“Oh God, I’m going to now read this Christian Science text… and it’s going to be heavy sledding… and I was stunned to read this absolutely magnificent kind of prose… Mary Baker Eddy was a wonderful writer… she writes gorgeously… and I kind of fell in love with it… I didn’t become a Christian Scientist, but I found it tremendously moving.”
– Tony Kushner, talking about the title to his new play, The Intelligent Homosexual’s Guide to Capitalism and Socialism with a Key to the Scriptures.  http://www.kqed.org/a/forum/R201405151000

Although I might not be considered a very religious person, I am very grateful for what the study of Christian Science has brought into my life – the healings I’ve experienced and my growing understanding of the power and presence of Love. And I’m very grateful to Mary Baker Eddy, the author of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, for giving us the textbook for Christian Science. Science and Health was published back in 1875, but it’s still timely today, 150 years later. Even in 1875 Eddy was talking about consciousness, the nothingness of matter, invention and discovery, evolution, and atomic power – topics that we see being discussed among those who study quantum physics and other physical sciences today. Prophetically, Eddy wrote (on p. 125): “The astronomer will no longer look up to the stars, – he will look out from them upon the universe; and the florist will find his flower before its seed. Thus matter will finally be proved nothing more than a mortal belief, wholly inadequate to affect a man through its supposed organic action or supposed existence. Error will be no longer used in stating truth. The problem of nothingness, or ‘dust to dust,’ will be solved, and mortal mind will be without form and void, for mortality will cease when man beholds himself God’s reflection, even as man sees his reflection in a glass.”

And the topics that are still being debated on religion discussion forums today are topics that Mary Baker Eddy addressed and dealt with almost 150 years ago. God, she told us, was not an anthropomorphic being, but “God” was another name for Love, Truth, Life, Spirit, Mind, Soul, Principle. Hell and heaven were not literal places, she told us, but states of mind. For her, the story of Adam and Eve was an allegory, not an actual event. She was progressive, far-thinking – a visionary.

I’ve read Science and Health from beginning to end probably five or six times. Most recently, I read it through last spring – and, once again, passages popped out at me for the first time that I’d never seen before. It’s, like, every time I read Science and Health the exactly right thought presents itself to me.

I thought that to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the publication of Science and Health, I might post some of my favorite passages from the book. But how to choose?! There are so many passages that speak to me and have brought me clarity and healing. I’m going to try to limit myself to twenty-five of my most favorite passages, but this is not going to be easy for me. Okay. Here goes:

The opening sentence to the textbook is profound:
“To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is big with blessings.” (p. vii)
(What a great way to start the day, right?! – expect blessings! – expect good!)

“Divine Love always has met and always will meet every human need.” (p. 494)
(Love supplies all good, and withholds no good.)

“No power can withstand divine Love.” (p. 224)
(Love the hell out of the world.)

“Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and bestowals. It is the open fount which cries, ‘Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters.'” (p. 13)
(Love loves all Her creation, without discrimination, exclusion, or bias. Loves tells me I am Her precious child.)

“Love must triumph over hate.” (p. 43)
(A promise!)

“Human hate has no legitimate mandate and no kingdom. Love is enthroned.” (p. 454)
(Love is the only power. Love’s government is the only legitimate government.)

“Meet every adverse circumstance as its master.” (p. 419)
(We aren’t victims. As expressions of God, we express all the power of God.)

“Harmony in man is as real and immortal as in music. Discord is unreal and mortal.” (p. 304)
(If it’s discordant, it’s not music; if it’s discordant, it’s not a part of us, or any of God’s creation.)

“At all times and under all circumstances, overcome evil with good. Know thyself, and God will supply the wisdom and the occasion for a victory over evil. Clad in the panoply of Love, human hatred cannot reach you.” (p. 571)
(Good always overcomes evil.)

“Heaven is not a locality, but a divine state of Mind.” (p. 291)
(If we feel joy and love we’re in heaven right now.)

“Fear never stopped being or its action.” (p. 151)
(Fear has no power over us.)

“We should master fear, instead of cultivating it.” (p. 197)
(Fear is not the boss of us.)

“The whole earth will be transformed by Truth on its pinions of light, chasing away the darkness of error.” (p. 1910
(Truth wins.)

“Eternal Truth is changing the universe.” (p. 255)
(Truth transforms.)

“…the light of ever-present Love illumines the universe. Hence the eternal wonder, – that infinite God forms and peoples the universe.”
(Imagine all of infinity filled with expressions of Love!)

“Happiness is spiritual, born of Truth and Love. It cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to share it.” (p. 57)
(No one can be denied Truth and Love. Happiness comes from sharing Truth and Love.)

“If thought is startled at the strong claim of Science fo the supremacy of God, or Truth, and doubts the supremacy of good, ought we not, contrariwise, to be astounded at the vigorous claims of evil and doubt them, and no longer think it natural to love sin and unnatural to forsake it, – no longer imagine evil to be ever-present and good absent? Truth should not seem so surprising and unnatural as error, and error should not seem so real as truth. Sickness should not seem so real as health.” (p. 130-131)
(The thought that disease is unnatural helped bring me a healing of what seemed to be an infected tooth this summer. I came to the understanding that there is no bad substance, and there is no lack of good substance, and it’s not natural to be diseased.)

“We are sometimes led to believe that darkness is as real as light; but Science affirms darkness to be only a mortal sense of the absence of light, at the coming of which darkness loses the appearance of reality. So sin and sorrow, disease and death, are the suppositional absence of Life, God, and flee as phantoms of error before truth and love.” ( p. 215)
(This helps me answer the question, “Where does the bad stuff come from?” Just as darkness doesn’t have a source, the bad stuff doesn’t have a source – it doesn’t come from anywhere – it’s a big nothing.)

“Mind is the master of the corporeal senses, and can conquer sickness, sin, and death. Exercise this God-given authority. Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action. Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on man.” (p. 393)
(My mortal body is not the boss of me and I don’t need to look to it to find out how I’m doing. I am the boss of my body.)

“…progress is the law of God…” (p. 233)
and “In Christian Science there is never a retrograde step, never a return to positions outgrown.” (p. 74)
(We don’t need to fear losing ground or losing progress.)

“The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the portal of humanity.” (p. vii.)
(I find this bolstering.)

“Spiritual rationality and free thought accompany approaching Science, and cannot be put down. They will emancipate humanity, and supplant unscientific means and so-called laws.” (p. 223)
(How reassuring!)

“Christian Scientists must live under the constant pressure of the apostolic command to come out from the material world and be separate. They must renounce aggression, oppression and the pride of power. Christianity, with the crown of Love upon her brow, must be their queen of life.” (p. 451)
(A mission and a purpose!)

And I’m going to include the 23rd Psalm (p. 578) , with its spiritual interpretation by Mary Baker Eddy. (Last spring, the line “Love anointeth my head with oil…” brought me a healing of an uncomfortable welty skin condition on the back of my head and down my neck and back – I could feel Love pouring over my skin and the next morning I woke up healed.):

[DIVINE LOVE] is my shepherd; I shall not want.
[LOVE] maketh me to lie down in green pastures:
[LOVE] leadeth me beside the still waters.
[LOVE] restoreth my soul [spiritual sense]: [Love] leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for His name’s sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for [LOVE] is with me; [LOVE’s] rod and [LOVE’S] staff they comfort me.
[LOVE] prepareth a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: [LOVE] anointeth my head with oil; my cup runneth over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house [the consciousness] of [LOVE] for ever.

Okay. That’s about 25, I guess. I know I’ll think of more good ones as soon as I publish this post.

Click here to read, or listen to, the full text of Science of Health with Key to the Scriptures for free. The link will take you to the official Christian Science website, which has provided free access to the Christian Science textbook.