Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1898)/00 Preface
PREFACE.
LEANING on the sustaining Infinite, to-day is big
with blessings. The wakeful shepherd beholds
the first faint morning beams, ere cometh the full
radiance of a risen day. So shone the pale star to the
prophet-shepherds; yet it traversed the night, and came
where, in cradled obscurity, lay the young child who
should redeem mortals, and make plain to human
understanding the way of salvation. Now, across a
night of error, dawn the morning beams, and shines the
guiding-orb of Truth. The Wisemen are led to behold
and follow the daystar of Divine Science, as it shows the
way to eternal harmony.
The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the portal of humanity. Contentment with the past, and the cold conventionality of materialism, no longer obstruct the way to progress. Ignorance of God is no longer the stepping-stone to faith. The only guarantee of obedience is a right apprehension of Him, whom to know aright is Life eternal. Though empires fall, " He whose right it is shall reign."
A book introduces new thoughts, but cannot make them speedily understood. It is the task of the sturdy pioneer to hew the tall oak and cut the rough granite. Future ages must declare what the pioneer has accomplished.
Since the author's discovery of the adaptation of Truth to the treatment of disease, as well as of sin, her system has been fully tested, and has not been found wanting; but to reach the heights of Christian Science, man must live in obedience to its divine Principle. To develop the full glory of this Science, the discords of corporeal sense must yield to the harmony of spiritual sense; even as the science of sound corrects false tones caught by the ear, and gives sweet concord to music.
Theology and physics teach that both matter and Spirit are real and good; whereas the fact is, that one is good and real, and the other is its opposite. The question. What is Truth? is answered by demonstration, — by healing disease and sin; and this shows that Christian healing confers the most health and makes the best men. On this basis. Christian Science will have a fair fight. Sickness has been fought for centuries by doctors using material remedies; but the question arises. Is there less sickness because of these practitioners? A vigorous No is the response deducible from two connate facts, — the reputed longevity of the Antediluvians, and the rapid multiplication and increased violence of diseases since the Flood.
In the author's work, “Retrospection and Introspection,” will be found a biographical sketch, narrating experiences which led her, in the year 1866, to the discovery of the system which she denominated Christian Science. As early as 1862 she began to write down and give to friends the results of her Scriptural study, for the Bible was her sole teacher; but these compositions were crude, the first steps of a child in the newly discovered world of Spirit.
She also began to jot down her thoughts on the main subject; but these jottings were only infantile lispings of Truth. A child drinks in the outward world through the eyes, and rejoices in the draught. He is as sure of the world's existence as of his own; yet he cannot describe it. He finds a few words, and with these he stammeringly attempts the conveyance of his feeling. Later the tongue voices the more definite thought, though still imperfectly.
So was it with the author. As a certain poet says of himself, she “lisped in numbers, for the numbers came.” Certain essays, written at that early date, are still in circulation among her first pupils; but they are feeble attempts to state the Principle and practice of Christian healing, and are not complete or satisfactory expositions of Truth. To-day, though rejoicing in some progress, she finds herself still a willing disciple at the heavenly gate, waiting for the Mind of Christ.
Her first pamphlet on Christian Science was copyrighted in 1870; but it did not appear in print until 1876, as she had learned that this Science must be demonstrated by healing, before a work on the subject could be profitably published. From 1867 until 1875 copies were, however, in friendly circulation.
Before writing this work on Science and Health, she made copious notes of Scriptural exposition, which have never been published. This was between the years 1867 and 1868. These efforts show her ignorance of the great subject up to that time, and the degrees by which she came at length to the solution of the stupendous Life-problem; but she values them, as a parent may treasure the memorials of childhood's growth, and would not have them changed.
The first edition of Science and Health was published in 1875. Various books on mental healing have since been issued, most of which are incorrect in theory, and filled with plagiarisms from Science and Health. They regard the human mind as a healing agent; whereas this mind is not a factor in the Principle of Christian Science. A few books, however, which are based on this Book, are useful.
The author has not compromised conscience to suit the general drift of thought, but bluntly and honestly given the text of Truth. There has been no effort on her part to embellish, elaborate, or treat in full detail so infinite a theme. By thousands of well-authenticated cases of healing, many of her students have proven the worth of her teachings. For the most part, these have been cases abandoned by regular medical attendants as hopeless; inasmuch as few will turn to God till all physical supports have failed, because there is so little faith in His disposition and power to heal.
The Principle of her system is demonstrable by the personal experience of any sincere seeker of Truth. Its purpose is good, and its practice is more safe and potent than that of any other sanitary method. The unbiased Christian thought is soonest touched by Truth, and convinced of it. Those only quarrel with her method who have not understood her meaning, or who, discerning the Truth, come not to the light, lest their works should be reproved. No intellectual proficiency is requisite in the learner, but sound morals are most desirable.
Many imagine that the phenomena of physical healing in Christian Science only present a phase of the action of the human mind, which, in some unexplained way, results in the cure of sickness. On the contrary, Christian Science rationally explains that all other pathological methods are the fruits of human faith in matter, in the workings, not of Spirit, but of the fleshly mind, which must yield to Science.
The physical healing of Christian Science results now, as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine Principle, before which sin and disease lose their reality in human consciousness, and so disappear as naturally and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light, and sin to reformation. Now, as then, they are not supernatural, but supremely natural. They are those “mighty works,” which were the sign of Immanuel, or “God with us,” — an influence ever present in human consciousness, and coming now again, as was promised aforetime,
| To preach deliverance to the captives [of sense], |
| And recovering of sight to the blind, — |
| To set at liberty them that are bruised. |
When God called her to proclaim His Gospel to this age, there came also the charge to plant and water His vineyard.
The first school of Christian Science Mind-healing was begun by the author in Lynn, Massachusetts, about the year 1867, with only one student. In 1881 she opened the Massachusetts Metaphysical College, in Boston, under the seal of the Commonwealth, — a law relative to colleges having been passed, which enabled her to get this institution chartered for medical purposes. No charters were granted to Christian Scientists for such institutions after 1883; and, up to that date, hers was the only college of this character which had ever been established in the United States, where Christian Science was first introduced.
During seven years some four thousand students were taught by the author in this college. Meanwhile she was pastor of the first established Church of Christ, Scientist; president of the first Christian Scientist Association, convening monthly; publisher of her own works; and (for a portion of this time) sole editor and publisher of the Christian Science Journal, the first periodical issued by Christian Scientists. She closed her college, October 29, 1889, in the height of its prosperity, with a deep-lying conviction that the next two years of her life should be given to the preparation of the revision in 1891 of Science and Health.
In the spirit of Christ's charity, — as one who “hopeth all things, endureth all things,” and is joyful to bear consolation to the sorrowing and healing to the sick, — she commits these pages to honest seekers for Truth in this and every age.
Note. — The author takes no patients, and declines medical
consultation.