Rudimental Divine Science

Divine Science, by Mary Baker G. Eddy

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Title: Rudimental Divine Science
Author: Mary Baker G. Eddy
Release Date: October 30, 2006 [EBook #19666]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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RUDIMENTAL DIVINE SCIENCE

RUDIMENTAL DIVINE SCIENCE
BY
MARY BAKER EDDY AUTHOR OF SCIENCE AND HEALTH WITH KEY TO THE SCRIPTUES
[Image: Publishing Company Logo] Registered U. S. Patent Office
Published by The Trustees under the Will of Mary Baker G. Eddy BOSTON, U.S.A.
Authorized Literature of THE FIRST CHURCH OF CHRIST, SCIENTIST In Boston, Massachusetts
Copyright, 1891, 1908 BY MARY BAKER G. EDDY Copyright renewed 1919 --- All rights reserved
--- PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
THIS LITTLE BOOK IS TENDERLY AND RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED TO ALL LOYAL STUDENTS, WORKING AND WAITING FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SCIENCE OF MIND-HEALING MARY BAKER EDDY
CONTENTS
DEFINITION OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PRINCIPLE OF CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PERSONALITY OF GOD HEALING SICKNESS AND SIN INDIVIDUALITY OF GOD MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL SCIENCE NON-EXISTENCE OF MATTER MATERIALITY INTANGIBLE BASIS OF MIND-HEALING MATERIAL AND SPIRITUAL MAN DEMONSTRATION IN HEALING MEANS AND METHODS ONLY ONE SCHOOL
RUDIMENTAL DIVINE SCIENCE
How would you define Christian Science? 1
AS the law of God, the law of good, interpreting and demonstrating the divine Principle and rule of 3 universal harmony.
What is the Principle of Christian Science?
It is God, the Supreme Being, infinite and immortal 6 Mind, the Soul of man and the universe. It is our Father which is in heaven. It is substance, Spirit, Life, Truth, and Love, -- these are the deific Principle. 9
Do you mean by this that God is a person?
The word person affords a large margin for misappre- hension, as well as definition. In French the equivalent 12 word is personne. In Spanish, Italian, and Latin, it is persona. The Latin verb personare is compounded of the prefix per (through) and sonare (to sound). 15
In law, Blackstone applies the word personal to bodily presence, in distinction from one's appearance (in court, for example) by deputy or proxy. 18
Other definitions of person, as give by Webster, are 1 "a living soul; a self-conscious being; a moral agent; especially, a living human being, a corporeal man, woman, 3 or child; an individual of the human race." He adds, that among Trinitarian Christians the word stands for one of the three subjects, or agents, constituting the Godhead. 6
In Christian Science we learn that God is definitely indi- vidual and not a person, as that word is used by the best authorities, if our lexicographers are right in defining 9 person as especially a finite human being; but God is personal, if by person is meant infinite Spirit.
We do not conceive rightly of God, if we think of Him 12 as less than infinite. The human person is finite; and therefore I prefer to retain the proper sense of Diety by using the phrase an individual God rather than a per- 15 sonal God; for there is and can be but on infinite indi- vidual spirit, who mortals have named God.
Science defines the individuality of God as supreme 18 good, Life, Truth, Love. This term enlarges our sense of Diety, takes away the trammels assigned to God by finite though, and introduces us to higher definitions. 21
Is healing the sick the whole of Science?
Healing physical sickness is the smallest part of Chris- tian Science. It is only the bugle-call to thought and 24 action, in the higher range of infinite goodness. The emphatic purpose of Christian Science is the healing of sin; and this task, sometimes, may be harder than the 27 cure of disease; because, while mortals love to sin, they 1 do not love to be sick. Hence their comparative acqui- escence in your endeavors to heal them of bodily ills, and 3 their obstinate resistance to all efforts to save them from sin through Christ, spiritual Truth and Love, which redeem them, and become their Saviour, through the 6 flesh, from the flesh, -- the material world and evil.
This Life, Truth, and Love -- this trinity of good -- was individualized, to the perception of mortal sense, in the 9 man Jesus. His history is emphatic in our hearts, and it lives more because of his spiritual than his physical healing. His example is, to Christian Scientists, what the models 12 of the masters in music and painting are to artists.
Genuine Christian Scientists will no more deviate mor- ally from that divine digest of Science called the Sermon 15 on the Mount, than they will manipulate invalids, prescribe drugs, or deny God.