June 3, 1894 (in the handwriting of Laura Sargent)
(Emphasis is in the original, unless otherwise specified.) NOTE: the term "Mother" used here by Laura Sargent is in reference to Mrs. Eddy. Many of Mary Baker Eddy's students would call her "Mother;" it was natural to do so, as she expressed more of the precious mother-love that indeed mothered all of humanity through her writings.
"Mother explained what Jesus meant when he said, 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and thy neighbor as thyself; on this hangs all the law.' In order to love God we must honor and love the Way. How can we love God unless we love His idea which shows us the way and which is the Way, and in order to honor and love the Way we must have a true sense of the individual through whom the Way has been manifested to us, else we are not keeping the law to love our neighbor as ourself, or doing by our neighbor as we would be done by. Mother explained Matthew 15: 4 and showed us that the Truth which gives us spiritual birth is our Father and Mother and is what we are to love and honor. Then she explained the difference between a human sense of love and the spiritual sense. Our whole salvation rests upon the manner in which we treat her (emphasis added), since the Way comes to us through her and God demands that we love our neighbor by having the spiritual sense of our neighbor, and the spiritual sense of our Teacher and Mother as God's idea that we must love and honor. Now when we try to kiss her, and caress her, this is not loving and honoring the Way; it is dishonoring the Way or idea, and thus dishonoring God, and this material sense is what God is rebuking in us; and then when the rebuke comes, we look through the material sense to the person,-which in the spiritual sense is not our Teacher and Mother or the Way at all-and think she is unjust and (does not) love us and blame her for the discord, when all the time it is God rebuking us through the Way, through the idea of God that is expressing God's condemnation of this false material sense that would forever shut us out of His presence. Our material sense of Mrs. Eddy is person or a personal sense, which is a dishonor to her and God, for God's idea of her is the spiritual sense of man; namely, the Way, the Truth, the Life, Christ, the spiritual sense of Love, of good, which is the divine Science of God and man. Now, when I kiss and embrace the person, I dishonor God and His idea, and this material sense of love which is false, opens the way for another false sense i.e. hate to come in; then we blame the one that rebukes us and hate them, when the spiritual idea or real individual is showing us how much she loves us by showing us the Way, voicing God's idea, which would give us dominion if we only followed obediently.
"Mother explained this Scripture,'Ye ask and receive not, because ye ask amiss to consume it on your lusts.' We ask from a selfish motive and she illustrated it in this way: If we have a pain, we ask to have it destroyed. Why? Because it makes us suffer. Is this the way? No! We should ask to have it removed because it dishonors the Way that God has revealed, and this dishonors God. We ask to have the pleasures of sense destroyed. Why? Because they make us miserable. Is this the way? No! We should ask to have them destroyed because they dishonor the Way and thus dishonor God. Then our prayer will be answered because we ask from an unselfish motive and with an honest purpose to honor and love the Way that is God's idea. This is the great lesson that He has given to us, that if we would 'love Him with all our heart and our neighbor as ourself' -thus keeping the whole law-we must have the spiritual sense of the Way and love and honor His Way or idea-the real individual that voices good-with the spiritual sense of this individual and not a material one, and do this by prayerful watching to see that in forsaking the material sense we love more instead of less and are ever reflecting this spiritual sense of Love, which is all tenderness and compassion and loving kindness and which is the Way, the divine idea of Love.
"Mother explained the difference between a material sense of love and a spiritual sense. A material sense of love dishonors the one it professes to love through lust, as in marriage the man dishonors the woman he claims to love by taking away her virginity, thereby exposing the falsity of such a sense by showing it is not love, but lust, i.e. hate. Prov. 6:33
"Mother said this is the 'Lamb slain from the foundation of the world', that is the spiritual sense of Love that is slain from the foundation of a material sense of sexuality."
End of "Wonderful Lesson"
The above may be found in Divinity Course and General Collectanea, a compilation of items preserved by Gilbert C. Carpenter, Sr. CSB, and Gilbert C. Carpenter, Jr. CSB and published by Richard Oakes, p. 100-101. If you would like a photostat of the original of this "Wonderful Lesson" in Laura Sargents handwriting please send $3.50 to David Keyston at P. O. Box 5023, Bend, OR 97708-5023 with a self-addressed stamped #10 envelope.
A word on "unpublished" statements from Mary Baker Eddy or her students."In 1941 the writer (Gilbert C. Carpenter) visited Mrs. Eddy's former home at Chestnut Hill in the company of one who had acted as Mrs. Eddy's personal maid for over three years. There he met the niece of Laura Sargent. He realized that the opportunity had been given him to ask about the incident of the paper. He did so, and this lady not only bore testimony to its truthfulness, but excusing herself, she went to a closet and brought forth the original paper in question. She then read Mrs. Eddy's divinely inspired statement as written down by Mrs. Sargent, and showed the words, "Well done-Mother," written on the back in Mrs. Eddy's handwriting. The complete text of this paper may be found printed in the book, Collectanea, on page 4 of the Addenda." (included here following) Fragments Gathered from Unpublished Items ascribed to Mary Baker Eddy, by Gilbert C. Carpenter, Sr. CSB, and Gilbert C. Carpenter, Jr. CSB, p. 10-11
"Complete text of the paper in the handwriting of Laura Sargent, dated April 24, 1894, on which Mrs. Eddy wrote, "Well done-Mother." Mother said, write it on tablets, begin with the law: "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." This revelation seems like the transfiguration where Moses, the law, prophecy (Elias), (Christ) Science, were revealed. Mother said in the old way mortal belief had one devil; now it had many, but we must not call it they, but evil. She said when we take up our watch, we do not help her with our thought; we simply clear our own thought of the belief of evil, and this is getting rid of our thought and getting out of God's way, so the light can shine through, and this blessed light helps us and all in its shining. This is the blessed, blessed way from sense to Soul." Collectanea of Items by and about Mary Baker Eddy by Gilbert C. Carpenter, Sr. CSB, and Gilbert C. Carpenter, Jr. CSB, p. 4 of Addenda I.