Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (universal ebook reader .TXT) 📖

Science and Health

With Key to The Scriptures

by MARY BAKER EDDY

 

YE shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. JOHN viii. 32.

THERE is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. SHAKESPEARE

OH! Thou hast heard my prayer; And I am blest! This is Thy high behest :- Thou here, and everywhere. MARY BAKER EDDY

 

SCIENCE AND HEALTH - Table Of Contents

* PREFACE

* CHAPTER I - PRAYER

* CHAPTER II - ATONEMENT AND EUCHARIST

* CHAPTER III - MARRIAGE

* CHAPTER IV - CHRISTIAN SCIENCE VERSUS SPIRITUALISM

* CHAPTER V - ANIMAL MAGNETISM UNMASKED

* CHAPTER VI - SCIENCE, THEOLOGY, MEDICINE

* CHAPTER VII - PHYSIOLOGY

* CHAPTER VIII - FOOTSTEPS OF TRUTH

* CHAPTER IX - CREATION

* CHAPTER X - SCIENCE OF BEING

* CHAPTER XI - SOME OBJECTIONS ANSWERED

* CHAPTER XII - CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PRACTICE

* CHAPTER XIII - TEACHING CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

* CHAPTER XIV - RECAPITULATION

KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES

* CHAPTER XV - GENESIS

* CHAPTER XVI - THE APOCALYPSE

* CHAPTER XVII - GLOSSARY

* CHAPTER XVIII - FRUITAGE

PREFACE

vi:1 To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is

big with blessings. The wakeful shepherd beholds vi:3 the first faint morning beams, ere cometh the full radiance

of a risen day. So shone the pale star to the prophet—

shepherds; yet it traversed the night, and came where, in vi:6 cradled obscurity, lay the Bethlehem babe, the human

herald of Christ, Truth, who would make plain to be—

nighted understanding the way of salvation through Christ vi:9 Jesus, till across a night of error should dawn the morning beams and shine the guiding star of being. The Wisemen were led to behold and to follow this daystar of vi:12 divine Science, lighting the way to eternal harmony.

 

The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent

of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the vi:15 portal of humanity. Contentment with the past and

the cold conventionality of materialism are crumbling

away. Ignorance of God is no longer the stepping-vi:18 stone to faith. The only guarantee of obedience is a

right apprehension of Him whom to know aright is

Life eternal. Though empires fall, “the Lord shall vi:21 reign forever.”

 

A book introduces new thoughts, but it cannot make

them speedily understood. It is the task of the sturdy vi:24 pioneer to hew the tall oak and to cut the rough

granite. Future ages must declare what the pioneer

has accomplished.

vi:27 Since the author’s discovery of the might of Truth in vii:1 the treatment of disease as well as of sin, her system has

been fully tested and has not been found wanting; but vii:3 to reach the heights of Christian Science, man must live

in obedience to its divine Principle. To develop the full

might of this Science, the discords of corporeal sense vii:6 must yield to the harmony of spiritual sense, even as the

science of music corrects false tones and gives sweet concord to sound.

vii:9 Theology and physics teach that both Spirit and

matter are real and good, whereas the fact is that

Spirit is good and real, and matter is Spirit’s oppo-vii:12 site. The question, What is Truth, is answered by

demonstration, by healing both disease and sin; and

this demonstration shows that Christian healing con-vii:15 fers the most health and makes the best men. On this

basis Christian Science will have a fair fight. Sickness

has been combated for centuries by doctors using ma-vii:18 terial remedies; but the question arises, Is there less

sickness because of these practitioners? A vigorous

“No” is the response deducible from two connate vii:21 facts, - the reputed longevity of the Antediluvians,

and the rapid multiplication and increased violence of

diseases since the flood.

vii:24 In the author’s work, RETROSPECTION AND INTROSPECTION, may be found a biographical sketch, narrating

experiences which led her, in the year 1866, to the dis-vii:27 covery of the system that she denominated Christian

Science. As early as 1862 she began to write down and

give to friends the results of her Scriptural study, for vii:30 the Bible was her sole teacher; but these compositions

were crude, the first steps of a child in the newly discovered world of Spirit.

ix:1 She also began to jot down her thoughts on the

main subject, but these jottings were only infantile ix:3 lispings of Truth. A child drinks in the outward world

through the eyes and rejoices in the draught. He is

as sure of the world’s existence as he is of his own; yet ix:6 he cannot describe the world. He finds a few words,

and with these he stammeringly attempts to convey his

feeling. Later, the tongue voices the more definite ix:9 thought, though still imperfectly.

 

So was it with the author. As a certain poet says of

himself, she “lisped in numbers, for the numbers ix:12 came.” Certain essays written at that early date are

still in circulation among her first pupils; but they are

feeble attempts to state the Principle and practice of ix:15 Christian healing, and are not complete nor satisfactory expositions of Truth. To-day, though rejoicing

in some progress, she still finds herself a willing dis-ix:18 ciple at the heavenly gate, waiting for the Mind of

Christ.

 

Her first pamphlet on Christian Science was copy-ix:21 righted in 1870; but it did not appear in print until

1876, as she had learned that this Science must be

1876, as she had learned that this Science must be

demonstrated by healing, before a work on the subject ix:24 could be profitably studied. From 1867 until 1875,

copies were, however, in friendly circulation.

 

Before writing this work, SCIENCE AND HEALTH, she ix:27 made copious notes of Scriptural exposition, which

have never been published. This was during the years

1867 and 1868. These efforts show her comparative ix:30 ignorance of the stupendous Life-problem up to that

time, and the degrees by which she came at length

to its solution; but she values them as a parent x:1 may treasure the memorials of a child’s growth, and

she would not have them changed.

x:3 The first edition of SCIENCE AND HEALTH was published in 1875. Various books on mental healing have

since been issued, most of them incorrect in theory x:6 and filled with plagiarisms from SCIENCE AND HEALTH.

They regard the human mind as a healing agent,

whereas this mind is not a factor in the Principle of x:9 Christian Science. A few books, however, which are

based on this book, are useful.

 

The author has not compromised conscience to suit x:12 the general drift of thought, but has bluntly and honestly given the text of Truth. She has made no effort

to embellish, elaborate, or treat in full detail so in-x:15 finite a theme. By thousands of well-authenticated

cases of healing, she and her students have proved the

worth of her teachings. These cases for the most part x:18 have been abandoned as hopeless by regular medical

attendants. Few invalids will turn to God till all

physical supports have failed, because there is so little x:21 faith in His disposition and power to heal disease.

 

The divine Principle of healing is proved in the

personal experience of any sincere seeker of Truth. Its x:24 purpose is good, and its practice is safer and more potent than that of any other sanitary method. The un—

biased Christian thought is soonest touched by Truth, x:27 and convinced of it. Only those quarrel with her

method who do not understand her meaning, or discerning the truth, come not to the light lest their x:30 works be reproved. No intellectual proficiency is requisite in the learner, but sound morals are most desirable.

xi:1 Many imagine that the phenomena of physical healing in Christian Science present only a phase of the xi:3 action of the human mind, which action in some unexplained way results in the cure of disease. On the contrary, Christian Science rationally explains that all xi:6 other pathological methods are the fruits of human

faith in matter, faith in the workings, not of Spirit,

but of the fleshly mind which must yield to Science.

xi:9 The physical healing of Christian Science results

now, as in Jesus’ time, from the operation of divine

Principle, before which sin and disease lose their real-xi:12 ity in human consciousness and disappear as naturally

and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and

sin to reformation. Now, as then, these mighty works xi:15 are not supernatural, but supremely natural. They are

the sign of Immanuel, or “God with us,” a divine

influence ever present in human consciousness and re-xi:18 peating itself, coming now as was promised aforetime,

 

To preach deliverance to the captives [of sense],

And recovering of sight to the blind, xi:21 To set at liberty them that are bruised.

 

When God called the author to proclaim His Gospel

to this age, there came also the charge to plant and xi:24 water His vineyard.

 

The first school of Christian Science Mind-healing

was started by the author with only one student in xi:27 Lynn, Massachusetts, about the year 1867. In 1881,

she opened the Massachusetts Metaphysical College in

Boston, under the seal of the Commonwealth, a law xi:30 relative to colleges having been passed, which enabled

her to get this institution chartered for medical pur-xii:1 poses. No charters were granted to Christian Scientists for such institutions after 1883, and up to that xii:3 date, hers was the only College of this character which

had been established in the United States, where

Christian Science was first introduced.

xii:6 During seven years over four thousand students

were taught by the author in this College. Meanwhile

she was pastor of the first established Church of xii:9 Christ, Scientist; President of the first Christian Scientist Association, convening monthly; publisher of

her own works; and (for a portion of this time) sole xii:12 editor and publisher of the Christian Science Journal,

the first periodical issued by Christian Scientists. She

closed her College, October 29, 1889, in the height of xii:15 its prosperity with a deeplying conviction that the

next two years of her life should be given to the preparation of the revision of SCIENCE AND HEALTH, which xii:18 was published in 1891. She retained her charter, and

as its President, reopened the College in 1899 as auxil—

iary to her church. Until June 10, 1907, she had never xii:21 read this book throughout consecutively in order to elucidate her idealism.

 

In the spirit of Christ’s charity, as one who “hopeth xii:24 all things, endureth all things,” and is joyful to bear

consolation to the sorrowing and healing to the sick,

she commits these pages to honest seekers for Truth.

 

MARY BAKER EDDY

 

NOTE. - The author takes no patients,

and declines medical consultation.