THE student of Christian Science cherishes his textbooks—the Bible and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy. He counts these precious volumes as his most treasured possessions. He recognizes them as symbols of a truth so infinite that human language can repeat only an infinitesimal portion thereof. Through earnest application and prayerful study he familiarizes himself with their content and catches their inspiration.
Mrs. Eddy realized that the truth contained in her writings was impregnable. Referring to the textbook, she says in "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany" (p. 178), "If the world were in ashes, the contents of 'Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures' would remain immortal." This truth came to her as direct revelation through her diligent search of the Scriptures. Her writings are the living Word, "the vesture of Life." They embody the full revelation of divine Science. The textbook says (p. 242), "The vesture of Life is Truth." And it adds: "The divine Science of man is woven into one web of consistency without seam or rent. Mere speculation or superstition appropriates no part of the divine vesture, while inspiration restores every part of the Christly garment of righteousness."
Mrs. Eddy refers to herself as a scribe receiving orders from on high (Miscellaneous Writings 311:26 and Miscellany 115:6-9). Every word of her presentation of Science came to her through inspiration. Every word must kindle into living truth and become the very fiber of our being through inspiration. Our Leader dedicated her life to the revelation. We, her followers, can do no less. There can be no divided loyalty, no halfway position, no superficiality, no personal ambition. The inspired Word was revealed through love, and it takes pure, unselfed love to understand it. Truth itself must be to us "the vesture of Life."
Within the pages of Science and Health is the full revelation of Truth that is revolutionizing the world—nothing can ever go beyond it, be added to it, or be taken from it. The truth contained in these pages is Truth, "the vesture of Life" —it lives, it kindles, it unfolds; it cannot be stereotyped, regulated, obscured, or defeated. Nor can it ever be superseded. This truth is destined to rule the world. Truly "the leaves of the tree [are] for the healing of the nations" (Rev. 22:2).
To understand our Leader's writings we must understand our Leader, and vice versa, for they are one and inseparable. Our concept of her must see beyond the person, as she would have us see, to the Principle of the revelation, to Mind itself. As we remember how she stood to give us the seamless robe of Truth, we may recall the Master facing the hostility of his day as he quoted the Scripture (Luke 4:18), "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me. because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised."
As we read the textbook we marvel at its beauty. In the little volume "Twelve Years With Mary Baker Eddy" Irving C. Tomlinson recalls her as saying (p. 44): "I could not originate such a book as Science and Health. I have to study it myself in order to understand it. When I came to the writing of it each day, I did not know what I should write until my pen was taken up and I was ready to begin. It was divine Mind expressing itself." In 1911 The Christian Science Monitor published a beautiful tribute to our Leader's writing which is quoted in part on pages 28 and 29 of "We Knew Mary Baker Eddy." Truly did our Leader exemplify the words of the Psalmist (Ps. 45:1), "My heart is inditing a good matter: . . . my tongue is the pen of a ready writer."
Science and Health is used week after week, year after year; citations are selected from this page and that; yet its content is always new, always fresh, always one complete, consecutive whole. Its truth indeed is the seamless robe—"the vesture of Life." Mrs. Eddy tells us that the Bible Lessons in the Christian Science Quarterly are her gift to us (Miscellaneous Writings 300: 23-28), and what a gift! The more we study the textbook, the more it kindles into life; it tears the mask from material sense, uncovers the subtleties of sin. exposes evil's nothingness, and reveals Truth in its grandeur and might.
The other writings are largely our Leader's practical application of the truths contained in Science and Health. When "Miscellaneous Writings" was published, in 1897, Mrs. Eddy announced through The Christian Science Journal (Vol. XIV, p. 575) that class teaching would be discontinued for one year. One cannot read that little volume from cover to cover without being impressed with its practicality. With infinite patience Mrs. Eddy instructs, exhorts, admonishes, encourages, and out of her own experience shows how she handled error in the movement and in the individual student. There is no condoning of error. Rather does she show how Truth goes to the bottom of a situation, exposes whatever needs to be exposed, destroys the error at its very root, thus proving God's allness and error's nothingness.
In "No and Yes" (beginning on page 13) is incorporated Mrs. Eddy's "Defence of Christian Science," her reply to an attack made upon her in Tremont Temple, Boston, in 1885. It illustrates the courage, wisdom, and self-restraint with which she met the rabid hostility of pulpit and press.
Every alert student recognizes the importance of the Manual of The Mother Church. The form of government it establishes was inspired by Mind. The Bylaws provide a strong, self-perpetuating central organization and governing Board, while to each branch they guarantee the freedom and responsibility of carrying on its own democratic form of government within the pattern of the whole. May not this eventually form the model for a united world government?
Our Leader safeguarded the individual student while safeguarding her revelation. In the Manual, under the title "Qualifications for Membership" (Art. IV, Sect. 1) she writes, "The Bible, together with Science and Health and other works by Mrs. Eddy, shall be his only textbooks for self-instruction in Christian Science, and for teaching and practising metaphysical healing." And truly what other textbooks could he need than these wonderful writings, which form the basic literature of Christian Science?
In the Journal of March, 1944, is recounted the interesting story of the compiling of the Concordances, those indispensable helps in acquiring a workable, usable knowledge of our textbooks.
Our Leader admonishes of the textbook: Read it, study it, ponder it (Science and Health 559:20-21). What would it not do for our movement and for the whole world if every student were to actually ponder the textbook; for example, if he were to take the "platform" (pages 330 to 340 of Science and Health) and really live with it month in and month out, pondering each word and line and sentence! To ponder the inspired words of our Leader opens vistas of reality beyond human reckoning. In our study we need to observe closely her use of capitalization, also her punctuation.
As we ponder the meaning of these precious books, one thing will become increasingly clear to us, and that is our own true self-identification. It is not enough to approach them as an unenlightened mortal seeking enlightenment. The message is Truth's revelation of itself, the revelation which constitutes all true being or consciousness. Understanding is boundless, limitless, forever teeming with its own vitality, forever unfolding—an endless, infinite emanation of divine Mind. And Mind is the one and only Ego. This excludes the false belief of a finite human person who goes just so far in the line of spiritual enlightenment and finally succumbs to his own limitations. Mind, the one Ego, is infinite intelligence, forever comprehending itself in the glory of its infinite self-knowledge.
In the second chapter of II Kings is recorded the story of Elijah and Elisha going together from Gilgal. Apparently it was a downhill experience. Material sense argued long and loud. They ended in Jericho, the valley of materiality. Then Elijah took his mantle and smote the waters of Jordan, and they crossed on dry ground. Elijah asked Elisha what he should do for him before he was taken away. And Elisha asked for a double portion of his spirit. Elijah's reply is fraught with significance: "Thou hast asked a hard thing: nevertheless, if thou see me [in the reality of being] when I am taken from thee, it shall be so unto thee." And Elisha saw—he saw the infinitude of true identity, which knows neither coming nor going—for he cried out, "My father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof." And the mantle of Elijah fell upon Elisha.
The mantle of these precious writings, the power of Truth woven into one web of consistency without seam or rent, without discrepancy or flaw, will fall upon us in the glory of present demonstration in proportion as we claim no other identity than the reflection of Truth itself, the one and only consciousness. Then "the vesture of Life" will be ours, not as the radiance of Truth enshrouding a frail mortal whose understanding is fraught with discrepancies, but as the resplendency of Life itself, Life everlasting, without beginning and without end, forever unfolding the newness, freshness, continuity, and might of Truth. Truly of these writings we may say, "The vesture of Life is Truth."
