Books by Mary Baker Eddy

ADDRESS BEFORE THE ALUMNI OF THE MASSACHUSETTS METAPHYSICAL COLLEGE, 1895
page 60

ADDRESS BEFORE THE ALUMNI OF THE MASSACHUSETTS METAPHYSICAL COLLEGE, 1895

   My Beloved Students: - Weeks have passed into
months, and months into years, since last we met; but
time and space, when encompassed by divine presence,
do not separate us. Our hearts have kept time together,
and our hands have wrought steadfastly at the same
object-lesson, while leagues have lain between us.
   We may well unite in thanksgiving for the continued
progress and unprecedented prosperity of our Cause. It
is already obvious that the world's acceptance and the
momentum of Christian Science, increase rapidly as
years glide on.
   As Christian Scientists, you have dared the perilous defense
of Truth, and have succeeded. You have learned
how fleeting is that which men call great; and how permanent
that which God calls good.

MISC 111

   You have proven that the greatest piety is scarcely
sufficient to demonstrate what you have adopted and
taught; that your work, well done, would dignify angels.
   Faithfully, as meekly, you have toiled all night; and
at break of day caught much. At times, your net has
been so full that it broke: human pride, creeping into
its meshes, extended it beyond safe expansion; then,
losing hold of divine Love, you lost your fishes, and possibly
blamed others more than yourself. But those whom
God makes "fishers of men" will not pull for the shore;
like Peter, they launch into the depths, cast their nets
on the right side, compensate loss, and gain a higher sense
of the true idea. Nothing is lost that God gives: had He
filled the net, it would not have broken.
   Leaving the seed of Truth to its own vitality, it
propagates: the tares cannot hinder it. Our Master said,
"Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall
not pass away;" and Jesus' faith in Truth must not exceed
that of Christian Scientists who prove its power to
be immortal.
   The Christianity that is merely of sects, the pulpit, and
fashionable society, is brief; but the Word of God abideth.
Plato was a pagan; but no greater difference existed between
his doctrines and those of Jesus, than to-day exists
between the Catholic and Protestant sects. I love the
orthodox church; and, in time, that church will love
Christian Science. Let me specially call the attention of
this Association to the following false beliefs inclining
mortal mind more deviously: -
   The belief in anti-Christ: that somebody in the flesh
is the son of God, or is another Christ, or is a spiritually
adopted child, or is an incarnated babe, is the evil one -

MISC 112

in other words, the one evil - disporting itself with the
subtleties of sin!
Even honest thinkers, not knowing whence they come,
may deem these delusions verities, before they know it,
or really look the illusions in the face. The ages are burdened
with material modes. Hypnotism, microbes, X-rays,
and ex-common sense, occupy time and thought; and
error, given new opportunities, will improve them. The
most just man can neither defend the innocent nor detect
the guilty, unless he knows how to be just; and this knowledge
demands our time and attention.
The mental stages of crime, which seem to belong to
the latter days, are strictly classified in metaphysics as
some of the many features and forms of what is properly
denominated, in extreme cases, moral idiocy. I visited
in his cell the assassin of President Garfield, and found
him in the mental state called moral idiocy. He had no

Next Page

|| - page index - || - chapter index - || - download - || - Exit - ||