About Mary
Baker Eddy 's healing
and the discovery of the science of it.
A long time ago, in 1866, after having fallen on an icy street
in Lynn Mass., that resulted in
injuries that were deemed to be fatal, Mary Baker Eddy, reached out to
the Christ through her Bible and found herself suddenly well. The newspapers
report:
In 1866, while living in Lynn, Mass., Mrs. Eddy met with a severe accident, and her case was pronounced hopeless by the physicians. There came a Sunday morning when her pastor came to bid her
good bye before proceeding to his morning service, as there was no probability that she would be alive at its close. During this time she suddenly became aware of a divine illumination and ministration. She requested those with her to withdraw, and reluctantly they did so, believing her delirious. Soon, to their bewilderment and fright, she walked into the adjoining room, "and they thought I had died, and that it was my apparition," she said. *1
She wrote about this incidence:
(Light shining in darkness)
When apparently near the confines of mortal existence, standing already
within the shadow of the death-valley, I learned these truths in divine
Science: that all real being is in God, the divine Mind, and that Life,
Truth, and Love are all-powerful and ever-present; that the opposite of
Truth, - called error, sin, sickness, disease, death, - is the false
testimony of false material sense, of mind in matter; that this false
sense evolves, in belief, a subjective state of mortal mind which this
same so-called mind names matter, thereby shutting out
the true sense of Spirit.*2
She also wrote the
following about her discovery:
(Christian Science discovered)
In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ
Science or divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and named my
discovery Christian Science. God had
been graciously preparing me during many years for the reception of this
final revelation of the absolute divine Principle of scientific mental
healing.*3
She was also dealing with another concept, which she named
Divine
Science, and linked to the promise that Christ Jesus made for a new comforter. She wrote about this:
In the words of St. John: "He shall give you another Comforter,
that he may abide with you forever." This
Comforter I understand to be Divine Science.*4
It is self-evident that Mary Baker
Eddy is dealing with two different types if science, and indeed two
different types are needed. If Christian
Science is the final revelation of the absolute divine Principle of scientific mental
healing, or in other words, is an abstract statement of a boundless
concept, a structural scientific approach is needed to enable the kind
of scientific and spiritual development in human consciousness is needed
in order to make the abstract "absolute divine Principle of scientific mental
healing," accessible and applicable, and develop human thought
towards this infinite. This evidently becomes the function of Divine
Science.
Mary Baker Eddy used the term Divine Science in its fully capitalized version
rarely. One of these rare occasions is the following:
The leaven which a woman took and hid in three measures of meal, is Divine
Science; the Comforter; the Holy Ghost that leadeth into all Truth; the "still, small voice" that breathes His presence and power, casting out error and healing the sick. *5
Mary Baker Eddy's ability in
healing renders more than sufficient proof of the truth that she conveyed to
humanity with her discovery of Christian Science. Here is what she writes
about this aspect of her work.
After my discovery of Christian Science, I healed consumption in its last stages, a case which the M.D.'s, by verdict of the stethoscope and the schools, declared incurable because the lungs were mostly consumed. I healed malignant diphtheria and carious bones that could be dented by the finger, saving the limbs when the surgeon's instruments were lying on the table ready for their amputation. I have healed at one visit a cancer that had eaten the flesh of the neck and exposed the jugular vein so that it stood out like a cord. I have physically restored sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, and have made the lame walk.
About the year 1869, I was wired to attend the patient of a distinguished M.D., the late Dr. Davis of Manchester, N. H. The patient was pronounced dying of pneumonia, and was breathing at intervals in agony. Her physician, who stood by her bedside, declared that she could not live. On seeing her immediately restored by me without material aid, he asked earnestly if I had a work describing my system of healing. When answered in the negative, he urged me immediately to write a book which should explain to the world my curative system of metaphysics. In the ranks of the M.D.'s are noble men and women, and I love them; but they must refrain from persecuting and misrepresenting a system of medicine which from personal experience I have proved to be more certain and curative in functional and organic diseases than any material method.
*6
But more remarkable than
her healing ability is her dimension in human history, or should I say
future history? It has been recently discovered that Mary Baker Eddy has
created all of her major works to be structurally coincident with the
Apostle John's metaphor of a city foursquare descending from God out of
heaven as the end phase of his prophesy of the end of all evil unfolding
from Scientific and spiritual development. As John points out, in this
city there shall be no night there.
In defining that foursquare
city, Mary Baker Eddy described for levels of development: first,
the Word of Life, Truth, and Love; second,
the Christ, the spiritual idea of God; third,
Christianity, which is the outcome of the divine Principle of the
Christ-idea in Christian history; fourth, Christian
Science, which to-day and forever interprets this great example
and the great Exemplar.*7 She also defined in the Glossary four matching hierarchical
terms: Haven, Kingdom of Heaven, Earth, and Hell. But here a paradox
unfolds, because there shall be no night there.
Actually, there is no
paradox. She fully expects Christian Science to be humanity's resource to eradicate
'hell' in human experience, and the only promising resource that humanity
has towards this end. For this purpose she created eleven major scientific
structures designed for individual scientific and spiritual development,
all with various levels of complexities and rigorous demands, ranging with
from 'baby shoes' to levels beyond that required for academic degrees.
To date, virtually nothing
is known about these in public. Nor can the present of the Christian
Science church organization be used as a yard stick for what the real
potentials of her achievements are, since the organization has been
literally operating blindfolded for the last hundred years, and with its
engines not turned on. There is a high probability that this will change
in the current century, by which Mary Baker Eddy will become The Woman of
the century. She may even prove to be mankind's only hope.
Rolf Witzsche
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