Mrs. Eddy's
Mission, Purpose, and Motives
MRS. EDDY'S CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH
"From
Puritan parents, the discoverer of Christian Science early received
her
religious education. In childhood, she often listened with joy
to these words, falling
from the lips of her saintly mother, 'God
is able to raise you up from sickness;' and
she pondered the meaning
of that Scripture she so often quotes: 'And these signs
shall follow
them that believe; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick, and they
shall
recover.'" (359)
"The author subscribed to an orthodox creed
in early youth, and tried to adhere to
it until she caught the first
gleam of that which interprets God as above mortal sense.
This view
rebuked human beliefs, and gave the spiritual import, expressed through
Science, of all that proceeds from the divine Mind. Since then her
highest creed has
been divine Science, which, reduced to human apprehension,
she has named
Christian Science." (471)
"The author became a member
of the orthodox Congregational Church in early years.
Later she learned
that her own prayers failed to heal her as did the prayers of her
devout parents and the church; but when the spiritual sense of the
creed was
discerned in the Science of Christianity, this spiritual
sense was a 'present help.'
It was the living, palpitating presence
of Christ, Truth, which healed the sick." (351)
[NOTE: The following
testimony is now known to refer to Mrs. Eddy, even though
she chose
not to disclose her identity at that time.]
dyspepsia.
For many years, he ate only bread and vegetables, and drank nothing
but water. His dyspepsia increasing, he decided that his diet should
be more rigid,
and thereafter he partook of but one meal in twenty-four
hours, this meal consisting
of only a thin slice of bread without
water. His physician also recommended that
he should not wet his parched
throat until three hours after eating. He passed many
weary years in
hunger and weakness, almost in starvation, and finally made up his
mind to die, having exhausted the skill of the doctors, who kindly
informed him that
death was indeed his only alternative. At this point
Christian Science saved him,
SCIENCE
"The author's medical researches
and experiments had prepared her thought for the
metaphysics of Christian
Science. Every material dependence had failed her in her
search for
truth; and she can now understand why, and can see the means by which
mortals are divinely driven to a spiritual source for health and happiness.
"Her experiments in homoeopathy had made her skeptical as to material
curative
methods. Jahr, from
Aconitum to
Zincum oxydatum, enumerates
the general
symptoms, the characteristic signs, which demand different
remedies; but the drug is
frequently attenuated to such a degree that
not a vestige of it remains. Thus we learn
that it is not the drug
which expels the disease or changes one of the symptoms of
disease.
"The author has attenuated
Natrum muriaticum (common table-salt) until
there was
not a single saline property left. The salt had "lost his
savour;" and yet, with one
drop of that attenuation in a goblet of
water, and a teaspoonful of the water
administered at intervals of
three hours, she has cured a patient sinking in the last
stage of
typhoid fever. The highest attenuation of homoeopathy and the most
potent
rises above matter into mind. This discovery leads to more
light. From it may be
learned that either human faith or the divine
Mind is the healer and that there is no
efficacy in a drug." (152-153)
"A case of dropsy, given up by the faculty, fell into my hands. It
was a terrible case.
Tapping had been employed, and yet, as she lay
in her bed, the patient looked like a
barrel. I prescribed the fourth
attenuation of
Argentum nitratum with occasional
doses of a high attenuation
of
Sulphuris. She improved perceptibly. Believing then
somewhat in
the ordinary theories of medical practice, and learning that her former
physician had prescribed these remedies, I began to fear an aggravation
of symptoms
from their prolonged use, and told the patient so; but
she was unwilling to give up
the medicine while she was recovering.
It then occurred to me to give her unmedi-
cated pellets and watch
the result. I did so, and she continued to gain. Finally she
said
that she would give up her medicine for one day, and risk the effects.
After
trying this, she informed me that she could get along two days
without globules; but
on the third day she again suffered, and was
relieved by taking them. She went on
in this way, taking the unmedicated
pellets, -- and receiving occasional visits from
me, -- but employing
no other means, and she was cured." (156)
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