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

CHAPTER III - MARRIAGE

What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put

asunder. In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given

in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. - JESUS.

56:1 WHEN our great Teacher came to him for baptism,

John was astounded. Reading his thoughts, Jesus 56:3 added: “Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us

to fulfil all righteousness.” Jesus’ concessions (in certain

cases) to material methods were for the advancement of 56:6 spiritual good.

 

Marriage temporal

 

Marriage is the legal and moral provision for generation among human kind. Until the spiritual creation 56:9 is discerned intact, is apprehended and understood, and His kingdom is come as in the vision

of the Apocalypse, - where the corporeal sense of crea-56:12 tion was cast out, and its spiritual sense was revealed from

heaven, - marriage will continue, subject to such moral

regulations as will secure increasing virtue.

 

Fidelity required

56:15 Infidelity to the marriage covenant is the social scourge

of all races, “the pestilence that walketh in darkness,

… the destruction that wasteth at noonday.” 56:18 The commandment, “Thou shalt not commit adultery,” is no less imperative than the one, “Thou

shalt not kill.”

57:1 Chastity is the cement of civilization and progress.

Without it there is no stability in society, and without it 57:3 one cannot attain the Science of Life.

 

Mental elements

 

Union of the masculine and feminine qualities constitutes completeness. The masculine mind reaches a 57:6 higher tone through certain elements of the

feminine, while the feminine mind gains courage and strength through masculine qualities. These 57:9 different elements conjoin naturally with each other, and

their true harmony is in spiritual oneness. Both sexes

should be loving, pure, tender, and strong. The attrac-57:12 tion between native qualities will be perpetual only as it

is pure and true, bringing sweet seasons of renewal like

the returning spring.

 

Affection’s demands

57:15 Beauty, wealth, or fame is incompetent to meet the

demands of the affections, and should never weigh

against the better claims of intellect, good-57:18 ness, and virtue. Happiness is spiritual,

born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore

it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to 57:21 share it.

 

Help and discipline

 

Human affection is not poured forth vainly, even

though it meet no return. Love enriches the nature, en-57:24 larging, purifying, and elevating it. The wintry

blasts of earth may uproot the flowers of affection, and scatter them to the winds; but this severance 57:27 of fleshly ties serves to unite thought more closely to

God, for Love supports the struggling heart until it ceases

to sigh over the world and begins to unfold its wings for 57:30 heaven.

 

Marriage is unblest or blest, according to the disappointments it involves or the hopes it fulfils. To happify 58:1 existence by constant intercourse with those adapted to

elevate it, should be the motive of society. Unity of 58:3 spirit gives new pinions to joy, or else joy’s drooping

wings trail in dust.

 

Chord and discord

 

Ill-arranged notes produce discord. Tones of the 58:6 human mind may be different, but they should be con—

cordant in order to blend properly. Unselfish

ambition, noble life-motives, and purity, - 58:9 these constituents of thought, mingling, constitute individually and collectively true happiness, strength, and

permanence.

 

Mutual freedom

58:12 There is moral freedom in Soul. Never contract the

horizon of a worthy outlook by the selfish exaction of

all another’s time and thoughts. With ad-58:15 ditional joys, benevolence should grow more

diffusive. The narrowness and jealousy, which would

confine a wife or a husband forever within four walls, will 58:18 not promote the sweet interchange of confidence and love;

but on the other hand, a wandering desire for incessant

amusement outside the home circle is a poor augury for 58:21 the happiness of wedlock. Home is the dearest spot on

earth, and it should be the centre, though not the boundary, of the affections.

 

A useful suggestion

58:24 Said the peasant bride to her lover: “Two eat no more

together than they eat separately.” This is a hint that

a wife ought not to court vulgar extravagance 58:27 or stupid ease, because another supplies her

wants. Wealth may obviate the necessity for toil or the

chance for ill-nature in the marriage relation, but noth-58:30 ing can abolish the cares of marriage.

 

Differing duties

 

“She that is married careth … how she may please

her husband,” says the Bible; and this is the pleasantest 59:1 thing to do. Matrimony should never be entered into

without a full recognition of its enduring obligations on 59:3 both sides. There should be the most tender

solicitude for each other’s happiness, and mutual attention and approbation should wait on all the years 59:6 of married life.

 

Mutual compromises will often maintain a compact

which might otherwise become unbearable. Man should 59:9 not be required to participate in all the annoyances and

cares of domestic economy, nor should woman be expected to understand political economy. Fulfilling the 59:12 different demands of their united spheres, their sympathies should blend in sweet confidence and cheer, each

partner sustaining the other, - thus hallowing the union 59:15 of interests and affections, in which the heart finds peace

and home.

 

Trysting renewed

 

Tender words and unselfish care in what promotes the 59:18 welfare and happiness of your wife will prove more salutary

in prolonging her health and smiles than stolid

indifference or jealousy. Husbands, hear this 59:21 and remember how slight a word or deed may renew the

old trysting-times.

 

After marriage, it is too late to grumble over incompati-59:24 bility of disposition. A mutual understanding should

exist before this union and continue ever after, for deception is fatal to happiness.

 

Permanent obligation

59:27 The nuptial vow should never be annulled, so long as

its moral obligations are kept intact; but the frequency

of divorce shows that the sacredness of this re-59:30 lationship is losing its influence, and that fatal

mistakes are undermining its foundations. Separation

never should take place, and it never would, if both 60:1 husband and wife were genuine Christian Scientists.

Science inevitably lifts one’s being higher in the scale of 60:3 harmony and happiness.

 

Permanent affection

 

Kindred tastes, motives, and aspirations are necessary

to the formation of a happy and permanent companion-60:6 ship. The beautiful in character is also the

good, welding indissolubly the links of affection. A mother’s affection cannot be weaned from her 60:9 child, because the mother-love includes purity and constancy, both of which are immortal. Therefore maternal

affection lives on under whatever difficulties. 60:12 From the logic of events we learn that selfishness

and impurity alone are fleeting, and that wisdom will

ultimately put asunder what she hath not joined 60:15 together.

 

Centre for affections

 

Marriage should improve the human species, becoming

a barrier against vice, a protection to woman, strength to 60:18 man, and a centre for the affections. This,

however, in a majority of cases, is not its

present tendency, and why? Because the education of 60:21 the higher nature is neglected, and other considerations,

- passion, frivolous amusements, personal adornment,

display, and pride, - occupy thought.

 

Spiritual concord

60:24 An ill-attuned ear calls discord harmony, not appreciat—

ing concord. So physical sense, not discerning the true

happiness of being, places it on a false basis. 60:27 Science will correct the discord, and teach us

life’s sweeter harmonies.

 

Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, 60:30 and happiness would be more readily attained and would

be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul. Higher

enjoyments alone can satisfy the cravings of immortal 61:1 man. We cannot circumscribe happiness within the

limits of personal sense. The senses confer no real 61:3 enjoyment.

 

Ascendency of good

 

The good in human affections must have ascendency

over the evil and the spiritual over the animal, or happi-61:6 ness will never be won. The attainment of

this celestial condition would improve our

progeny, diminish crime, and give higher aims to ambi-61:9 tion. Every valley of sin must be exalted, and every

mountain of selfishness be brought low, that the highway

of our God may be prepared in Science. The offspring 61:12 of heavenly-minded parents inherit more intellect, better

balanced minds, and sounder constitutions.

 

Propensities inherited

 

If some fortuitous circumstance places promising chil-61:15 dren in the arms of gross parents, often these beautiful

children early droop and die, like tropical

flowers born amid Alpine snows. If perchance 61:18 they live to become parents in their turn, they may reproduce in their own helpless little ones the grosser traits

of their ancestors. What hope of happiness, what noble 61:21 ambition, can inspire the child who inherits propensities

that must either be overcome or reduce him to a loathsome wreck?

61:24 Is not the propagation of the human species a greater

responsibility, a more solemn charge, than the culture of

your garden or the raising of stock to increase your flocks 61:27 and herds? Nothing unworthy of perpetuity should be

transmitted to children.

 

The formation of mortals must greatly improve to 61:30 advance mankind. The scientific morale of marriage is

spiritual unity. If the propagation of a higher human

species is requisite to reach this goal, then its material con-62:1 ditions can only be permitted for the purpose of generating. The foetus must be kept mentally pure and the 62:3 period of gestation have the sanctity of virginity.

 

The entire education of children should be such as to

form habits of obedience to the moral and spiritual law, 62:6 with which the child can meet and master the belief in so-called physical laws, a belief which breeds disease.

 

Inheritance heeded

 

If parents create in their babes a desire for incessant 62:9 amusement, to be always fed, rocked, tossed, or talked

to, those parents should not, in after years,

complain of their children’s fretfulness or fri-62:12 volity, which the parents themselves have occasioned.

Taking less “thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or

what ye shall drink”; less thought “for your body what 62:15 ye shall put on,” will do much more for the health of the

rising generation than you dream. Children should be

allowed to remain children in knowledge, and should 62:18 become men and women only through growth in the

understanding of man’s higher nature.

 

The Mind creative

 

We must not attribute more and more intelligence 62:21 to matter, but less and less, if we would be wise and

healthy. The divine Mind, which forms the

bud and blossom, will care for the human 62:24 body, even as it clothes the lily; but let no mortal interfere with God’s government by thrusting in the laws of

erring, human concepts.

 

Superior law of Soul

62:27 The higher nature of man is not governed by the lower;

if it were, the order of wisdom would be reversed.

Our false views of life hide eternal harmony, 62:30 and produce the ills of which we complain.

Because mortals believe in material laws and reject the

Science of Mind, this does not make materiality first and 63:1 the superior law of Soul last. You would never think

that flannel was better for warding off pulmonary disease 63:3 than the controlling Mind, if you understood the Science

of being.

 

Spiritual origin

 

In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beauti-63:6 ful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry. His origin is

not, like that of mortals, in brute instinct, nor

does he pass through material conditions prior 63:9 to reaching intelligence. Spirit is his primitive and ultimate source of being; God is his Father, and Life is the

law of his being.

 

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