Читать книгу Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (Healing Scriptures and Bible Verses about Healing) - Mary Baker Eddy - Страница 7

What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder. In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. - JESUS.

56:1 WHEN our great Teacher came to him for baptism,

John was astounded. Reading his thoughts, Jesus

56:3 added: "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us

to fulfil all righteousness." Jesus' concessions (in certain

cases) to material methods were for the advancement of

56:6 spiritual good.

Marriage temporal

Marriage is the legal and moral provision for genera-

tion among human kind. Until the spiritual creation

56:9 is discerned intact, is apprehended and under-

stood, and His kingdom is come as in the vision

of the Apocalypse, - where the corporeal sense of crea-

56:12 tion was cast out, and its spiritual sense was revealed from

heaven, - marriage will continue, subject to such moral

regulations as will secure increasing virtue.

Fidelity required

56:15 Infidelity to the marriage covenant is the social scourge

of all races, "the pestilence that walketh in darkness,

. . . the destruction that wasteth at noonday."

56:18 The commandment, "Thou shalt not com-

mit adultery," is no less imperative than the one, "Thou

shalt not kill."

57:1 Chastity is the cement of civilization and progress. Without it there is no stability in society, and without it 57:3 one cannot attain the Science of Life.

Mental elements

Union of the masculine and feminine qualities consti-

tutes completeness. The masculine mind reaches a

57:6 higher tone through certain elements of the

feminine, while the feminine mind gains cour-

age and strength through masculine qualities. These

57:9 different elements conjoin naturally with each other, and

their true harmony is in spiritual oneness. Both sexes

should be loving, pure, tender, and strong. The attrac-

57:12 tion between native qualities will be perpetual only as it

is pure and true, bringing sweet seasons of renewal like

the returning spring.

Affection's demands

57:15 Beauty, wealth, or fame is incompetent to meet the

demands of the affections, and should never weigh

against the better claims of intellect, good-

57:18 ness, and virtue. Happiness is spiritual,

born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore

it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to

57:21 share it.

Help and discipline

Human affection is not poured forth vainly, even

though it meet no return. Love enriches the nature, en-

57:24 larging, purifying, and elevating it. The wintry

blasts of earth may uproot the flowers of affec-

tion, and scatter them to the winds; but this severance

57:27 of fleshly ties serves to unite thought more closely to

God, for Love supports the struggling heart until it ceases

to sigh over the world and begins to unfold its wings for

57:30 heaven.

Marriage is unblest or blest, according to the disap-

pointments it involves or the hopes it fulfils. To happify

58:1 existence by constant intercourse with those adapted to

elevate it, should be the motive of society. Unity of

58:3 spirit gives new pinions to joy, or else joy's drooping

wings trail in dust.

Chord and discord

Ill-arranged notes produce discord. Tones of the

58:6 human mind may be different, but they should be con-

cordant in order to blend properly. Unselfish

ambition, noble life-motives, and purity, -

58:9 these constituents of thought, mingling, constitute in-

dividually and collectively true happiness, strength, and

permanence.

Mutual freedom

58:12 There is moral freedom in Soul. Never contract the

horizon of a worthy outlook by the selfish exaction of

all another's time and thoughts. With ad-

58:15 ditional joys, benevolence should grow more

diffusive. The narrowness and jealousy, which would

confine a wife or a husband forever within four walls, will

58:18 not promote the sweet interchange of confidence and love;

but on the other hand, a wandering desire for incessant

amusement outside the home circle is a poor augury for

58:21 the happiness of wedlock. Home is the dearest spot on

earth, and it should be the centre, though not the bound-

ary, of the affections.

A useful suggestion

58:24 Said the peasant bride to her lover: "Two eat no more

together than they eat separately." This is a hint that

a wife ought not to court vulgar extravagance

58:27 or stupid ease, because another supplies her

wants. Wealth may obviate the necessity for toil or the

chance for ill-nature in the marriage relation, but noth-

58:30 ing can abolish the cares of marriage.

Differing duties

"She that is married careth . . . how she may please

her husband," says the Bible; and this is the pleasantest

59:1 thing to do. Matrimony should never be entered into

without a full recognition of its enduring obligations on

59:3 both sides. There should be the most tender

solicitude for each other's happiness, and mu-

tual attention and approbation should wait on all the years

59:6 of married life.

Mutual compromises will often maintain a compact

which might otherwise become unbearable. Man should

59:9 not be required to participate in all the annoyances and

cares of domestic economy, nor should woman be ex-

pected to understand political economy. Fulfilling the

59:12 different demands of their united spheres, their sympa-

thies should blend in sweet confidence and cheer, each

partner sustaining the other, - thus hallowing the union

59:15 of interests and affections, in which the heart finds peace

and home.

Trysting renewed

Tender words and unselfish care in what promotes the

59:18 welfare and happiness of your wife will prove more salutary

in prolonging her health and smiles than stolid

indifference or jealousy. Husbands, hear this

59:21 and remember how slight a word or deed may renew the

old trysting-times.

After marriage, it is too late to grumble over incompati-

59:24 bility of disposition. A mutual understanding should

exist before this union and continue ever after, for decep-

tion is fatal to happiness.

Permanent obligation

59:27 The nuptial vow should never be annulled, so long as

its moral obligations are kept intact; but the frequency

of divorce shows that the sacredness of this re-

59:30 lationship is losing its influence, and that fatal

mistakes are undermining its foundations. Separation

never should take place, and it never would, if both

60:1 husband and wife were genuine Christian Scientists.

Science inevitably lifts one's being higher in the scale of

60:3 harmony and happiness.

Permanent affection

Kindred tastes, motives, and aspirations are necessary

to the formation of a happy and permanent companion-

60:6 ship. The beautiful in character is also the

good, welding indissolubly the links of affec-

tion. A mother's affection cannot be weaned from her

60:9 child, because the mother-love includes purity and con-

stancy, both of which are immortal. Therefore maternal

affection lives on under whatever difficulties.

60:12 From the logic of events we learn that selfishness

and impurity alone are fleeting, and that wisdom will

ultimately put asunder what she hath not joined

60:15 together.

Centre for affections

Marriage should improve the human species, becoming

a barrier against vice, a protection to woman, strength to

60:18 man, and a centre for the affections. This,

however, in a majority of cases, is not its

present tendency, and why? Because the education of

60:21 the higher nature is neglected, and other considerations,

- passion, frivolous amusements, personal adornment,

display, and pride, - occupy thought.

Spiritual concord

60:24 An ill-attuned ear calls discord harmony, not appreciat-

ing concord. So physical sense, not discerning the true

happiness of being, places it on a false basis.

60:27 Science will correct the discord, and teach us

life's sweeter harmonies.

Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind,

60:30 and happiness would be more readily attained and would

be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul. Higher

enjoyments alone can satisfy the cravings of immortal

61:1 man. We cannot circumscribe happiness within the

limits of personal sense. The senses confer no real

61:3 enjoyment.

Ascendency of good

The good in human affections must have ascendency

over the evil and the spiritual over the animal, or happi-

61:6 ness will never be won. The attainment of

this celestial condition would improve our

progeny, diminish crime, and give higher aims to ambi-

61:9 tion. Every valley of sin must be exalted, and every

mountain of selfishness be brought low, that the highway

of our God may be prepared in Science. The offspring

61:12 of heavenly-minded parents inherit more intellect, better

balanced minds, and sounder constitutions.

Propensities inherited

If some fortuitous circumstance places promising chil-

61:15 dren in the arms of gross parents, often these beautiful

children early droop and die, like tropical

flowers born amid Alpine snows. If perchance

61:18 they live to become parents in their turn, they may re-

produce in their own helpless little ones the grosser traits

of their ancestors. What hope of happiness, what noble

61:21 ambition, can inspire the child who inherits propensities

that must either be overcome or reduce him to a loath-

some wreck?

61:24 Is not the propagation of the human species a greater

responsibility, a more solemn charge, than the culture of

your garden or the raising of stock to increase your flocks

61:27 and herds? Nothing unworthy of perpetuity should be

transmitted to children.

The formation of mortals must greatly improve to

61:30 advance mankind. The scientific morale of marriage is spiritual unity. If the propagation of a higher human species is requisite to reach this goal, then its material con- 62:1 ditions can only be permitted for the purpose of gener- ating. The foetus must be kept mentally pure and the 62:3 period of gestation have the sanctity of virginity.

The entire education of children should be such as to

form habits of obedience to the moral and spiritual law,

62:6 with which the child can meet and master the belief in so-

called physical laws, a belief which breeds disease.

Inheritance heeded

If parents create in their babes a desire for incessant

62:9 amusement, to be always fed, rocked, tossed, or talked

to, those parents should not, in after years,

complain of their children's fretfulness or fri-

62:12 volity, which the parents themselves have occasioned.

Taking less "thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or

what ye shall drink"; less thought "for your body what

62:15 ye shall put on," will do much more for the health of the

rising generation than you dream. Children should be

allowed to remain children in knowledge, and should

62:18 become men and women only through growth in the

understanding of man's higher nature.

The Mind creative

We must not attribute more and more intelligence

62:21 to matter, but less and less, if we would be wise and

healthy. The divine Mind, which forms the

bud and blossom, will care for the human

62:24 body, even as it clothes the lily; but let no mortal inter-

fere with God's government by thrusting in the laws of

erring, human concepts.

Superior law of Soul

62:27 The higher nature of man is not governed by the lower;

if it were, the order of wisdom would be reversed.

Our false views of life hide eternal harmony,

62:30 and produce the ills of which we complain.

Because mortals believe in material laws and reject the

Science of Mind, this does not make materiality first and

63:1 the superior law of Soul last. You would never think

that flannel was better for warding off pulmonary disease

63:3 than the controlling Mind, if you understood the Science

of being.

Spiritual origin

In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beauti-

63:6 ful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry. His origin is

not, like that of mortals, in brute instinct, nor

does he pass through material conditions prior

63:9 to reaching intelligence. Spirit is his primitive and ulti-

mate source of being; God is his Father, and Life is the

law of his being.

The rights of woman

63:12 Civil law establishes very unfair differences between the

rights of the two sexes. Christian Science furnishes no

precedent for such injustice, and civilization

63:15 mitigates it in some measure. Still, it is a

marvel why usage should accord woman less rights than

does either Christian Science or civilization.

Unfair discrimination

63:18 Our laws are not impartial, to say the least, in their

discrimination as to the person, property, and parental

claims of the two sexes. If the elective fran-

63:21 chise for women will remedy the evil with-

out encouraging difficulties of greater magnitude, let us

hope it will be granted. A feasible as well as rational

63:24 means of improvement at present is the elevation of

society in general and the achievement of a nobler

race for legislation, - a race having higher aims and

63:27 motives.

If a dissolute husband deserts his wife, certainly the

wronged, and perchance impoverished, woman should be

63:30 allowed to collect her own wages, enter into business

agreements, hold real estate, deposit funds, and own her

children free from interference.

64:1 Want of uniform justice is a crying evil caused by the

selfishness and inhumanity of man. Our forefathers

64:3 exercised their faith in the direction taught by the Apostle

James, when he said: "Pure religion and undefiled before

God and the Father, is this, To visit the fatherless and

64:6 widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted

from the world."

Benevolence hindered

Pride, envy, or jealousy seems on most occasions to

64:9 be the master of ceremonies, ruling out primitive Chris-

tianity. When a man lends a helping hand

to some noble woman, struggling alone with

64:12 adversity, his wife should not say, "It is never well to

interfere with your neighbor's business." A wife is

sometimes debarred by a covetous domestic tyrant from

64:15 giving the ready aid her sympathy and charity would

afford.

Progressive development

Marriage should signify a union of hearts. Further-

64:18 more, the time cometh of which Jesus spake, when he

declared that in the resurrection there should

be no more marrying nor giving in marriage,

64:21 but man would be as the angels. Then shall Soul re-

joice in its own, in which passion has no part. Then

white-robed purity will unite in one person masculine wis-

64:24 dom and feminine love, spiritual understanding and per-

petual peace.

Until it is learned that God is the Father of all, mar-

64:27 riage will continue. Let not mortals permit a disregard

of law which might lead to a worse state of society than

now exists. Honesty and virtue ensure the stability of

64:30 the marriage covenant. Spirit will ultimately claim its

own, - all that really is, - and the voices of physical

sense will be forever hushed.

Blessing of Christ

65:1 Experience should be the school of virtue, and human

happiness should proceed from man's highest nature.

65:3 May Christ, Truth, be present at every bridal

altar to turn the water into wine and to give to

human life an inspiration by which man's spiritual and

65:6 eternal existence may be discerned.

Righteous foundations

If the foundations of human affection are consistent

with progress, they will be strong and enduring. Divorces

65:9 should warn the age of some fundamental error

in the marriage state. The union of the sexes

suffers fearful discord. To gain Christian Science and its

65:12 harmony, life should be more metaphysically regarded.

Powerless promises

The broadcast powers of evil so conspicuous to-day

show themselves in the materialism and sensualism of

65:15 the age, struggling against the advancing

spiritual era. Beholding the world's lack of

Christianity and the powerlessness of vows to make home

65:18 happy, the human mind will at length demand a higher

affection.

Transition and reform

There will ensue a fermentation over this as over many

65:21 other reforms, until we get at last the clear straining of

truth, and impurity and error are left among

the lees. The fermentation even of fluids is

65:24 not pleasant. An unsettled, transitional stage is never

desirable on its own account. Matrimony, which was once

a fixed fact among us, must lose its present slippery foot-

65:27 ing, and man must find permanence and peace in a more

spiritual adherence.

The mental chemicalization, which has brought con-

65:30 jugal infidelity to the surface, will assuredly throw off

this evil, and marriage will become purer when the scum

is gone.

Thou art right, immortal Shakespeare, great poet of

humanity:

66:3 Sweet are the uses of adversity;

Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,

Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.

Salutary sorrow

66:6 Trials teach mortals not to lean on a material staff, -

a broken reed, which pierces the heart. We do not

half remember this in the sunshine of joy

66:9 and prosperity. Sorrow is salutary. Through

great tribulation we enter the kingdom. Trials are

proofs of God's care. Spiritual development germi-

66:12 nates not from seed sown in the soil of material hopes,

but when these decay, Love propagates anew the higher

joys of Spirit, which have no taint of earth. Each suc-

66:15 cessive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine

goodness and love.

Amidst gratitude for conjugal felicity, it is well to re-

66:18 member how fleeting are human joys. Amidst conjugal

infelicity, it is well to hope, pray, and wait patiently on

divine wisdom to point out the path.

Patience is wisdom

66:21 Husbands and wives should never separate if there

is no Christian demand for it. It is better to await the

logic of events than for a wife precipitately

66:24 to leave her husband or for a husband to

leave his wife. If one is better than the other, as must

always be the case, the other pre-eminently needs good

66:27 company. Socrates considered patience salutary under

such circumstances, making his Xantippe a discipline for

his philosophy.

The gold and dross

66:30 Sorrow has its reward. It never leaves us

where it found us. The furnace separates

the gold from the dross that the precious metal may

67:1 be graven with the image of God. The cup our Father

hath given, shall we not drink it and learn the lessons

67:3 He teaches?

Weathering the storm

When the ocean is stirred by a storm, then the clouds

lower, the wind shrieks through the tightened shrouds,

67:6 and the waves lift themselves into mountains.

We ask the helmsman: "Do you know your

course? Can you steer safely amid the storm?" He

67:9 answers bravely, but even the dauntless seaman is not

sure of his safety; nautical science is not equal to the

Science of Mind. Yet, acting up to his highest under-

67:12 standing, firm at the post of duty, the mariner works on

and awaits the issue. Thus should we deport ourselves

on the seething ocean of sorrow. Hoping and work-

67:15 ing, one should stick to the wreck, until an irresistible

propulsion precipitates his doom or sunshine gladdens

the troubled sea.

Spiritual power

67:18 The notion that animal natures can possibly give force

to character is too absurd for consideration, when we

remember that through spiritual ascendency

67:21 our Lord and Master healed the sick, raised

the dead, and commanded even the winds and waves to

obey him. Grace and Truth are potent beyond all other

67:24 means and methods.

The lack of spiritual power in the limited demonstration

of popular Christianity does not put to silence the labor

67:27 of centuries. Spiritual, not corporeal, consciousness is

needed. Man delivered from sin, disease, and death

presents the true likeness or spiritual ideal.

Basis of true religion

67:30 Systems of religion and medicine treat of physical pains

and pleasures, but Jesus rebuked the suffering from any

such cause or effect. The epoch approaches when the

68:1 understanding of the truth of being will be the basis of

true religion. At present mortals progress slowly for

68:3 fear of being thought ridiculous. They are

slaves to fashion, pride, and sense. Some-

time we shall learn how Spirit, the great architect, has

68:6 created men and women in Science. We ought to weary

of the fleeting and false and to cherish nothing which

hinders our highest selfhood.

68:9 Jealousy is the grave of affection. The presence of

mistrust, where confidence is due, withers the flowers

of Eden and scatters love's petals to decay. Be not

68:12 in haste to take the vow "until death do us part."

Consider its obligations, its responsibilities, its rela-

tions to your growth and to your influence on other

68:15 lives.

Insanity and agamogenesis

I never knew more than one individual who believed

in agamogenesis; she was unmarried, a lovely charac-

68:18 ter, was suffering from incipient insanity, and

a Christian Scientist cured her. I have named

her case to individuals, when casting my bread upon

68:21 the waters, and it may have caused the good to ponder

and the evil to hatch their silly innuendoes and lies, since

salutary causes sometimes incur these effects. The per-

68:24 petuation of the floral species by bud or cell-division is

evident, but I discredit the belief that agamogenesis

applies to the human species.

God's creation intact

68:27 Christian Science presents unfoldment, not accretion;

it manifests no material growth from molecule to mind,

but an impartation of the divine Mind to man

68:30 and the universe. Proportionately as human

generation ceases, the unbroken links of eternal, har-

monious being will be spiritually discerned; and man,

69:1 not of the earth earthly but coexistent with God, will

appear. The scientific fact that man and the universe

69:3 are evolved from Spirit, and so are spiritual, is as fixed in

divine Science as is the proof that mortals gain the sense

of health only as they lose the sense of sin and disease.

69:6 Mortals can never understand God's creation while believ-

ing that man is a creator. God's children already created

will be cognized only as man finds the truth of being.

69:9 Thus it is that the real, ideal man appears in proportion

as the false and material disappears. No longer to marry

or to be "given in marriage" neither closes man's con-

69:12 tinuity nor his sense of increasing number in God's in-

finite plan. Spiritually to understand that there is but

one creator, God, unfolds all creation, confirms the Scrip-

69:15 tures, brings the sweet assurance of no parting, no pain,

and of man deathless and perfect and eternal.

If Christian Scientists educate their own offspring

69:18 spiritually, they can educate others spiritually and not

conflict with the scientific sense of God's creation. Some

day the child will ask his parent: "Do you keep the First

69:21 Commandment? Do you have one God and creator, or

is man a creator?" If the father replies, "God creates

man through man," the child may ask, "Do you teach

69:24 that Spirit creates materially, or do you declare that

Spirit is infinite, therefore matter is out of the ques-

tion?" Jesus said, "The children of this world marry,

69:27 and are given in marriage: But they which shall be ac-

counted worthy to obtain that world, and the resur-

rection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in

69:30 marriage."