Miscellaneous Writings - Mary Baker Eddy

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or nerve, could only have been a belief of pain in matter; for matter has no sensation. It was a state of mortal thought made manifest in the flesh. You call this body matter, when awake, or when asleep in a dream. That matter can report pain, or that mind is in matter, reporting sensations, is but a dream at all times. You believed that if the tooth were extracted, the pain would cease: this demand of mortal thought once met, your belief assumed a new form, and said, There is no more pain. When your belief in pain ceases, the pain stops; for matter has no intelligence of its own. By applying this mental remedy or antidote directly to your belief, you ​scientifically prove the fact that Mind is supreme. This is not done by will-power, for that is not Science but mesmerism. The full understanding that God is Mind, and that matter is but a belief, enables you to control pain. Christian Science, by means of its Principle of metaphysical healing, is able to do more than to heal a toothache; although its power to allay fear, prevent inflammation, and destroy the necessity for ether—thereby avoiding the fatal results that frequently follow the use of that drug—render this Science invaluable in the practice of dentistry.

      Can an atheist or a profane man be cured by metaphysics, or Christian Science?

      The moral status of the man demands the remedy of Truth more in this than in most cases; therefore, under the deific law that supply invariably meets demand, this Science is effectual in treating moral ailments. Sin is not the master of divine Science, but vice versa; and when Science in a single instance decides the conflict, the patient is better both morally and physically.

      If God made all that was made, and it was good, where did evil originate?

      It never originated or existed as an entity. It is but a false belief; even the belief that God is not what the Scriptures imply Him to be, All-in-all, but that there is an opposite intelligence or mind termed evil This error of belief is idolatry, having “other gods before me.” In John i. 3 we read, “All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything made that was made.” ​The admission of the reality of evil perpetuates the belief or faith in evil. The Scriptures declare, “To whom ye yield yourselves servants to obey, his servants ye are.” The leading self-evident proposition of Christian Science is: good being real, evil, good's opposite, is unreal. This truism needs only to be tested scientifically to be found true, and adapted to destroy the appearance of evil to an extent beyond the power of any doctrine previously entertained.

       Do you teach that you are equal with God?

      A reader of my writings would not present this question. There are no such indications in the premises or conclusions of Christian Science, and such a misconception of Truth is not scientific. Man is not equal with his Maker; that which is formed is not cause, but effect, and has no power underived from its creator. It is possible, and it is man's duty, so to throw the weight of his thoughts and acts on the side of Truth, that he be ever found in the scale with his creator; not weighing equally with Him, but comprehending at every point, in divine Science, the full significance of what the apostle meant by the declaration, “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” In Science, man represents his divine Principle—the Life and Love that are God—even as the idea of sound, in tones, represents harmony; but thought has not yet wholly attained unto the Science of being, wherein man is perfect even as the Father, his divine Principle, is perfect.

      ​How can I believe that there is no such thing as matter, when I weigh over two hundred pounds and carry about this weight daily?

      By learning that matter is but manifest mortal mind. You entertain an adipose belief of yourself as substance; whereas, substance means more than matter: it is the glory and permanence of Spirit: it is that which is hoped for but unseen, that which the material senses cannot take in. Have you never been so preoccupied in thought when moving your body, that you did this without consciousness of its weight? If never in your waking hours, you have been in your night-dreams; and these tend to elucidate your day-dream, or the mythical nature of matter, and the possibilities of mind when let loose from its own beliefs. In sleep, a sense of the body accompanies thought with less impediment than when awake, which is the truer sense of being. In Science, body is the servant of Mind, not its master: Mind is supreme. Science reverses the evidence of material sense with the spiritual sense that God, Spirit, is the only substance; and that man, His image and likeness, is spiritual, not material. This great Truth does not destroy but substantiates man's identity—together with his immortality and preexistence, or his spiritual coexistence with his Maker. That which has a beginning must have an ending.

      What should one conclude as to Professor Carpenter's exhibitions of mesmerism?

      That largely depends upon what one accepts as either useful or true, I have no knowledge of mesmerism, ​practically or theoretically, save as I measure its demonstrations as a false belief, and avoid all that works ill. If mesmerism has the power attributed to it by the gentleman referred to, it should neither be taught nor practised, but should be conscientiously condemned. One thing is quite apparent; namely, that its so-called power is despotic, and Mr. Carpenter deserves praise for his public exposure of it. If such be its power, I am opposed to it, as to every form of error—whether of ignorance or fanaticism, prompted by money-making or malice. It is enough for me to know that animal magnetism is neither of God nor Science.

      It is alleged that at one of his recent lectures in Boston Mr. Carpenter made a man drunk on water, and then informed his audience that he could produce the effect of alcohol, or of any drug, on the human system, through the action of mind alone. This honest declaration as to the animus of animal magnetism and the possible purpose to which it can be devoted, has, we trust, been made in season to open the eyes of the people to the hidden nature of some tragic events and sudden deaths at this period.

      Was ever a person made insane by studying metaphysics?

      Such an occurrence would be impossible, for the proper study of Mind-healing would cure the insane. That persons have gone away from the Massachusetts Metaphysical College “made insane by Mrs. Eddy's teachings,” like a hundred other stories, is a baseless fabrication offered solely to injure her or her school. The enemy is trying to make capital out of the ​following case. A young lady entered the College class who, I quickly saw, had a tendency to monomania, and requested her to withdraw before its close. We are credibly informed that, before entering the College, this young lady had manifested some mental unsoundness, and have no doubt she could have been restored by Christian Science treatment. Her friends employed a homœopathist, who had the skill and honor to state, as his opinion given to her friends, that “Mrs. Eddy's teachings had not produced insanity.” This is the only case that could be distorted into the claim of insanity ever having occurred in a class of Mrs. Eddy's; while acknowledged and notable cases of insanity have been cured in her class.

      If all that is mortal is a dream or error, is not our capacity for formulating a dream, real; is it not God-made; and if God-made, can it be wrong, sinful, or an error?

      The spirit of Truth leads into all truth, and enables man to discern between the real and the unreal. Entertaining the common belief in the opposite of goodness, and that evil is as real as good, opposes the leadings of the divine Spirit that are helping man Godward: it prevents a recognition of the nothingness of the dream, or belief, that Mind is in matter, intelligence in non-intelligence, sin, and death. This belief presupposes not only a power opposed to God, and that God is not All-in-all, as the Scriptures imply Him to be, but that the capacity to err proceeds from God.

      That God is Truth, the Scriptures aver; that Truth never created error, or such a capacity, is self-evident; ​that God made all that was made, is again Scriptural; therefore your answer is, that error is an illusion of mortals; that God is not its author, and it cannot be real.

      Does “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” explain the entire method of metaphysical healing, or is there a secret back of what is contained in that book, as some say?

      “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” is a complete textbook of Christian

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