Bible Study from June 8th, 2019

THE COMMANDMENTS:

“The Commandments are all in one and one in all, all for one and one for all – one isness from which all is, in perfect agreement.”

From Christian Science: Its “Clear, Correct Teaching,
by Herbert W. Eustace, C.S.B., page 341

Any theory of Christian Science, which departs from what has already been stated and proved to be true, affords no foundation upon which to establish a genuine school of this Science. Also, if any so-called new school claims to be Christian Science, and yet uses another author’s discoveries without giving that author proper credit, such a school is erroneous, for it inculcates a breach of that divine commandment in the Hebrew Decalogue, “Thou shalt not steal.”

— from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures 1910, by Mary Baker Eddy, 112

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The first edition of Science and Health was published in 1875. Various books on mental healing have since been issued, most of them incorrect in theory and filled with plagiarisms from Science and Health. They regard the human mind as a healing agent, whereas this mind is not a factor in the Principle of Christian Science. A few books, however, which are based on this book, are useful.

— from Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures 1910, by Mary Baker Eddy, X : 3- 10

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If you break a bottle you will be cut by the fragments, never by the whole vessel. There is a little truth in all creeds, isms and ologies, but if you try to find the truth in a part of the vessel, you will get cut. Study the Bible and Science and Health and leave the fragments alone.

—Martha H. Bogue Memoirs from Miscellaneous Documents by Gilbert Carpenter, page 70

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“The chemist comes out of his laboratory with his fingers all bleeding from a broken retort… I will have to put the rest of this in my own language. She said if the retort had been whole, he would not have cut his fingers. She said that all religions had some good in them. … but she said they did not have the whole robe or garment, so they would be like the broken retort that would cut the fingers. We must have on the undivided garment, or we would cut our fingers. So if we accept this Science in part, it would be like the broken retort-liable to cut the fingers.

—Janett Coleman Memoirs from Miscellaneous Documents by Gilbert Carpenter, page 48

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Of all these writers, Ursula Gesterfeld is the most dangerous, the most subtle-and why Because she talks so much truth as to almost deceive the very elect and then poisons the whole by her terrible theosophical terms. It is not her personality that Mrs. Gesterfeld is attacking, it is the Truth. Jesus said, “Render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are of God’s.” No one can rob Caesar and give God the glory. All she asked of anyone was that we obey that command, to render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s and to God the things that are God’s.” If Jesus had not declared his divine origin he would not have been crucified. If she had not declared that Science was reyealed Truth, mortal mind would be proud of it. She had feared that the Truth was to be crucified again-that is, would be so mixed with error that it would be lost-that was what Mrs. Gesterfeld was doing in trying to simplify her book. but she hoped and felt that it would not be.

— Martha H. Bogue Memiors from Miscellaneous Documents by Gilbert Carpenter, page 6-7

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Dishonesty necessarily stultifies the spiritual sense which Mind-healers specially need; and which they must possess, in order to be safe members of the community. How good and pleasant a thing it is to seek not so much thine own as another’s good, to sow by the wayside for the wayweary, and trust Love’s recompense of love. Plagiarism from my writings is so common it is becoming odious to honest people; and such compilations, instead of possessing the essentials of Christian Science, are tempting and misleading.

— from No and Yes by Mary Baker Eddy, page 3:19-28

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Mrs. Eddy paused here and said impressively: “My students, there are enough of you in this room to convert the world, if you would hold together — though each one in his own place.”

She says we must not attempt to do that which has al­ready been done; to write another Bible or Science and Health; unless led by Truth we must not take it upon our­selves to write for publication — but study what has been given us and be content to grow thereby. Those who undertake to explain and simplify Science and Health would be better employed in its study, and demon­strating what they find in it. Then she asked, “Will you not do this, my students?”

As we progress in the higher sense — the spiritual, or true sense of being — we will come to where we will neither feel the error, nor see it. Not one word of Science and Health is the product of Mrs.Eddy’s own thought, …

— Fannie L. Pierce Memiors from Miscellaneous Documents by Gilbert Carpenter, page 89

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Plagiarism

The various forms of book-borrowing without credit spring from this ill-concealed question in mortal mind, Who shall be greatest? This error violates the law given by Moses, it tramples upon Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, it does violence to the ethics of Christian Science.

Why withhold my name, while appropriating my language and ideas, but give credit when citing from the works of other authors?

Life and its ideals are inseparable, and one’s writings on ethics, and demonstration of Truth, are not, cannot be, understood or taught by those who persistently misunderstand or misrepresent the author. Jesus said, “For there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, that can lightly speak evil of me.” If one’s spiritual ideal is comprehended and loved, the borrower from it is embraced in the author’s own mental mood, and is therefore honest. The Science of Mind excludes opposites, and rests on unity.

It is proverbial that dishonesty retards spiritual growth and strikes at the heart of Truth. If a student at Harvard College has studied a textbook written by his teacher, is he entitled, when he leaves the University, to write out as his own the substance of this textbook? There is no warrant in common law and no permission in the gospel.

Thoughts touched with the Spirit and Word of Christian Science gravitate naturally toward Truth. Therefore the mind to which this Science was revealed must have risen to the altitude which perceived a light beyond what others saw.

The spiritually minded meet on the stairs which lead up to spiritual love. This affection, so far from being personal worship, fulfils the law of Love which Paul enjoined upon the Galatians. This is the Mind “which was also in Christ Jesus,” and knows no material limitations. It is the unity of good and bond of perfectness. This just affection serves to constitute the Mind-healer a wonder-worker, — as of old, on the Pentecost Day, when the disciples were of one accord.

He who gains the God-crowned summit of Christian Science never abuses the corporeal personality, but uplifts it. He thinks of every one in his real quality, and sees each mortal in an impersonal depict. I have long remained silent on a growing evil in plagiarism; but if I do not insist upon the strictest observance of moral law and order in Christian Scientists, I become responsible, as a teacher, for laxity in discipline and lawlessness in literature. Pope was right in saying, “An honest man’s the noblest work of God;” and Ingersoll’s repartee has its moral: “An honest God’s the noblest work of man.”

— from “Plagiarism” Retrospection and Introspection by Mary Baker Eddy, pages 75-77

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Insubordination to the law of Love even in the least, or strict obedience thereto, tests and discriminates between the real and the unreal Scientist. Justice, a prominent statute in the divine law, demands of all trespassers upon the sparse individual rights which one justly reserves to one’s self, — Would you consent that others should tear up your landmarks, manipulate your students, nullify or reverse your rules, countermand your orders, steal your possessions, and escape the penalty therefor? No! “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them.”

— from Miscellaneous Writings by Mary Baker Eddy, page 119-120

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Article — “Advice to Students” Miscellaneous Writingsby Mary Baker Eddy, Pages 298-303

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