Science and Health
with Key to The Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
Chapter II - Atonement And Eucharist

 

Final purpose
36:1
the sinner. They, who know not purity and affection by
experience, can never find bliss in the blessed company of
Truth and Love simply through translation
into another sphere. Divine Science reveals
the necessity of sufficient suffering, either before or after
death, to quench the love of sin. To remit the penalty
due for sin, would be for Truth to pardon error. Escape
from punishment is not in accordance with God's govern-
ment, since justice is the handmaid of mercy.
36:10
Jesus endured the shame, that he might pour his
dear-bought bounty into barren lives. What was his
earthly reward? He was forsaken by all save John,
the beloved disciple, and a few women who bowed in
silent woe beneath the shadow of his cross. The earthly
price of spirituality in a material age and the great moral
distance between Christianity and sensualism preclude
Christian Science from finding favor with the worldly-
minded.
Righteous retribution
36:19
A selfish and limited mind may be unjust, but the un-
limited and divine Mind is the immortal law of justice as
well as of mercy. It is quite as impossible for
sinners to receive their full punishment this
side of the grave as for this world to bestow on the right-
eous their full reward. It is useless to suppose that the
wicked can gloat over their offences to the last moment
and then be suddenly pardoned and pushed into heaven,
or that the hand of Love is satisfied with giving us only
toil, sacrifice, cross-bearing, multiplied trials, and mock-
ery of our motives in return for our efforts at well doing.
Vicarious suffering
36:30
Religious history repeats itself in the suf-
fering of the just for the unjust. Can God
therefore overlook the law of righteousness which de-
37:1
stroys the belief called sin? Does not Science show that
sin brings suffering as much to-day as yesterday? They
who sin must suffer. "With what measure ye mete, it
shall be measured to you again."
Martyrs inevitable
37:5
History is full of records of suffering. "The blood of
the martyrs is the seed of the Church." Mortals try in
vain to slay Truth with the steel or the stake,
but error falls only before the sword of Spirit.
Martyrs are the human links which connect one stage with
another in the history of religion. They are earth's lumi-
naries, which serve to cleanse and rarefy the atmosphere of
material sense and to permeate humanity with purer ideals.
Consciousness of right-doing brings its own reward; but
not amid the smoke of battle is merit seen and appreciated
by lookers-on.
Complete emulation
37:16
When will Jesus' professed followers learn to emulate
him in all his ways and to imitate his mighty works?
Those who procured the martyrdom of that
righteous man would gladly have turned his
sacred career into a mutilated doctrinal platform. May
the Christians of to-day take up the more practical im-
port of that career! It is possible, – yea, it is the duty
and privilege of every child, man, and woman, – to follow
in some degree the example of the Master by the demon-
stration of Truth and Life, of health and holiness. Chris-
tians claim to be his followers, but do they follow him in
the way that he commanded? Hear these imperative com-
mands: "Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father
which is in heaven is perfect!" "Go ye into all the world,
and preach the gospel to every creature!" "Heal the
sick!"
Jesus' teaching belittled
37:32
Why has this Christian demand so little inspiration
38:1
to stir mankind to Christian effort? Because men are
assured that this command was intended only for a par-
ticular period and for a select number of fol-
lowers. This teaching is even more pernicious
than the old doctrine of foreordination, – the election of a
few to be saved, while the rest are damned; and so it will
be considered, when the lethargy of mortals, produced
by man-made doctrines, is broken by the demands of
divine Science.
38:10
Jesus said: "These signs shall follow them that be-
lieve; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick, and they
shall recover." Who believes him? He was addressing
his disciples, yet he did not say, "These signs shall follow
you," but them – "them that believe" in all time to come.
Here the word hands is used metaphorically, as in the text,
"The right hand of the Lord is exalted." It expresses
spiritual power; otherwise the healing could not have
been done spiritually. At another time Jesus prayed, not
for the twelve only, but for as many as should believe
"through their word."
Material pleasures
38:21
Jesus experienced few of the pleasures of the physical
senses, but his sufferings were the fruits of other peo-
ple's sins, not of his own. The eternal Christ,
his spiritual selfhood, never suffered. Jesus
mapped out the path for others. He unveiled the Christ,
the spiritual idea of divine Love. To those buried in the
belief of sin and self, living only for pleasure or the grati-
fication of the senses, he said in substance: Having eyes
ye see not, and having ears ye hear not; lest ye should un-
derstand and be converted, and I might heal you. He
taught that the material senses shut out Truth and its
healing power.
Mockery of truth
39:1
Meekly our Master met the mockery of his unrecog-
nized grandeur. Such indignities as he received, his fol-
lowers will endure until Christianity's last
triumph. He won eternal honors. He over-
came the world, the flesh, and all error, thus proving
their nothingness. He wrought a full salvation from sin,
sickness, and death. We need "Christ, and him cruci-
fied." We must have trials and self-denials, as well as
joys and victories, until all error is destroyed.
A belief suicidal
39:10
The educated belief that Soul is in the body causes
mortals to regard death as a friend, as a stepping-stone
out of mortality into immortality and bliss.
The Bible calls death an enemy, and Jesus
overcame death and the grave instead of yielding to them.
He was "the way." To him, therefore, death was not
the threshold over which he must pass into living
glory.
Present salvation
39:18
"Now," cried the apostle, "is the accepted time; be-
hold, now is the day of salvation," – meaning, not that
now men must prepare for a future-world salva-
tion, or safety, but that now is the time in which
to experience that salvation in spirit and in life. Now is
the time for so-called material pains and material pleas-
ures to pass away, for both are unreal, because impossible
in Science. To break this earthly spell, mortals must get
the true idea and divine Principle of all that really exists
and governs the universe harmoniously. This thought is
apprehended slowly, and the interval before its attain-
ment is attended with doubts and defeats as well as
triumphs.
Sin and penalty
39:31
Who will stop the practice of sin so long as he believes
in the pleasures of sin? When mortals once admit that
40:1
evil confers no pleasure, they turn from it. Remove error
from thought, and it will not appear in effect. The ad-
vanced thinker and devout Christian, perceiv-
ing the scope and tendency of Christian healing
and its Science, will support them. Another will say:
"Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient
season I will call for thee."
40:8
Divine Science adjusts the balance as Jesus adjusted
it. Science removes the penalty only by first removing
the sin which incurs the penalty. This is my sense of
divine pardon, which I understand to mean God's method
of destroying sin. If the saying is true, "While there's
life there's hope," its opposite is also true, While there's
sin there's doom. Another's suffering cannot lessen our
own liability. Did the martyrdom of Savonarola make
the crimes of his implacable enemies less criminal?
Suffering inevitable
40:17
Was it just for Jesus to suffer? No; but it was
inevitable, for not otherwise could he show us the way
and the power of Truth. If a career so great
and good as that of Jesus could not avert a
felon's fate, lesser apostles of Truth may endure human
brutality without murmuring, rejoicing to enter into
fellowship with him through the triumphal arch of
Truth and Love.
Service and worship
40:25
Our heavenly Father, divine Love, demands that all
men should follow the example of our Master and his
apostles and not merely worship his personal-
ity. It is sad that the phrase divine service
has come so generally to mean public worship instead of
daily deeds.
Within the veil
40:31
The nature of Christianity is peaceful and blessed,
but in order to enter into the kingdom, the anchor of
41:1
hope must be cast beyond the veil of matter into the
Shekinah into which Jesus has passed before us; and
this advance beyond matter must come
through the joys and triumphs of the right-
eous as well as through their sorrows and afflictions.
Like our Master, we must depart from material sense
into the spiritual sense of being.
The thorns and flowers
41:8
The God-inspired walk calmly on though it be with
bleeding footprints, and in the hereafter they will reap
what they now sow. The pampered hypo-
crite may have a flowery pathway here, but
he cannot forever break the Golden Rule and escape the
penalty due.
Healing early lost
41:14
The proofs of Truth, Life, and Love, which Jesus gave
by casting out error and healing the sick, completed his
earthly mission; but in the Christian Church
this demonstration of healing was early lost,
about three centuries after the crucifixion. No ancient
school of philosophy, materia medica, or scholastic theol-
ogy ever taught or demonstrated the divine healing of
absolute Science.
Immortal achieval
41:22
Jesus foresaw the reception Christian Science would have
before it was understood, but this foreknowledge hindered
him not. He fulfilled his God-mission, and
then sat down at the right hand of the Father.
Persecuted from city to city, his apostles still went about
doing good deeds, for which they were maligned and
stoned. The truth taught by Jesus, the elders scoffed at.
Why? Because it demanded more than they were willing
to practise. It was enough for them to believe in a national
Deity; but that belief, from their time to ours, has never
made a disciple who could cast out evils and heal the sick.
42:1
Jesus' life proved, divinely and scientifically, that God
is Love, whereas priest and rabbi affirmed God to be a
mighty potentate, who loves and hates. The Jewish the-
ology gave no hint of the unchanging love of God.
A belief in death
42:5
The universal belief in death is of no advantage. It
cannot make Life or Truth apparent. Death
will be found at length to be a mortal dream,
which comes in darkness and disappears with the light.
Cruel desertion
42:9
The "man of sorrows" was in no peril from salary or
popularity. Though entitled to the homage of the world
and endorsed pre-eminently by the approval
of God, his brief triumphal entry into Jerusa-
lem was followed by the desertion of all save a few friends,
who sadly followed him to the foot of the cross.
Death outdone
42:15
The resurrection of the great demonstrator of God's
power was the proof of his final triumph over body
and matter, and gave full evidence of divine
Science, – evidence so important to mortals.
The belief that man has existence or mind separate from
God is a dying error. This error Jesus met with divine
Science and proved its nothingness. Because of the won-
drous glory which God bestowed on His anointed, temp-
tation, sin, sickness, and death had no terror for Jesus.
Let men think they had killed the body! Afterwards he
would show it to them unchanged. This demonstrates
that in Christian Science the true man is governed by
God – by good, not evil – and is therefore not a mortal
but an immortal. Jesus had taught his disciples the
Science of this proof. He was here to enable them to
test his still uncomprehended saying, "He that believ-
eth on me, the works that I do shall he do also." They
must understand more fully his Life-principle by casting
43:1
out error, healing the sick, and raising the dead, even as
they did understand it after his bodily departure.
Pentecost repeated
43:3
The magnitude of Jesus' work, his material disappear-
ance before their eyes and his reappearance, all enabled
the disciples to understand what Jesus had
said. Heretofore they had only believed;
now they understood. The advent of this understanding
is what is meant by the descent of the Holy Ghost, – that
influx of divine Science which so illuminated the Pentecos-
tal Day and is now repeating its ancient history.
Convincing evidence
43:11
Jesus' last proof was the highest, the most convincing,
the most profitable to his students. The malignity of
brutal persecutors, the treason and suicide of
his betrayer, were overruled by divine Love to
the glorification of the man and of the true idea of God,
which Jesus' persecutors had mocked and tried to slay.
The final demonstration of the truth which Jesus taught,
and for which he was crucified, opened a new era for the
world. Those who slew him to stay his influence perpetu-
ated and extended it.
Divine victory
43:21
Jesus rose higher in demonstration because of the cup
of bitterness he drank. Human law had condemned
him, but he was demonstrating divine Science.
Out of reach of the barbarity of his enemies,
he was acting under spiritual law in defiance of mat-
ter and mortality, and that spiritual law sustained him.
The divine must overcome the human at every point.
The Science Jesus taught and lived must triumph over
all material beliefs about life, substance, and intelli-
gence, and the multitudinous errors growing from such
beliefs.
43:32
Love must triumph over hate. Truth and Life must
44:1
seal the victory over error and death, before the thorns
can be laid aside for a crown, the benediction follow,
"Well done, good and faithful servant," and the suprem-
acy of Spirit be demonstrated.
Jesus in the tomb
44:5
The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge
from his foes, a place in which to solve the great
problem of being. His three days' work in
the sepulchre set the seal of eternity on time.
He proved Life to be deathless and Love to be the mas-
ter of hate. He met and mastered on the basis of Chris-
tian Science, the power of Mind over matter, all the claims
of medicine, surgery, and hygiene.
44:13
He took no drugs to allay inflammation. He did not
depend upon food or pure air to resuscitate wasted
energies. He did not require the skill of a surgeon to
heal the torn palms and bind up the wounded side and
lacerated feet, that he might use those hands to remove
the napkin and winding-sheet, and that he might employ
his feet as before.
The deific naturalism
44:20
Could it be called supernatural for the God of nature
to sustain Jesus in his proof of man's truly derived power?
It was a method of surgery beyond material
art, but it was not a supernatural act. On
the contrary, it was a divinely natural act, whereby divinity
brought to humanity the understanding of the Christ‑
healing and revealed a method infinitely above that of
human invention.
Obstacles overcome
44:28
His disciples believed Jesus to be dead while he was
hidden in the sepulchre, whereas he was alive, demon-
strating within the narrow tomb the power
of Spirit to overrule mortal, material sense.
There were rock-ribbed walls in the way, and a great
45:1
stone must be rolled from the cave's mouth; but Jesus
vanquished every material obstacle, overcame every law
of matter, and stepped forth from his gloomy resting-place,
crowned with the glory of a sublime success, an everlasting
victory.
Victory over the grave
45:6
Our Master fully and finally demonstrated divine Sci-
ence in his victory over death and the grave. Jesus'
deed was for the enlightenment of men and
for the salvation of the whole world from sin,
sickness, and death. Paul writes: "For if, when we were
enemies, we were reconciled to God by the [seeming] death
of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved
by his life." Three days after his bodily burial he talked
with his disciples. The persecutors had failed to hide im-
mortal Truth and Love in a sepulchre.
The stone rolled away
45:16
Glory be to God, and peace to the struggling hearts!
Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of hu-
man hope and faith, and through the reve-
lation and demonstration of life in God, hath
elevated them to possible at-one-ment with the spiritual
idea of man and his divine Principle, Love.
After the resurrection
45:22
They who earliest saw Jesus after the resurrection
and beheld the final proof of all that he had taught,
misconstrued that event. Even his disciples
at first called him a spirit, ghost, or spectre,
for they believed his body to be dead. His reply was:
"Spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have."
The reappearing of Jesus was not the return of a spirit.
He presented the same body that he had before his cru-
cifixion, and so glorified the supremacy of Mind over
matter.
45:32
Jesus' students, not sufficiently advanced fully to un-
46:1
derstand their Master's triumph, did not perform many
wonderful works, until they saw him after his crucifixion
and learned that he had not died. This convinced them
of the truthfulness of all that he had taught.
Spiritual interpretation
46:5
In the walk to Emmaus, Jesus was known to his friends
by the words, which made their hearts burn within them,
and by the breaking of bread. The divine
Spirit, which identified Jesus thus centuries
ago, has spoken through the inspired Word and will speak
through it in every age and clime. It is revealed to the
receptive heart, and is again seen casting out evil and
healing the sick.
Corporeality and Spirit
46:13
The Master said plainly that physique was not Spirit,
and after his resurrection he proved to the physical senses
that his body was not changed until he himself
ascended, – or, in other words, rose even
higher in the understanding of Spirit, God. To convince
Thomas of this, Jesus caused him to examine the nail-
prints and the spear-wound.
Spiritual ascension
46:20
Jesus' unchanged physical condition after what seemed
to be death was followed by his exaltation above all ma-
terial conditions; and this exaltation explained
his ascension, and revealed unmistakably a
probationary and progressive state beyond the grave.
Jesus was "the way;" that is, he marked the way for
all men. In his final demonstration, called the ascen-
sion, which closed the earthly record of Jesus, he rose
above the physical knowledge of his disciples, and the
material senses saw him no more.
Pentecostal power
46:30
His students then received the Holy Ghost. By this is
meant, that by all they had witnessed and suffered, they
were roused to an enlarged understanding of divine Sci-
47:1
ence, even to the spiritual interpretation and discernment
of Jesus' teachings and demonstrations, which gave them
a faint conception of the Life which is God.
They no longer measured man by material
sense. After gaining the true idea of their glorified Master,
they became better healers, leaning no longer on matter,
but on the divine Principle of their work. The influx of
light was sudden. It was sometimes an overwhelming
power as on the Day of Pentecost.
The traitor's conspiracy
47:10
Judas conspired against Jesus. The world's ingratitude
and hatred towards that just man effected his betrayal.
The traitor's price was thirty pieces of silver
and the smiles of the Pharisees. He chose his
time, when the people were in doubt concerning Jesus'
teachings.
47:16
A period was approaching which would reveal the in-
finite distance between Judas and his Master. Judas
Iscariot knew this. He knew that the great goodness of
that Master placed a gulf between Jesus and his betrayer,
and this spiritual distance inflamed Judas' envy. The
greed for gold strengthened his ingratitude, and for a time
quieted his remorse. He knew that the world generally
loves a lie better than Truth; and so he plotted the be-
trayal of Jesus in order to raise himself in popular esti-
mation. His dark plot fell to the ground, and the
traitor fell with it.
The disciples' desertion of their Master in his last
earthly struggle was punished; each one came to a vio-
lent death except St. John, of whose death we have no
record.
Gethsemane glorified
47:31
During his night of gloom and glory in the garden,
Jesus realized the utter error of a belief in any possi-
48:1
ble material intelligence. The pangs of neglect and the
staves of bigoted ignorance smote him sorely. His stu-
dents slept. He said unto them: "Could ye
not watch with me one hour?" Could they
not watch with him who, waiting and struggling in voice-
less agony, held uncomplaining guard over a world?
There was no response to that human yearning, and so
Jesus turned forever away from earth to heaven, from
sense to Soul.
48:10
Remembering the sweat of agony which fell in holy
benediction on the grass of Gethsemane, shall the hum-
blest or mightiest disciple murmur when he drinks from the
same cup, and think, or even wish, to escape the exalt-
ing ordeal of sin's revenge on its destroyer? Truth and
Love bestow few palms until the consummation of a
life-work.
Defensive weapons
48:17
Judas had the world's weapons. Jesus had not one
of them, and chose not the world's means of defence.
"He opened not his mouth." The great dem-
onstrator of Truth and Love was silent before
envy and hate. Peter would have smitten the enemies of
his Master, but Jesus forbade him, thus rebuking re-
sentment or animal courage. He said: "Put up thy
sword."
Pilate's question
48:25
Pale in the presence of his own momentous question,
"What is Truth," Pilate was drawn into acquiescence
with the demands of Jesus' enemies. Pilate
was ignorant of the consequences of his awful
decision against human rights and divine Love, knowing
not that he was hastening the final demonstration of what
life is and of what the true knowledge of God can do for
man.
49:1
The women at the cross could have answered Pilate's
question. They knew what had inspired their devotion,
winged their faith, opened the eyes of their understand-
ing, healed the sick, cast out evil, and caused the disciples
to say to their Master: "Even the devils are subject
unto us through thy name."
Students' ingratitude
49:7
Where were the seventy whom Jesus sent forth? Were
all conspirators save eleven? Had they forgotten the
great exponent of God? Had they so soon lost
sight of his mighty works, his toils, privations,
sacrifices, his divine patience, sublime courage, and unre-
quited affection? O, why did they not gratify his last
human yearning with one sign of fidelity?
Heaven's sentinel
49:14
The meek demonstrator of good, the highest instruc-
tor and friend of man, met his earthly fate alone with
God. No human eye was there to pity, no
arm to save. Forsaken by all whom he had
blessed, this faithful sentinel of God at the highest
post of power, charged with the grandest trust of
heaven, was ready to be transformed by the renewing
of the infinite Spirit. He was to prove that the Christ
is not subject to material conditions, but is above the
reach of human wrath, and is able, through Truth,
Life, and Love, to triumph over sin, sickness, death, and
the grave.
Cruel contumely
49:26
The priests and rabbis, before whom he had meekly
walked, and those to whom he had given the highest
proofs of divine power, mocked him on the
cross, saying derisively, "He saved others;
himself he cannot save." These scoffers, who turned
"aside the right of a man before the face of the Most
High," esteemed Jesus as "stricken, smitten of God."
50:1
"He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep
before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth."
"Who shall declare his generation?" Who shall decide
what truth and love are?
A cry of despair
50:5
The last supreme moment of mockery, desertion, tor-
ture, added to an overwhelming sense of the magnitude
of his work, wrung from Jesus' lips the awful
cry, "My God, why hast Thou forsaken me?"
This despairing appeal, if made to a human parent, would
impugn the justice and love of a father who could with-
hold a clear token of his presence to sustain and bless so
faithful a son. The appeal of Jesus was made both to
his divine Principle, the God who is Love, and to himself,
Love's pure idea. Had Life, Truth, and Love forsaken
him in his highest demonstration? This was a startling
question. No! They must abide in him and he in them,
or that hour would be shorn of its mighty blessing for the
human race.
Divine Science misunderstood
50:19
If his full recognition of eternal Life had for a mo-
ment given way before the evidence of the bodily senses,
what would his accusers have said? Even
what they did say, – that Jesus' teachings
were false, and that all evidence of their cor-
rectness was destroyed by his death. But this saying
could not make it so.
The real pillory
50:26
The burden of that hour was terrible beyond human
conception. The distrust of mortal minds, disbelieving
the purpose of his mission, was a million
times sharper than the thorns which pierced
his flesh. The real cross, which Jesus bore up the hill
of grief, was the world's hatred of Truth and Love. Not
the spear nor the material cross wrung from his faithful
51:1
lips the plaintive cry, "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" It
was the possible loss of something more important than
human life which moved him, – the possible misappre-
hension of the sublimest influence of his career. This
dread added the drop of gall to his cup.
Life-power indestructible
51:6
Jesus could have withdrawn himself from his enemies.
He had power to lay down a human sense of life for his
spiritual identity in the likeness of the divine;
but he allowed men to attempt the destruc-
tion of the mortal body in order that he might furnish
the proof of immortal life. Nothing could kill this Life
of man. Jesus could give his temporal life into his
enemies' hands; but when his earth-mission was accom-
plished, his spiritual life, indestructible and eternal,
was found forever the same. He knew that matter had
no life and that real Life is God; therefore he could no
more be separated from his spiritual Life than God could
be extinguished.
Example for our salvation
51:19
His consummate example was for the salvation of us
all, but only through doing the works which he did and
taught others to do. His purpose in healing
was not alone to restore health, but to demon-
strate his divine Principle. He was inspired by God, by
Truth and Love, in all that he said and did. The motives
of his persecutors were pride, envy, cruelty, and vengeance,
inflicted on the physical Jesus, but aimed at the divine Prin-
ciple, Love, which rebuked their sensuality.
51:28
Jesus was unselfish. His spirituality separated him
from sensuousness, and caused the selfish materialist
to hate him; but it was this spirituality which enabled
Jesus to heal the sick, cast out evil, and raise the
dead.
Master's business
52:1
From early boyhood he was about his "Father's busi-
ness." His pursuits lay far apart from theirs. His mas-
ter was Spirit; their master was matter. He
served God; they served mammon. His affec-
tions were pure; theirs were carnal. His senses drank in
the spiritual evidence of health, holiness, and life; their
senses testified oppositely, and absorbed the material evi-
dence of sin, sickness, and death.
Purity's rebuke
52:9
Their imperfections and impurity felt the ever-present
rebuke of his perfection and purity. Hence the world's
hatred of the just and perfect Jesus, and the
prophet's foresight of the reception error would
give him. "Despised and rejected of men," was Isaiah's
graphic word concerning the coming Prince of Peace.
Herod and Pilate laid aside old feuds in order to unite
in putting to shame and death the best man that ever
trod the globe. To-day, as of old, error and evil again
make common cause against the exponents of truth.
Saviour's prediction
52:19
The "man of sorrows" best understood the nothing-
ness of material life and intelligence and the mighty ac-
tuality of all-inclusive God, good. These were
the two cardinal points of Mind-healing, or
Christian Science, which armed him with Love. The high-
est earthly representative of God, speaking of human
ability to reflect divine power, prophetically said to his
disciples, speaking not for their day only but for all time:
"He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do
also;" and "These signs shall follow them that believe."
Defamatory accusations
52:29
The accusations of the Pharisees were as self-contra-
dictory as their religion. The bigot, the deb-
auchee, the hypocrite, called Jesus a glutton
and a wine-bibber. They said: "He casteth out devils
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