NO AND YES

BY

MARY BAKER EDDY

AUTHOR OF SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO

THE SCRIPTURES

BOSTON, U.S.A.

Published by Allison V. Stewart

for the trustees under the will of Mary Baker G. Eddy

Falmouth and St. Paul Streets

1917

Authorized Literature of

The First Church of Christ, Scientist

in Boston, Massachusetts

Copyright, 1891, 1908

By Mary Baker G. Eddy

All rights reserved

PREFACE

IT was the purpose of each edition of this pamphlet to

benefit no favored class, but, according to the apostle's

admonition, to "reprove, rebuke, exhort," and with the

power and self-sacrificing spirit of Love to correct invol-

untary as well as voluntary error.

By a modification of the language, the import of this

edition is, we trust, transparent to the hearts of all con-

scientious laborers in the realm of Mind-healing. To

those who are athirst for the life-giving waters of a true

divinity, it saith tenderly, "Come and drink;" and if

you are babes in Christ, leave the meat and take the

unadulterated milk of the Word, until you grow to

apprehend the pure spirituality of Truth.

MARY BAKER EDDY

CONTENTS
	Page
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	v
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . .	1
Disease Unreal . . . . . . . . . . . . .	4
Science of Mind-healing . . . . . . . . .	7
Is Christian Science of the Same Lineage as Spiritualism or Theosophy? . . . . . .	13
Is Christian Science from Beneath, and not from Above? . . . . . . . . . . . .	14
Is Christian Science Pantheistic? . . . . . .	15
Is Christian Science Blasphemous? . . . . .	18
Is There a Personal Deity? . . . . . . . .	19
Is There a Personal Devil? . . . . . . . .	22
Is Man a Person? . . . . . . . . . . . .	25
Has Man a Soul? . . . . . . . . . . . .	28
Is Sin Forgiven? . . . . . . . . . . . . .	30
Is There any such Thing as Sin? . . . . . .	32
Is There no Sacrificial Atonement? . . . .	33
Is There no Intercessory Prayer? . . . . .	38
Should Christians Beware of Christian Science?	41

vii

NO AND YES

INTRODUCTION

TO kindle in all minds a common sentiment of regard

for the spiritual idea emanating from the infinite, is

a most needful work; but this must be done gradually, for

Truth is as "the still, small voice," which comes to our

recognition only as our natures are changed by its silent

influence.

Small streams are noisy and rush precipitately; and

babbling brooks fill the rivers till they rise in floods, de-

molishing bridges and overwhelming cities. So men, when

thrilled by a new idea, are sometimes impatient; and,

when public sentiment is aroused, are liable to be borne

on by the current of feeling. They should then turn tem-

porarily from the tumult, for the silent cultivation of the

true idea and the quiet practice of its virtues. When

the noise and stir of contending sentiments cease, and

the flames die away on the mount of revelation, we can

read more clearly the tablets of Truth.

The theology and medicine of Jesus were one, — in the

divine oneness of the trinity. Life, Truth, and Love, which

healed the sick and cleansed the sinful. This trinity in

unity, correcting the individual thought, is the only Mind-

1

2 NO AND YES

healing I vindicate; and on its standard have emblazoned

that crystallized expression, Christian Science.

A spurious and hydra-headed mind-healing is naturally

glared at by the pulpit, ostracized by the medical faculty,

and scorned by people of common sense. To aver that

disease is normal, a God-bestowed and stubborn reality,

but that you can heal it, leaves you to work against that

which is natural and a law of being. It is scientific to rob

disease of all reality; and to accomplish this, you cannot

begin by admitting its reality. Our Master taught his

students to deny self, sense, and take up the cross. Men-

tal healers who admit that disease is real should be made

to test the feasibility of what they say by healing one case

audibly, through such an admission, — if this is possible.

I have healed more disease by the spoken than the un-

spoken word.

The honest student of Christian Science is modest in his

claims and conscientious in duty, waiting and working to

mature what he has been taught. Institutes furnished

with such teachers are becoming beacon-lights along the

shores of erudition; and many who are not teachers have

large practices and some marked success in healing the

most defiant forms of disease.

Dishonesty destroys one's ability to heal mentally. Con-

ceit cannot avert the effects of deceit. Taking advantage

of the present ignorance in relation to Christian Science

Mind-healing, many are flooding our land with conflict-

ing theories and practice. We should not spread abroad

NO AND YES 3

patchwork ideas that in some vital points lack Science.

How sad it is that envy will bend its bow and shoot its

arrow at the idea which claims only its inheritance, is nat-

urally modest, generous, and sincere! while the trespass-

ing error murders either friend or foe who stands in its

way. Truly it is better to fall into the hands of God, than

of man.

When I revised "Science and Health with Key to the

Scriptures," in 1878, some irresponsible people insisted

that my manual of the practice of Christian Science Mind-

healing should not be made public; but I obeyed a diviner

rule. People dependent on the rules of this practice for

their healing, not having lost the Spirit which sustains the

genuine practice, will put that book in the hands of their

patients, whom it will heal, and recommend it to their

students, whom it would enlighten. Every teacher must

pore over it in secret, to keep himself well informed. The

Nemesis of the history of Mind-healing notes this hour.

Dishonesty necessarily stultifies the spiritual sense which

Mind-healers specially need; and which they must pos-

sess, in order to be safe members of the community. How

good and pleasant a thing it is to seek not so much thine

own as another's good, to sow by the wayside for the way-

weary, and trust Love's recompense of love.

Plagiarism from my writings is so common it is be-

coming odious to honest people; and such compilations,

instead of possessing the essentials of Christian Science,

are tempting and misleading.

4 NO AND YES

Reading Science and Health has restored the sick to

health; but the task of learning thoroughly the Science

of Mind-healing and demonstrating it understandingly

had better be undertaken in health than sickness.

Disease Unreal

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 delu-

sion. But an erring sense of existence, or the error of

belief, named disease, never made sickness a stubborn

reality. On the ground that harmony is the truth of be-

ing, the Science of Mind-healing destroys the feasibility

of disease; hence error of thought becomes fable instead

of fact. Science demonstrates the reality of Truth and

the unreality of the error. A self-evident proposition, in

the Science of Mind-healing, is that disease is unreal;

and the efficacy of my system, beyond other systems of

medicine, vouches for the validity of that statement. Sin

and disease are not scientific, because they embody not

the idea of divine Principle, and are not the phenomena

of the immutable laws of God; and they do not arise

from the divine consciousness and true constituency of

being.

The unreality of sin, disease, and death, rests on the

exclusive truth that being, to be eternal, must be harmo-

nious. All disease must be — and can only be — healed

NO AND YES 5

on this basis. All true Christian Scientists are vindicat-

ing, fearlessly and honestly, the Principle of this grand

verity of Mind-healing.

In erring mortal thought the reality of Truth has an

antipode, — the reality of error; and disease is one of the

severe realities of this error. God has no opposite in

Science. To Truth there is no error. As Truth alone is

real, then it follows that to declare error real would be to

make it Truth. Disease arises from a false and material

sense, from the belief that matter has sensation. There-

fore this material sense, which is untrue, is of necessity

unreal. Moreover, this unreal sense substitutes for Truth

an unreal belief, — namely, that life and health are inde-

pendent of God, and dependent on material conditions.

Material sense also avers that Spirit, or Truth, cannot

restore health and perpetuate life, but that material con-

ditions can and do destroy both human health and life.

If disease is as real as health, and is itself a state of

being, and yet is arrayed against being, then Mind, or

God, does not meddle with it. Disease becomes indeed a

stubborn reality, and man is mortal. A "kingdom divided

against itself is brought to desolation;" therefore the mind

that attacks a normal and real condition of man, is pro-

fanely tampering with the realities of God and His laws.

Metaphysical healing is a lost jewel in this misconception

of reality. Any contradictory fusion of Truth with error,

in both theory and practice, prevents one from healing

scientifically, and makes the last state of one's patients

6 NO AND YES

worse than the first. If disease is real it is not illusive,

and it certainly would contradict the Science of Mind-

healing to attempt to destroy the realities of Mind in order

to heal the sick.

On the theory that God's formations are spiritual, har-

monious, and eternal, and that God is the only creator,

Christian Science refutes the validity of the testimony of

the senses, which take cognizance of their own phenomena,

— sickness, disease, and death. This refutation is indis-

pensable to the destruction of false evidence, and the

consequent cure of the sick, — as all understand who

practise the true Science of Mind-healing. If, as the

error indicates, the evidence of disease is not false, then

disease cannot be healed by denying its validity; and this

is why the mistaken healer is not successful, trying to heal

on a material basis.

The evidence that the earth is motionless and the sun

revolves around our planet, is as sensible and real as the

evidence for disease; but Science determines the evidence

in both cases to be unreal. To material sense it is plain

also that the error of the revolution of the sun around the

earth is more apparent than the adverse but true Science

of the stellar universe. Copernicus has shown that what

appears real, to material sense and feeling, is absolutely

unreal. Astronomy, optics, acoustics, and hydraulics are

all at war with the testimony of the physical senses. This

fact intimates that the laws of Science are mental, not

material; and Christian Science demonstrates this.

NO AND YES 7

Science of Mind-healing

The rule of divinity is golden; to be wise and true re-

joices every heart. But evil influences waver the scales

of justice and mercy. No personal considerations should

allow any root of bitterness to spring up between Chris-

tian Scientists, nor cause any misapprehension as to the

motives of others. We must love our enemies, and con-

tinue 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.

Sooner or later the eyes of sinful mortals must be opened

to see every error they possess, and the way out of it; and

they will "flee as a bird to your mountain," away from

the enemy of sinning sense, stubborn will, and every im-

perfection in the land of Sodom, and find rescue and refuge

in Truth and Love.

Every loving sacrifice for the good of others is known

to God, and the wrath of man cannot hide it from Him.

God has appointed for Christian Scientists high tasks,

and will not release them from the strict performance of

each one of them. The students must now fight their

own battles. I recommend that Scientists draw no lines

whatever between one person and another, but think,

speak, teach, and write the truth of Christian Science

without reference to right or wrong personality in this

field of labor. Leave the distinctions of individual char-

acter and the discriminations and guidance thereof to

8 NO AND YES

the Father, whose wisdom is unerring and whose love is

universal.

We should endeavor to be long-suffering, faithful, and

charitable with all. To this small effort let us add one

more privilege — namely, silence whenever it can substi-

tute censure. Avoid voicing error; but utter the truth of

God and the beauty of holiness, the joy of Love and "the

peace of God, that passeth all understanding," recom-

mending to all men fellowship in the bonds of Christ.

Advise students to rebuke each other always in love, as

I have rebuked them. Having discharged this duty, coun-

sel each other to work out his own salvation, without fear

or doubt, knowing that God will make the wrath of man

to praise Him, and that the remainder thereof He will

restrain. We can rejoice that every germ of goodness will

at last struggle into freedom and greatness, and every sin

will so punish itself that it will bow down to the command-

ments of Christ, — Truth and Love.

I enjoin it upon my students to hold no controversy or

enmity over doctrines and traditions, or over the miscon-

ceptions of Christian Science, but to work, watch, and

pray for the amelioration of sin, sickness, and death. If

one be found who is too blind for instruction, no longer cast

your pearls before this state of mortal mind, lest it turn

and rend you; but quietly, with benediction and hope,

let the unwise pass by, while you walk on in equanimity,

and with increased power, patience, and understanding,

gained from your forbearance. This counsel is not new,

NO AND YES 9

as my Christian students can testify; and if it had been

heeded in times past it would have prevented, to a great

extent, the factions which have sprung up among Scientists

to the hindrance of the Cause of Truth. It is true that the

mistakes, prejudices, and errors of one class of thinkers

must not be introduced or established among another class

who are clearer and more conscientious in their convic-

tions; but this one thing can be done, and should be: let

your opponents alone, and use no influence to prevent

their legitimate action from their own standpoint of ex-

perience, knowing, as you should, that God will well

regenerate and separate wisely and finally; whereas you

may err in effort, and lose your fruition.

Hoping to pacify repeated complaints and murmurings

against too great leniency, on my part, towards some of

my students who fall into error, I have opposed occa-

sionally and strongly — especially in the first edition of

this little work — existing wrongs of the nature referred

to. But I now point steadfastly to the power of grace to

overcome evil with good. God will "furnish a table in

the wilderness" and show the power of Love.

Science is not the shibboleth of a sect or the caba-

listic insignia of philosophy; it excludes all error and

includes all Truth. More mistakes are made in its name

than this period comprehends. Divinely defined, Science

is the atmosphere of God; humanly construed, and ac-

cording to Webster, it is "knowledge, duly arranged and

referred to general truths and principles on which it is

10 NO AND YES

founded, and from which it is derived." I employ this

awe-filled word in both a divine and human sense; but

I insist that Christian Science is demonstrably as true,

relative to the unseen verities of being, as any proof that

can be given of the completeness of Science.

The two largest words in the vocabulary of thought are

"Christian" and "Science." The former is the highest

style of man; the latter reveals and interprets God and

man; it aggregates, amplifies, unfolds, and expresses the

All-God. The life of Christ is the predicate and postu-

late of all that I teach, and there is but one standard

statement, one rule, and one Principle for all scientific

truth.

My hygienic system rests on Mind, the eternal Truth.

What is termed matter, or relates to its so-called attributes,

is a self-destroying error. When a so-called material sense

is lost, and Truth restores that lost sense, — on the basis

that all consciousness is Mind and eternal, — the former

position, that sense is organic and material, is proven

erroneous.

The feasibility and immobility of Christian Science

unveil the true idea, — namely, that earth's discords have

not the reality of Mind in the Science of being; and this

idea — dematerializing and spiritualizing mortals — turns

like the needle to the pole all hope and faith to God, based

as it is on His omnipotence and omnipresence.

Eternal harmony, perpetuity, and perfection, constitute

the phenomena of being, governed by the immutable and

NO AND YES 11

eternal laws of God; whereas matter and human will,

intellect, desire, and fear, are not the creators, controllers,

nor destroyers of life or its harmonies. Man has an im-

mortal Soul, a divine Principle, and an eternal being.

Man has perpetual individuality; and God's laws, and

their intelligent and harmonious action, constitute his in-

dividuality in the Science of Soul.

In its literary expression, my system of Christian meta-

physics is hampered by material terms, which must be

used to indicate thoughts that are to be understood meta-

physically. As a Science, this system is held back by the

common ignorance of what it is and what it does, and

(worse still) by those who come falsely in its name. To

be appreciated, Science must be understood and consci-

entiously introduced. If the Bible and Science and Health

had the place in schools of learning that physiology oc-

cupies, they would revolutionize and reform the world,

through the power of Christ. It is true that it requires

more study to understand and demonstrate what these

works teach, than to learn theology, physiology, or physics;

because they teach divine Science, with fixed Principle,

given rule, and unmistakable proof.

Ancient and modern human philosophy are inadequate

to grasp the Principle of Christian Science, or to demon-

strate it. Revelation shows this Principle, and will rescue

reason from the thrall of error. Revelation must subdue

the sophistry of intellect, and spiritualize consciousness

with the dictum and the demonstration of Truth and Love.

12 NO AND YES

Christian Science Mind-healing can only be gained by

working from a purely Christian standpoint. Then it

heals the sick and exalts the race. The essence of this

Science is right thinking and right acting — leading us to

see spirituality and to be spiritual, to understand and to

demonstrate God.

The Massachusetts Metaphysical College and Church

of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, were the outgrowth of the

author's religious experience. After a lifetime of ortho-

doxy on the platform of doctrines, rites, and ceremonies,

it became a sacred duty for her to impart to others this

new-old knowledge of God.

The same affection, desire, and motives which have stim-

ulated true Christianity in all ages, and given impulse to

goodness, in or out of the Church, have nerved her pur-

pose to build on the new-born conception of the Christ, as

Jesus declared himself, — namely, "the way, the truth,

and the life." Living a true life, casting out evil, healing

the sick, and preaching the gospel of Truth, — these are

the ends of Christianity. This divine way impels a spirit-

ualization of thought and method, beyond doctrine and

ritual; and in nothing else has she departed from the old

landmarks.

The unveiled spiritual signification of the Word so en-

larges our sense of God that it makes both sense and Soul,

man and Life, immaterial, though still individual. It re-

moves all limits from divine power. God must be found

all instead of a part of being, and man the reflection of

NO AND YES 13

His power and goodness. This Science rebukes sin with

its own nothingness, and thus destroys sin quickly and

utterly. It makes disease unreal, and this heals it.

The demonstration of moral and physical growth, and a

scientific deduction from the Principle of all harmony, de-

clare both the Principle and idea to be divine. If this be

true, then death must be swallowed up in Life, and the

prophecy of Jesus fulfilled, "Whosoever liveth and be-

lieveth in me shall never die." Though centuries passed

after those words were originally uttered, before this re-

appearing of Truth, and though the hiatus be longer still

before that saying is demonstrated in Life that knows no

death, the declaration is nevertheless true, and remains

a clear and profound deduction from Christian Science.

Is Christian Science of the Same Lineage as

Spiritualism or Theosophy?

Science is not susceptible of being held as a mere theory.

It is hoary with time. It takes hold of eternity, voices the

infinite, and governs the universe. No greater opposites

can be conceived of, physically, morally, and spiritually,

than Christian Science, spiritualism, and theosophy.

Science and Health has effected a revolution in the

minds of thinkers on the subject of mediumship, and given

impulse to reason and revelation, goodness and virtue. A

theory may be sound in spots, and sparkle like a diamond,

while other parts of it have no lustre. Christian Science

14 NO AND YES

is sound in every part. It is neither warped nor miscon-

ceived, when properly demonstrated. If a spiritualist

medium understood the Science of Mind-healing, he

would know that between those who have and those who

have not passed the transition called death, there can be

no interchange of consciousness, and that all sensible phe-

nomena are merely subjective states of mortal mind.

Theosophy is a corruption of Judaism. This corruption

had a renewal in the Neoplatonic philosophy; but it sprang

from the Oriental philosophy of Brahmanism, and blends

with its magic and enchantments. Theosophy is no more

allied to Christian Science than the odor of the upas-tree

is to the sweet breath of springtide, or the brilliant cor-

uscations of the northern sky are to solar heat and

light.

Is Christian Science from Beneath, and not

from Above?

Hear the words of our Master: "Go ye into all the

world"! "Heal the sick, cast out devils"! Christian

Scientists, perhaps more than any other religious sect, are

obeying these commands; and the injunctions are not

confined to Jesus' students in that age, but they extend

to this age, — to as many as shall believe on him. The

demand and example of Jesus were not from beneath.

Are frozen dogmas, persistent persecution, and the doc-

trine of eternal damnation, from above? Are the dews

NO AND YES 15

of divine Truth, falling on the sick and sinner, to heal

them, from beneath? "By their fruits ye shall know

them."

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. Fa-

tiguing Bible translations and voluminous commentaries

are employed to explain and prop old creeds, and they

have the civil and religious arms in their defense; then

why should not these be equally extended to support the

Christianity that heals the sick? The notions of person-

ality to be found in creeds are far more mystic than

Mind-healing. It is no easy matter to believe there are

three persons in one person, and that one person is cast

out of another person. These conceptions of Deity and

devil presuppose an impotent God and an incredible

Satan.

Is Christian Science Pantheistic?

Christian Science refutes pantheism, finds Spirit neither

in matter nor in the modes of mortal mind. It shows

that matter and mortal mind have neither origin nor ex-

istence in the eternal Mind. Thinking otherwise is what

estranges mortals from divine Life and Love. God is

All-in-all. He is Spirit; and in nothing is He unlike Him-

self. Nothing that "worketh or maketh a lie" is to be

16 NO AND YES

found in the divine consciousness. For God to know,

is to be; that is, what He knows must truly and eternally

exist. If He knows matter, and matter can exist in Mind,

then mortality and discord must be eternal. He is Mind;

and whatever He knows is made manifest, and must be

Truth.

If God knows evil even as a false claim, this knowledge

would manifest evil in Him and proceeding from Him.

Christian Science shows that matter, evil, sin, sickness, and

death are but negations of Spirit, Truth, and Life, which

are positives that cannot be gainsaid. The subjective

states of evil, called mortal mind or matter, are negatives

destitute of time and space; for there is none beside God

or Spirit and the idea of Spirit.

This infinite logic is the infinite light, — uncompre-

hended, yet forever giving forth more light, because it

has no darkness to emit. Mortals do not understand the

All; hence their inference of some other existence beside

God and His true likeness, — of something unlike Him.

He who is All, understands all. He can have no knowl-

edge or inference but His own consciousness, and can take

in no more than all.

The mists of matter — sin, sickness, and death — dis-

appear in proportion as mortals approach Spirit, which

is the reality of being. It is not enough to say that matter

is the substratum of evil, and that its highest attenuation is

mortal mind; for there is, strictly speaking, no mortal

mind. Mind is immortal. Death is the consequent of an

NO AND YES 17

antecedent false assumption of the realness of something

unreal, material, and mortal. If God knows the antece-

dent, He must produce its consequences. From this logic

there is no escape. Matter, or evil, is the absence of Spirit

or good. Their nothingness is thus proven; for God is

good, ever-present, and All.

"In Him we live, and move, and have our being;" con-

sequently it is impossible for the true man — who is a

spiritual and individual being, created in the eternal

Science of being — to be conscious of aught but good.

God's image and likeness can never be less than a good

man; and for man to be more than God's likeness is

impossible. Man is the climax of creation; and God is

not without an ever-present witness, testifying of Himself.

Matter, or any mode of mortal mind, is neither part nor

parcel of divine consciousness and God's verity.

In Science there is no fallen state of being; for therein

is no inverted image of God, no escape from the focal

radiation of the infinite. Hence the unreality of error,

and the truth of the Scripture, that there is "none beside

Him." If mortals could grasp these two words all and

nothing, this mystery of a God who has no knowledge of

sin would disappear, and the eternal, infinite harmony

would be fathomed. If God could know a false claim,

false knowledge would be a part of His consciousness.

Then evil would be as real as good, sickness as real as

health, death as real as Life; and sickness, sin, and death

would be as eternal as God.

18 NO AND YES

Is Christian Science Blasphemous?

Blasphemy has never diminished sin and sickness, nor

acknowledged God in all His ways. Blasphemy rebukes

not the godless lie that denies Him as All-in-all, nor does

it ascribe to Him all presence, power, and glory. Chris-

tian Science does this. If Science lacked the proof of its

origin in God, it would be self-destructive, for it rests alone

on the demonstration of God's supremacy and omnipo-

tence. 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.

Human theories, when weighed in the balance, are

found unequal to the demonstration of divine Life and

Love; and their highest endeavors are, to divine Science,

what a child's love of pictures is to art. A child, in his

ignorance, may imagine the face of Dante to be the rapt

face of Jesus. Thus falsely may the human conceive of

the Divine. If the schoolmaster is not Christ, the school

gets things wrong, and knows it not; but the teacher is

morally responsible.

Good health and a more spiritual religion are the com-

mon wants; and these wants have wrought this moral

result, — that the so-called mortal mind asks for what

Mind alone can supply. This demand militates against

the so-called demands of matter, and regulates the present

NO AND YES 19

high premium on Mind-healing. If the uniform moral

and spiritual, as well as physical, effects of Christian Sci-

ence were lacking, the premium would go down. That

it continues to rise, and the demand to increase, shows its

real value to the race. Even doctors will agree that in-

fidelity, ignorance, and quackery have never met the grow-

ing wants of humanity. Christian Science is no "Boston

craze;" it is the sober second thought of advancing

humanity.

Is There a Personal Deity?

God is infinite. He is neither a limited mind nor a

limited body. God is Love; and Love is Principle, not

person. What the person of the infinite is, we know not;

but we are gratefully and lovingly conscious of the father-

liness of this Supreme Being. God is individual, and man

is His individualized idea. While material man and the

physical senses receive no spiritual idea, and feel no sen-

sation of divine Love, spiritual man and his spiritual

senses are drinking in the nature and essence of the indi-

vidual infinite. A sinful sense is incompetent to understand

the realities of being, — that Life is God, and that man

is in His image and likeness. A sinner can take no cog-

nizance of the noumenon or the phenomena of Spirit;

but leaving sin, sense rises to the fulness of the stature of

man in Christ.

Person is formed after the manner of mortal man, so

20 NO AND YES

far as he can conceive of personality. Limitless person-

ality is inconceivable. His person and perfection are

neither self-created, nor discerned through imperfection;

and of God as a person, human reason, imagination, and

revelation give us no knowledge. Error would fashion

Deity in a manlike mould, while Truth is moulding a

Godlike man.

When the term divine Principle is used to signify Deity

it may seem distant or cold, until better apprehended.

This Principle is Mind, substance, Life, Truth, Love.

When understood, Principle is found to be the only term

that fully conveys the ideas of God, — one Mind, a perfect

man, and divine Science. As the divine Principle is com-

prehended, God's omnipotence and omnipresence will

dawn on mortals, and the notion of an everywhere-present

body — or of an infinite Mind starting from a finite body,

and returning to it — will disappear.

Ever-present Love must seem ever absent to ever-present

selfishness or material sense. Hence this asking amiss

and receiving not, and the common idolatry of man-

worship. In divine Science, God is recognized as the

only power, presence, and glory.

Adam's mistiness and Satan's reasoning, ever since the

flood, — when specimens of every kind emerged from the

ark, — have run through the veins of all human philoso-

phy. Human reason is a blind guide, a continued series

of mortal hypotheses, antagonistic to Revelation and Sci-

ence. It is continually straying into forbidden by-paths

NO AND YES 21

of sensualism, contrary to the life and teachings of Jesus

and Paul, and the vision of the Apocalypse. 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. It was not a search after wisdom;

it was wisdom, and it grasped in spiritual law the uni-

verse, — all time, space, immortality, thought, extension.

This Science demonstrated the Principle of all phenomena,

identity, individuality, law; and showed man as reflect-

ing God and the divine capacity. Human philosophy

would dethrone perfection, and substitute matter and evil

for divine means and ends.

Human philosophy has an undeveloped God, who un-

folds Himself through material modes, wherein the human

and divine mingle in the same realm and consciousness.

This is rank infidelity; because by it we lose God's ways

and perpetuate the supposed power and reality of evil ad

infinitum. Christian Science rends this veil in the pantheon

of many gods, and reproduces the teachings of Jesus, whose

philosophy is incontestable, bears the strain of time, and

brings in the glories of eternity; "for other foundation

can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ."

Divine philosophy is demonstrably the true idea of the

Christ, wherein Principle heals and saves. A philosophy

which cannot heal the sick has little resemblance to Sci-

ence, and is, to say the least, like a cloud without rain,

22 NO AND YES

"driven about by every wind of doctrine." Such phi-

losophy has certainly not touched the hem of the Christ

garment.

Leibnitz, Descartes, Fichte, Hegel, Spinoza, Bishop

Berkeley, were once clothed with a "brief authority;"

but Berkeley ended his metaphysical theory with a treatise

on the healing properties of tar-water, and Hegel was an

inveterate snuff-taker. The circumlocution and cold cate-

gories of Kant fail to improve the conditions of mortals,

morally, spiritually, or physically. Such miscalled meta-

physical systems are reeds shaken by the wind. Com-

pared with the inspired wisdom and infinite meaning of

the Word of Truth, they are as moonbeams to the sun, or

as Stygian night to the kindling dawn.

Is There a Personal Devil?

No man hath seen the person of good or of evil. Each

is greater than the corporeality we behold.

"He cast out devils." This record shows that the term

devil is generic, being used in the plural number. From

this it follows that there is more than one devil. That

Jesus cast several persons out of another person, is not

stated, and is impossible. Hence the passage must refer

to the evils which were cast out.

Jesus defined devil as a mortal who is full of evil. "Have

I not chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" His

definition of evil indicated his ability to cast it out. An

NO AND YES 23

incorrect concept of the nature of evil hinders the destruc-

tion of evil. To conceive of God as resembling — in per-

sonality, or form — the personality that Jesus condemned

as devilish, is fraught with spiritual danger. Evil can

neither grasp the prerogative of God nor make evil om-

nipotent and omnipresent.

Jesus said to Peter, "Get thee behind me, Satan;" but

he to whom our Lord gave the keys of the kingdom could

not have been wholly evil, and therefore was not a devil,

after the accepted definition. Out of the Magdalen, Jesus

cast seven devils; but not one person was named among

them. According to Crabtree, these devils were the dis-

eases Jesus cast out.

The most eminent divines, in Europe and America, con-

cede that the Scriptures have both a literal and a moral

meaning. Which of the two is the more important to gain,

— the literal or the moral sense of the word devil, — in

order to cast out this 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; but

Deity can have no such warfare against Himself. Knowl-

edge of a man's physical personality is not sufficient to

inform us as to the amount of good or evil he possesses.

Hence we cannot understand God or man, through the

person of either. God is All-in-all; but He is definite and

individual, the omnipresent and omniscient Mind; and

man's individuality is God's own image and likeness, —

24 NO AND YES

even the immeasurable idea of divine Mind. In the

Science of good, evil loses all place, person, and power.

According to Spinoza's philosophy God is amplification.

He is in all things, and therefore He is in evil in human

thought. He is extension, of whatever character. Also,

according to Spinoza, man is an animal vegetable, devel-

oped through the lower orders of matter and mortal mind.

All these vagaries are at variance with my system of meta-

physics, which rests on God as One and All, and denies

the actual existence of both matter and evil. According to

false philosophy and scholastic theology, God is three

persons in one person. By the same token, evil is not only

as real as good, but much more real, since evil subordi-

nates good in personality.

The claims of evil become both less and more in Chris-

tian Science, than in human philosophies or creeds: more,

because the evil that is hidden by dogma and human rea-

son is uncovered by Science; and less, because evil, being

thus uncovered, is found out, and exposure is nine points

of destruction. Then appears the grand verity of Chris-

tian Science: namely, that evil has no claims and was

never a claimant; for behold evil (or devil) is, as Jesus

said, "a murderer from the beginning, and the truth abode

not in him."

There was never a moment in which evil was real. This

great fact concerning all error brings with it another and

more glorious truth, that good is supreme. As there is

none beside Him, and He is all good, there can be no evil.

NO AND YES 25

Simply uttering this great thought is not enough! We

must live it, until God becomes the All and Only of our

being. Having won through great tribulation this cardinal

point of divine Science, St. Paul said, "But now we are

delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were

held; that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not

in the oldness of the letter."

Is Man a Person?

Man is more than physical personality, or what we cog-

nize through the material senses. Mind is more than mat-

ter, even as the infinite idea of Truth is beyond a finite

belief. Man outlives finite mortal definitions of himself,

according to a law of "the survival of the fittest." Man is

the eternal idea of his divine Principle, or Father. He is

neither matter nor a mode of mortal mind, for he is spir-

itual and eternal, an immortal mode of the divine Mind.

Man is the image and likeness of God, coexistent and

coeternal with him.

Man is not absorbed in Deity; for he is forever individ-

ual; 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. Spiritual and

immortal man alone is God's likeness, and that which is

mortal is not man in a spiritually scientific sense. A

material, sinful mortal is but the counterfeit of immortal

man.

26 NO AND YES

The mind-quacks believe that mortal man is identical

with immortal man, and that the immortal is inside the

mortal; that good and evil blend; that matter and Spirit

are one; and that Soul, or Spirit, is subdivided into spirits,

or souls, — alias gods. This infantile talk about Mind-

healing is no more identical with Christian Science than

the babe is identical with the adult, or the human belief

resembles the divine idea. Hence it is impossible for those

holding such material and mortal views to demonstrate

my metaphysics. Theirs is the sensuous thought, which

brings forth its own sensuous conception. Mine is the

spiritual idea which transfigures thought.

All real being represents God, and is in Him. In this

Science of being, man can no more relapse or collapse

from perfection, than his divine Principle, or Father, can

fall out of Himself into something below infinitude. Man's

real ego, or selfhood, is goodness. If man's individuality

were evil, he would be annihilated, for evil is self-destroying.

Man's individual being must reflect the supreme indi-

vidual Being, to be His image and likeness; and this

individuality never originated in molecule, corpuscle, ma-

teriality, or mortality. God holds man in the eternal

bonds of Science, — in the immutable harmony of divine

law. Man is a celestial; and in the spiritual universe

he is forever individual and forever harmonious. "If

God so clothe the grass of the field, . . . shall He not

much more clothe you, ye of little faith?"

Sin must be obsolete, — dust returning to dust, noth-

NO AND YES 27

ingness to nothingness. Sin is not Mind; it is but the sup-

position that there is more than one Mind. It issues

a false claim; and the claim, being worthless, is in reality

no claim whatever. Matter is not Mind, to claim aught;

but Mind is God, and evil finds no place in good. When

we get near enough to God to see this, the springtide

of Truth in Christian Science will burst upon us in the

similitude of the Apocalyptic pictures. No night will be

there, and there will be no more sea. There will be no

need of the sun, for Spirit will be the light of the city, and

matter will be proved a myth. Until centuries pass, and

this vision of Truth is fully interpreted by divine Science,

this prophecy will be scoffed at; but it is just as veritable

now as it can be then. Science, divine Science, presents

the grand and eternal verities of God and man as the

divine Mind and that Mind's idea.

Mortal man is the antipode of immortal man, and the

two should not be confounded. Bishop Foster said, in a

lecture in Boston, "No man living hath yet seen man."

This material sinful personality, which we misname man,

is what St. Paul terms "the old man and his deeds," to

be "put off."

Who can say what the absolute personality of God or

man is? Who living hath seen God or a perfect man?

In presence of such thoughts take off thy shoes and

tread lightly, for this is holy ground. Surely the probation

of mortals must go on after the change called death, that

they may learn the definition of immortal being; or else

28 NO AND YES

their present mistakes would extinguish human existence.

How long this false sense remains after the transition called

death, no mortal knoweth; but this is sure, that the mists

of error, sooner or later, will melt in the fervent heat of

suffering, mortality will burst the barriers of sense, and

man be found perfect and eternal. Of his intermediate

conditions — the purifying processes and terrible revolu-

tions necessary to effect this end — I am ignorant.

Inasmuch as these momentous facts in the Science of

being must be learned some time, now is the most accept-

able time for beginning the lesson. If Science is pointing

the way, and is found to bring with it health, holiness, and

immortality, then to-day is none too soon for entering this

path. The proof that Christian Science is the way of sal-

vation given by Christ, I consider well established. The

present, as well as the future, reveals the fact that Truth

is never understood too soon.

Has Truth, as demonstrated by Jesus, reappeared?

Study Christian Science and practise it, and you will

know that Truth has reappeared. What is demonstrably

true cannot be gainsaid; but getting the letter and omitting

the spirit of this Science is neither the comprehension of

its Principle nor the practice of its Life.

Has Man a Soul?

The Scriptures inform us that "the soul that sinneth,

it shall die." Here soul means sense and organic life; and

NO AND YES 29

this passage refers to the Jewish law, that a mortal should

be put to death for his own sin, but not for another's.

Not Soul, but mortal sense, sins and dies. Immortal man

has immortal Soul and a deathless sense of being. Mortal

man has but a false sense of Soul and body. He believes

that Spirit, or Soul, exists in matter. This is pantheism,

and is not the Science of 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.

In Dr. Gordon's sermon on The Ministry of Healing,

he said, "The forgiven soul in a sick body is not half a

man." Is this pantheistic statement sound theology, —

that Soul is in matter, and the immortal part of man a sin-

ner? Is not this a disparagement of the person of man and

a denial of God's power? Better far that we impute such

doctrines to mortal opinion than to the divine Word.

To my sense, such a statement is a shocking reflection

on the divine power. A mortal pardoned by God is not

sick, he is made whole. He in whom sin, disease, and

death are destroyed, is more than a fraction of himself.

Such sermons, though clad in soft raiment, are spirit-

less waifs, literary driftwood on the ocean of thought;

while Truth walks triumphantly over the waves of sin

sickness, and death.

30 NO AND YES

Is Sin Forgiven?

The law of Life and Truth is the law of Christ, destroy-

ing all sense of sin and death. It does more than forgive

the false sense named sin, for it pursues and punishes it,

and will not let sin go until it is destroyed, — until nothing

is left to be forgiven, to suffer, or to be punished. For-

given thus, sickness and sin have no relapse. God's law

reaches and destroys evil by virtue of the allness of God.

He need not know the evil He destroys, any more than

the legislator need know the criminal who is punished by

the law enacted. God's law is in three words, "I am All;"

and this perfect law is ever present to rebuke any claim

of another law. God pities our woes with the love of a

Father for His child, — not by becoming human, and

knowing sin, or naught, but by removing our knowledge

of what is not. He could not destroy our woes totally

if He possessed any knowledge of them. His sympathy

is divine, not human. It is Truth's knowledge of its own

infinitude which forbids the genuine existence of even

a claim to error. This knowledge is light wherein there

is no darkness, — not light holding darkness within itself.

The consciousness of light is like the eternal law of God,

revealing Him and nothing else.

Sympathy with sin, sorrow, and sickness would dethrone

God as Truth, for Truth has no sympathy for error. In

Science, the cure of the sick demonstrates this grand

NO AND YES 31

verity of Christian Science, that you cannot eradicate dis-

ease if you admit that God sends it or sees it. Material

and mortal mind-healing (so-called) has for ages been

a pretender, but has not healed mortals; and they are

yet sick and sinful.

Disease and sin appear to-day in subtler forms than

they did yesterday. They progress and will multiply into

worse forms, until it is understood that disease and sin are

unreal, unknown to Truth, and never actual persons or

real facts.

Our phraseology varies. 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. "For this purpose the Son of God was mani-

fested, that he might destroy the works of the devil"

(1 John hi. 8).

Jesus cast out evils, mediating between what is and is

not, until a perfect consciousness is attained. He healed

disease as he healed sin; but he treated them both,

not as in or of matter, but as mortal beliefs to be

exterminated. Physical and mental healing were one

and the same with this master Metaphysician. If the

evils called sin, sickness, and death had been forgiven

in the generally accepted sense, they would have returned,

to be again forgiven; but Jesus said to disease: "Come

out of him, and enter no more into him." He said also:

"If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death;"

and "Whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound

32 NO AND YES

in heaven." The misinterpretation of such passages has

retarded the progress of Christianity and the spirituali-

zation of the race.

A magistrate's pardon may encourage a criminal to

repeat the offense; because forgiveness, in the popular

sense of the word, can neither extinguish a crime nor the

motives leading to it. The belief in sin — its pleasure,

pain, or power — must suffer, until it is self-destroyed.

"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap."

Is There any such Thing as Sin?

Frequently when I touch this subject my meaning is

ignorantly or maliciously misconstrued. Christian Science

Mind-healing lifts with a steady arm, and cleaves sin with

a broad battle-axe. 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." A lie is

negation, — alias nothing, or the opposite of something.

Good is great and real. Hence its opposite, named evil,

must be small and unreal. When this sense is attained,

we shall no longer be the servants of sin, and shall cease

to love it.

The domination of good destroys the sense of evil. To

illustrate: It seems a great evil to belie and belittle Chris-

tian Science, and persecute a Cause which is healing its

thousands and rapidly diminishing the percentage of sin.

But reduce this evil to its lowest terms, nothing, and slander

NO AND YES 33

loses its power to harm; for even the wrath of man shall

praise Him. The reduction of evil, in Science, gives the

dominance to God, and must lead us to bless those who

curse, that thus we may overcome evil with good.

If the Bible and my work Science and Health had their

rightful place in schools of learning, they would revolu-

tionize the world by advancing the kingdom of Christ.

It requires sacrifice, struggle, prayer, and watchfulness

to understand and demonstrate what these volumes teach,

because they involve divine Science, with fixed Principle,

a given rule, and unmistakable proof.

Is There no Sacrificial Atonement?

Self-sacrifice is the highway to heaven. The sacri-

fice of our blessed Lord is undeniable, and it was a million

times greater than the brief agony of the cross; for that

would have been insufficient to insure the glory his sacri-

fice brought and the good it wrought. The spilling of

human blood was inadequate to represent the blood of

Christ, the outpouring love that sustains man's at-one-

ment with God; though shedding human blood brought

to light the efficacy of divine Life and Love and its power

over death. Jesus' sacrifice stands preeminently amidst

physical suffering and human woe. The glory of human

life is in overcoming sickness, sin, and death. Jesus suf-

fered for all mortals to bring in this glory; and his pur-

pose was to show them that the way out of the flesh, out

34 NO AND YES

of the delusion of all human error, must be through the

baptism of suffering, leading up to health, harmony, and

heaven.

We shall leave the ceremonial law when we gain the

truer sense of following Christ in spirit, and we shall no

longer venture to materialize the spiritual and infinite

meaning and efficacy of Truth and Love, and the sacrifice

that Jesus made for us, by commemorating his death

with a material rite. Jesus said: "The hour cometh, and

now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father

in spirit and in truth." They drink the cup of Christ and

are baptized in the purification of persecution who discern

his true merit, — the unseen glory of suffering for others.

Physical torture affords but a slight illustration of the

pangs which come to one upon whom the world of sense

falls with its leaden weight in the endeavor to crush out

of a career its divine destiny.

The blood of Christ speaketh better things than that

of Abel. The real atonement — so infinitely beyond the

heathen conception that God requires human blood to

propitiate His justice and bring His mercy — needs to be

understood. The real blood or Life of Spirit is not yet

discerned. Love bruised and bleeding, yet mounting to

the throne of glory in purity and peace, over the steps of

uplifted humanity, — this is the deep significance of the

blood of Christ. Nameless woe, everlasting victories, are

the blood, the vital currents of Christ Jesus' life, purchas-

ing the freedom of mortals from sin and death.

NO AND YES 35

This blood of Jesus is everything to human hope and

faith. Without it, how poor the precedents of Christian-

ity! What manner of Science were Christian Science

without the power to demonstrate the Principle of such

Life; and what hope have mortals but through deep hu-

mility and adoration to reach the understanding of this

Principle! When human struggles cease, and mortals

yield lovingly to the purpose of divine Love, there will be

no more sickness, sorrow, sin, and death. He who pointed

the way of Life conquered also the drear subtlety of death.

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. He atoned for the terrible un-

reality of a supposed existence apart from God. He

suffered because of the shocking human idolatry that

presupposes Life, substance, Soul, and intelligence in

matter, — which is the antipode of God, and yet governs

mankind. The glorious truth of being — namely, that

God is the only Mind, Life, substance, Soul — needs no

reconciliation with God, for it is one with Him now and

forever.

Jesus came announcing Truth, and saying not only "the

kingdom of God is at hand," but "the kingdom of God

is within you." Hence there is no sin, for God's kingdom

is everywhere and supreme, and it follows that the human

kingdom is nowhere, and must be unreal. Jesus taught

36 NO AND YES

and demonstrated the infinite as one, and not as two.

He did not teach that there are two deities, — one in-

finite and the other finite; for that would be impossible.

He knew God as infinite, and therefore as the All-in-all;

and we shall know this truth when we awake in the divine

likeness. Jesus' true and conscious being never left

heaven for earth. It abode forever above, even while

mortals believed it was here. He once spoke of himself

(John iii. 13) as "the Son of man which is in heaven," —

remarkable words, as wholly opposed to the popular view

of Jesus' nature.

The real Christ was unconscious of matter, of sin,

disease, and death, and was conscious only of God, of

good, of eternal Life, and harmony. Hence the human

Jesus had a resort to his higher self and relation to the

Father, and there could find rest from unreal trials in

the conscious reality and royalty of his being, — holding

the mortal as unreal, and the divine as real. It was this

retreat from material to spiritual selfhood which recuper-

ated him for triumph over sin, sickness, and death. Had

he been as conscious of these evils as he was of God,

wherein there is no consciousness of human error, Jesus

could not have resisted them; nor could he have conquered

the malice of his foes, rolled away the stone from the

sepulchre, and risen from human sense to a higher con-

cept than that in which he appeared at his birth.

Mankind's concept of Jesus was a babe born in a manger,

even while the divine and ideal Christ was the Son of God,

NO AND YES 37

spiritual and eternal. In human conception God's off-

spring had to grow, develop; but in Science his divine

nature and manhood were forever complete, and dwelt

forever in the Father. Jesus said, "Ye do err, not know-

ing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." Mortal thought

gives the eternal God and infinite consciousness the license

of a short-lived sinner, to begin and end, to know both

evil and good; when evil is temporal and God is eternal, —

and when, as a sphere of Mind, He cannot know begin-

ning or end.

The spiritual interpretation of the vicarious atonement

of Jesus, in Christian Science, unfolds the full-orbed glory

of that event; but to regard this wonder of glory, this

most marvellous demonstration, as a personal and material

bloodgiving — or as a proof that sin is known to the

divine Mind, and that what is unlike God demands His

continual presence, knowledge, and power, to meet and

master it — would make the atonement to be less than

the at-one-ment, whereby the work of Jesus would lose

its efficacy and lack the "signs following."

From Genesis to Revelation the Scriptures teach an in-

finite God, and none beside Him; and on this basis

Messiah and prophet saved the sinner and raised the dead,

— uplifting the human understanding, buried in a false

sense of being. Jesus rendered null and void whatever

is unlike God; but he could not have done this if error

and sin existed in the Mind of God. What God knows,

He also predestinates; and it must be fulfilled. Jesus

38 NO AND YES

proved to perfection, so far as this could be done in that

age, what Christian Science is to-day proving in a small

degree, — the falsity of the evidence of the material senses

that sin, sickness, and death are sensible claims, and that

God substantiates their evidence by knowing their claim.

He established the only true idealism on the basis that God

is All, and He is good, and good is Spirit; hence there is

no intelligent sin, evil mind or matter: and this is the only

true philosophy and realism. This divine mystery of

godliness was the rock of Truth, on which he built his

Church of the new-born, against which the gates of hell

cannot prevail.

This Truth is the rock which the builders rejected; but

"the same is become the head of the corner." This is

the chief corner-stone, the basis and support of creation,

the interpreter of one God, the infinity and unity of good.

In proportion as mortals approximate the understand-

ing of Christian Science, they take hold of harmony, and

material incumbrance disappears. Having one God, one

Mind, one consciousness, — which includes only His own

nature, — and loving your neighbor as yourself, constitute

Christian Science, which must demonstrate the nothing-

ness of any other state or stage of being.

Is There no Intercessory Prayer?

All prayer that is desire is intercessory; but kindling

desire loses a part of its purest spirituality if the lips try to

NO AND YES 39

express it. It is a truism that we can think more lucidly

and profoundly than we can write or speak. The silent

intercession and unvoiced imploring is an honest and po-

tent prayer to heal and save. The audible prayer may be

offered to be heard of men, though ostensibly to catch

God's ear, — after the fashion of Baal's prophets, — by

speaking loud enough to be heard; but when the heart

prays, and not the lips, no dishonesty or vanity influences

the petition.

Prophet and apostle have glorified God in secret prayer,

and He has rewarded them openly. Prayer can neither

change God, nor bring His designs into mortal modes; but

it can and does change our modes and our false sense of

Life, Love, and Truth, uplifting us to Him. Such prayer

humiliates, purifies, and quickens activity, in the direction

that is unerring.

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. Prayer

begets an awakened desire to be and do good. It makes

new and scientific discoveries of God, of His goodness and

power. It shows us more clearly than we saw before,

what we already have and are; and most of all, it shows

us what God is. Advancing in this light, we reflect it;

and this light reveals the pure Mind-pictures, in silent

prayer, even as photography grasps the solar light to por-

tray the face of pleasant thought.

What but silent prayer can meet the demand, "Pray

40 NO AND YES

without ceasing"? The apostle James said: "Ye ask,

and receive not, because ye ask amiss, to consume it on

your lusts." Because of vanity and self-righteousness,

mortals seek, and expect to receive, a material sense of

approval; and they expect also what is impossible, — a

material and mortal sense of spiritual and immortal

Truth.

It is sometimes wise to hide from dull and base ears the

pure pearls of awakened consciousness, lest your pearls

be trampled upon. Words may belie desire, and pour

forth a hypocrite's prayer; but thoughts are our honest

conviction. I have no objection to audible prayer of the

right kind; but the inaudible is more effectual.

I instruct my students to pursue their mental ministra-

tions very sacredly, and never to touch the human thought

save to issues of Truth; never to trespass mentally on in-

dividual rights; never to take away the rights, but only

the wrongs of mankind. Otherwise they forfeit their

ability to heal in Science. Only when sickness, sin, and

fear obstruct the harmony of Mind and body, is it right

for one mind to meddle with another mind, and control

aright the thought struggling for freedom.

It is Truth and Love that cast out fear and heal the sick,

and mankind are better because of this. If a change in

the religious views of the patient comes with the change to

health, our Father has done this; for the human mind

and body are made better only by divine influence.

NO AND YES 41

Should Christians Beware of Christian

Science?

History repeats itself. The Pharisees of old warned

the people to beware of Jesus, and contemptuously called

him "this fellow." Jesus said, "For which of these

works do ye stone me?" as much as to ask, Is it the

work most derided and envied that is most acceptable to

God? Not that he would cease to do the will of his Father

on account of persecution, but he would repeat his work

to the best advantage for mankind and the glory of his

Father.

There are sinners in all societies, and it is vain to look

for perfection in churches or associations. The life of

Christ is the perfect example; and to compare mortal

lives with this model is to subject them to severe scrutiny.

Without question, the subtlest forms of sin are trying to

force the doors of Science and enter in; but this white

sanctuary will never admit such as come to steal and to

rob. 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.

The Rev. Dr. A. J. Gordon, a Boston Baptist clergyman,

said in a sermon: "The prayer of faith shall save the

sick, and it is doing it to-day; and as the faith of the Church

42 NO AND YES

increases, and Christians more and more learn their duty

to believe all things written in the Scriptures, will such

manifestations of God's power increase among us." Such

sentiments are wholesome avowals of Christian Science.

God is not unable or unwilling to heal, and mortals are not

compelled to have other gods before Him, and employ

material forms to meet a mental want. The divine Spirit

supplies all human needs. Jesus said to the sick, "Thy

sins are forgiven thee; rise up and walk!" God's pardon

is the destruction of all "the ills that flesh is heir to."

All power belongs to God; and it is not in all the vain

power of dogma and philosophy to dispossess the divine

Mind of healing power, or to cast out error with error,

even in the name and for the sake of Christ, and so heal

the sick. While Science is engulfing error in bottomless

oblivion, the material senses would enthrone error as om-

nipotent and omnipresent, with power to determine the

fact and fate to being. It is said that the devil is the ape

of God. The lie of evil holds its own by declaring itself

both true and good. The path of Christian Science is be-

set with false claimants, aping its virtues, but cleaving to

their own vices. Denial of the authorship of "Science

and Health with Key to the Scriptures" would make a

lie the author of Truth, and so make Truth itself a lie.

A distinguished clergyman came to be healed. He said:

"I am suffering from nervous prostration, and have to eat

beefsteak and drink strong coffee to support me through

a sermon." Here a skeptic might well ask if the atone-

NO AND YES 43

ment had lost its efficacy for him, and if Christ's power to

heal was not equal to the power of daily meat and drink.

The power of Truth is not contingent on matter. Our

Master said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are

heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Truth rebukes

error; and whether stall-fed or famishing, theology needs

Truth to stimulate and sustain a good sermon.

A lady said: "Only He who knows all things can esti-

mate the good your books are doing."

A distinguished Doctor of Divinity said: "Your book

leavens my sermons."

The following extract from a letter is a specimen of

those received daily: "Your book Science and Health is

healing the sick, binding up the broken-hearted, preach-

ing deliverance to the captive, convicting the infidel, alarm-

ing the hypocrite, and quickening the Christian."

Christian Science Mind-healing is dishonored by those

who take it up from mercenary motives, for wealth and

fame, or think to build a baseless fabric of their own on

another's foundation. They cannot put the "new wine

into old bottles;" they can never engraft Truth into error.

Such students come to my College to learn a system which

they go away to disgrace. Stealing or garbling my state-

ments of Mind-science will never prevent or reconstruct

the wrecks of "isms" and help humanity.

Science often suffers blame through the sheer ignorance

of people, while envy and hatred bark and bite at its heels.

A man's inability to heal, on the Principle of Christian

44 NO AND YES

Science, substantiates his ignorance of its Principle and

practice, and incapacitates him for correct comment.

This failure should make him modest.

Christian Science involves a new language, and a higher

demonstration of medicine and religion. It is the "new

tongue" of Truth, having its best interpretation in the

power of Christianity to heal. My system of Mind-heal-

ing swerves not from the highest ethics and from the spirit-

ual goal. To climb up by some other way than Truth is

to fall. Error has no hobby, however boldly ridden or

brilliantly caparisoned, that can leap into the sanctum

of Christian Science.

In Queen Elizabeth's time Protestantism could sentence

men to the dungeon or stake for their religion, and so

abrogate the rights of conscience and choke the channels

of God. Ecclesiastical tyranny muzzled the mouth lisping

God's praise; and instead of healing, it palsied the weak

hand outstretched to God. Progress, legitimate to the

human race, pours the healing balm of Truth and Love

into every wound. It reassures us that no Reign of Terror

or rule of error will again unite Church and State, or re-

enact, through the civil arm of government, the horrors of

religious persecution.

The Rev. S. E. Herrick, a Congregational clergyman of

Boston, says: "Heretics of yesterday are martyrs to-day."

In every age and clime, "On earth peace, good will to-

ward men" must be the watchword of Christianity.

Jesus said: "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven

NO AND YES 45

and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise

and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes."

St. Paul said that without charity we are "as sound-

ing brass, or a tinkling cymbal;" and he added: "Charity

suffereth long, and is kind; . . . doth not behave itself

unseemly, . . . thinketh no evil, . . . but rejoiceth in the

truth."

To hinder the unfolding truth, to ostracize whatever

uplifts mankind, is of course out of the question. Such an

attempt indicates weakness, fear, or malice; and such

efforts arise from a spiritual lack, felt, though unacknowl-

edged.

Let it not be heard in Boston that woman, "last at the

cross and first at the sepulchre," has no rights which man

is bound to respect. In natural law and in religion the

right of woman to fill the highest measure of enlightened

understanding and the highest places in government, is

inalienable, and these rights are ably vindicated by the

noblest of both sexes. This is woman's hour, with all its

sweet amenities and its moral and religious reforms.

Drifting into intellectual wrestlings, we should agree to

disagree; and this harmony would anchor the Church in

more spiritual latitudes, and so fulfil her destiny.

Let the Word have free course and be glorified. The

people clamor to leave cradle and swaddling-clothes. The

spiritual status is urging its highest demands on mortals,

and material history is drawing to a close. Truth cannot

be stereotyped; it unfoldeth forever. "One on God's

46 NO AND YES

side is a majority;" and "Lo, I am with you alway," is

the pledge of the Master.

The question now at issue is: Shall we have a prac-

tical, spiritual Christianity, with its healing power, or

shall we have material medicine and superficial religion?

The advancing hope of the race, craving health and holi-

ness, halts for a reply; and the reappearing Christ, whose

life-giving understanding Christian Science imparts, must

answer the constant inquiry: "Art thou he that should

come?" Woman should not be ordered to the rear, or

laid on the rack, for joining the overture of angels. Theo-

logians descant pleasantly upon free moral agency; but

they should begin by admitting individual rights.

The author's ancestors were among the first settlers of

New Hampshire. They reared there the Puritan standard

of undefiled religion. As dutiful descendants of Puritans,

let us lift their standard higher, rejoicing, as Paul did,

that we are free born.

Man has a noble destiny; and the full-orbed significance

of this destiny has dawned on the sick-bound and sin-

enslaved. For the unfolding of this upward tendency to

health, greatness, and goodness, I shall continue to labor

and wait.

The University Press, Cambridge, U. S. A.

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