31 chapters
2 hour read
Selected Chapters
31 chapters
MARY BAKER EDDY
MARY BAKER EDDY
Registered U.S. Patent Office Published by The Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker G. Eddy BOSTON, U.S.A. Authorized Literature of The First Church of Christ, Scientist in Boston, Massachusetts Copyright, 1891, 1892 By Mary Baker G. Eddy Copyright renewed 1919 and 1920 All rights reserved PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Ancestral Shadows Autobiographic Reminiscences Voices Not Our Own Early Studies Girlhood Composition Theological Reminiscence The Country-seat (Poem) Marriage and Paren
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
ANCESTRAL SHADOWS
ANCESTRAL SHADOWS
My ancestors, according to the flesh, were from both Scotland and England, my great-grandfather, on my father's side, being John McNeil of Edinburgh. His wife, my great-grandmother, was Marion Moor, and her family is said to have been in some way related to Hannah More, the pious and popular English authoress of a century ago. I remember reading, in my childhood, certain manuscripts containing Scriptural sonnets, besides other verses and enigmas which my grandmother said were written by my great
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
AUTOBIOGRAPHIC REMINISCENCES
AUTOBIOGRAPHIC REMINISCENCES
This venerable grandmother had thirteen children, the youngest of whom was my father, Mark Baker, who inherited the homestead, and with his brother, James Baker, he inherited my grandfather's farm of about five hundred acres, lying in the adjoining towns of Concord and Bow, in the State of New Hampshire. One hundred acres of the old farm are still cultivated and owned by Uncle James Baker's grandson, brother of the Hon. Henry Moore Baker of Washington, D.C. The farm-house, situated on the summit
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
VOICES NOT OUR OWN
VOICES NOT OUR OWN
Many peculiar circumstances and events connected with my childhood throng the chambers of memory. For some twelve months, when I was about eight years old, I repeatedly heard a voice, calling me distinctly by name, three times, in an ascending scale. I thought this was my mother's voice, and sometimes went to her, beseeching her to tell me what she wanted. Her answer was always, "Nothing, child! What do you mean?" Then I would say, "Mother, who did call me? I heard somebody call Mary , three tim
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
EARLY STUDIES
EARLY STUDIES
My father was taught to believe that my brain was too large for my body and so kept me much out of school, but I gained book-knowledge with far less labor than is usually requisite. At ten years of age I was as familiar with Lindley Murray's Grammar as with the Westminster Catechism; and the latter I had to repeat every Sunday. My favorite studies were natural philosophy, logic, and moral science. From my brother Albert I received lessons in the ancient tongues, Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. My brot
43 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
GIRLHOOD COMPOSITION
GIRLHOOD COMPOSITION
From childhood I was a verse-maker. Poetry suited my emotions better than prose. The following is one of my girlhood productions. Alphabet and Bayonet If fancy plumes aerial flight, Go fix thy restless mind On learning's lore and wisdom's might, And live to bless mankind. The sword is sheathed, 'tis freedom's hour, No despot bears misrule, Where knowledge plants the foot of power In our God-blessed free school. Forth from this fount the streamlets flow, That widen in their course. Hero and sage
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THEOLOGICAL REMINISCENCE
THEOLOGICAL REMINISCENCE
At the age of twelve [A] I was admitted to the Congregational (Trinitarian) Church, my parents having been members of that body for a half-century. In connection with this event, some circumstances are noteworthy. Before this step was taken, the doctrine of unconditional election, or predestination, greatly troubled me; for I was unwilling to be saved, if my brothers and sisters were to be numbered among those who were doomed to perpetual banishment from God. So perturbed was I by the thoughts a
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE COUNTRY-SEAT
THE COUNTRY-SEAT
Written in youth, while visiting a family friend in the beautiful suburbs of Boston. Wild spirit of song,—midst the zephyrs at play In bowers of beauty,—I bend to thy lay, And woo, while I worship in deep sylvan spot, The Muses' soft echoes to kindle the grot. Wake chords of my lyre, with musical kiss, To vibrate and tremble with accents of bliss. Here morning peers out, from her crimson repose, On proud Prairie Queen and the modest Moss-rose; And vesper reclines—when the dewdrop is shed On the
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE
MARRIAGE AND PARENTAGE
In 1843 I was united to my first husband, Colonel George Washington Glover of Charleston, South Carolina, the ceremony taking place under the paternal roof in Tilton. After parting with the dear home circle I went with him to the South; but he was spared to me for only one brief year. He was in Wilmington, North Carolina, on business, when the yellow-fever raged in that city, and was suddenly attacked by this insidious disease, which in his case proved fatal. My husband was a freemason, being a
4 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
EMERGENCE INTO LIGHT
EMERGENCE INTO LIGHT
The trend of human life was too eventful to leave me undisturbed in the illusion that this so-called life could be a real and abiding rest. All things earthly must ultimately yield to the irony of fate, or else be merged into the one infinite Love. As these pungent lessons became clearer, they grew sterner. Previously the cloud of mortal mind seemed to have a silver lining; but now it was not even fringed with light. Matter was no longer spanned with its rainbow of promise. The world was dark. T
58 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE GREAT DISCOVERY
THE GREAT DISCOVERY
It was in Massachusetts, in February, 1866, and after the death of the magnetic doctor, Mr. P.P. Quimby, whom spiritualists would associate therewith, but who was in no wise connected with this event, that I discovered the Science of divine metaphysical healing which I afterwards named Christian Science. The discovery came to pass in this way. During twenty years prior to my discovery I had been trying to trace all physical effects to a mental cause; and in the latter part of 1866 I gained the s
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
FOUNDATION WORK
FOUNDATION WORK
As the pioneer of Christian Science I stood alone in this conflict, endeavoring to smite error with the falchion of Truth. The rare bequests of Christian Science are costly, and they have won fields of battle from which the dainty borrower would have fled. Ceaseless toil, self-renunciation, and love, have cleared its pathway. The motive of my earliest labors has never changed. It was to relieve the sufferings of humanity by a sanitary system that should include all moral and religious reform. It
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS
MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS
The physical side of this research was aided by hints from homœopathy, sustaining my final conclusion that mortal belief, instead of the drug, governed the action of material medicine. I wandered through the dim mazes of materia medica , till I was weary of "scientific guessing," as it has been well called. I sought knowledge from the different schools,—allopathy, homœopathy, hydropathy, electricity, and from various humbugs,—but without receiving satisfaction. I found, in the two hundred and si
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
FIRST PUBLICATION
FIRST PUBLICATION
In 1870 I copyrighted the first publication on spiritual, scientific Mind-healing, entitled "The Science of Man." This little book is converted into the chapter on Recapitulation in Science and Health. It was so new—the basis it laid down for physical and moral health was so hopelessly original, and men were so unfamiliar with the subject—that I did not venture upon its publication until later, having learned that the merits of Christian Science must be proven before a work on this subject could
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE PRECIOUS VOLUME
THE PRECIOUS VOLUME
The first edition of my most important work, Science and Health, containing the complete statement of Christian Science,—the term employed by me to express the divine, or spiritual, Science of Mind-healing, was published in 1875. When it was first printed, the critics took pleasure in saying, "This book is indeed wholly original, but it will never be read." The first edition numbered one thousand copies. In September, 1891, it had reached sixty-two editions. Those who formerly sneered at it, as
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
RECUPERATIVE INCIDENT
RECUPERATIVE INCIDENT
Through four successive years I healed, preached, and taught in a general way, refusing to take any pay for my services and living on a small annuity. At one time I was called to speak before the Lyceum Club, at Westerly, Rhode Island. On my arrival my hostess told me that her next-door neighbor was dying. I asked permission to see her. It was granted, and with my hostess I went to the invalid's house. The physicians had given up the case and retired. I had stood by her side about fifteen minute
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
A TRUE MAN
A TRUE MAN
My last marriage was with Asa Gilbert Eddy, and was a blessed and spiritual union, solemnized at Lynn, Massachusetts, by the Rev. Samuel Barrett Stewart, in the year 1877. Dr. Eddy was the first student publicly to announce himself a Christian Scientist, and place these symbolic words on his office sign. He forsook all to follow in this line of light. He was the first organizer of a Christian Science Sunday School, which he superintended. He also taught a special Bible-class; and he lectured so
43 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
COLLEGE AND CHURCH
COLLEGE AND CHURCH
In 1867 I introduced the first purely metaphysical system of healing since the apostolic days. I began by teaching one student Christian Science Mind-healing. From this seed grew the Massachusetts Metaphysical College in Boston, chartered in 1881. No charter was granted for similar purposes after 1883. It is the only College, hitherto, for teaching the pathology of spiritual power, alias the Science of Mind-healing. My husband, Asa G. Eddy, taught two terms in my College. After I gave up teachin
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
"FEED MY SHEEP"
"FEED MY SHEEP"
Lines penned when I was pastor of the Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston. Shepherd, show me how to go O'er the hillside steep, How to gather, how to sow,— How to feed Thy sheep; I will listen for Thy voice, Lest my footsteps stray; I will follow and rejoice All the rugged way. Thou wilt bind the stubborn will, Wound the callous breast, Make self-righteousness be still, Break earth's stupid rest. Strangers on a barren shore, Lab'ring long and lone, We would enter by the door, And Thou know'st
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
COLLEGE CLOSED
COLLEGE CLOSED
The apprehension of what has been, and must be, the final outcome of material organization, which wars with Love's spiritual compact, caused me to dread the unprecedented popularity of my College. Students from all over our continent, and from Europe, were flooding the school. At this time there were over three hundred applications from persons desiring to enter the College, and applicants were rapidly increasing. Example had shown the dangers arising from being placed on earthly pinnacles, and
5 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
GENERAL ASSOCIATIONS, AND OUR MAGAZINE
GENERAL ASSOCIATIONS, AND OUR MAGAZINE
For many successive years I have endeavored to find new ways and means for the promotion and expansion of scientific Mind-healing, seeking to broaden its channels and, if possible, to build a hedge round about it that should shelter its perfections from the contaminating influences of those who have a small portion of its letter and less of its spirit. At the same time I have worked to provide a home for every true seeker and honest worker in this vineyard of Truth. To meet the broader wants of
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
FAITH-CURE
FAITH-CURE
It is often asked, Why are faith-cures sometimes more speedy than some of the cures wrought through Christian Scientists? Because faith is belief, and not understanding; and it is easier to believe, than to understand spiritual Truth. It demands less cross-bearing, self-renunciation, and divine Science to admit the claims of the corporeal senses and appeal to God for relief through a humanized conception of His power, than to deny these claims and learn the divine way,—drinking Jesus' cup, being
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
FOUNDATION-STONES
FOUNDATION-STONES
The following ideas of Deity, antagonized by finite theories, doctrines, and hypotheses, I found to be demonstrable rules in Christian Science, and that we must abide by them. Whatever diverges from the one divine Mind, or God,—or divides Mind into minds, Spirit into spirits, Soul into souls, and Being into beings,—is a misstatement of the unerring divine Principle of Science, which interrupts the meaning of the omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of Spirit, and is of human instead of div
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE GREAT REVELATION
THE GREAT REVELATION
Christian Science reveals the grand verity, that to believe man has a finite and erring mind, and consequently a mortal mind and soul and life, is error. Scientific terms have no contradictory significations. In Science, Life is not temporal, but eternal, without beginning or ending. The word Life never means that which is the source of death, and of good and evil. Such an inference is unscientific. It is like saying that addition means subtraction in one instance and addition in another, and th
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
SIN, SINNER, AND ECCLESIASTICISM
SIN, SINNER, AND ECCLESIASTICISM
Why do Christian Scientists say God and His idea are the only realities, and then insist on the need of healing sickness and sin? Because Christian Science heals sin as it heals sickness, by establishing the recognition that God is All , and there is none beside Him,—that all is good, and there is in reality no evil, neither sickness nor sin. We attack the sinner's belief in the pleasure of sin, alias the reality of sin, which makes him a sinner, in order to destroy this belief and save him from
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
THE HUMAN CONCEPT
THE HUMAN CONCEPT
Sin existed as a false claim before the human concept of sin was formed; hence one's concept of error is not the whole of error. The human thought does not constitute sin, but vice versa , sin constitutes the human or physical concept. Sin is both concrete and abstract. Sin was, and is , the lying supposition that life, substance, and intelligence are both material and spiritual, and yet are separate from God. The first iniquitous manifestation of sin was a finity. The finite was self-arrayed ag
6 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PERSONALITY
PERSONALITY
The immortal man being spiritual, individual, and eternal, his mortal opposite must be material, corporeal, and temporal. Physical personality is finite; but God is infinite. He is without materiality, without finiteness of form or Mind. Limitations are put off in proportion as the fleshly nature disappears and man is found in the reflection of Spirit. This great fact leads into profound depths. The material human concept grew beautifully less as I floated into more spiritual latitudes and purer
1 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
PLAGIARISM
PLAGIARISM
The various forms of book-borrowing without credit spring from this ill-concealed question in mortal mind, Who shall be greatest? This error violates the law given by Moses, it tramples upon Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, it does violence to the ethics of Christian Science. Why withhold my name, while appropriating my language and ideas, but give credit when citing from the works of other authors? Life and its ideals are inseparable, and one's writings on ethics, and demonstration of Truth, are not
2 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
ADMONITION
ADMONITION
The neophyte in Christian Science acts like a diseased physique,—being too fast or too slow. He is inclined to do either too much or too little. In healing and teaching the student has not yet achieved the entire wisdom of Mind-practice. The textual explanation of this practice is complete in Science and Health; and scientific practice makes perfect, for it is governed by its Principle, and not by human opinions; but carnal and sinister motives, entering into this practice, will prevent the demo
9 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
EXEMPLIFICATION
EXEMPLIFICATION
To energize wholesome spiritual warfare, to rebuke vainglory, to offset boastful emptiness, to crown patient toil, and rejoice in the spirit and power of Christian Science, we must ourselves be true. There is but one way of doing good, and that is to do it! There is but one way of being good, and that is to be good! Art thou still unacquainted with thyself? Then be introduced to this self. "Know thyself!" as said the classic Grecian motto. Note well the falsity of this mortal self! Behold its vi
7 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter
WAYMARKS
WAYMARKS
In the first century of the Christian era Jesus went about doing good. The evangelists of those days wandered about. Christ, or the spiritual idea, appeared to human consciousness as the man Jesus. At the present epoch the human concept of Christ is based on the incorporeal divine Principle of man, and Science has elevated this idea and established its rules in consonance with their Principle. Hear this saying of our Master, "And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me." T
3 minute read
Read Chapter
Read Chapter