Studying the Christian Science Textbooks

Any student of Christian Science doubtless knows that he cannot increase his understanding of Science vicariously. But there may be a resistance, subtle or not so subtle, to studying the King James Bible, Science and Health, and the other writings of Mary Baker Eddy. An effort to officially supplement or even replace the KJV in church services is already afoot. There have even been rumors that updating S&H has been discussed in recent years.

The KJV was consciously written in a style that was passe when it was published in 1611, so it should be no surprise that some effort is needed to make sense of many passages. With the help of a good modern translation or two and a good commentary or two it can be done. No modern translation, however, has surpassed the KJV in its timeless majesty and beauty.

Even S&H contains language and references which are not always congenial to the modern reader, but there are no insurmountable verbal obstacles. S&H is the final, inviolable, complete statement of Christian Science. If one utilizes the Student's Dictionary referred to in an earlier entry, he can better learn the meaning of words as Mrs. Eddy doubtless intended, even the meaning of words he thought was evident. If one is disturbed by Mrs. Eddy's references to 19th Century medical practices or illnesses no longer common, it isn't a barrier to grasping her meaning. The aim is to arrive at a spiritual sense and understanding of this amazing book, not to fuss over why she cites a case of dropsy.

If one is unwilling to study diligently these books as Mrs. Eddy definitely intended he certainly isn't hungering and thirsting for an understanding of Truth. The sincere, humble, grateful seeker will not be deterred or even fazed by any of these demands. And one must not lose sight of the fact that S&H is keyed to the KJV. They are a team.

Mortal mind will try to keep diligent as well as dilatory students away from these books by any subterfuge it can. All Christian Scientists should be alert to the wiles of mortal mind when it comes time for daily study of the textbooks.

Healings Delayed or On Hold

Is being healed more difficult today than it was 50 or even 25 years ago? The only defensible answer is no. The Principle upon which healing is based is as absolute, omnipotent, and omnipresent today as 50 years ago, just as 3+4=7 is as demonstrable today as it was in 1950.

What may seem to make it harder to achieve a healing today is that the world is far more mired in materialism, medical practice, and depravity than then. Our mental castles are besieged day and night by an army of these aggressive and subtle influences. Even casual conversation and the nightly news have become thickets of stories and pictures of disease, sex, and depravity. It is the great red dragon become even more swollen by its evil.

Mrs. Eddy referred in S&H to a time when the world manifested more of "tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,/Sermons in stones, and good in everything". The mental climate of our time is certainly not spiritual, and one can easily become mesmerized and stupefied by contemporary aggressive evils if his mental watchtowers are not faithfully manned and his defenses are not vigorously maintained.

In short, the aggressiveness, ubiquity, and tenacity of mortal mind's claims today doubtless demand a more absolute, resolute, and energetic mental stance than in less materialistic times. Nevertheless, none of this has diminished by one iota Truth, Life, and Love's availability and power to heal every moment.

Learning That Nil Means Nil

At some station along the way in our spiritual growth in Christian Science we learn not to give a name and a habitation to any ailment or disease. Mrs. Eddy tells us that to give it a name only tends to make the seeming problem more real and increases fear, which is the basic enemy.

We learn that one way to begin spiking mortal mind's guns is to move the mental conflict into the arena of a claim, a belief, an illusion, a dream, a lie, or a false belief. This helps remove thought from the contemplation of material so-called laws and prognoses and thereby reduces the fear associated with a specific belief.

If we do not clearly grasp, however, what we are doing when we use these terms, the original temptation, suggestion, can easily be transferred in our thinking to a belief in and fear of a real claim, a real belief, a real illusion, a real dream, and so forth. Mortal mind is not fastidious about the means it employs as long as it gets our attention. The result will be the same whether the suggestion is accepted as this or that specific disease or a very real false belief.

When we see a problem as an illusion or dream we must be sure we are only using the term to remove it from thought as a reality of any kind, even as a real unreality. When we are able to turn wholly and instantly to God and fill our consciousness with thoughts of Him alone, then the use of the term illusion or lie has become a useful stepping stone to freedom from the suggestions of mortal mind, and we then know we are expressing more of the spiritual harmony and completeness that come only from some measure of demonstrating the fact that we are God's reflection eternally.

A Remarkable Incident (Part II)

Anyone who has not already visited the second entry prior to this one is advised to read it first.


The primary reason the event quoted in "Part I" is so compelling is that the writer was Adolf Hitler. The quotation is taken from Charles Bracelen Flood's Hitler: The Path to Power (p. 25). At that time Hitler was in his twenties and by many accounts a commendable and courageous soldier. It is somewhat outside the thrust of this entry, but Hitler later escaped numerous assassination attempts. It is an agonizing mystery why this monster was seemingly protected as if by some miraculous, invisible hand: impelled to leave early the scene of a speech where a bomb with a timer had been set; a bomb courageously placed on Hitler's plane failed to detonate because of a defective fuse; an errant foot unknowingly moved a briefcase containing a bomb behind the heavy wooden leg of a large table, deflecting the blast, which only slightly injured Hitler.


It is a well-worn, but true, adage that all which glitters is not gold. How easy it is to utter truthful words and lard the treatment of others or ourselves with sagacious quotes from Mrs. Eddy's writings, but without purity of thought and a clear spiritual sense of the words we think and speak, we probably aren't achieving a Christianly scientific healing, no matter what the outcome may seem to be. Hitler could have, and probably did, claim his deliverances from assassination attempts were proof of some divine intervention.


Just because nothing particularly bad happens to us, is this proof our protective work is effective? Athiests, non-Scientists, and non-Christians may also be free from accidents. We need to be free from the belief in accidents, sickness, disease, sin, and death because God dwells indisputably, palpably, consciously within us.


None of this is to question anyone's certainty or assertion that he has been protected, helped, or healed through Christian Science. But one suspects that if all the healings and demonstrations attributed to Christian Science were genuine and convincing, branch churches would be showing far more vitality than at present.

The willingness of some so-called practitioners to treat someone under the care of a doctor and/or who is taking drugs/medicine could not possibly result in a Christianly scientific healing, as Mrs. Eddy clearly explains on page 167 of S&H and numerous places elsewhere. That in such a situation something "good", a "healing", could happen is not being denied, but it won't be Truth demonstrated. It may be a faith healing, mesmerism, or simply mind over matter, but it can't be Christian Science. If mortal mind, matter, material body, fear, or personal sense remains a belief which distracts thought, then Christ, Truth, is not alone in our thinking and we will indeed hold to the one and despise the other.

It is the conclusion of one Christian Scientist that we must get it right, exactly as Mrs. Eddy has revealed it to us. Too much glitter has been accepted as Christian Science and not enough of the gold of Christ's precious works and words and Mary Baker Eddy's Discovery.

If all this is poorly articulated, and it very well may be, then simply view this lucubration as a sincere call for more instantaneous, indisputable Christian Science healing. When this is accomplished honest seekers will be drawn to our churches and the Christian Science movement will be revitalized.

On Controlling the Weather

Mrs. Eddy is quoted as saying (and she demonstrated it as well): "You are not a Christian Scientist until you do control the weather." Since neither this statement, nor one similar to it, appears in any of her published writings, it does not have the authority that statements in her published works do, but given present weather patterns it should perhaps be carefully considered.

We seem to be living at a time when the norm in weather has become harsh extremes--too little or too much. And the ferocity and deadliness of storms worldwide is also increasing. All Christian Scientists should take on weather as a patient in order to restore normalcy. Such an undertaking would also promote individual growth in Christian Science.

Note 1: The title of this blog was changed from "The Morning Meal", since to Google that title sent one to the land of cereal and trendy breakfast food. Though if the current title is Googled, one will probably find himself in the watery blog realm of commercial fishermen.

Note 2: The"author" for this blog is simply the name of the chief character in John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress. No sense of pride or special accomplishment is intended.

Note 3: The conclusion to the previous entry should appear tomorrow.

A Remarkable Incident

At the risk of taking the lid off of something which would be better off left tightly capped, the following occurence from World War I is quoted:
"I was eating my dinner in a trench with several comrades. Suddenly a voice seemed to be saying to me, 'Get up and go over there'. It was so clear and insistent that I obeyed mechanically, as if it had been a military order. I rose at once to my feet and walked 20 yards along the trench, carrying my dinner in its tin-can with me. Then I sat down to go on eating, my mind being once more at rest. Hardly had I done so when a flash and a deafening report came from the part of the trench I had just left. A stray shell had burst over the group in which I had been sitting, and every member of it was killed."

No desire to be coy is intended, but it might be useful to leave things at this point to ferment for a couple of days. As is, would this be a suitable Wednesday Meeting testimony? It certainly doesn't mention God, prayer, or Christian Science. Was the voice speaking God? If not who or what?

The query under consideration is: Are all instances of protection and healing in the lives of faithful Christian Scientists unquestionably Truth at work?

One might profitably compare the above event to a very similar W.W.I incident related in an article in the October 6,1951, Sentinel by John S. Sammons, "Safety Wherever You Are". This article was also reprinted in one of those wonderful old pocket pamphlets of the same title.

A Simple Question

If some malevolent government were to confiscate all copies of the Bible and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy and it was subsequently learned that a chest which contained these works was buried in a certain field, how many Christian Scientists would without hesitation sell all their possessions in order to buy that field?

Branch Church Autonomy

Christian Science Branch Churches are locally owned, democratically operated, and organized strictly and wholly in accordance with the Church Manual. Christian Science Branch Churches are not Gulags under the control of a Central Committee, populated by a pliable lumpenproletariat which can be tapped periodically for pelf garnered in order to maintain the bread and circuses sponsored by Big Brother.

Branch Churches are also not franchises of The Mother Church which operate under the absentee management and dictates of the Board of Directors in Boston. That Branches have in many, far too many, instances relinquished their duties and responsibilities does not render the requirements of the Church Manual moot.

The Church Manual also prescribes precisely the duties and responsibilities of the Board of Directors of The Mother Church. Nothing in the Church Manual gives it the authorization to exceed or ignore Manual requirements or act in a law-unto-itself manner. The Manual also does not give the Board the right to interpret the Church Manual provisions to suit itself or act as the final arbiter of what a Manual provision means. The Board cannot speak ex cathedra on matters outside its prescribed duties. The Church Manual speaks to and for and protects all loyal Christian Scientists equally.

Christian Science Reading Rooms are also governed by the Church Manual. Branch Church Reading Rooms have been meddled with for years by Boston, sometimes through the unwelcome kibitzing of volunteers who perchance wish to build up brownie points with the Vatican in Boston, sometimes directly, and sometimes with the aid of servile members. Reading Rooms are also not intended to be computer game rooms or hang-outs for young people, as seems to be one idea of those wise ones "thinking outside the box".

State Committees on Publication have also in recent years been preempted by Boston and used more in the breach than in the observance of Manual requirements. They have become shameless shills and sales reps for Boston initiatives and a convenient network of spies to help sniff out any incipient dissatisfaction with what Boston does or wants done. Courageous exceptions are fired. It is also not at all certain that COP's are being appointed in conformity with the unambiguous Manual requirements and procedures. And how did the notion gain unquestioning acceptance that COP's be paid at all, let alone by what amounts to an imposed tax on each one of a State's Branch Church members?

Not Just Right, But The Highest Right

If we are not watchful we can easily find ourselves on the wrong road, like Janet Leigh in Psycho. These wrong roads seldom lead us to anything like the Bates Motel, they are not evil roads, but they are not the highest right road. The road passing by the Bates Motel was on the old highway and would have led her to her destination as surely as the new highway, but drifting inattentively onto the old highway proved fateful.

There is nothing wrong with striving for honesty, affection, compassion, hope, faith, and meekness (see S&H 115:26-27), but are they really the road we should be diligently pursuing? Mrs. Eddy defines these qualities as "moral" and "Evil beliefs disappearing".

The Student's Dictionary referred to in an earlier entry defines moral in part as: "Relating to the practice, manners, or conduct of men, as social beings, in relation to each other, and with reference to right and wrong." So although there is certainly nothing wrong with these moral qualities, they do not represent our highest ultimate goal, which Mrs. Eddy gives in S&H 116:1-3.

We need to watch and pray that we are ever alert and searching for the right road, narrow though it may be, and that we do not get fooled into settling into a pleasant self-satisfaction for having achieved some mastery of the moral qualities. Moral qualities alone, such as "humanity", can still leave open the possibility for thought to wander onto the old highway and turn into a harmless looking Bates Motel.

We cannot ever afford to relax our vigilance while we are still dealing with anything, no matter how benign seeming, in the mortal, human realm. Temperance, for example, denies that we succumb to excess in the human. Holiness denies the presence and reality of the human altogether. When holiness is achieved there will be no wrong road to take and no Bates Motel to await us.

Only Mental Vitality Will Do

Christian Science is not a passive, purely contemplative religion. Christian Science requires unceasing growth and progress, which cannot be achieved vicariously or by absorption. The words of Christ Jesus and writings of Mary Baker Eddy are replete with duties, commands, musts, shoulds, rules, and reminders of the necessity for obedience to God, and faithful adherence to these things results in understanding, demonstration, and progress.

In his excellent article "Our Father's Demand--Unself Mortality", Paul Stark Seeley points out that even though the word "must" is not in the Concordance to Mrs. Eddy's writings she uses the word over 350 times.

One could easily feel that achieving the goal of spiritual perfection is an Augean task, but he should recall that Hercules cleaned out the Augean stables by running a river through them. This brings to mind Mrs. Eddy's statement on removing error: "The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour in truth through flood-tides of Love." (S&H 201: 17-18) This truth is always available, of course, and the flood-tides of Love it releases are therefore omnipresent and omnipotent.

It is never too late to start on the path of Christianly scientific salvation, but delay never makes the task any easier, nor does inertia slather any grease on the skids of spiritual advancement.

"'twere well it were done quickly"

It is an arguable premise that the Christian Science Church has imperceptibly etiolated over the past two or three decades until it has become today a nearly invisible irrelevancy. The large number of branch church closings in recent years is confirmation of this assertion.

Even if one disagrees with this premise, he would very hard pressed to produce any evidence that the Christian Science Church is today vigorous and growing. The recent consolidation of personnel in Boston is yet another sign of this slow withering.

Since the chief distinguishing characteristic of Christian Science is, no doubt, Christianly scientific healing, one reason for this decline is undoubtedly a failure of Christian Scientists, and ergo The Mother Church and its branches, to demonstrate in sufficient measure Article XXX, Section 7, of the Church Manual.

It is imperative that all who claim to be sincere and loyal (loyal to Mary Baker Eddy, that is) Christian Scientists resolve to lift themselves to a much higher level of prayer and demonstration if the Church is to survive and prosper. A failure to do so will doubtlessly result in the continuation of a moribund Church lapsing ever more surely into complete inertness.

Study Aid to MBE's Writings

An invaluable aid to the study of the writings of Mary Baker Eddy is "The Student's Reference Dictionary". It is an abridgment of the 19th Century Noah Websters "American Dictionary of the English Language" and contains nearly every word Mrs. Eddy used in her writings. It is one of the dictionaries, if not the only one, she used.

There are very few exceptions to completeness, such as "endue", the entry for which says see "indue", but that word is not included in the Student's Dictionary. However, the complete dictionary, as well as the Students Dictionary, is available from The Bookmark. See the previous blog entry for a phone number and web address for The Bookmark.

Many words have had a significant change in their definition since Mrs. Eddy used them, so it is most helpful to get as close as possible to the meanings she intended. She was very precise in her choice of words and used a very large vocabulary.

An emendation to the previous blog entry: The Bookmark does (or did) have a bound volume of at least some of the lectures of Paul Stark Seeley. He was one of the best and well worth reading.

Vacuous Lectures

If you once enjoyed attending Christian Science lectures but now get the heebie-jeebies and fantods at the thought of some of the horrors that have passed for lectures in recent years, you are not alone. It also doesn't help that getting a lecturer is like hiring a mount from a stable full of nags. There are no doubt pleasant exceptions, but there is a much greater liklihood of getting Insipid than Inspiring.

One possible palliative to this situation is to read some first-rate lectures by past masters of the craft. Two who can be highly recommended are Edward A. Kimball and Dr. John M. Tutt. Copies of their lectures should be obtainable from The Bookmark. A catalog may be obtained by calling 800-220-7767 or from the internet at www.thebookmark.com.

Those of Paul Stark Seeley are also excellent if one can locate them. Many were undoubtedly published in the Christian Science Monitor if the lecture was given at The Mother Church.

The lectures of Kimball were given a century or so ago and those of Tutt about half of that, but they remain as fresh and meaty today as when they were originally given.

The Good and the Ugly

One way Christian Scientists can achieve more respect for, appreciation for, and obedience to their Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, is to read a good biography of her. For many, the best is that by Robert Peel, published in three volumes between 1966 and 1977. It is carefully researched, respectful, well-written, and illuminating. It is hard to forsee the need for a better one.

Many of the older standard biographies are also fine, but are not as rich and detailed as the Peel.

If cocking a snook at Mrs. Eddy is one's idea of a good thing, then the fairly recent Gill biography should fill the bill. Why anyone with even a whiff of love, admiration, and respect for Mrs. Eddy would have anything to do with this detestable book is incomprehensible. That the Board of Directors of the Mother Church actively helped in the writing of this abomination and then pressed it joyously to their collective breast with a shameful benediction is deeply distressing.

There is also, of course, Mrs. Eddy's own brief, radiant, and inspiring autobiography. Retrospection and Introspection.

Effortless Study

The Bible and the Christian Science textbook, Science and Health, as well as the other writings of Mary Baker Eddy, need to be constantly studied and pondered by any sincere student of Christian Science. Studied diligently, not gazed at fondly from a safe distance. It would be anomalous if these books were not vade mecums for any Christian Scientist worthy of the name.

The full-text Bible Lessons insidiously separates the would-be Christian Scientist from his textbooks. Studying the Bible lesson daily is not some sort of rude imposition to be fitted grimly into an odd scrap of free time. The Bible and writings of Mrs. Eddy need to be grappled with sedulously at close quarters, far closer than the prim, well-groomed confines of the full text Bible Lessons (so-called).

Mrs. Eddy says striving, not merely seeking, is necessary to enter the Way, to achieve understanding. A neat little pocket shortcut to real study and growth would seem to enable one to vegetate gently toward salvation without having to break a sweat and without wasting more of one's precious time than it takes to eat a bagel.

Only those who welcome the opportunity to avoid the effort of real study should succumb to the allure of this mesmerizing byway.

The Christian Science Standard of Healing

It may not be essential that Christian Scientists have the Standard of Healing, since it is derived from Science and Health. But "The Christian Science Standard of Healing" is a clean, clear, uncompromising statement which originally appeared in the November 1957 Journal.

This standard is based on Mrs. Eddy's definitive statement on page 167 of Science and Health and can only bless, uplift, and support anyone who adheres faithfully to it.

The 1957 Standard should not be confused with either of the feeble, milquetoast twins who appeared in the Journal a few years ago. The first of these offspring was quickly spurned, only to be immediately replaced in a second issuing of the same Journal by the second. They are Tweeledum and Tweeledee and, for many, are embarrassing as well as useless. It isn't advisable to make a friend of either.

Bound Treasures

Should one not find his appetite for a deeper understanding of Christian Science fully sated by studying the Bible and the writings of Mary Baker Eddy, he can find much to enrich his study in an almost limitless trove of articles and editorials in the bound volumes of the periodicals. These should still be available in any Christian Science Reading Room.

Though some of these articles and editorials are well over a century old, many, if not most, still retain their inspiration and relevancy for the present student of Christian Science. Even those articles and editorials on current topics, such as WWI and WWII, may contain helpful truths which can add to one's spiritual awareness and growth.

To be unacquainted with writers such as Samuel Greenwood, Dr. John Tutt, Violet Ker Seymer, Paul Stark Seeley, L. Ivimy Gwalter, Milton Simon, or Geoffrey Barratt, to name but a very few, is to be denied a valuable experience in the metaphysics of Christian Science. There are, of course, dozens of other fine contributors, and quiet hours spent mining the bound volumes can yield much spiritual wealth.

There should be a computer index available in the Reading Room which enables one to search for and print out a listing of all an author's contributions with volume and page number.

These past writings present an opportunity for the true seeker for Truth which shouldn't be overlooked.

Exemplary Christianity

Once upon a time one welcomed the opportunity to recommend all the Christian Science publications to anyone. Their daily, weekly, or monthly arrival was a joy. But that was once upon a time.

If one would like to read an unashamed and unadulterated Christian publication, he might like to try the biweekly magazine of The Salvation Army, The War Cry. No, it is not Christian Science, but it is unabashedly Christian, and the Salvation Army is a church which lives humble, selfless Christianity from top to bottom. With them there is no lust for title, money, or greatness.

There is also no evidence of megalomnia, moral idiocy, un-Christian behavior, mendacity, jesuitical influence, and self-righteous self-justification. The Salvation Army doesn't just talk goodness, humility, and Christliness; they live it.

A subscription to The War Cry is, by the way, quite inexpensive, and each issue always seems to contain an uplifting article or two even for a Christian Scientist.

Ominous Signs

What are some of the signs that instead of diligent daily study and practice of Christian Science one may be mired instead in a mesmerizing material stupor?
1. Science and Health and the Bible (the books) are not studied daily.
2. On the rare occasions when Science and Health is read straight through, parts like the platform, "Some Objections Answered", the trial, and the "Glossary" are avoided or skimmed over.
3. Prose Works is seldom read cover to cover or has never been.
4. The King James Version of the Bible is avoided and not studied continually with the aid of a good Bible commentary, such as Dummelow or The Interpreters One Volume Commentary. S&H is keyed, after all, to the KJV.
5. One accomplishes his daily study by means of a brisk walk through the full-text edition of the Bible Lessons.
6. One deludes himself that faithfully warming a cushion in church every Sunday and Wednesday is evidence of being a Christian Scientist.
7. Plans for tiffin after the Sunday service occupy more of one's thoughts than the service itself.
8. Doing what pleases fellow church members is more important than discovering and doing what pleases God.
9. One indulges in idle and audible chitchat about golf and gardening, football and food, cars and canning in the church lobby before services.
10. One devotes more attention and enthusiasm to church redecoration projects than to the quality of the Readers and reading in the services.