants to be told about the human side of the picture, just as Mrs. Eddy had to decide how much she wanted to be told about the findings in the Woodbury case. She had to be willing to be told certain things that were important to help the case; yet she must protect her thought against any attempt to materialize or hypnotize her thinking.

So-called devil doctors or medicine men have a record of cures among primitive people equal to, if not higher than that of our medical experts. It is evident that their performance is calculated to draw the sick man's thoughts away from his body, so that it is relieved. They diagnose the disease as being caused by evil spirits, which must be cast out. This attitude hints at metaphysics, for it indicates that the cause of disease is thought laden with fear and false belief turned in to one's body. Hence, whatever turns thought away from the poor body, relieves it.

The point about the medicine men that has a bearing in this discussion, is that they put on a performance of dominant activity that is calculated to prevent the sick man from hypnotizing them with his mesmeric beliefs. Through their frightful appearance and dancing they command attention, never giving nega­tive sympathy to the sick one. A valuable lesson may be drawn from this mode of practice. It hints at more than sheer superstition.

The practitioner must regard each patient as a hypnotist who will cast a spell over him, if possible, to make him accept that which has no real existence. The healer's task is actively to put his weight into the scale of Truth so that, as light dispels darkness, so will the mesmerism holding his patient be broken. In order to do this, he must take a stand in a manner so positive, active and firm, that his reflection of God is found controlling the entire situation.




Pleasant View,

Concord, N. H.

June 24, 1899

C. S. Directors

My beloved Students:

At “last I am driven to protect myself with a By-law in order to save our Cause from a new means of destroying it by disgracing Christian Scientists.

Once, when I referred to a mistake made by a student, he would see it, and kindly apologize. Now, he or she does not see it, even after again and again being reminded of it, — hence he does not excuse it. This sad fact indicates a certain downfall for this church. In a quarter of a century I have never seen one failure in this sign. Three years almost I have no rest from defending our Church and Cause from the blows of two students. But now in­stead of exposing them and W. specially, I am the one you refer to before the public in a manner that foreigners deem disrespect to Leaders, and such it will appear, although I know it is not in­tended for that.

With love,

Mary Baker Eddy

My dear Student:

Read this letter in public meeting and please say to Mr. Nunn that I thank him for his kind article in reference to me published in the Boston paper. It is best to have this By-law, but do not publish it in our periodicals. Put it in the Manual. So many students yield to the tempter and forget my warning voice, this By-law is all that can save them on this important point. When another comes up then we must have another By-law! Alas for the sleepers and for me!

Mother


In all countries are found dissatisfied citizens who, if possible, would over­throw the established order, and laws have to be passed to restrain and punish such subversive activities. No human laws can be passed, however, that will punish or correct wrong thinking; and yet wrong thinking is the wellspring of all wrong action. Mrs. Eddy came forward with divine laws for this purpose.

In Science, just as yielding to mesmerism is sin, and every suggestion that excludes God is fear, so every deviation from the truth about man, is malprac­tice. Hence, the only possible way by which a Christian Scientist can be loyal and faithful to God, his Leader and mankind, is to daily protect himself from malpracticing, or being malpracticed upon. Mrs. Eddy had done her best to call for such protection from all students; but their indifference finally compelled her to write this letter, and to frame the By-law, Alertness to Duty.

What was Mrs. Eddy referring to in this letter but indications of unhandled error? When someone with a physical problem finds it aggravated during a church service, that is an indication that the church members are lacking in demonstration, since in the demonstrated atmosphere of God such a result should not take place. The Mind of God always sustains, blesses and heals. It is the healer of disease, and never the producer of it.

In this epistle our Leader gives a pen picture of a situation which was new in the history of error, namely, reasons for passing a By-law that would demand of students to protect their thinking from aggressive suggestion, so that such error would not be able to gain entrance and find expression in action.

There were lies about her and her students being aired in public at this time, which Mrs. Eddy greatly deplored. The old Quimby canard was being revived, namely, that he was the author of Christian Science, as well as accusations being made that she had issued certificates of the Massachusetts Metaphysical College which were illegal. Gossip had it that she was afraid to set foot in Massachusetts, lest she be arrested.

She knew that whatever pointed to the life of a Christian Scientist as being inconsistent with the teachings to which he professedly adheres, would tend to disgrace the Cause. Christian Scientists are not supposed to squabble among themselves; they are not supposed to have bickerings. If the public should learn that such things ever took place in our business meetings, it would bring reproach on the Cause. To Mrs. Eddy all such matters spelled unhandled error. All that takes place in our organization that is not right, is unhandled animal magnetism, which has for its purpose the disgracing of Christian Scientists, and the belittling of Christian Science, so that instead of being recognized as the way of salvation, it will be thought of as another “pipe dream” that does not fulfil its extravagant promises.

In writing this letter, Mrs. Eddy was outlining the evidence which had proved to her that there was a lack of watchfulness and demonstration on the part of the students, and she was trying to make this clear to them. She perceived that the object of animal magnetism was to disgrace her and her teachings in the eyes of the public. Up to this point, when students made mistakes and had them called to their attention by the one who was capable of recognizing them, they apologized to her. But now they were not doing so; therefore, she knew that they were not in a normal state. This indicated that they were under the influence of a claim that made them a danger to the Cause, since no one could foretell what they might do.

Today the Cause is so large, that the loss of one branch would have little effect on the public, since it assumes that the Movement is prosperous as a whole, and that in general its adherents are living up to its demands. Outsiders are easily deceived when everything appears to be prosperous externally. The dis­grace which Mrs. Eddy speaks about in this letter might be an actuality in the Cause today; yet because it did not appear publicly, non-Scientists might be­lieve that all was well. In its formative stages, however, error in one branch might have had a serious effect on the whole plant.

Thus when our Leader wrote, “Three years almost I have had no rest from defending our Church and Cause from the blows of two students,” she might have said that there were two branches on the tree, the actions of which threat­ened the harmony of the whole. Today the error that used those two individuals, has evolved into an impersonal claim of opposition to the Truth, which must be met daily by all faithful members.

Mrs. Eddy lived so close to God, that she was in constant touch with Him. This fact is illustrated today by planes whose pilots keep in touch with their commanding officer through a radio connection; it seems almost a fulfillment of Psalms 139:7-10.

Mrs. Eddy knew that the world's attitude toward her would be more or less influenced by that of her own followers. If her church considered her to be all that she should be, living a consistent life that was close to God and governed by Him, the public would also know this. Contrariwise, it could not help but know, if her followers began to question the Leader's authority and wisdom.

Mrs. Eddy was never defending herself as a person; she was defending that which God voiced through her. Therefore, when the students failed to support her, when they did not accept what she said as coming from God, or refused to believe that her inspiration and nearness to God made possible a wisdom that alone could bring success to her great church, she knew that they were turning away from God. The most serious effect of this error would be for the public to discover this condition, since as a result they would attempt to defame and dethrone the Founder.

No country can be any more prosperous than its ruler's ability to make it so. No church can be any wiser than its leader. Therefore, when the students doubted Mrs. Eddy, it was a blow struck at the very heart of the Cause.

One reason for such doubt lay in the fact that the divine direction differed so from what human reason would conclude should be done, that students often endeavored to override Mrs. Eddy's God-given directions. Today it is difficult to appreciate what she endured, in her attempt to establish the importance of embodying in the organization everything that was revealed to her.

Mrs. Eddy knew that she was right, because the reflection of Principle is always right. She also knew that students, freed from the adverse influence of animal magnetism, would recognize the divine nature of her leadings, and be avid to embody them in the Cause. The great obstacle in the path was animal magnetism. What was more logical, therefore, than for her to write a By-law that made the handling of animal magnetism obligatory? What else was there for her to do, when the situation reached the point that, when she accused students of being handled by error, they challenged her diagnosis, and refused to acknowledge their error?

At this point it was essential for Mrs. Eddy to pass a By-law requiring students to protect themselves daily from animal magnetism, with the implica­tion that one who does not, is handled by it. Certainly a student who is not alert to protect himself daily from this influence, is handled by it; and when he does not know this fact, or acknowledge it, he is in the very depth of its control. To be under its claim, and not to know it — or to deny being under it — prevents one from rising to meet it.

Mrs. Eddy saw that if the students would accept and believe that this new By-law came from God, and so must be obeyed, then even those who did not believe or acknowledge that they were handled by animal magnetism, would discover this fact when they took up work against it, because of the change which would take place in them as they lifted thought above the mist.

If one should only know the human circumstances that led up to the passing of this By-law, — as touched upon by Mrs. Eddy in this letter, — he might feel that they were not sufficiently alarming to warrant her being so stirred, and assert­ing, “Alas for the sleepers and for me.” But the axiom is true that straws show which way the wind is blowing, as accurately as does costly scientific apparatus.

Had we been present in Boston or Concord at this time, we might have felt that what was taking place was not erroneous enough to explain Mrs. Eddy's attitude. It might have appeared as if she were exaggerating and inflating a small error. Yet, it would never be thought that an Indian was exaggerating, when he discovered the way his enemy had gone, with nothing more than a bent twig or a bit of pressed turf on which to base his deductions. His knowledge of woodcraft would enable him to gain accurate and important information from simple signs.

Mrs. Eddy was skilled in what might be called mental woodcraft. Therefore, the signs which she described in this letter were enough to tell her much, and require of her immediate action, in order to prevent further disruption. She was like a cook who did not wait for a pot to boil over, before she turned down the gas. The history of Mrs. Eddy's founding of the Cause is full of instances which, when translated by understanding, indicate her foreknowledge of what might have taken place of an unhappy nature had not something been done to prevent it. So she applied the antidote and saved the day.

If one reading this letter should undertake to delve into past history, in order to discover the enormity of the error Mrs. Eddy was describing, he would be unable to do so since she did not wait until error got out of hand before she took action. She met it in its incipiency. She tossed the egg of animal magnetism out of the nest, before it had a chance to hatch. For this reason little things meant much to this one who was well versed in the craft of Spirit. Once she said, “I pray and watch in the little details; someone must, as good is expressed in the minutiae of things.” One writing of her life from a human standpoint would discover happenings where it would appear that she permitted herself to be disturbed over trivial matters, and was over-careful and punctilious about minor things; but to her Christian Science was a preventive as well as a curative — a prophylactic as well as a therapeutic, as she writes on page 369 of Science and Health. A small damp spot on the ceiling would be enough to tell a plumber that there was a leak, which, if it was not repaired, might cause the ceiling to fall. When Mrs. Eddy saw a slight indication that the students were yielding to animal magnetism, she realized that at that point the organization might not be founded properly, and so might fall at a later period. She was careful, therefore, beyond our conception of carefulness, that every step be sound.

Mrs. Eddy was not concerned over outward effects of themselves, but only as they indicated that students were handled by animal magnetism. When she became distraught over members of her household, it was not because any had done or said anything wrong as the world regards such matters. Rather was it when she saw them handled — taking pleasure in human harmony, and off guard, which indicated that they were unaware of the fact that they were entertaining the devil — that she went into action.

It was difficult for students to gain a clear conception of why Mrs. Eddy wrote letters of this kind, or rebuked them in her home. The Board might well have said, “When have we referred to her in public in a manner that foreigners deem disrespectful to leaders?”

Error operated in regard to our Leader in two ways: it suggested to those who did not know anything about her private life, that she was like the Master­ — as indicated by the Bible — practically perfect. It suggested to those who knew her and came in contact with her, however, that if others knew her as they did, they would not hold her on a pedestal. Out of loyalty and gratitude, however, the latter determined to hide from the world the fact that she did not always seem to be the Christian she pretended to be.

These suggestions will continue today if those who know the facts about our Leader, or have them in their custody, endeavor to hide them, and thus to keep the body of Christian Scientists still believing that she was a humanly perfect or good woman. Good she was, but on a plane higher than the human standard. There is nothing in her experiences of which any student need to be ashamed, — as she herself declared in the preface of her biography. But her good was often evil spoken of, as the textbook prophesies.

The Bible records things God is supposed to have done, of which His followers could be ashamed, since they seem far more blameworthy from an ignorant human standpoint, than anything Mrs. Eddy is accused of doing. God is exonerated when one sees that such incidents took place in the order of divine Science, and as the result of the operation in the human of unchanging and eternal good. Likewise students must learn that the same thing is true of Mrs. Eddy's experience; and how can they learn this, unless as advanced students, they have the privilege of delving into her life from a spiritual standpoint, through access to her private letters and papers, and the recollections of students?

The archives of The Mother Church should not be a grave, where things about our Leader that do not appear to redound to her glory are to be buried. All things in her life may be explained spiritually. Her life appears contradictory and inconsistent to the human mind because she walked in God's ways. The same demonstration that explains the actions of the God of the Scriptures, will make Mrs. Eddy's life plain, and show that nothing occurred therein that was not in line with good, and does not redound to the glory of God.

One might aver that the conceptions in regard to animal magnetism which Mrs. Eddy set up, are unreal according to her own logic, since they appertain to what she declares is unreal; but she did this for purposes of instruction and correction, to enable students to meet and master the unreal. A father might fire blank cartridges for the purpose of teaching his son how to be steady and fearless under fire. Part of Mrs. Eddy's purpose in writing such sharp letters as this, was to train her students to stand up under the barrage of animal magnetism, which she knew would assail them on the road from sense to Soul.

The holes in a cheese grater provide the roughness that grates the cheese. Mrs. Eddy injected into the experience of her followers many seemingly need­less demands — yet these demands were designed to help them to break up mortal belief more effectually than could be done with the smooth surface of human harmony. Now that our Leader has gone from our sight, we must watch lest error attempt to smooth down these rough places, with the suggestion that they represented the personal idiosyncrasies of our Leader which we should hide in the archives.

The students of today must watch lest they repudiate things Mrs. Eddy set forth, because they fail to recognize that many of her admonitions followed out have value as setting-up exercises, training one to think in terms of mental causation. The suggestion that Mrs. Eddy was personally fearful in regard to animal magnetism, and set forth unnecessary fears, would cause students to repudiate many of the claims she made. They would then resemble the child who decided not to pray on a certain night, and if nothing happened, never to pray again. When they find that nothing inharmonious happens when they cease to assail animal magnetism, they may stop their efforts.

To Mrs. Eddy, inactivity of thought represented the one state in which mortal man is most easily mesmerized. He may yield to such a condition without any definite discord resulting, but in it he has no protection against his so-called human destiny which leads to the grave. For the child not to pray one night, would not bring about an immediate obvious result, since the effect of turning away from God is more subtle and undermining than that. Not to play the mental scales Mrs. Eddy left her students, would represent a spiritual loss comparable to a loss of the ability to play the piano, coming to a pianist who refused to prac­tice scales any longer. The deterioration would be gradual. One may cease to challenge the powers of darkness, and then rejoice in the resulting stagnation.

The student who is glad for an excuse to be able to fancy that things are going well, because they are smooth on the surface, and drifts along, believing that his spiritual growth is as rapid as that of one who is taking advantage of what Mrs. Eddy taught about animal magnetism, is one who will ere long be caught in the ruts of his human destiny, as definitely as though he never heard of Christian Science. Adherence to harmonious falsity is more enslaving than bondage to inharmonious falsity. According to Science and Health, error screams the louder only as Truth lifts her voice higher.

Mrs. Eddy was constantly writing to the Board of Directors to do special work. Later we find her appointing them as a committee to work on the weather. Such a plan illustrates some of the mental scales she outlined for them to play, which today should not be neglected.

Mrs. Eddy's insistence that students follow mentally the important letters which she sent out, was part of her intention to set up hypothetical situations for their spiritual growth. When one follows mentally every important letter he sends out, he will thereby help himself to form habits of daily mental work. Our Leader insisted that students regard mortal mind as the devil, so that they would constantly take up arms against its various claims. She knew, however, that an impersonal mortal mind might seem too intangible as an object to work against, so she set up targets for them to shoot at. Roman Catholicism may be no greater deterrent, as far as Christian Science is concerned, than any other system of religious thought holding divergent views; but it provides a thought­-arresting target to shoot at, because it corresponds to an epidemic. It is hyp­notism rampant in the mental realm in the name of good. While one might not feel an urge to work against the grippe if only a few cases were reported, he would rise up and work vigorously, if that disease assumed the proportions of an epidemic.

The daily playing of Mrs. Eddy's mental scales could never be a waste of time, since every protest we make against false belief is valuable. To assume that a letter that one is sending forth in God's service, is in danger while in transit, may be a belief; the weather expressing extremes in heat or cold, dryness or wetness, wind or snow, may be a belief; to feel that an evil influence is emanating from a religion that is supported by millions of sincere followers, may be a belief; the whole of mortal existence is a belief, or dream; but mortal man must awaken from it. Hence, whatever he does that tends to reduce any part of it to an illusion in his eyes is of value. The habit of defending oneself each day against aggressive mental suggestion, is an important one to form.

The significance of the By-law which this letter inaugurated, lies in the knowledge it conveys that every advancing student of Christian Science comes under the fire of aggressive mental suggestion, and that therefore he must handle and silence it every day. It is a thought-arresting proposition for every member of The Mother Church to assume that he is daily the object of such evil action. One of the heritages Mrs. Eddy left us is the naming of mortal mind as our enemy in such a way, that thought is aroused to the importance of meeting it every day.

While I lived in Mrs. Eddy's home, she contemplated a change in the word­ing of this By-law, making it read, “It shall be the duty of every member of this Church to daily purge himself of all aggressive mental suggestion and not be made to forget, nor to neglect his duty to God, to his Leader, and to mankind.”

This wording brings up the question as to whether evil is something from outside from which one needs defence, or whether it is something from within, of which one needs to be purged.

The metaphysician in dealing with the human mind, must perceive how it claims to work. If evil is only a belief, and if error comes to one for life, so that his acceptance of it gives it all the life it has in belief, then, if one believes that he has an enemy from which he needs daily protection, that belief must be his enemy. According to Christian Science, he has no enemies; if he appears to have, they must be of his own imagination.

The little girl who drew a lion on the blackboard, and then was so afraid of it that she did not dare to approach near enough to rub it out, illustrates how mortal mind evolves its own conceptions of evil, and then becomes afraid of them. It is evident, therefore, that “purge” was a more accurate word than “defend” for Mrs. Eddy to use in this By-law. The little girl would have to be told that she needed to purge herself of her superstitious and ignorant fear, that caused her to be afraid of that which she herself had created. When she learned that it was simply a product of her own imagination and, therefore, could not harm her, she would no longer be afraid.

In going over the Manual to revise it, as Mrs. Eddy so often did, she realized that she might help to prevent students from being afraid of animal magnetism, by changing their objective from one of defence against an external enemy, to that of purging themselves of false belief.

The question arises, however, whether it is not as unscientific for a student to believe that he has an enemy within of which he must purge himself, as to believe that the enemy from which he needs defence is without. Which proposi­tion is nearer the truth about the lie? The lie about the lie is that error exists, and appears as an objective danger from which we need defence. The truth about the lie is that it is merely a false belief of which we need to be purged. The truth about Truth is that God is All, and we have no enemy; hence, nothing evil exists from which we need defence or to be purged.

If this line of argument is true, then why did not Mrs. Eddy retain the word “purge,” if it was a more scientific conception than the word “defend”? In Science, error is disposed of by being reduced to nothing; yet it is also true that one cannot make nothing of that which he fears, and hence cannot face. The first thing a student must learn, therefore, is that every day God is with him; that the law and power that moves the universe, and holds the earth in space, is working in his defence. He must know that all the law that exists is operating for him; there is nothing working against him.

When the enemy came out against Elisha at Dothan, his understanding of God's presence and the nothingness of evil was his sufficient protection against fear; while his servant had to see the chariots of God around about Elisha, before he could master his fear. Mrs. Eddy recognized that the Manual would meet the majority of members at a point where, because of the enemies appar­ently confronting them, they would believe that they must have the mighty power of God with which to fight them.

If the student is unable to make nothing of an error, — if he cannot face it because he fears it, — then the first step must be to destroy that fear. The way to do this is for him to feel that the reserves of God are present and working with him, — ten thousand legions of angels, — that all the power there is, is on his side, and that there is, or can be, no power of evil to stand before the might and power of God. Then, when his fear is destroyed through this realization, he can per­ceive clearly that the error is wholly false belief. That enables him to make nothing of it, and to realize that there never was any power in an aggressive suggestion from which he had to defend or to purge himself.

As Mrs. Eddy prayed over the Manual, she saw that the word “defend” might cause students to build up a belief that they had an external enemy apart from their own false belief, when in reality all error is nothing. So it came to her that the word “purge” would perhaps convey less of a temptation to think of error as an external power. On second thought, however, she perceived that the By-law would meet most students at the point of growth where it was first necessary to build up faith in the power of God in order to destroy fear. Either word would have been permissible, until the student reached the place where he recognized that there was no error either within or without; that there existed no mind apart from God; hence, there was no lie, and no false mind to believe a lie — no false thinking and no false thinker. At such a point no By-law is needed. It is no longer a requirement for one who has fulfilled its demand. He knows that there is no external enemy to fear, nor any mortal mind within to believe a lie.

If you were planning to go to Europe, and I did not want you to go, I might plan a series of entertaining parties that would so absorb your attention, that you would forget or neglect to prepare for the trip. Had you detected my hidden purpose, you would not have been deceived by it.

In Christian Science even the most harmless human enjoyment, if it causes one to forget or to neglect his effort to assimilate his thought to God, is malicious animal magnetism exercising its deadly purpose to keep God's children away from Him. It is the dragon holding untiring watch, that it may impede the pil­grim's progress.

The Directors might have expected Mrs. Eddy to be tolerant towards such small mistakes as those mentioned in this letter. But it was through such mistakes that Mrs. Eddy learned the ingress animal magnetism was making on the thought of the students at headquarters, to which they were asleep.

Our Leader had taken up the fight against animal magnetism for humanity's sake, and in so doing she had aroused it to active opposition. Hence, she needed all the support she could get from the students she had trained. She had a right to cry, “Alas for the sleepers and for me!” when she caught them napping. Like the Master of old, she found herself having to carry most of the burden alone. She had to do the bulk of the fighting, and it was often a hard matter.

It was a startling statement for Mrs. Eddy to make, “This sad fact indicates a certain downfall for this church.” Her experience had taught her that the failure to listen to and to take advantage of what God instructed her to give the students, put the church in danger. For a quarter of a century she had seen every student who took such a stand, go out of Science. Even though error touched them in no other way than to attempt to shut them off from her admo­nition and advice, nevertheless that was enough to cause them to fall away. Hence her prophecy was a very real one.

Once in a while in Mrs. Eddy's history we find a letter of this nature, which indicates the travail of her soul. In this one she writes of public reference to her, which foreigners deem disrespectful to leaders. In our country anyone can say publicly almost anything he likes against the President; but in foreign countries the law may forbid one speaking disrespectfully of leaders. In such countries, the way Mrs. Eddy was being referred to by some Christian Scientists, would be deemed disrespectful.

Mr. Nunn I knew very well. He was Committee on Publication. In this letter Mrs. Eddy goes out of her way to show appreciation for the newspaper article that he wrote, which presented a true picture of her, and accorded her her proper place in Christian Science history.

Mrs. Eddy was watchful to see that she was accorded this place, not because she wished all the credit she could get, but because she knew that just as the Master was the “way,” so she was the “wayshower.” As she wrote to William P. McKenzie, “All the people need in order to love and adopt Christian Science, is the true sense of its Founder. In proportion as they have it, will our Cause advance.” (C. S. Journal, July, 1936, Vol. 54, p. 185)




The First Church of Christ, Scientist

in Boston, Mass.

Cor. Falmouth and Norway Streets

June 27, 1899

Beloved Mother:

The Directors have elected Rev. Irving C. Tomlinson and Mr. Henry D. Nunn members of the Publishing Committee — in the places of Judge Hanna and Mr. James A. Neal, resigned, subject to your approval.

Lovingly your Student,

William B. Johnson

My beloved Student:

You have my approval. Moreover also, please say in your public meeting, That I say a vote of thanks and my name with others expressing gratitude for his noble service on Committee and in all his important offices — richly belongs to him.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


By precept and practice Mrs. Eddy indicated the importance of showing appreciation. The Directors in Boston are found striving to follow Mrs. Eddy's wisdom and example, when they send letters of appreciation for service rendered by earnest workers. Nothing makes a cook happier, or does more to improve her cooking, than for you to show appreciation for her efforts. How else can she tell whether she is pleasing you?

There is a form of animal magnetism that would shut the mouth of praise in Christian Science, and it must be recognized and handled. Students who spend loving effort in preparing testimonies, and wrestle with the devil of fear before they are able to give them, should be thanked by those who have been helped by their efforts. The devil of dumbness should not be permitted to rob our workers of a proper measure of appreciation for work well done.

Students will do better and improve constantly in what they are doing in our Movement, if they are commended by those they respect, when they deserve it. Employees always do better work when they are encouraged and commended for what they have done that merits praise.

Here was a situation where Mrs. Eddy recognized that the Directors might fail to express commendation, and let these good men who had done noble service, go out of office without a word of appreciation. She knew that we are all prone to take good work for granted. The Directors might not be alert to handle the error that would shut the mouth of praise, if she did not direct them to call for a vote of thanks expressing gratitude for Judge Hanna's noble service on the Committee, with her name included. No doubt she indicated the same thing for Mr. Neal.

When I was a member of the Board of Trustees of a branch church, I learned about this devil of dumbness; so I recommended that, whenever a student went out of office, he or she be sent a letter of appreciation for their work. It was a small thing to do; yet a student would treasure such a letter all his life.

There are many who would be glad to work hard, if they felt that their work was duly appreciated; whereas it would not seem worthwhile to struggle day after day, and wrestle with the devil — even finding it necessary to struggle with sickness and weariness — in order to serve those who show no appreciation.

Mrs. Eddy implies that it is not enough to feel appreciation; an expression of thanks is important. Certainly it is not enough to feel a kindly thought toward a sick person who appeals to you for help; you must heal him. Spiritual kindliness that operates to heal is the right kind of gratitude. In like manner appreciative thought that takes form in words, is important. Then it fulfils the Biblical admonition to have the words of one's mouth, as well as the meditations of one's heart, acceptable to God.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

July 13, 1899

William B. Johnson

Dear Brother:

Mother requests that you change that last part of the By-law sent yesterday on qualifications of readers to read, “read and spell well,” instead of “correctly.”

She requests that Article I, Section 5, be amended by in­serting after the word, trustees, the words, “nor syndicates.” She says the students had better mingle with other people than form syndicates, but better still would it be for them, if they would keep apart from all worldly schemes and work with God.

Mrs. Eddy also thinks it would be well for you to frame a By-law that all Christian Scientists who are able shall subscribe for the periodicals that our Church sustains, and that these peri­odicals shall be ably edited, and kept abreast with the times.

All By-laws should be published in the Sentinel and Journal.

Yours fraternally,

C. A. Frye


What difference would a knowledge of spelling make to one who was called upon to read in The Mother Church? But if one was a correct demonstrator of Christian Science, would not one proof of this fact be a good knowledge of spelling, since divine Mind knows all things? When the students in Mrs. Eddy's home were functioning under demonstration, they did their work well, no matter what the nature of it was. All things are under the feet of him who reflects divine intelligence. For this reason Mrs. Eddy did not hesitate to declare that Christian Scientists should be the best in every department of life. She told Grace Greene, wife of my first teacher, that they should be the best cooks, the best dressmakers, etc. On page 193 of Lyman Powell's book she is quoted as having said, “If you are an ordinary cook, dressmaker, or milliner, Christian Science will make you perfect in any of these lines, and everyone should seek to perfect himself where­-ever he is, or whatever his calling.”

From this point of view, it would have been consistent for Mrs. Eddy to have required that, if a dressmaker was being considered for the position of reader, she would have to prove that she was a perfect dressmaker.

The ability of a student to spell correctly, might be the human indication of a mature demonstration of Science; but further reflection evidently caused Mrs. Eddy to realize that to require readers to be correct spellers, was placing the standard too high, and that the ability to spell well was a sufficient require­ment; yet those who read this letter will realize that she hoped the time would come when there would be such breadth in the students' use of demonstration, that one fitted to take the position of reader, would have brought out human excellence, whatever his calling was. Dominion over the whole earth is one of the ways whereby we prove man's sonship with God.

Because everyone who came to live at Pleasant View was required to extend his use of demonstration beyond healing patients, the name, Pleasant View, may be used to symbolize this enlarged view of the use of God's power. Every student at some point in his growth is called to Pleasant View, and the way he may determine his readiness for this higher call, is to ask himself if he is begin­ning to perceive the importance of employing Science in every direction, and of using every activity in his life as an opportunity to develop spiritual thought. In this way Pleasant View will remain a symbol of a stage of growth which should be a goal for every advancing pilgrim. It is a pleasant view, to contemplate doing all that one has to do from the standpoint of divine Mind, rather than a limited human sense of mind.

Part of Mrs. Eddy's discovery along the lines of dealing with the human mind in others, was the fact that there is a claim of mass mesmerism, or personal contagion, to counteract in order to broaden one's scope. The Bible recommends that we all become kings and priests unto God — that is, that we make our in­dividual demonstration of reflecting Mind, and then of putting it forth with authority. Mrs. Eddy's advice in this direction was valuable: that “the students had better mingle with other people than form syndicates, but better still would it be for them if they would keep apart from all worldly schemes and work with God.”

The Bible warns us to keep ourselves unspotted from the world. In Exodus 12 we are told to eat the passover in haste. One can pick up a hot coal without being burned, if he does it quickly enough. In handling error, we must touch it lightly and leave it quickly, lest we thereby make a reality of that which we are striving to destroy. So, to refuse to enter into worldly schemes, would be an indication of the student's recognition that, in coming in contact with mortal mind, he is skat­ing on thin ice, and he must keep his speed high, in order to pass over it safely.

The dictionary defines a syndicate as a group authorized to perform some object. It is possible to discuss many things in the Christian Science organization under this head, even the organized distribution of literature. When such mass distribution is carried on by the human mind, it becomes a worldly scheme, and deserves Mrs. Eddy's rebuke, as being an infringement of this By-law.

Another interpretation of this By-law would cover the attempt to make money by exploiting one's membership in The Mother Church in any way; also, it could be interpreted to forbid the students of any teacher banding to­gether in a branch church, in order to accomplish what the teacher desires. The larger application of the By-law would be that it forbids any form of activity among the members, any use of the organization to accomplish anything, apart from demonstration. The error of using group power to effect ends, is that by the employment of such a method, students come to rely on it to the point of neglect­ing to use demonstration. In this way they fail to use the church problems as a means of spiritual growth, and hold human harmony as their goal.

If Mrs. Eddy were present today, she might discourage the forming of metaphysical committees to work mentally for the Cause in various ways, not only because it was difficult for her to find students who could work together in the one Mind, but because the moment it is known that there are committees whose duty it is to do mental work for services and lectures, the rest of the membership is tempted to sit back contentedly in the assurance that they do not have to do such work, since there are others who are doing it. Each member must always feel that his individual duty to God includes the responsibility for carrying on mental work for the services and lectures. The formation of meta­physical committees is apt to dwarf this sense of duty, when it should be like a stone dropped in a lake, producing ever-widening rings of activity.

Anything becomes worldly in Christian Science, when inspiration is omitted. A Reader becomes worldly, when he fails to put inspirational thought into his reading. Any group effort to advance the Cause becomes worldly, if it is done without inspiration.

Thus the forming of syndicates tends to exclude spirituality and spiritual growth. This would not be true if students could be trained to work together in groups in the one Mind; but Mrs. Eddy's experience with group effort was that it carried a greater temptation to work in the letter without the Spirit, than did individual effort. The reason is plain: When one is working alone, he knows that without the greatest adherence to divine Mind, he cannot possibly be successful, because of the magnitude of the claim of error that confronts him. When students band together in groups, however, the temptation comes to believe that their work carries weight and effectiveness through sheer numbers. This By-law, therefore, tells us that, where two or three are gathered together, but not in My name, they should separate. Mrs. Eddy found it necessary to discourage the humanly natural idea of faith in and effectiveness through numbers, since she saw that it would tend to rule out inspiration.

The instance in 1905 of the Directors sending Mrs. Eddy a list of possible candidates for the position of First Reader, is a case in point. Her immediate repudiation of the entire list, which I witnessed, was proof that in the selection the Directors had omitted the cardinal rule of Science. When she refused to accept the work of a maid who cleaned her room without demonstration, you may be sure that she would not accept a list of names for such an important position, selected without demonstration.

In a sense the Directors broke this By-law relative to syndicates, when, as a group, they selected names, feeling that the weight of their unity of thought in picking them, was proof that they were suitable, apart from making the demon­stration to know the one God had selected.

All they had to do to please Mrs. Eddy, was to listen for God's voice in the matter. When He told them who the right one was, there would be but one name on which they would all agree.

When church members use political methods to influence the vote of the membership, they break the spirit of this By-law in regard to syndicates. In Science we are not permitted to hold human opinions. Rather are we required to cast them out. When we attend a business meeting, how is God going to get into the meeting and control it, if we do not open the way? The meeting is held in order that God may run the church, and help the members to decide and to do what is right. The act of striving to let His will be done on earth as in heaven, means the spiritual growth of those who do it; whereas the exercise of human opinion closes the door on God.

When one wonders why Mrs. Eddy did not make the text of this By-law plainer, he must remember that the effort to ascertain what her underlying purpose in it was, would mean spiritual growth. If one sought wisdom from God, he would know what that impulsion was. Spiritual sense understands that which is dark to material sense.

“She says the students had better mingle with other people than form syndicates, but better still would it be for them, if they would keep apart from all worldly schemes and work with God.” In these words Mrs. Eddy indicates that the activities of a student in order to be right, must emanate from individual communion, but that there may be an intermediate condition that is a step in the right direction, since some human thoughts are better than others.

There are members of branch churches, who, by a perverse nature, always seem to take the wrong side of every church question. The human tendency is to keep aloof from such individuals, and to form groups, where a sufficient number are in agreement, in order to prevent the perverse contingent from getting control. Yet, these contrary members are our brethren. So Mrs. Eddy knew that it would be more Christian to mingle with them and to show them the right way, than to form groups or syndicates, in the effort to keep them from holding sway in church meetings.

Animal magnetism continually suggests that certain ones are trouble makers, so that it does not appear that they are even striving to be good Christian Scien­tists, and to live up to their highest light. Certainly it would be better to talk with such people and mingle with them, than to stand aloof and form groups against them. It would be no stretch of Mrs. Eddy's advice, to believe that she hoped that by such mingling, the animal magnetism which would argue factions and feuds in the organization, in order to divide and conquer, would be rendered void.

When a church member accepts the suggestion that other members are not what they should be, he consciously or unconsciously malpractices on them, and opens himself to testimony to confirm his bias. If he made the effort to mingle with them, he might discover that they were amenable to the right, and that the entire testimony to the contrary was false.

Thus, through Mr. Frye, Mrs. Eddy conveyed the thought that it was better to talk with those who adhered to the wrong side, and to strive to help them to see the better way, than to form groups or syndicates against them; but best of all is one's effort to keep apart from all worldly schemes and to work with God. The organization is worldly in the sense that its activities wholly concern this human world. So, when students combine to prevent those who are wrong from achieving their goal, that is a worldly scheme. Yet, when they take the better way, and mingle with their brethren, so that harmony prevails, that still relates to the human mind, but on a higher plane. The third way is to keep thought above all human ways and means, and just strive to bring God into the church and its meetings, in order that He may govern. The first method is an attempt of the human will to thwart error; the second carries a loving motivation; but the third is the scientific demonstration that establishes the presence of God, in order that His mind alone may prevail.

In Judges 7 we read that, when Gideon went forth to meet the Midianites, he was told by God to direct every soldier who was afraid, to return home. Twenty-two thousand out of thirty-two thousand went home. This might have seemed like a disastrous weakening of the army, until it was realized that those who were afraid were not only of no value in battle, but would inoculate others with their fear, since fear is always contagious.

Gideon's experience illustrates Mrs. Eddy's advice about syndicates, since his first trust was in a syndicate. He hoped to prevail by sheer weight of numbers. So God called him to reduce the number, “lest Israel vaunt themselves against me, saying, Mine own hand hath saved me.” In like manner, Mrs. Eddy hoped to shake the trust of her followers in their ability to accomplish things in her Cause through numbers, or the building up of groups or syndicates, which would have apparent power to prevail through quantity. Students must be checked, when they are found trusting in the efficacy of group influence rather than demonstration.

God then directed Gideon to take a second step, before his army was ready to go forth to battle. Each man was required to drink at a spring. Those who bowed down to drink were sent home, and only those retained who lifted the water to their mouths. The three hundred thus chosen became the famous Gideon's band. When Mrs. Eddy said that the best way was to keep apart from worldly schemes, and to work with God, she was indicating that even mingling with fellow members in order to bring out harmony, was bowing down to mortal mind methods. If water stands for mortal thought, then those who demonstrate to bring thought up to the point of being governed by God, are the only ones who are really fitted to fight the holy war in Christian Science, the war in which the human mind is prepared for elimination, in order that divine Mind may prevail.

What can be said about the necessity Mrs. Eddy found laid upon her, to frame a By-law making it compulsory for students who were able to subscribe for the periodicals? It is said that once Mrs. Eddy was requested to say a word to the Field, asking all members to subscribe for the Monitor, and she refused to do so, saying that she could not. This would seem strange in view of this By-law.

Children have to be compelled to brush their teeth, whereas with adults such a duty becomes voluntary. Those to whom Mrs. Eddy was asked to say a word about subscribing to the Monitor, were those who were mature enough to know their duty without being told. They were required to rise or fall according to their own demonstration. Therefore, it was expedient for Mrs. Eddy to leave such members more or less alone.

The By-law was written for young students who might either forget, or not realize, that the Monitor and other periodicals must be supported metaphysically as well as subscribed for. If one does not read them regularly, this duty may be neglected or forgotten. When a member subscribes for the Monitor, it is thereby brought to his attention each day; he is constantly reminded of the fact that it is his paper — it is his gift to the world — and through it he gives humanity the additional present of healing. The paper itself might be considered to be the wrapping around this gift.

Mrs. Eddy made a gift to the world through her textbook, namely, the gift of healing, and she left to her followers the privilege of making this same gift to humanity by means of the Monitor and the other periodicals. Thus, when people subscribe for them, they receive this healing sense, if the students are faithful in doing their duty.

Mrs. Eddy was aware that animal magnetism would argue to prevent the membership from supporting the periodicals, — not only from subscribing for them, but from working for them mentally. Yet, those out in the Field might not realize this claim; so the By-law requiring that they subscribe for them, would also serve to keep them reminded of their mental duty, which otherwise might be neglected.

Mrs. Eddy was watchful lest the world learn that the foundation of the success of her Movement, lay in prayer or mental work, since mortals in their ignorance regard that sort of thing as mental manipulation or hypnotism. They commonly believe that, because what Science teaches outrages common sense, its success must come through deluding mortals by means of hypnotism. Yet, this criticism against Christian Science has largely died down, proving that she was successful in keeping the essential point more or less hidden to mortal mind. She might have worded the By-law directing the students to do mental work for the periodicals, and it would have accomplished the same purpose; but it would have exposed that which she desired to have kept hidden. She could talk it privately to her students, but she must keep it hidden from the world.

In like manner she hid from Catholics her metaphysical attitude toward their doctrine, by being as loving in her human attitude as possible. At times she went out of her way to say all that she could that was nice about them, in order to neutralize the untimely and unkind remarks that some of her students made. Those who discuss Catholicism in an unkind way, only serve to create a prejudice against their own religion. Today students should take their cue from their Leader, and as citizens who appreciate all endeavors to do good, they should not only tolerate other forms of belief, but be friendly with their adherents. It is only in their mental work, that Christian Scientists should take up the catholic thought of domination as an error to be overcome by Truth.

The same argument holds with children who are taught in Science to love, honor and obey their parents. As they mature, they come to realize that the parent thought may be a channel through which much error comes to them,­ — that they are affected through sympathetic fear, unless they protect themselves against it. So they show unfailing love toward their parents, and at the same time they cut themselves off from them mentally. Mrs. Eddy taught many things privately, which she could not give forth to the world.

The By-law requiring support for the periodicals is for the “babe in Christ,” who is helped by being required to do things from a sense of duty. In this way he is encouraged to form good habits along constructive lines. Yet, if those who become “men in Christ” continue to support the periodicals merely from a sense of duty, they may lose the greater blessing that comes through giving them mental support, — an obligation they cannot neglect without retarding their growth.

Everything conveys thought. Our Monitor is not sent forth merely to give news to the world; it is primarily an antenna over which healing should be sent. For that reason it must be worked for, as one would work for any problem in Science. Students have proof that they are doing their duty in this direction, only when receptive readers of the paper are touched with a spiritual thought.

One purpose of the Manual is to discipline, and so prepare the human sense of mind for disposal. If a student feels a disinclination to support the periodicals, he should know that this suggestion is the result of animal magnetism. If he handles it, he will receive the blessing that always follows a triumph over error. Yet, when one reaches the point of growth where he is expected to handle error without the aid of By-laws (while he does not disregard them at any point), he should find himself in every way supporting the periodicals, and doing so voluntarily, rather than from a sense of duty.

A man training to be an acrobat wears a harness, which keeps him from falling as he tries to turn somersaults in the air. He no longer wears the harness, however, when he can turn them without danger of falling. The Manual requires one to act in the right way, before one has reached the point where he does so as the result of his own demonstration and spiritual growth.

When a student does his part in impregnating the Monitor and other periodicals with a healing thought, it follows that he will subscribe for them, since he himself desires to share in the blessing of healing.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

July 18, 1899

The First Church of Christ, Scientist

Boston

Beloved Brethren:

So long as the Newsletter keeps free from matter injurious to the Cause and stands as nobly out as it now does in defence of Truth, publish nothing in the Sentinel or Journal that shall stop the patronage of that paper. But if matter gets into it that is in­jurious to the Cause, then first rebuke the editor; tell him his fault and call his attention to this fact, and say if it is not discontinued you must publish your dissent to its patronage.

With love,

Mother


In connection with this letter it is necessary to quote the second editorial from the November, 1899, issue of the Washington News Letter, of which Oliver Sabin was the editor. It was headed “Interesting Correspondence.”

“We give below some letters which we received from Mrs. Eddy and one she wrote for ‘the other fellow' to read:


THIS IS A SWEET ONE

Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.


January 11, 1899


Colonel Sabin

My dear Disciple:


Your kind note and newspaper article with editor's liberal introductory, received. Accept my thanks. I have watched with tenderest care the enlargement and progress of the News Letter, and it is, as I expected, a good thing to have two or more weeklies extant spreading the gospel of Truth. Competition that is friendly and wise energizes the latent good in editors and authors.

God bless you and spread your paper over all lands.

With love,

Mother,

Mary Baker Eddy

“The next one is a horse of a different color. It was written to the ‘field'; and as the field is what the lawyer would say of a corporation, ‘has no soul,' every­thing counts. We copy from the Christian Science Sentinel:


TO THE FIELD


January 10, 1899


Dear Editor:


Having received a letter from Capt. John F. Linscott, C.S.D. of Washington, D. C., on or about May, 1898, informing me that Colonel Sabin, of that city, editor of the Washington News Letter, had become a Christian Scientist, and by reason thereof had lost the principal patronage of his newspaper, I immediately requested all Christian Scientists to subscribe for said newspaper one year. In a letter Colonel Sabin pleasantly assured me that their generous subscriptions had resulted in the present prosperity of his paper. I had never heard of Colonel Sabin up to the above named date, and have never had the pleasure of meeting him.

In answer to the question from the field, ‘Are Christian Scien­tists under obligation to continue their subscriptions to the Washington News Letter?' — they are under no further obliga­tions to me.

Mary Baker Eddy

The aftermath of the letter to the ‘field' was not good. As the politician would say, ‘It was giving it to the other fellow (News Letter) in the neck.'

The people so misunderstood her that they commenced at once to work against the News Letter, and said its editor was a Jew.

‘It was only a dagger wreathed with roses; the steel was under the flowers.' ‘A damning with faint praise.'

WRITTEN FOR US

“It is a pleasure to return to the domain of private, ‘eye-to-eye' correspond­ence, where all formality is laid aside, so we can write just what we think:

SHE REALLY MEANT THIS


Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.


July 19, 1899


My dear Colonel Sabin:


About one year ago I asked my church to help you pecuniarily. Now I have asked them to continue to patronize your newspaper and to help you spiritually. I did then, and do now, what I do for your sake — to be able to know that I keep the Golden Rule inviolate, and love others as myself….

Love,

Mother,

M. B. Eddy

So she sent at the same time a copy of the resolution passed by The Mother Church, as follows:

(COPY)

“Resolution passed by The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass., July 17, 1899:


‘Resolved, That the First Members express their kindly interest in the welfare of the Washington News Letter, so long as it keeps free from matter injurious to the Cause of Christian Science, and stands out, as it now does, in defense of Truth.'


“After receiving this, it would be a very hard heart indeed which could not die easy. We felt like Caesar did when his friend Brutus drew the dagger — ‘Et tu, Brute?'”

In the same issue of the News Letter Col. Sabin quotes from two other letters to him from Mrs. Eddy. One dated January 21, 1899, reads as follows:

“(We did write to her once asking her whether we should take class instruction.) ‘By no means; God is your teacher. Read my books, and this is sufficient. I have known many whose spirituality has been dimmed by taking lessons, imbibing more of the letter than the spirit.'”

Again, she wrote:


Beloved Son:


I have more than one beloved son, therefore am not placing myself above the feet of my Master. By all means preserve the sanctity of your teaching so it stands. God is your Teacher, and I have seen a human touch turn thoughts from the spirit to the letter of Christian Science and dim the former. I regret deeply that I did not have you in my last class; but if I never teach another class, keep up your daily study of my books, and that is sufficient.


‘You will listen for His voice

Lest your footsteps stray,

You will follow and rejoice

All the rugged way.'


With love,

Mother,

Mary Baker Eddy

The action of mesmerism in its attempt to sway mortals, is hidden and subtle. When one reads the papers, it is difficult for him to know whether what he reads is the truth, or an effort to make people believe something that is not true, be­cause the owners of the paper have a political bias which they are seeking to spread. In this editorial Col. Sabin was deliberately attempting to influence his readers against Mrs. Eddy and her Cause, when her only sin was that she had tried to help him.

It must be said, however, that Col. Sabin started out to defend Science with an honest motive, not appreciating the fact that when one takes his stand publicly for Science, he becomes the mark for hatred and jealousy.

When Mrs. Eddy discovered that he had published articles favorable to her and her doctrine, and had faced the danger of losing his patronage as a result, she came to his rescue. His paper had something that was helpful to the Cause, namely, a circulation among people who were not Scientists. Thus if he published articles about Science, many would read them who might not be reached in any other way.

There is a saying that the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Col. Sabin rendered a service to Mrs. Eddy's Cause as long as he published articles that were correct and unbiased, and kept himself free from error; but when she withdrew the artificial support of his paper which she had temporarily provided, he chemicalized and began to talk about unchaining the truth. He asserted in his paper that Science was all right, but that the restrictions and By­-laws connected with the organization were wrong. It was the old story of the carnal mind rebelling against the bonds of Truth.

It was a pity that the students in Washington and elsewhere failed to per­ceive more clearly that, when Col. Sabin took a stand in behalf of Truth, he needed their protection. The normal growth of a student means that error is uncovered only as fast as his truth can protect him from it, or dispose of it; but what of a man who is in the public eye, and has little knowledge of the operation of animal magnetism? In proportion as he comes forth and stands for the truth, students must rally to his protection.

Why did Mrs. Eddy so definitely advise Col. Sabin against class instruction, and yet declare that she regretted that she did not have him in her last class? On page 87 of the Manual we find her making a By-law that no member shall advise against class instruction. Her letters to Col. Sabin were intended to cover his case alone. Divine wisdom foresaw that he would not stand the heat of the day; hence it was wise for him to avoid instruction with a teacher. Mrs. Eddy looked into his destiny through demonstration and advised him accordingly.

At the same time, it was wise for Mrs. Eddy to avoid having him feel that there was anything that would prevent her from taking him in her class; although she never would have accepted him as a pupil, since God would not have let her. Through demonstration she was able to see a man's destiny, when it became necessary to do so. Then she would help him all she could. It was a protection to Col. Sabin and to her Cause, as well as part of his destiny, not to encourage him to take instruction in Science, when he was soon to fall away.

Class instruction was part of the curriculum that God led our Leader to establish; yet her letters prove that it pleased her when students became fine healers through the study of the textbook alone. It was a source of joy to her to realize that God had indited a book to her, which she had been able to reduce to human comprehension to the point where a student could take it, and through his own intelligence, study and practice, attain an understanding for which others required instruction.

On November 2, 1897, Mrs. Eddy wrote Julia Field-King a letter in which she praised a husband and wife who had never studied with a teacher, and yet had gained a fine, demonstrable sense. She said, “About Dr. Riley, I have seen him and have formed my own judgment of him….He and his wife called. I found them devout lovers of Christian Science who had not been spoiled by false teaching. Their only instructors in this Science were my books. I was sur­prised to hear what good healing she had done, and took quite a little time to teach them to handle mental malpractice. I charged them not to teach, but only to heal. The fact is they interested me with their ingenuous simplicity and genuine love of Christian Science.” Again, on August 25, 1898, she wrote, “I am more than ever convinced that the students of my books that have no other teachers (or student teachers) gain the most genuine knowledge of Christian Science. The letter and spirit of it are there — and the spiritless teacher, i.e., the unspiritual thought, is a blot on the pure page of Christian Science.”

Mrs. Eddy treasured spiritual desire in students that led them to use what they learned in the right way. She had little use for intellectual proficiency, which lost sight of the spirit, or the development of spiritual sense, in its pride over gaining the letter. Students need to be equipped with the letter, and class instruction is designed to help in this attainment; but the danger lies in studying with a teacher who over-evaluates the letter — or an intellectual knowledge. Students of such a teacher are apt to come away from class with an appreciation of the letter that is so great, that the spirit is neglected.

Mrs. Eddy established class instruction; yet she did not wish her Cause to be made up of those who were lacking in the spirit, even though they had the letter in abundance. Because the spirit is intangible, and so requires spiritual sense to recognize it, it is apt to be neglected. When students at large recognize the attainment of the spirit as the important thing, and give credit where credit is due in this direction, such an attitude becomes an incentive for students every­where to seek to gain it; but when the attainment of the letter is given too much consideration and praise, students vie with each other to improve themselves on that score.

A girl who devotes her time to beautifying her personal appearance, and neglects the cultivation of her mind, forms a good illustration of this point. When students learn how desirable the attainment of spiritual sense is, and see that intellectual attainment is only a human auxiliary, as Mrs. Eddy says on page 454 of Science and Health, then the struggle to attain the spirit will become the predominent feature of Christian Science, and class instruction will rise to a higher standard.

My acquaintance with Col. Sabin led me to conclude that he was using Christian Science largely to forward his newspaper, which indicated a motive that was not entirely unselfed. Mrs. Eddy knew that if he was honest and sincere in his desire for Truth, he would not be robbed of anything by the omission of class instruction, since no student is deprived of spiritual growth thereby. Often­times such a student is driven to God for wisdom, with the result that he gains a spirituality that is in advance of those who have gained the letter with the help of a teacher. There is more hope for the student who has more of the spirit, than the letter, than for one who has more of the letter, than the spirit.

There is a story about a colored man from the South, who worked his way North looking for work. He was clad only in a light summer suit. Finally he found himself so far north that he nearly froze, having no warm garments. Every advanced step in Science encounters error that is more aggressive and subtle; but if one is honest and alert, he will find this experience no deterrent to progress. As the weather grows colder, he will provide for it by putting on more clothes. Col. Sabin obviously did not do this. He was too self-opinionated to accept what Mrs. Eddy wrote about animal magnetism; so when the cold weather came, he was not prepared for it.

The handling of error may appear to be an unpleasant task; but it should be no more difficult or distasteful than the need to put on additional clothing, as the weather grows colder. One's fight is not against fierce Goliaths, but rather against subtle suggestions which pose as one's own thoughts.

If a student was sincere and genuine in his desire to progress, a suggestion from Mrs. Eddy that he forego the privilege of class instruction would not inter­fere with his spiritual growth. Her wisdom was displayed in her effort to make Col. Sabin feel that, if he was earnest and honest, he would receive more from God than he could from a human teacher. Sometimes, when a pupil reaches the point when he should go to God for all things, the relation to his teacher hinders his advancement. The right-minded teacher constantly turns his pupils to God, encouraging them to replace their human teacher with the divine One. God is the Teacher, and any help one receives from any other teacher is only temporary, and is designed to lead him to God, the one source of all good.

Col. Sabin was not teachable in his self-opinionated frame of mind. His arrogance and pride had not been humbled. Yet he had a temporary value which Mrs. Eddy appreciated. Even Judas did service for the Master for a time. The fact that he became a betrayer should not blind us to the fact that he served the cause of good acceptably for a period.

Pride was the reef on which Col. Sabin made his shipwreck. When, in a kindly way it was pointed out that he was printing matter harmful to Christian Science, he rebelled, and took the stand that he was right, and everyone else was wrong. He began to talk about the “trust” in Boston that was using Science just to make money. He put forth his side of the story as if he was the injured party.

One who permits a prejudice against our organization and its officials to enter his thought, will make a shipwreck, even though he avers that he is still loyal to Mrs. Eddy. She established the Cause through the wisdom of God, and we must be loyal to Him and all that He designed. Those who have charge of the affairs in our Movement, may not always conduct things in just the way that we fancy to be scientific, but what Mrs. Eddy has given us is the best human means that could be devised to perpetuate the truth, and to keep it from adulteration and interference, and if we are loyal to God and His way-showers, we will support it.

If the vessels of a temple should be appropriated by an enemy, so that the chalices were used for an intoxicating purpose, they would still be sacred when they were once more restored to the temple. The brief control the enemy had over them could not harm them. If those whom we feel are not the right incum­bents, are elected to office in our Cause, we should love them as our brethren, and know that in the long run they cannot harm God's holy Church.

Mrs. Eddy's treatment of Col. Sabin showed that she had a just, loving and appreciative thought. She was also wise. When the Executive Members felt that he was getting out of hand, they wanted to take immediate and drastic measures against him. She directed them to wait until what he printed was plainly seen to be erroneous. Then they could bring this fact to his attention and rebuke him.

Col. Sabin could not be expected to follow out fully the strict rules of Science, nor to have a complete knowledge of its letter; as long as what he published was not injurious, he was to be let alone. The situation might never have come to a head, if he had not become puffed up, through the adulation he received. Mrs. Eddy merely asked the members to subscribe for his paper; but they went to extremes and made him a little god, so that it turned his head. He succumbed to that most subtle of all dangers — the temptation of popularity. Those who are able to stand abuse and persecution with fortitude, often succomb to the tempta­tion of popularity and success. They are like one who fights pain, but when pleasure comes, he accepts it. The parable of the sun and wind illustrate this point.

A year was long enough to prove the worth of Col. Sabin's paper to Chris­tian Science, and his ability to stand. Mrs. Eddy welcomed the opportunity to patronize a paper that had a circulation among non-Christian Scientists; but the moment it assumed an appearance of being wholly a Christian Science paper, its perculiar value was gone. Then it needed a closer supervision than that of Col. Sabin to keep it free from error.

Mrs. Eddy called for the members' support of the News Letter, because it was a mortal mind paper that had suffered by being favorable to Science. The obligation was cancelled as soon as the News Letter became prosperous and began to appear to be wholly a Science paper, since the only success it deserved at that point was what it attained by its own excellence. It would be a poor paper indeed, if members were forced to support it, other than through its formative period.

In the Christian Science Journal of June, 1898, Mrs. Eddy praised the News Letter in her call for support, —


“I recommend that every Christian Scientist on terra firma subscribe for this scintillating newspaper for one year, commencing in 1898. To read what comes from Colonel Sabin's able pen on the general or universal good, and its relation and application to current topics, ‘is to draw a moral in favor of Chris­tian Science, as by equitable decree.'”


In the August issue of 1899 of the Journal we read, —


“The editor of the News Letter in a recent editorial says of his paper, that it is ‘not a Christian Science organ, nor is it a Christian Science publication.' We understand that he thereby defines his position in relation to our Cause. The matter which appear in the Christian Science organs is under the careful in­spection of the Christian Science Publishing Society, and is understood to be officially representative of our movement. The News Letter does not come under this care and inspection. Nevertheless, the friendly interest of the Publishing Society will continue so long as its editor boldly defends the Truth, and is obedient to the Principle and rules of Christian Science; but the Publishing Society cannot in any way be responsible for what appears in the News Letter.”


Had Col. Sabin continued to cherish an unselfish motive to do good, un­mixed with a desire for personal aggrandizement, animal magnetism would have found nothing in him on which to prey, in order to bring about his downfall. Yet we must not censure him, since the very fact that Mrs. Eddy gave him her seal of approval, put him under the pressure of animal magnetism, envy and jealousy.

Washington was an important and strategic place wherein to have a paper conducted by a Christian Scientist, which might serve as a link between Science and mortal mind. There is no place in which Science is needed more than in the seat of our government. For this reason Mrs. Eddy cherished the hope that Col. Sabin might do her Cause much good with his paper. In her letters she sought to protect him from animal magnetism, and to unfold to him the true sense of Science, without involving him in such a way, that if he did turn against her, it would harm her Cause to any serious degree. The fact that he did finally be­come the victim of error, in no way proves that he failed to do the Cause of Christian Science a certain amount of good, which will always redound to his credit.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

January 5, 1900

William B. Johnson

My beloved Student:

I can almost say, “Lettest thou thy servant depart in peace” I am so joyed over your waking up. Now do not be caught even napping again. Mother has prayed for you.

With regard to the naming of the street, I would call it St. Stephen Street. He was a martyr and no doubt a Christian Scien­tist, unconsciously.

With love,

Mother,

M. B. Eddy

N. B. You are above temptation; now do not go down into the house to find anything to take out of it. You are God's image. God is the only Mind.

Mother


Behold Mrs. Eddy's joy, when she found a student who showed that he was gaining some inkling of what she was striving to teach them all, — the per­ception of the operation of error and of how to handle it! This letter shows that at times she realized that she would not always be present to guide her students and the Cause, and the outlook did not appear very bright, when the students came no nearer than they did to her understanding of what the requirements were to enable them to direct the Cause aright. In other words, she knew that that which came from God alone could do it, and she did not see a single student consistently obtaining his guidance from that source.

When a student in a high position awakened to detect the action of the lie, our Leader was overjoyed, because it indicated that he was letting God govern him, rather than the human mind. It caused her to feel that if she should be taken away, the Cause would not suffer too greatly, since if there was one student who could waken himself out of the mesmerism, if there was one who was alert to its claims, — who knew when he was assailed by it, and was learning how to meet it, — he could be trusted to carry on. So she could depart in peace.

If the captain of a ship was training the owner's son to be first mate, it would be a happy day when he could say to him, “You have reached the point where, if anything happens to me, you can bring the vessel into port safely.” Mrs. Eddy's feeling that she was the only one who could carry the Cause, was a source of disquietude, since she knew the tremendous value to the world of the perpetuation of her Cause together with that of her teachings in their purity.

Then she writes, “Mother has prayed for you.” She felt that it was necessary for Mr. Johnson to know that he had wakened out of this specific condition of mesmerism partly through her help. But he could not always have that help, so he must learn to wake himself up. Jesus worked for Peter, and thereby helped him to keep loyal and faithful. Then he withdrew his help, and told him what would happen, hoping that it would be a warning, to make him take hold and do for himself what the Master had been doing for him. This was difficult for Peter to do, since under the circumstances he did not realize how much help he had been receiving. He had to lose it before he became fully conscious of its value.

We can deduce that when we are led to help others, it is wise to let them know that they are being helped. Otherwise harm might result. Once a wife was so eager to have her husband succeed as a practitioner, that she healed the sick who applied to him for help, without letting him know that she was doing it. He fancied that he was successfully doing his own work. The day came when he fell by the wayside directly as the result of this deception, since he was placed in a position where she could not help him, — and he found that he could not help himself.

It is not right nor wise in Science for one individual to help another in­definitely. There comes a time when the patient should be made to depend upon his own effort. Otherwise he will become mentally lazy, and avoid as much as possible making any demonstrations for himself.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy implies that Mr. Johnson was like Peter, and that he fell into temptation largely from lack of her help. Then she worked for him, and he awoke from the error. She hoped thereafter that he would never neglect to work for himself, nor again go to sleep over the necessity for protecting himself from the entrance of the influence of any mind but that of God, good. If he declared and realized that one Mind alone existed, and that was God; that God was his Mind, and that there was no other mind to influence him, and nothing in him to be influenced by any other mind, he would be safe, and Mrs. Eddy would not have to pray for him, to keep him out of the toils of the adversary.

When Mrs. Eddy named St. Stephen Street, she implied that the opposition and persecution which always follow genuine Christian Science activities, make martyrs of us all. It was fitting that the street on which the main Christian Science activities were to be situated, should bear his name. If it were not for our desire to bless humanity and serve God, we would escape much of the pressure and persecution which comes to us as Christian Scientists. Therefore, it was appro­priate for our Leader to state, that the platform of service in Science is to be found on the street of martyrdom.

When a student is inclined to feel resentful and to complain because of what he has to meet, it is sustaining for him to know that he is a Christian Martyr. This knowledge helps him to endure without murmuring, since it is because of the stripes of the martyrs of old, that we have Christian Science today. Martyrdom, if endured scientifically, is not too great a price to pay for the privilege of blessing others. As Mrs. Eddy writes on page 34 of No and Yes, “They drink the cup of Christ and are baptized in the purification of persecution who dis­cern his true merit, — the unseen glory of suffering for others.”

In naming the street as she did, Mrs. Eddy also hinted that The Mother Church might suffer in the future under the erroneous guidance of some who, believing like proud Peters that they were right, and fancying that they needed no protection, would deny the Christ, and make martyrs of the scientific workers. These misguided students should never be thought of as Judases, but as Peters, since their yielding to error would generally be the result of ignorance and lethargy, rather than because of any fundamental flaw in their character. Such a situation might sound like a serious one, if we did not know that students who are sincere and honest always profit by their mistakes. The action of error helps honest students to learn how to handle it, and they rise higher. Mrs. Eddy knew that her true followers could and would use martyrdom to develop in themselves a nearer approach to God.

“You are above temptation; now do not go down into the house to find any­thing to take out of it. You are God's image. God is the only Mind.” A member of the Board of Directors studying this today, could interpret this to mean that Mrs. Eddy wanted Mr. Johnson to realize that the necessity for spiritualization was greater than any of the outward demands of his office. If he found that certain detail work he was called upon to do, tended to pull his thought down, he should delegate as much of it as possible to others. If the necessity for direct­ing matter is found to be more than a Director can do without getting his thought entangled, he should turn as much as possible over to those who, because they are less sensitive, can do it with less spiritual loss. He must remember at all times that his highest responsibility to the Movement is to pray without ceasing, to go up on the housetop, and stay there, and not come down.

The only work the Directors do that is of any spiritual value, is that which results from their association with God — their demonstration of divine wisdom. If the only way one could get a flow of water through a hose, was to hold it to the source, he should let nothing distract him from that responsibility, since the moment he does, the flow ceases. Another illustration is the grafting of a twig on to a tree. It must be held in position, until the final knitting takes place.

As Christian Scientists we must strive to hold thought steadfastly to God, so that nothing can shake it loose, until this unity becomes a reality to which we never again can become blinded. One deduction from this proposition is that whatever harmonious results come from this effort, are merely the indication of our success, and not something we should work for. Regarding them as our goal brings us down from our exalted place. Mrs. Eddy once gave the rule in these words, “Think the rule and forget the things, and do unswerving thinking.”

The responsibility of a Director is to maintain a consciousness of his relation to God, so that God may feed the Cause through him, and pour into it His wisdom and Love. Mrs. Eddy was telling the Board through Mr. Johnson that they were appointed to unite in the effort to keep thought continually open to the outflow of infinite Love, and that they must not come down from this effort, or permit any external distraction to keep them from doing this important work. Students imagined, from the unerring way Mrs. Eddy directed things, that she spent hours thinking about the Cause. Mrs. Eddy kept in tune with God, and His will for the Cause which directed her what to do, was always divinely wise. She wished the Board to emulate her in this attitude. She gave her entire thought to Mind, so that Mind's plans would unfold for her Church.

It would be reasonable to suppose that, when the student takes care of the material side of things, God takes care of the spiritual. The reverse is the case, however. When one keeps one's thought on God, and remains as spiritually­-minded as possible, then God takes care of the human side. Hence, the moment the Directors tried to be over-faithful in looking after the material side of the Cause — the outward activities and their attendant responsibilities — they were found going down into the house, the thing Mrs. Eddy forbade them to do. She was calling upon them for a divine faithfulness, which was above the human. The danger of human faithfulness is that it tries to steady the ark. The ark be­longs to God, and it is His responsibility to care for it.

The standpoint of our Leader in her work with students can never be repeated too often. In the book, We Knew Mary Baker Eddy, on page 23, we find this standpoint epitomized in these words, “Now measure yourself and your growth by your works, not by your words.” It is also implied in a letter she wrote to Clara Choate dated December 22, 1883: “One thing I ask as a favor of you and hope you will see my motive in doing so, namely, do not take the Sabbath School class that you spoke of, and don't spend your thoughts in any direction but healing and teaching others to heal. The time you give to building up this Cause is wasted by any other way of doing it, under the high pressure of Satan that is going on in the ranks of the enemy.”

Two students might be working at the same task for our Leader, and one would be left in a sense of her disapproval, while the other she would embrace in a sense of commendation, in line with Luke 17:36. One must understand the secret of her life expressed in her home, in order to see that unscientific thought back of any effort opened that effort to her rebuke, even though the work was perfectly done from the human standpoint. Jesus' statement may be interpreted to mean that one who is doing a task from the right aspect will be taken to a higher vantage point, while the one lacking in demonstration will be left behind.

If two students were doing the same work equally well from the outward estimate, it follows that if Mrs. Eddy commended one and rebuked the other she would necessarily be judging them from the standpoint of thought. This same interpretation must cover the incident we find in Leviticus 10:1, when Aaron's sons offered “strange” fire before the Lord, and were punished. “Strange” means not according to the ordinary or familiar way. A materialist would declare that all fire was alike, but the metaphysician knows that an offering in the temple could have either a right or a wrong thought back of it, which would make it right or wrong in God's sight, as the case might be. See Proverbs 21:27.

There can be no disputing the fact that when Mrs. Eddy rebuked her students, it was mainly for a wrong thought, or a thought that was out of tune with God. She judged cause rather than effect, and demanded a good cause. Unless an effect had a good cause, it was not good to her.

The human mind is mesmeric in its action. Hence, when Mrs. Eddy's students gave her service without God's thoughts back of it, they were attempt­ing to satisfy her with mesmerism. They were offering “strange” fire unto the Lord, manifesting a warmth and zeal of action resulting from a wrong sense of mind. The use of the human mind does not entitle any man to return to the Father's house, since the effort to do good by means of a bad mind is deception, offering effect as good, with evil back of it.

If one desires to be restored to his place in God, he must establish divine Mind as the only Mind. Mrs. Eddy required that everything that was laid at her feet, be an offering from which the human element or “wicked mind” had been expelled, as far as possible. If a student did not care for Mrs. Eddy's standard, that simply meant that he did not care for God's, since they were identical. Everyone should be grateful for her faithfulness in emphasizing God's judgment of her students, a judgment which was wholly based on the perception of motiva­tion, although it did not appear to be. The punishment meted out to the sons of Aaron for “strange” fire was far sterner than any Mrs. Eddy ever gave. Yet, there were students who complained and called her fussy, even though she asked no more than what is found in Psalm 15, — that the one who shall abide in the Lord's tabernacle, shall be one who speaketh the truth in his heart.

If our Master could declare that for a man to look at a woman with desire, was to commit adultery with her in his heart, then Mrs. Eddy was not amiss when she chided her cook, for instance, for not putting enough sugar in her pudding, when to human sense it was already too sweet, — according to the testimony of Adelaide Still. Mrs. Eddy was really judging thought. To her, true sweetness was sweetness of thought, just as to the Master, true purity was purity of thought. When Adelaide Still testified that it was almost impossible to suit Mrs. Eddy, when preparing the bowl of water in which she washed her hands — the water being either too hot or too cold — the right conclusion must be that she was demanding that Miss Still's thought be right in ministering to her. If the incense that Aaron's sons offered, had been an outward symbol of the sweet mental aroma going forth from their thinking, because it was reflecting divine Love, then the outward symbol would not have been “strange” to the Lord and deserving of punishment, as the Bible indicates; but because it was offered as a substitute for the mental sweetness, to hide the fact that there was no such mental or spiritual aroma, it became an offence. When one is at work spiritualizing his thought, that fact is evident to another who is spiritually-minded, in all that the former does. Hence, the reverse is also true.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

January 8, 1900

Beloved Student:

I only asked Mr. Tomlinson to write that By-law for me but he sent it to the church before I had examined it. Herein find the proper By-law as written by my­self. Wipe out the other one. Do not vote on a By-law except when I have sent it.

With love,

M. B. Eddy

N.B. Do not change the name of the street unless some great advantage is to be derived from it. Say in open meeting to my church that Mother recommends that this church elect Mr. Alfred Farlow, C.S.D., to constitute the Publishing Committee.

Again,

M. B. Eddy


The tone of this letter is severe, in contrast to the one she wrote to Mr. Tomlinson covering this same point: “Yours just read. Before I received it I had typed my By-law relating to Publishing Com. I thank you for your dear interest in our cause. I thank God that I can call on you for help. But dear one, never attempt to steady the altar. God had told me what to do before the subject was named to you. And you will be delighted to hear that I had requested the clerk to read my letter requesting the Church to elect Mr. Farlow.”

In Psalm 2:12 we read, “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry….” The son is the true spiritual self­hood of man. To kiss this Christ idea means to have a proper love for it. It was this underlying love for the real man that motivated all that Mrs. Eddy did, and for which all her rebukes sprang.

While one is learning to ride a bicycle, he zigzags to the left and right. The Directors zigzagged to the right, by going ahead without our Leader's approval, and here Mr. Tomlinson zigzagged to the right, by going ahead without her approval. Yet she was tender in her rebuke to him. At another time she wrote to him, “Mother's darling: How can she ever touch him with the rod? Oh, it is so hard to do it, but if I reflect the power that rebukes, then I must use the rod. With deep love.”

Mrs. Eddy greatly appreciated any effort to relieve her of responsibility; yet all concerned should have known that anything as important as a By-law, that was going to affect future genera­tions, should have the approval of God. So she had to rebuke this action that was taken independently of her.

No one but she could write a By-law in which there was no mistake, since she alone could peer into the future and perceive how it was going to affect the Cause for all time. Each By-law had to be of such a nature, that when the immediate need was taken care of, it would still be correct and remain effective and constructive in its effect.

Only one who had her vision could write a By-­law correctly; therefore she had to rebuke the passing of one without her supervision. The Directors probably felt that because the proposed rule came from Mr. Tomlinson, it was authorized by her or had met with her approval; therefore she had to cover the situation in such a way that the Directors would never repeat such a mistake. Be­fore making so important a move as a By-law, they must have positive proof that it had her approval. She hoped to arouse the Directors to the point where they would never again assume that a matter came from her or had her sanction, unless they had unquestionable proof of this fact.

One notable fact concerning Mrs. Eddy's rebukes was, that they exposed the way students did things, rather than what they did. This point is deduced from the axiom that divine Mind can never be satisfied with any product of the human mind. Mrs. Eddy once declared that, while she had no human sense of smell, she could not be deceived by the odor of sin. To her the use of the human mind was sin. Furthermore, she knew that if a student were not making the demonstration to use the Mind of God in lesser ways, he certainly was unprepared to do it in greater ways. If one cannot heal the sick scientifically by the use of divine power, he surely cannot claim the ability to use God's power in more important ways. Writing a By-law for the ages was a use of divine Mind on a higher plane than healing the sick. Mrs. Eddy urged the students to use divine Mind in doing their household tasks in her home, so that they might go forth equipped to use it in larger ways for humanity. Her home was dedicated to the service of God and she desired to have this conception spread until it covered the homes of all Christian Scientists on earth.

When students used the unaided human mind in any direction in her home, Mrs. Eddy had to rebuke them, for they were performing a task in a sacred place in an unsacred manner. On the other hand, when a student performed a humble task with the help of Mind, — as John Salchow did, when he drilled the wall and put in a gas light, in a place where a professional worker declared it could not be done, — ­she commended him, since she saw it a successful endeavor to use divine intelligence.

Mrs. Eddy's letter to Mr. Johnson regarding this By-law, was more severe in tone than the one she wrote to Mr. Tomlinson. The latter had a right motive and was obedient in doing what Mrs. Eddy asked him to do. She did not want to dis­courage future effort on his part, just because he had over-stepped his authority. When Mrs. Eddy rebuked students, her desire was to arouse them to better efforts, not to discourage them, since those who are discouraged, are not apt to do good work. They lag, feeling that their work is not appreciated.

Mrs. Eddy was one of the kindest and most appreciative of persons. For that very reason much space is taken to explain her severity in rebuke. Here was an instance in which she apparently had cause for rebuke, and she was most tender. The deduction is that in line with Acts 17:30 she perceived that this was an instance where Mr. Tomlinson was ignorant of what he had done; consequently as God's representative she “winked” at it, or overlooked it.

It is possible that Mrs. Eddy blamed her­self a little for what happened, since she entrusted Mr. Tomlinson with this work, knowing that there was a so-called law in the form of an argument of animal magnetism, that unless it was handled, claimed to prevent students from doing things rightly for her. She may have felt respon­sible for not protecting him properly, in order that he might be able to do this work as she told him to. He did it to the best of his ability, for­getting the necessity for meeting the animal magnetism that must be handled in connection with all work done for her, in order that it might be successful.

Our Master did not rebuke Peter for denying him, since he knew that in spite of all he had said by way of warning, Peter had to have a prac­tical experience where he was deceived into acting contrary to his own desire ,and feeling, before he fully appreciated the nature of animal magnetism. If advancing students will not heed the warning Mrs. Eddy has given, they must all have experiences with unhandled error, until they are convinced of the necessity for watchfulness. These experi­ences are not serious deterrents, since they are not errors in foundation, but merely attempts to mislead the traveler on his way home.

David committed a serious error when he arranged for the death of Uriah, so that he might take his wife. Yet this sin was not held against him to the extent that his future spiritual usefulness was impaired. Once Capt. Eastaman was dismissed from the Directorship by the other members, for the sin of immorality, without Mrs. Eddy's knowledge. When she heard of it, she called the Captain to Pleasant View and had an interview with him. When he left, he carried a letter of reinstatement to the other Directors in which Mrs. Eddy stated that he was one of her best students. Would she have done this, unless she had recognized that his foundation was sound, and that the error was unhandled animal magnetism, that had assailed him in revenge for the great and good work that he was doing? To her he was a bruised reed, rather than smoking flax; so she let the error burn until it was consumed and his purification consummated.

A student of Science does not have to progress very far, before he rises above the claims of mortal mind in their common action. From then on his adversary becomes malicious animal magnetism, and he should never work on any error without meeting it as malice. The error that caused Peter to do such an obnoxious thing as to deny the Master was malicious malpractice, therefore the Master did not hold it against him. He saw that Peter was going to be a much better and more faithful student after the experience; so it would become something upon which the Master could build. Mrs. Eddy saw that this was true of Captain Eastaman. No doubt their conversation together caused him to resolve to rise up with determination and meet the error. Such an attitude would assure his success. Had the error been a flaw in his foundation, however, Mrs. Eddy would have detected it and treated him in a very different manner.

It may be assumed that our Leader chose this method of dealing with the Directors, to teach them a lesson. She may have expected too much of Mr. Tomlinson, and concluded that after all she had said to him, he was alert to handle the error that confronted every student who attempted to do anything for her. No doubt he would have been awake to it in some lesser manner; but the By-law in regard to the formation of the office of Committee on Publication, was destined to go down through the ages as one of the cornerstones of Christian Science; one that could never be removed; one upon which the whole structure of Science was founded. When it came to so important an issue, he was not prepared to make a demonstration of sufficient spiritual freedom, to do as Mrs. Eddy requested.

She told him exactly what she wished; yet he could not meet her demand. Afterward she comforted him as a mother, who realizes that she has expected too much of her child, and perhaps scolded it, though she was partly to blame.

There is a connection between the admonition, “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry...” and the statement, “Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth.” One must realize God's love for him, before he will accept the chastening which is intended for his redemption. Similarly those Mrs. Eddy disciplined felt her underlying love, and for that reason they accepted her rebukes. To have faith in her judgment meant to have the conviction that she was a scribe acting under orders, even when it came to matters of dis­cipline.

“To kiss the Son...” means to establish the motive of love in dealing with others. General Frank Streeter, who was Mrs. Eddy's lawyer, is known to have said on one occasion, that typical Christian Science letter ran, “Dear Brother in Truth: You are a liar, a scoundrel, and a thief. Yours in the love of Christ.” Even though he said this by way of criticism, he had some perception of the necessity of kissing the Son, or loving the real man, even while accusing the mortal man of sin.

If a member should resign from The Mother Church on the basis that the Directors were lacking in love, how helpful it would be if they would send him a letter such as the following, in their effort to “kiss the Son”:

“Mrs. Eddy founded this Church on Love. We will admit that we have not followed her intention as well as we might have. We have departed to some extent from her inspira­tional thought. Lacking in the spirit she had, it is difficult for us to govern this great Cause without making mistakes. Yet it is our deep desire and prayer to keep her organization one large and prosperous unit. If you leave us, and attempt to build up a cause on your own, you will not prosper, since Mrs. Eddy indicated that only unshakable loyalty to her and her Cause could result in prosperity. The reason for this is because she was God's anointed and chosen witness; so in turning away from her, one turns away from God. Loyalty to her should keep you in her organization, even if you do not wholly approve of the way we are striving to run it. Mrs. Eddy loved everyone with an unswerving love. Were she with us today, she would invite you to remain in her Church, and to adjust your views to what she knew was best, hoping that in so doing you might find in Science the inspiration and blessing which you claim you must diverge in your views to find, and we will strive to express more of the Christ love in the future.”

Such a letter would cause a disgruntled mem­ber to realize that the Church was a loving institution, interested in saving mankind, and he would never be able to justify his withdrawal by claiming that he met with such unchristian treat­ment that he had to resign.

The Directors must always bear in mind that whatever error a member may manifest, it is the result of animal magnetism. Hence when the sinner handles it, he throws it off and shows himself to be the lovable son of God. The Board cannot afford to thrust some of God out of the church! Excommuni­cation is justifiable only when such action helps the sinner to reform.




(Telegram)

Received at

1326 Mass. Ave., Harvard Sq.

Cambridge, Mass.

Concord, N. H., March 26, 1900

Rev. W. P. McKenzie,

1010 Mass. Ave., Cambridge.

I recommend that you call church meeting at once to dispose of unfinished business.

M. B. Eddy


In mythology we read of a woman who represented fate, weaving a tapestry. The pattern which was to be worked out in the lives of mankind, could be seen already woven. If God is all-knowing, then it must be correct to declare that He knew the pattern of His Cause on earth before it was established. In reflecting God, therefore, Mrs. Eddy was able to act with wisdom and foresight, and she saw that if unfinished business was not promptly disposed of, it would clog the wheels of progress. Error would suggest delay in passing important measures, in order that the time of their value might pass. As Mrs. Eddy herself once indicated, the right thing done at the wrong time is no longer the right thing. And in par­liamentary procedure, much proposed business is killed by the simple process of being laid on the table.

When things to be done for God are pending, the moment He gives the word they must be done quickly and immediately. As Mrs. Eddy once wrote: “Delay to perform a duty is not obedience. The Scripture declares that ‘Now is the ac­ceptable time.' The good that can be done to-day cannot be done to-morrow; and sufficient unto each day are the demands thereof. The model Sermon of our great Master pleads for our daily bread. We need the bread of heaven each and every day. The Scriptures discard delay; they prohibit the poor protest: ‘To­morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundantly.' ‘A word to the wise is sufficient.'”

Mrs. Eddy continually counselled promptness. At this point her insight caused her to accelerate matters in the Cause. By sending a telegram, she hoped for more immediate action. When fruit is put away to ripen, it needs to be watched, since there is a point at which it must be used, lest it spoil. When business for God is pending, it should not be permitted to hang fire; otherwise something may come up to take its place and so its value be impaired by delay. The church business in the days of the founding of the Cause was especially vital, since Mrs. Eddy was establishing precedent for all time; she was erecting the machinery of organization that time could not wear away, nor the enmity of the evil one disintegrate.




(Telegram)

Received at the Brunswick, 520 Boylston St., Boston

Dated Concord, N. H., April 15, 1900

To Christian Science Board of Directors

99 Falmouth St.

God bless my old Board of Directors and their plants.

With love,

Mother


If Mrs. Eddy acted under inspiration, there is a dual meaning to all that she wrote, said and did. Even when Alfred Farlow and some others came to see her, and while they were waiting, they played on the lawn wrestling and tumbling, and she said, “Those boys!” there was a deeper meaning to her remark than appeared on the surface. She knew that her officials carried weighty responsibilities, as well as a load of error's opposition. She also knew that in her atmosphere this load seemed to melt away to nothing, such was the power of her demonstration of good. So great was this sense of relief, that they felt like celebrating. So she was kindly and tolerant of this feeling of release, even if she could not bear to watch them from the window. Nevertheless in calling them boys, she was convincing them of an immaturity of understanding and experience in regard to animal magnetism, since had they had a deeper insight, they would have known, that the momentary sweet release they felt in her presence was no signal for becoming mentally drunk or being off guard, since there is always sin's revenge on its destroyer to be taken care of.

The point at which one has a victory over evil is always a dangerous one, since error may be said to have a head and a tail. The head represents its effort to harm you. If you are successful in your efforts to overthrow it, then the tail stands for its revenge. You cut off the head of a serpent, and then its tail may attempt to encircle you in its death struggle, and injure you. Therefore the rule is, never permit a victory over error, or a release from its seeming pressure, to put you off guard. As Mrs. Eddy herself once said, “Never rejoice in victory over it nor lament. It gives power where it does not belong.... Have no funeral knell or trumpet blast over nothing; otherwise you will make it some-thing and consis­tency is especially most desirable in dealing with nothingness.”

This telegram indicates that the Directors had sent Mrs. Eddy some plants for Easter, and she desired to thank them. Yet from it one gains a picture of our Leader working in her home to send forth waves of spiritual thought with healing in their wings, in order to save all mankind from sin, sickness and death, and in the midst of such mighty work, having to stop to thank her Directors for a few plants! What a distance there was be­tween the sense of Science she had, and that of even her best students!

She was tenderly appreciative of all that the Directors did for her, if for no other reason than because it was part of the demonstration God required of her, to keep all channels open through which she might reach the Field. It was no new experience for her to place a student in a position of authority, only to have him turn around and use that authority to fight her. Part of her efforts was to prevent this action of animal magnetism.

The limited outlook and narrow ambitions of those whose conceptions have not yet been spiritu­alized, seem paltry to one who is imbued with a broad desire to bless humanity. Mrs. Eddy was fired by the tremendous significance of what God had given her to do, and she struggled to open the eyes of her students to see it. And in the midst of this effort, the Directors sent her some Easter plants. This was a loving gesture on their part which she appreciated; but evidently this thoughtfulness did not convey to her that they were rapidly gaining that larger vision which she was training them to attain.

She knew that animal magnetism would tempt her Board, — and all Boards to come, — to spend time on unimportant matters, in order to deceive them into feeling that they were accomplishing a great deal by running around smartly. Evidently, in sensing the thought back of the plants, she did not find much proof that they were meeting this error.

Mrs. Eddy placed great hopes in the First Members of The Mother Church. She appointed her choicest students to this committee, hoping that it would constitute a court of last resort; if anything happened to indicate the Directors' un­fitness to govern the business of the organization, they would be ready to fill in the breach. I attended the last few meetings they held, filled with a sense of what an honor it was to be elected to membership in a group which included the cream of the Christian Science crop. I expected a wonderful spiritual uplift coming from association with such a noble company, but I was disappointed. The last meeting they ever held was entirely taken up in preparing a congratulatory message to be sent to Mrs. Eddy. Not a word was said about the majesty of Christian Science, its redemptive mission in saving humanity, nor the need to quicken our efforts in this direction. Mrs. Eddy's words from page 342 of Miscellaneous Writings could have justly been quoted in regard to the members, that they “heeded not their sloth, their fading warmth of action.”

Mrs. Eddy in sensing the mental aroma ema­nating from the First Members, caught little that heartened her. She looked for signs of spiritual awakening, and all she received was a message, which I believe corresponded to the plants sent by the Directors, in her estimation. It is little wonder that this group of students was finally disbanded. They really disbanded themselves.

The First Members meant no harm. They believed that a message of congratulations would please our Leader, forgetting that a demonstration over animal magnetism that would clear their vision, and enable them to follow in her foot­steps, would have pleased her more. In like manner, the Directors thought that some beautiful Easter plants would please her, when what she really wanted was signs of spiritual growth. When the New York students once sent her some beautiful flowers, while she appreciated them humanly, she said with tears in her eyes, “But they are not doing the work as I want it. ‘If ye love me, keep my commandments.'”

There was a great spiritual distance between our Leader and the best of her students. Her prayer for the Directors was that they understand her and her mission, and that they be thoroughly impregnated with the vital importance of the work they had been given to do, helping to heal and save mankind, and to show the way of truth to all that were in darkness. Mrs. Eddy knew that if they were doing that, they would not find much time or thought to expend sending her plants or other gifts.

Mrs. Eddy was ready to hail with joy every effort the Board made along the line of construc­tive good; but she certainly did not want them to feel that they had exerted themselves very far along the line of breadth of demonstration, by sending her a few flowers. She knew that when it came to the work where there was little opposition from animal magnetism, they would perform that intelligently and well. They were like life-guards without much ability to swim in deep water. Her hope was, however, that she might awaken them to handle the error, so that they would do the greater works of which they were really capable.

Once a minister's daughter — a highly educated person — left her father's church and joined ours. For many years she had led public meetings and performed other tasks required of a minister's daughter, capably and well. Yet she found it impossible to rise to her feet and give a testi­mony in our Wednesday Evening Meeting. This failure did not indicate that she had no natural or trained ability to speak, since she did have, and she knew it; but she did not have the knowl­edge of how to handle animal magnetism which kept her down. She attempted to use human courage, willpower and conscientiousness; but not demon­stration. The student who lets demonstration lift him up to speak is the one who gives a help­ful testimony. Yet this girl's experience at first tended to cause her to doubt her own ability, and to feel frustrated.

Mrs. Eddy knew that no matter how much human ability the Directors had, they would fail to deal wisely with matters where there was definite opposition from animal magnetism, unless they handled it. She also realized that when they failed in such matters, they might yield to an ingrowing feeling of inferiority, which would not be constructive. It was necessary for them to know that they were lacking merely in the handling of animal magnetism. They would never have been appointed to the position of Directors, if they had not been adequate in God's sight to meet the need. What they required was a quickening and an awakening. For this reason at times Mrs. Eddy had to step in and rebuke them. I am convinced that this telegram was not as complimentary as it sounded, but was designed to penetrate helpfully to the real situation.

At what point does animal magnetism become sin to a student? Only when he fathers it as a defect in himself. If posts in a river should gather a coating of grease, that grease would never become part of the posts. Animal magnetism is an impersonal claim that never becomes part of man.

Mrs. Eddy attempted to take sin away from the Directors by helping them to see that their not being able to accomplish more for her, was not inherent lack, but the error that assailed them to which they yielded. Yet too frequent rebukes might cause them to feel inferior, as if they possessed little ability to serve the Cause and their Leader acceptably. To believe this would have been sin. She must help them to see that they were fitted to perform any work that God gave them to do.

When a student who is sick declares, “This error is not me, nor is it any part of me; it is animal magnetism trying to attach a claim to me to prevent my usefulness to God; hence I will not ad­mit it,” he is avoiding being a sinner, and insult­ing God, and he is taking the step that brings his healing.

In like manner, when an argument of incompe­tence assails one in regard to a position to which God has appointed him, he is saved from being a sinner, as well as from the effects of the argument, when he refuses to acknowledge the incompetence as part of himself.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

April 22, 1900

My beloved Student:

Your letter and the good old man's testimony are just read and such a laugh as I had is a rarity in these times. I could almost hear him talk, so character­istic was the written vernacular. Will you say to Judge Hanna and yourself, I thank you for the penning of it. Do not trouble yourself to copy testimony for me to read. I thank you, but have not time to indulge in it.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy

N. B. Have got the clinch over the Pub. Com. settled by dint of wisdom. Carol had chosen to remain on Board of Lecture­ship rather than the Pub. Com. Both, none can be, for the stuff she publishes would go into the newspapers always when the lecturer would be off on his lecture tour and no Com. there to attend to it. With the hope of Heaven sometime.

M. B. E.


Mrs. Eddy had a sense of humor, but she used it sparingly. Often when she found something that appealed to her, she would blue pencil it and send it to Lawyer Streeter to enjoy. Once after read­ing one of these squibs she had sent to him he said to me, “I know Mrs. Eddy a lot better than you Christian Scientists do. You think she is long­-faced and solemn, but in reality she is a bright, intelligent, up-to-date woman with a keen sense of humor.” I perceived that it was part of her demon­stration to present such a picture of herself to him, for from his standpoint of admiration and appreciation he would feel the urge to do his best for her.

Once Mrs. Eddy said to her students, “Some of you are taking life too seriously. A sense of humor is a saving grace.” When one begins to take error seriously he is being tempted to regard it as real. At such a point a sense of humor will often enable him to make light of it. The only saving attitude is to see it as nothing.

At the time this letter was written, the Directors were engaged in taking testimony in regard to the status of Josephine Woodbury, who is the she referred to in this letter. Judge Hanna and Mr. Johnson may have found the testimony of one of the witnesses so amusing that they had copied it off for Mrs. Eddy, hoping that it would give her a laugh.

The mental pressure at the time of this trial was great. No student can look forward to a trial in a mortal mind court of law with any degree of anticipation. In the midst of her load of care, at that time Mrs. Eddy found that she could laugh, and perhaps it helped to lighten her load. For that she was grateful. The pressure on her was so severe, that at times it was more difficult than at others, for her to maintain her mental poise and see the unreality of falsity. Hence she appreciated whatever helped to lighten her thought even a little bit.

Lecturers learn that if they tell a humorous anecdote occasionally, it helps to rest their audiences, and makes it easier to listen to the deep portions of their exposition of Science. An hour seems a long time to listen to a weighty dissertation on metaphysics, when it is not re­lieved by anything of a light nature.

Mrs. Eddy's laugh at the good old man's testimony aided her in a measure to see that the error was not as serious as it appeared to be, and that God was still in control. Whatever has such an effect on us, gives us a sense of mental relief. It is always helpful for one under pressure to say to himself, “What have I to worry about? Is it not an insult to God to feel that either He is unwill­ing or unable to take care of this situation? Is He not always awake, and is He not wisely governing every situation? Then may I not rest in a calm assurance of the presence of His love and power taking care of every situation? Is it not an insult to my consciousness of God to think other­wise? Is it not an insult to my sense of Christian Science, to admit that my understanding is not established in me sufficiently to enable me to rest calmly and securely in my faith in God and in the realization of His wisdom and love as caring for every situation?”

When you can laugh at a thing, that proves it does not seem too serious to you. There is less fear than as if you took it seriously. Yet Mrs. Eddy discouraged Judge Hanna and Mr. Johnson from sending her further testimony. She did not wish to clutter her thought with the material side of the picture. In order to have the Woodbury case settled as God alone could settle it, it was necessary for her to take a scientific view of it. When one is engaged in such important and solemn work as to try to realize the reality of all good and its presence operating to watch over its own, one cannot afford to give too much attention to the details of this mortal dream. Mrs. Eddy always avoided listening to or reading anything that had a mesmeric thought back of it, the purpose of which was to influence her thought erroneously, and to pull it down. The practitioner knows that it is important for him to avoid as much as possible listening to what his patient has to say about his errors. It is helpful at times to regard the latter merely as if he were a phono­graph talking, with no intelligence back of the words, since they appertain wholly to illusion. Anyone who believes a lie becomes a hypnotist, and it requires something more than a passive sense to overcome such contagious thought.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy declared that she had gotten the clinch over the Publication Com­mittee “settled by dint of wisdom.” She did not say, “by dint of hard work, or by dint of human cleverness.” To her, wisdom was not something which she possessed, but reflected. It was important for her to keep in rapport with God. When a man is on a steamer, he knows that his progress is certain, and that he will be in port at a definite time; whereas in a rowboat he would be at the mercy of the tide and wind. This point illustrates the difference between a man attached to God, and one who believes that he is separated from Him. When one keeps in rapport with God, he knows that he is making definite progress, that he is going to be taken care of in everyway, and that he is going to have the wisdom sufficient to meet every exigency that may arise. Strictly speaking, one does not demonstrate wisdom; he demonstrates God, and then God furnishes the wisdom necessary for every need. Hence, she has written that “God is not separate from the wisdom He bestows.” (S&H, p.6) It is not as scientific to select one strand from the great rope of God, and merely to demonstrate that, as it is to re­flect the whole of God; then all that is needed is at hand as it is needed. Through her larger demon­stration of God, Mrs. Eddy was provided with a wisdom that enabled her to settle harmoniously this particular situation which seemed so trouble­some, and which error was endeavoring to influence, and to upset the harmonious workings of the Cause.

It would have been an endless task for Mrs. Eddy to have demonstrated wisdom for each occasion as it arose. She demonstrated her one­ness with God; then He furnished wisdom as it was needed, just as when one gets aboard a steamer, everything that he needs is provided.

One might wonder if Mrs. Eddy was not proph­esying evil, when she predicted that Mrs. Woodbury would always have her “stuff” published, just when the Committee on Publication was off on a lecture tour; but she recognized the action of animal magnetism as growing more subtle and aggressive as Truth progresses. Experience had taught her that its attacks were most liable to come when the Committee was away. She knew that it required the demonstration of Truth to meet the lie, and not mere human intelligence or cleverness.

Our Leader discerned that Carol Norton was not sufficiently equipped with the wisdom of God, — because he was not sufficiently demonstrating God, — to meet the demands of the office. Had he been both the Committee on Publication and a lecturer, error might have called him away to lecture just when he was needed to meet the error in Boston. In that way Mrs. Woodbury's articles would have had more of a chance to get out, and the public might have believed her lies, instead of the truth, that it is the mission of Christian Science to bring to the attention of the world.

Mrs. Eddy had very little time to indulge in fun, but at times she enjoyed a good laugh. When a man is running a race, he may see lovely flowers by the side of the road that he would like to stop and gather; but he has a race to run and win. So he passes them by. Mrs. Eddy was running a race, and no day was long enough in which to accomplish all she had to do. So even though she enjoyed the testimony that brought her a laugh, she discouraged Mr. Johnson from sending her any more.

The nota bene to this letter may be interpreted as if Mrs. Eddy were a skilled artisan, showing work that she had just completed, to her apprentices. She was not doing this to boast, or to aggrandize herself, but for purposes of instruction, to show them the kind of work that they must do, if they wanted to earn the right to be called good workmen. Mrs. Eddy called the Directors' attention to what she had just accomplished through wisdom, not only to have it recorded, but to encourage them to demonstrate it as she had, in order to perform their manifold tasks.

These letters form a valuable addition to the history of Christian Science, because they show that our Leader was constantly being called upon to settle questions that the Directors could not solve, indicating that the demonstration of wisdom was more than the equal of the most ed­ucated and intelligent human thought that could be found apart from God. She proved that one with God is a majority.

Finally, we have her concluding statement, “With the hope of Heaven sometime.” Here is a rebuke to the thought that works along with no expectancy of ever finishing the human problem. It is possible for one knitting a stocking, to toe in too soon, or to neglect to toe it in at all. In either case the result would not be satisfactory. Paul declared that now is the accepted time. The student has the correct atti­tude of thought, when he recognizes that when he does a certain amount of work correctly and successfully, he may expect to find himself in the kingdom of heaven. Any student is aided in his efforts, who expects that within the limits of his own sense of life on earth, he will solve the human problem. Certainly no one will ever do it, who does not expect to do it.

Mrs. Eddy demanded that her students do their work correctly, but she was willing to have them know that when it was, they could positively expect a present heavenly reward.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

April 30, 1900

Dictated

To C. S. Board of Directors and Judge Hanna

Beloved Students:

As an exception to the positive rule that our Annual Meeting shall not be over­run, I herein say, Let them come at our Annual Meeting this year, as many as want to come. Leave it to their option.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


In Christian Science rules are necessary only for those who have an immature sense of demonstra­tion. Students must be required to follow certain lines in thought and action, until growth brings them to the point where they are able to discern directly the will and wisdom of God. If there were a positive rule that the Annual Meeting should not be over-run, one reason for it might be, that Mrs. Eddy saw that some students were only too glad of an excuse to leave their fields of labor and go to Boston, when at that very time they might be needed at home. In my own church there were many years when I denied myself the pleasure of going to the Annual Meeting, because I found that I was the only practitioner left in the city on that day, and there were many proofs that I was needed at home.

While 1900 appeared to include no special invitation for students to go to Concord, Mrs. Eddy undoubtedly hoped that they would take advantage of the privilege of seeing her, of sensing her atmosphere, in order to renew their faith in her demonstration, and to keep them in a loyal loving sense toward her.

Our Leader knew that she had the highest conception of Christian Science on earth, and so it was necessary to turn the thought of the students toward her, in order that they might accept her conception as their own. She realized that when they reached a point where they could hear God's voice, they would be safe and would no longer need to follow another's understanding of the truth. Pending that time, however, it was important for them to adopt as nearly as they could, the Leader's idea of her own revelation.

Mrs. Eddy hoped that students would gain her right conception of Christian Science, that teachers would teach it, and that practitioners would prac­tice it. In this endeavor, one's goal must be to reflect God, since He is the one who imparts the right idea of Himself. He alone knows what Christian Science really is.

When a student loses a valuable object, he is taught to realize that God knows where it is. Hence if he will go to God, he will find it. The important point is not getting the item back; but establishing the recognition that God is the all­-knowing Mind, and in order to gain accurate infor­mation, one must go to Him. Hence when the student makes the demonstration to reflect what God knows, he will find his treasure. He may call it a demonstration, but the important point involved is, that he has made progress in reflecting divine knowledge. And the most important thing for every student is to reflect what God knows about His own revelation, or Christian Science. In this endeavor, the preliminary step is to accept Mrs. Eddy's con­ception of Christian Science, which includes the knowledge of how she gained that conception. She found it in God.

When one loses anything, the value of going to God to find it, lies in that fact that it proves that Mind knows all, that Mind is the one infallible source of all knowledge. So the current teaching that all must seek, which was what our Leader had to give, is how to go to Mind.

In her textbook Mrs. Eddy had written, that man walks in the direction toward which he looks. So when she invited the students to come to Boston to the Annual Meeting, or to Concord to see her, she hoped that that would help them to walk in the right direction. They would return to their field of labor inspired by what they had seen and felt, enthusiastic over what had come to them through contact with the atmosphere of our Leader. In reality she was the High Priestess in Christian Science; the Holiest of Holies, or the atmosphere of God, was what she continually dwelt in and radiated.

If one were in need of a practitioner and he desired to select the best, he might call on several; and the one he would select would be the one who reflected most the spirit of God. So in our journey from sense to soul, we select our Leader as our Pattern, since she reflected more of the spirit than any other individual.

It is significant, that at this time Mrs. Eddy felt that it was important for students to forego the responsibilities of their own fields, long enough to make the trip to Boston. She undoubtedly made the demonstration to know that no harm could come to anyone, in their being obedient to God's direction.

Once when Judge Hanna and Mr. McKenzie went off on a vacation, Mrs. Eddy sent an urgent call for them to come to her at once. Mrs. Hanna was distracted, since they had kept their destination a secret. She prayed to be guided, and found the hackman who had called for them that morning. Through him she was able to trace where they were, and sent Mrs. Eddy's message for them to return. Then Mrs. Eddy wrote a letter to them which is quoted in part on page 177 of Lyman Powell's book. In it she said, “Return at once to Boston and find your retreat for an outing within a short distance of human help, if indeed there is the least occasion for it….Had I known sooner the place where you were sent by M.A.M., I would sooner have delivered my message to you no doubt.”

Mrs. Eddy rebuked these students for being away, because just at that time, they were needed by God. Mortal mind's remedy would be for them never to go away again, since they could never tell when Mrs. Eddy might need them; but that would have been an incorrect deduction. All hard working students should take vacations at times. They need to take on some harmless line of human activity and thought to rest themselves, so that they can go back to their work with God with a greater enthusi­asm, vigor, confidence and understanding. The answer in Christian Science is to rely on God's guidance. Then they may be sure that when they go away, it will be in His time. In Judge Hanna's case and Mr McKenzie's, that would have meant that God told them when to go, and not malicious animal magnetism; and it would have been at the time when Mrs. Eddy would not need them. To go when M.A.M. sent them, would mean to be away just at a time when they were most needed. Mrs. Eddy did not necessarily want them always to stay at home; but to move in God's time.

Workers need vacations, but they need to make the demonstration to take them under the direction of wisdom. Mr. Eugene Greene taught his students, that if they reached a place where they felt “fed up” with the routine of Science, and their thought seemed stale or darkened, to take a little time off, and then to come back to one's tasks refreshed. Even a day off might enable one to be absent from the pressure of error, long enough to feel mentally resuscitated. In a prize fight, the fighters box for three minutes and then rest for one. Men who have been at the point of being beaten, have found that that minute brought a return of vigor to the extent, that they would remain in the contest for another round, and perhaps come out the winner.

The vacations students take, however, should always be for the purpose of rest, in order that they may increase their efficiency in the struggle, but not for selfish enjoyment. If one enjoys rest too much, it may become his ideal rather than work. Work is our proper goal in Science, at least for the time being, and we should enjoy that work and look forward to it. We should turn away from it only when we believe that by so doing, we will increase our efficiency. A vacation should be taken to enhance our ability to work, and never should become the thing we work for.

Mortals work in order to rest. They work hard to accumulate money, so they can take things easy. In Science we rest to work. Work is our goal and our pleasure, and rest should be taken only from the standpoint that it has value to the worker.

When one has difficult problems to solve, sometimes it is helpful to get away from them for a brief time, so that one can think about them under less pressure, and relieve the tension of his thinking. Then when he returns to them, he may find himself more efficient in assimilating his thought to God. Mrs. Eddy did not disapprove of a vacation that increased one's efficiency, providing it was taken in God's time. If these two students, Judge Hanna and Mr. McKenzie, had vowed never to take a vacation again, lest they be away when Mrs. Eddy needed them, they would have been adopting the hard way. The easy way would have been for them to make a demonstration, which would have been the means of directing them to go in God's time, when Mrs. Eddy would not need them.

When Mrs. Eddy put forth an exception to a positive rule as she does in this letter, it was understood that she did so under divine impulsion. The need for rules indicates immaturity. Parents make positive rules for their children, because the latter are not capable of knowing what is best for them to do. Mrs. Eddy knew that rules preceded individual demonstration. The danger lies in the fact that because it is much easier to obey rules, students may go along year after year, feeling satisfied that they are progressing, because of a strict adherence to rules. Yet individual demonstration of guidance is a step all must take.

A sapling might become bent, if it were not supported with stakes; yet the stakes will hinder its growth beyond a certain formation period. Rules for students are created to keep them in the right path, until through demonstration they gain a new and higher reason for what they do, that is, a guidance that comes from the unerring Mind.

Beginners who cannot be trusted to make unerring demonstrations, must obey Mrs. Eddy's rules; but such blind obedience must finally be replaced with demonstrated obedience to God. This higher step cannot come, however, until one is able to know directly from God what He demands of one.

At times Mrs. Eddy tested the spiritual growth of the Field, to determine to what degree members were able to put the law of wisdom and guidance into operation. At this point she abrogated a rule relating to the Annual Meeting, knowing that if the members were demonstrating, the result would be harmonious. Leaving the matter of over­crowding to the demonstration of the members, was a test for them, since when God governs, there are no crowded conditions. Divine normality and harmony prevail, since each one is in his proper place at the proper time, and one cannot usurp the place of another, nor can confusion result.




May 5, 1900

Board of Directors

Beloved Students:

One more thing to be said: Raise Mrs. Sargent's salary this next annual meeting to $600 per annum. She needs it and is striving to help our cause.

With love,

Mother and teacher

M. B. E.


It would be logical to feel that an indi­vidual who took care of the Mother's Room only a day a week, was not entitled to a very large salary. In fact the Directors might conclude that the one appointed to this responsibility, should be glad to serve without compensation. Yet Mrs. Eddy did not suggest that they raise Mrs. Sargent's salary; she directed them to do so, showing that it was God who told her to do it!

The conclusion is that the value of Mrs. Sargent was not so much in her being in the room at the appointed time, but in the mental work she did. If what she did was of an inspi­rational quality, it would seem that her services to the Cause were beyond price. It was not to be expected that the Directors would fully understand what caring for the Room as it should be cared for, involved. Mrs. Sargent knew, since Mrs. Eddy had instructed her carefully as to what it meant to do the task rightly.

The result of demonstrating for Mother's Room would be, that those who visited the Room would be helped to gain a right idea of Mrs. Eddy. That would mean that the Cause was helped, on the very basis of Mrs. Eddy's words to Mr. Kimball written on October 16, 1893, when she was planning the address to be given at the Chicago World's Fair: “For the world to understand me in my true light and life, would do more for our Cause than aught else could. This I learn from the fact that the enemy tries harder to hide these two points from the world, than to win any other points.”

Evidently the Mother's Room was playing a large part to keep aloft and to perpetuate a right sense of Mrs. Eddy. Under Mrs. Sargent's demon­stration, everyone who visited it, would go away with a better sense of the Leader than they had before they came, and in this way the Cause would be helped; to see her rightly meant to see her not only as the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, but as the best demonstrator of her own revelation.

When Mrs. Eddy found that the greatest pressure and opposition from error was exerted, to keep her life from being properly understood, she had a right to assume that that was the most important thing in helping the Cause, namely, to have the world understand her in her true light and life.

The doctrine of Christian Science in order to have practical value, must include a correct illustration of its application, and this is to be found alone in Mrs. Eddy's life. From her one may gain a proper understanding of its application and interpretation, just as he can from a study of the Master's experience. If the world learns that spiritual wisdom directed Mrs. Eddy in all she did, that will encourage mankind to attain that same spiritual wisdom.

In God's sight it is always possible to take each individual case and judge it according to its merits. General rules may bless one and interfere with the progress of another. The infinity of Mind is made manifest in its ability to treat every case according to its merits. Divine Wisdom saw the need of the Manual on the basis of Mrs. Eddy's own statement, “I have planted a vineyard, and digged a ditch around it.” In that Manual we have a By-law forbidding formulas, since a formula includes a general treatment of all cases, with no allowance made for the adaptation of divine Love to the individual need.

Thus Mrs. Eddy was not fixing the salary of the one who cared for the Mother's Room. Rather was she adapting compensation to the individual need and worth. The next one who took the position might receive a payment which differed according to individual worth.

Mrs. Eddy signs this letter as “Mother and teacher.” In so doing she puts herself before the Directors in a very significant way. They had been selected as students who had a measure of spiritual understanding, and also complete confidence in Mrs. Eddy. She expected them to exercise their God-given authority over the Field; at the same time, when it came to important changes, or duties that had to be done by way of electing officials, fixing salaries, and the like, she did not want them to function without con­sulting her. She wanted them to regard her as Mother, as long as they were “babes in Christ”!

At the same time she was teaching them, so that out of all their varied experiences, they would be more fitted to carry on as “men in Christ,” when the time came that she was no longer with them.

When a child is learning to walk, the mother encourages it, and yet stands near, to catch it if it falls. The teacher, on the other hand, is one who realizes that if the child is not permitted to have a few falls, it may never learn. So the ideal is for the mother to embody the spirit of a teacher. Such an attitude will bring the speediest growth for the child.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

May 6, 1900

Beloved Student:

Do not record one word of the slander on the accused members. Bury it among the offal of lies.

With love,

M. B. Eddy


Mrs. Eddy's rule for finishing every situation, was to make nothing of it. When Mrs. Stetson's case was finally settled, after being a source of disturbance over a long period of years, Mrs. Eddy detected the students rejoicing. She wrote a rule for them, as an explanation of her point of view that should be theirs: “Never notice publicly an error if it can be avoided. Never rejoice in victory over it, nor lament. It gives power where it does not belong. Evil is not something. Then wherefore give it the honor of noticing it further than to remove it? Then let the dead bury their dead. Have no funeral knell or trumpet blast over nothing; otherwise you will make it something, and consistency is especially most desirable in dealing with nothingness. To talk of evil is as inconsis­tent as to talk of sickness, unless it be to untalk it and put it out of mind forever.”

There is no error which we ever have to meet, that wisdom does not finally require us to reduce to nothing. No case of healing should ever be repeated in a Wednesday Evening Meeting, — for the purpose of setting before the stranger the supreme efficacy of divine Mind to dissipate the errors of sin and sickness, which are so prevalent among mortals, — unless afterward it is buried among the offal of lies. One should ask God to forgive him for insulting Him, by publicly asserting that one of His children was ever discordant or in trouble. One should immediately realize that what he related never happened, that the whole experience was a dream, and that from God's standpoint he was only lying, even though it was told for the purpose of doing good, and was humanly correct.

When a student is sick and is restored to health, he should at once bury the experience among the offal of lies. He should know that in reality it was a dream from which he has awakened, and that one can never go back into a dream. In this way he cleans house, and so guards against a relapse.

Often records are kept for blackmail purposes, or unscrupulous persons lay their hands on records, which they use for such purposes. In like manner, if the records of past errors remain in one's belief, that may give error a foothold on which it can claim to blackmail one in the future, to bring about a relapse. Error can always hold the fear of relapse over the head of one who has not made wholly unreal some experience of the past. An experience is not cleaned up, merely because one believes that he had a disease, but that God healed him of it. He must know that he never had it, that the whole experience never happened. The admission that he once was sick, and was healed, is as unscientific as would be the admission that he is now sick. While it is necessary to tell the human facts about cases of healing in our Wednes­day meetings for the sake of the strangers, and inquirers, nevertheless the situation should always be protected by the realization even while one is telling it, that it is but the record of nothingness.

On September 20, 1909, Mrs. Eddy wrote an article which she called, Dreams, in which she indicated that to assert that this mortal sense of life is a dream, is not a sufficient realiza­tion to reduce it to nothing. She wrote, “Admitting that mortal life is a dream is admitting that it is something, when the fact remains that it is nothing, since there is no mortal life. God, Truth, is the only Life and a dream is not Truth. Eschew that statement of life unscientific — state it scientifically, and commence your solution of the problem called life and fact and not fable. Then you begin with Truth, not error; with God, not man; with Principle, not idea; and solve Life as having no beginning and no ending, the eternal now and forever.”

Mrs. Eddy had the good of the accused members in mind, as well as the salvation of the Board of Directors, when she sent them this brief direction, in the letter in question. She knew how prone the human mind is to keep alive the memory of injustice; yet to do so, does one's own self the most harm. The retention of past errors as real is a serious mistake; since the demand of God is that we look out from a perfect sense of God and Man, which includes all mankind as ideas of God. It becomes a subtle temptation, therefore, to think of people continually from the standpoints of their past or present errors. If we yield to it, our scientific thinking becomes adulterated.

One who looks out from a perfect sense of God and man sees this perfection manifested everywhere. Such a one finds himself in the kingdom of heaven. No one with an undeveloped ability to see perfection, will ever find it. It is a rule that whatever one establishes within, he sees without. Each one is the center of his own circumference. If one's center is spiritual and scientific — if it is based on God rather than man — then the objective manifestation of that thinking will be the kingdom of heaven. This line of reasoning proves why the retention of past error about others, reacts most heavily upon one's self.

The full demonstration of perfection requires more than merely one individual seeing himself and his brother-man correctly. Even if you see another perfect, he still has his own demonstra­tion to make, to see himself perfect. Mrs. Eddy defines “man” as a “compound idea.” Our present sense of that term indicates, that each idea is the center of his own circumference, and at the same time, he is embraced in the circumference of each other idea. Each of us must make his demonstration of perfection both within and without, but he is not responsible for his brother making his demonstration within. A simple way to state it is, that the perfect idea of God must be seen to inhabit our idea of heaven.

The rule in Science is, that we should live each day as if it were the only day, with no past and no future, since in reality God knows only now. We should regard our hope of salvation as depending on our working this day as we should always work, keeping our thought free to reflect God, through the realization that there is no evil, and therefore, no evil man. We should know that no causation exists, except that which is invested in infinite Mind, that pervades all space and covers all time. We must know that man is immersed in an infinite ocean of Love, from which he could not get away if he wanted to, and he could not possibly want to.

Mrs. Eddy did not want the Directors to carry along the records of the slander on the accused members of her church, then, or at any other time. The place accorded this letter in the Directors' files would indicate, that it merely concerned the testimony the Board was taking in the Woodbury matter; but she was expressing a rule for all time.

In her own life our Leader never carried any­thing over from one day to the next, if it were possible to finish that which presented itself to her each day. Her desire was that each day should be completed, with nothing lapping over. She could not always do this, but it was her aspiration, and revealed in a measure why she was able to accomplish such a vast amount of work.

Our work in Christian Science resembles the assembly line of an automobile factory, where, as each chassis moves along, parts are added. We should do what we have to do each day, and then let our experiences pass by. In this way we are able to put forth the maximum of labor.

It would have taken most of the time of the ordinary person, to have written the thousands of letters Mrs. Eddy wrote in her lifetime. No day passed but what she wrote at least twenty; yet the writing of them did not interfere with the other work she had to do. She had an assembly line; she did what came to her to do, and then went on to the next task. In this way she dis­played the maximum of efficiency.

According to this brief letter, it would be disobedience for the Directors at any time to keep records, or dossiers, of accusations against members of The Mother Church. They should adopt the Biblical admonition that old things have passed away; behold all things have become new. Let us suppose that the father had kept a dossier of the prodigal's experiences in Egypt, and held it against him on his return. The Bible implies that the past was forgiven, and the prodigal was received back in full fellowship in his father's house.

Mrs. Eddy teaches her followers to separate error from man. The purpose of a dossier is to attach error to man; hence if the board adopted the policy of keeping dossiers of members; such action would violate the fundamental teaching of Christian Science.

Had the Directors been demonstrating Science as they should in taking testimony in Mrs. Woodbury's case, Mrs. Eddy would never have had to write them such a letter as this; but she knew unerringly that they had had to deal with the error to such a degree, that it had become real to them. Hence a word to help and admonish them became necessary.

One might assert that Mrs. Eddy herself kept a dossier regarding Mrs. Stetson, which she finally used against her, to have her excommuni­cated; but the answer is that Mrs. Eddy did all she could to separate the error from her. Mrs. Stetson attached her error to herself with such cords, that after years of painstaking efforts, Mrs. Eddy finally realized that they could not be broken in this present life; so she had to be excommunicated forever. Mrs. Eddy has defined everlasting punishment to mean a punishment that lasts as long as the sin lasts. On 316 of the Powell Biography is her statement, “Unpardonable sin means one that we are never pardoned of — but taught through suffering that it is a sin.” In like manner, excommunication that is forever, must indicate the degree to which a member main­tains his error.

In the story of the tar baby told by Uncle Remus, the rabbit became stuck to it to such an extent, that the two could not be separated. A member must be excommunicated forever, when the tenacity with which he clings to his error cannot be broken, within an appreciable length of time.

On page 48 of the Manual we find that the penalty for malpracticing on Mrs. Eddy, was excommunication forever. In other words, if a student was so blinded as to fail to see that she was pointing to the only way to salvation, and that God was directing her in all her ways, then this blindness would shut him off from all spiritual progress. If the only way across a certain mountain range, was through a difficult but passable divide, any mistaken sense that would keep a traveler from attempting to cross at that point, would be a barrier to further progress. Mrs. Eddy represents the highest idea of God in this age. Malpractice on her would expose an inability or a refusal to see that the unselfishness and devotion to good that her life epitomized, represented the only way to heaven. It is obvious that when a student is off the track, the farther he goes, the greater the distance becomes between him and the right road.

When our beloved Leader instructed us to follow her only as she followed Christ, she made it plain that we were not to follow the human Mary, but the demonstration of the Christ idea which was embodied in herself as the highest rep­resentative of God in this age. It is obvious that one who did not recognize her as the way­shower, would find himself going contrary to the right direction. To excommunicate such a one forever from her church, could mean that he had no chance of finding the right way, as long as his misconception of Mrs. Eddy lasted. But there can be no forever to one who repents and reforms, by awakening to see his error, and then turning away from it.

One who maintains sin, is forever doomed, since sin is forever doomed. Yet the chance to leave his sin and to reform, is never taken away from a single mortal. Furthermore, even if one's name were dropped forever from the membership of The Mother Church, such a one, if he were sincere, would not thereby be prevented from living according to the rules and teachings which God gave our Leader, which spell salvation for all.

No dossiers should ever be kept of man's mistakes in this mortal dream, but only of his successes. Yet such is the nature of the carnal mind, that a man like Calvin Frye may successfully serve our Leader for twenty-eight years, and when she was no longer present to guide him, his successes be forgotten, and the error only remem­bered. Yet God is just in judgment. If Mr. Frye had enough on the right side of the ledger, his mistakes whatever they were, will be forgiven.

This brief note to the Directors is truly a rebuke, since had they been functioning under divine Mind, they would not have been guilty even for a moment of planning to record illusion, since when one records illusion, he includes himself as part of that illusion. It is but just to state, however, that they were planning to record the testimony, because they thought Mrs. Eddy wanted them to.

Mrs. Eddy was the teacher, and the notable lesson she was teaching, was to exalt divine Mind and to abuse the human mind. When a trainer is teaching a dog to heel, he slaps his nose lightly with a switch when he gets out of line. He does this, not through animosity, but merely to train the dog. When Mrs. Eddy rebuked students, she was merely instructing either in her home or in the Cause. She seldom explained her rebukes, since she knew the value of learning by experience. When one does a thing because he is told to, at any time, he feels free to go back to the old way. When he learns by experience, however, the lesson sticks. Nothing is more valuable to the advancing student, than to learn for himself that the results of using the human mind in any direction are unsatisfactory in the long run.

If a child is told to keep away from certain companions, he may have to obey; but at any time he may return to them. When he learns for him­self that the effect of such companionship is deleterious, then he is forever weaned from them. Mrs. Eddy wanted her students to be weaned from the human mind by experience, and not by instruction or rebuke.

It is noteworthy that Mrs. Eddy once said to Caroline Foss Gyger, that nothing limited her more than self-justification. On August 18, 1905, she wrote her a note as follows: “It comes to me in my prayer to tell you that disobedience and self-justification are the cause of your not mastering M.A.M. I have begged to you to quit telling me why you did a thing wrongly, but you have not obeyed me. I have told you it is like the sick excusing sickness — tell why they are sick and you do know that this would tend to make it real and to justify sickness. Affection­ately, M. B. Eddy.”

If a chick should boast that it did not need its mother, because it was perfectly capable of dealing with the chicken hawk, it would resemble a frail mortal asserting that he did not need God. When one admits that he cannot get along without God, and that without Him, he would be perfectly helpless, that is not fear, but wisdom.

The human will claims to build itself up to the point, where it substitutes itself for the protection and wisdom of divine Mind. In such a claim it exposes its own weakness. Mrs. Eddy named its unwillingness to perceive that it cannot get along without God, self-justification. To her it was a dangerous error for a mortal to presume that he was capable of looking out for himself, or of doing what needed to be done, since she knew that he was thereby blinded to his need for God.

Mortals do not like fear, yet when they fancy that they can get along without God, fear becomes a necessity to drive them back to Him. The barking and nipping of the sheep dog, is intended to drive the straying lambs back to the protection of the fold. Mrs. Eddy was wont to read Hebrews 12:11 to her students to substantiate this point, — “Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous; nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby.”

Mrs. Eddy wanted her students to feel helpless without God. Consequently she had to rebuke every indication of independence of God on their part, no matter how small. Mortals spend a lifetime in a vain endeavor to prove their independence of God, and often the sickness and pain that they endure, is the effect of the unheeded demand upon them to admit that they cannot get along without God. The Master was perfectly willing to declare, “Of mine own self I can do nothing.”

A lion cub could face any enemy, as long as its mother was at its side. Without the mother, it would be helpless.

Mrs. Eddy said to her students, “Stop justifying yourself in error.” To her, self­-justification was illustrated by a student concluding that it was all right for him to go ahead and do the very best he could for her, humanly, and then demand her praise for such effort. Such a one does not relish being rebuked. He wants the privilege of doing the best he can. He does not want to feel that in every little thing he does, he must have God with him, in order to do it right. He wants to be able to drive his automobile, for instance, with his own intelligence, and feel safe. He does not want to acknowledge that he could not even take a little walk safely, unless he took God along as his protection.

Men in the stress of battle are very glad to pray to God for protection, even though they have never indicated the slightest interest in God previously. The question is, what will they do when the war is over, and they return home? Will they forget that God is something more than a protection for them in battle? The safest Christian is the one who most consistently relies on God in all his ways. To him it is wisdom to take God with him in whatever he does, and wherever he goes. It is the human will in mortals that causes them to justify their independence of God. Mrs. Eddy wanted none of that. She used strong language when she detected self­-justification, since back of it she knew to be the attitude that one could function under his own intelligence and good judgment, and be safe and do his work well.

How fortunate students would be today, if the slightest effort they made under the human mind would bring them a sharp rebuke. Mrs. Eddy stood ready to rebuke the slightest deviation from the demonstration of God's wisdom, protection and care. The dangerous attitude for a student was for him to feel that he could function under his own mind, and still believe that he could do the thing Mrs. Eddy asked him to do in a satis­factory manner. Such a fancy betrayed the error that suggested that in many instances one could get along without God, as well as he could with Him. Mrs. Eddy characterized it as self-justifi­cation, in her endeavor to awaken students to its serious nature.

A student of Science should know enough never to forget to take God with him, wherever he goes. He never forgets or neglects to put on his shoes to protect his feet. Why should he not realize that the putting on of God is more important than the putting on of his shoes? He might cut his feet without his shoes, but he might lose his life without God.




To the Board of Directors

Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

May 16, 1900

Beloved Students:

Once more God thunders in your ears — “Get a reading room in Boston and locate it in that part of the city where people will be most apt to go into it.”

Again I say unless you do this at once and have it ready, furnished, and ready, before our Communion season, it will be ill with thee. I see this; I know it. You have not prospered since you disobeyed God in not getting the right location and at the time He bade you do it, for another church building, and publishing house for His Word to be heard therefrom. I beg for God's dear sake, for your own, and for mine, that you obey this call. Announce at once and not stop till you have accomplished my request in this letter. Write to me.

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy


When a demand came from God, Mrs. Eddy knew that one could not work too rapidly, nor with too great insistence strive to accomplish it. Every hour of delay adds to the difficulty of its consummation. The moment a demand comes from Him, the devil knows it, and it must be fulfilled, before the evil one has a chance to erect some obstacle, that will make its consumma­tion seem impossible.

One cannot disobey God and prosper in Science. This was Mrs. Eddy's slogan that she urged upon her students.

Nothing in our organization has contributed more to its success than the Reading Rooms. It is unique in the history of the world for a church to support rooms in all cities, where the public may go and read our literature as well as purchase it. Such rooms are symbols of the attempt of Christian Science to permeate man's entire thought with Truth — to leaven the whole lump.

It is obvious that the importance of this pioneer step demanded by God, would arouse the adversary to an effort to stop it. Animal magne­tism may have taken the form of suggesting that the Directors feel lukewarm or indifferent about the project, fancying that it was another of Mrs. Eddy's notions that was impractical, and only spelled further expense for the church.

In the salutation to this letter underlined, one may catch Mrs. Eddy's concept of the Directors as those appointed to direct, but not to drive. They were divinely appointed to direct the Field of students, by their example, precept and Christly encouragement. Hence Mrs. Eddy saw the importance of their having a Reading Room which would serve as a model to be followed by those coming to Boston at the Communion season. At the time this letter was written, some branch churches had such rooms, while The Mother Church had none.

A stream that overflows its banks becomes a menace to the countryside. Mrs. Eddy clearly defined the functions of the Directors, and she insisted that they stay within them. She wanted them to direct her organization, but never to encroach on the individual demonstration of students. Christian Science represents a democracy in which man with God is always right and man without God is always questionable. The duty of the Directors, therefore, was to live Science, and to lead and direct by better living.

Mrs. Eddy was aware of mortal mind's argu­ment of procrastination. When in 1904 her need for a pair of horses was pointed out to me, I instituted a search that lasted about a month and which was productive of no results. I made inquiries here and there, but nothing resulted from the search, until I awakened to realize that error in the guise of procrastination was attempting to rob me of the privilege and oppor­tunity of helping our Leader. I was like a man who has lost something, who starts to hunt for it in a desultory way, with no real expectancy of finding it. Then finally he gets down to the business of demonstrating the finding of it. Fortunately for me, I awakened in time to make a demonstration, and the horses arrived at Pleasant View the very day they were needed.

Mrs. Eddy knew that the Directors were trying to find a Reading Room without success; so she found it necessary to thunder at them. One advantage of an approaching thunderstorm, is the fact that the distant rumbling warns folks to seek shelter, and so they are protected when the rain comes. Without the warning, they might go along in a foolish optimism which would result in a drenching to them.

Students of the Bible have attempted to soften the expression, “the fear of the Lord,” by some ingenious twist of meaning, because they objected to it; but what objection is there to thinking of fear as the warning of God which should cause us to seek safety and shelter? And what possible safety and shelter is there except in God? The owner of sheep sends forth fear in the form of dogs, which drive the straying lambs back into the shelter of the fold where they are safe. Thus the fear of the Lord must be that fear in which may be seen the action of good, in driving man to seek safety in God.

Mrs. Eddy employed the fear of the Lord, when she thundered at the Directors, and wrote that it would be ill with them, if they failed in this mission for God.

She detected that the argument of delay was so aggressive, that it had to be broken in no gentle way, since the Board was being handled by it to the point, where it was preventing the Reading Room from being opened, just at the time when it was most needed. They were playing around with the idea of getting one, but actually they were functioning under the claim of animal magnetism which was determined that they should not find one. They were the Directors of the Field; yet what kind of direction or example would it be, if at the Com­munion season, students from all over the country should find that The Mother Church had no Reading Room?

What a loss the Directors and the Field have sustained, in not having our beloved Leader with us in person to awaken us when such an awakening is needed; as it was at this time! She awakened them when it was necessary; but occasionally she forebore to do so, hoping that they might learn the salutary lesson of awakening themselves, in preparation for the time when she would no longer be with them. It is legitimate for students to help each other to remain in, or to get back into the groove of God, by awakening them when it is necessary; but this help­fulness should not be extended beyond the point where students need to learn the necessity for taking this step unaided. Eventually everyone must fall or rise according to his own effort. Mrs. Eddy left behind all the instruction necessary, that if anyone fails today, he has only himself to blame.

To Mrs. Eddy doing a thing on time was as im­portant as doing it at all. She once stated that a thing done at the wrong time was no longer the right thing. Also she wrote to a student on February 28, 1903, “We learn that circumstances alter cases. Even when it is well to act immediately, as a rule, the exception may be some circumstance intervening which makes it wise to wait.” In the case of the Reading Room she saw circumstances which made it wise to go ahead at once without delay.

When plaster of paris has been used to fill in a space in a wall, there is the right moment to smooth it over. At one point it is too soft; a few moments later it is too hard.

There were students who could not take Mrs. Eddy's strong rebukes. They became irritated over her vigorous methods of breaking the illusion of animal magnetism, and so they went the way of all flesh. Those who could take them, profited by them and were blessed. When a man is over­sleeping in the morning, you have a right to threaten him with the loss of his job, if he does not rouse himself and get up. He should thank you for your thoughtfulness, and not feel resentful.

Mrs. Eddy's natural way was to draw people higher through love, by setting before them the desirable nature of the kingdom of heaven; yet at times the only way she could appeal to them was through fear. She had talked with the Directors about the new Reading Rooms, but they had accomplished nothing. Consequently there was nothing left for her to do, but to warn them that if they did not act immediately, it would be ill with them. It is always ill with us when we know God's will and yet do not do it. To disobey God always means to get into trouble.

Our Reading Rooms are one of the most important adjuncts of our organization. They are a place where the stranger may come. In them he has a chance to learn that Christian Scientists are serving God more than other denominations; that they acknowledge and adore one Christ; that they accept the Master as the first demonstrator of divine Principle according to scientific law; that they hold Mrs. Eddy to have been the one who rediscovered the primitive healing doctrine Jesus established. He finds that Christian Science conforms to the highest idea of Christianity. Surely the function through which such important facts are made known to the public, should have the widest support from the church members.




May 29, 1900

Board of Education

Judge Septimus J. Hanna

Edward A. Kimball

Dr. Alfred Baker Elect only a board of three; have By-law amended to read thus.

Eddy

————————————————————–

Dismiss all complaints

Pass the addition to By-law and deliver yourselves from M.A.M.

Eddy

Have the largest hall seat 5000


In 1900 Judge Hanna and Mr. Kimball were considered to have the best understanding of any of Mrs. Eddy's students. My recollection is that Judge Hanna was the most spiritually minded, whereas Mr. Kimball possessed the most profound understanding of the letter. The latter was a great thinker and analyst, and had gone deeply into the subject of Science. To this day there is a controversy over some of the propositions he taught, which he claimed were given to him by Mrs. Eddy. In 1917 many of his voluminous notes were put into book form by Kratzer, and sold as “bootleg” Science.

In passing it is worth noting that on page 206 of this book, entitled Teaching and Addresses, we read, “Every organ or function of the body is an idea of God, and all there is to stomach is the truth about it.” The writer has a photostat copy of the original manuscript of this article, that was corrected by Mrs. Eddy, and in the margin opposite the first half of this quotation she has written, “A lie.” One of Mr. Kimball's great admirers once objected that here Mrs. Eddy was giving the lie to what she herself had taught Mr. Kimball; but evidently she realized that the article was being written for those who were not ready to understand such a proposition, so the truth became a lie because of the lack of wisdom in its use. Truth presented so that those who read it, cannot help but misunderstand it, becomes a lie.

On November 27, 1907, Mr. Kimball wrote to Judge Hanna a highly interesting letter, in regard to the latter's forthcoming class in the Metaphys­ical College, as follows:


“I do not know that Dr. Baker ever taught anything in the College classes, but by way of general reputation, I know that everything that was supposed to have been taught there irregularly, was laid at my door before they got through with it. The nearest I ever heard after this fashion was that the Doctor, in disposing of error, matter, simply wiped out every­thing and presented a philosophy which seemed to have annihilation for its ultimate.

“Mrs. Eddy spoke with me about this propen­sity, or let me say incompleteness.

“She said, ‘I said to Dr. Baker, Jesus said “stretch forth thy hand,” but all you have got to say is, “You haven't got any hand.”'

“She also spoke of a patient who passed away in Concord, and of her inquiry as to the statement which disposed of the whole matter, or was supposed to, by saying, ‘there isn't any case.' She denounced that sort of negation and said that the patient got nothing curative.

“She said to me, ‘Declare, I have a perfect liver, and let the spiritual impact of this declaration destroy the false concept about liver.'

“Later Mrs. Kimball told Mrs. Eddy that she had explained this to Mrs. Webster, and that it had healed her of a claim of long continuance.

“Mrs. Eddy said, ‘Yes! You may declare, I have a perfect liver, or there is no liver, provided the thought back of those declarations is right.'

“Feeling constrained by this conversation and instruction, I went into the class and repeated her exact words, and, with much amplification, led up to and completed the line of explanation.

“I am under the impression that nearly all the students I taught got a fairly correct appreciation of it, but on the contrary, by the time it got out into the field — without the metaphysical analysis and the preliminary explana­tion, the one who got it second hand, or 3rd, 4th or 5th hand, landed on the supposition, or some of them did, that Mr. Kimball was teaching that we had spiritual organs; some said each one had a separate spiritual stomach — others that, though the material liver was a counterfeit, it was neverthe­less a counterfeit of a spiritual organ.”


The question came up as to what was the difference between Mrs. Eddy's teachings and Mr. Kimball's, since hers never created a contro­versy, and his did, and it has raged for over thirty years. She used the same divine wisdom in adapting what she taught to the comprehension of her pupils, as she did in reflecting the teaching. Mr. Kimball cast his pearls before the unprepared thought.

Dr. Baker was selected by Mrs. Eddy to teach obstetrics in the College. She considered this phase of a practitioner's work important, even though after Dr. Baker's class, it was never taught again, and the By-laws relating to such teaching were changed.

It has been brought to my attention that there are practitioners who are declining to take obstetric cases in 1944. They contend that a child is born in sin, and they do not care to be a party to sin. Yet if a child becomes sick and needs help, they would not hesitate to take such a case. One could answer this mistaken contention, by saying that it is the same as if they refused to help a clean child, but were willing to help it after it became dirty. Why not wash it at the point when it begins to be dirty, or to take on the material parental thought? A preventative is surely as valuable as a curative.

Mrs. Eddy's choice of these three men for the Board of Education was the result of wisdom. They represented spirituality, understanding and the new birth. The physical side of obstetrics is but a symbolic expression of the new birth. Out of the welter of materiality, must come the recogni­tion of man's spiritual nature, the fact that he is a son of God. The Jesus must give way to the Christ.

Students of Christian Science who bear children, should not reproach themselves, as if such a happening were sin. It is true that Science sets forth a spiritual ideal which we must slowly work up to step by step, in regard to generation; but on page 286 of Miscellaneous Writings, Mrs. Eddy writes, “At present, more spiritual conception and education of children will serve to illustrate the superiority of spiritual power over sensuous....”

If there is a sense of sin connected with childbirth, it should be the privilege of a practitioner to do his part to strive to overcome it, and to translate the entire experience into the birth of the spiritual ideal in order that the infant will be less cumbered by the materiality of its parents, and hence freer to grow spiritually. In this way it will have a greater chance of being of use to the world in a spiritual way. Every child should be considered as a potential Christ. As Mrs. Eddy once said, “Mother, clasp thy nest­ling tenderly, rear thine offspring wisely, for thou knowest not when the mantle of Christ's own presence shall fall on thine own dear one.” The more help in Science the mother and child have, the more possible it becomes for the child to measure up to a spiritual idea.

Ask a practitioner who averred that it was not right to take an obstetric case, “Would you like Jesus to come again on earth? If so, then do your part to make it possible. If you help a child into the world under the Science thought, and he is brought up in Science, he may manifest the Christ, and the world be correspondingly benefited.”

No wonder Mrs. Eddy felt that her College should have a part in the work of freeing the newborn infant from that which otherwise would be a deterrent to its spiritual destiny.

When you find practitioners refusing to take obstetric cases, it sounds as if they were saying, “I refuse to soil my hands with evil. I must keep myself clean and pure.” The trend of such an attitude is to create a selfish Science, in place of a Christian Science. It robs Science of the Christian spirit, when workers who know how to use it for the benefit of all humanity, forbear to do so, lest they be soiled! And what is the Christ spirit, but going into all the world and preaching the Gospel to every creature, healing the sick and blessing all mankind, especially the sinner? “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matt. 21:28)

“Dismiss all complaints.” It is history that Mrs. Eddy was unwilling to have charges pressed against Stephen A. Chase, when something appeared to be out of order with his accounts, because she knew that he loved her — in fact, almost worshipped her — because of her purity and great goodness. She knew his underlying and fundamental thought to be loving and faithful, so animal magnetism could not have a lasting hold on him. Wherefore she recommended that the complaints against him be dismissed. She knew he would quickly rise above whatever the error was, if there was any.

It was clear to her that the hold error had on church members, was frequently because of the malpractice of their fellow members. Hence to dismiss complaints would be to release them from this malpractice. The Board had gathered a mass of complaints in working on the Woodbury case, and now Mrs. Eddy wanted those complaints dismissed.

As a religion Christian Science deals primarily with mental states and stages, and fosters the spiritualization of individual thinking. One cannot study it without realizing that it takes much understanding to know in what way one is being handled by animal magnetism, and to learn how to emerge from it. One of the chief barriers to freedom is one's blindness to the fact that he is handled. No one relishes being told that he is being handled by animal magnetism. He may believe that the accusation is the result of jealousy and he resents it; yet it is a claim that can be made about anyone, since there is not a Christian Scientist on earth that is not handled by animal magnetism at times, and in different ways. The difficulty in dealing with animal magnetism is not in meeting it, but in recognizing it, since to recognize it is to handle it.

Why should one resent being told that he is handled by animal magentism, when its uncovering is two-thirds of its destruction, and the other third destroys itself, as Mrs. Eddy points out? One cannot handle that of which he is ignorant. If one needed a haircut, and had a mirror that made his hair look short, he would not go to the barber until a friend pointed out to him that his hair was long, and that it was the mirror that prevented him from knowing it. When he saw the truth of the situation, he would thank his friend.

It was for the sake of unity, harmony and brotherly love, that Mrs. Eddy wanted the complaints dismissed; and the command in this letter can be interpreted as an order to all future Boards of Directors, not to keep dossiers of the errors of members, no matter how much they may feel that such dossiers facilitate their work in dealing with the problems of the Cause. Mrs. Eddy wanted every member to have a square deal and to start with a clean sheet. To her keeping dossiers under which old errors are held against students for years and years, was the opposite of Christian Science and indicated a desire to keep animal magnetism alive, instead of individual members. Certainly if others persist in fastening animal magnetism on an individual, it will destroy him in the end, unless he handles it. It is not possible to keep animal magnetism alive and the individual, too. It was Mrs. Eddy's purpose to keep the members who had had complaints lodged against them, alive, so she ordered the complaints dismissed. In such an order she called for a metaphysical outlook, in which the perfection of man is held to be the only fact — that he has always been perfect, is so now, and always will be so. Then old things will have passed away and all things become new.

In this short command Mrs. Eddy preached a wonderful sermon in which she implied, “Each day man's demonstration of Christian Science entitles him to a place in God's sight, where he sees himself perfect, and is seen in that perfec­tion. Hence anyone is committing a heinous crime, who brings up old errors to darken this perfect conception. It is the opposite of loving one's neighbor as one's self, when that is done. Each member of my Church is entitled to the same consideration at the hands of all the other members, that he gets from God. May he not ask God to forgive his sin and wipe out his error; and will not God do so, if he recognizes that he did not sin; that it was animal magnetism; that it had no foundation in him, since his heart con­demned it? Does he not pray that God may regard him as he really is, and as he knows God really does? Then he must do the same thing for his fellow members, and expect them to do the same thing for him. No student can expect God to do for him what he is unwilling to do for his neighbor. God's keynote is, ‘Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.'”

self-interest, if nothing more, should cause the Directors to be glad to dismiss all complaints, when they learn that holding to them retards spiritual growth.

“Pass the addition to By-law and deliver your­selves from M.A.M.” Since all of the By-laws came from divine wisdom, their good effect comes not only through one's acquiescence to them, but through one's understanding them spiritually. Each time a By-law was added, it was essential that the Directors and members handle malicious animal magnetism. If they did not do so, they would either question it or misunderstand its purpose.

When David went out to meet Goliath, the stone sent from his sling might be said to represent divine Love. If Goliath had been able to accept it, it would have blessed him; but because he resisted it, it became his destruction. The By-laws represented divine Love which Mrs. Eddy sent out to bless her followers; but they had to be understood spiritually in order to fulfill this blessing. If they were conceived of and used materially, their effect might be the opposite of what was intended. Hence nothing was more important than for the students to handle animal magnetism in relation to the By-laws.

Every By-law that Mrs. Eddy wrote had a spiritual intent, and was designed to be applied spiritually. She knew that if the Board took a By-law which came from God, and used it in an attempt to put over their own idea of legality, and government, it would result in a travesty on Christian Science, and do themselves and the Cause great harm. For that reason she directed them to handle malicious animal magnetism at the same time they passed the addition to the By-law.

Finally she wrote, “Have the largest hall seat 5000.” This is direction that carried deep signi­ficance, as if she were instructing them to enlarge their sense of Christian Science, to cover the possibility of five thousand members attending the Annual Meeting, which was quite a stretch of their conception in 1900. The rule in Science is, that we must enlarge our conception, in order to bring out enlarged results. We must think “big,” in order to demonstrate “big.”

Once a student who sold insurance came to me for help with a peculiar problem. For years he had been able to talk in terms of thousands of dollars to prospective customers with perfect ease; then he changed to selling large employee policies, which demanded that he talk in millions of dollars; but fear hampered him, so that his sales argument lacked forcefulness. He wanted help in Science to enlarge his conception and ability to think and talk in terms of thousands of dollars, to that of millions. Science removed this limitation and fear, as readily as it would any error, and the man was as successful in his new work as he had been in his old.

Mrs. Eddy was seeking to educate the thought of the Directors to a larger conception, at a time when there seemed little chance of getting five thousand members to attend the Annual Meeting. Had they made the demonstration to hire a hall that would hold ten thousand persons, they would have filled it. In metaphysics we learn that there is no lack in the actual harvest; the limitation is to be found in the limited conception of the harvest in the minds of students. If a farmer held the thought that his crop of apples would be limited to ten barrels, he would buy ten barrels and fill ten barrels, and no more. There might be enough apples to fill one hundred barrels, but that would do him no good, as long as he held the ten barrel concept, and did not purchase and fill any more.

Mrs. Eddy did not want the Directors to approach a hundred barrel crop with a ten barrel conception. When a branch church holds a lecture, if a demonstration is not made, to remove the limits suggested by mortal mind, those in charge may find themselves wondering whether, if they hire a large hall, they can fill it. If the mental limits are removed, people will flood in and there will be a large attendance.

To recapitulate, we have four directions in this letter. The first one, “Dismiss all complaints,” is important, since a complaining thought effectively shuts out God. God cannot enter a mind that is already filled with complaints. No matter how hard one may strive to attain spiritual good, if he is harboring complaints, God has no place in his thought. For the good of their own souls, and in order that they might not malpractice on the accused members, Mrs. Eddy wanted the Directors to obey her demand.

The next two,, “Pass the addition to By-laws and deliver yourselves from M.A.M.,” corresponds to the old Civil War cry, “Keep your powder dry and pass the ammunition.” Keeping the powder dry was the most important part of the two, since the ammunition would be of no value without it. In Science keeping one's powder dry corresponds to handling malicious animal magnetism.

Finally we have, “Have the largest hall seat 5000.” Here we have the metaphysics which declares that if you want a bigger bird, you must first build a bigger nest. It is the enlarging of one's concept that makes possible a large harvest. God is infinite, but the degree to which His light and love enter into this Adam dream, is dependent on the expectancy of mortals. As that is enlarged, God is able to enter in, in an increasing sense of abundance.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

June 2, 1900

The Christian Science Board of Directors

My beloved Students:

Your kind request for me to be with you at your Communion season is gratefully acknowledged. I am with you in my Message. In propria persona I shall be at Pleasant View, be in durance, watching for the dear descent of divine Love — at the feast of Soul. I cannot find time to meet you other­wise, and I am sure it will be a Pentecost for you all tomorrow.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


“Durance” means restraint of the person. Our Leader seemed to be in durance at the Communion season, in the sense that whenever the students assembled together, it brought an increase in the error for her to handle. This meant that she was compelled to stay at her post and to work to keep the atmosphere clearly under more pressure than usual.

To many students the trip to Boston was in the nature of a vacation, and the devil often goes along on a vacation, for the reason that at such times students relax, and let up their daily right thinking.

Thus the devil came along when the students gathered in Boston, and she was the one who felt it. The reason for this was her spiritual sensitivity, as well as the fact that she let her thought go out in love to all those who gathered together.

She knew that the wise ones who read this letter, would know that a Pentecost does not just happen, and that she was working with them to make the meeting such for them all. A Pentecost comes to those who earn it, those who keep watch over the world to brush aside falsity, and to establish an atmosphere into which inspiration flows.

When the Master told his disciples that he was going to be with them always, he laid upon them the necessity for demonstrating spiritual sense, since that was the sense through which and only through which they were going to be able to perceive him as the Christ.

When Mrs. Eddy went to Pleasant View, only a few students had the opportunity to see her in retire­ment. Lest her followers begin to think of her as a figment of their imagination, she suffered them to gather yearly at Pleasant View. She was governing the Cause from a distant vantage point, in prepara­tion for the time when she would remain head of her Cause, and yet no longer be here in the flesh. There will never be a time when the Directors are not responsible to our Leader as they were when she was here in person. A higher concept of her leads to the recognition, that she is as much present with us today, as when she could be seen. When she named herself Pastor Emeritus, that indicated that she proposed to be the Leader of her Cause down through the ages. Like the Master before her, she could say, “Lo, I am with you alway.”

The Directors must be faithful in an effort to acquaint themselves with her methods, which are so plain in her writings and letters. Otherwise they may begin to conclude that they are the leaders of the Movement. The fact is, that they are not. Mrs. Eddy is still the Leader, and as servants of all, they are obligated to carry out what she left as the right way. The only difference in the situation is, that she is not present to rebuke them, if they err. They must never forget that whatever she said in the past, applies today, and will apply in the future. She has left with the Directors voluminous writings and admonitions, which are sufficient to make the way plain.

Children must be punished in order to keep them in the right way. When they become of age, they begin to obey because they perceive that it is the wisest thing to do; their obedience then becomes voluntary. When she was here, Mrs. Eddy punished her students for disobedience when it was necessary. Then she went to great lengths to keep them as faithful and obedient in her absence, as they were in her presence, and to encourage them always to say,”What would Mrs. Eddy want us to do (since what she wanted us to do when she was here, was what God wanted us to do)?” Such following would not be through fear of punishment, but through loyalty to God and His witness. When our Leader told her adherents to follow her only as she followed Christ, she showed that she wanted them to be loyal to her only in those ways in which she was following out the dictates of the Christ.

One can feel that unction she put into the letter in question. She might well have written, “Don't you see that I have been with you in ‘person' as long as necessary? Now the time has come when you must follow out what you believe to be the demands of God, which He has given you through me. At present I will watch over you, and when you depart from the narrow way, and begin to let human opinion govern the Field, rather than God through you, I will know it immediately, and rebuke you for it. But the time will come when you will not have me here to tell you whether you are obeying God; but in your exalted place, punishment will inevitably follow any attempt to substitute your own will for God's wisdom and will. So beware!”

Mrs. Eddy was faithful in striving to impress upon the Directors the need to lean upon Principle rather than upon her personality. Things equal to the same thing are equal to each other. In other words, if, as she watched for the descent of divine Love, they knelt at the table of our Lord — ­at the feast of Soul — then on that basis they would all meet in Spirit. If they worked to destroy the erroneous beliefs that keep man from the recogni­tion that each moment is in reality a constant communion with God, they would not only commune with Love, but would unite with her.

Two families may live in the same house, but they are separated by partitions. Let them climb out on the flat roof, and that separation disappears. As long as they remain in the tenements, they are separated. In this letter our Leader was promising the Directors that they could always depend upon her to be on the roof, but that she must train them to go there also. If she could train them to meet with her apart from the material senses, then they could always commune with her at the table of our Lord, and would find her in her Message. One can think of her as saying to them, “When you are in your tenement and I in mine, we can only communicate by telephone; but if while I am here, you accustom yourself to the spir­itual mode of communion with me which I am training you to resort to, then when I leave the tenement per­manently, you can still make the demonstration to go on the roof and be there with me.”

The Master left the disciples, as far as the material senses are concerned; yet he did not go any­where. He declared that he could be with them always. He was merely rising in thought, to an elevation where only those could meet with him who attained that same elevation. If they loved him enough, they would seek communion with him, which only an elevation above ma­terial sense could bring them.

Both the Master and our Leader wanted to assure their followers, that their efforts to spiritualize their thought would never be fruitless. To know that both the Master and our Leader are present, albeit above physical perception, waiting to commune with anyone who rises spiritually to perceive them, stimulates one to strive to attain that elevation. The possibility of such a reward becomes a tremendous stimulus to endeavor.

Our Leader could have found the time to make the demonstration to attend the Annual Meeting, had it been necessary; but the time had come for her to encourage her followers to rise to the height where they could cormnune with her in spirit. And we know that she is still calling her followers to rise to that exalted place. Every time they kneel at the table of our Lord, they take a step in this direction, since kneeling is symbolic of the attitude where one is willing to give up his own human sense, so that he may be free to approach God. Partaking of this manna, they taste and see that the Lord is good, and are filled with a desire, not for human harmony and health, not for human friendship or aggrandizement, but for communion with God and His ideas.

Our Leader could have accepted the invitation of the Directors, but now was the time to call them to come to her on the place where she habitually dwelt. One might have a puppy which one took for walks and played with, until he had endeared himself to it. Then comes the point at which the puppy must be trained to come to him. This letter to the Board was a call for them to make the demonstration to meet with her on the plane on which she really lived.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

June 8, 1900

Judge Hanna and Mr. Kimball

Beloved Students:

As I have requested the By-law relating to husband and wife to be repealed, your con­struction is not questionable. I do not need to say you can teach both husband and wife as usual, and add to your teaching the hint they are not to quarrel over who shall be greatest; we (?) all will take your hint.

Your ad that refers to a repealed By-law relating to what has been read in church mystifies me. I have required no repeal of Article 32, Sec. 1 in the 13th edition of the Manual. If the church has let me know it. I did request a repeal of the By-law relating to husband and wife, and that you publish in this issue of Sentinel that it was struck out.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy



XIII



Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

June 9, 1900

Judge Hanna and Mr. Kimball

Beloved Students:

The way is clear as God's appointing and this is the way. Have but one teacher during the College term and have no member of the Board present but this one teacher. Have this clause properly inserted in the Church By-law and have a meeting called and it acted upon immediately.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


More than other activity of the Christian Sci­ence organization, teaching must be done in an orderly way, and based on divine Principle. The same rule that Mrs. Eddy gave on page 43 of the Manual in regard to literature, applies to teaching. It must be correct in its statement of the divine Principle and rules and the demonstration of Christian Science. The spirit of thought of the teacher must be loving and scientific, and he must adhere strictly to the Golden Rule.

On page 445 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy shows her scorn of a teacher who would use teaching merely as a means of increasing income. If a teacher should embody his teaching in manuscript form and sink to the level where his teaching consisted in reading such papers to his pupils, it is possible that he would insure that manuscript against loss for a large sum, since it would be the means of yielding a yearly income. All he would have to do, would be to gather a group of thirty or less who would pay him one hundred dollars apiece, and read it to them. There is a danger that students might desire to become teachers, merely because such teach­ing would enable them to increase their incomes. The motive for teaching should never be to earn money. It should always be to bless others, to share with them the good God has freely bestowed upon us all. Reading manuscript can never fulfill Mrs. Eddy's ideal of teaching.

A wrong motive in teaching involves the very con­dition Mrs. Eddy described in a letter dated January 19, 1884, to Clara Choate, “I asked you to try teaching, but when I took your pupils, I found your mental in­fluence, not your words, had done them an injury that I could not repair at once. Your sensuality and un­truthfulness have their effect, although you think them out of sight.” A container that is not clean, defiles every drop of water that is poured out of it. A teacher must watch that his thought is right in teaching, as well as the letter of his work. Teach­ing by reading manuscript implies that the letter is more important than the Spirit.

The By-law referred to in this letter which was repealed, appeared in the April 19th Sentinel. “Both the husband and wife shall pay tuition for class in­struction; only one of them shall teach classes in Christian Science, and that one shall be elected by the two in one, viz., both husband and wife; any jargon as to which of those shall be teacher, may exclude the jarring one from his or her office in church.”

Where a husband or wife is jealous of the other partner, that makes for a quarrel. No unity can result where they strive to unite from two different claims of thought. A quarrel results when one tries to persuade the other to change his or her standpoint, to fit the other one's ideas. There might even be a quarrel if one made a demonstration, and the other did not. God's ways and men's ways are always dif­ferent until harmonized. Hence there is a quarrel, not from God's standpoint, but from man's standpoint. In like manner there is never any quarrel from the standpoint of the demonstrating thought; it is always precipitated by one who is not demonstrating. The quarrel of mortal men with God will cease only as the former rises to meet the level of the latter.

There was a gulf fixed between our Leader and those on a lower standpoint, and she found it diffi­cult to make them understand her. She adapted her teaching all she could, but she could not come down to their level, anymore than God can come down to a mortal's standpoint. But she sought constantly to bring them up to her level, since when that happened, she knew that there would be a perfect understanding.

Judge Hanna and Mr. Kimball desired to understand what Mrs. Eddy put forth, and to follow it exactly as she requested; yet they misunderstood. Section 1 of Article 32 of the Manual was the By-law “Christ Jesus the Ensample.” This By-law was read each Com­munion Sunday. Now Mrs. Eddy merely requested that this provision be repealed; yet a notice was printed in the Sentinel that the entire By-law had been re­pealed. It was this ad that mystified Mrs. Eddy. She knew that such an error only illustrates the dis­tance which lay between her and her best students. It was the contemplation of this distance that tended to give them a feeling of uncomfortable inferiority.

On page 78 of the Christian Science Journal, Volume 17, we learn that the By-law referred to which forbids irreverent reference to Christ Jesus, came into being because one of our lecturers had made a jest in referring to the old concept of the Master. Any student who fails to demonstrate inspiration and the spirit of God, is liable to make the error, which is apt to cause him to say that which would tend to turn good Christian people against Science. Mrs. Eddy would not have written a By-law and had it read in church until it was firmly fixed in thought, unless she knew that it covered one way that animal magnetism would try to use, to turn away the sort of people that we would like to draw to Science.

This lecturer was not making fun of the Master in his lecture; but Science so exposed the flippancy of the old theological attitude toward the Master, that the Scientist is apt to point this out in a way that might hurt the old Christian. The latter be­lieves that this attitude is right and reverent. He does not realize that he is trying to force both God and Christ Jesus to conform to his own limited con­ception, based on what he would like to have it from a human standpoint. Mrs. Eddy saw that our brethren in the old church might feel that we were being irreverent and disrespectful, because we see so plainly what a shallow idea he has of God, in making Him like a human being who has to be argued with and prayed to, as if He would not act unless enough people required Him to. It is difficult not to make fun of such a point of view, when the utter absurdity of it becomes evident. Hence a By-law became necessary, lest students discuss the fallacy of old theology in a way that might do harm, and prejudice people against us. Great care is necessary not to offend.

If one were imbued with the same spirit Mrs. Eddy had, namely, a recognition that everyone must be saved, he would never offend or antagonize one he hoped to interest in Science. He might perceive that foolish­ness of another's concept of God and of the Master, but he would not make fun of it as the way to call the foolish one higher.

Our Leader had given sufficient evidence of her ability to reflect God's unerring guidance, to be able to make such a declaration as she does in the second letter, “The way is clear as God's appointing....” She expected her followers to make a similar demon­stration, and she knew that they could, when they handled the animal magnetism which would claim to rob them of this divine ability.

She did not put forth things of herself. They were not her opinions and notions. She did not think things out, but reflected God's will. Hence one who conceives of her as living at Pleasant View, thinking out all these problems for the organization, has a wrong conception.

Why should she decide that no member of the Board be present during the College term? When a teacher is attempting to teach through inspiration, or to have God teach through him, a critical thought present would be a deterring influence against the free flowing of such inspiration. As a matter of fact, the teaching of the college class is a more difficult assignment than teaching a primary class, since the former group is made up of seasoned practitioners, who are supposed to have a more intelligent and demonstrable understanding than young students just applying for class instruction. Students coming to the College are already capable of teaching. If they were not so fitted, what they could gain in a week's instruction would not be such a great addition to their knowledge, as to suddenly fit them for this responsibility. The teacher of the College is con­stantly aware of the fact, that he has a class of stu­dents who are liable to be critical of what he teaches, since they may believe that they have learned prac­tically everything Mrs. Eddy has taught, by their study, experience and demonstration. They are apt to come to the class wondering what the teacher can teach them, that they do not already know. Such a mental state becomes a deterrent to the teacher in pouring out inspirational teaching.

The hungry or empty thought represents the best attitude on the part of pupils, if a teacher really desires to teach from the inspirational standpoint. It helps to bring forth the highest demonstration of inspiration. The more empty the vessels, the more truth comes forth to fill them. When a primary class has been selected properly, it is composed of empty vessels.

The deduction is, that a member of the Board of Directors or Board of Education present during the College term might mean the pressure of a critical thought, which is always a damper on inspiration. Empty vessels alone draw forth the emanations of Spirit. When listeners want what you have to give spiritually, that helps you and inspires you to give it. It is clear, therefore, why God's way became plain, namely, to have no Board member or any other officer, but only the teacher present during the class.

Our Master through his relation to God, had infinite wisdom to impart; yet when he met with cer­tain people who were not interested in spiritual matters, he uttered not a word, because he had nothing to say. His mouth was closed, because there were no empty vessels present.

All teachers who aspire to teach inspirationally, may take a hint from Mrs. Eddy's wisdom, and watch to be sure, when they teach, that there is no crit­ical thought present to mar the demonstration of the free impartation of inspiration.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

August 9, 1900

To the full Board of Directors

My dear Students:

Do not you know that Mr. Armstrong's dear son is put in just the wrong place for his own good, and the good of our Cause? This move of subjecting him to the full fire of m.a.m. is all done by W. showing you how you are con­trolled by her and so would do such an imprudent, unwise act. This has caused another By-law to be enacted and put in the Manual. Oh, how long will even the Board of Directors be led by sin and Satan? If another act like this is consummated by you, I will change the entire Board. You give me little cause to have any faith in you.

As ever,

Mother

N. B. Call a meeting at once and act on this as the By-law demands.


The Bible records that when the pool of Bethesda was troubled, the sick folk who bathed therein were healed. There were times when Mrs. Eddy seemed so mentally aware of error, that she appeared to become agitated and disturbed. At such times there emanated from her an atmosphere that was error-detecting and error-destroying.

The Bible also indicates that those who did not go into the pool, were not healed. Students who disregarded what Mrs. Eddy wrote and said at those times of stress, by interpreting it as personal, con­cluding that she was having a bad day and taking it out on her students — that she would get over it and so they need only be loving and patient until it was over — failed to receive any blessing.

When Mrs. Eddy lifted her thought above the clamor of error and entered into a period of peace­ful refreshment, where she was untouched by the errors of individuals or the Cause, she was of much less value to her students as far as their own growth was concerned, than when she was nearer their level, and detected the error, even though she was in a perturbed state of thought. One thing is certain: unless when one detects error, he becomes disturbed over it to the point of handling it, error will increase rather than decrease. Unless one becomes sufficiently dis­turbed over the discovery of mice in his house, to do something about it, they will continue to multiply.

The most constructive and healing times for students and the Cause, were those when our Leader came down and mingled with mortal thought, for the purpose of becoming aware of the claims of error; and without sparing words, told the truth about the situation, as she does in this letter. Her own esti­mate of the value to students of what she thundered forth at such times, is indicated in what she wrote to Irving C. Tomlinson on July 8, 1899, “...those Sinai detonations make the student grow most rapidly into the holy fitness for every demonstration; or they (under the fire of the enemy) cause him by de­grees to dislike Mother and keep aloof from her counsel.”

At times Mrs. Eddy had a period of surcease from toil, and received spiritual refreshment, by going up on the mountain top as it were, and staying all night. Then when she came down, she once more denounced the errors she detected, and directed the error-destroying campaign which she conducted so successfully through God's help.

It is a sign of great spiritual growth, when a student reaches the place where, when he experiences discord, he can declare that he is being touched by a general need to help others or the world, on the basis that Mrs. Eddy once declared to Adam Dickey that she actually felt the needs of the Movement in her body, just as a mother feels in her heart the need of her infant, and supplies it. In fact it has been asserted, that Mrs. Eddy would never have suf­fered, had she not been called upon to give birth to the organization of her Church, and carry it to com­pletion.

When a telegraph instrument begins to click, that means that it is receiving a message. The operator does not try to stop this action, but is alert to receive the message. When it is received, the action stops.

When a student becomes so advanced in understand­ing, that he begins to feel within himself the needs of the Cause and of the world, and he arouses himself to meet those needs, the call for help ceases. If at such times of stress he merely works to overcome the error as if it were a personal claim, his work does little general good.

No workers can become advanced students in God's sight, until they regard their minds and bodies as blackboards upon which the universal need may be re­corded. As they rise to meet the need of humanity, the individualized or focused evidence of this need is dissipated.

No student can advance far, who continues to use Science merely to overcome error in himself. He is so selfish, self-centered, or asleep, that he does not realize that, in becoming a Christian Scientist, he has become a blackboard for the race, through which God calls him to do his part in freeing humanity. When a seasoned student persists in merely working for himself, and turning a deaf ear to the universal need, he is forgetting and neglecting the Golden Rule. If firemen should turn off the alarm when it rang, instead of responding to the call, they would be able to continue to sleep, but they would soon be discharged for selfishness, and neglect of duty.

The advancing student has no right to confine his use of Science to making himself harmonious, when the call is for him to enter the arena against the enemy of mankind. The right use of divine Mind is in service, to dissipate the belief of evil that holds the world in bondage. This country trains “G men” whose service covers the apprehension of criminals. In Christian Science God prepares each student to be a “G man,” where “G” stands for giving.

When one is capable of higher service, the call comes for such higher service. On March 30, 1899, Mrs. Eddy wrote to Irving Tomlinson, “See if you cannot do as much good as others evil. More mental work for the Field must be done.” She also wrote to Hannah Larminie at an unknown date, “This Cause must be carried morally by silent argument, just the same as you carry it physically. This is the great duty for Christians, that they must do or be accountable to God for leaving it undone.” Such calls for higher service are still in force. Woe to students who become capable of serving God in a more universal way, if they neglect such service! Woe to those who believe that God will continue to maintain them in a little private heaven on earth if they disregard the call, when it comes to go forth to battle with Goliath.

On page 127 of Miscellaneous Writings Mrs. Eddy speaks of the human heart as being like a feather bed that needs often to be stirred. She probably had no intention of changing the Board of Directors as she threatens in this letter, but she knew that they needed to be thoroughly aroused. She detected this by the fact that they had placed Joseph Armstrong's young son in the Reading Room as the attendant, — a position that subjected him to the full fire of M.A.M.

Right activity of thought is an automatic protec­tion against the mesmerism of false thinking. If a fly­wheel is spinning fast enough, it is not possible to stop it by inserting a bar between the spokes. The bar would be forced out of the hands of the one attempting to do so. Water that is kept running in a pipe on a cold night, will not freeze.

Lethargy, sleepiness, drunkenness, apathy, are terms which describe the slowing up of thought, so that animal magnetism may control the individual. The first step in hypnotism is to reduce the subject to mental inactivity, to induce stupor. Mrs. Eddy treated the Directors and other students with vigor at times, in order to rouse them and wake them up. But it must be remembered, that mental apathy may express itself in one's rushing around smartly. Spiritual apathy is perhaps a good term to define the error.

The threat of “W” (Woodbury) and her dire influence continued as a sequel to the threat of Kennedy, Spofford, Arens, and other renegade students, until Mrs. Eddy sensed the need of a change in her “bugaboo.” Her indications of danger often took the form of theosophy, spiritualism, and Roman Catholicism. How was Mrs. Eddy to keep students awake to the daily necessity of spiritual activity as the only protec­tion against aggressive mental suggestion, unless she set forth the danger in some concrete form, either as a person or a known system of thought, active and threatening? Young students need a for­mulated enemy in order to arouse them to resistence.

Mrs. Eddy taught that the human mind is wholly depraved. How was she to awaken the students to see the danger of an impersonal error that operated per­sonally, other than to call their attention to its personal operations? A wife may be married to a gangster, and yet have no knowledge of her husband's criminality. The only method to awaken her, is to apprise her of the dreadful influence of her husband and of the awful crimes perpetrated by his subordinates over whom he is the master mind.

It was as if Mrs. Eddy painted the picture of a Roman Catholic as being the most hideous cat's paw of the carnal mind. Then she warned students that that was their most dangerous enemy, in the sense that that is what they would become, if they permitted the carnal mind to replace their reflection of divine Mind. They might retain their knowledge of the let­ter of Christian Science, but the spirit of it would be gone, and in place of it, the claim of Roman Catholicism would hold sway. Does not one have to be warned of the awfulness of such a happening, in order that he may avoid letting it come to pass? Mrs. Eddy was not warning her students against Roman Catholics, but against the possibility of their becoming Roman Catholics, not in name, but in spirit. In other words, a student who loses the true spirit of Christian Science, becomes a Roman Catholic as far as the action of the carnal mind is concerned. With such an awful example before him, what student would not watch zealously, lest he lose the true spirit of God as found in Christian Science?

Mrs. Eddy was stirring up indignation against the carnal mind when she wrote to the Board that they were being led by sin and Satan, and controlled by “W.” The Directors were the very epitome of loyalty and love; yet she had to frighten them into stirring themselves. She knew that a student could fall into the snare of the adversary all unconsciously.

If “sin” is yielding to animal magnetism, what is Satan? Might it not be following out the prompt­ings of sin, that would cause one to do the very things which would bring disgrace on the Cause. When one reaches the point where one is trusted with power and authority in our Cause, the object of sin is al­ways Satan, always to bring out that which will harm Christian Science.

Mrs. Eddy watched her students from two stand­points. When she found them enjoying the absolute, to the point of neglecting the handling of error, she sharply wakened them, and called them down from the heights to do their duty. When she found them mentally wearied in their efforts to handle evil and bending beneath the load, because they were making it too real, she refreshed them, by taking them up on the heights. An instance of this latter effort is to be found in a letter she wrote on February 17, 1907: “There are no lies. All is Mind and governs. What is matter? Nothing. Mortal mind is matter; it cannot talk. Then hold to Mind and the rest will take care of itself — the rest is nothing; this material is all nothing. Life is divine, immortal, and there is no other life. That is all the Life there is and it is ours.”

Here is an instance where she found a student weary with the strife, and she perceived the need of giving him the refreshment coming from the contem­plation of good only, with no error in the picture to handle. Yet when she found students staying in this lofty uplifted sense because they enjoyed it, when the demand was to come down to the world's level and work, she had to awaken and rebuke them.

What would be more natural than for the Direc­tors to accept the conclusion, that their obligation in their office would be fulfilled, only as they worked for the higher humanly intelligent idea of what action should be taken? When Mrs. Eddy dis­covered that they were yielding to this human view, which is neither safe nor right in God's sight, she had to do something of a sharp nature; threaten them severely or rebuke them with vigor. Otherwise they might complacently use their own human opinions in carrying out their duties, which is a mode that has no place in Christian Science. The rule is, either you are working with the Mind of God, or you are working incorrectly or with the enemy of God.

Mrs. Eddy makes it plain that the operation of the human mind is exactly the reverse of the opera­tion of divine Mind. Everything it claims to do, is the opposite of what should be done. On the surface it may appear to be constructive, but it is not.

When our organization appears to be humanly successful under the action of the human mind, one may know with a certainty that the real object of Science, namely, the development of divine Mind in man, is being neglected or relegated to the discard. Putting forth a great splurge of human success be­comes a decoy to keep its members from detecting that the important thing is being overlooked.

Occasionally one hears talk about a danger to Mrs. Eddy's Cause of a possible split. The real need is a pruning, or sifting, as Mrs. Eddy once put it. She said, “There are many members of my church who should not be, and sometime there will be a sifting in my church.” When a grapevine runs to wood, it must be pruned before it will bear fruit. When the Master found the fig tree with no fruit, it had to be cut back to the roots. In fact if there were no chance of any fruit at all, it would all have to be dug up, since it would have no place in the category of fruitful trees.

Future generations must know that the Directors were acting up to their highest sense of what was humanly right, when they appointed Joseph Armstrong's young son to a position for which he was not fitted. Without any doubt they were influenced in this selec­tion by the fact that he was Mr. Armstrong's son, and they concluded that for this very reason, he should have consideration over other candidates for the position; but Mrs. Eddy recognized their act as a failure to let God make the selection, and from her point of view, if He did not decide on this one, he was not the right one and should not be elected.

Mrs. Eddy knew that the Directors were oblivious of the enormity of the error in the situation; so she sent them this shocking letter, hoping that when they felt her wrath, they would dig beneath their human opinions, to seek and find the will of God. This incident should be an object lesson, since it is a serious error when students are placed in posi­tions for which they are not ready. I know of an instance where a lifetime of service in Science was jeopardized, by a young student being placed in a responsible position for which she was not ready. The effect of the animal magnetism to which she was subjected, unhandled, produced serious results.

The loss of our Leader was a serious one. The Cause misses her, because she was both fearless and loving in her rebukes. Students did not always understand them, or follow them. Often they chem­icalized under them; but in the main she found that they did good. One reason for this was that she bound students to herself with cords of love, before she administered her punishment. Parents only harden their child against themselves, when they punish it without love; when they punish it through love, the child accepts it and profits by it.

There are enough letters in which Mrs. Eddy ex­pressed her deep appreciation and affection for the Directors, to prove the above point. They loved their Leader. Tears would come to their eyes when they spoke of her to me. I can understand why in such an attitude they could accept and profit by a letter of this nature. The fact that she noted and carefully approved of everything they did that was good, fitted her to give them a rebuke when they needed it. One fits himself to rebuke in another that which is not right, only as he is willing to see the good in that one, and to express his appreciation of it. Had Mrs. Eddy kept up a continual barrage of fault-finding, soon her students would not have lis­tened to her or paid any attention to her rebukes. But they were so eager to receive her approval, that they struggled to live up to what she demanded of them, and more often than not, blessed her in their hearts, when she rebuked them, when they could per­ceive that she was only helping them to live up to what she desired of them, and they desired to fulfill.

The crux of this letter is the fact that Mrs. Eddy makes no statement that Mr. Armstrong's son was lacking in sincerity, or in an understanding of Truth. He simply did not know enough about malicious animal magnetism, to be in a position where, if he did not handle it, he might make a shipwreck. In electing an individual to such a public position as an attendant in a Reading Room, the question always is, does he understand the error that he will have to meet, and can he meet it? If he cannot, then he is being sent to his moral and spiritual death by those who are appointing him. No wonder Mrs. Eddy wrote a powerful letter to cover such a possibility!

One might aver that it was very difficult for the Directors to know in advance whether an individual would be able to rise to meet the error connected with a position, but the answer is, that God knows such matters. Hence selections of candidates must be made under His guidance. Human opinion is always wrong. It always puts the wrong man in the wrong place. For that reason it deserves the sharpest kind of a rebuke.

When Mrs. Eddy found the Directors losing sight of the wisdom that would have caused them to function under God's wisdom; when she saw them permitting them­selves to be handled by animal magnetism, through a lack of realizing that they were being handled, she was forced to write another By-law, in order that their acts might not injure the Cause.

“Oh, how long will even the Board of Directors be led by sin and Satan?” The implication from this statement is, that if the Directors were not alert and awake to the error that tempted them, how could the membership at large be expected to be? The Directors were the example for the whole Field, and Mrs. Eddy sought to have them so, by lending them all the protection she could. Now that she has left our midst, we have a responsibility in this direction, to strive to give the Directors the protection that they do not have, and yet need, now that the Leader is no longer here to give it.

Sin might be looked upon as the erroneous sug­gestions that knock at our door, and Satan as the belief that we have a mind that can be tempted by such suggestions. The two terms would appear to cover what mortals think, and what they think with, the belief that one is functioning under a human mind, and that that mind is his mind — a mind subject at all times to erroneous suggestions.

If a man had a smear of honey on his back, he would attract bees. He might drive them away, but they would return. The honey would represent Satan, and the bees, sin. The only possible way to dispose of the possibility of a return of the bees, is to clean off the honey!

Another way to consider this pair, is to call Satan the belief in mortality, and sin, the results. For instance, the belief in pleasure brings pain. The belief in birth brings death. One is cause and the other effect. While both are proved to be illu­sions in Science, the scientific mode of effacing them is to work on cause as well as effect. When one attacks the belief in a human mind, then he is preparing to dispose of all human thinking, just as when he attacks the belief in birth, he is overthrow­ing the foundations of death.

A sick man feels an irresistible impulse to work wholly to get rid of effect, when such a thing can never be done scientifically. He must know that he feels sick and manifests sickness, because his thought is not right. Sickly thinking and sickly feeling go together, but one is sin and the other is Satan; and of the two, Satan is the head man. Destroy the head man first, and the secondary belief capitulates. When the head of the army is killed in battle, the troops are scattered and easily mastered. David aimed his blow at the temple of Goliath, which symbolized the claim of wrong thinking. Through that effort, the en­tire mass of error was destroyed. The Master gave the rule, namely, that in order to spoil the strong man of his goods, you must first bind the strong man!

Mrs. Eddy's statement implied that the Board was led by sin and Satan, because they had not removed the honey of human thinking. When our human thinking is satisfactory, it seems more or less sweet to us; but unfortunately it becomes the means of attracting other human thinking that is not so desirable. It acts like the magnet that attracts iron filings. Even if you interpose that which for the moment keeps them apart, they will soon be drawn together. This is an illustration of how little one accomplishes, when he protects his thought from mortal suggestions that are unpleasant, and yet fails to challenge the belief in the finite nature of his thinking equipment.

Students are tempted to feel gratified when they have disposed of the indication of wrong thinking; but they are in a worse predicament in human harmony, unless their purpose in eliminating the effects of wrong thinking is to roll up their sleeves and tackle the belief in all human thinking, both the pleasant and the unpleasant, in order to replace it with God's thinking.

When Mrs. Eddy rebuked the Directors severely, she was rebuking all students for all time, if under similar conditions they made similar mistakes. When human reasons of any kind become the basis for placing one in a position who is not ready, the Board of Direc­tors of The Mother Church or Trustees of branch churches should have this letter to guide and to rebuke them.

When the law says that if you murder a man, your life is forfeited, that law searches you out if you are guilty, and is executed upon you. Mrs. Eddy established a law in relation to human experience, so that the punishment of this letter would descend on those who break it. Some day the whole Field will know what a crime it is in God's sight, to suggest for a position one who is not spiritually ready for it. Such an act reacts against the good of the indi­vidual as well as the good of the Cause. When other members see the penalty paid by the one who has not sufficient understanding to protect himself from the fire of animal magnetism, it frightens them, and causes them to believe that the reward for serving God may be a curse rather than a blessing. Hence they refuse all opportunities to serve in the organization.

Students should know that any ill effects coming from taking a position in Science, are only the re­sults of one's failure to handle animal magnetism. No one need to fear to take a position God appoints him to, since the only protection needed is the know­ledge of what the error is, and God's power over it. On page 210 of Miscellaneous Writings we read, “...evil, uncovered, is self-destroyed.” God's pro­tection always accompanies His appointments.

On page 85 of Retrospection and Introspection, in the article “Admonition,” our Leader gives us good advice when she says that we should “seek to occupy no position where you do not feel that God ordains you. Never forsake your post without due deliberation and light, but always wait for God's finger to point the way.”

The placing of a person in a position where he might be ruined for life, because he is not ready to meet the fire of the enemy, is not an ordinary mistake or sin. For that reason, Mrs. Eddy writes a strong letter that is not an ordinary one. And her letter is really addressed to any student who might find himself in a place where he is called upon to vote for a candidate for some position in our Movement, and tempted to use human opinion. Every prominent position in our Cause brings the one who takes it under a specific claim of animal magnetism. Those who are selecting candidates for positions or even to membership, should know that, being placed in some position, or joining the organization, carries an opposition from animal magnetism that might seri­ously upset one who is not ready to handle it.

A soldier who is being selected for the group that is going to invade the shore of the enemy, should be asked if he can swim. Every candidate for member­ship in our church should be asked, “Can you swim?” When you join our ranks you are subjected to the fire of the enemy! Therefore, if you join without being able to swim, it may be a deterrent to you until you know how, since at any time they commit the crime covered by Mrs. Eddy in this letter, they come under the same censure the Directors did at this time. By writing it, she really created a condemnation for all time to fall on those who commit the sin of placing persons in positions for which they are not ready.

Placing Joseph Armstrong's son in the Boylston Avenue Reading Room apparently caused Mrs. Eddy to write the By-law (Manual, Eighteenth Edition) which covers the Librarian, and reads: “He or she shall have no bad habits, shall have had experience in the Field, shall be well educated, and a devout Christian Scientist.”

Too much cannot be written about the uniqueness of our Reading Rooms. They constitute a remarkable adjunct of our organization. It was a marvelous thing for Mrs. Eddy to assume that, if her church maintained in the center of large cities rooms where busy people might come in and read about God in the Bible and her writings, that they would do so. The old church feels that it is enough if they can gather people to listen to a sermon about God on Sunday; yet Mrs. Eddy expected to interest people in God to such an extent, and in the importance of realizing His presence and understanding Him aright, in order to utilize that understanding to close up the errors of the world, that they would be glad in the midst of their busy days to stop into a room where the books that teach about God are open for their perusal, and where they can hold a Christian Science service in miniature.

Students are apt to take the Reading Rooms for granted, so that they lose sight of their true and full significance, and fail to discern the intensity of mortal mind's opposition to this activity. There is little wonder that the Reading Rooms are under a direct pressure of animal magnetism. No wonder Mrs. Eddy felt that the Librarian, — so she calls the one put in charge, — must not only be an individual of wide experience and education, but a devout student who understands the nature of evil in its subtle work­ings, and so can handle it in relation to the Rooms!

Error would put forth an influence to produce a countercurrent of argument to keep people away from these Rooms, even though in their better moments they would like to come. It is common knowledge that much of the effort to induce the public to come to stores, is mesmeric. It follows that error would employ a mesmeric influence to keep the public away from our Reading Rooms. Librarians must be aware of this claim, and be prepared to do their part to meet it.

The import of this letter to the Directors in regard to Mr. Armstrong's son was, that it indicated that they were not awake to the right conception of the Reading Room, and of its great significance. Hence they failed to discern the responsibilities and obligations that would be laid on the librarians; so they selected the son of one of their own members, and threw him, as it were, to the wolves of animal magnetism. They did not have their Leader's foresight into what was taking place in the world of thought in relation to this remarkable manifestation of God's providence, namely, the Christian Science Reading Room, nor into the subtlety of the opposition that was arrayed against it.

If today students perceive the full significance of the Reading Rooms, they will never belittle the importance of reading the notices as to their location and hours of opening, in the church services. If these notices should ever be omitted, one of the val­uable functions of our services would be missing, namely, to apprise the public of this vital and unusual activity. The purpose of our services includes not only reading from the Scriptures and Science and Health, and giving the public a taste of a healing atmosphere, but notifying them of the activity of our organization.

When a hawker starts to sell his goods on a street corner, he begins by making what is called a “spiel.” That means that he attracts the attention of people by talking in an interesting manner. Readers in churches should strive to put forth the notices in regard to the Reading Rooms in such a way, that they will attract and interest the public. They should not feel that notices are merely an interruption in the continuity of the service, and so they read them quickly and mechanically.

Mrs. Eddy had the insight to see that not only would this young untried student be of no value in the Reading Room, but the position would be a deter­rent to the good of the Cause as well as to his own good, since it would subject him to pressure that no student should be put under, until he is ready to meet it.

At times members seek the position of librarian because it pays a regular salary. Such a motive augurs poorly for the spiritual side of the picture, and may result in a situation that once developed in a Reading Room, where the attendant was given the position, because the Board of Trustees took pity on her. She had lost her husband and needed the money to support her children. That she was handled by animal magnetism was proved by the fact that she made it a rule never to recommend Science and Health to an inquirer. She would speak well of Mrs. Eddy's other writings, the periodicals, or the Bible; but never would she say a good word for the textbook. Yet without it our religion would be like a dinner where appetizers were served, but the main course was missing. It goes without saying, that she was soon replaced.

Mrs. Eddy did not spare the Directors in awaken­ing them to see that the position of librarian was not a place to put someone they wished to favor, like the son of one of their own members. The librarian must be one who is capable of withstanding the pres­sure of mortal mind's opposition, as well as of demonstrating the healing atmosphere for those who come into the Rooms, so that they will find that the place whereon they stand is holy ground! The act of removing one's shoes as it is named in the Bible, stands for mental purification. The admonition to take off one's shoes is given to remind people, that they have no right to enter a sacred place like our churches or Reading Rooms without first purifying their thinking, seeking to hold a right sense of God, and a loving sense toward His child, man. Members may have a natural desire to give and to bless, but this desire will not function freely in our services and Reading Rooms, unless they remove their shoes, or material appendages, as Mrs. Eddy calls them in Miscellaneous Writings; unless they remove the claim of animal magnetism, so that they may awaken to per­ceive the profound significance of the various activ­ities of our organization.

In selecting a librarian, as in choosing a reader, members need to think less of candidates in terms of how they look, what a good voice they have, or how they are going to appear before a stranger. Above all, the candidates must know how to remove the shoes from the feet of those who enter either the church or the Reading Rooms, so that they may realize that the place whereon they stand is holy ground, a place where man may connect up with God. One goes into a telephone booth with the full assurance of being able to connect with any person who has a telephone. Sim­ilarly one should be assured that in a Reading Room he can make connection with God. The demonstration of the librarian is the largest factor in making this possible.

Before leaving this letter to the Directors, I feel constrained to say that in writing it, Mrs. Eddy was furnishing them with backbone, as it were, to take a stand against Mr. Armstrong himself, in his desire to have his son given preferment. He was the most assertive member of the Board at that time. He took the lead. He had definite opinions on matters, and was not afraid to express them. He might have wanted his son in the position of librarian, and so coerced the other members, so that they yielded gracefully, when he proposed his son's name. Under the circumstances it was necessary for Mrs. Eddy to rouse them sufficiently — nay, even frighten them — so that they would feel that they were in danger of losing their positions, if they acquiesced to suggestions of any of their number which were made without demon­stration. The far-reaching significance of this let­ter is, that if at any meeting a member listens to a suggestion made by another member, and he feels in his heart that it is not demonstrated, if he acquiesces, he becomes worthy of the same condemnation that Mrs. Eddy gave the “full Board of Directors” in this letter.

Without doubt Mr. Armstrong was ambitious for his son, and wanted him to work into the activities of the Cause as Mr. Johnson's son had been doing. He might even have wanted him to have the salary con­nected with the position. Yet in this letter Mrs. Eddy is writing to all Directors and Trustees and members for all time to come. When she threatened to remove the Directors from their positions, if they repeated such an error as placing one in a position that required a student who understood the operation of evil, who did not have such an understanding, and hence who could not make the demonstra­tion to keep the Rooms free from animal magnetism, she was indicating that every student on earth must watch daily that he be not influenced erroneously to give careless opinions or decisions that are not the result of demonstration. A member who in a busi­ness meeting of a branch church talks at length on a matter that he has not demonstrated, must know that he is threatened with the punishment of God, if he continues in such a course.

A good housewife would never hire one to clean her home who knew nothing about cleaning. She hires one who is so thorough that she will get the dust out of the corners that she herself might overlook. The librarians of our Reading Rooms must be expert cleaners in the mental realm. They must bring no error into the Room, and they must see that no one else does, since it is a spot dedicated to God, where people come to connect up with God. In reading the literature, inquirers are seeking to get in tune with God. If they do not have that purpose, they are not reading correctly. The work of the librarian must contribute to this end, namely, to keep the at­mosphere so free from error, that the stranger may feel God's presence.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

August 9, 1900

Beloved Student:

The one devil, evil, takes thought by drugs as well as siege. The drugs are morphine, opium, hashish, arsenic, rhus radicans, strychnine. There is need of awakening before it is too late.

M. B. E.


Mrs. Eddy's uncovering of the operating of the claim of mortal belief, indicated that mortal mind required an agent through which to operate. To illusttate: The plant “poison ivy” is required to convey poison. In order for a mortal to become a victim of the morphine habit, he must take or be given morphine. Then because with the actual drug has been associated the effects of mortal belief, the one who takes it comes under those effects.

Mrs. Eddy later found that mortal belief could operate through a mental medium, such as the drugs named, so that its effect upon mortal man would be the same as if he had taken the actual drug. Her later discovery was that whatever material medium mortal belief claimed to work through, the trained mind could use as a mental medium, and produce mental domination or physical poison, just as if the actual drug had been taken.

Thus a malpractitioner might argue mentally that his intended victim was poisoned, without ef­fecting any result; but if he argued opium, the victim might find himself manifesting all the symp­toms of an opium addict. He might fall into the same mental and physical state that the opium ad­dict falls into. Thus Mrs. Eddy's important dis­covery in the realm of malpractice, was, that mor­tal belief is as limited to its own forms in the mental realm, as it is in the physical realm. A mesmerizer might argue mentally to you the symptoms of poison without affecting you, whereas if he ar­gued arsenic, the symptoms might follow.

In this brief letter to Mr. Johnson, Mrs. Eddy gave the Directors advanced teaching of enormous value and significance, namely, that these material mediums in the physical realm, may be duplicated in the mental realm and have the same effect. When a student reaches the point where this knowledge is vital for him, it may save him, since he will there­by learn to deny the possibility of there being any reality or power in any suggestion of poison or drug sent to him mentally, that can affect him either physically or mentally.

There are those who might consider that Mrs. Eddy was drawing largely upon her imagination, in putting forth such a proposition; yet if they re­ject it, they may find themselves without adequate protection from mortal belief, at a critical time in their progress. She discerned that at a defi­nite point in growth, one needed to acknowledge the human possibility, that drugs he never heard of, could be argued mentally and have their effects; she saw that this acknowledgment would represent his protection, on the basis that error, uncovered, is self-destroyed. Hence when a student is ready to realize that he may accept a drug or poison as a mental suggestion, and that it may thereby have the same effect as if taken through the mouth, this realization enables him to exert an adequate protection.

The question arises, why did Mrs. Eddy write such a letter to Mr. Johnson as a member of the Board of Directors, knowing that he would share it with them? She knew that metaphysical knowledge that disseminated from the Board, was considered to be correct by the Field, since they were highly regarded; and so it was generally accepted. Thus she sought to teach this point to the Directors, a point which she could never include in her pub­lished works. If she could cause them to believe it and to accept it, she knew that, beginning with them, it would eventually be adopted by students who were ready for it.

This letter contains a point she could not write to all of her students. She could not pub­lish it in the periodicals, or in her books. How was she to send it out and perpetuate it, except by word of mouth, starting with those who were the heads of her church?

Much of the Master's teaching was perpetuated in this manner. He stated facts to the disciples and in turn they shared them. In this way Jesus placed his truths where they would find expression, and enter into the entire Christian world.

If Mrs. Eddy were unable to convince the Direc­tors through their intelligence of the important fact stated in this letter, or cause them to ac­cept it because of their faith in and obedience to her, she would have felt that it was hopeless to expect students in general to accept it, and profit by it. It was as if she tried it out on the Direc­tors, knowing that they represented the rank and file of students. If they saw the point and ac­cepted it, then the Field in general could and would. Through the Board members she sought to determine if the Field were ready for it. Then when the necessity for this protection came to them, they would have it.

She knew that this important point of teach­ing had come to her through revelation. She pro­tected it by sending it to the Directors, since if it were understood by them, it would be dis­seminated, and as fast as students needed it, they would have it. When they received such a teaching, they would know that it was a point that had had her fullest consideration, since she would never have sent anything to her Directors that would have made her appear lacking in metaphysical under­standing.

Certainly if the Directors could not accept this point in metaphysics, the Field could hardly be expected to. It was a vital teaching that would be needed in the coming centuries. Sending it to one of the Directors was like copyrighting it, since it would remain forever in the church files. No one would ever dare to destroy it.

One might wonder at Mrs. Eddy's knowledge of the botanical name for poison ivy, namely, Rhus radicans. It must be remembered, however, that she experimented with homeopathy at one time, and such terms were familiar to the devotees of that branch of healing. In fact, Rhus toxicodendron, or poison sumac, was used as a remedy. At one time Mrs. Eddy declared to Lydia Hall, “Did you know that the malpractitioner can argue ether, liquor, or any other poison, and it has the same effect upon the body as if it were taken individ­ually?” And at one time we find her classing Rhustox with arsenic, mercury, morphine and ether, in her denial of poisons.

In 1849 Chapin Harris published a dictionary of Dental Science. Dr. Patterson, who was Mrs. Eddy's second husband, carried this dictionary all through his life as a dentist. It is possi­ble that she gained her knowledge of these terms from this book, especially when one recalls that the many years she lived in the country towns of Rumney and Groton, she had little else than his few books in her home to read, other than the Bible.

Poison ivy forms a peculiarly striking il­lustration of the mental nature of the action of all poisons, since so many persons who are not afraid of it, find themselves immune to its ef­fects.

Our familiar motto from Shakespeare, “There is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so,” indicates that the only effect of any poi­son is from mortal belief claiming to operate through whatever the medium is. Mrs. Eddy's dis­covery went still further; she found that even when the material substance of the poison was not present, the malpractitioner could still produce the effects of the poison or drug argued or named. Those who cannot see the value of this knowledge at their present stage of growth, should accept it on Mrs. Eddy's say-so, and believe that the day will come when they will be grateful for it, since it may save them from much error.

Poison ivy is a clear illustration to give students. since if mortal belief can make a so-called law that touching it will poison mortals, how much more should we be able to accentuate the law that reading the Bible, Science and Health, or our Christian Science Monitor, and other periodi­cals, heals the sick. Students should be untiring in their efforts to impress this fact upon thought, and so produce an expectancy in this direction.

Poison ivy became to our Leader an instance of the earth helping the woman; since it was a striking illustration of how mortal belief could see a harmless product of the earth as a medium of poison. So it became an aid to her in her insis­tence on the mental nature of all things. She often declared that students were drunken. She did not mean that they had taken alcohol in any form, but that animal magnetism was producing upon them an effect similar to that of alcohol. Do not we read in Isaiah (29:9) “They are drunken, but not with wine, they stagger, but not with strong drink”? So in the sight of God they had taken liquor, even if in the sight of man they had not. Man judges by effect, whereas God judges by cause. So the entrance into thought of the suggestion which makes one careless, heedless, stupid or un­natural, has an effect similar to taking alcohol in some form. What difference does it make whether one accepts mortal belief by drinking liquor, or by letting it into consciousness with­out any external medium?

The materialist recognizes only one way to get effects, namely, through matter, whereas meta­physics introduces the proposition that effects may come through the mind as well as through the body. Hence Mrs. Eddy was running true to form and showing how consistent she was, when she as­serted that the same effects which mortal mind claims are wholly material and must be applied materially, can be gained mentally and may be men­tally applied. The deduction is, that in Science it is not enough for the student to protect him­self from doing things that the world condemns. He must also protect his thought from thinking the things which God condemns.

It might seem like a species of superstition to be told that one must protect himself from the effects of poisons or drugs, which he never would take, or be in any danger of taking. Yet Clara Shannon declares, that at one time Mrs. Eddy took a medical book, and read to her and the other mem­bers of the household, four pages of diseases and bad results coming from arsenical poisoning, which included symptoms such as extreme thirst, depres­sion and heaviness. Why did Mrs. Eddy do this, unless it was for the students' enlightenment and protection?

One who hated and avoided liquor in every form, would be affronted if you accused him of be­ing drunk. He would declare, “If there is any­thing I abhor, it is drinking intoxicating bever­ages, and now you accuse me of being drunk!” But in Science he would have to learn, that unless he protects his thinking as well as his action, he may permit himself to be made drunk. He would have to be told that complete protection is two­fold, and includes one's thoughts as well as one's actions. He must protect himself in the sight of man as far as his actions are concerned, and in the sight of God as far as his thoughts are con­cerned.

Christian Science does not violate mortal mind's standards of right and wrong, or take away the need of protection against doing wrong. It does not remove the old standards or requirements, but adds to them that which completes the demon­stration of protection, and makes it correspond­ingly effective, by including the inward as well as the outward. In the words of the Master, “These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.”

What use is it for a man to strive to guard his actions and keep from doing wrong, and at the same time leave his thought wide open to the en­trance of evil thinking? The effort to guard both thinking and acting, proves that one is gaining in his understanding of the action of aggressive men­tal suggestion, although in practice this demon­stration becomes the simple one of standing porter at the door of thought.

As these pages are being written, there comes to hand a more complete transcript of what Mrs. Eddy said to her maid, Lydia Hall, in regard to poisons, namely, that the enemy believed that his arguments could poison mentally, and that they would have the same effect upon the body as when drugs are injected physically. The belief in can­cer is induced by arsenical poison mentally intro­duced. They believe that they can mentally argue strychnine, mercury, morphine, liquor, ether and other poisons mentally, and that these will become injected into the thought of the patient, and that he will suffer the same effects as if the drugs were injected physically. But she said, “These arguments all are harmless because God is All.”

In a magazine called Oral Hygiene for April, 1943, there is an incident told by a dentist, Dr. Philip Southward, of Wilmington, Delaware, where one of his patients went into a state of anesthesia upon being given somniform. She experi­enced no pain when a tooth was extracted, she be­ing in an unconscious state. When the patient had gone, the dentist discovered that the somniform ampule was intact. Since she had taken no gas, his deduction was that she must have hypnotized herself.

Here is an instance of a drug that was applied mentally. There are many authenticated cases where water has been injected instead of morphine, and all the effects of morphine have followed. It would not be a very great step from such instances, to the belief on the part of doctors that through hypnotism they could produce the effect of any drug on a patient. Then the next step, which Mrs. Eddy uncovered, was for animal magnetism to discover that it was not necessary for a person to be hypno­tized, but that it could produce the effects through suggestion or mental argument. When ap­proached from this standpoint, the proposition broached by Mrs. Eddy in the letter concerning poi­sons, does not sound so revolutionary or incredi­ble.

True to her teachings, however, Mrs. Eddy summed up the matter to Lydia Hall, “These argu­ments all are harmless because God is All.” In other words, since God includes His idea, man, man draws only from God and receives only from God. If pipes conveying pure water should run through filters, the water would remain pure. So when we realize that it is not possible for what we receive from God to be contaminated, we are completely pro­tected from all erroneous suggestions. Yet even a statement of the need of protection is not wholly scientific, since these poisonous arguments of ani­mal magnetism are myths or superstitions. So the only belief from which we need protection, is the lie that the world is under a mass hypnotism in which unreality seems real. The realization that God is all, and that there is no transfer of evil beliefs covers the whole ground.




Boston, Mass.

September 2d, 1900

Beloved Mother:

A few days ago I wrote you saying that the Directors had selected Judge Joseph Clarkson to give the next lecture on Chris­tian Science for The Mother Church and asked you if you approved of the selection. I have received no word from you on that sub­ject, so now I ask again, thinking that it is possible my former letter may not have reached you. Will you kindly let me know if you approve of Judge Clarkson, so that we may telegraph him as the time is getting short.

Hastily and lovingly yours,

William B. Johnson

Beloved Student:

This is the first time I have heard of your selection for lecturer. Yes, I highly approve of it.

With love,

M. B. Eddy


Judge Clarkson finally went off the track as a Christian Scientist. When we find Mrs. Eddy ap­proving of such a student lecturing in The Mother Church, the question naturally arises whether she was mistaken in judgment; yet if she were, then the Master was mistaken when he selected Judas to be a disciple, on the basis that he was a suitable in­strument for God to use in His service. It would be possible to support one's front porch with a cake of ice, if it became necessary to do so. The support would be temporary, but it might suffice until the posts could be repaired. The one using the ice would know that it would soon melt. So he cannot be convicted of making a mistake.

When one becomes a soldier of God, he is tested on all points. Evidence indicates that the point at which Judge Clarkson failed the test, was when it came to the adulation that his position brought to him. It is as possible to spoil a stu­dent with flattery, as it is to ruin him with mal­practice. In fact flattery is malpractice. The most definite animal magnetism that a successful lecturer brings down on his head, is in the form of flattery. Unless he is well protected from this form of subtlety, he is liable to be touched by it, and permit his ego to become inflated.

In illustrating for all time what the life of a true Christian Scientist would encounter, the Master first met the temptation of appreciation and adulation. When he proved that he was un­touched by this form of error, he met the opposite swing of the pendulum, which resulted in his cru­cifixion. Yet this injustice did not touch him or produce friction in his thought. He endured a wider swing of this human pendulum than any mortal has before or since — greater appreciation, and then greater persecution for the good that he did. This fact should encourage all who have flattery and persecution to bear in a lesser degree. If the Master could stand under the same pressure we have to meet in a lesser degree, and not be af­fected by adulation nor be overthrown by persecu­tion, we should also stand. Because most criticism is unjust, and most praise is undeserved, we should not be upset by one or set up by the other.

A bit of history recorded in the diary of Calvin Frye, tells the story about Judge Clarkson. Mrs. Eddy invited him to have dinner with her on December 7, 1900, and after dinner he dared to declare that the Cause was going to ruin under her leadership, and that men were essential to take the lead and to assert their rights without her dictation! It may be concluded that, because of the general adulation he received for his latest brilliant lecture, he accepted the suggestion that he was qualified to be the leader of the Movement.

Obviously his head was turned. It requires a level head, not to be carried away by the praise of one's fellow students, when they elect to praise one. The attitude that saved the Master from this mistake was his statement that, of himself, he could do nothing. His realization that he was noth­ing apart from God, kept him in the middle of the road.

When a student's weakness is on the side of praise, he fails that test; when it is on the side of an inability to endure persecution without fric­tion, he fails at that point. History shows that Augusta Stetson was a good worker and a conscientious follower of her Leader, until the praise of her students spoiled her. Evidently popularity so built up Judge Clarkson in his own esteem, that he was not content to be a lecturer. He sought higher honors. The capacity of the human mind for praise and applause is enormous. After one has tasted a certain amount of it, he craves more. When Napoleon began to realize his ambition to rule France, he was not content. He looked for more nations to conquer. Uncontrolled ambition would necessarily look forward to the subjugation of the world. Only as ambition is tempered with unself­ishness and meekness, is one safe. A ruler should even be willing to step aside, if another appeared who possessed a greater ability to guide a nation.

It is obvious that the arguments Judge Clark­son used with Mrs. Eddy were weak. He said that the strong hand of a man was needed to rule over the Cause, indicating that Mrs. Eddy was like a woman who started a flock of sheep, and was able to care for it so long as it was small; but when it became too large, she must step aside and put it into the care of a man. Page 571 of Miscella­neous Writings indicates that this was not the first time she had been confronted with such a situation.

Judge Clarkson may have known that Mrs. Eddy felt burdened at times; but he should have known that this burden was not the size of her Church. It was because of the constant necessity of living so close to God, that she could reflect His judg­ment and wisdom in handling its many problems. It is a large responsibility when one knows that he cannot and must not make a mistake in judgment; and that if he does, it will affect a great Cause. Mrs. Eddy knew that she had to give up everything in the way of human pleasure, relaxation, position, friends, etc., in order to so live that she would not make a single mistake in founding her Movement.

The fear of making a mistake was not weakness in Mrs. Eddy, but strength, since it, drove her to trust more unreservedly in God as the only way to avoid making mistakes.

Evidently the admiration of the crowd — the fact that people hung on his every word — caused Judge Clarkson to believe that he was God's favor­ite son, and perhaps had been selected to lead the Cause in Mrs. Eddy's stead. But it was the devil tempting him, as it tempted the Master, when it suggested that all the kingdoms of the world would be his, if he would fall down and worship him. So the Judge put forth these arguments, to determine whether Mrs. Eddy might not feel that she could retire, and let him take the reins, while perhaps she remained the Pastor Emeritus.

The desire to be great humanly is one of the primitive temptations of animal magnetism. It is the yearning not only to manifest wisdom, but to have that wisdom so appreciated by others, that you will be the constant recipient of adulation and appreciation.

When individuals are called into God's service, that is no indication that they have been so tested and found not wanting, that they need no further purification. On the contrary, such a call means that they must be tested more than ever, to prove to God and to themselves that they can endure. Down through Bible history we find man being se­lected for high service, and then being tested. Who will deny that it was divine wisdom that se­lected Saul to be King, even though later he failed when he was tested.

It is helpful to feel that we are being tested through our varied experiences, to determine whether we have qualities which will endure and develop, so that we may be of more value in God's service. Mrs. Eddy was sent to test her students, and to give them every opportunity to prove them­selves. It was significant that, when his ambi­tion had caused his appreciation of his Leader to diminish, she invited Judge Clarkson to have din­ner with her and to talk with her. That was a signal honor in itself, one of the greatest privi­leges she could bestow on a student. Anyone who appreciated the Master as God's appointed messen­ger and witness, would have felt that he was greatly blessed, had he been given the opportunity to see him and to talk with him. Mrs. Eddy be­stowed upon Judge Clarkson a great opportunity in making it possible for him to come to Pleasant View, to talk to her; yet he let personal ambition rule him to the point of killing out his future spiritual usefulness.

It cannot be denied, however, that the Judge did good. He travelled and lectured on Science, and because of his distinguished position, im­pressed large numbers of people with the dignity of Mrs. Eddy's teachings. Even though certain of Mrs. Eddy's students finally went astray, she could not have afforded not to let them do all the good they could, since the good they did before error caught up with them, was worth the risk. A man might clean out a machine gun nest or a pill box in warfare, and then die. You could not re­gret what he accomplished, merely because of his end. You might wish that his life had been saved, but he did accomplish his purpose and died glori­ously.

Who is to deny that the good Judge Clarkson did, more than outweighed any harm that his apos­tasy might have done the cause? Even his mad am­bition worked out for good, because it became the occasion for Mrs. Eddy's writing the wonderful article, Man and Woman, which she copyrighted ten days after his eventful visit. So his spiritual demise, which is to be regretted, worked out for good.

Who is to deny that the good Augusta Stetson accomplished, more than outweighed any injury she did Mrs. Eddy and her Church? It was Mrs. Eddy's great wisdom in dealing with her that prevented Mrs. Stetson's errors from overbalancing the good she did the Cause, while she was thinking rightly.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

November 8, 1900

To C. S. Directors

Beloved Students:

Enclosed find copy of my letter to Dr. Foster. I knew it was needed. W. does not mentally neglect him for witness against us.

You will remember that when the charge of the Dr. having been a “counterfeiter,” was sent to The Mother Church, or brought there by Mrs. Chanfrau — I objected to having it laid before the church and you kindly complied and it was dropped. This is what I refer to in my letter.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy

O for the peace of a dog in my old age.

“Mother”

Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

October 28, 1900

Dear Doctor:

A few moments I give to you this calm, sweet Sunday. How good God is to us who know so little how to be good to Him. But Love is divine — is always Love, and in its objects, whether it be the rod or staff, it comforteth us and points the path.

I have longed for time enough to say to you that I acted not, in your dismissal from The Mother Church. I only assented in order to choose the least of two evils viz. — your case coming before this church from a branch church, and the charge being criminal accord­ing to law — or simply to drop your name and reject the other charge.

May God bless you in all your paths in life — make them straight and leading onward and upward. May you realize that Mother has done the best for you that she knows, even if she is not understood; yet she is faith­ful. You are better to be removed from M.A.M. in Boston.

Affectionately,

M. B. Eddy

A true copy

Attest, Calvin A. Frye

W. B. Johnson:

Mother charges you and the other Di­rectors not to name outside your meeting to­gether what she has written in a letter now on the way to you; nor the contents of en­closed letter to Dr. Eddy. Also show these letters to Judge Hanna with same charge; not to speak of it to any one. This she says under authority of our Church By-law.

The above is a telephone message re­ceived by Wm. B. Johnson, November 8, 1900.


On page 254 of Miscellaneous Writings, Mrs. Eddy mentions her loving warning, her far-seeing wisdom, her gentle entreaty, and her stern rebuke. Every letter that she wrote to students may be classified under one or more of those four heads. Furthermore, through these four points one may learn the attitude that was necessary on the part of those who received her letters, that they might profit by them. For instance, when she sent a loving warning to a student, he had to have a sincere desire to improve, in order to receive it in the right spirit. When she sent a letter con­taining far-seeing wisdom, it had to be met with a far-seeing interpretation that could see beneath the surface to the real meaning. When she sent a gentle entreaty, the recipient had to have a gen­tle attitude of mind in which was no hardness of heart or self-will. When a stern rebuke became a necessity, the student had to recognize it as a stern necessity and take advantage of it.

Thus we find that Mrs. Eddy had four methods of approach in dealing with students, depending upon the necessity of the situation and their quality of thought.

If you saw a man about to take a wrong road, you would try to stop him. Some individuals will stop when you merely give them a warning that they will not arrive at their destination, if they do not get back on the right road. Others will stop when you gently entreat them to, whereas some will not stop until you place a barrier in their path which causes them to stop with a shock.

Mrs. Eddy did not use the method of stern re­buke with all students, but only with those who could not be appealed to in any other way. With a large number, her warning and gentle entreaties were enough. It required wisdom on her part to know how hard to deal with each quality of thought.

If a speeding car did not stop when a police­man blew his whistle, the latter might fire a bul­let into a tire. When we find Mrs. Eddy rebuking sternly, we know that she did so, because other methods were unheeded.

This letter to Dr. Foster Eddy is a fine ex­ample of the Biblical instruction, “Kiss the Son, lest he be angry!” Psalms 2:12. This affection for the real selfhood of every one of God's chil­dren, permeated all that Mrs. Eddy said, did, or wrote. She truly loved Dr. Foster Eddy as a per­fect child of God. She begins her letter to him by turning his thought to God, to show how much God wanted him to measure up to the highest and best standard of good. Then by establishing the fact that she was acting under orders from God, she took away much of the sting of her rebukes.

She states that there were two ways of deal­ing with his case, one of which would have created a disturbance, the other of which helped to remove him from the M.A.M. of Boston. The Church at all times must remember that in dealing with the dis­loyal, the motive must be to bless and reclaim those who have strayed. They represent the man with a hundred sheep, one of which has gone astray. The Church must seek to bring that one back to the fold.

Dr. Foster Eddy must have shown great spiri­tual promise when Mrs. Eddy adopted him. His downfall came through a lack of a correct under­standing of animal magnetism, even though she had spent hours explaining it to him, and trying to make him see the danger he was in.

In this letter she tries to appeal to the man she knew before animal magnetism had affected him, to throw off this incubus which was ruining him. A hardened criminal may be appealed to, when one mentions his dear old mother. He softens under the thought of what he once was as a child. In like manner Mrs. Eddy sought to soften the thought of her son.

“How good God is to us who know so little how to be good to Him.” Everything we gain in Science is bought with a price. We expect a lot from God, and forget that God expects a lot from us. We cannot neglect and forget our heavenly Father when we are having a good time, and then when we get into trouble, expect Him to step right in and help us. We must change our thinking in regard to what mortal mind calls a good time, as well as in regard to that in mortal mind which affects us. We must dispose of error with both hands, as one would lift a box to throw it away. Both pleasure and pain are products of the carnal mind. You cannot strive to brush away the error you dislike, while you hold fast to that which you think you like.

Mrs. Eddy must have felt that when she adopted her son he was fundamentally right, and that it was his lack of understanding in regard to animal magnetism that had brought him into his difficulties. When he was adopted, his whole am­bition was to reflect God. After error had claimed to handle him, this ambition became re­versed, so that he wanted to have God reflect him, which is another way of saying that he wanted to use God's power to aggrandize himself. He desired to have God put him in a place where he could lord it over students with less knowledge.

Mrs. Eddy was trying to reach the good in him. She did not know to what extent he had become innoculated with the error he had failed to handle, but she had to treat him just as though he had not become contaminated. She rebuked him, however, by intimating that he had not been good to God. Then she goes on to say, “But Love is divine — is always Love, and in its objects, whether it be the rod or staff, it comforteth us and points the path.”

When a student reaches the place where he is ready to be trained for higher service for God, Love becomes a rod to him. Sometimes human sense may object, just as a horse that has been accus­tomed to freedom, objects when the bridle is first put upon it. The carnal mind is an outlaw that is constitutionally opposed to the obedience de­manded by Love. But the stubborn will must be broken “as truth urges upon mortals its resisted claims.” Science and Health, page 223. Love, therefore, becomes a rod or a staff according to one's need. For “With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure and with the froward thou wilt shew thyself froward.” Psalms 18:26.

“I have longed for time enough to say to you that I acted not, in your dismissal from The Mother Church. I only assented....” Here we have Mrs. Eddy apparently passing to the members or Directors the responsibility for what had been done to her son, as if the proposition were placed before her, and she gave her consent. The Bible, however, explains the situation, when it says, “...it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.” While this was said by Caiaphas when he was voicing error against the Master, at the same time it expresses what our Leader was confronted with. In many matters she had to con­sider the will of the majority in her Church, in order that she might continue to have channels through which the will of God through her might be executed. Her usefulness to the Cause depended on her keeping in harmony with it, if possible, even when the fate of her own adopted son was in­volved.

The thought of dismissing her son from the organization originated with the members rather than with Mrs. Eddy, and she only assented to the least of two evils. In spite of the human evi­dence, she still clung to the fact that he had done what he did under the influence of mesmerism, to which he had yielded. She held to what she taught, namely, that when a person is fundamen­tally sound and goes astray, the reason is not necessarily hidden weakness, but the failure to stand under an extra pressure of animal magnetism. If it is possible at that point to free such a one from this influence, it is possible to reclaim him. She could not bear to see a student taking the wrong road, without her making every effort possible to save him. Who would like to see another going into darkness, knowing the hell he would have to go through?

The best thing that can be said to one who has been put under discipline or excommunication, is that he has been removed from a certain form of malpractice that is the price of membership in the organization. It is not always an aggres­sive form, to be sure, and any student who is ready to join, should be able to handle it; and if he does, he will gain good from the church. Members should not be made to fear it, — any more than a prize fighter fears his opponent after months of training for the bout, — but merely be awakened to meet it.

The letter under discussion is a rarely beautiful one. Here was one Mrs. Eddy had adopt­ed, who finally made her no end of trouble. She had given him the greatest chance of any student on earth to find the way to heaven — to know exactly how to attain it. He was the recipient of her highest revelation and demonstration. As a result, the largest opportunity would be his to serve God and man. All he had to do was to keep in the right path. But the very position Mrs. Eddy put him in became his downfall.

A mother will often dress her little boy to go to a party, and then tell him to keep clean until she is ready. If he does not, then he must forfeit the pleasure of going. Mrs. Eddy was ready to take Dr. Foster Eddy into the highest position possible in Science, and all he had to do was to keep his thought free from worldliness and animal magnetism, a thing which she had taught him exactly how to do. But he did not do so. Yet she did not lash out at him with recrimi­nations. She did not say, “Oh why did you not listen to me? See the wonderful chance that I gave you, and you missed it!” She just wrote to him in a way that showed that her thought was lov­ing. Her innate kindness caused her to apply a neutralization for what she knew he would feel as a drastic action on the part of the church in dis­ciplining Mrs. Eddy's own adopted son.

It was very easy for him to assume that as her son he had special privileges, and would be immune from any form of church discipline. He probably felt that in his position he was a law unto himself. One point that is proved by his experience is, that there is no way of binding an individual in Science that will ensure his contin­ued loyalty or growth; that even the relationship of mother and son is not sufficient to keep one in the right path. The son of the finest parents in the world may go astray, if they do not watch out for his companions, and correct the errors which the human mind is apt to express in a child.

Thus we can characterize this letter to Dr. Foster Eddy as being from a mother who was tending to a child who had strayed. She had not repudiated him, and wanted him to feel that the spiritual connection which was established when she adopted him, was still operating, and if he would listen to her, he would still be blessed.

She did not give vent to any disappointment in him, but merely sought to keep the cords from being severed, over which he might still receive good.

One stands in awe before such a letter as this. If one regarded Mrs. Eddy as always ready to give a strong rebuke when a student needed it, he might hesitate to believe that she ever ex­pressed such loving kindness to an individual who had greatly injured her. Such a one would fail to appreciate that she was fully capable of expressing tenderness, where she felt that it represented the best way to help a student. She once wrote to Irving Tomlinson that she had re­buked poor Stetson more than any other student; yet when the latter was under universal disap­proval and discipline, she wrote to her in the most tender way.

“Mother charges you and the other Directors not to name outside of your meeting together what she was written....” She wanted to protect every­one connected with this experience from any out­side criticism. She knew that the Directors might be censured for their motion, by those who knew Dr. Foster Eddy merely as Mrs. Eddy's adopted son, and none of the inside facts. On the other hand, if the facts were known, persons might start malpracticing on the doctor. He had come to the place where he was, because he had had more animal magnetism to meet than he could handle, and she did not propose that he should have any more if she could help it.

All members of Boards of Directors should know of this letter, lest at some future time, when a prominent student has been subject to dis­cipline, the facts be broadcast to the Field, in order to avoid criticism for their action. Ac­cording to this letter, such matters should always be kept quiet, even though the Directors are mis­judged for a season.

Our Leader might have known that her judgment would come under criticism, and her spiritual dis­cernment be thought to be wanting, when she adopted a son who turned out as badly as Dr. Foster Eddy did from the standpoint of Science. Yet animal magnetism makes incredible claims. We know what it did to Judas. He hoped he had left the old behind, when he became a disciple. And surely this would have been so, had he gone down to the root of his trouble and cast it out. Our textbook tells us never to let an error grow upon the thought. This statement also means never to admit or to believe that an error has the power to grow.

When Mrs. Eddy adopted Dr. Foster, he must have shown a promise in spiritual attainments, and an appreciation of her great work and a desire to help her in it, exceeding all other students with the exception of her husband, Dr. Eddy. But the moment she adopted him he came under the pres­sure of animal magnetism which was her portion, the purpose of which would always be to make a student a liability to her and to the Cause, rather than an asset.

Surely as far as our Leader could determine, he exhibited the possibility of a continuing suc­cess in demonstrating Christian Science, which would cause him finally to be worthy to be her successor. Yet no one can foretell how another is going to function under the pressure of animal magnetism. Unselfish usefulness to God and His Cause is bought with a price. One may have the most loving desire to bless others and to reflect God's healing power to all, but he cannot avoid meeting the attempts of evil to thwart his good endeavors, and to rob him of his inspiration. Animal magnetism does not neglect a student that shows spiritual promise.

When a student failed her, Mrs. Eddy did not grieve for long, but immediately sought another who might prove more faithful, one who had the inclination to reflect God and help man, and would welcome a knowledge of evil, whereby he might protect that inclination, and consequently lead the world in the march toward heaven and God.

Mrs. Eddy's example teaches us never to be disappointed in people. When you find a student who you think is going to measure up to your high­est hope, if he fails, do not cast him aside. Per­haps all he needs is to be lifted out of the or­ganization and its malpractice for a period. Then when he has acquired a greater knowledge of animal magnetism, he may go forward again and fulfill God's hopes for him. Excommunication should really be thought of as a vacation from animal mag­netism. If it were so regarded, then a student would not let it cast him down, or make him feel discouraged or eternally damned. It may be God's way of giving him a breathing space, so that he may take hold of his problem and meet it. Having done so, he is ready to return to the fold for purposes of usefulness. We should not conclude that such a vacation results from the good one has done, but rather comes because one has not met the problem of animal magnetism which is the portion of all active members.

It is always helpful in understanding Mrs. Eddy's actions, especially in letting her son be excommunicated, to realize that she framed the By-laws; yet she could not disregard them, since in reality God wrote them. If Dr. Foster Eddy had any notion that because his mother wrote the By-laws, she could waive them for his benefit, he was mistaken. He had to learn that when one goes against God's rules, then a By-law the intent of which is to help one to get rid of his sin, must begin to operate.

The Bible tells us that David prayed to have the words of his mouth and the meditation of his heart, acceptable in God's sight. Mrs. Eddy put a prayer into this letter, “May God bless you in all your paths in life — make them straight and leading onward and upward.” We know that she also put back of this petition a spiritually re­generative thought, in order to make it effective. You may encourage a man to do right, which con­cerns his life in the sight of man; but you are scientific when you add to such encouragement, your silent meditation — in fact, all he wants to do and can do — is good. It is certain that such scientific thought accompanied her affirmation, “May God bless you….”

Mrs. Eddy knew that if her son had not closed the door of his mind against her, this thought would save him; but the truth cannot penetrate where it is not wanted. If you hold a prejudice or a mistaken sense toward an individual, believ­ing that he is doing wrong rather than right, you close the door against any good that might come to you through such a one. Nothing good that he says or thinks reaches you. Mrs. Eddy prayed that animal magnetism had not completely shut her son off from her influence. Therefore, along with her prayer we know she sent the thought that would enable the prayer to be realized, through the elimination of the belief in any deterrent; at the same time she wrote the letter in such a way, that he would feel that she was his friend. Then he would open his mental door to her.

On the other hand, if he continued to feel as error suggested, that his mother was too strict, that he enjoyed no favors or prerogatives as her son, as he fancied he would, then he would not open his door to her. It was easy for him to believe that as the Founder's son, he was going to have anything he wanted, since she could do anything for him in any direction. He was like the little boy I knew in Providence who called his grandfather a mean old thing, when he gave him six thousand dollars for Christmas. The explanation was that his parents had led him to expect at least a hundred thousand from one who was a mil­lionaire. But we can forgive Dr. Foster Eddy, since it was hard for him to appreciate how his mother sought to purify him, and prepare him for high heaven, when error was suggesting to him that he wanted more of earth.

If anyone concluded that our Leader sent this letter to Foster, hoping to soften his thought so that he would not malpractice against her — since she feared malpractice — he would have been mis­taken. There are many instances where she did not hesitate to do that which she knew would arouse malpractice and give her days and nights of extra effort, because God pointed the way. She permit­ted students to come to Pleasant View at Annual Meeting time, when to do so gave her a taste of hell. I can bear personal testimony to this fact, since at such times Mrs. Eddy kept the whole house­hold working mentally, to neutralize the effect of the malpractice brought to the home by such an in­flux of students. This error was not indulged in intentionally or knowingly; but even a sense of curiosity unrebuked to see the personality of the Leader, constituted malpractice. She was striving to eliminate it, while they were unwittingly exalt­ing it. But she did not hesitate to invite the stu­dents to come, because she knew that they would be blessed by coming, even though she be put on the cross for it. She considered the good she could do, rather than the cost to herself.

Such letters as those written by our Leader set forth the precept, that in handling error, one should never let go of the individual. Nothing is accomplished when the sinner is included in one's efforts to destroy animal magnetism. Yet sometimes it is as difficult to make the separation between the individual and the animal magnetism that governs him, as it is to insert a knife in an oyster, in or­der to open it. One conclusion that is always for­gone in Science is, that when anyone deals with an individual as if the sinner were to be dealt with, rather than the sin, the one who does so is himself handled by error.

Before leaving this letter, one may gain a helpful thought by assuming that Mrs. Eddy, without appearing to, was striving to quell the malpractice the Directors were holding over Dr. Foster Eddy, by calling their attention to the fact that the error was the “Woodbury” thought handling him, rather than his own. It would help the Directors to see that they, too had this “Woodbury” thought to han­dle, and that if they did not, they might go the way of Foster Eddy themselves. She knew that if they saw these points clearly, they would cease in their condemnation of her son, which would help him in his efforts to overcome error.

When an irate husband learns that his wife has bought foolish merchandise under the influence of a salesman who used hypnotism, he should not blame her other than for the fact that she allowed herself to be influenced. If the Directors viewed Foster Eddy's deflection rightly, they not only would not condemn him, but they would know that they had no occasion to congratulate themselves on their own freedom from error. In other words, Mrs. Eddy hoped that they would take heed lest the same error influenced them. If Dr. Eddy went astray because of this error, in spite of all that she could do to save him, they might do the same thing, if they did not watch.

Mrs. Eddy foresaw many years before this, the lack in Dr. Foster Eddy. As early as 1895 she wrote to Mrs. A. L. Robertson, “My God has shown me that he is not ready ‘to drink the cup' of temp­tation that comes from mental malpractice. For his good I have asked to have him removed.”

“O for the peace of a dog in my old age!” What did our Leader mean by this ejaculation? It is a plea for the Directors to relieve her as far as possible from the burden of the details of the organization, to use the same divine intelligence she used, to arrive at the same results she arrived at. If they did, then she would be relieved of much of her burden. She was not asking for peace at any price, but a peace to follow out a higher line of thougnt, which the constant attention to the church matters interfered with.

When a race horse has made his master rich, he is permitted to have peace and rest in his old age. A dog that has served a family faithfully all his days in keeping away prowlers, is given peace in his old age. Mrs. Eddy yearned to have the time to function according to her own inclina­tions, which meant making the demonstration of her own salvation. She wanted to use her age in renew­ing her youth. But the demands of the organization did not give her time.

Many a mother has yearned to lay aside the routine of household cares, after having served her family faithfully all her life. Yet Mrs. Eddy was not asking for a peace that spelled stagnation. She never yielded to the temptation of human inac­tivity. But she did hope that if the Directors loved her, they would help her to have a small part of that peace to which she was entitled, and re­lieve her as much as possible from responsibility. Yet in this she was really striving to break them in, to drive them to replace her in making the demonstration to govern the church, as they would have to, when she was gone. She would not be with them much longer as one they could consult with.

When a father is training his son in his busi­ness, he sometimes takes a long trip, going where he cannot be reached if some important matter arises. Thus the son is forced to rely on his own judgment. The father does this to foster self-­confidence in the son. Mrs. Eddy was preparing the Directors for the time when they would have to commune with God directly, in order to gain the wisdom that alone can govern the Cause correctly.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

November 30, 1900

Beloved Student:

Your beautiful gift to me and the care you have taken to make it correct as well as beautiful, I appreciate. Accept my thanks.

You named the need of my crest at the door of my house on Commonwealth Avenue being changed. Will you ask Mr. Bates to do this for me and make my family coat of arms there like the one you have on the stamp you gave me? The crystal handle of this is exquisite, its weight helps to make good impress, its cutting is fine and gold band pretty.

In regard to the vacancy your withdrawal occasions on the Bible Lesson Committee I have only this to say and you will please re­peat it to the First Members at your next meeting. I think you have already sufficient members on the Committee and recommend that you leave the number as it is at present.

May the last of this century be to you the best, and divine Love make your life forever blest.

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy


A knowledge of Mrs. Eddy's teaching and experi­ence with students makes it plain, that Mr. Johnson could not have arranged to have the intaglio which this letter mentions, cut correctly, without demon­stration. In Science, as one learns to reach out for help from the infinite, he gradually lets go his grasp on the finite, with the result that he is able to accomplish less and less with the finite as he progresses. For this reason, Mrs. Eddy knew that Mr. Johnson had been helped by the infinite in demonstrating this beautiful gift for her, and she was correspondingly grateful.

It was Mrs. Eddy's custom to have Mr. Frye put a wax seal stamped with her crest, on the back of every letter which she wrote, in order to pre­vent such letters from being steamed open and read. Part of my work as her Associate Secretary was to put such a seal on her letters, and I never recall sending one without such a seal.

When Mr. Johnson's son was at Harvard Univer­sity, he investigated the subject of heraldry, and learned that medals pendant on a coat of arms, do not pass from generation to generation, but belong merely to the one to whom they are granted. As a result of this finding, Mrs. Eddy's crest on her letters and door had to be changed and the medals taken off. The carving of the new die and intaglio was done by an expert named Henry Mitchell, and a woodcarver named Krichmayer corrected the crest by the door.

William Lyman's further research into heraldry in 1908 showed that the Christian Science seal was not the Christian's crown of five stars, but merely a ducal coronet with strawberry leaves. Therefore Mrs. Eddy directed that the seal be changed, and the Christian's celestial crown be substituted. When inquiries poured in to know if there were any significance in the change, which made the cross appear so much larger than before, Mrs. Eddy re­plied through the Sentinel over Mr. McLellan's name, “To those of our readers who have been searching for some hidden significance in the larger cross, we may say for their reassurance that the cross which we are called upon to bear as Christian Scientists is no larger or heavier than heretofore. What we most need to impress upon our thought is that the crown has been brought nearer than ever through the ministry of Mrs. Eddy.”

Mrs. Eddy's ideal was perfection. At the same time, no one but a student of heraldry would have known that there was a mistake in her crest. She used it only because there are always persons who believe that there must be human reasons for one to be the Leader of a great organization. So if she could show that she sprang from a long line of illustrious ancestors, she might quiet the thought of those who would be inclined to criticize her for a lack of background and worldly qualifica­tions.

Why should Mrs. Eddy have wanted to appeal to the quality of thought that demanded that she be a person of note? Is not the poor humble man as im­portant to save, as his more learned brother? Yet the erudite have a wider sphere of influence in the world than the ignorant. Hence she knew that she could reach a larger number of persons by estab­lishing her Cause on a high platform of education, than otherwise. All men are equal in God's sight, but a wise Leader uses every legitimate means to break down prejudice against him and his teachings.

To have people of note and distinction become adherents of Christian Science, helps immensely to tear down the prejudice of mortals against it. It causes the common people so-called to accept it, who of themselves feel incapable of delving into it to find out for themselves if it is the truth. When they accept it, then through their own demon­stration of it, they find out what it really is. Mrs. Eddy could never be accused of catering to people of education and wealth. Nothing could exceed her thoughtfulness toward her humble stu­dents. But she knew that God demands that His fol­lowers reflect His intelligence, that enables them to do the greatest good to the greatest number, and she fully exemplified this conception. Even when a slight mistake was found in her coat of arms, she was willing to take the trouble to have it corrected, lest in the future some student of heraldry detect the mistake, and publicize it as a lack of education on her part. Mr. Johnson's dis­covery anticipated such a happening, and so pro­tected her.

As one grows more and more into the stature of the Christ man, this growth exposes the errors of the so-called mind of man. In Mrs. Eddy's experi­ence no human mistake no matter how small, could have continued to escape detection and exposure.

A group of good Bible students and metaphysi­cians was needed to work out the weekly Lesson Ser­mons. For one to be fitted to do this work, he had to have a knowledge of the Bible, an understanding of Christian Science, and some measure of inspira­tion. By having a large group at work, Mrs. Eddy could be more certain that these three elements were present, than with a small group. Yet when Mr. Johnson resigned, she saw the wisdom of reduc­ing the number, since there is more chance of har­mony with a small committee, and of each member remaining free from animal magnetism. It was a very fine point in demonstration to determine just how large such a committee should be, since there was much to be said in favor of a large committee, as well as much in favor of a small one.

“May the last of this century be to you the best, and divine Love make your life forever blest.” In these words Mrs. Eddy implied that she had a great appreciation of Mr. Johnson's work. She knew that her students in prominent places were apt to yield to error under the pressure to which they were subjected. Their very faithfulness, and love for the Cause and its Leader, would cause error to seek some way by which to blacken their reputations. So she endeavored to leave records which would in­dicate to future generations that they were strong bulwarks in the founding of the organization, and stood by the Leader faithfully and loyally; that they were present when she needed them, obedient and active. She did her best to be sure that stu­dents of her day as well as of the future would hold a metaphysical thought toward these grand workers and pioneers. She often indicated her love and appreciation for their work, so that students, reading her words of recommendation, would hold the same appreciation and love for them. It is a fact in Science, that for the sake of one's scientific thought, he must hold a metaphysical thought toward the so-called dead as well as toward the living.

Let us remember that these early students were strong when strength was needed, they were faithful when the future of the Cause depended on faithful­ness. Thus we owe them present appreciation, and should forget whatever they did, that would pre­vent us from feeling that their lives measured up to the right standard one hundred percent. If they were on the job when Mrs. Eddy needed them, that is enough, A man might plunge into the water and save the lives of several persons, and then go and get drunk. A right estimate of the self­-sacrifice of such a one, would remember the deed of valor and overlook the drunkenness. Often after Mrs. Eddy's students had stood up under tremendous pressure, they became drunken, but not with wine. Yet such a reaction in no way detracts from the invaluable service they rendered Mrs. Eddy and the Cause. One's loyalty to her teachings forces us to differentiate between what her students did for her, and what animal magnetism did to them by way of revenge.

In using the term “best” in this letter, Mrs. Eddy was indicating her hope that Mr. Johnson was making perceptible spiritual growth. If he had lost sight of this goal in the confusion of church work, her benediction would help him to remember it. One must always keep his ideal close to him, if he ever expects to attain it.

When a physician has a brass plate announcing his profession, one may see a servant polishing it to keep it bright, early each morning. He wants his name kept bright to show that he is a doctor, active and ready for business night and day.

Mrs. Eddy wanted her students to be watchful that they kept their desire for spiritual growth brightly polished every day. To her the “best” was to have a greater and more continuous access to the source of all inspiration, God. If Science and Health tells us that man walks in the direction to­ward which he looks, then one who is satisfied with what he has, is not looking beyond it, and hence is not growing beyond it.

Mrs. Eddy knew that Mr. Johnson, as well as the other Directors, would have to watch, lest the true desire to grow spiritually be lost sight of, in the effort to bring about what passes for growth, but which is really nothing more than a human increase in the organization. Members whose conception of growth is merely larger con­gregations, miss the metaphysical point. Growth is wholly individual and purely spiritual. Qual­ity is what is needed, rather than quantity. The more members who are added to our ranks on the basis of quantity who have no true spiritual aspira­tion, the greater the danger that the true ideal as set forth by our Leader is in danger of being smothered under the purely human demands of the or­ganization, which are for more human harmony, more financial freedom, and more agreeable social con­tacts. Mrs. Eddy wanted the “best” to be the as­piration for true spiritual growth, well knowing that the rest would be surely added.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

December 26, 1900

W. B. Johnson

Dear Brother:

Mother requests that the Directors get from Mrs. Wiggin the letter Mrs. Eddy wrote to Mr. Wiggin about Woodbury — demand it from her, of course pay for it if need be — and ask her if she has ever shown it to Mrs. Woodbury.

Fraternally,

C. A. Frye


Henry Wiggin was an expert proofreader from the University Press, whom Mrs. Eddy employed to help her in a literary way about the year 1886 (see Powell's book, page 143). He was also a minister, and when in 1897 Mrs. Woodbury began to hold services, which she called Christian Science worship, as near The Mother Church as 200 Huntington Avenue, she sought the help of Mr. Wiggin, and had him conduct a meeting for Bible study. When one realizes that Mrs. Woodbury had reached a point where she was doing everything possible to annoy Mrs. Eddy, it is obvious that her employment of Mr. Wiggin was part of her campaign. Furthermore, Mrs. Eddy must have been aware of her effort to use him, and so had written him a letter of warning.

He passed on in November, 1900. At this time the Woodbury suit against Mrs. Eddy was in process, so it was logical that the latter should seek to re­gain possession of the letter of warning she had sent to Mr. Wiggin, lest Mrs. Woodbury get hold of it and use it in the trial.

Mrs. Eddy knew that her reference in the letter to Mrs. Woodbury was correct from the metaphysical standpoint, yet the court might not accept it as just or fair. When a dispute concerns a religious doctrine, where a student has become dissaffectcd and started a campaign of malpractice against the Leader, it is difficult to convince the court of this fact, or to prove that such malpractice is being in­dulged in. Such things are incomprehensible to the materialist. A letter in which Mrs. Eddy accused a student of being a malpractitioner, might be of­fered in court as evidence of persecution. Could a judge be convinced that Mrs. Woodbury was mentally hounding Mrs. Eddy, when she had committed no overt acts against her?

Mrs. Eddy tried to warn Mr. Wiggin, lest he lend his influence on the side of Mrs. Woodbury, — ­which he finally did. He was a learned scholar, and his liturgical papers and Bible classes lent a dignity to Mrs. Woodbury's activities which attracted many people.

Whatever the letter said, Mrs. Eddy probably minced no words in regard to Mrs. Woodbury. This is evident because of the tone of her letter to the Directors, demanding that they recover the letter from Mr. Wiggin's estate. She said nothing to them about making a demonstration of this effort; but that was not necessary. The Directors knew without her saying so, that in order to recover this item they had to make a demonstration of it. Human will or intelligence could not possibly be relied on to fulfill the mission.

Mrs. Eddy was alert, ready to forestall whatever animal magnetism claimed to do. No student should disregard what error is doing in the material world. He is dealing with persons under the control of mes­merism, and must take that human fact into consider­ation. Mrs. Eddy once said to Mr. Louis Strang, “Animal magnetism is powerless — but you must declare against it as though it had all power.”

Mrs. Eddy was dealing with lawyers, witnesses, judges, and she knew that she must be alert to see that mortal mind found nothing on which it might base an opinion that would be detrimental to the spiritual facts. She did not fear the suit from any standpoint other than the possibility that there might be forced upon the public a conception of her and her work which was the opposite of the truth.

No doubt her letter to Mr. Wiggin was a straight­forward one, warning him of Mrs. Woodbury's influence; but there were those who might be harmed by having its contents exposed to them, since the nature of the higher modes of evil was something neither the public nor young students could possibly comprehend. To Mrs. Eddy it was a great catastrophe, when some­thing happened that might keep even one of these little ones from the Truth. Her letter held within itself the possibility of prejudicing innocent people against her and her teachings, if it were made public. It might even influence the judge against her; so she had to have it back.

Nothing concerned Mrs. Eddy more than the pos­sibility of anyone being prejudiced against her teachings who was amenable to them, and so held the hope of profiting by them. Her explicit demand that the Directors regain possession of this letter, was to avoid any possibility of its being used in a way derogatory to her and the Cause.

Young students of Science do not comprehend the devilishness of animal magnetism, nor its deadly in­fluence on the minds of mortals. Their sense of sin is confined to what they can see and hear. They have not learned to accept anything as sin that is not included in the testimony of the senses. When it comes to a fellow student who lives an exemplary life, they cannot accept the possibility that such a one might be working mentally to destroy the life of others who are depending upon God. Only one who has developed a spiritually intuitive sense can gauge hidden sin.

This letter indicates that in dealing with those who are not Christian Scientists, we must let Truth govern us in our relation to them. We have to be awake to what might happen and forestall it if possible.

In striving to understand Mrs. Eddy's difficul­ties with a student like Mrs. Woodbury, one must remember that students who harbored human error were bound to be chemicalized by her pure thought sooner or later, on the basis that virtue is a rebuke to vice. See Science and Health, 52:9. The time came when Mrs. Eddy could no longer help Mrs. Woodbury. Her sense of truth became more than the latter could endure. The pure atmosphere of Spirit acting upon a thought that is still willingly harboring the impurity of earth, finally drives such a thought to madness.

It is possible that many students like Mrs. Woodbury, who went astray, did so because they were finally chemicalized by Mrs. Eddy's spirituality, or the strict demands of good. History shows that her second husband, Dr. Patterson, took the road of folly; yet he might not have indulged in the degree of folly that he did, had he not been com­pelled to share the rarified atmosphere of his wife's pure thought. Many students fell away through the years when her purity became too high and too strong for them. Many there were who were willing to be Christian Scientists on a comfortable material level; but the higher atmosphere of their Leader made them uncomfortable, for it exposed their own short-comings.

Our Leader's busy life was a rebuke to mental laziness. Her persistent activity and her rising above material demands and restrictions, were a rebuke to indifference and apathy. Her denial of the senses was a rebuke to sensuality. On page 53 of Science and Health we read, “The world could not interpret aright the discomfort which Jesus inspired and the spiritual blessings which might flow from such discomfort.”

Honest students did not chemicalize in Mrs. Eddy's atmosphere. When their short-comings were exposed, they were glad that through her they were being shown the way to overcome them. But Mrs. Woodbury did not have an honest thought. As she felt the rebuke that Mrs. Eddy's pure thought was to her materiality, error used her to work against the Truth.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

January 27, 1901

Mr. William B. Johnson, C.S.B., Clerk

Beloved Student:

I deem it proper that The Mother Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, the first church of Christian Science known on earth, should upon this solemn occasion congregate; that a special meeting of its First Members convene for the sacred purpose of expressing our deep sympathy with the bereaved nation, its loss and the world's loss, in the sudden departure of the late lamented Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Empress of India, — long honored, revered, beloved. “God save the Queen” is heard no more in England, but this shout of love lives on in the heart of millions.

With love,

Mary Baker Eddy


When the above letter was published in Miscellany, page 289, it was followed by Mrs. Eddy's words:


“It being inconvenient for me to attend the memorial meet­ing in the South Congregational church on Sunday evening, February 3, I herewith send a few words of condolence.

“I am interested in a meeting to be held in the capital of my native State in memoriam of the late lamented Victoria, Queen of Great Britain and Empress of India. It betokens a love and a loss felt by the strong hearts of New England and the United States. When contemplating this sudden international bereave­ment, the near seems afar, the distant nigh, and the tried and true seem few. The departed Queen's royal and imperial crowns lose their lustre in the tomb, but her personal virtues can never be lost. Those live on in the affection of nations.

“Few sovereigns have been as venerable, revered, and beloved as this noble woman, born in 1819, married in 1840, and deceased the first month of the new century.”


To Mrs. Eddy, her Church was like a child. She had to discipline it and punish it as the occasion re­quired. When the time came, however, for it to go to a party or a funeral, she wanted it to be dressed fit­tingly. She arraigned that it present itself before the world as being vitally interested in national and international affairs. For the moment she wanted the Science by which the living are comforted, to supersede the Science by which the sick are healed. This is not accomplished by declaring the absolute truth, namely, that there is no death, that no one has died, that there is no reason for sorrow, since God's kingdom is intact.

In dealing with the world, the student's problem is not gaining more understanding of the letter, or the Spirit; it is learning its application to the needs of humanity. In the case of Queen Victoria's passing on, a mere student who suggested that the church hold a special service, would be scoffed at and rebuked by many of his brethren, as being unscientific, since we are not supposed to acknowledge death. Hence the order had to come from Mrs. Eddy herself. In so doing she showed, that she was leagues ahead of her students in how to be lovingly scientific in their accommodation of Science to the mental level of others, rather than to employ the cold arguments that death is not real, that it did not happen, that there was no loss and that nobody died. The truth is true, but it is not loving or wise to hurl it at those who cannot understand.

In the early days older students often rebuked younger ones who admitted that they had some claim of error. Yet the demand is to bring metaphysics down to the level of those who need help, and then endeavor to lift them up. Mrs. Eddy once said, “I have told you that evil has no power, yet I have told you to handle evil as though it had power. This is because of your place in growth Spiritual.”

It took Mrs. Eddy to lead the way, and to show just how far students may go in this direction without departing from metaphysics. Some students go down too far in their adoption, whereas others do not go far enough. Some thought that it was unscientific to have a service in honor of the departed Queen, and would have fought against having it, had the order come from anyone but their Leader. They would have considered that it was letting down the bars. Yet in later years there were those who advocated letting the bars still further down, when they wanted the Christian Science Monitor to join hands with the Country's methods of bringing about prohibition. The world's way of bring­ing about abstinence is always erroneous, and can never be successful. It is an error for Scientists to favor and support such a way, even though they desire to show the world that they always support everything that is progressive and constructive.

Mrs. Eddy's directing the church to hold a service in memoriam of the Queen, and for the loss of the good qualities of an individual who sought to do good, was designed to place our religion before the public in a favorable way without any loss of metaphysics, whereas for the Monitor to support a mortal mind method which never could be successful, is to suffer a distinct loss of metaphysics, since prohibition is based on the assump­tion that the desire for strong drink is an inherent tendency in mortals. It is foolish and futile to admit the reality of an error, attach it to man, and then to attempt to fight it from that erroneous premise. If you knew that sand alone would put out a gasoline fire, and that the use of water would only spread it, would you join a fire company in the use of water for such fires, and never hint to them that they were using an impossible method?

Queen Victoria's long reign was a remarkably suc­cessful one. The correct government of any great nation is important for the peace of the whole world. Mrs. Eddy wanted the world to know that when it comes to affairs of such a nature, Christian Scientists are a peace-loving people, and also appreciative of all human attainment. Hence it was fitting for them to join with whatever form of appreciation the world saw fit to give the Queen.

Animal magnetism would try to make it appear that Scientists are interested only in spiritual matters, and that they neglect or overlook the material, no mat­ter how important it is. It should never become a by­-word that Scientists do not give to charity, that they are not interested in civic affairs, but that they are concerned only with the progress of their Cause. Mrs. Eddy did much to show the world that she was a broad and charitable person, and had an interest in people who were not of her faith. It was necessary for her to do this, in order to break down the prejudice which would make Science offensive to people on grounds which are the opposite of the truth.

At the time of the hurricane in Rhode Island in 1938, the Committee on Publication was furnished with large amounts of money, in order to do all he could to help the stricken and needy. Among other things, this money was used to repair and to rebuild church edifices of other denominations, who were un­able to pay for such work themselves. One church steeple was repaired at a cost of four hundred dollars. Such acts helped to show the public that we are a sympathetic, kindly people. There was a minister in Rhode Island who for years had embraced every oc­casion to write and preach against Christian Science. When he learned of what the Christian Scientists had done, he stopped his persecution. He declared that for them to take their money and use it to help to rebuild damaged churches of other denominations, was the grandest Christian gesture he had witnessed, — the most unselfish act he could imagine.

If we wish the world to feel that we are inter­ested in all that is good, why not let our Monitor come out in favor of prohibition, when it appears to many to be a good work? In the first place, prohi­bition, by no manner of means, has universal approval, for many thinkers realize that it does more harm than good. It fosters lawlessness, and rebellion, and actually causes abstainers to start drinking as a protest against having their personal liberty, as they call it, interfered with.

Metaphysics explains why making a reality of a thing only serves to build it up. When you teach people the awfulness of the liquor habit, you help to build it up. Only as you remove all belief in its effects either in pleasure or in discord, and make less of it, do you undermine its foundations.

Prohibition tends to make people feel that when they are free from the liquor habit, that is the one desirable thing. Yet what are they free from, but the conviction of so-called good people that the liquor habit is something that the drunkard cannot get away from, that it is possible for it to get such a hold on him that he cannot stop. Such a thing is sheer fiction, and only seems true because of the fear which is largely propagated through prohibition. Prohibitionists may be grand men and women, but Christian Science cannot countenance methods of frightening people in order to cause them to stop drinking.

Christian Scientists know that it is mortal mind that fosters the liquor habit and holds mortals in bondage, and that the basis of this control is mesmerism. Consequently, they should never unite with that which increases that control.

As Christian Scientists we can announce to the world that we do not believe in indulgence in strong drink, and that, as Mrs. Eddy says, its slightest use is abuse. We can make it a rule not to accept as members any who drink. Then if anyone wants to join our organization, he finds himself under the necessity to break such a habit. In doing this, he will find the necessary strength in the help Science gives him, since our organization is a great society within itself, the purpose of which is to help man­kind to overcome the false belief that man as the image and likeness of God, can be in bondage to any form of habit. Science shows that no one can demonstrate adaptability and perfect response to God's guidance, as long as he believes that he is con­trolled by habits.

Our Manual warns us against uniting with organ­izations which impede our progress in Christian Sci­ence. Certainly uniting with prohibitionists would be forbidden by this By-law.

A study of this letter shows that Mrs. Eddy actually said nothing about what Queen Victoria accomplished. She merely mentioned her personal virtues. When President Harding passed on during his term of office in 1923, Christian Science Churches held services similar to those held for Queen Victoria. My son was First Reader in the local branch church at the time. Together we wrote the following eulogy for him to give on that occasion. I quote it to show how it is possible to conform to the demands of such an occasion, without actually departing from the doctrine of Christian Science. It was our effort to show how far one can go on the one hand, in his effort to lift his brother man, without letting go of the rock of his foundation on the other. The eulogy at no point gave President Harding credit for virtues he did not possess.


“In compliance with the proclamation of the Governor of Rhode Island, we have assembled here this morning to add our tribute of love and respect for the late chief magistrate of this nation. The il­lustrious career of our President is ended, and our nation, yea, the world, mourns his loss — but he has left behind him an example that will never die. His administration will always stand before the world as a straightforward effort under the greatest of criticism, to bring this country back to normalcy and restore it to its high purpose and rightful place among nations. The President's efforts in this direction were not wasted. He did not labor in vain. His aims and efforts will be carried on. No human being is perfect, but unselfish motives and honesty of purpose constitute ideals on which the future success and progress of any nation may be built with perfect assurance and safety, and today the thinking people of this country believe that our President was inspired by such ideals. The permanency of a man's history is directly in propor­tion to the good he has accomplished for others. On this basis alone can his name live and endure with those unforgotten dead who were also worthy. The greatest gift one mortal can render his fellows is unselfish service, and our President gave this gift without measure. So it is most fitting that we should have met here this day when the country mourns his death, to show our appreciation for his life and for this service which he rendered, a service which should stimulate each one of us to give himself more freely, more lovingly, more unselfishly for humanity.”


Mrs. Eddy was very careful, in her eulogy of the Queen, not to imply that the British nation was better off because of her wise reign. Christian Science shows that until a nation is governed by God, there is nothing attained that is permanent, even under such a wonderful ruler as Queen Victoria. God alone can guide mortal man out of this miasma of mortality. When a nation is not guided and governed by God, no matter how much the world may applaud its apparent prosperity and harmony, it is merely adding to the deception animal magnetism would impose on mortals, namely, that the human mind in its higher phases is adequate to govern man aright.

Our Master called the carnal mind a murderer. Hence when you see a nation pledged to a destructive purpose, ready to war on other nations in an attempt to rule the rest of the world, you know that that is the human mind expressing itself in its natural character. When it becomes docile and engages in such peacetime pursuits as tilling the soil, its murderous sense becomes a greater deception to all but those with an inspirational thought, because it is hidden.

The carnal mind is like a lion cub of which you have made a pet. It may show you affection, and is cunning in its puppy-like ways; but at any time the murderous instincts of the beast may come forth, to destroy even the one who has been kind to it and fed it. Kindness can never eradicate the fundamental murderous instinct of the animal.

The Master declared that he came not to bring peace but a sword; yet Mrs. Eddy implies that Christian Science came to hold crime in check. This apparent discrepancy is explained by the order in which the carnal mind must be eliminated. First it must be exposed in all its murderous nature, as it was in Cain, when he murdered his brother. Then through the action of the demonstration of Christian Science, it is put under bonds for good behavior; it is purified and improved. Under the regimen of truth, it passes from the first degree to the second, as outlined on page 115 of Science and Health. At this point it is ripe for destruction, in order that divine Mind may prevail as All.

Yet at this stage of growth there is a great danger, lest we fall in love with the human mind purified by Christian Science, so that it manifests honesty, humanity, affection, etc. If this happens, it becomes necessary for the underlying murderous nature of this false mind to be exposed once more, and the cycle be repeated. This explanation reveals why it is necessary to have war on the earth. When mortals stagnate with the human mind in its apparent docile state — when they fall in love with it and strive to cultivate and retain it — with no effort to throw it off in favor of the real Mind, something must be done to expose to them the veritable nature of what they are clinging to. Then must come the process of purifying and improving it all over again, in preparation for its elimination. This cycle may have to be repeated many times, before mortals learn the lesson that they must continue to put off mor­tality, no matter how purified it may be by Truth.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.


February 16, 1901

Beloved Student:

Accept my gratitude for your nice dis­posal of the Resolutions on Queen Victoria.

Your artistic son is a great help to you in such matters. Tell him the Earl and Countess Dunmore have returned thanks and paid a high compliment to the binding of the book I sent him.

With love,

M. B. Eddy


At Mrs. Eddy's request, Mr. Johnson's son, William Lyman, had written music for her “Communion Hymn,” and had a copy bound in white morocco, deco­rated with passion flowers tooled in gold. Later he had a similar copy bound of “The Mother's Evening Prayer.” These two books were sent to the Mother's Room to be placed in a cabinet which was there. Then Mrs. Eddy requested a duplicate of the second volume to be made, in order to send it to the Earl and Countess Dunmore.

When our Leader wrote such compliments as those in this letter, she did not write idle words. They were deserved, to be sure, but one purpose behind much of her praise was to bind her students to her with cords of love, so that when the necessity arose, she might be able to rebuke them, without having them offended.

Another point is, that she knew that students could not do things for her rightly, unless they made a demonstration, since animal magnetism would place barriers in the way of students, if possible, when they attempted to serve our Leader.

It seemed as though animal magnetism succeeded in hedging Mrs. Eddy about in such a way, that no one could serve her or help her rightly, unless he was able to break through this guard. For this very reason Mrs. Eddy found it difficult to obtain helpers in her home. John Salchow once declared that he could not help her satisfactorily unless he recog­nized and handled the animal magnetism that would prevent him from doing so; but he asserted that once he had done so, he found that Mrs. Eddy's thought helped him to the attainment of whatever it was she required.

When in 1899 our Leader sent out a call to the Field through the Sentinel for tea jackets, I won­dered why she did not have her dressmaker measure her old ones and duplicate them. Today I believe that she made this request in order that her students at large might learn, that when it came to things that she really needed and wanted, animal magnetism shut her off from getting them. Students found it easy to send her gifts that she neither wanted nor needed, but when it came to those which were really of value and utility, error stood in the way. It is said that she received no tea jackets as the result of her call. This experience is added proof of why she was deeply grateful for all that was done for her rightly, since it showed that error had been handled.

She regarded those who were able to do things for her rightly in a different light than she did other students. They had a special value in her eyes, because of their knowledge of how to handle this claim. Hence, when they succeeded in doing a good work for her, as Mr. Johnson and his son did in regard to the Resolutions and the book, she did not spare her praise.

If it is true that Mrs. Eddy's praise was a pre­lude to criticism, in the sense that she thereby earned the right to rebuke by being faithful in acknowledging good wherever it was expressed, then she merely followed the example of John in his let­ters to the churches as recorded in Revelation. In his letter to the angel of the church of Ephesus he commends the members for their patience; also for hating the deeds of the Nicolaitans. Then he chides them for leaving their first love! This sounds as though they had permitted the organization to come in and crowd out their love for inspiration, which is the important attainment in Christian Science, namely, the desire and ability to reflect God. Thus the Spirit of God qualified him as having the right to rebuke and criticize the churches, by first thor­oughly appreciating everything that was admirable in them.

When Mrs. Eddy asserted that she loved the Roman Catholics, she thereby revealed her right to expose and handle the error of that system. She recognized that the real man is forever the son of God. She also knew that mortal man should never be made responsible for the error that he voices, any more than a puppet is responsible for what the oper­ator does through him. It was error Mrs. Eddy was after, and not individuals. The moment we at­tack the channel for an error, we make the channel responsible, as if he were the originator of the error. We must trace back to the impersonal error claiming to work through the channel. We can meet error successfully in no other way. An individual who voices error must be healed in Science as much as one who manifests it as disease. What is the difference?

When the point came where Mrs. Eddy found it necessary to rebuke the Directors, she had already qualified for this office, since she had been faith­ful in expressing her appreciation for everything they had done that was good. She was alert and observant, and never accepted valuable service without expressing due appreciation and gratitude.

When a child never receives words of encourage­ment from its mother for anything it does that is good, it feels abused when the mother criticizes it for what is not right. For the sake of fairness and justice, the mother should observe and note all that is good in the child's behavior, and acknowledge this. Then the child will accept criticism in the right spirit, because it feels that it is given in the right spirit.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

February 23, 1901

C. S. Board of Directors

Beloved Students:

Please meet and appoint Mr. John B. Willis a member of the Com. on Bible Lessons. He is a good Biblical scholar and such a one is needed. Attend to this immediately.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


Mrs. Eddy represented God to the Directors. When she gave them direct commands, she was teaching them that they were never to be privileged to govern the organization according to their own inclinations of judgment. When she had to leave them, they would still be in a position where they were not to make appointments unless God approved. They would never be more than scribes, or servants under orders. It would have been a suggestion of evil for them to fancy that if she passed on, they would be free to conduct church affairs as they pleased, or consid­ered humanly right. When she left, they would not change matters, but merely go from her reflection of Mind to their own. And it may be said that God is far more autocratic to human sense than Mrs. Eddy seemed to be, since there is no deviation from His commands. This line of reasoning shows that in these letters Mrs. Eddy was training the Directors to realize that their proper function was always to be channels for obedience, and that they were never to be permitted to function under their own human opinions and impressions.

An analogous thought may be found on page 334 of Miscellaneous Writings where Mrs. Eddy writes, “Astrology is well in its place, but this place is secondary.” Astrology is defined as the science of the stars, and this definition does not necessarily include the doctrine that their movements affect the destinies of men. But if a mortal believed that there were planetary influences at work governing his life and destiny, — whereas that belief would be sheer superstition, — nevertheless belief in an out­side controlling influence would be a step toward faith in the unseen good. Faith in the zodiac is higher than faith in human will, or matter.

In like manner, for the Directors to place faith in Mrs. Eddy as God's representative to them, was a step higher than having faith in their own intel­ligent judgment, and this would eventually lead them to full faith in God as the only true Director of all that concerns His Cause.

When God directed Mrs. Eddy to appoint Mr. Willis to the Committee on Bible Lessons, it was not Mrs. Eddy demanding obedience of the Directors; but as God's representative, she heard the divine demand, and passed it on to the Directors.

As the one who heard God's directions, she need have no personal knowledge of Mr. Willis or of his qualifications. But human sense demanded always a reason for her moves. Consequently she furnished a reason, wherever possible, that had a semblance of logic, in order to make it easier to follow the divine demand. When God directs us to do a thing, however, He makes no explanation. He demands impli­cit and blind obedience.

This simple letter to the Directors says in substance, “You must make this appointment because God requires it. You must be trained to listen for His voice, and to obey it, and at present part of that training is to listen for and be obedient to my voice, or rather, to His voice through me.” The selflessness demanded by God is not agreeable to the human mind; but it is a necesssary prelude to re­flection, and was voiced by the Master when he said, “Of mine own self I can do nothing.”

One can draw a certain parallel between Mrs. Eddy's training of her students, and the way a horse is trained to jump a hurdle. The trainer whips him to start him, knowing that on reaching the obstacle, the horse may shy off; but he continues the process, until the horse learns that the only way to please and satisfy his master is to jump the hurdle.

When Mrs. Eddy gave her students a task, they were apt to shy off in every direction to avoid jumping the hurdle of demonstration. On page 272 of Miscellaneous Writings she writes, “I have en­deavored to act toward all students of Christian Science with the intuition and impulse of love. If certain natures have not profited by my rebukes, — ­some time, as Christian Scientists, they will know the value of these rebukes.” Her rebukes might be likened to the whip which the trainer uses, which had back of them the intuition and impulse of love, since she hoped thereby to train students out of the use of mortal processes, into the effort to reflect God.

Her experience with William D. Nixon is an il­lustration of her dealing with a nature that did not profit by her rebukes, and of how much she suffered as a result. On November 19, 1891, she wrote to him, “God will not let me be silent rela­tive to your business here yesterday, but demands me to answer — remind you of your feelings toward me. The history of the Journal while in your hands shows that you did not allow me the place in that magazine which belonged to me and would have benefited the Cause. You kept out my communications or spoiled them and at last I withdrew from its columns....I wrote a title page for Frye just as it should be printed...because he failed to do this, you add to my burdens and bitter cup, your charges for all errors of omission or commission in business. This wrong done me is darkening my sense of Christian Science. I saw this distinctly yesterday….You never address me as your teacher the same as my other students. May God open your eyes and spare you the experience which always follows this injus­tice to me harbored in thought.”

This letter is enlightening, revealing how much Mrs. Eddy had to endure at the hands of students who held a wrong concept of her. Mr. Nixon no doubt felt that he was perfectly capable of carrying on the work of publishing. He respected Mrs. Eddy in spiritual matters, but when it came to business mat­ters, he resented her interference, not realizing that she was attempting to graft demonstration into all the activities of her Cause.

Evidently he stood the argument of injustice as long as he could. Finally his grievances drove him to go to Mrs. Eddy and spill them all out to her, and this letter was the aftermath. In his reasoning he could find no excuse for the way she had acted and had rebuked him. He could not understand why his continued effort to do his best and exercise his highest sense of business acumen, had failed to please her. He knew that he was not slack or sloppy, lazy or careless. He felt like a man in the dark being criticized for bumping into things he could not see, and he felt keenly the injustice of it all. He could not understand Love's method of driving human sense out of itself and into God.

She accuses him of never addressing her as teacher, as do other students. She knew that his failure in this respect showed that he was regarding her merely as being his employer, rather than his God-appointed teacher, who was striving to bring him up to a scientific standpoint of thought and endeavor. When she taught the Class of 1898, Judge Hanna indicated, that when all the machinations of evil were hurled against him, only as he could see her as the Revelator for this age, would he get a ray of light. She replied, “My dear children, if you had not seen, I would have had to teach you this. I could not have avoided telling you that when my students become blinded to me as the one through whom Truth has come to this age, they go straight down. I would have had to tell you.”

All of Mrs. Eddy's effort with Mr. Nixon did not save him. When the venom of thought reached a point where it exploded on his teacher, God took care of her, and took him out of the way. When an­imal magnetism reaches the proportions where it becomes a deterrent, we can surely trust God to take care of the situation. When his erroneous attitude began to darken her spiritual thought, it was an offence against God, since it meant that she was in danger of being taken away as a channel for pure metaphysics to the world. So he had to be removed from a place where he was a deterrent to truth.

God needs all of His children as channels for the operation of His truth, which must be introduced into the thoughts of humanity to regenerate them. As long as we remain such open channels, we can take care of any offense against us, provided it is not an offense against God; but the moment our ability as a channel is affected, God takes a hand in the situation, and it becomes a serious matter to one who stands in the way of God.

When Elisha was mocked by children, as narrated in II Kings, it became a matter for God to take care of, and two bears came and devoured them. This result was not necessarily Elisha's demonstration or lack of it, but the operation of God's law as applied to the human in caring for its own. When Miriam criticized her brother Moses, the Bible in Numbers 12, records that she was stricken with leprosy. Evidently she became a channel for that which darkened Moses' thought. She had to pay a price for becoming an obstructionist to the Truth.

There were times when Mrs. Eddy was loving and gentle with her students, and times when she re­frained such gentleness, according to the need. In this letter to Mr. Nixon she stated the situation plainly, since the time had come to do so. This fact is proved by her statement in the letter, “God will not let me be silent relative to your business here yesterday....”

She functioned under the Biblical rule, that no hand that is lifted against thee shall prosper. Those who observed the Father's protection of our Leader, must have concluded that it was a dangerous thing to attempt to thwart God's plan as it was executed through her. One might well tremble for another who attempts to stand in God's way, and to prevent His demands from being fulfilled, even though He is divine infinite Love.

Today the battery of the Cause has become weakened, and it must be recharged. Anyone who stands in the way of that recharging, will have to be taken out of the way. The Bible declares that it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. The living God is demonstrated God! It is this demonstration which makes it dangerous to oppose the onward march of truth. If one wants protection, if one wants support, let him strive to be amenable and obedient to the demands of God upon him. God needs volunteers to work in His vineyard — those who have grown beyond the conception of Science as being only a convenient method of making them healthy and wealthy and successful. Those who are ready to meet the higher demands of God will find protection in this activity. The moment one is in God's service, he comes under God's protection.

Mrs. Eddy proved that she was invulnerable. She was about her Father's business, and this activity carried a protection that error could not break through. There were times when it appeared as if she could not stand against the students' efforts to fight her, but every one who was opposed to her was taken out of the way, while she carried on.

She found comparatively little material that she could use in God's service, in the large member­ship of those who embraced her teachings, because what they offered her was largely the human mind mixed with a little Truth. If a man should take a large amount of gold to the refiners, and there be told that it was mostly brass, it would be a shock to him. When students presented purified human thinking to their Leader, as if it were pure gold, it was a shock when she exposed how human it really was, even though purified. No matter how much it hurt, she had to do this. She was the teacher and no teacher spares his pupils in the effort to bring out the lessons he knows his pupils really need to learn.

Mrs. Eddy wanted Mr. Nixon to realize that it was not her criticism, but God's that she gave him. So she wrote, “God will not let me be silent....” Then she upbraided him for attempting to keep her out of the Journal. Whatever emanated from her pen bore the unquestioned earmarks of inspiration. Hence to keep her out was to keep out God. Today students comb the early periodicals to find what­ever she wrote, because of its high content of inspiration. Students can go back and study the editorials written by Archibald McLellan in the years 1908, 1909 and 1910, because it is known that the subject matter for many of them, if not at times the entire context, was proposed by Mrs. Eddy. Certain it is that many of these editorials are highly re­markable, and bear the earmarks of her thought. The modes of action they set forth for the Field are so inspired and correct, that some day they will be reprinted and used as a model for all time. In proof of this fact, Adelaide Still testifies that during that period, Mr. McLellan conferred with Mrs. Eddy almost every working day. She is said to have spoken to the Field through him, because, as she put it, the students would receive what was written, if it came through the male. Certain it is that if our Leader were with us today, she would reprove those in the Publishing House who have charge of accepting articles for the periodicals, if they keep out those that bear unquestionable evidence of inspiration, merely because they do not conform to a certain human pattern which has been accepted as correct. To keep inspiration out of our periodicals is to keep God out, and no one should ever be caught doing that!

The lesson we learn from Mr. Nixon is that the same error that used him in regard to his Leader, is evident in every effort to relegate Mrs. Eddy to the background. Animal magnetism has not given up its endeavor to rule Mary Baker Eddy out of her Cause as the correct demonstrator and active participator in the work of the Cause. The organization will always find itself correspondingly blessed, in pro­portion as her life and experience are held before the people, and her demonstration is set forth as the perpetual Leader of her Cause.

In this letter of November 19, 1891, Mrs. Eddy writes to Mr. Nixon, “For instance I begged you in the next to do your business with Mr. Frye or my son — and you walked right over my prayer and caused me a trouble beyond what you have the least idea. I alluded to this in C. S. Practice, but I did not call your name or intend to mention it to any one....” Evidently Mr. Nixon was used in Science and Health as an illustration of an error that all have to battle with and overcome, namely, the seeming strength of a false sense of mind that would kill out the Christ idea. The only way Mr. Nixon could justify disobedience to her demands, was to conclude that, while she had had a very great spiritual revelation vouchsafed her from God, it was not to be expected that she would know much about business matters, in which hard heads and years of experience were re­quired. It was as if he admitted that she was a great architect, but a poor builder.

Those with developed human ability who take posi­tions in our Cause, will always have to watch lest they believe that they can conduct things with greater efficiency with the purified human mind than she displayed with divine leading. For instance, in 1944 the Board of Directors concluded that one way to extend the Cause of Christian Science would be for lectures to be given in communities where no Christian Science organizations existed. On the surface this would appear to be a very intelligent conclusion. Yet a study of Mr. McLellan's editorials shows, that on October 12, 1907, in the Sentinel he expressly forbids such procedure, with authority that could have come from no other source than Mrs. Eddy. He writes, “In many of the small cities and towns where Christian Science churches or societies have not yet been established, it has occurred to those who are banded together to establish their work on a more stable basis, but in this we believe they are mistaken....The lecturers are doing a mag­nificent work in their line of endeavor, but this work would be practically useless as a means of en­hancing the growth of Christian Science were it not for the ‘signs following.' The true basis of the establishment of Christian Science in any community must be the healing of the sick and the deliverance of the sinful, and this must precede every other form of work or organization.” Of what use would large guns be, if sent to a sector where no emplace­ments had first been constructed? This point is an illustration of how necessary it is for present day officials to study the history of Mrs. Eddy's guidance of her Cause, and to follow that.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

March 4, 1901

Dictated

Wm. B. Johnson, Clerk of Mother Church,

Boston, Mass.

Beloved Student:

In your letter you speak (as) a prophet in the first century. My motive was just what you described. The result will be just what you foresee. I answer with pleasure your question. Is it your desire that the articles aforesaid be published so? Will say it is not my special desire, but I am willing it should be done to benefit the field. I also request that the enclosed circular be published with article.

Lovingly,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


In writing these letters to the Board Mrs. Eddy was creating patterns or molds, as molds are made in the mint, by means of which any number of coins may be struck off. For instance, on December 18, 1890, she wrote to Mr. Nixon stating that she had delayed the printing of the new edition of Science and Health, hoping that the international bill be­fore Congress would be passed, whereby a greater in­come would accrue to her from the sale of her book. But she was soon able to see beyond this thought, and wrote, “It was selfish of me to have entered into a human sense of gain....It is God's book and He says, give it at once to the people.” In writing this she created a universal pattern for all stu­dents to follow, namely, to turn away from all self­ishness in their Science work, and realize that the important thing is to share with all humanity the good that Science has for all, entirely apart from any sense of personal gain.

In writing to Mr. Johnson that he spoke as a prophet in the first century, Mrs. Eddy may have been indi­cating that history really begins when Science enters into the world. The record in Genesis declares, that the earth was without form and void, and that darkness was on the face of the deep, before the man of God's creating was recognized. In other words, before God's ideas are recognized, the lack of spir­itual sense in the world means that everything is dark and unformed, as are our dreams at night. Thus the Christian Scientist may declare that life or history does not begin until spiritual sense begins to function.

It may be assumed that Mr. Johnson's letter set forth the selflessness of Mrs. Eddy's motive, in all that she did, and also what the result would be, and she agreed with him. If his letter was so far­seeing, why was it not printed in the Sentinel? Perhaps his insight into his Leader's spiritual stature, would have been too strong for the public, or beginners. Each student's appreciation of his Leader must come through his own experience, under­standing and demonstration. The attempt to enforce upon a beginner the results of these three points in the life of an advanced student, would be like giving a babe food that it could not digest. A young stu­dent, or a beginner, cannot digest or understand the advanced student's concept of Mary Baker Eddy. It is permissible to state certain facts about her, but the young student should be left to draw his own conclusions. Yet when he is ready to have a higher conclusion in regard to her drawn for him, this should be done.

Doubtless Mrs. Eddy did not care to have Mr. Johnson's adult conception of her published for young students to read; yet today we would like to know what it was in regard to her that he foresaw.

Wisdom led Mrs. Eddy to answer Mr. Johnson as she did in this letter. The Christian Science peri­odicals have a specific purpose, and are designed to feed certain qualities of thought. They are for the babes in Christ. They come under the super­vision of the Board of Directors, who must, there­fore, acquire a knowledge of the sort of material that is suitable to be printed in them. Since the Board represented the ones designated to have the final say in such matters, Mrs. Eddy treated them as such in this instance, just as if she were any contributor, willing to bow before their decision.

When matters from her pen had to do with the founding or running of the Cause, she required them to be published at her demand; but when it came to an article of this nature, one that had been written to answer specifically charges that had been made in the famous Brush will contest in the New York court, and to be published in the New York papers, she left the publishing of it in the Journal to the wisdom of the Directors.

Those who make laws must be watchful that they submit to them. If a judge violates a traffic ordi­nance that he himself helped to establish, he must be willing to appear in court and pay a fine. It was orderly that when it came to an article that Mrs. Eddy did write for the Journal, she should submit to the same procedure that any contributor would have to follow. Mrs. Eddy did not make the rules for the organization, but she received them from God, and then indicated that she was as subject to them as the humblest member of the church. She did not have special privileges, unless God granted them to her.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

May 19, 1901

To the Christian Science Board of Directors

Beloved Students:

On account of the increased expenses of The Mother Church this year, the Reader and not the Church, must pay for the rent of my house, 585 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston.

If anything in the Manual conflicts with this, you must change it to read that way.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


Mrs. Eddy taught and demonstrated God's care for man. Hence she knew that she was doing the First Reader no real injury, nor depriving him of the necessities of life, when she added this burden of expense to him. Why shouldn't it be part of his privilege to help to support the organization to which he owed so much?

It did not please Mrs. Eddy to have students estimate Christian Science in terms of the material benefits they desired to derive from it. She was striving to benefit her students spiritually; hence it was logical that she sought to help them to make room for God to step in and bless, as He always does, when a full recompense in matter is not demanded.

The Bible indicates that there is a time for all things. There is a time to laugh and a time to cry. That is, a sense of humor is profitable when it is necessary to change or lighten one's thought; or if one has lost a loved one, one is not forbidden a period of mourning. But these phases must not be overdone. Thus many things in Science are permitted, which if overdone, become deterrents. For instance, when a student who has never known affluence, enters into a period of financial security, he is not forbidden in Science to enjoy that relief for a while, but he must not take a vacation from working for God's ideas longer than a brief period. A too long vacation indicates selfishness. Once Mrs. Eddy told Laura Sargent and Clara Shannon, that she thought she had discovered the way to eternal Life, and that was, whenever she wanted to do something for herself, to put self aside, and do something for others; just to learn to be unselfed.

The First Reader was receiving an adequate salary, as well as a house rent free. Hence in calling on him to contribute upwards of two thousand dollars to The Mother Church, Mrs. Eddy was merely helping him along the lines of unselfishness, and perhaps indicating that his period of enjoying security was over.

One who regards Christian Science as something to delight in, because it brings him health, pros­perity, and even a social position, where his former station in life had been a humble one, may chemical­ize at any lessening of such benefits. He may even criticize his Leader for the move demanded of this letter. Yet often God called upon her to test a student to discover if his devotion to the Cause were such, that no sacrifice was too great for him to make in order to support it. Mrs. Eddy gave everything she had. Was she not offering the First Reader a rare opportunity, as well as testing him, in making this demand upon him?

Why should not God test one of His own at any time, to determine the sincerity of his underlying motivation, especially one in the high position of First Reader of The Mother Church, one who professed before the world to be absolutely devoted to the Cause that was bringing to mankind a knowledge of God, and of the demonstration which would enable all to regain their recognition of divine sonship?

It is helpful often to pause to contemplate the fact, that if it were known how much money our Leader actually spent on herself, it would be dis­covered that the amount was on a par with the Master's expenditures. She was simple in her tastes, and demanded little, materially. Her table was modest, and her food inexpensive and simple. To be sure, at times, she put the cook to extra trouble and expense by sending food back, perhaps with the state­ment, “Never serve that to me again!” The cook had a list of such items, which grew until there was very little left in the way of common dishes that was not on the list! Yet in doing this Mrs. Eddy was merely teaching a spiritual lesson. So the added expense was justified.

The cook had to learn that what Mrs. Eddy really wanted was, not that that particular dish be omitted from her menu, but that it never be served to her again with the same sense of fear and mortal belief back of it. She would gladly have accepted the same dish the very next meal, had the demonstration been made to put a healing thought back of it.

The same fact was true about everything in her experience, including her clothes. She appeared to human sense to be extremely fussy about them, and once reduced her dressmaker, Pauline Mann, to tears, so that she protested with the statement, “There's no pleasing her!” Once she said to Calvin Frye, “‘The foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head.' I have no resting place in material things — ­food, clothes, etc., etc. If Frye now tries to do anything material for me, it acts like the old scratch. I am learning my way out of these material things; but Willis says, ‘You are taking away every­thing from me, etc.'” She even spoke of the Christ as the Truth which translates every so-called mate­rial object back to its spiritual original.

She might have said to her cook, “Minnie, the lack of demonstration in regard to the food today, made it indigestible and unwelcome to me; never send it to me again unless you have made a better demon­stration to translate it from matter to Spirit.” Yet had she made such a clear explanation, it would have spoiled the effect of her effort to train her household, and revealed to those who were not ready to hear it, a knowledge of the operation of error that might have been used against her.

There is another approach to this letter, which may serve to lay down a valuable precept, and that is, to recall that the Woodbury Suit cost the church over forty thousand dollars. Possibly Mrs. Eddy felt that if the First Reader had done the right mental work for the Cause and his Leader, the suit could have been avoided; so it was just that he should pay a propor­tion of the expenses, as a penalty for his error of omission.

No one feels that the death sentence is too severe a penalty for a sentry who goes to sleep while on watch, since by so doing he jeopardizes the safety of the entire army. The world loves to tell the story of the great Lincoln, when he remitted this penalty for a young soldier whose mother interceded for him. While there were mitigating circumstances which perhaps were sufficient to warrant the release of this young sentry, nevertheless we should never permit sympathy and sentimentality to cause us to remit penalties for errors of commission or omission which are necessarily severe because the consequences affect issues far greater than any one individual.

From this letter we may deduce, therefore, that Mrs. Eddy wanted her followers to hold in thought constantly that the demonstrating thought of the members of the organization must be constantly alert and on the job, or else they must pay a penalty at the hands of God. It is reasonable to argue that she was not just requiring the First Reader to give a part of his salary to help the church, as his con­tribution; rather did she realize that if he had done his mental duty by the church and been faithful in demonstration, the lawsuit might never have been instituted. Hence it was just that he be punished for his failure to be faithful to God. He allowed himself to go to sleep. He yielded to mental laziness.

In Mrs. Eddy's time the readers of The Mother Church were tried and tested students, who had the interests of the organization at heart. No one, not even the Directors, should have the prosperity and safety of the Cause as his special care, more than the First Reader, if he is a thorough Christian Scientist. He should feel that the church has been put under his special care, and he must protect it against all enemies, — all invasion. At the time this letter was written, it is probable that Judge Hanna admitted that he had not been watching as he should have been. Even the Bible indicates that when one is unfaithful to a charge of God, there must be a penalty sufficiently severe, to insure no repetition of the error. It may be that Judge Hanna's very salvation depended on his being awakened at this time, and being punished by a financial loss, which is often as severe a penalty as can be given to an adult.

It is essential that advancing members of the organization realize, that with their knowledge of truth and growing ability to demonstrate, they must use that demonstration to support and to protect the Cause, and those in the Cause who hold responsible positions. If they see unfaithfulness or incompe­tency, they should not wait until the individuals guilty of such error become more unfaithful and leave their positions, only to have them filled perhaps by those who are equally unfaithful. Their responsibil­ity is to correct unfaithfulness, and if they neglect to do this work, they should be penalized. Working for the welfare of the organization, and to correct errors that may appear, is no different than working to heal the sick. In fact it may be called a form of church sickness that must be healed, lest its effect be felt by the members and seen by the public. Thus the metaphysician has the right to say that Judge Hanna had not been faithful in this obligation, and this letter proves it, by revealing the penalty that was imposed upon him.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

May 22, 1901

C. S. Board

Beloved Students:

I see nothing in the document to prevent my doing whatever I wish with my house except to sell it. I know that was the intent of Mr. Walker and my own when the document was drawn up. But there is so little that I can do or say now that is not either misunderstood, or purposely belied, you had better do nothing about this at present. When, O when, will this law case be settled in Boston? Perhaps on the 29th inst. and perhaps not, it will come to trial.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


Because Mrs. Eddy wrote in her letter of May 19 that the First Reader must pay the rent on her house, we may assume that she held him responsible in part for the lack of demonstration that made the Woodbury lawsuit possible. Science declares that there is never any excuse for a lawsuit — even though Mrs. Eddy had been subject to many that she could not seem to avoid; but the argument against lawsuits is, that because the real man is governed by God, if you can meet the error which declares otherwise — which would always suggest going to law — he will be restored to the control of divine Mind under which he will never attack Christian Science.

Evidently Mrs. Eddy felt that the First Reader not only had an obligation to read, but to protect the Cause from invasion from error of every sort. She looked upon him as being on the front line, and because he failed to recognize and fulfill his moral duty, she demanded a penalty from him.

In mechanized warfare, tanks go ahead and prepare the way for the foot soldiers. In Christian Science, mental work is symbolized by the advance march of tanks, as well as the protection each worker needs from the repercussions his work always produces, if it is efficacious. Mental work goes forth to destroy opposition, to remove all obstructions, and to meet the claim of reversal, which enables Science to reach its destination without being sidetracked or running up against seemingly insurmountable difficulties. It is a serious matter when those entrusted with men­tal work, neglect to do it.

In penalizing Judge Hanna, it was as if Mrs. Eddy was taxing the tanks for neglecting to go for­ward as they should. To her it was a grievous thing, when students neglected to do that mental work which goes ahead and removes the opposition for the entire Cause. Furthermore, in this act she indicated that under all circumstances, all that is ever needed to make a demonstration of whatever nature, is one sanc­tified thought. In Christian Science where one with God is a majority, numbers do not count. Biblical precedent for this may be found in Elijah's experience, where without any cooperation from other workers or helpers, he stood alone against the armies of the enemy, and succeeded in overthrowing them according to his scientific understanding. When a task or an obstacle confronts a student — whatever its size may be — he should realize that he can do it or remove it, because God does all things. If he reflects the power of God without limitation, then nothing is impossible to him. At a Wednesday evening meeting, if there is an argument of a lack of testimonies, one student alone will find that he can break that lie of lack, if he does it scientifically, and thus can help everyone to speak easily. This does not mean, however, that if more members work for our meetings, more good is not correspondingly done.

Evidently the Directors wrote to Mrs. Eddy, stating that she could not charge Judge Hanna the rent for her home according to the agreement drawn up; but it may be that she never intended to do so in reality, but was merely threatening the Judge in order to teach the needed lesson, and to awaken his thought to the fact that he had not been faithful.

When one reads of an action of our Leader's like this one that seems unjust or unfair, he must not forget that it came from God. Hence she is exonerated from all blame or criticism, and we are required to look deeply and to learn the lesson. Not one of God's lessons is superfluous. Therefore each one must be heeded.

Why should the tone of this letter to the Board be sharp, as if they deserved a rebuke for writing her that she could not require Judge Hanna to pay the rent on her house? Her demand had disturbed them. Perhaps they thought that it was hard-hearted of her, to fine him two thousand dollars for something which from their standpoint he was not responsible for. Yet God knew better.

Tender hearted people are disturbed when a sen­try is shot, because he went to sleep on watch. In war, however, such harsh measures are necessary. Surely war is the correct name of the battle with mortal mind which Christian Science has inaugurated. Those who felt that it was unjust to penalize the poor First Reader, should have realized that in this Christian warfare he had a responsibility more impor­tant than a sentry on duty. Mortal mind was deter­mined in the founding of our Cause, not to let it get a foothold, or to be extended. The Woodbury suit was part of mortal mind's attack, and the fact that it was brought to trial, proved that it had gained a foothold, which it could never have gained, had the watchmen on the walls been faithful. Even then Mrs. Eddy was able to rouse the students to active resistance, so that a decision was laid down in her favor — or rather, the suit was withdrawn. Had it been won by Mrs. Woodbury, it would have been followed by another attack of some sort, until Science would have followed the fate of all other systems of reform in which an understanding of ani­mal magnetism was lacking.

Mrs. Eddy saw that her levying of this fine on Judge Hanna was either not understood, or needed an explanation added to it, which was a deliberate attempt to distort her motive. Hence she saw that it was necessary immediately to reinstate herself in the eyes of all concerned by dropping the matter, so that even though they might have felt sad to think that she even thought of doing such an unscientific thing, yet they would see that she was big enough to change her mind. Yet she only dropped it, pending the time when students all over the Field would take it up again in understanding, and belatedly give her the credit that belonged to her for obeying God. She trusted that some day progress would open the eyes of all to see that in doing this thing — as in all things that she did — she was right, just as right as would be a general who ordered a sentry shot, because he went to sleep while on guard.

The First Reader was guilty of going to sleep at a post more important than one in any human war that was ever waged; yet his punishment was not to be shot, but only to be fined. He should have been grateful that he was let off so easily. Think of the mess the Cause got into, partly because of his unfaithfulness! Think of the sleepless nights it caused Mrs. Eddy, in which she had to stay awake and work! Think of the amount of money that it cost the church at a time when it could ill afford to throw away forty thousand dollars! Then consider if the penalty Mrs. Eddy imposed was too harsh!

One cannot disregard the fact, that in this epi­sode Mrs. Eddy indicates what she expects of a First Reader of The Mother Church, and by implication, of a branch church. He is not paid just to stand in the desk and read, a job many could do. He is sup­posed to have enough understanding to accompany his work with divine power, so that the sick are healed and the Cause protected from all error; and it fol­lows that if he heals the sick scientifically, this follows because he has protected the members and attendants from error.

It is helpful to hold in thought that our ser­vices and lectures always heal the sick, since their atmosphere is always a healing one, due to the ever presence of divine Love. But because there is a claim that this atmosphere may be invaded by animal magnetism, work must be done to remove this deter­rent, so that Love may manifest its normal, natural and blessed healing effect. It may be said that a Christian Scientist's effort is not so much to mani­fest the Spirit of God, as to handle that which keeps the Spirit of God from being manifested through him, on the basis that all the sons of God are natural conveyors of His truth. One does not need to acquire that which belongs to him inherently.

If a man were suffering with the cold because he did not have enough money to buy coal, his problem would be solved if you unearthed a vein of coal in his own back yard. One who heals the sick in Chris­tian Science, knows that truly his work is not to heal or to change his patient, but merely to remove the veil of mesmerism that hides his present perfec­tion.

Before leaving this letter, a word should be said about the last sentence. To Mrs. Eddy the Woodbury matter was the action of animal magnetism, the effect of which, if not checked, would be to prolong the suit until students were awakened through suffering to do the work necessary to overthrow it. The lawsuit had gone so far, that it had aroused an issue in the minds of people that had to be allowed to come to a head for settlement. One who is on the right side should never fear a lawsuit, if the court is honest and impartial in its decision. It is the man who is afraid for his position who tries to make a compromise.

Thus Mrs. Eddy was willing to have the case come to trial, but she saw it as a trick of animal mag­netism to prolong it. One who is knitting a stock­ing, must toe it in at a certain point. Every dem­onstration must be toed in, which means that one must establish an expectancy of an immediate solution.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy does not make a proph­ecy in regard to the lawsuit coming to trial at a definite date. Evidently God had not revealed to her when it would end, but she felt that an effective demonstration would be made only by the convic­tion that the time was at hand. Otherwise the matter might be a long, drawn-out affair. She knew how court cases often drag along for years. She saw that if such a delay were what the students expected, it would be what they would get; but it was not what she wanted.

Had she said definitely that the case would come to trial on the 29th instant, that would have shown that God had revealed to her that it would be over on that date; but when she wrote “perhaps,” that gave the students the indication that it was possible for it to come to trial on that date, if they made the demonstration to have it so; and that was what she wanted to convey in this letter, namely, the possi­bility in the minds of the students of having it come to trial and be settled at once.

A rule for all practitioners is never to admit to themselves that a case that comes to them will take time to heal. Mrs. Eddy established the prece­dent for instantaneous healing, and her followers must watch lest a human sense cause this standard to trail in the dust.

Today when we heal a case of sickness instan­taneously, we should not be amazed; we should be amazed when we do not, since that was the way she wanted healing to be done, and the way she did it, and knew we could do it, if we demonstrated the possibilities resident in divine Mind.

From this letter we can deduce the importance of students having a mark to shoot at, so that they do not just do general work, but that they strive to bring forth a specific result. Instantaneous heal­ing should be the goal of all practitioners, since, if disease is no more than illusion, divine Mind does not take time to dissipate it, any more than the sun takes time to dissipate darkness.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

June 9, 1901

Beloved Students:

I intended to name Mr. Bingham for an office, but forgot it. I herein ask that you elect him President of The Mother Church, if you know of nothing that has come up since his residence in Mass. that should render him unfit for this office. Please tell him I asked you to elect him. It is wise to give him some token of gratitude for what he has done for our church.

With love,

M. B. Eddy


Mr. Arthur Bingham bought a hotel adjacent to The Mother Church to hold until the land was needed for the extension. One need for this action was because, if it became known that such property was required by the church, the owners might take advan­tage of the situation and boost the price. There­fore Mr. Bingham did a real service for the Cause in holding this property.

It is only fair to state, however, that he became fearful over the outcome, and asked to be released, so that the Directors had to find someone else who was willing and able to assume the burden. At that point they asked me to take over the hotel, which I did, and ran it for two years. I cite this experience to show that perhaps Mr. Bingham's ser­vice was not as enduring as it might have been.

When Mrs. Eddy directed that Mr. Bingham be elected President of The Mother Church, it may be that the Directors discovered that he had become unsettled in his thought about continuing to hold the adjacent property, which in their minds unfitted him for this office; although the actual transfer of the land and building to me did not take place until a year later. At the time the church was un­able to pay for this land, due to the great expense of the Woodbury suit, so the situation required that some student assume the burden, until the required amount was available in the church funds.

It seems sad that Mrs. Eddy should feel that, when a student performed service for the organization, he should have to be rewarded by being elected to some honorary position; but she was not mistaken in detecting qualities of thought. She did not offer empty laurels to those who did not crave recognition for work well done.

When an individual works hard during an election, if his party comes into power, he expects his reward by being elected to some office. If the party fails to recognize his service and so to reward him, he may refuse to support it at the next election. This seems like wholly selfish labor that does not regard the welfare of the community or the country; but it is a commentary on the human mind. Yet in time of war, sacrifice is demanded of everyone, for which there is no reward other than the satisfaction of knowing that one is doing his or her part toward victory.

When a quality of thought in a student sought aggrandizement because of service, Mrs. Eddy evident­ly did not object to bestowing it. She was willing to give Mr. Bingham this honor, if nothing had come up to render him unfit for it. The fact that he never filled this office might indicate, that already the Directors knew of his unwillingness to continue to hold the property for them.

On the other hand, Mrs. Eddy's heart must have been gladdened by students who labored for the Truth without demanding any emoluments, but who served God, trusting Him to reward them in His own way. The aggrandizement of man is an uncertain factor, since mortal mind is liable to turn and rend one on the slightest provocation. Envy and jealousy are aroused when one is honored above another.

When Mrs. Eddy permitted certain of her stu­dents to be honored, she may have been an instrument in God's hands for testing them, since each advanc­ing pilgrim must be tested by both praise and blame, and be unmoved by either, before he can be said to be up to God's standard. Thus when misunderstanding or approval on the part of man comes to us, we should impersonalize them and recognize these experiences as part of God's test; and of the two, the test of ap­proval and aggrandizement is the more difficult and dangerous, since it is not easy to perceive the subtlety and worthlessness of the praise of man.

The last picture in Christ and Christmas shows a dark cross and an illuminated one, festooned with birds and flowers. Evidently both lie in our path on the road to the crown, and the pleasant cross is as much a test and a temptation as the dark one. Furthermore, the agreeable cross is the more diffi­cult temptation of the two, since one is apt to for­get that it is a cross, in admiring the beauty of the birds and flowers.

Perhaps as the Bible indicates, Job met the temptation of the dark cross, and then failed when it came to the harmonious one. He may have consid­ered that all his treasures in matter were rewards for work well done; so he had the right to stop in his journey in order to enjoy them. Yet mortal be­lief is hell. Matter is our punishment for having turned away from God. We must bear the cross until we return to the Father's house. Hence the illumi­nation of the cross that comes to us as a test, should never cause us to forget that it is a cross, and the demand of God is to progress out of materi­ality, whether it appears to be dark or light. Had Job continued to progress under human harmony, he would not have had to lose it.

When man is in jail, he is being punished. Hence no misguided sympathy should ever lead people to fit up his cell with so much that is agreeable and comfortable, that he forgets that he is being punished, and wants to remain.

Because there is little to be found where Mrs. Eddy outlines her conception of the duties of the President of The Mother Church, this letter becomes important, since it implies that in her estimation, the office is largely honorary, and one to be used to reward faithful service, where such service re­quires such a recompense. It is not an agreeable thought, that certain members might feel that the Christian Science organization was ungrateful, if it did not reward them; so it offers an empty office as a recompense, an office which before the world ap­pears to be important, whereas in the eyes of Chris­tian Scientists it is no more than what one makes it. A far-seeing student could take the office and make a wonderful thing out of it, but such a result would follow individual demonstration.

When in her letter of May 19, Mrs. Eddy insisted that the First Reader, Judge Hanna, pay the rent of her house because of the increased expense of the Woodbury suit, it may be that she expected far more from the First Reader in the way of watch and ward over the Church, than the common conception would include. In her eyes it was not merely an honorable position, since her penalty implied that if he had kept proper watch over things, there would have been no lawsuit; that if he had successfully handled mor­tal mind's opposition to truth, it would never have crystalized in that way.

Just as Mrs. Eddy indicated that the First Reader has responsibilities toward the organization beyond merely reading, and conducting services, so in this letter she implies that the office of Pres­ident is more or less an empty honor, but that one can make something out of it through his own demon­stration.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

June 17, 1901

C. S. Board Directors

Beloved Students:

Be sure this goes into this week's issue of the Sentinel, that circumstances have made it requisite to have our communion services held on the 23rd of June, 1901. You will see this is carried out. I have written a notice of it and telephoned it to Judge Hanna to have it appear in this week's Sentinel.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy

N. B. Also adjourn the annual business meet­ing of our church to the day following the day of the semi-annual meeting next October.

Again,

Mother


These letters to the Directors reveal as nothing else could do, the divine Science that launched the great Cause of Christian Science; hence they must be studied and understood by the present-day students whom God calls to fill in the breaches and repair the walls of Zion, as the occasion demands.

Mrs. Eddy constructed the Cause and laid a foundation which cannot be shaken, but the wonderful superstructure laid on this foundation, which is efficaciously organized to spread the knowledge of Truth, needs repairing or protecting from time to time, and those raised up for this purpose, must study Mrs. Eddy's demonstration that brought it into existence.

The process of hardening copper was lost to humanity, because those who discovered it were more interested in results than in methods. If students continue to be interested merely in the results of Mrs. Eddy's demonstration of her Cause, the knowledge of the process whereby it was brought into existence may be lost, and with this loss will come a loss of the ability to repair it.

Hence it is essential that students study how Mrs. Eddy put this Cause together through her reflec­tion of God that enabled her to understand all that was necessary of law, business, construction, pro­tection, to discern the right persons for the right places, and to read the mind of mortals as it became necessary. All this grew from her ability to retain and maintain the Spirit of God.

No one human mind could have kept the countless threads in hand, as our Leader did. In her letter of November 6, 1895, she wrote to the Board to have a fire in the edifice to keep the dampness out, so as to avoid rust. There were those who considered this to be a needless attention to detail, since the iron was properly painted, and the church dry, with the sun on three sides. Yet if a man owns a cottage by the ocean and has hired the local plumber to turn the water on and off each season, he may write him a letter reminding him of his responsibility, know­ing how easily he might forget it and let the water freeze in the pipes. Then the plumber writes back that everything is taken care of. Was the owner's letter foolish? If he is a Christian Scientist, he recognizes the fallibility of mortal mind. His letter is his demonstration to watch lest animal magnetism step in and cause the plumber to forget or to delay.

In the same way, Mrs. Eddy watched lest animal magnetism step in and cause the Directors to forget important matters. If they patted themselves on the back when they received this letter, knowing that they had attended to the possibility of iron rust, they should have realized that Mrs. Eddy was only calling to their attention the constant watch­fulness needed, in order to avoid the snares of ani­mal magnetism. All through her experience she had noted animal magnetism operating to make students forget simple duties.

Under the date of October 20, 1907, we find the following notation in Calvin Frye's diary, which was made public in 1930 (See page 529 of “Mrs. Eddy” by Dakin): “Last evening, under the influence of m.a.m. Mr. Tomlinson told Mrs. Eddy she was ungrateful and a tyrant.”

I was a close friend of Mr. Tomlinson's for nearly fifty years, and in 1928 my son was a member of the Metaphysical College Class of which he was the teacher. He was ever a loyal student of his Leader, whom he loved dearly. He might well have used this experience with animal magnetism to teach his pupils a valuable lesson, pointing out that it is similar to Peter's experience in denying the Mas­ter that he loved. He could say to his students what Mrs. Eddy once said, “Never be too confident that you will not be made to do something against your will and wish.” He might have added, “My stu­dents, never permit yourselves to feel foolishly secure from the attacks of animal magnetism. Did not our Leader write to Mr. Knapp, ‘You will always think you are fully aroused to the present need when the glamour is deepest.' Think of my experience. Here I was, a devoted disciple of Mary Baker Eddy, one who loved her most tenderly and owed her every­thing; yet when I permitted animal magnetism to touch me, I called her a tyrant and ungrateful! Take this lesson to yourselves, and watch against this baneful influence. If you do not let your pride prevent you from confessing it and discussing it, it will help to save you many times.''

Mr. Tomlinson went to Mrs. Eddy's home to serve the most spiritually minded woman who ever trod this globe. Yet at one instance he permitted himself to be the voice for error, accusing her of being a tyrant and ungrateful, which was the last thing that she was. The truth was, God recognized his faults and called her to be the channel to rebuke them, and it was his pride that rebelled. Yet if anyone had prophesied to him when he was in his right mind, that he would have done such a thing, he would have stoutly denied such a possibility. In describing the action of animal magnetism Paul declared that he did the things he would not, and left undone the things he would do. Mr. Tomlinson could well have profited by what Mrs. Eddy wrote further to Mr. Knapp, “You are always most safe when you realize you are in need of more conscious truth relative to the lie, and its action, and feel sure that it is nothing, and His strength abounding in you, and see the path of the serpent and handle the error without fear....”

It is plain that it was animal magnetism which temporarily threw Mr. Tomlinson off his normal basis of thought. There was hardly a student who did not need some word of rebuke at some time or other of like nature with that which Calvin Frye recorded, and Mrs. Eddy was awake and ready to help her students to avoid hidden snares and errors at all times. If one wonders at her marvelous ability to detect error unerringly, let him consider that the process of gain­ing spirituality is rubbing out everything that keeps God from drawing His picture in our consciousness, and not drawing remarkable pictures of our own. The Master's spirituality was the result of the elimina­tion of materiality and mortality, everything that might fill his mental blackboard, — so that God could write upon it. This doctrine of elimination brings spirituality within the reach of all. One proof that Mrs. Eddy had cleansed her blackboard so that her impressions came from God, is the remarkable nature of these letters written to the officials of her church; they reveal such a depth of spiritual insight, that we know that this same spirituality was the basis of her private life. If one finds therein anything that does not agree with his human ideal, he needs to be enlightened and instructed, since a correct analysis will reveal the rightness of Mrs. Eddy's entire experience. Had she been off the track at any point, she would have displeased God, and He would have indicated such a falling away by a withdrawal of His presence.

This letter of June 17 that changed the date of the communion services, indicates the unerring direction of Mind in matters pertaining to church activities. No situation was too distracting, no condition of malpractice or disturbance too great, to swerve our Leader from the demonstration of vision and watchfulness. The Woodbury trial was indeed a great trial to her. It was the stir resulting from it that occasioned this postponement of the services. She would have done anything to have avoided the law suit; yet in retrospect we learn that her experience with error taught her much that she needed to know, and enabled her to help her students and the world just that much more. It called upon her to be just that much more watchful.

No advanced student can escape the necessity to study Augusta Stetson's experience, since more than all other students, she illustrated the possibility of being active, sincere, loving, and yet, like Judas of old, having a certain human quality which she did not condemn, which, when she rose to a certain height, betrayed her. With Judas his uncondemned error was a love of money. There are indications that Mrs. Stetson held an appreciation for money, social posi­tion and power, which she endeavored to gloss over rather than root out. With wealthy students who were ready to give her whatever she wanted, she justified indulgence in materiality, pride and power, in the name of good.

From Mrs. Stetson's downfall we learn, that unhandled human qualities become a stumbling block in our upward path, and that the nearer we come to fulfilling the demands of God, the more serious be­comes the harboring of error, especially that which we cling to in the name of good.

Mrs. Eddy watched over Mrs. Stetson as she did over the church. It was not the church or Mrs. Eddy that finally brought her to a point where she was disgraced, but God. Had the church failed to act against her, God would have arrested her in her headlong career. Knowing her experience, we should voluntarily withdraw from the ranks of Christian Science, unless we are willing to overcome all ten­dencies which stand in the way of our complete yield­ing to God. Mrs. Eddy did not speak idle words in her article “Consistency,” which she dictated to Mr. McLellan, which was directed at Mrs, Stetson and the New York problem: “Are you striving to make the most possible of matter, which you admit is unreal, or are you striving to make the most of Spirit, which you admit is All, and that there is none beside Spirit? If it be Spirit, let it be Spirit; and if it be matter, let him acknowledge it, and remove his name from the list of Christian Scientists. This he must do, and will do if he is honest.” (See Christian Science Sentinel, 1908.)

An incident which should be recorded for all time, because it covers a general temptation, and because it illustrates Mrs. Eddy's watchful care, is the founding of the “General Association for the Dispensing of Christian Science Literature” through Mrs. Stetson's instigation. Its proposed platform may be found on page 63 of the Christian Science Journal for May, 1891. This platform fairly sparkles with enthusiasm for this new project. In reading it, one sees that Mrs. Stetson had high hopes for the good that was going to be accomplished. The plat­form calls for systematic distribution of literature, with a general secretary, dozens of assistant secre­taries, and an indefinite number of local secretaries. Each member was pledged to send out six packages of literature per month, sending in slips with the names of the recipients to the general secretary. The article ends on a very scientific note that the mem­bers, if they experience apathy or indifference, must recognize and destroy the claims of animal mag­netism, in order to make this new activity a worthy transmitter of the glorious Truth to humanity.

In the July Journal there appeared a card writ­ten by Mrs. Eddy, which drove this association out of existence, before it hardly had a chance to be formed. The card read,


“Since my attention has been called to the article in the May Journal, I think it would have been wiser not to have organized the General Association For Dispensing Christian Science Literature. 1. Because I disbelieve in the utility of so wide spread an organization. It tends to pro­mote monopolies, class legislation and unchristian motives for Christian work. 2. I consider my stu­dents as capable, individually, of selecting their own reading matter and circulating it, as a commit­tee would be which is chosen for this purpose, I shall have nothing further to say on this subject, but hope my students' conclusion will be wisely drawn, and tend to promote the welfare of those out­side as well as inside this organization.”


Then followed a notice signed by Carol Norton, General Secretary. Edward Kimball's daughter asserted in later years that Mrs. Eddy wrote this notice, and sent it to Mr. Norton to sign.


“Having awakened to the fact that material means and methods cannot be incorporated in the practical demonstration and work of divine Science, and especially in the cir­culation of Christian Science literature, I hereby recall the request made in the May Journal, namely — ‘that Scientists organize for the systematic dis­tribution of Christian Science literature,' and here­by declare the General Association for Dispensing Christian Science Literature disorganized from date.”


Carol Norton acted as Mrs. Stetson's tool. She was the general behind the scenes, and he was the general's secretary, rather than the General Secre­tary. On June 24, Mrs. Eddy wrote to William Nixon,


“Did you consent to sell Science and Health and my works to those only who would buy and sell my writ­ings by a vote on this question of the Scientist Association for dispensing C. S. Literature? Can it be that one who has written to me as you have on oppression measures used in our cause could have done this? I will rip up all my business relations and take all into my hands before this most wicked, proscriptive unChristianlike measure shall be caused. I never dreamed of such a platform as Stetson's being brought forward by a Christian Scientist. No man or woman has told me of this obnoxious feature, but my Father has, and it shall be stopped by His servant who has given His word to the world, not to a privileged monopoly to tyrannize over other writ­ers.

“N. B. I cannot blame you if you did this out of a conscientious assent to my request, but I only marvel that you did not tell me of this proscriptive, tyrannical clause on buying and selling other liter­ature than mine. It is the ‘old' made worse than at first; I never read the May Journal and never knew till now the curse to that platform of Stetson's.”


The next letter is dated the 26 inst.


“My dear Mr. Nixon: I did not believe you would consent knowingly to anything that works against justice and law. Neither could my precious student, Mrs. Stet­son. But neither of you see what God shows me would grow out of this movement. I cannot make you see it. God alone can, and even He cannot until you grow up to it, for this work is ours to do. Then what can I do only to speak His word of warning and wait for all students to grow up to understand His ways, and mine when God-directed?

N. B. Nothing should be published now relating to this organization — that Mrs. S. has stopped the movement, if indeed she has. She will see me today, when I shall know.”


Finally on September 5, Mrs. Eddy wrote to Mrs. Stetson,


“I am glad for your sake that I have suc­ceeded in opening your eyes once more, but I must now have the evidence of your works and not words to support my confidence that you will remain firm in your present resolutions. The enemy is using you to hinder me in my work as well as to stop your growth and prosperity…. From this time hence tell no one that you are acting upon my personal guidance in aught that you do, or refuse to do; for hereafter I shall not advise you. You must act on your own responsibility and not mine; it is time for you to do this. Ask God for wisdom, which you so much need, and He will give it…. Now, dear student, when you read this letter, remember that I love you as a mother loves her child. Be calm and at peace, for God will guide you and bless you, if you obey His commandments.... This letter must strengthen you and help you, and will, if you receive it in the right spirit.”


Spiritual insight revealed to Mrs. Eddy what Mrs. Stetson was trying to do in this wide-spread organization for distributing literature. She was inaugurating a reign of the human mind. One who reads the platform on page 63 of the May, 1891, Journal, cannot find one word in it that indicates, permits or encourages individual demonstration. Yet as Mrs. Eddy founded it, everything in our Cause calls for it, and must be done through it. The time should never come when this platform of Mrs. Stet­son's is renewed in the Cause, since we do not have our Leader with us to rebuke it and cast it out.

In the Christian Science Sentinel for July 13, 1918, is an editorial by Annie Knott on literature distribution that paraphrases the following by Mrs. Eddy, which she called “The Coin of Christian Science.” In this statement we find the key to the whole prob­lem. “Gold — The silent thoughts of Truth and Love which heal the sick. Silver — The spoken word of Truth and Love which casts out evil and heals the sick. Currency — The written word of Truth and Love published and distributed throughout the world, healing sickness and sin. But this currency must be backed up by a gold reserve in human character.”

In other words, only as individual demonstration supports distribution of literature, is it effectual. Distribution apart from demonstration, is like in­flation, depreciating in value as does paper money, when there is a lessening of the gold reserve that supports it. In Christian Science the gold reserve is practice — living the Truth and healing by its means.

Mrs. Eddy stated to Mr. Nixon that no man, or woman, told her the obnoxious feature in Mrs. Stet­son's platform, but her Father did. Through spirit­ual insight she detected the workings of the human mind. Intuition exposed Mrs. Stetson's endeavor to get control of the sale of all Mrs. Eddy's published works, so that the former, instead of the latter, would become the power behind the throne. It was mortal mind striving to get control of Science and Health, by divorcing its sale and circulation from the same demonstration that brought it into being.

The distribution and circulation of our liter­ature is a good thing, but a mass effort using no discrimination, where no mental work is done to break down prejudice and so open the way for its acceptance, only serves to awaken dormant antagonism. When the world is ready to make peace with us, these oppressive and aggressive methods only serve to stir thought.

At one time the Christian Science Publishing Society tried the experiment of hiring accredited representatives to solicit subscriptions for the Christian Science Monitor. These individuals visited Protestant and Catholic alike. They called on business men and housewives. While they were probably conscientious in striving to make a demon­stration of this work, in the long run their efforts were found to be unfruitful, and the project was abandoned.

The simple answer in Science is always demon­stration. Mrs. Eddy was opposed to what Mrs. Stet­son planned, because she foresaw that the latter was laying plans that would enable the distribution of literature to be carried on without demonstration, exactly as when John Salchow carved wooden forms on which to dry Mrs. Eddy's stockings, he was helping to organize the work of Mrs. Eddy's maids, so that. they would not need to demonstrate each day the iron­ing of her stockings. What other deduction can be made, when it is known that she was extremely fussy about having them ironed without creases, and yet, when she learned about the wooden forms from Lydia Hall, she ordered that they be destroyed, even though the results from the forms were humanly satisfactory! She wanted no mechanical methods in her home or her Cause that would bring out satisfactory results, whether demonstration was used or not. She deplored any method that took away the incentive for individ­ual and daily demonstration, even though that method appeared to be the result of demonstration. To her a demonstration that took away the need for further demonstration, was not a good demonstration!

The moment Mrs. Eddy ordered this new committee of Mrs. Stetson's disbanded, letters from students began to pour in, asking if other organized methods were to be abandoned. In the Journal for September she inserted the following notice, “Question — are students to continue to organize Churches and Asso­ciations? To organize and support Churches, Sunday Schools, and Students' Associations, as heretofore, is the proper way at present to build up the cause of Christian Science. These means have been blessed, and are being blessed, and there is no occasion for students to abandon them.”

Mrs. Eddy knew that these means called for in­dividual demonstration. In the Church Manual she directs all members to pray as they know how to pray, for all congregations. Thus we find a By-law calling for demonstration, lest organization tend to discourage it. On page 221 of the Journal, Volume 13, we find the following sentence, “(Students) should come to the services in the spirit of brotherly love and mutual aid, and thus assist in building up an atmosphere of receptivity, in doing which they aid themselves, the readers, and all others, instead of sitting by to get from others what they have not themselves earned.”

Divine wisdom revealed to our Leader that the large scale organized effort to distribute our lit­erature; would tend to discourage demonstration. Yet students at once concluded that she was taking a stand against all organization. To be sure, she knew that all organized work carries the temptation to pass the responsibility of demonstration to others; but in the forms that she established, this temptation is reduced to a minimum.

Those who belong to literature distribution committees, are tempted to feel that they are ac­complishing much, when the number of items distrib­uted is large. The demonstrable way is to forget the figures, and work to open the way for a greater healing consciousness to go forth. Then the results will speak for themselves.

In this letter of June 24, 1891, Mrs. Eddy gives a clear picture of how God warned her of a danger to the Cause, and of how its protection consisted in her being so awake, that she could learn things with­out being told. She was a mental barometer for the Cause, since she was able to detect dangers in ad­vance.

At times it was a shock to students to have her accuse them of that which they had not voiced. On August 16, 1908, we find in Calvin Frye's diary the entry: “She called me and I. C. Tomlinson to her room this morning, and told me that I was the cause of her suffering; that I told her the phlegm in her throat was consumption, and that she would never have thought of such a thing if I had not named it. I have no recollection of telling her so; she said we must part, for I am a channel to bring discord to her.”

To Mrs. Eddy, thought was as tangible as the spoken word. Mr. Frye's responsibility was to dem­onstrate for her. He had been trained to know how to handle the errors that were aimed at her — how to be a hill horse such as were used in the day of the horse cars. When Mrs. Eddy's car faltered, he could provide a support that helped her over a steep place. By 1908, however, younger students had begun to dis­place him in the home. The great responsibility of helping the Leader was being shared. There is a possibility that he was letting up in his faith­ful efforts.

Unquestionably the suggestion that Mrs. Eddy had consumption had come to him. The student is expected to diagnose error when it confronts him, but he should not permit it to remain in thought a moment longer than is necessary. He should drop it as one does a hot potato, picking it up just long enough to move it. Mr. Frye let the above sugges­tion remain in his thought, and Mrs. Eddy detected it as plainly as though it had been voiced.

If a man swears at me, I can rebuke him; but if he does so mentally, he can deny it and ask for proof if I chide him. When Mrs. Eddy detected things mentally, her rebukes accomplished very little, unless the pride of students would permit them to see the nature of the rebuke as coming from God. In this letter of June 26, 1891, she states that it is God's word of warning. Thus it would be a seri­ous matter for a student to explain such a warning on the basis that she was mistaken. She reflected the all-seeing eye and the all-knowing Mind of God. As she was able to convince students of this fact, she brought about a surer obedience.

The letter says, “I cannot make you see (what God shows me). God alone can, and even He cannot until you grow up to it....” This assertion implies that the work of students is to grow, until they are able to comprehend the things of God. Those students who believe that the things of God can be made comprehensible to the human mind without growth, should learn of our Leader's disappointment over the fact that so many things that God revealed to her, could not be understood by her finest students.

One can imagine the feelings of a spy who, after bringing a message of importance to his people — risk­ing his life at every step — found that they could not decipher it. Mrs. Eddy combatted the powers of dark­ness for the sake of bringing God's message to the people, only to find that few could comprehend it. Even her choicest students often misunderstood and misinterpreted — this was her constant regret. As the letter goes on to say, “Then what can I do, only to speak His word of warning and wait for all stu­dents to grow up to understand His ways, and mine when God-directed?” Here was a plan for an organiza­tion which would apparently be productive of great good; and what does the Leader do? She apparently becomes a deterrent to the establishment of a valu­able addition to the Cause — an organization that would help to spread the knowledge of Christian Sci­ence and to distribute to the whole world the writ­ten word that would save mankind.

But the students missed the salient point. Mrs. Eddy foresaw that under Mrs. Stetson's plan, the church would strive to flood the world with Christian Science literature through human processes, certain that thereby God's Cause was being extended. Yet behind the scenes would be the dictatorship of the human mind, striving to inculcate the efficacy of mass thought, on the basis that if the distribu­tion of ten copies of the Monitor is efficacious in interesting the public in Christian Science, ten times that would be ten times more efficient. Cer­tainly that was not Mrs. Eddy's teaching.

It is not possible to create a demand for Chris­tian Science as manufacturers create a demand for their product, through advertising and the distri­bution of samples. The answer is to be found in Mrs. Eddy's own words as given to her household on May 21, 1903. “The true Science — divine Science — ­will be lost sight of again unless we arouse our­selves. This demonstrating to make matter build up is not Science. The building up of churches, the writing of articles and the speaking in public is the old way of building up a cause. The way I brought this Cause into sight was through HEALING; and now these other things would come in and hide it just as was done in the time of Jesus.”

Our literature that is distributed without dem­onstration, only adds to mortal mind's prejudice in the long run. Healing is the great need. Then dis­tribution follows as naturally as the flower does the planting of the seed.

In 1944 the Directors planned a campaign of having lectures given in towns and cities where no organizations had as yet been formed. Yet an edito­rial in the Sentinel for October 12, 1907, that surely had Mrs. Eddy's approval, plainly states that the healing of the sick and the deliverance of the sin­ful must precede every other form of work or organ­ization in a community. It states that the rules governing the work of the Board of Lectureship con­template the giving of lectures only in places where­in societies or branch churches have been organized with certainty of permanence and success, and that this can never be done until good healing work has been accomplished. It would do no good to send big guns to a sector during war, where no emplacements had as yet been built.

Healing alone lays a foundation for organiza­tion. No systematic effort to drive mortal mind into Christian Science, will ever have the sanction of divine Mind. Mortal mind needs and wants healing, and in proportion as it receives it, will it welcome its deliverer. Jesus told of the man who made a feast, and when he invited guests, one by one they made excuses. They were satisfied with matter, and so had no desire for Spirit. Finally he found his guests in the highways and by-ways among the blind, the halt and the lame. People satisfied with life in matter, will never be interested in the Christian Science feast of Spirit, and it is a waste of time and money to try to force them to partake of it. Only those who are in trouble, sickness and the like, are open to being healed, and so having their inter­est aroused.

Healing is the drawing power in Christian Sci­ence and always will be. If it were possible to take the Monitor to sick people and say, “Subscribe to this paper and the reading of it will heal you,” there would be thousands of sick people taking it. This merely illustrates the necessity for imbuing our paper with the spirit of healing.

The summary of the whole matter is, that Mrs. Eddy stood ready to rebuke whatever the students did, that introduced material ways and means into the practical demonstration and work of divine Science, as was stated in the card in the Journal previously referred to. To her it was a material method, when the effort was made to spread Christian Science wholly by the distributing of literature. She knew that one way and one way only was efficacious, and that is healing. When the healing work is prosper­ing and growing, the distribution of literature fol­lows, as the white wake follows the great ship that is going forward, cleaving the waves. Healing opens the way for distribution. The reverse of this prop­osition, namely, that healing follows distribution, was the mistake that Mrs. Stetson accepted and pro­mulgated, and that Mrs. Eddy had to correct. It is a mistake that the organization is apt to make, and when it does, watchful students must stand ready to correct it and point out the true way, the Chris­tian Science way, the way of Mary Baker Eddy. And what was that way? Her own words best characterize it, “I first prove to myself, not by ‘words,' — these afford no proof, — but by demonstration of Christian Science, that its Principle is divine. All must go and do likewise.” Miscellaneous Writings, 338.




(Telegram)

Concord, New Hamp.

To C. S. Board of Directors

30 Norway St. June 21, 1901

Your request for me to be present at our communion received. It will not be con­venient. God is with you.

Mary Baker G. Eddy


Through her spiritual insight Mrs. Eddy was able to detect the human motive that impelled the Directors to invite her to attend the Communion, and she refused. They desired to have her present in person in order to have the service an assured suc­cess. In her refusal, she embodied a deep lesson which is there for those who have eyes to see and ears to hear.

The problem of personality is an important one in Christian Science, not as something that should frighten students but encourage them. For instance, when a dear one passes on, if you can turn your thought from person to Principle, from the finite to the infinite, you will find that deep sense of grief lessening. Human affection is based on a fundamental underlying reality. Mortals fancy that they fall in love with personality, but that is a mistake. It is the little of God that the mortal manifests that they love. We can take courage from the fact that, if we can love that, how much more can we love God, since if we can love the lesser, we surely can love the greater!

Yet it is the sense of personality that stands as a deterrent to spiritual growth, since as long as one believes that he can be satisfied with the finite, he will not seek the infinite. The man who prides himself on his perfect sight or hearing, is not apt to strive to transfer his sense of such functions, — in which what one hears and sees is part of the mortal dream, — from matter to Spirit. It is when his functions become impaired, that he is driven to make a demonstration of divine hearing and seeing. Nothing stands in the way of demonstrat­ing spiritual sense as much as the gratification coming from material sense. It was this knowledge that impelled our Leader to refuse to be present at the Communion in person.

At this point I again repeat my experience when my teacher, Eugene Greene, took a group of his stu­dents to Pleasant View around June, 1896. We had never seen our Leader, and we were eager to do so. Mr. Greene, however, pleaded with us, telling us that it was not the material Mrs. Eddy we had come to see, but to sense the Spirit of God that she man­ifested, which was not to be seen with the material eyes. We still felt that we were being cheated when he led us down into the fields back of Mrs. Eddy's home, where apparently there was no chance of seeing her on her daily drive; but we went and stood with bowed heads, striving to be receptive to the spiritual message which she had for the students at that time, the impersonal blessing which was present for those who sought it. Some might gain a satisfaction through seeing the Leader in the flesh, but the true blessing was to be gained only as one turned aside from material gratification. This was what Mr. Greene was striving to get us to do.

As we stood, trying to follow out what Mr. Greene suggested, opening our thoughts to drink the message of God, Mrs. Eddy drove by, using a road across the fields that we did not know was even used, and we were rewarded by a glimpse of her smiling as the carriage passed. We sought first a communion with God, and our heart's desire — to see her — was added unto us. Thus we proved the rule, “Seek the best and you get the rest.”

This rule holds good in healing. When one de­sires and seeks spiritual hearing with all his heart, a renewal of human hearing is sure to follow. Mrs. Eddy was teaching this same lesson to the Di­rectors in this telegram, hoping that they would work to realize and demonstrate that God was with them. She knew that He was with them, but she wanted them to know it for themselves. Then they would receive the blessing that was waiting for them at this Communion.

A practitioner might say to a patient, “I know you are well, but you have got to know it, in order to get any satisfaction out of the fact.” So it would be the knowing of God's presence, that would bring the students the blessing that they hoped to receive from our Leader's presence with them.

In this telegram she was saying, “Your invita­tion for me to be present indicates that you hope to make the Communion a great success, by being able to exhibit my person at the service. Then people will go away and boast that they have seen me; but to see me in the flesh is not a noble ambition. What is it but a desire to see that which I am striving to put off? Your true Communion is God with you. You might become so carried away by the fact that I was present at your service, that you ne­glected to realize the presence of God. You would thus make a god out of me, which would be idolatry.”

She did not want to spoil this important occa­sion, which she might have done had she attended. She might have talked to the members to direct their thoughts to God, but she could not have prevented their thoughts being largely directed toward her. They might have felt that they had had one of the most successful Communions they had ever had, when it might have been the poorest. They might have gone away, boasting that they had seen and heard their Leader, which would have awakened jealousy on the part of those who could not attend, and caused them to spend unwholesome time in regretting the fact that they were not there.

It was part of the necessary training of stu­dents to look away from the Leader's personality, in order to listen for and strive to imbibe the Spirit of God. Hebrews 9:28 tells us that “...unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.” Without sin must mean without the flesh. The spiritual idea must be perceived spiritually — students must graduate from the satisfaction of sense testimony — if they expect to make real progress.

Lately, cameras have been developed which can photograph a bullet in flight that the eye cannot see. Man has spiritual senses that cognize that which material sense cannot behold. It is his task to de­velop these senses, through which he cognizes the reality of existence, which is far more enduring and satisfying, than any personal sense can ever be.

Thus the statement, “God is with you,” was a call to develop spiritual sense. This task is not a difficult one. The reason it is not done, with more zeal, is the same as the reason why, if men were digging for a great treasure, they would stop if they found a lesser treasure which satisfied them. Yet it is possible that a lesser treasure was buried over a greater one, in order to deceive those who were hunting for the latter. The deduction is, that it is not because of the bad mortal man, but the good mortal man, that the real man has remained hidden. The humanly good mortal, so nearly approximates what mortals hunger for, that the search for God's man is carried no deeper. Yet beneath this material falsity lies the real treasure, the real man, desir­able, lovable and immortal, waiting to be brought to light.

The statement, “God is with you,” covers the whole demonstration of Christian Science. It in­cludes the importance of not only knowing that God is with you, but of developing spiritual sense that enables you to know it. As this is done, one reaches the point where he no longer requires the human symbol, or personality, to be present, since he has attained that for which the symbol stands. As Mrs. Eddy writes on page 54 of the textbook, “If Christ, Truth, has come to us in demonstration, no other commemoration is requisite, for demonstration is Immanuel, or God with us, and if a friend be with us, why need we memorials of that friend?” Mrs. Eddy wanted the students to demonstrate God with them to such a degree, at the approaching ser­vice, that they would not need her presence as a symbol of God's presence.

Mrs. Eddy wanted her church to have the best of everything. Hence she would have made the difficult journey to be present at this meeting, had she thought that it would have advanced the spiritual animus of her Cause in the slightest degree; but she detected back of the invitation a desire to have a communion with her instead of with God — a communion gained the easy human way, instead of the divine way through demonstration, which eliminates materiality, all disturbance and fretting of thought, all envy, jeal­ousy, and malice, and in the secret place of the Most High, meets God face to face. The only way to have such a communion is to rule out every desire for anything less than to meet God face to face.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

June 29, 1901

Judge S. J. Hanna

Beloved Student:

From my experience and intuitions which are above personality, I write the following:

Have no certificates issued to the Ob­stetric class. They may possibly at some time involve all their signers in a law-suit. Also have only the signatures of the teacher of the class and the President of the College on the certificates issued from the Massachu­setts Metaphysical College.

I intend to have the English language taught in this College. For this purpose a chair should be established and the schol­arship equal to that received at our high schools. I want this attended to after the close of the College.

This letter was dictated just before reading your letter accompanying proofs of certificates.

With love,

M. B. Eddy


In stating that she wrote this letter from her experience and intuitions which were above person­ality, Mrs. Eddy indicated that divine Wisdom oper­ated through her knowledge of human affairs, spir­itualized her ideas, and focused them intelligently. Yet this was a conception not as high as a divine leading that comes as a flash of light, in the application of divine wisdom to human affairs.

On June 9, 1900, she wrote Judge Hanna and Mr. Kimball, stating that the way was clear as God's appointing. Such a statement gave her directions the authority of God more completely than it did for her to write from experience and intuition. In stat­ing that she wanted English taught in the College, she gave forth a plan which she perceived as a need, but later changed. Her thought was so flexible, that when a higher discernment of God's will came to her, she followed it without hesitation.

Every day our Leader was called upon to make im­portant decisions, yet a consciousness of divine wisdom came to her more clearly some days than others. She always did her best, but there were times when she could not be sure whether her impressions were divine intuitions or suggestions from other minds. She never rested until the final word came from God. When she gave forth something from experience which she found later differed from God's direction, she changed it at once.

Lest one member of the Board suspect another member of having conferred with her on this matter pri­vately, and talked her into accepting what he desired, she made a point of writing to Judge Hanna, that even if her direction was not clearly from God, yet it was from experience and intuitions above personality. She had not been influenced by anyone's opinion. She always gave forth her best and highest sense, and was not open to being influenced by others.

God's wisdom through our Leader expressed itself in ways above the human. At one time she made plans for a resort for the so-called sick, and declared through the Sentinel that a fund of over a million dollars was to be established for the benefit of the poor. Later she changed her plans in this regard. Yet she opened a door that made it possible to build such a home at a later date.

In like manner, by demanding a course in the English language in the College, even though later she changed this plan, it served the purpose of im­pressing upon thought that Christian Science holds a high standard, and that those who come to the College must be good English scholars.

Jesus was an excellent scholar, but he demon­strated his education. He did not receive it from any human school. For students of Christian Science who do not make a similar demonstration, schooling is necessary. Yet Science and Health unfolds the possi­bility of rising out of all human limitations to the point where one is taught by the great Teacher, God, who knows all things.

The danger of human training in elocution for reading in our churches is, that it tends to emphasize the importance of right pronunciation and expression at the expense of spiritual thought. When one stresses the letter, it tends to obscure the realization that unless the words of the Bible and Science and Health are filled with the spirit, they profit little.

It is difficult to find a teacher of elocution who is sufficiently balanced on the side of truth, to teach that the mode of expression must never take precedence over the spirit of God back of His words. Often, when readers seek help from human teachers, they became so carried away by what they are taught as to beauty of tone, emphasis, articulation, pause, diction and enunciation, that the spirit of God takes a sec­ondary place.

It is an aphorism that correct reading may or may not carry inspiration, but true inspiration will evolve an adequate expression, if one's demonstration is broadened to include that possibility. The human process has no power to unlock the spirit, but the spirit of God will unfold a correct expression. Man reflecting God is master of all things, language as well as sin and disease.

Any effort to conform every reader to a certain style of reading, cannot be a right way. Each in­dividual is entitled to his own style of reading. If he pronounces the words correctly and clearly, if he has some understanding of what he reads, and above all, if he endeavors to reflect inspiration, his reading will heal, and at the same time be acceptable to mortals.

Mrs. Eddy was sincere in her desire to have the English language taught in the College, but God changed her plan. She was governed by the highest sense of truth that she could gain and every step she took was important and necessary. At this point students needed to be awakened to the fact, that those who become teachers of Christian Science must present an outward demonstration of correctness that conforms to their spirituality. The human vehicle must not be ignored nor overemphasized. The standard of being well dressed, for instance, is to present nothing that can be criticized.

It is possible that inspiration might be conveyed through indifferent playing of the piano; but probably the lack of correct technique would so offend listen­ers that they would lose the musical message.

The fact that Mrs. Eddy suggested the need of the English language being taught in her College, indicates that such a need still remains. If this letter awak­ened the students at that time, it should still awaken them to the need of being good English scholars. If they cannot become such through demonstration, they should not hesitate to take a course in English. Spirituality may be robbed in a measure of its intent and value, if it is put before people in a form that causes them to feel critical of the medium.

John declares that grace and truth came by Jesus Christ (John 1:17). If truth is the gift, grace may be the attractive wrappings of the gift. If mortals recognize the value of wrapping their gifts in an attractive way, in order to arouse the interest and anticipation of the receiver, metaphysicians should not neglect the wrappings of truth.

If a course in English had finally been estab­lished in the College, the danger was that students might have been tempted to regard its study equal in importance to the study of metaphysics. In select­ing students to become teachers, the Board of Direc­tors should not confine their selection to college graduates, since there will always be spiritually­-minded students who are not college graduates, yet who are prepared to hear the voice of God. Mrs. Eddy's concern was for the public, and for the presentation and spread of her teachings in the wisest and largest way. Remember that the Cause of Christian Science has always been satisfied with Mary Baker Eddy with­out a college education, and always will be. She demonstrated her learning as did the Master. The highest standard of intellectuality is a spiritual one.

Once Mrs. Eddy wrote to Edward Kimball, “I wish more of our Readers would take lessons in reading. I want Christian Science to be presented from the platform in a scholarly manner. First the reading should be clear and distinct, then intelligent, power­ful, sympathetic, scientific interpretation, loving and artistic — but the art should be so covered up that the reading will sound natural and simple.”

From the Sentinel of December 21, 1935, we learn that Mrs. Eddy wrote in regard to one of her addresses, “Do not have him read my address. He puts so much of himself in his reading that it clouds the subject. I can trust you to give me a good reader, one that feels his subject, and expresses it so that his hear­ers can understand.” In the same article from the historical files we find the following: “In 1903 she said in regard to her letter to The Mother Church: ‘It is multum in parvo, so I take the liberty to say it is at the mercy of the reader. The style of read­ing needs to be conversational.' ‘I want you to se­lect the best reader you can find to read my short Message; one whose voice is ample, articulation dis­tinct, and whose emphasis, pause, tone is according to conversation, — to the laws of understanding his sub­ject and making it clear to the hearer.'”

The following historical incident is of inter­est in this connection. One Sunday Mrs. Eddy quietly slipped into a service in the Concord church to lis­ten to the readers. Her comment was, “I never would have known that they were reading from the Bible or my book, because they put no healing thought back of it.”

These letters in regard to reading, rebuke a narrow demonstration of Science. It is assumed in branch churches that when a student has proved his ability to heal the sick, he cannot help but do a fine job in the pulpit as reader. Yet the attain­ment of the ability to heal, does not mean that one has demonstrated the ability to read. The demonstra­tion of good reading is a specific one.

The necessary implication from these quoted ex­tracts is, that the broadening of demonstration should bring the same human result, that lessons in reading would bring. Students should not be specialists in the utilization of divine power. The human presenta­tion of Science is too important to neglect; so where the demonstration is not made, one should have resort to the schools. Yet human instruction should never be permitted to take the place of demonstration, lest readers becloud the subject, because their attention becomes so fixed on the effort to read that they for­get the inspirational thought. Mrs. Eddy once told Annie Knott to write and learn her lecture, but never to neglect the inspiration of the moment.

As one reads Mrs. Eddy's requirements, the sense is that no human teacher could satisfy them. Every reader should present his reading to God, holy, ac­ceptable, which is his reasonable service. A right demonstration should accompany the outward form, which means the inspiration of the moment — the healing thought that identifies the fact that he or she is reading from books that heal.

Oft quoted from our textbook is the statement, “Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.” When one becomes a reader, there is a need to read in a scholarly manner, clearly, dis­tinctly, powerfully, sympathetically, scientifically. Divine Love will meet this need; yet rather than have the public suffer because of a lack of demonstration in this direction, it were better for the candidate to take lessons in reading, than to perform in a mediocre manner at the desk.

A lack of education is only a belief of lack, and one's life conforms to one's belief, just as any sense of obstruction between one and the source of all good, or between one and one's giving to humanity, is but a belief. When one adjusts his thinking so that he knows that his own belief is the only obstruc­tion that he can encounter, then he will remove it by knowing its nothingness. Similarly, when he perceives that his belief in a lack of education is the only lack in that direction, he will destroy that belief, and then know that all good flows to him from God at all times, and out to all humanity. Then he will never accept any suggestion of lack in any direction, either of health, money, friends, education, or any opportunity to work for humanity, but will rejoice in spiritual freedom and boundless ability.

A review of the points in the letter in question indicates that, when Mrs. Eddy wrote that her orders sprang from experience and intuitions which were above personality, she indicated that it was her experience that told her what needed to be done, and her divine intuitions told her how to do it. Her experience had given her alertness in watching over the Cause, and her spiritual intuitions had guided her rightly in meeting its every need.

In like manner, when it came to the Obstetric Class, she was alert (through her experience) to see the possibility of students misusing their privilege of attending childbirth cases, and so involving the Cause in difficulties. Consequently, she did not feel that the Cause should stand back of students who might get it into trouble, either through disobedience or by being handled by animal magnetism. She saw that the Cause must be protected above all else. It should never be endangered by students who misrepre­sent or misuse its teachings.

She realized that certificates issued to stu­dents must have some authority back of them, but that it should be confined to the teacher and the Presi­dent of the College, which would prove that a pupil had been taught metaphysics by an authorized teacher, who in turn was authorized by the President of the College. Such a certificate would give the pupil the right to teach and practice according to the teaching he had received.

It was evident to Mrs. Eddy that if a teacher knew his subject, in teaching Science, but was unable to teach it in correct English, he would not impress his pupils rightly. They would be apt to be so of­fended by mistakes in grammar, that they would lose the spiritual teaching. It is possible to have a poor frame on a valuable picture. The ugly or ornate frame does not detract from the intrinsic value of the picture, but it does cause people to forget the beauty of the picture, in commenting on the atrocious nature of the frame.

Mrs. Eddy knew that the reflection of Mind brings to a student everything that he needs to go forth equipped to do the Father's will. The reflection of Mind improves mortal belief in every direction. Hum­ble members of a congregation, totally unprepared for reading, will become splendid readers, under the de­mand of the situation. One does not need to take special studies outside of Christian Science, in order to become the ideal Scientist. What would be thought of the contention that a student should take lessons outside of Science on how to love humanity, or how to cultivate the desire to give to humanity? Love for others and the desire to give to them comes from reflecting God. He is a giving God; hence to reflect Him is to reflect a giving impulse and ability.

Nevertheless, in this letter Mrs. Eddy was call­ing attention to the importance of students having a good knowledge of the English language. It lies with­in the range of possibility, that The Mother Church may some day use this letter as authority to sponsor a course in English in the College. The need to do so might appear and be met in such a way.

It was not surprising to have the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science call attention to the importance of a good knowledge of English. Surely spirituality that carries little or no demonstration of outward correctness, would not characterize the ideal student that Mrs. Eddy approved of.

A helpful thought in regard to the possibility of young students becoming readers in branch churches, where suitable material seems limited, may be found in the Sentinel for May 14, 1910, “In the Manual of The Mother Church, Article III, the duties of Readers are very simply and clearly defined, and no one who feels himself equal to the first duty in Christian Science, namely, ‘to obey God, to have one Mind, and to love another as yourself' (Science and Health, p. 496), need hesitate to undertake official respon­sibility. While we are on this subject it may not be out of place to say to those modest individuals who continually shrink from responsibility, and thus leave those who are less timid, but no more compe­tent, to fill the offices in the branch churches, that extreme modesty in this line is no more a vir­tue than is extreme assertiveness.”

Why was the course in obstetrics abandoned at this point (See page 70 of the Twenty-fifth Manual)? In the early days when the world was prejudiced against us, it was natural for Mrs. Eddy to feel that special schools might have to be provided for our children, and accommodations of our own for bringing them into the world. The time came, however, when she realized that a continuation of such teaching was fraught with danger. If any harm should come to the mother when attended wholly by a Christian Scientist, the law and the med­ical fraternity would at once proceed against the lat­ter. Furthermore she realized that the study of every­thing connected with childbirth might involve a materi­alization of thought that would not be conducive to spiritual growth.

Mrs. Eddy saw that Christian Scientists deliver­ing children would not be functioning under the law. In order to do so, they would have to take medical courses and be examined on the same basis as doctors. She realized that average students could not learn about the material side of childbirth, and yet hold themselves so steadfastly to true metaphysics that they could not be shaken.

The great difficulty in Science is to bring the things of heaven down to earth, without letting the things of earth shake one loose from heaven. The Directors need to watch lest the constant necessity they are under for dealing with the sins of students, shake them loose from their high standard of meta­physics. One man who is pulling another out of the water, must hold tightly to some support, lest he lose his balance and join his friend in the water.

Mrs. Eddy learned that a practitioner working on an obstetrical case, would find it easier to hold his thought balanced on the spiritual side, and at the same time to protect his patient from medical law, if he had no direct contact with the case. She found that the less a practitioner had to do with the mate­rial side of any case, the better work he could do.

The diver who goes down and attaches the hooks to a submerged vessel, so that it may be raised to the surface, must watch lest his air hose become fouled in the rigging of the vessel. There are students who feel that they can work successfully for patients, and yet not endanger their spiritual thought, if they stay in the absolute all the time; but the Truth in order to bless mortals must be brought down to their level as far as possible. In doing this one must ex­ercise the utmost protection.

It became plain to Mrs. Eddy that in years to come, if there were the slightest error resulting from a childbirth case, where a Christian Scientist was in complete charge, her organization would come under criticism, and perhaps a lawsuit might follow. The laws of country and states do not admit that metaphys­ical training fits anyone to deal with obstetrics. Mrs. Eddy's foresightedness is revealed in the fact that today no one would be permitted to teach or to practice obstetrics in our organization who had not had an extensive medical training.

Dr. Alfred Baker who taught the obstetrical course in the college had been a physician of the old school; but what guarantee did Mrs. Eddy have that such a teacher would always be obtainable in order to teach this course?

Has the historian, who learns of these incidents in Christian Science history, the right to declare that Mrs. Eddy made mistakes and consequently corrected them? In the memoirs by Adam H. Dickey, he quotes Mrs. Eddy's own words as follows: “There have been times in working out a problem when I have not known just what step to take and finding it necessary to make a move of some sort, I have taken a step as nearly as I could in the right direction. Perhaps I would find out shortly that it was wrong, but this step gave me a new point of view that I would not have had, had I not taken it as I did. I would not condemn myself, therefore, for what seemed to be a mistake, but would include it as part of the working out of the problem.” Did not she say in Miscellane­ous Writings, p. 288, that “wisdom in human action begins with what is nearest right under the circum­stances, and thence achieves the absolute,” and on page 6 of Science and Health that “God is not separ­ate from the wisdom He bestows”?

Hence it cannot be asserted that Mrs. Eddy made a mistake, when she taught obstetrics, or had it taught, and that she finally corrected it! In teach­ing this course she was giving valuable and necessary instruction, which some day, when humanity is far enough advanced, will be fulfilled. What she taught was correct, but she found that the world was not ready for it, and so she withdrew it. It is possible that even at the time she knew that thought was not ready; but she went ahead as long and as far as wis­dom told her to. Then she rescinded the whole matter; but she did not rescind the idea. She only took it out of thought for the present, and it still remains to be fulfilled in God's time.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

July 31, 1901

Dictated,

Mr. Stephen A. Chase,

Treasurer of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, Boston, Mass.

Beloved Student:

On the 25th inst. I received from the clerk of The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Mass., a letter which reads as fol­lows:

“Beloved Mother: — At the semi-annual meeting of the First Members held November 7th, 1899 it was unanimously voted: ‘That the expenses con­nected with the lawsuit now pending against our beloved Mother and Teacher, including all lawyer's fees and incidental expenses be en­tirely defrayed by the Church. That it is its privilege and joy to relieve our Mother of this annoyance and burden. That the clerk be in­structed to notify her at once to this effect and that the treasurer be authorized and em­powered to defray such expense.'

“A copy of the above was sent to you at the time.

“The Board of Directors wish on their own ac­count, that the above vote be carried out. Therefore they hereby ask you to kindly send to them any bills that may come to your hands on this account, and they will cheerfully at­tend to their being paid.”

Lovingly yours for the Directors,

Benjamin Johnson

At the time the above offer was made there had been seven libel suits entered by Josephine Woodbury, in the Superior Court in Boston, Mass., all based on practically the same com­plaint. If I remember rightly, I did not ac­cept this kind offer of my Church, feeling that the party to each of these suits should meet the responsibilities themselves individually. But I find now that the termination of the suit against me, (which was decided June 1901, with a verdict in my favor by the jury,) has also disposed of the other six suits.

In view of this fact I do not feel it would be just for me to pay the total cost of the defence which virtually covers all these suits. I will therefore withdraw my previous objections and accept the kind offer of my Church to assume and to settle the cost of de­fence in this suit of Woodbury vs. Eddy.

Some of the bills seem enormously large, and I suggest that you use your best endeavors to have them reduced. I have paid to Mr. Morse $2,000 and to Bartlett $2,000.

Accept my thanks,

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


There were seven counts in this lawsuit, and had Mrs. Woodbury won even one of them, that would have opened the door to the winning of the other six. Mrs. Eddy's was the key suit, with the church itself included in the others. The successful defence of that one was the essential need, since in winning it, Mrs. Eddy would defend the organization against fur­ther nuisance from this source. Therefore when she did, there was an obligation on the part of the or­ganization to pay the costs of the suit.

Error's purpose was to annoy and frighten Mrs. Eddy with this lawsuit, to disturb her thought, since in that way her demonstration in founding the church would be interfered with. The purpose of the animal magnetism using Mrs. Woodbury was to check if possible the stately progress of Truth.

Mrs. Eddy was using inspiration to establish a Cause which involved the ultimate elimination of the human mind, and its banishment from the earth. The human mind could not be expected to ignore such a pur­pose. It felt the blow and fought back in self-de­fence; and this lawsuit was one of the forms it took, to stop Mrs. Eddy's work, which was to bring in the Mind of God, and to put out the so-called mind of man.

In the early days of our country, the federal law gradually replaced the law of the derringer. Much resistance had to be overcome, but the replace­ment was finally accomplished. Today Christian Sci­ence is introducing the higher law of God into the world, and is demanding of man to make it supreme in the mental and physical realms, and to banish all lesser laws. Can it be expected that animal magne­tism will not resist this progress?

Mrs. Eddy's effort to oust the reign of the human mind, had to be supported by her Church. Hence it shared in the opposition. She rightly concluded that if the seven suits were partly directed at the Church, the cost of defence might be divided; when the winning of the key suit against her disposed of the other six, it was only fair that the Church help to defray the cost of the suit. It became the privilege and necessity of the Church to do this, as part of the cost of establishing the Cause in spite of the resistance of the carnal mind.

Mrs, Eddy was so selfless and loving in giving her time and services to the Church, that in turn it could with good grace take care of such obliga­tions as this one which she incurred in carrying out her efforts to establish it.

It is important for future generations to know, that Mrs. Eddy did not permit the organization to take care of bills which she felt were her own, or that belonged to her. She made no claims on the Church for anything personal. Those in her household, to whom she paid many thousands of dollars each year in salaries, worked in a way that indirectly was for the good of the entire organization. Hence the organ­ization might have paid these workers, just as the government pays the detectives employed to guard the President's life, so that his services to the country may be safeguarded. Yet Mrs. Eddy paid these students out of her own income. She was punctilious in taking care of all matters that concerned herself, even though a large part of the expense she was put to concerned the welfare of the Church.

Mrs. Eddy left valuable records in these letters that related to church matters. Future generations would not know the circumstances surrounding this lawsuit; neither would they appreciate, as did the Board of Directors, the intangible services which she rendered. She might even be criticized for putting the Church to the expense of forty thousand dollars. But these letters, which constituted records for the future, help to guard her from such unjust criticism.

An individual might make me a costly gift for a very apparent and good reason. At my demise, others unaware of the circumstances, and finding only the costly gift, might criticize me, as if I had taken advantage of a friend. Yet the value of my services to that friend might have been beyond price. Per­haps the part of wisdom would have been for me to have left behind letters which would explain the whole matter, since we are called upon to be as wise as serpents and as harmless as doves in our lives. We are setting forth a spiritual ideal for the world to look at, and we must watch that it be safeguarded in every way.

Many things took place in Mrs. Eddy's home that the world was not ready to understand; but today everything may be known down to the smallest detail. However, we have Mrs. Eddy's own assurance that we never need fear having anything brought to light, since when it is properly understood, there will be no criticism that can be attached to it.

These letters show how God directed our Leader in all her ways; but this one especially indicates how He protected her and her reputation, showing as it does, her sincerity and love for the Cause, and the fact that no monetary consideration influ­enced her. She had truly intended to pay all the expenses of the lawsuit, and it was only when she found a reason that would satisfy future generations as to the rightness of letting the Church do it, that she felt justified in accepting the kind offer that was made to her.

Finally the question comes up about the bills for the suit, which seemed enormously large to her. It is customary for good lawyers to charge big fees. Furthermore, when their services have accomplished something of value for a wealthy client, they are apt to take advantage of this fact, and charge more than their services are worth, since they know that it is not considered a dignified thing for a man of means to protest at the size of their fee.

We must believe, therefore, that Mrs. Eddy knew that there was but one way to straighten this matter out, and that was for Mr. Chase and the Directors to realize that God was supreme in the physical realm so-called, as well as in the spiritual; that this lawsuit was His business, — His responsibility. The Church was functioning under Mrs. Eddy's demon­stration, and Mrs. Eddy was functioning under God's guidance.

All she was doing, she was doing for God. Hence she could trust Him to protect her, and to sustain her at every point. She wanted the Board to realize that God was the Head of the Cause, and all that was being done was to establish the kingdom of heaven on earth. Hence they must oppose every effort of the human mind to hold sway, — of human opinions to take the place of reliance on God's guidance. As they sought to make this demonstration, the size of the bills would be taken care of.

Mrs. Eddy knew that no student was fitted to be­come a member of the Board of Directors, unless he was thoroughly impregnated with the realization that God is the Head of the Church; hence every decision of that committee must be based on the determination of each member to ask the question “What does God want?”

Mrs. Eddy knew that if they brought God into the picture, the size of the bills would be adjusted suitably. At the same time, from the vantage point of time, we realize the enormous value of these early victories to the future of the Cause. Hence, if the Church had had to pay ten times forty thousand dol­lars, it would have been worth it. Yet we know that Mrs. Eddy was regarding it from the standpoint of her time, and safeguarding the funds from any depre­dations by animal magnetism. She could not sit by and let greed cause the lawyers to charge more than their services were worth, and so to lose the bless­ing of having had a part in the establishment of God's Cause on earth. When people demand a full compensa­tion in matter, they lose God's blessing, that falls on those who are willing to serve Him, and to let Him reward them in His own time and way.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

August 19, 1901

Directors

Dear Students:

You kept from me the awful charges made public until it was too late for me to defend myself! And this after the cruelty of the con­duct towards me in the onset of the suit, when, if I had been obeyed, the suit would have been settled at the first opening of the court, the case thrown out in Concord. Now I demand that you act as the church by-laws require, or take the just reward of stopping the advancement of Christian Science. Those awful newspaper libels of your Leader who is not guilty of a single one of all those charges, but the lies are al­lowed by your lawyers before the case is put out of court. Our lawyers can contradict Pea­body, and they must be made to. Do not pay them till they do this.

You will bring God's curse on our cause unless you change your sinful measures of doing nothing yourself, and giving the one He has appointed to do His work no opportunity to meet such lies with Truth. I cannot trust you in anything. The sale of His word is going down. You have the word of Farlow for saying that the Editor of the Herald said Peabody is insane. The Editors that published are liable for libel. Now do nothing without letting me know what it is beforehand.

As ever,

M. B. Eddy


If you should detect the claim of animal magne­tism rising up in one who held a very responsible position of authority in our Cause, you might foresee that it was liable to cause him to do something for which he would be forever regretful. Hence you would use strenuous and even violent means to restrain him, if you could. Likewise, if you saw this same one relying on the opinions of others who were not Chris­tian Scientists, when he should be taking counsel of God as he has been taught, you would realize that such a situation would require vigorous handling. Finally, if such a one be entrusted with problems and matters that would not settle themselves, and which he could not handle, and if he should keep them away from the only one who was capable of working them out success­fully, a sharp awakening would be necessary. At this time Mrs. Eddy found all three of these conditions in her Directors.

The Directors knew that one reason Mrs. Eddy went to Pleasant View, was to retreat from the error and confusion of Boston, and to commune with God. What was more natural than that they should strive to keep unpleasant things from her, lest she be unduly disturbed. They wanted to spare her the awful after­math of the lawsuit. Such a motive was humanly kind, but spiritually unwise. It proved that in doing so the Directors were functioning under the human mind — ­God's enemy — and they had to be taken to task.

If the captain of a mighty ship were having luncheon in the galley, and the steering became dif­ficult, due to the wind and the tide — with dangerous reefs in the offing — it might seem humanly kind if the crew forbear to trouble him, especially if former­ly he had had trouble with indigestion at those times when he was anxious over his ship. Yet to risk the vessel because of the captain's feelings would be stupid, and the crew would deserve the mighty rebuke they would receive.

The Directors were being so considerate of their Leader, that they refrained from telling her that which might disturb her; yet when the matter finally came to her attention, it had grown to proportions so that she was forced to make a mighty demonstration, in order to help herself and the Cause out of the dilemma.

So loving was Mrs. Eddy's nature, that she could not help but be compassionate with students, when she saw them try to work out this matter themselves be­cause they wanted to save her and keep her from being disturbed. Yet she knew that they were acting thus because they were yielding to animal magnetism, and allowing influences outside of themselves and not God — to control them. So she was forced to challenge the error and rouse them to see it.

Once a dumb child was brought to our Leader, who saw at once her purity of thought. Yet she said to her, “It is fortunate that God has shut your mouth, to keep yoμ from uttering the awful things that are in your thought.” At once the child said, “You lie!” The child had never spoken before, but she was able to speak after that. Mrs. Eddy explained that she did what she did to shock the child out of her leth­argy and inactivity, and she succeeded. She knew that no one can be mesmerized until he has been sub­dued to a state of mental inactivity and complacence. Hence he must be rescued by mental activity. In the present situation, she sought to rouse the Directors by aggressive methods. She knew that it required something drastic to “wound the callous breast,” — ­the thought made callous by animal magnetism.

Had they been demonstrating the divine wisdom and not been touched by animal magnetism, they never would have kept her in ignorance for a whole week of that which she needed to know. They did not have enough human wisdom to know how to handle the enemies of the Cause. The moment one learns how to reflect divine wisdom, his value from a human standpoint be­gins to wane. Even a lawyer who has been successful humanly can no longer be so when he becomes a Sci­entist. Yet he may have the appearance of sagacity and cleverness, but he lacks explosive power.

When the Directors were touched by animal mag­netism, so that they were tempted to function humanly, they not only were of scant value to Mrs. Eddy, but actually deterrents to the Cause, since error could use them. Had they been using demonstration at the period covered by this letter, they would have im­mediately appealed to their Leader to make the great­er demonstration.

If one thinks of Mrs. Eddy impersonally, as if she herself stood for demonstration, because she used it in all her ways, then when the Directors did not turn to her, they did not turn to demonstration. Perhaps they were tempted by the argument that she was getting to be an old lady, too old to stand the shock of such awful experiences. They must do every­thing, therefore, to shield her; and what was the result? The whole Cause felt the blight of error, and the sale of Science and Health declined!

If Mrs. Eddy stood for demonstration, then we still have her with us, and when we turn to it, we really turn to her, not from the standpoint that she was or is God, but that she taught the way to utilize His power and then embodied these teachings in her own life. To the Cause she represented and always will represent the great demonstrator of Truth, the one who most nearly followed the Master. So to turn away from her, is to turn away from demonstration. Consider her letter to Mr. Tomlinson, in which she wrote, “As Sec. of the Board please write immediately for me to each member of the Board of Lectureship, that I see the wisdom of having in every lecture a proper reference to the Leader of our cause. No men­tion should be made of abuses, but a clear strong word said of the virtues (if she has them) which belong to the Discoverer and Founder of C.S., and are requisite to carry on our cause, and that have carried it by the help of God out of darkness into light. Did man or did God commission her? Can God mistake? Go and do likewise.”

In this letter Mrs. Eddy was using a strong whip, as she had to do, once in a while, to awaken the Directors to the importance of demonstration. Turning to divine Mind rather than to the human mind, is not an arduous task. It is not an effort that makes one perspire with the labor of so doing. It is the divinely natural thing to do; but since mortal man comes under the curse of mental inactivity and drunkenness, in which state he is the pathetic tool of his worst enemy, mortal mind, it requires educa­tion and spiritual awakening, to bring him to the point where he will resist this mesmerism. Mortals employ the human mind, because they are too lazy to bring themselves to that state of activity which en­ables one to reflect God; yet properly analyzed, this laziness is the effect of universal mesmerism, and not a natural state of man.

The Board were lovingly obedient in their desire to follow their Leader, but at this point they were tempted to rely on their own resources, saying among themselves, “We cannot have our beloved Leader sub­jected to this terrible business. So we will keep it from her, and she will thereby be spared much an­guish.” Instead of rousing themselves to detect that that was exactly what animal magnetism wanted them to do, they yielded, and thus added to Mrs. Eddy's burden.

Every effort one makes to establish his relation to God, only blesses one, and the Directors knew this. The demand for a higher spiritualization of thought that this situation placed on Mrs. Eddy, would have taken care of the situation, and blessed her as well. She had been taking care of similar situations from the beginning of the Cause. She understood the way animal magnetism operated to cut her off for the moment from the chance to strike while the iron was hot.

The error that deceived the Directors at this point, and from which they needed to be aroused, was a human suggestion posing as a kindly thought. It must have been a shock to them to receive a letter, that accused them of bringing God's curse upon the Cause, when they felt that they were acting wisely and lovingly in behalf of the Cause, and the protec­tion of its Leader.

Human sympathy was the error that put them to sleep. It is universally considered to be such a desirable characteristic, that the moment one begins to function under it, he feels that he is above re­proach and criticism. In her class of 1888 Mrs. Eddy is reported as having said, “We must pray to be delivered from human sympathy.” She said she had prayed for that more than for anything else. Then she said, “It is not sympathy with error that heals, but the utter lack of it. You cannot sympathize with nothing, no thing. If you know it is a lie, you will not want to sympathize with it. Sympathy is self-mesmerism.”

Persons who become Christian Scientists, are always more ready to change their method of attain­ing their goal, than they are their goal. There is a temptation to cling to their former human ideal of goodness, a human conception of what a successful ac­complishment should bring to man. They cling to the ideal of old theology, and use the method of Chris­tian Science in attaining it. It requires additional spiritual growth for them to learn, that the old goal is as much animal magnetism, as the old method of attaining the goal. Both the method and the goal are based on a human conception of good.

Because Mrs. Eddy's ideal of goodness was based on her higher understanding, she was subject to mis­understanding on the part of those who expected her to measure up to the old theological sense of goodness, which includes sympathy, smoothing over of wrongs, and displaying in the midst of error, passiveness and placidity. Had she manifested these qualities, they would have indicated either indifference to er­ror, or ignorance of what was going on.

When the people living on the slopes of a vol­cano will not believe your cry that an eruption is imminent, you may have to drive them from their homes in order to save their lives. Mrs. Eddy was not afraid to incite those in danger to action. She was past mistress in knowing how to rouse the complacent mind to a point where it would begin to function with God.

The student must seek to reflect not only divine power, but divine wisdom, as his Leader did. Then he will not be deceived through human sympathy into taking a case, for instance, where the patient is still under medical care, so that if he recovers, the doctor will get the credit and the hold materia medica has on him will be strengthened. If man's extremity is God's opportunity, man should be al­lowed to reach the point of extremity, before God is given the opportunity to heal them. Human sym­pathy should never be permitted to overrule divine wisdom.

Human sympathy caused the Directors to want their precious Leader to be at peace. They fancied that they were doing her good, by relieving her of any knowledge of Peabody's awful charges against her in his lecture of August 1st, copies of which were being widely circulated. The Directors were re­quired to be the best working students in the Field; so the responsibility lay on Mrs. Eddy's shoulders to shock them out of the animal magnetism of human sympathy and stupid rest.

The letter in question by no means pictures her normal attitude toward her Directors. When the stir was over, you may be sure that she returned to this normal attitude. The letter should never be inter­preted to indicate that they were unworthy students. The point simply was, that error had attacked them in such a way, that they required a vigorous on­slaught of truth in order to be awakened from their lethargy, in which they fancied that they were doing Mrs. Eddy a favor, when they were really doing ani­mal magnetism a favor, — since they kept the only one who could handle the situation, from handling it im­mediately, by keeping her in ignorance of what was going on for a week.

They believed perhaps that she would not find out about the situation, living as she did, at Pleasant View, until they had settled it themselves; but animal magnetism was hiding behind a kindly motive, and had to be exposed.

A mother's love for her child may cause her to overlook tendencies, which others plainly recognize as leading the child into temptation. Back of that love is animal magnetism — a complacence producing mental inactivity and blindness, thus giving error a chance to flourish, so that the child will sink deeper into error.

Was it logical to try to hide an error from Mrs. Eddy, when by so doing it was given a chance to grow?

It will be highly interesting to future generations to observe the language their Leader used, which was necessary to break the claim of mesmerism under which the Board was functioning; and they will be able to learn an important lesson from it, namely, that with what apparently is a kindly motive, one may slide over the necessity for awakening another to a situation, when his or her safety demands such awakening.

This letter must never be classified as a criti­cism of the Directors by Mrs. Eddy. It was her effort to rouse them, and so free them from a form of mes­merism that is common, under which students fall into the fatuous decision to keep quiet about errors which should be handled. Under it practitioners will say to a patient who is getting worse all the time, “Everything is all right and you are recovering,” when the real need is for a vigorous effort to arouse them out of their lethargy. Sickness is no more than a suggestion to which one has yielded; but if it is not handled, it may become accumulative and continue to grow, if it is not vigorously rooted out.

The full effect of this sharp letter was to bring the Directors to their toes mentally. To return to the illustration of the master of a vessel eating his luncheon in the galley: Suppose when the steer­ing became dangerous, that his men forbore to trouble him; it is plain that the Directors, holding such an attitude toward Mrs. Eddy, and not being capable them­selves of handling the aftermath of the lawsuit, would deserve censure, since thereby the enemy might get a further foothold, in its effort to undermine the Cause. If the Directors were not alert enough to perceive how they were being handled by false sympathy in not apprising her of what she needed to know, they were not fitted to conduct any of the business coming to their attention.

Mrs. Eddy might have written, “I know you are being handled by animal magnetism, because you per­mitted these awful charges to be printed, without trying to refute them, or giving me the immediate opportunity to do so. These lies are fostering pre­judice in the minds of the public against us. This I know, because the sale of Science and Health is falling off. Your loving desire to spare me, by keeping the charges from me, did not appear to you as animal magnetism, since I have encouraged you to go ahead on your own initiative, and not to bother me with minor details of running our Cause; but that did not mean that I thought you were ready to re­lieve me of all responsibility, and take the govern­ment entirely into your hands. Would to God that you were ready for this! But if you were making a demon­stration of your present administration of our great Movement, the sale of His word would not be falling off! Will you wake up before it is too late!”

“You will bring God's curse on our cause unless you change your sinful measures of doing nothing your­self, and giving the one He has appointed to do His work, no opportunity to meet such lies with Truth.” Many students would convict our Leader of a return to old theology by these words. One might say that she was trying to frighten them. Even if they were not afraid for themselves, or if they were willing to suf­fer and be punished for their own sins, yet if they knew that the Cause was going to suffer for their ac­tions, that knowledge might awaken them. Often those who are willing to suffer themselves, are not willing that another should suffer because of them. So Mrs. Eddy was putting forth a strong argument to persuade the Directors to rise up and meet the error that was handling them.

How is it possible for God to curse, when nothing proceeds from Him but good? When we fail to follow the wisdom and Truth that flows into us, it becomes reversed, and acts as a curse. That is what the Board were doing, namely, reversing good, or allow­ing animal magnetism to put a false interpretation on good. Was it not good for them to desire in every way to protect their Leader? But they were not pro­tecting her; she was being vilified. The newspapers were printing scurrilous articles about her which were not true, which she needed to answer immediately. The conclusion was that the Directors may have been striving to protect their Leader's personality, and at the same time they were permitting her reputation to be besmirched. Under this mistaken effort on their part, she was being subjected to a wave of ani­mal magnetism coming from those who were reading these lies, and condemning her without a hearing. Such a circumstance was a little taste of hell it­self, to one as sensitive as Mrs. Eddy was. She would feel the error and not know where it came from, because the Board had kept her in ignorance of what was going on.

God's curse is the belief in a reversal of good. It is the belief in the possibility that di­vine Love, in being received by man, may be misunderstood or misapplied, and so may produce ill effects instead of good ones. It is like concentrat­ing the rays of the sun to burn a house down.

When a student was under the control of mesmer­ism, Mrs. Eddy could not trust him. When one permits himself to be handled and does not know that he is handled, he becomes entirely unreliable, because whatever he does is done by animal magnetism. And this baneful influence works in two ways. It causes him to fail to do what he should do, as well as to do that which he should not do. In the Morning Prayer of the Protestant Episcopal Church, we read, “We have left undone those things which we ought to have done; And we have done those things which we ought not to have done; And there is no health in us.” It is not good constantly to declare such sentiments before God, since it may help to make you a sinner, but it is true that there is no health, healing or reliabil­ity in a thought that is so handled by animal mag­netism, that it does what it should not, and does not do what it should. Hence to one of understanding, this declaration is a protection, whereas it becomes the curse of God to those who use it as a prayer, since it makes a reality of that which is only an illusion, of that which should never be regarded as real or as coming from God, or as even having a place in God's idea.

“The sale of His word is going down.” Through a lack of handling animal magnetism on the part of the Directors, the sale of Science and Health was falling off. The effort to increase the sale of this book is not a question of numbers of money, but of the effort to get it into the hands of as many re­ceptive people as possible. Mrs. Eddy perceived that the fact of the Directors being handled by animal magnetism, was having its effect all through the Cause. She was being vilified, and the entire machinery of the Movement was slowing up. Because those at the top were yielding to mesmerism, it was being felt throughout the Field. The obvious con­clusion would be, that if they would free themselves from it, the sale of the textbook would increase, the attendance at the services would be larger, and everything in the Cause would flourish as a result.

When a blanket is put over a garden, every plant begins to grow yellow and sick-looking. Take it off, and under the direct influence of the rain and sun­shine, everything begins to grow and to be healthy and luxuriant. The presence of, or the dissipation of the blanket of animal magnetism, will have that same effect in our Cause. Because much is given to the Board of Directors, much is required of them. Unless they are prepared to guard themselves as a sacred responsibility that they owe to the whole Cause, they need to study this letter of August 19, since in it Mrs. Eddy indicates that the accumulative effects of their permitting themselves as members of the Board of Directors, to be handled by animal mag­netism, will be far-reaching in the Cause. From her statements we deduce that she recognized that the most important work of any Board, is to keep them­selves free from animal magnetism.

The question of animal magnetism is a very seri­ous one. The subtlety of the serpent is seen in the fact that as a teacher of Science, you may train a student rightly and be in contact with him or her for years. They may regard your reflection of God as capable of directing and correcting them in spir­itual matters; yet the moment they fall under this claim and you draw it to their attention, they will rise up in wrath to deny it. They become so blind to the action of mesmerism in themselves, that they do not recognize it, and become offended at the one who draws it to their attention. There is only one way left to help such students, and that is the mental method, by which Mind is given the opportu­nity to take care of the situation. If the Mind of God can be introduced into the thought of the in­dividual, Mind will clear up the error. Then when the claim has been broken, you can talk to them, and help them to see the subtlety by which they were caught.

Future students advancing in growth will be helped by knowing that when it came to the matter of animal magnetism, Mrs. Eddy did not “pull her punches.” She knew that she had to arouse her Directors in some way, even if in so doing, she chem­icalized them. Even to become angry would be to be roused from a state of lethargy, which is the state animal magnetism most relies upon in order to introduce its false suggestions into the mind of the individual. The one thing Mrs. Eddy could not do, when the Directors were handled by animal magnetism, was to accuse them directly and plainly, of being handled, since they would be apt to deny it with vigor. The problem of animal magnetism is not as simple as going to an individual and telling him that he is handled, when you know that he is. Ani­mal magnetism guards against such a possibility, by giving its victim the conviction that he is not handled. This conviction makes him aggressive, so that he is ready to fight anyone who accuses him. What was Mrs. Eddy to do with students under such circumstances? She had to use the wisdom of God to outwit the subtlety of the serpent.

Mortal man is most vulnerable to animal magne­tism in his sleep, when he is entirely off guard. The next state in degree of vulnerability is when he permits himself to be carried away with human happi­ness and pleasure, so that he lets go of his protec­tive sense. Lest he be poisoned a monarch is watch­ful, by having every bit of food served to him tested before he touches it. But if he is invited to dine with friends, and because the food is attractive and his friends agreeable, he omits having it tested, at such a point he is in danger of being poisoned.

No one knew better than our Leader that a sense of apathy is the preliminary state which opens the way for animal magnetism. It is the point at which one lies down, instead of fighting and resisting. God has bestowed upon man the power to overcome and overthrow evil. There is no situation in which he is not the master, if he will only assume an active position as a son of God, and exercise divine power.

When Mrs. Eddy upset results gained by the human mind alone, she was meeting a situation similar to the one where the magicians, or necromancers, were simulating the demonstrations of Moses. If I were to declare that necromancers were flourishing in our Cause because Mrs. Eddy is not here to rebuke their work and cast it out, such a statement might need some explanation. If a branch church has a debt and it is paid by purely human processes, the debt to God is not paid until it is met through demonstration. Hence a dedication that is approved of God cannot take place, until thought is dedicated to the service of demonstration, and God has been proved to be the source of all supply. Students ob­sessed with the determination of paying the debt ma­terially miss the real lesson. The only debt is a debt to divine Love, and that is paid only by the effort to reflect divine Love. Otherwise the situa­tion becomes an instance of the necromancers simulat­ing the true demonstration.

During the Woodbury trial the Directors rushed around smartly, and were active on the human side of the picture. Yet Mrs. Eddy strove constantly to keep them up to the standard of demonstration. When the suit was settled, they were tempted to sit back in a sense of accomplishment, and thereby permit them­selves to be handled. Had they been free from this influence, they would have recognized that the vic­tory over evil would be followed by error's revenge on its destroyer, and that Mrs. Eddy needed to con­sult with them to learn what was taking place, in order to handle the aftermath. But they stayed away from her, and this letter was the consequence.

Young students might be shocked at the vehemence of many of Mrs. Eddy's letters, until they learn that she was not condemning persons, but arousing thought to throw off the claim of animal magnetism. My son was shocked when he was a boy, to read a letter she wrote to Alfred Farlow dated January 8, 1906, which was never sent. He found it when he was rummaging around among my papers. He was shocked at the stern­ness of her rebuke, thinking it unbecoming, unnatural, and unchristian, coming from the one he was beginning to love, and to look to as his ideal. It was neces­sary for me to explain to him what her purpose was, in writing such sharp letters. When he understood that she did it wholly for a student's good, in or­der to save him from the adversary, then he was ashamed for doubting her. Since then the large num­ber of letters containing her sharp rebukes, which he and I have studied together, have never caused her to drop in his estimation as the finest Christian Scientist since the Master.

The letter read as follows:

“My dear Student:

Your report on Libraries in N.Y. City received. Thank you deeply for having instituted this impor­tant work on reform; it is much needed. I have not the time to inform myself on this subject sufficiently to suggest other than what you are already attempting.

May God prosper and speed your undertaking. Have no lawsuits about this.

With love,

yours,

Mary Baker Eddy.

I called a halt to inquire as to results before writing you. Litigation must not attend this work.

N. B. In Church Manual see page 34, Art. 6, Sec. 1, on your duty as a member of my Church and show your plans to its Directors for their approval before you execute them.

M. B. E.

W— sends those papers that report me done (?) as Leader all over the country. You wrong me and your correction is not read by thousands and injures our Cause in the eyes of thou­sands, every time you allow such lies about me to be published and if you cannot or will not stop doing this, you are unfit for the General Pub. Com. and will be removed.

Eddy.”

Few students know what it cost Mrs. Eddy to feel the blight of error, and out of what anguish her rebukes were born. Calvin Frye's diary of January 9, 1906, gives the picture behind the scenes that led up to this letter to Farlow. “Great discord over Alfred Farlow classifying works on Christian Science in libraries. Mrs. Eddy feared it would give the enemy a chance for a libel suit at law. It led to great fear, then suffering, and was overcome only when he came to Concord and had an interview fully explaining the situation.”

Her rebuke in this letter to Farlow, which shocked my son, was mild in comparison with what his error cost her. It might be argued that Mr. Farlow was striving to do his best, and that he did not realize that he was obeying the dictates of animal magnetism, rather than those of God. Then how did Mrs. Eddy know that he was? His report on his work drew her attention to him, and she began to write to him to thank him for it; but as her thought began to touch his, she felt a reaction which unerringly told her the story. She was so sensitive, that she suffered upon coming in contact with animal magne­tism in another. It seems a hard thing that our beloved Leader should ever have had to suffer, in order to learn of the error that threatened her Cause, but that was part of her sacrifice for the good of us all.

A cold wave causes you to keep the water in ex­posed pipes running through the night, lest they freeze up. When Mrs. Eddy felt the cold hand of ani­mal magnetism, she knew that only extra and continued activity would give the necessary protection. Once a crank sent her a dagger through the mail. Her com­ment was, “This means that we must love more.” She saw that a more active flow of love was called for, since a cold wave of mortal mind's hatred was being directed at her and her work.

We are not sensitive enough in the atmosphere of error, or when we touch it in the thoughts of others, to apprehend the degree of Mrs. Eddy's sensi­tivity. It was as if she made a connection with those her thought touched, so that she could hear what error was saying to them. This was a valuable quality for her to have had, albeit a costly one. When she tuned into a student who was handled by error, she caught the blast of sensuality and often suffered greatly from it. In that way she was able to correct it, and the moment it was corrected, her own harmony returned. In this way she bore our in­firmities, as her textbook tells us the Master did of old.

Mrs. Eddy delivered the Cause into the hands of her students as an automobile dealer delivers a new car to a buyer. This obligation is to keep the organization supplied with the oil of sanctification, the gasoline of activity, and the water of purifica­tion.

The condemnation of the human mind, which is repeatedly set forth in these pages, must never cause the reader to believe that it does not need first to be purified, in order to render it harmless, and fit for disposal. The use of the human mind is con­demned when it assumes the right to take the place of demonstration, which is an egregious affrontery which must be rebuked. The water of purification means that the members strive constantly to put off the human mind, in seeking to reflect divine Mind.

This letter of August 19, 1901, shows, that matters had reached the point where, more than ever, Mrs. Eddy saw that the entire future of Christian Science depended on demonstration. Hence when she saw the Board functioning under the human mind, off guard and at the mercy of the enemy for the time being, she was roused to write, “You will bring God's curse on our cause….” One who asserted that under the stress and excitement Mrs. Eddy had gone back to the old theology of her youth, should ask himself if this statement is so different from Mis. 293:22, “Truth perverted, in belief, becomes the creator of the claim of error.” The point is, that she was giving the Directors a push to save their lives spiritually, just as a friend might give another a push to save him, when he was in the path of an approaching auto­mobile; or she was turning on the water in their pipes, because she foresaw that a cold wave was setting in.

If a man was ascending a mountain and lingering, when he should be climbing higher, a smoke smudge that drove him up would be a blessing. Often Mrs. Eddy employed such a method, as the greatest proof she could give of her love. Once she was sternly re­buking Judge Hanna, Alfred Farlow and Henry Nunn, expressing her dissatisfaction in strong terms over the way they had handled the aftermath of the Wood­bury trial. Judge Hanna and Mr. Farlow took her rebukes in humility, but Mr. Nunn seemed surprised. Suddenly she turned to the latter and said in a gentle voice, “My dear, this is pretty strong meat for you, but you can stand it.” Then she resumed her denunciation of the lack of wisdom in what they had been doing. Here is positive proof that Mrs. Eddy's rebukes did not emanate from a thought that was irritated or angry, but that she was putting on an act, as it were, in order to accomplish something, in order to arouse students to a greater faith in God. Had she been angry, she could not have suddenly spoken in a gentle voice to Mr. Nunn.

The curse of God operates on those who, having brought themselves under divine law, permit animal magnetism to cause them to be disobedient to it. The fear of the Lord, which the Bible says is the beginning of wisdom, may be a fear to disobey or to pervert Truth, lest God's power operate as a curse, by creating, in belief, a claim of error. In Acts 17:30 we read, “And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent.” It was as scientific for Mrs. Eddy to reveal to the Directors what would happen if they failed God, as it was for the Bible to foretell what would happen to the Children of Israel if they were disobedient. When a student has graduated from the “winking” period to the point where he is under the commands of God, there is a curse attached to every failure to be obedient.

As long as mortals are in ignorance of God, this curse of God is undetected; but the moment one elects to function under divine Mind, then that Mind becomes his Mentor, Guide and Judge. It carries a curse for disobedience. A man might disobey the law in his home and not be punished; but if he invited a judge to visit him, he would be apprehended at once, if he should break the law.

The Woodbury lawsuit was finished in June; but there was an aftermath which prevented the students from going to sleep in a self-satisfied sense that all was well, because of the decision in Mrs. Eddy's favor. Mrs. Eddy once said that it was not enough to handle envy and jealousy. She said that we must handle revenge. Unquestionably it was the Directors' blindness to this latter form of error, that brought forth this letter of mighty rebuke.

When a child is learning obedience, disobedience of itself is harmless. If it picks up a dead wire on the street when you tell it not to, there is no danger. Yet you punish the child for this act bf disobedience, because you know that later, it might pick up a wire that was charged, and this time to do so might mean death. Knowing the future results of disobedience, you require it to learn obedience. At this time the Directors were supposed to be beyond the baby stage of Christian Science. They were building for the ages, and error had to be rebuked and cast out at any cost. And when they remembered that their Leader rebuked error, and not the person, they loved her all the more for her faithfulness. As she wrote on page 219 of Science and Health, 16th edi­tion, when she condemned clairvoyance, “Here I do not censure the person, but the mistake.”




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

August 23, 1901

C. S. Board Directors

Dear Board:

I have so much to attend to now in conse­quence of your not coming to see me in the awful hour of sacrifice — that I cannot see you now.

Pass this by-law at once.

As ever,

Your leader,

M. B. Eddy

Cannot Hanna help you now? You did as he said before. God is your help if you do your duty.

M. B. E.


In writing letters of rebuke, Mrs. Eddy knew that it was possible for the Directors to turn aside her “scoldings,” and to retain their aplomb, by concluding that she was under the stress and strain of circumstances, and that this was her way of ex­ploding: that it was harmless thunder that she really did not mean, and that when she was over it, she would be her sweet self again. But they could not explain away a cut in their salaries, which was the import of the new By-law enclosed with this letter. They could not retain their self-complacence when they realized, that they must reduce their living expenses because of this drastic move.

This reduction in salary was probably made to show how serious the situation was. God guided our Leader to use every possible means to arouse the Board. She had tried it with words, and now she tried it with deeds, so that they would realize, that un­less they labored more diligently to keep spiritually up to the mark of mental alertness and activity, it would cost them a sacrifice that they would not care to make. When she annulled this By-law within ten days, it shows that it was all part of her plan to awaken them, and not a change she intended to let stand. She merely wanted the Directors to learn, that it was not a question of whether they wanted to rouse them­selves; it was a solemn duty that they must do. Where her ordinary methods failed, she had to use the “big stick” of threatening a loss in salary. This became a legitimate thing to do, since wisdom was in control.

This letter shows that Mrs. Eddy left no stone unturned at this time. In the letter of August 19, she laid bare their error in strong terms, indicating her great displeasure. Now she shuts them off from seeing her, as if to indicate that she had nothing to say to such naughty children, and then hits them in the financial nerve. Evidently the error was of such a serious nature, that stern measures were necessary. Yet what she said and did sprang from love. It was all done for the purpose of helping the Board, and safeguarding the Cause. She harbored no sense of anger. Her history shows that she handled individuals and committees, in the same way. She was such a past mistress at the art of meeting animal magnetism, that it did not have a chance to remain, once she started after it. She resembled an energetic and alert house­wife who discovers moths. At once she beats the clothes, hangs them in the sun and air, and sprays them with some anti-moth preparation for further pro­tection. When she has finished, the moths are also finished.

“God is your help if you do your duty.” This statement carries the impression of making a bargain with God, and so it is. And it is a desirable prop­osition in Science. Mrs. Eddy once said that Truth does not work unless you work. There is no place in Science for the hypothesis that because God reigns, we have nothing to do. The wires outside of a home may be charged with electricity, but that does the householder no good, unless his house is connected to this power. Man has to use the gifts that God has bestowed upon him, in order for him to become the recipient of the blessings of good.

In 1948, the Red Cross adopted a slogan which was displayed in many places, “Man can bind up; but it is God that heals.” While its implication is medical, this statement is a remarkable definition, that clearly divides between what man can do, and what God does. Mrs. Eddy knew that God was taking care of the Cause, but she wanted the Directors to awaken to the importance of the binding up process, which was what they were not doing at this time, nor seeing the need to do.

As Christian Scientists we cannot neglect God, or our duty to Him, and then expect to receive His help. We cannot live up to our own selfish ideas without any thought of self-control or discipline, or without any thought of making any self-sacrifices, and be worthy to receive God's protection and bene­ficence. We are not fulfilling our agreement with God, if we assert our right or intention to live as we please even in part. We must make it our whole duty to let our light so shine before men, that they may see our good works, and glorify our Father which is in heaven. We have a duty and an obligation to humanity, and in fulfilling that obligation, to be an example, by helping them. Then in return God will help us. Certainly it is a small sacrifice to strive to fulfill our duty, when in return we receive a full measure of God's daily protection and help.

When Naaman was told to wash in the river Jordan seven times to be healed, it illustrated the fact that God would heal him, if he would perform his part obediently.

“Cannot Hanna help you now?” Here Mrs. Eddy was asking them if one who was not a party to the animal magnetism that was touching them — one not un­der the same degree of pressure, could not help them; and a suggestion of this kind from our Leader was practically a command. She wanted them to call on one who was outside the direct range of the error, to help them, and at the same time she established a precedent for all Directors, when it was necessary, to call for help from students whose understanding entitled them to join with them, when an onslaught of spiritual truth was needed to overthrow some belief in error that threatened the Cause. If the Board must do their duty in order to merit God's help, then when animal magnetism blinds them to that duty, they must have that duty pointed out to them by one who at the time is untouched by the cloud of that particular phase of error.

Students who have learned the methods of Science, may feel that they can apply it whenever they sincerely desire to, with success. Yet one learning to sing must do his duty, which in part consists in giving up all modes of gratification such as smoking, drinking, and keeping late hours, that weigh against his success. When students find that they cannot seem to apply what they know, the reason may be that they have tem­porarily forfeited God's help, because they have not done their duty. Sometimes the effects of not doing one's duty are not immediate, but the loss of God finally appears in some form. And in the instance under discussion, this loss went so far as to show itself in a falling off in the sale of Science and Health. Was this not a result sufficiently ominous to call for drastic measures on Mrs. Eddy's part?

An undated letter which appeared in public print in 1928, may have been written by her at this same period. The last paragraph reads, “If the Publica­tion Committees neglect their duties, so plainly stated in the By-laws of The Mother Church, they alone must be responsible for it or our Cause at the very hour of its triumph will go down. I say this prophet­ically. The Manual of our Church requires the Publi­cation Committees to defend Christian Science, and its Leader. I have laid myself on the altar for you and all, almost forty years! I can no longer bear this strain. The officers who are salaried and responsible to God for performing their offices must do it. I can no longer do it for them.”

The activities of the organization are like a thermometer, indicating the degree to which those responsible for our Cause are meeting opposition, are active in breaking up prejudice, thus opening the way for the acceptance of truth in the world. In our western states in the winter, trains are equipped with powerful snow ploughs, which clear a way through the drifts. Without them a train would become stalled. When the mental work, which it is the duty of the Publication Committees and all members to do, falls off, the progress of the entire Movement slows up. Mrs. Eddy was the prime mover in such work, and she sought by every means to exert her followers to do likewise, since she knew that error not only tried to slow up the visible progress of the Cause, but to stop the mental work and spiritualization of thought, on which the visible progress depends. It was to be expected that those in charge of the organ­ization would be alert to error's efforts to impede the visible progress, but Mrs. Eddy's greatest con­cern was for the error that would attempt to inter­fere with the mental support of the Cause, and the spiritual progress of its members. She indicated that unless this kind of support was constantly given our Cause by the Committees on Publication and all members, it would go down. To her the word “duty” covered both thought and action, but it is evident that of the two, thought was the more important, just as the horse is more important that the cart. Yet both must function together, and in their proper relationship.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

August 23, 1901

Dear Student:

The Bible Lesson Com. is not included in the last by-law. This Com. belongs to the Publishing Society.

With love,

M. B. Eddy


It was Mrs. Eddy's intention to have the Bible Lesson Committee directly under the supervision of the Trustees of the Publishing Society. Theirs was the task of selecting its members, so that they would be held responsible if the work were not well done. Yet the Manual names the Directors as the court of last resort in all church matters.

Mrs. Eddy did not create the machinery of her organization, so that malfeasance in office could not properly be dealt with. A witty saying about Boston has been, that the Lowells speak only to the Cabots, and the Cabots speak only to God. The Trus­tees are responsible to the Directors, and the Dir­ectors are responsible to God. Christian Science teaches, that we should have faith to believe that we can entrust all matters to God. God is the Head of our Cause, as well as of the world. He is wisdom and governs all by wisdom, but it is our part to demonstrate this great fact, and prove it to be true.

Mrs. Eddy expected the Board of Trustees to be capable of selecting the Bible Lesson Committee through demonstration. Only if they put in members who were not adequate for the work, would it be nec­essary for the Directors to intervene. In any line of human organization, it is a good working plan to have one committee supervised by another committee that has the final say, and yet that is somewhat apart from the details of the work, so that its members may have a larger perspective.

In a bank, the auditor who checks figures has no contact with the public. This leaves him free to concentrate wholly on catching mistakes. The Directors must necessarily check on the work of the Trustees. In order to do so, they must not make the mistake of doing too much detail work themselves. It should be their privilege to delegate details to subordinates. They should not be found trying to do the Trustees' work for them.

Did Mrs. Eddy cut the salaries of the workers, in her letter of August 23 (first one), as an economy measure, or as a punishment? Had she done it for the purpose of helping to defray the expense of the recent lawsuit, there was no reason why all salaried workers should not have done their part. Yet in this letter she excluded the Bible Lesson Committee, and in the letter of September 4 she excluded the musicians and janitors.

Divine wisdom impelled Mrs. Eddy to show that she not only reflected the guidance to build up the church, but the power to enforce penalties. Only in that way could she win the respect and obedience of her followers, since mortal mind respects only laws that carry penalty.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

September 4, 1901

Dictated.

Clerk of The Mother Church, Boston, Mass.

Beloved Student:

Call a meeting of the Board of Directors today at the earliest moment and vote to annul the last Church By-law relative to the salaries of Church officers for one year. Telephone at once to-day to all who have been informed of this By-law to meet and have it adjusted today. The By-law was not intended to include musicians or janitors.

Have the Board of Directors do as they think best on the purchase of real estate. If I have written in favor of the Church getting in debt, it was because I did not understand the situation. Do not consult me again on purchasing Church property. I decline to give any further attention to it. You know the Church By-laws. Act in accordance with them.

Stop at once the stir in Boston.

With love,

Mother

M. B. G. Eddy


A child playing with a flashlight battery would be in no danger; but if he began to tamper with the house current, he would have to be warned of the danger, if what he did was not in accordance with the laws of electricity. Mrs. Eddy might not have been so disturbed over the acts of the Directors at this time, had she not known that they were dealing with what might be called “high potential.” She had seen the awful results coming from a misuse of God's power, by those who had reached the point where they had some knowledge of God's demands upon them; and she sought to spare the Directors all she could. Her warnings sprang from her love for them.

Her experience with her second student, Richard Kennedy, was what had opened her eyes to the awful effect of truth perverted or misused. She once told her student, Mrs. Emily Hulin, that he was born a Roman Catholic, and that when she finally remonstrated with him, for his perversion of the methods of Chris­tian Science, he turned on her and said that he would kill her, but that he would see her in the poorhouse first.

In the third edition of Science and Health is a whole chapter devoted to Kennedy, that has seemed like an extravagant picture of evil to many readers. In it she speaks of him as follows: “Never but one of our students was a voluntary malpractitioner. He has worked with as malignant a purpose to injure the students as to wound their teacher and hinder the Cause.”

Charcoal is considered a purifier; yet when mixed with certain ingredients, it becomes highly explosive. Truth is a purifier; but through Kennedy, Mrs. Eddy discovered that when it is introduced into a consciousness in which the remnants of Roman Catholicism have never been cast out, it finally produces a mental mixture that is highly explosive and dangerous. Unquestionably it was her experience with Kennedy, that caused her to write a By-law for­bidding teachers to teach her Science to Catholics without the consent of the authority of their church.

Catholicism involves aspirations that would deify the human mind. When the methods of Science perverted, are added to this ambition, a dangerous mixture results. Through Mrs. Eddy's instruction, Kennedy learned the operation of suggestion, and then sought to turn this knowledge to his own human advan­tage, giving him a sense of power that caused him to believe that he could function as a little god. Mrs. Eddy was truly God's anointed and appointed; yet he threatened to kill her, and before doing so, send her to the poorhouse. In Bible language, he made himself equal with God. In the language of Science and Health, he tried to wield the sceptre of a monarch; but Mrs. Eddy proved that he was powerless to reach her. What she deplored, was the fact that he was able to execute his wicked schemes on many of her helpless students who were unable to defend themselves. In fact they were for the most part ignorant that there was, as Mrs. Eddy called him, a “Nero” in their midst, working ill.

Kennedy hoped to kill Mrs. Eddy, for then he would prove how effective this knowledge of evil that he had learned from her was, when mixed with his Roman Catholic aspirations. When she perceived what a dangerous malpractitioner he had become, was it any wonder that she was hastened to warn all students against any recurrence of such a serious mistake, as to put “a sharp knife into the hands of a blind man or a raging maniac?” Science and Health, page 459.

In order to analyze this By-law cutting down salaries, and its repeal, let me conjecture what Mrs. Eddy would have done, had a hurricane devastated her grounds at Pleasant View. She would have rebuked the students for not holding it in check, which their demonstration of divine Mind could easily have done. Science would not be the truth, if Mind was not master of a little puff of wind. To human sense it might seem gigantic; but to God it would be a mere whiff of nothingness.

Mrs. Eddy had a right to expect, that if the work had been properly done by her officials, the lawsuit would never have come to a head. She set forth in her teachings a new phase of sin, namely, the sin of omission, which God called upon her to punish. It was the students' failure to fulfill their obligation to God, to the Cause and its Leader, as well as to themselves, that resulted in the law­suit, and Mrs. Eddy was called upon to punish them, by cutting down their salaries. Instead of asking the Field to make extra contributions to cover the extra expense, she required those whom she considered responsible for the condition, to contribute toward the large amount necessary to cover the cost of the suit. In two letters she exempted the musicians and janitors. Through this act the Directors learned that God gave Mrs. Eddy the right, not only to make the laws, but to expect punishment for a deviation from them, as well. In this way she represented God to them, since under God's law there is always a penalty for disobedience. One cannot tamper with a powerful circuit, without harmful results of some sort.

From this letter we learn that the penalty of a cut in salaries, instead of making the Directors and other officials feel more humble, and increasing their desire to do better in the future, and their determination to safeguard the Cause and its Leader with more unction and effort, caused them to chemi­calize. Obviously they concluded that it was unfair on her part to cut down their salaries for something for which they were not individually responsible. This attitude on their part caused a stir, and also a wave of adverse thought returning to Mrs. Eddy that gave her much to meet.

When a person is engaged in God's business, with the constant necessity to hear His voice, — which is the most important business on earth, — he must be willing to do anything that is legitimate, and to make any concessions within the bounds of right, in order to preserve the spiritual atmosphere around him free from confusion. It was highly important that nothing be permitted to affect Mrs. Eddy's abil­ity to turn to God constantly, for the wisdom that was needed continually for the correct government and establishment of her Cause.

Mrs. Eddy disciplined the officials at this time, only to discover that they completely misunder­stood. Not only had they not done what they should, but they did not comprehend their lack when they were punished; so, of necessity, she had to restore things as they were, and let the hogs once more have their regular allotment of food. If this sounds like an unhappy simile, let the reader recollect her own words in regard to salaries, “When the hogs are all fed, can mother have her one hour?”

When hogs have eaten their fill, they stop their activities and go to sleep. When the human desires of her officials were satisfied, — the swinish element in human nature, as she writes in the textbook, — she could once more work metaphysically and lift her thought to God, without having a mass of adverse thought coming at her from Boston to clean up first. So she was really compelled to rescind the new By-law.

“Stop at once the stir in Boston.” When a mat­ter touches on the subject of finances, it produces the greatest stir. To the majority of civilized mortals, money is the most important thing. It spells freedom from want, and the opportunity to gratify their desires. Hence even among Christian Scientists, whatever touches the money problem, threatening a lessening of supply, chemicalizes thought. It is safe to say that the officials would have done any­thing, rather than to have their salaries cut down. All of us hate the thought that we might have to deny ourselves in any direction, that which we are accustomed to.

Mrs. Eddy's move was what produced the stir, and because it was considered that she was personally responsible for it, the reaction was directed at her. Students at times did not hesitate to malpractice on their Leader. Most of them did not recognize that they were malpracticing, and knew nothing about the effect on her. More than her followers, she was dependent upon the atmosphere of God in which to work. If one were listening for important instructions at his radio, and static or other stations were in­terfering, these would have to be quieted or tuned out, before the message could be received. Sometimes people talking in a room make it impossible for one to hear on the telephone. So the one listen­ing has to silence everyone. Mrs. Eddy had to hear God's directions; nothing was more important than that. Hence she had to silence all interference as far as possible. If children were in the room beg­ging for ice cream during a telephone conversation, the wise thing might be to give them ice cream. Then they would be quiet.

Because to her the most important thing was to hear God's voice, she watched that she might have the freest opportunity to hear it.

In this letter she made it plain, that the musicians and janitors were not included in this punishment. Why did she mention these workers in the letter that rescinded the By-law, and again in the next letter, unless it was to show that the mental work of protecting the Cause was not specif­ically part of their work; therefore they were not the ones who needed to be punished? They were not directly responsible for the carrying on of the men­tal work, which was so necessary to protect their Leader, and to balance and support all that was being done outwardly to build up the Cause.

If the Cause ever becomes top heavy, it will be from lack of ballast. When a ship-builder increases the superstructure of his vessel, at the same time he must counter-balance it with ballast in the hull, lest the ship capsize in the open sea. The Direc­tors more than any other students, were the ones Mrs. Eddy expected to provide this mental ballast, — the daily spiritual work that is done to protect and to extend God's Cause on the earth. Once Mrs. Eddy wrote to one of her students in Boston, “More mental work for the Field must be done.” She saw that the organization was becoming top heavy, and she was sending out a call for more ballast. It was not her way to wait until a catastrophe happened, before doing the work to protect God's Cause. She foresaw and forestalled error, and expected her followers to act with the same wisdom and foresight.

The story goes that once a man put sawdust into the grain he fed his horse. As time went on he in­creased the amount of sawdust, and decreased the grain, until the horse sickened and died. His sup­position that the horse would finally become accus­tomed to the sawdust and need no grain, was proved to be false. In like manner, if the outward activ­ities of our organization gradually replace the mental work done to support those activities, our Cause will become dead spiritually.

Mrs. Eddy ends this letter by giving the Direc­tors another chance to apply their understanding of Science to the problems of the Church, as if, with their training and knowledge, that was the least they could do. They had permitted animal magnetism to handle them in one matter, but at once she offers them further opportunities to prove what she had taught them.

No student who loved the Cause could read this letter, without determining in his heart, to work with more consecration to protect it from all evil, to envelop it with the Spirit of God, and hold it in the secret place of the Most High. It is the responsibility of members to protect the Cause from the claim of animal magnetism, by denying the belief that anyone anywhere who has any part of it in charge, can be influenced erroneously, or that any­thing but the Mind of God can function through these children of God. And there is no reason why this demonstrating thought should be confined to Christian Scientists, since all mankind are in reality children of God. How are they going to be freed from the mes­merism that keeps them from the recognition that they are now living in the kingdom of heaven with God, unless the strong help the weak. Hence work for our Cause may be the center, but it should not be the circumference of our spiritual effort.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

September 5, 1901

Beloved Student:

Your map and letter explain what is to be purchased. I do not believe in getting in debt, especially on church property. Why I asked to have the Church By-law repealed was that compulsory giving is not my idea of church charity. Let the church consider all that I have done for it, and give without being asked. Cancel their account with God is my advice to the church officers — not in­cluding its musicians and janitors. I con­sider it a silly expenditure to build a church that cost what ours does to run it. I said “let the defence in that lawsuit pay the cost” but what I said was overruled and this lawsuit that could have been settled the first year was prolonged and the cost three times as much as it might have been, because I was again unheeded. I think now you better look after M.A.M. before acting.

With love,

M. B. Eddy


Those who give material service in our organiza­tion, like the musicians and janitors, must be paid ac­cording to the world's standards; but when it comes to the officers, if they do as Mrs. Eddy recommends in this letter, “Cancel their account with God,” they will find that they owe God more than He owes them. Think of what Christian Scientists save in doctors' bills alone! What they contribute to the church is but a small portion of what they have been enabled to save. Hence their giving to it should be spontaneously generous.

Students need to strive to lay up treasure in heaven. They receive so much from God, that they need to work hard to build up a balance on His side — to do much unselfish, loving work for the Cause and humanity. “Church charity” in Mrs. Eddy's eyes, was a giving of thought, time and money that was impelled by spontane­ous gratitude. Yet her cutting down of salaries to defray the cost of the recent suit and to awaken the students, had only served to disgruntle mortal mind. So she relieved her officials of such compulsory giving, pointing out the better way.

A demonstration of a church edifice means, that it is built on the faith that growth will soon require a larger edifice than the present requirements. That is why a membership of two or three hundred persons will erect a building that holds a thousand people. The Mother Church seemed large enough to most of the students in 1895, although Mrs. Eddy wrote to a student that she desired to have it larger, but circumstances hindered. But she had expressed approval and joy over the completion of the demonstration. Then why does she write a letter of criticism of the running expenses at this point?

If God should criticize the cost of building The Mother Church, you might wonder if He was unjustly judging His people in a moment of anger when it was done under His guidance. Yet it was God's word that Mrs. Eddy was voicing in this letter. What then was the import of His message?

If you should chide a mother and father, telling them that they had no business to bring children into the world, it would be because you saw that they were not ready to sacrifice for them as they should. The Directors were being told that they had no business to have this child, The Mother Church, if they were not ready to care for it, sacrifice for it, support it. They were proud of the church; yet at this point Mrs. Eddy had to send them a letter calculated to bring them to the proper defense of that of which they were so justly proud.

When the branch church in Providence, Rhode Island, reached the point where it was out of debt, and funds were pouring in in sufficient amount, the membership promptly went to sleep mentally. At once the church fund found itself in debt again. Then urgent appeals had to be made, and the membership had to be spoken to sharply, until everyone saw that this child of theirs had to be supported; and when the demands became greater, the sacrifices had to be greater.

When Mrs. Eddy criticized the size of The Mother Church in relation to the cost to run it, she was follow­ing the Biblical admonition in Luke 14, namely, not to begin a tower that one cannot finish, and not to go to war with ten thousand, against twenty thousand. Her way was not to call on students to go forth on faith alone, but to use their faith to demonstrate the intelligence, and supply. Further­more she did not want students going off on tangents, running wild with freedom, and striving to function beyond their possibilities. She might have said, “Keep within your demonstrating ability. It is silly to strive to extend yourself beyond it, and the effect on the public is not good.”

When a branch church is going to give a lecture, if the members follow this advice, they will not hire a hall the capacity of which is far greater than the number of persons that would normally attend. They will use their intelligence in selecting the hall.

A man should not buy a home the upkeep of which is way beyond his income. He might do so, and then a wealthy relative might step in, and pay his in­debtedness. This is really what Mrs. Eddy did with the problem of The First Mother Church. It was her demonstration that made up the lack. The man might call it his demonstration, when his relatives stepped in and helped him out, but it was not the kind of a demonstration Mrs. Eddy advocated. To her a right demonstration was to live within one's income reason­ably, as well as to build a church that the members could support. The fact that she had to make up the lack with The Mother Church, shows that she did not consider it to have been the demonstration of the members. A right demonstration means to cut one's cloth to suit the size of the garment. Such a lack did not appear when the Extension was built.

If this letter of September 5 is read in con­nection with the previous one, it almost sounds as though Mrs. Eddy were rambling on, repeating herself as an aged person is apt to do. Yet if you gave a boy on the street a vigorous push in order to save him from being run over, afterwards in explaining to him what you did, you might have to repeat your explanation several times, before you convinced him that you did not hate him, but that you had pushed him to save his life. You were not irritated or upset. You did not do it to punish him. You merely did what was necessary to put him quickly beyond the reach of danger.

Mrs. Eddy could sense whether she had convinced the Directors of her reasons for doing what she did; and until she had convinced them, she had to keep at them. The moment she felt that the stir was over in their thought, she would drop the matter forever. She could not let it drop, however, until the mis­understanding and consequent irritation had been healed. Thus what appeared to be ranting on her part, was her knowledge that the situation had not been healed, and of the need to keep at it until it was.

Only posterity will be able to testify to the full value of these precious letters. For instance, this one says, “Compulsory giving is not my idea of church charity.” Such a statement as this would con­vict all branch churches of not following out Mrs. Eddy's idea of giving, when they demand funds. When I first came into Christian Science, before the error had started that would, if possible, shut off the desire to give, and the love of giving, the thing mem­bers loved to do most, was to give. When the demon­stration is made in a church to silence this error, nothing need ever be said about giving, since members return to their voluntary joyous sense of giving.

Solicitation for funds is a remedy. Like all material remedies, it may change effect, but the cause remains unhealed. What kind of a demonstration is there, where the membership has to be continually prodded to support the church? After such compulsory giving, the members lapse back into the old apathy, and the whole performance has to be repeated again and again, because there has been no healing of the error in thought.

When a man is brought out of darkness, fear and suffering, into the light of confidence and health, his appreciation for this miracle is boundless. When one learns that he has constant access to God, and so can meet successfully all problems and conditions that confront him, the amount of his gratitude and giving is measured only by his own ability to give. Such an individual does not need to be reminded to give, as long as he remains free from the animal magnetism that would shut off giving.

The first practical point in regard to Christian Science that impressed me, when I first became inter­ested, was the notice in the Journal in 1894 that enough funds had been sent in for the present need, and no more were needed. I felt that there was a sect that had gone a long way ahead of any theological faith I knew anything about. It appeared as though the old devil of compulsory giving, that started way back in the days of the early Christians under Constantine, had been routed out, the error that substituted solicitation for demonstration, as the way to support Christ's church.

It is evident that Mrs. Eddy watched lest this same devil creep into her organization, that would rob man of his joy in returning to God via His Church, some measure of his gratitude for all the blessings he has received — a joy that every Christian Scientist must feel perpetually. She was constantly at war, lest this error overtake her Church.

“Let the church consider well what I have done for it.” In these words she showed that an appreci­ation for what she had done — her immense and selfless labors — was the first and important step, preceding the extension of one's appreciation to God. She gives us the authority for declaring, that apprecia­tion for what she so freely gave for us — her time, her money, with no thought of herself — should be the primary motivation of our giving. She demanded no vacation, no rest. She gave every moment of every day to the work. Usually when a person is advanced in years, they feel the need of peace and quiet. They yearn for rest. They want to lay aside their responsibilities, and have others assume them. Nothing of this sort came to Mrs. Eddy. Everyone turned to her for advice; they referred everything to her for her demonstration. Yet she bore the bur­den without complaint.

Loyal loving followers of our Leader naturally feel that the financial way of showing appreciation, is one by which they are able at least paritally, to pay their debt to her. It must be borne in mind that it is always the claim of animal magnetism that would prevent this spontaneous giving, this instinc­tive desire to give. Hence solicitation has no place in Christian Science, and would never appear, if students kept alert to their Leader's example, in which she set forth the metaphysical and scientific way as being the correct way to do all things. God's way is always the right way. To leave God's way for mortal mind's way, is to take the way in which there is no healing and no permanence.

It was with great difficulty that Mrs. Eddy educated students to use demonstration in her home even in small ways. Students turn to divine Mind in emergencies, but it is another thing for them to make it their everyday Mind, which is what we all have to do. We must learn to use it all through the day in every way. When this time comes, no animal magnetism will be found making headway in our churches, suggesting that solicitation is the right way to raise funds.

“I think now you better look after M.A.M. before acting.” Here is the crux of the whole letter. To­gether with the previous one, it offers an object lesson in the difficulty Mrs. Eddy found in impress­ing upon the minds of her followers the muddle one gets into, when he fails to handle animal magnetism. She was determined to instruct them, that the lawsuit could have been avoided, if they had handled M.A.M. in the first instance.

She enforced all the discipline she could, to awaken them to the error of not being consistent to the teachings they had embraced, namely, that God's way is the way of success, and it should be the only way employed by man. She knew that animal magnetism alone would tempt them to forget or to neglect the right way. Once in a private letter she called it a “strange infatuation to forget and not watch.”

Spiritual growtn involves the determination and effort to use God more and more. One begins by using Him where to do so is absolutely necessary, since there is no other way to turn. Then in order to ad­vance spiritually, he must encroach on those other phases of human activity where the human mind seems perfectly efficient and adequate to human sense, until finally he finds himself using divine Mind in all his ways.

When a farmer has to lug all the water he uses from a distant spring, he uses it sparingly. When pipes and pumps are installed, he uses it freely. The same thing should happen in our spiritual progress. We should go from the labor of obtaining the divine Mind at times — since such an attainment is labor for the human thinker — to the unlabored reflection of Mind as a constant actuality. Because it is a labor­ious task for a mortal to work his way out of human conclusions and sense testimony, and attain divine reflection, he does it only when it becomes a neces­sity. It is only when he perceives the underlying inadequacy of the human mind, that he becomes willing to learn the method by which he may synchronize with God easily and constantly. Then he determines to encroach on his use of the human mind, until he finds himself recognizing but one Mind, and its use fills his thought and life; then for him the human problem is solved.

The letters Mrs. Eddy wrote to the Directors at the aftermath of the Woodbury trial, were to convince them how much she and they might have been spared, had they only been awake to handle M.A.M., and then she warns them to handle it in the future, lest a worse thing come upon them. If a Christian Scientist has an automobile accident, that puts him to great inconvenience and expense, you may say to him, “If you had been maintaining the Mind of God actively in your thought, and meeting M.A.M., it would not have happened. So I warn you to be more careful, and never to drive your car without doing this work be­forehand. In Science the forgetful way is the costly way, since to keep God always with you in thought will spare you these unhappy experiences. You should no more leave God at home, when you go out, than you would your brake.”

In Science it is as important for the well as for the sick to declare, “I need Thee every hour.” We all need to keep in tune with Him. When the human mind is tempted to go off on a tangent of its own, it must be reminded forcefully of how costly it is, to leave God behind. No one needs to remind a blind man to take a friend along with him when he goes anywhere, to show him the way. As mortals, we are blind, and it is foolish for us to go anywhere or to attempt to do anything without God's help, without the conscious effort to realize that He is present to protect and to guide.

Had the Directors admitted to themselves that they had made a mistake, and yet failed to understand the reason why they made it, such an attitude would have been dangerous. Mrs. Eddy must impress upon them the reason they made it. She must keep at them until they awakened to see that what happened was not an accident, but the result of M.A.M. Only in this way could she be sure that there would be no repeti­tion of the error.

A student of Science can never have accidents happen to him as mortal mind does. If he does have some untoward experience, it must be linked with something in thought that he could have corrected, and so avoided the result. It is metaphysical to declare that we never have to be sick. We never have to have accidents. We never have to get into trouble. Such things only follow a mental falling away first. If we watch that such falling away does not take place, we must be immune from any unhappy results.

The letter in question was not an unnecessary repetition on Mrs. Eddy's part, a harping on a theme which she had already exhausted. She could detect that the thought of the Directors was not yet healed, that they did not yet perceive that this lawsuit came upon the Cause as the result of a mental falling away first.

Perhaps the Board considered that there was no way that it could have been avoided. They consulted the finest lawyers, and followed out just what they were told to do. So there could be no criticism coming to them. Yet Mrs. Eddy took them sharply to task, said that they were to blame, and kept at them, inculcating that if they had been alert from the metaphysical standpoint, they would have met the law­suit with the power of God in its inception, and so spared her and the Cause all the trouble and expense that had followed. So it was but just that they should contribute from their salaries what their lack of demonstration had cost the church.

There may be times down through the centuries when the Directors or Trustees, through a lack of demonstration, may cost the church unusually large sums of money, and so need these powerful letters of rebuke that our Leader wrote. At one time the Trustees hired high-pressure salesmen to solicit subscriptions for the Monitor throughout the country. The project cost thousands of dollars each month, until it was abandoned, because its profitless nature became apparent to all.

Had Mrs. Eddy been present when this happened, she would have rebuked the Trustees and the Directors, by pointing out to them that there are students all over the country who would have been glad to take up such work without pay, had they been rightly appealed to, and to do it the demonstrating way. She would have pointed out that all the funds spent to follow out mortal mind's methods, were wasted. She might even have required them to make up some of the expense, from their own salaries. If the lessons taught the Directors by these priceless letters from our Leader are not yet learned, the conclusion is that the Directors should still be studying them each day, and striving to imbibe the necessary lessons that they teach.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

September 10, 1901

Dictated

Christian Science Board of Directors

Beloved Students:

God is numbering you this year and he has set down our clerk, William B. Johnson, as number one, who donates his salary for one year to The Mother Church.

Dr. Baker wants to know about the Annual Meeting of The Mother Church.

I propose that because of the many re­cent gatherings together of the several Churches, we omit a universal gathering, and have the business of the church transacted, which has not been already attended to, at the forthcoming semi-annual meeting in Nov­ember.

With love,

M. B. Eddy


A study of these letters in their sequence in­dicates that in the midst of the Woodbury trial, Mrs. Eddy first promised the Directors a substantial increase in salary, if they would bring it to a speedy conclusion. Then suddenly she demanded that Judge Hanna pay the rent on her house, instead of the church paying it, as part of his contribution toward the expense of the suit; finally she ordered a cut in the salaries of all the officials. When the stir over this move caused her to rescind this action, we find Mr. Johnson voluntarily giving up his salary for a year, bringing forth from Mrs. Eddy this letter of commendation.

No one feels that it is too severe a penalty, when a sentry is shot because he falls asleep while on duty. Everyone considers that the possible consequence of a whole army being wiped out, justi­fies such a punishment, and that fear of the death penalty should carry a stimulus sufficiently strong to keep any sentry awake, no matter how insistent the demand for sleep becomes.

The students were sentries, — watchmen on the walls, — and Judge Hanna and the Directors were the ones who carried the greatest responsibility to look out for all matters that concerned and affected the Cause. The suit dragged on and the newspapers libeled our Leader; then the Directors kept from her a know­ledge of this fact, until it was too late for her to strike a connective blow at the psychological moment.

In punishing these watchmen, she was establish­ing the fact under this new concept of mental re­sponsibility which she was inaugurating, that mental laziness, neglect, and forgetfulness, whereby the demonstration of support that should be made, is not made, becomes an offense punishable before God.

She did not indicate that this sin was punish­able by death, as in the case of the sentry, yet interestingly enough, we all face the possibility of death, whenever we fail to handle animal magnetism. The entire gist of Christian Science may be said to be embraced in this simple proposition, that through the fear of death, and the steps leading to it, we are aroused to throw off the mental lethargy and numbness of animal magnetism.

Mrs. Eddy was awakening thought to its respon­sibilities in the mental world, as being on a par with those which everyone recognizes in the physical world. While no evidence could be brought to bear that would convict one before a judge and jury of the neglect of one's mental duty, which in this instance resulted in large amounts of money being lost to the Cause in order to pay the bills for the suit, yet it is known to God. Mrs. Eddy knew that in His eyes men were guilty of negligence, and she dealt with them accordingly.

While the desire to sleep appears to be strong in mortal man, it is not as strong as the fear of death. If one felt himself getting drowsy, as a sentry might feel on duty, the recollection that if he slept it might cost him his life, would wake him right up. Mrs. Eddy tried to impress upon the Direc­tors and officials that there is a penalty for not keeping mentally awake. She indicated that by their not doing so, events took place which were costly and detrimental to the Cause.

All Christian Science practice is based on the proposition of one line of thinking correcting another. If a patient's thought can be turned away from his sickly contemplation of himself, even by laughter or tears, the body being relieved of malpractice, stops its complaints. A change in one's thinking brings about a change in manifestation, which is called a healing.

In his book, The History of the Christian Science Movement, which he wrote for Mrs. Mary Longyear, Mr. Johnson's son tells of many lean years his family passed through, when the problem of gaining a live­lihood pressed severely upon them. Yet this letter shows that the father did not think of money, when the need came to support the organization which was dear to his heart.

Giving up a year's salary was a thing he could hardly afford to do. Today, with an affluent organ­ization, we do not half appreciate the financial stress of those early days. Yet Mrs. Eddy added to the stress at times hoping to bring forth greater metaphysical endeavor.

When she called on the students to handle M.A.M., she was really calling on them to take the sting out of the serpent, which can only be done mentally; they had paid so much attention to the human side of the suit at law, that they had neglected the impor­tant part, which would have rendered the serpent harmless. They yielded to the same temptation a sick man does, when he pays so much attention to symptoms, that he neglects to correct his thinking.

A pioneer has to break down mental resistance, which those following after never have to do again. Mr. Johnson was not the only one in the history of our Movement who gave more than he could afford; but he became a pioneer in breaking down an error which opened the way for a more wholehearted support of The Mother Church. On September 5th Mrs. Eddy had advised the church officers to cancel their account with God. Now comes a letter that shows that he pioneered in breaking down this specific claim of animal magnetism, which caused Mrs. Eddy to write that God had set him down as number one.

Often a member, who can afford to give only a small sum to the church has a large amount to his credit, because his success in handling the claim of animal magnetism which would blind members to their ability to reflect God's giving, has opened the pocketbooks of others, causing a support to be given to the church that would never have been given without this one's faithful mental work. In the book of God large sums will be credited to such a one. In God's sight he is number one.

Sometimes animal magnetism causes members to forget that they are kept in health by their reli­gion, and thus saved large sums that otherwise might go to doctors. Once I healed a sick man, and my bill was ten dollars. Prior to that time, he had spent thirty-thousand dollars fruitlessly with the doctors, seeking the cure that Science gave him for that small sum. If he was willing to spend such a large sum and not be healed, assuredly he should be willing to spend generously toward the support of that which not only healed him, but would continue to maintain in him that health. Such a sequence would follow with all those who come into Science under similar cir­cumstances, if the argument of animal magnetism were handled in connection with giving.

When one of the household at Pleasant View was in need, Mrs. Eddy would look over the students, in order to perceive who was number one, the one who was in that mental state that enabled him to see the error as no more than hallucination. The moment she determined who he or she was, she put him on the case. In a few days or even the next day, another student might be number one, but the need was to find the student at the moment who was in that mental state that enabled him to meet the condition that needed help in the home, by seeing it as unreal.

“God is numbering you this year.” The next year number one might be another student. There was no reason why this letter should have caused the other students to settle down in the assumption that they were of less importance than Mr. Johnson. Because a certain horse wins one race, that is no proof that he is going to win the next.

The Directors received small salaries at this period (less than one thousand dollars per year), but God paid them liberally as He always does, when we work for Him and do not receive humanly all that the work is worth. This giving up of salary was a real sacrifice for Mr. Johnson. It proved that he recog­nized what our Leader meant, when she accused the students of a failure to meet the error connected with the Woodbury suit. Having failed in that in­stance, he determined to show our Leader that he would not fail, when it came to making a personal sacrifice for the Cause.

Mr. Johnson became number one, because, having failed in one demonstration, he undertook another equally difficult, showing that he was willing to rise or fall on the basis of whether he was able to demon­strate supply apart from his salary as a Director. He resembled the widow woman in the Bible who threw all that she had into the treasury of the temple. Jesus applauded her, not for the size of the gift but for faith that prompted it.

It must have touched Mrs. Eddy deeply, not to have a rich man give of his wealth, but to have a poor one (poor in this world's goods) give his all, and place himself in a position where he would have to demonstrate supply through healing the sick, or starve.

It is interesting that Mrs. Eddy notified the entire Board of Mr. Johnson's act, as if she knew him to be such a modest man, that he would not even tell his fellow Directors of the sacrifice he had made. It is possible that the other members of the Board felt that he had no right to do this thing, apart from consultation with the entire committee. They may have felt that had he told them of his decision they would have agreed to do the same thing as a whole. Whatever the circumstances were, it is evident that he endeared himself to our Leader by his act, and won God's approval.

To sum up the lesson taught by Mrs. Eddy in the series of letters since the Woodbury trial, when one has taken on a knowledge of how to handle the errors of the Cause and of the world, when he is confronted with those errors and does little or nothing about them, he has to be punished for negligence. He may be guiltless in the eyes of man, but he is blame­worthy in the eyes of God, — Mrs. Eddy saw through the eyes of God.

Mrs. Eddy's reconnnendation that the universal gathering be omitted in 1901, may have indicated that she foresaw that the time might come when students would be tempted to leave their fields of labor en masse in order to attend the Annual Meeting, which might result in an entire city being without a prac­titioner for a period. While it would be permissible for the workers to attend once in a while, Mrs. Eddy wanted no universal gatherings in Boston each year that would deprive needy ones of the help they might want, even for one day out of the year. So she arranged to have the business of the church done in such a way that the presence of members would not be required.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

October 3, 1901

Dictated

William B. Johnson

Beloved Student:


I have found you very faithful in your office. If I recollect rightly I personally requested you to dissolve the committee in question. However, we all are liable to mis­takes, but allow me to ask that all letters of yours hereafter containing accounts of the Church business shall be addressed to me per­sonally.

Mr. Frye has too much laid on him as sponsor for me or my personal matters. He is trust­worthy, but he should not be called to act in every instance for your Leader.

Here let me thank you for Christian love and fidelity in your office. Enclosed find a letter of mine to substitute the one you have received — please file this letter and destroy my prior letter on this subject.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy

N. B. Leave out the amendment of By-law on Publication Com. and destroy it. Let this Com. work under the Manual By-law as it is, at present.


In this letter we find Mrs. Eddy following the pattern of John's letters to the churches, which never failed to note the good that was being accom­plished, before a rebuke was given. In like manner she states that she found Mr. Johnson very faithful in his office, as a preliminary for saying that she had something against him, for which she must take him to task. Even into the rebuke she puts an ele­ment of doubt, by saying, “If I recollect rightly....” If she had not made the request to him personally to dissolve the committee in question, she was will­ing to acknowledge it as her mistake, and so put her­self in the same category with him.

As I have stated in these pages, the decision as to what letters were to be handed to her each day, was left with her secretaries. When the human mind slyly slipped in in place of demonstration, it was possible for important matters to be withheld from her, and letters that she should not see handed to her. I quote again the note she sent me, when I made the mistake of handing her a letter which was a severe shock to her, which should have been withheld, “If you had a belief of struggling with indigestion — would you like it if someone handed a letter to you that would naturally shock you from head to foot — just before your dinner? Read the commandment that goes with the First.”

One must be in a receptive attitude of mind in order to receive the blessings of God. Hence it was a serious matter to our Leader to be handed a letter that shocked her, since it affected her abil­ity to receive God.

Perhaps at the time of this letter she had been passing through some severe experience, and Mr. Frye thought it the part of wisdom to act for her in certain church matters. In this instance it appeared as if he withheld from her something of importance. So Mr. Johnson had to be rebuked, and directed to send his letters to her instead of to Mr. Frye.

One playing a game of chess wants to make the moves himself, since each one contributes to his ultimate success. If one little pawn were moved by another, it might change the plan of the game. Every move in the founding of the Cause had to come under Mrs. Eddy's direct supervision.

In this letter we see our Leader's delicacy, where it was needed. The gist of what she writes, is that when Mr. Johnson is not handled by animal magnetism, he is very faithful, but that at times he is handled, and at such times he does make mis­takes. One of them was to send to Mr. Frye matters which should be sent directly to her. Mr. Frye himself was liable to be handled at times, when he would do just the reverse of what he should do. However, she couches the letter in such a way, that a strong rebuke is put in a delicate way, and if the rebuke is accepted, all will be well. If he had not taken the rebuke it is probable that the next letter would have been couched in stronger language.

When a gang of men are digging in the street, there is always one who is boss, whose duty it is to see that they do not lapse into laziness or dig in the wrong place. Mrs. Eddy was responsible in God's sight for the workers in the Movement, and this letter is illustrative of this fact.

It should never be forgotten, in analyzing these letters, that when students are handled by animal magnetism, part of its effect upon them is that they rebel against being told that they are handled. Their pride prevents them from admitting the truth about themselves. The error not only im­pels them to do that which is not right, but makes them loathe to being corrected. When you rebuke them they are often apt to assert that you are wrong, and they are right. Hence we read such a letter as this one with a great deal of appreciation, and recognize it as a model of love and tact. It is possible to discern the strength of the rebuke that Mrs. Eddy conveyed to Mr. Johnson; yet she phrased it in such a delicate way that he could not take offence, and that his pride would not be hurt. Then if error still remained, it would not prevent him from continuing to manifest loyalty and obedience.

When one is drowning, you can save him, if you can lay hold of any part of him. The quality that Mrs. Eddy relied upon the most to save her students, was loyalty. One reason that the Master had such appreciation for Peter, was because of his quality of loyalty. Yet the latter had to learn, that even the best human quality could be temporarily over­shadowed by animal magnetism, unless he properly defended himself. In passing, it is well to note, that error attacked him at what he considered his strongest point, not his weakest. We are all apt to work to protect ourselves at our weakest points. We are confident that we are invulnerable at our strongest points, so we leave them unprotected, yet Peter's experience teaches us that our strongest point unprotected, is weaker than our weakest point protected.

As usual Mrs. Eddy watched that nothing she wrote about Calvin Frye give the students any occa­sion to malpractice on him, since in part his value to her was dependent on the way he was regarded — ­the thought in which he was held by the students. It is possible that Mr. Frye was wholly responsible for the error covered by this letter. Furthermore she was dictating it to him. Hence she had to be aware of its effect on both of these gentlemen. She did not wish to offend either; yet the error must be corrected. So she set forth the procedure which both of them would understand, that all church matters were to be addressed directly to her, and then handed to her.

If Mr. Johnson were caught in any error such as this letter indicates, one may be certain that it was because he had a strong desire not to burden our Leader. She knew this and took it into consideration.

She sought to encourage the students in official positions to take as much responsibility as possible; but it was not an individual initiative that she sought for, but an initiative that went to God for direction, instead of to her or to one's own opinion. One who knew the early Directors, could easily see that one reason Mrs. Eddy selected them, was because by nature they were not fitted to assume such re­sponsibility, as to be the executive heads of a great Movement. She gauged them by their spiritual qualities, however, and found them not wanting.

Above all, she banked on their unswerving loyalty to God and to her. Mr. Frye, more than the Directors, was the one who should have realized how important all of the church matters were, and how essential it was to bring them to Mrs. Eddy's attention. Hence one can always speculate, when she dictated a letter of this kind, how much it was written to convey a point to Mr. Frye himself, and how much to the Directors. One can realize that the letter would be wholesome for all concerned, and at the same time lay down a pattern for such letters for all time.

Mrs. Eddy watched carefully, when she was called upon to rebuke the officials, that she wrote or said nothing to shake the hold she had on them through their love and loyalty. She must not lose her con­nection with them since it was through them that all these important matters had to be executed. So she thanks them for their Christian love and fidel­ity to their office. She could always appreciate these qualities; hence as long as they manifested them, they could be sure that they were in tune with her.

Mrs. Eddy's care to have the church records in perfect order for future generations, is indicated in the fact that she rewrote some letters that they had on file, and ordered the destruction of the prior letter on the subject. These letters were to become important records; some of them defined the duties of committees established by the Manual, where such duties were of a confidential nature, and could not be made public.

Mrs. Eddy's treatment of both Mr. Johnson and Mr. Frye was masterly. She rebuked them when they needed it, yet she gave them encouragement and praise, so that they had proof that she loved and appreci­ated them. This helped to keep them from turning sour under her rebukes, which is the inclination of mortal mind, when rebukes appear to be unjust.

Because her rebukes were given from a higher standpoint than human cause and effect, she suffered under mortal mind's misunderstanding of them. On page 272 of Miscellaneous Writings we catch more than a hint of this. “I have endeavored to act toward all students of Christian Science with the intuition and impulse of love. If certain natures have not profited by my rebukes, — some time as Christian Sci­entists, they will know the value of these rebukes. I am thankful that the neophyte will be benefited by experience, although it will cost him much, and in proportion to its worth.” On January 5, 1892, she wrote to Julia Field-King, “...surgery in Science I do dread and suffer from performing my part. But it has fallen on me to do this many long dreary years cheered only by approving love of God and the gratitude and growth of my students.”

In order to understand her rebukes, one must appreciate that the student who can change from spiritual consciousness to the human mind, and still remain harmonious, is in a dangerous situation, since he has no indication of his deflection, and is like a boiler without a safety valve. Yet the one who finds that he is becoming more and more sensitive to such a change must watch lest he become discour­aged over the effects in himself that he does not understand. When he is adversely affected by human qualities such as affection, sympathy and solicitude, he may turn to our Leader's experience and gain understanding.

When in 1908 Calvin Hill called at Chestnut Hill and found Mrs. Eddy in distress and breathing with difficulty, he was baffled by her declaration that it was his tender thought that reached her, and cost her much. She herself would have been discouraged over this, had she believed that his thought of affection was unmitigated good. Her knowledge that it was largely human saved her from such despair. Her experience proves that the highest human think­ing can cause an advanced student to suffer, who has not made the demonstration of complete immunity.

Mr. Hill recognized his own steadfastness of pur­pose, his willingness to sacrifice everything for this dear woman whom he loved so devotedly. He proved his devotion by performing all sorts of tasks for her, buying her gloves, choice fruits, whatever she needed; he sought out helpers to come and be her maids. He cast aside all human folly and amuse­ment, the lure of woman, and all aspirations for place and power. No wonder that he felt that his devotion to her was a precious thing, and not de­serving of aught but praise.

The rich young man who came to the Master, ex­pected to be praised for his devotion to good. Per­haps he lost faith in the Master for a time, as Mr. Hill did in Mrs. Eddy. He believed that with his great perception Jesus would detect the good that was his, and what an exalted character he was. It was a shock when the Master, instead of applauding him, indicated that he was harboring an error which would be a barrier to any further growth, un­til it was cast out. His efforts to be good came largely from the human mind.

Had Mr. Hill prayed over Mrs. Eddy's rebuke, God would have revealed to him the justification for it, as He did some-twenty-five years later; but at the time of his visit, he was not ready to perceive the fine line of distinction between the purified human mind, and divine Mind. He was harboring hate against her enemies. He did not realize that this meant that he was maintaining an earthly thought that appeared good to him. Yet it poisoned his whole thought.

To understand that Mrs. Eddy differentiated between the human and the divine, without reference to the senses, is the key that unlocks her whole life. She habitually rejected all human efforts in her home, unless they were motivated by a spiritual sense. To bring her effect, no matter how success­ful or harmonious, without endeavoring to cast out the human mind as the suppositional cause, was to bring her the offspring of a murderer.

What other explanation can there be, of the note she sent to Lewis Strang in 1905: “Treat Minnie daily for spoiling the simple food she cooks for me.” I can testify that Minnie Weygandt knew how to cook, but that she flavored much of the food with her fear. She desired mightily to please our Leader. She had enough unselfish devotion to desire to be of service to the one she loved, and to feel that in her humble way she was part of the activity of Science that was bringing so much good to the world but she did not always meet the claim of fear.

Minnie's conclusion about her experience was that Mrs. Eddy was fussy. She kept a list of the dishes of food that were sent back with the order never to serve them again; and when she hit upon something that was liked she served it so often, that sometimes Mrs. Eddy would tire of it. To show that she harbored a superstitious thought about the situation, I cite the fact that she was afraid that if she gave anyone the recipe for a dish that Mrs. Eddy liked, that might end the latter's acceptance and liking of it. Today we see that Minnie could have served her a dish taken from the forbidden list, and it would have been accepted, had it been impregnated with the spirit of God.

A correct treatment of Minnie by Mr. Strang, would have been to destroy her fear, with the real­ization that true food is spiritual, and to help her to impregnate the human symbol with the love of God, so that a spiritual regeneration and blessing would attend the eating of it.

When Mrs. Eddy appointed me to bring her tray at noon, I enjoyed performing the service, since it gave me a chance to exchange a few words with the one through whom had come the greatest blessing of my life; but it did not occur to me that she ex­pected me to rectify Minnie's thought of fear, that often attended it, so that in eating it, she would feel an approach to God, instead of the reverse.

I have often wondered why Mrs. Eddy did not divulge to Mr. Strang that the way Minnie spoiled the food was through fear, or tell me that she ex­pected me to neutralize this sense of fear, since I was unaware that there was such a claim. But I had been demonstrating other simple things for our Leader, so she hoped that I would be alert to the necessity for bringing her luncheon to her with dem­onstration. I assumed, however, because Minnie cooked the food, she also made the demonstration connected with it, and all that was required of me was an outward service to be done with love.

Today I have concluded that wisdom caused our Leader to refrain from divulging the fact that she was so sensitive, that a sense of fear connected with her food, often acted on her like a poison, and made her suffer. She did not expose this vulnerable point, lest the enemy find it out. And when I see wherein I failed my Leader, it fills me with a determination to do all I can to make up for it now. If I failed in 1905 to take any sense of poison from the food served to her, now — forty years later — I can seek to handle every poisonous thought about our Leader — the poison that would attempt to impreg­nate the minds of the world with an erroneous con­cept of her. This poison, if not handled, might be as successful in destroying her value to the world, as the poisonous thought in connection with her food would have been, when she was with us. Had she passed on before the Cause was fully launched and made watertight, it would not have stood. Today if thought is poisoned about her, the Cause will go down. She is still the navigator of her great ark, and a right sense of her is essential to its safety.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

October 4, 1901

Dear Student:

Not until today did I know your experi­ence yesterday and tomorrow will be better than today.

Thank God and know that it is because He loves you that He gives you higher lessons than he gives your classmates. Be of good cheer. The By-laws I sent yesterday will not prevent your re-election but secure it. Also I shall see that you have your annual salary. You have given it this year to the church. You set the example, “It will return to you after many days as bread cast upon the water.”

With deep love,

Mother


Soldiers in training do not complain when they are given difficult conditions to meet, since they know that every effort is made to duplicate actual fighting conditions, so that they may meet them suc­cessfully when the time comes. Once Mrs. Eddy wrote to Majorie Colles, “Let us rejoice that the Captain of our salvation is training us for higher service.”

Science teaches us, that whatever the experience that awaits us, it is only some phase of mesmerism, that our material senses declare to be real. No student will ever reach a place of advanced growth, until he is ready to deny this false testimony, and to do so whenever necessary without complaint.

Mrs. Eddy wrote this letter to encourage Mr. Johnson, and to give him a scientific expectancy that all of his experiences were for his own good. She could not assure him that he would never again have any problems, but she knew that if he understood the reason for each one, he would not be cast down.

Mrs. Eddy gave me a teaching in her home, which she bound me on my word of honor not to divulge. It may be that if animal magnetism found it out it would seek to neutralize it, so that it would become ineffective. Now that she has left our midst, I know it is my privilege to share this teaching with humanity. She taught me to realize that every effort of evil to harm me, only did me good and made me stronger; that I rose higher spiritually, because of the seem­ing activity of the lie; that I was better for every experience; that no weapon formed against me could prosper; and that tomorrow would be better than today. In this way I learned how to turn the lie against itself, so that it would not only become its own destruction, but aid me in my journey.

Often soldiers in training will try to make a game out of their experiences, since in this way they find themselves able to endure the drudgery without complaint. Perhaps students of Christian Science would find it a help to make a game out of their afflictions. Teachers give children problems, because they know that they have been taught how to do them; and they must do them to prove to the teachers whether they have understood the teaching. God has a right to expect us to solve our daily problems, since the way to solve them has been made plain to us in Christian Science. It is helpful to feel that every experience is designed to help us to prove to Him how much Science we really know.

This letter was designed to help Mr. Johnson to meet his problems, without being ashamed of them. Sometimes our fellow students indicate that it must be a great lack on our part, when we have severe trials, and that if we were real Scientists, we could avoid such difficulties; but such an attitude is in­duced by ignorance of the heavenly intent of earth's shadows, as Mrs. Eddy writes in Retrospection and Introspection. The problem of matter lies before each student to be overcome. If he does not work to solve it when it is harmonious, then he will have to be driven to do so under circumstances where it is discordant. The best time to destroy a lion is when it is young; the reason it becomes difficult is be­cause at that age it is cute and playful.

Students cannot avoid trials and self-denials. Even the Bible tells us that whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth. The lessons of this life are designed to turn us gladly from matter to Spirit, and the sooner the better.

God does not make man sick; yet in this letter Mrs. Eddy indicates that these higher lessons were given to Mr. Johnson of God. The explanation is that as we develop spiritually, the more aware we become of the need to overcome matter. It may be urged that God did not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah since He is of too pure eyes than to behold iniquity; yet it was the action of Truth that brought the error to the point where it destroyed itself, and enabled man to leave it behind, by gravitating Godward.

On page 11 of Volume I of The History of the Christian Science Movement, we read, “I do not like to write very much about the years of '84 to '87, because they recorded a constant struggle for exis­tence….These were indeed heart-breaking years, for there was no income for weeks, except what came through my work.” Here Mr. Johnson's son gives a picture that shows why even in 1901 the father could not afford to give his year's salary to the church. Yet he was only being driven to demonstrate supply. And in this letter Mrs. Eddy promises him that he shall have it, showing that she did not want him put to too great a hardship.

It is not the intent of wisdom to take away from the necessity for demonstration. Students should never work in such a way, that all necessity for demonstration will be taken away. The human mind demands material circumstances in which it will not have to worry; but wisdom does not permit us to settle down in ease and security, until we have finished the work God has given us to do.

I have often suspected that Mrs. Eddy placed some of the bugbears, like theosophy, and the like, in the paths of students to drive them to a daily demonstration of divine Mind. Certainly she made students feel that their very lives were dependent on their success in handling the mental assassin. How else was she going to drive them to do their work of protection, until they had acquired such a love for good, that they no longer required the whip?

In this letter Mrs. Eddy appears to appreciate the human sacrifice Mr. Johnson made, in giving his salary to the church; so she was ready to make a con­cession, because she saw that he had not quite reached the place where he had demonstrated God to be his supply, and so could weather any human storm that threatened it. She did not write that he had made a grand demonstration, but that he had set a wise example. She had put economic pressure on him and the other members of the Board, by reducing their salaries. This she did to test them, and to drive them higher. When her effort only produced a chemi­calization, she withdrew her demand. Then Mr. John­son made the grand gesture, and she thanked him. She indicated that he would receive his reward after many days, and assured him he would not lose out by setting the wise example.




(Telegram)

Received at 12E Massachusetts Ave., Cor. Boylston St., Boston

Dated Concord, N.H. 7 December 7, 1901

To William B. Johnson

30 Norway St.

In reply to your letter by Mr. Farlow I answer yes

M. B. Eddy


Mrs. Eddy had a code when it came to telegrams in which “yes” often meant “no.” Once Mr. Frye wrote to Calvin Hill as follows: “Mother sends you the word, ‘No.' You will understand it by our key.” This custom is an evidence of her great care to safe­guard everything she did, so that animal magnetism could not discover what was going on, and operate to interfere.

When I personally purchased the property in Providence, R.I., on which I hoped First Church of Christ, Scientist would be built, I safeguarded the situation by saying nothing of what I hoped the land would be used for. The very desirable site had just been put on the market, and I made the first offer for it. Later it was discovered that had the owner known the purpose I had in mind, he would have refused to sell.

My teacher had taught me to keep quiet about such matters, as Mrs. Eddy had taught him. Had I been asked the question directly, what I intended to use the land for, I would have had to tell the truth, but the demonstration was not to have the question asked. Yet after the land was purchased, I was accused of dishonesty, where honesty would have meant volunteering the information as to what the land might be used for; and it would then have been lost to us. When the edifice was finally com­pleted, the former owner was perfectly satisfied with the use that had been made of his lot.

Animal magnetism would like to have had our plan known, since then the place God had selected for us would have been lost. Thus we learned that our silence was part of the demonstration, as well as the fact that no questions were asked.

Mrs. Eddy showed great care in not letting matters leak out, when God demanded something of her. She taught Mr. Greene to use this same care. The students who criticized my transaction had no real­ization of the importance of demonstration. Their thought was, that all that was necessary, was for the members to decide on a good location for the church and then go ahead and buy the land. Yet when God demands of us to do His will on earth, we must be wise as serpents and harmless as doves. We must demonstrate every step, since when God trusts us, it is a grave offence to be found unworthy in His eyes.

God directed our Leader what to do, but it re­quired a large amount of demonstration and wisdom to execute His connnands. Part of the demonstration was to establish with her students a reputation for infallibility. This simple telegram is further evidence of her care, lest mortal mind discover her plans prematurely. To her, God's plans were so im­portant, that she watched every human avenue, to be sure that nothing could thwart or affect them.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

December 13, 1901

Mr. Johnson

Beloved Student:

I am as I trust sending this By-law as others have been sent — at God's command. It is called for; it must be done or our church membership will drop off and the church be broken up. God has said it, “Do my prophets no harm.”

Remember this church owes this duty to me and it will be punished beyond what you see, if it is not done now and thoroughly done.

Call a meeting of the full Board at once, and pass this By-law. I am in such haste I fear the By-law is not quite plain, if not question and I will reply.

With love,

M. B. Eddy

(COPY)

Mr. Armstrong:

The need of transacting what is required in the last By-law has passed. Do nothing more about the matter. I have got what I wanted to know, and its requirement is there­fore fulfilled. Destroy the By-law, and in­form the rest of the Directors tonight.

Mary Baker Eddy


Mrs. Eddy could sit at home in Concord, and like a general planning the campaigns of a great army, guide the Cause. At times those in the thick of the battle believed that they knew the correct moves better than she did. To circumvent this sug­gestion, she asserted that she sent orders at God's corrunand, or trusted that she did. In this way she silenced any malpractice of criticism, discussion or argument, the effect of which is always to create stubbornness in the carnal mind. Let a question come up for discussion in a church business meeting, and members who held no definite opinion beforehand, will often argue themselves into one that becomes so fixed, that they will fight for it, with all amiability gone with the wind. It would appear as if they had come to the meeting with that bias, and considered it a matter of principle to put it through at any cost, when in reality that which produced this bias was the agitation of thought brought about through argu­ment.

Many things which Mrs. Eddy did at God's command, were designed to produce a desired effect, and bring about a necessary situation, although she did not know this in advance. As an illustration, if she found a student, tempted by the ease and comfort of his home, relaxing in his scientific warfare, she might be God-directed to order him to sell it. Then if he showed a willingness to do this, and began to take the necessary footsteps, she might reverse the command. Jeremiah 35, bears out this point, where the word came that the Rechabites were not to build houses, but to dwell in tents. The implication is that when this order was obeyed, the Lord permitted them to build houses.

The one who recognizes himself as a wanderer in materiality, a pilgrim and a stranger in a barren land, may be referred to as a tent dweller. A book called The Unwritten Sayings of Christ, a copy of which Mrs. Eddy once gave to each student in her home, contains the following, “Jesus has said, the world is but a bridge, over which you must pass, but must to build your dwelling.” Such a saying helps to antidote one of the deceptions of mortal existence, namely, that matter can provide a secure and perma­nent home for man. Jesus wished us to regard this world as a passover, something to leave behind as fast as possible, and not to regard as our permanent dwelling place.

Christian Scientists are not disobedient when they possess homes, providing their mental attitude is that they are planting for the future in Mind, rather than settling down into a sense of human har­mony in matter.

We are only sojourners in the Adam dream. Mrs. Eddy did not sink her roots into this material fal­sity; rather did she struggle to plant her roots deep into spiritual reality. It does not require great spiritual insight to understand her statement, when she first entered her new home in Brookline on January 26, 1908, when she said “What splendid misery.” Adelaide Still who was present, is not cer­tain but what the statement was, “What miserable splendor,” but whichever it was, one can realize that our Leader wished to be sure that she did not believe that at last she had an adequate and perma­nent residence in matter. The splendid referred to the additional temptation that the adequacy, utility and beauty of the house presented to her; the misery was her clear recognition of the error that would overtake her, should she accept matter as providing a secure place in which to settle down. She knew that the more beautiful and ideal appears to be our temporary material home, the more misery will accrue, if we yield to the temptation to be contented in a sense of harmony that is finite and temporary.

Mrs. Eddy's treatment of students might be lik­ened to the way cattle are forced to new locations, when the grass in the old begins to become exhausted. They are gentle animals, but when the necessity comes to move them, because they only wish to stop and browse, gentle treatment usually fails. It takes noise and shouting and fear, to stir them out of a natural inactivity.

Mrs. Eddy sought to drive her students higher, when it becomes necessary. She detected a continual temp­tation to stop by the road, to go to sleep, or to accept the present place as a permanent one. It takes a struggle to overcome the tendency to lethargy, whether it be in cattle or human beings. The gentler and more domesticated the cattle are, the harder it is to overcome the desire to stop and rest. Cattle are not natural travelers, and it requires vigorous methods to make travelers of them.

When students become too cumbered with the notion that Christian Science means human health, longevity and happiness, they may need to be rudely awakened to the realization that God expects them to work out of materiality, and not to spend all their days in making materiality harmonious. Mrs. Eddy had to use sharp methods, when she found advanced students too eager for physical healing, too anxious to gain fi­nancial security, or too engrossed in the privilege of being happy on earth.

On August 1, 1901, Fredrick Peabody had launched his vicious attack on our Leader, in which he called her “the most audacious and most successful adventur­ess, the most mercenary and calculating charlatan, the most vindictive, relentless and cruel woman the enlightened centuries had produced.”

On December 3, 1901, she wrote a long letter to William McCracken, in which she said, “I cannot quite forgive my students for depriving me of that golden opportunity to have answered the libel of Peabody's. Only a page of reply would have shown him a liar. All he said could be met by dates and proof of its falsehood. I could have written it not in reply but simply stated the facts and not called him a liar, but left the reader of them to know that he was. But it was over a week after his lecture before I was told of it, and then it was too late. If Farlow had written nothing on that subject and let his silence speak, it would have been decent. As it was, the whine he sent out was all the enemy wanted.”

A knowledge of her letters to the Directors at this period, would lead one to conclude that the By­-law which she trusted she sent at God's command, was a demand of some sort that when she was attacked in the press, as she had been by Peabody, it was the duty of the Church to defend her, or to give her the chance at once to defend herself. All of her letters following Peabody's attack, show that her thought was filled with the need of safeguarding the situation, so that never again would such an attack be made, without her having the opportunity to answer it immediately.

She was the only one who knew the facts that would refute with authority, Peabody's lies and she was shut off from using them; and according to her letter to Mr. McCracken, what Mr. Farlow wrote was worse than as though he had been silent.

In the endeavor to reproduce the picture of those early days, one must consider that the Directors were between two fires. On one hand they knew that Mrs. Eddy could perform these tasks better than anyone; on the other hand they desired to spare her all they could from the toil and anguish these things caused her. Yet when they kept such a matter from her, as this dreadful attack, it resulted in a greater error. To many students it appeared as if they received her rebuke when they troubled her with a matter, and yet when they made the effort to take care of it them­selves, so she would not be troubled, they were like­wise rebuked. “There is no pleasing her,” was the cry of one who did not perceive that from her stand­point there was no way to function correctly in Science, unless one functioned under inspiration.

The only possible way for the Board to know what they should work out for themselves, and what they should refer to her, was to be governed by wisdom from on High. There was no reason why they could not have demonstrated in their actions the same di­vine guidance that she did, yet the suggestion and temptation to forget and to neglect to do so, was so aggressive, that she had to watch continually, and this was one of the hardest tasks in her experi­ence. The human mind stood ready to step in and govern her Cause — just as it did in the early days of Christianity, — the moment she relaxed her vigilance. Had she permitted it to come in, Christian Science would have been little better than old theology. Today when the human mind is permitted to function without rebuke, the same danger is creeping into our ranks, namely, should the human mind be permitted to rule us, as it does all other religious activities on the earth, then all possibility of spiritual pro­gress will be ruled out, since the human mind makes the human problems insoluble, by causing mortal man to settle down in a foolish optimism, wherein he hopes for the best, with no real expectancy of a change. Then when he faces death, he realizes that his life has been a failure, and that he has made no real pre­paration for the change. He is confronted by an ex­amination for which he has done no preparatory work, and he grieves over his wasted opportunities. No wonder Mrs. Eddy was disturbed at the indifference of the Directors under the human mind, when she saw so plainly the consequences!

The By-law our Leader sent with this letter evidently related to the responsibility of her Church to make a demonstration to protect her in the future, or to give her the right opportunity to do so. “Do my prophets no harm.” But before it was even passed, she saw that the compulsory way was not the wise way. When in 1907 she asked Susie Lang to come to her home as a helper, Mrs. Eddy saw that she would come be­cause the Leader demanded it; but that her heart was not in it, since at once she began to outline the great needs of the Lawrence field. Mrs. Eddy finally said, “The Lawrence field needs you more than I do.” Susie said, “Do you need me mother?” The reply was, “I need only what God sends me. I need you but I need you somewhere else than here.” The conclusion is that Susie would have been called to come, had her heart really been in it, and had she fully appre­ciated the wonder of the opportunity God was placing before her. What did a year or so in her own field amount to, in comparison with the chance to live with the one who was the prophet of the ages? It was a priceless opportunity, but Susie did not see it. Consequently her Leader did not compel her to come.

It was possible for Mrs. Eddy to force issues through By-laws, but one thing cannot be done in Science. Students cannot be forced to demonstrate. They cannot be made to put their heart into things. Yet Mrs. Eddy could send a By-law to indicate what she wanted, and then recall it, leaving the Directors free to act voluntarily. Then after having received such a strong hint as a By-law which indicated in exact terminology what our Leader wanted, if they failed, the situation was indeed hopeless.

The purpose of this By-law was undoubtedly to enforce loyalty, expressed in meeting every attack on their Leader quickly. She made a By-law out of what should have been something the students should have been alert to fill willingly and gladly. She hoped that her students would constitute a solid front defense, and be ready to meet and handle correctly and speedily every attack on her; especially during this period of Peabody's activities, but she could not compel this, if their hearts were not in it.

It is significant that the letter of December 13th was sent to Mr. Johnson. Then the undated one, ordering the rescinding of the By-law, was sent to Mr. Armstrong. It is possible that truth found in his thought the strongest opposition or indifference to the matter, and she detected it; and so she ad­dressed the letter to him. She was able to gauge the effects of new By-laws on individuals and the Church. Perhaps it is for this reason that she ordered some By-laws to remain on the books, but never to be printed or made public. One such By-law not in the Manual, which is still in force, reads: “If at any time editors should refuse to publish the Publi­cation Committee's reply to some abusive article unless they are paid for it, — if it be of sufficient importance to warrant this — the manager of the Com­mittee, on furnishing himself with an indorsement by the Board of Directors, can apply to the Treasurer of this Church and receive from him a reasonable sum to pay for the publication of said article.” Another one reads: “If in the course of observation our Pas­tor Emeritus has seen the need of exterminating a By-law, or a Rule of this church, it shall be the duty of the First Members to vote to expunge it.”

A further excerpt from Mrs. Eddy's letter to Mr. McCracken, dated December 3rd, is as follows: “Dear Mr. Farlow, that was once smart, seems dwarfed into something besides himself. His last public reference to me was, He knew that ‘Mrs. Eddy had had one tooth extracted without pain.' Think of this! I cannot and will not bear it much longer. I approve of your having an Institute for your own. But have I not some rights, some claims that should be respected at headquarters? His case is one of hypnotism, mental malicious malpractice. O take warning; watch con­tinually that thy house be not broken open. So far I have noticed no signs of this. God grant you exemption.”

True to her teachings, Mrs. Eddy shows that her arraignment of Mr. Farlow was not aimed at him, but at the animal magnetism that he had let in, that caused him to do things which robbed Science in the eyes of the public of the dignity it should have. Under demonstration he was fitted to do his tasks, but under animal magnetism he made trouble.

When under pressure a student flies off the handle and makes trouble, the explanation always lies in animal magnetism. So care must be used not to place such a one in an important position, since he cannot be trusted. If you knew that a man was accus­tomed to fly off the handle in an emergency, you would never appoint him to be a lifesaver. You need a man for that position, who, the moment there is the pressure of some danger, will remain cool and intelligent, who will give orders and quickly per­ceive what the right thing to do is. Christian Sci­entists are life savers. When the lives of humanity are threatened through a subtle attack against God's religion (in which lies their salvation), that is the time where with dignity, wisdom and understanding, the opposite truth should be quickly put forth, which will save innocent ones from falling into the trap of animal magnetism by believing evil about that which is good, the intent of which is to keep them away from that which they need so badly.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

December 21, 1901

To the Watchers who are mistaken

Beloved Students:

Disband your meeting today and never meet again to do what is not carried out scienti­fically. Each one to do the work of daily duty. Each one realize the allness of God, Good, and that there is no opposite evil. Do not meet together to discuss or to direct the prayers of Scientists unless I call you together. Each one pray daily and not ask amiss. I have known of the discord before of prayer that is amiss. You all can know that newspaper men will not publish aught against Christian Science. Please know this, and also know that you can do this separately as well as together.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy

Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

December 21, 1901

Beloved Student:

I forgot to say this: Take up nobody personally but let your prayer be impersonal and God will bless the right.

With love,

Mother

Do not think of me or my affairs. Let God do this and you invoke a general blessing.


Mrs. Eddy encountered the most difficulty in her efforts to establish this most important and won­derful function of Christian Science, a function which is destined to do more to reform the world than anything else ever could do, namely, students watching and praying in groups. The trend of the teachings of Science is towards the proposition that students will be able to work in groups so intelli­gently and correctly, that a mighty impetus for good in the world will follow. The main reason why Mrs. Eddy encountered difficulty in this direction, and why students have not as yet won their way to this essential attainment, is because it seems logical to believe that it is a simple matter to do mental work in unison; that all that is necessary is for the group to repeat over and over the declarations of truth which Science teaches.

Mrs. Eddy tells us that “there are a thousand human wills”; yet in order to watch and pray scienti­fically, a group of students must work in the one Mind. Otherwise there is always confusion. Time and time again Mrs. Eddy sought to test students along this line. It was the thermometer that indi­cated their spiritual growth. How disappointed she was when she took the cream of her students, put them to work as a group, and found discord resulting from their endeavors!

The ideal in organization is students working in groups to bring forth mighty results, by breaking down opposition and prejudice in the world. Today the greatest problem in connection with such a pos­sibility, lies in the lack of one student to take the lead, who is spiritually sensitive enough to be able to detect whether such mental work is doing good or harm. Mrs. Eddy could always detect whether the group work of students under her supervision was correct. In her home when such work was effec­tive, she was aware of it, and also when it was pro­ductive of discord, she sensed it. Then she would stop us immediately, — as she does the watchers in this letter. And such work can never be done on earth as it should be, until at least one student is raised up who can detect as unerringly as she could, when the work is productive of scientific and satis­factory results, and when it is not.

“Do not think of me or my affairs.” It is my impression that Mrs. Eddy suffered when group work was not done rightly. She could detect what the trouble was unerringly, and correct it. She well knew that there are no results in the world as de­finite, pointed and valuable as those coming from a group of students working together in the one Mind; however, such work can never be done with unity of effort until those doing it recognize the necessity of realizing and working in one Mind. The basis for such work must be the statement, that “where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”

These two letters told the watchers not to meet together again, but it did not tell them to stop their work. Mrs. Eddy wanted the work to be done scientifically, and one salient point in all work is the knowledge that in Science there is no middle ground. One's mental work either tears down or builds up, or it makes nothing of it, and so tears it down. There is no point at which the thinking of students is void. If it is human, it is expressed in human results; if it is divine, it is made manifest in good results.

This human world may be defined as the reposi­tory for all human thinking. Through it we perceive the thinking that otherwise would be hidden, and the effects of such erroneous thinking accumulate, so that the task of disposing of it becomes greater and greater, as it is left to itself. In Noah's time, the flood was typical of the action of divine Mind as it entered this mortal dream, to purify it of the accumulation of false thinking. Men and women perish in this purification merely because they could not make the separation between evil and the man expres­sing it. A scientific purification destroys evil and leaves man unharmed. Purifying times must come, but, as the Bible admonishes, they should not hurt the oil or the wine. The flood, therefore, would have been less destructive, had it resulted from more scientific work.

“You can all know that newspaper men will not publish aught against Christian Science.” Mrs. Eddy knew that if the students should take up this pro­position scientifically, the result could be as outlined. Mental work calls for a specific object, is powerful and effective, when it is backed up by divine Mind, and sharper than any two-edged sword; but when it is not, to work for an object, becomes merely mind-cure.

When nothing but the so-called mind of man is back of mental work, it is worse than ineffective; it becomes that which interferes with the plans of God, with the operation of His power on earth. Mrs. Eddy had to stop such work on the part of her stu­dents, whenever she became aware of it.

Young students might be shocked by the fact that Mrs. Eddy placed before the watchers such a goal, as to know that newspaper men will not publish aught against science; but mental work must always be done with some goal in mind. One might say that the ob­ject is specific, and the method is general. Imper­sonal electricity is brought into a house in order to light a bulb, which is personal. Science and Health tells us that “man walks in the direction towards which he looks.” The walking is impersonal, but the direction or goal is personal. So Mrs. Eddy, believing that her students were correctly educated in metaphysics, tells them what she wants brought out, which is a specific effect. She saw the need of putting into their thoughts what their impersonal work was expected to accomplish.

You might declare that God is Love and that there is no disease, all day, and not necessarily heal the sick. In addition you must know that that impersonal truth will flood the patient's thought and being, so that whatever is not of God will be completely dis­sipated; it will rise to the surface and float away, and the patient will be healed.

One might aver that to try to know that newspaper men will not publish aught against Science, would be to acknowledge the reality of mortal existence, as well as of a power apart from God, which mortals were exercising against Him. But there is no more efficacy in merely declaring that God is Love, than there would be in heaving a large untied anchor overboard; but when it is fastened properly, it will hold a boat securely. The declaration that God is Love is a fundamental statement, but it must be ap­plied in order to purge out some specific belief that there can be any course other than Love, or that some falsity can claim to exist that cannot be ruled out by this power. Hence to know that divine Love will rule out every and any specific error, becomes cor­rect metaphysics when such work is done in the one Mind. If done with the human mind, it is nothing short of hypnotism.

“Do not think of me or my affairs. Let God do this and you invoke a general blessing.” If Mrs. Eddy had been trying to lift a stone, and her students had had their feet on it, it would make the task prac­tically impossible. She was striving to eliminate this claim of material selfhood, or belief in matter — the false concept claiming to hold the true Mrs. Eddy in bondage. Whatever thinking the students did about her that was human, tended to weigh her down and prevent what she was trying to do. She even hesitated to have her photograph taken, lest students go into raptures over that which she was working to unsee.

These letters should never be taken as an edict that no group work should ever be done by students in our Movement; but it should never be done until each one is qualified to do such work scientifically in the one Mind, and some one student is qualified to oversee such work. When a student or a group of students fulfills the obligation to work mentally, but does not do so scientifically, the effect is not only not beneficial, it is harmful. When a member, knowing that he is expected to work mentally for the service, rather than to listen, does so, and yet fails to put into such work the same spiritual unction that he would if he were treating a sick patient, he is not fulfilling the law of Christian Science. Under such circumstances he will do less harm by listening to the service. Yet it is the sacred privilege of each member to maintain the atmosphere of God, wher­ever Christian Scientists assemble, but the work that accomplishes this magnificent result must be done in the one Mind, in order to attain the unity that makes it a blessing.

Mrs. Eddy was pioneering — walking a new path. Her doctrines in the form in which she presented them, had never been heard of before on the earth. She had no precedent apart from the Master's teachings to go by. She hoped that students would be able to grasp and to practice what she taught in doing men­tal work in groups as well as individually. Every once in a while she would appoint a committee of men­tal workers; but usually she was disappointed in the results. Yet she knew that if it were not for animal magnetism, her teachings would be understood rightly and put into practice correctly. Under this adverse influence, conscientious students who listened to her carefully, and perceived the importance of what she taught, failed to compass the extent of it. If they felt ill, they knew that that was animal magnetism; but they were not so quick to perceive that it was the same deterrent, when they felt that mental work was arduous, or when they failed to reach the oneness and height of spiritual thought that would mean work well done for the organization and the world.

A climber may know the way up a mountain, and yet find himself unable to climb properly, until he discovers that an enemy has hidden heavy weights in his pack. Animal magnetism stands ready to try to darken the thought of students in regard to mental work, and to make it seem heavy instead of light. All mental work should be done with a light thought.

Running a long distance is tiresome; but riding on a train is restful. Correct mental work tunes in to God, so that one is supported by divine Mind. Such work is restful and joyous. Otherwise animal magnetism will claim that it is laborious, and so it will not only accomplish nothing constructive, but does harm.

It would hardly seem fair that when our Leader appointed a committee in Boston to do mental work, and they failed to do it scientifically, she should have suffered as a result. Yet in order to be a thermometer for the Cause, she had to be sensitive. Otherwise how could she have told what was taking place in the mental realm, and been alert to check error whenever it appeared? Truly, she took upon herself the sins of her students, and by her stripes error was overcome.

When she found the watchers mistaken, she directed them to realize the allness of God, good, and that there is no opposite evil. She knew that they could always do that safely. Yet as one progresses spirit­ually, he reflects a greater insight into the illu­sion called evil, and its claims to impede the march of Truth on earth; so his work becomes of more speci­fic value to the Cause.

Mrs. Eddy writes that she has known before of the discord of prayer that is amiss. One might say of the odor of skunk, “I can detect it, because I have smelled it before.” She knew what it meant to suffer from mental quackery. On May 21, 1903, she said to the students in her home, “We must show the difference between the healing of Christian Science and quackery.” Her definition of quackery was to hold error and disease as real, and then attempt to heal it through Mind. A practitioner who believes that he has a sick patient who must be restored, is a quack. Christian Science shows no way to take a sick man and restore him to health. The only scien­tific way is to start with the realization that he needs no healing, since he is not sick. As an idea of God he is forever perfect and eternal, and the false belief that he can appear otherwise is all that must be wiped out. On page 395 of Science and Health we read, “It is mental quackery to make dis­ease a reality, to hold it as something seen and felt — and then attempt its cure through Mind.”

It is always a matter of wonderment to learn how alert Mrs. Eddy was to protect her reputation, lest erroneous criticism operate to darken her thought, and make her of less value to God; or to turn unprejudiced minds to a prejudice against her doctrine. Students should emulate their Leader, and make the demonstration as far as they are able, to protect themselves in the eyes of other students and the world, lest erroneous criticism and jealousy build up a prejudice against them, that might cause those in authority to place undue limitations in the way of progress. They must know that no demands can be made upon them, but those that come from God, and that whatever He demands, they will be capable of fulfilling. They must realize that no claim of animal magnetism can handle those in authority, to cause the latter to misunderstand their work for God. If God has given them work to do, they must know that God will guide and protect them in this work and His presence will be their adequate defense.

As Christian Science calls upon us to retreat from the belief in matter, into the realm of Mind, there are two steps to be taken. We first retreat into a humanly mental world, and then into a divinely mental realm. If this transfer could be made in one step, the student would be spared all conflict with animal magnetism. Yet it is possible that if this warfare could be avoided, there would be no spirit­ual light available. No incandescent bulb would give forth light, if the filament lacked the proper resistance. Perhaps it is the resistance that war­fare with the devil engenders, that enables mortal man to rise out of mental lethargy and inertia and gain the reflection of Mind.

As one becomes more and more mental in his con­ception, the price he pays is, that he must meet all the errors over again on this higher basis, that he formerly met on the basis of physical causation. Proof of this fact is to be found in a vision Mrs. Eddy recorded in September 10, 1887. In this vision she says of this higher standpoint, “The arguments to heal sickness caused by the fear of physical be­liefs would not heal the sufferings caused by the fear of sin.” She found “...that the power of the Egyptian necromancy must be met over and over again with the power of truth.” “When you think you have mastered disease on a physical basis you are mis­taken. You have to learn that it must be healed on the basis of sin causing it....”

Mrs. Eddy goes on to explain that by sin she means, the effect of malicious minds animated by hatred and envy. Once she wrote, “If any honest Christian Scientist can be deceived into believing that it is chance, not direction by malicious minds which are at work, — that ignorance instead of sin is what he has to meet at all times, — this error pre­vents him from understanding enough of the question to insure his own defense, and leaves him in the power of animal magnetism, — perhaps temporarily re­lieved of his suffering, rejoicing in a hope of free­dom which he afterwards finds in vain.”

This knowledge leads up to the fact that Mrs. Eddy had retreated into the mental realm to such a degree, that the action and effects of erroneous thinking were as evident to her, as erroneous actions are evident to the eyes of mortals. She could gauge an unscientific quality of thought ema­nating from the Boston students, for instance, as readily as one can see a pall of smoke hanging over a large city.

The proposition should not be surprising that the Christian Scientist is developing senses with which the unseen may become palpable. Mrs. Eddy became a spiritual seer. To her, the unseen to our senses was far more perceptible and tangible than any evidence of the reality of this dream world.

One learns from these letters that great power for good is generated, when a group of students joins in working mentally in the one Mind. Yet when a group appointed by our Leader did such work unscien­tifically, it created enough of a disturbance in the world of mortal mind, so that she felt it, suffered from it and had to stop it. As one recognizes the mighty constructive power for good that emanates from a right mental effort that tunes in to divine Mind, and sweeps away the falsity of mortal mind, he realizes that such united work must be the goal; yet it may not be done in our Cause until growth raises up those who can unerringly direct such work. In the meanwhile students can do much individual good, and work for the Cause and the world with val­uable results.

From these letters we know, that Mrs. Eddy wanted the work which the students were to do for the newspapers to be scientific. At the same time she wanted the object to be clearly set forth and established. What is Christian Science if it is not the truth of God applied to a specific problem of error? The Truth is forever true, and free from any blight of animal magnetism; but mortals are under this blight, and the moment they begin to use the truth in the direction of salvation and freedom, the problem of animal magnetism looms up. When a coun­try is called to police a lawless section of a com­munity, much resistance appears that needs to be put down. The moment one seeks to use truth in this imaginary kingdom of mortal belief it becomes sub­ject to obstruction, reversal and interference.

In calling on watchers to work on the newspaper men, Mrs. Eddy expected them to realize that Chris­tian Science is God's truth come to earth — the appli­cation of God's law to the problem of the human mind and its despotism. She expected them to know that God appropriates all channels for His uses, as medi­ums through which to establish His truth, and to perpetuate it; also that there are no channels for evil, because in reality there is no evil. Hence all newspapers represent opportunities through which the truth may be voiced. There is but one Mind. Hence there can be no controversy, no fight between the forces of good and the seeming forces of evil.

“...also know that you can do this separately as well as together.” Here Mrs. Eddy gives a wonder­ful point to help the students in building up their faith in individual reflection, so that they recog­nize that there is no problem that they cannot solve, no demonstration that they cannot make, since they reflect infinite Mind, to whom all things are pos­sible. If one hundred students work together, the most they could accomplish would be to bring divine Mind into operation; and Mrs. Eddy wanted the stu­dents to realize that one individual reflecting God can do that. Yet in this dream truth gains power through amplification.

If I had a lion that was trained to protect my home, it would only require one watcher to push the spring lock that would let him loose, if robbers came. One watcher would be as efficient as ten. Mrs. Eddy sought to build up the students' faith in their individual ability to use divine power without restriction or limitation.

“...let your prayer be impersonal and God will bless the right. Do not think of me or my affairs; let God do this and you invoke a general blessing.” Mrs. Eddy, when she felt the effect of the students' unscientific work, did not forbid them to pray. She knew that even if they did not have enough wisdom to work for the specific problem of defending her with­out thinking of her as a personality, rather than as God's witness and idea, still they could invoke a general blessing. At Pleasant View, when Mrs. Eddy found that we were not working with a clear, scien­tific sense, instead of stopping our work, she would often call upon us to call down God's blessing in an impersonal way, rather than to continue specific work. It requires a clear scientific thought to take up individual problems. Otherwise one will make a reality out of the very thing he should be seeing as unreal.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

December 29, 1901

Beloved Student:

I thank you for your recent affectionate letters, caring and kind. They are a balm to one who is so alone, so bereft of earthly ties. Accept my tender loving wishes for you and yours; for your growth in spirit — divine Science — your health and your happiness.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


No one can talk about divine Love, think about it and demonstrate it, without expressing it in an outpouring of human affection. No one can hide a lack of interest in the welfare of others, and at the same time declare that he is overflowing with divine Love. Science and Health (page 25) tells us that “The divinity of the Christ was made manifest in the hu­manity of Jesus.”

We all know what a comfort even a little human affection is, when we are in trouble of some sort. It makes us feel that there is still something left to live for. No mortal is indifferent to this form of loving appreciation. At times when one is tear­less and numb under a great sense of grief, another will display a deep sense of affection, and the stricken one will find the tears beginning to flow, and the great pressure relieved. No one who is re­flecting divine Love can be indifferent to showing human affection.

Our Leader was overflowing with human affection, and she responded to it from others, when it was gen­uine. It is possible for a mortal to manifest an abundance of human affection, without having any spiritual sense of love as love at all, but it is impossible for one to demonstrate divine Love with­out giving an evidence of human affection. The Bible asks, “...for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?” Mrs. Eddy showed by her own example, that the appreciation of man as Love's idea must precede our Love for the unseen Principle, divine Love.

When Mrs. Eddy wrote a letter of this nature, she realized that it might be prized in the future by all Christian Scientists. All that flows forth from inspirational thought is of value, and will be treasured. This letter would help any student, since in it Mrs. Eddy is setting forth that which is most lacking in this world, namely, unselfish love. There is a selfish form of love that appropriates every­thing good for one's self, and is characterized by jealousy and hate, if there is any sharing of affec­tion; but Science shows that jealousy and hate never form any part of true love. Science inculcates a human affection based on an interest in others be­cause they are ideas of God. Such affection is the great need in the world. It is the only basis on which international peace can ever be established. When men's hearts are touched by such unselfish af­fection, they would no more think of fighting another nation, than they would their own precious family.

An analysis of the Christian Science concept of love, shows that it is an error in premise for one to believe, for instance, that being masculine, he must attain femininity in order to be complete. The real man is a complete idea, which needs no addition or cultivation in order to make him complete. As God's reflection he is complete. If one believes that he possesses wisdom, but lacks love, he is mis­taken. Mrs. Eddy corrected this notion when one said to her, “Oh mother, what love you have!” She replied, “and what wisdom too!” Any concept that starts with less than completeness and perfection, is unscientific and incorrect. At the same time, she once indicated that a belief in a sense of completeness on a human plane was a hermaphrodite mentality. She said, “Belief of duality and unity is the claim of the red dragon, swollen with lust and hate.”

In this letter to Mr. Johnson, Mrs. Eddy was speaking in behalf of all lonely people, making an appeal for all those who need a show of affection supported by a genuine feeling of regard and consid­eration. Science has no place for those who are so selfishly inclined, that as long as they are happy they are not touched if others are miserable. Mrs. Eddy knew what it meant to crave the warmth and sun­shine of affection, as one grew spiritually.

When in Judges 14:14 Samson said, “...out of the strong came forth sweetness,” he indicated that strength and sweetness must go hand in hand in the scientific man. The only way that the flavor of fruits may be preserved, is in sugar. It would be well for rulers of nations to learn that the moment they lose their sweetness (which is so often consid­ered a weakness), they begin to lose their strength. So a Christian Scientist who does not manifest the sweetness of human affection is definitely off the track. He may take pride in feeling that he is above such a human sense; yet part of the proof that he is walking in the path the Master laid out for us, must be a human manifestation of divine affection toward all, hedged about, to be sure, with the protection of wisdom.

Mr. Johnson had written his Leader an affection­ate letter, and she could not be deceived. She knew whether it sprang from an overflowing sense of appre­ciation and love for her, as unerringly as an art critic knows whether a picture is an original, or a clever copy.

Everyone of God's children reflects divine Love, but the claim of animal magnetism has boxed it up or corked it up, so that it cannot express itself. It is the office of Science to release that Love, so that the student will feel welling up within him a desire to bless and help everyone; and this desire sincerely felt cannot help but show itself in human affection, consideration and helpfulness.

Perhaps nothing Mr. Johnson could have done, would have pleased Mrs. Eddy more than for him to give liberally of his affection. She knew that a heart that had such an overflowing affection, would express it everywhere, and love all that was in need of love.

All genuine students should have this attitude as their goal, so that they will make the demonstra­tion to pull out the obstructing cork of false be­lief, thus releasing the love that is man's birth­right, and which he never really loses, and giving it a chance to bless others as well as themselves.

When in this letter Mrs. Eddy wrote, “Accept my tender loving wishes for you and yours,” she did not voice merely an idle thought. Our wishes for others are worth nothing, unless they are sincere and supported by understanding, which give them power and efficacy.

One Christmas the students of Eugene H. Greene felt a wonderful uplift. Then they learned that he had consciously sent out a Christly love as his gift to them all. Since he followed his Leader in everything he did, he must have known that this was her own way of expressing thoughtful consideration, in return for all the gifts that were made to her by students and friends. She worked to send out a special spiritual blessing at that time. Her Christmas wishes, therefore, were not an idle ges­ture, but a practical demonstration of God's healing presence and power.

There is a special pressure on the part of ani­mal magnetism at Christmas time, to force upon the attention of people such a sense of the reality and desirability of the human sense of things, that they will have not time nor inclination to contemplate its real significance. Christmas should turn the thoughts of man to Spirit, or Cause, in the midst of his materiality and concern for effect; but since such a result would be inimical to the reign of the human mind, error makes a special and determined effort at that time to cause mortals to be engrossed in the unreal. Hence it takes a special demonstra­tion to overcome the added mist of illusion that rises up from animal magnetism at Christmas. There­fore, it was a very significant thing to have Mr. Greene's Christmas wishes for his students take the form of helping them to turn their thoughts toward reality, at a time when the activity of the lie was the greater in the wrong direction.

As a lone woman battling against tremendous odds, having a frail sense of human health, and being de­pendent on demonstration entirely, Mrs. Eddy needed much that her students could give her. They could give her kindness and affection, a sense of being cherished and cared for. She could handle her own problems through demonstration, but her great alone­ness on her upward flight, caused her to appreciate especially an attitude on the part of a student such as Mr. Johnson manifested. Think of what her tempta­tion to feel alone was, when she had spiritual rev­elations so profound, that there was not one person on earth with whom she could share them! Once when a student asked her if she were ever lonely, she re­plied, “Alone, child, but never lonely.”

Animal magnetism tried to rob her of this affec­tionate regard of students, this consideration and being cared for from a demonstrated standpoint. They were apt to stand in awe of her, either because her rebukes were so to the point, that they stung human sense, or because she reflected divine Love so powerfully. She never overlooked error, nor ex­cused it in herself or in others. Therefore, students were apt to feel that human affection was out of order; either that she did not need it or that it would be unscientific to express it. Upon leaving Mrs. Eddy's home after years of loving service, Clara Shannon did not say goodbye. When Miss Hall asked her if she were not going to do so, she replied, “We never do that.” Yet a little kind word of affection, appreciation and farewell, might have meant a great deal to our Leader just at that point.

I stood in awe of her, and even felt a certain amount of fear of her, during my year's stay at Pleasant View. It would have seemed like less majesty for me to have shown her any human affection; yet I have come to see that she was grateful for loving appreciation for what she was striving to do, and a kindly recognition of the cross she bore, in always being obliged to be the mentor, the teacher, the one who had to give rebukes, in order to hold everyone up to the highest standard of spiritual efficiency.

Mr. Johnson had a sweet and loving nature. He had been with his Leader during the burden and heat of the day. Now that she was being so brutally attacked by Peabody, his love went out to her spon­taneously. He was able to break through the animal magnetism sufficiently, to see her need and to supply it. There were many who stood ready to bestow upon her affection that was on a mortal mind plane; but such affection only weighed her down. She craved the spirit of God, and was immeasurably grateful for it, when it was manifested even in a small degree.

The love that Mrs. Eddy's letters expressed, was indeed a precious thing. When she received such a simple gift as a doily, she wrote, “I thank you for the doily. The widow's mite Jesus blessed, and it touches your heart and mine to receive it in our time. Dearer indeed than doily or money is the gift from a loving heart. For such I thank you. May heaven bless you and yours, another and many more years.”

“Accept my tender loving wishes for you and yours; for your growth in spirit — divine Science — ­your health and your happiness.” This simple state­ment makes this letter a valuable record, showing for all time what true worth is — not growth in num­bers, wealth or activity, but in the spirit, and that the goal is divine Science. Sometimes we for­get, in our earnest endeavor to demonstrate Christian Science, that our real attainment is divine Science. When one heals a case of sickness through Christian Science, he has applied Christian Science to the human need, but he should not be satisfied with that. He should never leave the case until he has taken the patient into divine or absolute Science, into the realization that there never has been any disease to heal, since man is spiritual, and has never left his high estate as God's idea dwelling in eternal harmony.

“Health and happiness.” It is from such a platform that our best work for God and man may be done. Yet human harmony carrying stagnation and forgetfulness of one's spiritual obligations, is not this platform, but the most deceptive form of animal magnetism. Mrs. Eddy was not wishing for Mr. Johnson to reach an inactive state of ease in matter, but an active state of spiritual thought. She did not want him to spread the butter of human harmony over the error of belief of life in matter. In Luke 21:20 we find Jesus instructing his followers to real­ize that the chemicalization or desolation of Jeru­salem, was the result of demonstration; so they were to stand by without fear. It is as if he had said, “When you have done all that you know how to do, have faith that you have brought God's power into operation. If it does not bring out the result of turning sick matter into well matter, discordant mortal mind into harmonious mortal mind, do not be disturbed; but stand, since your demonstration is surely bringing out God's idea of man that is above all materiality. Do not seek to avoid the fiery furnace, but make a demonstration to see God back of it, and then it will reveal the Christ.”

Lest Mr. Johnson mistake her wish for his happiness and health to be human harmony, Mrs. Eddy places spiritual growth first. She knew that if he had a spiritual growth synonymous with divine Science, that would never result in stagnation, since divine Science brings to human sense, not peace but a sword. When you seek to give another a spiritual bless­ing, you should not wish to replace his affliction with the deception and stagnation of human harmony, since it is the very affliction that brought out his desire for God. The effect of human harmony is to rob man of this desire; but when one strives for divine Science, the health and happiness that follows is a legitimate result that never deters one in his spiritual activity.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

January 25, 1902

Beloved Student:

Call a meeting of the Board at once and pass this church By-law, and amend the By-law on Publication Committee as indicated on enclosed slip.

Nothing could injure our Cause more than the general silence that prevails on the topic of your Leader's character. This silence is causing the press to publish Peabody's lies, for it looks as if the Board of Lectureship was ashamed to speak in de­fence of your Leader, or has nothing to say in her behalf! Pass this By-law and publish it in the next Sentinel, and I will write to the members of the Board to do their duty, and Mr. Tomlinson will also write to the Board on this subject.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


Mrs. Eddy perceived her importance to the Cause. She knew that, since she was the correct demonstrator of her own revelation, the only one who fully knew how to apply Science correctly, — animal magnetism would strike at her life, not necessarily to kill her, but to misrepresent her. Peabody had been Mrs. Woodbury's lawyer in her suit against Mrs. Eddy. When he lost the case, apparently his revenge knew no bounds. Besides lecturing against her, he pub­lished articles against her, and even introduced bills into the legislature to restrain the practice of Christian Science (which happily were never passed).

Mrs. Eddy knew that her life was as important to the Cause as her Science. The life of the reve­lator who lives consistently with her revelation, is as important as the revelation, since one sets forth demonstration, and the other understanding.

Animal magnetism tempted the students to look at their Leader humanly. Then when they saw that her life did not always coincide with the human standard of Christian goodness, they concluded that she was failing to demonstrate her own teachings. When she was confronted with some ill, she did not resign herself like a Christian and declare that she would be patient under affliction, as if to say, “This is God's will; so I will endure it gracefully.” On the contrary, she stirred everything and every­body in the home, until the error was ousted. She knew that it gained entrance through apathy, and that it had to be cast out through activity. It is easier to keep error out, than it is to get it out. To get it out requires much effort and activity. If the wind blows dust into your house, when it once gets in, you must put up a bigger blow than the wind, to blow it out. Mrs. Eddy's example should show her followers that they must outblow, outshout, outargue, outwit, outlast, and outmaneuver animal magnetism, in order to be victorious over it. They must blow harder and more continuously than it does, in order to silence its lies.

Spiritual things must be spiritually understood; otherwise they appear foolish to mortal thought. Mortals cannot measure Christian Science or its founder according to the old idea of man, since they are measuring them from the standpoint of a dream, and from that standpoint they are unreal. Mrs. Eddy's life can only be spiritually understood.

The Peabody experience exposed to Mrs. Eddy the beginning of an error, which would attempt to make her followers believe that Christian Science suc­ceeded in spite of her, rather than because of her; hence there would be no special need to defend her in the future. She had established the church and given it her published writings, and that was all that was needed.

Mrs. Eddy saw this error beginning, and per­ceived that it might increase in the future, unless her followers became so imbued with the importance of her relation to her Cause, that they would never listen to any suggestion of indifference as to her life and demonstration.

It is vital to the spiritual success of Mrs. Eddy's Cause — God's Cause — that her life never be belittled or misrepresented in the organization or to the world. Here she writes, “Nothing could in­jure our Cause more than the general silence that prevails on the topic of your Leader's character.” She had already written to Mr. Tomlinson in regard to mental work, “This has been the lever of Truth that has shown on the press and the field, and my message turned the tide to a flow. What I mean is, that nobody sees the moves of the enemy or knows when he feels them, unless I talk, talk, talk! and this is a mental period and mental malpractice holds the signs of the times that the students must dis­cern, or our Cause will he held back centuries by it. In this direction I am alone and few notice what I say or believe it.” She wrote these impres­sive words in June, 1901, about six weeks before Peabody gave his lecture.

Now we find her appealing to the Board of Lec­tureship to do their duty in regard to her life, and seeking Mr. Tomlinson's help in the matter. When he sent her his proposed letter to the Board, she wrote, “I have read your letter or copy which is designed for the Board of Lectureship. The pro­gressive is good. Mr. Farlow's method I hope he will continue in Boston and carry it out as written. All of you unite in this purpose, call back the press from its spell of (you know what) — to its attitude when ‘Pulpit and Press' was published, and you have done what God will immortalize.”

If Christian Scientists do not rise to see that their Leader was in every way the correct demonstra­tor of her own revelation, the public cannot be expected to see her that way. When a lecturer obeys the By-law that accompanied the letter in question, and bears testimony to our Leader's life, if he himself does not believe in her entire consistency, his hearers can detect this fact, in spite of his eulogy. His lack of conviction cannot be hidden.

There is a general impression that true worth will eventually speak for itself. But in Mrs. Eddy's case the success of her Cause largely depended on people's knowing the truth about her, to offset the effort of the adversary that was busy spreading lies. Hence it was necessary for her to awaken the students, in order to save them from an attitude of thought toward her that would render them of little value in the warfare against evil.

She knew how much the Cause and the world needed to be told the truth about her as God's representa­tive, and what He was doing through her. Yet the moment she discovered her personality being praised, — so that God was losing the glory, — she rebuked such an error sternly, as being the other extreme of the pendulum.

God was enlisting an army to fight animal mag­netism, with Mrs. Eddy as the general and trainer. Furthermore, she was the one who was fighting it correctly in her own life. She knew that no one could do effective work for the general, unless he had a right conception of the general. Mrs. Eddy's life exemplified the God-appointed ideal of divine reflection. Hence the nearer one comes to pattern­ing her life and demonstration, the nearer he comes to reflection.

The lies about her which Peabody was sending out, were useful to the devil only as they inter­fered with the convictions of honest people. Their purpose was to injure the character of the one who was reflecting God to the world. Mrs. Eddy could not permit a lie to grow and build up against her. She knew that her life was blameless and approved of God; but God Himself has been traduced on earth until His true character has been lost sight of. If God has not been justified on earth, his witnesses cannot expect to be, unless they go forth and destroy the error that would attempt to rob the world of the benefit of reflected good.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

February 25, 1902 (?)

Dictated

Christian Science Board of Directors

Beloved Students:

Whenever you pass the By-law, or after you have passed the By-law that we proposed today as to defraying the expenses of the law­suits, which By-law you shall print in our publications then vote on the following:

No member of The Mother Church shall form a church organization or erect a church edifice in Brookline, Mass., until a By-law shall be passed, permitting such organization or edifice.

Now remember that the Directors formulate and vote upon these two By-laws and not Mother. Word them as you please and act upon them vol­untarily, and a majority vote of the Board shall decide concerning them.

Do not publish the By-law relative to the church in Brookline, but should you ever hear of any movement looking toward a church organization or edifice there, then notify the parties of the By-law.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


The two By-laws referred to in this letter, the date of which bears a question, were passed February 26, 1902. Neither of them was ever printed. Today they remain in force as the Directors' private By­-laws. The second one reads, “No funds of The Mother Church, the First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Mass., shall be appropriated to the payment of any lawsuit against any member of this church.”

From a human standpoint it would be difficult to analyze the motive back of this decision about a church in Brookline. It has been asserted that Mrs. Eddy was looking forward to the day when she would make that city her home, and she hoped to be free from any obligation to mother a church, as she had the one in Concord. In April, 1899, she had written to Mr. Tomlinson as follows: “I am becoming in need of rest and peace to an extent beyond what you see. I have a problem to work out that you will not have for many years. If you and others give me not sufficient chance to do it, the Science is not demonstrated. I did not want a church so near me as Concord. I have all I should do for mine in Boston. But Mr. Buswell started the Sunday service without my proposing it and then ran out. Could get no place or hall fit to use. Then to save dishonor to our Cause, I got the Hall. My next step to organ­ize was influenced by others that I do not name. Now I see the care is increased that I need diminished and if there were no Sunday services and healers here, I sincerely believe it would be better for me and the world. I seem to be beyond this organized work. I have had my experience and it worries me more than all else. If only I had what time I could work to give to writing, it would do more good than I can tell. God governs me. When I sent for Mr. B. I told him I did not want a church or Sunday services which lead to it, but healing done where I was. This was God's first order, and in 33 years I have not yielded to depart from His first order without being driven back to take it up. I see His hand is resting in this hour and that my need, not the churches, is what should be regarded, till I have overcome mental malpractice and age, but which I am not given time sufficient to attend to as I need.”

Another contention in regard to Brookline has been, that Dr. Alfred Baker, who had been living in Concord, and who had been of great help to her, had moved to Brookline, after having become so disaffected, that she had found it necessary to write to the Board, “Beware of Dr. Baker.” Some thought that she did not want him to start a church in that city, because he had shown himself unfit to undertake such a project, — unfit in the sense that he failed to detect the animal magnetism that was darkening his concept of his Leader.

Mrs. Eddy's whole interest was in spreading the Cause of Christian Science, in order to reach as many persons as possible. There is no question but what the greater love that she had went out to humanity. She regarded the world with the same compassion that our Master did. His heart went out to mortals who were living aimlessly and walking pointlessly and getting nowhere, and yet who stood ready to oppose any doctrine that would put their feet into the right path. Hence why did she oppose the formation of a church in Brookline?

One point is certain. Mrs. Eddy did not make any moves from the standpoint of human opinion. Acting under inspiration, she did not gauge a situa­tion according to its present appearance, but saw into the future, and took care of that which the human mind knew nothing about; furthermore, it was not her way to do anything that would retard the spread of Science, when its prosperity was her chief concern.

Because she relied on the Scientists in Brook­line to do their part in supporting the work in Boston, she did not want them to have a church of their own, if thereby The Mother Church would be robbed of the support of those who were needed to lead the way spiritually. The good students in Boston might not relish this explanation of Mrs. Eddy's move, feeling perhaps that they were competent to carry on of themselves; but God guided her to do the wise thing. And it does not seem like a reason­able explanation that at this date she was contem­plating a move to Brookline, when she had gone to Concord in the first place to find the time to make the demonstration over malpractice and age.

It is possible that later Mrs. Eddy was influ­enced to move to Brookline by the fact that there was a By-law in force that prohibited the formation of a church in that city, since the absence of such an activity would help to turn thought away from her, rather than toward her. If after she moved to Brook­line a church had been formed, she would have felt the necessity of overseeing it. The additional labor of caring for it would have been an unnecessary bur­den. She had more important work than that to do for the whole organization and the world.

In this letter Mrs. Eddy makes her relation to the Directors perfectly clear. Having founded her Church, she was training her students to run it after she was gone. She forced them to act under their own initiative whenever it was possible. She under­stood that they might make mistakes in learning, but she would watch to see that these were not serious in their effect.

There is no way for mortals to learn anything without making mistakes. If those in charge of youth stand ready to criticize every mistake that an eager learner makes, the result may be a lot of deadwood, since many individuals prefer to do nothing and avoid criticism, rather than to take a chance, and every time they do anything that is in the least original, to be called down sharply for it.

Parents may ruin children by continually snub­bing initiative. Many Christian Scientists have learned to protect their children, rather than to direct them, on the basis that their innate impulses are always grand and right, and that nothing but out­side evil influences would ever cause them to walk in wrong paths. Hence if they can be protected, their lives will manifest the elements of good that God has bestowed upon them.

When a father is training his son to be a car­penter, when he has a job to do that is not too difficult — one that can be corrected if it is done poorly — he turns it over to his son to do. When God made a demand on Mrs. Eddy, it was her responsibil­ity to see that it was met, and so she had to take the initiative. This letter, however, covers two matters which were not so vital but what she could trust the Board to handle them.

One reason why she did not state plainly to students in her home that she wished everything done by demonstration, was because it was as necessary for her to develop initiative in students, as it was to train them to be obedient. When students had reached the point where they were ready to serve her in her home, they had already learned to func­tion to a larger degree under obedience, and the need was for them to develop initiative. Mrs. Eddy was able to gauge the growth of the members of her household by their insight into the way she func­tioned, and the demands she made upon them. When they perceived that they were expected to make a demonstration of mundane tasks, as well as of healing the sick, she knew that they were growing spiritually.

This letter proves that it was never Mrs. Eddy's innate desire to be the big “boss,” and to dominate the students. She took the initiative only when she knew that what she was striving to accomplish was so important, that she could not afford to take the slightest chance. The situation is illustrated by one who is training his dog to bring home packages. At first he trusts the dog with his newspaper, but not with a beefsteak.

Our Leader knew that she would not be present to guide the Board forever. She also knew that their important duties and responsibilities would begin when she left them. At that point they would be at the mercy of their own understanding and demonstra­tion over evil. Their problem may be illustrated by a musician who develops skill in his own studio. Then he is called upon to perform before an audience, and he finds that his skill is impaired by the pre­sence of stage fright. Not until that is overcome, will he become a seasoned performer. When Mrs. Eddy left us, she had trained the Directors so that, if they would make the demonstration to free themselves from animal magnetism, they would function intelli­gently and rightly.

If members at any stage of progress in the church, ever feel the impulse to criticize the Dir­ectors, let them realize that the Board would be un­failingly considerate, thoughtful, and kind, were it not for this claim of animal magnetism. One proof of this contention is the fact that in branch churches members who measure up to the standard of Christian Science in manifesting Christly compassion, often seem to become hard and cold, the moment they are elected to the governing board of the church. The reason for this is because error handles the trustees as a group, not as individuals. The con­clusion is that members must do their part to free the boards in their churches, as groups, not as in­dividuals. If a group of workmen in a hot country were doing work of such a delicate nature, that any perspiration would ruin it, if you should fan them while they worked, you would be rendering a service, that while it in no way interfered with their work, would make it possible for them to do it successfully. Members of branch churches must qualify as “fanners,” just as must members of The Mother Church. Otherwise how can the members of the Board of Directors function as the Christian Scientists they really are? There must be devoted members who see the importance of holding up the hands of those who exercise the ruling power in The Mother Church and branch churches. The Direc­tors or Trustees cannot be expected to do it for themselves.

In our Movement it seems easier to criticize others, rather than to support them; but the answer is that it is those who are themselves handled by animal magnetism, who criticize; those who are not handled, are the ones who support their brothers in Christ.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

March 7, 1902

Beloved Student:

Mr. Chase wants $500 of Church funds left at his disposal for church purposes. This sum he accounts for annually. Please call a meeting of the Board and vote on this yea or nay. I suggest that you give him $300 for one year and then increase the sum if need be and it works well.

I enclose letters. My charity says accept her and trust God for the results.

With deep love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


Today it is quite the custom for Treasurers of branch churches to have granted them the right to disburse small amounts from a petty cash fund, for which they need not account at once. The amount is limited, however, so that if any mistake in judgment occurs, the result will not be serious. Hence it would appear as if in this letter Mrs. Eddy sets a precedent for the whole Cause.

Yet she cuts Mr. Chase's demand for $500 to $300, as if she had some sense of his lack of spir­itual stability. His unshakable affection for his Leader kept him a loyal Christian Scientist, but he was somewhat lacking in that spiritual determin­ation and vigor, which play an important part in one's warfare and protection against animal magnetism.

When prosperous parents give a child a large allowance, they cause the child to become sought after by children who merely want to share in the sweets and soda that he buys. Mrs. Eddy realized that if Mr. Chase had full charge of too large amounts, he might become the victim of mortal mind's schemes in various ways, so she protected him by making the petty cash fund no larger than $300 per annum, until he proved that the plan worked well.

Mr. Chase belonged to that class of students who are loving and generous, who seldom become ir­ritated, and who have a wealth of sympathy for others. What he lacked was a demonstration of pro­tection. Often it is thought that men of recalci­trant and irascible natures make the best fighters both in the physical and mental realm. The fact is that a man like Mr. Chase, amiable, and easy to get along with, once he is aroused to the need of fighting, makes a far better fighter, than men who are by nature belligerent. Thus if Mr. Chase could have acquired the steadfastness and resoluteness that are requisite to handle animal magnetism, he would have been a magnificent combination of those qualities which our Leader manifested in such a notable way, the tender love, coupled with the alert and implacable determination to blot out all error.

Because Mr. Chase was lacking on the side of protection, Mrs. Eddy had to watch out for him, which she did with special care. It is interesting to contrast the sum of $300 with the large amounts at the disposal of the Treasurer of The Mother Church today. Yet in this small detail of cutting Mr. Chase's demand, Mrs. Eddy was teaching an im­portant lesson. She might well say to the parents who grant their child a large allowance, “You are putting a dangerous weapon in his little hands, that may subject him to being influenced by other children, who might let him alone if he had no money.”

A highlight on our Leader's attitude toward Mr. Chase, and the Directors themselves, is revealed by the following incident recorded by Henrietta Chanfrau. One afternoon Mrs. Eddy held a long con­versation with Mr. Chase. Very earnestly he at­tempted to tell her some of the problems the Direc­tors were having to meet, and all the while she constantly made little pleasant jokes. When Mr. Chase had gone, Mrs. Eddy said, “Henrietta, I know how upset he was, but I wouldn't add fuel to the fire! The Christian Science Directors are not the best Scientists in the world, but they are certainly steadfast to their duty. And I know how to value that!”

Mrs. Eddy was the wise mother, the intelligent friend, the observing Leader, who let nothing escape her, in her endeavor to guide her Cause and students aright. Her way was not to reduce her students to blind obedience. She sought to develop initiative, as well. She sought to encourage demonstration even in the minutiae of daily life and church activity, and this letter gives an illustration.

If one has on blue glasses, when he takes them off the entire outlook changes. Every detail, no matter how small, comes into its true light. If demonstration means removing the glasses of materi­ality, there is nothing strange about a spiritual thought that embraces the correction of the minutiae of experience.

“My charity says accept her and trust God for the result.” In these words Mrs. Eddy says in sub­stance, “I cannot guarantee if the individual in question is permitted to join the church, or be restored to membership, that she will be a bright and shining light; but if she shows a right incli­nation, let us accept her and have faith that God will show her the way. Here is a splendid desire that has forced its way through a thick crust of materiality. Let us not kill it out, but encourage it, since my experience has shown me that no harm can come from dealing compassionately with indi­viduals. I always assume when one shows an incli­nation towards good, that it is proof that the clouds of illusion have parted a little. So let us encourage this right desire in this woman, and do what we can to nourish and to maintain this spark.”

Mrs. Eddy knew that even if the results of such compassion were not immediately apparent in an in­dividual, no one could ever get rid of the spirit­ual spark, once it had shown itself. Under the influence of animal magnetism, a Christian Scien­tist might go back to medical practice, but he would never be contented in it. Even if he received apparent benefit, it would continually rasp on him that he had turned away from that which he knew was good. Time would surely bring him back.

Of course Mrs. Eddy saw that charity could be overdone. In exercising it, it is necessary to be sure that persons are sufficiently honest in their present desire, so that the good they receive will be permanent and remain with them. Then if they stray they will return.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

March 17, 1902

Beloved Student:

Have the Board meet and vote on this By-law before another meeting is called. Also have brother McKenzie make the other By-law in conformity with this one. Thus we may escape another snare that a good meaning but an unwise member may get our church to be caught in.

Publish in Manual but not in periodicals.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


Mortal mind is admittedly short-sighted. Knowing this, Mrs. Eddy did not trust its conclu­sions, nor did she want her followers to. It is as lost in the realm of true wisdom and foresight, as would be a city-bred man in the woods.

Mrs. Eddy was a trained metaphysician, and could see ahead. Her followers living only for the moment, might make a By-law to cover the present situation, that might result in great harm to the Cause in the future. Hence in this letter she gave a hint of her ability to look into the future, and see how a By-law would affect the growth and govern­ment of the Cause in the years to come, and yet cover an immediate need.

Mrs. Eddy was far-seeing because she reflected the far-seeing Mind. She was continually planning for the future and looking ahead. In her correction of a present situation, she always had to consider how a By-law would affect the future of the Cause, where the same problem might never again arise. She had to make each By-law specific enough to cover and to correct the present need, and yet general enough so that it would not be a deterrent in the future, but a help.

A greens-keeper for a golf course must kill the worms on a putting green, otherwise the worm casts will constantly interfere with the accuracy of putting. The early poisons used for this pur­pose harmed the grass and it was a remarkable thing when a chemist discovered a poison that killed the worms, and at the same time fertilized the grass. In like manner Mrs. Eddy sought to evolve By-laws which would meet a present error, and yet help to further the growth of the Cause in the future.

Had the Directors been able to grasp the full import of this simple letter, it would have indi­cated to them, that they must work to acquire the same spiritual perception and foresight that their Leader had. She was careful to stress the fact that the By-law in question (which perhaps referred to the responsibility of The Mother Church in connec­tion with lawsuits brought against members), would operate to spare the Church in the future. Its wisdom would help to check a suggestion coming from some member, which otherwise might prove a snare to the Cause.

Part of Mrs. Eddy's wisdom in these letters was to set before the Directors the spiritual qualities which she had, which they would need, in order to avoid pitfalls. She knew that without them, they would meet such pitfalls unprepared.

An instance of the value of her spiritual fore­sight may be cited with profit at this point. Early one Sunday morning she sent word to her students to hurry and be in their seats at Hawthorne Hall one hour ahead of time. Later it developed that her dis­gruntled students had plotted to arrive early and fill the hall, so that when the service opened, she would find herself in the embarrassing position of having to preach to a congregation of those whom she had excommunicated from the organization for good and sufficient reasons. Her spiritual fore­sight saved the day. When the wicked schemers arrived to carry out their plan of taking possession of the meeting, and to disconcert their former Leader, they found she had outwitted them.

No Board of Directors of The Mother Church should ever lose sight of the value and importance of analyzing Mrs. Eddy's letters to her Church and its officials, so that every scrap of teaching important to them and the Cause, may be salvaged and perpetuated. This one simple letter illustrates the value of this interpretative ability. Once Mrs. Eddy interpreted the Commandment, “Thou shalt not kill,” as “...shall not kill our insight into spiritual things — it would be the commission of the greatest sin, to kill the spiritual insight.”

Interpretation in Science is analysis in which one seeks for meanings that lie beneath the surface meaning. This can only be done as one listens for divine Mind's impartations. In the experience of Elijah where he heard the still small voice, one may interpret the earthquake, wind and fire that preceded revelation, as being a necessary prelimi­nary — a mental purgation and purification which eliminated error so that what was left was man listening to and hearing God. Gold-bearing ore is subjected to processes of refining which are so violent that the worthless dross is eliminated, and the pure gold emerges unharmed.

This one letter indicates a perpetual demand on the Directors — an ideal which they must work for. Beneath its simple surface meaning one may glean the fact that unless the Directors develop foresight, our Cause will have no protection against the snares that good meaning but unwise members may cause the organization to be caught in. Should not such a word to the wise be sufficient?

In modern civilization the chemist plays an important part, not only in dissecting known mate­rials to discover their component parts, but in dis­covering new ones. May the day not come when the spiritual analyst will be found to play as important a part in the growth of Christian Science? When this time comes, simple letters from our Leader will be treasured as they should, because they will be seen to contain spiritual precepts priceless. And a letter of this kind might well be used to test a student's ability in this direction, to discern the spiritual meaning underlying the face value of any writing of our Leader's.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

March 19, 1902

Beloved Student:

Please have this amendment to By-law Article XXIII adopted and published in the Manual but not in the periodicals. Also same with the enclosed By-law which I herewith return.

I shall not decide the question about giving letters of recommendation to other churches outside our denomination. I should hope you would see the folly of beginning such a system of letters. Now do not say “Mrs. Eddy has decided this question,” for I have not. But you should at once and forever, if persons wish to leave our church, let them go, and without a letter.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


On first thought it might seem like a harsh and unloving dictum, that our church shall not give letters of recommendation to members who withdraw to other churches, since we do not hesitate to ask for such letters from those who, seeking a higher understanding of God, withdraw from other denomina­tions to join with us. But Christian Science is a progressive state of Christianity, and is becoming so recognized. Hence when an individual desires to carry his practice of Christianity into the higher realm of healing, and of understanding and worship­ping God, he is entitled to a letter of recommenda­tion. He is making the change, not because he is beligerent, a sinner, or a backslider, but because he is hungry for something better than he has; whereas one who leaves our organization, does not do so be­cause he is progressing, or because he seeks a better sense of God. The fact is that such a one never was a true Christian Scientist. Individuals do not leave our ranks as they do the ranks of other denom­inations. They leave for one reason only, and that is, because they are handled by animal magnetism, and we would commit folly, to recommend such a con­dition. We cannot recommend a backward step into error.

When an individual is hungry for more food than he is getting where he is, he can be given a letter of recommendation that he is ready for more food; but when one leaves our ranks, it is because there is something wrong. On page 238 of Science and Health Mrs. Eddy writes, “To fall away from Truth in times of persecution, shows that we never understood Truth.” If one leaves our ranks, it proves that he never understood the doctrine, since it is the fundamental and underlying truth of being to be found nowhere else. One who seeks to withdraw from our church, is one who is not willing to face facts, nor ready or willing to accept the responsibilities and privil­eges that go along with taking up the cross. He is not ready to go into the world and with his highest mental sense, to work to free the world from the bondage of material sense.

If an individual has grasped the truths of Christian Science — that man is already spiritual, and that in order to prove and manifest this fact he need only eradicate the mesmerism that hides reality — he could not possibly wish to return to the old conception or impossible teaching of evolution, that man starts from the lowest elements of matter, and by a long and laborious process, must strive to reach the heights. How could a man go from hope back to hopelessness, from freedom back to bondage, if he ever really understood the doctrine of freedom that Science teaches?

Mrs. Eddy knew that the old church would under­stand why its members wanted to join hers, would have respect for an individual who was ready to accept the ostracism that leaving the old would en­tail, the loss of friendship and social life, the leaving all for Christ. Also the old church would see in many instances that such a one deserved a letter of dismissal and recommendation. But the Christian Science organization could not honestly give a letter of recommendation to a withdrawing member, since it would be obvious that he was taking a step under the impulsion of mortal mind. The very fact that he was withdrawing, would be sure proof of his failure to make his demonstration, and so of his unworthiness to receive any recommendation from us.

Those who leave our ranks cannot be called Christian Scientists. Hence they are not desirable members, and the church entails no loss by their de­parture. There are many ways to define a Christian Scientist, but one helpful proposition is, that any individual on earth, no matter to what church or religious group he belongs, when he is free from mesmerism, or becoming so, is a Christian Scientist, since that is what the term means, — one who is free from the action of mortal belief, or becoming so. How much of a Christian Scientist a man is depends on the degree to which his thought is free; and the one who is completely free, is the one who is per­fectly restored to his divine sonship, regardless of creed. The reason Christian Scientists are found in the Christian Science church is because, in our organization is to be found the teaching that enables man to free himself from mesmerism; but for one to go from such freedom back into mesmerism, is to dis­qualify himself for any recommendation by our Church.

Mrs. Eddy might have perceived, that the Direc­tors thought that it was unfair not to give letters of dismissal, when we did not hesitate to ask for them, but only throws out a hint. To us who read the letter, it appears to be final, but it must be remembered that in those early days, students did not hesitate to go contrary to her wishes, when they had a strong conviction that she was mistaken. Had the Directors thought that she was wrong in this mat­ter, they would not have hesitated to have indicated it. They did not function under coercion or blind obedience. It is true that there were many students who would have stood on their heads, had she ordered them to do so; but that was not the ideal she set forth. She did not demand blind obedience. From my own experience I know that she wanted students to take initiative. So she desired the Directors to feel that it was their privilege to grant letters of dismissal, if they thought it best to do so, in spite of her objections. She did not want them to do so, but only feel free to do so.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

March 30, 1902

Mr. Ira O. Knapp, C.S.D.

Mr. William B. Johnson, C.S.B.

Mr. Joseph Armstrong, C.S.D.

Mr. Stephen A. Chase, C.S.B.

C. S. Board of Directors

My beloved Students:

Your loving Easter greeting was a ray of sunshine.

I love to remember the many years we have journeyed on together in storm and shine. Also to recall the great growth of our Cause and organizations since its birth. May this Easter morn bring from the sepulchre of sense sweet chimes of spiritual tones — awakened during all these years to sound their loudest notes today. And so give the waymarks of our walk together a clear impress of our labor and its fruits for the whole world.

With love,

Teacher and Mother

M. B. G. Eddy


This letter is not only a beautiful message of inspiration, but it teaches a lesson which all of Mrs. Eddy's followers could take to heart. She was aware that her efforts to dun into dull ears the vital teachings which were won on such a costly battlefield, must never be divorced from the uplift­ing sense of beauty, Truth and Love that character­izes the influx of revelation from God, when the clouds of error have vanished to let the sunshine of Truth come through.

Mrs. Eddy was the Leader. While she proved her ability to descend into the depths of mortality, to uncover and war against secret sin, to her followers, the most convincing signs of her leadership were letters and writings where her thought was beautiful, spiritual, uplifting and lofty, and in which she proved her ability to rise to the heights where she expressed the things of God with beauty and clarity. Yet both her ascent and descent gave equal proof that she was making consistent progress in under­standing the action of Truth and the operation of the lie.

Because our Leader was just, because she was loving, and because she could analyze the error of human thought, as well as detect when to encourage spiritual thought, she could pen a message of this kind without overdoing it.

Consistent progress includes the ability to rise to the heights, counterbalanced by the capabil­ity of delving into the claim of animal magnetism, in order to neutralize and handle it. A pile driver goes up in order to go down. The higher it is lifted, the deeper it forces the pile. Mrs. Eddy ascended into the heights, in order to gain the spiritual equipment to descend into the depths, just as the Master went up into the mountain to pray, and then came down and showed his ability to control and ex­pose the false beliefs of mortal mind.

One significance of this letter is, that it reveals Mrs. Eddy on the mountaintop, going higher in her quiet assimilation of good, in those periods of rest which were vouchsafed her in the midst of her battle with the world, the flesh and the devil.

There have been critics of the Founder of our faith, who have tried to characterize her as an ignorant woman. The writings and poems which trace back to her girlhood, prove this contention false. In her private copybook which she cherished all her life, are to be found poems in precise girlish hand­writing written in her teens, which indicate consid­erable literary ability for one so young. One poem is signed “Mary, written at the age of 12 years.” Another states that she was fourteen years when it was written.

While these productions might never be valued for their intrinsic worth, they might be published some day, if for no other reason than to prove that Mrs. Eddy, even as a child, possessed unusual ability.

As she progressed spiritually, she also grew in her ability to put forth ideas which the world accepted as being the emanation of a highly gifted intelligence. At the time I was a member of her household, she never sought literary help of any kind. I never knew her to request anyone in the home to pass on any of her material, to determine its correctness from any standpoint. She did not sit down and spend hours composing letters or articles. She wrote spontaneously and quickly, although later she might take time in revision, or in the choice of words.

This beautiful letter is a proof that Mrs. Eddy's thought was not touched by the error she was called upon to investigate and uncover. When she emerged forth from the sad task of unmasking the hidden secrets of iniquity, she emerged clean. Like the Hebrew captives in the fiery furnace, the smell of fire had not passed on her. Her immunity was based on the fact that although she had to keep at her students constantly, to rouse them, yet her at­titude toward them and their errors was always metaphysical. None of the error clung to her as real, to prevent her from going up on the mountain­top to put forth exalted and inspired thought, as she does in this letter.

The correct gauge of the mental status of any student must include both his comprehensive and in­telligent understanding of the workings of animal magnetism, and his ability to ascend into the heights of holiness.

There was nothing laborious to our Leader about sitting down and inditing beautiful thoughts. She could open her mind to God, and have them flow in as naturally as one can open his mouth to speak. Only the claim of animal magnetism obstructs man as a free-flowing channel for God's thoughts. When this is handled, reflection becomes spontaneous.

Perhaps for Mrs. Eddy to write that the Board's loving Easter Greeting was a ray of sunshine, was not as complimentary as it appeared on the surface, as if she meant that it was one of the occasional bright spots that kept her from being entirely dis­couraged with them, because they seemed slow of com­prehension and incapable of perceiving the lessons she was attempting to teach. At the same time the Cause was showing signs of growth for which she was grateful.

Mrs. Eddy was past mistress at the art of writing letters. She never wrote what she did not mean. Yet many times the satisfaction a student might take out of what she wrote to him, would be neutralized by a careful analysis of her words. In this letter she does not really write one word in regard to the lives and demonstrations of the Direc­tors, that is complimentary, other than the fact that she wrote from an appreciative standpoint. When she states that she loved to remember the years they had journeyed together, she does not say whether they were helps to her or deterrents, or whether through those years they had progressed spiritually. She leaves it up to them to judge who was responsible for the great growth of the Cause, and its organi­zations, since its birth.

From this simple letter may be deduced the fact that whenever there are students making the effort to write helpful scientific letters, to increase their appreciation of our Leader, or to heal the sick, — so that they feel the call to demonstrate higher than their present spiritual level, — it is something to be grateful for. And if we look back, wishing that we might have had the opportunity to journey through storm and shine with Mrs. Eddy, we may assure ourselves that if today we are traveling with Science and Health and doing our part to help it to be understood and demonstrated, we are traveling with our Leader.

Again, in this letter we hear her call to rise above the errors of sense, and to destroy them vol­untarily, so that spiritual sense may replace them automatically, since there are no vacuums in Truth. The sepulchre of sense is a dead issue that, when seen aright, has nothing about it that is desirable, and the sweet chimes from this sepulchre indicate, that every effort to bury this false sense is a pre­monitory indication of spiritual sense coming nearer. Since material sense is merely a low conception of Spirit, we must rise as our Master did, from this low ideal, and Easter is a reminder of this necessity.

Often children who will not eat plain carrots, will eat them if they are creamed. One flaw in false theology lies in its stern conception of God and of the demands of spiritual living, making them about as attractive as a cold barn in winter. Mrs. Eddy added that which shows God and the footsteps leading to Him, to be pre-eminently beautiful and desirable, when understood aright. She took unat­tractive theology and “creamed” it. In this letter we have evidence of her ability to do this. The waymarks of her walk with the Directors would indi­cate that the way was not always smooth; but the light she shed upon it, gave it a desirability, that made their yoke easy and their burden light.

Her mention of storm and shine in this letter, recalls to mind the fact, that we are confronted with two swings of the pendulum of animal magnetism. One swing corresponds to its effort to make us feel that we are no good, and the other, that we are more important than we are. When we compare ourselves with the Master, or with Mrs. Eddy, we show up so poorly that we are liable to be discouraged. But the spiritual growth of one student cannot be compared with that of another, any more than you can compare the work of a man laying a foundation, with that of one building a superstructure. The latter may work harder than the former, and yet have noth­ing to show for his efforts over a long period of time. Spiritual progress is something that is difficult to gauge. Sometimes a student is making the most progress, when he feels the most discour­aged about himself. It might be said to be a whole­some form of discouragement, that arises from one's awakening to the fact that one need not look to the senses for anything in the way of permanent satis­faction, security, or happiness. Who will truly struggle to find God and put off mortality with any unction that bespeaks success, unless he becomes sufficiently displeased with the senses to struggle to put them off? Mortals must awaken to the illusion embodied in mortality. They must get rid of sense, rather than to try to make it more desirable. The “sweet chimes of spiritual tones” will come from the sepulchre of sense only as we recognize that material sense is only fit to be buried, in order to free us so that we may make a determined effort to gain spiritual sense.

This simple Easter letter was proof of Mrs. Eddy's spirituality, since it gives evidence of her ability to voice the beauties of holiness. At Pleasant View we could tell when she was dwelling in the secret place of the Most High, and was sup­ported by a mighty faith in God's presence. She would be as peaceful and placid as a summer morn. It was evident to all that she was not fighting, but just knowing and feeling. She radiated such a confidence and peace, that one could weep in her presence as readily as a babe. Human sense could hardly stand that which came forth from the state of mind in which she was dwelling — a supreme con­sciousness of God. At such times what she wrote was always something uplifting. When she had had a struggle with error, she would write that which was enlightening on how to handle animal magnetism, but when her thought was resting in an exalted sense of absolute good, the emanations from her pen in­volved the declarations of eternal Truth. Yet the periods in which she waged her warfare with evil were essential, since the resulting instruction was designed so that students who were faithful, might be spared similar experiences, because of the knowledge which she bestowed upon them, which she won at such a cost to herself.




(Telegram)

Received The Gladstone April 24, 1902

677 Dudley St., opposite N.E. R.R. Sta.

Dated Concord, N.H.

To Mr. Wm. B. Johnson

41 Cushing Avenue

Yes invite all to come to annual meeting this year.

Hold communion in our church.

M. B. Eddy

You may hold Annual Meeting in Mechanics' Hall on Wednesday and announce it in our Sentinel and dailies.

Message signed M. B. Eddy, April 25, 1902, 12:30 P.M.


In the early days of our Movement, it was a thrilling thing to students who were struggling in small communities with churches that had only a few members, to attend the Annual Meeting in Boston, and to see the tremendous crowds that gathered from all over the land and even from Europe. Through the experience they took on a renewal of energy and enthusiasm, that would enable them to hearten their fellow workers, when they arrived home.

If you were a member of a small garrison fight­ing a large tribe of Indians, and you traveled to the main induction center, and saw hosts of fine men joining the army, it would help to lessen your fear. You would realize that the army as a whole was big and strong enough to put the Indians to route, and you would be able, on your return, to put new heart into the entire garrison.

In the early days, attendance at the Annual Meeting was a tremendous help to students, inspiring in them a fresh zeal. It was for this reason that Mrs. Eddy sent out a general invitation to students to attend, but she continued it only as long as it was necessary and productive of good re­sults. After the students had received all the in­spiration they really needed to work effectively, and had begun to look upon coming to the meeting as a vacation, Mrs. Eddy began to discourage general attendance at the Annual Meeting, since the original purpose had been more or less fulfilled. She did not want a pilgrimage to be turned into a picnic, where students seized upon the opportunity to have a vacation so that they could shirk their respon­sibilities at home, meet one with another and per­haps gossip.

If you had a compost pile in your garden, after you had enriched every part of the garden, you would stop spreading the compost. The Annual Meeting in Boston represented a great gathering of enrichment, by means of which students could enrich their own fields; but after this was done, the need no longer existed to repeat the performance. The proposition may be expressed in this way; when the advantages of coming to the meeting outweighed the disadvantages of students leaving their work, Mrs. Eddy urged students to attend; but as soon as the advantages ceased to compensate for the disadvantages, she dis­couraged general attendance. The early workers needed the tremendous inspiration that the Annual Meeting provided, just as they needed the spiritual impulsion that resulted, when Mrs. Eddy invited them to gather at Pleasant View. In spite of the wave of error that it brought upon her to meet, she continued to issue the invitation as long as she discerned the need. I can bear personal testimony to the fact that a great deal of scientific effort was needed during these gatherings, in order to keep the atmosphere of the home on its normal scientific level.

If the question had been asked the mental work­ers in Mrs. Eddy's home, what they dreaded the most, they would unquestionably have replied, “The yearly pilgrimage to Concord at the time of the Annual Meeting.” The alien atmosphere which attended these gatherings required much labor to clean it up. It was a great cross to Mrs. Eddy and her entire house­hold to have the harmony of the home broken in this way; but she endured this cross, because she saw the value of the individual inspiration that stu­dents received from seeing her, which they were able to take back to their respective fields. They felt that to see her and to hear her was comparable to what it would have meant, had they lived in the time of the Master, and had the privilege of seeing and hearing him.

When these yearly pilgrimages tended to become picnics, however, Mrs. Eddy stopped them. Insight into her reasons will enable one to understand many things in her experience which at first she permitted, and then banned. A pilgrimage is a spiritual help, whereas a picnic may become a def­inite deterrent. Janet Colman records the time when Mrs. Eddy called the National Students' Associ­ation to convene, saying that she had “a message from God” for them. When not a single student had the message to carry home, she rebuked them all for not listening to what God had for them. She ex­plained that they were so happy to see each other, that they made merry, and paid no heed to God's message, after all she had done for them. They permitted the “picnic” thought to rob them of spiritual good.

At still another time, while she was teaching a class, one of the members arranged to have a party at his home, and invited her. She not only refused to attend, but sent word that she did not approve of the party. The next morning in class she said, “I feel that I owe you an explanation about last night. If you had bought seed at great cost, would you not be careful as to the ground you sowed it in? I am sowing seed.”

Mrs. Eddy knew that the only way the students could receive and understand her teachings, was to keep themselves in an exalted frame of mind, and that a demonstration would be required to enable them to do that. Any sort of distraction in the way of social activities, would weigh against that demonstration. She saw that this party was the work of animal magnetism, attempting to deflect thought from the straight line of Spirit. The class was a pilgrimage from sense to Soul, whereas the reception would have been a picnic by the way, which was a subtle temptation designed to rob the entire class.

Mrs. Eddy approved of students coming to the Annual Meeting, when they needed the inspiration of attending, of seeing the great unified body of members, and of hearing the reports of progress. Yet from the spiritual standpoint, there was a danger that the uplift gained in this way might become a deterrent to growth, since whatever fosters a love of excitement, infringing on the daily work for God and man, may work ill. On page 136 of Miscellaneous Writings Mrs. Eddy writes, “The eternal and infinite, already brought to your earnest consideration, so grow upon my vision that I cannot feel justified in turning aside for one hour from contemplation of them and of the faith unfeigned.” She might well have written of the yearly visits to Concord as well as to the Annual Meeting, as she did of audible prayer in Science and Health on page 7, where she wrote that it is impressive; “it gives momentary solemnity and elevation to thought. But does it produce any lasting benefits? Looking deeply into these things, we find that a zeal...not according to knowledge gives occasion for reaction unfavorable to spiritual growth, sober resolve, and wholesome perception of God's requirements.”

It is proper that at times workers at a dis­tance from The Mother Church, who have little op­portunity to gauge the progress of the Movement as a whole, have a representative visit Boston once in a while, so that he may bring back to them the assurance that the Cause is progressing properly; but any cessation of spiritual effort always troubled our Leader. She learned at great cost that protection from error involves a continuation of mental activity. A fly wheel spinning at its normal speed is protected from all efforts to stop it by its very momentum. Only as it slows up, does it become possible for one to insert a steel bar in the spokes and stop it. All hypnotism depends for its success on the slowing up of the subject's thought and operates in like manner. Hence Mrs. Eddy labored to maintain a spiritually active sense in students and felt justified in any method that contributed to this end.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

May 16, 1902

Board of Directors

Beloved Students:

I will try to make an appointment to see you as soon as I can before the annual meeting. O how I wish you could see what I see before us in the history of the churches, unless a change takes place. I will appoint next Monday for you to see me at my house at about 3 PM. If anything prevents, will telephone you “no not now” and try again Deo volente.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


The past, present, and future mental history of our Cause is bound to be a closed book to mortal mind. Hence no mortal could ever prognosticate the right path for the church to take. God alone can do that. Mrs. Eddy gained her knowledge of the way from Him, and today those who would guide its destinies aright, must do likewise, since no human knowledge, precedent, opinion or imagination can possibly supply the needed information.

It would be a sad day for Mrs. Eddy's organi­zation, if its members became satisfied that it was fulfilling her hopes for it, merely because it was paralleling the old church in prosperity and activity. This letter reveals her great desire that the Directors, as well as all students, might per­ceive spiritually the signification of her church.

Once a man who had always avoided work by liv­ing by his wits, was forced to go to work. He had such a slight knowledge of what real work meant, that he presented himself on Monday morning dressed in a silk hat and a frock coat, when he should have worn overalls.

Mrs. Eddy expected her church to represent activity rather than worship, with overalls as a more fitting symbol of its mission than a silk hat or a frock coat, since it is a church where its members must work, if they are to do their duty toward it as God expects them to. She wanted it put to work, rather than dressed up. In the Manual there is a By-law which states that this work is largely prayer that is “offered for the congregations col­lectively and exclusively.” Obviously the members are expected to unite in a common purpose of prayer, the effect of which is to bless the congregations, and the success of this work is gauged by the number of cases of healing that take place during the services.

In the final conclusion, it is the consensus of the membership of our organization that really directs it, rather than the thought of a small committee. Hence it is essential that the thought of the whole be right. In order for this to take place, old ideas of church must be cast out, and Mrs. Eddy's organization be seen as something unique and new. The time must come when members ready for such a privilege, have access to such letters as these to the Directors, in order that they may learn from our Leader herself what her concept of her church was.

It is difficult in driving an automobile over a rutty road, to keep it out of the ruts. The place that the old church of theology occupies in one's life, its objectives and activities are so grooved into human thought that one is liable to fall into the notion that Mrs. Eddy's concept of church in­cludes a perpetuation or restoration of these tra­ditional ideals. Unless one makes a definite strug­gle, he will find himself falling into these old ruts, just as one who has received help in Science, may relapse into his old complaints again, unless he is so thoroughly healed by a permanent change in consciousness, that there is no further danger of thought sliding back into the old concept.

This letter by our Leader shows, that she foresaw that her churches would be tempted to slip back into the old ruts of false theology, unless a change took place. The danger of her church paral­leling the old, was that the new might fall back into the way of the old, which was the lazy way, the worldly way. While she knew it was wise to have the outward form of her organization resemble the old sufficiently to break down prejudice, and to attract people to attend, inside it must be different and be kept different. She was presenting to the world an entirely new idea of a church, — one that it had never had before, one that included a concept of spiritual power actively demonstrated. Her church differed from the old concept, exactly as her teach­ing in regard to prayer differed from the old. A Christian Scientist who is properly taught, is never tempted to kneel and to say, “O God, we thank Thee for all that Thou has done for us, and we are ready to receive a lot more, when Thou art ready to give it to us.” The efficacy of the new concept of prayer helps to keep him from lapsing into what he formerly considered to be prayer. He knows that scientific prayer has an objective, and unless that objective is attained, he has not prayed aright.

In like manner, Mrs. Eddy added an objective to her church services, so that the need and endeavor to attain that objective might help to keep the thought of members in the right groove of activity, which is the exact opposite of the passive rut of false theology. This objective is the heal­ing of the sick. Unless a Christian Science service heals the sick, it is not a Christian Science service. Hence one can judge by results the right­ness of a service, wherever it is held. And this result follows in proportion as the membership ex­pect it, work for it, and cause an abundance of the letter to accompany the Spirit.

A practitioner can tell by results whether he is practicing scientifically. If patients come to him year after year, and he talks to them and works for them, but never heals a case, he resembles what our services would be, if they were held year after year, and yet no individuals were healed as a result. They would be sounding brass and tinkling cymbal, an appearance without results. Mrs. Eddy foresaw in this letter what a tragedy such a condition would be, since healing is the only proper evidence of the correction of our sins, our ideals and the method we employ in working them out.

Rightly understood the church should constitute a power plant — a working body — and entrance into its membership should spell an opportunity to labor in the Father's vineyard. Mrs. Eddy set up in her home in miniature a replica of the church, in order that those with eyes to see might learn what the objects and aims of the church should be. Above all, she had hours of mental work done by the stu­dents. I gained the impression from that, that each of the various activities of our Movement is like an electrical circuit, which we must keep supplied with spiritual energy, in order to have it operate successfully. Science and Health was a circuit that Mrs. Eddy kept supplied with power through her own demonstration; but now that she is no longer with us to do this, we must include it in our work, to be sure that it carries the maximum of healing to those who read it. Unless power is supplied to all of our circuits through faithful mental work, they will fail to fulfill their mission, namely, to enlighten the world.

Among the circuits that Mrs. Eddy left to us, is one that might be called a wireless, since it is represented by the impersonal work that members do to bless the world. Our hope is that this work is going forth impersonally, will reach receptive thought, — those mortals who hunger for something better than they have, — and that they will receive something mentally, which will lead them to the truth, which will in turn unfold the problem of life and its solution.

Mrs. Eddy could foresee, and she wanted the Directors and membership to foresee with her, that unless spiritual power continued to flow over the circuits of her organization, the wires might remain, but they would cease to convey to the world the blessing of spiritual healing and enlightenment. Unless a change took place, the churches would become dead circuits, with no power flowing through them.

Once Mrs. Eddy declared, “Spirit has given all that is true in religion.” The reverse of this must be that whatever is introduced into our organization, that is a product of the human mind, only serves to adulterate it and to interfere with its progress. One cannot be a follower of Mrs. Eddy — he cannot be one who is endeavoring to keep the pure conceptions of Mrs. Eddy alive and operating, and to see her as the Pastor Emeritus of her church — unless he takes a stand against all that is not inspired, to prevent it from operating in our organization, and to keep aloft the purity of the truth she reflected, and not to let it grow into disuse. In such an endeavor, everything that she ever said or wrote will be found helpful, and should be for the use of ready members.




(May 23, 1902)

Beloved Student:

Call a meeting and vote on the By-law relating to our Church Readers as it is herein amended. Then have published in the next Sentinel this “Card.”

With love,

M. B. Eddy

N. B. You can talk with Hanna or any other member on it now.


This letter authorized the publishing of the following card that appeared on page 624 of the fourth volume of the Sentinel, “I hereby correct a mistake in a By-law of The Mother Church published in Vol.4, No.38, of the Christian Science Sentinel. Said By-law on the election of Readers in this Church, has been amended to read: — ‘Every third year The Mother Church shall elect Readers.' The effect of this By-law has been earnestly and con­scientiously considered. Its intent is to enlarge the capacity and increase the interest in this large Church — by conferring its duties and honors on a larger proportion of its members.”

If a man takes a position that is only tempo­rary, he is apt to fail to put into his efforts the zeal that he would, if he knew that the job would become his life work, in which case he would give up everything for it. For this reason Mrs. Eddy had to name a term for readers which was long enough, to ensure their taking the proper interest. At the same time she had to make it short enough to keep thought flexible in regard to it. It is necessary that the student of metaphysics feel that God may move him at any time from his present place to another, and he must hold himself in constant readiness and willingness. Clay must remain soft, in order to be molded by a sculptor. As mortals we must remain flexible, in order that the great Shepherd of all may lead and guide us aright. For this reason wisdom may demand of us changes that are not permanent, if for no other reason than to prove that we are flexible and to keep us so, that we may be molded and fashioned into His likeness.

Another important reason for a short term for readers is, that if they are practitioners, and realize that they must continue to earn their live­lihood by healing the sick when the term is over, they will not neglect such work during the term of readership.

A reader's application to the study of the Bible and Science and Health, in order that he may have some spiritual sense of what he is reading to convey to his hearers, is of the greatest personal benefit, and for that reason, as many members as possible should enjoy the privilege.

When I visited Chicago at the time of the World's Fair, I attended a service held in that city, and was impressed with the ability of the First Reader. Then I was told that he was merely trying out for the position. The custom was to try out candidates, so that the election of readers was based on ability rather than on guesswork. One might wonder why such an efficient method did not become adopted by the whole Field; but in Science we have the demonstrating way of election, which is the only infallible way. The demonstrating way can foretell and cover what a man will do three months or six months after he is elected, whereas the ex­perimental way can only determine the external qualifications.

When Saul was elected to be head of the Israel­itish nation, God knew in advance that he was the one for the place. From this we know that even in those days they made the selection of their rulers a matter of demonstration. They had holy men whose responsibility it was to determine God's will for the people. One might conclude that in those days they were further advanced in their faith in God and their ability to talk with Him, and to accept His decisions, than we are today.

In setting three years as the proper term for reading, Mrs. Eddy may have considered that that was long enough for any one member to be under that specific pressure of animal magnetism, even if he were handling it successfully. After three years he should have relief.

When in this letter Mrs. Eddy writes, “You can talk with Hanna or any other member on it now,” we can deduce that this divine direction, like all rev­elation, came as a demand without explanation. As she writes on page 158 of Miscellaneous Writings, “But now, after His messenger has obeyed the message of divine Love, comes the interpretation thereof. But you see we both had first to obey, and to do this through faith, not sight.” There is a virtue in learning to obey God on faith.

One who requires a knowledge of the whys and wherefores, before he obeys, will find himself a laggard in metaphysics, since God often gives the notification of what to do, before He gives one an explanation. Mrs. Eddy told Mr. Johnson that he could talk with Judge Hanna, or any other member, about the By-law, because the published card had included the explanation, indicating that, because of the logic of the reason given, to discuss it might help to quiet any stir the By-law might have produced. It should be recalled that it was quite a blow to all, to have Judge Hanna taken out of the readership.

If we only could know beforehand what God's purpose is, we feel that that would make obedience a joy; but the need is that our faith in God's wise government of all things be strengthened. In order for this to take place, we must walk by faith, and not by sight.

The explanation of this By-law evidently came in order to prevent criticism of such a radical step. “Its intent is to enlarge the capacity and increase the interest in this large Church — by conferring its duties and honors on a larger proportion of its members.” In these words Mrs. Eddy emphasizes means and methods, rather than attainment, and lays down a precept that covers all the work in the organization.

Judge Hanna had held the post of First Reader in The Mother Church for many years, and the time had come for him to step down and let another take the post. While being reader is a noteworthy and honorable attainment, Mrs. Eddy saw the need of ro­tation, so that as time went on, The Mother Church and its branches would not be affected by changes in readership. In the old church the minister has everything to do with the success of the church. A good preacher can fill a church and ensure its success as long as he occupies the pulpit.

Today changes in readership hardly produce a ripple; but the value of the office as a training for members is very great. Hence as many qualified members as possible should be given the chance to fill it.

All the activities of our organization represent opportunities to develop spiritually. The world says that the bootblack is of a lower order than the businessman, as the office boy is, in relation to the president. In our organization if each in­cumbent takes advantage of his office to demonstrate the healing presence of God, all human conceptions of rank are leveled. Three years should be a suffi­cient length of time in which to learn to demon­strate the position of Reader. At the end of that time one may step down and give another the privi­lege of reading, with no sense that he is sacrificing aught of good for himself. Judge Hanna had more than gained from the position the good it had for him; so in her loving way, Mrs. Eddy eased him out of the position, in order that another might have the blessing of that form of service, yet many felt that it was a great mistake to take him out of the position, when he was doing such a magnificent job.




(Telegram)

Received at

Hotel Somerset, Boston

May 26, 1902

Dated Concord, N.H. 26

To William B. Johnson

30 Norway Street

Yes publish By-law about endorsing application in both Sentinel and Journal.

M. B. Eddy


This telegram authorized the printing in the Sentinel and Journal the following By-law: “Members of The Mother Church shall not endorse or counter­sign an application for membership therewith, until after the blank has been properly filled out by an applicant. Any member who violates this By-law shall be disciplined and subject to being excorranu­nicated.”

Mrs. Eddy was not pleased to have to frame such a By-law as this for her followers, since they had to be made for those who were asleep, or prone to lean on the demonstration of others. As long as they had to lean, she wanted them to lean on that which was near right as possible; but her ideal for them was to have them lean on God directly.

Students should feel that the organization be­longs to them, and so in letting one join, they are taking him or her into their family. It is easier to keep the wrong candidate out, than to expel him after he has joined.

The purpose of this By-law was to safeguard against a member asking a teacher to sign a few blanks for membership in advance, so that he would not have to bother with each one. There are organi­zations where such a method is used, and Mrs. Eddy did not wish it to creep into hers, since it might become an open door for letting in those who were not ready to join.

Mrs. Eddy wished us to consider the joining of her organization a solemn step, so that we would take in only those who could be relied upon to become con­structive workers, rather than deterrents to the spiritual prosperity of the Movement. In spite of the care she enjoined, many branch churches have taken in members who have become an influence in the wrong direction. They advocate human intelligence and thus tend to keep the business meetings on the side of mortal mind. They use political methods to persuade the majority of the membership to support them in their plans, and constitute an active re­sistance to any effort to give the meeting back to God, where it belongs.

Had the great care in selecting new members that Mrs. Eddy enjoined, been exercised, today we would not find it so difficult to keep the business meetings of the churches on a metaphysical basis. Also it would be possible to instruct the members that part of their responsibility for the organiza­tion is to work mentally at the services, to the end that the sick may be healed. As the situation stands, there are large numbers of members who do not even know of this necessity, even after they have had class instruction. Yet this is a matter that every member should learn when he joins the church.

No member should ever be taken in, without being enjoined that he is expected to work meta­physically for all the activities of the organiza­tion. He should be told that the important qualifi­cation for membership is that he know something of how to demonstrate for the church. Otherwise it may do what the old church does, namely, put all its stress on outward conduct, and neglect thinking, just as a mother tells her boy that if he will wash behind his ears, he can go to a party. By this act the boy himself is not changed in the slightest degree. If he is quarrelsome and cannot get along with other children, he will act so at the party.

Most engineering societies are very careful to take in as new members, only men who were well qualified as engineers. No novices are accepted. The same should hold true in the Christian Science organization. Hence a thorough investigation should be made of the qualification of each applicant.

If the outward life of an applicant is all that is regarded, in determining his fitness, — if he attends the services regularly, gives liberally and indicates that he will come to the business meetings — why does he need to join at all? The only priv­ilege that is granted him beyond what he is enjoying already, is attendance at the business meetings, and being elected to hold office. When such meetings are balanced on the side of human opinion, attending them cannot be considered a very great privilege.

It must have been Mrs. Eddy's purpose to have membership in her Church involve something more vital and tangible spiritually, than the privilege of sitting through the corporate meetings, and per­haps serving on some committee.

The day must come when it will not be consid­ered amiss to call the attention of the membership to the fact, that the atmosphere of the meetings indicates that the proper amount of mental work is not being done. If no healings are taking place, the members are being handled by the error of false theology, the most prominent characteristic of which is mental inactivity, in which the congregation sits and dozes through the services. Members should take such a warning to heart and quicken their endeavors in the right direction.

Mrs. Eddy's hope was that her organization would take in as members those who were busy bees, and not drones. She knew that it would only take a few drones to endanger the attitude of the whole hive, and that when they become spiritually inactive, at once they become active in mortal mind. It is difficult to take a member who is rushing around smartly, busy with committee work and ready to voice his opinion at business meetings, and convince him that he is mentally inactive; but he is from the metaphysical standpoint. God is Mind. The only true activity, therefore, is mental, and is a true reflection of that Mind. But to be active in mortal mind must be the reverse of this reflection, and hence from God's standpoint, must be mental inactivity.

It should be made plain to those who are join­ing our church that they are pledging themselves to a life of spiritual activity in everything connected with church matters. Hence this apparently simple point covered by the By-law becomes exceedingly important. It may seem otherwise to mortal sense, since a step that is vital from the spiritual stand­point may seem of no moment to the carnal mind. Spiritual matters must be understood spiritually. The human mind is inadequate to comprehend the pro­found operations of Truth.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

June 11, 1902

Board of Directors

Beloved Students:

I have just received a letter most kind from Judge Hanna signifying his willingness and pleasure to leave the Readership and edi­torial chair for a rest. This now gives you opportunity to secure Mr. Cameron of Chicago and Mrs. Ewing if you can, to take the reader­ship; and Mr. McClellan of Chicago the place of editor-in-chief of our periodicals. Mr. Cone reads my Message. Mr. Bingham is to be our President, and then all is provided for in case the Readers named will serve — is it not? With lone and dreary foresight of my tasks I look on this hour unless you help me more in helping new officers know what is best to do and how to do it. But you must help in this, or give up your office on our Board, for I cannot and I shall not do it alone.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy

Board of Directors

Beloved Students:

Elect Judge Hanna a member of the Board of Lectureship.

With love,

M. B. Eddy

June 11. Inst.


Mary Baker Eddy functioned under inspiration. Her thinking was correct both in the spirit and the letter. She furnished one, and God furnished the other. Unless this fact is admitted, one cannot escape the conclusion that even the simplest letters she wrote to her church and officials, contain valu­able instruction, since all instruction that comes from God is valuable. It has a depth that is ap­plicable to advancing experience, so that these letters, as well as everything Mrs. Eddy put forth, may be studied with profit over and over again. The last word in regard to these letters to the Board can never be said. For one to declare that it is possible to get all there is out of even one of these letters, and to say the last word on it, would be to assert that it is possible to “package” the infinite. Could one cut off and wrap up a small portion of our vast national telephone system, and believe he had something of use and value? What is the error of mortality, but the belief that the infinite can be circumscribed?

One might question Mrs. Eddy's sincerity about Judge Hanna's taking a rest, when in the second dispatch she appoints him to a very arduous task. Surely it was not her desire to cast him from his present positions, when everything points to the fact that she was pre-eminently satisfied with the work he was doing. Five years before this she wrote to Julia Field-King, ‘‘Mrs. Calles has written to me suggesting the idea of having Judge Hanna go to London and be Reader in your church. Can you not see in this M.A.M.? Think of losing him on our Journal! Think of getting him away from our church which is what the whole posse of traitors are men­tally working at. Now I forbid this movement being thought of and be throttled in its first stages. I request you not to even name to him your invita­tion or desire to have him attend your Dedication. I do this for his dear sake as well as that of our Cause.”

Mrs. Eddy was the hardest worker among the students, although from the human standpoint she was the oldest and frailest. She did not believe much in vacations, and never took one herself. Once she said to Calvin Frye, “Vacations! Why, Calvin Frye, you haven't had a vacation in years! Why, yes, you can have a long one when you go down to the barber shop and have your hair cut!”

At times she longed for rest and peace. As far back as September, 1888, we find her writing to Hannah Laramie, “I am tired, weary of incessant work. I want a vacation.”

On page 519 of Science and Health, Mrs. Eddy writes, “The highest and sweetest rest, even from a human standpoint, is in holy work.” All scientif­ic work should include this realization. He should declare that he is the better for doing it; that he is rested; that he needs no vacation from God; that he is stronger and happier for every act performed in His service.

If Mrs. Eddy did not believe in vacations as the world believes in them, what she did advocate was a respite at times from the warfare against animal magnetism, much as a soldier is sent home on rotation, after he has fought for a certain length of time. Then when he is sent back, he has renewed energy for the warfare.

Mrs. Eddy appointed Judge Hanna to a post that would take him away from Boston, away from the spot no student would ever yearn to live in, if he had any spiritual insight, since there one becomes a goldfish in a bowl, as it were, and everything one does is watched and commented on. For instance, if a reader in The Mother Church attends a secular concern on a Sunday afternoon, such a fact is noted and perhaps criticized.

Judge Hanna was a kindly man, who expressed so much brotherly love that perhaps he failed to gauge rightly the deadly nature of the malpractice that he believed he had to meet in his prominent position. When one is striving to be a loving Christian Scientist, it is hard to believe that the deadliest aroma of hatred, malice, envy, lust and revenge may emanate from human thought within our own ranks, from those who lend themselves to human thinking. The Judge needed a rest from the warfare against that sort of animal magnetism.

Every step our Leader took, such as establishing the By-law creating a three-year term for readers in The Mother Church, was the result of God's guid­ance. In her foundational work she never lost sight of the fact that the church visible was but the outward shadow of the church invisible. On page 2 of Pulpit and Press, she wrote, “Nevertheless, there is a thought higher and deeper than the edi­fice.” The real object of Christian Science is individual spiritualization, and its true church is mental.

In a sense our church in matter acts as a buffer or a decoy, to cause the enemy to believe that it is the important thing, when it is not. Thus it serves to draw the fire of the enemy, while the real activity goes on in mind. The true church is the gathering of members to work in the one Mind, to help to Christianize the thoughts of all mankind. If this church could be attacked it would be serious and dangerous; but the ebbing and flowing of the church visible is not too serious a matter; in reality this church is but the shadow of the church invisible.

The status of progress of a member may be gauged by his attitude toward, or evaluation of, the church visible and its activities versus the church invisible and its activities. If he chemi­calizes when the church visible is underrated in favor of the church invisible, he thereby exposes the fact that he is still a “babe in Christ.” As a matter of fact, the membership of the church in­visible may be said to be only a small group com­posed of those who perceive the inspirational in­tent of Christian Sciente, and work along such lines. The remainder do little more than run interference for this small group, as men on a football team ward off the opposing team for one player. The rank and file of membership in our churches serve as buffers or decoys for the few consecrated ones, who are doing the real mental work that enables the Cause to be successful and to bless mankind by destroy­ing the works of the devil.

“With lone and dreary foresight of my tasks....” What did Mrs. Eddy mean by these doleful words in this letter? When a man who owns a business, finds that those in charge neglect to instruct new workers as to what is expected of them, he feels a dreary sense, as if to say, “Am I the only one around here with enough interest to show these new workers what to do?”

Mrs. Eddy felt a “dreary” sense when she con­templated the great distance between the demands of Christian Science, and the slight recognition on the part of her best students of what those demands were. She felt like one with a pair of scissors with blades that do not meet. Such an instrument would be of little use in cutting anything. She was furnishing one blade for the church, and she looked to the Directors to furnish the other, hoping that together they could smooth out the organization, and keep it running properly.

She asked no help in the founding of her church; but she did need help in running it, since she could not keep in personal contact with all its ramifica­tions and membership, so that she could appoint all workers, or keep them up to the high point of effi­ciency necessary.

Judge Hanna had acquitted himself notably as a reader and editor, it created a sense of stir and con­fusion, — when Mrs. Eddy invited him to retire, — which was largely aimed at her. Today in retrospect, it is evident that she was fully capable of fulfilling what­ever she was called upon to do, and did it scientifi­cally and correctly. Every move she made, every precedent she laid down, was right and necessary; but at this time — 1902 — many students were assailed by doubt as to her ability to carry on. We have instances where those closest to her, often distrusted her wis­dom, and felt that she was ruining the prosperity of her Cause by some of the moves she made.

As the Cause grew to world-wide proportions, the question arose as to whether this frail woman in Concord could continue to be its head, and to run it successfully. Could she possibly know enough about what was going on, to handle all the details as they should be handled?

When Mrs. Eddy put forth an edict that provoked a questioning thought, and produced a stir, — as did this rule for rotation for readers, that ousted Judge Hanna, — the doubt of her ability on the part of stu­dents acted upon her as a thought darkener that gave her much to meet. For this reason, she expected the Board of Directors to support her in the moves she made, and thus to take their share of the pressure of criticism. She knew that the Fieid would doubt the wisdom of the moves she made far less, if the Directors would assume more responsibility as to putting them forth. The feeling that that august body approved or originated some important step, would do much to assuage any doubt concerning it that might arise in the minds of the Field. But when Mrs. Eddy had to assume full responsibility for a matter, the fact that she was a woman in itself was enough to create doubt in the minds of students, and she became the object or victim of such doubt. It was a dreary outlook for her, when she considered the burden that it placed upon her, to be the buffer for every move that God directed to make.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

June 14, 1902

To the Committee

Beloved Students:

I cannot, much as I love and desire to see my church — I cannot immediately after our sacred sacrament meet them on the Fair grounds in Concord; and think it wise to leave this subject this year as I have left it in my Message.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy

P.S. Will the dear Committee accept Mother's thanks for this kind offer.

Ever lovingly,

Yours again,

Mother


This letter, which is brief and to the point, contains a wealth of spiritual instruction. To Mrs. Eddy spiritual thought from God was the one important attainment. She knew that for her stu­dents to satisfy their curiosity by seeing her ­personality or by talking with her, could be a means of distracting thought away from God. It was Mrs. Eddy's ideal that nothing intervene between man and the establishment of spiritual thought, and that nothing be permitted to rob him of it, after he has attained it.

Perhaps Mrs. Eddy interpreted the demand that she attend the Fair to mean, that after the students had partaken of the sacred sacrament, which included a special message from her which she had sent to bless them all (which should have fed and satisfied them), they still wanted to see her person. It was a departure from Christian Science, to assume that the blessing of seeing her in the flesh would be as great, if not greater, than the value of the spiritual message they had received, and the spir­itual uplift that they had gained.

I shall always be grateful to my teacher, Eugene H. Greene, because of his insistence that his students go directly home after each service, implying that talking together, chatting and gossip­ing in the foyer, might crowd out of consciousness the spiritual thought and uplift that had been gained.

Mrs. Eddy hoped that her followers would value inspirational thought to such an extent, that they would exercise the proper protection over it. Even if one does not, he should respect the possibility that his neighbor does, and will not run the risk of robbing him of it, by gossiping or chatting with him after a service. The true value of our service is experienced only as attendants go quietly home afterwards, and strive to assimilate and make per­manent the spiritual good they have received.

How can students progress as they should, if they constantly permit human interests and dis­tractions to clutter their minds? There are many duffers at golf who remain duffers all their days. If one wants to know the reason for this, it is not hard to find. They never really apply themselves toward improving their game. Those who do apply them­selves and excel, are those who practice and devote thought toward doing better all the time. It was Mrs. Eddy's hope that the students would avoid whatever interfered with the endeavor to embody and make per­manent, spiritual thinking, and to withdraw into the secret place of the Most High, in order to as­similate inspirational good, whether the interfer­ence took the form of the Fair grounds or the foyer.

Mrs. Eddy's great delicacy in a letter of this kind, is in contrast to the mighty thunderings of which she was capable when it became necessary. Here we find that she was not too harsh in her crit­icism of human desires. She knew that her followers would not throw off human desires until those de­sires became more spiritual; she perceived that the desire to meet her at the Fair grounds, was little more than a human desire — so she had to give it a tactful rebuke.

When a practitioner enjoins a patient to stop thinking about himself and his body, he knows that he is asking him to do that which is practically impossible. What man has ever been able to stop thinking about himself by a decision of his mind, unless he thinks about something else? For this reason, the advice given us in our textbook, to re­member good and the human race, is potent, because in proportion as we follow it, we stop malpracticing on ourselves, and the body is consequently relieved. When a ball is squeezed out of shape in your hand, it returns to its spherical symmetry, the instant you let go of it.

One cannot stop malpracticing on himself by an act of the will, but he can engage his mind elsewhere, and the consequence is, that he stops thinking about himself. Science and Health mentions the pious Polycarp, who declared that he could not turn at once from good to evil. Mrs. Eddy knew that if she or her students turned thought at once from the uplift of the sacred communion with God, to the Fair grounds, the latter would surely tend to cast out the former, even if it did not do so at once. The Fair was a symbol of human interest and plea­sure, and who of the students, after they had seen their Leader, would not remain to enjoy the sights of the Fair?

Mrs. Eddy did not consider all pleasure a crime, but she never wished it to encroach on man's duty to God. One of her household once reported in an effort to prove that she was parsimonious, that she always kept her oranges and sugar under lock and key. Even this fact has a metaphysical implication, as if she did not forbid her students harmless pleasures, but she wished them to keep it under control — under lock and key — so that its demands would never encroach on their obligations and duties to God. She knew the tendency of uncon­trolled pleasure to enlarge its demands.

One may interpret the reading of the scientific statement of being at the end of our Sunday service, as being the act of putting a cork into the bottle of thought, so that what has just been received of spiritual good, unfoldment and healing, may not be lost. Mrs. Eddy would deprecate whatever tended to pull out this cork, and she saw that going to the Fair grounds would have this tendency.

It was her desire that every service be a sacred sacrament, and she knew that it could be made so. Jesus could produce a pentacostal experi­ence at any time, because he maintained his thought consistently on the side of inspiration. She re­moved every material symbol of communion other than kneeling twice a year, because she saw that symbols tend to satisfy thought with effect. Every service will be a communion when we cast out all human thinking, and realize that God dwells in the church.

In just the proportion that our services are found approximating this ideal, does it become im­portant that attendants do nothing that would pre­vent the effect of such a communion from lasting as long as possible. It is the length of time such effects last, that indicates our progress, as much as the intensity of the experience.

So this brief letter implies that if something is worth attaining, it is worth retaining. Hence after having had communion, why do anything that you know in advance might have the effect of rob­bing you of the resultant spiritual good? When my youngest daughter was in her teens, she asked if Christian Science forbade all pleasure. I said a good rule would be, never do anything that so sub­merges your consciousness of God, that you are not able to call upon it in demonstration at a moment's notice. Otherwise you are a fool, since this very night thy soul may be required of thee. A sense of darkness may come over you in which you may lose your sense of God for the time being, unless you keep it close to you.

Mrs. Eddy did not sharply rebuke the desire to see her in person at the Fair grounds. She knew that it was quite natural for one who had been blessed beyond measure by her writings, to desire to see her. After one has read Science and Health, he would conclude that she must carry with her the atmosphere of God at all times, and he would desire to partake of that by seeing her in person. But she knew how error would claim to slip in at such a point, and rob people of their desire for a spiritual blessing, and leave in its place the urge to see her personality, which becomes a mild form of malpractice, since its effect is to fasten more firmly the physical sense which one is striving to put off.

Mrs. Eddy knew how to teach a spiritual lesson in the most delicate way possible, as she does in this letter. She thundered forth her rebukes only when a student became immune to the polite and gentle way; yet when she taught right from the shoulder, what she said was backed up with so much love that no right-minded student could take offense.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

June 16, 1902

Dictated

William B. Johnson, C.S.B.

Clerk of The Mother Church

Boston, Mass.

Beloved Student:

I herein approve the following named persons becoming First Members of this Church.

Hermann S. Hering

Mrs. Ruth B. Ewing

Archibald McLellan

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy

I have no objection to name against Mr. McLellan's price for salary.


Nothing in Christian Science history does more to prove to present-day students that Mrs. Eddy was the active, demonstrating, scientific head of her church, than her letters regarding church matters. She was the Leader both in word and in deed, in prac­tice as well as in name. Her great desire was that students would develop a leaning on divine wisdom that approximated hers, and supplant human ability with spiritual efficiency.

Every move had to be the result of demonstra­tion, but she found no student whom she could con­sistently trust in this direction. Hence she found it necessary in the main to do the demonstrating for her church.

She knew that whatever was done without demonstration might be the means of betraying the Cause into the hands of mortal mind. Whatever the students felt impelled to do without demonstration, was a trick of animal magnetism to retard spiritual growth and get the church into trouble. When the human mind made more capable through Science, and passing for the divine, assumes to run things, the majority of members do not usually perceive the error of the situation, since the smoothness and prosperity of the organization may not be affected outwardly. Once it is realized, however, that the attainment of spirituality is the underlying purpose of everything that bears the name of Christian Sci­ence, then it becomes plain that the enemy of this purpose is anything that makes it possible for stu­dents to acquire outward harmony without demonstration.

Demonstration may be defined as the Lord in connection with God and man. Hence the real enemy of our church is whatever keeps the Lord out of His holy temple. Our church was founded in order to emphasize “the living Christ, the practical Truth,” (Science and Health, p. 31), as the Messiah. What­ever else appears desirable and worthy in the church must be whipped out.

One cannot overlook the fact that when the Di­rectors turned to Mrs. Eddy for approval, they were turning to her demonstration, since her approval was God's approval. Hence, even though they did not make the demonstration of His approval themselves, they saw the need to turn to Him rather than to their own human minds; yet they had good human minds. Now that our Leader is not with us in person, one fact can never be emphasized enough, namely, that members of the Board of Directors must still demon­strate every step that they take, if they are going to follow the precedent laid down. They must send the names of candidates which they select, to God for approval.

Mrs. Eddy was virtually compelled to approve of these three names for First Members, because God approved of them, and she knew unerringly when He did approve. When one is asked to take a position in Science he should never refuse if it is God's will that he accept. If it is not God's will, he should never be asked to accept it. No one in our Movement is ever in tune with God or our Leader unless he does everything the divine way. Yet for centuries to come the tendency of the mass will al­ways be to use human opinion. This becomes no ex­cuse for a failure on the part of any individual member to come out from among them, as it were, and be separate, — separate from that contagion.

Some day it will be recognized as a species of murder to put a member in a position for which God has not appointed him, where he will have pressure to meet that he may not be able to handle, and so may go down under it. Members should not accept positions to which they are called by the organiza­tion, merely on the cold assumption that those who have called them must have demonstrated the call, and hence they must accept the duty at any cost. Each member should seek his answer from the Father in secret.

This simple letter from our Leader sets a pre­cedent, since it lays down to the Directors the im­portance of demonstration, even though in this in­stance, it is Mrs. Eddy's rather than theirs. Now that she is gone, there is nothing left for the Directors to do but to demonstrate every step they take, or seek wisdom from those who can and do demonstrate.

At Pleasant View I saw our Leader reject a list of candidates for the readership sent her by the Board, without taking time to read the names, by saying, “Wholly unsuitable!” I was privileged to learn a helpful lesson from this incident. The only way she could have known that not one of the names was ready for the position, was by immediately de­tecting that the thought back of the entire list was an undemonstrated one. My experience with our Leader taught me that it was possible to place a chair back in its accustomed spot, and have it right; and that it was possible to place it in the same spot and have it wrong, one action being a demonstration and the other not. This was a point hard for me and for many others to understand, until we had reached the point where God made it plain. The rule is ex­pressed in the Bible, where it says in substance that when the meditations of one's heart do not accord with the words of his mouth, the latter are wrong, no matter how right they may be on the sur­face. Even humanly a guest may declare that she has had a wonderful evening of jollity, when her hostess knows intuitively that she is telling a white lie. So the meditation of her heart makes the words of her mouth wrong.

A child in school may be ordered to replace a chair in a certain spot, and the teacher may refuse to accept the act, done correctly, because the child performs it in a sullen manner. This simple illustration understood is a key, that will unlock the mystery of Mrs. Eddy's life which baffled so many students.

Members in our churches should never be found developing their human minds at the expense of losing God's Mind. This will not happen as long as they keep the motto in mind, “What does God want?” And this simple letter is proof that in Mrs. Eddy's day the Board adhered to this motto, because they sought her demonstrated approval on church matters.

In stating that she had no objection to the salary Mr. McLellan asked for, Mrs. Eddy did not necessarily indicate that the amount was a demon­stration; but under the circumstances she thought it wise to have him contented in his position and doing his work well. Demonstration might have in­dicated that he should have had a smaller salary; but he would not have been satisfied. Thus we learn that there are times when it is wiser to adhere to a human demand than to what we feel is wisdom, on the basis of doing that which is the nearest right under the circumstances. Of two evils Mrs. Eddy was choosing the lesser.

Experience had shown our Leader how animal magnetism assumed to work through the claim of money. Money stands for the power to obtain the things one desires, and to command the respect of other people. At the same time it may become a channel for a sense of envy and jealousy, which if one does not know how to meet, may rob him of all the satisfaction he might take in its possession.

Mrs. Eddy wished her workers to receive church money, so that they would be able to live in the man­ner that would enable them to do their best work. Yet she knew that every bit of service for God for which one is not adequately paid humanly, is like depositing money in God's bank. Since His bank is everywhere, it follows that He holds such deposits, and gives them out in the form of healing and supply, when it is needed, wherever one is.

When the Master of the vineyard paid each worker a penny, regardless of the length of time each had worked, he illustrated this rule. The men who worked all day were in reality paid the most, since all that they earned above what they were paid, was deposited to their account in God's bank.

Workers for God who insist upon receiving a full material compensation for their labors, lay up scant treasure in heaven. By such an attitude they prove that they do not understand that the true growth and benefit, the real good one receives from such work, accrues from the willingness to give all to God, and receive nothing in return other than the satisfaction of having labored in behalf of God and man. Under such circumstances one may trust God to meet His every need.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

June 20, 1902

C. S. Board

Beloved Students:

In the absence of Mr. McLellan retain Willis and Miss Speakman at the head of our periodicals. Unless Mr. McLellan has made some other arrangement, put Mr. Willis in the place of chief editor till Mr. McLellan re­turns. Do not allow another Sentinel to appear without an explanation as to the absence of the editor-in-chief, if Mr. McLellan is gone long. Have an editorial by Mr. Willis, and retain Mr. Willis on the editorial list. Dear Mr. and Mrs. Cross are ready to act as the chief editor elects — but I charge you to have Willis somewhere and I think he should be second editor. He is literary in style and learned.

Now do not neglect to have this attended to as I request. Get the Trustees to carry it out for you if need be.

With love,

M. B. Eddy


Another proof of Mrs. Eddy's spirituality is seen in the alert way in which she detected error, and took immediate steps to forestall or to correct it. She had enough insight into the tendencies of the human mind to know, that if Mr. McLellan, who had just been made editor, were absent for too long a time with no public explanation, the Field would become curious, and speculate as to whether he was ill or incapacitated in some way. Such malpractice would not be good. At times students may have to stand up under adverse thought, but they should always avoid doing so, if possible, by some statement or word of expla­nation.

The early students were not as trained in detect­ing the operation of animal magnetism, as the modern students who have had more experience, and chance to observe phenomena. Furthermore, spiritual growth brings a greater knowledge of how to handle animal magnetism. The first year a garden is planted, the destructive insects such as corn borers and potato bugs do not appear in as large a quantity as they do in suc­ceeding years. As the garden grows richer and larger, the farmer must learn more and more how to destroy these pests, if he expects to reap a large crop. It is logical, therefore, that as the years go by, the hidden mysteries of iniquity become more widely ex­posed to those who are progressing.

Any student who undertakes to demonstrate Chris­tian Science, and who expects to make progress in gaining understanding and in feeding the world spir­itually, must consider the fact that he is going to have the deterrent of animal magnetism to deal with. See Science and Health, p. 317:8 where Mrs. Eddy writes that resistance to Truth will haunt his steps. One is blind who fancies that all there is to spiritual progress and success, is to have a sufficient desire to go forward, to make up his mind to follow along spiritual lines, and to strive to do so; as if the old adage were true in the metaphysical realm, “Who hands on, wins.” It is a foregone conclusion that unless one handles animal magnetism, he will never arrive at the goal of Science.

One of the practical things about Mrs. Eddy's discovery, was the uncovering of the deterrent which she called animal magnetism, which, as long as one believes in its reality and power, stands in the way of his spiritual progress. This deterrent appears only in mild forms to students who are busily engaged in striving to work out their own salvation. Its aggressive features do not appear until one reaches the point where he begins to be interested in helping humanity, in widening and broadening the good that he is doing to include others. At that point error descends upon him in the effort to crush his career, or to crush out of his career, his active efforts to do good.

Mr. McLellan was absent because he was in Chicago preparing to move to Boston. Evidently Mrs. Eddy had to take hold and do something, because she per­ceived that the Field might start a malpractice by asking, “Where is he?” or “What has he done? Is he sick, or has he been fired before he even took his new job?” When one in a high place has a difficulty, it produces a good deal of fear in the ranks of stu­dents, who have the notion that one should be immune from sickness when he is ready to be called to a high position. As a matter of fact, they feel that when one is ready to be selected for a high position, it is because he has the understanding that will protect him from every form of error. So if they hear that such a one is in trouble, it starts an inquiry as to why an apparently good Scientist comes down with a difficulty. This is liable to produce confusion in the minds of beginners, which is unwholesome for the Cause.

Mrs. Eddy ordered a notice to be put in the Sen­tinel, which appeared in the next issue, that would give an explanation of Mr. McLellan's absence, lest the Field begin to think that something was wrong. In such ways as this, she proved her ability as a Leader, in detecting the plots of the devil and fore­stalling them.

When she called upon the Directors to give Mr. Willis a place, stating that he was “literary in style and learned,” she was merely implying that if there were a lack of demonstration, his qualifications would cause less trouble, than would emanations which would make the public scoff because of a lack of lit­erary ability. The world has great respect for learning, and is apt to conclude that what men of learning declare, must be true, because they know what they are talking about. Mrs. Eddy knew that what Mr. Willis wrote would be acceptable to the public and subject to less criticism. She saw that regardless of demonstration, articles and editorials must conform to human standards.

It was necessary for Mrs. Eddy to insist on such a human standard, pending the time when spirit­ual growth would lift the standard so high that dem­onstration would be used by all. When demonstration makes the selections in our Movement, human quali­fications in a candidate do not need to be considered, since God's choice will measure up to all requirements.

It is wonderful to picture our Leader with all the ramifications of the Movement at her finger tips, so that if the editor were tardy about taking his post, she knew just what to do. When her wisdom is recog­nized as infallible in one direction, it must be con­cluded that it was infallible in every direction. When a need arose, or something was found to be not as it should be, she was instant with the recommenda­tion that would take care of it. Often her students were baffled by situations, but she always demonstrated the right antidote.

A man may play one musical instrument acceptably and people may applaud, but they marvel if they find him skilled in the playing of several instruments. One remarkable thing that is brought to light by a study of these letters, is the breadth and scope of our Leader's thought, as well as the fact that she never permitted it to become dull. It is as if she was alert in keeping the pencil of her mind sharpened to such a point, that she never found herself at a loss when a need arose. Thus she was found adequate for the position of Leader both in the sight of God and man.

Because this letter mentions Miss Speakman, future generations will be interested to know that during this period, when the Sentinel arrived at Pleasant View, Mrs. Eddy would turn to the editorial page, and read Miss Speakman's article first. She loved her vigorous and lucid style. The editorial which was Mrs. Eddy's favorite at this time, was entitled, “I am well,” in the July 10, issue. It reads as follows:


“The erring material senses with their lying estimate of what is true, rebel against saying, ‘I am well,' while still to mortal sense they are holding the field with a false, physical claim of sickness. ‘Well? forsooth,' they argue, ‘Well? with aching nerves and stiffened joints and obstructed breath? Well?' But there, just there on that Rock, Truth, while the surging billows of error threaten sure disaster, we must stand, with the declaration of the reality of harmony and the unreality of discord begins the new birth the awakening conscious­ness of the dominion of Spirit, God, Life. Lately in trying to make and have others make this assertion despite all contradictory appearances, John 1:1, has come to me with new significance: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.' In the beginning, in the very begin­ning we must speak the word that awakes this new con­sciousness, the avowal that Life is omnipotent and omnipresent and omniactive, and that man is Life's reflection. Truly, in the beginning is the Word, and the Word is with God, with Good, Truth, Love, Life, — and ‘I am well' spoken in the midst of the howling of terror and error, is spoken with omnipo­tence, and the Word is with God. It is the ‘Peace, be still' of the Master. And the Word is God — ­Immanuel, God with us. It is the utterance of the eternal fact of God's ever-presence. It proclaims the perfection of man and establishes health, harmony.”


No doubt Mrs. Eddy appreciated the incisiveness of this editorial. It fairly calls out, “Rouse yourself from a stagnant sense of God's power.” Stagnant means inert, lifeless, languid, dormant, sluggish, listless. She was keenly aware of the temptation to mental inaction and apathy, which is the inherent tendency of the human mind. She appre­ciated the spiritual perception of any student who realized that without an incisive, active mental sense, the declarations of Christian Science are ineffective.

To be sure, there is nothing in this editorial that is not to be found in Science and Health, but Miss Speakman put the ideas together in such an inspirational way, as to cause them to be effective and active. It is as if the textbook furnished the bullets, and she furnished the powder; and our Leader appreciated this union of the letter and the Spirit. She had little use for vain repetitions.

The question always rises, why, when students attained pre-eminence and advanced understanding, did they sometimes drop out of sight, as did Miss Speak­man? The only answer is, that in spite of their attainment in the line of spiritual understanding, they were lacking in an insight into the claim of animal magnetism, which would claim to say to advancing workers, “Thus far and no farther.”

Miss Speakman wrote with an authority and spir­itual effectiveness which made Mrs. Eddy glad. As is always the case, however, the former aroused the claim of animal magnetism — sin's revenge on it's destroyer — and she dropped out of sight in Christian Science history. Had she understood and handled it, she might have gone forward to great heights in our Movement.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

June 23, 1902

Beloved Students:

It is my desire and established usage, that a person having a well earned title — when he becomes a Christian Scientist — shall retain that title or appellation. The members of our denomination will please comply with this usage in every instance. Our First Reader in the Church is Professor Hermann S. Hering.

With love,

Mother

Mary Baker Eddy


Mrs. Eddy had a sound reason for writing this letter. She wished to use the standing, that any member had earned in the line of human attainment, to help to break down the prejudice the public had against Christian Science, by indicating that Chris­tian Science was being adopted by people whom the world would call wise — people of wide vision. The public would then see that it was not charlatanism, nor merely a commercial venture.

Once a colored man calling himself Father Divine, built up a large following of colored and white people who worshipped him as God, but finally he greatly injured his standing, aroused prejudice against his purposes, and caused his sincerity and even honesty to be doubted, because of certain ex­posures in regard to the financial status of his movement. Even though it may have been contrary to fact, the impression was created that he was a fraud, and his prosperity began to wane from that moment. Mrs. Eddy watched lest any such mishap overtake her Cause.

If driven to choose between two lecturers, one of whom was a titled individual, who might give a scholarly lecture that was not highly spiritual, and one who had no title, but was more spiritually minded, Mrs. Eddy might have selected the former, on the grounds, that he would create a better impression as far as the public was concerned. The comment would be, “Here is a man of attainment and education. So he must be sincere and worth listening to.” When one of that calibre takes up Science, people feel that before he would embrace it, it must have passed the scrutiny of his keen intellect, and been found not wanting.

Those who advocated that well earned-titles should be dropped, were either jealous, or so narrow, that they failed to appreciate the fact that Chris­tian Science goes a-fishing, and a good fisherman uses the proper bait. These titles represented bait that Mrs. Eddy put on her hook, and one can perceive her wisdom by the amount of fish that she caught.

Even though Mrs. Eddy knew the fleeting nature of mortal minds' attainments, she gave them a measure of appreciation. She knew that the mental quality of persistence which made human attainment possible, was a valuable adjunct to the Scientist in enabling one to attain a knowledge of Science. The Church can afford to acknowledge human attainment because of the added good that may be done by this means.

If you wished to investigate a gold mine, you would respect the opinion of an experienced miner. It has weight with the world when a man with an honorable title looks into Christian Science, and after careful investigation declares it to be true.

Mrs. Eddy wished to retain the evidence of scholarship and attainment on the part of any of her followers. She knew that the qualities back of learning were valuable. The ability that enables one to acquire learning, when bent in the direction of metaphysics and protected from animal magnetism, may prove valuable; at the same time it should not be forgotten that Christian Science by no means requires intellectual proficiency, in order to under­stand it. Page x:31 of Science and Health states this plainly. It teaches that man is now perfect and that his knowledge comes from his reflection of divine Mind, or God. This Mind is the only source of knowledge, and no knowledge is true but that which is reflected. Under this rule the humblest man may have access to the most profound learning.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

June 23, 1902

Beloved Student:

Call a meeting immediately, vote on this By-law; then inform Prof. Hering of the By-law and publish it in our next periodicals.

The Hannas had my house all furnished and the furniture was used and spoiled by them as well as the former occupants, then sold for second hand. So he should consider this and sell his furniture at a discount to the Directors. I still own a writing desk and some other things in my house at Commonwealth Avenue. Have them all left in it.

With love,

M. B. Eddy


The By-law referred to in this letter, which apparently was not published in the periodicals, established Mrs. Eddy's home at 385 Commonwealth Ave­nue, as the First Reader's residence. It provided that the taxes and rent be paid from the Church funds, and that the Directors attend to the insurance, fur­nish the house and keep the property in good repairs “so long as Mrs. Eddy does not occupy the house her­self, and the occupants are satisfactory to her.”

One might conclude that this letter was an ema­nation from Mary, rather than the spiritual idea in our Leader; but when a bridge is being started, a small wire that is not strong enough to hold much weight, is strung across the river as the first step. There are times when the right human action becomes a step towards the divine. It has no value in and of itself, except as a link to establish a larger purpose.

In Christian Science human good is not a deter­rent unless one makes it his goal. Rightly used, it becomes a cord that helps to bring to man the cable of spirit, which alone is able to lift man out of this dream. So Mrs. Eddy by insisting on human right, helped her students to rise higher.

To my own knowledge, the furnishings of Mrs. Eddy's home in Concord were like the clothes of the Children of Israel that did not wear out. She re­quired the members of her household to live under demonstration, and the effect of this was seen even in these furnishings. The ways of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Everything that comes under the sheltering wing of demonstration should retain its normal state, and last. Even the shoes of a Chris­tian Scientist should outwear those of mortal mind.

The deduction is, that had the Hannas been cover­ing her home with as much demonstration, as she had a right to expect, the furniture would not have been spoiled. That which furnishes the home of a Chris­tian Scientist becomes the manifestation of his thought. When he lets that which is destructive into his thought, it is bound to be manifested in the fur­nishings of his home, and bear mute testimony to his errors. Hence one lesson laid down by this letter is, that we have as much of an obligation to see our belongings from a spiritual standpoint, as we do our brother man. Mrs. Eddy once declared, “Unless we control our possessions with the understanding that they are spiritual, they will control us through the belief that they are material.”

Another lesson we may deduce is, that members of our organization should always do all they can to protect the organization. There is always a ten­dency to feel in dealing with an organization, that there is no need to exercise the same care and econ­omy that one would, in his own affairs. If one is tempted to wonder why Mrs. Eddy should make such an ado over such a trivial matter — one that did not really concern her — he may conclude that she was establishing the precept, that we should always take a keen interest in the organization, in protecting it from so-called sharp practice and abuse, and guard its interests as carefully as we would our own.

Any organization becomes inflexible and ponder­ous in proportion to its size, so that individuals may take advantage of it, if no one is found striving to protect it. If Mrs. Eddy allowed herself to be concerned about such a detail as that covered by this letter, her followers may well take the lesson to heart, and never forget to watch over the affairs of the organization as wisely and carefully as they would their own. Those who are responsible for the spending of its funds, should realize that such money has been contributed through the sacrifices of its members; so it behooves them to safeguard the widow's mite under all circumstances, as an evidence of their loyalty to their Leader, and of their effort to fol­low in her footsteps.




(Telegram)

Received at the Brunswick, 320 Boylston St.,

Boston, June 28

Dated Concord, N.H. 28

To William B. Johnson

30 Norway Street, Boston

You may announce tomorrow there will be but one service in July and August.

M. B. Eddy


Why did Mrs. Eddy decide that there should be two months without the evening services? Was it wholly because of the dropping away in the attendance? She did not forbid vacations after seasons of hard work, but the true vacation in Christian Science is always less matter and more Mind. The Manual implies that idleness and amusement are not the highest con­ceptions of a vacation, but rather a withdrawal from matter, in order that one may assimilate himself to God.

At this date the By-law entitled Services Con­tinued Throughout the Year, read as follows: “The services of The Mother Church shall be continued twelve months each year. A Christian Scientist is not fatigued by prayer, by reading the Scriptures or the Christian Science textbook. Amusement, or idleness, is weariness. Truth and Love rest the weary and heavy laden.”

A true vacation for a student is a vacation from animal magnetism. Christian Scientists are Christian soldiers who have enlisted in the warfare against the flesh and all evil. If they show promise they may be sure that the Captain of their salvation will train them for higher services, as Mrs. Eddy once said. Whatever enhances their usefulness, and establishes them on a better basis for demonstration, will be found legitimate and necessary. Error creeps into the use of demonstration, only when it is em­ployed to make one so harmonious in the flesh that he may go to sleep mentally, and continue year atter year in the selfish role of a receiver of God's bounty. Nothing makes for greater selfishness than for a Christian Scientist to fail to outgrow the infantile attitude toward it, namely, that its entire purpose is to keep him in human harmony.

Mrs. Eddy's followers are under the obligation to fight animal magnetism, not just to keep them­selves free from its discordant effects, but to help to free mankind from its toils. To this end our heavenly Father lends us His infinite power. We can never gain a secure hold on divine power and pres­ence, until we have proved that we can be trusted to make a proper use of it. In this warfare it becomes legitimate that man have periods of respite, provided that he uses them in order to resuscitate spiritually for the warfare, and not for selfish enjoyment and mental ease. A little breathing space between battles in permissible.




Pleasant View

Concord, N. H.

July 22, 1902

Dictated

Christian Science Board of Directors

Beloved Students:

I have learned that our able lecturer, Dr. Sulcer, is suspended till further orders. I hereby request you to reinstate him or re­tain him in office, whichever applies to the situation. I request that you call a meeting for this purpose immediately and that you also elect Edward H. Hammond a member of the Board of Lectureship and name his circuit the Southern and Middle States. Then send a notice of this to our Editor in chief for publication.

With love,

Mother

Mary B. Eddy


Since the charges against Dr. Sulcer related to his personal conduct, a discussion of this letter will be aided by the following quotation relating to Captain Eastaman from page 140 of the book written by Bliss Knapp relating to the history of his father and mother: “One of the early cases that came before the Directors was a charge of immoral conduct against a First Member who was a student of Mrs. Eddy's. From the evidence submitted, the Directors were convinced that the charges were sustained. They, therefore, removed the individual from mem­bership in the church, and took his practitioners' card out of The Christian Science Journal. When Mrs, Eddy heard of this case, she asked the Direc­tors to restore her student to full church member­ship, including his office as a First Member, and to replace his card in the Journal.”

When a brilliant stone is chipped, if it is a costly diamond, it may be recut and still remain beautiful. If it is an imitation stone, however, it is fit only to be thrown away. When a Christian Sci­entist has progressed to a point where he becomes of value to the Cause, and falls into error, if he can be healed, so that he is once more fitted to carry on his good work, such a procedure is highly desirable. Mrs. Eddy had no rule to make that would cover all such cases, but it was her heartfelt wish that every effort be made to save erring students. She, therefore, set an example with Dr. Sulcer to show the Directors that every bit of material that could be salvaged, must be salvaged.

In the original copyright deposits in the Li­brary of Congress of Dr. Powell's life of our Leader, may be found a record of her days in Lynn, where, when she went to Boston on business, she was forced to return before dark, because she was followed by men. The explanation for this phenomenon must lie in the atmosphere of God that she radiated. When perfumes are advertised, their power to attract is set forth as their main feature. The atmosphere of divine Love, or perfume of God, which a student of Science carries, becomes a powerful attraction to mortals, who, misunderstanding the phenomenon, may fancy that they are attracted to the person and desire the person. If the student holds a prominent position, such as a lecturer, such a condition is aggravated. Lecturers especially need to know of this possibility, in order to exercise a proper protection. It is possible that Mrs. Eddy detected that something of this nature had happened to Dr. Sulcer. Her own experience in Lynn had given her an insight that was a help to her in enabling her to perceive how such an error begins. Had Dr. Sulcer understood her experience, this understanding would have been his protection, as it was hers.

Part of the mission of a Christian Scientist is to persuade mortals to desire God; so he endeavors to radiate an atmosphere that will bring this about. In doing so, however, he must guard constantly against the claim of personal attraction. No stu­dent, no matter what his position may be, can afford to neglect this necessity.

Science and Health declares that sin which the heart condemns has no foundation. When a student was drawn into sin which his heart condemned, — which was the case when Peter denied the Master, — Mrs. Eddy was ready to forgive and reinstate, as the Master was. Peter was handled by animal magnetism on the basis of his goodness, — his loyalty to the Master, — the quality in him that he considered to be his strongest. A man is ready to concede that he must protect himself on his weakest point, which may leave his strongest point, where he admits no need of pro­tection, open to attack. A man might wear a bullet proof vest because he anticipated that his enemy would attempt to shoot him from in front, whereas the enemy plans to shoot him in the back. Sulcer did not protect himself from error because he was lax and naive, whereas Peter did not protect himself because he did not think it necessary. In passing it is worth noting that history indicates that Dr. Asa Eddy, who stood like a rock in his loyalty to his wife and Leader, was handled by ani­mal magnetism on the point of personalizing the er­ror that was aimed against her. His very loyalty betrayed him. Page xii of Volume 1 of the third ed­ition of Science and Health proves this fact.

In gaining insight into the action of animal magnetism, one must see that it may entice men into the committal of any kind of error. Under its in­fluence he may do that which is condemned by society, or which is considered to be legitimate. In either case he is handled by error, from the standpoint of divine Mind.

Mortals differentiate between errors on the basis of effect, whereas to the metaphysician a com­mon cold is no different from consumption, apart from what mortal belief decides. They are both er­rors of thought which the purifying action of divine Mind will remove. A spider that is deadly is as easily killed as one the bite of which is harmless. You may treat the former with more respect because of what mortal belief declares about it, but the same blow kills both.

When a fine young man is sent out as a sales­man for the first time, it is a well known fact that he will come under many temptations. Yet through his experiences he will learn that which he could not learn in any other way. The Prodigal learned the nature of error through experience. Yet he was not excommunicated nor disciplined when he returned repentant to his father's house. If Peter were present with us today, and we should ask him which experience with the Master was the most valu­able, apart from the wonderful daily teaching, he might declare that it was the lesson he learned through his denial of his Master. Should he be con­demned for that which did him such a vast amount of good, and taught him about the action of animal mag­netism, so that he would be the wiser in the future?

Mrs. Eddy could gauge the difference between a denial and a betrayal. She made a distinction be­tween sin committed under the pressure of animal magnetism, and daily uncorrected and uncondemned wrong thinking. Had Dr. Sulcer betrayed the Cause, and showed himself to be incorrigible, she would not have ordered his reinstatement.

Students who are handled rightly may rise higher through inadvertent mistakes. Instead of driving them at once out of Science, the Directors should encourage them, help them, and give them the support they need in a critical situation, instead of with­drawing that support just when it is needed most, — then if they are found incorrigible, they may be excommunicated.

Dr. Sulcer had been a professional man and it is proverbial that men of developed intellects have the ability to grasp the doctrine of Christian Science far beyond their power to demonstrate it. Yet the tendency among other Scientists is to judge them by their ability to expound the letter, rather than by their demonstrating sense. Such men are apt to be selected to fill important positions for which they are not really ready. At the same time it must be recalled that Mrs. Eddy was confronted with a plenteous harvest with only a few laborers. Because there were none others to fill them, many students had to be placed in important positions before they were ready.

The Master's declaration that his tollowers were as sheep in the midst of wolves, also applied to Mrs. Eddy's followers. They were not only harmless, but often ill prepared to meet animal magnetism. Here was a good man who had been elected to the Lecture Board, and his very usefulness to God and man caused him to become a target for error. Mrs. Eddy recog­nized that the position that the organization had put him into, was directly responsible for the error that he had failed to meet. To be sure, he did not exer­cise the proper protection, but evidently those who put him into the position did not support him properly. Hence a great deal of responsibility for what happened to him rested on them.

When a soldier runs from the enemy in battle, he is subject to criticism and discipline; yet those who had charge of his training must have been either re­miss in preparing him, or in detecting this weakness. His mental qualities should have been gauged in ad­vance, and if he was found wanting in one direction, he should have been placed in some position where he would be of value, without having to engage in actual combat.

When they are called upon to discipline students who occupy important positions, the Directors must always ascertain how much the position itself was responsible for the error. If the student was in­capable of handling error connected with the position, he never should have been given it, and the Directors themselves must share in the blame for appointing him in the first place.

It is essential that the Directors remember that part of their duties is to salvage all they can from every shipwreck. A true Christian Scien­tist is one who is always looking to see how much there is to be salvaged, whereas mortal mind is looking to see how much there is to be destroyed. The Master's experience illustrates this point. He found Peter worth salvaging, whereas Judas had car­ried an error from his past that finally became his downfall; so at that point he was not worth salvag­ing. Peter was tempted because of his relation with the Master, as one of the disciples. He par­took of the Master's cup. The animal magnetism that was aimed at the latter, reached Peter because of his nearness to him. This is why Mrs. Eddy once wrote to Mr. McLellan (October 12, 1907), “I pity you, dear student, to be my best man and Trustee, but God will bless you and give you wisdom.”

Immorality is a red flag to mortals, and receives the severest condemnation, even from those who are secretly immoral themselves. The implication is that it is the one unpardonable sin, from which there is no redemption. Mrs. Eddy, however, did not share in such a stupid attitude. She was most moral in her own thought and life; yet she was the most tolerant with sinners, especially where the sin was immorality. She knew how prone righteous people were to condemn and to malpractice in such cases, and to push down the one struggling to lift his head above the drown­ing wave. When a man or a woman is exposed as immoral, it is assumed that such a one is thereafter unfit for anything. She did not wish such a foolish and thoughtless attitude to characterize her Board of Directors in dealing with such cases. If they place a man in a high position, so that he encounters error that he never would have met, had he not been put prominently before the public, and so brought under pressure, they must take this fact into consideration and judge accordingly. They must lend such a one a helping hand and leave no stone unturned to bring about his reformation. With the Master they should say, “Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more.”

A statement by our Leader that epitomizes her attitude towards sinners who had had experiences through which they had gone higher and of which they were thoroughly repented, was, “We understand as Christian Scientists that our varied experiences are things of the past; not so the marvelous sense of God's presence resulting therefrom!” In other words, like the prodigal son, the Christian Scientist who has been caught by error the nature of which he did not understand, but who has learned the lessons and made nothing of the error, finds that he is wel­comed into a marvelous sense of God's presence re­sulting therefrom, and the past is forgotten.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

August 3, 1902

Beloved Student:

Will you, the C. S. Board of Directors, make Frank H. Leonard a First Member of Mother Church. He has earned the place in doing much for our Cause in various ways.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


These letters by our Leader represent spiritual paths, and it is possible for the one who gains spir­itual insight to discover where they lead. Our Mas­ter left a record that is sketchy and fragmentary, yet by following the paths he laid down, one may learn all that is needed of his life to enable one to follow it.

This letter concerning Frank Leonard's being made a First Member is but a fragment of Mrs. Eddy's history, yet it has a distinct message to tell. My recollection of Mr. Leonard is, that he was not one that other students would take to readily. He was a good student, and to the end of his earthly experiences remained loyal to his Leader, but one had to know him in order to appreciate his sincerity. I have the impression that the Directors would not have elected him to the post of First Member, had not Mrs. Eddy suggested such a move.

Appointing promising and active members to this central committee in our Movement, was for a time an important phase of our organization. It drew forth a greater loyalty, and gave them an ob­jective, something to work for that would stimulate them to greater effort. Rewards have their place, in the path from sense to Soul.

Unquestionably Mrs. Eddy felt that to put Mr. Leonard into a position of this kind, would help him to measure up to the ideals of Science. A student did not necessarily have to be one who would be of special value to this committee, to be elected. It is possible that one would be elected, because the committee would be of value to him. It took the wisdom of our Leader to know whether such a result would follow the election of any given individual. Sometimes one individual will strive to control other students. There have been instances where one person, joining a group of loyal and good members in a branch church, has finally influenced the entire situation adversely. Because good students are peace- loving individuals, they endure such an abuse, when they should rise up and challenge it.

In Science the only error that is to be feared is an unchallenged error. An error that is chal­lenged, is defeated and a defeated error is unreality.

Mrs. Eddy used all the material God furnished her to forward the Cause. No matter what one might say about Mr. Leonard, the fact is that either he proved to be of constructive value to the First Members, or they to him. When she appointed one to this position, that did not necessarily mean that he had reached the point where he was going to be an addi­tion to the group, because the First Members would exercise a protective and stabilizing influence over a young struggling student. Contact with those who had had wider experience and broader opportunities would serve to ripen such a one.

One may well marvel at the wisdom of our Leader, that enabled her to place students in the right positions with unerring accuracy, so that she could use their talents in God's service as long as pos­sible. But it was God's wisdom that she reflected. It enabled her to know when she called a student to her home who had previously been healed of some disease, whether the healing had been scientific, and so was permanent, or whether there was a danger of a relapse. As a rule she refused to accept as members of her household those who had been healed of serious troubles, showing that she did not con­sider that the great value of Pleasant View and of her daily teaching, would compensate for the pos­sibility of a catastrophe taking place, such as a student falling ill and perhaps passing on while with her, an event which might bring Pleasant View into disrepute.

No doubt it was more remarkable than is appreci­ated, that this unhappy possibility never took place at Pleasant View, — that under the pressure that came to those who lived with her and associated with her, not one student ever fell seriously ill or passed on. The situation represented a strategic opportunity for animal magnetism to try to use, to bring the greatest kind of reproach on our Leader and the Cause. Think what it would have meant, had some student fallen violently ill and passed on in the home of the greatest healer that Christian Science ever pro­duced in this age! It never happened at Pleasant View, although it was a constant threat. And it was our Leader's wisdom that was responsible for this protection of her home. The nearest thing to such a tragedy took place at Chestnut Hill in 1909, when her coachman suddenly passed on in the cottage.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

September 3, 1902

Dictated

Christian Science Board of Directors

Beloved Students:

I saw your sketch of the lot of land, or site for the Publishing House, and admired it — but when I learned of the price, I took not two minutes to decide as to purchasing it.

We cannot prosper on a wrong premise. We take the Bible for our guide, and find in it this Scripture: “Owe no man.” A slight sum of indebtedness with a speedy prospect of payment would not break the spirit of that Scripture, but so large a one does. Why? Because it in­volves a material thinking and acting and taking thought that is not advantageous to spiritual growth. The Scripture saith, “Take no thought for the morrow.”

Now, dear ones, you have my reasons for deciding not to purchase that site, and I know you will agree with Mother's view when you think thereon and remember the demands of Chris­tian Science.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


(Telegram)


Received at the Brunswick, 520 Boylston St., Boston

Dated Concord, N.H. 3 September 3, 1902

To Mr. Wm. B. Johnson

30 Norway St.

I do not think it advisable to take that land it would be too heavy a burden.

10:33 AM

M. B. Eddy

(Message) (Undated)

Tell the Christian Science Board of Direc­tors to pray three times daily that they cannot be made to waste or to deplete the funds of The Mother Church.


In this letter Mrs. Eddy sets forth the Scrip­tural precept, “Owe no man,” as having an important place in Christian Science, and being wholly in har­mony with it. How did the Directors manage the mat­ter of the land, after receiving this letter? They found individuals who were willing and able to pur­chase parcels in that section of Back Bay, to hold until the church was able to take them over. One of these parcels was the Hotel Brookline. About this time the Directors asked me if I were willing to take over this hotel, to hold until such time as they needed it. I borrowed the money to buy it, and ran it until the church took it off my hands.

God did not require any of these students to run unnecessary risks, and by this method the Direc­tors avoided the material thinking, acting and taking thought that this letter mentions that is not ad­vantageous to spiritual growth.

Buying on the installment plan is generally considered a legitimate method of acquiring that which otherwise one might not be able to purchase; but in Science it is not desirable, and in this let­ter Mrs. Eddy states the scientific reason, namely, that when a student goes into debt, he takes upon himself an obligation which may produce continuous mental irritation, or cause a sense of apprehension and disturbance. A student involved in debt finds it difficult to think scientifically, just as a prac­titioner who is striving to make both ends meet, finds it difficult to heal the sick because of the added mental pull that his financial stringency produces.

A practitioner in New York once became an object lesson in this direction. She felt that she had to live in a manner that would draw to her people of wealth and position. Her struggle to do this gave her a constant sense of apprehension, and she passed on long before her career of usefulness should have ended. I believe that the cause of her demise can be traced to the mental pressure under which she lived, the material thought-taking involved in the struggle to earn enough to live in the expensive style she felt was required of her.

It is an accepted business principle that a growing concern must borrow money to expand. It would have been natural for the Directors to have felt, that the Publishing House as a business ven­ture came under this same conception; but Mrs. Eddy took the Christian Science view which we all should consider, and take to heart.

In Science, whatever interferes with man's entire allegiance to God is to be avoided. The lesson of Job teaches that man is permitted to have family, friends, money and health, provided that he does not allow any of these human blessings to lessen his allegiance to God, or his recognition that God must come first. But when these blessings involved Job in material thinking and acting to the point where God was being forgotten, they had to be removed for a season, until the lesson was learned.

Mrs. Eddy's wisdom discerned that the responsi­bility of a large debt, and the consequent mental disturbance and fear that the church had assumed more than it could fulfill, might seriously affect the ad­vancement of the Movement. One rule in Science is, that one must keep himself free to find God. One cannot find Him if he has shoes on his feet, that is, material appendages of any sort that weigh him down. And a debt beyond what one can speedily pay comes under the heading of being a material appendage. When we realize that that which prevents us from having demonstrations in Science is always some sort of material appendage, we will learn our Leader's lesson, namely, to avoid such earth weights as far as possible.

When a Scientist loses a loved one, the conse­quent grief may become a material appendage or incubus that keeps him from God, if he does not quickly throw it off. He must not forget that his first obligation is to God, to keep his thought buoyant and spiritual, so that he may be able to carry on the business that God has given him to do. He may be permitted two or three days in which to meet his grief, but after that he must throw it off, and get busy again. Even our government in time of war does not give mothers who are working in war plants a vacation in which to mourn, when they get word that their sons are killed in action.

Once a patient complained to me that she had a severe cold. I said to her, “What of it? I have had severe colds myself, but God has never permitted me to take time off to nurse or coddle myself. I have had to throw them off quickly in order to take care of those who are constantly turning to me for help. So why should I take your cold any more seriously than I would mine, if I had one?” The difference between a patient and a practitioner is, that one is self-centered, whereas the other is unselfishly working for humanity. No wonder, therefore, that the latter rises out of his error more quickly than the former.

Whatever produces in a student a self-centered thought — an undue material thinking or acting — is detrimental to spiritual growth. For this reason, Scientists cannot be governed by the same rules that mortal mind adopts either in their lives or business dealings. In Science the obligation is to throw off whatever attempts to mar the Christ image we must reflect, no matter what it is, sickness, sin, or even financial disturbances. One reason sinful thinking and its effects are to be avoided is because all error tends to belittle one's sense of himself as a representative of God, and to clutter his mind with material thoughts which result in material action. Any act, good or bad, must be thought before it becomes action. Material thought is not advantageous to spiritual growth, and so should be cast out.

Mrs. Eddy had certain fundamental spiritual lessons which she was striving to instill into the minds of students, and she found numberless ways of approach to these lessons. Looking into this letter, one may conclude that once again she is convicting the Directors of having approached the subject of the land for the Publishing House without due demon­stration. Had they demonstrated the matter, it would have been God telling them to make the move; the way would have opened that would not have involved excessive material thought-taking, and Mrs. Eddy would have approved.

The only way to avoid taking “no thought for the morrow,” is by demonstrating one's moves. That this letter finally brought forth such demonstration is proved by the fact that, soon after it was writ­ten, the way opened for the land covered by the plan, to be acquired. In fact, the Board might have accused Mrs. Eddy of turning down the plan, only to turn around and accept it with minor changes; but such criticism would not have been valid, since even if mortal mind should select God's plan, it would have to be turned down, if it was done out of season.

One cannot take a short cut in Christian Sci­ence, and arrive at the correct result without dem­onstration and have it stand, since the entire importance of any move is not in the result, but in the method. A child doing a problem may turn in the right answer in the back of the book, but it gets no credit, if the method it uses is faulty. Mrs. Eddy wrote in this letter that it took her no more than two minutes to decide that the plan was wrong. It took her no longer than that to trace back to the thought that prompted it, and found it lack­ing spiritually. Yet when the plan was later ac­cepted, that did not convict her of being wrong in her first rejection, since to her, cause not effect, was what made a thing right or wrong.

This point was well illustrated in the gift of rugs from the church in 1895, over which she made such an ado. Yet, when a rug was given to her that had the right thought back of it, we find her show­ing deep gratitude. On September 24, 1895, she wrote to Mrs. Emily Hulin, “Your rug is a complete success. It just suits Mother and I had almost thought that you had done for me a kindness never to be undone. Also you have demonstrated what must be and can be accomplished, even what opens the way to victory over all else. To master sin is much more than to heal the sick in other directions. May Love crown you with ‘well done, good and faithful.' Oh! I thank God that there is some wakening and stir among ‘the dry bones' all over the field. You set others a good example. Thanks, dear one, thanks.”

What may be said concerning Mrs. Eddy's message to the Board, to pray three times daily that they cannot be made to waste or to deplete the funds of The Mother Church? One point may be assumed, namely, that when she issued a positive argument against an error, that was proof that she discerned the activity of that particular claim as needing to be met. A man buys a fly swatter only when he has flies to swat. This message is proof, that if a Christian Scientist in a responsible position should find him­self impelled to spend the money entrusted to his care, foolishly, carelessly, for show, or without the sense of responsibility he would feel, were it his own, such a tendency would not be a normal one, but the definite result of animal magnetism.

When a poor mortal becomes a victim of insanity even in a mild form, his judgment becomes warped, and he is not to be trusted. He does that which normally he would never do. In Science the effect of unhandled animal magnetism is similar to insanity. For this reason, all those entrusted with our funds must be alert to meet this error. Our Leader with her customary astuteness informs the Directors in this message that they are under this phase of ani­mal magnetism — a pressure and suggestion to waste money.

The date of this message has been lost, but Mrs. Eddy might well have sent it, at the time the Directors gave her the costly rugs in 1895. There was an instance when they spent the church funds under the impulsion of animal magnetism, and she did not hesitate to tell them so. While no follower of our Leader but would have been pleased to contribute largely, had she wanted such costly rugs, it was not morally or spiritually right for this expendi­ture to be made, when it was animal magnetism prompting it. The money that was spent to buy the rugs, had been given for the promulgation of Chris­tian Science among mortals, and the Directors arbi­trarily voted to sidetrack it for another purpose. This they had no moral right to do.

Our Leader could convict the Directors of being handled by animal magnetism, and thereby do them good, and not harm, because she was careful to make the error unreal, before she endeavored to free them from it. When you hold both the individual and the error to which he has yielded, as real, then you have two realities blending. Hence when you attempt to destroy the error, you injure the in­dividual. The first step is to make the error unlike the individual. For this reason you must make nothing of the error before you attempt to free the person from it.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

October 10, 1902

William B. Johnson

Beloved Student:

Continue your salary. If you do not earn it, no person in Boston does.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


This letter was a great compliment to Mr. Johnson because it showed that Mrs. Eddy recognized that to some degree he had risen above the sense of depen­dence on matter as money. Mortal mind's god is money, and there is a danger of students failing to handle this error in Science. This brief note informed Mr. Johnson that he did not harbor a wrong attitude to­ward money; therefore, that it was permissible for him to have his salary.

Mrs. Eddy's teaching — that all good belongs by inheritance to the child of God — may be wrongly in­terpreted to mean that one may expect material af­fluence. This proposition needs careful thought, since when God's affluence is manifested materially, it may become a stumbling block. No student can be trusted with large amounts of money, until he has overcome his belief of dependence on it, as well as his love of it.

This same argument holds true with physical health. The point comes in progress where a student must let spiritual sense quench his desire for it, and love for it, in order to attain it. In Matthew 16:25 we read, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.” One who overvalues health may thereby lose it, and before it is restored to him, he may have to reach a point where he is willing to give up his desire for it for the sake of the lar­ger spiritual attainment of blessing humanity.

Should a student allow himself to make a demon­stration of affluence, if the attainment of it is going to prove a stumbling block, and cause him to rely more on money, than on God? Should a student strive to make a demonstration of physical health, if the attainment of it is going to cause him to overvalue the condition of his body, and put its care ahead of the spiritualization of his thought, and his effort to bless and help others?

Humanly considered, money represents freedom from anxiety, worry and want. It stands for security. In Christian Science, however, the demonstration of God's presence should be the only security. When Mrs. Eddy saw faith in money standing in the way of progress with a student, she did her part to help him to overcome such a deterrent; but when it came to a student like Mr. Johnson, who held no such de­terring thought about money, she practically told him that because his thought was right in this regard, he need have no concern on that score.

One may learn what he desires most, by noting what he works for and prays for most. If it be health, then he should know that he may be making a god out of health. The same proposition holds true in regard to money, and even to purity. Any working for effect may come under the classification of idolatry. It is possible for a student to desire and work for purity (in the human sense of that word), to such an extent that he makes a grim reality of impurity, and thereby falls a victim to the belief that may manifest itself in time. Had Mrs. Eddy detected that Mr. Johnson was making a god out of money, she would never have written this note to him in regard to his salary, which he had voluntarily relinquished the previous year.

When in 1901 Mrs. Eddy reduced the salary of the Directors, she indicated that in the early development of a student, punishment must play a large part. When a dog is being trained, and he knows what you want him to do, but he does not do it, he has to be punished. When he begins to love you, he becomes eager to obey, and he requires no further punishment or reward.

To hark back to the Woodbury case, it started as a claim of animal magnetism designed to bring reproach upon the Cause. Mrs. Eddy indicated that if the Directors had been alert to handle it in its incipi­ent stages, it could have been avoided, and then she would not have had to take the time away from con­structive work, in order to defend her Cause from an unnecessary error. Her punishment of the Directors, therefore, was just.

The Woodbury case had no justification. Its intent was to weaken Christian Science, and to make trouble for our Leader. The right demonstration could have taken care of it in its small beginnings; so it may be said that Mrs. Eddy instituted the first pun­ishment for a lack of demonstration. The Directors failed to do the work, or to arrange to have it done, that would have prevented the lawsuits. So they had to be punished.

Now, over a year later, comes a letter that in­dicates that Mrs. Eddy felt that Mr. Johnson had learned his lesson. He had kept himself alert and active, and in most instances he had not permitted himself to be put to sleep.

We learn from this experience that God's rewards come to us for mental work faithfully done. Our duty to God, to our Leader and to mankind is to recognize that the divine Mind is the only solution to every problem. Hence we must never attempt to solve a problem ourselves. The one major conclusion that I came to, after a year under Mrs. Eddy's per­sonal and daily conversation, was that when students used the human mind, they had to be rebuked. Thus she set forth a new standard of cause and effect for the world, namely, that a failure to demonstrate should be punished.

Was it not logical for Mrs. Eddy to upbraid her followers for bringing a mind so-called into a prob­lem, which theoretically they claimed was non­existent? What is to be said of a practitioner who, in order to heal his patients, continually denies all belief in a human mind, and then attends a branch church business meeting, and parades his developed intellect with pride and satisfaction be­fore his fellow members, as if it were all the meeting needed in order to have everything done rightly, and successfully, and harmoniously?

A wrong deduction growing out of Mrs. Eddy's attitude toward the Woodbury case, would be that she wanted The Mother Church to avoid all suits of a similar nature in the future at any cost. Believing this, the Directors might maintain a corps of lawyers whose main task was to help them avoid all possible legal entanglements. Were our Leader with us today, she would rebuke this conclusion as being a human interpretation of the Woodbury episode. What she wished was for the Directors to use demonstration in all their ways, to remain alert at all times, and awake to handle every error in the first instance, so that it would not control them or the organization in the second instance, as the textbook teaches on page 234. Only in this way can they feel assured that they are fulfilling Mrs. Eddy's high hopes for them.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

November 8, 1902

To the C. S. Directors

Beloved Students:

Call a church meeting on receipt of this letter and vote on the enclosed By-law, page 52, Article XXII, paragraph 2nd, in Manual as I have amended it.

It is just that my old church shall not become the victim of M.A.M. without my inter­ference in its behalf. I see what you do not in these cases of discipline. If I were to have the students that break faith all excom­municated without sufficient effort on my part and on yours to save them, how many members think you would be left in it?

Also vote on my recommendation to make Annie Dodge a First Member of The Mother Church. God give you the wisdom to obey the Golden Rule and bless you, is the prayer of mother.

M. B. Eddy

N. B. Remember your church By-laws and that my communications to you are not to be named to anyone outside of your meetings.

M. B. Eddy

————————

Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

November 9, 1902

Beloved Student:

The By-law means just what it reads, no more nor less. Since the rotation in the of­fice of Church Readers is adopted, it becomes (necessary) to have the Readers removed from the Board of Directors for many reasons.

The consent of the Pastor Emeritus is required only on the subject of excommunica­tion of church members.

With love,

Mother


Up to 1902 the Board of Directors and the First Reader had acted currently in all matters of church discipline, thus making the latter a member of that committee for all intents and purposes. Now comes an amendment to a By-law changing this procedure, and giving the Directors the entire responsibility, with the provision that all cases calling for excommuni­cation be referred to Mrs. Eddy as the Pastor Emer­itus for her consent.

Evidently the only part of this amendment which stood, was the first change, since within two weeks she wrote to the Board to restore the By-law, be­cause of information that she received regarding the offending members whose cases were under considera­tion at this time.

It is logical that when the term of First Reader was established as three years, it became necessary to relieve him from any connection with church dis­cipline. No doubt when the arrangement was first instituted, Mrs. Eddy hoped that the First Reader would serve as a check on the Directors, so that if they erroneously determined to dispose of some stu­dent against whom they felt disgruntled, he might serve as a restraining hand; on the other hand, if the First Reader sought to discipline or to excommuni­cate a member, where the Directors felt that the action was unfair, they would veto it.

Under the new order, a Reader might be appointed who hailed from some distant point, who knew nothing of the history of the cases on which he was expected to sit in judgment. This may be one reason why it seemed the wise step to sever that office from any further connection with discipline.

Writing this amendment gave Mrs. Eddy the oppor­tunity to go on record with a most vital point, and yet do it in such a way that she did not appear to be directing the Board as to what to do.

Several of her own students as well as one of the lecturers were under a cloud at this time, and Mrs. Eddy determined to save them. Yet she had sufficient respect for authority, even when she gave it, to let the individuals function under their highest sense. She intervened only when it became absolutely necessary.

Her treatment of Dr. Sulcer, in requiring in her letter of July 22 that the Board restore him to his position as lecturer, from which he had been suspended for immorality, shows that she considered that when a student had spent the time he had, in acquiring a knowledge of God, and in demonstrating this knowledge, he became of such value to the organization, that it could not afford to cast him off, without doing everything possible to save him.

Immorality is a peculiarly obnoxious error to all righteous persons, and one that is incompatible with the purity that Christian Science enjoins. Nothing sets forth our Leader's high standard in this direction better than her article, “Thy Will Be Done,” on page 208 of Miscellaneous Writings. At the same time, she knew that it was animal magnetism at work when a right minded student whose ideal was purity and who was bending every effort to attain it, fell into impurity; also that when animal magnetism attacked a student, impurity was apt to be the form that it took, being such a universal error.

Why should students of Science be susceptible to this obnoxious form of error? The reason may be found in the cultivation of affection that is not entirely fastened upon God. Students are apt to develop their affectionate sense in Science faster than they gain the right object to love. The result is, that that surplus is spilled as it were, and finds an unworthy objective. When a student has a proper love for God and His idea, he is in no danger of mis­directing his affection humanly.

When Mrs. Eddy found a splendid student who through her teachings had cultivated a wealth of af­fection, and who because he did not have a sufficient understanding of God, or oneness of desire for Him, applied that affection unworthily, she did not wish the Cause to lose the valuable services of such a one, if it were possible to reclaim him. She knew that no student could study faithfully and demonstrate her teachings over a period of years, as Dr. Sulcer had, without becoming of great value to the organization. Also she found that the organization was under the temptation to cast out quickly any member that did aught that outraged the sense of rightness held by so-called decent people; but she detected the trick of animal magnetism, namely, to take one of great value to the Cause, and by this means make him of no value. The moment the organization kicked him out, the plan of error would be consummated success­fully.

Mrs. Eddy saw her students falling for this trick; but she did not fall for it. She detected that error wanted to get Dr. Sulcer out of the organization where he would no longer be of value. So it produced a condition that caused the Directors to become so concerned, that they did just what animal magnetism wanted. Mrs, Eddy stepped in at the crucial moment and saved the situation; and she must have taken im­mediate steps to apprise the Doctor that the error was not in himself, but that it was animal magnetism; and no doubt this saved him.

When man truly recognizes the everpresence of God, he will find that this presence satisfies his every desire. Then the love that Science develops in him as the most important attainment will find its complete resting place in God, and from thence it will embrace all impersonally, but none of this precious essence will be wasted by being directed to­ward a human object.

From these two letters we learn that the power to discipline members should be used only to help them; otherwise it may become an adjunct of the design of animal magnetism. For this reason Mrs. Eddy went on record by writing, “It is just that my old church shall not become the victim of M.A.M. without my interference in its behalf. I see what you do not in these cases of discipline. If I were to have the students that break faith all excommunicated without sufficient effort on my part and on yours to save them, how many members think you would be left in it?”

Once again I repeat that the correct concept of discipline and excommunication was, that if the pres­sure resulting from membership in the organization was so great as to cause a member to yield to animal magnetism, and it was made plain that he could not recover until he was released from the malpractice of the church body, he should be released. Then if he is truly sincere, his normal impulses and right sense freed from that malpractice will reassert them­selves and function again. These right impulses are what brought him into Science in the first place, and they will still save him, if given a fair chance.

The more valuable a student is to the organiza­tion, the more he becomes a target for animal mag­netism. Mrs. Eddy did not wish her church to cast aside lightly students who could not be replaced, students who had worked for years faithfully, and had proved their ability to demonstrate in healing the sick and working in the organization successfully. If it were possible to help them if they went astray, and to free them from the animal magnetism, so that they might be restored to their place of usefulness, she watched to be sure that this was done.

It is a very precious thing to observe how tolerant our Leader was toward old students who broke faith with her teachings and organization. She knew that they could not readily be replaced, and so she did all she could to save them. If she found that the error was in the nature of a betrayal, rather than a denial, she perforce had to let the student go. Peter was caught by animal magnetism inadvertently, whereas Judas cherished an uncondemned and unacknowl­edged error, and could not be pardoned for it, until he had suffered sufficiently to reform him.

Mrs. Eddy's own experience had indicated that the more God appreciates you, the less man does; so he is more apt to malpractice on and persecute you when you are progressing spiritually than when you are not. Mrs. Eddy did not tell her students too much about this phenomenon, lest they come to expect it, and so help to bring it about. At the same time, she did not want them to be cast down by it, when it did happen. Nevertheless she knew it to be a fact, that as one comes into a higher knowledge of Truth, so that God's appreciation for that one is magnified, mortal man's misunderstanding of him likewise in­creases. So he must learn to rejoice in this perse­cution, as proof that he is acceptable in the sight of God, and to protect his thought from the malprac­tice of misunderstanding, so that he will not be cast down by it. “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.”

Often the persecution that attends higher spir­itual growth comes in the form of unjust accusations. If one is not watchful, he may lose his spiritual thought, since there is nothing more apt to upset a good working student, than to be the object of un­just accusations. He is liable to become so dis­turbed that he lets go of God, and this is the design of animal magnetism. Once a student accepts a per­secution complex, he is for the time being robbed of God. He may accept suggestions of paranoia, and imagine constant persecution on every hand.

Our Leader stood ready to help all of her fol­lowers, that she could, who reached the exalted place where they were persecuted for righteousness sake, and she hoped that throughout the history of her Cause, her Directors would assume this same office. If they did not, she foresaw that to some degree her old church would become a victim of M.A.M. and many splendid students disciplined and excommunicated, who broke faith, without a sufficient effort being made to save them.

In passing it does no harm to repeat that the requirement, that the Directors have the consent of the Pastor Emeritus on the subject of excommunication, meant that the situation was in its last analysis subject to demonstration. Today the consent of the Pastor Emeritus means that after the Directors have heard all the arguments pro and con in any one case, the final step can only come through demonstration. When Mrs. Eddy's consent was sought while she was with us, she took the matter up with divine Mind. When the Directors can honestly say that God has instructed them, and that for the good of the in­dividual and the church he should be excommunicated, they may take the step; but demonstration represents the only permissible impulsion.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

November 21, 1902

Dictated

To the Christian Science Board of Directors

Beloved Students:

Since my interview with Mr. A. P. Decamp yesterday, almost the reverse of what was then deemed right relative to the Church Building has come to my thought, and I must accept it as God given, and report it in this letter as follows:

Do not commence to build the addition to The Mother Church until after the Annual Meet­ing next June. Allow Mr. S. A. Chase to per­form his part as not according to the Church By-laws. Have the Directors and Finance Com­mittee cooperate according to the Church By-laws. By all means let the Church Building Fund re­main with Mr. Chase and continue him as the custodian of this fund.

I ask the Directors to repeat to Mr. Decamp the manner in which the funds for our first church were lost and let that be a warning.

Relative to the discipline and excommuni­cation of offending members, I have only this to say: Confine yourselves strictly to the By-laws of The Mother Church and be merciful and just according to the Golden Rule. I hope said members can be reformed and retained in our Church.

I close with this emphatic declaration: No members of this Board can consult me on the discipline of members, or the excommunication thereof. Please read the enclosed amendment of By-law. Article XXII on page 52 of Church Manual, and after voting upon it, inform me as usual of your vote. The information I received yesterday about the offending members has shown me the wisdom of restoring the By-law as it read on discipline and excommunication.

With love,

Mother

M. B. G. Eddy


When a puppy is punished with a newspaper, it frightens it and stops its misbehavior, without hurt­ing it. If it were actually hurt, it might lose con­fidence in its master, and transfer its affections to another.

The By-laws relating to discipline were evidently designed to be of this order, to restrain and to cor­rect students, without hurting them. They had to be drastic, just as many of our laws have to be drastic. They are intended to discourage crime. It follows, however, that when one fails to heed the warning, drastic punishment is needed.

All officials in our Movement may well adopt the example of their Leader, in that she had no pride to prevent her from acting contrary to a previous de­cision as she does in this letter, when a higher sense of the need came to her. When an individual does function in such a manner, mortal mind is apt to declare that that one does not know his or her own mind, and is undependable; but such a misunder­standing never prevented our Leader from changing her course as often as God made the way plain to her. On November 23rd she wrote, “My weather vane must veer with the wind.”

When one is called to make a decision under pressure, he is apt to be thrown off his metaphysi­cal connection with God, but he does the best he can under the circumstances. After the storm quiets down — the storm of human thinking that always arises when important decisions are in progress — then God's way becomes plainer, and one can determine whether he acted under wisdom or excitement. Our Leader was big enough to be ready to change when she discovered that she had not acted under the highest wisdom. Fear of criticism did not deter her.

This letter is another evidence that she advo­cated proper timing. To her it was important to have the extension started at the right time. She wished to keep the thoughts of the students who attended the Annual Meeting free from all speculation about this matter. Otherwise there would be talk about it, and conclusions voiced — human opinions which always tend to interfere with God's plans.

When members of a branch church are told that a lot has been selected for a new church edifice, at once they all begin to think about it pro and con. Only a few can be trusted to keep their thoughts so free from the influence of animal magnetism, that they are able to recognize whether the locality is one of God's choosing. The others will start a counter­current of thought, and try to influence the main body of the members to agree with them. Those who are sincerely and honestly striving to do the demon­strating, are apt to lose their spiritual thought and sink into a state of confusion, under this flurry of human thinking swinging back and forth.

In this matter of the extension, the fewer people that knew about it, the easier it would be for Mrs. Eddy to lay out a plan that she knew came from God. Furthermore, she knew that the members would receive a greater blessing from the Annual Meeting, if their thoughts were not distracted by anything connected with the proposed extension. Her purpose in delaying the construction was no doubt to prevent the students from becoming too curious about that which was really not within their juris­diction.

Her insistence that Mr. Chase remain as custo­dian of the Church Building Fund, brings up the fact that when the first edifice was built, there were doubts about the correctness of his accounts. Per­haps some recalled that he had been under some sort of cloud, and felt that he should not have the care of the funds at this time. Calvin Hill declares that about this time Mrs. Eddy said to him, “What do you think of Mr. Chase,” and he replied, “Mother, I think he is the best one of the whole lot.” Then striking the palm of one hand with the clenched fist of the other, Mrs. Eddy said, “I would bank my life on Stephen A. Chase.”

At this point Mrs. Eddy gave Mr. Hill some ver­bal messages for the Directors. After he had delivered these messages, he said to the Directors, “Now I am going to say something more to you which Mrs. Eddy voiced to me personally.” He then related what had been said about Mr. Chase. The Directors looked rather serious, but Mr. Chase jumped out of his chair and walked around the room all smiles. Mr. Hill re­calls that Mr. Chase was relieved of his duties for awhile, and Mr. DeCamp succeeded him as treasurer; but in a short time Mr. Chase was restored to his former position.

The great lesson of Mr. Chase is, that he had a love for Mrs. Eddy from which he could not be shaken. History shows that a true appreciation and affection for our Leader was always a stabilizer for a student in meeting the wiles of the devil. She could rely on those qualities to keep one in the path. My personal knowledge of Mr. Chase would in­dicate that he lacked a comprehension of the workings of animal magnetism, and for this reason needed Mrs. Eddy's protection; but in choosing helpers, she had to select the best she could find, and of two evils, the lesser was a student without a clear insight in­to animal magnetism, but who had an affection for her that animal magnetism could not shake. Thus when she spoke to Mr. Hill as she did about Mr. Chase, it showed that she had faith in the silver cord that bound him to her to keep him in the right path. So he was permitted to continue as the custodian of the Church Building Fund apart from the provisions of the Church By-laws; but she included the safe­guard that the Directors and Finance Committee cooperate according to the By-laws. This meant that the treasurer could spend no money beyond current expenses unless it was approved by them.

Why did Mrs. Eddy ask the Directors to repeat to Mr. DeCamp the manner in which the funds for the first church were lost, so that it would be a warning? He was a new member and was unfamiliar with the early history, and she wished him to understand that the treasurer who absconded with the money back in 1887 was not a criminal, not a man of doubtful reputation. It was necessary for Mr. DeCamp to learn that the students that made trouble for Mrs. Eddy were the finest type of persons, but that they were handled by animal magnetism. He must learn that no one under the claim of animal magnetism can be trusted, and that such a matter is not a question of previous honesty or morality, since under animal magnetism the finest student is liable to depart either from moral­ity or honesty.

Mrs. Eddy knew how widespread had become the gossip about Mr. Chase's having put forth some doubt­ful accounts, and she did not want Mr. DeCamp to think of Mr. Chase as a cheat. He was never a dis­honest man. She hoped that the Directors' explanation of this earlier experience might help to show why she had such faith in Mr. Chase. It was animal mag­netism that she had no faith in. If Mr. DeCamp could learn that a good man may be handled by animal mag­netism, then he would not hold such a man in thought as being inherently bad. When you hold a good man as being handled by animal magnetism, you are not malpracticing upon him, and so you are in no danger of hurting the oil and the wine, for this attitude impersonalizes the error.

It is indeed a precious commentary on our Leader to behold how careful she was not to hold Mr. Chase as being in error, nor to permit others to do so. She knew that he was trustworthy, but that he would have to be protected from animal magnetism; so she wished to enlist Mr. DeCamp's aid in this direction without coming out plainly and saying so.

Mrs. Eddy had a deep sense of loyalty toward those of her students who stood by her in the early days, when Christian Science was regarded as a pariah. Furthermore, when it came to discipline and excommuni­cation, she knew how prone mortal mind was to try to pin the old standard on the new, because it appeared to be worth retaining. Her ideal was to have the new all new, so that in its treatment of offending members, her Cause would hold itself as designed to save sinners, and not to condemn them. She never intended that it should take to itself a group of lawyers whose main business it would be to condemn. She knew that it might not be able to save everyone; but that where it could not save, it should not condemn.

She wished none of mortal mind's attitude toward sin to stain the history of God's Cause. When a splendid man like Dr. Sulcer was convicted of immo­rality, and he repented, she demanded that he be re­stored to full fellowship, after the Board had acted against him. Her rule was, “Be merciful and just according to the Golden Rule.” She knew that many times it is more intelligent to renew an old motor that appears to have given out, than to obtain a new one. If it is possible to renew the worn parts, the old, because it is broken in, will give better ser­vice than a new one.

Another point to be considered is, that she did not wish to take students who had reached the point where they were put in high places, and exconnnunicate them for consequent immorality, and so give the world another chance to point its finger at Christian Science.

In advocating the Golden Rule, Mrs. Eddy was directing the Board to place themselves in the posi­tion of those they were judging. Let them ask them­selves, how they would feel if the tables were turned. If they had done wrong, they should expect to be pun­ished. Yet they would know how easily they were caught by the error, and no doubt would have deter­mined within themselves not to be caught again. Hence it would be following out this Rule for them to determine whether the offending members really condemned their sin in their hearts, and desired ref­ormation, and if such were the case, to forgive them.

One thing the Directors could not do for sinners, and that was to create in them a desire to be rid of their sin; but if an honest desire to reform was present, that would be a rope by which they could be pulled out of the mire. It was only when this rope of desire was not present, that Mrs. Eddy wished the drastic treatment called for in the By-law on dis­cipline to be exercised. And how could they deter­mine whether this rope was present, unless they made every effort to find out?

A study of these letters makes it plain that when the Manual is administered wholly from a legal standpoint, such a procedure fulfills only the letter of the law, and the Directors may be brought to task for not being merciful and just according to the Golden Rule. Mary Baker Eddy instituted the By-laws. Hence she had the right to say how they were to be administered. Those who accept them are duty bound to accept her methods of applying them; and where are her methods to be found, other than in a study of her letters that cover the cases that came under the notice of the Directors while she was with them?

To Mrs. Eddy, her Manual was not a legal club, but a loving invitation to reform. It was designed to call sinners to repentance, as well as to keep saints in the right path. No one can come to any other conclusion, after studying the file of her let­ters to the Directors.

It was impossible for Mrs. Eddy to couch the By­-laws in terminology that could adequately express the manner in which she desired them to be administered. For that reason, she wrote letters which she knew would be preserved, which would serve as an addenda to the Manual, providing additional explanations which she knew would be necessary in the years to come.

Even common sense would indicate that when stu­dents have been trained to the point where their work becomes a valuable addition to the organization, every effort should be made to help them to continue that good work, if perchance they fall into error of some sort.

Once a doctor in a small community took to drink. His services were so valuable, that all of his friends and patients undertook to help him out of his bondage. They did this, because they considered his services too valuable to be jeopardized by the liquor habit. They might easily have embarked on a campaign of con­demnation, and ostracism, and put the doctor out of business. But they knew his skill and years of faithfulness, and they were determined not to lose the benefit of these. His case becomes a good il­lustration of Mrs. Eddy's attitude toward valuable students.

A student cannot be robbed of what he has learned of Science and his ability to demonstrate it. He may become so handled by animal magnetism that he cannot use it for a period, so that his fellow members put him on the black list; but he should never be cast aside until every effort has been exhausted to save him.

In this letter, Mrs. Eddy repeats the old, old story, namely, that the Directors cannot consult with her on the discipline of members, or the excommunication thereof. She knew that the execution of disci­pline must be a matter of demonstration, but that the Board would avoid making it, and if possible, pass the responsibility to her. If the early Directors were assailed by an unwillingness to demonstrate, present-day members of that committee should realize the necessity to watch against such an error. It goes without saying that by reading and pondering Mrs. Eddy's letters of admonition and criticism of the early Board, they can learn how animal magnetism works. The fact that she found it necessary time and time again to forbid the officials the privilege of consulting with her, proves that there was a lurk­ing error the purpose of which was to suggest to them to do almost anything rather than demonstrate. If such a constant error was not dogging their foot­steps, why did Mrs. Eddy find it necessary to keep at them so persistently on this point? And it is safe to say that the error will never be silenced, until the Directors wake up to realize that every bit of their work must be demonstrated.

Surely the greatest lesson Mrs. Eddy taught her followers was that they must avoid the easy way — the lazy way of the human mind — since it is the broad road that leads to hell. The straight and narrow way is the demonstrating way, — God's way that is exact and perfect, — the way that leads to Life.

Here were some of Mrs. Eddy's fine students ac­cused of immorality. Surely her loving heart yearned to have the Directors see that only the un­erring wisdom of God could take care of the situa­tion. Who but God can know whether an offending member is a Peter or a Judas, and is to be treated accordingly? Furthermore, even when Jesus knew the nature of Judas' error, he did not excommunicate him from the favored few who were privileged to be called his disciples. He trusted that the error would be taken care of in God's own time, and it was.

A letter of the nature of this one is vitally important to all Directors, since it sets forth the mental attitude approved of by the Leader on the part of those who have the By-laws to execute. One might affirm that our By-laws are infallible, but they are infallible only when they are executed in the right spirit. No Board of Directors will ever be able to administer Mrs. Eddy's By-laws rightly, unless they study and absorb what she has written privately as to the proper way to administer them, — as to what should be their mental state. In this letter and the one following, she makes this clear: “...you surely must pray daily that God, good, divine Love — your only Mind — be followed, be loved, be lived by you.” This must include a heartful desire to reform, if possible, those upon whom the By-laws are to be exe­cuted.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

November 23, 1902

C. S. Board Directors

Beloved Students:

Do not delay publishing the new edition of the Manual on my account. This is the cy­clone hour with our cause when my weather vane must veer with the wind in order to indicate the right course. What seems best today, tomorrow may make not best. Be strong and clear in your convictions that God, not M.A.M., is influencing your actions. In order to be this, you must surely pray daily that God, good, divine Love — your only Mind — be followed, be loved, be lived by you.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


Mrs. Eddy kept in touch with everything connected with the organization, so that its ups and downs played on her sensitivity. She had breathing spells, where she rose above it all, but the spirit of self-­sacrifice which animated her caused her to act as a barometer for her Cause, even at the risk of her personal comfort. She said to the class of 1881: “I could annul the effects of the malpractitioners on myself with my own understanding, but I allowed it to work on myself without meeting it, until I dis­covered a method for my students to use to overcome it through argument. Now, I ask you, wasn't that unselfish love?”

In this letter the first sentence says in sub­stance, “Go ahead and publish the Manual, and do not mind me. I must fight my own battles, and I cannot have the needs of the Cause delayed, because of any deterring personal effects such forward steps may have upon me.”

A candle and a tuning fork may be set up in such a relation, that when the tuning fork is struck, its vibrations cause the flame to flicker. Mrs. Eddy's light was at times affected by the vibrations of ani­mal magnetism. Such repercussions occurred especially whenever there was any forward step being taken in the Cause. It is possible that error tried to make a law that Mrs. Eddy would suffer for those forward steps. On the other hand, it was not our Leader's wish that she make such a demonstration of immunity from feeling the effects of error, since she would thereby lose her great value to the Cause as its watchdog. So perhaps it was she that established such a law, so that she might always know what error was up to.

When an airplane propeller is revolving in prep­aration for a take-off into the skies, the blast of wind it creates is cyclonic. This phenomenon is necessary before it can gain head-way, and rise where it can find its balance in the air. Christian Sci­ence was a new thing on the earth. There were no warnings of the obstacles that would be raised up to block its progress, or of the prejudice that would be awakened by it. But the very cyclone in mortal thought that attended its inauguration, was a healthy sign, and gave proof of the great impetus needed to enable it to rise above the elements of earth.

One might imagine that the greatest opposition to Christian Science was aroused because of the teaching that the things that appear real to material sense are not real. Yet there were thousands of persons, who when this doctrine healed them, were glad to accept it in full. The cyclonic opposition arose when mortal mind felt the demand to give up its so-called mental freedom. When one is training a puppy to follow on a leash, it performs all kinds of antics in its resistance to such training. Such an incident gives the proof that a stubborn will is an inherent characteristic of the animal nature in mortals as well as in animals. Mortals fancy that they are free; hence they resist yielding to the demands of God, lest they go contrary to what they think they wish to do. Mortals, however, are not free at all. They are in bondage to material sense, and until they throw off this bondage, namely, sin, sickness and death, by yielding to God, they will be subject to the results of this bondage. There is no continuous happiness or health under the regime of mortal mind. Learning this, mortals become willing to throw it off.

God's will for His children is happiness and harmony throughout eternity. If mortals knew this fact, they would seek God's will at all times. Yet the cyclonic condition in the Cause, which is referred to in this letter, was the result of the stir in mor­tal mind coming from the demands of God brought to earth, summoning mortals to give up that which they cling to the most, namely, what they fancy is person­al freedom.

The great labors of our Leader were in prepara­tion for the hour when her students would take charge of her Cause — students she had trained for this pur­pose — so that it would take its permanent place among the religions on earth. It was a cyclonic hour therefore, when she detected the purpose of animal magnetism to cast some of the finest of these students out, by involving them in scandal. She determined to save them, if possible.

As the faithful servant of God, Mrs. Eddy was watching to see what form animal magnetism would take in its aggressive efforts to shut off the truth about God and man from the world. When she saw a student like Captain Eastaman who had been invaluable in the early upbuilding of the Cause — a man with a high sense of faithfulness, morality and honesty, — suddenly put in a position where animal magnetism could ac­cuse him of that which would cause the students to feel that they must cast him out, she knew that that was just what the devil wanted. It is said that she called the Captain to Pleasant View and had a long talk with him. When he left, he had a letter to the Directors in which she declared that he was one of her best students, and was to be reinstated. Bliss Knapp refers to this case on page 140 of his book of reminiscences, and Mrs. Eddy verifies it in her next letter to the Directors via Mr. Armstrong.

Mrs. Eddy knew that a good student of Science who becomes handled by animal magnetism is not hope­less, unless there is an error in his foundation such as Judas had, which has never been handled. She was determined that the Peters in her Cause should not be excommunicated, no matter what they had done. She wished the Directors to learn that what the Peters do under animal magnetism is never according to their normal and natural impulses or character. In fact, had they not become Christian Scientists, they would not have been brought under additional pressure of temptation to which they yielded, because of an ig­norance of animal magnetism.

There is no record that the Master even rebuked Peter for denying him. Jesus knew that it was a val­uable experience for Peter to learn what would happen to him, if he did not handle animal magnetism. Evi­dently Mrs. Eddy placed Captain Eastaman in the cate­gory of a Peter who according to Miscellany 211, was tempted “into the committal of acts foreign to the natural inclinations.”

For Mrs. Eddy to call it the cyclone hour with the Cause was to indicate that the pressure was so aggravated, that students who could ordinarily stand firm were blown over. Eugene H. Greene, my former teacher in Science, declared that when an extra pres­sure was rife, not more than ten percent of the students could be trusted to hold their ground men­tally. The same proportion may be observed among theatre goers, when there is a cry of fire. Probably not even ten percent have enough self-control to hold their own, and to try to calm the fear of the rest under such a pressure of mob mesmerism.

Students of the future may well take this lesson to heart, and whenever a cyclone hour appears for the Cause — a period when animal magnetism's opposition is renewed — strive to be one of the ten percent who are called upon to uphold the rest, until the danger is passed. Furthermore they must never lose sight of the fact, that Mrs. Eddy defined sin as yielding to animal magnetism. Once a student has yielded to this influence, what he does is of no special signif­icance, since it is all wrong. Mortal mind makes sharp distinctions between the acts of sinners and saints, but in Science everything one does is wrong when he is handled by animal magnetism, since he is acting as one separated from God, which is the greatest claim of sin that there is. The greatest error that a little chicken can commit, is to wander away from the mother hen, and to believe that it can get along all right by itself. Nothing causes it to dash back to the shelter of its mother's wing quicker than the approach of some danger, like a chicken hawk. Sooner or later all mortals must discover that they cannot get along without God; that they are absolutely dependent upon Him day and night.

With this definition of sin in mind, the Directors would not condemn those who could not stand under cyclonic conditions, but would strive to help them. They would seek to excommunicate animal magnetism from the Cause, and not the members it was handling. They would not punish man for what animal magnetism did. But in order to remain in the attitude of mind that would enable them to act thus wisely, they would have to pray daily as Mrs. Eddy directs in this let­ter, that divine Love be followed, be loved, and be lived by them.

Mrs. Eddy realized that the Directors might not be aware of what animal magnetism was attempting to do in the Cause at any given time, but if they fol­lowed this instruction, they would be arming them­selves with the panoply of divine Love; they would be safe, and be guided to do that which would safe­guard the Cause.

Nothing is more certain than that man, when he embraces Mrs. Eddy's teachings, puts himself under the obligation to follow divine Mind — to be guided by it at all times. In 1902 — just at the time this letter was written — Mrs. Eddy said to Naomi Robert­son: “One God, one Mind. All is Truth, Life and Love. This is the path, straight and narrow, leading to the Father's secret reward. You must follow every step of the way. I alone know what this means.” She also wrote to her, “Many minds are at work at this instant to stop our work for humanity and for the Cause. Yet their effort will fail. Why? Because God speaks to me as He has spoken from the earliest days when He guided me to the founding of this Cause. He speaks, and I must follow. This is my cross. How I wish I could explain to you what this means!”

When man is thoroughly imbued as our Leader was with the realization that as he gains divine guidance, he must follow it, the next logical step is that he learns to love divine Mind, because he perceives that this following is always for his good, and the good of all. Then comes the sequence, that he lives divine Mind. It follows that whatever one follows, loves and lives, he manifests, whether it be the human or the divine.

In mountain climbing, those following a leader can string out quite a distance from him without dan­ger; but occasionally the guide stops and calls the entire company to his side, because he sees a danger. When the danger has been passed, the group returns to their places.

This letter was of that nature, a call covering a danger point. Mrs. Eddy knew that she was the only one who saw the danger, and unless she exposed it to the students, they were liable to do exactly as animal magnetism suggested. So she took these drastic steps.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

December 4, 1902

Messrs. Johnson and Armstrong:

Be of good cheer. God has shown me the way out of it. Meantime restore Capt. Eastaman to the First Membership when I write you to do this.

I will inform you what to do before that is done as soon as the time seems long enough after you call on me, not to be seen as the mover of it. I feel that God alone has shown me just what to tell you. “Knowest thou not the way to come unto me?”

With love always,

Mother

M. B. Eddy

N. B. Remember Woodbury blames me and thinks you had fellowship with her because she said you said you had nothing against her. I have asked in a letter today, Mr. Decamp to resign his place on the Board; tell Knapp this, and if Decamp speaks of it to you, join with me and tell him Chase did it, knowing I was right. Tell Knapp he must not work against it, for I see what he does not. It is hard for me to have this to do, but it must be done.


Since this important letter is addressed to Mr. Johnson and Mr. Armstrong, it is possible that Mrs. Eddy discerned that they carried a more spiritually active thought and discernment at this time, than the two other members, Mr. Knapp and Mr. DeCamp. Furthermore, it was logical that the letter exclude Mr. DeCamp in its salutation since it referred to the fact that he was being asked to resign from the Board.

In some respects Captain Eastaman's experience duplicated that of Mr. Chase, since when the accusa­tion was made that there was something wrong with the latter's account, Mrs. Eddy would not let the Board take any action against him. She forbore to treat students who went off the straight line as Judases, when spiritual insight told her that they were Peters.

The Master's disciples knew little about the claim of evil, and how to handle it; so he had to exercise protection for them. He could have prevented Peter from doing what he did in denying his Master, but it was important for him as a student to learn the lesson, that the desire to be faithful and loyal was not realized as simply and easily as he fancied it could be — namely — by merely cherishing it as a desire. It had to be protected with watchfulness and under­standing. The world at large is ignorant of this fact, and has no knowledge of the error that stands in the way of every right attainment. One can guess what it cost our Leader to discover it, when one finds her writing to a student, “Not only through strife but through agonizing struggle, experience, is the victory over error won.”

Calvin Frye's experience with our Leader for twenty-eight years, and his brief history after she left our midst, will always yield helpfulness to the one who learns of it and ponders it, since it proves that she must have exercised great protection over him, to enable him to remain steadfast over such a long period of time. Yet when that protection was withdrawn, and he seemed to fall into the ways of the world to some extent (the exact nature of which will probably never be known), he should no more be con­demned, than Peter was. The Bible records no word of remonstrance from the Master, for he knew that it was important for Peter to get a taste of what life would be without his protection — committing acts foreign to his natural inclinations — so that he might be aroused to make the demonstration of protection for himself. The pungent nature of the lesson is evident, when one realizes that Peter violated what he considered to be his strongest and not his weakest point, namely, his loyalty to the Master.

Jesus recognized that after he left him, Peter would have to look out for himself, so he wanted him to learn the lesson that would encourage him to ac­quire the ability to protect himself. His success in doing this after the Master's ascension was self-evident.

When a student has given full evidence of his loyalty and faithfulness to Mrs. Eddy and her teach­ings and organization, if he falls away it is always the effect of mesmerism or animal magnetism. When an insane man makes an assertion, it is not taken seriously. When mortal man says he is sick, the alert Scientist knows his assertion is nothing but an insane belief. When through scientific treatment the sick man's thinking is adjusted so that he recog­nizes himself as well, that is all there is to the healing. In Mrs. Eddy's sight these fine students of hers who offended were in the same category, and she was determined that they should be treated in a similar manner. It was plain to her, that if the Directors treated these students like Captain Eastaman as though they were sinners, it would prove that they were as much handled by insanity as the offending students! Anyone who asserts that sin is what a mortal does, instead of being that which he is in­duced by mesmerism to think, is exactly on the same mental level with the sinner, just as one who sees disease is as sick as the one who feels it, and may be said to be “see-sick.”

Mrs. Eddy could detect by the way the Directors were handling these offending students, that they themselves needed help on the question of the reality of sin. The offensiveness of the evidence was inun­dating their metaphysical attitude, and putting them on the wrong side of the scale, where they would be­come of no value in helping to save these unfortunate ones. So Mrs. Eddy's action at this time was as much to help them as it was the students who were under a cloud.

The actual value of a study of these letters will never become apparent to a student, until he perceives that the precedent for handling all matters in our Cause for all time to come, must be found in Mrs. Eddy's experience and admonitions. If a man falls ill, Mrs. Eddy tells us that Science teaches and can prove that that sickness is unreal, and that this understanding will heal him. In like manner sin is yielding to mesmerism, and the member who falls under its spell must be freed from it if possible. When a child is soiled at play, its mother patiently washes off the dirt. Would it follow that if the child became still more soiled in the house, she would change her attitude and banish the child forever from her home and life?

We take one who is known to be a sinner, and heal him; then we rejoice in his reformation, and bring him into the inner circle of Science where he may be of constructive value to his fellow men. If such a one then inadvertently falls into error, is it the right procedure to kick him out, as if the rule were to take the outside in, but to kick the inside out? Mrs. Eddy certainly held that those inside were of more value than those outside. In her eyes a student who had given evidence of faithfulness and sincerity, and who had a long series of successful years in demonstrating the Truth back of him, was worth saving, and surely better material than the newly reformed sinner, if not as spectacular and exciting. When such a one as Captain Eastaman was straightened out, at least the result would be sure that he would immediately step right back into activity and usefulness; whereas it would take years to bring a new member up to such efficiency. And in the end he might not prove worthy of such efforts.

Mrs. Eddy saw with sadness that her Directors were not manifesting the same brotherly love, under­standing, tolerance, and desire to help toward a sinner inside, that they would toward one outside; so she tried to make up for this by letting them get the credit for this one loving, generous and scien­tific act of restoring the Captain; she ordered a delayed action, so that she would not be seen to be the mover of it. She knew that one act of this kind would ennoble the Board, endear them to the entire Field of students, as well as cause all metaphysicians to feel that they were scientific as well as true Christians. In this way the Directors and the Field would be brought together in trust and unity, in­stead of being estranged, by a wave of sentiment against them for having committed an act that was neither Christian nor scientific in moving against the Captain according to the letter of the law, with the spirit of Christ lacking.

Once an usher in a branch church was caught stealing from the collection plate. This man had been brought into Science by being healed of drunkenness in a highly remarkable manner, he having been a hope­less drunkard for thirty years. In sitting on his case the Board of Trustees decided not to expose him, but to place him on his honor. The result was that he continued the rest of his life as a useful member of the church, and his fellow members never knew about his dereliction. The Trustees rightly concluded that he was unaware of the claim of animal magnetism, under which he was victimized, which assailed him when he took a prominent position like ushering in a Christian Science church.

If this act should ever be known in this church, think how it would raise those who were the Trustees, in the estimation of the members, to know how Christ­like they had been, how generous, kind and forgiving. Yet a member who was looking for human justice, would declare that the man should have been exposed, and kicked out of the church in disgrace. Was it not better, however, to save than to condemn? Did not the Master declare that he came to save rather than to condemn? Mrs. Eddy knew that her church would be following Christ, only as it did likewise. If at any time it should treat sinners as mortal mind treats them, by accepting the evidence of the senses, and believing that a sinner is rotten to the core, it would return to the very level of false theology out of which Mrs. Eddy labored so long to lift it.

The whole matter of Captain Eastaman indicated that Mrs. Eddy was calling on the Directors to func­tion consistently with her teaching. When they were given the credit for the generous act of restoring him to full standing, that would help them to continue in such a line of action in the future.

The importance of the stand Mrs. Eddy took can be estimated by her own words, “I feel that God alone has shown me just what to tell you.” Would she in­clude such a statement in a letter, if she had felt that it was “Mary,” or the human Mrs. Eddy, writing it? The conclusion is that God wrote this letter as definitely as He wrote the textbook, and it should be so regarded.

The N.B. to this letter indicates that in the short time Mr. DeCamp had served as a Director, he had shown his unfitness for the position and now it became necessary for him to resign. The implication is that Mr. Knapp was the only one who might question the move. Mrs. Eddy was making it in such a way, that she would be subjected to as little malpractice from Mr. DeCamp as possible.

Mrs. Eddy had as much right to guard her position by such maneuvers as this, as a general has in war­fare, when the entire campaign is being planned by him. He cannot afford to endanger his life by getting into the thick of the battle. No one considers him to be a coward on this account. The illustration does not wholly cover Mrs. Eddy's case since she was in the thick of the fight against animal magnetism most of the time. But she was the Christian Science general, and she did not hesitate to let those under her bear the brunt of the enemy's fire, whenever it was possible. Yet she always did what God told her to do, no matter what criticism and malpractice it subjected her to.

In Science and Health, on page 571, we learn that there is a human disinclination in all of us to tell people their faults. Mrs. Eddy's example teaches us that the only Christlike way to do so, is to do it with such compassion and love that the sting is neu­tralized. The spirit in which she gave her rebukes caused right-minded students to appreciate them and to profit by them.

Our Leader never wished the Directors or any of her followers to fancy that it was their duty to re­buke every form of sin, without regard for their mental attitude in doing so. Unscientific rebukes only serve to chemicalize the one rebuked, to impair the usefulness of the one who does the rebuking, and to leave the sinner in the same state. Unscien­tific rebukes do not help him.

It requires more Christian Science, more love, and more guidance from the divine source, to rebuke sin and to deal with the errors of others, than it does to heal the sick. In performing both of these functions, one must establish himself as a witness for God, as a mouthpiece for His wisdom. Hence they are too dangerous to trust in the hands of dabblers in Science. When neophytes undertake to rebuke sin or to heal the sick they subject the poor individual to a crossfire of unscientific thought that results in no good.

Mrs. Eddy hated to rebuke sinners, but her great love would not permit her to sit by, and see persons in trouble, when a few words from her might free them; and she did all she could to make sure that the Direc­tors, and all of her followers, would learn of her example in this respect, and abide by it. She said, “The only manner whereby wrong is met scientifically is first to see it; next to be alert for it; and lastly to correct it. This being the fact, the divine order is too important for me to forget or deny by admitting that wrong is not wrong, or that wrong can be forgiven.”

In passing it is worth noting that Mr. DeCamp was a wealthy man. At the suggestion of Dr. Alfred Baker he had taken over the Concord Patriot, in order to have a newspaper in Concord which would be allied to Christian Science and favorable to our Leader. He became a member of the Board of Directors on June 19, 1902, and tendered his resignation on December 5. It is conceivable that his unfitness to continue on the Board, was made evident to Mrs. Eddy by his attitude toward Captain Eastaman.

Among the letters that Mr. Frye wrote to Henri­etta Chanfrau, there is one dated July 16, 1902, which proves that our Leader was well aware that Cap­tain Eastaman needed help, since in it he says, “Mother says take up each day: No fear, All is Love. Mind controls all. No malicious mesmerism to hinder his thought. All is light and clearness. Do not name Eastaman, or the others by name.”

It is helpful to know that Mrs. Eddy had work of this kind done for Eastaman, since it shows that in her sight, a man who had spent years in acquiring a demonstrable understanding of Science was so valuable that he was worth saving, if possible. Once a skill­ful doctor took to drink. The members of the town, instead of condemning him and ostracizing him, banded together to help him. It is obvious that to them he was such a valuable man (when he was sober), that they were willing to make such an effort.

This note from Frye proves that Mrs. Eddy regarded the error that was aimed at Eastaman, as animal mag­netism. It also shows that she knew that he did not estimate the seeming strength or subtlety of the error; so without his knowledge she had work done for him.

Once a general in our army was brutal to a men­tally sick soldier in a hospital. Popular indignation ran so high, that the suggestion was put forth that he be at least demoted. The government wisely paid no attention to the incident. Later he came out of the war covered with glory for the part he played in winning. A minor infraction was not permitted to detract from the real worth of the man.

Our Leader had a natural instinct for goodness and purity. She did not like to see anyone, much less her students, sully their lives with sin. Yet she was ever consistent. The wrong done by mortal man was always in her eyes the work of the devil, and not consigned to perdition. As in Jesus' parable, the pigs, or animal nature, must be sent down to be drowned, whereas man is to be saved. Error must be destroyed, but this can only be done by impersonal­izing it. Hence when Mrs. Eddy directed Mrs. Chanfrau to work for Captain Eastaman, she told her not to name him.

The old error that our Leader assailed, has not yet been banished from the earth. Every once in a while it finds some new channel to work through. When this happens, those in authority, lacking the wisdom of our Leader, may sidetrack some valuable worker, and the Cause be the loser. A careful study of Mrs. Eddy's letters would help to show students the wise way to handle such cases for the best good of the Cause.

“All is light and clearness.” When the world celebrated the end of World War II, there was vandal­ism in many places that the police did nothing about. Evidently it was recognized that under such an intense sense of joy, many people required some violent out­let for it. Things were done that were overlooked by the police. Had all been light and clearness, people would not have broken windows, and started fire in the streets. We learn from this, that all sin is in the nature of darkness of thought, or mesmerism. It is thought that is off guard, sluggish, idle or hindered, that is caught by temptation. Many individ­uals make sad mistakes on vacation, that they would not make otherwise. At such times they are apt to be off guard, and let go of their protective sense.

Mrs. Eddy evidently regarded the derelictions of the students at this time as part of a whole, in the sense that those who were outposts of the Cause at any given time, would become targets for the enemy, and so must be protected — not cast off.

When Stephen Chase, the treasurer, was suspected of appropriating funds from the treasury, Mrs. Eddy did not regard him nor treat him as a thief, but merely as an outpost who was not awake to the enemies' tactics. She required the whole matter to be for­gotten, recognizing that it hardly weighed a hair against the tremendous accomplishments of the man in behalf of good.

Error was determined that Mrs. Eddy's Cause should not be established. In this effort was it not logical that it should attack the most prominent workers?




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

December 8, 1902

C. S. Board Directors

Beloved Students:

If Mr. Hatten has been carried away by one and another from God and from me, so that you have not elected him to fill the vacancy on your Board, let me know by the bearer. And as soon as you read this letter, call a meeting and elect Mr. Stephen Chase a member of your Board. Then read in meeting this letter of Captain Eastaman's and vote to put his card in our Journal; also to restore him to the First Membership of our church, and wire me that this has been done. I am meeting too much to bear this delay another day. You know what I refer to.

This lying about my student and causing him and his innocent wife so much suffering, is one of the deepest plots laid since my pro­secution for repeating the Revelation of St. John. What has occurred since Mr. Decamp was here shows me that I am right in what I say on this subject. God is guiding me as I act. Read Manual 25th Edition, page 54.2, and page 60.3, and see if we are straining out gnats and swallowing camels. Eastaman has not directly broken a By-law, but somebody else has.

Please return to me Capt. Eastaman's letter. Jesus Christ forgave repentent sinners. Capt. Eastaman is repentent for his sins. I have spoken in my letter to him plainly, and now I require you to do your duty as aforenamed.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


When one is functioning under the wisdom of God, as our Leader was, if God demands something important of him, he can get no peace or comfort until he carries out God's instructions. It would be wisdom for him to follow such demands quickly, and then move on to the next task. In July, 1892, Mrs. Eddy wrote to Julia Field-King in regard to an article she had written for the Journal, “I have written it because I was impelled to do so. God seemed (as many times He has under severe need) to deprive me of all peace until I wrote it and then my sweet peace returned.”

This phenomenon must have appeared in her life at this time in regard to the restoration of Capt. Eastaman, since she writes, “I am meeting too much to bear this delay another day.” Even the Directors could not fully appreciate the fact that she would remain in a state of disturbance, until she had accomplished what God told her to do.

In a measure the Directors represented the piano on which Mrs. Eddy played, and when this cooperation was necessary, she did not care to have them turn around and become player pianos on their own initiative. Perhaps she had felt that Mr. Hatten was the right candidate to fill the vacancy left by the resignation of Mr. DeCamp. I knew Mr. Hatten very well, since about this time Mrs. Eddy formed the Building Committee which consisted of Mr. Hatten, Mr. Bates, and myself. My impression of Mr. Hatten was that he was not the executive type, but one who had faith in the fact that God was establishing the Cause, and that Mrs. Eddy was His ablest representative — the only one who could be depended upon consistently to bring the demonstration of divine wisdom into the successful operation of the organization.

Since the Board had not appointed Mr. Hatten, it was logical for Mrs. Eddy to assume that only one reason kept them from doing so — for she had looked upon his appointment favorably — and that was, because he was handled by animal magnetism in a way that was causing him to be carried away from God and from her. In her eyes this could have been the only reason for their lack of action. Yet I question whether she really believed that such a thing had happened to him; but she does the wise thing. She does not question the action of the Directors, but merely assumes that only one reason could have been responsible for it, since she had indicated that in her estimation he was in line for the promotion. In this way she quieted the situation, so that if later she suggested Mr. Hatten for other positions the Directors would cheerfully and without question put him in. She sweeps away every possible reason for their not doing so, since she causes them to realize that they had no justifiable reason for not carrying out her wishes. It goes without saying that she would not have named him for the Building Committee, or the Finance Committee, if what she writes had been true.

To Mrs. Eddy, Capt. Eastaman was a student who had endured the burden and heat of the day successfully. For nearly twenty years he had been the means of healing many people and bringing them into Christian Science. He was a trained worker, but he finally encountered an error that he did not know how to handle, and it turned around and handled him. What he needed was not condemna­tion but help, so that he might be restored to usefulness. His teacher knew that if he were restored, that would stimulate a determination on his part not to yield to temptation again, and he would be saved.

When Peter denied the Master, such an act must have made him appear to be a very unstable and unreliable individual, a frail reed to depend upon. From a human standpoint he gave a very obnoxious manifestation of a lack of moral courage, but Jesus recognized it as animal magnetism to which he yielded thoughtlessly, and helped to strengthen him for the future, by taking him back into full fellowship as a disciple.

In the case of Capt. Eastaman, Mrs. Eddy followed the Master's example. And the loyalty of the Directors to her was such that, instead of making an effort to convince her that in taking action against him, they had acted according to legal proof, they made no excuse for their action but did as she directed them to. With the excep­tion of Mr. DeCamp they had enough faith in her to trust that she was working this matter out from the standpoint of divine judgment, and they obeyed her.

My recollection is that Stephen Chase was the most selfless of the early Directors in his loyalty to his Leader, with Mr. Johnson a close second. He would have cut off his right hand, before he would have done anything to offend her, or questioned any­thing she asked him to do. His motto was, “if Mrs. Eddy wants it, then it is what I want.” He reserved no opinions of his own, when it came to decisions of that nature. There was no fight between what he thought was right, and what Mrs. Eddy declared was right. Very possibly Mr. DeCamp had not shown him­self amenable to her suggestions during his term on the Board; so he had to be replaced by one she knew to be unfailingly loyal to her.

“This lying about my student and causing him and his innocent wife so much suffering, is one of the deepest plots laid since my prosecution for repeating the Revelation of St. John.” It is evi­dent that the plot was not to accuse such a fine student as the Captain of doing something that he had not done, and so disgrace him unjustly; but it was to get him to do something under mesmerism that could be used against him to destroy his usefulness, and cause his innocent wife needless suffering.

At any stage of our Cause when prominent students who are right in the main, fall into error and are disciplined or excommunicated you may know that it is a deep plot to strip the Cause of its important mem­bers. It is only when students show themselves use­ful to God, that they become a target for error's shafts. What will become of the Cause if this point is not understood, and everything possible done to save those the Cause needs in order to advance?

It is evident that Mrs. Eddy applied the Master's rule to Captain Eastaman, “Father forgive him, for he knew not what he did.” Whatever he did, his heart condemned it, so as the textbook declares, the sin had no foundation.

No doubt the error Captain Eastaman was found guilty of, was an offence to good mortals, and manners, but in Mrs. Eddy's sight, the form it took was unim­portant, since she knew that in God's sight he was merely the victim of animal magnetism. Animal mag­netism was responsible for the entire situation. She looked the students over, and found that Captain Eastaman's heart condemned the error, whereas those who were sitting in judgment were making a great reality of it. The straining out gnats and swallow­ing camels, was the attention that was being paid to effect — to what the Captain might have done — all the while accepting the reality of the error in cause, that is, believing that the sin was part of God's child.

Students may know Christian Science as a theory, but when a matter of this kind comes to one's atten­tion, it is not easy to function on as a metaphysician. Thought is apt to slide into mortal mind's attitude, so that students condemn persons. They begin to throw mud at the sinner, and pass out mud for others to throw at him. What Mrs. Eddy was condemning, was throwing mud at the sinner rather than at the animal magnetism that caused him to sin. They were the ones who in her eyes had broken the By-laws in ques­tion, which referred to the fact that she would per­mit no cases of discipline or excommunication to be referred to her, and that one who had broken a By-law, or caused another to do so, shall not hold office in the Church. It is possible that the “somebody” who had broken this latter By-law was Mr. DeCamp himself, since Mrs. Eddy had required him to resign his office in her previous letter. It is evi­dent from this letter that she would consider that anyone who sat in judgment on the Captain, would be guilty of breaking a By-law.

It would have been a good question to have asked the Directors at this time, if Mary Magdalen had ap­peared before them to be judged, would they have judged her as Jesus did, or as mortal mind did? He saved her from her sin, so that she became a valuable instrument in the advance of Christianity. From that time to this all Christians have benefited by what she did for the Cause. She was the first one to ac­cept in full what Jesus prophesied about his resur­rection, so she was the first one to see him after the crucifixion. Was she not worth saving?

It is the old mortal mind standard of judgment in us that makes us prone to censure sinners in our own ranks, when the Christian Science spirit in us would extend brotherly love and help, if it were given half a chance. And a study of Mrs. Eddy's letters helps to give this spirit in us free rein, since when we learn how she functioned, as her followers, we yearn to follow her in all her ways. We may rely on the fact that her ways and judgment were always just and right. How can one call himself her follower, unless he struggles to imbibe her spirit and follow it? And how can he do this, without access to her letters and documents which reveal the practical operation of her spirit.

Here is an instance where Mrs. Eddy freed Cap­tain Eastaman from all penalty. At the same time she heartily condemned those who complained against him, and insisted on the extreme penalty. It is important for us to know that in so doing Mrs. Eddy was acting the part of a scientific Christian, and was not just being soft and sentimental. If God guided her to do this, then she was setting forth a pattern to be followed for all time.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

December 11, 1902

Beloved Student:

What do you say to putting Hatten on the Finance Com. and your son on the Board of Trustees? We must have members of our Boards and Committees who are loyal, obedient to God and to the author of S. & H.

You know him and his adaptability to such a position better than I do and I leave the decision to you. If you think he is ready for it, put him there.

There may questions arise for the Board to decide in which we shall need the majority to vote for what I indicate to be done. And our cause needs now that this Board uphold their Leader publicly when the occasion demands it.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy

N. B. Do not make the By-law on Building Com. until the right time comes. Perhaps it is now, what think you?


Mrs. Eddy has been accused of being a demanding personality whose word was always law, but this let­ter proves that accusation false. In it she does not call for obedience to herself as a capable personal­ity, but was demanding the students to follow the instructions resulting from the demonstration she was making of oneness with God. The emanation of this oneness, when first gained, was the textbook itself. When God talked through her, she expected the stu­dents to listen and obey. Only when they did, were they worthy of being called “loyal, obedient to God and the author of S. & H.” Her final name for this oneness was the Pastor Emeritus.

Loyalty is commonly considered to be that quality that causes one to use his influence, and best efforts towards the one to whom he is loyal; yet it is sup­posed to last only as long as one's best interests are served in such a manner. Betrayal may take place at any time for a price. What Judas displayed toward the Master seemed to be loyalty but it was largely self-interest, since true loyalty means that the more error tries to break down that loyalty, the more determined one is that this shall not be done.

There was only one way for Mr. Johnson to know if his son was a suitable candidate for the position of trustee. This was not the human favoritism of a father for his son, nor a human knowledge of him, but a demonstration of divine guidance. The father knew that his son was loyal and obedient, but the greatest question was how he would stand under mesmer­ism and pressure.

Christian Scientists who live together learn a great deal as to how each one endures the pressure of animal magnetism, whether he handles it, or lets it handle them. When one considers the betrayal of our Master, it would seem as if the difference between Peter and Judas was that one declared that he did not know Jesus, and the other that he did. The im­portant difference was that Peter, discovering the possibility of being affected by animal magnetism, rose out of it and became a better student because of the experience, whereas Judas sank down under it and killed himself. This attitude illustrates the difference between all students who yield to animal magnetism.

In Science a father has ample opportunity, if his son lives with him, to observe how he functions under fire. In a way Mrs. Eddy was putting Mr. Johnson to a test, since if he were an ambitious father, here was an opportunity to place his son where he would have a prominent position that paid a salary. At the same time he would be under the constant supervision of the father, so he could not go very far astray.

When the lawsuit started in 1919 between the Directors and the Trustees, the lack of unity between them made it possible. Had Mr. Johnson's son been a member of the Board of Trustees, the lawsuit might never have taken place, since unity might have been preserved through the relationship of father and son. Mrs. Eddy's farseeing wisdom may have indicated, that the appointment this letter suggests would have represented a safeguard for the future; but Mr. John­son evidently judged his son severely and found him wanting. He adored his boy, but when he considered the high standard for office holding that Mrs. Eddy had established, he turned him down. Perhaps he thought him too young.

When Mrs. Eddy appointed Calvin Hill to the Fi­nance Committee, he held the position until his death in 1943. Both he and Mr. Hatten had a high sense of honor and honesty. No one could coerce or awe them into assenting to anything that they did not feel was legitimate or right. Members of the Finance Committee need to be impregnable, with a standard of right that is beyond being influenced or awed by those in authority.

When Mrs. Eddy suggested names like Hatten and Johnson for positions that was intended to encourage the Directors to move as she named. But there is always a temptation on the part of a father either to overestimate or underestimate the qualifications of his own son. Evidently Mr. Johnson viewed his son from the standpoint of his age and executive powers — and found him wanting. Yet realizing that if his appointment had been made, the church might have avoided the sad and costly experience of the 1919 lawsuit, we admire our Leader's perspicacity, which was a spiritual rather than a human quality.

Mrs. Eddy knew more about Mr. Johnson's son than he thought she did. So if she felt that he would have been valuable in that position, the Direc­tors should have appointed him. But they did not, and I believe they thereby lost a God-given opportunity.

In studying the personnel of the various com­mittees during the early history of our Movement; we detect that she sought to have the balance on the side of Science and loyalty. Occasionally she might include one with developed human knowledge and experience, but usually he would turn out badly. It was her purpose to have the higher qualities of the human mind always kept in subservience to demon­stration.

Mr. DeCamp was a wealthy and well educated man. Yet Mrs. Eddy had to ask him to resign the directorate, because she found him tending to dominate the situa­tion. Men of wealth and education are prone to feel that their opinion should be listened to. They are apt to belittle the opinions of men who are not wealthy, or who have not had the same educational opportunities which they have had. Therefore, when she writes, “We must have members of our Boards and Committees who are loyal, obedient to God and to the author of S. & H.,” she may have been hinting in an indirect manner what the trouble was with Mr. Decamp.

Obedience to God meant that she was the only one who had demonstrated a definite and infallible access to God; hence to obey her was to obey God. At the same time it goes without saying, that if there had been other students who had learned to know God's will as accurately and unfailingly as she did, such students were to be obeyed. It was God who was to be listened to. In reality He was the Author of S.& H., but obedience to Him did not include obedi­ence to education or wealth. At the same time, Mr. DeCamp's wealth and education were by no means in­surmountable barriers to loyalty and obedience to God, and they would not have been, had he subordinated his human qualitites to the divine.

Mrs. Eddy's experience, had shown her that it was easier to deal with students who honestly and humbly admitted that human knowledge was insufficient to guide them in matters of the church, than with those who believed that experience and knowledge could show them the right way. Children listen to the wisdom of their parents as long as they feel that the parents know more than they do. The point at which they refuse obedience is when they feel that their knowledge is superior.

Whenever any of these letters set forth the qualities needed by candidates for office, they are valuable because requirements for such qualities in our Movement will never change. Mrs. Eddy indicates that it is a Roman Catholic thought that regards a candidate favorably because he has wealth, because he is a businessman who has been successful, or has attained a reputation as a man of education. It goes without saying, that those who are selected to office should be loyal and obedient to God and to His witness, and these qualities must outweigh whatever human qualities they may have. One characteristic of right minded metaphysicians is that their desire and aspira­tion to be obedient to the law of God outweighs what­ever they may possess as developed human qualities, and such a desire must extend to our Leader as God's representative, even though she is no longer present as a person.

In the book covering the experiences of his mother and father, Bliss Knapp, names the year 1902 as the year when the Directors were gradually being given charge of the discipline which had formerly been executed by the First Members. It was at this time that a fifth member of the Board of Directors was added, and they were given charge of all other officers, to see that they faithfully performed their respective functions. Mrs. Eddy may have ap­pointed Mr. DeCamp to this office, hoping that he would prove one who might help the others assume more and more responsibility, without becoming arrogant or drunk with power. It is always a large step for men to take, to begin to function under their own initiative, — men who have always lived according to set rules or the will of others. Thus at this point Mrs. Eddy was leading her Directors gently to the point where they could try their own wings — apply their understanding to determine if they would or could receive the same leading from Mind that she did.

In writing this letter, she was informing future generations that Mind led her to put the quality of men who constituted the directorship into office, because when Mind revealed important moves to her, it required men who were “loyal, obedient to God and to the author of Science and Health,” to execute faithfully such directions. At the same time, the appointing of Mr. DeCamp (even though his tenure of office was brief) and the addition of Mr. McLellan as the fifth member, indicated that the time had come for the Board to demonstrate more initiative, and for Mrs. Eddy to have greater assurance that there would be a majority to vote in favor of what she indicated to be done.

Obedience to the author of Science and Health was the same as obedience to the Pastor Emeritus — the spiritual sense in our Leader — since it was through that sense that the textbook had been written. She was calling on the Board to obey her spiritual sense, and if at any time she departed from that, they were not expected to be obedient. She was saying in other words, “Follow me only as I follow Christ,” since it was her following of the Christ that had made Science and Health possible.

Thus while we say that Mrs. Eddy is not with us today, the Pastor Emeritus is, and loyaity and obedi­ence to the Pastor Emeritus is still a necessary quality in any candidate for office in our Movement.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

December 13, 1902

Mr. William B. Johnson

Beloved Student:

Within find the names of the Building and Finance Committee. Please say to Mr. Whitcomb that Mother wants him to be appointed as builder of the new Mother Church. In view of this fact you say to him that you think it would look better for him to resign as a member of the Finance Committee, and ask him if he is willing to do so? Your apology for reading the letter as you did is sufficient. We live and learn. Please appoint the following on the Building Committee and the Finance Committee.

Building Committee

Mr. Carpenter of Prov., R.I.

Mr. E. P. Bates of Boston and

Thomas W. Hatten

Finance Committee

Leon Abbott, esq.

Calvin C. Hill and

William L. Johnson

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy


Thomas Hatten was an obedient and loyal student, and this made him valuable to our Leader. He belonged to those that she needed to forward the Cause under her direction, and she loved him dearly. As a speci­men of her care and encouragement, let me quote from part of a letter she wrote to him on April 23, 1897:


“My Precious Child:

Do not be troubled like Martha of old over anything, do not be disheartened over failure, when at heart you are as faithful as Abraham. We are all to be tried and proved, as by fire. Now darling, there is but one Mind. No other Mind exists and therefore an evil so called mind cannot, does not affect you or your busi­ness. Keep the first commandment, sacredly and know there is but one Mind. Keep the ten commandments, do not let your affections rest for a moment in forbidden directions, but, dear one, know one God, one affection, one peace. The senses that lie are nonsense. There is no sensation in wrong directions....”


Young Mr. Johnson made a good member of the Finance Committee, since he was under the constant supervision of his father. ­It is interesting to note that Mr. Hill was a member of this Committee until his death in 1943, having been so continuously from this appointment.

Since this letter directs the Board to include me on the Building Committee, I must repeat the in­cident where Mr. Armstrong came to me soon after the appointment, and asked me to ask Mr. Bates to resign from the Committee. At that time I did not know that these appointments had been made by our Leader, but I said to him, “I do not question your authority in asking me to do this thing, but suppose Mrs. Eddy does not like it?” His answer was, “I might become sick but I would get over it.” In other words, he was willing to bear the brunt of his own mistakes and suffer for them, but when he knew that his motive was right, he perceived that no mistake would be fatal, since God rewards or punishes according to motive, as our Leader has said.

Subsequent events caused me to believe that Mr. Bates' resignation at my request was in harmony with God's plan, since it threw the responsibility for the actual building on the Directors. Mr. Hill was elected to serve in Mr. Bates' place, and the commit­tee served as mental workers, rather than as direct overseers of the Building. The result was, that when Mrs. Eddy called us to her home two years later, I was free to go. I would not have been free, had I been more closely allied to the construction work in Boston.

Mr. Bates was unpopular with a certain clique in Boston, and one of the arguments Mr. Armstrong used with me, in naming his unfitness to serve on the committee was that these people would not contribute to the building of the extension as long as he was on the committee. It was in my thought to say to Mr. Armstrong that the members were not giving the money to Mr. Bates, but to the church, since it was Mrs. Eddy's thought that the time had come to enlarge it, so that it would hold more people; but I forbore to name this to him. There might have been those who did not like Mr. Whitcomb, since any active man makes enemies as well as friends; yet that would not affect the building of the church.

But it must have been part of God's plan to have this matter work out as it did, since the building went forward successfully under the direct supervision of the Directors, with the Building Committee carrying the mental work.

It is to be noted that in this letter Mrs. Eddy does not take direct action to have Mr. Whitcomb resign from the Finance Committee. In dealing with those who were individuals of human reputation and worth, she was gentle. While she was sure that he would do whatever she requested him to, she had no wish that he feel that he was merely a pawn in a chess game. She wanted him to trust her and to be­lieve that she would give consideration to whatever ideas he might have of his own. If he felt that she depended somewhat on his judgment, he would be more apt to strive to measure up to her expectancy. Fu­ture Directors may take a timely hint from our Leader's tact and understanding in dealing with students. Students who attain prominence in the Cause should be made to feel that the Directors respect their opinion. The Board may be the appointed head of the Movement, but they will do much to gain the confi­dence and respect of the Field, if they indicate that they have some interest in the judgment of tried workers. Even though they do not follow such advice, to ask the opinion of such workers will make them feel more kindly towards the Board and so will tend to unity.

The trend in big business is toward this very procedure. Even the smallest stockholders are made to feel that their opinions are of value. It is a wise attitude to adopt, for those in authority to in­vite the opinions of those they rule. It serves to bring about oneness and also to develop latent abil­ities in people. One of the great errors of dictator­ship is that it stifles individual development. Mrs. Eddy's attitude was the reverse of that. She made fine workers out of students and developed hidden possibilities, by making them feel that she trusted them, and even leaned on them at times.

It is obvious that a man who is in charge of building should not be in charge of finances, since such offices are designed to check each other. It was wise, therefore, for Mrs. Eddy to ask Mr. Whitcomb to resign one office before accepting the other.

It is a remarkable thing to find our Leader, who knew more than her students because of her oneness with divine Mind, asking advice from them. Once she wrote to a student, “When you and all have borne the cross of the Discoverer and Founder of Christian Science, you may be able to tell Mother something she does not know already.” One reason for her asking this advice was her perception that her students must be trained to take more and more initiative. Another reason was her selfless love and entire lack of human pride. She had no axe to grind, but merely good to impart to all.

The reference to Mr. Johnson reading one of her letters is obscure, but it may have referred to the fact that he read one of her letters in a meeting in order to explain his authority for some move, when she had made it plain that she did not wish to be known as being the mover behind it; but she forgave him. The Directors were not figureheads controlled entirely by Mrs. Eddy, because they were incapable of governing; but when she received instructions from God, they had to be incorporated into the organiza­tion without fuss or delay. At the same time it was necessary that in the eyes of the Field the Board should appear as a ruling body. Whatever sug­gested that Mrs. Eddy was telling them exactly what to do, would cause the Field to believe that she considered her Directors incapable of making their own decisions, which was not true at all. She had selected them at God's direction because she knew that as His choice they would be willing channels for His wisdom. But she had to watch that in train­ing them to take responsibility, they did not begin to feel that their own opinions were worth more than divine wisdom. The moment that happened, they would become unfit for office.

Often times men who have always been told exactly what to do, go wild with freedom when they are given even a little authority. An example of this very tendency was when Mrs. Eddy appointed Mr. Bates on the Building Committee, and then Mr. Armstrong asked me to ask him to resign. If the Board did not like her selection of Mr. Bates, they should have written her and told her so. Although no harm came to the Cause by this move on Mr. Armstrong's part, I cite it as showing the problem that confronted our Leader. She hoped to train the Directors to sober judgment and sound conclusions, but in doing so she ran the risk that they become wild with freedom and try to take things into their own hands. Then the first thing that they would be liable to do was to ques­tion Mrs. Eddy herself. In one sense she was sitting on a volcano that might burst forth, if she did not watch; but it never did. There never came a time when her ideas for the Cause were put into the discard; but the danger was always present.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

December 19, 1902

Beloved Student:

You say, “When shall we learn the way?” I reply, When you have all faith in Truth, hence no faith in error. Gain this point, overcome evil with the good by knowing that good is supreme — is the master of so-called evil. Work mentally with this consciousness and you will overcome evil just as I have done so many years, and carried on a cause in the midst of all opposition, to such heights of success.

True, I am battle-stained; but I still love and give orders that are blessed and foil the enemy.

Read this letter to the C. S. Board of Directors and let your noble son study it.

With love,

Mother

M. B. Eddy

N. B. Naming persons in prayer, is the fight between beasts. Overcoming their evil and lies with good, and Truth in your prayers, is C. S.


Once Mrs. Eddy wrote to a student, “You have no faith in evil.” Then she went on to say, “You are face to face with both Truth and error, and this must come before the power of Truth is understood, and the powerlessness, yes, the nothingness of error is proven. Wait patiently on the Lord. Why? Because He has said it, and because the escape from sense is slow, and if we are patient, it is accelerated.”

Mr. Johnson's question to our Leader, “When shall we learn the way?” indicated that he was feel­ing a sense of discouragement in contemplating how much there was for a mortal to learn, and so little time in which to learn it. Yet the fact is, that each one has a God-given ability to reflect all know­ledge, and in reality does not have to learn anything. And if we are patient, and work mentally with the realization that good is the master of so-called evil, our ability to reflect all we need to know will slowly appear.

A radio receiver does not have to learn the way. It does not need to be taught anything. It merely must be tuned, and a young radio can receive and voice programs as successfully as an old one. Mortal man does not have to learn spiritual truth. He merely comes into the recognition that he has been blinded to the way by mesmerism. Then he must realize that he has a God-given right and ability to handle mesmerism on the basis of the power of good to overcome evil, ­and of the fact that mesmerism does not exist at all. Then the way will appear right at hand.

Truth belongs to man, and there is nothing that can prevent him from receiving it, except his belief in error, which arises in proportion as he loses his faith in Truth, and hence faith in error claims the field. One who shuts his eyes to the light is in darkness. Yet this darkness is no more than the error that results from a lack of the recognition that the light is all about one. The light never leaves man; he leaves it, and the way back to the light is never closed to man. He is free to come into the consciousness of it in proportion as he works mentally to overcome evil.

When Mrs. Eddy wrote to Mr. Johnson, “True, I am battle-stained...” it was to help him and the other Directors in their estimate of her. It was helpful for students to know that when their Leader suffered in the flesh, it was the result of the tre­mendous struggle she was called upon to go through in order to establish truth upon the earth, and which she had to meet alone and unaided.

In early times there was a custom whereby a champion for each side would fight a single battle, and let the decision determine the supremacy of the entire tribe. Mrs. Eddy represented her Cause, and went out to fight the enemy single-handed. Yet she was continually training students to enter the lists with her and to fight under her direction; but their work was often of no real help to her.

In this letter she was telling the Directors that she showed upon herself the results of the struggle but that she had not been conquered, since she could “still love and give orders that are blessed and foil the enemy.” No student has been rendered hors de combat as long as he can do this. No matter how dis­couraged one may feel over the weight of error that seems to engulf him, if he can still love and work for humanity, he may be battle-stained, but he is still in the ring fighting for God.

Mrs. Eddy was not always able to maintain the physical health and vigor that we associate with mental supremacy and understanding; but what if she did show in her flesh the marks of the error she had overthrown? After Jesus had gone through the crucifixion, he was battle-stained; but he was still able to love and to function as a child of God. He appeared to yield to his enemies outwardly, but what error did to him in the flesh in no way affected his ability to love, and to give orders that were blessed and that foiled the enemy.

The rule is, not to gauge our Leader because of the marks of the warfare that indicated her tremendous struggle with mortal mind, but to observe that she never became embittered nor did she turn sour. She retained her ability to love and to foil animal mag­netism. Yet she once said, “I would that I could bear the burden of life without a scar.”

In calling Mr. Johnson's son noble, Mrs. Eddy was offering all of her followers the opportunity to recognize themselves as noble sons of God, and hint­ing that we will be able to study her letters and writings and glean the underlying spiritual lesson only in proportion as we do this. The children of mortal mind can find no value in any of the imparta­tions of divine wisdom. They can see nothing sig­nificant in the teaching that is designed to lead them out of mortality into immortality. Mortal mind is reluctant to part with its error or to get out of it; hence it listens with no desire or intelli­gence to the instructions that will point the way out. Of what use is it to tell a man how to get out of matter, when he does not want to get out of matter? He wants matter to be made harmonious and kept that way continually, so that he may retain his ability to enjoy himself in the flesh without diminution or interference. Even when he comes into Christian Science, he usually does so under the impression that human life is going to be made perpetually har­monious as a result. In fact if the hook of Chris­tian Science were not baited with human harmony, it would not be attractive enough to mortal mind to lure many fish.

The hope of the race lies in the fact that as one studies Christian Science, a gradual spiritual­ization takes place which leads him gently to a higher aspiration, so that his desire to be harmo­nious in the flesh is superseded by a desire to get rid of the belief of the flesh, and to attain the eternal harmony of Spirit.

Mrs. Eddy's followers must recognize themselves as noble sons of God and study what she has written from that standpoint, if they ever hope to glean the true value and benefit of the marvelous inspiration such missives contain.

Mrs. Eddy was well aware that Mr. Johnson's son was coming under the temptation at this time to make a reality of the sins of others. In his position he could not help but see the evidence of all the errors of the Field that were brought to the attention of the Directors. Yet Mrs. Eddy knew that she could not save him by condemnation or by criticism. He was being tempted to personalize evil. Yet one would not shoot a dog because he was covered with vermin; he would wash him.

This letter, therefore, carried the lesson to the Directors as well as to Mr. Johnson's son, that when you desire to break a person, because he is a channel for error, it is the beast in you attempting to pull down the beast in another. The only right course in Christian Science is the endeavor to over­come evil with good, and thus to free the victims of animal magnetism from its baneful influence.

One wonderful lesson from this letter by impli­cation is, that the wise way to carry our organization is not so much by punishment as by reward. The best way to train a dog is not to break its spirit, but to teach it to love the right way, by rewarding it for doing what is right.

If Mr. Johnson's son had any respect or affec­tion for Mrs. Eddy, her calling him noble would do more to cause him to heed the valuable teaching con­tained in this letter, than all the condemnation or criticism in the world. The error he was committing was not deliberate, and as in her estimation he deserved teaching, not condemnation.

One could linger with this beautiful letter, since it carries the proof that even though our Leader bore the marks of battle, she had preserved her sci­entific thought, so that she was able to reflect God and to impart His directions to the Cause. She was like an automobile the appearance of which has been somewhat marred by other cars bumping into it, but which still runs as perfectly as ever. People may criticize its appearance, but what real importance is the external when it runs year after year without fail?

There are practitioners who endeavor to set themselves before patients, as if they never had any­thing to meet, never had to put up an active struggle in order to keep ahead of error. Yet here they find their Leader setting forth that she was battle­-stained. She did not hesitate to admit it; but at the same time she made it plain that she was unaf­fected mentally. She thereby set the example that she did not want her followers to put on any false front. She knew that it was a greater proof of Christian Science to have crossed swords with the en­emy and to have come forth victorious, than never to have had any enemy to overcome. To be sure, Chris­tian Science teaches that animal magnetism is only an illusion; yet when the spiritual warrior enters the lists against it, at once it rises up to resist its destruction. The moment mortal mind feels the power of Truth taking from his pet illusions, there rises within him a rebellion and a resistance.

It should hearten all advancing pilgrims to know that their Leader was not ashamed to show the marks of having had to cross swords with error. She was willing to admit that she had had something to meet. She made no effort to conceal the fact; but she was strong in her declaration that in her relation to God, she was unaffected by sin's revenge on its destroyer.

After studying this letter from Mrs. Eddy's standpoint that we are noble sons, we might well ask the same question Mr. Johnson did, “When shall we learn the way?” Of a truth God alone knows. Hence we must approach Him, in order to hear His voice and be guided thereby. The only way to reach this com­munion with divine Mind is by overcoming evil as she outlined the steps in this letter. But she could not avoid telling the Directors indirectly that in the process they would come to grips with the devil and perhaps find themselves battle-stained. Yet her experience proved that there is no real danger to the honest heart in battling with animal magnetism. What a comfort this knowledge is to the struggling one who is tempted to accept the suggestion that it is dangerous to challenge the powers of darkness and that to work to overthrow evil is an endeavor that is fraught with dreadful possibilities.

If this letter was good for the Directors and Mr. Johnson's son to study, it is good for us to study. Thus it may be called an authorized letter. That the Directors of today considered it important may be gathered from the fact that they published an excerpt from it in the Christian Science Sentinel of August 8, 1936.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

February 5, 1903

Board of Directors

Beloved Students:

I send the enclosed By-laws. Please convene immediately and vote on them. They are of equal importance to our cause. After adopting the By-law on the number of C. S. Directors — then consider and act on my candidate for Director, viz., Archibald McLellan, our Editor-in chief. I have watched him and so far he has been right on all important subjects. You will have three in unity that leaves a majority when they are right. Also you can now remove a member of your Board. “Mother” lives and learns by the things she suffers.

With love,

Your teacher

M. B. Eddy

(“remove” in above letter written in)


From a human standpoint a committee made up of four individuals could be stalemated on a moot ques­tion, whereas one of five could not. While Mrs. Eddy was with us, she could break a deadlock, where two were opposed to two; but five members represented a more workable body for the future, when she would no longer be present. She knew that it was possible for animal magnetism to touch a Board of five members; but that it was more difficult for error to handle the organization through five than through four.

“Mother lives and learns by the things she suffers.” This move in regard to the Directors was another in­stance, where when our Leader had some important move that God required her to make, she suffered until she made it. It was wisdom's way of causing her to do that which she hesitated to do, because they were so revolutionary that she feared that they might arouse opposition, and even cause a split in the ranks; but to end her suffering she had to do them, and to let God take care of the results, as He always did.

Now that we can look back at Mrs. Eddy's entire history, we see the importance of every move she made at God's direction; yet it does not follow that she foresaw the benefit and blessing that would follow such moves. Her own words were, “Whatever I have discovered, understood and taught of Truth, I have never known beforehand its why or wherefore. It has always come into my thoughts and gone forth in words or deeds, before God's dear purpose in it and the fruits it would bear were fully revealed to me. I have always been called in spiritual paths to walk by faith and not by sight, to abide in the sense of God and not body for insight and action.”

Mrs. Eddy felt that Mr. McLellan had the qual­ifications which would make him a suitable member of the Board of Directors. He could not have been right on important subjects merely through his own opinions. The implication is that when one in a position dem­onstrates his work he is thereby fitting himself to go higher. No matter what his work is, his progress cannot be retarded, if he is endeavoring to utilize divine Mind. Science enables its followers little by little to drop a limited inferior sense of Mind for an efficient one — one that will enable them to pro­gress throughout eternity.

One helpful implication from this letter is that the position of Directors in our Movement is one that a student becomes fitted for, in proportion as he learns how to demonstrate successfully, showing that a knowledge of how to reflect divine Mind is of more importance than a knowledge of human affairs and how to direct them.

When Mrs. Eddy declared that Mr. McLellan had been right on all important subjects, she was saying that he had been faithful over a few things; there­fore he was ready to step in and become ruler over many. He had proved himself to be a good editor, not because of human training (of which he had had very little as far as writing was concerned) but because he was demonstrating his divine capabilities. Being able to fulfill his position in spite of the fact that he was not a trained writer, proved that he was demonstrating his work.

Thus for all time Mrs. Eddy laid down the precept that members of the directorate would be students chosen largely because of their demonstrating ability. It follows that the moment a student esteems his human ability, training and attainments more highly than he ought, as a worker in any position in our Movement, he is balanced on the wrong side. If the Directors should employ Christian Science lawyers who rated human law as being superior to divine law, in God's sight they would be disqualified for such work, since their attitude would carry it on the side of human law — a belief in law, rather than the law of God.

No alert member of The Mother Church would ever claim that the wisdom of man was adequate to carry Mrs. Eddy's Cause along correct lines. Hence in order for one to be fitted to be a Director, he must have some access to the wisdom of God; he must believe in it mightily; he must have scant faith in himself apart from his reflection of wisdom.

Humanly speaking the great Lincoln was far from being fitted to become president of our great country. He had never had educational opportunities, nor the chance to associate with men important in world af­fairs, and so he found it necessary to lean heavily on God for aid. Yet this attitude caused him to become the greatest president we ever had. Even people with no special belief in a supreme being rated him the greatest of all statesmen. Yet it was distrust and not trust in self that was at the bottom of his success.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

February 18, 1903

Dictated

Christian Science Board of Directors

Beloved Students:

In 1892 the Massachusetts State Commis­sioner of Corporations refused to give The Mother Church a charter, because, that in Boston a Baptist church was incorporated “Church of Christ,” — and because our church had been previously chartered and disorganized.

Here I ask, if our church charter is sur­rendered, may we not again encounter the same obstacles and quibbles, and possibly by some unexpected stroke be unable to obtain a char­ter? “A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.” Also cannot the present disloyal Sci­entists, who were formerly members of The Mother Church, hatch some false claims to rights under the first charter and so give us trouble? I must stoutly question the sur­render of our charter until we know for a cer­tainty what our situation will be after giving up our present charter.

I wish to be exempt from all legal ob­ligations growing out of the situation of our church hereafter. I desire also to have The Mother Church strictly guarded against any false claims that may be brought by disloyal students, or any litigation whereby either the ownership of The Mother Church property can be forfeited or its present Tenets and Church government be changed.

I should rejoice to have The Mother Church incorporated like other churches, pro­vided that this can be done and the aforesaid rights and privileges retained, and the proper­ty still be subject to same trust as imposed by me on my lot to Trustees.

I hereby declare that in future a unani­mous vote of the Christian Science Board of Directors, and consent, can dispose of any lots or lands subsequently purchased and not re­quired for the uses of The Mother Church.

I hereby send a copy of General Streeter's letter in reply to mine soliciting his counsel.

With love as ever,

Mary Baker G. Eddy


This letter is a wonderful example of our Leader's alertness in watching to see that no error aimed at our Cause went undetected. She practiced her own teaching, namely, that “...evil, uncovered, is self ­destroyed,” (Miscellaneous Writings, page 210). She knew that the only success that error can have is when it can hide itself, and function in the dark. A student may suddenly feel irritated and accept an entirely erroneous idea of why he feels thus. If he can uncover the error as an attempt of animal mag­netism to rob him of God, he becomes the master of it, and it is self-destroyed.

The common conception of our Leader is that she was great because of the mighty works she performed under the divine impulsion; but where would the Cause have been today, without her watchfulness and ability to detect and uncover error, to circumvent and frus­trate its plots, before these plots were hatched?

With due respect to the Directors, who were faithful in performing their duties, at this time when the possibility of incorporating The Mother Church was being agitated, and the legal conditions surrounding the erection of the extension were being formulated, they were not as watchful as their Leader. They would have surrendered the church charter, with the promise that if they did so, they would be able to obtain a new one. Her insight detected the error lurking in ambush, and once more saved the Cause from hidden reefs.

The Directors were intelligent men; they were faithful in office; yet here was a trap into which they would have fallen had it not been for the watch­fulness of a lone woman, who had never had any legal training, but who lived so close to God, that she was able to maintain an alertness in regard to error, that appears to have its correspondence at the present time in the delicate radar instruments that detect unerringly the presence of airplanes or submarines within a wide area.

Present-day students may gain a necessary lesson from this letter, in the realization that unless we have watchmen on the walls of Zion, the Cause will find itself in danger. We learn from our Leader's experience that she trusted God as her infallible guide. When she saw attempts being made to limit, prevent or interfere with the stately march of Chris­tian Science, she detected and thwarted such attempts. A situation can be corrected when the error is recog­nized. It is only the hidden error that is undetected that works in the dark.

Often Mrs. Eddy was apprised of the operation of error in the Cause, or the need to take some for­ward step by suffering. Yet she did not complain at this necessity. It is as if the steps she was called upon to take were so vital for the salvation of the world, that God could not afford to take a chance of any failure to carry them out. The explan­ation is that when the necessity for taking a for­ward step was strong upon her, she was often affected and afflicted physically until it was taken. Adam Dickey records that when she changed the By-laws doing away with the Communion Service in The Mother Church, and disbanding the executive members of The Mother Church, she suffered greatly. “But the moment she arrived at a decision and framed the By-law which treated with these two conditions, her relief was instantaneous and she arose immediately, healed.” Then Mr. Dickey quotes Isa.53:4, 5 in explanation. (See Memoirs of Adam H. Dickey, page 46.)




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

February 27, 1903

Dictated

Christian Science Board of Directors

Beloved Students:

I am not a lawyer, and do not sufficiently comprehend the legal trend of the copy you en­closed to me to suggest changes therein. Upon one point, however, I feel competent to advise, namely: Never abandon the By-laws nor the de­nominational government of The Mother Church. If I am not personally with you, the Word of God, and my instructions in the By-laws have led you hitherto and will remain to guide you safely on, and the teachings of St. Paul are as useful today as when they were first written.

The present and future prosperity of the Cause of Christian Science is largely due to the By-laws and government of “The First Church of Christ, Scientist” in Boston. None but my­self can know, as I know, the importance of the combined sentiment of this Church remaining steadfast in supporting its present By-laws. Each of these many By-laws has met and mas­tered, or forestalled some contingency, some imminent peril, and will continue to do so. Its By-laws have preserved the sweet unity of this large church, that has perhaps the most members and combined influence of any other church in our country. Many times a single By-law has cost me long nights of prayer and struggle, but it has won the victory over some sin and saved the walls of Zion from being torn down by disloyal students. We have proven that “In unity there is strength.”

With love as ever,

Mary Baker G. Eddy

N. B. I request that you put this letter upon our church records.

M. B. E.


Mrs. Eddy states without qualification that the teachings of St. Paul are as useful today as when they were first written. We deduce that this contention is not only a hint that his letters need to be inter­preted spiritually, but hers also, since it is ob­vious that St. Paul's letters are of little present­ day value unless they are so interpreted. Her state­ment is a rebuke to anyone who might claim that either his letters or hers relate to affairs that lie wholly in the past, and so they belong in the discard. At least this one letter God required to be preserved for future study, since she was led to request that it be put upon the church records. It was published in the Sentinel of August 22, 1914, in the Christian Science Monitor during the litigation, and also ap­peared in facsimile on page 204 of Powell's book.

One valuable deduction from this letter appears from the first statement, “I am not a lawyer, and do not sufficiently comprehend the legal trend of the copy you enclosed to me to suggest any changes there­in.” This copy is evidently the Deed to be found on page 128 of the Church Manual. Mrs. Eddy was not a lawyer, and did not know the law; yet her wisdom was worth more to the Cause than that of any lawyer. She carried the Cause through the dangerous period in which its opponents well versed in human law sought to find some point whereby they could overthrow it or take away its property, — and she provided it with heaven-sent advice, or guidance from God.

If this be true, then why did she need lawyers at all? She saw that it was necessary to have her advice put in an accepted legal form that would con­form with established practice and stand the test of law. Thus the lawyers had a place, but that place was secondary.

In advising the Directors never to abandon the By-laws nor the denominational government of The Mother Church, she was stating that as long as there remained a mortal on earth who needed to be brought into line, the means for so doing would be necessary. Until a student has reached the place where he is capable of functioning under his own demonstration of divine intelligence, he must willingly function under the By-laws and government which were our Leader's demonstration.

Mrs. Eddy trusted the letter of this new Deed to be phrased by the lawyers, while she provided the spirit. This may be a useful hint, that we should regard the Manual as providing us with the letter, and that we should strive to add the spirit.

If the Directors should ever be tempted to use this letter from our Leader as a whip, to keep stu­dents in line, and to punish what they consider to be the slightest deviation from the By-laws, they should recall that at times Mrs. Eddy departed from them herself in cases where divine wisdom guided her to do so, and in so doing she laid down a precedent, that there is one thing and one alone that supersedes all established procedure, and that is individual gui­dance reflected directly from divine Mind.

When Mrs. Eddy traces the present and future prosperity of the Cause to the Manual, she does not imply that this prosperity will take any of the mem­bership into the kingdom of heaven, since her teachings make it plain that the only thing that will do that, is individual spiritualization. The prosperity of the organization is essential to the spread of Christ's kingdom on earth, but such a condition may be de­scribed as its outward state, in contrast to its in­ward, which must be a constant approach to a higher spirituality — an improving reflection of inspiration. By-laws will regulate action and the relation of members one to another; but spiritual development never resulted from obedience to By-laws alone. It is true that on page 230 of Miscellany Mrs. Eddy writes, “Of this I am sure, that each Rule and By-law in this Manual will increase the spirituality of him who obeys it....” But by such obedience she means not only the discipline of the human mind that finally is put off, but the demonstration of divine Mind that floods in to take its place.

One of the Master's By-laws was to the effect that “if any man will sue thee at the law, and take away thy coat, let him have they cloak also.” The question is, would obedience to this requirement increase one's spirituality? One might say to himself, “Now this effort to impoverish me is only an attempt of animal magnetism to disturb the pulse of my think­ing. Furthermore, because I am in reality spiritual, I do not need a material cloak. So I will let this man have it, and will watch that no thoughts but God's thoughts enter my consciousness.” Such an at­titude would help to put the human mind under foot, leave the door open for one to reflect God, and be a complete protection. Jesus' practical application of it was when he declared, “Father forgive them; for they know not what they do.”

Just as Jesus' By-law was more than a human pre­cept, so Mrs. Eddy did not write the Manual just as a means for keeping students from doing this or that; but to place in their hands that which would enable them to discipline the human mind, not in order to strengthen it, but to subdue it, so that it may be put off. From such a standpoint, obedience to By­-laws will result in spirituality.

It is better for one to have his thought empty of error, than to be filled with it; but spirituality results only as one allows God to dwell in his con­sciousness, by realizing that He always has dwelt there and always will. Since in reality God is never absent, this intermediate condition of a vacuum is but a belief. It is not dissipated, however, until it is recognized and met as a belief. As such it is ripe for destruction.

The conclusion is that obedience to the Manual produces a better phase of belief; but because a better belief is on the road to understanding, Mrs. Eddy in her quoted statement assumes that the student will continue his journey and thereby gain an increase in spirituality. It is obvious, however, that this will not be the case if one merely goes from the belief in error to the belief in its absence, and then stops there.

In spite of the fact that this letter of February 27th stresses the vital importance of the Manual, and of the “combined sentiment of this church remain­ing steadfast in supporting its present By-laws,” Mrs. Eddy has written much that indicates that in her estimation, the Church of Christ will not always need a human organization to express it. So long as there is an organization, By-laws will be essential to take care of it. They represent the watchmen on the walls, so that those inside may continue with their inspirational efforts without interference. Yet one cannot escape the conclusion that all organized methods are to be left behind, when one is ready for his skyward flight.

Mrs. Eddy indicates plainly the importance of the Manual, just as a man would indicate the importance of the scaffold to those who were erecting a building. The scaffold is destined to be torn down, when the structure is finished. Nevertheless its temporary nature should never influence those who have charge of it, to do aught but make it so strong, that there will be no danger to those who need to use it each day in their work.

Who can deny that this magnificent letter is in­struction for babes in Christ, who have by no means reached the age of true self-government? Had Mrs. Eddy been writing wholly for the benefit of her ad­vanced workers, she would have commended them to the wisdom of God, since everything less would have been interference. When one is striving to be divinely guided, he must have an open thought, ready to obey whatever leading that comes. One who is teaching another to swim, holds his pupil, until the lessons are learned. Then he frees him; but this freedom must not come too soon. Otherwise the pupil may drown.

“If I am not personally with you....” Here Mrs. Eddy anticipates the time when she will no longer be present in person to guide the Cause. She leaves be­hind the Word of God, and her instructions in the By-­laws. The Word of God would include the direct gui­dance which would lead the men in Christ, and the instructions in the By-laws would take care of the babes.

The Bible is called the Word of God. A great part of it is a collection of experiences showing that when men and nations listened for the voice of God and followed it, they were blessed and protected; but when they turned away from it, they brought di­saster upon themselves. It covers many centuries in order to prove this point, namely, that success, prosperity and peace follow demonstration, whereas disaster follows turning away from God. Yet it has little practical value, unless it opens thought to the possibility of man's receiving guidance from God in this present age.

Mrs. Eddy's life is worthy to form a new Bible, or to be made part of the old, since in it the same demonstration of divine wisdom has been repeated on a scientific basis in this day and generation. Fur­thermore it is the first time in history that the at­tainment of God's wisdom and guidance has been made available for all in a practical and operative Science. When she states that the Word of God will remain to guide her followers safely on, this must mean the Bible, her writings and life, as well as the possibility of each student reflecting for himself the same spiritual leading that enabled her to discover Chris­tian Science, and to bring the Cause to such prosperity.

The essential lesson of the Bible is that it is possible for man to be guided by God, and to receive instruction from on high. The greatest proof that Mrs. Eddy followed the Bible is found in the fact that she reproduced the demonstration of the Bible, and enabled her followers to do likewise.

In the Old Testament the record may be said to overbalance on the side of hearing the voice of God, in contradistinction to the demonstration of healing. The converse of that should not be true today in our Cause, with Christian Scientists overbalanced on the side of healing, and neglecting to open thought to hear the wisdom of God.

In stating in this letter that the teachings of St. Paul are as useful today as when they were first written, Mrs. Eddy gives us the assurance that the spiritual vitality of all that comes from divine Mind is perpetual, and that the method that enabled St. Paul, as well as herself to gain inspiration, will accomplish the same result for her followers for all time. On this basis one may state that her letters to her church and to students will always be as use­ful as when they were first written.

When a raft of logs is floated down a river to the sawmill, the logs are bound together by ropes. In our Movement the By-laws represent those ropes which will bind all in the unity of strength, only as the combined sentiment of the Church remains stead­fast in supporting them.

“Many times a single By-law has cost me long nights of prayer and struggle.” Here is proof from Mrs. Eddy that her access to Mind was not always a simple matter. She could open her thought to God in prayer but her struggle was her fight with animal magnetism, the overcoming of which alone made the reception of this Mind possible.

The Bible states, “...before they call, I will answer.” This letter states, “Each of these By-laws has met and mastered, or forestalled some contingency, some imminent peril, and will continue to do so.” There were instances when Mrs. Eddy was led to estab­lish a By-law before some imminent peril appeared; so she was ready for it, when it appeared. But more often the need appeared first. The right mode of action in Science is to demonstrate the antidote be­fore the error presents itself. One senses the shadow before the object appears, prepares for it, and then is ready to face the event, and is safe; but in the thick of battle, this is not always possible.

Any member of The Mother Church who is correctly taught and has put his understanding into practice, who is willing to spend long nights of prayer and struggle, should likewise be able to bring to the Church that which will save it from any present-day attempts of evil to disrupt it. When you have killed your enemy, you no longer fight him. The purpose of animal magnetism is to rob man of God. If this loss should ever take place in Mrs. Eddy's church, and the Cause cease to be governed by a present-day influx of divine instruction, persecution and enmity from animal magnetism will cease. Let no member rejoice if this ever happens under the mistaken impression that the freedom from persecution means that mortal mind has finally been put under foot. Spirituality is the essential life of our Cause. As long as it is maintained actively, the Church will have to wage an unceasing war against the attempts of animal magnetism to kill out this spirituality.

Jesus said, “For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall much be required.” If an individual of our Cause has gained much spirituality, a constant effort will be required to protect it. The spiritual status of our Cause at any given point, may be determined by the amount of persecution and opposition it is experiencing. It was the spirituality that our Leader demonstrated and helped her students to demonstrate, that aroused the opposition in her day. She herself had the bulk of this opposition to meet, since she furnished the major portion of the spirit­uality. She knew that if the spirituality waned, the opposition would wane. That is why she wrote on page 45 of Retrospection and Introspection, “I also saw that Christianity has withstood less the tempta­tion of popularity than of persecution.” She saw that popularity would be a sign that spirituality was ebbing. As long as Christian Science is subject to ac­tive persecution at the hands of mortal mind, it will be a good sign. It will be proof that the spiritual idea is active and alive, since the carnal mind is enmity against God, and hence, actively opposed to those who are demonstrating His spirit.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

March 3, 1903

C. S. Board of Directors

Beloved Students:

Your request to hear my Hymns that are set to music by Mr. Johnson again sung in The Mother Church cheers my advancing years.

That tones liked or disliked should rule in or out of our church words like those in my Hymns — has been a sad experience for me; and I rejoice that the Christian spirit is calling these words back to rememberance. One of the wealthiest and most devout members of this church has recently requested me to have my Hymns sung more frequently in The Mother Church. It would be a good thing to have one of my hymns read and sung about every Sunday. It would spiritualize the thought of your audience and this is more needed in the church than aught else can be.

With love,

M. B. Eddy


It is well to pause at the salutations of our Leader's letters, and realize that when she called the Directors “beloved students,” she indicated that they had not as yet learned all they needed to know, in order to conduct the Cause without her help. They must still sit at her feet, and be amenable and re­ceptive to her instructions, before they assumed the authority that their position carried with it. It was necessary for them to realize, that they were her students as much as was anyone who did not hold such an imposing title as Director, but referred to himself simply as a Christian Scientist.

Mrs. Eddy did not wish that the inspirational words of her poems be ruled in or out of the church, merely because the music was liked or disliked. One should not feel free to like or dislike food, after the demonstration has been made to see it as a gift of God. For one to declare the he disliked aught that came from God, or that had the spirit of God in it, would be for him to admit that he was handled by animal magnetism. Whatever comes from God is good, and all of His children naturally love good.

A student who refused to attend church because he did not like the voice of one of the readers, would represent a parallel error. Does one spurn a picture, because he does not like the frame?

The greater temptation of my life along these lines, came to me when I heard Mrs. Bemis read Mrs. Eddy's address at the dedication of The Mother Church. She put the thought of oratory into what she read to such a degree, that that was practically all her hearers received. She surrounded the Message with such a human sense, that its true spiritual value seemed almost eclipsed. Yet for me to have disliked the wonderful message on this account, would have convicted me of being handled by error.

Mortals might use this letter to convict our Leader of believing that her hymns were better than anyone's else, that other hymns could be discarded, but that hers should be retained. But she wrote without pride, because she knew that she was writing about her Father's hymns, since He had given them to her. The only pride she could possibly have had, would have been in the recognition, that He had chosen her to be the humble instrument to give out the beauty and healing that is expressed in the words of her hymns.

Had Mrs. Eddy called them God's hymns in this letter, she would have opened herself to criticism on the part of those who would deny her contention. But anyone who has ever felt the healing power and eternal quality of inspiration in them, knows that they did come from God.

It was plain to our Leader that one who would oppose the singing of her hymns because he disliked the music, would correspond to one who would throw away an oyster because he disliked its shell. To turn to effect as if it were cause is the entire error of mortality, and now she found one who had just been appointed as a Director, manifesting this very error. No wonder she declared that this whole matter had been a sad experience for her.

“One of the wealthiest and most devout members....” This referred to Mary Beecher Longyear, and our Leader's letters to her of March 4, 1903, throws further light on this incident: “Beloved Student: Your dear letter is received. First will say — I stopped the singing of my two hymns because the music set to them offended certain members of the church. Now I have received your good will on restoring these hymns also a request that they be sung again in church, and this request comes from our Directors! One of whom has bitterly opposed hearing the music that came with them. I thank God, thank you, and others for this unification in our church.”

One might ask how one member of the Board of Directors opposing these hymns, could carry enough weight to rule them out of the church; but the answer is that the minority often rules in our organ­ization. It is a better belief to have unity on a poorer plan or procedure, than dissension over a better plan. When students are willing to yield their own ideas for the sake of unity, that is a surer proof that they are right, than as though they stuck to their guns with tenacity and insisted on having their way, regardless of the effect of such an atti­tude on the church. Unity is so vital to the pros­perity of our Movement, that the majority can always afford to bow to the minority on less important issues, rather than to create a wave of disunity for the sake of pride, or will — merely to have one's own way.

Mrs. Eddy knew that her hymns would have a spir­itualizing effect on the congregation because they were inspirational in character. But she did not intend that her hymns, even though they were given of God, should take the place of the mental work for the services that blesses both the giver and the receiver. The entire purpose of our services is to lift from people their human thinking, and to give them in its place the thought of God. Everything in the service is designed to contribute to this end, but the entire service will be balanced on the right side only when students take up the work of realizing scientifically that there is no human mind, that there is but one Mind, and that this Mind animates and permeates every individual present; that divine Mind is the only Mind they have ever had or ever could have or wish for, and that no such thing as animal magnetism exists to reverse this good work or to prevent it from accom­plishing its mission. They must know that God indeed dwells in the church and that everyone can be and is conscious of His presence; that they feel His love and nothing else.

Singing our Leader's hymns cannot be said to be the main spiritualizing factor in our services. They do spiritualize the thought, but their function might be likened to a self-starter, that is designed to start the thought of every working student along the line to synchronize the thoughts of the audience with God's thoughts. They do produce a momentary elevation, as does the reading from the desk, but this elevation must be augmented and protected by mental work.

In commenting on this letter, it is necessary to state that the last two sentences have often been quoted in the Christian Science Sentinel to indicate to the Field that one of Mrs. Eddy's hymns should be used in branch churches every Sunday. I believe that it was a mistake for the Directors to do this. First, on page 66 of the Church Manual we find that when in a meeting Mrs. Eddy is referred to as au­thority for business, she required the Church to in­quire if all of the letter has been read, and to re­quire all of it to be read. Second, when she is used as authority, her last work on a subject should be cited; and in the case of the use of her hymns, her last word was written March 11th as follows: “Be ye governed by your own convictions and wisdom in the use of my hymns.”

Demonstration on the part of a reader would in­dicate that the singing of one of Mrs. Eddy's hymns in any service was the finest possible bugle call to the work students are expected to do. At the same time she was not unmindful of the right of each stu­dent to individual self-government by demonstration. She first states what her own thought is on the sub­ject; then she makes it plain that she is not going to use her own idea of things to dominate the Church, to override the individual demonstration of wisdom and conviction of her followers.

If our Leader has laid down a precept for her organization in this incident of the singing of her hymns, it follows that when the Directors find it necessary to call to a student's attention the fact that in their opinion he is indulging in ways and means not covered by the Manual, they should write in this vein: “It is our opinion that you are not living up to the Manual, and doing that for which there is no provision in its By-laws; at the same time if you are convinced that your action is the result of your highest demonstration of guidance, and you are doing what you are doing because you believe that God is directing you, we will respect that attitude on your part if it is honest. We will be glad to discuss the matter either in person or by letter, and give you the benefit of the doubt.”

Such an attitude encourages individual demonstra­tion and places it where it belongs, at the very top of the heap in Christian Science. At the same time the Directors may warn such a student not to commit the unpardonable sin of using “the livery of heaven wherewith to cover iniquity.” Miscellaneous Writings, page 19. This is what a mortal does, when he per­mits himself to be controlled by his own human desires in his actions, at the same time claiming that he is doing what God is telling him to do.

If our Leader would not interfere with a stu­dent who was following individual demonstration, neither should the officials who are following in her footsteps in carrying on her Cause. At the same time she would be careful to warn students against doing a thing from the standpoint of the human mind, and then calling it divine Mind. At all times she encouraged obedience to God, and to what one believed to be God's guidance. She knew, however, that animal magnetism may mislead a student into mistaking God's voice. Hence she had to be faithful in warning stu­dents that it was possible for animal magnetism to pretend to be a voice, and to deceive one into be­lieving it to be God's voice.

The students are in no danger, however, who know that error cannot hide itself, that God's child cannot be deceived, and that if it is the voice of God, it cannot be silenced and if it is error pre­tending to be God's voice, it is silenced now. If the leading persists after being challenged in that way, one may be sure that it is coming from God.

The human picture back of the scene in connec­tion with the hymns was a sense of prejudice that arose, between Mr. Johnson's son and Mr. McLellan. Mr. Johnson's son had a thorough knowledge of music, but he had an intellectual sense of it. Mr. McLellan was not competent to judge his music, but personal dis­like of the son caused him to feel a prejudice against everything he did. Then we have the interesting picture of Mrs. Eddy and the four Directors, fully aware of the error of the situation, waiting until it was healed before forcing the issue in regard to the music. They could easily have overridden Mr. McLellan by weight of numbers, but there would not have been unity, nor would the error have been healed.

The lesson to be learned is, that unless we rule out animal magnetism, with it will come dissen­sion, criticism and a lack of any ability to read aright the motives of others. Students will convict each other of doing everything from a selfish and personal standpoint. If one student gives a good testimony, others will claim that he is seeking advancement by that means. If one writes a book, others will say that he is trying to make money out of the organization.

When in this letter Mrs. Eddy states that to spiritualize the thought of the audience in our church is more needed than aught else can be, she is stating a precept which will endure throughout time. From it we learn that the service is the form in which the spiritual nutriment is given to the congregation; but to provide the form without the spir­itualizing animus, makes the service an empty shell.

Mrs. Eddy put the words of her hymns ahead of the music, just as she put spiritualization ahead of the church form. The entire teaching of Christian Science is to enable the student to plunge beneath the material surface of things, and find the spiritual cause (Science and Health, page 313). It saddened her when she found students failing to do this. Had Mr. McLellan been doing so, he never would have been caught by the trick of error that caused him to lose sight of cause by an induced prejudice against effect.




Pleasant View

Concord, N.H.

March 9, 1903

Christian Science Board of Directors

Beloved Students:

I hereby request that it be named in the deed of land, that the same inscription which is on the outside of the present church edifice shall be placed on the new church. Also I re­quest that according to page 108, clause No.3 of the old deed, as published in our Manual, you add to the deeds of land the following clause: No new Tenet or By-law shall be adopted by this church, and no Tenet or By-law shall be amended or annulled without the written consent of Mary Baker G. Eddy, the author of our textbook, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

My dear Students, I foresee that if you add to your deed the aforesaid clause, it will save you sad experience. It will tend to keep out of our church disloyal students, and to preserve the loyalty of those who are members thereof.

As ever lovingly,

Mary Baker Eddy


“During her natural life. No.” (This appears thus in the original letter with the word no underlined. It also appears, not crossed out, in a slip marked, March 10, 1903, supposed to be the slip referred to in letter of March 10, 1903.)