Miscellaneous Writings. Mary Baker Eddy

who had never seen water freeze.”

       Is it right for a Scientist to treat with a doctor?

      This depends upon what kind of a doctor it is. Mind-healing, and healing with drugs, are opposite modes of medicine. As a rule, drop one of these doctors when you ​employ the other. The Scripture saith, “No man can serve two masters;” and, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation.”

      If Scientists are called upon to care for a member of the family, or a friend in sickness, who is employing a regular physician, would it be right to treat this patient at all; and ought the patient to follow the doctor's directions?

      When patients are under material medical treatment, it is advisable in most cases that Scientists do not treat them, or interfere with materia medica. If the patient is in peril, and you save him or alleviate his sufferings, although the medical attendant and friends have no faith in your method, it is humane, and not unchristian, to do him all the good you can; but your good will generally “be evil spoken of.” The hazard of casting “pearls before swine” caused our Master to refuse help to some who sought his aid; and he left this precaution for others.

      If mortal man is unreal, how can he be saved, and why does he need to be saved? I ask for information, not for controversy, for I am a seeker after Truth.

      You will find the proper answer to this question in my published works. Man is immortal. Mortal man is a false concept that is not spared or prolonged by being saved from itself, from whatever is false. This salvation means: saved from error, or error overcome. Immortal man, in God's likeness, is safe in divine Science. Mortal man is saved on this divine Principle, if he will only avail himself of the efficacy of Truth, and ​recognize his Saviour. He must know that God is omnipotent; hence, that sin is impotent. He must know that the power of sin is the pleasure in sin. Take away this pleasure, and you remove all reality from its power. Jesus demonstrated sin and death to be powerless. This practical Truth saves from sin, and will save all who understand it.

      Is it wrong for a wife to have a husband treated for sin, when she knows he is sinning, or for drinking and smoking?

      It is always right to act rightly; but sometimes, under circumstances exceptional, it is inexpedient to attack evil. This rule is forever golden: “As ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.” Do you desire to be freed from sin? Then help others to be free; but in your measures, obey the Scriptures, “Be ye wise as serpents.” Break the yoke of bondage in every wise way. First, be sure that your means for doing good are equal to your motives; then judge them by their fruits.

      If not ordained, shall the pastor of the Church of Christ, Scientist, administer the communion—and shall members of a church not organized receive the communion?

      Our great Master administered to his disciples the Passover, or last supper, without this prerogative being conferred by a visible organization and ordained priesthood. His spiritually prepared breakfast, after his resurrection, and after his disciples had left their nets to follow him, is the spiritual communion which ​Christian Scientists celebrate in commemoration of the Christ. This ordinance is significant as a type of the true worship, and it should be observed at present in our churches.

      It is not indispensable to organize materially Christ's church. It is not absolutely necessary to ordain pastors and to dedicate churches; but if this be done, let it be in concession to the period, and not as a perpetual or indispensable ceremonial of the church. If our church is organized, it is to meet the demand, “Suffer it to be so now.” The real Christian compact is love for one another. This bond is wholly spiritual and inviolate.

      It is imperative, at all times and under every circumstance, to perpetuate no ceremonials except as types of these mental conditions—remembrance and love; a real affection for Jesus' character and example. Be it remembered, that all types employed in the service of Christian Science should represent the most spiritual forms of thought and worship that can be made visible.

      Should not the teacher of Christian Science have our textbook, “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” in his schoolroom and teach from it?

      I never dreamed, until informed thereof, that a loyal student did not take his textbook with him into the classroom, ask questions from it, answer them according to it, and, as occasion required, read from the book as authority for what he taught. I supposed that students had followed my example, and that of other teachers, sufficiently to do this, and also to require their pupils to study the lessons before recitations.

      ​To omit these important points is anomalous, considering the necessity for understanding Science, and the present liability of deviating from Christian Science. Centuries will intervene before the statement of the inexhaustible topics of that book become sufficiently understood to be absolutely demonstrated. The teacher of Christian Science needs continually to study this textbook. His work is to replenish thought, and to spiritualize human life, from this open fount of Truth and Love.

      He who sees most clearly and enlightens other minds most readily, keeps his own lamp trimmed and burning. He will take the textbook of Christian Science into his class, repeat the questions in the chapter on Recapitulation, and his students will answer them from the same source. Throughout his entire explanations, the teacher should strictly adhere to the questions and answers contained in that chapter of “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.” It is important to point out the lesson to the class, and to require the students thoroughly to study it before the recitations; for this spiritualizes their thoughts. When closing his class, the teacher should require each member to own a copy of the above-named book and to continue the study of this textbook.

      The opinions of men cannot be substituted for God's revelation. It must not be forgotten that in times past, arrogant ignorance and pride, in attempting to steady the ark of Truth, have dimmed the power and glory of the Scriptures, to which this Christian Science textbook is the Key.

      That teacher does most for his students who most divests himself of pride and self, spiritualizes his own ​thought, and by reason thereof is able to empty his students' minds, that they may be filled with Truth. Beloved students, so teach that posterity shall call you blessed, and the heart of history shall be made glad!

      Can fear or sin bring back old beliefs of disease that have been healed by Christian Science?

      The Scriptures plainly declare the allness and oneness of God to be the premises of Truth, and that God is good: in Him dwelleth no evil. Christian Science authorizes the logical conclusion drawn from the Scriptures, that there is in reality none besides the eternal, infinite God, good. Evil is temporal: it is the illusion of time and mortality.

      This being true, sin has no power; and fear, its coeval, is without divine authority. Science sanctions only what is supported by the unerring Principle of being. Sin can do nothing: all cause and effect are in God. Fear is a belief of sensation in matter: this belief is neither maintained by Science nor supported by facts, and exists only as fable. Your answer is, that neither fear nor sin can bring on disease or bring back disease, since there is in reality no disease.

      Bear in mind, however, that human consciousness does not test sin and the fact of its nothingness, by believing that sin is pardoned without repentance and reformation. Sin punishes itself, because it cannot go unpunished either here or hereafter. Nothing is more fatal than to indulge a sinning sense or consciousness for even one moment. Knowing this, obey Christ's Sermon on the Mount, even if you suffer for it in the first instance—​are misjudged and maligned; in the second, you will reign with him.

      I never knew a person who knowingly indulged evil, to be grateful; to understand me, or himself. He must first see himself and the hallucination of sin; then he must repent, and love good in order to understand God. The sinner and the sin are the twain that are one flesh—but which God hath not joined together.

      1 ↑ See editions prior to that of January,