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Library  of  Congress 
Washington  D.  G. 


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J^RKShXTKI)   BY 


NO    AND    YES 


NO  AND  YES 


BY 

MARY   BAKER  EDDY 

It 
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 


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Authorized  Literature  of 

The  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist 

in  Boston,  Massachusetts 


Copyright,  i8qi,  igo8 
By  Mary  Baker  G.  Eddy 


All  rights  reserved 


PREFACE 

TT  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 i 

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 

npO  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  fiooding  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, feariessly  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  tjie  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 


Science  op  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  smful  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  smning  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 'M  "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  j 
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  Blasphemods? 

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  f ather- 
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 systenis  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  J'  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  f  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  evU.  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  hve  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,  —  alia^  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 
soiritual  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,  0  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  Miad  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,  imtil  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  iii.  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  imderstanding  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  BaaFs  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  eflFectual. 

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  beheve  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  unmlling  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  "i^m^"  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 
suflFereth  long,  and  is  kind;  .  .  .  doth  not  behave  itself 
unseemly,  .  .  .  thinkethno  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  horn. 

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. 


WORKS  ON  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 

WRITTEN  BY  MARY  BAKER  EDDY 


SCIENCE  AND  HEALTH  WITH  KEY  TO  THE 
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CONCORDANCE  TO  MRS.  EDDY^S  PUBLISHED 
WRITINGS  OTHER  THAN  SCIENCE  AND 
HEALTH 

It  contains  1103  pages,  and  is  published  only  in  Bible  paper 
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CHRIST  AND  CHRISTMAS 

An  illustrated  poem.    Single  copy  $3.00;  six  or  more,  each  $2. 50. 

UNITY  OF  GOOD  AND  OTHER  WRITINGS 

One  volume,  containing  Unity  of  Good,  Rudimental  Divine 
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WORKS      ON      CHRISTIAN      SCIENCE 
CHRISTIAN  HEALING  AND  OTHER  WRITINGS 

One  volume,  containing  Christian  Healing,  The  People's  Idea 
of  God,  Pulpit  and  Press,  Christian  Science  versus  Pantheism, 
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CHURCH  MANUAL 

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German  Translation.    Cloth,  single  copy  $1.00;  six  or  more,  each 
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RETROSPECTION  AND  INTROSPECTION 

A  biographical  sketch  of  the  author ;  the  way  she  was  led  to 
the  discovery  of  Christian  Science;  its  fundamental  idea  and 
growth.  Library  edition,  cloth,  95  pages,  single  copy  $1.00 ; 
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UNITY  OF  GOOD 

This  book  lays  the  axe  at  the  root  of  error,  elucidating  and 
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PULPIT  AND  PRESS 

A  unique  work,  of  importance  in  the  history  and  to  the  readers 
of  Christian  Science;  containing  the  message  or  sermon  written 
for  the  dedicatory  service  of  The  Mother  Church,  January  6, 
1895,  and  scintillations  from  the  press  of  that  occasion.  Library 
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RUDIMENTAL  DIVINE  SCIENCE 

A  brief  and  concise  statement  of  Divine  Science,  alias  Christian 
Science,  in  the  form  of  questions  and  answers.    Pebbled  clotk 


WORKS      ON      CHRISTIAN      SCIENCE 

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NO  AND  YES 

A  brief  statement  of  very  important  points  in  Christian  Science. 
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MESSAGES  TO  THE  MOTHER  CHURCH 

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CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE  versus  PANTHEISM 

The  Pastor  Emeritus'  Message  delivered  at  the  Communion 
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MESSAGE  TO  THE  MOTHER  CHURCH,  June,  1900 

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MESSAGE  TO  THE  MOTHER  CHURCH,  June,  1901 

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CHRISTIAN    HEALING,   AND  THE   PEOPLE'S 
IDEA  OF  GOD 

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WORKS  ON  CHRISTIAN  SCIENCE 
CHRISTIAN  HEALING 

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POEMS 

This  volume  of  79  pages  includes  all  of  Mrs.  Eddy's  hymns,  also 
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forty  to  sixty  years  ago.  Specially  bound.  Single  copy  $1.50 ; 
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FEED  MY  SHEEP 

Solo.  Words  by  Mary  Baker  Eddy,  music  by  Lyman  F.  Brackett. 
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