Description
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.