The time is Monday morning, March 16, 1885. A new religions teaching, expounding radical theological concepts and headed by a dynamic woman, is coming to the forefront of public thought. Some of the conservative clergy, uneasy over increasingly numerous reports of remarkable healings and rising acceptance of this teaching, are becoming sharply critical.
The place is Tremont Temple, Boston, Massachusetts. The well-known Reverend Joseph Cook, having denounced this new phenomenon in a public letter, has begrudgingly allowed its chief proponent ten minutes for rebuttal at one of his popular Monday morning lectures.
The proponent is Mary Baker Eddy. After spending the greater part of her life in search of a more satisfactory understanding of God and Christianity, a hard fall on the ice and the resultant severe injury became for her a Peniel in her search for divine Truth. After a physician pronounced the injury to be of the utmost severity, she experienced great spiritual illumination while studying Biblical accounts of Christ Jesus' healings, which brought the discernment of an underlying spiritual law and immediate physical restoration. Mrs. Eddy has since devoted her remarkable energies toward the forwarding of this tremendous discovery, which she named "Christian Science."
Looking out from the platform at the two thousand sober faces filling the hall, she proceeds to correct several misconceptions and touch upon some basic points of Christian Science. The brief talk is taken down by a shorthand reporter and later published in Mrs. Eddy's book Miscellaneous Writings.
Looking back at this event over one hundred years later, one cannot help but feel a sense of great admiration for the courage this remarkable pioneer displayed and the practicality of her words in addressing the concerns of that large group of skeptical thinkers. One finds, too, that the issues touched upon have lost none of their relevancy today.
One issue to which she gave a good deal of attention was the distinguishing of Christian Science from mesmerism. At that time there were in Boston individuals attempting to achieve physical healing through hypnotic mind-control techniques, and ignorantly claiming their methods to be identical with the healing work of Christ Jesus. Mrs. Eddy shared with her audience an abhorrence for this type of practice. "Erring human mind is by no means a desirable or efficacious healer," Mrs. Eddy informed the attentive crowd. "Such suppositional healing I deprecate. It is in no way allied to divine power. All human control is animal magnetism, more despicable than all other methods of treating disease." Miscellaneous Writings, p. 97.
These words were probably surprising to many in the audience who had imagined Christian Science to be a variant of mesmerism. They were being shown for perhaps the first time this teaching's purely Christian nature and its perfect consistency with the Scriptures. Among the many illuminating points brought out that morning by this inspired Christian discoverer was the remarkable statement "I reverence and adore Christ as never before." Ibid., p. 96.
These words, coming from the summit of utter humility and spiritual honesty, reverently revealed an enlarged concept of Christ as the full manifestation of God, always at hand, and always sovereign over every form of evil known to human experience. This revelation brings new meaning to Christ Jesus' words "Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." Matt. 4:17. Repentance can be seen as not merely involving sorrow for wrongdoing, but also as bringing the entirety of individual consciousness and life experience under the full sway of Christ, under the government and control of God. This demands relinquishing sin and learning to obey more faithfully God's spiritual laws, including Christ Jesus' command "Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils: freely ye have received, freely give." Matt. 10:8. After that memorable talk in Tremont Temple, Mrs. Eddy was to devote the final twenty-five years of her life to the founding of a Church (and its publications) whose purpose was to reestablish Christian healing in its full power and efficacy. Since Mrs. Eddy's passing in 1910, her Church, The First Church of Christ, Scientist, in Boston, Massachusetts, with its branches throughout the world, has made significant progress in helping humanity find the kingdom of God to be indeed within us, a reality brought to light and made tangible by the vital practice of spiritual healing.
Today, Christian Scientists as well as
those of many faiths feel a great desire
to reverence Christ in their own lives
as they never have before.
Today, as mankind advances toward a new epoch in its history of spiritual development, Christian Scientists as well as those of many faiths feel a great desire to reverence Christ in their own lives as they never have before. That is, to leave behind more than ever the emptiness of materially based thinking and living for the radiant inspiration and self-immolation that come from deeper study of the Bible and Science and Health, and from spiritual communion with God. As we progress in this direction, we can thankfully and meekly acknowledge that God has brought forth in us a priceless increase of spiritual understanding and adoration for the Christ, as well as a heightened recognition of the spiritual accomplishments God requires of us through His revealed Word.
Advancing in this line of obedience and spiritual growth, we find in our own experience that the kingdom of heaven is not just at hand, but that we're actually living in it, feeling its ineffable peace, engaged in its holy activities, and held in its all-embracing tenderness. We find, too, that this vivid consciousness of our true selfhood, as the image and likeness of God, is felt by those around us. Our spiritual understanding of God and His creation, including man, is feeding the hungry heart searching for a glimmer of God's presence, with an assuring ray of hope. And we find our hearts burning more and more within us as the vast meaning of these words of our great Way-shower dawn upon our understanding: "A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another." John 13:34.
Seeing how Christ Jesus yearned for his disciples to follow his example, we realize that he would not have expected this of us unless he knew we were capable of it. Then, pride chastened and motives uplifted, we quietly resolve to let nothing deter us from consecrating ourselves to this holiest of all work: Christian healing.
For whosoever shall give you a cup of water
to drink in my name, because ye belong to Christ,
verily I say unto you, he shall not lose his reward.
Mark 9:41
