A note about the cover sketch by Luanne:

Boston Light — little Brewster Island (outer Boston Harbor), Massachusetts

Boston Light was the first light station in North America and is the country’s oldest continuously used lighthouse site. The original structure, built in 1716, was destroyed during the Revolutionary War. Rebuilt in 1783, it has been called “the ideal American lighthouse.” Designated as a National Historic Landmark in 1964, it is the only manned lighthouse in the United States.

“Raise the Dead”

The Destiny of The Mother Church, pages 118-119

Healing is the purpose of our Church Manual, as well as of Science and Health. Sickness and discords of every kind are lawless. The Apostle Paul has said, “the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ” (Gal. 3:24). In like manner, the healing Christ is in our Church By-laws because they correct lawless conditions; and when we place the same radical reliance upon them as we do upon the requirements of “the scientific statement of being,” the Christ healing will result.

We can learn more of Mrs. Eddy’s technique by studying her methods in healing a case of the last enemy. It was the case of her secretary, Mr. Calvin A. Frye, as told by an eyewitness, Miss Clara M. S. Shannon. Mrs. Eddy sent Miss Shannon to Mr. Frye’s room with a message for him. She found him lying on his back on the floor, apparently lifeless. When his condition was reported to Mrs. Eddy, she went to his side, and talked aloud to him the truths of Christian Science. Her attitude at first was gentle and persuasive; she appealed to Mr. Frye by name in the most tender and loving manner; she declared he had work to do right here, and it was his duty to do it.

When Mr. Frye began to show signs of responding to her persuasion, Mrs. Eddy changed her mode of treatment quite abruptly. She was more masterful, and she made demands upon him to defeat his enemies, because the Bible teaches that death is indeed an enemy. This treatment was given aloud, just as though he were in the full possession of his faculties and could understand what she was saying.

Mrs. Eddy told Mr. Frye to rise to his feet, and she gave him her hand to help him get up. Then she went out of the room, and down a passage where she had been sitting. She called to him, “Calvin, come here!” When he obeyed, she spoke several minutes to him, striving to wake him up, at times thundering against the error.

Then she said, “Now, you can go back to your room.” When he had gone a little way, she called him back, and talked the truth to him again. This was repeated several times, until Miss Shannon pleaded with her to let him sit down and rest. Mrs. Eddy promptly denied the request. Then she told him a story which made him laugh. When he laughed, she said, “Thank God!” and then she let him go back to his work.

Mrs. Eddy then explained some of her technique to quiet Miss Shannon’s troubled thought. When one is being brought back from the symptoms of death, he may appear to be dazed like one who is frozen, and it is not safe to leave him in such a condition until an emotional experience can break the tension. Some simple expedient should be attempted to make him laugh, cry, or get angry.

A healing in Christian Science, whatever may be the nature of the case, is a divine event and resounds through the ages.

Excerpt from Collected Writings

An experience with death, that is known absolutely to have taken place in the human experience of a well-known person. There is no doubt as to the veracity of this.

This experience of being drowned in Lake Chautauqua, my so-called body remaining in the bottom of the lake for half to three-quarters of an hour, and being able to prevent myself from being “put to sleep” at all, certainly proved many things of great value to me. I am sure that if I had not been a Christian Scientist at the time, I would have been “put to sleep,” and probably would be still sleeping

In my experience I was saved, only because I was a Christian Scientist, with a workable understanding of Christian Science, and realized my at-onement with God, and used my God-given dominion and control in my own behalf. Leading the right kind of a life is helpful, but it will not save you. The ability to think along Christianly scientific lines at all times, and under all conditions, is necessary to be saved from what is called “death,” or being “put to sleep.”

In the first place, as the result of a culmination of certain violent and malicious elements, I was involved in a storm and drowned. After a struggle in the water, I became resigned, and “gave up the ghost,” so to speak. It was then I heard a sinister, diabolical, insidious “voice,” which began to talk to me in a more or less bored, yet masterful way. At once I sensed that the speaker was evil.

The speaker, or rather voice, presented pictures of my past life, in which certain things happened as a result of premeditated evil thinking on my part. Nothing good was shown me. It seems that the voice had an ulterior motive, in only presenting evil happenings, as the result of my evil thinking. As I saw, or lived through, each past evil experience, I suffered great pain and anguish. Note: While I had been a pretty decent fellow, and had done a lot of good, it seemed to be of no use to me at this time. Only the fact that I was developed mentally, spiritually, and could “argue” with the “voice,” is what saved me from being forced into oblivion, unconsciousness, and put to sleep.

In the condition I was in, I could think about being any place, but the moment I wanted to be there, it was so. I was in the air, in the room of a house, in the water, any place I wanted to be. I was many miles away when I decided that I ought to come back, although I did not want to do so at all. I then moved into my body, and the “voice” started again. Now the voice was no longer bored, it seemed to be very much concerned and insistent. The battle was on in earnest. “Hell broke loose.” The voice stopped arguing, and began to make direct suggestions, which became more and more aggressive, until they came with the rapidity of machine gun bullets. When I say that the voice stopped arguing, I mean that it no longer waited for me to reply, or come back at what it said. I was face to face with aggressive mental suggestion, which seemed to be coming from somewhere, so I got busy too. I became more and more aggressive myself at stating truth, and was finally able to silence the aggressive mental suggestion. As soon as I was able to do so, then I had control of my body, and made it do what I wanted it to do at that moment: jump up from the bottom of the lake and shoot out, which it did. People took me ashore, and worked me over a barrel, and used the regular methods to revive me. They worked for a long time and gave up. Then the “voice” started again, as it did at the very first. I got busy again, silenced the voice, and the men then went to work on me with renewed energy over again. After a short time, I gave a cough and started breathing again.

At that time, being of a scientific turn of mind, I checked up on my experience with a doctor, proving beyond any doubt that there is no such thing as death. This doctor was deeply impressed, and helped me to check up on places I visited, etc., and so proved to his satisfaction, as well as my own, that I actually did what I said I did, while my physique was on the bottom of the lake, and that I was not suffering from any hallucination.

How did I get the best of this error? By being bigger, better, stronger than it was. It was just another question of dominion and control. It talked; I talked. It claimed dominion; I claimed dominion in His name. It presented an argument based on false belief; I presented an argument based on Truth. It got aggressive; I got aggressive. I knew when the argument first started, that I had to get “hooked up” with something bigger than it was, so that I could be bigger, too, than it was, and get the best of it. I remembered what Jesus said about his power, where he got it, and that he was always master. That was my cue, so to speak, and from then on I made real progress.

Mrs. Eddy says (S&H 471:17), “Man is, and forever has been, God’s reflection.” And she also says (S&H 525:4), “Man reflects God.” In many other places she brings out the above two very important points about man. Man is the reflection of God, and man reflects God. The idea is an expression of Mind, and the idea expresses Mind. Man must remember who he is and what he does.

As God is the great I AM, man has nothing to worry about, and nothing to be afraid of. “Fear not.” God has given you “dominion and control,” so use it. In fact, it is God’s dominion and control you actually use, and for this reason you always have more than enough power “from on high,” which always makes you master of every circumstance and situation. You will continue to work for the “glory of God,” speaking with authority in His name, and you will be obeyed, because He must be obeyed. You will see the Christ idea gain an ascendancy, until the divine light glows in, around, and through all.

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from Teaching and Addresses, pages 314-322

I was visiting a lady and gentleman, and found that the man had been sick several weeks with fever. He became very much emaciated, and terribly frightened because of loss of weight. His wife told me the doctor had despaired of curing him because he was so frightened. The fear paralyzed his bodily activity, and the result was he could not break the fever. She said, “I wish you would go in and see him,” and I said, “Well, I will.” And I went in, knowing that he did not understand Christian Science and that I must speak to him on a very simple plane. I addressed him thus: “Do you know that the human body consists of about eighty-five percent of water?” “Why, no.” “Well, it does. You let a man who weighs two hundred pounds lose a hundred, and what he really loses is about ninety pounds of water. That is all. Now all you need is to get that water back and you will be all right.”

Then I said, “I will tell you how to get it back. The first thing is for you to stop thinking of all you think you have lost; then to know you do not need to be afraid simply because you think you have lost it; and lastly, that, as soon as you stop being afraid, your body will resume its normal activity and you will be well.” Now, I stayed with him until the terrified look had all gone, and, shortly after, his wife wrote me that the fever broke that day. Fear was gone and her husband was getting well, and by way of a little merriment she said “He is getting that water back, too.”

What would have killed the man if he had died? If he had died, it would have been simply because he did not know enough to live, that is all. Unless a man gets an intelligent understanding of his own Life, God, it will kill every last one. It is the carnal mind, so-called, that means fear; it is the mind that means disease; it is the mind that means hell and damnation; and that is what was killing that man. Now, that seems like an uncommon incident, but we are doing that all the time.

Christ hath abolished the law of sin and death. The whole Christian mission is the enforcement of the law of Life; and all that Christian Science practice is, is the enforcement of the law of Life and health, and the annulment of the spurious law of sickness and death, which is scaring everybody to death. Christ Jesus came to seek and save that which was lost and in doing so, reformed the sinner and healed the sick.

We declare that God is the natural and everlasting healer of all diseases. Christ Jesus invoked and showed forth the supreme power of the universe, the supreme law, when he healed the sick. He declared, “These things shall ye know.” “Go and do likewise.” “Ye shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall make you free.”

It is the very nature of Life to function incessantly and uninterruptedly.

Shortly after I began attending the Plainfield Church, during a church service, one of the members passed on. Our practitioner, Mrs. Evans, noticed immediately, and came right over to her. I remember hearing her say, “God is your life; God loves you,” over and over until, in just a few minutes, the woman opened her eyes and sat up. She stood up and sang the next hymn with us, perfectly free.

I had walked into the church that day with a very heavy cold, feeling terribly sick. That healing work was so powerful and far-reaching, that I was instantly healed of the cold.

I had heard of people being raised from the dead at Plainfield, and I felt so privileged to have witnessed such a miraculous healing. I have since witnessed several more occasions of the raising of the dead in the church, and am so very grateful to God and to Mrs. Eddy for Christian Science, and that it is for all time—it is the healing Christ that is as powerful and effective now as it was in the time of Jesus and the time of Mary Baker Eddy.

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When I was in my early twenties, I was living with a friend who was kind enough to take me in. I was working at a moccasin factory, trying desperately to move forward in life. It seemed, no matter what I did, the past continued to plague me. I was weighed down by nightmares and suffered deeply from anxiety, making it impossible to move on. I could not let go of the abuse I endured as a child and longed for death to save me. I prayed, every night, for God to take me to heaven with Him.

One day, I came home from work feeling sick, and laid on my bed. I could feel my breathing slowing down, until it stopped. In an instant, I was floating above the bed looking down at my body. It took me a moment to realize what was happening. I was alive without the encumbrance of my material body. I held my arm in front of my eyes to see what I looked like. All I could see was clear water where my arm should have been. I started to panic, thinking, I am dead, but then realized, I can’t be dead, I am still here. After that, I made my way out of the bedroom and down the hall to the top of the stairs. I looked down the stairs then back to the bedroom. Then I started going down the stairway. I could hear my friend preparing dinner in the kitchen. Everything I saw, was made up of the most amazing colors I had ever seen in my life. In my mind, I knew that they represented something. Sometimes the colors would overlap each other and make new colors. It was the most wonderful thing I have ever seen. As I reached the bottom of the stairs, I thought about my mom and how sad she would be, and how I would never be there again to protect her. I started to panic, what if I go outside and I just float away? How will I get back? I began to worry that my friend would find my body and take it away. Then I heard a loud voice say, “Go back” I said, “I want to see God!” Again, with greater command, it said, “Go back!” I immediately began moving my arms in a swimming motion, as I now assumed I was under the water, trying to get back to where my body lay on the bed. I remember, when I opened my eyes, I felt like I was trapped behind a wall, looking through two holes. After a while, I got up and walked down the stairs towards the kitchen. The colors were gone and everything was back to the way it was before.

I spent the next twenty years in confusion about the whole ordeal until God led me here to the Plainfield Christian Science Church and my practitioner, so that I can gain understanding and put an end to thinking that death was the only way to escape from my problems. I now understand that life is eternal. I didn’t escape the problems of an abusive childhood by dying. I was still dealing with a personal sense of my mother and all the fears of childhood, when I was seemingly dead. The only way to overcome them is with Truth. I am deeply grateful to my practitioner for guiding me through the process of overcoming my childhood and bringing about a wonderful healing. I had not realized it at the time, but I had seen God. In all of those amazing colors, I saw Love, hope, strength and courage, charity and prosperity, Life and Truth. I realize now, even though not as vividly, those colors are everywhere I look, even inside of me. I have a great deal of respect for Life and cherish every minute in it.

I am so grateful to God for this experience and for Christian Science and all that I am learning here. I am deeply grateful for all I have been given.

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Clothe me in Your spirit, Lord;
my own is worn and thin.
Its fabric lacks substantialness,
and I am cold within.

It glistened when I wore it first,
a gay and flashing thing.
But it has lost it showiness,
and I am shivering.

I seek a better garment now
of more enduring stuff.
Clothe me in Your spirit, Lord;
It will be warm enough.

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From Mrs. Eddy

Mary Baker Eddy’s Lessons of the Seventh Day, page 348

Man was made to have dominion. How can you have dominion over what you do not (believe you) possess? It will be wonderful to you if you awake. You will find yourself forging ahead in every line. If you see that you possess all things, you feel much better physically, mentally, in every way.

Taking possession does not mean contending outwardly with the rights of others, but a settled consciousness of possession of your own things (which are concepts or thoughts) — your own privacy, your time, your work, etc. Call it injustice, robbery, what you will, that has pursued you, but the lack of a sense of possession in you (the lack of denial of the opposite) has made all these limitations possible.

Take possession of your life. Don’t let it stop because of disappointment. Take it right out of depression and darkness and put it in the light, and go on with Paul saying “None of these things move me.” Take possession of results; the sense of loss is a lie. It is for you to take possession before the promise can be fulfilled. No one else can do it for us. We must feel it. How can we have dominion over the whole earth unless we feel that the whole earth is ours?

We hear a lot about surrender and sacrifice and loss, but a sense of possession is the truth of being that refuses to be surrendered. As the idea of God is reflection, there is a sense of achievement, capacity, efficiency, ability, all accomplishment. The sense of these qualities is man — I am that man.

We have things to the extent we understand their true character. Anything which is true in heaven can be proved true on earth.

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Oh, my God, I offer as a consecrated gift upon Thine altar, a heart dedicated to Thy service, lips speaking only words of charity, love, and truth, thoughts striving to be only the true thoughts of the Mind of God. Help me to endure unto the end, strong in the faith, powerful in the truth, all the influence that I can bring to bear, all the force of tongue or pen that is mine, I offer in Thy service. May heaven help, consecrate, and accept.

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The only trouble is we limit God’s power. We could even raise the dead from the grave if we did not limit Him.

“My angels are exalted thoughts, appearing at the door of some sepulchre, in which human belief has buried its fondest earthly hopes.” (Science and Health, 299). Mrs. Eddy told Miss Robertson that this passage in the textbook, understood, would raise the dead.

The most scientific man of whom we have any record, Jesus of Nazareth, called the mortal body that we suppose substance, ‘ghost’; and his body that others called spirit, ‘flesh and bones’; showing that substance to his understanding was the deathless Principle that embraces man and is forever inseparable from Soul.

“God grant that the trembling chords of human hope shall again be swept by the divine Talitha cumi, ‘Damsel, I say unto thee arise,’ — then shall Christian Science again appear to light our sepulchres with immortality.” (The People’s Idea of God). This prayer works as an important watch, especially when combined with Mrs. Eddy’s affirmations found in her book, Unity of Good, chapters entitled, “Is There No Matter?” and “Is There No Death?”

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May you have on “a wedding garment new and old, and the touch of the hem of this garment heal sick and sinner!”

Unity of Principle and idea is the only marriage.

Your inquiry — what is the wedding garment? — embraces a long answer, but I can name its hem for you to touch.

It is first, the desire above all to be Christ-like, to be tender, merciful, forgetting self, and caring for others’ salvation; to be temperate, humble, pure, whereby appetite and passion cease to claim your attention and you are not discouraged to wait on God — to wait for the tests of your sincerity, longing to be good, and seeking through daily prayer, for divine teaching. If you continue to ask, you will receive, providing you comply with what you must do for yourself, in order to be thus blessed.

Reading or listening to my teaching the truths of Christian Science will not do for you what the constant seeking and knowing and following will do for you.

I had spent one year of incessant toil upon the [manuscripts] of my book, “Science and Health,” and put it into the hands of a printer for publication, who, I found, had allowed it to be taken from his possession, and I was thus obliged to return, in the sackcloth of disappointment, without it. A student soon called desiring me to assist in a case that was dying. I put on the wedding garments at once and healed the case in twenty minutes.

In this eternal harmony of Science, man is not fallen: he is governed in the same rhythm that the Scripture describes, when “the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy.”

I see myself as God’s own child,

As perfect In His sight;

I see my brother-man, as well

A perfect child of light.

Then to complete my prayer

I see him seeing me aright;

I see him seeing me seeing him

As perfect in Love’s sight.

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Gems

Wickedness seeks to escape God’s sight; righteousness and truth seek their hiding-place not away from God, but in God.

We hear with our thought; and whether we are listening to the songs of angels, or the discords of materiality, depends upon that to which we direct our attention.

The Word of God is quite sufficient to interest and bless the souls of men throughout all time; but novelties soon fail.

No form of error can long remain in the experience of one whose heart is filled with gratitude.

Striving not for ease, but for holiness, we find health; surrendering greed, we find prosperity; as we strip every self-seeking motive, justice and right will prevail for us.

Strange, how prayer and singing open prison doors, but they do. Do you need the foundations to be shaken? Try prayer and singing. Do you need doors to be opened? Try prayer and singing. They go together. They work wonders.

The future, as well as the present, is in the hands of God.

Because Mind is ever imparting wisdom, intelligence, power, and ability, man is ever at the threshold of opportunity.

In Truth, there is nothing to change, but only unlimited good to know and claim in the name of Almighty God.

To know that Life is God, and is spiritual and limitless, and so is in no way affected or modified by the body, this heals all manner of disease.

We must realize that our treatment is the truth of divine Principle, it will be efficacious; no evil mentality exists to render it otherwise.

If one would only remind himself that problems are not to be feared, but that they may be approached calmly and with assurance, one would avoid much needless anxiety; and the solution or demonstration would be both gladdened and hastened.

Life, the Life that animates you, is a peaceful permanency, neither coming nor going. It experiences neither age nor disease, and it is charged with the glories and energies of the Eternal.

To know the nothingness of error is not to ignore it, but to heal it.

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Christian Science Journal, 1887

Hear our prayer, oh gracious Father,

Author of celestial good,

That Thy laws, so pure and holy,

May be better understood.

As the dew, before the sunlight,

Melts, and fadeth from our sight,

So may every doubt and error

Fade before Eternal Light.

Armed with faith may we press onward,

Knowing nothing but Thy will,

Conquering every storm of error,

With the sweet words, “Peace, be still.”

As the starry hosts of heaven

Speak the wonders of our God,

So to us shall strength be given,

To proclaim His Truth abroad.

Like the Star of Bethlehem shining,

Love will guide us all the way,

From the depths of error’s darkness

Into Truth’s eternal day.

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From the Early Workers

A letter sent to Herbert Eustace from one of his students

Shortly before the passing of my husband, I had a strange but precious experience I would like to relate. I had gone out and was driving my car, when without any apparent reason, I made a complete U-turn in the middle of a block, and returned home. I rushed in the door and there I found my husband sitting in his chair, lifeless. I mentally uttered the statement, “Dear God, what should I do now?!”

I looked through the doorway out into the garden, and as I did so, I was reminded of the statement, “There is no death.” I noticed then my husband’s eyelashes began to move! He sat up, and I helped him into the kitchen. I prepared him some lunch, and when we sat down, he put his hand on mine and said, “Dear, do you know what happened?” Of course, I was speechless because I knew something tremendous was going on! Then he said, “There is no death, and I have proven it by coming back and telling you so!” He told me when he realized he had made the change, his one thought was, “I must go back and tell you what has happened.” Then he said, “When you came in and found me on the chair you said ‘God what shall I do now?’ I tried to tell you — here I am! — but you looked right through me and then I knew the only way I could prove this to you was by sitting back in my chair.”

He continued by saying, “This I cannot do again because I must go and not come again.” I asked him, “Will you see our friend D?” He said, “She never left you.” And I asked again, “Will you see your mother?” and he replied, “I have already talked with her.”

Then he tried to tell me how wonderful it was, but I could not understand. He asked me to promise him two things; one was — do not grieve, because there is no separation — and the other — do not be offended by anyone, for they do not know you as you really are; if they did they would love you.

He ate the lunch I had prepared for him, and shortly after that quietly finished his course. I found his body in the bathroom, but knew even before I found him that he was gone.

I have never doubted his ascension. I have never been to the grave or even sent a flower there.

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Christian Science Journal, September 1907

Under God, I owe all I have and am to the teachings of Christian Science. In 1887, in Denver, Colorado, my sisters, my wife, and I accepted Christian Science as the truth after the miraculous healing of a sister. From the first, the teaching of “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” was so clear and logical that I had to accept it. I did so, however, only in a sort of intellectual way. My home was so happy: I enjoyed my books, my cigar, my Sunday outings so much, that I was not willing to take the time to study. The home demonstrations were left to my wife.

In 1900, trusting in my own strength and intelligence, I turned our savings of fifteen years into cash and removed my family to a Gulf State, where we were even cut off from telegraphic communication. Within nine weeks, a dearly loved sister, after a few days’ sickness, passed on. As quickly as I could make arrangements, I put my family on the train, my wife having also sickened. After two days’ traveling, she passed on as well. Next day I reached Denver, where a sister’s home was opened to me, and I lapsed into unconsciousness. A Christian Science practitioner was hurriedly sent for, and through her understanding of God’s law and the mission of Christ Jesus as revealed to and through Mrs. Eddy, I was snatched from the grave. I therefore feel that I owe my life since November, 1900, to Mrs. Eddy.

Thus, at forty-one, I found myself recovering from a severe illness, without home, without position, nearly at the end of the money left after investing part in distant real estate, and seemingly handicapped with five children from four to thirteen years old. I then turned to Mrs. Eddy’s teachings with all my heart. With the clear understanding I had already, I saw and acknowledged the justice of God’s law. Our Leader says, “The Passover, spiritually discerned, is a wonderful passage over a tear-filled sea of repentance — which of all human experience is the most divine; and after this Passover cometh victory, faith, and good works” (Message of 1900, p. 15).

As difficult as my situation seemed to be, I knew that it was now my time to drink “the cup of sorrowful effort” (Science and Health, p. 26). Each morning and night I endeavored to realize the truth that as God’s child, I had all things necessary to our well-being, specifically including security of position, children, home, etc. In other words, I prayed as Jesus taught when he said, “Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.” I never had so clear a business perception, and a sense of security was gained. After three months’ separation, my children were with me, and within twelve months my employer told me to go and buy a house, “For,” he said, “you have served me as no other man ever has.” I therefore owe to Mrs. Eddy a harmonious, peaceful home; that peace that passeth understanding.

There have been struggles and the victories since — I only know that it is a perpetual warfare, and that when in darkness and doubt, if we cling close to the one God — the one power and presence — we come out of the darkness and doubt with the assurance that we have advanced a step. We have had proof upon proof of Truth’s healing power, and none of my children, now past eleven to nineteen, know the taste of medicine.

I have written the above as an act of justice to Mrs. Eddy. May I add, as one who has come out “of great tribulation,” a word of help to others — very humbly, and only because of a desire to help. I did not know then, but I can see now that the essentials which worked my deliverance were:

First, an understanding of God’s law as set forth by Christ Jesus; this understanding being gained by the study of Science and Health in connection with the Bible.

Second, I asked nothing for my own sake — my sole desire was that the children should not suffer for my mistake.

Third, I freely acknowledged God’s justice and that I alone was to blame; nothing keeps one longer in bondage than casting around for someone on whom to lay the blame for the consequences of one’s own mistakes or sins.

Fourth, the surrender of faith in my human sense of intelligence, coupled with a cessation of planning for the future, — being content to do today’s work the best I knew how.

Fifth, honest, hard work, strict attention to my own business, looking for and expecting no other reward than that which God, good, should send me, He being the literal owner of the universe.

These, coupled, controlled, and directed by the clear understanding of how to pray to God, brought me out of darkness into light and set my feet upon a rock; for I know my future is safe, whatever position I may occupy, so long as I continue to follow in the way so clearly pointed out by our Leader, Mrs. Eddy. The Bible says, “The Lord is with you, while ye be with him; and if ye seek him, he will be found of you; but if ye forsake him, he will forsake you.”

In conclusion, it is quite impossible to express my gratitude towards Mrs. Eddy. This I know, that if she had kept silence, she would not have been persecuted; but I should have died, and my children would have been homeless — who knows how treated — during the last seven years. Words are impotent! I stand and call her “blessed” and humbly thank God I have lived in the age of this revelation of Truth. To my loving Father I say, “I know that thou canst do every thing. ... I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now mine eye seeth thee.”

Love for God and man is the one indispensable element of all true and lasting success.

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High above the mist

there is a place I know,

where peace is pure and harmony sings,

where gentle breezes flow.

Sweet and green, the newborn grass,

tender are its roots,

nurtured by the morning dew,

that strengthens every shoot.

Above it all, there stands a tree,

not willow, birch or pine,

but standing strong, a mighty oak,

clad in a flowering vine.

With arms stretched wide in loving care,

it cradles the fragrant blooms,

reminds me of the promises

God keeps for me and you.

Their purple tones, our inheritance,

children of God are we.

Co-heirs with Christ, we abide in Him,

adorned in royalty.

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Current Articles

“The Christ, or divine idea of God and man as one inseparable Being, could come only through woman, could come only through woman’s receptive recognition of the Fatherhood of God and the scriptural sonship of man. The term ‘woman,’ as used in the Scriptures, refers to modes of spiritual discernment, or to a purity of consciousness.” (Martha Wilcox, Addresses, p. 284)

The purity of consciousness that woman represents exists to uphold the highest standard available to mankind — the Christ! Any objectification, over-sexualization, or misogynistic tendency toward women is mortal mind’s masked attempts to make the Christ submit to human will — to claim ownership and dominion over the divine. It is impersonal hatred of Love and the desire to degrade the beauty of Soul. Mrs. Eddy once said some of her best and most reliable workers were the simple housewives who had no other aim or ambition than to humbly serve their Father-Mother God.

Herbert Eustace writes (p. 1009) “It is always the feminine quality of being, regardless of its form of expression that is always operating as the highest or spiritual sense.” That “highest or spiritual sense” is the God-given standard for womanhood, which God upholds and protects. Embodying this spiritual sense, woman can only be seen — by herself and by others — as the perfect child of God’s creating, with unlimited potential, and worthy of great respect. Woman’s place in society throughout the world is to uplift and uphold the highest standard of mankind. Any abuse of woman under the guise of religion, politics, or any other name, is an offense against the Christ and goes back upon the abuser. God’s purpose and plan will be fulfilled!

“With the assurance of faith she prays, with the certainty of inspiration she works, and with the patience of genius she waits. … She brought to warring men the Prince of Peace and he, departing, left his scepter not in her hand, but in her soul.” (Pul. 83-84)

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Pulpit and Press, page 82

Her hand is tender — but steel tempered with holy resolve, and as one whom her love had glorified once said — she is soft and gentle, but you could no more turn her from her course than winter could stop the coming of spring.

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Think Positively!

Dede De Almeida

A recent quote on the Plainfield Church calendar reads, “Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.”

Negative thinking is something the human mind needs to be educated out of. It’s something I really needed to learn, and something that has been proven to me since I began my study of Christian Science, and even more so since coming to the Plainfield Church.

I used to go from problem to problem with no thought about why, and I’m sure I never paid much attention to the negative thoughts I was thinking about myself, others, or life in general; and if I did, it was only in an attempt to justify them.

Since coming to the Plainfield Church, I’ve been learning to let my expectations be from God, and that positive thinking is more than wishful thinking — it’s right thinking, based on the God-given truth.

No matter what the situation seems to be, I’m finding that when I hold to the truth about God’s perfect plan, and listen for, and follow His direction, the result is always positive, and I often learn a valuable lesson in the process, making every day more enjoyable and meaningful.

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Christian Science, as taught and practiced here in Plainfield, helps us to establish a real relationship with God, a closeness to Him.

I used to be quite hyper. I was always ready to act on every thought that popped into my head; quick to do things, but not very peaceful.

Shortly after I came to Plainfield, a practitioner told me to stop what I was doing several times a day and have a conversation with God — just talk to Him like a friend, ask Him what He has for me, ask Him if there’s someone who needs my help. Then peacefully wait for the answer to come before I go rushing into whatever it is that I was doing.

I found this to be an extremely valuable discipline, because it made me more peaceful. I stopped doing a lot of things that, in hindsight, really didn’t need to be done.

This was also the beginning of a right relationship with God. Previously I would only turn to God when I was in trouble. But I have a closer relationship with God now. I can feel His love for me much better, and that enables me to have more compassion for others. It has given me a sense of peace, and a purpose to my life that I never knew. I can’t be grateful enough for the help of that practitioner and for Mary Baker Eddy for giving us this Science of living, the Science of Christianity.

Christian Science is the only thing that can save the world, because it shows the human being it is all thought.

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How important it is to be an independent thinker! The human mind tries to influence and control others; but since coming to Plainfield Church, I’ve been learning the importance of making sure only God controls my thinking.

The message in this church is not, “come think like us,”’ but “learn to keep yourself thinking with God.” We are constantly reminded to turn to the Bible and writings of Mary Baker Eddy to arm us to meet the challenges of maintaining freedom of thought.

In Mary Baker Eddy’s article called “Contagion” she writes, “Floating with the popular current of mortal thought without questioning the reliability of its conclusions, we do what others do, believe what others believe and say what others say.” I always thought of myself as a nonconformist and free thinker; but now I’m getting a better understanding of what it really means to be an independent thinker.

The answer to every problem is already in divine Mind, and therefore we must take our problems to God in order to solve them.

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In Psalm 42 we read, “Yet the Lord will command his lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life.”

I have had many healings in Christian Science, and one was of insomnia. I remember reading this passage in Psalms and being so greatly comforted by the thought that God gives us songs in the night. Around that time I found an old Journal article called, “Songs in the Night,” by Nell Flash, which can be found in our July 2015 Love Is the Liberator magazine. She starts the article with, “Sometimes during the darkness and silence of a long night the clear, sweet song of a nightingale may be heard. If we could imitate this little bird and remember to sing songs of praise to God, this would help quiet our fears and bring us peace; for God ‘giveth songs in the night.’”

My trouble with insomnia was partly due to being such a worrywart. I began thinking about the fact that God does give us songs in the night and I would sing hymns to myself and go over all that I was grateful for. I found this such a comfort, and I would usually fall peacefully asleep. A practitioner in this church also instructed me that if I was having a restless night, to pray not just for myself but for our church, community, nation, world, and pray about whatever was coming of a troublesome nature. Once I established in my thought the Allness of God and all was in His hands, I would fall peacefully asleep again.

I am so grateful for the practical uses of Christian Science. It never fails to heal whatever problem there is. The article ends with a quote by Mary Baker Eddy from Science and Health, “A louder song, sweeter than has ever before reached high heaven, now rises clearer and nearer to the great heart of Christ; for the accuser is not there, and Love sends forth her primal and everlasting strain.”

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Fairlie from Maryland

I am very grateful to the Plainfield Church for teaching me how to practice Christian Science correctly. Their classes and help have changed my life.

I grew up as an Episcopalian, but I did not continue attending church very often once I went off to college at age 16. Many years later, after I was married and we had our son, we began to attend the Episcopal Church; but the particular church we went to, had the children playing Star Wars during Sunday School, not a suitable situation.

When I would drive our son to preschool near our home, I kept passing by a Christian Science church. I remembered, when we passed by the Christian Science church near our home in Alabama, my mother always said that, whether one ever became a Christian Scientist or not, the Christian Science Church had a wonderful Sunday School. She knew this from her grandmother, who became a Christian Scientist at the time of Mrs. Eddy. So one Sunday we went into the church and put our son in the Sunday School.

I began reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mrs. Eddy, and went on to take classes eventually. But the class instruction I received did not help me to understand and practice Christian Science, though I knew it was the truth of life. After several years in three different Christian Science churches, I fell into what was called a clinical depression, so severe that my family had to put me in the hospital. This happened for weeks every fall for five years. Of course the drugs they gave me and the treatments did not take care of the problem at all. Every day at home I woke up with dread and pretended my way through life, not letting my family know how fearful and hopeless I felt.

I was still holding on to Science and Health, and one day I began to put words about Christian Science on the internet. I came across a quote from an article by Bicknell Young, an early Christian Scientist whom I had never heard of, “Consciousness Where Are You,” which spoke to me and my problem specifically: “Do you understand that leaving a material problem will accomplish nothing? If it is in your consciousness you will reproduce it even though you go to the uttermost parts of the world, because you take it with you.” I saw a phone number and called the Plainfield Church, where my future practitioner there answered the phone and welcomed me. Needless to say, I was very soon completely healed of depression, and I am very grateful now to be a member of the Plainfield Church, which is carrying on the work in the way Mrs. Eddy intended. I am eternally grateful to God, to Jesus, to Mrs. Eddy, and to the Plainfield Church.

Our demonstrations in Christian Science, no matter how little they have been or how few, yet they prove to us that our names are written in heaven, and that we were actually created by a God who is real, and who is the one and only God there is.

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Letters of Gratitude

Some months ago I found the Plainfield Church website. I have learned more about Christian Science than I ever did from attending a Christian Science Church. Many of the articles I have never heard of before. I have not attended a Christian Science Church for many years and there are none here where I live in North Wales, U.K.

Thanks for all you are doing.

One night recently I awoke with the sense of trouble about the world situation. I went to the Plainfield Church website and listened to a testimony, read a helpful article by Martha Wilcox, and printed out the week’s Lesson Sermon. After visiting the website, I was comforted and went to sleep again in a peaceful state of mind.

Thank you for all the church is doing.

Thank you for those very important and vital readings on Oneness in the April 5, 2017, Testimony Meeting.

I’m so grateful that Christian Science is based on the allness and goodness of God, and nothing else. It’s based on the creation of only good: Genesis 1:31 says, “And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good.” From this basis of all good, error is totally debunked, and we learn in Christian Science that everyone can prove it!

I will be spending more time with these readings, acknowledging my oneness with God in word, thought, and deed, to glorify Him, to see His power and presence in this world. Thank you again.

I am calling from Canada to say I was listening to the Bible Lesson on Contentment and I was really touched. I am grateful to have found your church, which was referred to me by a friend.

The references to the women in the Bible in that Lesson, and also to the women in the movie Hidden Figures who remained Godly in spite of everything they were going through, and of course to Mrs. Eddy, who just never gave up, is such an inspiration! I now know I have nothing to complain about, but just to trust God and seek His righteousness.

Thank you.

Much gratitude for the very helpful Roundtable on April 9, 2017, that talked about letting God work through you and feeling that oneness with the Father. It was also discussed that in traveling, we need to be aware of our surroundings and to establish a right atmosphere, rather than being handled by a wrong one. This was so helpful. I learn so much from these classes!

Thank you for the 2017 calendar. My husband and I enjoy looking at it every day.

Thank you for all that you do for Independent Christian Science. The website is like the open fount — pouring forth more than I can accept.

I am very grateful for the music and hymns played during the services. They often reach me like nothing else can; often turning doubt or sorrow into joy.

Enclosed please find my contribution.

I again want to express gratitude for the book, Hints on Healing, by Frank E. Mason. What wonderful statements of Truth to work with, live by, and prove.

The, oh, so many works made available from the Plainfield Church are a beacon of light and love to all mankind. Thank you for this great expression of love.

I wanted you to know I am still using your church’s YouTube videos and weekly Lessons. I just got done with the latest Lesson and am listening to a Roundtable discussion called “What is Truth.” Your YouTube channel is helpful, It is amazing what you can learn and what you can find on YouTube.

Right now you are as much in the kingdom of heaven as you will ever be. Nothing can be added to you, and nothing can be taken away from you. Then it would seem that all that is necessary toward the realization of this is a willingness to relax and acknowledge, “Father, all that Thou art, I am.” Nothing to accomplish, nothing to get, nothing to be. Rest in this Truth.

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Science in Action

from R. L.in Illinois

Christian Science is changing my life, as I do my best to live according to its teachings every day.

Recently, I was working with a staffing agency, and was hired by the company they sent me to. After filling out the application form, something made me go to the human resources office to tell the manager about my criminal history and fifteen and half years of incarceration.

He shook my hand, commented that I was a good employee, but he still had to sit down with Corporate before a permanent offer could be made.

I am so happy and grateful to God that I have learned to be honest under all circumstances, because the company just offered me a permanent position, with full benefits. I know I can trust God as I do my best to live according to His will.

All these blessings have come only six months after coming out of prison. So grateful I am learning to understand God through Christian Science.

from C. C. in New Jersey

I am so grateful for the healing power of God! I was frying bacon and poured the melted bacon fat into a container. As I was pouring, the container slipped, and the hot fat poured all over my hand and fingers. I immediately shouted, “Nothing has ever touched me but the love of God!” I also began to work with the Scientific Statement of Being, by Mrs. Eddy: “There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor substance in matter. All is infinite Mind and Its infinite manifestation….” Within just a few minutes, the extreme pain just stopped.

I went out into the yard to do some yard work with my granddaughters, and my hand and fingers felt fine. I was able to do raking, weeding, and everything I needed to do. When we went back into the house, I looked at my hand, and there were no blisters, and not even any redness. What a complete and quick healing!

Thank God for Christian Science, and for Mrs. Eddy, who gave us this healing Truth!

from J. P. in New Jersey

I am so grateful for the way that Christian Science is replacing all the negative aspects of my old existence with the wonderful blessings, joy, and hope of life in God.

In the decades before coming to Plainfield, my life became increasingly godless and simultaneously less worth living. I never saw how obvious that correlation was. As time went on, I found myself starting to dream of a time where life was better, although I had no idea how to make that happen. This made me more frustrated by the day, until I could no longer even pretend to hope for more.

It wasn’t until I reached bottom and finally asked God for His help that things started to change. I am very grateful He heard me, and I know He heard me because of how quickly my life changed, and how it has kept changing. It is clear now to me that if I keep building with the bricks that God gives me, the structure of my life will continue to grow into something I never could have even dreamed of before.

Because of this, I’ve begun to have an excited expectation about Life. Not only for my life, but for everyone’s life. It has helped me to see how practical Christian Science is, and — for this world in need — how important this mission of bringing this genuine Christian Science to all mankind is, and how certain it is that all real needs will be met by it!

Only God could have shown me a way of increase that doesn’t separate me from others, but brings me closer than ever. Thank God for this wonderful Science, this church, for practitioner support, and for all that is made available here, because it is so clear that I never would have understood any of this on my own. Thank you!

from D. A. in Virginia

My knees had been troubling me on and off for some time, but they would always improve, so I didn’t pay much attention. This past week, however, one knee was hurting so much that it was difficult for me to walk. I decided that it was time to get down to work in Christian Science and stop being a victim of error!

I felt directed to read, “Mary Baker Eddy, Her Spiritual Footsteps” by Gilbert Carpenter. I felt a great sense of gratitude for Mrs. Eddy and what she gave us. Throughout the day, I kept declaring that I am perfect, and declared the words of Jesus, “Get thee behind me Satan.”

I also looked back on all the marvelous healings I have had over the years, and realized that I have a choice — I could accept this, or claim my birthright! I went to bed confident that all is well, and woke up in the morning feeling wonderful and walking just fine.

I am so grateful to this church, the practitioners, and all the members, that this healing truth is made available to us and is being taught to us.

from J. M. in Georgia

As my husband, some friends, and I were leaving a restaurant, I did not see the curb and fell hard onto the parking lot. My husband and friends were greatly concerned. I sat up immediately, not really sure what had just happened. I got up, and as I walked to the car I felt pain on the side of my head. When I got into the car the thought came to me, “We are all in our orbit and we can never fall out.” This statement is attributed to Mary Baker Eddy. What a great comfort this was. It helped me to know that I could never leave God’s loving presence. The pain in my head disappeared quickly.

A few hours earlier, I had been thinking about God and the following statement came very strongly to me: “God is Life, God is my Life, God is the only Life.” I have repeated this statement many times, but this time I could really feel the Love of that statement. I felt such warmth, an almost glowing effect. I instantly knew that this statement was the angel thought that protected me from the fall.

We stopped a few hours later, and I got out of the car with absolutely no problem. I noticed two small scrapes on my knee, but I had not one bruise or any other sign that anything had happened. My friends could not believe my condition was normal. They kept saying it was a miracle.

I am so grateful to be able to show forth God’s loving care, not just for me at that time of need, but to show others that He takes the same care of all His children. The Bible promises in Acts 17:28 “For in Him we live and move and have our being…For we are also His offspring.” Every one of us is under His protecting and loving care, right now!

I am indeed grateful to God. I am grateful to Mrs. Eddy for giving us practical Christian Science, so that we are able to prove His power and presence is a reality.

from J. D. in Costa Rica

Recently we had a hurricane pass right over us in the area where I live in Costa Rica, which has never happened before. The extreme winds lasted from 19 to 23 hours, and my friend and I kept singing, non-stop, hymns out of the hymnal, by candlelight.

Huge coconuts from a very tall 30-foot high tree bombarded our corrugated roof, denting it, but no leaks developed. In the low-lying flat areas, there was a lot of flooding, and landslides. In my village there was almost no damage, except for a great many trees that toppled over.

As the eye of the storm passed over us, we noticed the quiet period, and then the wind came from the opposite direction. I feel strongly that most of the damage was due to the collective hysteria. Through trust in God, I was able to keep my peace. I also read the chapter in Miscellaneous Writings, “Spirit and Law,” which even more clarified my thought on the subject.

I thank God that evil in all its aggressive manifestations is unreal, and that this can be proved. I am very grateful to God for His protection.

Disease has no strategy, no intelligence. It cannot find a victim, cannot approach one, cannot launch an attack. It sinks into nothingness when promptly and intelligently challenged by the calm insistence that Life in all its individual manifestations, is invulnerable.

Blue Book p.133

Let us rejoice with the angels today. Your dear wife, my precious student, has added one more to the glad throng and the sweet song of those who have gone up thither, having washed their robes and made them white through all they have experienced.

While in the sweet sense that she now entertains, she knows there is a Life in God, good, that is eternal and in this Life, no pain, no death, no parting, no night there.

Oh, my dear friend, I wish you and I knew this as well as she does, today, who has awakened as we all must in some way to the truer sense of the Love that gives us this alterative.

You have no cause for grief; there is no change in the fact and reality of your relative existence, only as the old impressions of death and parting linger in thought.

Now, dear brother, dismiss these; they are as unreal as the false sense of sickness and of sin. They do not belong to God or His creations, and you are master of all ‘that worketh or maketh a lie.’

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Something must be missing, when the whole world has the same problems of sin, sickness and death, and yet we see each other so differently and fight each other as enemies. We have been taught to see differences instead of seeing one brotherhood of man. Our answer has been here, it is from the Ten Commandments, which were summed up by Christ Jesus’ greatest two from Matthew 22:37-40:

“37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

38 This is the first and great commandment.

39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Mankind’s greatest need is to awaken to the practice of these two commandments. They teach us about what our relationship to God and to each other must be. As stated in Science and Health, p 264:28-31: “When we learn the way in Christian Science and recognize man’s spiritual being, we shall behold and understand God’s creation, — all the glories of earth and heaven and man.”

Our view would be corrected, from the false concept of many minds, many peoples because of color, class, race, education, etc., to the correct view of one humanity in the likeness of God, on one strong united front.

In Science and Health, p. 467: 13-16 we read: “Having no other gods, turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, having that Mind which was also in Christ.”

All must claim the Mind of Christ, since only through this Mind can we think of ourselves and see each other correctly, as Christ Jesus did. He loved God, His Father, with all his heart, soul and mind, and loved man, his neighbor, by having only the spiritual perfect view of him.

Christian Science Hymn 266 partly reads:

“None who are truly born of God

Can live in enmity.”

We should then ask ourselves: Are we not all born of God? Instead of fighting each other, we should be on a strong united front, defending humanity’s God-given love and freedom, and overcoming the evil triad of sin, sickness, and death.

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A woman, called of God, has led

A multitude of those once dead

In sin and pain and false belief

Out of the depths of fear and grief.

A woman, led of God, has brought

New life through resurrected thought

And torn away the matter–veil

To show the light that cannot fail.

A woman, true to God and man,

Has shown us Love’s harmonious plan,

Which we would follow, as did she,

With step by step fidelity.

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From the Blue Book, page 133

Remember that unless you travel mentally, that if you don’t traverse new lands spiritually, if you don’t cross metaphysical waters, that is, and reach shores hitherto unvisited in Soul, you have wasted your time, money, and effort, and you will get nothing out of it. Don’t do less Science but more. May God enfold you in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake, where no evil, no accident, no allurements, no blame lies, claiming some world more dazzlingly beautiful than the radiance of divine Love, for straight is the gate and narrow the way thereto.

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“Publish the Word”

Broadcast the Truth

“Freely ye have received, freely give”