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

rights of woman

63:12 Civil law establishes very unfair differences between the

rights of the two sexes. Christian Science furnishes no

precedent for such injustice, and civilization 63:15 mitigates it in some measure. Still, it is a

marvel why usage should accord woman less rights than

does either Christian Science or civilization.

 

Unfair discrimination

63:18 Our laws are not impartial, to say the least, in their

discrimination as to the person, property, and parental

claims of the two sexes. If the elective fran-63:21 chise for women will remedy the evil without encouraging difficulties of greater magnitude, let us

hope it will be granted. A feasible as well as rational 63:24 means of improvement at present is the elevation of

society in general and the achievement of a nobler

race for legislation, - a race having higher aims and 63:27 motives.

 

If a dissolute husband deserts his wife, certainly the

wronged, and perchance impoverished, woman should be 63:30 allowed to collect her own wages, enter into business

agreements, hold real estate, deposit funds, and own her

children free from interference.

64:1 Want of uniform justice is a crying evil caused by the

selfishness and inhumanity of man. Our forefathers 64:3 exercised their faith in the direction taught by the Apostle

James, when he said: “Pure religion and undefiled before

God and the Father, is this, To visit the fatherless and 64:6 widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted

from the world.”

 

Benevolence hindered

 

Pride, envy, or jealousy seems on most occasions to 64:9 be the master of ceremonies, ruling out primitive Christianity. When a man lends a helping hand

to some noble woman, struggling alone with 64:12 adversity, his wife should not say, “It is never well to

interfere with your neighbor’s business.” A wife is

sometimes debarred by a covetous domestic tyrant from 64:15 giving the ready aid her sympathy and charity would

afford.

 

Progressive development

 

Marriage should signify a union of hearts. Further-64:18 more, the time cometh of which Jesus spake, when he

declared that in the resurrection there should

be no more marrying nor giving in marriage, 64:21 but man would be as the angels. Then shall Soul rejoice in its own, in which passion has no part. Then

white-robed purity will unite in one person masculine wis-64:24 dom and feminine love, spiritual understanding and perpetual peace.

 

Until it is learned that God is the Father of all, mar-64:27 riage will continue. Let not mortals permit a disregard

of law which might lead to a worse state of society than

now exists. Honesty and virtue ensure the stability of 64:30 the marriage covenant. Spirit will ultimately claim its

own, - all that really is, - and the voices of physical

sense will be forever hushed.

 

Blessing of Christ

65:1 Experience should be the school of virtue, and human

happiness should proceed from man’s highest nature. 65:3 May Christ, Truth, be present at every bridal

altar to turn the water into wine and to give to

human life an inspiration by which man’s spiritual and 65:6 eternal existence may be discerned.

 

Righteous foundations

 

If the foundations of human affection are consistent

with progress, they will be strong and enduring. Divorces 65:9 should warn the age of some fundamental error

in the marriage state. The union of the sexes

suffers fearful discord. To gain Christian Science and its 65:12 harmony, life should be more metaphysically regarded.

 

Powerless promises

 

The broadcast powers of evil so conspicuous to-day

show themselves in the materialism and sensualism of 65:15 the age, struggling against the advancing

spiritual era. Beholding the world’s lack of

Christianity and the powerlessness of vows to make home 65:18 happy, the human mind will at length demand a higher

affection.

 

Transition and reform

 

There will ensue a fermentation over this as over many 65:21 other reforms, until we get at last the clear straining of

truth, and impurity and error are left among

the lees. The fermentation even of fluids is 65:24 not pleasant. An unsettled, transitional stage is never

desirable on its own account. Matrimony, which was once

a fixed fact among us, must lose its present slippery foot-65:27 ing, and man must find permanence and peace in a more

spiritual adherence.

 

The mental chemicalization, which has brought con-65:30 jugal infidelity to the surface, will assuredly throw off

this evil, and marriage will become purer when the scum

is gone.

 

Thou art right, immortal Shakespeare, great poet of

humanity: 66:3 Sweet are the uses of adversity;

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

 

Salutary sorrow

66:6 Trials teach mortals not to lean on a material staff, -

a broken reed, which pierces the heart. We do not

half remember this in the sunshine of joy 66:9 and prosperity. Sorrow is salutary. Through

great tribulation we enter the kingdom. Trials are

proofs of God’s care. Spiritual development germi-66:12 nates not from seed sown in the soil of material hopes,

but when these decay, Love propagates anew the higher

joys of Spirit, which have no taint of earth. Each suc-66:15 cessive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine

goodness and love.

 

Amidst gratitude for conjugal felicity, it is well to re-66:18 member how fleeting are human joys. Amidst conjugal

infelicity, it is well to hope, pray, and wait patiently on

divine wisdom to point out the path.

 

Patience is wisdom

66:21 Husbands and wives should never separate if there

is no Christian demand for it. It is better to await the

logic of events than for a wife precipitately 66:24 to leave her husband or for a husband to

leave his wife. If one is better than the other, as must

always be the case, the other pre-eminently needs good 66:27 company. Socrates considered patience salutary under

such circumstances, making his Xantippe a discipline for

his philosophy.

 

The gold and dross

66:30 Sorrow has its reward. It never leaves us

where it found us. The furnace separates

the gold from the dross that the precious metal may 67:1 be graven with the image of God. The cup our Father

hath given, shall we not drink it and learn the lessons 67:3 He teaches?

 

Weathering the storm

 

When the ocean is stirred by a storm, then the clouds

lower, the wind shrieks through the tightened shrouds, 67:6 and the waves lift themselves into mountains.

We ask the helmsman: “Do you know your

course? Can you steer safely amid the storm?” He 67:9 answers bravely, but even the dauntless seaman is not

sure of his safety; nautical science is not equal to the

Science of Mind. Yet, acting up to his highest under-67:12 standing, firm at the post of duty, the mariner works on

and awaits the issue. Thus should we deport ourselves

on the seething ocean of sorrow. Hoping and work-67:15 ing, one should stick to the wreck, until an irresistible

propulsion precipitates his doom or sunshine gladdens

the troubled sea.

 

Spiritual power

67:18 The notion that animal natures can possibly give force

to character is too absurd for consideration, when we

remember that through spiritual ascendency 67:21 our Lord and Master healed the sick, raised

the dead, and commanded even the winds and waves to

obey him. Grace and Truth are potent beyond all other 67:24 means and methods.

 

The lack of spiritual power in the limited demonstration

of popular Christianity does not put to silence the labor 67:27 of centuries. Spiritual, not corporeal, consciousness is

needed. Man delivered from sin, disease, and death

presents the true likeness or spiritual ideal.

 

Basis of true religion

67:30 Systems of religion and medicine treat of physical pains

and pleasures, but Jesus rebuked the suffering from any

such cause or effect. The epoch approaches when the 68:1 understanding of the truth of being will be the basis of

true religion. At present mortals progress slowly for 68:3 fear of being thought ridiculous. They are

slaves to fashion, pride, and sense. Sometime we shall learn how Spirit, the great architect, has 68:6 created men and women in Science. We ought to weary

of the fleeting and false and to cherish nothing which

hinders our highest selfhood.

68:9 Jealousy is the grave of affection. The presence of

mistrust, where confidence is due, withers the flowers

of Eden and scatters love’s petals to decay. Be not 68:12 in haste to take the vow “until death do us part.”

Consider its obligations, its responsibilities, its relations to your growth and to your influence on other 68:15 lives.

 

Insanity and agamogenesis

 

I never knew more than one individual who believed

in agamogenesis; she was unmarried, a lovely charac-68:18 ter, was suffering from incipient insanity, and

a Christian Scientist cured her. I have named

her case to individuals, when casting my bread upon 68:21 the waters, and it may have caused the good to ponder

and the evil to hatch their silly innuendoes and lies, since

salutary causes sometimes incur these effects. The per-68:24 petuation of the floral species by bud or cell-division is

evident, but I discredit the belief that agamogenesis

applies to the human species.

 

God’s creation intact

68:27 Christian Science presents unfoldment, not accretion;

it manifests no material growth from molecule to mind,

but an impartation of the divine Mind to man 68:30 and the universe. Proportionately as human

generation ceases, the unbroken links of eternal, harmonious being will be spiritually discerned; and man, 69:1 not of the earth earthly but coexistent with God, will

appear. The scientific fact that man and the universe 69:3 are evolved from Spirit, and so are spiritual, is as fixed in

divine Science as is the proof that mortals gain the sense

of health only as they lose the sense of sin and disease. 69:6 Mortals can never understand God’s creation while believing that man is a creator. God’s children already created

will be cognized only as man finds the truth of being. 69:9 Thus it is that the real, ideal man appears in proportion

as the false and material disappears. No longer to marry

or to be “given in marriage” neither closes man’s con-69:12 tinuity nor his sense of increasing number in God’s infinite plan. Spiritually to understand that there is but

one creator, God, unfolds all creation, confirms the Scrip-69:15 tures, brings the sweet assurance of no parting, no pain,

and of man deathless and perfect and eternal.

 

If Christian Scientists educate their own offspring 69:18 spiritually, they can educate others spiritually and not

conflict with the scientific sense of God’s creation. Some

day the child will ask his parent: “Do you keep the First 69:21 Commandment? Do you have one God and creator, or

is man a creator?” If the father replies, “God creates

man through man,” the child may ask, “Do you teach 69:24 that Spirit creates materially, or do you declare that

Spirit is infinite, therefore matter is out of the question?” Jesus said, “The children of this world marry, 69:27 and are given in marriage: But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in 69:30 marriage.”

 

CHAPTER IV - CHRISTIAN SCIENCE VERSUS SPIRITUALISM

 

And when they shall say unto you,

Seek unto them that have familiar spirits,

And unto wizards that peep and that mutter;

Should not a people seek unto their God? - ISAIAH.

 

Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he

shall never see death. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we

know that thou hast a devil. - JOHN.

 

The infinite one Spirit

70:1 MORTAL existence is an enigma. Every day is a

mystery. The testimony of the corporeal senses 70:3 cannot inform us what is real and what is delusive, but

the revelations of Christian Science unlock the