Christian Science Seminar (Class) Notes – Volume 2

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Christian Science Seminar (Class) Notes – Volume 2

These are notes of the second day of a six-day seminar on Christian Science classroom teaching in accord with the teachings of Mary Baker Eddy as given in the Massachusetts Metaphysical College in the 1880’s. Their purpose is to restore to Christian Scientists and to the world Mrs. Eddy’s school of Christian Science teaching.

In an effort to preserve the teachings of Mary Baker Eddy, these notes have been compiled from teachers’ class books which conform to the doctrine of Christian Science as taught by Mrs. Eddy.

In Volume 2, we read:

“FORGIVENESS

“What would happen if there came a time when you did not forgive your neighbor his wrongs? It would mean that evil had succeeded in making you believe that it was real. It would mean error and evil were lodged in your subjective thought and that you were not using the fan and separating the fable from the fact; that you were not plunging beneath the material surface of things and finding the spiritual cause, and effect.

“True forgiving is not blindly passing over someone’s fault. It is a scientific recognition of the fact of one infinite God, who is All, the cause of all reality, and seeing that it is always expressed in the individual, spiritual idea.

“THE STUDENT OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE HAS TO SEE THE PERFECTION OF GOD AND HIS SPIRITUAL IDEA, CHRIST, AND HE HAS TO SEE MAN REFLECTING THIS EVERYWHERE.

“Now if a student of mathematics does not see the perfection of two times two, has he cast out his ignorance of mathematics? No. Ignorance is still with him. It is the same in Science. So, if you see or resent others’ faults you are dwelling in ignorance. If you hold evil or imperfection in your consciousness about anyone you are still believing in evil.

“Jesus said, ‘For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.’ (Matt. 6:14, 15) The evil you see in your neighbor is held against you. Why? Because you are entertaining error in your subjective thought as a reality, and thus are believing in man as a personality.

“As we gain more of love we see God as the only Ego, and man as an individual idea of God. We must learn what true love is, and put it into daily and hourly practice through earnest devotion of thought and energy. As we do this our concept of God as divine Love grows clearer, and this love gradually permeates our consciousness and transforms our whole outlook on life.

“In Matthew we read, ‘Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.’ (Matt. 18:21, 22)

“DISEASE DOES NOT ORIGINATE IN, OR COME THROUGH, THE BODY

“The practitioner has to realize fully that all disease and discord are entirely mental. Mankind seems convinced that the body controls the mind both in sickness and in health. When they think this, then they also think that disease originates in the body and controls men and women.

“Oftentimes Christian Scientists are liable to be caught up in this argument if they are not keeping very alert. The fact is that the very reverse is true. All of the voluntary movements of the body are the result of thought. We do not move the hand or the foot except we first think to do it.

“No disease ever finds entrance to the body but must first receive the consent of this same mortal thought, even if a person is entirely ignorant of a disease or its entrance. It is the result of a consent due to an acceptance of a belief from a false premise or basis.

“Men and women outside of Science believe that they are defenseless against all attacks of disease, but of course this is not true. The reason they think this is that they think that disease comes to them through matter instead of their mind. And because they think it comes through matter they leave the door of their thought unguarded.

“We must be alert to the fact that all discord and disease come to mortals through their mind, and not through the body or by any material means, or hereditary means.

“Because mortal mind and body are correlated, the mind controls the body with its beliefs and fears until Christ, Truth, destroys the false beliefs of this mind by the government of the divine Mind. All sin and sickness are ruled out and disappear when Truth is brought to bear through divine law.

“There is no such thing as an incurable disease. This term incurable disease is the product of the belief that disease has come to the body through material means, and that the doctors have not found a drug that they believe can cure it. But the Bible tells us that ‘with God all things are possible.’ (Matt. 19:26) And, ‘Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.’ (Mark 9:23)

“IMPORTANT: When you grasp the fact that every disease and discord comes to you through your mind — not through your body, or by any material means — you cannot help but see that there is no incurable disease.

“There was no such thing as an incurable disease to Jesus. Why? Because he worked with the power of divine Mind to cure every disease and cast out all sin. There is but one Mind that rules over all and is All. It was on this basis that Jesus healed every situation.

“Would God be omnipotent if any disease could successfully resist His power and government? God is one God and His power is supreme over all. We must understand this power of the divine Mind and prove our mastery over every sickness and every sin and prove that they have no power and no reality.”

“MRS. EDDY’S NOVEMBER 1888 PRIMARY CLASS

“In her November 1888 Primary class, on the second day, Mrs. Eddy said that because God is All, All-in-all, there is nothing beside Him. Because God is Life, the only Life, there can be but one. There is no organic animal life, or intellectual life. The supposition of more than one life comes from going outside the focal range of Spirit. As in optics, everything outside the focal radius seems inverted, so if we look outside the focal radius of Science we seem to see the claim of a separate life from God.”