Books by Mary Baker Eddy

CHAPTER VII - Pond and Purpose
page 123

CHAPTER VII - Pond and Purpose

   Beloved Students: - In thanking you for your
gift of the pretty pond contributed to Pleasant View,
in Concord, New Hampshire, I make no distinction between
my students and your students; for here, thine
becomes mine through gratitude and affection.
   From my tower window, as I look on this smile of
Christian Science, this gift from my students and their
students, it will always mirror their love, loyalty, and
good works. Solomon saith, "As in water face answereth
to face, so the heart of man to man."
   The waters that run among the valleys, and that
you have coaxed in their course to call on me, have
served the imagination for centuries. Theology religiously
bathes in water, medicine applies it physically, hydrology
handles it with so-called science, and metaphysics appropriates
it topically as type and shadow. Metaphysically,
baptism serves to rebuke the senses and illustrate Christian
Science.
   First: The baptism of repentance is indeed a stricken
state of human consciousness, wherein mortals gain
severe views of themselves; a state of mind which rends
the veil that hides mental deformity. Tears flood the eyes,

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agony struggles, pride rebels, and a mortal seems a
monster, a dark, impenetrable cloud of error; and falling
on the bended knee of prayer, humble before God, he
cries, "Save, or I perish." Thus Truth, searching the
heart, neutralizes and destroys error.
   This mental period is sometimes chronic, but oftener
acute. It is attended throughout with doubt, hope, sorrow,
joy, defeat, and triumph. When the good fight is fought,
error yields up its weapons and kisses the feet of Love,
while white-winged peace sings to the heart a song of
angels.
   Second: The baptism of the Holy Ghost is the spirit
of Truth cleansing from all sin; giving mortals new
motives, new purposes, new affections, all pointing
upward. This mental condition settles into strength, freedom,
deep-toned faith in God; and a marked loss of faith
in evil, in human wisdom, human policy, ways, and means.
It develops individual capacity, increases the intellectual
activities, and so quickens moral sensibility that the
great demands of spiritual sense are recognized, and they
rebuke the material senses, holding sway over human
consciousness.
   By purifying human thought, this state of mind permeates
with increased harmony all the minutiae of human
affairs. It brings with it wonderful foresight, wisdom,
and power; it unselfs the mortal purpose, gives steadiness
to resolve, and success to endeavor. Through the
accession of spirituality, God, the divine Principle of
Christian Science, literally governs the aims, ambition,
and acts of the Scientist. The divine ruling gives prudence
and energy; it banishes forever all envy, rivalry,
evil thinking, evil speaking and acting; and mortal

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mind, thus purged, obtains peace and power outside of
itself.
   This practical Christian Science is the divine Mind,
the incorporeal Truth and Love, shining through the mists
of materiality and melting away the shadows called sin,
disease, and death.
   In mortal experience, the fire of repentance first separates
the dross from the gold, and reformation brings
the light which dispels darkness. Thus the operation
of the spirit of Truth and Love on the human thought,
in the words of St. John, "shall take of mine and show it
unto you."
   Third: The baptism of Spirit, or final immersion of

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