Books by Mary Baker Eddy

EXTRACT FROM A SERMON DELIVERED IN BOSTON, JANUARY 18, 1885
page 106

EXTRACT FROM A SERMON DELIVERED IN BOSTON, JANUARY 18, 1885

Text: The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman
took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. -
Matt. xiii. 33.

Few people at present know aught of the Science of
mental healing; and so many are obtruding upon the
public attention their ignorance or false knowledge in
the name of Science, that it behooves all clad in the shining
mail to keep bright their invincible armor; to keep

MISC 172

their demonstrations modest, and their claims and lives
steadfast in Truth.
   Dispensing the Word charitably, but separating the
tares from the wheat, let us declare the positive and
the negative of metaphysical Science; what it is, and
what it is not. Intrepid, self-oblivious Protestants in
a higher sense than ever before, let us meet and defeat
the claims of sense and sin, regardless of the bans or
clans pouring in their fire upon us; and white-winged
charity, brooding over all, shall cover with her feathers
the veriest sinner.
   Divine and unerring Mind measures man, until the
three measures be accomplished, and he arrives at
fulness of stature; for "the Lord God omnipotent
reigneth."
   Science is divine: it is neither of human origin nor of
human direction. That which is termed "natural science,"
the evidences whereof are taken in by the five personal
senses, presents but a finite, feeble sense of the infinite
law of God; which law is written on the heart, received
through the affections, spiritually understood, and demonstrated
in our lives.
   This law of God is the Science of mental healing,
spiritually discerned, understood, and obeyed.
   Mental Science, and the five personal senses, are at
war; and peace can only be declared on the side of immutable
right, - the health, holiness, and immortality
of man. To gain this scientific result, the first and fundamental
rule of Science must be understood and adhered
to; namely, the oft-repeated declaration in Scripture
that God is good; hence, good is omnipotent and
omnipresent.

MISC 173

   Ancient and modern philosophy, human reason, or
man's theorems, misstate mental Science, its Principle
and practice. The most enlightened sense herein sees
nothing but a law of matter.
   Who has ever learned of the schools that there is but
one Mind, and that this is God, who healeth all our sickness
and sins?
   Who has ever learned from the schools, pagan philosophy,
or scholastic theology, that Science is the law of
Mind and not of matter, and that this law has no relation
to, or recognition of, matter?
   Mind is its own great cause and effect. Mind is God,
omnipotent and omnipresent. What, then, of an opposite
so-called science, which says that man is both matter
and mind, that Mind is in matter? Can the infinite
be within the finite? And must not man have preexisted
in the All and Only? Does an evil mind exist without
space to occupy, power to act, or vanity to pretend that
it is man?
   If God is Mind and fills all space, is everywhere, matter
is nowhere and sin is obsolete. If Mind, God, is all-power
and all-presence, man is not met by another power
and presence, that - obstructing his intelligence -
pains, fetters, and befools him. The perfection of man
is intact; whence, then, is something besides Him that
is not the counterpart but the counterfeit of man's creator?
Surely not from God, for He made man in His own
likeness. Whence, then, is the atom or molecule called

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