Christian Science -- Controversial literature; Eddy, Mary Baker, 1821-1910
“It is a fact, well understood, that I begged the students who first
gave me the endearing appellative 'mother' not to name me thus. But,
without my consent, that word spread like wildfire. I still must think
the name is not applicable to me. I stand in relation to this century as
a Christian discoverer, founder, and leader. I regard self-deification
as blasphemous; I may be more loved, but I am less lauded, pampered,
provided for, and cheered than others before me--and wherefore? Because
Christian Science is not yet popular, and I refuse adulation.
“My visit to the Mother-Church after it was built and dedicated pleased
me, and the situation was satisfactory. The dear members wanted to greet
me with escort and the ringing of bells, but I declined, and went alone
in my carriage to the church, entered it, and knelt in thanks upon the
steps of its altar. There the foresplendor of the beginnings of truth
fell mysteriously upon my spirit. I believe in one Christ, teach one
Christ, know of but one Christ. I believe in but one incarnation, one
Mother Mary, and know I am not that one, and never claimed to be. It
suffices me to learn the Science of the Scriptures relative to this
subject.
“Christian Scientists have no quarrel with Protestants, Catholics,
or any other sect. They need to be understood as following the divine
Principle God, Love and not imagined to be unscientific worshippers of a
human being.
“In the aforesaid article, of which I have seen only extracts, Mark
Twain's wit was not wasted In certain directions. Christian Science
eschews divine rights in human beings. If the individual governed human
consciousness, my statement of Christian Science would be disproved, but
to understand the spiritual idea is essential to demonstrate Science
and its pure monotheism--one God, one Christ, no idolatry, no human
propaganda. Jesus taught and proved that what feeds a few feeds all. His
life-work subordinated the material to the spiritual, and He left
this legacy of truth to mankind. His metaphysics is not the sport of
philosophy, religion, or Science; rather it is the pith and finale of
them all.
“I have not the inspiration or aspiration to be a first or second
Virgin-Mother--her duplicate, antecedent, or subsequent. What I am
remains to be proved by the good I do. We need much humility, wisdom,
and love to perform the functions of foreshadowing and foretasting
heaven within us. This glory is molten in the furnace of affliction.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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