Early had I learned that whatever is loved materially, as mere corporeal personality, is eventually lost. "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it," said the Master. Exultant hope, if tinged with earthliness, is crushed as the moth.
What is termed mortal and material existence is graphically defined by Calderon, the famous Spanish poet, who wrote,--
What is life? "Tis but a madness.
What is life? A mere illusion, Fleeting pleasure, fond delusion, Short-lived joy, that ends in sadness, Whose most constant substance seems But the dream of other dreams.
MEDICAL EXPERIMENTS
The physical side of this research was aided by hints from h.o.m.oeopathy, 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, h.o.m.oeopathy, hydropathy, electricity, and from various humbugs,--but without receiving satisfaction.
I found, in the two hundred and sixty-two remedies enumerated by Jahr, one pervading secret; namely, that the less material medicine we have, and the more Mind, the better the work is done; a fact which seems to prove the Principle of Mind-healing. One drop of the thirtieth attenuation of _Natrum muriatic.u.m_, in a tumbler-full of water, and one teaspoonful of the water mixed with the faith of ages, would cure patients not affected by a larger dose. The drug disappears in the higher attenuations of h.o.m.oeopathy, and matter is thereby rarefied to its fatal essence, mortal mind; but immortal Mind, the curative Principle, remains, and is found to be even more active.
The mental virtues of the material methods of medicine, when understood, were insufficient to satisfy my doubts as to the honesty or utility of using a material curative. I must know more of the unmixed, unerring source, in order to gain the Science of Mind, the All-in-all of Spirit, in which matter is obsolete. Nothing less could solve the mental problem. If I sought an answer from the medical schools, the reply was dark and contradictory. Neither ancient nor modern philosophy could clear the clouds, or give me one distinct statement of the spiritual Science of Mind-healing. Human reason was not equal to it.
I claim for healing scientifically the following advantages: _First_: It does away with all material medicines, and recognizes the antidote for all sickness, as well as sin, in the immortal Mind; and mortal mind as the source of all the ills which befall mortals. _Second_: It is more effectual than drugs, and cures when they fail, or only relieve; thus proving the superiority of metaphysics over physics. _Third_: A person healed by Christian Science is not only healed of his disease, but he is advanced morally and spiritually. The mortal body being but the objective state of the mortal mind, this mind must be renovated to improve the body.
FIRST PUBLICATION
In 1870 I copyrighted the first publication on spiritual, scientific Mind-healing, ent.i.tled "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 be profitably published.
The truths of Christian Science are not interpolations of the Scriptures, but the spiritual interpretations thereof. Science is the prism of Truth, which divides its rays and brings out the hues of Deity. Human hypotheses have darkened the glow and grandeur of evangelical religion. When speaking of his true followers in every period, Jesus said, "_They_ shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." There is no authority for querying the authenticity of this declaration, for it already was and is demonstrated as practical, and its claim is substantiated,--a claim too immanent to fall to the ground beneath the stroke of artless workmen.
Though a man were girt with the Urim and Thummim of priestly office, and denied the perpetuity of Jesus" command, "Heal the sick," or its application in all time to those who understand Christ as the Truth and the Life, that man would not expound the gospel according to Jesus.
Five years after taking out my first copyright, I taught the Science of Mind-healing, _alias_ Christian Science, by writing out my ma.n.u.scripts for students and distributing them unsparingly. This will account for certain published and unpublished ma.n.u.scripts extant, which the evil-minded would insinuate did not originate with me.
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 foolish and eccentric, now declare Bishop Berkeley, David Hume, Ralph Waldo Emerson, or certain German philosophers, to have been the originators of the Science of Mind-healing as therein stated.
Even the Scriptures gave no direct interpretation of the scientific basis for demonstrating the spiritual Principle of healing, until our heavenly Father saw fit, through the Key to the Scriptures, in Science and Health, to unlock this "mystery of G.o.dliness."
My reluctance to give the public, in my first edition of Science and Health, the chapter on Animal Magnetism, and the divine purpose that this should be done, may have an interest for the reader, and will be seen in the following circ.u.mstances. I had finished that edition as far as that chapter, when the printer informed me that he could not go on with my work.
I had already paid him seven hundred dollars, and yet he stopped my work.
All efforts to persuade him to finish my book were in vain.
After months had pa.s.sed, I yielded to a constant conviction that I must insert in my last chapter a partial history of what I had already observed of mental malpractice. Accordingly, I set to work, contrary to my inclination, to fulfil this painful task, and finished my copy for the book. As it afterwards appeared, although I had not thought of such a result, my printer resumed his work at the same time, finished printing the copy he had on hand, and then started for Lynn to see me. The afternoon that he left Boston for Lynn, I started for Boston with my finished copy.
We met at the Eastern depot in Lynn, and were both surprised,--I to learn that he had printed all the copy on hand, and had come to tell me he wanted more,--he to find me _en route_ for Boston, to give him the closing chapter of my first edition of Science and Health. Not a word had pa.s.sed between us, audibly or mentally, while this went on. I had grown disgusted with my printer, and become silent. He had come to a standstill through motives and circ.u.mstances unknown to me.
Science and Health is the textbook of Christian Science. Whosoever learns the letter of this book, must also gain its spiritual significance, in order to demonstrate Christian Science.
When the demand for this book increased, and people were healed simply by reading it, the copyright was infringed. I entered a suit at law, and my copyright was protected.
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 minutes when the sick woman rose from her bed, dressed herself, and was well. Afterwards they showed me the clothes already prepared for her burial; and told me that her physicians had said the diseased condition was caused by an injury received from a surgical operation at the birth of her last babe, and that it was impossible for her to be delivered of another child. It is sufficient to add her babe was safely born, and weighed twelve pounds. The mother afterwards wrote to me, "I never before suffered so little in childbirth."
This scientific demonstration so stirred the doctors and clergy that they had my notices for a second lecture pulled down, and refused me a hearing in their halls and churches. This circ.u.mstance is cited simply to show the opposition which Christian Science encountered a quarter-century ago, as contrasted with its present welcome into the sickroom.
Many were the desperate cases I instantly healed, "without money and without price," and in most instances without even an acknowledgment of the benefit.
A TRUE MAN
My last marriage was with Asa Gilbert Eddy, and was a blessed and spiritual union, solemnized at Lynn, Ma.s.sachusetts, 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-cla.s.s; and he lectured so ably on Scriptural topics that clergymen of other denominations listened to him with deep interest. He was remarkably successful in Mind-healing, and untiring in his chosen work. In 1882 he pa.s.sed away, with a smile of peace and love resting on his serene countenance. "Mark the perfect _man_, and behold the upright: for the end of _that_ man _is_ peace." (Psalms x.x.xvii.
37.)
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 Ma.s.sachusetts 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 teaching, my adopted son, Ebenezer J. Foster-Eddy, a graduate of the Hahneman Medical College of Philadelphia, and who also received a certificate from Dr. W.W. Keen"s (allopathic) Philadelphia School of Anatomy and Surgery,--having renounced his material method of practice and embraced the teachings of Christian Science, taught the Primary, Normal, and Obstetric cla.s.s one term. Gen. Erastus N. Bates taught one Primary cla.s.s, in 1889, after which I judged it best to close the inst.i.tution.
These students of mine were the only a.s.sistant teachers in the College.