Watches, Prayers, Arguments – ascribed to Mary Baker Eddy

In this age of hypnotic control, mental manipulation, subliminal suggestion, and brain-washing, the victim is often unable to defend himself from mental attacks — unless he understands the power of scientific prayer to block the influence of such mesmerism. The study of Christian Science provides this protection.

Early in her work to establish the Cause of Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy recognized the harmful, sometimes lethal, effects of silent hypnotic work. She instructed her students to handle malicious animal magnetism and aggressive mental suggestion. Workers in her home, supporting her in her work, were expected to pray daily to counteract the malicious malpractice that Mrs. Eddy was meeting. Watches, Prayers, Arguments is a collection of short, powerful treatments written or dictated by Mrs. Eddy for her workers to use in the handling of every kind of mesmerism.

One of the “Watches” states: “Mentally treat yourself that nothing can govern your actions or come to your thought that is not from divine Mind. Be strong there. So many sinister suggestions come to mind, watch! and each day commit yourself to the care of our one Parent, trust Him in all your ways for light to direct your footsteps and wisdom to enable you to separate the tares from the wheat — so that you can judge well between the human or the evil ‘suggestions’ and the good or divine impulse.” Many of these watches are included in the Blue Book, but this complete collection, with an outstanding introduction by Mr. Carpenter, is well worth having.

In this book are five hundred forms of animal magnetism that the astute Christian Scientist should recognize and handle. This thought provoking book alerts one to subtle mesmeric influence that would otherwise go unnoticed and unhandled. It includes many statements from Mrs. Eddy to her students. In his introduction, Mr. Carpenter states: “Students who lived in our Leader’s home testify that no phase of human experience was so insignificant that it did not require them to apply to it the rules of God.” He goes on to say that he “intends these watching points to constitute a timely hint to his students, to broaden their demonstration of Christian Science as Mrs. Eddy set the example in her home,” especially in regard to “any suggestion of mesmerism that would claim to becloud their comprehension of the deeper meanings of the Bible and Science and Health.”

Among the Watches are the following: “WATCH lest you become a pillar of salt, in that you do not promptly and rightly complete each demonstration. No demonstration is finished if you look back to see the destruction of the error, since looking back carries the implication that, although the unreality of the error is now being demonstrated, it was once real. “Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy tells us, is divine Science reduced to human apprehension. The former carries the admission of a human problem, while the latter does not. No demonstration is finished until you retreat into divine Science and realize that no error ever existed, or even claimed to exist; hence there was nothing to be destroyed. “The pillar of salt in the case of Lot’s wife might have represented the unfruitfulness following the fact that she looked back to effect, when all attention should be given to cause. Instead of clinging to Christian Science, one should be rising to divine Science.

“Mrs. Eddy once wrote to a student, ‘Now dear, a dream is not real! You have not been sick and cannot be sick. It is impossible, so I shall not worry. No mortal, however malicious, can make a lie true, and if they tell you that you are poisoned, it has no effect whatever, for a lie is not real, and you know this.’” “WATCH lest you become discouraged in your general mental work for humanity, because the results of your work do not appear at once. You should know that, in spite of the fact that at present you may see no results, every bit of scientific work you do is effectual, because it is the very power of God expressed, and it knows no limits.” “WATCH lest the quickening within yourself concerning animal magnetism, which comes with spiritual progress, be interpreted as an increase in its power, activity and subtlety, instead of the uncovering in your own thought of a latent fear of it, or belief in it. Error cannot be handled rightly and destroyed until one has traced all effect back to cause, and recognized that, although the mesmerism comes from outside, the yielding to it lies within your own thinking.

This unique transcript is a collection of brief passages — short, powerful statements of truth — which explain how to establish spiritual healing on a scientific basis, how to pray, how to counteract malicious malpractice. Collectanea relates Christian Science to daily life by bringing out its practicality and by showing how it can meet your every need here and now. Each of these passages, some only a sentence or two, imparts the spiritual strength and understanding that Mrs. Eddy expressed so naturally. To quote a few passages from the collection: “Trust your God, our God in divine Science. There is no other way than for us to TRUST ALWAYS. This I have proven consistently for forty years. Can you, will you, do the same, my beloved student? Remember this, and live continually in the thought and attitude of trust, confident expectation of good. Nothing else can do for you what this can.” “We understand as Christian Scientists that our varied experiences are things of the past; not so the marvelous sense of God’s presence resulting therefrom! God has placed us all in our orbit, and like the stars we are held there by His power. One does not interfere with another and we cannot fall out. Also, God is abundance. God giveth the only abundance. Mental malpractice or error cannot rob us of that abundance, either mentally, morally, physically, or intellectually. This demonstrated proves the power of Life, Truth and Love for every human need.” “There is no fatal mistake; there is no unforgivable wrong; there is no unpardonable sin; there is no permanent injury; there is no incurable disease; there is no such thing as too late.” “There is no fear, conscious or unconscious, that can restrain the power of divine Love to heal.”

These forty-six unpublished essays give inspiring and healing thoughts from the pen of Mrs. Eddy. On page after page she instructs, inspires, admonishes, and reveals Truth as only she can. Included are essays on “Supply”; “Money Thought”; “Place”; “Man and Woman.” In “Supply” she writes, “What is Life? Life is divine Mind. What is Mind? Mind is the element or substance that thinks. Mind is the only thinker. Nothing else thinks. There is nothing else to think. There is nothing either good or bad until something appears on the scene. Everything is ‘without form and void’ until this something appears. Mind is the primal element. Thinking is this Mind’s activity. Therefore Mind and its thinking is all there is. Then we see that Mind and its thinking is the basis of life. Everything seen in the world today proceeds from thinking. “Visible money, whether in gold, silver, or paper denomination, like the human body, and all other visible objects, is merely thought objectified, manifestation. . . . “This is a very simple thing to understand. Mind is money. Mind is All. There could not be Mind and money, for then Mind would not be All. Money is not your supply. Mind is your supply, and you can have just as much money as you can think . . . for money comes from intelligence, not unintelligence. . . . “Declare persistently that you have money, just as you declare the thought over and over that you have health, that you are perfectly well and you know it, and that the world’s false sense of money cannot touch you, and you will have all you need at all times. If you feel fear regarding money or your supply of it, then you will experience or sense this fear of not having sufficient. It will objectify one way or the other according to your thoughts. Use persistent thought in the direction in which you want the experience to objectify. Then you must learn to stand.” In her essay on “Place,” she tells us: “The place you seek, is seeking you. The place you need, needs you. Divine Principle brings need and supply together for mutual good. [God] wisely, and intelligently, and lovingly controls, guides, protects, prospers, and blesses this union of His idea (man) and this normal joyous activity (work).” This a collection of essays on subjects that relate to our present experience.

In his introduction to this compilation, Gilbert Carpenter says of Fragments: “This present book is not a work for scholastic study. It is a treasure trove, a collection of gems of spiritual thoughts.” These gems include items attributed to Mrs. Eddy — articles, sermons, letters, interviews, and notes she made on various subjects. This book sheds light on the deeper teachings of Christian Science. So often a single sentence by Mrs. Eddy illumines consciousness with new insight into Christian Science. In this collection, we have this paragraph: “The most precious of all possessions is power over ourselves, power to withstand evil, to bear trials, to confront danger, power over pleasure and pain, power to follow our convictions however resisted they are by menace and scorn, the power of calm reliance in scenes of darkness and revenge. No truth is more certain than this, that man is the arbiter of his own fate. The mutations of time, the periods of leaf and flower, enormous cycles of geological and astronomical change, are the motions of continual Mind photographed, the formations and development of an exhaustless mental energy. Even the forms of decay are but marks of regeneration, the secret alembics of Life. There is something in the universe besides material forms; for they are moved by a power external to themselves, and the substance upon which they are based is greater than they. As to the Truth and power of this intelligence that acts above and beyond the forms of sense, we cannot doubt. We are connected with a higher order of realities than those we see around us. . . .” As we read these thoughts from the pen of Mrs. Eddy, one is impressed at the broad scope of her ability to relate Christian Science to the entire human scene, and to make its healing power relevant to problems common to us all.