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error and heal the sick, wisely demand for man his G.o.d- [1]
given heritage, both human and divine rights; namely, that his honest convictions and _proofs_ of advancing truth be allowed due consideration, and treated not as pearls trampled upon. [5]
Those familiar with my history are more tolerant; those who know me, know that I found health in just what I teach. I have professed Christianity a half-century; and now I calmly challenge the world, upon fair investigation, to furnish a single instance of departure in one of my [10]
works from the highest possible ethics.
The charges against my views are false, but natural, since those bringing them do not understand my state- ment of the Science I introduce, and are unwilling to be taught it, even gratuitously. If they did understand it, they [15]
could demonstrate this Science by healing the sick; hence the injustice of their interpretations.
To many, the healing force developed by Christian Science seems a mystery, because they do not understand that Spirit controls body. They acknowledge the exist- [20]
ence of mortal mind, but believe it to reside in matter of the brain; but that man is the idea of infinite Mind, is not so easily accepted. That which is temporary seems, to the common estimate, solid and substantial.
It is much easier for people to believe that the body [25]
affects mind, than that the body is an expression of mind, and reflects harmony or discord according to thought.
Everything that G.o.d created, He p.r.o.nounced good.
He never made sickness. Hence _that_ is only an evil belief [30]
of mortal mind, which must be met, in every instance, with a denial by Truth.
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This is the "new tongue," the language of them that [1]
"lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover," whose spiritual interpretation they refuse to hear. For instance: the literal meaning of the pa.s.sage "lay hands on the sick"
would be manipulation; its moral meaning, found in the [5]
"new tongue," is spiritual power,-as, in another Scripture, "I will triumph in the works of Thy hands."
Falsehood
The Greeks showed a just estimate of the person they called slanderer, when they made the word synonymous [10]
with devil. If the simple falsehoods uttered about me were compounded, the mixture would be labelled thus: "Religionists" mistaken views of Mrs. Eddy"s book, "Sci- ence and Health with Key to the Scriptures," and the malice aforethought of sinners." [15]
That I take opium; that I am an infidel, a mesmerist, a medium, a "pantheist;" or that my hourly life is prayerless, or not in strict obedience to the Mosaic Decalogue,- is not more true than that I am dead, as is oft reported.
The _St. Louis Democrat_ is alleged to have reported my [20]
demise, and to have said that I died of poison, and bequeathed my property to Susan Anthony.
The opium falsehood has only this to it: Many years ago my regular physician prescribed morphine, which I took, when he could do no more for me. Afterwards, [25]
the glorious revelations of Christian Science saved me from that necessity and made me well, since which time I have not taken drugs, with the following exception: When the mental malpractice of poisoning people was
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first undertaken by a mesmerist, to test that malprac- [1]
tice I experimented by taking some large doses of mor- phine, to see if Christian Science could not obviate its effect; and I say with tearful thanks, "The drug had no effect upon me whatever." The hour has struck, [5]
-"If they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them."
The false report that I have appropriated other people"s ma.n.u.scripts in my works, has been met and answered _legally_. Both in private and public life, and especially [10]
through my teachings, it is well known that I am not a spiritualist, a pantheist, or prayerless. The most devout members of evangelical churches will say this, as well as my intimate acquaintances. None are permitted to re- main in my College building whose morals are not un- [15]
questionable. I have neither purchased nor ordered a drug since my residence in Boston; and to my knowledge, not one has been sent to my house, unless it was something to remove stains or vermin.
The report that I was dead arose no doubt from the [20]
combined efforts of some malignant students, expelled from my College for immorality, to kill me: of their mental design to do this I have proof, but no fear. My heavenly Father will never leave me comfortless, in the amplitude of His love; coming nearer in my need, more tenderly to [25]
save and bless.
Love
What a word! I am in awe before it. Over what worlds on worlds it hath range and is sovereign! the un-
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derived, the incomparable, the infinite All of good, the [1]
_alone_ G.o.d, is Love.
By what strange perversity is the best become the most abused,-either as a quality or as an ent.i.ty? Mortals misrepresent and miscall affection; they make it what [5]
it is not, and doubt what it is. The so-called affection pursuing its victim is a butcher fattening the lamb to slay it. What the lower propensities express, should be repressed by the sentiments. No word is more mis- construed; no sentiment less understood. The divine [10]
significance of Love is distorted into human qualities, which in their human abandon become jealousy and hate.
Love is not something put upon a shelf, to be taken down on rare occasions with sugar-tongs and laid on a [15]
rose-leaf. I make strong demands on love, call for active witnesses to prove it, and n.o.ble sacrifices and grand achievements as its results. Unless these appear, I cast aside the word as a sham and counterfeit, having no ring of the true metal. Love cannot be a mere abstraction, or [20]
goodness without activity and power. As a human quality, the glorious significance of affection is more than words: it is the tender, unselfish deed done in secret; the silent, ceaseless prayer; the self-forgetful heart that overflows; the veiled form stealing on an errand of mercy, out of a [25]
side door; the little feet tripping along the sidewalk; the gentle hand opening the door that turns toward want and woe, sickness and sorrow, and thus lighting the dark places of earth.
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Address On The Fourth Of July At Pleasant View, Concord, N. H., Before 2,500 Members Of The Mother Church, 1897
My beloved brethren, who have come all the way from the Pacific to the Atlantic sh.o.r.e, from the Palmetto to the [5]
Pine Tree State, I greet you; my hand may not touch yours to-day, but my heart will with tenderness untalkable.
His Honor, Mayor Woodworth, has welcomed you to Concord most graciously, voicing the friendship of this city and of my native State-loyal to the heart"s core to [10]
religion, home, friends, and country.
To-day we commemorate not only our nation"s civil and religious freedom, but a greater even, the liberty of the sons of G.o.d, the inalienable rights and radiant reality of Christianity, whereof our Master said: "The works [15]
that I do shall he do;" and, "The kingdom of G.o.d cometh not with observation" (with knowledge obtained from the senses), but "the kingdom of G.o.d is within you,"- within the present possibilities of mankind.
Think of this inheritance! Heaven right here, where [20]
angels are as men, clothed more lightly, and men as angels who, burdened for an hour, spring into liberty, and the good they would do, that they do, and the evil they would not do, that they do not.
From the falling leaves of old-time faiths men learn a [25]