Miscellaneous Writings Part 51

A Card

While gratefully acknowledging the public confidence manifested in daily letters that protest against receiving instruction in the Ma.s.sachusetts Metaphysical College from any other than Mrs. Eddy, I feel, deeply, that of [10]

necessity this imposes on me the severe task of remaining at present a public servant: also, that this must prevent my cla.s.ses from forming as frequently as was an- nounced in the October number of the _Journal_, and necessitates receiving but a select number of students. [15]

To meet the old impediment, lack of time, that has oc- casioned the irregular intervals between my cla.s.s terms, I shall continue to send to each applicant a notice from one to two weeks previous to the opening term.

MARY BAKER G. EDDY

Spirit And Law

We are accustomed to think and to speak of gravitation as a law of matter; while every quality of matter, in and of itself, is inert, inanimate, and non-intelligent.

The a.s.sertion that matter is a law, or a lawgiver, is [25]

anomalous. Wherever law is, Mind is; and the notion

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that Mind can be in matter is rank infidelity, which either [1]

excludes G.o.d from the universe, or includes Him in every mode and form of evil. Pantheism presupposes that G.o.d sleeps in the mineral, dreams in the animal, and wakes in a wicked man. [5]

The distinction between that which is and that which is not law, must be made by Mind and as Mind. Law is either a moral or an immoral force. The law of G.o.d is the law of Spirit, a moral and spiritual force of immor- tal and divine Mind. The so-called law of matter is an [10]

immoral force of erring mortal mind, _alias_ the minds of mortals. This so-called force, or law, at work in nature as a power, prohibition, or license, is cruel and merciless.

It punishes the innocent, and repays our best deeds with sacrifice and suffering. It is a code whose modes [15]

trifle with joy, and lead to immediate or ultimate death.

It fosters suspicion where confidence is due, fear where courage is requisite, reliance where there should be avoidance, a belief in safety where there is most danger. Our Master called it "a murderer from the [20]

beginning."

Electricity, governed by this so-called law, sparkles on the cloud, and strikes down the h.o.a.ry saint. Floods swallow up homes and households; and childhood, age, and manhood go down in the death-dealing wave. Earth- [25]

quakes engulf cities, churches, schools, and mortals.

Cyclones kill and destroy, desolating the green earth.

This pitiless power smites with disease the good Samari- tan ministering to his neighbor's need. Even the chamber where the good man surrenders to death is not exempt [30]

from this law. Smoothing the pillow of pain may infect you with smallpox, according to this lawless law which

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dooms man to die for loving his neighbor as himself,- [1]

when Christ has said that love is the fulfilling of the law.

Our great Ensample, Jesus of Nazareth, met and abol- ished this unrelenting false claim of matter with the [5]

righteous scorn and power of Spirit. When, through Mind, he restored sight to the blind, he figuratively and literally spat upon matter; and, anointing the wounded spirit with the great truth that G.o.d is All, he demon- strated the healing power and supremacy of the law of [10]

Life and Love.

In the spiritual Genesis of creation, all law was vested in the Lawgiver, who was a law to Himself. In divine Science, G.o.d is One and All; and, governing Himself, He governs the universe. This is the law of creation: [15]

"My defense is of G.o.d, which saveth the upright in heart." And that infinite Mind governs all things. On this infinite Principle of freedom, G.o.d named Him- self, I AM. Error, or Adam, might give names to itself, and call Mind by the name of matter, but error could [20]

neither name nor demonstrate Spirit. The name, I AM, indicated no personality that could be paralleled with it; but it did declare a mighty individuality, even the everlasting Father, as infinite consciousness, ever-presence, omnipotence; as all law, Life, Truth, and [25]

Love.

G.o.d's interpretation of Himself furnishes man with the only suitable or true idea of Him; and the divine definition of Deity differs essentially from the human.

It interprets the law of Spirit, not of matter. It explains [30]

the eternal dynamics of being, and shows that nature and man are as harmonious to-day as in the beginning,

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when "all things were made by Him; and without Him [1]

was not any thing made."

Whatever appears to be law, but partakes not of the nature of G.o.d, is not law, but is what Jesus declared it, "a liar, and the father of it." G.o.d is the law of Life, [5]

not of death; of health, not of sickness; of good, not of evil. It is this infinitude and oneness of good that silences the supposition that evil is a claimant or a claim.

The consciousness of good has no consciousness or knowl- edge of evil; and evil is not a quality to be known or [10]

eliminated by good: while iniquity, too evil to conceive of good as being unlike itself, declares that G.o.d knows iniquity!

When the Lawgiver was the only law of creation, free- dom reigned, and was the heritage of man; but this [15]

freedom was the moral power of good, not of evil: it was divine Science, in which G.o.d is supreme, and the only law of being. In this eternal harmony of Science, man is not fallen: he is governed in the same rhythm that the Scripture describes, when "the morning stars [20]

sang together, and all the sons of G.o.d shouted for joy."

Truth-Healing

The spiritual elevator of the human race, physically, morally, and Christianly, is the truism that Truth dem- onstrates good, and is natural; while error, or evil, [25]

is really non-existent, and must have produced its own illusion,-for it belongs not to nature nor to G.o.d. Truth is the power of G.o.d which heals the sick and the sinner, and is applicable to all the needs of man. It is the uni-

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versal, intelligent Christ-idea ill.u.s.trated by the life of [1]

Jesus, through whose "stripes we are healed." By con- flicts, defeats, and triumphs, Christian Science has been reduced to the understanding of mortals, and found able to heal them. [5]

Pagan mysticism, Grecian philosophy, or Jewish reli- gion, never entered into the line of Jesus' thought or action. His faith partook not of drugs, matter, nor of the travesties of mortal mind. The divine Mind was his only instrumentality and potency, in religion or medi- [10]

cine. The Principle of his cure was G.o.d, in the laws of Spirit, not of matter; and these laws annulled all other laws.

Jesus knew that erring mortal thought holds only in itself the supposition of evil, and that sin, sickness, and [15]

death are its subjective states; also, that pure Mind is the truth of being that subjugates and destroys any sup- positional or elementary opposite to Him who is All.

Truth is supreme and omnipotent. Then, whatever else seemeth to be intelligence or power is false, delud- [20]

ing reason and denying revelation, and seeking to dethrone Deity. The truth of Mind-healing uplifts mankind, by acknowledging pure Mind as absolute and entire, and that evil is naught, although it seems to be.

Pure Mind gives out an atmosphere that heals and [25]

saves. Words are not always the auxiliaries of Truth.

The spirit, and not the letter, performs the vital func- tions of Truth and Love. Mind, imbued with this Science of healing, is a law unto itself, needing neither license nor prohibition; but lawless mind, with unseen motives, [30]

and silent mental methods whereby it may injure the race, is the highest attenuation of evil.