Are
there any specific directions about applying the Sixth Commandment
to
impulses to kill, including self-defense?
Here are a few. Mrs.
Eddy’s statements on war and suicide are in separate sections.
“‘Thou
shalt not kill;’ that is, thou shalt not strike at the eternal sense
of
Life with a malicious aim, but shalt know that by doing thus thine
own sense
of Life shall be forfeited.” (Miscellaneous Writings 67:10-13)
“The Christianly scientific man reflects the divine law, thus becoming
a law
unto himself. He does violence to no man.” (S&H 458:23-25)
“Love
metes not out human justice, but divine mercy. If one's life were
attacked, and one could save it only in accordance with common law,
by
taking another's, would one sooner give up his own? We must love
our
enemies in all the manifestations wherein and whereby we love
our friends;
must even try not to expose their faults, but to do them
good whenever
opportunity occurs. To mete out human justice to those
who persecute
and despitefully use one, is not leaving all retribution
to God and returning
blessing for cursing.” (Mis. 11:14-23)
“As I now
understand Christian Science, I would as soon harm myself as
another;
since by breaking Christ's command, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself,’ I should lose my hope of heaven.” (Mis. 311:19-22)
“The
Jewish religion demands that ‘whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man
shall
his blood be shed.’ But this law is not infallible in wisdom; and
obedience thereto may be found faulty, since false testimony or mistaken
evidence may cause the innocent to suffer for the guilty. Hence the
gospel
that fulfils the law in righteousness, the genius whereof is
displayed in the
surprising wisdom of these words of the New Testament:
‘Whatsoever a
man soweth, that shall he also reap.’ No possible injustice
lurks in this
mandate, and no human misjudgment can pervert it; for
the offender alone
suffers, and always according to divine decree.
This sacred, solid
precept is verified in all directions in Mind-healing,
and is supported in
the Scripture by parallel proof.” (Mis. 65:30-66:13)
What
does Christian Science teach about the faulty mortal thinking, or
sinful qualities of thought, that tempt men to kill?
We are taught
the need to recognize when sin is attempting to identify itself as
our
thinking, and to separate it from ourselves and others. Otherwise,
we believe the
impulses are our own, and are tempted to act out their
suggestions. This is how
evil operates. Christian Science teaches
that we have the power to challenge sin,
recognize its nothingness,
and destroy it forever, one belief at a time, until we have
overcome
the material world, either here or hereafter. Bearing in mind that
Mrs.
Eddy’s entire book, Science and Health, is a full explanation
of this process, and is
the best source to understand these ideas,
here are a few citations regarding the
sinful thoughts and beliefs
that might lead to acts of murder:
“A wicked mortal is not the idea
of God. He is little else than the expression
of error. To suppose
that sin, lust, hatred, envy, hypocrisy, revenge, have
life abiding
in them, is a terrible mistake. Life and Life's idea, Truth and
Truth's
idea, never make men sick, sinful, or mortal.” (S&H 289:8-13)
“Genesis iv. 8. Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him.
The erroneous belief that life, substance, and intelligence can be
material
ruptures the life and brotherhood of man at the very outset.”
(S&H 541:14-18)
“Matter is neither intelligent nor creative. The
tree is not the author of itself.
Sound is not the originator of music,
and man is not the father of man. Cain
very naturally concluded that
if life was in the body, and man gave it, man
had the right to take
it away. This incident shows that the belief of life in
matter was
‘a murderer from the beginning.’ (S&H 89:25)
“Self-love is more
opaque than a solid body. In patient obedience to a
patient God, let
us labor to dissolve with the universal solvent of Love the
adamant
of error, — self-will, self-justification, and self-love, — which
wars
against spirituality and is the law of sin and death.” (S&H
242:15)
“The anatomy of Christian Science teaches when and how to
probe the
self-inflicted wounds of selfishness, malice, envy, and
hate. It teaches the
control of mad ambition. It unfolds the hallowed
influences of unselfishness,
philanthropy, spiritual love.” (S&H
462:25-30)
“Evil is a negation, because it is the absence of truth.
It is nothing,
because it is the absence of something. It is unreal,
because it pre-
supposes the absence of God, the omnipotent and omnipresent.
Every
mortal must learn that there is neither power nor reality in
evil.
“Evil is self-assertive. It says: ‘I am a real entity, over-mastering
good.’
This falsehood should strip evil of all pretensions. The only
power of evil
is to destroy itself. It can never destroy one iota of
good. Every attempt of
evil to destroy good is a failure, and only
aids in peremptorily punishing
the evil-doer. If we concede the same
reality to discord as to harmony,
discord has as lasting a claim uponus as has harmony. If evil is as real
as good, evil is also as immortal.
If death is as real as Life, immortality is
a myth. If pain is as
real as the absence of pain, both must be immortal;
and if so, harmony
cannot be the law of being.” (S&H 186:11-27)
“He that touches
the hem of Christ's robe and masters his mortal beliefs,
animality,
and hate, rejoices in the proof of healing, — in a sweet and
certain
sense that God is Love. Alas for those who break faith with divine
Science and fail to strangle the serpent of sin as well as of sickness!
They
are dwellers still in the deep darkness of belief. They are in
the surging
sea of error, not struggling to lift their heads above
the drowning wave.
“What must the end be? They must eventually expiate
their sin through
suffering. The sin, which one has made his bosom
companion, comes
back to him at last with accelerated force, for the
devil knoweth his time
is short. Here the Scriptures declare that
evil is temporal, not eternal. The
dragon is at last stung to death
by his own malice; but how many periods
of torture it may take to
remove all sin, must depend upon sin's obduracy.”
(S&H 569:11-28)
“The belief of life in matter sins at every step. It incurs divine
displeasure,
and it would kill Jesus that it might be rid of troublesome
Truth. Material
beliefs would slay the spiritual idea whenever and
wherever it appears.
Though error hides behind a lie and excuses guilt,
error cannot forever be
concealed. Truth, through her eternal laws,
unveils error. Truth causes sin
to betray itself, and sets upon error
the mark of the beast. Even the
disposition to excuse guilt or to
conceal it is punished. The avoidance of
justice and the denial of
truth tend to perpetuate sin, invoke crime,
jeopardize self-control,
and mock divine mercy.” (S&H 542:1)
“The intentional destroyer
of others would destroy himself eternally,
were it not that his suffering
reforms him, thus balancing his account
with divine Love, which never
remits the sentence necessary to reclaim
the sinner. Hence these words
of Christ Jesus: ‘Depart from me, all ye
workers of iniquity. There
shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when
ye shall see Abraham,
and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the
kingdom of God,
and you yourselves thrust out.’ (Luke 13 :27-28.) He who
gains
self-knowledge, self-control, and the kingdom of heaven within
himself,
within his own consciousness, is saved through Christ, Truth.
Mortals
must drink sufficiently of the cup of their Lord and Master to unself
mortality
and to destroy its erroneous claims. Therefore, said Jesus, 'Ye
shall
drink indeed of my cup, and be baptized with the baptism that I am
baptized with.'" (My. 160:19 – 161:21)
What are Mary Baker Eddy’s
teachings on suicide?
Here is her response to a question on suicide
that was originally published in the
Christian Science Journal:
“If
this life is a dream not dispelled, but only changed, by death, —
if one
gets tired of it, why not commit suicide?
“Man's existence
is a problem to be wrought in divine Science. What
progress would
a student of science make, if, when tired of mathematics
or failing
to demonstrate one rule readily, he should attempt to work out a
rule
farther on and more difficult — and this, because the first rule was
not
easily demonstrated? In that case he would be obliged to turn
back and
work out the previous example, before solving the advanced
problem.
Mortals have the sum of being to work out, and up, to its
spiritual
standpoint. They must work out of this dream or false claim
of sensation
and life in matter, and up to the spiritual realities
of existence, before this
false claim can be wholly dispelled. Committing
suicide to dodge the
question is not working it out. The error of
supposed life and intelligence
in matter, is dissolved only as we
master error with Truth. Not through sin
or suicide, but by overcoming
temptation and sin, shall we escape the
weariness and wickedness of
mortal existence, and gain heaven, the
harmony of being.” (Mis. 52:18)
The
last 100 pages of Science and Health contain testimonies of healings
from
those who had read early editions of the textbook. One of them
illustrates how
the truth contained in this book rescued a reader
from thoughts of suicide:
“SAVED FROM INSANITY AND SUICIDE
“A few
years ago, while under a sense of darkness and despair caused by
illhealth and an unhappy home, Science and Health was loaned me with
a
request that I should read it.
“At that time my daughter was given
up by material medica to die of
lingering consumption, supposed to
have been inherited. My own condition
seemed even more alarming, as
insanity was being manifested, and rather
than go to an insane asylum,
it seemed to me the only thing to do was to
commit suicide. Heart trouble, kidney complaint, and continual headaches
caused from
female trouble were some of the many ailments I had to
contend with.
My doctor tried to persuade me to undergo an operation as
a means
of relief, but I had submitted to a severe operation ten years
previous,
and found only additional suffering as a result, so I would not
consent.
“When I began with Science and Health, I read the chapter on ‘Prayer’
first, and at that time did not suppose it possible for me to remember
anything I read, but felt a sweet sense of God's protection and power,
and a hope that I should at last find Him to be what I so much needed,
— a present help in time of trouble. Before that chapter on ‘Prayer’
was
finished, my daughter was downstairs eating three meals a day,
and
daily growing stronger. Before I had finished reading the textbook
she
was well, but never having heard that the reading of Science and
Health
healed any one, it was several months before I gave God the
glory.
“One by one my many ailments left me, all but the headaches;
they
were less frequent, until at the end of three years the fear
of them was
entirely overcome.
“Neither myself nor my daughter have
ever received treatments, but
the study of the Bible and Science and
Health, the Christian Science
textbook by Mrs. Eddy, has healed us
and keeps us well.”
