Rudimental Divine Science
by
Mary Baker Eddy
Author of Science and Health with Key to
the Scriptures
Published by the
Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker G. Eddy
Boston, U.S.A.
Copyright, 1891, 1908
By Mary Baker G. Eddy
Copyright renewed, 1919
_____________
All right reserved
Printed in the United States of America
THIS LITTLE BOOK
IS
TENDERLY AND RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED
TO ALL
LOYAL STUDENTS, WORKING AND WAITING
FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE
SCIENCE OF MIND-HEALING
MARY BAKER EDDY
Rudimental Divine Science
| 1 | How would you define Christian Science? AS the law of God, the law of good, interpreting and |
| 3 | demonstrating the divine Principle and rule of What is the Principle of Christian Science? |
| 6 | It is God, the Supreme Being, infinite and immortal Mind, the Soul of man and the universe. It is our Father which is in heaven. It is substance, Spirit, Life, Truth, |
| 9 | and Love, - these are the deific Principle. Do you mean by this that God is a person? The word person affords a large margin for misappre- |
| 12 | hension, as well as definition. In French the equivalent word is personne. In Spanish, Italian, and Latin, it is persona. The Latin verb personare is compounded of |
| 15 | the prefix per (through) and sonare (to sound). In law, Blackstone applies the word personal to bodily Page 2 |
| 1 | Other definitions of person, as given by Webster, are "a living soul; a self-conscious being; a moral agent; |
| 3 | especially, a living human being, a corporeal man, woman, or child; an individual of the human race." He adds, that among Trinitarian Christians the word stands for one |
| 6 | of the three subjects, or agents, constituting the Godhead. In Christian Science we learn that God is definitely
indi- |
| 9 | authorities, if our lexicographers are right in defining person as especially a finite human being; but God is personal, if by person is meant infinite Spirit. |
| 12 | We do not conceive rightly of God, if we think of Him as less than infinite. The human person is finite; and therefore I prefer to retain the proper sense of Deity by |
| 15 | using the phrase an individual God, rather than a per- sonal God; for there is and can be but one infinite indi- vidual Spirit, whom mortals have named God. |
| 18 | Science defines the individuality of God as supreme good, Life, Truth, Love. This term enlarges our sense of Deity, takes away the trammels assigned to God by |
| 21 | finite thought, and introduces us to higher definitions. Is healing the sick the whole of Science? Healing physical sickness is the smallest part of Chris- |
| 24 | tian Science. It is only the bugle-call to thought and action, in the higher range of infinite goodness. The emphatic purpose of Christian Science is the healing of |
| 27 | sin; and this task, sometimes, may be harder than the Page 3 |
| 1 | cure of disease; because, while mortals love to sin, they do not love to be sick. Hence their comparative acqui- |
| 3 | escence in your endeavors to heal them of bodily ills, and their obstinate resistance to all efforts to save them from sin through Christ, spiritual Truth and Love, which |
| 6 | redeem them, and become their Saviour, through the This Life, Truth, and Love - this trinity of good - was |
| 9 | individualized, to the perception of mortal sense, in the man Jesus. His history is emphatic in our hearts, and it lives more because of his spiritual than his physical healing. |
| 12 | His example is, to Christian Scientists, what the models Genuine Christian Scientists will no more deviate mor- |
| 15 | ally from that divine digest of Science called the Sermon on the Mount, than they will manipulate invalids, prescribe drugs, or deny God. Jesus' healing was spiritual in its |
| 18 | nature, method, and design. He wrought the cure of disease through the divine Mind, which gives all true volition, impulse, and action; and destroys the mental |
| 21 | error made manifest physically, and establishes the oppo- site manifestation of Truth upon the body in harmony and health. |
| 24 | By the individuality of God, do you mean that God has No. I mean the infinite and divine Principle of all |
| 27 | being, the ever-present I AM, filling all space, including Page 4 |
| 1 | in itself all Mind, the one Father-Mother God. Life, Truth, and Love are this trinity in unity, and their uni- |
| 3 | verse is spiritual, peopled with perfect beings, harmonious and eternal, of which our material universe and men are the counterfeits. |
| 6 | Is God the Principle of all science, or only of Divine or Science is Mind manifested. It is not material; neither |
| 9 | is it of human origin. All true Science represents a moral and spiritual force, |
| 12 | that can "bind the sweet influences of the Pleiades," and There is no material science, if by that term you mean |
| 15 | material intelligence. God is infinite Mind, hence there is no other Mind. Good is Mind, but evil is not Mind. Good is not in evil, but in God only. Spirit is not in matter, |
| 18 | but in Spirit only. Law is not in matter, but in Mind only. Is there no matter? All is Mind. According to the Scriptures and Christian |
| 21 | Science, all is God, and there is naught beside Him. "God is Spirit;" and we can only learn and love Him through His spirit, which brings out the fruits of Spirit and ex- |
| 24 | tinguishes forever the works of darkness by His marvel- The five material senses testify to the existence of Page 5 |
| 1 | matter. The spiritual senses afford no such evidence, but deny the testimony of the material senses. Which |
| 3 | testimony is correct? The Bible says: "Let God be true, and every man a liar." If, as the Scriptures imply, God is All-in-all, then all must be Mind, since God is |
| 6 | Mind. Therefore in divine Science there is no material mortal man, for man is spiritual and eternal, he being made in the image of Spirit, or God. |
| 9 | There is no material sense. Matter is inert, inanimate, and sensationless, - considered apart from Mind. Lives there a man who has ever found Soul in the body or in |
| 12 | matter, who has ever seen spiritual substance with the eye, who has found sight in matter, hearing in the material ear, or intelligence in non-intelligence? If there is any |
| 15 | such thing as matter, it must be either mind which is Matter without Mind is a moral impossibility. Mind |
| 18 | in matter is pantheism. Soul is the only real conscious- ness which cognizes being. The body does not see, hear, smell, or taste. Human belief says that it does; but |
| 21 | destroy this belief of seeing with the eye, and we could not see materially; and so it is with each of the physical senses. |
| 24 | Accepting the verdict of these material senses, we should believe man and the universe to be the football of chance and sinking into oblivion. Destroy the five senses as |
| 27 | organized matter, and you must either become non-exist- Page 6 |
| 1 | the simple solution of the problem of being, and leads to the equal inference that there is no matter. |
| 3 | The sweet sounds and glories of earth and sky, assum- ing manifold forms and colors, - are they not tangible and material? |
| 6 | As Mind they are real, but not as matter. All beauty and goodness are in and of Mind, emanating from God; but when we change the nature of beauty and goodness |
| 9 | from Mind to matter, the beauty is marred, through a false conception, and, to the material senses, evil takes the place of good. |
| 12 | Has not the truth in Christian Science met a response from Prof. S. P. Langley, the young American astronomer? He says that "color is in us," not "in the rose;" and he |
| 15 | adds that this is not "any metaphysical subtlety," but a fact "almost universally accepted, within the last few years, by physicists." |
| 18 | Is not the basis of Mind-healing a destruction of the evi- dence of the material senses, and restoration of the true evidence of spiritual sense? |
| 21 | It is, so far as you perceive and understand this predi- cate and postulate of Mind-healing; but the Science of Mind-healing is best understood in practical demonstra- |
| 24 | tion. The proof of what you apprehend, in the simplest Page 7 |
| 1 | Science Mind-healing. Not that all healing is Science, by any means; but that the simplest case, healed in Science, |
| 3 | is as demonstrably scientific, in a small degree, as the most The infinite and subtler conceptions and consistencies |
| 6 | of Christian Science are set forth in my work Science and Is man material or spiritual? |
| 9 | In Science, man is the manifest reflection of God, per- fect and immortal Mind. He is the likeness of God; and His likeness would be lost if inverted or perverted. |
| 12 | According to the evidence of the so-called physical senses, man is material, fallen, sick, depraved, mortal. Science and spiritual sense contradict this, and they afford |
| 15 | the only true evidence of the being of God and man, the Jesus said of personal evil, that "the truth abode not |
| 18 | in him," because there is no material sense. Matter, as matter, has neither sensation nor personal intelligence. As a pretension to be Mind, matter is a lie, and "the |
| 21 | father of lies;" Mind is not in matter, and Spirit cannot According to divine Science, Spirit no more changes its |
| 24 | species, by evolving matter from Spirit, than natural science, so-called, or material laws, bring about altera- tion of species by transforming minerals into vegetables |
| 27 | or plants into animals, - thus confusing and confounding Page 8 |
| 1 | the three great kingdoms. No rock brings forth an apple; no pine-tree produces a mammal or provides breast-milk |
| 3 | for babes. To sense, the lion of to-day is the lion of six
thousand |
| 6 | less likeness. How should I undertake to demonstrate Christian
Science |
| 9 | As I have given you only an epitome of the Principle, so I can give you here nothing but an outline of the prac- tice. Be honest, be true to thyself, and true to others; |
| 12 | then it follows thou wilt be strong in God, the eternal good. Heal through Truth and Love; there is no other healer. |
| 15 | In all moral revolutions, from a lower to a higher con- dition of thought and action, Truth is in the minority and error has the majority. It is not otherwise in the field |
| 18 | of Mind-healing. The man who calls himself a Christian Scientist, yet is false to God and man, is also uttering falsehood about good. This falsity shuts against him the |
| 21 | Truth and the Principle of Science, but opens a way whereby, through will-power, sense may say the unchris- tian practitioner can heal; but Science shows that he makes |
| 24 | morally worse the invalid whom he is supposed to cure. By this I mean that mortal mind should not be falsely |
| 27 | ingly restored, the restoration is not lasting, and the patient Page 9 |
| 1 | is liable to a relapse, - "The last state of that man is worse than the first." |
| 3 | The teacher of Mind-healing who is not a Christian, in the highest sense, is constantly sowing the seeds of discord and disease. Even the truth he speaks is more |
| 6 | or less blended with error; and this error will spring up in the mind of his pupil. The pupil's imperfect knowl- edge will lead to weakness in practice, and he will be a |
| 9 | poor practitioner, if not a malpractitioner. The basis of malpractice is in erring human will,
and |
| 12 | false and temporal sense of Truth, Life, and Love. To heal, in Christian Science, is to base your practice on immortal Mind, the divine Principle of man's being; and |
| 15 | this requires a preparation of the heart and an answer The Science of healing is the Truth of healing. If |
| 18 | one is untruthful, his mental state weighs against his healing power; and similar effects come from pride, envy, lust, and all fleshly vices. |
| 21 | The spiritual power of a scientific, right thought, with- out a direct effort, an audible or even a mental argument, has oftentimes healed inveterate diseases. |
| 24 | The thoughts of the practitioner should be imbued with a clear conviction of the omnipotence and omnipresence of God; that He is All, and that there can be none beside |
| 27 | Him; that God is good, and the producer only of good; Page 10 |
| 1 | mony, or holiness, is an unjust usurper of the throne of the controller of all mankind. Note this, that if you have |
| 3 | power in error, you forfeit the power that Truth bestows, You must feel and know that God alone governs man; |
| 6 | that His government is harmonious; that He is too pure to behold iniquity, and divides His power with nothing evil or material; that material laws are only human be- |
| 9 | liefs, which govern mortals wrongfully. These beliefs arise from the subjective states of thought, producing the be- liefs of a mortal material universe, - so-called, and of |
| 12 | material disease and mortality. Mortal ills are but errors of thought, - diseases of mortal mind, and not of matter; for matter cannot feel, see, or report pain or disease. |
| 15 | Disease is a thing of thought manifested on the body; and fear is the procurator of the thought which causes sickness and suffering. Remove this fear by the true |
| 18 | sense that God is Love, - and that Love punishes nothing but sin, - and the patient can then look up to the loving God, and know that He afflicteth not willingly the children |
| 21 | of men, who are punished because of disobedience to His spiritual law. His law of Truth, when obeyed, removes every erroneous physical and mental state. The belief |
| 24 | that matter can master Mind, and make you ill, is an You must learn to acknowledge God in all His ways. |
| 27 | It is only a lack of understanding of the allness of God, Page 11 |
| 1 | that matter can frame its own conditions, contrary to the law of Spirit. |
| 3 | Sickness is the schoolmaster, leading you to Christ; first to faith in Christ; next to belief in God as omnipo- tent; and finally to the understanding of God and man |
| 6 | in Christian Science, whereby you learn that God is good, and in Science man is His likeness, the forever reflection of goodness. Therefore good is one and All. |
| 9 | This brings forward the next proposition in Christian Science, - namely, that there are no sickness, sin, and death in the divine Mind. What seem to be disease, vice, |
| 12 | and mortality are illusions of the physical senses. These illusions are not real, but unreal. Health is the conscious- ness of the unreality of pain and disease; or, rather, the |
| 15 | absolute consciousness of harmony and of nothing else. In a moment you may awake from a night-dream; just so you can awake from the dream of sickness; but the |
| 18 | demonstration of the Science of Mind-healing by no means rests on the strength of human belief. This demonstra- tion is based on a true understanding of God and divine |
| 21 | Science, which takes away every human belief, and, through the illumination of spiritual understanding, re- veals the all-power and ever-presence of good, whence |
| 24 | emanate health, harmony, and Life eternal. The lecturer, teacher, or healer who is indeed
a Christian |
| 27 | never depicts the muscular, vascular, or nervous opera- Page 12 |
| 1 | structure of the material body. He never lays his hands on the patient, nor manipulates the parts of the body sup- |
| 3 | posed to be ailing. Above all, he keeps unbroken the Ten Commandments, and practises Christ's Sermon on the Mount. |
| 6 | Wrong thoughts and methods strengthen the sense of disease, instead of cure it; or else quiet the fear of the sick on false grounds, encouraging them in the belief of |
| 9 | error until they hold stronger than before the belief that they are first made sick by matter, and then restored through its agency. This fosters infidelity, and is mental |
| 12 | quackery, that denies the Principle of Mind-healing. If the sick are aided in this mistaken fashion, their ailments will return, and be more stubborn because the relief is |
| 15 | unchristian and unscientific. Christian Science erases from the minds of invalids |
| 18 | or that a so-called material organism controls the health or existence of mankind, and induces rest in God, divine Love, as caring for all the conditions requisite for the well- |
| 21 | being of man. As power divine is the healer, why should mortals concern themselves with the chemistry of food? Jesus said: "Take no thought what ye shall eat." |
| 24 | The practitioner should also endeavor to free the minds of the healthy from any sense of subordination to their bodies, and teach them that the divine Mind, not material |
| 27 | law, maintains human health and life. A Christian Scientist knows that, in Science, disease Page 13 |
| 1 | is unreal; that Mind is not in matter; that Life is God, good; hence Life is not functional, and is neither matter |
| 3 | nor mortal mind; knows that pantheism and theosophy are not Science. Whatever saps, with human belief, this basis of Christian Science, renders it impossible to |
| 6 | demonstrate the Principle of this Science, even in the A mortal and material body is not the actual individuality |
| 9 | of man made in the divine and spiritual image of God. The material body is not the likeness of Spirit; hence it is not the truth of being, but the likeness of error - the |
| 12 | human belief which saith there is more than one God, - In Deuteronomy (iv. 35) we read: "The Lord, He is |
| 15 | God; there is none else beside Him." In John (iv. 24) we may read: "God is Spirit." These propositions, un- derstood in their Science, elucidate my meaning. |
| 18 | When treating a patient, it is not Science to treat every organ in the body. To aver that harmony is the real and discord is the unreal, and then give special attention to |
| 21 | what according to their own belief is diseased, is scientific; What are the means and methods of trustworthy Christian |
| 24 | Scientists? These people should not be expected, more than
others, |
| 27 | no wages in return, but left to be fed, clothed, and sheltered Page 14 |
| 1 | by charity. Neither can they serve two masters, giving only a portion of their time to God, and still be Christian |
| 3 | Scientists. They must give Him all their services, and "owe no man." To do this, they must at present ask a suitable price for their services, and then conscientiously |
| 6 | earn their wages, strictly practising Divine Science, and The author never sought charitable support, but gave |
| 9 | fully seven-eighths of her time without remuneration, ex- cept the bliss of doing good. The only pay taken for her labors was from classes, and often those were put off for |
| 12 | months, in order to do gratuitous work. She has never taught a Primary class without several, and sometimes seventeen, free students in it; and has endeavored to take |
| 15 | the full price of tuition only from those who were able to pay. The student who pays must of necessity do better than he who does not pay, and yet will expect and require |
| 18 | others to pay him. No discount on tuition was made on higher classes, because their first classes furnished students with the means of paying for their tuition in the higher |
| 21 | instruction, and of doing charity work besides. If the Primary students are still impecunious, it is their own fault, and this ill-success of itself leaves them unprepared |
| 24 | to enter higher classes. People are being healed by means of my instructions,
27 passed through a regular course of instruction from me, Page 15 |
| 1 | perience has shown that this defrauds the scholar, though it heals the sick. |
| 3 | It is seldom that a student, if healed in a class, has left it understanding sufficiently the Science of healing to im- mediately enter upon its practice. Why? Because the |
| 6 | glad surprise of suddenly regained health is a shock to the mind; and this holds and satisfies the thought with exuberant joy. |
| 9 | This renders the mind less inquisitive, plastic, and tract- able; and deep systematic thinking is impracticable until this impulse subsides. |
| 12 | This was the principal reason for advising diseased people not to enter a class. Few were taken besides inva- lids for students, until there were enough practitioners to |
| 15 | fill in the best possible manner the department of healing. Teaching and healing should have separate departments, and these should be fortified on all sides with suitable and |
| 18 | thorough guardianship and grace. Only a very limited number of students can advanta- |
| 21 | assimilate what has been taught them. It is impossible to teach thorough Christian Science to promiscuous and large assemblies, or to persons who cannot be addressed |
| 24 | individually, so that the mind of the pupil may be dissected more critically than the body of a subject laid bare for anatomical examination. Public lectures cannot be such |
| 27 | lessons in Christian Science as are required to empty and Page 16 |
| 1 | If publicity and material control are the motives for teaching, then public lectures can take the place of private |
| 3 | lessons; but the former can never give a thorough knowledge of Christian Science, and a Christian Scientist will never undertake to fit students for practice by such means. Lec- |
| 6 | tures in public are needed, but they must be subordinate None with an imperfect sense of the spiritual significa- |
| 9 | tion of the Bible, and its scientific relation to Mind- healing, should attempt overmuch in their translation of the Scriptures into the "new tongue;" but I see that |
| 12 | some novices, in the truth of Science, and some impostors Is there more than one school of scientific healing? |
| 15 | In reality there is, and can be, but one school of the Science of Mind-healing. Any departure from Science is an irreparable loss of Science. Whatever is said and |
| 18 | written correctly on this Science originates from the Princi- ple and practice laid down in Science and Health, a work which I published in 1875. This was the first book, re- |
| 21 | corded in history, which elucidates a pathological Science Minor shades of difference in Mind-healing have origi- |
| 24 | nated with certain opposing factions, springing up among unchristian students, who, fusing with a class of aspirants which snatch at whatever is progressive, call it their first- |
| 27 | fruits, or else post mortem evidence. Page 17 |
| 1 | A slight divergence is fatal in Science. Like certain Jews whom St. Paul had hoped to convert from mere |
| 3 | motives of self-aggrandizement to the love of Christ, these so-called schools are clogging the wheels of progress by blinding the people to the true character of Christian |
| 6 | Science, - its moral power, and its divine efficacy to The true understanding of Christian Science Mind- |
| 9 | healing never originated in pride, rivalry, or the deification of self. The Discoverer of this Science could tell you of timidity, of self-distrust, of friendlessness, toil, agonies, and |
| 12 | victories under which she needed miraculous vision to sustain her, when taking the first footsteps in this Science. |
| 15 | The ways of Christianity have not changed. Meek- ness, selflessness, and love are the paths of His testimony and the footsteps of His flock. |