Miscellaneous Writings - Mary Baker Eddy

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place themselves under my care, and follow the directions given. Patients naturally gain confidence in Christian Science as they recognize the help they derive therefrom.

      What are the advantages of your system of healing, over the ordinary methods of healing disease?

      Healing by Christian Science has the following advantages:—

      First: It does away with all material medicines, and recognizes the fact that, as mortal mind is the cause of all “the ills that flesh is heir to,” the antidote for sickness, as well as for sin, may and must be found in mortal mind's opposite—the divine Mind.

      Second: It is more effectual than drugs; curing where ​these fail, and leaving none of the harmful “after effects” of these in the system; thus proving that metaphysics is above physics.

      Third: One who has been healed by Christian Science is not only healed of the disease, but is improved morally. The body is governed by mind; and mortal mind must be improved, before the body is renewed and harmonious—since the physique is simply thought made manifest.

      Is spiritualism or mesmerism included in Christian Science?

      They are wholly apart from it. Christian Science is based on divine Principle; whereas spiritualism, so far as I understand it, is a mere speculative opinion and human belief. If the departed were to communicate with us, we should see them as they were before death, and have them with us; after death, they can no more come to those they have left, than we, in our present state of existence, can go to the departed or the adult can return to his boyhood. We may pass on to their state of existence, but they cannot return to ours. Man is im-mortal, and there is not a moment when he ceases to exist. All that are called “communications from spirits,” lie within the realm of mortal thought on this present plane of existence, and are the antipodes of Christian Science; the immortal and mortal are as direct opposites as light and darkness.

       Who is the Founder of mental healing?

      The author of “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures,” who discovered the Science of healing ​embodied in her works. Years of practical proof, through homœopathy, revealed to her the fact that Mind, instead of matter, is the Principle of pathology; and subsequently her recovery, through the supremacy of Mind over matter, from a severe casualty pronounced by the physicians incurable, sealed that proof with the signet of Christian Science. In 1883, a million of people acknowledge and attest the blessings of this mental system of treating disease. Perhaps the following words of her husband, the late Dr. Asa G. Eddy, afford the most concise, yet complete, summary of the matter:—

      “Mrs. Eddy's works are the outgrowths of her life. I never knew so unselfish an individual.”

      Will the book Science and Health, that you offer for sale at three dollars, teach its readers to heal the sick, or is one obliged, to become a student under your personal instruction? And if one is obliged to study under you, of what benefit is your book?

      Why do we read the Bible, and then go to church to hear it expounded? Only because both are important. Why do we read moral science, and then study it at college?

      You are benefited by reading Science and Health, but it is greatly to your advantage to be taught its Science by the author of that work, who explains it in detail.

       What is immortal Mind?

       Do animals and beasts have a mind?

      Beasts, as well as men, express Mind as their origin; but they manifest less of Mind. The first and only cause is the eternal Mind, which is God, and there is but one God. The ferocious mind seen in the beast is mortal mind, which is harmful and proceeds not from God; for His beast is the lion that lieth down with the lamb. Appetites, passions, anger, revenge, subtlety, are the animal qualities of sinning mortals; and the beasts that have these propensities express the lower qualities of the so-called animal man; in other words, the nature and quality of mortal mind—not immortal Mind.

      What is the distinction between mortal mind and immortal Mind?

      Mortal mind includes all evil, disease, and death; also, all beliefs relative to the so-called material laws, and all material objects, and the law of sin and death.

      The Scripture says, “The carnal mind [in other words, mortal mind] is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Mortal mind is an illusion; as much in our waking moments as in the dreams of sleep. The belief that intelligence, Truth, and Love, are in matter and separate from God, is an error; for there is no intelligent evil, and no power ​besides God, good. God would not be omnipotent if there were in reality another mind creating or governing man or the universe.

      Immortal Mind is God; and this Mind is made manifest in all thoughts and desires that draw mankind toward purity, health, holiness, and the spiritual facts of being.

      Jesus recognized this relation so clearly that he said, “I and my Father are one.” In proportion as we oppose the belief in material sense, in sickness, sin, and death, and recognize ourselves under the control of God, spiritual and immortal Mind, shall we go on to leave the animal for the spiritual, and learn the meaning of those words of Jesus, “Go ye into all the world … heal the sick.”

       Can your Science cure intemperance?

      Christian Science lays the axe at the root of the tree. Its antidote for all ills is God, the perfect Mind, which corrects mortal thought, whence cometh all evil. God can and does destroy the thought that leads to moral or physical death. Intemperance, impurity, sin of every sort, is destroyed by Truth. The appetite for alcohol yields to Science as directly and surely as do sickness and sin.

       Does Mrs. Eddy take patients?

      She now does not. Her time is wholly devoted to instruction, leaving to her students the work of healing; which, at this hour, is in reality the least difficult of the labor that Christian Science demands.

      ​Why do you charge for teaching Christian Science, when all the good we can do must be done freely?

      When teaching imparts the ability to gain and maintain health, to heal and elevate man in every line of life—as this teaching certainly does—is it unreasonable to expect in return something to support one's self and a Cause? If so, our whole system of education, secular and religious, is at fault, and the instructors and philanthropists in our land should expect no compensation. “If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?”

      How happened you to establish a college to instruct in metaphysics, when other institutions find little interest in such a dry and abstract subject?

      Metaphysics, as taught by me at the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, is far from dry and abstract. It is a Science that has the animus of Truth. Its practical application to benefit the race, heal the sick, enlighten and reform the sinner, makes divine metaphysics needful, indispensable. Teaching metaphysics at other colleges means, mainly, elaborating a man-made theory, or some speculative view too vapory and hypothetical for questions of practical import.

      Is it necessary to study your Science in order to be healed by it and keep well?

      It is not necessary to make each patient a student in order to cure his present disease, if this is what you mean. Were it so, the Science would be of less ​practical value. Many who apply for help are not prepared to take a course of instruction in Christian Science.

      To avoid being subject to disease, would require the

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