MRS. EDDY'S MISSION, PURPOSE, AND MOTIVES
"In the year 1866, I discovered
the Christ Science or divine laws of Life, Truth,
and Love, and named
my discovery Christian Science. God had been graciously
preparing
me during many years for the reception of this final revelation of
the
absolute divine Principle of scientific mental healing." (107)
"I saw before me the sick, wearing out years of servitude to an unreal
master in
the belief that the body governed them, rather than Mind.
"The lame, the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the sick, the sensual, the
sinner, I wished
to save from the slavery of their own beliefs and
from the educational systems of
the Pharaohs, who to-day, as of yore,
hold the children of Israel in bondage. I saw
before me the awful
conflict, the Red Sea and the wilderness; but I pressed on
through
faith in God, trusting Truth, the strong deliverer, to guide me into
the land
of Christian Science, where fetters fall and the rights of
man are fully known and
acknowledged.
"I saw that the law of mortal
belief included all error, and that, even as oppressive
laws are disputed
and mortals are taught their right to freedom, so the claims of the
enslaving senses must be denied and superseded. The law of the divine
Mind must
end human bondage, or mortals will continue unaware of man's
inalienable rights
and in subjection to hopeless slavery, because
some public teachers permit an
ignorance of divine power, -- an ignorance
that is the foundation of continued
bondage and of human suffering."
(226-227)
"Since the divine light of Christian Science first dawned
upon the author, she has
never used this newly discovered power in
any direction which she fears to have
fairly understood. Her prime
object, since entering this field of labor, has been to
prevent suffering,
not to produce it." (457)
"The student, who receives his knowledge
of Christian Science, or metaphysical
healing, from a human teacher,
may be mistaken in judgment and demonstration, but
God cannot mistake.
God selects for the highest service one who has grown into
such a
fitness for it as renders any abuse of the mission an impossibility.
The
All-wise does not bestow His highest trusts upon the unworthy.
When He
commissions a messenger, it is one who is spiritually near
Himself. No person
can misuse this mental power, if he is taught of
God to discern it." (455)
"It has been said to the author, 'The world
is benefited by you, but it feels your
influence without seeing you.
Why do you not make yourself more widely known?'
Could her friends
know how little time the author has had, in which to make
herself
outwardly known except through her laborious publications, -- and
how
much time and toil are still required to establish the stately
operations of Christian
Science, -- they would understand why she
is so secluded. Others could not take
her place, even if willing so
to do. She therefore remains unseen at her post,
seeking no self-aggrandizement
but praying, watching, and working for the
redemption of mankind."
(464)
"Truth's immortal idea is sweeping down the centuries, gathering
beneath its wings
the sick and sinning. My weary hope tries to realize
that happy day, when man shall
recognize the Science of Christ and
love his neighbor as himself, -- when he shall
realize God's omnipotence
and the healing power of the divine Love in what it has
done and is
doing for mankind. The promises will be fulfilled. The time for the
reappearing of the divine healing is throughout all time; and whosoever
layeth his
earthly all on the altar of divine Science, drinketh of
Christ's cup now, and is
endued with the spirit and power of Christian
healing.
"In the words of St. John: 'He shall give you another Comforter,
that he may abide
with you
forever.' This Comforter I understand to
be Divine Science." (55)
* * * * * * * * * * * *
"The
twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse, or Revelation of St. John, has
a special
suggestiveness in connection with the nineteenth century.
In the opening of the
sixth seal, typical of six thousand years
since Adam, the distinctive feature has
