Getting the facts

Reporting on a topic, an event, or a situation, requires keen observation and a willingness to set aside preconceived notions. Thus, we might visit a new place and subsequently come away with a whole new sense of it. Our old views may have been influenced by ignorance or misinformation. As we set aside our prejudices and agree to learn with an open heart, rich treasures await us.

Mary Baker Eddy’s discovery of Christian Science set many of the world’s conceptions of reality on their end. Long-held convictions were being overturned. Some were ready to receive it as “glad tidings”; others resisted and challenged her. In the latter case, Eddy was grateful for opportunities to correct misconceived notions, and the little book “No and Yes” is the outcome of one such opportunity.

She writes that (p. 43: 26) “Science often suffers blame through the sheer ignorance of people, while envy and hatred bark and bite at its heels.”

Let’s take a look at some of the topics she touches on and which may come to Reading Room librarians from time to time:

Does Christian Science teach that disease is merely imagination?

               “Disease is more than imagination; it is a human error, a constituent part of what comprise the whole of mortal existence, - namely, material sensation and mental delusion.” P. 4: 6-9

How does the Golden Rule apply in Christian Science?

“We must love our enemies, and continue to do so unto the end. By the love of God we can cancel error in our own hearts, and blot it out of others.” P. 7: 7

How does Christian Science compare with spiritualism and theosophy?

               “No greater opposites can be conceived of, physically, morally, and spiritually, than Christian Science, spiritualism, and theosophy.” P. 13: 19

Macquarie Pocket Dictionary –

                    Spiritualism – a belief or doctrine that the spirits of the dead keep living after the mortal life, and communicate with the living, especially through a person or medium

                    Theosophy – a system of belief and theory, based largely on Brahmanic and Buddhistic ideas, of the Theosophical Society (founded in New York in 1875)

What’s the value of Christian Science?

            “Reading my books, without prejudice, would convince all that their purpose is right. The comprehension of my teachings would enable any one to prove these books to be filled with blessings for the whole human family.” P. 15: 4-7

Does Christian Science embrace pantheism?

               “Christian Science refutes pantheism, finds Spirit neither in matter nor in the modes of mortal mind.” P. 15: 20-21

What can meet humanity’s needs?

               “Right thinking and right acting, physical and moral harmony, come with Science, and the secret of its presence lies in the universal need of better health and morals.” P. 18: 9

“Even doctors will agree that infidelity, ignorance, and quackery have never met the growing wants of humanity.” P. 19: 5-7

What about human philosophy?

               “Human philosophy has ninety-nine parts of error to the one-hundredth part of Truth, - an unsafe decoction for the race. The Science that Jesus demonstrated, whose views of Truth Confucius and Plato but dimly discerned, Science and Health interprets.” P. 21: 2-7

Is there a personal devil?

               “Evil is a quality, not an individual.

               “As mortals, we need to discern the claims of evil, and to fight these claims, not as realities, but as illusions…” p. 23: 18-21

Is man a person?

               “Man is not absorbed in Deity; for he is forever individual; but what this everlasting individuality is, remains to be learned. Mortals have not seen it. That which is born of the flesh is not man’s eternal identity.” P. 25: 19-22

(This reminds me of John 3: 1-3.)

Does man have a soul?

               “The mind-quacks have so slight a knowledge of Soul that they believe material and sinning sense to be soul; and then they doctor this soul as if it were not even a material sense.” P. 29: 7

Can sin be forgiven?

               “To me divine pardon is that divine presence which is the sure destruction of sin; and I insist on the destruction of sin as the only full proof of its pardon.” P. 31: 11-14

What does Christian Science teach regarding sin?

               “It gives the lie to sin, in the spirit of Truth; but other theories make sin true. Jesus declared that the devil was “a liar, and the father of it.”” P. 33:14-16

Did Jesus have to suffer?

               “It was not to appease the wrath of God, but to show the allness of Love and the nothingness of hate, sin, and death, that Jesus suffered. He lived that we also might live. He suffered, to show mortals the awful price paid by sin, and how to avoid paying it.” P. 35: 11-15

[This was a question asked by a passer-by to our Reading Room one morning.]

Can we pray for ourselves?
“True prayer is not asking God for love; it is learning to love, and to include all mankind in one affection. Prayer is the utilization of the love wherewith He loves us.” P. 39: 17-19

How do Christians relate to Christian Science?

               “Through long ages people have slumbered over Christ’s commands, “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel;” “Heal the sick, cast out devils;” and now the Church seems almost chagrined that by new discoveries of Truth sin is losing prestige and power.” P. 41: 19

The final page (p. 46) is a rousing call to humanity to choose its way forward, without prejudice against womanhood.

This book offers a terse and tight reply to misconceptions afloat, then and now, about the Science of Christianity. It is worth a look.

Julie Swannell