“Humility is the stepping-stone to a higher
recognition of Deity. The mounting sense gathers
fresh forms and strange fire from the ashes of dissolving
self, and drops the world. Meekness heightens
immortal attributes, only by removing the dust that
dims them. Goodness reveals another scene and
another self seemingly rolled up in shades, but brought
to light by the evolutions of advancing thought, whereby
we discern the power of Truth and Love to heal the
sick.
“Pride is ignorance; those assume most who have
the least wisdom or experience; and they steal from
their neighbor, because they have so little of their
own.”—Miscellaneous Writings, page
1, and six lines at top of page 2.
It is not believable that the hand that wrote those
clumsy and affected sentences wrote the smooth English
of Science and Health.
It is often said in print that Mrs. Eddy claims that
God was the Author of Science and Health. Mr.
Peabody states in his pamphlet that “she says
not she but God was the Author.” I cannot
find that in her autobiography she makes this transference
of the authorship, but I think that in it she definitely
claims that she did her work under His inspiration—definitely
for her; for as a rule she is not a very definite person,
even when she seems to be trying her best to be clear
and positive. Speaking of the early days when
her Science was beginning to unfold itself and gather
form in her mind, she says (Autobiography, page 43):
“The divine hand led me into a new world of
light and Life, a fresh universe—old to
God, but new to His ‘little one.’”
She being His little one, as I understand it.
The divine hand led her. It seems to mean “God
inspired me”; but when a person uses metaphors
instead of statistics—and that is Mrs. Eddy’s
common fashion—one cannot always feel sure
about the intention.
[Page 56.] “Even the Scripture gave no direct
interpretation of the Scientific basis for demonstrating
the spiritual Principle of healing, until our Heavenly
Father saw fit, through the Key to the Scriptures,
in Science and Health, to unlock this ‘mystery
of godliness.’”
Another baffling metaphor. If she had used plain
forecastle English, and said “God wrote the
Key and I put it in my book”; or if she had said
“God furnished me the solution of the mystery
and I put it on paper”; or if she had said “God
did it all,” then we should understand; but her
phrase is open to any and all of those translations,
and is a Key which unlocks nothing—for
us. However, it seems to at least mean “God
inspired me,” if nothing more.
There was personal and intimate communion, at any
rate we get that much out of the riddles. The
connection extended to business, after the establishment
of the teaching and healing industry.
[Page 71.] “When God impelled me to set a price
on my instruction,” etc. Further down:
“God has since shown me, in multitudinous ways,
the wisdom of this decision.”
