Chapter One of our reading this month is entitled To the Christian World and its message
remains clear and relevant for us today over one hundred years later.
Eddy described her writing as “hopelessly original” (see Miscellaneous Writings p. 371:28 and Retrospection and Introspection p. 35:4)
and this piece certainly verifies that description. Who else could write: “Because
Science is unimpeachable, it summons the severest conflicts of the ages and
waits on God” (Miscellany p.
103:2)? I looked up “unimpeachable” and found the definition: “beyond question,
blameless”; “summons” is a “call with authority to some duty or appearance”;
and “severe” is defined as “extreme; serious; hard to endure, perform,
achieve”.
In the face of criticism, Eddy proceeds to defend the
scientific nature of what she named Christian
Science (also called the Science of
Christ) by citing the experience of St. Paul (see page 104) and providing
examples of the healing effects of this Science. For example she names healings
of consumption, diphtheria, carious bones, cancer, blindness, deafness,
dumbness, and inability to walk. Furthermore she refers to her 1869 encounter
with the distinguished M.D., Dr Davis, who encouraged her to “write a book
which should explain to the world [her] curative system of metaphysics” (p.
105).
She rebels against the misrepresentation and persecution
directed against her discovery and chooses to speak plainly in demanding that
it desist. At the same time, Christian Scientists are admonished to speak kindly
of others and not to join the ranks of those who might return evil with evil,
nor engage in “ignorance, slang, [or] malice” (p. 108).
She closes with a quote from the great St. Paul: “Christ is the
head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body” (p. 108). That puts everything into perspective for the whole world.
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