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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.12.12.00*END* + + + + + +This etext was produced by Dave Keyston <heal@christianscience.org> + + + + + +Science and Health +With +Key to The Scriptures + +by MARY BAKER EDDY + + + + +YE shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. JOHN viii. 32. + +THERE is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so. SHAKESPEARE + +OH! Thou hast heard my prayer; +And I am blest! +This is Thy high behest :- +Thou here, and /everywhere/. MARY BAKER EDDY + + + + +SCIENCE AND HEALTH - Table Of Contents + +PREFACE +CHAPTER I - PRAYER +CHAPTER II - ATONEMENT AND EUCHARIST +CHAPTER III - MARRIAGE +CHAPTER IV - CHRISTIAN SCIENCE VERSUS SPIRITUALISM +CHAPTER V - ANIMAL MAGNETISM UNMASKED +CHAPTER VI - SCIENCE, THEOLOGY, MEDICINE +CHAPTER VII - PHYSIOLOGY +CHAPTER VIII - FOOTSTEPS OF TRUTH +CHAPTER IX - CREATION +CHAPTER X - SCIENCE OF BEING +CHAPTER XI - SOME OBJECTIONS ANSWERED +CHAPTER XII - CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PRACTICE +CHAPTER XIII - TEACHING CHRISTIAN SCIENCE +CHAPTER XIV - RECAPITULATION + +KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES +CHAPTER XV - GENESIS +CHAPTER XVI - THE APOCALYPSE +CHAPTER XVII - GLOSSARY +CHAPTER XVIII - FRUITAGE + + + + +PREFACE + +vi:1 To those leaning on the sustaining infinite, to-day is + big with blessings. The wakeful shepherd beholds +vi:3 the first faint morning beams, ere cometh the full radiance + of a risen day. So shone the pale star to the prophet- + shepherds; yet it traversed the night, and came where, in +vi:6 cradled obscurity, lay the Bethlehem babe, the human + herald of Christ, Truth, who would make plain to be- + nighted understanding the way of salvation through Christ +vi:9 Jesus, till across a night of error should dawn the morn- + ing beams and shine the guiding star of being. The Wise- + men were led to behold and to follow this daystar of +vi:12 divine Science, lighting the way to eternal harmony. + + The time for thinkers has come. Truth, independent + of doctrines and time-honored systems, knocks at the +vi:15 portal of humanity. Contentment with the past and + the cold conventionality of materialism are crumbling + away. Ignorance of God is no longer the stepping- +vi:18 stone to faith. The only guarantee of obedience is a + right apprehension of Him whom to know aright is + Life eternal. Though empires fall, "the Lord shall +vi:21 reign forever." + + A book introduces new thoughts, but it cannot make + them speedily understood. It is the task of the sturdy +vi:24 pioneer to hew the tall oak and to cut the rough + granite. Future ages must declare what the pioneer + has accomplished. + +vi:27 Since the author's discovery of the might of Truth in +vii:1 the treatment of disease as well as of sin, her system has + been fully tested and has not been found wanting; but +vii:3 to reach the heights of Christian Science, man must live + in obedience to its divine Principle. To develop the full + might of this Science, the discords of corporeal sense +vii:6 must yield to the harmony of spiritual sense, even as the + science of music corrects false tones and gives sweet con- + cord to sound. + +vii:9 Theology and physics teach that both Spirit and + matter are real and good, whereas the fact is that + Spirit is good and real, and matter is Spirit's oppo- +vii:12 site. The question, What is Truth, is answered by + demonstration, by healing both disease and sin; and + this demonstration shows that Christian healing con- +vii:15 fers the most health and makes the best men. On this + basis Christian Science will have a fair fight. Sickness + has been combated for centuries by doctors using ma- +vii:18 terial remedies; but the question arises, Is there less + sickness because of these practitioners? A vigorous + "No" is the response deducible from two connate +vii:21 facts, - the reputed longevity of the Antediluvians, + and the rapid multiplication and increased violence of + diseases since the flood. + +vii:24 In the author's work, RETROSPECTION AND INTROSPEC- + TION, may be found a biographical sketch, narrating + experiences which led her, in the year 1866, to the dis- +vii:27 covery of the system that she denominated Christian + Science. As early as 1862 she began to write down and + give to friends the results of her Scriptural study, for +vii:30 the Bible was her sole teacher; but these compositions + were crude, the first steps of a child in the newly dis- + covered world of Spirit. + +ix:1 She also began to jot down her thoughts on the + main subject, but these jottings were only infantile +ix:3 lispings of Truth. A child drinks in the outward world + through the eyes and rejoices in the draught. He is + as sure of the world's existence as he is of his own; yet +ix:6 he cannot describe the world. He finds a few words, + and with these he stammeringly attempts to convey his + feeling. Later, the tongue voices the more definite +ix:9 thought, though still imperfectly. + + So was it with the author. As a certain poet says of + himself, she "lisped in numbers, for the numbers +ix:12 came." Certain essays written at that early date are + still in circulation among her first pupils; but they are + feeble attempts to state the Principle and practice of +ix:15 Christian healing, and are not complete nor satisfac- + tory expositions of Truth. To-day, though rejoicing + in some progress, she still finds herself a willing dis- +ix:18 ciple at the heavenly gate, waiting for the Mind of + Christ. + + Her first pamphlet on Christian Science was copy- +ix:21 righted in 1870; but it did not appear in print until + 1876, as she had learned that this Science must be + 1876, as she had learned that this Science must be + demonstrated by healing, before a work on the subject +ix:24 could be profitably studied. From 1867 until 1875, + copies were, however, in friendly circulation. + + Before writing this work, SCIENCE AND HEALTH, she +ix:27 made copious notes of Scriptural exposition, which + have never been published. This was during the years + 1867 and 1868. These efforts show her comparative +ix:30 ignorance of the stupendous Life-problem up to that + time, and the degrees by which she came at length + to its solution; but she values them as a parent +x:1 may treasure the memorials of a child's growth, and + she would not have them changed. + +x:3 The first edition of SCIENCE AND HEALTH was pub- + lished in 1875. Various books on mental healing have + since been issued, most of them incorrect in theory +x:6 and filled with plagiarisms from SCIENCE AND HEALTH. + They regard the human mind as a healing agent, + whereas this mind is not a factor in the Principle of +x:9 Christian Science. A few books, however, which are + based on this book, are useful. + + The author has not compromised conscience to suit +x:12 the general drift of thought, but has bluntly and hon- + estly given the text of Truth. She has made no effort + to embellish, elaborate, or treat in full detail so in- +x:15 finite a theme. By thousands of well-authenticated + cases of healing, she and her students have proved the + worth of her teachings. These cases for the most part +x:18 have been abandoned as hopeless by regular medical + attendants. Few invalids will turn to God till all + physical supports have failed, because there is so little +x:21 faith in His disposition and power to heal disease. + + The divine Principle of healing is proved in the + personal experience of any sincere seeker of Truth. Its +x:24 purpose is good, and its practice is safer and more po- + tent than that of any other sanitary method. The un- + biased Christian thought is soonest touched by Truth, +x:27 and convinced of it. Only those quarrel with her + method who do not understand her meaning, or dis- + cerning the truth, come not to the light lest their +x:30 works be reproved. No intellectual proficiency is req- + uisite in the learner, but sound morals are most de- + sirable. + +xi:1 Many imagine that the phenomena of physical heal- + ing in Christian Science present only a phase of the +xi:3 action of the human mind, which action in some unex- + plained way results in the cure of disease. On the con- + trary, Christian Science rationally explains that all +xi:6 other pathological methods are the fruits of human + faith in matter, faith in the workings, not of Spirit, + but of the fleshly mind which must yield to Science. + +xi:9 The physical healing of Christian Science results + now, as in Jesus' time, from the operation of divine + Principle, before which sin and disease lose their real- +xi:12 ity in human consciousness and disappear as naturally + and as necessarily as darkness gives place to light and + sin to reformation. Now, as then, these mighty works +xi:15 are not supernatural, but supremely natural. They are + the sign of Immanuel, or "God with us," a divine + influence ever present in human consciousness and re- +xi:18 peating itself, coming now as was promised aforetime, + + To preach deliverance to the captives [of sense], + And recovering of sight to the blind, +xi:21 To set at liberty them that are bruised. + + When God called the author to proclaim His Gospel + to this age, there came also the charge to plant and +xi:24 water His vineyard. + + The first school of Christian Science Mind-healing + was started by the author with only one student in +xi:27 Lynn, Massachusetts, about the year 1867. In 1881, + she opened the Massachusetts Metaphysical College in + Boston, under the seal of the Commonwealth, a law +xi:30 relative to colleges having been passed, which enabled + her to get this institution chartered for medical pur- +xii:1 poses. No charters were granted to Christian Scien- + tists for such institutions after 1883, and up to that +xii:3 date, hers was the only College of this character which + had been established in the United States, where + Christian Science was first introduced. + +xii:6 During seven years over four thousand students + were taught by the author in this College. Meanwhile + she was pastor of the first established Church of +xii:9 Christ, Scientist; President of the first Christian Sci- + entist Association, convening monthly; publisher of + her own works; and (for a portion of this time) sole +xii:12 editor and publisher of the Christian Science Journal, + the first periodical issued by Christian Scientists. She + closed her College, October 29, 1889, in the height of +xii:15 its prosperity with a deep-lying conviction that the + next two years of her life should be given to the prep- + aration of the revision of SCIENCE AND HEALTH, which +xii:18 was published in 1891. She retained her charter, and + as its President, reopened the College in 1899 as auxil- + iary to her church. Until June 10, 1907, she had never +xii:21 read this book throughout consecutively in order to elu- + cidate her idealism. + + In the spirit of Christ's charity, as one who "hopeth +xii:24 all things, endureth all things," and is joyful to bear + consolation to the sorrowing and healing to the sick, + she commits these pages to honest seekers for Truth. + + MARY BAKER EDDY + + NOTE. - The author takes no patients, + and declines medical consultation. + + + + + CHAPTER I - PRAYER + + For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this + mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and + shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those + things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have + whatsoever he saith. Therefore I say unto you, What things + soever ye desire when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, + and ye shall have them. + Your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask + Him. - CHRIST JESUS. + +1:1 THE prayer that reforms the sinner and heals the + sick is an absolute faith that all things are +1:3 possible to God,- a spiritual understanding of Him, + an unselfed love. Regardless of what another may say + or think on this subject, I speak from experience. +1:6 Prayer, watching, and working, combined with self-im- + molation, are God's gracious means for accomplishing + whatever has been successfully done for the Christian- +1:9 ization and health of mankind. + + Thoughts unspoken are not unknown to the divine + Mind. Desire is prayer; and no loss can occur from +1:12 trusting God with our desires, that they may be + moulded and exalted before they take form in words + and in deeds. + + Right motives + +2:1 What are the motives for prayer? Do we pray to + make ourselves better or to benefit those who hear us, +2:3 to enlighten the infinite or to be heard of + men? Are we benefited by praying? Yes, + the desire which goes forth hungering after righteous- +2:6 ness is blessed of our Father, and it does not return + unto us void. + + Deity unchangeable + + God is not moved by the breath of praise to do more +2:9 than He has already done, nor can the infinite do less + than bestow all good, since He is unchang- + ing wisdom and Love. We can do more for +2:12 ourselves by humble fervent petitions, but the All-lov- + ing does not grant them simply on the ground of lip- + service, for He already knows all. + +2:15 Prayer cannot change the Science of being, but it + tends to bring us into harmony with it. Goodness at- + tains the demonstration of Truth. A request that +2:18 God will save us is not all that is required. The mere + habit of pleading with the divine Mind, as one pleads + with a human being, perpetuates the belief in God as +2:21 humanly circumscribed,- an error which impedes spirit- + ual growth. + + God's standard + + God is Love. Can we ask Him to be more? God is +2:24 intelligence. Can we inform the infinite Mind of any- + thing He does not already comprehend? + Do we expect to change perfection? Shall +2:27 we plead for more at the open fount, which is pour- + ing forth more than we accept? The unspoken desire + does bring us nearer the source of all existence and +2:30 blessedness. + + Asking God to /be/ God is a vain repetition. God is + "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever;" and +3:1 He who is immutably right will do right without being + reminded of His province. The wisdom of man is not +3:3 sufficient to warrant him in advising God. + + The spiritual mathematics + + Who would stand before a blackboard, and pray the + principle of mathematics to solve the problem? The +3:6 rule is already established, and it is our + task to work out the solution. Shall we + ask the divine Principle of all goodness to do His own +3:9 work? His work is done, and we have only to avail + ourselves of God's rule in order to receive His bless- + ing, which enables us to work out our own salvation. + +3:12 The Divine Being must be reflected by man, - else + man is not the image and likeness of the patient, + tender, and true, the One "altogether lovely;" but to +3:15 understand God is the work of eternity, and demands + absolute consecration of thought, energy, and desire. + + Prayerful ingratitude + + How empty are our conceptions of Deity! We admit +3:18 theoretically that God is good, omnipotent, omni- + present, infinite, and then we try to give + information to this infinite Mind. We plead +3:21 for unmerited pardon and for a liberal outpouring of + benefactions. Are we really grateful for the good + already received? Then we shall avail ourselves of the +3:24 blessings we have, and thus be fitted to receive more. + Gratitude is much more than a verbal expression of + thanks. Action expresses more gratitude than speech. + +3:27 If we are ungrateful for Life, Truth, and Love, and + yet return thanks to God for all blessings, we are in- + sincere and incur the sharp censure our Master pro- +3:30 nounces on hypocrites. In such a case, the only + acceptable prayer is to put the finger on the lips and + remember our blessings. While the heart is far from +4:1 divine Truth and Love, we cannot conceal the ingrati- + tude of barren lives. + + Efficacious petitions + +4:3 What we most need is the prayer of fervent desire + for growth in grace, expressed in patience, meekness, + love, and good deeds. To keep the com- +4:6 mandments of our Master and follow his + example, is our proper debt to him and the only + worthy evidence of our gratitude for all that he has +4:9 done. Outward worship is not of itself sufficient to + express loyal and heartfelt gratitude, since he has + said: "If ye love me, keep my commandments." + +4:12 The habitual struggle to be always good is unceas- + ing prayer. Its motives are made manifest in the + blessings they bring,- blessings which, even if not +4:15 acknowledged in audible words, attest our worthiness + to be partakers of Love. + + Watchfulness requisite + + Simply asking that we may love God will never +4:18 make us love Him; but the longing to be better + and holier, expressed in daily watchful- + ness and in striving to assimilate more of +4:21 the divine character, will mould and fashion us + anew, until we awake in His likeness. We reach the + Science of Christianity through demonstration of the +4:24 divine nature; but in this wicked world goodness + will "be evil spoken of," and patience must bring + experience. + + Veritable devotion + +4:27 Audible prayer can never do the works of spiritual + understanding, which regenerates; but silent prayer, + watchfulness, and devout obedience enable +4:30 us to follow Jesus' example. Long prayers, + superstition, and creeds clip the strong pinions of love, + and clothe religion in human forms. Whatever mate- +5:1 rializes worship hinders man's spiritual growth and keeps + him from demonstrating his power over error. + + Sorrow and reformation + +5:3 Sorrow for wrong-doing is but one step towards reform + and the very easiest step. The next and great step re- + quired by wisdom is the test of our sincerity, +5:6 - namely, reformation. To this end we are + placed under the stress of circumstances. Temptation + bids us repeat the offence, and woe comes in return for +5:9 what is done. So it will ever be, till we learn that there + is no discount in the law of justice and that we must pay + "the uttermost farthing." The measure ye mete "shall +5:12 be measured to you again," and it will be full "and run- + ning over." + + Saints and sinners get their full award, but not always +5:15 in this world. The followers of Christ drank his cup. + Ingratitude and persecution filled it to the brim; but God + pours the riches of His love into the understanding and +5:18 affections, giving us strength according to our day. Sin- + ners flourish "like a green bay tree;" but, looking farther, + the Psalmist could see their end, - the destruction of sin +5:21 through suffering. + + Cancellation of human sin + + Prayer is not to be used as a confessional to cancel sin. + Such an error would impede true religion. Sin is forgiven +5:24 only as it is destroyed by Christ, - Truth and + Life. If prayer nourishes the belief that sin is + cancelled, and that man is made better merely by praying, +5:27 prayer is an evil. He grows worse who continues in sin + because he fancies himself forgiven. + + Diabolism destroyed + + An apostle says that the Son of God [Christ] came to +5:30 "destroy the /works/ of the devil." We should + follow our divine Exemplar, and seek the de- + struction of all evil works, error and disease included. +6:1 We cannot escape the penalty due for sin. The Scrip- + tures say, that if we deny Christ, " he also will deny us." + + Pardon and amendment + +6:3 Divine Love corrects and governs man. Men may + pardon, but this divine Principle alone reforms the + sinner. God is not separate from the wis- +6:6 dom He bestows. The talents He gives we + must improve. Calling on Him to forgive our work + badly done or left undone, implies the vain supposition +6:9 that we have nothing to do but to ask pardon, and + that afterwards we shall be free to repeat the offence. + + To cause suffering as the result of sin, is the means +6:12 of destroying sin. Every supposed pleasure in sin + will furnish more than its equivalent of pain, until be- + lief in material life and sin is destroyed. To reach +6:15 heaven, the harmony of being, we must understand + the divine Principle of being. + + Mercy without partiality + + "God is Love." More than this we cannot ask, +6:18 higher we cannot look, farther we cannot go. To + suppose that God forgives or punishes sin + according as His mercy is sought or un- +6:21 sought, is to misunderstand Love and to make prayer + the safety-valve for wrong-doing. + + Divine severity + + Jesus uncovered and rebuked sin before he cast it +6:24 out. Of a sick woman he said that Satan had bound + her, and to Peter he said, "Thou art an of- + fence unto me." He came teaching and +6:27 showing men how to destroy sin, sickness, and death. + He said of the fruitless tree, "[It] is hewn down." + + It is believed by many that a certain magistrate, +6:30 who lived in the time of Jesus, left this record: "His + rebuke is fearful." The strong language of our Mas- + ter confirms this description. + +7:1 The only civil sentence which he had for error was, + "Get thee behind me, Satan." Still stronger evidence +7:3 that Jesus' reproof was pointed and pungent is found + in his own words,- showing the necessity for such + forcible utterance, when he cast out devils and healed +7:6 the sick and sinning. The relinquishment of error de- + prives material sense of its false claims. + + Audible praying + + Audible prayer is impressive; it gives momentary +7:9 solemnity and elevation to thought. But does it pro- + duce any lasting benefit? Looking deeply + into these things, we find that "a zeal . . . +7:12 not according to knowledge" gives occasion for reac- + tion unfavorable to spiritual growth, sober resolve, and + wholesome perception of God's requirements. The mo- +7:15 tives for verbal prayer may embrace too much love of + applause to induce or encourage Christian sentiment. + + Emotional utterances + + Physical sensation, not Soul, produces material ec- +7:18 stasy and emotion. If spiritual sense always guided + men, there would grow out of ecstatic mo- + ments a higher experience and a better life +7:21 with more devout self-abnegation and purity. A self- + satisfied ventilation of fervent sentiments never makes + a Christian. God is not influenced by man. The "di- +7:24 vine ear" is not an auditory nerve. It is the all-hearing + and all-knowing Mind, to whom each need of man is + always known and by whom it will be supplied. + + Danger from audible prayer + +7:27 The danger from prayer is that it may lead us into temp- + tation. By it we may become involuntary hypocrites, ut- + tering desires which are not real and consoling +7:30 ourselves in the midst of sin with the recollection + that we have prayed over it or mean to ask for- + giveness at some later day. Hypocrisy is fatal to religion. + +8:1 A wordy prayer may afford a quiet sense of self- + justification, though it makes the sinner a hypocrite. +8:3 We never need to despair of an honest heart; but + there is little hope for those who come only spasmodi- + cally face to face with their wickedness and then seek to +8:6 hide it. Their prayers are indexes which do not correspond + with their character. They hold secret fellowship with + sin, and such externals are spoken of by Jesus as "like +8:9 unto whited sepulchres . . . full . . . of all uncleanness." + + Aspiration and love + + If a man, though apparently fervent and prayerful, + is impure and therefore insincere, what must be the +8:12 comment upon him? If he reached the + loftiness of his prayer, there would be no + occasion for comment. If we feel the aspiration, hu- +8:15 mility, gratitude, and love which our words express,- + this God accepts; and it is wise not to try to deceive + ourselves or others, for "there is nothing covered that +8:18 shall not be revealed." Professions and audible pray- + ers are like charity in one respect,- they "cover the + multitude of sins." Praying for humility with what- +8:21 ever fervency of expression does not always mean a + desire for it. If we turn away from the poor, we are + not ready to receive the reward of Him who blesses +8:24 the poor. We confess to having a very wicked heart + and ask that it may be laid bare before us, but do + we not already know more of this heart than we are +8:27 willing to have our neighbor see? + + Searching the heart + + We should examine ourselves and learn what is the + affection and purpose of the heart, for in this way +8:30 only can we learn what we honestly are. If a + friend informs us of a fault, do we listen pa- + tiently to the rebuke and credit what is said? Do we not +9:1 rather give thanks that we are "not as other men"? + During many years the author has been most grateful +9:3 for merited rebuke. The wrong lies in unmerited cen- + sure,- in the falsehood which does no one any good. + + Summit of aspiration + + The test of all prayer lies in the answer to these +9:6 questions: Do we love our neighbor better because of + this asking? Do we pursue the old selfish- + ness, satisfied with having prayed for some- +9:9 thing better, though we give no evidence of the sin- + cerity of our requests by living consistently with our + prayer? If selfishness has given place to kindness, +9:12 we shall regard our neighbor unselfishly, and bless + them that curse us; but we shall never meet this great + duty simply by asking that it may be done. There is +9:15 a cross to be taken up before we can enjoy the fruition + of our hope and faith. + + Practical religion + + Dost thou "love the Lord thy God with all thy +9:18 heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind"? + This command includes much, even the sur- + render of all merely material sensation, affec- +9:21 tion, and worship. This is the El Dorado of Christianity. + It involves the Science of Life, and recognizes only the + divine control of Spirit, in which Soul is our master, +9:24 and material sense and human will have no place. + + The chalice sacrificial + + Are you willing to leave all for Christ, for Truth, and + so be counted among sinners? No! Do you really desire +9:27 to attain this point? No! Then why make long + prayers about it and ask to be Christians, + since you do not care to tread in the footsteps of our +9:30 dear Master? If unwilling to follow his example, why + pray with the lips that you may be partakers of his + nature? Consistent prayer is the desire to do right. +10:1 Prayer means that we desire to walk and will walk in + the light so far as we receive it, even though with bleed- +10:3 ing footsteps, and that waiting patiently on the Lord, + we will leave our real desires to be rewarded by Him. + + The world must grow to the spiritual understanding +10:6 of prayer. If good enough to profit by Jesus' cup of + earthly sorrows, God will sustain us under these sor- + rows. Until we are thus divinely qualified and are +10:9 willing to drink his cup, millions of vain repetitions + will never pour into prayer the unction of Spirit in + demonstration of power and "with signs following." +10:12 Christian Science reveals a necessity for overcoming the + world, the flesh, and evil, and thus destroying all error. + + Seeking is not sufficient. It is striving that enables +10:15 us to enter. Spiritual attainments open the door to a + higher understanding of the divine Life. + + Perfunctory prayers + + One of the forms of worship in Thibet is to carry a +10:18 praying-machine through the streets, and stop at the + doors to earn a penny by grinding out a + prayer. But the advance guard of progress has +10:21 paid for the privilege of prayer the price of persecution. + + Asking amiss + + Experience teaches us that we do not always receive + the blessings we ask for in prayer. There is some mis- +10:24 apprehension of the source and means of + all goodness and blessedness, or we should + certainly receive that for which we ask. The Scrip- +10:27 tures say: "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask + amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." That + which we desire and for which we ask, it is not always +10:30 best for us to receive. In this case infinite Love will + not grant the request. Do you ask wisdom to be mer- + ciful and not to punish sin? Then "ye ask amiss." +11:1 Without punishment, sin would multiply. Jesus' prayer, + "Forgive us our debts," specified also the terms of +11:3 forgiveness. When forgiving the adulterous woman he + said, "Go, and sin no more." + + Remission of penalty + + A magistrate sometimes remits the penalty, but this +11:6 may be no moral benefit to the criminal, and at best, it + only saves the criminal from one form of + punishment. The moral law, which has the +11:9 right to acquit or condemn, always demands restitu- + tion before mortals can "go up higher." Broken law + brings penalty in order to compel this progress. + + Truth annihilates error + +11:12 Mere legal pardon (and there is no other, for divine + Principle never pardons our sins or mistakes till they + are corrected) leaves the offender free to re- +11:15 peat the offence, if indeed, he has not already + suffered sufficiently from vice to make him turn from it + with loathing. Truth bestows no pardon upon error, but +11:18 wipes it out in the most effectual manner. Jesus suffered + for our sins, not to annul the divine sentence for an in- + dividual's sin, but because sin brings inevitable suffering. + + Desire for holiness + +11:21 Petitions bring to mortals only the results of mor- + tals' own faith. We know that a desire for holiness is + requisite in order to gain holiness; but if we +11:24 desire holiness above all else, we shall sac- + rifice everything for it. We must be willing to do this, + that we may walk securely in the only practical road +11:27 to holiness. Prayer cannot change the unalterable + Truth, nor can prayer alone give us an understanding + of Truth; but prayer, coupled with a fervent habitual +11:30 desire to know and do the will of God, will bring us + into all Truth. Such a desire has little need of audible + expression. It is best expressed in thought and in life. + + Prayer for the sick + +12:1 "The prayer of faith shall save the sick," says the + Scripture. What is this healing prayer? A mere re- +12:3 quest that God will heal the sick has no + power to gain more of the divine presence + than is always at hand. The beneficial effect of +12:6 such prayer for the sick is on the human mind, mak- + ing it act more powerfully on the body through a blind + faith in God. This, however, is one belief casting out +12:9 another, - a belief in the unknown casting out a belief + in sickness. It is neither Science nor Truth which + acts through blind belief, nor is it the human under- +12:12 standing of the divine healing Principle as manifested + in Jesus, whose humble prayers were deep and con- + scientious protests of Truth, - of man's likeness to +12:15 God and of man's unity with Truth and Love. + + Prayer to a corporeal God affects the sick like a + drug, which has no efficacy of its own but borrows its +12:18 power from human faith and belief. The drug does + nothing, because it has no intelligence. It is a mortal + belief, not divine Principle or Love, which causes a +12:21 drug to be apparently either poisonous or sanative. + + The common custom of praying for the recovery of the + sick finds help in blind belief, whereas help should come +12:24 from the enlightened understanding. Changes in belief + may go on indefinitely, but they are the merchandise of + human thought and not the outgrowth of divine Science. + + Love impartial and universal + +12:27 Does Deity interpose in behalf of one worshipper, + and not help another who offers the same measure of + prayer? If the sick recover because they +12:30 pray or are prayed for audibly, only peti- + tioners (/per se/ or by proxy) should get well. In divine + Science, where prayers are mental, /all/ may avail them- +13:1 selves of God as "a very present help in trouble." + Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and +13:3 bestowals. It is the open fount which cries, "Ho, + every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters." + + Public exaggerations + + In public prayer we often go beyond our convictions, +13:6 beyond the honest standpoint of fervent desire. If we + are not secretly yearning and openly striv- + ing for the accomplishment of all we ask, +13:9 our prayers are "vain repetitions," such as the heathen + use. If our petitions are sincere, we labor for what we + ask; and our Father, who seeth in secret, will reward +13:12 us openly. Can the mere public expression of our de- + sires increase them? Do we gain the omnipotent ear + sooner by words than by thoughts? Even if prayer is +13:15 sincere, God knows our need before we tell Him or our + fellow-beings about it. If we cherish the desire hon- + estly and silently and humbly, God will bless it, and +13:18 we shall incur less risk of overwhelming our real + wishes with a torrent of words. + + Corporeal ignorance + + If we pray to God as a corporeal person, this will +13:21 prevent us from relinquishing the human doubts and + fears which attend such a belief, and so we + cannot grasp the wonders wrought by infi- +13:24 nite, incorporeal Love, to whom all things are possible. + Because of human ignorance of the divine Principle, + Love, the Father of all is represented as a corporeal +13:27 creator; hence men recognize themselves as merely + physical, and are ignorant of man as God's image or re- + flection and of man's eternal incorporeal existence. The +13:30 world of error is ignorant of the world of Truth, - blind + to the reality of man's existence, - for the world of sen- + sation is not cognizant of life in Soul, not in body. + + Bodily presence + +14:1 If we are sensibly with the body and regard omnipo- + tence as a corporeal, material person, whose ear we +14:3 would gain, we are not "absent from the + body" and "present with the Lord" in the + demonstration of Spirit. We cannot "serve two mas- +14:6 ters." To be "present with the Lord" is to have, not + mere emotional ecstasy or faith, but the actual demon- + stration and understanding of Life as revealed in +14:9 Christian Science. To be "with the Lord" is to be in + obedience to the law of God, to be absolutely governed + by divine Love,- by Spirit, not by matter. + + Spiritualized consciousness + +14:12 Become conscious for a single moment that Life and + intelligence are purely spiritual, - neither in nor of + matter, - and the body will then utter no +14:15 complaints. If suffering from a belief in + sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well. Sorrow + is turned into joy when the body is controlled by spir- +14:18 itual Life, Truth, and Love. Hence the hope of the + promise Jesus bestows: "He that believeth on me, + the works that I do shall he do also; . . . because I +14:21 go unto my Father," - [because the Ego is absent from + the body, and present with Truth and Love.] The + Lord's Prayer is the prayer of Soul, not of material +14:24 sense. + + Entirely separate from the belief and dream of mate- + rial living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual under- +14:27 standing and the consciousness of man's dominion + over the whole earth. This understanding casts out + error and heals the sick, and with it you can speak +14:30 "as one having authority." + + "When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and, + when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father +15:1 which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in + secret, shall reward thee openly." + + Spiritual sanctuary + +15:3 So spake Jesus. The closet typifies the sanctuary of + Spirit, the door of which shuts out sinful sense but + lets in Truth, Life, and Love. Closed to +15:6 error, it is open to Truth, and /vice versa/. + The Father in secret is unseen to the physical senses, + but He knows all things and rewards according to +15:9 motives, not according to speech. To enter into the + heart of prayer, the door of the erring senses must be + closed. Lips must be mute and materialism silent, +15:12 that man may have audience with Spirit, the divine + Principle, Love, which destroys all error. + + Effectual invocation + + In order to pray aright, we must enter into the +15:15 closet and shut the door. We must close the lips and + silence the material senses. In the quiet + sanctuary of earnest longings, we must +15:18 deny sin and plead God's allness. We must resolve to + take up the cross, and go forth with honest hearts to + work and watch for wisdom, Truth, and Love. We +15:21 must "pray without ceasing." Such prayer is an- + swered, in so far as we put our desires into practice. + The Master's injunction is, that we pray in secret and +15:24 let our lives attest our sincerity. + + Trustworthy beneficence + + Christians rejoice in secret beauty and bounty, hidden + from the world, but known to God. Self-forgetfulness, +15:27 purity, and affection are constant prayers. + Practice not profession, understanding not + belief, gain the ear and right hand of omnipotence and +15:30 they assuredly call down infinite blessings. Trustworthi- + ness is the foundation of enlightened faith. Without a + fitness for holiness, we cannot receive holiness. + + Loftiest adoration + +16:1 A great sacrifice of material things must precede this + advanced spiritual understanding. The highest prayer +16:3 is not one of faith merely; it is demonstra- + tion. Such prayer heals sickness, and must + destroy sin and death. It distinguishes between Truth +16:6 that is sinless and the falsity of sinful sense. + + The prayer of Jesus Christ + + Our Master taught his disciples one brief prayer, + which we name after him the Lord's Prayer. Our Mas- +16:9 ter said, "After this manner therefore pray + ye," and then he gave that prayer which + covers all human needs. There is indeed some doubt +16:12 among Bible scholars, whether the last line is not an + addition to the prayer by a later copyist; but this does + not affect the meaning of the prayer itself. + +16:15 In the phrase, "Deliver us from evil," the original + properly reads, "Deliver us from the evil one." This + reading strengthens our scientific apprehension of the peti- +16:18 tion, for Christian Science teaches us that "the evil one," or + one evil, is but another name for the first lie and all liars. + + Only as we rise above all material sensuousness and +16:21 sin, can we reach the heaven-born aspiration and spir- + itual consciousness, which is indicated in the Lord's + Prayer and which instantaneously heals the sick. +16:24 Here let me give what I understand to be the spir- + itual sense of the Lord's Prayer: + + Our Father which art in heaven, +16:27 /Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious/, + + Hallowed be Thy name. + /Adorable One./ + +16:30 Thy kingdom come. + /Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present./ + +17:1 Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven. + /Enable us to know,- as in heaven, so on earth,- God is +17:3 omnipotent, supreme/. + + Give us this day our daily bread; + /Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections;/ + +17:6 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. + /And Love is reflected in love;/ + + And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from +17:9 evil; + /And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth + us from sin, disease, and death./ + +17:12 For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the + glory, forever. + /For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over + all, and All./ + + + + + CHAPTER II - ATONEMENT AND EUCHARIST + + And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the + affections and lusts. - PAUL. + + For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. + - PAUL. + + For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, + until the kingdom of God shall come. - JESUS. + + Divine oneness + +18:1 ATONEMENT is the exemplification of man's unity + with God, whereby man reflects divine Truth, Life, +18:3 and Love. Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated + man's oneness with the Father, and for this we owe him + endless homage. His mission was both in- +18:6 dividual and collective. He did life's work + aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to + mortals,- to show them how to do theirs, but not to do +18:9 it for them nor to relieve them of a single responsibility. + Jesus acted boldly, against the accredited evidence of the + senses, against Pharisaical creeds and practices, and he +18:12 refuted all opponents with his healing power. + + Human reconciliation + + The atonement of Christ reconciles man to God, not + God to man; for the divine Principle of Christ is God, +18:15 and how can God propitiate Himself? Christ + is Truth, which reaches no higher than itself. + The fountain can rise no higher than its source. Christ, +18:18 Truth, could conciliate no nature above his own, derived +19:1 from the eternal Love. It was therefore Christ's purpose + to reconcile man to God, not God to man. Love and +19:3 Truth are not at war with God's image and likeness. + Man cannot exceed divine Love, and so atone for him- + self. Even Christ cannot reconcile Truth to error, for +19:6 Truth and error are irreconcilable. Jesus aided in recon- + ciling man to God by giving man a truer sense of Love, + the divine Principle of Jesus' teachings, and this truer +19:9 sense of Love redeems man from the law of matter, + sin, and death by the law of Spirit,- the law of divine + Love. + +19:12 The Master forbore not to speak the whole truth, de- + claring precisely what would destroy sickness, sin, and + death, although his teaching set households at variance, +19:15 and brought to material beliefs not peace, but a + sword. + + Efficacious repentance + + Every pang of repentance and suffering, every effort +19:18 for reform, every good thought and deed, will help us to + understand Jesus' atonement for sin and aid + its efficacy; but if the sinner continues to pray +19:21 and repent, sin and be sorry, he has little part in the atone- + ment,- in the /at-one-ment/ with God,- for he lacks the + practical repentance, which reforms the heart and enables +19:24 man to do the will of wisdom. Those who cannot dem- + onstrate, at least in part, the divine Principle of the teach- + ings and practice of our Master have no part in God. If +19:27 living in disobedience to Him, we ought to feel no secur- + ity, although God is good. + + Jesus' sinless career + + Jesus urged the commandment, "Thou shalt have no +19:30 other gods before me," which may be ren- + dered: Thou shalt have no belief of Life as + mortal; thou shalt not know evil, for there is one Life,- +20:1 even God, good. He rendered "unto Caesar the things + which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are +20:3 God's." He at last paid no homage to forms of doctrine + or to theories of man, but acted and spake as he was moved, + not by spirits but by Spirit. + +20:6 To the ritualistic priest and hypocritical Pharisee + Jesus said, "The publicans and the harlots go into the + kingdom of God before you." Jesus' history made a +20:9 new calendar, which we call the Christian era; but he + established no ritualistic worship. He knew that men + can be baptized, partake of the Eucharist, support the +20:12 clergy, observe the Sabbath, make long prayers, and yet + be sensual and sinful. + + Perfect example + + Jesus bore our infirmities; he knew the error of mortal +20:15 belief, and "with his stripes [the rejection of error] we are + healed." "Despised and rejected of men," + returning blessing for cursing, he taught mor- +20:18 tals the opposite of themselves, even the nature of God; + and when error felt the power of Truth, the scourge and + the cross awaited the great Teacher. Yet he swerved not, +20:21 well knowing that to obey the divine order and trust God, + saves retracing and traversing anew the path from sin to + holiness. + + Behest of the cross + +20:24 Material belief is slow to acknowledge what the + spiritual fact implies. The truth is the centre of all + religion. It commands sure entrance into +20:27 the realm of Love. St. Paul wrote, "Let us + lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so + easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that +20:30 is set before us;" that is, let us put aside material self + and sense, and seek the divine Principle and Science of + all healing. + + Moral victory + +21:1 If Truth is overcoming error in your daily walk and + conversation, you can finally say, "I have fought a +21:3 good fight . . . I have kept the faith," be- + cause you are a better man. This is having + our part in the at-one-ment with Truth and Love. +21:6 Christians do not continue to labor and pray, expecting + because of another's goodness, suffering, and triumph, + that they shall reach his harmony and reward. + +21:9 If the disciple is advancing spiritually, he is striv- + ing to enter in. He constantly turns away from ma- + terial sense, and looks towards the imperishable things +21:12 of Spirit. If honest, he will be in earnest from the + start, and gain a little each day in the right direction, + till at last he finishes his course with joy. + + Inharmonious travellers + +21:15 If my friends are going to Europe, while I am /en + route/ for California, we are not journeying together. + We have separate time-tables to consult, +21:18 different routes to pursue. Our paths have + diverged at the very outset, and we have little oppor- + tunity to help each other. On the contrary, if my +21:21 friends pursue my course, we have the same railroad + guides, and our mutual interests are identical; or, if I + take up their line of travel, they help me on, and our +21:24 companionship may continue. + + Zigzag course + + Being in sympathy with matter, the worldly man is at + the beck and call of error, and will be attracted thither- +21:27 ward. He is like a traveller going westward + for a pleasure-trip. The company is alluring + and the pleasures exciting. After following the sun for +21:30 six days, he turns east on the seventh, satisfied if he can + only imagine himself drifting in the right direction. By- + and-by, ashamed of his zigzag course, he would borrow +22:1 the passport of some wiser pilgrim, thinking with the aid + of this to find and follow the right road. + + Moral retrogression + +22:3 Vibrating like a pendulum between sin and the hope + of forgiveness,- selfishness and sensuality causing con- + stant retrogression,- our moral progress will +22:6 be slow. Waking to Christ's demand, mortals + experience suffering. This causes them, even as drown- + ing men, to make vigorous efforts to save themselves; and +22:9 through Christ's precious love these efforts are crowned + with success. + + Wait for reward + + "Work out your own salvation," is the demand of +22:12 Life and Love, for to this end God worketh with you. + "Occupy till I come!" Wait for your re- + ward, and "be not weary in well doing." If +22:15 your endeavors are beset by fearful odds, and you receive + no present reward, go not back to error, nor become a + sluggard in the race. + +22:18 When the smoke of battle clears away, you will dis- + cern the good you have done, and receive according to + your deserving. Love is not hasty to deliver us from +22:21 temptation, for Love means that we shall be tried and + purified. + + Deliverance not vicarious + + Final deliverance from error, whereby we rejoice in +22:24 immortality, boundless freedom, and sinless sense, is not + reached through paths of flowers nor by pinning + one's faith without works to another's vicarious +22:27 effort. Whosoever believeth that wrath is righteous or + that divinity is appeased by human suffering, does not + understand God. + + Justice and substitution + +22:30 Justice requires reformation of the sinner. Mercy + cancels the debt only when justice approves. Revenge + is inadmissible. Wrath which is only appeased is not +23:1 destroyed, but partially indulged. Wisdom and Love + may require many sacrifices of self to save us from sin. +23:3 One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to + pay the debt of sin. The atonement requires + constant self-immolation on the sinner's part. That +23:6 God's wrath should be vented upon His beloved Son, is + divinely unnatural. Such a theory is man-made. The + atonement is a hard problem in theology, but its scien- +23:9 tific explanation is, that suffering is an error of sinful sense + which Truth destroys, and that eventually both sin and suf- + fering will fall at the feet of everlasting Love. + + Doctrines and faith + +23:12 Rabbinical lore said: "He that taketh one doctrine, + firm in faith, has the Holy Ghost dwelling in him." + This preaching receives a strong rebuke in +23:15 the Scripture, "Faith without works is dead." + Faith, if it be mere belief, is as a pendulum swinging be- + tween nothing and something, having no fixity. Faith, +23:18 advanced to spiritual understanding, is the evidence gained + from Spirit, which rebukes sin of every kind and estab- + lishes the claims of God. + + Self-reliance and confidence + +23:21 In Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, /faith/ and the + words corresponding thereto have these two defini- + tions, /trustfulness/ and /trustworthiness/. One +23:24 kind of faith trusts one's welfare to others. + Another kind of faith understands divine Love and how + to work out one's "own salvation, with fear and trem- +23:27 bling." "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!" + expresses the helplessness of a blind faith; whereas the + injunction, "Believe . . . and thou shalt be saved!" +23:30 demands self-reliant trustworthiness, which includes spir- + itual understanding and confides all to God. + + The Hebrew verb /to believe/ means also /to be firm/ or +24:1 /to be constant/. This certainly applies to Truth and Love + understood and practised. Firmness in error will never +24:3 save from sin, disease, and death. + + Life's healing currents + + Acquaintance with the original texts, and willingness + to give up human beliefs (established by hierarchies, and +24:6 instigated sometimes by the worst passions of + men), open the way for Christian Science to be + understood, and make the Bible the chart of life, where +24:9 the buoys and healing currents of Truth are pointed + out. + + Radical changes + + He to whom "the arm of the Lord" is revealed will +24:12 believe our report, and rise into newness of life with re- + generation. This is having part in the atone- + ment; this is the understanding, in which +24:15 Jesus suffered and triumphed. The time is not distant + when the ordinary theological views of atonement will + undergo a great change, - a change as radical as that +24:18 which has come over popular opinions in regard to pre- + destination and future punishment. + + Purpose of crucifixion + + Does erudite theology regard the crucifixion of Jesus +24:21 chiefly as providing a ready pardon for all sinners who + ask for it and are willing to be forgiven? + Does spiritualism find Jesus' death necessary +24:24 only for the presentation, after death, of the material + Jesus, as a proof that spirits can return to earth? Then + we must differ from them both. + +24:27 The efficacy of the crucifixion lay in the practical af- + fection and goodness it demonstrated for mankind. The + truth had been lived among men; but until they saw that +24:30 it enabled their Master to triumph over the grave, his own + disciples could not admit such an event to be possible. + After the resurrection, even the unbelieving Thomas was +25:1 forced to acknowledge how complete was the great proof of + Truth and Love. + + True flesh and blood + +25:3 The spiritual essence of blood is sacrifice. The effi- + cacy of Jesus' spiritual offering is infinitely greater than + can be expressed by our sense of human +25:6 blood. The material blood of Jesus was no + more efficacious to cleanse from sin when it was shed + upon "the accursed tree," than when it was flowing in +25:9 his veins as he went daily about his Father's business. + His true flesh and blood were his Life; and they truly eat + his flesh and drink his blood, who partake of that divine +25:12 Life. + + Effective triumph + + Jesus taught the way of Life by demonstration, that + we may understand how this divine Principle heals +25:15 the sick, casts out error, and triumphs over + death. Jesus presented the ideal of God better + than could any man whose origin was less spiritual. By +25:18 his obedience to God, he demonstrated more spiritu- + ally than all others the Principle of being. Hence the + force of his admonition, "If ye love me, keep my com- +25:21 mandments." + + Though demonstrating his control over sin and disease, + the great Teacher by no means relieved others from giving +25:24 the requisite proofs of their own piety. He worked for + their guidance, that they might demonstrate this power as + he did and understand its divine Principle. Implicit faith +25:27 in the Teacher and all the emotional love we can bestow + on him, will never alone make us imitators of him. We + must go and do likewise, else we are not improving the +25:30 great blessings which our Master worked and suffered to + bestow upon us. The divinity of the Christ was made + manifest in the humanity of Jesus. + + Individual experience + +26:1 While we adore Jesus, and the heart overflows with + gratitude for what he did for mortals, - treading alone +26:3 his loving pathway up to the throne of + glory, in speechless agony exploring the way + for us, - yet Jesus spares us not one individual expe- +26:6 rience, if we follow his commands faithfully; and all + have the cup of sorrowful effort to drink in proportion + to their demonstration of his love, till all are redeemed +26:9 through divine Love. + + Christ's demonstration + + The Christ was the Spirit which Jesus implied in his + own statements: "I am the way, the truth, and the life;" +26:12 "I and my Father are one." This Christ, + or divinity of the man Jesus, was his divine + nature, the godliness which animated him. Divine Truth, +26:15 Life, and Love gave Jesus authority over sin, sickness, + and death. His mission was to reveal the Science of + celestial being, to prove what God is and what He does +26:18 for man. + + Proof in practice + + A musician demonstrates the beauty of the music he + teaches in order to show the learner the way by prac- +26:21 tice as well as precept. Jesus' teaching and + practice of Truth involved such a sacrifice + as makes us admit its Principle to be Love. This was +26:24 the precious import of our Master's sinless career and + of his demonstration of power over death. He proved + by his deeds that Christian Science destroys sickness, sin, +26:27 and death. + + Our Master taught no mere theory, doctrine, or belief. + It was the divine Principle of all real being which he +26:30 taught and practised. His proof of Christianity was no + form or system of religion and worship, but Christian + Science, working out the harmony of Life and Love. +27:1 Jesus sent a message to John the Baptist, which was in- + tended to prove beyond a question that the Christ had +27:3 come: "Go your way, and tell John what things ye have + seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, + the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, +27:6 to the poor the gospel is preached." In other words: + Tell John what the demonstration of divine power is, + and he will at once perceive that God is the power in +27:9 the Messianic work. + + Living temple + + That Life is God, Jesus proved by his reappearance + after the crucifixion in strict accordance with his scien- +27:12 tific statement: "Destroy this temple [body], + and in three days I [Spirit] will raise it up." + It is as if he had said: The I - the Life, substance, +27:15 and intelligence of the universe - is not in matter to + be destroyed. + + Jesus' parables explain Life as never mingling with +27:18 sin and death. He laid the axe of Science at the root + of material knowledge, that it might be ready to cut + down the false doctrine of pantheism, - that God, or +27:21 Life, is in or of matter. + + Recreant disciples + + Jesus sent forth seventy students at one time, but only + eleven left a desirable historic record. Tradition credits +27:24 him with two or three hundred other disciples + who have left no name. "Many are called, + but few are chosen." They fell away from grace because +27:27 they never truly understood their Master's instruction. + + Why do those who profess to follow Christ reject the + essential religion he came to establish? Jesus' persecu- +27:30 tors made their strongest attack upon this very point. + They endeavored to hold him at the mercy of matter and + to kill him according to certain assumed material laws. + + Help and hindrance + +28:1 The Pharisees claimed to know and to teach the di- + vine will, but they only hindered the success of Jesus' +28:3 mission. Even many of his students stood + in his way. If the Master had not taken a + student and taught the unseen verities of God, he would +28:6 not have been crucified. The determination to hold Spirit + in the grasp of matter is the persecutor of Truth and + Love. + +28:9 While respecting all that is good in the Church or out + of it, one's consecration to Christ is more on the ground + of demonstration than of profession. In conscience, we +28:12 cannot hold to beliefs outgrown; and by understanding + more of the divine Principle of the deathless Christ, we + are enabled to heal the sick and to triumph over sin. + + Misleading conceptions + +28:15 Neither the origin, the character, nor the work of + Jesus was generally understood. Not a single compo- + nent part of his nature did the material +28:18 world measure aright. Even his righteous- + less and purity did not hinder men from saying: He + is a glutton and a friend of the impure, and Beelzebub is +28:21 his patron. + + Persecution prolonged + + Remember, thou Christian martyr, it is enough if + thou art found worthy to unloose the sandals of thy +28:24 Master's feet! To suppose that persecution + for righteousness' sake belongs to the past, + and that Christianity to-day is at peace with the world +28:27 because it is honored by sects and societies, is to mis- + take the very nature of religion. Error repeats itself. + The trials encountered by prophet, disciple, and apostle, +28:30 "of whom the world was not worthy," await, in some + form, every pioneer of truth. + + Christian warfare + + There is too much animal courage in society and not +29:1 sufficient moral courage. Christians must take up arms + against error at home and abroad. They must grapple +29:3 with sin in themselves and in others, and + continue this warfare until they have finished + their course. If they keep the faith, they will have the +29:6 crown of rejoicing. + + Christian experience teaches faith in the right and dis- + belief in the wrong. It bids us work the more earnestly +29:9 in times of persecution, because then our labor is more + needed. Great is the reward of self-sacrifice, though we + may never receive it in this world. + + The Fatherhood of God + +29:12 There is a tradition that Publius Lentulus wrote to + the authorities at Rome: "The disciples of Jesus be- + lieve him the Son of God." Those instructed +29:15 in Christian Science have reached the glori- + ous perception that God is the only author of man. + The Virgin-mother conceived this idea of God, and +29:18 gave to her ideal the name of Jesus - that is, Joshua, + or Saviour. + + Spiritual conception + + The illumination of Mary's spiritual sense put to +29:21 silence material law and its order of generation, and + brought forth her child by the revelation of + Truth, demonstrating God as the Father of +29:24 men. The Holy Ghost, or divine Spirit, overshadowed + the pure sense of the Virgin-mother with the full recog- + nition that being is Spirit. The Christ dwelt forever +29:27 an idea in the bosom of God, the divine Principle of the + man Jesus, and woman perceived this spiritual idea, + though at first faintly developed. + +29:30 Man as the offspring of God, as the idea of Spirit, + is the immortal evidence that Spirit is harmonious and + man eternal. Jesus was the offspring of Mary's self- +30:1 conscious communion with God. Hence he could give + a more spiritual idea of life than other men, and could +30:3 demonstrate the Science of Love - his Father or divine + Principle. + + Jesus the way-shower + + Born of a woman, Jesus' advent in the flesh partook +30:6 partly of Mary's earthly condition, although he was en- + dowed with the Christ, the divine Spirit, with- + out measure. This accounts for his struggles +30:9 in Gethsemane and on Calvary, and this enabled him to + be the mediator, or /way-shower/, between God and men. + Had his origin and birth been wholly apart from mortal +30:12 usage, Jesus would not have been appreciable to mortal + mind as "the way." + + Rabbi and priest taught the Mosaic law, which said: +30:15 "An eye for an eye," and "Whoso sheddeth man's blood, + by man shall his blood be shed." Not so did Jesus, the + new executor for God, present the divine law of Love, +30:18 which blesses even those that curse it. + + Rebukes helpful + + As the individual ideal of Truth, Christ Jesus came to + rebuke rabbinical error and all sin, sickness, and death,- +30:21 to point out the way of Truth and Life. This + ideal was demonstrated throughout the whole + earthly career of Jesus, showing the difference between +30:24 the offspring of Soul and of material sense, of Truth and + of error. + + If we have triumphed sufficiently over the errors of +30:27 material sense to allow Soul to hold the control, we + shall loathe sin and rebuke it under every mask. Only + in this way can we bless our enemies, though they +30:30 may not so construe our words. We cannot choose for + ourselves, but must work out our salvation in the way + Jesus taught. In meekness and might, he was found +31:1 preaching the gospel to the poor. Pride and fear are unfit + to bear the standard of Truth, and God will never place +31:3 it in such hands. + + Fleshly ties temporal + + Jesus acknowledged no ties of the flesh. He said: "Call + no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, +31:6 which is in heaven." Again he asked: "Who + is my mother, and who are my brethren," im- + plying that it is they who do the will of his Father. We +31:9 have no record of his calling any man by the name of + /father/. He recognized Spirit, God, as the only creator, and + therefore as the Father of all. + + Healing primary + +31:12 First in the list of Christian duties, he taught his fol- + lowers the healing power of Truth and Love. He attached + no importance to dead ceremonies. It is the +31:15 living Christ, the practical Truth, which makes + Jesus "the resurrection and the life" to all who follow him + in deed. Obeying his precious precepts, - following his +31:18 demonstration so far as we apprehend it, - we drink of + his cup, partake of his bread, are baptized with his pu- + rity; and at last we shall rest, sit down with him, in a full +31:21 understanding of the divine Principle which triumphs + over death. For what says Paul? "As often as ye eat + this bread, and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's +31:24 death till he come." + + Painful prospect + + Referring to the materiality of the age, Jesus said: + "The hour cometh, and now is, when the true wor- +31:27 shippers shall worship the Father in spirit + and in truth." Again, foreseeing the perse- + cution which would attend the Science of Spirit, Jesus +31:30 said: "They shall put you out of the synagogues; yea, + the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think + that he doeth God service; and these things will they +32:1 do unto you, because they have not known the Father + nor me." + + Sacred sacrament + +32:3 In ancient Rome a soldier was required to swear + allegiance to his general. The Latin word for this oath + was /sacramentum/, and our English word +32:6 /sacrament/ is derived from it. Among the + Jews it was an ancient custom for the master of a + feast to pass each guest a cup of wine. But the +32:9 Eucharist does not commemorate a Roman soldier's + oath, nor was the wine, used on convivial occasions and + in Jewish rites, the cup of our Lord. The cup shows +32:12 forth his bitter experience, - the cup which he prayed + might pass from him, though he bowed in holy submis- + sion to the divine decree. + +32:15 "As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed + it and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, + Take, eat; this is my body. And he took the cup, and +32:18 gave thanks, and gave it to them saying, Drink ye all + of it." + + Spiritual refreshment + + The true sense is spiritually lost, if the sacrament is +32:21 confined to the use of bread and wine. The disciples + had eaten, yet Jesus prayed and gave them + bread. This would have been foolish in a +32:24 literal sense; but in its spiritual signification, it was nat- + ural and beautiful. Jesus prayed; he withdrew from the + material senses to refresh his heart with brighter, with +32:27 spiritual views. + + Jesus' sad repast + + The Passover, which Jesus ate with his disciples in + the month Nisan on the night before his crucifixion, +32:30 was a mournful occasion, a sad supper taken + at the close of day, in the twilight of a + glorious career with shadows fast falling around; and +33:1 this supper closed forever Jesus' ritualism or concessions + to matter. + + Heavenly supplies + +33:3 His followers, sorrowful and silent, anticipating the hour + of their Master's betrayal, partook of the heavenly manna, + which of old had fed in the wilderness the +33:6 persecuted followers of Truth. Their bread + indeed came down from heaven. It was the great truth + of spiritual being, healing the sick and casting out error. +33:9 Their Master had explained it all before, and now this + bread was feeding and sustaining them. They had borne + this bread from house to house, /breaking/ (explaining) it to +33:12 others, and now it comforted themselves. + + For this truth of spiritual being, their Master was about + to suffer violence and drain to the dregs his cup of sorrow. +33:15 He must leave them. With the great glory of an everlast- + ing victory overshadowing him, he gave thanks and said, + "Drink ye all of it." + + The holy struggle + +33:18 When the human element in him struggled with the + divine, our great Teacher said: "Not my will, but + Thine, be done!"- that is, Let not the flesh, +33:21 but the Spirit, be represented in me. This + is the new understanding of spiritual Love. It gives all + for Christ, or Truth. It blesses its enemies, heals the +33:24 sick, casts out error, raises the dead from trespasses + and sins, and preaches the gospel to the poor, the meek + in heart. + + Incisive questions + +33:27 Christians, are you drinking his cup? Have you + shared the blood of the New Covenant, the persecutions + which attend a new and higher understand- +33:30 ing of God? If not, can you then say that + you have commemorated Jesus in his cup? Are all + who eat bread and drink wine in memory of Jesus willing +34:1 truly to drink his cup, take his cross, and leave all for + the Christ-principle? Then why ascribe this inspira- +34:3 tion to a dead rite, instead of showing, by casting out + error and making the body "holy, acceptable unto God," + that Truth has come to the understanding? If Christ, +34:6 Truth, has come to us in demonstration, no other com- + memoration is requisite, for demonstration is Immanuel, + or /God with us/; and if a friend be with us, why need we +34:9 memorials of that friend? + + Millennial glory + + If all who ever partook of the sacrament had really + commemorated the sufferings of Jesus and drunk of +34:12 his cup, they would have revolutionized the + world. If all who seek his commemoration + through material symbols will take up the cross, heal +34:15 the sick, cast out evils, and preach Christ, or Truth, + to the poor, - the receptive thought, - they will bring + in the millennium. + + Fellowship with Christ + +34:18 Through all the disciples experienced, they became more + spiritual and understood better what the Master had + taught. His resurrection was also their resur- +34:21 rection. It helped them to raise themselves and + others from spiritual dulness and blind belief in God into + the perception of infinite possibilities. They needed this +34:24 quickening, for soon their dear Master would rise again + in the spiritual realm of reality, and ascend far above + their apprehension. As the reward for his faithfulness, +34:27 he would disappear to material sense in that change which + has since been called the ascension. + + The last breakfast + + What a contrast between our Lord's last supper and +34:30 his last spiritual breakfast with his disciples + in the bright morning hours at the joyful + meeting on the shore of the Galilean Sea! His gloom +35:1 had passed into glory, and His disciples' grief into repent- + ance, - hearts chastened and pride rebuked. Convinced +35:3 of the fruitlessness of their toil in the dark and wakened + by their Master's voice, they changed their methods, turned + away from material things, and cast their net on the right +35:6 side. Discerning Christ, Truth, anew on the shore of + time, they were enabled to rise somewhat from mortal + sensuousness, or the burial of mind in matter, into new- +35:9 ness of life as Spirit. + + This spiritual meeting with our Lord in the dawn of a + new light is the morning meal which Christian Scientists +35:12 commemorate. They bow before Christ, Truth, to re- + ceive more of his reappearing and silently to commune + with the divine Principle, Love. They celebrate their +35:15 Lord's victory over death, his probation in the flesh + after death, its exemplification of human probation, and + his spiritual and final ascension above matter, or the flesh, +35:18 when he rose out of material sight. + + Spiritual Eucharist + + Our baptism is a purification from all error. Our + church is built on the divine Principle, Love. We can +35:21 unite with this church only as we are new- + born of Spirit, as we reach the Life which + is Truth and the Truth which is Life by bringing forth +35:24 the fruits of Love, - casting out error and healing the + sick. Our Eucharist is spiritual communion with the one + God. Our bread, "which cometh down from heaven," +35:27 is Truth. Our cup is the cross. Our wine the inspira- + tion of Love, the draught our Master drank and com- + mended to his followers. + + Final purpose + +35:30 The design of Love is to reform the sinner. If the + sinner's punishment here has been insufficient to re- + form him, the good man's heaven would be a hell to +36:1 the sinner. They, who know not purity and affection by + experience, can never find bliss in the blessed company of +36:3 Truth and Love simply through translation + into another sphere. Divine Science reveals + the necessity of sufficient suffering, either before or after +36:6 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- +36:9 ment, since justice is the handmaid of mercy. + + Jesus endured the shame, that he might pour his + dear-bought bounty into barren lives. What was his +36:12 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 +36:15 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- +36:18 minded. + + Righteous retribution + + A selfish and limited mind may be unjust, but the un- + limited and divine Mind is the immortal law of justice as +36:21 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- +36:24 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, +36:27 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 +37:3 who sin must suffer. "With what measure ye mete, it + shall be measured to you again." + + Martyrs inevitable + + History is full of records of suffering. "The blood of +37:6 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. +37:9 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 +37:12 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 +37:15 by lookers-on. + + Complete emulation + + When will Jesus' professed followers learn to emulate + him in /all/ his ways and to imitate his mighty works? +37:18 Those who procured the martyrdom of that + righteous man would gladly have turned his + sacred career into a mutilated doctrinal platform. May +37:21 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 +37:24 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 +37:27 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, +37:30 and preach the gospel to every creature!" "/Heal the + sick/!" + + Jesus' teaching belittled + + 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- +38:3 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 +38:6 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 +38:9 divine Science. + + Jesus said: "These signs shall follow them that be- + lieve; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick, and they +38:12 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. +38:15 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 +38:18 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, +38:24 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 +38:27 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- +38:30 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- +39:3 lowers will endure until Christianity's last + triumph. He won eternal honors. He over- + came the world, the flesh, and all error, thus proving +39:6 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 +39:9 joys and victories, until all error is destroyed. + + A belief suicidal + + The educated belief that Soul is in the body causes + mortals to regard death as a friend, as a stepping-stone +39:12 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. +39:15 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- +39:21 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- +39:24 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 +39:27 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 +39:30 triumphs. + + Sin and penalty + + 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- +40:3 vanced thinker and devout Christian, perceiv- + ing the scope and tendency of Christian healing + and its Science, will support them. Another will say: +40:6 "Go thy way for this time; when I have a convenient + season I will call for thee." + + Divine Science adjusts the balance as Jesus adjusted +40:9 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 +40:12 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 +40:15 own liability. Did the martyrdom of Savonarola make + the crimes of his implacable enemies less criminal? + + Suffering inevitable + + Was it just for Jesus to suffer? No; but it was +40:18 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 +40:21 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 +40:24 Truth and Love. + + Service and worship + + Our heavenly Father, divine Love, demands that all + men should follow the example of our Master and his +40:27 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 +40:30 daily deeds. + + Within the veil + + 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 +41:3 this advance beyond matter must come + through the joys and triumphs of the right- + eous as well as through their sorrows and afflictions. +41:6 Like our Master, we must depart from material sense + into the spiritual sense of being. + + The thorns and flowers + + The God-inspired walk calmly on though it be with +41:9 bleeding footprints, and in the hereafter they will reap + what they now sow. The pampered hypo- + crite may have a flowery pathway here, but +41:12 he cannot forever break the Golden Rule and escape the + penalty due. + + Healing early lost + + The proofs of Truth, Life, and Love, which Jesus gave +41:15 by casting out error and healing the sick, completed his + earthly mission; but in the Christian Church + this demonstration of healing was early lost, +41:18 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 +41:21 absolute Science. + + Immortal achieval + + Jesus foresaw the reception Christian Science would have + before it was understood, but this foreknowledge hindered +41:24 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 +41:27 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 +41:30 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 +42:3 mighty potentate, who loves and hates. The Jewish the- + ology gave no hint of the unchanging love of God. + + A belief in death + + The universal belief in death is of no advantage. It +42:6 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 +42:12 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 +42:18 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 +42:21 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. +42:24 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 +42:27 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 +42:30 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 +43:6 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 +43:9 influx of divine Science which so illuminated the Pentecos- + tal Day and is now repeating its ancient history. + + Convincing evidence + + Jesus' last proof was the highest, the most convincing, +43:12 the most profitable to his students. The malignity of + brutal persecutors, the treason and suicide of + his betrayer, were overruled by divine Love to +43:15 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, +43:18 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. +43:24 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. +43:27 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- +43:30 gence, and the multitudinous errors growing from such + beliefs. + + 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, +44:3 "Well done, good and faithful servant," and the suprem- + acy of Spirit be demonstrated. + + Jesus in the tomb + + The lonely precincts of the tomb gave Jesus a refuge +44:6 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. +44:9 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 +44:12 of medicine, surgery, and hygiene. + + He took no drugs to allay inflammation. He did not + depend upon food or pure air to resuscitate wasted +44:15 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 +44:18 the napkin and winding-sheet, and that he might employ + his feet as before. + + The deific naturalism + + Could it be called supernatural for the God of nature +44:21 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 +44:24 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 +44:27 human invention. + + Obstacles overcome + + His disciples believed Jesus to be dead while he was + hidden in the sepulchre, whereas he was alive, demon- +44:30 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 +45:3 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 +45:9 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 +45:12 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- +45:15 mortal Truth and Love in a sepulchre. + + The stone rolled away + + Glory be to God, and peace to the struggling hearts! + Christ hath rolled away the stone from the door of hu- +45:18 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 +45:21 idea of man and his divine Principle, Love. + + After the resurrection + + They who earliest saw Jesus after the resurrection + and beheld the final proof of all that he had taught, +45:24 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: +45:27 "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- +45:30 cifixion, and so glorified the supremacy of Mind over + matter. + + 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 +46:3 and learned that he had not died. This convinced them + of the truthfulness of all that he had taught. + + Spiritual interpretation + + In the walk to Emmaus, Jesus was known to his friends +46:6 by the words, which made their hearts burn within them, + and by the breaking of bread. The divine + Spirit, which identified Jesus thus centuries +46:9 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 +46:12 healing the sick. + + Corporeality and Spirit + + The Master said plainly that physique was not Spirit, + and after his resurrection he proved to the physical senses +46:15 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 +46:18 Thomas of this, Jesus caused him to examine the nail- + prints and the spear-wound. + + Spiritual ascension + + Jesus' unchanged physical condition after what seemed +46:21 to be death was followed by his exaltation above all ma- + terial conditions; and this exaltation explained + his ascension, and revealed unmistakably a +46:24 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- +46:27 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 +47:3 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, +47:6 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 +47:9 power as on the Day of Pentecost. + + The traitor's conspiracy + + Judas conspired against Jesus. The world's ingratitude + and hatred towards that just man effected his betrayal. +47:12 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' +47:15 teachings. + + A period was approaching which would reveal the in- + finite distance between Judas and his Master. Judas +47:18 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 +47:21 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- +47:24 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. +47:27 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 +47:30 record. + + Gethsemane glorified + + 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- +48:3 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- +48:6 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 +48:9 sense to Soul. + + Remembering the sweat of agony which fell in holy + benediction on the grass of Gethsemane, shall the hum- +48:12 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 +48:15 Love bestow few palms until the consummation of a + life-work. + + Defensive weapons + + Judas had the world's weapons. Jesus had not one +48:18 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 +48:21 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 +48:24 sword." + + Pilate's question + + Pale in the presence of his own momentous question, + "What is Truth," Pilate was drawn into acquiescence +48:27 with the demands of Jesus' enemies. Pilate + was ignorant of the consequences of his awful + decision against human rights and divine Love, knowing +48:30 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, +49:3 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 +49:6 unto us through thy name." + + Students' ingratitude + + Where were the seventy whom Jesus sent forth? Were + all conspirators save eleven? Had they forgotten the +49:9 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- +49:12 quited affection? O, why did they not gratify his last + human yearning with one sign of fidelity? + + Heaven's sentinel + + The meek demonstrator of good, the highest instruc- +49:15 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 +49:18 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 +49:21 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, +49:24 Life, and Love, to triumph over sin, sickness, death, and + the grave. + + Cruel contumely + + The priests and rabbis, before whom he had meekly +49:27 walked, and those to whom he had given the highest + proofs of divine power, mocked him on the + cross, saying derisively, "He saved others; +49:30 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." +50:3 "Who shall declare his generation?" Who shall decide + what truth and love are? + + A cry of despair + + The last supreme moment of mockery, desertion, tor- +50:6 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?" +50:9 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 +50:12 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 +50:15 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 +50:18 human race. + + Divine Science misunderstood + + If his full recognition of eternal Life had for a mo- + ment given way before the evidence of the bodily senses, +50:21 what would his accusers have said? Even + what they did say, - that Jesus' teachings + were false, and that all evidence of their cor- +50:24 rectness was destroyed by his death. But this saying + could not make it so. + + The real pillory + + The burden of that hour was terrible beyond human +50:27 conception. The distrust of mortal minds, disbelieving + the purpose of his mission, was a million + times sharper than the thorns which pierced +50:30 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 +51:3 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; +51:9 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 +51:12 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, +51:15 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 +51:18 be extinguished. + + Example for our salvation + + His consummate example was for the salvation of us + all, but only through doing the works which he did and +51:21 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 +51:24 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- +51:27 ciple, Love, which rebuked their sensuality. + + Jesus was unselfish. His spirituality separated him + from sensuousness, and caused the selfish materialist +51:30 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- +52:3 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 +52:6 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 +52:12 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. +52:15 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 +52:18 make common cause against the exponents of truth. + + Saviour's prediction + + The "man of sorrows" best understood the nothing- + ness of material life and intelligence and the mighty ac- +52:21 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- +52:24 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: +52:27 "He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do + also;" and "These signs shall follow them that believe." + + Defamatory accusations + + The accusations of the Pharisees were as self-contra- +52:30 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 +53:1 through Beelzebub," and is the "friend of publicans and + sinners." The latter accusation was true, but not in their +53:3 meaning. Jesus was no ascetic. He did not fast as did + the Baptist's disciples; yet there never lived a man so far + removed from appetites and passions as the Nazarene. +53:6 He rebuked sinners pointedly and unflinchingly, because + he was their friend; hence the cup he drank. + + Reputation and character + + The reputation of Jesus was the very opposite of his +53:9 character. Why? Because the divine Principle and + practice of Jesus were misunderstood. He + was at work in divine Science. His words +53:12 and works were unknown to the world because above + and contrary to the world's religious sense. Mortals be- + lieved in God as humanly mighty, rather than as divine, +53:15 infinite Love. + + Inspiring discontent + + The world could not interpret aright the discomfort + which Jesus inspired and the spiritual blessings which +53:18 might flow from such discomfort. Science + shows the cause of the shock so often pro- + duced by the truth, - namely, that this shock arises from +53:21 the great distance between the individual and Truth. + Like Peter, we should weep over the warning, instead of + denying the truth or mocking the lifelong sacrifice which +53:24 goodness makes for the destruction of evil. + + Bearing our sins + + Jesus bore our sins in his body. He knew the + mortal errors which constitute the material body, and +53:27 could destroy those errors; but at the time + when Jesus felt our infirmities, he had not + conquered all the beliefs of the flesh or his sense of ma- +53:30 terial life, nor had he risen to his final demonstration of + spiritual power. + + Had he shared the sinful beliefs of others, he would +54:1 have been less sensitive to those beliefs. Through the + magnitude of his human life, he demonstrated the divine +54:3 Life. Out of the amplitude of his pure affection, he de- + fined Love. With the affluence of Truth, he vanquished + error. The world acknowledged not his righteousness, +54:6 seeing it not; but earth received the harmony his glorified + example introduced. + + Inspiration of sacrifice + + Who is ready to follow his teaching and example? All +54:9 must sooner or later plant themselves in Christ, the true + idea of God. That he might liberally pour + his dear-bought treasures into empty or sin- +54:12 filled human storehouses, was the inspiration of Jesus' + intense human sacrifice. In witness of his divine com- + mission, he presented the proof that Life, Truth, and +54:15 Love heal the sick and the sinning, and triumph over + death through Mind, not matter. This was the highest + proof he could have offered of divine Love. His hearers +54:18 understood neither his words nor his works. They + would not accept his meek interpretation of life nor + follow his example. + + Spiritual friendship + +54:21 His earthly cup of bitterness was drained to the + dregs. There adhered to him only a few unpretentious + friends, whose religion was something more +54:24 than a name. It was so vital, that it en- + abled them to understand the Nazarene and to share + the glory of eternal life. He said that those who fol- +54:27 lowed him should drink of his cup, and history has con- + firmed the prediction. + + Injustice to the Saviour + + If that Godlike and glorified man were physically on +54:30 earth to-day, would not some, who now pro- + fess to love him, reject him? Would they + not deny him even the rights of humanity, if he enter- +55:1 tained any other sense of being and religion than theirs? + The advancing century, from a deadened sense of the +55:3 invisible God, to-day subjects to unchristian comment and + usage the idea of Christian healing enjoined by Jesus; but + this does not affect the invincible facts. +55:6 Perhaps the early Christian era did Jesus no more + injustice than the later centuries have bestowed upon + the healing Christ and spiritual idea of being. Now +55:9 that the gospel of healing is again preached by the + wayside, does not the pulpit sometimes scorn it? But + that curative mission, which presents the Saviour in a +55:12 clearer light than mere words can possibly do, cannot be + left out of Christianity, although it is again ruled out of + the synagogue. + +55:15 Truth's immortal idea is sweeping down the centuries, + gathering beneath its wings the sick and sinning. My + weary hope tries to realize that happy day, when man shall +55:18 recognize the Science of Christ and love his neighbor as + himself, - when he shall realize God's omnipotence and + the healing power of the divine Love in what it has done +55:21 and is doing for mankind. The promises will be ful- + filled. The time for the reappearing of the divine healing + is throughout all time; and whosoever layeth his earthly +55:24 all on the altar of divine Science, drinketh of Christ's + cup now, and is endued with the spirit and power of + Christian healing. + +55:27 In the words of St. John: "He shall give you another + Comforter, that he may abide with you /forever/." This + Comforter I understand to be Divine Science. + + + + + CHAPTER III - MARRIAGE + + What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put + asunder. In the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given + in marriage, but are as the angels of God in heaven. - JESUS. + +56:1 WHEN our great Teacher came to him for baptism, + John was astounded. Reading his thoughts, Jesus +56:3 added: "Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us + to fulfil all righteousness." Jesus' concessions (in certain + cases) to material methods were for the advancement of +56:6 spiritual good. + + Marriage temporal + + Marriage is the legal and moral provision for genera- + tion among human kind. Until the spiritual creation +56:9 is discerned intact, is apprehended and under- + stood, and His kingdom is come as in the vision + of the Apocalypse, - where the corporeal sense of crea- +56:12 tion was cast out, and its spiritual sense was revealed from + heaven, - marriage will continue, subject to such moral + regulations as will secure increasing virtue. + + Fidelity required + +56:15 Infidelity to the marriage covenant is the social scourge + of all races, "the pestilence that walketh in darkness, + . . . the destruction that wasteth at noonday." +56:18 The commandment, "Thou shalt not com- + mit adultery," is no less imperative than the one, "Thou + shalt not kill." + +57:1 Chastity is the cement of civilization and progress. + Without it there is no stability in society, and without it +57:3 one cannot attain the Science of Life. + + Mental elements + + Union of the masculine and feminine qualities consti- + tutes completeness. The masculine mind reaches a +57:6 higher tone through certain elements of the + feminine, while the feminine mind gains cour- + age and strength through masculine qualities. These +57:9 different elements conjoin naturally with each other, and + their true harmony is in spiritual oneness. Both sexes + should be loving, pure, tender, and strong. The attrac- +57:12 tion between native qualities will be perpetual only as it + is pure and true, bringing sweet seasons of renewal like + the returning spring. + + Affection's demands + +57:15 Beauty, wealth, or fame is incompetent to meet the + demands of the affections, and should never weigh + against the better claims of intellect, good- +57:18 ness, and virtue. Happiness is spiritual, + born of Truth and Love. It is unselfish; therefore + it cannot exist alone, but requires all mankind to +57:21 share it. + + Help and discipline + + Human affection is not poured forth vainly, even + though it meet no return. Love enriches the nature, en- +57:24 larging, purifying, and elevating it. The wintry + blasts of earth may uproot the flowers of affec- + tion, and scatter them to the winds; but this severance +57:27 of fleshly ties serves to unite thought more closely to + God, for Love supports the struggling heart until it ceases + to sigh over the world and begins to unfold its wings for +57:30 heaven. + + Marriage is unblest or blest, according to the disap- + pointments it involves or the hopes it fulfils. To happify +58:1 existence by constant intercourse with those adapted to + elevate it, should be the motive of society. Unity of +58:3 spirit gives new pinions to joy, or else joy's drooping + wings trail in dust. + + Chord and discord + + Ill-arranged notes produce discord. Tones of the +58:6 human mind may be different, but they should be con- + cordant in order to blend properly. Unselfish + ambition, noble life-motives, and purity, - +58:9 these constituents of thought, mingling, constitute in- + dividually and collectively true happiness, strength, and + permanence. + + Mutual freedom + +58:12 There is moral freedom in Soul. Never contract the + horizon of a worthy outlook by the selfish exaction of + all another's time and thoughts. With ad- +58:15 ditional joys, benevolence should grow more + diffusive. The narrowness and jealousy, which would + confine a wife or a husband forever within four walls, will +58:18 not promote the sweet interchange of confidence and love; + but on the other hand, a wandering desire for incessant + amusement outside the home circle is a poor augury for +58:21 the happiness of wedlock. Home is the dearest spot on + earth, and it should be the centre, though not the bound- + ary, of the affections. + + A useful suggestion + +58:24 Said the peasant bride to her lover: "Two eat no more + together than they eat separately." This is a hint that + a wife ought not to court vulgar extravagance +58:27 or stupid ease, because another supplies her + wants. Wealth may obviate the necessity for toil or the + chance for ill-nature in the marriage relation, but noth- +58:30 ing can abolish the cares of marriage. + + Differing duties + + "She that is married careth . . . how she may please + her husband," says the Bible; and this is the pleasantest +59:1 thing to do. Matrimony should never be entered into + without a full recognition of its enduring obligations on +59:3 both sides. There should be the most tender + solicitude for each other's happiness, and mu- + tual attention and approbation should wait on all the years +59:6 of married life. + + Mutual compromises will often maintain a compact + which might otherwise become unbearable. Man should +59:9 not be required to participate in all the annoyances and + cares of domestic economy, nor should woman be ex- + pected to understand political economy. Fulfilling the +59:12 different demands of their united spheres, their sympa- + thies should blend in sweet confidence and cheer, each + partner sustaining the other, - thus hallowing the union +59:15 of interests and affections, in which the heart finds peace + and home. + + Trysting renewed + + Tender words and unselfish care in what promotes the +59:18 welfare and happiness of your wife will prove more salutary + in prolonging her health and smiles than stolid + indifference or jealousy. Husbands, hear this +59:21 and remember how slight a word or deed may renew the + old trysting-times. + + After marriage, it is too late to grumble over incompati- +59:24 bility of disposition. A mutual understanding should + exist before this union and continue ever after, for decep- + tion is fatal to happiness. + + Permanent obligation + +59:27 The nuptial vow should never be annulled, so long as + its moral obligations are kept intact; but the frequency + of divorce shows that the sacredness of this re- +59:30 lationship is losing its influence, and that fatal + mistakes are undermining its foundations. Separation + never should take place, and it never would, if both +60:1 husband and wife were genuine Christian Scientists. + Science inevitably lifts one's being higher in the scale of +60:3 harmony and happiness. + + Permanent affection + + Kindred tastes, motives, and aspirations are necessary + to the formation of a happy and permanent companion- +60:6 ship. The beautiful in character is also the + good, welding indissolubly the links of affec- + tion. A mother's affection cannot be weaned from her +60:9 child, because the mother-love includes purity and con- + stancy, both of which are immortal. Therefore maternal + affection lives on under whatever difficulties. +60:12 From the logic of events we learn that selfishness + and impurity alone are fleeting, and that wisdom will + ultimately put asunder what she hath not joined +60:15 together. + + Centre for affections + + Marriage should improve the human species, becoming + a barrier against vice, a protection to woman, strength to +60:18 man, and a centre for the affections. This, + however, in a majority of cases, is not its + present tendency, and why? Because the education of +60:21 the higher nature is neglected, and other considerations, + - passion, frivolous amusements, personal adornment, + display, and pride, - occupy thought. + + Spiritual concord + +60:24 An ill-attuned ear calls discord harmony, not appreciat- + ing concord. So physical sense, not discerning the true + happiness of being, places it on a false basis. +60:27 Science will correct the discord, and teach us + life's sweeter harmonies. + + Soul has infinite resources with which to bless mankind, +60:30 and happiness would be more readily attained and would + be more secure in our keeping, if sought in Soul. Higher + enjoyments alone can satisfy the cravings of immortal +61:1 man. We cannot circumscribe happiness within the + limits of personal sense. The senses confer no real +61:3 enjoyment. + + Ascendency of good + + The good in human affections must have ascendency + over the evil and the spiritual over the animal, or happi- +61:6 ness will never be won. The attainment of + this celestial condition would improve our + progeny, diminish crime, and give higher aims to ambi- +61:9 tion. Every valley of sin must be exalted, and every + mountain of selfishness be brought low, that the highway + of our God may be prepared in Science. The offspring +61:12 of heavenly-minded parents inherit more intellect, better + balanced minds, and sounder constitutions. + + Propensities inherited + + If some fortuitous circumstance places promising chil- +61:15 dren in the arms of gross parents, often these beautiful + children early droop and die, like tropical + flowers born amid Alpine snows. If perchance +61:18 they live to become parents in their turn, they may re- + produce in their own helpless little ones the grosser traits + of their ancestors. What hope of happiness, what noble +61:21 ambition, can inspire the child who inherits propensities + that must either be overcome or reduce him to a loath- + some wreck? + +61:24 Is not the propagation of the human species a greater + responsibility, a more solemn charge, than the culture of + your garden or the raising of stock to increase your flocks +61:27 and herds? Nothing unworthy of perpetuity should be + transmitted to children. + + The formation of mortals must greatly improve to +61:30 advance mankind. The scientific /morale/ of marriage is + spiritual unity. If the propagation of a higher human + species is requisite to reach this goal, then its material con- +62:1 ditions can only be permitted for the purpose of gener- + ating. The foetus must be kept mentally pure and the +62:3 period of gestation have the sanctity of virginity. + + The entire education of children should be such as to + form habits of obedience to the moral and spiritual law, +62:6 with which the child can meet and master the belief in so- + called physical laws, a belief which breeds disease. + + Inheritance heeded + + If parents create in their babes a desire for incessant +62:9 amusement, to be always fed, rocked, tossed, or talked + to, those parents should not, in after years, + complain of their children's fretfulness or fri- +62:12 volity, which the parents themselves have occasioned. + Taking less "thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or + what ye shall drink"; less thought "for your body what +62:15 ye shall put on," will do much more for the health of the + rising generation than you dream. Children should be + allowed to remain children in knowledge, and should +62:18 become men and women only through growth in the + understanding of man's higher nature. + + The Mind creative + + We must not attribute more and more intelligence +62:21 to matter, but less and less, if we would be wise and + healthy. The divine Mind, which forms the + bud and blossom, will care for the human +62:24 body, even as it clothes the lily; but let no mortal inter- + fere with God's government by thrusting in the laws of + erring, human concepts. + + Superior law of Soul + +62:27 The higher nature of man is not governed by the lower; + if it were, the order of wisdom would be reversed. + Our false views of life hide eternal harmony, +62:30 and produce the ills of which we complain. + Because mortals believe in material laws and reject the + Science of Mind, this does not make materiality first and +63:1 the superior law of Soul last. You would never think + that flannel was better for warding off pulmonary disease +63:3 than the controlling Mind, if you understood the Science + of being. + + Spiritual origin + + In Science man is the offspring of Spirit. The beauti- +63:6 ful, good, and pure constitute his ancestry. His origin is + not, like that of mortals, in brute instinct, nor + does he pass through material conditions prior +63:9 to reaching intelligence. Spirit is his primitive and ulti- + mate source of being; God is his Father, and Life is the + law of his being. + + The rights of woman + +63:12 Civil law establishes very unfair differences between the + rights of the two sexes. Christian Science furnishes no + precedent for such injustice, and civilization +63:15 mitigates it in some measure. Still, it is a + marvel why usage should accord woman less rights than + does either Christian Science or civilization. + + Unfair discrimination + +63:18 Our laws are not impartial, to say the least, in their + discrimination as to the person, property, and parental + claims of the two sexes. If the elective fran- +63:21 chise for women will remedy the evil with- + out encouraging difficulties of greater magnitude, let us + hope it will be granted. A feasible as well as rational +63:24 means of improvement at present is the elevation of + society in general and the achievement of a nobler + race for legislation, - a race having higher aims and +63:27 motives. + + If a dissolute husband deserts his wife, certainly the + wronged, and perchance impoverished, woman should be +63:30 allowed to collect her own wages, enter into business + agreements, hold real estate, deposit funds, and own her + children free from interference. + +64:1 Want of uniform justice is a crying evil caused by the + selfishness and inhumanity of man. Our forefathers +64:3 exercised their faith in the direction taught by the Apostle + James, when he said: "Pure religion and undefiled before + God and the Father, is this, To visit the fatherless and +64:6 widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted + from the world." + + Benevolence hindered + + Pride, envy, or jealousy seems on most occasions to +64:9 be the master of ceremonies, ruling out primitive Chris- + tianity. When a man lends a helping hand + to some noble woman, struggling alone with +64:12 adversity, his wife should not say, "It is never well to + interfere with your neighbor's business." A wife is + sometimes debarred by a covetous domestic tyrant from +64:15 giving the ready aid her sympathy and charity would + afford. + + Progressive development + + Marriage should signify a union of hearts. Further- +64:18 more, the time cometh of which Jesus spake, when he + declared that in the resurrection there should + be no more marrying nor giving in marriage, +64:21 but man would be as the angels. Then shall Soul re- + joice in its own, in which passion has no part. Then + white-robed purity will unite in one person masculine wis- +64:24 dom and feminine love, spiritual understanding and per- + petual peace. + + Until it is learned that God is the Father of all, mar- +64:27 riage will continue. Let not mortals permit a disregard + of law which might lead to a worse state of society than + now exists. Honesty and virtue ensure the stability of +64:30 the marriage covenant. Spirit will ultimately claim its + own, - all that really is, - and the voices of physical + sense will be forever hushed. + + Blessing of Christ + +65:1 Experience should be the school of virtue, and human + happiness should proceed from man's highest nature. +65:3 May Christ, Truth, be present at every bridal + altar to turn the water into wine and to give to + human life an inspiration by which man's spiritual and +65:6 eternal existence may be discerned. + + Righteous foundations + + If the foundations of human affection are consistent + with progress, they will be strong and enduring. Divorces +65:9 should warn the age of some fundamental error + in the marriage state. The union of the sexes + suffers fearful discord. To gain Christian Science and its +65:12 harmony, life should be more metaphysically regarded. + + Powerless promises + + The broadcast powers of evil so conspicuous to-day + show themselves in the materialism and sensualism of +65:15 the age, struggling against the advancing + spiritual era. Beholding the world's lack of + Christianity and the powerlessness of vows to make home +65:18 happy, the human mind will at length demand a higher + affection. + + Transition and reform + + There will ensue a fermentation over this as over many +65:21 other reforms, until we get at last the clear straining of + truth, and impurity and error are left among + the lees. The fermentation even of fluids is +65:24 not pleasant. An unsettled, transitional stage is never + desirable on its own account. Matrimony, which was once + a fixed fact among us, must lose its present slippery foot- +65:27 ing, and man must find permanence and peace in a more + spiritual adherence. + + The mental chemicalization, which has brought con- +65:30 jugal infidelity to the surface, will assuredly throw off + this evil, and marriage will become purer when the scum + is gone. + + Thou art right, immortal Shakespeare, great poet of + humanity: +66:3 Sweet are the uses of adversity; + Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, + Wears yet a precious jewel in his head. + + Salutary sorrow + +66:6 Trials teach mortals not to lean on a material staff, - + a broken reed, which pierces the heart. We do not + half remember this in the sunshine of joy +66:9 and prosperity. Sorrow is salutary. Through + great tribulation we enter the kingdom. Trials are + proofs of God's care. Spiritual development germi- +66:12 nates not from seed sown in the soil of material hopes, + but when these decay, Love propagates anew the higher + joys of Spirit, which have no taint of earth. Each suc- +66:15 cessive stage of experience unfolds new views of divine + goodness and love. + + Amidst gratitude for conjugal felicity, it is well to re- +66:18 member how fleeting are human joys. Amidst conjugal + infelicity, it is well to hope, pray, and wait patiently on + divine wisdom to point out the path. + + Patience is wisdom + +66:21 Husbands and wives should never separate if there + is no Christian demand for it. It is better to await the + logic of events than for a wife precipitately +66:24 to leave her husband or for a husband to + leave his wife. If one is better than the other, as must + always be the case, the other pre-eminently needs good +66:27 company. Socrates considered patience salutary under + such circumstances, making his Xantippe a discipline for + his philosophy. + + The gold and dross + +66:30 Sorrow has its reward. It never leaves us + where it found us. The furnace separates + the gold from the dross that the precious metal may +67:1 be graven with the image of God. The cup our Father + hath given, shall we not drink it and learn the lessons +67:3 He teaches? + + Weathering the storm + + When the ocean is stirred by a storm, then the clouds + lower, the wind shrieks through the tightened shrouds, +67:6 and the waves lift themselves into mountains. + We ask the helmsman: "Do you know your + course? Can you steer safely amid the storm?" He +67:9 answers bravely, but even the dauntless seaman is not + sure of his safety; nautical science is not equal to the + Science of Mind. Yet, acting up to his highest under- +67:12 standing, firm at the post of duty, the mariner works on + and awaits the issue. Thus should we deport ourselves + on the seething ocean of sorrow. Hoping and work- +67:15 ing, one should stick to the wreck, until an irresistible + propulsion precipitates his doom or sunshine gladdens + the troubled sea. + + Spiritual power + +67:18 The notion that animal natures can possibly give force + to character is too absurd for consideration, when we + remember that through spiritual ascendency +67:21 our Lord and Master healed the sick, raised + the dead, and commanded even the winds and waves to + obey him. Grace and Truth are potent beyond all other +67:24 means and methods. + + The lack of spiritual power in the limited demonstration + of popular Christianity does not put to silence the labor +67:27 of centuries. Spiritual, not corporeal, consciousness is + needed. Man delivered from sin, disease, and death + presents the true likeness or spiritual ideal. + + Basis of true religion + +67:30 Systems of religion and medicine treat of physical pains + and pleasures, but Jesus rebuked the suffering from any + such cause or effect. The epoch approaches when the +68:1 understanding of the truth of being will be the basis of + true religion. At present mortals progress slowly for +68:3 fear of being thought ridiculous. They are + slaves to fashion, pride, and sense. Some- + time we shall learn how Spirit, the great architect, has +68:6 created men and women in Science. We ought to weary + of the fleeting and false and to cherish nothing which + hinders our highest selfhood. + +68:9 Jealousy is the grave of affection. The presence of + mistrust, where confidence is due, withers the flowers + of Eden and scatters love's petals to decay. Be not +68:12 in haste to take the vow "until death do us part." + Consider its obligations, its responsibilities, its rela- + tions to your growth and to your influence on other +68:15 lives. + + Insanity and agamogenesis + + I never knew more than one individual who believed + in agamogenesis; she was unmarried, a lovely charac- +68:18 ter, was suffering from incipient insanity, and + a Christian Scientist cured her. I have named + her case to individuals, when casting my bread upon +68:21 the waters, and it may have caused the good to ponder + and the evil to hatch their silly innuendoes and lies, since + salutary causes sometimes incur these effects. The per- +68:24 petuation of the floral species by bud or cell-division is + evident, but I discredit the belief that agamogenesis + applies to the human species. + + God's creation intact + +68:27 Christian Science presents unfoldment, not accretion; + it manifests no material growth from molecule to mind, + but an impartation of the divine Mind to man +68:30 and the universe. Proportionately as human + generation ceases, the unbroken links of eternal, har- + monious being will be spiritually discerned; and man, +69:1 not of the earth earthly but coexistent with God, will + appear. The scientific fact that man and the universe +69:3 are evolved from Spirit, and so are spiritual, is as fixed in + divine Science as is the proof that mortals gain the sense + of health only as they lose the sense of sin and disease. +69:6 Mortals can never understand God's creation while believ- + ing that man is a creator. God's children already created + will be cognized only as man finds the truth of being. +69:9 Thus it is that the real, ideal man appears in proportion + as the false and material disappears. No longer to marry + or to be "given in marriage" neither closes man's con- +69:12 tinuity nor his sense of increasing number in God's in- + finite plan. Spiritually to understand that there is but + one creator, God, unfolds all creation, confirms the Scrip- +69:15 tures, brings the sweet assurance of no parting, no pain, + and of man deathless and perfect and eternal. + + If Christian Scientists educate their own offspring +69:18 spiritually, they can educate others spiritually and not + conflict with the scientific sense of God's creation. Some + day the child will ask his parent: "Do you keep the First +69:21 Commandment? Do you have one God and creator, or + is man a creator?" If the father replies, "God creates + man through man," the child may ask, "Do you teach +69:24 that Spirit creates materially, or do you declare that + Spirit is infinite, therefore matter is out of the ques- + tion?" Jesus said, "The children of this world marry, +69:27 and are given in marriage: But they which shall be ac- + counted worthy to obtain that world, and the resur- + rection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in +69:30 marriage." + + + + + CHAPTER IV - CHRISTIAN SCIENCE VERSUS SPIRITUALISM + + And when they shall say unto you, + Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, + And unto wizards that peep and that mutter; + Should not a people seek unto their God? - ISAIAH. + + Verily, verily, I say unto you, If a man keep my saying, he + shall never see death. Then said the Jews unto him, Now we + know that thou hast a devil. - JOHN. + + The infinite one Spirit + +70:1 MORTAL existence is an enigma. Every day is a + mystery. The testimony of the corporeal senses +70:3 cannot inform us what is real and what is delusive, but + the revelations of Christian Science unlock the treasures + of Truth. Whatever is false or sinful can +70:6 never enter the atmosphere of Spirit. There + is but one Spirit. Man is never God, but spiritual man, + made in God's likeness, reflects God. In this scientific +70:9 reflection the Ego and the Father are inseparable. The + supposition that corporeal beings are spirits, or that there + are good and evil spirits, is a mistake. + + Real and unreal identity + +70:12 The divine Mind maintains all identities, from a blade + of grass to a star, as distinct and eternal. The + questions are: What are God's identities? +70:15 What is Soul? Does life or soul exist in the thing + formed? + +71:1 Nothing is real and eternal, - nothing is Spirit, - but + God and His idea. Evil has no reality. It is neither +71:3 person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion + of material sense. + + The identity, or idea, of all reality continues forever; +71:6 but Spirit, or the divine Principle of all, is not /in/ Spirit's + formations. Soul is synonymous with Spirit, God, the + creative, governing, infinite Principle outside of finite form, +71:9 which forms only reflect. + + Dream-lessons + + Close your eyes, and you may dream that you see a + flower, - that you touch and smell it. Thus you learn +71:12 that the flower is a product of the so-called + mind, a formation of thought rather than of + matter. Close your eyes again, and you may see land- +71:15 scapes, men, and women. Thus you learn that these + also are images, which mortal mind holds and evolves + and which simulate mind, life, and intelligence. From +71:18 dreams also you learn that neither mortal mind nor + matter is the image or likeness of God, and that im- + mortal Mind is not in matter. + + Found wanting + +71:21 When the Science of Mind is understood, spiritualism + will be found mainly erroneous, having no scientific basis + nor origin, no proof nor power outside of +71:24 human testimony. It is the offspring of the + physical senses. There is no sensuality in Spirit. I never + could believe in spiritualism. + +71:27 The basis and structure of spiritualism are alike ma- + terial and physical. Its spirits are so many corporealities, + limited and finite in character and quality. Spiritualism +71:30 therefore presupposes Spirit, which is ever infinite, to be + a corporeal being, a finite form, - a theory contrary to + Christian Science. + +72:1 There is but one spiritual existence, - the Life of + which corporeal sense can take no cognizance. The +72:3 divine Principle of man speaks through immortal sense. + If a material body - in other words, mortal, material + sense - were permeated by Spirit, that body would +72:6 disappear to mortal sense, would be deathless. A con- + dition precedent to communion with Spirit is the gain of + spiritual life. + Spirits obsolete + +72:9 So-called /spirits/ are but corporeal communicators. As + light destroys darkness and in the place of darkness all + is light, so (in absolute Science) Soul, or God, +72:12 is the only truth-giver to man. Truth de- + stroys mortality, and brings to light immortality. Mortal + belief (the material sense of life) and immortal Truth +72:15 (the spiritual sense) are the tares and the wheat, which + are not united by progress, but separated. + + Perfection is not expressed through imperfection. +72:18 Spirit is not made manifest through matter, the anti- + pode of Spirit. Error is not a convenient sieve through + which truth can be strained. + + Scientific phenomena + +72:21 God, good, being ever present, it follows in divine + logic that evil, the suppositional opposite of good, is never + present. In Science, individual good derived +72:24 from God, the infinite All-in-all, may flow + from the departed to mortals; but evil is neither com- + municable nor scientific. A sinning, earthly mortal is +72:27 not the reality of Life nor the medium through which + truth passes to earth. The joy of intercourse becomes + the jest of sin, when evil and suffering are communicable. +72:30 Not personal intercommunion but divine law is the com- + municator of truth, health, and harmony to earth and + humanity. As readily can you mingle fire and frost as +73:1 Spirit and matter. In either case, one does not support + the other. + +73:3 Spiritualism calls one person, living in this world, /ma- + terial/, but another, who has died to-day a sinner and sup- + posedly will return to earth to-morrow, it terms a /spirit/. +73:6 The fact is that neither the one nor the other is infinite + Spirit, for Spirit is God, and man is His likeness. + + One government + + The belief that one man, as spirit, can control an- +73:9 other man, as matter, upsets both the individuality and + the Science of man, for man is image. God + controls man, and God is the only Spirit. Any +73:12 other control or attraction of so-called spirit is a mortal + belief, which ought to be known by its fruit, - the repe- + tition of evil. + +73:15 If Spirit, or God, communed with mortals or controlled + them through electricity or any other form of matter, the + divine order and the Science of omnipotent, omnipresent +73:18 Spirit would be destroyed. + + Incorrect theories + + The belief that material bodies return to dust, hereafter + to rise up as spiritual bodies with material sensations and +73:21 desires, is incorrect. Equally incorrect is the + belief that spirit is confined in a finite, ma- + terial body, from which it is freed by death, and that, when +73:24 it is freed from the material body, spirit retains the sensa- + tions belonging to that body. + + No me-diumship + + It is a grave mistake to suppose that matter is any part +73:27 of the reality of intelligent existence, or that Spirit and + matter, intelligence and non-intelligence, can + commune together. This error Science will +73:30 destroy. The sensual cannot be made the mouthpiece of + the spiritual, nor can the finite become the channel of + the infinite. There is no communication between so- +74:1 called material existence and spiritual life which is not + subject to death. + + Opposing conditions + +74:3 To be on communicable terms with Spirit, persons must + be free from organic bodies; and their return to a mate- + rial condition, after having once left it, would +74:6 be as impossible as would be the restoration + to its original condition of the acorn, already absorbed + into a sprout which has risen above the soil. The seed +74:9 which has germinated has a new form and state of exist- + ence. When here or hereafter the belief of life in matter + is extinct, the error which has held the belief dissolves +74:12 with the belief, and never returns to the old condition. + No correspondence nor communion can exist between + persons in such opposite dreams as the belief of having +74:15 died and left a material body and the belief of still living + in an organic, material body. + + Bridgeless division + + The caterpillar, transformed into a beautiful insect, +74:18 is no longer a worm, nor does the insect return to + fraternize with or control the worm. Such + a backward transformation is impossible in +74:21 Science. Darkness and light, infancy and manhood, + sickness and health, are opposites, - different beliefs, + which never blend. Who will say that infancy can utter +74:24 the ideas of manhood, that darkness can represent light, + that we are in Europe when we are in the opposite hemi- + sphere? There is no bridge across the gulf which divides +74:27 two such opposite conditions as the spiritual, or incor- + poreal, and the physical, or corporeal. + + In Christian Science there is never a retrograde step, +74:30 never a return to positions outgrown. The so-called dead + and living cannot commune together, for they are in + separate states of existence, or consciousness. + + Unscientific investiture + +75:1 This simple truth lays bare the mistaken assumption + that man dies as matter but comes to life as spirit. The +75:3 so-called dead, in order to reappear to those + still in the existence cognized by the physical + senses, would need to be tangible and material, - to have +75:6 a material investiture, - or the material senses could take + no cognizance of the so-called dead. + + Spiritualism would transfer men from the spiritual sense +75:9 of existence back into its material sense. This gross mate- + rialism is scientifically impossible, since to infinite Spirit + there can be no matter. + + Raising the dead + +75:12 Jesus said of Lazarus: "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; + but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep." Jesus + restored Lazarus by the understanding that +75:15 Lazarus had never died, not by an admis- + sion that his body had died and then lived again. Had + Jesus believed that Lazarus had lived or died in his +75:18 body, the Master would have stood on the same plane of + belief as those who buried the body, and he could not have + resuscitated it. + +75:21 When you can waken yourself or others out of the belief + that all must die, you can then exercise Jesus' spiritual + power to reproduce the presence of those who have thought +75:24 they died, - but not otherwise. + + Vision of the dying + + There is one possible moment, when those living on the + earth and those called dead, can commune together, and +75:27 that is the moment previous to the transition, + - the moment when the link between their op- + posite beliefs is being sundered. In the vestibule through +75:30 which we pass from one dream to another dream, or + when we awake from earth's sleep to the grand verities + of Life, the departing may hear the glad welcome of those +76:1 who have gone before. The ones departing may whisper + this vision, name the face that smiles on them and the +76:3 hand which beckons them, as one at Niagara, with eyes + open only to that wonder, forgets all else and breathes + aloud his rapture. + + Real Life is God + +76:6 When being is understood, Life will be recognized as + neither material nor finite, but as infinite, - as God, + universal good; and the belief that life, or +76:9 mind, was ever in a finite form, or good in + evil, will be destroyed. Then it will be understood that + Spirit never entered matter and was therefore never +76:12 raised from matter. When advanced to spiritual being + and the understanding of God, man can no longer com- + mune with matter; neither can he return to it, any more +76:15 than a tree can return to its seed. Neither will man seem + to be corporeal, but he will be an individual conscious- + ness, characterized by the divine Spirit as idea, not matter. + +76:18 Suffering, sinning, dying beliefs are unreal. When + divine Science is universally understood, they will have + no power over man, for man is immortal and lives by +76:21 divine authority. + + Immaterial pleasure + + The sinless joy, - the perfect harmony and immortality + of Life, possessing unlimited divine beauty and goodness +76:24 without a single bodily pleasure or pain, - + constitutes the only veritable, indestructible + man, whose being is spiritual. This state of existence +76:27 is scientific and intact, - a perfection discernible only + by those who have the final understanding of Christ in + divine Science. Death can never hasten this state of +76:30 existence, for death must be overcome, not submitted to, + before immortality appears. + + The recognition of Spirit and of infinity comes not +77:1 suddenly here or hereafter. The pious Polycarp said: + "I cannot turn at once from good to evil." Neither do +77:3 other mortals accomplish the change from error to truth + at a single bound. + + Second death + + Existence continues to be a belief of corporeal sense +77:6 until the Science of being is reached. Error brings its + own self-destruction both here and hereafter, + for mortal mind creates its own physical con- +77:9 ditions. Death will occur on the next plane of existence + as on this, until the spiritual understanding of Life is + reached. Then, and not until then, will it be demon- +77:12 strated that "the second death hath no power." + + A dream vanishing + + The period required for this dream of material life, + embracing its so-called pleasures and pains, to vanish +77:15 from consciousness, "knoweth no man . . . + neither the Son, but the Father." This period + will be of longer or shorter duration according to the +77:18 tenacity of error. Of what advantage, then, would it be + to us, or to the departed, to prolong the material state and + so prolong the illusion either of a soul inert or of a sinning, +77:21 suffering sense, - a so-called mind fettered to matter. + + Progress and purgatory + + Even if communications from spirits to mortal con- + sciousness were possible, such communications would +77:24 grow beautifully less with every advanced stage + of existence. The departed would gradually + rise above ignorance and materiality, and Spiritualists +77:27 would outgrow their beliefs in material spiritualism. + Spiritism consigns the so-called dead to a state resembling + that of blighted buds, - to a wretched purgatory, where +77:30 the chances of the departed for improvement narrow + into nothing and they return to their old standpoints of + matter. + + Unnatural deflections + +78:1 The decaying flower, the blighted bud, the gnarled oak, + the ferocious beast, - like the discords of disease, sin, +78:3 and death, - are unnatural. They are the fal- + sities of sense, the changing deflections of mor- + tal mind; they are not the eternal realities of Mind. + + Absurd oracles + +78:6 How unreasonable is the belief that we are wearing + out life and hastening to death, and that at the same + time we are communing with immortality! +78:9 If the departed are in rapport with mor- + tality, or matter, they are not spiritual, but must still + be mortal, sinning, suffering, and dying. Then why +78:12 look to them - even were communication possible - for + proofs of immortality, and accept them as oracles? Com- + munications gathered from ignorance are pernicious in +78:15 tendency. + + Spiritualism with its material accompaniments would + destroy the supremacy of Spirit. If Spirit pervades all +78:18 space, it needs no material method for the transmission + of messages. Spirit needs no wires nor electricity in order + to be omnipresent. + + Spirit intangible + +78:21 Spirit is not materially tangible. How then can it + communicate with man through electric, material effects? + How can the majesty and omnipotence of +78:24 Spirit be lost? God is not in the medley + where matter cares for matter, where spiritism makes + many gods, and hypnotism and electricity are claimed +78:27 to be the agents of God's government. + + Spirit blesses man, but man cannot "tell whence + it cometh." By it the sick are healed, the sorrowing are +78:30 comforted, and the sinning are reformed. These are the + effects of one universal God, the invisible good dwelling + in eternal Science. + + Thought regarding death + +79:1 The act of describing disease - its symptoms, locality, + and fatality - is not scientific. Warning people against +79:3 death is an error that tends to frighten into + death those who are ignorant of Life as God. + Thousands of instances could be cited of health restored +79:6 by changing the patient's thoughts regarding death. + + Fallacious hypotheses + + A scientific mental method is more sanitary than the + use of drugs, and such a mental method produces perma- +79:9 nent health. Science must go over the whole + ground, and dig up every seed of error's sow- + ing. Spiritualism relies upon human beliefs and hy- +79:12 potheses. Christian Science removes these beliefs and + hypotheses through the higher understanding of God, for + Christian Science, resting on divine Principle, not on ma- +79:15 terial personalities, in its revelation of immortality, intro- + duces the harmony of being. + + Jesus cast out evil spirits, or false beliefs. The Apostle +79:18 Paul bade men have the Mind that was in the Christ. + Jesus did his own work by the one Spirit. He said: "My + Father worketh hitherto, and I work." He never de- +79:21 scribed disease, so far as can be learned from the Gospels, + but he healed disease. + + Mistaken methods + + The unscientific practitioner says: "You are ill. Your +79:24 brain is overtaxed, and you must rest. Your body is + weak, and it must be strengthened. You have + nervous prostration, and must be treated for it." +79:27 Science objects to all this, contending for the rights of in- + telligence and asserting that Mind controls body and brain. + + Divine strength + + Mind-science teaches that mortals need "not be weary +79:30 in well doing." It dissipates fatigue in doing + good. Giving does not impoverish us in the + service of our Maker, neither does withholding enrich us. +80:1 We have strength in proportion to our apprehension of + the truth, and our strength is not lessened by giving +80:3 utterance to truth. A cup of coffee or tea is not the equal + of truth, whether for the inspiration of a sermon or for + the support of bodily endurance. + + A denial of immortality + +80:6 A communication purporting to come from the late + Theodore Parker reads as follows: "There never was, + and there never will be, an immortal spirit." +80:9 Yet the very periodical containing this sen- + tence repeats weekly the assertion that spirit-communica- + tions are our only proofs of immortality. + + Mysticism unscientific + +80:12 I entertain no doubt of the humanity and philanthropy + of many Spiritualists, but I cannot coincide with their + views. It is mysticism which gives spiritual- +80:15 ism its force. Science dispels mystery and + explains extraordinary phenomena; but Science never + removes phenomena from the domain of reason into the +80:18 realm of mysticism. + + Physical falsities + + It should not seem mysterious that mind, without the + aid of hands, can move a table, when we already know +80:21 that it is mind-power which moves both table + and hand. Even planchette - the French toy + which years ago pleased so many people - attested the con- +80:24 trol of mortal mind over its substratum, called matter. + + It is mortal mind which convulses its substratum, matter. + These movements arise from the volition of human belief, +80:27 but they are neither scientific nor rational. Mortal mind + produces table-tipping as certainly as table-setting, and + believes that this wonder emanates from spirits and elec- +80:30 tricity. This belief rests on the common conviction that + mind and matter cooperate both visibly and invisibly, + hence that matter is intelligent. + + Poor post-mortem evidence + +81:1 There is not so much evidence to prove intercommuni- + cation between the so-called dead and the living, as there +81:3 is to show the sick that matter suffers and has + sensation; yet this latter evidence is destroyed by + the Mind-science. If Spiritualists understood the +81:6 Science of being, their belief in mediumship would vanish. + + No proof of immortality + + At the very best and on its own theories, spiritualism + can only prove that certain individuals have a continued +81:9 existence after death and maintain their affili- + ation with mortal flesh; but this fact affords + no certainty of everlasting life. A man's assertion that +81:12 he is immortal no more proves him to be so, than the op- + posite assertion, that he is mortal, would prove immor- + tality a lie. Nor is the case improved when alleged spirits +81:15 teach immortality. Life, Love, Truth, is the only proof + of immortality. + + Mind's manifestations immortal + + Man in the likeness of God as revealed in Science can- +81:18 not help being immortal. Though the grass seemeth to + wither and the flower to fade, they reappear. + Erase the figures which express number, silence +81:21 the tones of music, give to the worms the body + called man, and yet the producing, governing, divine + Principle lives on, - in the case of man as truly as in +81:24 the case of numbers and of music, - despite the so-called + laws of matter, which define man as mortal. Though + the inharmony resulting from material sense hides the +81:27 harmony of Science, inharmony cannot destroy the divine + Principle of Science. In Science, man's immortality de- + pends upon that of God, good, and follows as a necessary +81:30 consequence of the immortality of good. + + Reading thoughts + + That somebody, somewhere, must have known the + deceased person, supposed to be the communicator, is +82:1 evident, and it is as easy to read distant thoughts as near. + We think of an absent friend as easily as we do of one +82:3 present. It is no more difficult to read the + absent mind than it is to read the present. + Chaucer wrote centuries ago, yet we still read his thought +82:6 in his verse. What is classic study, but discernment of + the minds of Homer and Virgil, of whose personal exist- + ence we may be in doubt? + + Impossible intercommunion + +82:9 If spiritual life has been won by the departed, they + cannot return to material existence, because different + states of consciousness are involved, and one +82:12 person cannot exist in two different states of + consciousness at the same time. In sleep we + do not communicate with the dreamer by our side despite +82:15 his physical proximity, because both of us are either un- + conscious or are wandering in our dreams through differ- + ent mazes of consciousness. + +82:18 In like manner it would follow, even if our departed + friends were near us and were in as conscious a state of + existence as before the change we call death, that their +82:21 state of consciousness must be different from ours. We + are not in their state, nor are they in the mental realm + in which we dwell. Communion between them and +82:24 ourselves would be prevented by this difference. The + mental states are so unlike, that intercommunion is as + impossible as it would be between a mole and a human +82:27 being. Different dreams and different awakenings be- + token a differing consciousness. When wandering in + Australia, do we look for help to the Esquimaux in their +82:30 snow huts? + + In a world of sin and sensuality hastening to a + greater development of power, it is wise earnestly to +83:1 consider whether it is the human mind or the divine + Mind which is influencing one. What the prophets of +83:3 Jehovah did, the worshippers of Baal failed to do; yet + artifice and delusion claimed that they could equal the + work of wisdom. + +83:6 Science only can explain the incredible good and evil + elements now coming to the surface. Mortals must find + refuge in Truth in order to escape the error of these latter +83:9 days. Nothing is more antagonistic to Christian Science + than a blind belief without understanding, for such a + belief hides Truth and builds on error. + + Natural wonders + +83:12 Miracles are impossible in Science, and here Science + takes issue with popular religions. The scientific mani- + festation of power is from the divine nature +83:15 and is not supernatural, since Science is an + explication of nature. The belief that the universe, in- + cluding man, is governed in general by material laws, but +83:18 that occasionally Spirit sets aside these laws, - this be- + lief belittles omnipotent wisdom, and gives to matter the + precedence over Spirit. + + Conflicting standpoints + +83:21 It is contrary to Christian Science to suppose that life + is either material or organically spiritual. Between + Christian Science and all forms of superstition +83:24 a great gulf is fixed, as impassable as that be- + tween Dives and Lazarus. There is mortal mind-reading + and immortal Mind-reading. The latter is a revelation +83:27 of divine purpose through spiritual understanding, by + which man gains the divine Principle and explanation of + all things. Mortal mind-reading and immortal Mind- +83:30 reading are distinctly opposite standpoints, from which + cause and effect are interpreted. The act of reading + mortal mind investigates and touches only human beliefs. +84:1 Science is immortal and coordinate neither with the + premises nor with the conclusions of mortal beliefs. + + Scientific foreseeing + +84:3 The ancient prophets gained their foresight from a + spiritual, incorporeal standpoint, not by foreshadowing + evil and mistaking fact for fiction, - predict- +84:6 ing the future from a groundwork of corpo- + reality and human belief. When sufficiently advanced + in Science to be in harmony with the truth of being, men +84:9 become seers and prophets involuntarily, controlled not + by demons, spirits, or demigods, but by the one Spirit. + It is the prerogative of the ever-present, divine Mind, and +84:12 of thought which is in rapport with this Mind, to know + the past, the present, and the future. + + Acquaintance with the Science of being enables us to +84:15 commune more largely with the divine Mind, to foresee + and foretell events which concern the universal welfare, + to be divinely inspired, - yea, to reach the range of fetter- +84:18 less Mind. + + The Mind unbounded + + To understand that Mind is infinite, not bounded by + corporeality, not dependent upon the ear and eye for +84:21 sound or sight nor upon muscles and bones + for locomotion, is a step towards the Mind- + science by which we discern man's nature and existence. +84:24 This true conception of being destroys the belief of spirit- + ualism at its very inception, for without the concession of + material personalities called spirits, spiritualism has no +84:27 basis upon which to build. + + Scientific foreknowing + + All we correctly know of Spirit comes from God, divine + Principle, and is learned through Christ and Christian +84:30 Science. If this Science has been thoroughly + learned and properly digested, we can know + the truth more accurately than the astronomer can read +85:1 the stars or calculate an eclipse. This Mind-reading + is the opposite of clairvoyance. It is the illumination of +85:3 the spiritual understanding which demonstrates the ca- + pacity of Soul, not of material sense. This Soul-sense + comes to the human mind when the latter yields to the +85:6 divine Mind. + + Value of intuition + + Such intuitions reveal whatever constitutes and per- + petuates harmony, enabling one to do good, but not +85:9 evil. You will reach the perfect Science of + healing when you are able to read the human + mind after this manner and discern the error you would +85:12 destroy. The Samaritan woman said: "Come, see a + man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this + the Christ?" + +85:15 It is recorded that Jesus, as he once journeyed with his + students, "knew their thoughts," - read them scientifi- + cally. In like manner he discerned disease and healed +85:18 the sick. After the same method, events of great mo- + ment were foretold by the Hebrew prophets. Our + Master rebuked the lack of this power when he said: +85:21 "O ye hypocrites! ye can discern the face of the sky; + but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" + + Hypocrisy condemned + + Both Jew and Gentile may have had acute corporeal +85:24 senses, but mortals need spiritual sense. Jesus knew the + generation to be wicked and adulterous, seek- + ing the material more than the spiritual. His +85:27 thrusts at materialism were sharp, but needed. He never + spared hypocrisy the sternest condemnation.. He said: + "These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other +85:30 undone." The great Teacher knew both cause and + effect, knew that truth communicates itself but never + imparts error. + + Mental contact + +86:1 Jesus once asked, "Who touched me?" Supposing + this inquiry to be occasioned by physical contact alone, +86:3 his disciples answered, "The multitude throng + thee." Jesus knew, as others did not, that + it was not matter, but mortal mind, whose touch called +86:6 for aid. Repeating his inquiry, he was answered by the + faith of a sick woman. His quick apprehension of this + mental call illustrated his spirituality. The disciples' +86:9 misconception of it uncovered their materiality. Jesus + possessed more spiritual susceptibility than the disciples. + Opposites come from contrary directions, and produce +86:12 unlike results. + + Images of thought + + Mortals evolve images of thought. These may appear + to the ignorant to be apparitions; but they are myste- +86:15 rious only because it is unusual to see + thoughts, though we can always feel their + influence. Haunted houses, ghostly voices, unusual +86:18 noises, and apparitions brought out in dark seances + either involve feats by tricksters, or they are images and + sounds evolved involuntarily by mortal mind. Seeing +86:21 is no less a quality of physical sense than feeling. Then + why is it more difficult to see a thought than to feel one? + Education alone determines the difference. In reality +86:24 there is none. + + Phenomena explained + + Portraits, landscape-paintings, fac-similes of penman- + ship, peculiarities of expression, recollected sentences, +86:27 can all be taken from pictorial thought and + memory as readily as from objects cognizable + by the senses. Mortal mind sees what it believes as +86:30 certainly as it believes what it sees. It feels, hears, and + sees its own thoughts. Pictures are mentally formed + before the artist can convey them to canvas. So is it +87:1 with all material conceptions. Mind-readers perceive + these pictures of thought. They copy or reproduce +87:3 them, even when they are lost to the memory of the mind + in which they are discoverable. + + Mental environment + + It is needless for the thought or for the person hold- +87:6 ing the transferred picture to be individually and con- + sciously present. Though individuals have + passed away, their mental environment re- +87:9 mains to be discerned, described, and transmitted. Though + bodies are leagues apart and their associations forgotten, + their associations float in the general atmosphere of human +87:12 mind. + + Second sight + + The Scotch call such vision "second sight", when + really it is first sight instead of second, for it presents +87:15 primal facts to mortal mind. Science enables + one to read the human mind, but not as a + clairvoyant. It enables one to heal through Mind, but +87:18 not as a mesmerist. + + Buried secrets + + The mine knows naught of the emeralds within its + rocks; the sea is ignorant of the gems within its caverns, +87:21 of the corals, of its sharp reefs, of the tall ships + that float on its bosom, or of the bodies which + lie buried in its sands: yet these are all there. Do not +87:24 suppose that any mental concept is gone because you do + not think of it. The true concept is never lost. The + strong impressions produced on mortal mind by friend- +87:27 ship or by any intense feeling are lasting, and mind- + readers can perceive and reproduce these impressions. + + Recollected friends + + Memory may reproduce voices long ago silent. We +87:30 have but to close the eyes, and forms rise + before us, which are thousands of miles away + or altogether gone from physical sight and sense, and +88:1 this not in dreamy sleep. In our day-dreams we can + recall that for which the poet Tennyson expressed the +88:3 heart's desire, - + the touch of a vanished hand, + And the sound of a voice that is still. + +88:6 The mind may even be cognizant of a present flavor and + odor, when no viand touches the palate and no scent + salutes the nostrils. + + Illusions not ideas + +88:9 How are veritable ideas to be distinguished from il- + lusions? By learning the origin of each. Ideas are + emanations from the divine Mind. Thoughts, +88:12 proceeding from the brain or from matter, are + offshoots of mortal mind; they are mortal material be- + liefs. Ideas are spiritual, harmonious, and eternal. Beliefs +88:15 proceed from the so-called material senses, which at one + time are supposed to be substance-matter and at another + are called spirits. + +88:18 To love one's neighbor as one's self, is a divine idea; + but this idea can never be seen, felt, nor understood + through the physical senses. Excite the organ of ven- +88:21 eration or religious faith, and the individual manifests + profound adoration. Excite the opposite development, + and he blasphemes. These effects, however, do not pro- +88:24 ceed from Christianity, nor are they spiritual phenomena, + for both arise from mortal belief. + + Trance speaking illusion + + Eloquence re-echoes the strains of Truth and Love. +88:27 It is due to inspiration rather than to erudition. It shows + the possibilities derived from divine Mind, + though it is said to be a gift whose endowment +88:30 is obtained from books or received from the + impulsion of departed spirits. When eloquence proceeds + from the belief that a departed spirit is speaking, who +89:1 can tell what the unaided medium is incapable of know- + ing or uttering? This phenomenon only shows that the +89:3 beliefs of mortal mind are loosed. Forgetting her igno- + rance in the belief that another mind is speaking through + her, the devotee may become unwontedly eloquent. Hav- +89:6 ing more faith in others than in herself, and believing + that somebody else possesses her tongue and mind, she + talks freely. + +89:9 Destroy her belief in outside aid, and her eloquence + disappears. The former limits of her belief return. She + says, " I am incapable of words that glow, for I am un- +89:12 educated." This familiar instance reaffirms the Scrip- + tural word concerning a man, "As he thinketh in his heart, + so is he." If one believes that he cannot be an orator with- +89:15 out study or a superinduced condition, the body responds + to this belief, and the tongue grows mute which before + was eloquent. + + Scientific improvisation + +89:18 Mind is not necessarily dependent upon educational + processes. It possesses of itself all beauty and poetry, + and the power of expressing them. Spirit, +89:21 God, is heard when the senses are silent. We + are all capable of more than we do. The influence or + action of Soul confers a freedom, which explains the phe- +89:24 nomena of improvisation and the fervor of untutored lips. + + Divine origination + + Matter is neither intelligent nor creative. The tree is + not the author of itself. Sound is not the originator of +89:27 music, and man is not the father of man. Cain + very naturally concluded that if life was in the + body, and man gave it, man had the right to take it away. +89:30 This incident shows that the belief of life in matter was + "a murderer from the beginning." + + If seed is necessary to produce wheat, and wheat to +90:1 produce flour, or if one animal can originate another, + how then can we account for their primal origin? How +90:3 were the loaves and fishes multiplied on the shores of + Galilee, - and that, too, without meal or monad from + which loaf or fish could come? + + Mind is substance + +90:6 The earth's orbit and the imaginary line called the + equator are not substance. The earth's motion and + position are sustained by Mind alone. Divest +90:9 yourself of the thought that there can be sub- + stance in matter, and the movements and transitions now + possible for mortal mind will be found to be equally +90:12 possible for the body. Then being will be recognized + as spiritual, and death will be obsolete, though now + some insist that death is the necessary prelude to +90:15 immortality. + + Mortal delusions + + In dreams we fly to Europe and meet a far-off friend. + The looker-on sees the body in bed, but the supposed +90:18 inhabitant of that body carries it through + the air and over the ocean. This shows the + possibilities of thought. Opium and hashish eaters men- +90:21 tally travel far and work wonders, yet their bodies stay + in one place. This shows what mortal mentality and + knowledge are. + + Scientific finalities + +90:24 The admission to one's self that man is God's own like- + ness sets man free to master the infinite idea. This con- + viction shuts the door on death, and opens it +90:27 wide towards immortality. The understanding + and recognition of Spirit must finally come, and we may + as well improve our time in solving the mysteries of being +90:30 through an apprehension of divine Principle. At present + we know not what man is, but we certainly shall know + this when man reflects God. + +91:1 The Revelator tells us of "a new heaven and a + new earth." Have you ever pictured this heaven and +91:3 earth, inhabited by beings under the control of supreme + wisdom? + + Let us rid ourselves of the belief that man is separated +91:6 from God, and obey only the divine principle, Life and + Love. Here is the great point of departure for all true + spiritual growth. + + Man's genuine being + +91:9 It is difficult for the sinner to accept divine Science, + because Science exposes his nothingness; but the sooner + error is reduced to its native nothingness, the +91:12 sooner man's great reality will appear and his + genuine being will be understood. The destruction of + error is by no means the destruction of Truth or Life, but +91:15 is the acknowledgment of them. + + Absorbed in material selfhood we discern and reflect + but faintly the substance of Life or Mind. The denial of +91:18 material selfhood aids the discernment of man's spirit- + ual and eternal individuality, and destroys the erroneous + knowledge gained from matter or through what are termed +91:21 the material senses. + + Erroneous postulates + + Certain erroneous postulates should be here considered + in order that the spiritual facts may be better +91:24 apprehended. + + The first erroneous postulate of belief is, that substance, + life, and intelligence are something apart from God. +91:27 The second erroneous postulate is, that man is both + mental and material. + + The third erroneous postulate is, that mind is both evil +91:30 and good; whereas the real Mind cannot be evil nor the + medium of evil, for Mind is God. + + The fourth erroneous postulate is, that matter is in- +92:1 telligent, and that man has a material body which is part + of himself. + +92:3 The fifth erroneous postulate is, that matter holds in + itself the issues of life and death, - that matter is not + only capable of experiencing pleasure and pain, but also +92:6 capable of imparting these sensations. From the illusion + implied in this last postulate arises the decomposition of + mortal bodies in what is termed death. +92:9 Mind is not an entity within the cranium with the power + of sinning now and forever. + + Knowledge of good and evil + + In old Scriptural pictures we see a serpent coiled around +92:12 the tree of knowledge and speaking to Adam and Eve. + This represents the serpent in the act of + commending to our first parents the knowl- +92:15 edge of good and evil, a knowledge gained from matter, + or evil, instead of from Spirit. The portrayal is still + graphically accurate, for the common conception of mor- +92:18 tal man - a burlesque of God's man - is an outgrowth + of human knowledge or sensuality, a mere offshoot of + material sense. + + Opposing power + +92:21 Uncover error, and it turns the lie upon you. Until + the fact concerning error - namely, its nothingness - + appears, the moral demand will not be met, +92:24 and the ability to make nothing of error will + be wanting. We should blush to call that real which is + only a mistake. The foundation of evil is laid on a belief +92:27 in something besides God. This belief tends to support + two opposite powers, instead of urging the claims of Truth + alone. The mistake of thinking that error can be real, +92:30 when it is merely the absence of truth, leads to belief in + the superiority of error. + + The age's privilege + + Do you say the time has not yet come in which to +93:1 recognize Soul as substantial and able to control the + body? Remember Jesus, who nearly nineteen centuries +93:3 ago demonstrated the power of Spirit and said, + "He that believeth on me, the works that I + do shall he do also," and who also said, "But the hour +93:6 cometh, and /now is/, when the true worshippers shall + worship the Father in spirit and in truth." "Behold, + /now/ is the accepted time; behold, /now/ is the day of sal- +93:9 vation," said Paul. + + Logic and revelation + + Divine logic and revelation coincide. If we believe + otherwise, we may be sure that either our +93:12 logic is at fault or that we have misinterpreted + revelation. Good never causes evil, nor creates aught + that can cause evil. + +93:15 Good does not create a mind susceptible of causing + evil, for evil is the opposing error and not the truth of + creation. Destructive electricity is not the offspring of in- +93:18 finite good. Whatever contradicts the real nature of the + divine /Esse/, though human faith may clothe it with angelic + vestments, is without foundation. + + Derivatives of spirit + +93:21 The belief that Spirit is finite as well as infinite has + darkened all history. In Christian Science, Spirit, as a + proper noun, is the name of the Supreme Being. +93:24 It means quantity and quality, and applies ex- + clusively to God. The modifying derivatives of the word + /spirit/ refer only to quality, not to God. Man is spiritual. +93:27 He is not God, Spirit. If man were Spirit, then men + would be spirits, gods. Finite spirit would be mortal, + and this is the error embodied in the belief that the infi- +93:30 nite can be contained in the finite. This belief tends to + becloud our apprehension of the kingdom of heaven and + of the reign of harmony in the Science of being. + + Scientific man + +94:1 Jesus taught but one God, one Spirit, who makes man + in the image and likeness of Himself, - of Spirit, not of +94:3 matter. Man reflects infinite Truth, Life, and + Love. The nature of man, thus understood, + includes all that is implied by the terms "image" and +94:6 "likeness" as used in Scripture. The truly Christian + and scientific statement of personality and of the relation + of man to God, with the demonstration which accompa- +94:9 nied it, incensed the rabbis, and they said: "Crucify him, + crucify him . . . by our law he ought to die, because he + made himself the Son of God." + +94:12 The eastern empires and nations owe their false gov- + ernment to the misconceptions of Deity there prevalent. + Tyranny, intolerance, and bloodshed, wherever found, +94:15 arise from the belief that the infinite is formed after the + pattern of mortal personality, passion, and impulse. + + Ingratitude and denial + + The progress of truth confirms its claims, and our +94:18 Master confirmed his words by his works. His healing- + power evoked denial, ingratitude, and be- + trayal, arising from sensuality. Of the ten +94:21 lepers whom Jesus healed, but one returned to give God + thanks, - that is, to acknowledge the divine Principle + which had healed him. + + Spiritual insight + +94:24 Our Master easily read the thoughts of mankind, and + this insight better enabled him to direct those thoughts + aright; but what would be said at this period of an in- +94:27 fidel blasphemer who should hint that Jesus used his in- + cisive power injuriously? Our Master read mortal mind + on a scientific basis, that of the omnipresence of Mind. +94:30 An approximation of this discernment indicates spiritual + growth and union with the infinite capacities of the one + Mind. Jesus could injure no one by his Mind-reading. +95:1 The effect of his Mind was always to heal and to save, + and this is the only genuine Science of reading mortal +95:3 mind. His holy motives and aims were tra- + duced by the sinners of that period, as they + would be to-day if Jesus were personally present. Paul +95:6 said, "To be spiritually minded is life." We approach + God, or Life, in proportion to our spirituality, our fidel- + ity to Truth and Love; and in that ratio we know all +95:9 human need and are able to discern the thought of the + sick and the sinning for the purpose of healing them. + Error of any kind cannot hide from the law of God. + +95:12 Whoever reaches this point of moral culture and good- + ness cannot injure others, and must do them good. The + greater or lesser ability of a Christian Scientist to discern +95:15 thought scientifically, depends upon his genuine spirit- + uality. This kind of mind-reading is not clairvoyance, + but it is important to success in healing, and is one of the +95:18 special characteristics thereof. + + Christ's reappearance + + We welcome the increase of knowledge and the end + of error, because even human invention must have its +95:21 day, and we want that day to be succeeded + by Christian Science, by divine reality. Mid- + night foretells the dawn. Led by a solitary star amid +95:24 the darkness, the Magi of old foretold the Messiahship + of Truth. Is the wise man of to-day believed, when he + beholds the light which heralds Christ's eternal dawn +95:27 and describes its effulgence? + + Spiritual awakening + + Lulled by stupefying illusions, the world is asleep + in the cradle of infancy, dreaming away the hours. +95:30 Material sense does not unfold the facts of + existence; but spiritual sense lifts human + consciousness into eternal Truth. Humanity advances +96:1 slowly out of sinning sense into spiritual understanding; + unwillingness to learn all things rightly, binds Christen- +96:3 dom with chains. + + The darkest hours of all + + Love will finally mark the hour of harmony, and spir- + itualization will follow, for Love is Spirit. Before error +96:6 is wholly destroyed, there will be interrup- + tions of the general material routine. Earth + will become dreary and desolate, but summer and winter, +96:9 seedtime and harvest (though in changed forms), will + continue unto the end, - until the final spiritualization of + all things. "The darkest hour precedes the dawn." + + Arena of contest + +96:12 This material world is even now becoming the arena + for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord + and dismay; on the other side there will be +96:15 Science and peace. The breaking up of mate- + rial beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want + and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new +96:18 phases until their nothingness appears. These disturb- + ances will continue until the end of error, when all + discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth. +96:21 Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization. + This mental fermentation has begun, and will continue + until all errors of belief yield to understanding. Belief is +96:24 changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless. + + Millennial glory + + As this consummation draws nearer, he who has + shaped his course in accordance with divine Science +96:27 will endure to the end. As material knowl- + edge diminishes and spiritual understanding + increases, real objects will be apprehended mentally +96:30 instead of materially. + + During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor + to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but +97:1 those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in + check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They +97:3 will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the + certainty of ultimate perfection. + + Dangerous resemblances + + In reality, the more closely error simulates truth and +97:6 so-called matter resembles its essence, mortal mind, the + more impotent error becomes as a belief. Ac- + cording to human belief, the lightning is fierce +97:9 and the electric current swift, yet in Christian Science + the flight of one and the blow of the other will become + harmless. The more destructive matter becomes, the +97:12 more its nothingness will appear, until matter reaches + its mortal zenith in illusion and forever disappears. The + nearer a false belief approaches truth without passing +97:15 the boundary where, having been destroyed by divine + Love, it ceases to be even an illusion, the riper it becomes + for destruction. The more material the belief, the more +97:18 obvious its error, until divine Spirit, supreme in its do- + main, dominates all matter, and man is found in the like- + ness of Spirit, his original being. + +97:21 The broadest facts array the most falsities against + themselves, for they bring error from under cover. It + requires courage to utter truth; for the higher Truth +97:24 lifts her voice, the louder will error scream, until its in- + articulate sound is forever silenced in oblivion. + + "He uttered His voice, the earth melted." This Scrip- +97:27 ture indicates that all matter will disappear before the + supremacy of Spirit. + + Christianity still rejected + + Christianity is again demonstrating the Life that is +97:30 Truth, and the Truth that is Life, by the apos- + tolic work of casting out error and healing the + sick. Earth has no repayment for the persecutions which +98:1 attend a new step in Christianity; but the spiritual recom- + pense of the persecuted is assured in the elevation of ex- +98:3 istence above mortal discord and in the gift of divine Love. + + Spiritual foreshadowings + + The prophet of to-day beholds in the mental horizon + the signs of these times, the reappearance of the Chris- +98:6 tianity which heals the sick and destroys error, + and no other sign shall be given. Body can- + not be saved except through Mind. The Science of Chris- +98:9 tianity is misinterpreted by a material age, for it is the + healing influence of Spirit (not /spirits/) which the material + senses cannot comprehend, which can only be spiritu- +98:12 ally discerned. Creeds, doctrines, and human hypotheses + do not express Christian Science; much less can they + demonstrate it. + + Revelation of Science + +98:15 Beyond the frail premises of human beliefs, above the + loosening grasp of creeds, the demonstration of Christian + Mind-healing stands a revealed and practical +98:18 Science. It is imperious throughout all ages + as Christ's revelation of Truth, of Life, and of Love, which + remains inviolate for every man to understand and to +98:21 practise. + + Science as foreign to all religion + + For centuries - yea, always - natural science has not + been considered a part of any religion, Christianity not +98:24 excepted. Even now multitudes consider that + which they call /science/ has no proper con- + nection with faith and piety. Mystery does +98:27 not enshroud Christ's teachings, and they are not theo- + retical and fragmentary, but practical and complete; and + being practical and complete, they are not deprived of +98:30 their essential vitality. + + Key to the kingdom + + The way through which immortality and life are learned + is not ecclesiastical but Christian, not human but divine, +99:1 not physical but metaphysical, not material but scien- + tifically spiritual. Human philosophy, ethics, and super- +99:3 stition afford no demonstrable divine Principle + by which mortals can escape from sin; yet + to escape from sin, is what the Bible demands. "Work +99:6 out your own salvation with fear and trembling," says + the apostle, and he straightway adds: "for it is God + which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good +99:9 pleasure" (Philippians ii. 12, 13). Truth has furnished + the key to the kingdom, and with this key Christian Sci- + ence has opened the door of the human understanding. +99:12 None may pick the lock nor enter by some other door. + The ordinary teachings are material and not spiritual. + Christian Science teaches only that which is spiritual and +99:15 divine, and not human. Christian Science is unerring + and Divine; the human sense of things errs because it + is human. + +99:18 Those individuals, who adopt theosophy, spiritualism, + or hypnotism, may possess natures above some others + who eschew their false beliefs. Therefore my contest is +99:21 not with the individual, but with the false system. I + love mankind, and shall continue to labor and to endure. + + The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the +99:24 manifestations of which are health, purity, and self- + immolation, must deepen human experience, until the + beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposi- +99:27 tion, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place + to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to + God's spiritual, perfect man. + + + + + CHAPTER V - ANIMAL MAGNETISM UNMASKED + + For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, + adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, + blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man. + - JESUS. + + Earliest investigations + +100:1 MESMERISM or animal magnetism was first brought + into notice by Mesmer in Germany in 1775. Ac- +100:3 cording to the American Cyclopaedia, he regarded this + so-called force, which he said could be ex- + erted by one living organism over another, as +100:6 a means of alleviating disease. His propositions were + as follows: + + "There exists a mutual influence between the celestial +100:9 bodies, the earth, and animated things. Animal bodies + are susceptible to the influence of this agent, disseminat- + ing itself through the substance of the nerves." +100:12 In 1784, the French government ordered the medical + faculty of Paris to investigate Mesmer's theory and to + report upon it. Under this order a commission was +100:15 appointed, and Benjamin Franklin was one of the com- + missioners. This commission reported to the govern- + ment as follows: + +100:18 "In regard to the existence and utility of animal mag- + netism, we have come to the unanimous conclusions that + there is no proof of the existence of the animal magnetic +101:1 fluid; that the violent effects, which are observed in + the public practice of magnetism, are due to manipula- +101:3 tions, or to the excitement of the imagination and the + impressions made upon the senses; and that there is one + more fact to be recorded in the history of the errors of +101:6 the human mind, and an important experiment upon + the power of the imagination." + + Clairvoyance, magnetism + + In 1837, a committee of nine persons was appointed, +101:9 among whom were Roux, Bouillaud, and Clo- + quet, which tested during several sessions the + phenomena exhibited by a reputed clairvoyant. Their +101:12 report stated the results as follows: + + "The facts which had been promised by Monsieur + Berna [the magnetizer] as conclusive, and as adapted to +101:15 throw light on physiological and therapeutical questions, + are certainly not conclusive in favor of the doctrine of + animal magnetism, and have nothing in common with +101:18 either physiology or therapeutics." + + This report was adopted by the Royal Academy of + Medicine in Paris. + + Personal conclusions + +101:21 The author's own observations of the workings of + animal magnetism convince her that it is not + a remedial agent, and that its effects upon +101:24 those who practise it, and upon their subjects who do + not resist it, lead to moral and to physical death. + + If animal magnetism seems to alleviate or to cure dis- +101:27 ease, this appearance is deceptive, since error cannot + remove the effects of error. Discomfort under error is + preferable to comfort. In no instance is the effect of +101:30 animal magnetism, recently called hypnotism, other + than the effect of illusion. Any seeming benefit derived + from it is proportional to one's faith in esoteric magic. + + Mere negation + +102:1 Animal magnetism has no scientific foundation, for + God governs all that is real, harmonious, and eternal, and +102:3 His power is neither animal nor human. Its + basis being a belief and this belief animal, in + Science animal magnetism, mesmerism, or hypnotism is +102:6 a mere negation, possessing neither intelligence, power, + nor reality, and in sense it is an unreal concept of the so- + called mortal mind. + +102:9 There is but one real attraction, that of Spirit. The + pointing of the needle to the pole symbolizes this all- + embracing power or the attraction of God, divine Mind. + +102:12 The planets have no more power over man than over + his Maker, since God governs the universe; but man, + reflecting God's power, has dominion over all the earth +102:15 and its hosts. + + Hidden agents + + The mild forms of animal magnetism are disappear- + ing, and its aggressive features are coming to the front. +102:18 The looms of crime, hidden in the dark re- + cesses of mortal thought, are every hour weav- + ing webs more complicated and subtle. So secret are the +102:21 present methods of animal magnetism that they ensnare + the age into indolence, and produce the very apathy on + the subject which the criminal desires. The following +102:24 is an extract from the Boston Herald: + + "Mesmerism is a problem not lending itself to an easy + explanation and development. It implies the exercise +102:27 of despotic control, and is much more likely to be abused + by its possessor, than otherwise employed, for the in- + dividual or society." + + Mental despotism + +102:30 Mankind must learn that evil is not power. Its so- + called despotism is but a phase of nothingness. Christian + Science despoils the kingdom of evil, and pre-eminently +103:1 promotes affection and virtue in families and therefore + in the community. The Apostle Paul refers to the +103:3 personification of evil as "the god of this + world," and further defines it as dishonesty + and craftiness. Sin was the Assyrian moon-god. + + Liberation of mental powers + +103:6 The destruction of the claims of mortal mind through + Science, by which man can escape from sin + and mortality, blesses the whole human fam- +103:9 ily. As in the beginning, however, this libera- + tion does not scientifically show itself in a knowledge of + both good and evil, for the latter is unreal. +103:12 On the other hand, Mind-science is wholly separate + from any half-way impertinent knowledge, because Mind- + science is of God and demonstrates the divine Principle, +103:15 working out the purposes of good only. The maximum + of good is the infinite God and His idea, the All-in-all. + Evil is a suppositional lie. + + The genus of error + +103:18 As named in Christian Science, animal magnetism or + hypnotism is the specific term for error, or mortal mind. + It is the false belief that mind is in matter, and +103:21 is both evil and good; that evil is as real as + good and more powerful. This belief has not one qual- + ity of Truth. It is either ignorant or malicious. The +103:24 malicious form of hypnotism ultimates in moral idiocy. + The truths of immortal Mind sustain man, and they anni- + hilate the fables of mortal mind, whose flimsy and gaudy +103:27 pretensions, like silly moths, singe their own wings and + fall into dust. + + Thought-transference + + In reality there is no /mortal/ mind, and conse- +103:30 quently no transference of mortal thought + and will-power. Life and being are of + God. In Christian Science, man can do no harm, for +104:1 scientific thoughts are true thoughts, passing from God + to man. + + +104:3 When Christian Science and animal magnetism are + both comprehended, as they will be at no distant date, + it will be seen why the author of this book has been +104:6 so unjustly persecuted and belied by wolves in sheep's + clothing. + + Agassiz, the celebrated naturalist and author, has +104:9 wisely said: "Every great scientific truth goes through + three stages. First, people say it conflicts with the Bible. + Next, they say it has been discovered before. Lastly, +104:12 they say they have always believed it." + + Perfection of divine government + + Christian Science goes to the bottom of mental action, + and reveals the theodicy which indicates the rightness of +104:15 all divine action, as the emanation of divine + Mind, and the consequent wrongness of the + opposite so-called action, - evil, occultism, +104:18 necromancy, mesmerism, animal magnetism, hypnotism. + + Adulteration of Truth + + The medicine of Science is divine Mind; and dishonesty, + sensuality, falsehood, revenge, malice, are animal pro- +104:21 pensities and by no means the mental quali- + ties which heal the sick. The hypnotizer + employs one error to destroy another. If he heals sick- +104:24 ness through a belief, and a belief originally caused the + sickness, it is a case of the greater error overcoming the + lesser. This greater error thereafter occupies the ground, +104:27 leaving the case worse than before it was grasped by the + stronger error. + + Motives considered + + Our courts recognize evidence to prove the motive as +104:30 well as the commission of a crime. Is it not + clear that the human mind must move the + body to a wicked act? Is not mortal mind the mur- +105:1 derer? The hands, without mortal mind to direct them, + could not commit a murder. + + Mental crimes + +105:3 Courts and juries judge and sentence mortals in order + to restrain crime, to prevent deeds of violence or to punish + them. To say that these tribunals have no +105:6 jurisdiction over the carnal or mortal mind, + would be to contradict precedent and to admit that the + power of human law is restricted to matter, while mortal +105:9 mind, evil, which is the real outlaw, defies justice and is + recommended to mercy. Can matter commit a crime? + Can matter be punished? Can you separate the men- +105:12 tality from the body over which courts hold jurisdiction? + Mortal mind, not matter, is the criminal in every case; + and human law rightly estimates crime, and courts rea- +105:15 sonably pass sentence, according to the motive. + + Important decision + + When our laws eventually take cognizance of mental + crime and no longer apply legal rulings wholly to physical +105:18 offences, these words of Judge Parmenter of + Boston will become historic: "I see no reason + why metaphysics is not as important to medicine as to +105:21 mechanics or mathematics." + + Evil let loose + + Whoever uses his developed mental powers like an es- + caped felon to commit fresh atrocities as opportunity oc- +105:24 curs is never safe. God will arrest him. Di- + vine justice will manacle him. His sins will + be millstones about his neck, weighing him down to the +105:27 depths of ignominy and death. The aggravation of er- + ror foretells its doom, and confirms the ancient axiom: + "Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad." + + The misuse of mental power + +105:30 The distance from ordinary medical prac- + tice to Christian Science is full many a league + in the line of light; but to go in healing from the use of +106:1 inanimate drugs to the criminal misuse of human will- + power, is to drop from the platform of common manhood +106:3 into the very mire of iniquity, to work against the free + course of honesty and justice, and to push vainly against + the current running heavenward. + + Proper self-government + +106:6 Like our nation, Christian Science has its Declaration + of Independence. God has endowed man with inalien- + able rights, among which are self-government, +106:9 reason, and conscience. Man is properly self- + governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by + his Maker, divine Truth and Love. + +106:12 Man's rights are invaded when the divine order is in- + terfered with, and the mental trespasser incurs the divine + penalty due this crime. + + Right methods + +106:15 Let this age, which sits in judgment on Christian + Science, sanction only such methods as are demonstrable + in Truth and known by their fruit, and classify +106:18 all others as did St. Paul in his great epistle + to the Galatians, when he wrote as follows: + + "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are +106:21 these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, + idolatry, /witchcraft/, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, + strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, +106:24 revellings and such like: of the which I tell you before, + as I have also told you in time past, that they which do + such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But +106:27 the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, + gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against + such there is no law." + + + + + CHAPTER VI - SCIENCE, THEOLOGY, MEDICINE + + But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached + of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither + was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. - PAUL. + + The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman + took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole + was leavened. - JESUS. + + Christian Science discovered + +107:1 In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science or + divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and +107:3 named my discovery Christian Science. God + had been graciously preparing me during many + years for the reception of this final revelation of the ab- +107:6 solute divine Principle of scientific mental healing. + + Mission of Christian Science + + This apodictical Principle points to the revelation of + Immanuel, "God with us," - the sovereign ever-pres- +107:9 ence, delivering the children of men from + every ill "that flesh is heir to." Through + Christian Science, religion and medicine are +107:12 inspired with a diviner nature and essence; fresh pinions + are given to faith and understanding, and thoughts ac- + quaint themselves intelligently with God. + + Discontent with life + +107:15 Feeling so perpetually the false consciousness that life + inheres in the body, yet remembering that in + reality God is our Life, we may well tremble +107:18 in the prospect of those days in which we must say, "I + have no pleasure in them." + +108:1 Whence came to me this heavenly conviction, - a con- + viction antagonistic to the testimony of the physical senses? +108:3 According to St. Paul, it was "the gift of the grace of + God given unto me by the effectual working of His power." + It was the divine law of Life and Love, unfolding to me +108:6 the demonstrable fact that matter possesses neither sen- + sation nor life; that human experiences show the falsity + of all material things; and that immortal cravings, "the +108:9 price of learning love," establish the truism that the + only sufferer is mortal mind, for the divine Mind cannot + suffer. + + Demonstrable evidence + +108:12 My conclusions were reached by allowing the evidence + of this revelation to multiply with mathematical certainty + and the lesser demonstration to prove the +108:15 greater, as the product of three multiplied by + three, equalling nine, proves conclusively that three times + three duodecillions must be nine duodecillions, - not +108:18 a fraction more, not a unit less. + + Light shining in darkness + + When apparently near the confines of mortal existence, + standing already within the shadow of the death-valley, +108:21 I learned these truths in divine Science: that + all real being is in God, the divine Mind, and + that Life, Truth, and Love are all-powerful and ever- +108:24 present; that the opposite of Truth, - called error, sin, + sickness, disease, death, - is the false testimony of false + material sense, of mind in matter; that this false sense +108:27 evolves, in belief, a subjective state of mortal mind which + this same so-called mind names /matter/ thereby shutting + out the true sense of Spirit. + + New lines of thought + +108:30 My discovery, that erring, mortal, misnamed + /mind/ produces all the organism and action of + the mortal body, set my thoughts to work in new channels, +109:1 and led up to my demonstration of the proposition that + Mind is All and matter is naught as the leading factor in +109:3 Mind-science. + + Scientific evidence + + Christian Science reveals incontrovertibly that Mind + is All-in-all, that the only realities are the divine Mind +109:6 and idea. This great fact is not, however, seen + to be supported by sensible evidence, until its + divine Principle is demonstrated by healing the sick and +109:9 thus proved absolute and divine. This proof once seen, + no other conclusion can be reached. + + Solitary research + + For three years after my discovery, I sought the solu- +109:12 tion of this problem of Mind-healing, searched the Scrip- + tures and read little else, kept aloof from so- + ciety, and devoted time and energies to dis- +109:15 covering a positive rule. The search was sweet, calm, and + buoyant with hope, not selfish nor depressing. I knew + the Principle of all harmonious Mind-action to be God, +109:18 and that cures were produced in primitive Christian + healing by holy, uplifting faith; but I must know the + Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute +109:21 conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and dem- + onstration. The revelation of Truth in the understand- + ing came to me gradually and apparently through divine +109:24 power. When a new spiritual idea is borne to earth, the + prophetic Scripture of Isaiah is renewedly fulfilled: + "Unto us a child is born, . . . and his name shall be +109:27 called Wonderful." + + Jesus once said of his lessons: "My doctrine is not + mine, but His that sent me. If any man will do His will, +109:30 he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or + whether I speak of myself." (John vii. 16,17.) + + God's allness learned + + The three great verities of Spirit, omnipotence, omni- +110:1 presence, omniscience, - Spirit possessing all power, + filling all space, constituting all Science, - contradict +110:3 forever the belief that matter can be actual. + These eternal verities reveal primeval exist- + ence as the radiant reality of God's creation, +110:6 in which all that He has made is pronounced by His wis- + dom good. + + Thus it was that I beheld, as never before, the awful +110:9 unreality called evil. The equipollence of God brought + to light another glorious proposition, - man's perfecti- + bility and the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on +110:12 earth. + + Scriptural foundations + + In following these leadings of scientific revelation, + the Bible was my only textbook. The Scriptures were +110:15 illumined; reason and revelation were recon- + ciled, and afterwards the truth of Christian + Science was demonstrated. No human pen nor tongue +110:18 taught me the Science contained in this book, SCIENCE + AND HEALTH; and neither tongue nor pen can over- + throw it. This book may be distorted by shallow criti- +110:21 cism or by careless or malicious students, and its ideas + may be temporarily abused and misrepresented; but the + Science and truth therein will forever remain to be dis- +110:24 cerned and demonstrated. + + The demonstration lost and found + + Jesus demonstrated the power of Christian Science to + heal mortal minds and bodies. But this power was lost +110:27 sight of, and must again be spiritually dis- + cerned, taught, and demonstrated according + to Christ's command, with "signs following." +110:30 Its Science must be apprehended by as many as believe + on Christ and spiritually understand Truth. + + Mystical antagonists + + No analogy exists between the vague hypotheses of +111:1 agnosticism, pantheism, theosophy, spiritualism, or + millenarianism and the demonstrable truths of Chris- +111:3 tian Science; and I find the will, or sensuous + reason of the human mind, to be opposed to + the divine Mind as expressed through divine Science. + + Optical illustration of Science + +111:6 Christian Science is natural, but not physical. The + Science of God and man is no more supernatural than + is the science of numbers, though departing +111:9 from the realm of the physical, as the Science + of God, Spirit, must, some may deny its right to + the name of Science. The Principle of divine metaphysics +111:12 is God; the practice of divine metaphysics is the utiliza- + tion of the power of Truth over error; its rules demon- + strate its Science. Divine metaphysics reverses perverted +111:15 and physical hypotheses as to Deity, even as the ex- + planation of optics rejects the incidental or inverted + image and shows what this inverted image is meant to +111:18 represent. + + Pertinent proposal + + A prize of one hundred pounds, offered in Oxford Uni- + versity, England, for the best essay on Natural Science, +111:21 - an essay calculated to offset the tendency of + the age to attribute physical effects to physical + causes rather than to a final spiritual cause, - is one of +111:24 many incidents which show that Christian Science meets + a yearning of the human race for spirituality. + + Confirmatory tests + + After a lengthy examination of my discovery and its +111:27 demonstration in healing the sick, this fact became evi- + dent to me, - that Mind governs the body, + not partially but wholly. I submitted my +111:30 metaphysical system of treating disease to the broad- + est practical tests. Since then this system has gradually + gained ground, and has proved itself, whenever scien- +112:1 tifically employed, to be the most effective curative agent + in medical practice. + + One school of Truth + +112:3 Is there more than one school of Christian Science? + Christian Science is demonstrable. There can, there- + fore, be but one method in its teaching. Those who de- +112:6 part from this method forfeit their claims to + belong to its school, and they become adher- + ents of the Socratic, the Platonic, the Spencerian, or some +112:9 other school. By this is meant that they adopt and ad- + here to some particular system of human opinions. Al- + though these opinions may have occasional gleams of +112:12 divinity, borrowed from that truly divine Science which + eschews man-made systems, they nevertheless remain + wholly human in their origin and tendency and are not +112:15 scientifically Christian. + + Unchanging Principle + + From the infinite One in Christian Science comes one + Principle and its infinite idea, and with this infinitude +112:18 come spiritual rules, laws, and their demon- + stration, which, like the great Giver, are "the + same yesterday, and to-day, and forever;" for thus are +112:21 the divine Principle of healing and the Christ-idea charac- + terized in the epistle to the Hebrews. + + On sandy foundations + + Any theory of Christian Science, which departs from +112:24 what has already been stated and proved to be true, af- + fords no foundation upon which to establish + a genuine school of this Science. Also, if any +112:27 so-called new school claims to be Christian Science, and + yet uses another author's discoveries without giving that + author proper credit, such a school is erroneous, for it +112:30 inculcates a breach of that divine commandment in the + Hebrew Decalogue, "Thou shalt not steal." + + Principle and practice + + God is the Principle of divine metaphysics. As there +113:1 is but one God, there can be but one divine Principle of + all Science; and there must be fixed rules for the demon- +113:3 stration of this divine Principle. The letter + of Science plentifully reaches humanity to-day, + but its spirit comes only in small degrees. The vital part, +113:6 the heart and soul of Christian Science, is Love. With- + out this, the letter is but the dead body of Science, - + pulseless, cold, inanimate. + + Reversible propositions + +113:9 The fundamental propositions of divine metaphysics + are summarized in the four following, to me, /self-evident/ + propositions. Even if reversed, these proposi- +113:12 tions will be found to agree in statement and + proof, showing mathematically their exact relation to + Truth. De Quincey says mathematics has not a foot to +113:15 stand upon which is not purely metaphysical. + + 1. God is All-in-all. + 2. God is good. Good is Mind. +113:18 3. God, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter. + 4. Life, God, omnipotent good, deny death, evil, sin, + disease. - Disease, sin, evil, death, deny good, omnipo- +113:21 tent God, Life. + + Which of the denials in proposition four is true? Both + are not, cannot be, true. According to the Scripture, +113:24 I find that God is true, "but every [mortal] man a + liar." + + Metaphysical inversions + + The divine metaphysics of Christian Science, like the +113:27 method in mathematics, proves the rule by inversion. + For example: There is no pain in Truth, and + no truth in pain; no nerve in Mind, and no +113:30 mind in nerve; no matter in Mind, and no mind in mat- + ter; no matter in Life, and no life in matter; no matter + in good, and no good in matter. + + Definition of mortal mind + +114:1 Usage classes both evil and good together as /mind/; + therefore, to be understood, the author calls sick and sin- +114:3 ful humanity /mortal mind/, - meaning by this + term the flesh opposed to Spirit, the human + mind and evil in contradistinction to the divine Mind, or +114:6 Truth and good. The spiritually unscientific definition + of mind is based on the evidence of the physical senses, + which makes minds many and calls /mind/ both human and +114:9 divine. + + In Science, Mind is /one/, including noumenon and phe- + nomena, God and His thoughts. + + Imperfect terminology + +114:12 Mortal mind is a solecism in language, and involves an + improper use of the word /mind/. As Mind is immortal, + the phrase /mortal mind/ implies something un- +114:15 true and therefore unreal; and as the phrase + is used in teaching Christian Science, it is meant to + designate that which has no real existence. Indeed, if +114:18 a better word or phrase could be suggested, it would + be used; but in expressing the new tongue we must + sometimes recur to the old and imperfect, and the new +114:21 wine of the Spirit has to be poured into the old bottles of + the letter. + + Causation mental + + Christian Science explains all cause and effect as men- +114:24 tal, not physical. It lifts the veil of mystery from Soul and + body. It shows the scientific relation of man + to God, disentangles the interlaced ambiguities +114:27 of being, and sets free the imprisoned thought. In divine + Science, the universe, including man, is spiritual, harmoni- + ous, and eternal. Science shows that what is termed /mat- +114:30 ter/ is but the subjective state of what is termed by the + author /mortal mind/. + + Philological inadequacy + + Apart from the usual opposition to everything new, +115:1 the one great obstacle to the reception of that spiritual- + ity, through which the understanding of Mind-science +115:3 comes, is the inadequacy of material terms for + metaphysical statements, and the consequent + difficulty of so expressing metaphysical ideas as to make +115:6 them comprehensible to any reader, who has not person- + ally demonstrated Christian Science as brought forth in + my discovery. Job says: "The ear trieth words, as the +115:9 mouth tasteth meat." The great difficulty is to give the + right impression, when translating material terms back + into the original spiritual tongue. + +115:12 SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION OF IMMORTAL MIND + + Divine synonyms + + GOD: Divine Principle, Life, Truth, Love, + Soul, Spirit, Mind. + + Divine image + +115:15 MAN: God's spiritual idea, individual, per- + fect, eternal. + + Divine reflection + + IDEA: An image in Mind; the immediate +115:18 object of understanding. - /Webster/. + + SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION OF MORTAL MIND + + /First Degree:/ Depravity. + + Unreality + +115:21 PHYSICAL. Evil beliefs, passions and appetites, fear, + depraved will, self-justification, pride, envy, de- + ceit, hatred, revenge, sin, sickness, disease, +115:24 death. + + /Second Degree:/ Evil beliefs disappearing. + + Transitional qualities + + MORAL. Humanity, honesty, affection, com- + passion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance. +116:1 /Third Degree:/ Understanding. + + Reality + + SPIRITUAL. Wisdom, purity, spiritual understanding, +116:3 spiritual power, love, health, holiness. + + Spiritual universe + + In the third degree mortal mind disappears, and man as + God's image appears. Science so reverses the evidence +116:6 before the corporeal human senses, as to make + this Scriptural testimony true in our hearts, + "The last shall be first, and the first last," so that God +116:9 and His idea may be to us what divinity really is and + must of necessity be, - all-inclusive. + + Aim of Science + + A correct view of Christian Science and of its adapta- +116:12 tion to healing includes vastly more than is at first seen. + Works on metaphysics leave the grand point + untouched. They never crown the power of +116:15 Mind as the Messiah, nor do they carry the day against + physical enemies, - even to the extinction of all belief in + matter, evil, disease, and death, - nor insist upon the fact +116:18 that God is all, therefore that matter is nothing beyond an + image in mortal mind. + + Divine personality + + Christian Science strongly emphasizes the thought that +116:21 God is not /corporeal/, but /incorporeal/, - that is, + bodiless. Mortals are corporeal, but God is + incorporeal. + +116:24 As the words /person/ and /personal/ are commonly and + ignorantly employed, they often lead, when applied to + Deity, to confused and erroneous conceptions of divinity +116:27 and its distinction from humanity. If the term personality, + as applied to God, means infinite personality, then God is + infinite /Person/, - in the sense of infinite personality, but +116:30 not in the lower sense. An infinite Mind in a finite form + is an absolute impossibility. + +117:1 The term /individuality/ is also open to objections, be- + cause an individual may be one of a series, one of many, +117:3 as an individual man, an individual horse; whereas God + is /One/, - not one of a series, but one alone and without + an equal. + + Spiritual language + +117:6 God is Spirit; therefore the language of Spirit must + be, and is, spiritual. Christian Science attaches no physi- + cal nature and significance to the Supreme +117:9 Being or His manifestation; mortals alone do + this. God's essential language is spoken of in the last + chapter of Mark's Gospel as the new tongue, the spir- +117:12 itual meaning of which is attained through "signs + following." + + The miracles of Jesus + + Ear hath not heard, nor hath lip spoken, the pure lan- +117:15 guage of Spirit. Our Master taught spirituality by simili- + tudes and parables. As a divine student he + unfolded God to man, illustrating and demon- +117:18 strating Life and Truth in himself and by his power over + the sick and sinning. Human theories are inadequate to + interpret the divine Principle involved in the miracles +117:21 (marvels) wrought by Jesus and especially in his mighty, + crowning, unparalleled, and triumphant exit from the + flesh. + + Opacity of the senses + +117:24 Evidence drawn from the five physical senses relates + solely to human reason; and because of opaci- + ty to the true light, human reason dimly re- +117:27 flects and feebly transmits Jesus' works and words. Truth + is a revelation. + + Leaven of Truth + + Jesus bade his disciples beware of the leaven of the +117:30 Pharisees and of the Sadducees, which he de- + fined as human doctrines. His parable of the + "leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures +118:1 of meal, till the whole was leavened," impels the infer- + ence that the spiritual leaven signifies the Science of Christ +118:3 and its spiritual interpretation, - an inference far above + the merely ecclesiastical and formal applications of the + illustration. +118:6 Did not this parable point a moral with a prophecy, + foretelling the second appearing in the flesh of the + Christ, Truth, hidden in sacred secrecy from the visi- +118:9 ble world? + + Ages pass, but this leaven of Truth is ever at work. It + must destroy the entire mass of error, and so be eternally +118:12 glorified in man's spiritual freedom. + + The divine and human contrasted + + In their spiritual significance, Science, Theology, and + Medicine are means of divine thought, which include spirit- +118:15 ual laws emanating from the invisible and in- + finite power and grace. The parable may + import that these spiritual laws, perverted by +118:18 a perverse material sense of law, are metaphysically pre- + sented as three measures of meal, - that is, three modes + of mortal thought. In all mortal forms of thought, dust +118:21 is dignified as the natural status of men and things, and + modes of material motion are honored with the name of + /laws/. This continues until the leaven of Spirit changes +118:24 the whole of mortal thought, as yeast changes the chemical + properties of meal. + + Certain contradictions + + The definitions of material law, as given by natural +118:27 science, represent a kingdom necessarily divided against + itself, because these definitions portray law as + physical, not spiritual. Therefore they con- +118:30 tradict the divine decrees and violate the law of Love, in + which nature and God are one and the natural order of + heaven comes down to earth. + + Unescapable dilemma + +119:1 When we endow matter with vague spiritual power, + that is, when we do so in our theories, for of course we +119:3 cannot really endow matter with what it does + not and cannot possess, - we disown the Al- + mighty, for such theories lead to one of two things. They +119:6 either presuppose the self-evolution and self-government + of matter, or else they assume that matter is the product + of Spirit. To seize the first horn of this dilemma and con- +119:9 sider matter as a power in and of itself, is to leave the cre- + ator out of His own universe; while to grasp the other + horn of the dilemma and regard God as the creator of +119:12 matter, is not only to make Him responsible for all disas- + ters, physical and moral, but to announce Him as their + source, thereby making Him guilty of maintaining perpet- +119:15 ual misrule in the form and under the name of natural + law. + + God and nature + + In one sense God is identical with nature, but this na- +119:18 ture is spiritual and is not expressed in matter. The law- + giver, whose lightning palsies or prostrates in + death the child at prayer, is not the divine ideal +119:21 of omnipresent Love. God is natural good, and is repre- + sented only by the idea of goodness; while evil should be + regarded as unnatural, because it is opposed to the nature +119:24 of Spirit, God. + + The sun and Soul + + In viewing the sunrise, one finds that it contradicts + the evidence before the senses to believe that the earth +119:27 is in motion and the sun at rest. As astron- + omy reverses the human perception of the + movement of the solar system, so Christian Science re- +119:30 verses the seeming relation of Soul and body and makes + body tributary to Mind. Thus it is with man, who + is but the humble servant of the restful Mind, though it +120:1 seems otherwise to finite sense. But we shall never under- + stand this while we admit that soul is in body or mind in +120:3 matter, and that man is included in non-intelligence. + Soul, or Spirit, is God, unchangeable and eternal; and + man coexists with and reflects Soul, God, for man is God's +120:6 image. + + Reversal of testimony + + Science reverses the false testimony of the physical + senses, and by this reversal mortals arrive at the funda- +120:9 mental facts of being. Then the question in- + evitably arises: Is a man sick if the material + senses indicate that he is in good health? No! for matter +120:12 can make no conditions for man. And is he well if the + senses say he is sick? Yes, he is well in Science in which + health is normal and disease is abnormal. + + Health and the senses + +120:15 Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind; nor + can the material senses bear reliable testimony on the sub- + ject of health. The Science of Mind-healing +120:18 shows it to be impossible for aught but Mind + to testify truly or to exhibit the real status of man. There- + fore the divine Principle of Science, reversing the testi- +120:21 mony of the physical senses, reveals man as harmoniously + existent in Truth, which is the only basis of health; and + thus Science denies all disease, heals the sick, overthrows +120:24 false evidence, and refutes materialistic logic. + + Any conclusion /pro/ or /con/, deduced from supposed sen- + sation in matter or from matter's supposed consciousness +120:27 of health or disease, instead of reversing the testimony of + the physical senses, confirms that testimony as legitimate + and so leads to disease. + + Historic illustrations + +120:30 When Columbus gave freer breath to the + globe, ignorance and superstition chained the + limbs of the brave old navigator, and disgrace and star- +121:1 vation stared him in the face; but sterner still would have + been his fate, if his discovery had undermined the favor- +121:3 ite inclinations of a sensuous philosophy. + + Copernicus mapped out the stellar system, and before + he spake, astrography was chaotic, and the heavenly fields +121:6 were incorrectly explored. + + Perennial beauty + + The Chaldean Wisemen read in the stars the fate of + empires and the fortunes of men. Though no higher +121:9 revelation than the horoscope was to them dis- + played upon the empyrean, earth and heaven + were bright, and bird and blossom were glad in God's +121:12 perennial and happy sunshine, golden with Truth. So + we have goodness and beauty to gladden the heart; but + man, left to the hypotheses of material sense unexplained +121:15 by Science, is as the wandering comet or the desolate + star - "a weary searcher for a viewless home." + + Astronomic unfoldings + + The earth's diurnal rotation is invisible to the physical +121:18 eye, and the sun seems to move from east to west, instead + of the earth from west to east. Until rebuked + by clearer views of the everlasting facts, this +121:21 false testimony of the eye deluded the judgment and in- + duced false conclusions. Science shows appearances often + to be erroneous, and corrects these errors by the simple +121:24 rule that the greater controls the lesser. The sun is the + central stillness, so far as our solar system is concerned, + and the earth revolves about the sun once a year, besides +121:27 turning daily on its own axis. + + As thus indicated, astronomical order imitates the + action of divine Principle; and the universe, the reflec- +121:30 tion of God, is thus brought nearer the spiritual fact, and + is allied to divine Science as displayed in the everlasting + government of the universe. + + Opposing testimony + +122:1 The evidence of the physical senses often reverses the + real Science of being, and so creates a reign of discord, - +122:3 assigning seeming power to sin, sickness, and + death; but the great facts of Life, rightly un- + derstood, defeat this triad of errors, contradict their false +122:6 witnesses, and reveal the kingdom of heaven, - the actual + reign of harmony on earth. The material senses' re- + versal of the Science of Soul was practically exposed nine- +122:9 teen hundred years ago by the demonstrations of Jesus; + yet these so-called senses still make mortal mind tributary + to mortal body, and ordain certain sections of matter, such +122:12 as brain and nerves, as the seats of pain and pleasure, + from which matter reports to this so-called mind its status + of happiness or misery. + + Testimony of the senses + +122:15 The optical focus is another proof of the illusion of + material sense. On the eye's retina, sky and tree-tops + apparently join hands, clouds and ocean meet +122:18 and mingle. The barometer, - that little + prophet of storm and sunshine, denying the testimony of + the senses, - points to fair weather in the midst of murky +122:21 clouds and drenching rain. Experience is full of instances + of similar illusions, which every thinker can recall for + himself. + + Spiritual sense of life + +122:24 To material sense, the severance of the jugular vein + takes away life; but to spiritual sense and + in Science, Life goes on unchanged and +122:27 being is eternal. Temporal life is a false sense of + existence. + + Ptolemaic and psychical error + + Our theories make the same mistake regarding Soul +122:30 and body that Ptolemy made regarding the solar system. + They insist that soul is in body and mind therefore tribu- + tary to matter. Astronomical science has destroyed the +123:1 false theory as to the relations of the celestial bodies, and + Christian Science will surely destroy the greater error as +123:3 to our terrestrial bodies. The true idea and + Principle of man will then appear. The Ptole- + maic blunder could not affect the harmony of +123:6 being as does the error relating to soul and body, which + reverses the order of Science and assigns to matter the + power and prerogative of Spirit, so that man becomes +123:9 the most absolutely weak and inharmonious creature in + the universe. + + Seeming and being + + The verity of Mind shows conclusively how it is that +123:12 matter seems to be, but is not. Divine Science, + rising above physical theories, excludes matter, + resolves /things/ into /thoughts/, and replaces the objects of +123:15 material sense with spiritual ideas. + + The term CHRISTIAN SCIENCE was introduced by + the author to designate the scientific system of divine +123:18 healing. + + The revelation consists of two parts: + + 1. The discovery of this divine Science of Mind- +123:21 healing, through a spiritual sense of the Scriptures and + through the teachings of the Comforter, as promised by + the Master. +123:24 2. The proof, by present demonstration, that the so- + called miracles of Jesus did not specially belong to a + dispensation now ended, but that they illustrated an +123:27 ever-operative divine Principle. The operation of this + Principle indicates the eternality of the scientific order + and continuity of being. + + Scientific basis + +123:30 Christian Science differs from material sci- + ence, but not on that account is it less scien- + tific. On the contrary, Christian Science is pre-emi- +124:1 mently scientific, being based on Truth, the Principle of + all science. + + Physical science a blind belief + +124:3 Physical science (so-called) is human knowledge, - a + law of mortal mind, a blind belief, a Samson shorn of his + strength. When this human belief lacks organ- +124:6 izations to support it, its foundations are gone. + Having neither moral might, spiritual basis, + nor holy Principle of its own, this belief mistakes effect +124:9 for cause and seeks to find life and intelligence in matter, + thus limiting Life and holding fast to discord and death. + In a word, human belief is a blind conclusion from material +124:12 reasoning. This is a mortal, finite sense of things, which + immortal Spirit silences forever. + + Right interpretation + + The universe, like man, is to be interpreted by Science +124:15 from its divine Principle, God, and then it can be under- + stood; but when explained on the basis of + physical sense and represented as subject to +124:18 growth, maturity, and decay, the universe, like man, is, + and must continue to be, an enigma. + + All force mental + + Adhesion, cohesion, and attraction are properties of +124:21 Mind. They belong to divine Principle, and support + the equipoise of that thought-force, which + launched the earth in its orbit and said to the +124:24 proud wave, "Thus far and no farther." + + Spirit is the life, substance, and continuity of all + things. We tread on forces. Withdraw them, and +124:27 creation must collapse. Human knowledge calls them + forces of matter; but divine Science declares that they + belong wholly to divine Mind, are inherent in this +124:30 Mind, and so restores them to their rightful home and + classification. + + Corporeal changes + + The elements and functions of the physical body and +125:1 of the physical world will change as mortal mind changes + its beliefs. What is now considered the best condition +125:3 for organic and functional health in the human + body may no longer be found indispensable + to health. Moral conditions will be found always har- +125:6 monious and health-giving. Neither organic inaction + nor overaction is beyond God's control; and man will + be found normal and natural to changed mortal thought, +125:9 and therefore more harmonious in his manifestations than + he was in the prior states which human belief created and + sanctioned. + +125:12 As human thought changes from one stage to an- + other of conscious pain and painlessness, sorrow and + joy, - from fear to hope and from faith to understand- +125:15 ing, - the visible manifestation will at last be man gov- + erned by Soul, not by material sense. Reflecting God's + government, man is self-governed. When subordinate +125:18 to the divine Spirit, man cannot be controlled by sin or + death, thus proving our material theories about laws of + health to be valueless. + + The time and tide + +125:21 The seasons will come and go with changes of time and + tide, cold and heat, latitude and longitude. The agri- + culturist will find that these changes cannot +125:24 affect his crops. "As a vesture shalt Thou + change them and they shall be changed." The mariner + will have dominion over the atmosphere and the great +125:27 deep, over the fish of the sea and the fowls of the air. + The astronomer will no longer look up to the stars, - + he will look out from them upon the universe; and the +125:30 florist will find his flower before its seed. + + Mortal nothingness + + Thus matter will finally be proved nothing more + than a mortal belief, wholly inadequate to affect a man +126:1 through its supposed organic action or supposed exist- + ence. Error will be no longer used in stating truth. The +126:3 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 +126:6 himself God's reflection, even as man sees his reflection + in a glass. + + A lack of originality + + All Science is divine. Human thought never pro- +126:9 jected the least portion of true being. Human belief + has sought and interpreted in its own way + the echo of Spirit, and so seems to have +126:12 reversed it and repeated it materially; but the human + mind never produced a real tone nor sent forth a positive + sound. + + Antagonistic questions + +126:15 The point at issue between Christian Science on the + one hand and popular theology on the other is this: Shall + Science explain cause and effect as being +126:18 both natural and spiritual? Or shall all that + is beyond the cognizance of the material senses be called + supernatural, and be left to the mercy of speculative +126:21 hypotheses? + + Biblical basis + + I have set forth Christian Science and its application + to the treatment of disease just as I have discovered them. +126:24 I have demonstrated through Mind the effects + of Truth on the health, longevity, and morals + of men; and I have found nothing in ancient or in modern +126:27 systems on which to found my own, except the teachings + and demonstrations of our great Master and the lives of + prophets and apostles. The Bible has been my only au- +126:30 thority. I have had no other guide in "the straight and + narrow way" of Truth. + + Science and Christianity + + If Christendom resists the author's application of the +127:1 word Science to Christianity, or questions her use of the + word Science, she will not therefore lose faith in Chris- +127:3 tianity, nor will Christianity lose its hold upon + her. If God, the All-in-all, be the creator of + the spiritual universe, including man, then everything +127:6 entitled to a classification as truth, or Science, must be + comprised in a knowledge or understanding of God, for + there can be nothing beyond illimitable divinity. + + Scientific terms + +127:9 The terms Divine Science, Spiritual Science, Christ + Science or Christian Science, or Science alone, she em- + ploys interchangeably, according to the re- +127:12 quirements of the context. These synony- + mous terms stand for everything relating to God, the in- + finite, supreme, eternal Mind. It may be said, however, +127:15 that the term Christian Science relates especially to + Science as applied to humanity. Christian Science re- + veals God, not as the author of sin, sickness, and death, +127:18 but as divine Principle, Supreme Being, Mind, exempt + from all evil. It teaches that matter is the falsity, not + the fact, of existence; that nerves, brain, stomach, lungs, +127:21 and so forth, have - as matter - no intelligence, life, nor + sensation. + + No physical science + + There is no physical science, inasmuch as all truth +127:24 proceeds from the divine Mind. Therefore truth is not + human, and is not a law of matter, for matter + is not a lawgiver. Science is an emanation of +127:27 divine Mind, and is alone able to interpret God aright. + It has a spiritual, and not a material origin. It is a divine + utterance, - the Comforter which leadeth into all truth. +127:30 Christian Science eschews what is called natural science, + in so far as this is built on the false hypotheses that matter + is its own lawgiver, that law is founded on material con- +128:1 ditions, and that these are final and overrule the might of + divine Mind. Good is natural and primitive. It is not +128:3 miraculous to itself. + + Practical Science + + The term Science, properly understood, refers only to + the laws of God and to His government of the universe, +128:6 inclusive of man. From this it follows that + business men and cultured scholars have found + that Christian Science enhances their endurance and +128:9 mental powers, enlarges their perception of character, + gives them acuteness and comprehensiveness and an + ability to exceed their ordinary capacity. The human +128:12 mind, imbued with this spiritual understanding, becomes + more elastic, is capable of greater endurance, escapes + somewhat from itself, and requires less repose. A knowl- +128:15 edge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities + and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of + thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher +128:18 realms. It raises the thinker into his native air of insight + and perspicacity. + + An odor becomes beneficent and agreeable only in pro- +128:21 portion to its escape into the surrounding atmosphere. + So it is with our knowledge of Truth. If one would + not quarrel with his fellow-man for waking him from +128:24 a cataleptic nightmare, he should not resist Truth, which + banishes - yea, forever destroys with the higher testi- + mony of Spirit - the so-called evidence of matter. + + Mathematics and scientific logic + +128:27 Science relates to Mind, not matter. It rests on fixed + Principle and not upon the judgment of false sensation. + The addition of two sums in mathematics must +128:30 always bring the same result. So is it with + logic. If both the major and the minor propo- + sitions of a syllogism are correct, the conclusion, if properly +129:1 drawn, cannot be false. So in Christian Science there + are no discords nor contradictions, because its logic is as +129:3 harmonious as the reasoning of an accurately stated syl- + logism or of a properly computed sum in arithmetic. + Truth is ever truthful, and can tolerate no error in +129:6 premise or conclusion. + + Truth by inversion + + If you wish to know the spiritual fact, you can dis- + cover it by reversing the material fable, be the +129:9 fable /pro/ or /con/, - be it in accord with your + preconceptions or utterly contrary to them. + + Antagonistic theories + + Pantheism may be defined as a belief in the intelli- +129:12 gence of matter, - a belief which Science overthrows. + In those days there will be "great tribulation + such as was not since the beginning of the +129:15 world;" and earth will echo the cry, "Art thou [Truth] + come hither to torment us before the time?" Animal + magnetism, hypnotism, spiritualism, theosophy, agnos- +129:18 ticism, pantheism, and infidelity are antagonistic to true + being and fatal to its demonstration; and so are some + other systems. + + Ontology needed + +129:21 We must abandon pharmaceutics, and take up ontol- + ogy, - "the science of real being." We must look deep + into realism instead of accepting only the out- +129:24 ward sense of things. Can we gather peaches + from a pine-tree, or learn from discord the concord of + being? Yet quite as rational are some of the leading +129:27 illusions along the path which Science must tread in its + reformatory mission among mortals. The very name, + illusion, points to nothingness. + + Reluctant guests + +129:30 The generous liver may object to the author's small + estimate of the pleasures of the table. The sinner sees, + in the system taught in this book, that the demands of +130:1 God must be met. The petty intellect is alarmed by con- + stant appeals to Mind. The licentious disposition is dis- +130:3 couraged over its slight spiritual prospects. + When all men are bidden to the feast, the ex- + cuses come. One has a farm, another has merchandise, +130:6 and therefore they cannot accept. + + Excuses for ignorance + + It is vain to speak dishonestly of divine Science, which + destroys all discord, when you can demonstrate +130:9 the actuality of Science. It is unwise to doubt + if reality is in perfect harmony with God, divine Principle, + - if Science, when understood and demonstrated, will +130:12 destroy all discord, - since you admit that God is om- + nipotent; for from this premise it follows that good and + its sweet concords have all-power. + + Children and adults + +130:15 Christian Science, properly understood, would dis- + abuse the human mind of material beliefs which war + against spiritual facts; and these material +130:18 beliefs must be denied and cast out to make + place for truth. You cannot add to the contents of a + vessel already full. Laboring long to shake the adult's +130:21 faith in matter and to inculcate a grain of faith in God, - + an inkling of the ability of Spirit to make the body har- + monious, - the author has often remembered our Master's +130:24 love for little children, and understood how truly such as + they belong to the heavenly kingdom. + + All evil unnatural + + If thought is startled at the strong claim of Science +130:27 for the supremacy of God, or Truth, and doubts the su- + premacy of good, ought we not, contrari- + wise, to be astounded at the vigorous claims +130:30 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 +131:1 not seem so surprising and unnatural as error, and error + should not seem so real as truth. Sickness should not seem +131:3 so real as health. There is no error in Science, and our + lives must be governed by reality in order to be in har- + mony with God, the divine Principle of all being. + + The error of carnality + +131:6 When once destroyed by divine Science, the false evi- + dence before the corporeal senses disappears. Hence the + opposition of sensuous man to the Science of +131:9 Soul and the significance of the Scripture, "The + carnal mind is enmity against God." The central fact of + the Bible is the superiority of spiritual over physical power. + +131:12 THEOLOGY + + Churchly neglect + + Must Christian Science come through the Christian + churches as some persons insist? This Science has come +131:15 already, after the manner of God's appoint- + ing, but the churches seem not ready to re- + ceive it, according to the Scriptural saying, "He came +131:18 unto his own, and his own received him not." Jesus once + said: "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and + earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise +131:21 and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even + so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." As afore- + time, the spirit of the Christ, which taketh away the cere- +131:24 monies and doctrines of men, is not accepted until the + hearts of men are made ready for it. + + John the Baptist, and the Messiah + + The mission of Jesus confirmed prophecy, and ex- +131:27 plained the so-called miracles of olden time as natural + demonstrations of the divine power, demonstra- + tions which were not understood. Jesus' works +131:30 established his claim to the Messiahship. In + reply to John's inquiry, "Art thou he that should come," +132:1 Jesus returned an affirmative reply, recounting his works + instead of referring to his doctrine, confident that this +132:3 exhibition of the divine power to heal would fully an- + swer the question. Hence his reply: "Go and show + John again those things which ye do hear and see: the +132:6 blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers + are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, + and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And +132:9 blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me." In + other words, he gave his benediction to any one who + should not deny that such effects, coming from divine +132:12 Mind, prove the unity of God, - the divine principle + which brings out all harmony. + + Christ rejected + + The Pharisees of old thrust the spiritual idea and the +132:15 man who lived it out of their synagogues, and retained + their materialistic beliefs about God. Jesus' + system of healing received no aid nor approval +132:18 from other sanitary or religious systems, from doctrines + of physics or of divinity; and it has not yet been gener- + ally accepted. To-day, as of yore, unconscious of the +132:21 reappearing of the spiritual idea, blind belief shuts the + door upon it, and condemns the cure of the sick and sin- + ning if it is wrought on any but a material and a doctrinal +132:24 theory. Anticipating this rejection of idealism, of the + true idea of God, - this salvation from all error, physi- + cal and mental, - Jesus asked, "When the Son of man +132:27 cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?" + + John's misgivings + + Did the doctrines of John the Baptist confer healing + power upon him, or endow him with the truest concep- +132:30 tion of the Christ? This righteous preacher + once pointed his disciples to Jesus as "the + Lamb of God;" yet afterwards he seriously questioned +133:1 the signs of the Messianic appearing, and sent the inquiry + to Jesus, "Art thou he that should come?" + + Faith according to works + +133:3 Was John's faith greater than that of the Samaritan + woman, who said, "Is not this the Christ?" + There was also a certain centurion of whose +133:6 faith Jesus himself declared, "I have not found so great + faith, no, not in Israel." + + In Egypt, it was Mind which saved the Israelites from +133:9 belief in the plagues. In the wilderness, streams flowed + from the rock, and manna fell from the sky. The Israelites + looked upon the brazen serpent, and straightway believed +133:12 that they were healed of the poisonous stings of vipers. + In national prosperity, miracles attended the successes of + the Hebrews; but when they departed from the true +133:15 idea, their demoralization began. Even in captivity + among foreign nations, the divine Principle wrought + wonders for the people of God in the fiery furnace and +133:18 in kings' palaces. + + Judaism antipathetic + + Judaism was the antithesis of Christianity, because + Judaism engendered the limited form of a national or +133:21 tribal religion. It was a finite and material + system, carried out in special theories concern- + ing God, man, sanitary methods, and a religious cultus. +133:24 That he made "himself equal with God," was one of the + Jewish accusations against him who planted Christianity + on the foundation of Spirit, who taught as he was in- +133:27 spired by the Father and would recognize no life, intelli- + gence, nor substance outside of God. + + Priestly learning + + The Jewish conception of God, as Yawah, Jehovah, +133:30 or only a mighty hero and king, has not quite + given place to the true knowledge of God. + Creeds and rituals have not cleansed their hands of +134:1 rabbinical lore. To-day the cry of bygone ages is re- + peated, "Crucify him!" At every advancing step, truth +134:3 is still opposed with sword and spear. + + Testimony of martyrs + + The word /martyr/, from the Greek, means /witness/; but + those who testified for Truth were so often persecuted +134:6 unto death, that at length the word /martyr/ + was narrowed in its significance and so has + come always to mean one who suffers for his convictions. +134:9 The new faith in the Christ, Truth, so roused the hatred + of the opponents of Christianity, that the followers of + Christ were burned, crucified, and otherwise persecuted; +134:12 and so it came about that human rights were hallowed + by the gallows and the cross. + + Absence of Christ-power + + Man-made doctrines are waning. They have not waxed +134:15 strong in times of trouble. Devoid of the Christ-power, + how can they illustrate the doctrines of Christ + or the miracles of grace? Denial of the possi- +134:18 bility of Christian healing robs Christianity of the very + element, which gave it divine force and its astonishing and + unequalled success in the first century. + + Basis of miracles + +134:21 The true Logos is demonstrably Christian Science, the + natural law of harmony which overcomes discord, - not + because this Science is supernatural or pre- +134:24 ternatural, nor because it is an infraction of + divine law, but because it is the immutable law of God, + good. Jesus said: "I knew that Thou hearest me al- +134:27 ways;" and he raised Lazarus from the dead, stilled the + tempest, healed the sick, walked on the water. There + is divine authority for believing in the superiority of +134:30 spiritual power over material resistance. + + Lawful wonders + + A miracle fulfils God's law, but does not violate that + law. This fact at present seems more mysterious than +135:1 the miracle itself. The Psalmist sang: "What ailed + thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? Thou Jordan, +135:3 that thou wast driven back? Ye mountains, + that ye skipped like rams, and ye little hills, + like lambs? Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the +135:6 Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob." The miracle + introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order, + establishing the Science of God's unchangeable law. +135:9 Spiritual evolution alone is worthy of the exercise of + divine power. + + Fear and sickness identical + + The same power which heals sin heals also sickness. +135:12 This is "the beauty of holiness," that when Truth heals + the sick it casts out evils, and when Truth + casts out the evil called disease, it heals the +135:15 sick. When Christ cast out the devil of + dumbness, "it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, + the dumb spake." There is to-day danger of repeating +135:18 the offence of the Jews by limiting the Holy One of Israel + and asking: "Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?" + What cannot God do? + + The unity of Science and Christianity +135:21 It has been said, and truly, that Christianity must be + Science, and Science must be Christianity, else one or the + other is false and useless; but neither is unim- +135:24 portant or untrue, and they are alike in demon- + stration. This proves the one to be identical + with the other. Christianity as Jesus taught it was not +135:27 a creed, nor a system of ceremonies, nor a special gift + from a ritualistic Jehovah; but it was the demonstration + of divine Love casting out error and healing the sick, +135:30 not merely in the /name/ of Christ, or Truth, but in demon- + stration of Truth, as must be the case in the cycles of + divine light. + + The Christ-mission + +136:1 Jesus established his church and maintained his mission + on a spiritual foundation of Christ-healing. He taught +136:3 his followers that his religion had a divine + Principle, which would cast out error and heal + both the sick and the sinning. He claimed no intelli- +136:6 gence, action, nor life separate from God. Despite the + persecution this brought upon him, he used his divine + power to save men both bodily and spiritually. + + Ancient spiritualism + +136:9 The question then as now was, How did Jesus heal the + sick? His answer to this question the world rejected. + He appealed to his students: "Whom do +136:12 men say that I, the Son of man, am?" That + is: Who or what is it that is thus identified with casting + out evils and healing the sick? They replied, "Some +136:15 say that thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias; and + others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets." These prophets + were considered dead, and this reply may indicate that +136:18 some of the people believed that Jesus was a medium, + controlled by the spirit of John or of Elias. + + This ghostly fancy was repeated by Herod himself. +136:21 That a wicked king and debauched husband should have + no high appreciation of divine Science and the great work + of the Master, was not surprising; for how could such +136:24 a sinner comprehend what the disciples did not fully + understand? But even Herod doubted if Jesus was con- + trolled by the sainted preacher. Hence Herod's asser- +136:27 tion: "John have I beheaded: but who is this?" No + wonder Herod desired to see the new Teacher. + + Doubting disciples + + The disciples apprehended their Master better than +136:30 did others; but they did not comprehend all + that he said and did, or they would not have + questioned him so often. Jesus patiently persisted in +137:1 teaching and demonstrating the truth of being. His stu- + dents saw this power of Truth heal the sick, cast out evil, +137:3 raise the dead; but the ultimate of this wonderful work + was not spiritually discerned, even by them, until after the + crucifixion, when their immaculate Teacher stood before +137:6 them, the victor over sickness, sin, disease, death, and + the grave. + + Yearning to be understood, the Master repeated, +137:9 "But whom say /ye/ that I am?" This renewed inquiry + meant: Who or what is it that is able to do the work, so + mysterious to the popular mind? In his rejection of the +137:12 answer already given and his renewal of the question, + it is plain that Jesus completely eschewed the narrow + opinion implied in their citation of the common report +137:15 about him. + + A divine response + + With his usual impetuosity, Simon replied for his + brethren, and his reply set forth a great fact: "Thou +137:18 art the Christ, the Son of the living God!" + That is: The Messiah is what thou hast de- + clared, - Christ, the spirit of God, of Truth, Life, and +137:21 Love, which heals mentally. This assertion elicited from + Jesus the benediction, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar- + jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, +137:24 but my Father which is in heaven;" that is, Love hath + shown thee the way of Life! + + The true and living rock + + Before this the impetuous disciple had been called +137:27 only by his common names, Simon Bar-jona, or son of + Jona; but now the Master gave him a spir- + itual name in these words: "And I say also +137:30 unto thee, That thou art Peter; and upon this rock [the + meaning of the Greek word /petros/, or /stone/] I will build + my church; and the gates of hell [/hades/, the /under/- +138:1 /world/, or the /grave/] shall not prevail against it." In + other words, Jesus purposed founding his society, not +138:3 on the personal Peter as a mortal, but on the God- + power which lay behind Peter's confession of the true + Messiah. + + Sublime summary + +138:6 It was now evident to Peter that divine Life, Truth, and + Love, and not a human personality, was the healer of the + sick and a rock, a firm foundation in the realm +138:9 of harmony. On this spiritually scientific basis + Jesus explained his cures, which appeared miraculous to + outsiders. He showed that diseases were cast out neither +138:12 by corporeality, by /materia medica/, nor by hygiene, but by + the divine Spirit, casting out the errors of mortal mind. + The supremacy of Spirit was the foundation on which +138:15 Jesus built. His sublime summary points to the religion + of Love. + + New era in Jesus + + Jesus established in the Christian era the precedent for +138:18 all Christianity, theology, and healing. Christians are + under as direct orders now, as they were then, + to be Christlike, to possess the Christ-spirit, to +138:21 follow the Christ-example, and to heal the sick as well as + the sinning. It is easier for Christianity to cast out sick- + ness than sin, for the sick are more willing to part with +138:24 pain than are sinners to give up the sinful, so-called pleas- + ure of the senses. The Christian can prove this to-day as + readily is it was proved centuries ago. + + Healthful theology + +138:27 Our Master said to every follower: "Go ye into all the + world, and preach the gospel to every creature! . . . + Heal the sick! . . . Love thy neighbor as +138:30 thyself!" It was this theology of Jesus which + healed the sick and the sinning. It is his theology in this + book and the spiritual meaning of this theology, which +139:1 heals the sick and causes the wicked to "forsake his way, + and the unrighteous man his thoughts." It was our Mas- +139:3 ter's theology which the impious sought to destroy. + + Marvels and reformations + + From beginning to end, the Scriptures are full of + accounts of the triumph of Spirit, Mind, over matter. +139:6 Moses proved the power of Mind by what men + called miracles; so did Joshua, Elijah, and + Elisha. The Christian era was ushered in with signs and +139:9 wonders. Reforms have commonly been attended with + bloodshed and persecution, even when the end has been + brightness and peace; but the present new, yet old, re- +139:12 form in religious faith will teach men patiently and wisely + to stem the tide of sectarian bitterness, whenever it flows + inward. + + Science obscured + +139:15 The decisions by vote of Church Councils as to what + should and should not be considered Holy Writ; the man- + ifest mistakes in the ancient versions; the +139:18 thirty thousand different readings in the Old + Testament, and the three hundred thousand in the New, + - these facts show how a mortal and material sense stole +139:21 into the divine record, with its own hue darkening to some + extent the inspired pages. But mistakes could neither + wholly obscure the divine Science of the Scriptures seen +139:24 from Genesis to Revelation, mar the demonstration of + Jesus, nor annul the healing by the prophets, who foresaw + that "the stone which the builders rejected" would be- +139:27 come "the head of the corner." + + Opponents benefited + + Atheism, pantheism, theosophy, and agnosticism are + opposed to Christian Science, as they are to ordinary re- +139:30 ligion; but it does not follow that the profane + or atheistic invalid cannot be healed by Chris- + tian Science. The moral condition of such a man de- +140:1 mands the remedy of Truth more than it is needed in most + cases; and Science is more than usually effectual in the +140:3 treatment of moral ailments. + + God invisible to the senses + + That God is a corporeal being, nobody can truly affirm. + The Bible represents Him as saying: "Thou canst not +140:6 see My face; for there shall no man see Me + and live." Not materially but spiritually we + know Him as divine Mind, as Life, Truth, and Love. We +140:9 shall obey and adore in proportion as we apprehend the + divine nature and love Him understandingly, warring no + more over the corporeality, but rejoicing in the affluence +140:12 of our God. Religion will then be of the heart and not of + the head. Mankind will no longer be tyrannical and pro- + scriptive from lack of love, - straining out gnats and +140:15 swallowing camels. + + The true worship + + We worship spiritually, only as we cease to worship + materially. Spiritual devoutness is the soul of Chris- +140:18 tianity. Worshipping through the medium of + matter is paganism. Judaic and other rituals + are but types and shadows of true worship. "The true +140:21 worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in + truth." + + Anthropomorphism + + The Jewish tribal Jehovah was a man-projected God, +140:24 liable to wrath, repentance, and human changeableness. + The Christian Science God is universal, eter- + nal, divine love, which changeth not and caus- +140:27 eth no evil, disease, nor death. It is indeed mournfully + true that the older Scripture is reversed. In the begin- + ing God created man in His, God's, image; but mor- +140:30 tals would procreate man, and make God in their own + human image. What is the god of a mortal, but a mortal + magnified? + + More than profession required + +141:1 This indicates the distance between the theological and + ritualistic religion of the ages and the truth preached by +141:3 Jesus. More than profession is requisite for + Christian demonstration. Few understand or + adhere to Jesus' divine precepts for living and +141:6 healing. Why? Because his precepts require the disci- + ple to cut off the right hand and pluck out the right eye, + - that is, to set aside even the most cherished beliefs +141:9 and practices, to leave all for Christ. + + No ecclesiastical monopoly + + All revelation (such is the popular thought!) must come + from the schools and along the line of scholarly and eccle- +141:12 siastical descent, as kings are crowned from a + royal dynasty. In healing the sick and sinning, + Jesus elaborated the fact that the healing effect +141:15 followed the understanding of the divine Principle and + of the Christ-spirit which governed the corporeal Jesus. + For this Principle there is no dynasty, no ecclesiastical +141:18 monopoly. Its only crowned head is immortal sover- + eignty. Its only priest is the spiritualized man. The + Bible declares that all believers are made "kings and +141:21 priests unto God." The outsiders did not then, and + do not now, understand this ruling of the Christ; there- + fore they cannot demonstrate God's healing power. +141:24 Neither can this manifestation of Christ be com- + prehended, until its divine Principle is scientifically + understood. + + A change demanded + +141:27 The adoption of scientific religion and of divine heal- + ing will ameliorate sin, sickness, and death. Let our + pulpits do justice to Christian Science. Let +141:30 it have fair representation by the press. Give + to it the place in our institutions of learning now occu- + pied by scholastic theology and physiology, and it will +142:1 eradicate sickness and sin in less time than the old systems, + devised for subduing them, have required for self-estab- +142:3 lishment and propagation. + + Two claims omitted + + Anciently the followers of Christ, or Truth, measured + Christianity by its power over sickness, sin, and death; +142:6 but modern religions generally omit all but one + of these powers, - the power over sin. We + must seek the undivided garment, the whole Christ, as our +142:9 first proof of Christianity, for Christ, Truth, alone can + furnish us with absolute evidence. + + Selfishness and loss + + If the soft palm, upturned to a lordly salary, and archi- +142:12 tectural skill, making dome and spire tremulous with + beauty, turn the poor and the stranger from the + gate, they at the same time shut the door on +142:15 progress. In vain do the manger and the cross tell their + story to pride and fustian. Sensuality palsies the right + hand, and causes the left to let go its grasp on the divine. + + Temple cleansed + +142:18 As in Jesus' time, so to-day, tyranny and pride need to + be whipped out of the temple, and humility and divine Sci- + ence to be welcomed in. The strong cords of +142:21 scientific demonstration, as twisted and wielded + by Jesus, are still needed to purge the temples of their + vain traffic in worldly worship and to make them meet +142:24 dwelling-places for the Most High. + + MEDICINE + + Question of precedence + + Which was first, Mind or medicine? If Mind was +142:27 first and self-existent, then Mind, not matter, must have + been the first medicine. God being All-in- + all, He made medicine; but that medicine was +142:30 Mind. It could not have been matter, which departs + from the nature and character of Mind, God. Truth +143:1 is God's remedy for error of every kind, and Truth de- + stroys only what is untrue. Hence the fact that, to-day, +143:3 as yesterday, Christ casts out evils and heals the + sick. + + Methods rejected + + It is plain that God does not employ drugs or hygiene, +143:6 nor provide them for human use; else Jesus would have + recommended and employed them in his heal- + ing. The sick are more deplorably lost than +143:9 the sinning, if the sick cannot rely on God for help and + the sinning can. The divine Mind never called matter + /medicine/, and matter required a material and human be- +143:12 lief before it could be considered as medicine. + + Error not curative + + Sometimes the human mind uses one error to medi- + cine another. Driven to choose between two difficulties, +143:15 the human mind takes the lesser to relieve the + greater. On this basis it saves from starva- + tion by theft, and quiets pain with anodynes. You +143:18 admit that mind influences the body somewhat, but + you conclude that the stomach, blood, nerves, bones, + etc., hold the preponderance of power. Controlled by +143:21 this belief, you continue in the old routine. You lean on + the inert and unintelligent, never discerning how this de- + prives you of the available superiority of divine Mind. +143:24 The body is not controlled scientifically by a negative + mind. + + Impossible coalescence + + Mind is the grand creator, and there can be no power +143:27 except that which is derived from Mind. If Mind was + first chronologically, is first potentially, and + must be first eternally, then give to Mind the +143:30 glory, honor, dominion, and power everlastingly due its + holy name. Inferior and unspiritual methods of healing + may try to make Mind and drugs coalesce, but the two will +144:1 not mingle scientifically. Why should we wish to make + them do so, since no good can come of it? +144:3 If Mind is foremost and superior, let us rely upon Mind, + which needs no cooperation from lower powers, even if + these so-called powers are real. + +144:6 Naught is the squire, when the king is nigh; + Withdraws the star, when dawns the sun's brave light. + + Soul and sense + + The various mortal beliefs formulated in human philoso- +144:9 phy, physiology, hygiene, are mainly predicated of matter, + and afford faint gleams of God, or Truth. + The more material a belief, the more obstinately +144:12 tenacious its error; the stronger are the manifestations of + the corporeal senses, the weaker the indications of Soul. + + Will-power detrimental + + Human will-power is not Science. Human will belongs +144:15 to the so-called material senses, and its use is to be con- + demned. Willing the sick to recover is not the + metaphysical practice of Christian Science, but +144:18 is sheer animal magnetism. Human will-power may in- + fringe the rights of man. It produces evil continually, + and is not a factor in the realism of being. Truth, and +144:21 not corporeal will, is the divine power which says to + disease, "Peace, be still." + + Conservative antagonism + + Because divine Science wars with so-called physical +144:24 science, even as Truth wars with error, the old schools + still oppose it. Ignorance, pride, or prejudice + closes the door to whatever is not stereotyped. +144:27 When the Science of being is universally understood, + every man will be his own physician, and Truth will be + the universal panacea. + + Ancient healers + +144:30 It is a question to-day, whether the ancient inspired + healers understood the Science of Christian healing, or +145:1 whether they caught its sweet tones, as the natural + musician catches the tones of harmony, without being +145:3 able to explain them. So divinely imbued + were they with the spirit of Science, that the + lack of the letter could not hinder their work; and that +145:6 letter, without the spirit, would have made void their + practice. + + The struggle and victory + + The struggle for the recovery of invalids goes on, not +145:9 between material methods, but between mortal minds + and immortal Mind. The victory will be on + the patient's side only as immortal Mind +145:12 through Christ, Truth, subdues the human belief in + disease. It matters not what material method one may + adopt, whether faith in drugs, trust in hygiene, or reliance +145:15 on some other minor curative. + + Mystery of godliness + + Scientific healing has this advantage over other meth- + ods, - that in it Truth controls error. From this fact +145:18 arise its ethical as well as its physical ef- + fects. Indeed, its ethical and physical effects + are indissolubly connected. If there is any mystery +145:21 in Christian healing, it is the mystery which godliness + always presents to the ungodly, - the mystery always + arising from ignorance of the laws of eternal and unerr- +145:24 ing Mind. + + Matter /versus/ matter + + Other methods undertake to oppose error with error, + and thus they increase the antagonism of one form of +145:27 matter towards other forms of matter or error, + and the warfare between Spirit and the flesh + goes on. By this antagonism mortal mind must con- +145:30 tinually weaken its own assumed power. + + How healing was lost + + The theology of Christian Science includes healing + the sick. Our Master's first article of faith propounded +146:1 to his students was healing, and he proved his faith by + his works. The ancient Christians were healers. Why +146:3 has this element of Christianity been lost? + Because our systems of religion are governed + more or less by our systems of medicine. The first idol- +146:6 atry was faith in matter. The schools have rendered + faith in drugs the fashion, rather than faith in Deity. By + trusting matter to destroy its own discord, health and +146:9 harmony have been sacrificed. Such systems are barren + of the vitality of spiritual power, by which material sense + is made the servant of Science and religion becomes +146:12 Christlike. + + Drugs and divinity + + Material medicine substitutes drugs for the power of + God - even the might of Mind - to heal the body. +146:15 Scholasticism clings for salvation to the per- + son, instead of to the divine Principle, of the + man Jesus; and his Science, the curative agent of God, +146:18 is silenced. Why? Because truth divests material drugs + of their imaginary power, and clothes Spirit with suprem- + acy. Science is the "stranger that is within thy gates," +146:21 remembered not, even when its elevating effects prac- + tically prove its divine origin and efficacy. + + Christian Science as old as God + + Divine Science derives its sanction from the Bible, +146:24 and the divine origin of Science is demonstrated through + the holy influence of Truth in healing sick- + ness and sin. This healing power of Truth +146:27 must have been far anterior to the period in + which Jesus lived. It is as ancient as "the Ancient of + days." It lives through all Life, and extends throughout +146:30 all space. + + Reduction to system + + Divine metaphysics is now reduced to a system, to a + form comprehensible by and adapted to the thought of +147:1 the age in which we live. This system enables the + learner to demonstrate the divine Principle, +147:3 upon which Jesus' healing was based, and + the sacred rules for its present application to the cure of + disease. + +147:6 Late in the nineteenth century I demonstrated the divine + rules of Christian Science. They were submitted to the + broadest practical test, and everywhere, when honestly ap- +147:9 plied under circumstances where demonstration was hu- + manly possible, this Science showed that Truth had lost + none of its divine and healing efficacy, even though cen- +147:12 turies had passed away since Jesus practised these rules + on the hills of Judaea and in the valleys of Galilee. + + Perusal and practice + + Although this volume contains the complete Science of +147:15 Mind-healing, never believe that you can absorb the whole + meaning of the Science by a simple /perusal/ + of this book. The book needs to be /studied/, +147:18 and the demonstration of the rules of scientific healing + will plant you firmly on the spiritual groundwork of + Christian Science. This proof lifts you high above the +147:21 perishing fossils of theories already antiquated, and en- + ables you to grasp the spiritual facts of being hitherto + unattained and seemingly dim. + + A definite rule discovered + +147:24 Our Master healed the sick, practised Christian heal- + ing, and taught the generalities of its divine Principle to + his students; but he left no definite rule for +147:27 demonstrating this Principle of healing and + preventing disease. This rule remained to be discovered + in Christian Science. A pure affection takes form in good- +147:30 ness, but Science alone reveals the divine Principle of + goodness and demonstrates its rules. + + Jesus' own practice + + Jesus never spoke of disease as dangerous or as difficult +148:1 to heal. When his students brought to him a case they + had failed to heal, he said to them, "O faithless gen- +148:3 eration," implying that the requisite power + to heal was in Mind. He prescribed no drugs, + urged no obedience to material laws, but acted in direct +148:6 disobedience to them. + + The man of anatomy and of theology + + Neither anatomy nor theology has ever described man + as created by Spirit, - as God's man. The former ex- +148:9 plains the men of /men/, or the "children of + men," as created corporeally instead of spir- + itually and as emerging from the lowest, in- +148:12 stead of from the highest, conception of being. Both + anatomy and theology define man as both physical and + mental, and place mind at the mercy of matter for every +148:15 function, formation, and manifestation. Anatomy takes + up man at all points materially. It loses Spirit, drops the + true tone, and accepts the discord. Anatomy and the- +148:18 ology reject the divine Principle which produces harmo- + nious man, and deal - the one wholly, the other primarily + - with matter, calling that /man/ which is not the counter- +148:21 part, but the counterfeit, of God's man. Then theology + tries to explain how to make this man a Christian, - how + from this basis of division and discord to produce the con- +148:24 cord and unity of Spirit and His likeness. + + Physiology deficient + + Physiology exalts matter, dethrones Mind, and claims + to rule man by material law, instead of spiritual. When +148:27 physiology fails to give health or life by this + process, it ignores the divine Spirit as unable + or unwilling to render help in time of physical need. +148:30 When mortals sin, this ruling of the schools leaves them + to the guidance of a theology which admits God to be + the healer of sin but not of sickness, although our great +149:1 Master demonstrated that Truth could save from sickness + as well as from sin. + + Blunders and blunderers + +149:3 Mind as far outweighs drugs in the cure of disease as + in the cure of sin. The more excellent way is divine + Science in every case. Is /materia medica/ a +149:6 science or a bundle of speculative human + theories? The prescription which succeeds in one in- + stance fails in another, and this is owing to the different +149:9 mental states of the patient. These states are not com- + prehended and they are left without explanation except + in Christian Science. The rule and its perfection of opera- +149:12 tion never vary in Science. If you fail to succeed in any + case, it is because you have not demonstrated the life of + Christ, Truth, more in your own life, - because you have +149:15 not obeyed the rule and proved the Principle of divine + Science. + + Old-school physician + + A physician of the old school remarked with great +149:18 gravity: "We know that mind affects the body some- + what, and advise our patients to be hopeful + and cheerful and to take as little medicine as +149:21 possible; but mind can never cure organic difficulties." + The logic is lame, and facts contradict it. The author + has cured what is termed organic disease as readily as she +149:24 has cured purely functional disease, and with no power + but the divine Mind. + + Tests in our day + + Since God, divine Mind, governs all, not partially but +149:27 supremely, predicting disease does not dignify therapeutics. + Whatever guides thought spiritually benefits + mind and body. We need to understand the +149:30 affirmations of divine Science, dismiss superstition, and + demonstrate truth according to Christ. To-day there + is hardly a city, village, or hamlet, in which are not to +150:1 be found living witnesses and monuments to the virtue + and power of Truth, as applied through this Christian +150:3 system of healing disease. + + The main purpose + + To-day the healing power of Truth is widely demon- + strated as an immanent, eternal Science, instead of a +150:6 phenomenal exhibition. Its appearing is the + coming anew of the gospel of "on earth peace, + good-will toward men." This coming, as was promised +150:9 by the Master, is for its establishment as a permanent + dispensation among men; but the mission of Christian + Science now, as in the time of its earlier demonstration, +150:12 is not primarily one of physical healing. Now, as then, + signs and wonders are wrought in the metaphysical heal- + ing of physical disease; but these signs are only to demon- +150:15 strate its divine origin, - to attest the reality of the higher + mission of the Christ-power to take away the sins of the + world. + + Exploded doctrine + +150:18 The science (so-called) of physics would have one be- + lieve that both matter and mind are subject to disease, + and that, too, in spite of the individual's pro- +150:21 test and contrary to the law of divine Mind. + This human view infringes man's free moral agency; and + it is as evidently erroneous to the author, and will be to +150:24 all others at some future day, as the practically rejected + doctrine of the predestination of souls to damnation or + salvation. The doctrine that man's harmony is gov- +150:27 erned by physical conditions all his earthly days, and that + he is then thrust out of his own body by the operation of + matter, - even the doctrine of the superiority of matter +150:30 over Mind, - is fading out. + + Disease mental + + The hosts of AEsculapius are flooding the world with + diseases, because they are ignorant that the human mind +151:1 and body are myths. To be sure, they sometimes treat + the sick as if there was but one factor in the case; but +151:3 this one factor they represent to be body, not + mind. Infinite Mind could not possibly create + a remedy outside of itself, but erring, finite, human mind +151:6 has an absolute need of something beyond itself for its + redemption and healing. + + Intentions respected + + Great respect is due the motives and philanthropy of +151:9 the higher class of physicians. We know that if they un- + derstood the Science of Mind-healing, and were + in possession of the enlarged power it confers +151:12 to benefit the race physically and spiritually, they would + rejoice with us. Even this one reform in medicine would + ultimately deliver mankind from the awful and oppres- +151:15 sive bondage now enforced by false theories, from which + multitudes would gladly escape. + + Man governed by Mind + + Mortal belief says that death has been occasioned by +151:18 fright. Fear never stopped being and its action. The + blood, heart, lungs, brain, etc., have nothing + to do with Life, God. Every function of the +151:21 real man is governed by the divine Mind. The human + mind has no power to kill or to cure, and it has no com- + trol over God's man. The divine Mind that made man +151:24 maintain His own image and likeness. The human + mind is opposed to God and must be put off, as St. Paul + declares. All that really exists is the divine Mind and +151:27 its idea, and in this Mind the entire being is found har- + monious and eternal. The straight and narrow way is to + see and acknowledge this fact, yield to this power, and +151:30 follow the leadings of truth. + + Mortal mind dethroned + + That mortal mind claims to govern every organ of the + mortal body, we have overwhelming proof. But this so- +152:1 called mind is a myth, and must by its own consent yield + to Truth. It would wield the sceptre of a monarch, but +152:3 it is powerless. The immortal divine Mind + takes away all its supposed sovereignty, and + saves mortal mind from itself. The author has endeavored +152:6 to make this book the AEsculapius of mind as well as of + body, that it may give hope to the sick and heal them, + although they know not how the work is done. Truth +152:9 has a healing effect, even when not fully understood. + + All activity from thought + + Anatomy describes muscular action as produced by + mind in one instance and not in another. Such errors +152:12 beset every material theory, in which one + statement contradicts another over and over + again. It is related that Sir Humphry Davy once ap- +152:15 parently cured a case of paralysis simply by introducing + a thermometer into the patient's mouth. This he did + merely to ascertain the temperature of the patient's body; +152:18 but the sick man supposed this ceremony was intended + to heal him, and he recovered accordingly. Such a fact + illustrates our theories. + + The author's experiments in medicine + +152:21 The author's medical researches and experiments had + prepared her thought for the metaphysics of Christian + Science. Every material dependence had +152:24 failed her in her search for truth; and she can + now understand why, and can see the means + by which mortals are divinely driven to a spiritual source +152:27 for health and happiness. + + Homoeopathic attenuations + + Her experiments in homoeopathy had made her skep- + tical as to material curative methods. Jahr, from +152:30 /Aconitum/ to /Zincum oxydatum/, enumerates + the general symptoms, the characteristic + signs, which demand different remedies; but the drug +153:1 is frequently attenuated to such a degree that not a ves- + tige of it remains. Thus we learn that it is not the drug +153:3 which expels the disease or changes one of the symptoms + of disease. + + Only salt and water + + The author has attenuated /Natrum muriaticum/ (com- +153:6 mon table-salt) until there was not a single saline property + left. The salt had "lost his savour;" and yet, + with one drop of that attenuation in a goblet of +153:9 water, and a teaspoonful of the water administered at in- + tervals of three hours, she has cured a patient sinking in + the last stage of typhoid fever. The highest attenuation +153:12 of homoeopathy and the most potent rises above matter into + mind. This discovery leads to more light. From it may + be learned that either human faith or the divine Mind is +153:15 the healer and that there is no efficacy in a drug. + + Origin of pain + + You say a boil is painful; but that is impossible, for + matter without mind is not painful. The boil simply +153:18 manifests, through inflammation and swell- + ing, a belief in pain, and this belief is called a + boil. Now administer mentally to your patient a high +153:21 attenuation of truth, and it will soon cure the boil. The + fact that pain cannot exist where there is no mortal mind + to feel it is a proof that this so-called mind makes its +153:24 own pain - that is, its own /belief/ in pain. + + Source of contagion + + We weep because others weep, we yawn because they + yawn, and we have smallpox because others have it; but +153:27 mortal mind, not matter, contains and carries + the infection. When this mental contagion is + understood, we shall be more careful of our mental con- +153:30 ditions and we shall avoid loquacious tattling about + disease, as we would avoid advocating crime. Neither + sympathy nor society should ever tempt us to cherish +154:1 error in any form, and certainly we should not be error's + advocate. +154:3 Disease arises, like other mental conditions, from as- + sociation. Since it is a law of mortal mind that certain + diseases should be regarded as contagious, this law ob- +154:6 tains credit through association, - calling up the fear that + creates the image of disease and its consequent manifes- + tation in the body. + + Imaginary cholera + +154:9 This fact in metaphysics is illustrated by the following + incident: A man was made to believe that he occupied a + bed where a cholera patient had died. Imme- +154:12 diately the symptoms of this disease appeared, + and the man died. The fact was, that he had not caught + the cholera by material contact, because no cholera patient +154:15 had been in that bed. + + Children's ailments + + If a child is exposed to contagion or infection, the + mother is frightened and says, "My child will be sick." +154:18 The law of mortal mind and her own fears gov- + ern her child more than the child's mind gov- + erns itself, and they produce the very results which might +154:21 have been prevented through the opposite understanding. + Then it is believed that exposure to the contagion wrought + the mischief. + +154:24 That mother is not a Christian Scientist, and her affec- + tions need better guidance, who says to her child: "You + look sick," "You look tired," "You need rest," or "You +154:27 need medicine." + + Such a mother runs to her little one, who thinks she has + hurt her face by falling on the carpet, and says, moaning +154:30 more childishly than her child, "Mamma knows you are + hurt." The better and more successful method for any + mother to adopt is to say: "Oh, never mind! You're not +155:1 hurt, so don't think you are." Presently the child forgets + all about the accident, and is at play. + + Drug-power mental + +155:3 When the sick recover by the use of drugs, it is the law + of a general belief, culminating in individual faith, which + heals; and according to this faith will the effect +155:6 be. Even when you take away the individual + confidence in the drug, you have not yet divorced the drug + from the general faith. The chemist, the botanist, the +155:9 druggist, the doctor, and the nurse equip the medicine + with their faith, and the beliefs which are in the majority + rule. When the general belief endorses the inanimate +155:12 drug as doing this or that, individual dissent or faith, un- + less it rests on Science, is but a belief held by a minority, + and such a belief is governed by the majority. + + Belief in physics + +155:15 The universal belief in physics weighs against the high + and mighty truths of Christian metaphysics. This errone- + ous general belief, which sustains medicine and +155:18 produces all medical results, works against + Christian Science; and the percentage of power on the + side of this Science must mightily outweigh the power of +155:21 popular belief in order to heal a single case of disease. The + human mind acts more powerfully to offset the discords + of matter and the ills of flesh, in proportion as it puts less +155:24 weight into the material or fleshly scale and more weight + into the spiritual scale. Homoeopathy diminishes the + drug, but the potency of the medicine increases as the +155:27 drug disappears. + + Nature of drugs + + Vegetarianism, homoeopathy, and hydropathy have + diminished drugging; but if drugs are an antidote to +155:30 disease, why lessen the antidote? If drugs + are good things, is it safe to say that the + less in quantity you have of them the better? If drugs +156:1 possess intrinsic virtues or intelligent curative qualities, + these qualities must be mental. Who named drugs, and +156:3 what made them good or bad for mortals, beneficial or + injurious? + + Dropsy cured without drugs + + A case of dropsy, given up by the faculty, fell into +156:6 my hands. It was a terrible case. Tapping had been + employed, and yet, as she lay in her bed, the + patient looked like a barrel. I prescribed +156:9 the fourth attenuation of /Argentum nitratum/ with occa- + sional doses of a high attenuation of /Sulphuris/. She im- + proved perceptibly. Believing then somewhat in the +156:12 ordinary theories of medical practice, and learning that + her former physician had prescribed these remedies, I + began to fear an aggravation of symptoms from their +156:15 prolonged use, and told the patient so; but she was + unwilling to give up the medicine while she was re- + covering. It then occurred to me to give her un- +156:18 medicated pellets and watch the result. I did so, and + she continued to gain. Finally she said that she would + give up her medicine for one day, and risk the +156:21 effects. After trying this, she informed me that she + could get along two days without globules; but on + the third day she again suffered, and was relieved by +156:24 taking them. She went on in this way, taking the + unmedicated pellets, - and receiving occasional visits + from me, - but employing no other means, and she was +156:27 cured. + + A stately advance + + Metaphysics, as taught in Christian Science, is the + next stately step beyond homoeopathy. In metaphysics, +156:30 matter disappears from the remedy entirely, + and Mind takes its rightful and supreme + place. Homoeopathy takes mental symptoms largely +157:1 into consideration in its diagnosis of disease. Christian + Science deals wholly with the mental cause in judging and +157:3 destroying disease. It succeeds where homoeopathy fails, + solely because its one recognized Principle of healing is + Mind, and the whole force of the mental element is em- +157:6 ployed through the Science of Mind, which never shares + its rights with inanimate matter. + + The modus of homoeopathy + + Christian Science exterminates the drug, and rests on +157:9 Mind alone as the curative Principle, acknowledging that + the divine Mind has all power. Homoeopathy + mentalizes a drug with such repetition of +157:12 thought-attenuations, that the drug becomes + more like the human mind than the substratum of this so- + called mind, which we call matter; and the drug's power +157:15 of action is proportionately increased. + + Drugging unchristian + + If drugs are part of God's creation, which (according + to the narrative in Genesis) He pronounced/ good/, then +157:18 drugs cannot be poisonous. If He could cre- + ate drugs intrinsically bad, then they should + never be used. If He creates drugs at all and designs +157:21 them for medical use, why did Jesus not employ them + and recommend them for the treatment of disease? + Matter is not self-creative, for it is unintelligent. Erring +157:24 mortal mind confers the power which the drug seems to + possess. + + Narcotics quiet mortal mind, and so relieve the body; +157:27 but they leave both mind and body worse for this sub- + mission. Christian Science impresses the entire corpore- + ality, - namely, mind and body, - and brings out the +157:30 proof that Life is continuous and harmonious. Science + both neutralizes error and destroys it. Mankind is the + better for this spiritual and profound pathology. + + Mythology and materia medica + +158:1 It is recorded that the profession of medicine originated + in idolatry with pagan priests, who besought the gods to +158:3 heal the sick and designated Apollo as "the god + of medicine." He was supposed to have dic- + tated the first prescription, according to the +158:6 "History of Four Thousand Years of Medicine." It is + here noticeable that Apollo was also regarded as the sender + of disease, "the god of pestilence." Hippocrates turned +158:9 from image-gods to vegetable and mineral drugs for heal- + ing. This was deemed progress in medicine; but + what we need is the truth which heals both mind and +158:12 body. The future history of material medicine may + correspond with that of its material god, Apollo, who was + banished from heaven and endured great sufferings +158:15 upon earth. + + Footsteps to intemperance + + Drugs, cataplasms, and whiskey are stupid substitutes + for the dignity and potency of divine Mind and its effi- +158:18 cacy to heal. It is pitiful to lead men into + temptation through the byways of this wil- + derness world, - to victimize the race with intoxicating +158:21 prescriptions for the sick, until mortal mind acquires an + educated appetite for strong drink, and men and women + become loathsome sots. + + Advancing degrees + +158:24 Evidences of progress and of spiritualization greet us + on every hand. Drug-systems are quitting their hold on + matter and so letting in matter's higher stra- +158:27 tum, mortal mind. Homoeopathy, a step in + advance of allopathy, is doing this. Matter is going out + of medicine; and mortal mind, of a higher attenuation +158:30 than the drug, is governing the pellet. + + Effects of fear + + A woman in the city of Lynn, Massachusetts, was + etherized and died in consequence, although her physi- +159:1 cians insisted that it would be unsafe to perform a needed + surgical operation without the ether. After the autopsy, +159:3 her sister testified that the deceased protested + against inhaling the ether and said it would kill + her, but that she was compelled by her physicians to take +159:6 it. Her hands were held, and she was forced into sub- + mission. The case was brought to trial. The evidence + was found to be conclusive, and a verdict was returned that +159:9 death was occasioned, not by the ether, but by fear of + inhaling it. + + Mental conditions to be heeded + + Is it skilful or scientific surgery to take no heed of men- +159:12 tal conditions and to treat the patient as if she were so + much mindless matter, and as if matter were + the only factor to be consulted? Had these +159:15 unscientific surgeons understood metaphysics, + they would have considered the woman's state of mind, + and not have risked such treatment. They would either +159:18 have allayed her fear or would have performed the opera- + tion without ether. + + The sequel proved that this Lynn woman died from +159:21 effects produced by mortal mind, and not from the disease + or the operation. + + False source of knowledge + + The medical schools would learn the state of man +159:24 from matter instead of from Mind. They examine the + lungs, tongue, and pulse to ascertain how + much harmony, or health, matter is permit- +159:27 ting to matter, - how much pain or pleasure, action or + stagnation, one form of matter is allowing another form + of matter. + +159:30 Ignorant of the fact that a man's belief produces dis- + ease and all its symptoms, the ordinary physician is + liable to increase disease with his own mind, when he +160:1 should address himself to the work of destroying it through + the power of the divine Mind. + +160:3 The systems of physics act against metaphysics, and + /vice versa/. When mortals forsake the material for the + spiritual basis of action, drugs lose their healing force, +160:6 for they have no innate power. Unsupported by the + faith reposed in it, the inanimate drug becomes + powerless. + + Obedient muscles + +160:9 The motion of the arm is no more dependent upon the + direction of mortal mind, than are the organic action and + secretion of the viscera. When this so-called +160:12 mind quits the body, the heart becomes as tor- + pid as the hand. + + Anatomy and mind + + Anatomy finds a necessity for nerves to convey the man- +160:15 date of mind to muscle and so cause action; but what does + anatomy say when the cords contract and be- + come immovable? Has mortal mind ceased +160:18 speaking to them, or has it bidden them to be impotent? + Can muscles, bones, blood, and nerves rebel against mind + in one instance and not in another, and become cramped +160:21 despite the mental protest? + + Unless muscles are self-acting at all times, they are + never so, - never capable of acting contrary to mental +160:24 direction. If muscles can cease to act and become rigid + of their own preference, - be deformed or symmetrical, + as they please or as disease directs, - they must be self- +160:27 directing. Why then consult anatomy to learn how mor- + tal mind governs muscle, if we are only to learn from + anatomy that muscle is not so governed? + + Mind over matter + +160:30 Is man a material fungus without Mind + to help him? Is a stiff joint or a contracted + muscle as much a result of law as the supple and +161:1 elastic condition of the healthy limb, and is God the + lawgiver? + +161:3 You say, "/I/ have burned my finger." This is an + exact statement, more exact than you suppose; for mor- + tal mind, and not matter, burns it. Holy inspiration +161:6 has created states of mind which have been able to nullify + the action of the flames, as in the Bible case of the three + young Hebrew captives, cast into the Babylonian furnace; +161:9 while an opposite mental state might produce spontaneous + combustion. + + Restrictive regulations + + In 1880, Massachusetts put her foot on a proposed +161:12 tyrannical law, restricting the practice of medicine. If + her sister States follow this example in har- + mony with our Constitution and Bill of Rights, +161:15 they will do less violence to that immortal sentiment of the + Declaration, "Man is endowed by his Maker with certain + inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the +161:18 pursuit of happiness." + + The oppressive state statutes touching medicine re- + mind one of the words of the famous Madame Roland, +161:21 as she knelt before a statue of Liberty, erected near the + guillotine: "Liberty, what crimes are committed in thy + name!" + + Metaphysics challenges physics + +161:24 The ordinary practitioner, examining bodily symptoms, + telling the patient that he is sick, and treating the case ac- + cording to his physical diagnosis, would natu- +161:27 rally induce the very disease he is trying to cure, + even if it were not already determined by mor- + tal mind. Such unconscious mistakes would not occur, if +161:30 this old class of philanthropists looked as deeply for cause + and effect into mind as into matter. The physician agrees + with his "adversary quickly," but upon different terms +162:1 than does the metaphysician; for the matter-physician + agrees with the disease, while the metaphysician agrees +162:3 only with health and challenges disease. + + Truth an alterative + + Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight of + Truth, which invigorates and purifies. Christian Science +162:6 acts as an alterative, neutralizing error with + Truth. It changes the secretions, expels hu- + mors, dissolves tumors, relaxes rigid muscles, restores +162:9 carious bones to soundness. The effect of this Science is + to stir the human mind to a change of base, on which it + may yield to the harmony of the divine Mind. + + Practical success + +162:12 Experiments have favored the fact that Mind governs + the body, not in one instance, but in every instance. The + indestructible faculties of Spirit exist without +162:15 the conditions of matter and also without the + false beliefs of a so-called material existence. Working + out the rules of Science in practice, the author has re- +162:18 stored health in cases of both acute and chronic disease in + their severest forms. Secretions have been changed, the + structure has been renewed, shortened limbs have been +162:21 elongated, ankylosed joints have been made supple, and + carious bones have been restored to healthy conditions. I + have restored what is called the lost substance of lungs, and +162:24 healthy organizations have been established where disease + was organic. Christian Science heals organic disease as + surely as it heals what is called functional, for it requires +162:27 only a fuller understanding of the divine Principle of + Christian Science to demonstrate the higher rule. + + Testimony of medical teachers + + With due respect for the faculty, I kindly +162:30 quote from Dr. Benjamin Rush, the famous + Philadelphia teacher of medical practice. He + declared that "it is impossible to calculate the mischief +163:1 which Hippocrates has done, by first marking Nature + with his name, and afterward letting her loose upon sick +163:3 people." + + Dr. Benjamin Waterhouse, Professor in Harvard Uni- + versity, declared himself "sick of learned quackery." + +163:6 Dr. James Johnson, Surgeon to William IV, King Of + England, said: + + "I declare my conscientious opinion, founded on long +163:9 observation and reflection, that if there were not a single + physician, surgeon, apothecary, man-midwife, chemist, + druggist, or drug on the face of the earth, there would be +163:12 less sickness and less mortality." + + Dr. Mason Good, a learned Professor in London, + said: + +163:15 "The effects of medicine on the human system are in + the highest degree uncertain; except, indeed, that it has + already destroyed more lives than war, pestilence, and +163:18 famine, all combined." + + Dr. Chapman, Professor of the Institutes and Practice + of Physic in the University of Pennsylvania, in a published +163:21 essay said: + + "Consulting the records of our science, we cannot + help being disgusted with the multitude of hypotheses +163:24 obtruded upon us at different times. Nowhere is the + imagination displayed to a greater extent; and perhaps + so ample an exhibition of human invention might gratify +163:27 our vanity, if it were not more than compensated by the + humiliating view of so much absurdity, contradiction, + and falsehood. To harmonize the contrarieties of med- +163:30 ical doctrines is indeed a task as impractible as to + arrange the fleeting vapors around us, or to reconcile the + fixed and repulsive antipathies of nature. Dark and +164:1 perplexed, our devious career resembles the groping of + Homer's Cyclops around his cave." + +164:3 Sir John Forbes, M.D., F.R.S., Fellow of the Royal + College of Physicians, London, said: + + "No systematic or theoretical classification of diseases +164:6 or of therapeutic agents, ever yet promulgated, is true, or + anything like the truth, and none can be adopted as a safe + guidance in practice." + +164:9 It is just to say that generally the cultured class of medi- + cal practitioners are grand men and women, therefore + they are more scientific than are false claimants to Chris- +164:12 tian Science. But all human systems based on material + premises are minus the unction of divine Science. Much + yet remains to be said and done before all mankind is +164:15 saved and all the mental microbes of sin and all diseased + thought-germs are exterminated. + + If you or I should appear to die, we should not be +164:18 dead. The seeming decease, caused by a majority of + human beliefs that man must die, or produced by mental + assassins, does not in the least disprove Christian Science; +164:21 rather does it evidence the truth of its basic proposition + that mortal thoughts in belief rule the materiality mis- + called life in the body or in matter. But the forever fact +164:24 remains paramount that Life, Truth, and Love save from + sin, disease, and death. "When this corruptible shall have + put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on +164:27 immortality [divine Science], then shall be brought to pass + the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in + victory" (St. Paul). + + + + + CHAPTER VII - PHYSIOLOGY + + Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what + ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, + what ye shall put on. + Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment? - JESUS. + + He sent His word, and healed them, and delivered them from their + destructions. - PSALMS. + +165:1 PHYSIOLOGY is one of the apples from "the tree + of knowledge." Evil declared that eating this fruit +165:3 would open man's eyes and make him as a god. Instead + of so doing, it closed the eyes of mortals to man's God- + given dominion over the earth. + + Man not structural + +165:6 To measure intellectual capacity by the size of the + brain and strength by the exercise of muscle, is to + subjugate intelligence, to make mind mor- +165:9 tal, and to place this so-called mind at the + mercy of material organization and non-intelligent + matter. + +165:12 Obedience to the so-called physical laws of health has + not checked sickness. Diseases have multiplied, since + man-made material theories took the place of spiritual +165:15 truth. + + Causes of sickness + + You say that indigestion, fatigue, sleeplessness, cause + distressed stomachs and aching heads. Then +165:18 you consult your brain in order to remember + what has hurt you, when your remedy lies in forgetting +166:1 the whole thing; for matter has no sensation of its own, + and the human mind is all that can produce pain. + +166:3 As a man thinketh, so is he. Mind is all that feels, + acts, or impedes action. Ignorant of this, or shrinking + from its implied responsibility, the healing effort is made +166:6 on the wrong side, and thus the conscious control over the + body is lost. + + Delusions pagan and medical + + The Mohammedan believes in a pilgrimage to Mecca +166:9 for the salvation of his soul. The popular doctor believes + in his prescription, and the pharmacist believes + in the power of his drugs to save a man's +166:12 life. The Mohammedan's belief is a religious + delusion; the doctor's and pharmacist's is a medical + mistake. + + Health from reliance on spirituality + +166:15 The erring human mind is inharmonious in itself. + From it arises the inharmonious body. To ignore + God as of little use in sickness is a mistake. +166:18 Instead of thrusting Him aside in times of + bodily trouble, and waiting for the hour of + strength in which to acknowledge Him, we should learn +166:21 that He can do all things for us in sickness as in + health. + + Failing to recover health through adherence to physi- +166:24 ology and hygiene, the despairing invalid often drops + them, and in his extremity and only as a last resort, turns + to God. The invalid's faith in the divine Mind is less +166:27 than in drugs, air, and exercise, or he would have resorted + to Mind first. The balance of power is conceded to be + with matter by most of the medical systems; but when +166:30 Mind at last asserts its mastery over sin, disease, and + death, then is man found to be harmonious and + immortal. + +167:1 Should we implore a corporeal God to heal the sick + out of His personal volition, or should we understand the +167:3 infinite divine Principle which heals? If we rise no higher + than blind faith, the Science of healing is not attained, and + Soul-existence, in the place of sense-existence, is not com- +167:6 prehended. We apprehend Life in divine Science only + as we live above corporeal sense and correct it. Our pro- + portionate admission of the claims of good or of evil de- +167:9 termines the harmony of our existence, - our health, our + longevity, and our Christianity. + + The two masters + + We cannot serve two masters nor perceive divine Sci- +167:12 ence with the material senses. Drugs and hygiene cannot + successfully usurp the place and power of the + divine source of all health and perfection. If +167:15 God made man both good and evil, man must remain + thus. What can improve God's work? Again, an error + in the premise must appear in the conclusion. To have +167:18 one God and avail yourself of the power of Spirit, you + must love God supremely. + + Half-way success + + The "flesh lusteth against the Spirit." The flesh and +167:21 Spirit can no more unite in action, than good can coin- + cide with evil. It is not wise to take a halt- + ing and half-way position or to expect to work +167:24 equally with Spirit and matter, Truth and error. There, + is but one way - namely, God and His idea - which + leads to spiritual being. The scientific government of the +167:27 body must be attained through the divine Mind. It is im- + possible to gain control over the body in any other way. + On this fundamental point, timid conservatism is abso- +167:30 lutely inadmissible. Only through radical reliance on + Truth can scientific healing power be realized. + + Substituting good words for a good life, fair seeming +168:1 for straightforward character, is a poor shift for the weak + and worldly, who think the standard of Christian Science +168:3 too high for them. + + Belief on the wrong side + + If the scales are evenly adjusted, the removal of a single + weight from either scale gives preponderance to the oppo- +168:6 site. Whatever influence you cast on the side + of matter, you take away from Mind, which + would otherwise outweigh all else. Your belief militates +168:9 against your health, when it ought to be enlisted on the + side of health. When sick (according to belief) you rush + after drugs, search out the material so-called laws of +168:12 health, and depend upon them to heal you, though you + have already brought yourself into the slough of disease + through just this false belief. + + The divine authority + +168:15 Because man-made systems insist that man becomes + sick and useless, suffers and dies, all in consonance with + the laws of God, are we to believe it? Are +168:18 we to believe an authority which denies God's + spiritual command relating to perfection, - an authority + which Jesus proved to be false? He did the will of the +168:21 Father. He healed sickness in defiance of what is called + material law, but in accordance with God's law, the law + of Mind. + + Disease foreseen + +168:24 I have discerned disease in the human mind, and rec- + ognized the patient's fear of it, months before the so-called + disease made its appearance in the body. Dis- +168:27 ease being a belief, a latent illusion of mortal + mind, the sensation would not appear if the error of belief + was met and destroyed by truth. + + Changed mentality + +168:30 Here let a word be noticed which will be + better understood hereafter, - /chemicalization/. + By chemicalization I mean the process which mortal +169:1 mind and body undergo in the change of belief from a + material to a spiritual basis. + + Scientific foresight + +169:3 Whenever an aggravation of symptoms has occurred + through mental chemicalization, I have seen the mental + signs, assuring me that danger was over, before +169:6 the patient felt the change; and I have said + to the patient, "You are healed," - sometimes to his dis- + comfiture, when he was incredulous. But it always came +169:9 about as I had foretold. + + I name these facts to show that disease has a mental, + mortal origin, - that faith in rules of health or in drugs +169:12 begets and fosters disease by attracting the mind to the + subject of sickness, by exciting fear of disease, and by dos- + ing the body in order to avoid it. The faith reposed in +169:15 these things should find stronger supports and a higher + home. If we understood the control of Mind over body, + we should put no faith in material means. + + Mind the only healer + +169:18 Science not only reveals the origin of all disease as + mental, but it also declares that all disease is cured by + divine Mind. There can be no healing ex- +169:21 cept by this Mind, however much we trust + a drug or any other means towards which human faith + or endeavor is directed. It is mortal mind, not mat- +169:24 ter, which brings to the sick whatever good they may + seem to receive from materiality. But the sick are never + really healed except by means of the divine power. +169:27 Only the action of Truth, Life, and Love can give + harmony. + + Modes of matter + + Whatever teaches man to have other laws and to +169:30 acknowledge other powers than the divine + Mind, is anti-Christian. The good that a + poisonous drug seems to do is evil, for it robs man of +170:1 reliance on God, omnipotent Mind, and according to be- + lief, poisons the human system. Truth is not the basis of +170:3 theogony. Modes of matter form neither a moral nor a + spiritual system. The discord which calls for material + methods is the result of the exercise of faith in material +170:6 modes, - faith in matter instead of in Spirit. + + Physiology unscientific + + Did Jesus understand the economy of man less than + Graham or Cutter? Christian ideas certainly present +170:9 what human theories exclude - the Principle + of man's harmony. The text, "Whosoever + liveth and believeth in me shall never die," not only con- +170:12 tradicts human systems, but points to the self-sustaining + and eternal Truth. + + The demands of Truth are spiritual, and reach the +170:15 body through Mind. The best interpreter of man's needs + said: "Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, + or what ye shall drink." + +170:18 If there are material laws which prevent disease, what + then causes it? Not divine law, for Jesus healed the + sick and cast out error, always in opposition, never in +170:21 obedience, to physics. + + Causation considered + + Spiritual causation is the one question to be considered, + for more than all others spiritual causation relates to +170:24 human progress. The age seems ready to + approach this subject, to ponder somewhat + the supremacy of Spirit, and at least to touch the hem +170:27 of Truth's garment. + + The description of man as purely physical, or as both + material and spiritual, - but in either case dependent +170:30 upon his physical organization, - is the Pandora box, + from which all ills have gone forth, especially despair. + Matter, which takes divine power into its own hands and +171:1 claims to be a creator, is a fiction, in which paganism and + lust are so sanctioned by society that mankind has caught +171:3 their moral contagion. + + Paradise regained + + Through discernment of the spiritual opposite of ma- + teriality, even the way through Christ, Truth, man will +171:6 reopen with the key of divine Science the gates + of Paradise which human beliefs have closed, + and will find himself unfallen, upright, pure, and free, +171:9 not needing to consult almanacs for the probabilities either + of his life or of the weather, not needing to study brain- + ology to learn how much of a man he is. + + A closed question + +171:12 Mind's control over the universe, including man, is + no longer an open question, but is demonstrable Science. + Jesus illustrated the divine Principle and the +171:15 power of immortal Mind by healing sickness + and sin and destroying the foundations of death. + + Matter /versus/ Spirit + + Mistaking his origin and nature, man believes himself to +171:18 be combined matter and Spirit. He believes that Spirit + is sifted through matter, carried on a nerve, ex- + posed to ejection by the operation of matter. +171:21 The intellectual, the moral, the spiritual, - yea, the image + of infinite Mind, - subject to non-intelligence! + + No more sympathy exists between the flesh and Spirit +171:24 than between Belial and Christ. + + The so-called laws of matter are nothing but false be- + liefs that intelligence and life are present where Mind +171:27 is not. These false beliefs are the procuring cause of all + sin and disease. The opposite truth, that intelligence and + life are spiritual, never material, destroys sin, sickness, +171:30 and death. + + The fundamental error lies in the supposition that man + is a material outgrowth and that the cognizance of good +172:1 or evil, which he has through the bodily senses, con- + stitutes his happiness or misery. + + Godless Evolution + +172:3 Theorizing about man's development from mushrooms + to monkeys and from monkeys into men + amounts to nothing in the right direction and +172:6 very much in the wrong. + + Materialism grades the human species as rising from + matter upward. How then is the material species main- +172:9 tained, if man passes through what we call death and + death is the Rubicon of spirituality? Spirit can form + no real link in this supposed chain of material being. +172:12 But divine Science reveals the eternal chain of existence + as uninterrupted and wholly spiritual; yet this can be + realized only as the false sense of being disappears. + + Degrees of development + +172:15 If man was first a material being, he must have passed + through all the forms of matter in order to become man. + If the material body is man, he is a portion of +172:18 matter, or dust. On the contrary, man is the + image and likeness of Spirit; and the belief that there is + Soul in sense or Life in matter obtains in mortals, /alias/ +172:21 mortal mind, to which the apostle refers when he says + that we must "put off the old man." + + Identity not lost + + What is man? Brain, heart, blood, bones, etc., the +172:24 material structure? If the real man is in the material + body, you take away a portion of the man when + you amputate a limb; the surgeon destroys +172:27 manhood, and worms annihilate it. But the loss of a limb + or injury to a tissue is sometimes the quickener of manli- + ness; and the unfortunate cripple may present more no- +172:30 bility than the statuesque athlete, - teaching us by his + very deprivations, that "a man's a man, for a' that." + + When man is man + + When we admit that matter (heart, blood, brain, acting +173:1 through the five physical senses) constitutes man, we fail + to see how anatomy can distinguish between +173:3 humanity and the brute, or determine when + man is really /man/ and has progressed farther than his + animal progenitors. + + Individualization + +173:6 When the supposition, that Spirit is within what it + creates and the potter is subject to the clay, + is individualized, Truth is reduced to the level +173:9 of error, and the sensible is required to be made manifest + through the insensible. + + What is termed matter manifests nothing but a material +173:12 mentality. Neither the substance nor the manifestation + of Spirit is obtainable through matter. Spirit is positive. + Matter is Spirit's contrary, the absence of Spirit. For +173:15 positive Spirit to pass through a negative condition + would be Spirit's destruction. + + Man not structural + + Anatomy declares man to be structural. Physiology +173:18 continues this explanation, measuring human + strength by bones and sinews, and human life + by material law. Man is spiritual, individual, and eter- +173:21 nal; material structure is mortal. + Phrenology makes man knavish or honest according to + the development of the cranium; but anatomy, physiology, +173:24 phrenology, do not define the image of God, the real im- + mortal man. + + Human reason and religion come slowly to the recogni- +173:27 tion of spiritual facts, and so continue to call upon + matter to remove the error which the human mind alone + has created. + +173:30 The idols of civilization are far more fatal to health + and longevity than are the idols of barbarism. The idols + of civilization call into action less faith than Buddhism +174:1 in a supreme governing intelligence. The Esquimaux + restore health by incantations as consciously as do civi- +174:3 lized practitioners by their more studied methods. + + Is civilization only a higher form of idolatry, that + man should bow down to a flesh-brush, to flannels, to +174:6 baths, diet, exercise, and air? Nothing save divine + power is capable of doing so much for man as he can + do for himself. + + Rise of thought + +174:9 The footsteps of thought, rising above material stand- + points, are slow, and portend a long night to the traveller; + but the angels of His presence - the spiritual +174:12 intuitions that tell us when "the night is far + spent, the day is at hand" - are our guardians in the + gloom. Whoever opens the way in Christian Science is +174:15 a pilgrim and stranger, marking out the path for gen- + erations yet unborn. + + The thunder of Sinai and the Sermon on the Mount +174:18 are pursuing and will overtake the ages, rebuking in + their course all error and proclaiming the kingdom of + heaven on earth. Truth is revealed. It needs only to +174:21 be practised. + + Medical errors + + Mortal belief is all that enables a drug to cure mortal + ailments. Anatomy admits that mind is somewhere in +174:24 man, though out of sight. Then, if an indi- + vidual is sick, why treat the body alone and + administer a dose of despair to the mind? Why declare +174:27 that the body is diseased, and picture this disease to the + mind, rolling it under the tongue as a sweet morsel and + holding it before the thought of both physician and pa- +174:30 tient? We should understand that the cause of disease + obtains in the mortal human mind, and its cure comes + from the immortal divine Mind. We should prevent the +175:1 images of disease from taking form in thought, and we + should efface the outlines of disease already formulated in +175:3 the minds of mortals. + + Novel Diseases + + When there are fewer prescriptions, and less thought is + given to sanitary subjects, there will be better +175:6 constitutions and less disease. In old times + who ever heard of dyspepsia, cerebro-spinal meningitis, + hay-fever, and rose-cold? + +175:9 What an abuse of natural beauty to say that a rose, + the smile of God, can produce suffering! The joy of its + presence, its beauty and fragrance, should uplift the +175:12 thought, and dissuade any sense of fear or fever. It is + profane to fancy that the perfume of clover and the breath + of new-mown hay can cause glandular inflammation, +175:15 sneezing, and nasal pangs. + + No ancestral dyspepsia + + If a random thought, calling itself dyspepsia, had + tried to tyrannize over our forefathers, it would have +175:18 been routed by their independence and in- + dustry. Then people had less time for self- + ishness, coddling, and sickly after-dinner talk. The ex- +175:21 act amount of food the stomach could digest was not + discussed according to Cutter nor referred to sanitary + laws. A man's belief in those days was not so severe +175:24 upon the gastric juices. Beaumont's "Medical Experi- + ments" did not govern the digestion. + + Pulmonary misbeliefs + + Damp atmosphere and freezing snow empurpled the +175:27 plump cheeks of our ancestors, but they never indulged + in the refinement of inflamed bronchial tubes. + They were as innocent as Adam, before he ate +175:30 the fruit of false knowledge, of the existence of tubercles + and troches, lungs and lozenges. + + Our modern Eves + + "Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise," says +176:1 the English poet, and there is truth in his sentiment. The + action of mortal mind on the body was not so injurious +176:3 before inquisitive modern Eves took up the + study of medical works and unmanly Adams + attributed their own downfall and the fate of their off- +176:6 spring to the weakness of their wives. + + The primitive custom of taking no thought about + food left the stomach and bowels free to act in obedi- +176:9 ence to nature, and gave the gospel a chance to be seen + in its glorious effects upon the body. A ghastly array of + diseases was not paraded before the imagination. There +176:12 were fewer books on digestion and more "sermons in + stones, and good in everything." When the mechanism + of the human mind gives place to the divine Mind, self- +176:15 ishness and sin, disease and death, will lose their + foothold. + + Human fear of miasma would load with disease the +176:18 air of Eden, and weigh down mankind with superimposed + and conjectural evils. Mortal mind is the worst foe of + the body, while divine Mind is its best friend. + + Diseases not to be classified + +176:21 Should all cases of organic disease be treated by a + regular practitioner, and the Christian Scientist try + truth only in cases of hysteria, hypochon- +176:24 dria, and hallucination? One disease is no + more real than another. All disease is the + result of education, and disease can carry its ill-effects +176:27 no farther than mortal mind maps out the way. The + human mind, not matter, is supposed to feel, suffer, en- + joy. Hence decided types of acute disease are quite as +176:30 ready to yield to Truth as the less distinct type and chronic + form of disease. Truth handles the most malignant con- + tagion with perfect assurance. + + One basis for all sickness + +177:1 Human mind produces what is termed organic dis- + ease as certainly as it produces hysteria, and it must re- +177:3 linquish all its errors, sicknesses, and sins. + I have demonstrated this beyond all cavil. + The evidence of divine Mind's healing power and abso- +177:6 lute control is to me as certain as the evidence of my own + existence. + + Mental and physical oneness + + Mortal mind and body are one. Neither exists without +177:9 the other, and both must be destroyed by immortal Mind. + Matter, or body, is but a false concept of mor- + tal mind. This so-called mind builds its own +177:12 superstructure, of which the material body is + the grosser portion; but from first to last, the body is a + sensuous, human concept. + + The effect of names + +177:15 In the Scriptural allegory of the material creation, + Adam or error, which represents the erroneous theory + of life and intelligence in matter, had the +177:18 naming of all that was material. These names + indicated matter's properties, qualities, and forms. But + a lie, the opposite of Truth, cannot name the qualities and +177:21 effects of what is termed matter, and create the so-called + laws of the flesh, nor can a lie hold the preponderance + of power in any direction against God, Spirit and +177:24 Truth. + + Poison defined mentally + + If a dose of poison is swallowed through mistake, and + the patient dies even though physician and +177:27 patient are expecting favorable results, does + human belief, you ask, cause this death? Even + so, and as directly as if the poison had been intentionally +177:30 taken. + + In such cases a few persons believe the potion swal- + lowed by the patient to be harmless, but the vast ma- +178:1 jority of mankind, though they know nothing of this par- + ticular case and this special person, believe the arsenic, +178:3 the strychnine, or whatever the drug used, to be poi- + sonous, for it is set down as a poison by mortal mind. + Consequently, the result is controlled by the majority of +178:6 opinions, not by the infinitesimal minority of opinions in + the sick-chamber. + + Heredity is not a law. The remote cause or belief +178:9 of disease is not dangerous because of its priority and + the connection of past mortal thoughts with present. + The predisposing cause and the exciting cause are +178:12 mental. + + Perhaps an adult has a deformity produced prior to his + birth by the fright of his mother. When wrested from +178:15 human belief and based on Science or the divine Mind, to + which all things are possible, that chronic case is not + difficult to cure. + + Animal magnetism destroyed + +178:18 Mortal mind, acting from the basis of sensation in + matter, is animal magnetism; but this so-called mind, + from which comes all evil, contradicts itself, +178:21 and must finally yield to the eternal Truth, or + the divine Mind, expressed in Science. In pro- + portion to our understanding of Christian Science, we are +178:24 freed from the belief of heredity, of mind in matter or ani- + mal magnetism; and we disarm sin of its imaginary power + in proportion to our spiritual understanding of the status +178:27 of immortal being. + + Ignorant of the methods and the basis of metaphysical + healing, you may attempt to unite with it hypnotism, +178:30 spiritualism, electricity; but none of these methods can + be mingled with metaphysical healing. + + Whoever reaches the understanding of Christian Science +179:1 in its proper signification will perform the sudden cures + of which it is capable; but this can be done only by +179:3 taking up the cross and following Christ in the daily + life. + + Absent patients + + Science can heal the sick, who are absent from their +179:6 healers, as well as those present, since space is no ob- + stacle to Mind. Immortal Mind heals what eye + hath not seen; but the spiritual capacity to ap- +179:9 prehend thought and to heal by the Truth-power, is won + only as man is found, not in self-righteousness, but re- + flecting the divine nature. + + Horses mistaught + +179:12 Every medical method has its advocates. The prefer- + ence of mortal mind for a certain method creates a demand + for that method, and the body then seems to re- +179:15 quire such treatment. You can even educate a + healthy horse so far in physiology that he will take cold + without his blanket, whereas the wild animal, left to his +179:18 instincts, sniffs the wind with delight. The epizootic is + a humanly evolved ailment, which a wild horse might + never have. + + Medical works objectionable + +179:21 Treatises on anatomy, physiology, and health, sustained + by what is termed material law, are the pro- + moters of sickness and disease. It should not +179:24 be proverbial, that so long as you read medical works you + will be sick. + + The sedulous matron - studying her Jahr with homoe- +179:27 opathic pellet and powder in hand, ready to put you + into a sweat, to move the bowels, or to produce sleep - + is unwittingly sowing the seeds of reliance on matter, +179:30 and her household may erelong reap the effect of this + mistake. + + Descriptions of disease given by physicians and adver- +180:1 tisements of quackery are both prolific sources of sickness. + As mortal mind is the husbandman of error, it should be +180:3 taught to do the body no harm and to uproot its false + sowing. + + The invalid's outlook + + The patient sufferer tries to be satisfied when he sees +180:6 his would-be healers busy, and his faith in their efforts is + somewhat helpful to them and to himself; but + in Science one must understand the resusci- +180:9 tating law of Life. This is the seed within itself bearing + fruit after its kind, spoken of in Genesis. + + Physicians should not deport themselves as if Mind +180:12 were non-existent, nor take the ground that all causation + is matter, instead of Mind. Ignorant that the human + mind governs the body, its phenomenon, the invalid may +180:15 unwittingly add more fear to the mental reservoir already + overflowing with that emotion. + + Wrong and right way + + Doctors should not implant disease in the thoughts of +180:18 their patients, as they so frequently do, by declaring dis- + ease to be a fixed fact, even before they go to + work to eradicate the disease through the ma- +180:21 terial faith which they inspire. Instead of furnishing + thought with fear, they should try to correct this turbulent + element of mortal mind by the influence of divine Love +180:24 which casteth out fear. + + When man is governed by God, the ever-present + Mind who understands all things, man knows that with +180:27 God all things are possible. The only way to this + living Truth, which heals the sick, is found in the Science + of divine Mind as taught and demonstrated by Christ +180:30 Jesus. + The important decision + + To reduce inflammation, dissolve a tumor, or cure or- + ganic disease, I have found divine Truth more potent than +181:1 all lower remedies. And why not, since Mind, God, is + the source and condition of all existence? Before decid- +181:3 ing that the body, matter, is disordered, one + should ask, "Who art thou that repliest to + Spirit? Can matter speak for itself, or does +181:6 it hold the issues of life?" Matter, which can neither + suffer nor enjoy, has no partnership with pain and pleas- + ure, but mortal belief has such a partnership. + + Manipulation unscientific + +181:9 When you manipulate patients, you trust in electricity + and magnetism more than in Truth; and for + that reason, you employ matter rather than +181:12 Mind. You weaken or destroy your power when you re- + sort to any except spiritual means. + + It is foolish to declare that you manipulate patients but +181:15 that you lay no stress on manipulation. If this be so, why + manipulate? In reality you manipulate because you are + ignorant of the baneful effects of magnetism, or are not +181:18 sufficiently spiritual to depend on Spirit. In either case + you must improve your mental condition till you finally + attain the understanding of Christian Science. + + Not words but deeds + +181:21 If you are too material to love the Science of Mind and + are satisfied with good words instead of effects, if you + adhere to error and are afraid to trust Truth, +181:24 the question then recurs, "Adam, where art + thou?" It is unnecessary to resort to aught besides + Mind in order to satisfy the sick that you are doing some- +181:27 thing for them, for if they are cured, they generally know + it and are satisfied. + + "Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also." +181:30 If you have more faith in drugs than in Truth, this faith + will incline you to the side of matter and error. Any + hypnotic power you may exercise will diminish your +182:1 ability to become a Scientist, and /vice versa./ The act + of healing the sick through divine Mind alone, of casting +182:3 out error with Truth, shows your position as a Christian + Scientist. + + Physiology or Spirit + + The demands of God appeal to thought only; but the +182:6 claims of mortality, and what are termed laws of nature, + appertain to matter. Which, then, are we to + accept as legitimate and capable of producing +182:9 the highest human good? We cannot obey both physi- + ology and Spirit, for one absolutely destroys the other, + and one or the other must be supreme in the affections. +182:12 It is impossible to work from two standpoints. If we + attempt it, we shall presently "hold to the one, + and despise the other." + +182:15 The hypotheses of mortals are antagonistic to Science + and cannot mix with it. This is clear to those, who heal + the sick on the basis of Science. + + No material law + +182:18 Mind's government of the body must supersede the so- + called laws of matter. Obedience to material law pre- + vents full obedience to spiritual law, - the law +182:21 which overcomes material conditions and puts + matter under the feet of Mind. Mortals entreat the di- + vine Mind to heal the sick, and forthwith shut out the aid +182:24 of Mind by using material means, thus working against + themselves and their prayers and denying man's God- + given ability to demonstrate Mind's sacred power. Pleas +182:27 for drugs and laws of health come from some sad incident, + or else from ignorance of Christian Science and its tran- + scendent power. + +182:30 To admit that sickness is a condition over which God + has no control, is to presuppose that omnipotent power + is powerless on some occasions. The law of Christ, or +183:1 Truth, makes all things possible to Spirit; but the so- + called laws of matter would render Spirit of no avail, and +183:3 demand obedience to materialistic codes, thus departing + from the basis of one God, one lawmaker. To suppose + that God constitutes laws of inharmony is a mistake; dis- +183:6 cords have no support from nature or divine law, however + much is said to the contrary. + + Can the agriculturist, according to belief, produce a +183:9 crop without sowing the seed and awaiting its germina- + tion according to the laws of nature? The answer is no, + and yet the Scriptures inform us that sin, or error, first +183:12 caused the condemnation of man to till the ground, and + indicate that obedience to God will remove this necessity. + Truth never made error necessary, nor devised a law to +183:15 perpetuate error. + + Laws of nature spiritual + + The supposed laws which result in weariness and dis- + ease are not His laws, for the legitimate and only possible +183:18 action of Truth is the production of harmony. + Laws of nature are laws of Spirit; but mortals + commonly recognize as law that which hides the power of +183:21 Spirit. Divine Mind rightly demands man's entire obe- + dience, affection, and strength. No reservation is made + for any lesser loyalty. Obedience to Truth gives man +183:24 power and strength. Submission to error superinduces + loss of power. + + Belief and understanding + + Truth casts out all evils and materialistic methods +183:27 with the actual spiritual law, - the law which gives + sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, voice + to the dumb, feet to the lame. If Christian +183:30 Science dishonors human belief, it honors spir- + itual understanding; and the one Mind only is entitled to + honor. + +184:1 The so-called laws of health are simply laws of mortal + belief. The premises being erroneous, the conclusions +184:3 are wrong. Truth makes no laws to regulate sickness, + sin, and death, for these are unknown to Truth and should + not be recognized as reality. + +184:6 Belief produces the results of belief, and the penal- + ties it affixes last so long as the belief and are insepara- + ble from it. The remedy consists in probing the trouble +184:9 to the bottom, in finding and casting out by denial the + error of belief which produces a mortal disorder, never + honoring erroneous belief with the title of law nor yield- +184:12 ing obedience to it. Truth, Life, and Love are the only + legitimate and eternal demands on man, and they are + spiritual lawgivers, enforcing obedience through divine +184:15 statutes. + + Laws of human belief + + Controlled by the divine intelligence, man is harmoni- + ous and eternal. Whatever is governed by a false belief +184:18 is discordant and mortal. We say man suffers + from the effects of cold, heat, fatigue. This + is human belief, not the truth of being, for matter cannot +184:21 suffer. Mortal mind alone suffers, - not because a law + of matter has been transgressed, but because a law of this + so-called mind has been disobeyed. I have demonstrated +184:24 this as a rule of divine Science by destroying the delusion + of suffering from what is termed a fatally broken physical + law. + +184:27 A woman, whom I cured of consumption, always + breathed with great difficulty when the wind was from + the east. I sat silently by her side a few moments. Her +184:30 breath came gently. The inspirations were deep and nat- + ural. I then requested her to look at the weather-vane. + She looked and saw that it pointed due east. The wind +185:1 had not changed, but her thought of it had and so her diffi- + culty in breathing had gone. The wind had not produced +185:3 the difficulty. My metaphysical treatment changed the + action of her belief on the lungs, and she never suffered + again from east winds, but was restored to health. + + A so-called mind-cure + +185:6 No system of hygiene but Christian Science is purely + mental. Before this book was published, other books + were in circulation, which discussed "mental +185:9 medicine" and "mind-cure," operating through + the power of the earth's magnetic currents to regulate life + and health. Such theories and such systems of so-called +185:12 mind-cure, which have sprung up, are as material as the + prevailing systems of medicine. They have their birth + in mortal mind, which puts forth a human conception +185:15 in the name of Science to match the divine Science of im- + mortal Mind, even as the necromancers of Egypt strove + to emulate the wonders wrought by Moses. Such theories +185:18 have no relationship to Christian Science, which rests on + the conception of God as the only Life, substance, and + intelligence, and excludes the human mind as a spiritual +185:21 factor in the healing work. + + Jesus and hypnotism + + Jesus cast out evil and healed the sick, not only with- + out drugs, but without hypnotism, which is +185:24 the reverse of ethical and pathological Truth- + power. + + Erroneous mental practice may seem for a time to bene- +185:27 fit the sick, but the recovery is not permanent. This is + because erroneous methods act on and through the ma- + terial stratum of the human mind, called brain, which is +185:30 but a mortal consolidation of material mentality and its + suppositional activities. + + False stimulus + + A patient under the influence of mortal mind is healed +186:1 only by removing the influence on him of this mind, by + emptying his thought of the false stimulus +186:3 and reaction of will-power and filling it with + the divine energies of Truth. + + Christian Science destroys material beliefs through the +186:6 understanding of Spirit, and the thoroughness of this work + determines health. Erring human mind-forces can work + only evil under whatever name or pretence they are em- +186:9 ployed; for Spirit and matter, good and evil, light and + darkness, cannot mingle. + + Evil negative and self-destructive + + Evil is a negation, because it is the absence of truth. +186:12 It is nothing, because it is the absence of something. It + is unreal, because it presupposes the absence + of God, the omnipotent and omnipresent. +186:15 Every mortal must learn that there is neither + power nor reality in evil. + + Evil is self-assertive. It says: "I am a real entity, over- +186:18 mastering good." This falsehood should strip evil of all + pretensions. The only power of evil is to destroy itself. It + can never destroy one iota of good. Every attempt of evil +186:21 to destroy good is a failure, and only aids in peremptorily + punishing the evil-doer. If we concede the same reality to + discord as to harmony, discord has as lasting a claim upon +186:24 us as has harmony. If evil is as real as good, evil is also as + immortal. If death is as real as Life, immortality is a myth. + If pain is as real as the absence of pain, both must be im- +186:27 mortal; and if so, harmony cannot be the law of being. + + Ignorant idolatry + + Mortal mind is ignorant of self, or it could never be + self-deceived. If mortal mind knew how to be better, it +186:30 would be better. Since it must believe in some- + thing besides itself, it enthrones matter as deity. + The human mind has been an idolater from the beginning, +187:1 having other gods and believing in more than the one + Mind. + +187:3 As mortals do not comprehend even mortal existence, + how ignorant must they be of the all-knowing Mind and + of His creations. + +187:6 Here you may see how so-called material sense creates + its own forms of thought, gives them material names, and + then worships and fears them. With pagan blindness, +187:9 it attributes to some material god or medicine an ability + beyond itself. The beliefs of the human mind rob and + enslave it, and then impute this result to another illusive +187:12 personification, named Satan. + + Action of mortal mind + + The valves of the heart, opening and closing for the pas- + sage of the blood, obey the mandate of mor- +187:15 tal mind as directly as does the hand, ad- + mittedly moved by the will. Anatomy allows the mental + cause of the latter action, but not of the former. + +187:18 We say, "My hand hath done it." What is this /my/ but + mortal mind, the cause of all materialistic action? All + voluntary, as well as miscalled /involuntary/, action of the +187:21 mortal body is governed by this so-called mind, not by + matter. There is no involuntary action. The divine Mind + includes all action and volition, and man in Science is gov- +187:24 erned by this Mind. The human mind tries to classify + action as voluntary and involuntary, and suffers from the + attempt. + Death and the body + +187:27 If you take away this erring mind, the mortal material + body loses all appearance of life or action, and this so- + called mind then calls itself dead; but the hu- +187:30 man mind still holds in belief a body, through + which it acts and which appears to the human mind to + live, - a body like the one it had before death. This body +188:1 is put off only as the mortal, erring mind yields to God, + immortal Mind, and man is found in His image. + + Embryonic sinful thoughts + +188:3 What is termed disease does not exist. It is neither + mind nor matter. The belief of sin, which has grown + terrible in strength and influence, is an uncon- +188:6 scious error in the beginning, - an embryonic + thought without motive; but afterwards it + governs the so-called man. Passion, depraved appetites, +188:9 dishonesty, envy, hatred, revenge ripen into action, only to + pass from shame and woe to their final punishment. + + Disease a dream + + Mortal existence is a dream of pain and pleasure in +188:12 matter, a dream of sin, sickness, and death; and it is like + the dream we have in sleep, in which every one + recognizes his condition to be wholly a state of +188:15 mind. In both the waking, and the sleeping dream, the + dreamer thinks that his body is material and the suffering + is in that body. + +188:18 The smile of the sleeper indicates the sensation pro- + duced physically by the pleasure of a dream. In the + same way pain and pleasure, sickness and care, are +188:21 traced upon mortals by unmistakable signs. + + Sickness is a growth of error, springing from mortal + ignorance or fear. Error rehearses error. What causes +188:24 disease cannot cure it. The soil of disease is mortal + mind, and you have an abundant or scanty crop of disease, + according to the seedlings of fear. Sin and the fear of +188:27 disease must be uprooted and cast out. + + Sense yields to understanding + + When darkness comes over the earth, the physical + senses have no immediate evidence of a sun. +188:30 The human eye knows not where the orb of + day is, nor if it exists. Astronomy gives the + desired information regarding the sun. The human or +189:1 material senses yield to the authority of this science, and + they are willing to leave with astronomy the explanation of +189:3 the sun's influence over the earth. If the eyes see no sun + for a week, we still believe that there is solar light and + heat. Science (in this instance named natural) raises +189:6 the human thought above the cruder theories of the + human mind, and casts out a fear. + + In like manner mortals should no more deny the power +189:9 of Christian Science to establish harmony and to explain + the effect of mortal mind on the body, though the cause + be unseen, than they should deny the existence of the sun- +189:12 light when the orb of day disappears, or doubt that the sun + will reappear. The sins of others should not make good + men suffer. + + Ascending the scale + +189:15 We call the body material; but it is as truly mortal + mind, according to its degree, as is the material brain + which is supposed to furnish the evidence +189:18 of all mortal thought or things. The human + mortal mind, by an inevitable perversion, makes all + things start from the lowest instead of from the highest +189:21 mortal thought. The reverse is the case with all the + formations of the immortal divine Mind. They proceed + from the divine source; and so, in tracing them, we con- +189:24 stantly ascend in infinite being. + + Human reproduction + + From mortal mind comes the reproduction of the + species, - first the belief of inanimate, and then of ani- +189:27 mate matter. According to mortal thought, + the development of embryonic mortal mind + commences in the lower, basal portion of the brain, and +189:30 goes on in an ascending scale by evolution, keeping always + in the direct line of matter, for matter is the subjective + condition of mortal mind. + +190:1 Next we have the formation of so-called embryonic + mortal mind, afterwards mortal men or mortals, - all this +190:3 while matter is a belief, ignorant of itself, ignorant of what + it is supposed to produce. The mortal says that an inani- + mate unconscious seedling is producing mortals, both body +190:6 and mind; and yet neither a mortal mind nor the immortal + Mind is found in brain or elsewhere in matter or in mortals. + + Human stature + + This embryonic and materialistic human belief called +190:9 mortal man in turn fills itself with thoughts + of pain and pleasure, of life and death, and + arranges itself into five so-called senses, which presently +190:12 measure mind by the size of a brain and the bulk of a + body, called man. + + Human frailty + + Human birth, growth, maturity, and decay are as the +190:15 grass springing from the soil with beautiful green blades, + afterwards to wither and return to its native + nothingness. This mortal seeming is temporal; +190:18 it never merges into immortal being, but finally disap- + pears, and immortal man, spiritual and eternal, is found + to be the real man. +190:21 The Hebrew bard, swayed by mortal thoughts, thus + swept his lyre with saddening strains on human existence: + + As for man, his days are as grass: +190:24 As a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. + For the wind passeth over it, and it is gone; + And the place thereof shall know it no more. + +190:27 When hope rose higher in the human heart, he sang: + + As for me, I will behold Thy face in righteousness: + I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with Thy likeness. + . . . . . +190:30 For with Thee is the fountain of life; + In Thy light shall we see light. + +191:1 The brain can give no idea of God's man. It can take + no cognizance of Mind. Matter is not the organ of infi- +191:3 nite Mind. + + As mortals give up the delusion that there is more than + one Mind, more than one God, man in God's likeness will +191:6 appear, and this eternal man will include in that likeness + no material element. + + The immortal birth + + As a material, theoretical life-basis is found to be a +191:9 misapprehension of existence, the spiritual and divine + Principle of man dawns upon human thought, + and leads it to "where the young child was," +191:12 - even to the birth of a new-old idea, to the spiritual + sense of being and of what Life includes. This the whole + earth will be transformed by Truth on its pinions of light, +191:15 chasing away the darkness of error. + + Spiritual freedom + + The human thought must free itself from self-imposed + materiality and bondage. It should no longer +191:18 ask of the head, heart, or lungs: What are + man's prospects for life? Mind is not helpless. Intelli- + gence is not mute before non-intelligence. + +191:21 By its own volition, not a blade of grass springs up, not + a spray buds within the vale, not a leaf unfolds its fair + outlines, not a flower starts from its cloistered cell. + +191:24 The Science of being reveals man and immortality as + based on Spirit. Physical sense defines mortal man as + based on matter, and from this premise infers the mor- +191:27 tality of the body. + + No physical affinity + + The illusive senses may fancy affinities with their op- + posites; but in Christian Science, Truth never mingles +191:30 with error. Mind has no affinity with matter, + and therefore Truth is able to cast out the ills + of the flesh. Mind, God, sends forth the aroma of Spirit, +192:1 the atmosphere of intelligence. The belief that a pulpy + substance under the skull is mind is a mockery of intelli- +192:3 gence, a mimicry of Mind. + + We are Christian Scientists, only as we quit our reliance + upon that which is false and grasp the true. We are not +192:6 Christian Scientists until we leave all for Christ. Human + opinions are not spiritual. They come from the hearing + of the ear, from corporeality instead of from Principle, +192:9 and from the mortal instead of from the immortal. Spirit + is not separate from God. Spirit /is/ God. + + Human power a blind force + + Erring power is a material belief, a blind miscalled force, +192:12 the offspring of will and not of wisdom, of the mortal mind + and not of the immortal. It is the headlong + cataract, the devouring flame, the tempest's +192:15 breath. It is lightning and hurricane, all that is selfish, + wicked, dishonest, and impure. + + The one real power + + Moral and spiritual might belong to Spirit, who holds +192:18 the "wind in His fists;" and this teaching accords with + Science and harmony. In Science, you can + have no power opposed to God, and the physi- +192:21 cal senses must give up their false testimony. Your in- + fluence for good depends upon the weight you throw into + the right scale. The good you do and embody gives you +192:24 the only power obtainable. Evil is not power. It is a + mockery of strength, which erelong betrays its weakness + and falls, never to rise. + +192:27 We walk in the footsteps of Truth and Love by follow- + ing the example of our Master in the understanding of + divine metaphysics. Christianity is the basis of true heal- +192:30 ing. Whatever holds human thought in line with unselfed + love, receives directly the divine power. + + Mind cures hip-disease + + I was called to visit Mr. Clark in Lynn, who had been +193:1 confined to his bed six months with hip-disease, caused by + a fall upon a wooden spike when quite a boy. On enter- +193:3 ing the house I met his physician, who said that + the patient was dying. The physician had just + probed the ulcer on the hip, and said the bone was carious +193:6 for several inches. He even showed me the probe, which + had on it the evidence of this condition of the bone. The + doctor went out. Mr. Clark lay with his eyes fixed and +193:9 sightless. The dew of death was on his brow. I went to + his bedside. In a few moments his face changed; its + death-pallor gave place to a natural hue. The eyelids +193:12 closed gently and the breathing became natural; he was + asleep. In about ten minutes he opened his eyes and + said: "I feel like a new man. My suffering is all gone." +193:15 It was between three and four o'clock in the afternoon + when this took place. + + I told him to rise, dress himself, and take supper with +193:18 his family. He did so. The next day I saw him in the + yard. Since then I have not seen him, but am informed + that he went to work in two weeks. The discharge from +193:21 the sore stopped, and the sore was healed. The diseased + condition had continued there ever since the injury was + received in boyhood. +193:24 Since his recovery I have been informed that his physi- + cian claims to have cured him, and that his mother has + been threatened with incarceration in an insane asylum +193:27 for saying: "It was none other than God and that woman + who healed him." I cannot attest the truth of that + report, but what I saw and did for that man, and what +193:30 his physician said of the case, occurred just as I have + narrated. + + It has been demonstrated to me that Life is God +194:1 and that the might of omnipotent Spirit shares not its + strength with matter or with human will. Review- +194:3 ing this brief experience, I cannot fail to discern the + coincidence of the spiritual idea of man with the divine + Mind. + + Change of belief + +194:6 A change in human belief changes all the physical symp- + toms, and determines a case for better or for + worse. When one's false belief is corrected +194:9 Truth sends a report of health over the body. + + Destruction of the auditory nerve and paralysis of the + optic nerve are not necessary to ensure deafness and blind- +194:12 ness; for if mortal mind says, "I am deaf and blind," it + will be so without an injured nerve. Every theory op- + posed to this fact (as I learned in metaphysics) would +194:15 presuppose man, who is immortal in spiritual under- + standing, a mortal in material belief. + + Power of habit + + The authentic history of Kaspar Hauser is a useful hint +194:18 as to the frailty and inadequacy of mortal mind. It + proves beyond a doubt that education consti- + tutes this so-called mind, and that, in turn, +194:21 mortal mind manifests itself in the body by the false + sense it imparts. Incarcerated in a dungeon, where + neither sight nor sound could reach him, at the age of +194:24 seventeen Kaspar was still a mental infant, crying and + chattering with no more intelligence than a babe, and + realizing Tennyson's description: + +194:27 An infant crying in the night, + An infant crying for the light, + And with no language but a cry. + +194:30 His case proves material sense to be but a belief formed + by education alone. The light which affords us joy gave +195:1 him a belief of intense pain. His eyes were inflamed by + the light. After the babbling boy had been taught to +195:3 speak a few words, he asked to be taken back to his dun- + geon, and said that he should never be happy elsewhere. + Outside of dismal darkness and cold silence he found no +195:6 peace. Every sound convulsed him with anguish. All + that he ate, except his black crust, produced violent + retchings. All that gives pleasure to our educated senses +195:9 gave him pain through those very senses, trained in an + opposite direction. + + Useful knowledge + + The point for each one to decide is, whether it is mortal +195:12 mind or immortal Mind that is causative. We + should forsake the basis of matter for meta- + physical Science and its divine Principle. + +195:15 Whatever furnishes the semblance of an idea governed + by its Principle, furnishes food for thought. Through as- + tronomy, natural history, chemistry, music, mathematics, +195:18 thought passes naturally from effect back to cause. + + Academics of the right sort are requisite. Observa- + tion, invention, study, and original thought are expansive +195:21 and should promote the growth of mortal mind out of it- + self, out of all that is mortal. + + It is the tangled barbarisms of learning which we +195:24 deplore, - the mere dogma, the speculative theory, the + nauseous fiction. Novels, remarkable only for their + exaggerated pictures, impossible ideals, and specimens +195:27 of depravity, fill our young readers with wrong tastes + and sentiments. Literary commercialism is lowering the + intellectual standard to accommodate the purse and to +195:30 meet a frivolous demand for amusement instead of for + improvement. Incorrect views lower the standard of + truth. + +196:1 If materialistic knowledge is power, it is not wisdom. + It is but a blind force. Man has "sought out many inven- +196:3 tions," but he has not yet found it true that knowledge can + save him from the dire effects of knowledge. The power + of mortal mind over its own body is little understood. + + Sin destroyed through suffering + +196:6 Better the suffering which awakens mortal mind from + its fleshly dream, than the false pleasures + which tend to perpetuate this dream. Sin +196:9 alone brings death, for sin is the only element + of destruction. + + "Fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body +196:12 in hell," said Jesus. A careful study of this text allows + that here the word soul means a false sense or material + consciousness. The command was a warning to beware, +196:15 not of Rome, Satan, nor of God, but of sin. Sickness, + sin, and death are not concomitants of Life or Truth. + No law supports them. They have no relation to God +196:18 wherewith to establish their power. Sin makes its own + hell, and goodness its own heaven. + + Dangerous shoals avoided + + Such books as will rule disease out of mortal mind, - +196:21 and so efface the images and thoughts of dis- + ease, instead of impressing them with forcible + descriptions and medical details, - will help +196:24 to abate sickness and to destroy it. + + Many a hopeless case of disease is induced by a single + /post mortem/ examination, - not from infection nor from +196:27 contact with material virus, but from the fear of the + disease and from the image brought before the mind; it + is a mental state, which is afterwards outlined on the +196:30 body. + + Pangs caused by the press + + The press unwittingly sends forth many sorrows and + diseases among the human family. It does this by giv- +197:1 ing names to diseases and by printing long descriptions + which mirror images of disease distinctly in thought. A +197:3 new name for an ailment affects people like a + Parisian name for a novel garment. Every one + hastens to get it. A minutely described dis- +197:6 ease costs many a man his earthly days of comfort. What + a price for human knowledge! But the price does not ex- + ceed the original cost. God said of the tree of knowledge, +197:9 which bears the fruit of sin, disease, and death, "In the + day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." + + Higher standard for mortals + + The less that is said of physical structure and laws, and +197:12 the more that is thought and said about moral + and spiritual law, the higher will be the stand- + ard of living and the farther mortals will be re- +197:15 moved from imbecility or disease. + + We should master fear, instead of cultivating it. It + was the ignorance of our forefathers in the departments +197:18 of knowledge now broadcast in the earth, that made them + hardier than our trained physiologists, more honest than + our sleek politicians. + + Diet and dyspepsia + +197:21 We are told that the simple food our forefathers ate + helped to make them healthy, but that is a mistake. + Their diet would not cure dyspepsia at this +197:24 period. With rules of health in the head + and the most digestible food in the stomach, there would + still be dyspeptics. Many of the effeminate constitutions +197:27 of our time will never grow robust until individual opin- + ions improve and immortal belief loses some portion of its + error. + + Harm done by physicians + +197:30 The doctor's mind reaches that of his patient. The + doctor should suppress his fear of disease, else his belief + in its reality and fatality will harm his patients even more +198:1 than his calomel and morphine, for the higher stratum of + mortal mind has in belief more power to harm man than +198:3 the substratum, matter. A patient hears the + doctor's verdict as a criminal hears his death- + sentence. The patient may seem calm under it, but he is +198:6 not. His fortitude may sustain him, but his fear, which + has already developed the disease that is gaining the + mastery, is increased by the physician's words. + + Disease depicted + +198:9 The materialistic doctor, though humane, is an art- + ist who outlines his thought relative to disease, and then + fills in his delineations with sketches from text- +198:12 books. It is better to prevent disease from + forming in mortal mind afterwards to appear on the + body; but to do this requires attention. The thought of +198:15 disease is formed before one sees a doctor and before + the doctor undertakes to dispel it by a counter-irritant, + - perhaps by a blister, by the application of caustic or +198:18 croton oil, or by a surgical operation. Again, giving an- + other direction to faith, the physician prescribes drugs, + until the elasticity of mortal thought haply causes a +198:21 vigorous reaction upon itself, and reproduces a picture + of healthy and harmonious formations. + + A patient's belief is more or less moulded and formed +198:24 by his doctor's belief in the case, even though the doctor + says nothing to support his theory. His thoughts and his + patient's commingle, and the stronger thoughts rule the +198:27 weaker. Hence the importance that doctors be Christian + Scientists. + + Mind over matter + + Because the muscles of the blacksmith's arm are +198:30 strongly developed, it does not follow that + exercise has produced this result or that a + less used arm must be weak. If matter were the cause +199:1 of action, and if muscles, without volition of mortal + mind, could lift the hammer and strike the anvil, it +199:3 might be thought true that hammering would enlarge + the muscles. The trip-hammer is not increased in size + by exercise. Why not, since muscles are as material as +199:6 wood and iron? Because nobody believes that mind is + producing such a result on the hammer. + + Muscles are not self-acting. If mind does not move +199:9 them, they are motionless. Hence the great fact that + Mind alone enlarges and empowers man through its + mandate, - by reason of its demand for and supply of +199:12 power. Not because of muscular exercise, but by rea- + son of the blacksmith's faith in exercise, his arm becomes + stronger. + + Latent fear subdued + +199:15 Mortals develop their own bodies or make them sick, + according as they influence them through mortal mind. + To know whether this development is produced +199:18 consciously or unconsciously, is of less impor- + tance than a knowledge of the fact. The feats of the gym- + nast prove that latent mental fears are subdued by him. +199:21 The devotion of thought to an honest achievement makes + the achievement possible. Exceptions only confirm this + rule, proving that failure is occasioned by a too feeble +199:24 faith. + + Had Blondin believed it impossible to walk the rope + over Niagara's abyss of waters, he could never have +199:27 done it. His belief that he could do it gave his thought- + forces, called muscles, their flexibility and power which + the unscientific might attribute to a lubricating oil. His +199:30 fear must have disappeared before his power of putting + resolve into action could appear. + + Homer and Moses + + When Homer sang of the Grecian gods, Olympus was +200:1 dark, but through his verse the gods became alive in a + nation's belief. Pagan worship began with muscularity, +200:3 but the law of Sinai lifted thought into the + song of David. Moses advanced a nation to + the worship of God in Spirit instead of matter, and il- +200:6 lustrated the grand human capacities of being bestowed + by immortal Mind. + + A mortal not man + + Whoever is incompetent to explain Soul would be wise +200:9 not to undertake the explanation of body. Life is, always + has been, and ever will be independent of + matter; for life is God, and man is the idea +200:12 of God, not formed materially but spiritually, and not + subject to decay and dust. The Psalmist said: "Thou + madest him to have dominion over the works of Thy +200:15 hands. Thou hast put all things under his feet." + + The great truth in the Science of being, that the real + man was, is, and ever shall be perfect, is incontrovertible; +200:18 for if man is the image, reflection, of God, he is neither + inverted nor subverted, but upright and Godlike. + + The suppositional antipode of divine infinite Spirit +200:21 is the so-called human soul or spirit, in other words + the five senses, - the flesh that warreth against Spirit. + These so called material senses must yield to the infinite +200:24 Spirit, named God. + + St. Paul said: "For I determined not to know any- + thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified." +200:27 (I Cor. ii. 2.) Christian Science says: I am determined + not to know anything among you, save Jesus Christ, and + him glorified. + + + + + CHAPTER VIII - FOOTSTEPS OF TRUTH + + Remember, Lord, the reproach of Thy servants; how I do bear in + my bosom the reproach of all the mighty people; wherewith Thine + enemies have reproached, O Lord; wherewith they have reproached + the footsteps of Thine anointed. - PSALMS. + + Practical preaching + +201:1 THE best sermon ever preached is Truth practised + and demonstrated by the destruction of sin, sickness, +201:3 and death. Knowing this and knowing too + that one affection would be supreme in us and + take the lead in our lives, Jesus said, "No man can serve +201:6 two masters." + + We cannot build safely on false foundations. Truth + makes a new creature, in whom old things pass away +201:9 and "all things are become new." Passions, selfishness, + false appetites, hatred, fear, all sensuality, yield to spirit- + uality, and the superabundance of being is on the side +201:12 of God, good. + + The uses of truth + + We cannot fill vessels already full. They must first be + emptied. Let us disrobe error. Then, when +201:15 the winds of God blow, we shall not hug our + tatters close about us. + + The way to extract error from mortal mind is to pour +201:18 in truth through flood-tides of Love. Christian perfec- + tion is won on no other basis. + + Grafting holiness upon unholiness, supposing that sin +202:1 can be forgiven when it is not forsaken, is as foolish as + straining out gnats and swallowing camels. +202:3 The scientific unity which exists between God and man + must be wrought out in life-practice, and God's will must + be universally done. + + Divine study + +202:6 If men would bring to bear upon the study of the + Science of Mind half the faith they bestow upon the so- + called pains and pleasures of material sense, +202:9 they would not go on from bad to worse, + until disciplined by the prison and the scaffold; but + the whole human family would be redeemed through +202:12 the merits of Christ, - through the perception and ac- + ceptance of Truth. For this glorious result Christian + Science lights the torch of spiritual understanding. + + Harmonious life-work + +202:15 Outside of this Science all is mutable; but immortal + man, in accord with the divine Principle of His being, + God, neither sins, suffers, nor dies. The days +202:18 of our pilgrimage will multiply instead of di- + minish, when God's kingdom comes on earth; for the + true way leads to life instead of to death, and earthly +202:21 experience discloses the finity of error and the infinite + capacities of Truth, in which God gives man dominion + over all the earth. + + Belief and practice + +202:24 Our beliefs about a Supreme Being contradict the + practice growing out of them. Error abounds where + Truth should "much more abound." We + +202:27 admit that God has almighty power, is "a + very present help in trouble;" and yet we rely on a drug + or hypnotism to heal disease, as if senseless matter or err- +202:30 ing mortal mind had more power than omnipotent Spirit. + + Sure reward of righteousness + + Common opinion admits that a man may take cold in + the act of doing good, and that this cold may produce +203:1 fatal pulmonary disease; as though evil could overbear + the law of Love, and check the reward for do- +203:3 ing good. In the Science of Christianity, Mind + - omnipotence - has all-power, assigns sure + rewards to righteousness, and shows that matter can +203:6 neither heal nor make sick, create nor destroy. + + Our belief and understanding + + If God were understood instead of being merely be- + lieved, this understanding would establish health. The +203:9 accusation of the rabbis, "He made himself + the Son of God," was really the justification + of Jesus, for to the Christian the only true +203:12 spirit is Godlike. This thought incites to a more exalted + worship and self-abnegation. Spiritual perception brings + out the possibilities of being, destroys reliance on aught +203:15 but God, and so makes man the image of his Maker in + deed and in truth. + + Suicide and sin + + We are prone to believe either in more than one Su- +203:18 preme Ruler or in some power less than God. We im- + agine that Mind can be imprisoned in a sensuous body. + When the material body has gone to ruin, when evil has +203:21 overtaxed the belief of life in matter and destroyed it, + then mortals believe that the deathless Principle, or + Soul, escapes from matter and lives on; but this is not +203:24 true. Death is not a stepping-stone to life, immortality, + and bliss. The so-called sinner is a suicide. + Sin kills the sinner and will continue to kill +203:27 him so long as he sins. The foam and fury of illegiti- + mate living and of fearful and doleful dying should + disappear on the shore of time; then the waves of sin, +203:30 sorrow, and death beat in vain. + + God, divine good, does not kill a man in order to give + him eternal Life, for God alone is man's life. God is at +204:1 once the centre and circumference of being. It is evil + that dies; good dies not. + + Spirit the only intelligence and substance +204:3 All forms of error support the false conclusions that + there is more than one Life; that material history is as + real and living as spiritual history; that mortal +204:6 error is as conclusively mental as immortal + Truth; and that there are two separate, an- + tagonistic entities and beings, two powers, - namely, +204:9 Spirit and matter, - resulting in a third person (mortal + man) who carries out the delusions of sin, sickness, and + death. + +204:12 The first power is admitted to be good, an intelligence or + Mind called God. The so-called second power, evil, is the + unlikeness of good. It cannot therefore be mind, though +204:15 so called. The third power, mortal man, is a supposed + mixture of the first and second antagonistic powers, in- + telligence and non-intelligence, of Spirit and matter. + + Unscientific theories + +204:18 Such theories are evidently erroneous. They can never + stand the test of Science. Judging them by their fruits, + they are corrupt. When will the ages under- +204:21 stand the Ego, and realize only one God, one + Mind or intelligence? + + False and self-assertive theories have given sinners the +204:24 notion that they can create what God cannot, - namely, + sinful mortals in God's image, thus usurping the name + without the nature of the image or reflection of divine +204:27 Mind; but in Science it can never be said that man + has a mind of his own, distinct from God, the /all/ + Mind. + +204:30 The belief that God lives in matter is pantheistic. The + error, which says that Soul is in body, Mind is in matter, + and good is in evil, must unsay it and cease from such +205:1 utterances; else God will continue to be hidden from hu- + manity, and mortals will sin without knowing that they +205:3 are sinning, will lean on matter instead of Spirit, stumble + with lameness, drop with drunkenness, consume with dis- + case, - all because of their blindness, their false sense +205:6 concerning God and man. + + Creation perfect + + When will the error of believing that there is life in + matter, and that sin, sickness, and death are creations of +205:9 God, be unmasked? When will it be under- + stood that matter has neither intelligence, life, + nor sensation, and that the opposite belief is the prolific +205:12 source of all suffering? God created all through Mind, + and made all perfect and eternal. Where then is the + necessity for recreation or procreation? + + Perceiving the divine image + +205:15 Befogged in error (the error of believing that matter + can be intelligent for good or evil), we can catch clear + glimpses of God only as the mists disperse, +205:18 or as they melt into such thinness that we per- + ceive the divine image in some word or deed + which indicates the true idea, - the supremacy and real- +205:21 ity of good, the nothingness and unreality of evil. + + Redemption from selfishness + + When we realize that there is one Mind, the divine law + of loving our neighbor as ourselves is unfolded; +205:24 whereas a belief in many ruling minds hinders + man's normal drift towards the one Mind, one + God, and leads human thought into opposite channels +205:27 where selfishness reigns. + + Selfishness tips the beam of human existence towards + the side of error, not towards Truth. Denial of the one- +205:30 ness of Mind throws our weight into the scale, not of + Spirit, God, good, but of matter. + + When we fully understand our relation to the Divine, +206:1 we can have no other Mind but His, - no other Love, + wisdom, or Truth, no other sense of Life, and no con- +206:3 sciousness of the existence of matter or error. + + Will-power unrighteous + + The power of the human will should be exercised only + in subordination to Truth; else it will misguide the judg- +206:6 ment and free the lower propensities. It is the + province of spiritual sense to govern man. + Material, erring, human thought acts injuriously both +206:9 upon the body and through it. + + Will-power is capable of all evil. It can never heal + the sick, for it is the prayer of the unrighteous; while +206:12 the exercise of the sentiments - hope, faith, love - is the + prayer of the righteous. This prayer, governed by Science + instead of the senses, heals the sick. + +206:15 In the scientific relation of God to man, we find that + whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with + the loaves and the fishes, - Spirit, not matter, being the +206:18 source of supply. + + Birth and death unreal + + Does God send sickness, giving the mother her child + for the brief space of a few years and then taking it away +206:21 by death? Is God creating anew what He + has already created? The Scriptures are defi- + nite on this point, declaring that His work was/ finished/, +206:24 nothing is new to God, and that it was /good/. + + Can there be any birth or death for man, the spiritual + image and likeness of God? Instead of God sending +206:27 sickness and death, He destroys them, and brings to light + immortality. Omnipotent and infinite Mind made all + and includes all. This Mind does not make mistakes +206:30 and subsequently correct them. God does not cause man + to sin, to be sick, or to die. + + No evil in Spirit + + There are evil beliefs, often called evil spirits; but +207:1 these evils are not Spirit, for there is no evil in Spirit. + Because God is Spirit, evil becomes more apparent and +207:3 obnoxious proportionately as we advance spir- + itually, until it disappears from our lives. + This fact proves our position, for every scientific state- +207:6 ment in Christianity has its proof. Error of statement + leads to error in action. + + Subordination of evil + + God is not the creator of an evil mind. Indeed, evil +207:9 is not Mind. We must learn that evil is the awful decep- + tion and unreality of existence. Evil is not + supreme; good is not helpless; nor are the +207:12 so-called laws of matter primary, and the law of Spirit + secondary. Without this lesson, we lose sight of the per- + fect Father, or the divine Principle of man. + + Evident impossibilities + +207:15 Body is not first and Soul last, nor is evil mightier than + good. The Science of being repudiates self- + evident impossibilities, such as the amalgama- +207:18 tion of Truth and error in cause or effect. Science sepa- + rates the tares and wheat in time of harvest. + + One primal cause + + There is but one primal cause. Therefore there can +207:21 be no effect from any other cause, and there can be no + reality in aught which does not proceed from + this great and only cause. Sin, sickness, dis- +207:24 ease, and death belong not to the Science of being. They + are the errors, which presuppose the absence of Truth, + Life, or Love. + +207:27 The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things. + The spiritual fact, repeated in the action of man and the + whole universe, is harmonious and is the ideal of Truth. +207:30 Spiritual facts are not inverted; the opposite discord, + which bears no resemblance to spirituality, is not real. + The only evidence of this inversion is obtained from +208:1 suppositional error, which affords no proof of God, + Spirit, or of the spiritual creation. Material sense de- +208:3 fines all things materially, and has a finite sense of the + infinite. + + Seemingly independent authority + + The Scriptures say, "In Him we live, and move, and +208:6 have our being." What then is this seeming power, in- + dependent of God, which causes disease and + cures it? What is it but an error of belief, - +208:9 a law of mortal mind, wrong in every sense, + embracing sin, sickness, and death? It is the very anti- + pode of immortal Mind, of Truth, and of spiritual law. +208:12 It is not in accordance with the goodness of God's char- + acter that He should make man sick, then leave man to + heal himself; it is absurd to suppose that matter can both +208:15 cause and cure disease, or that Spirit, God, produces + disease and leaves the remedy to matter. + + John Young of Edinburgh writes: "God is the father +208:18 of mind, and of nothing else." Such an utterance is + "the voice of one crying in the wilderness" of human + beliefs and preparing the way of Science. Let us learn +208:21 of the real and eternal, and prepare for the reign of + Spirit, the kingdom of heaven, - the reign and rule of + universal harmony, which cannot be lost nor remain +208:24 forever unseen. + + Sickness as only thought + + Mind, not matter, is causation. A material body + only expresses a material and mortal mind. A mortal +208:27 man possesses this body, and he makes it + harmonious or discordant according to the + images of thought impressed upon it. You embrace +208:30 your body in your thought, and you should delineate + upon it thoughts of health, not of sickness. You should + banish all thoughts of disease and sin and of other beliefs +209:1 included in matter. Man, being immortal, has a perfect + indestructible life. It is the mortal belief which makes +209:3 the body discordant and diseased in proportion as igno- + rance, /fear/, or human will governs mortals. + + Allness of Truth + + Mind, supreme over all its formations and governing +209:6 them all, is the central sun of its own systems of ideas, + the life and light of all its own vast creation; + and man is tributary to divine Mind. The +209:9 material and mortal body or mind is not the man. + + The world would collapse without Mind, without the in- + telligence which holds the winds in its grasp. Neither +209:12 philosophy nor skepticism can hinder the march of the + Science which reveals the supremacy of Mind. The im- + manent sense of Mind-power enhances the glory of Mind. +209:15 Nearness, not distance, lends enchantment to this view. + + Spiritual translation + + The compounded minerals or aggregated substances + composing the earth, the relations which constituent +209:18 masses hold to each other, the magnitudes, + distances, and revolutions of the celestial + bodies, are of no real importance, when we remember +209:21 that they all must give place to the spiritual fact by the + translation of man and the universe back into Spirit. In + proportion as this is done, man and the universe will be +209:24 found harmonious and eternal. + + Material substances or mundane formations, astro- + nomical calculations, and all the paraphernalia of specu- +209:27 lative theories, based on the hypothesis of material law + or life and intelligence resident in matter, will ulti- + mately vanish, swallowed up in the infinite calculus of +209:30 Spirit. + + Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to un- + derstand God. It shows the superiority of faith by works +210:1 over faith in words. Its ideas are expressed only in "new + tongues;" and these are interpreted by the translation of +210:3 the spiritual original into the language which human + thought can comprehend. + + Jesus' disregard of matter + + The Principle and proof of Christianity are discerned +210:6 by spiritual sense. They are set forth in Jesus' demon- + strations, which show - by his healing the + sick, casting out evils, and destroying death, +210:9 "the last enemy that shall be destroyed," - + his disregard of matter and its so-called laws. + + Knowing that Soul and its attributes were forever + manifested through man, the Master healed the sick, + gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to the + lame, thus bringing to light the scientific action of the +210:15 divine Mind on human minds and bodies and giving + a better understanding of Soul and salvation. Jesus + healed sickness and sin by one and the same metaphysical +210:18 process. + + Mind not mortal + + The expression /mortal mind/ is really a solecism, for + Mind is immortal, and Truth pierces the error of mortality +210:21 as a sunbeam penetrates the cloud. Because, + in obedience to the immutable law of Spirit, + this so-called mind is self-destructive, I name it mortal. +210:24 Error soweth the wind and reapeth the whirlwind. + + Matter mindless + + What is termed matter, being unintelligent, cannot say, + "I suffer, I die, I am sick, or I am well." It is the so- +210:27 called mortal mind which voices this and ap- + pears to itself to make good its claim. To + mortal sense, sin and suffering are real, but immortal +210:30 sense includes no evil nor pestilence. Because immortal + sense has no error of sense, it has no sense of error; there + fore it is without a destructive element. + +211:1 If brain, nerves, stomach, are intelligent, - if they talk + to us, tell us their condition, and report how they feel, - +211:3 then Spirit and matter, Truth and error, commingle + and produce sickness and health, good and evil, life and + death; and who shall say whether Truth or error is the +211:6 greater? + + Matter sensationless + + The sensations of the body must either be the sensa- + tions of a so-called mortal mind or of matter. Nerves +211:9 are not mind. Is it not provable that Mind is + not /mortal/ and that matter has no sensation? + Is it not equally true that matter does not appear in the +211:12 spiritual understanding of being? + + The sensation of sickness and the impulse to sin seem + to obtain in mortal mind. When a tear starts, does not +211:15 this so-called mind produce the effect seen in the lachry- + mal gland? Without mortal mind, the tear could not + appear; and this action shows the nature of all so-called +211:18 material cause and effect. + + It should no longer be said in Israel that "the fathers + have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set +211:21 on edge." Sympathy with error should disappear. The + transfer of the thoughts of one erring mind to another, + Science renders impossible. + + Nerves painless + +211:24 If it is true that nerves have sensation, that matter has + intelligence, that the material organism causes the eyes to + see and the ears to hear, then, when the body +211:27 is dematerialized, these faculties must be lost, + for their immortality is not in Spirit; whereas the fact + is that only through dematerialization and spiritualiza- +211:30 tion of thought can these faculties be conceived of as + immortal. + + Nerves are not the source of pain or pleasure. We +212:1 suffer or enjoy in our dreams, but this pain or pleasure + is not communicated through a nerve. A tooth which has +212:3 been extracted sometimes aches again in belief, and the + pain seems to be in its old place. A limb which has been + amputated has continued in belief to pain the owner. If +212:6 the sensation of pain in the limb can return, can be pro- + longed, why cannot the limb reappear? + + Why need pain, rather than pleasure, come to this mor- +212:9 tal sense? Because the memory of pain is more vivid + than the memory of pleasure. I have seen an unwitting + attempt to scratch the end of a finger which had been cut +212:12 off for months. When the nerve is gone, which we say + was the occasion of pain, and the pain still remains, it + proves sensation to be in the mortal mind, not in matter. +212:15 Reverse the process; take away this so-called mind instead + of a piece of the flesh, and the nerves have no sensation. + + Human falsities + + Mortals have a modus of their own, undirected and un- +212:18 sustained by God. They produce a rose through seed and + soil, and bring the rose into contact with the + olfactory nerves that they may smell it. In +212:21 legerdemain and credulous frenzy, mortals believe that + unseen spirits produce the flowers. God alone makes + and clothes the lilies of the field, and this He does by +212:24 means of Mind, not matter. + + No miracles in Mind-methods + + Because all the methods of Mind are not understood, + we say the lips or hands must move in order to convey +212:27 thought, that the undulations of the air convey + sound, and possibly that other methods involve + so-called miracles. The realities of being, its +212:30 normal action, and the origin of all things are unseen to + mortal sense; whereas the unreal and imitative move- + ments of mortal belief, which would reverse the immortal +213:1 modus and action, are styled the real. Whoever con- + tradicts this mortal mind supposition of reality is called +213:3 a deceiver, or is said to be deceived. Of a man it has + been said, "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he;" hence + as a man spiritually /understandeth/, so is he in truth. + + Good indefinable + +213:6 Mortal mind conceives of something as either liquid + or solid, and then classifies it materially. Immortal and + spiritual facts exist apart from this mortal and +213:9 material conception. God, good, is self-exist- + ent and self-expressed, though indefinable as a whole. + Every step towards goodness is a departure from materi- +213:12 ality, and is a tendency towards God, Spirit. Material + theories partially paralyze this attraction towards infinite + and eternal good by an opposite attraction towards the +213:15 finite, temporary, and discordant. + + Sound is a mental impression made on mortal belief. + The ear does not really hear. Divine Science reveals +213:18 sound as communicated through the senses of Soul - + through spiritual understanding. + + Music, rhythm of head and heart + + Mozart experienced more than he expressed. The +213:21 rapture of his grandest symphonies was never heard. He + was a musician beyond what the world knew. + This was even more strikingly true of Beet- +213:24 hoven, who was so long hopelessly deaf. Men- + tal melodies and strains of sweetest music supersede con- + scious sound. Music is the rhythm of head and heart. +213:27 Mortal mind is the harp of many strings, discoursing + either discord or harmony according as the hand, which + sweeps over it, is human or divine. +213:30 Before human knowledge dipped to its depths into a + false sense of things, - into belief in material origins + which discard the one Mind and true source of being, - +214:1 it is possible that the impressions from Truth were as + distinct as sound, and that they came as sound to the +214:3 primitive prophets. If the medium of hearing is wholly + spiritual, it is normal and indestructible. + + If Enoch's perception had been confined to the evidence +214:6 before his material senses, he could never have "walked + with God," nor been guided into the demonstration of + life eternal. + + Adam and the senses + +214:9 Adam, represented in the Scriptures as formed from + dust, is an object-lesson for the human mind. The mate- + rial senses, like Adam, originate in matter and +214:12 return to dust, - are proved non-intelligent. + They go out as they came in, for they are still the error, + not the truth of being. When it is learned that the spirit- +214:15 ual sense, and not the material, conveys the impressions + of Mind to man, then being will be understood and found + to be harmonious. + + Idolatrous illusions + +214:18 We bow down to matter, and entertain finite thoughts + of God like the pagan idolater. Mortals are inclined to + fear and to obey what they consider a material +214:21 body more than they do a spiritual God. All + material knowledge, like the original "tree of knowledge," + multiplies their pains, for mortal illusions would rob God, +214:24 slay man, and meanwhile would spread their table with + cannibal tidbits and give thanks. + + The senses of Soul + + How transient a sense is mortal sight, when a wound on +214:27 the retina may end the power of light and lens! But the + real sight or sense is not lost. Neither age nor + accident can interfere with the senses of Soul, +214:30 and there are no other real senses. It is evident that the + body as matter has no sensation of its own, and there is no + oblivion for Soul and its faculties. Spirit's senses are with- +215:1 out pain, and they are forever at peace. Nothing can hide + from them the harmony of all things and the might and +215:3 permanence of Truth. + + Real being never lost + + If Spirit, Soul, could sin or be lost, then being and im- + mortality would be lost, together with all the faculties of +215:6 Mind; but being cannot be lost while God ex- + ists. Soul and matter are at variance from the + very necessity of their opposite natures. Mortals are +215:9 unacquainted with the reality of existence, because matter + and mortality do not reflect the facts of Spirit. + + Spiritual vision is not subordinate to geometric alti- +215:12 tudes. Whatever is governed by God, is never for an + instant deprived of the light and might of intelligence + and Life. + + Light and darkness + +215:15 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 +215:18 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 +215:21 truth and love. + + With its divine proof, Science reverses the evidence of + material sense. Every quality and condition of mortality +215:24 is lost, swallowed up in immortality. Mortal man is the + antipode of immortal man in origin, in existence, and in his + relation to God. + + Faith of Socrates + +215:27 Because he understood the superiority and immor- + tality of good, Socrates feared not the hemlock poison. + Even the faith of his philosophy spurned phys- +215:30 ical timidity. Having sought man's spiritual + state, he recognized the immortality of man. The igno- + rance and malice of the age would have killed the vener- +216:1 able philosopher because of his faith in Soul and his in- + difference to the body. + + The serpent of error + +216:3 Who shall say that man is alive to-day, but may be dead + to-morrow? What has touched Life, God, to such + strange issues? Here theories cease, and Sci- +216:6 ence unveils the mystery and solves the prob- + lem of man. Error bites the heel of truth, but cannot kill + truth. Truth bruises the head of error - destroys error. +216:9 Spirituality lays open siege to materialism. On which + side are we fighting? + + Servants and masters + + The understanding that the Ego is Mind, and that +216:12 there is but one Mind or intelligence, begins at once to + destroy the errors of mortal sense and to supply + the truth of immortal sense. This understand- +216:15 ing makes the body harmonious; it makes the nerves, + bones, brain, etc., servants, instead of masters. If man + is governed by the law of divine Mind, his body is in sub- +216:18 mission to everlasting Life and Truth and Love. The + great mistake of mortals is to suppose that man, God's + image and likeness, is both matter and Spirit, both good +216:21 and evil. + + If the decision were left to the corporeal senses, evil + would appear to be the master of good, and sickness to +216:24 be the rule of existence, while health would seem the + exception, death the inevitable, and life a paradox. Paul + asked: "What concord hath Christ with Belial?" (2 Cor- +216:27 inthians vi. 15.) + + Personal identity + + When you say, "Man's body is material," I say with + Paul: Be "willing rather to be absent from the body, +216:30 and to be present with the Lord." Give up + your material belief of mind in matter, and + have but one Mind, even God; for this Mind forms its +217:1 own likeness. The loss of man's identity through the + understanding which Science confers is impossible; and +217:3 the notion of such a possibility is more absurd than to + conclude that individual musical tones are lost in the + origin of harmony. + + Paul's experience + +217:6 Medical schools may inform us that the healing work + of Christian Science and Paul's peculiar Christian con- + version and experience, - which prove Mind +217:9 to be scientifically distinct from matter, - are + indications of unnatural mental and bodily conditions, + even of catalepsy and hysteria; yet if we turn to the Scrip- +217:12 tures, what do we read? Why, this: "If a man keep my + saying, he shall never see death!" and "Henceforth know + we no man after the flesh!" + + Fatigue is mental + +217:15 That scientific methods are superior to others, is + seen by their effects. When you have once conquered + a diseased condition of the body through +217:18 Mind, that condition never recurs, and you + have won a point in Science. When mentality gives + rest to the body, the next toil will fatigue you less, for +217:21 you are working out the problem of being in divine meta- + physics; and in proportion as you understand the con- + trol which Mind has over so-called matter, you will be +217:24 able to demonstrate this control. The scientific and + permanent remedy for fatigue is to learn the power of + Mind over the body or any illusion of physical weariness, +217:27 and so destroy this illusion, for matter cannot be weary + and heavy-laden. + + You say, "Toil fatigues me." But what is this /me/! +217:30 Is it muscle or mind? Which is tired and so speaks? + Without mind, could the muscles be tired? Do the + muscles talk, or do you talk for them? Matter is non- +218:1 intelligent. Mortal mind does the false talking, and that + which affirms weariness, made that weariness. + + Mind never weary + +218:3 You do not say a wheel is fatigued; and yet the body + is as material as the wheel. If it were not for what the + human mind says of the body, the body, like +218:6 the inanimate wheel, would never be weary. + The consciousness of Truth rests us more than hours of + repose in unconsciousness. + + Coalition of sin and sickness + +218:9 The body is supposed to say, "I am ill." The reports + of sickness may form a coalition with the reports of sin, + and say, "I am malice, lust, appetite, envy, +218:12 hate." What renders both sin and sickness + difficult of cure is, that the human mind is the + sinner, disinclined to self-correction, and believing that +218:15 the body can be sick independently of mortal mind and + that the divine Mind has no jurisdiction over the body. + + Sickness akin to sin + + Why pray for the recovery of the sick, if you are with- +218:18 out faith in God's willingness and ability to heal them? + If you do believe in God, why do you sub- + stitute drugs for the Almighty's power, and +218:21 employ means which lead only into material ways of + obtaining help, instead of turning in time of need to + God, divine Love, who is an ever-present help? + +218:24 Treat a belief in sickness as you would sin, with sudden + dismissal. Resist the temptation to believe in matter as + intelligent, as having sensation or power. + +218:27 The Scriptures say, "They that wait upon the Lord + . . . shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, + and not faint." The meaning of that passage is not +218:30 perverted by applying it literally to moments of fatigue, + for the moral and physical are as one in their results. + When we wake to the truth of being, all disease, +219:1 pain, weakness, weariness, sorrow, sin, death, will be + unknown, and the mortal dream will forever cease. My +219:3 method of treating fatigue applies to all bodily ailments, + since Mind should be, and is, supreme, absolute, and + final. + + Affirmation and result + +219:6 In mathematics, we do not multiply when we should + subtract, and then say the product is correct. No more + can we say in Science that muscles give strength, +219:9 that nerves give pain or pleasure, or that matter + governs, and then expect that the result will be harmony. + Not muscles, nerves, nor bones, but mortal mind makes +219:12 the whole body "sick, and the whole heart faint;" whereas + divine Mind heals. + + When this is understood, we shall never affirm concern- +219:15 ing the body what we do not wish to have manifested. We + shall not call the body weak, if we would have it strong; + for the belief in feebleness must obtain in the human +219:18 mind before it can be made manifest on the body, and + the destruction of the belief will be the removal of its + effects. Science includes no rule of discord, but governs +219:21 harmoniously. "The wish," says the poet, "is ever father + to the thought." + + Scientific beginning + + We may hear a sweet melody, and yet misunderstand +219:24 the science that governs it. Those who are healed + through metaphysical Science, not compre- + hending the Principle of the cure, may misun- +219:27 derstand it, and impute their recovery to change of air or + diet, not rendering to God the honor due to Him alone. + Entire immunity from the belief in sin, suffering, and +219:30 death may not be reached at this period, but we may look + for an abatement of these evils; and this scientific begin- + ning is in the right direction. + + Hygiene ineffectual + +220:1 We hear it said: " I exercise daily in the open air. I + take cold baths, in order to overcome a predisposition to +220:3 take cold; and yet I have continual colds, + catarrh, and cough." Such admissions ought + to open people's eyes to the inefficacy of material hygiene, +220:6 and induce sufferers to look in other directions for cause + and cure. + + Instinct is better than misguided reason, as even na- +220:9 ture declares. The violet lifts her blue eye to greet the + early spring. The leaves clap their hands as nature's + untired worshippers. The snowbird sings and soars +220:12 amid the blasts; he has no catarrh from wet feet, and + procures a summer residence with more ease than a na- + bob. The atmosphere of the earth, kinder than the at- +220:15 mosphere of mortal mind, leaves catarrh to the latter. + Colds, coughs, and contagion are engendered solely by + human theories. + + The reflex phenomena + +220:18 Mortal mind produces its own phenomena, and then + charges them to something else, - like a kitten + glancing into the mirror at itself and thinking +220:21 it sees another kitten. + + A clergyman once adopted a diet of bread and water + to increase his spirituality. Finding his health failing, +220:24 he gave up his abstinence, and advised others never to + try dietetics for growth in grace. + + Volition far-reaching + + The belief that either fasting or feasting makes men +220:27 better morally or physically is one of the fruits of "the + tree of the knowledge of good and evil," con- + cerning which God said, "Thou shalt not eat +220:30 of it." Mortal mind forms all conditions of the mortal + body, and controls the stomach, bones, lungs, heart, blood, + etc., as directly as the volition or will moves the mind. + + Starvation and dyspepsia + +221:1 I knew a person who when quite a child adopted the + Graham system to cure dyspepsia. For many years, he +221:3 ate only bread and vegetables, and drank noth- + ing but water. His dyspepsia increasing, he + decided that his diet should be more rigid, and +221:6 thereafter he partook of but one meal in twenty-four + hours, this meal consisting of only a thin slice of bread + without water. His physician also recommended that +221:9 he should not wet his parched throat until three hours + after eating. He passed many weary years in hunger + and weakness, almost in starvation, and finally made up +221:12 his mind to die, having exhausted the skill of the doctors, + who kindly informed him that death was indeed his only + alternative. At this point Christian Science saved him, +221:15 and he is now in perfect health without a vestige of the + old complaint. + + He learned that suffering and disease were the self- +221:18 imposed beliefs of mortals, and not the facts of being; + that God never decreed disease, - never ordained a law + that fasting should be a means of health. Hence semi- +221:21 starvation is not acceptable to wisdom, and it is equally + far from Science, in which being is sustained by God, Mind. + These truths, opening his eyes, relieved his stomach, and +221:24 he ate without suffering, "giving God thanks;" but he + never enjoyed his food as he had imagined he would + when, still the slave of matter, he thought of the flesh- +221:27 pots of Egypt, feeling childhood's hunger and undisci- + plined by self-denial and divine Science. + + Mind and stomach + + This new-born understanding, that neither food nor +221:30 the stomach, without the consent of mortal + mind, can make one suffer, brings with it an- + other lesson, - that gluttony is a sensual illusion, and +222:1 that this phantasm of mortal mind disappears as we better + apprehend our spiritual existence and ascend the ladder +222:3 of life. + + This person learned that food affects the body only + as mortal mind has its material methods of working, one +222:6 of which is to believe that proper food supplies nutriment + and strength to the human system. He learned also that + mortal mind makes a mortal body, whereas Truth re- +222:9 generates this fleshly mind and feeds thought with the + bread of Life. + + Food had less power to help or to hurt him after he +222:12 had availed himself of the fact that Mind governs man, + and he also had less faith in the so-called pleasures and + pains of matter. Taking less thought about what he +222:15 should eat or drink, consulting the stomach less about + the economy of living and God more, he recovered + strength and flesh rapidly. For many years he had +222:18 been kept alive, as was believed, only by the strictest ad- + herence to hygiene and drugs, and yet he continued ill + all the while. Now he dropped drugs and material +222:21 hygiene, and was well. + + He learned that a dyspeptic was very far from being + the image and likeness of God, - far from having "do- +222:24 minion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the + air, and over the cattle," if eating a bit of animal flesh + could overpower him. He finally concluded that God +222:27 never made a dyspeptic, while fear, hygiene, physiology, + and physics had made him one, contrary to His commands. + + Life only in Spirit + + In seeking a cure for dyspepsia consult matter not at +222:30 all, and eat what is set before you, "asking + no question for conscience sake." We must + destroy the false belief that life and intelligence are in +223:1 matter, and plant ourselves upon what is pure and per- + fect. Paul said, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not +223:3 fulfil the lust of the flesh." Sooner or later we shall learn + that the fetters of man's finite capacity are forged by the + illusion that he lives in body instead of in Soul, in matter +223:6 instead of in Spirit. + + Soul greater than body + + Matter does not express Spirit. God is infinite omni- + present Spirit. If Spirit is /all/ and is everywhere, what +223:9 and where is matter? Remember that truth + is greater than error, and we cannot put the + greater into the less. Soul is Spirit, and Spirit is greater +223:12 than body. If Spirit were once within the body, Spirit + would be finite, and therefore could not be Spirit. + + The question of the ages + + The question, "What is Truth," convulses the world. +223:15 Many are ready to meet this inquiry with the assurance + which comes of understanding; but more are + blinded by their old illusions, and try to "give +223:18 it pause." "If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into + the ditch." + + The efforts of error to answer this question by some +223:21 /ology/ are vain. Spiritual rationality and free thought ac- + company approaching Science, and cannot be put down. + They will emancipate humanity, and supplant unscientific +223:24 means and so-called laws. + + Heralds of Science + + Peals that should startle the slumbering thought from + its erroneous dream are partially unheeded; but the last +223:27 trump has not sounded, or this would not be + so. Marvels, calamities, and sin will much + more abound as truth urges upon mortals its resisted +223:30 claims; but the awful daring of sin destroys sin, and + foreshadows the triumph of truth. God will over- + turn, until "He come whose right it is." Longevity +224:1 is increasing and the power of sin diminishing, for the, + world feels the alterative effect of truth through every +224:3 pore. + + As the crude footprints of the past disappear from the + dissolving paths of the present, we shall better understand +224:6 the Science which governs these changes, and shall plant + our feet on firmer ground. Every sensuous pleasure or + pain is self-destroyed through suffering. There should +224:9 be painless progress, attended by life and peace instead + of discord and death. + + Sectarianism and opposition + + In the record of nineteen centuries, there are sects +224:12 many but not enough Christianity. Centuries ago re- + ligionists were ready to hail an anthropomor- + phic God, and array His vicegerent with pomp +224:15 and splendor; but this was not the manner + of truth's appearing. Of old the cross was truth's cen- + tral sign, and it is to-day. The modern lash is less +224:18 material than the Roman scourge, but it is equally as + cutting. Cold disdain, stubborn resistance, opposition + from church, state laws, and the press, are still the har- +224:21 bingers of truth's full-orbed appearing. + + A higher and more practical Christianity, demonstrat- + ing justice and meeting the needs of mortals in sickness +224:24 and in health, stands at the door of this age, knocking + for admission. Will you open or close the door upon this + angel visitant, who cometh in the quiet of meekness, as he +224:27 came of old to the patriarch at noonday? + + Mental emancipation + + Truth brings the elements of liberty. On its banner + is the Soul-inspired motto, "Slavery is abolished." The +224:30 power of God brings deliverance to the cap- + tive. No power can withstand divine Love. + What is this supposed power, which opposes itself to God? +225:1 Whence cometh it? What is it that binds man with iron + shackles to sin, sickness, and death? Whatever enslaves +225:3 man is opposed to the divine government. Truth makes + man free. + + Truth's ordeal + + You may know when first Truth leads by the few- +225:6 ness and faithfulness of its followers. Thus it is that + the march of time bears onward freedom's + banner. The powers of this world will fight, +225:9 and will command their sentinels not to let truth pass + the guard until it subscribes to their systems; but Science, + heeding not the pointed bayonet, marches on. There is +225:12 always some tumult, but there is a rallying to truth's + standard. + + Immortal sentences + + The history of our country, like all history, illustrates +225:15 the might of Mind, and shows human power to be propor- + tionate to its embodiment of right thinking. A + few immortal sentences, breathing the omnipo- +225:18 tence of divine justice, have been potent to break despotic + fetters and abolish the whipping-post and slave market; + but oppression neither went down in blood, nor did the +225:21 breath of freedom come from the cannon's mouth. Love + is the liberator. + + Slavery abolished + + Legally to abolish unpaid servitude in the United +225:24 States was hard; but the abolition of mental slavery is + a more difficult task. The despotic tenden- + cies, inherent in mortal mind and always ger- +225:27 minating in new forms of tyranny, must be rooted out + through the action of the divine Mind. + + Men and women of all climes and races are still in +225:30 bondage to material sense, ignorant how to obtain their + freedom. The rights of man were vindicated in a single + section and on the lowest plane of human life, when Afri- +226:1 can slavery was abolished in our land. That was only + prophetic of further steps towards the banishment of a +226:3 world-wide slavery, found on higher planes of existence + and under more subtle and depraving forms. + + Liberty's crusade + + The voice of God in behalf of the African slave was +226:6 still echoing in our land, when the voice of the herald of + this new crusade sounded the keynote of uni- + versal freedom, asking a fuller acknowledg- +226:9 ment of the rights of man as a Son of God, demanding + that the fetters of sin, sickness, and death be stricken + from the human mind and that its freedom be won, not +226:12 through human warfare, not with bayonet and blood, but + through Christ's divine Science. + + Cramping systems + + God has built a higher platform of human rights, and +226:15 He has built it on diviner claims. These claims are not + made through code or creed, but in demonstra- + tion of "on earth peace, good-will toward men." +226:18 Human codes, scholastic theology, material medicine and + hygiene, fetter faith and spiritual understanding. Divine + Science rends asunder these fetters, and man's birthright +226:21 of sole allegiance to his Maker asserts itself. + + I saw before me the sick, wearing out years of servi- + tude to an unreal master in the belief that the body gov- +226:24 erned them, rather than Mind. + + House of bondage + + The lame, the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the sick, the + sensual, the sinner, I wished to save from the slavery of +226:27 their own beliefs and from the educational + systems of the Pharaohs, who to-day, as of + yore, hold the children of Israel in bondage. I saw be- +226:30 fore me the awful conflict, the Red Sea and the wilder- + ness; but I pressed on through faith in God, trusting + Truth, the strong deliverer, to guide me into the land +227:1 of Christian Science, where fetters fall and the rights of + man are fully known and acknowledged. + + Higher law ends bondage + +227:3 I saw that the law of mortal belief included all error, + and that, even as oppressive laws are disputed and mor- + tals are taught their right to freedom, so the +227:6 claims of the enslaving senses must be de- + nied and superseded. The law of the divine Mind must + end human bondage, or mortals will continue unaware +227:9 of man's inalienable rights and in subjection to hope- + less slavery, because some public teachers permit + an ignorance of divine power, - an ignorance that +227:12 is the foundation of continued bondage and of human + suffering. + + Native freedom + + Discerning the rights of man, we cannot fail to fore- +227:15 see the doom of all oppression. Slavery is not the legiti- + mate state of man. God made man free. + Paul said, "I was free born." All men should +227:18 be free. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is lib- + erty." Love and Truth make free, but evil and error + lead into captivity. + + Standard of liberty + +227:21 Christian Science raises the standard of liberty and + cries: "Follow me! Escape from the bondage of sick- + ness, sin, and death!" Jesus marked out the +227:24 way. Citizens of the world, accept the "glori- + ous liberty of the children of God," and be free! This + is your divine right. The illusion of material sense, not +227:27 divine law, has bound you, entangled your free limbs, + crippled your capacities, enfeebled your body, and de- + faced the tablet of your being. + +227:30 If God had instituted material laws to govern man, + disobedience to which would have made man ill, Jesus + would not have disregarded those laws by healing in +228:1 direct opposition to them and in defiance of all material + conditions. + + No fleshly heredity + +228:3 The transmission of disease or of certain idiosyncra- + sies of mortal mind would be impossible if this great fact + of being were learned, - namely, that nothing +228:6 inharmonious can enter being, for Life /is/ God. + Heredity is a prolific subject for mortal belief to pin the- + ories upon; but if we learn that nothing is real but the +228:9 right, we shall have no dangerous inheritances, and fleshly + ills will disappear. + + God-given dominion + + The enslavement of man is not legitimate. It will +228:12 cease when man enters into his heritage of freedom, his + God-given dominion over the material senses. + Mortals will some day assert their freedom in +228:15 the name of Almighty God. Then they will control their + own bodies through the understanding of divine Science. + Dropping their present beliefs, they will recognize har- +228:18 mony as the spiritual reality and discord as the material + unreality. + + If we follow the command of our Master, "Take no +228:21 thought for your life," we shall never depend on bodily + conditions, structure, or economy, but we shall be masters + of the body, dictate its terms, and form and control it with +228:24 Truth. + + Priestly pride humbled + + There is no power apart from God. Omnipotence has + all-power, and to acknowledge any other power is to dis- +228:27 honor God. The humble Nazarene overthrew + the supposition that sin, sickness, and death + have power. He proved them powerless. It should have +228:30 humbled the pride of the priests, when they saw the dem- + onstration of Christianity excel the influence of their dead + faith and ceremonies. + +229:1 If Mind is not the master of sin, sickness, and death, + they are immortal, for it is already proved that mat- +229:3 ter has not destroyed them, but is their basis and + support. + + No union of opposites + + We should hesitate to say that Jehovah sins or suffers; +229:6 but if sin and suffering are realities of being, whence did + they emanate? God made all that was made, + and Mind signifies God, - infinity, not finity. +229:9 Not far removed from infidelity is the belief which + unites such opposites as sickness and health, holiness + and unholiness, calls both the offspring of spirit, and +229:12 at the same time admits that Spirit is God, - vir- + tually declaring Him good in one instance and evil in + another. + + Self-constituted law + +229:15 By universal consent, mortal belief has constituted + itself a law to bind mortals to sickness, sin, and death. + This customary belief is misnamed material +229:18 law, and the individual who upholds it is mis- + taken in theory and in practice. The so-called law of + mortal mind, conjectural and speculative, is made void +229:21 by the law of immortal Mind, and false law should be + trampled under foot. + + Sickness from mortal mind + + If God causes man to be sick, sickness must be good, +229:24 and its opposite, health, must be evil, for all that He + makes is good and will stand forever. If the + transgression of God's law produces sickness, it +229:27 is right to be sick; and we cannot if we would, and should + not if we could, annul the decrees of wisdom. It is the + transgression of a belief of mortal mind, not of a law of +229:30 matter nor of divine Mind, which causes the belief of sick- + ness. The remedy is Truth, not matter, - the truth that + disease is /unreal/. + +230:1 If sickness is real, it belongs to immortality; if true, + it is a part of Truth. Would you attempt with drugs, +230:3 or without, to destroy a quality or condition of Truth? + But if sickness and sin are illusions, the awakening from + this mortal dream, or illusion, will bring us into health, +230:6 holiness, and immortality. This awakening is the for- + ever coming of Christ, the advanced appearing of Truth, + which casts out error and heals the sick. This is the sal- +230:9 vation which comes through God, the divine Principle, + Love, as demonstrated by Jesus. + + God never inconsistent + + It would be contrary to our highest ideas of God to +230:12 suppose Him capable of first arranging law and causation + so as to bring about certain evil results, and + then punishing the helpless victims of His vo- +230:15 lition for doing what they could not avoid doing. Good + is not, cannot be, the author of experimental sins. God, + good, can no more produce sickness than goodness can +230:18 cause evil and health occasion disease. + + Mental narcotics + + Does wisdom make blunders which must afterwards + be rectified by man? Does a law of God produce sick- +230:21 ness, and can man put that law under his feet + by healing sickness? According to Holy Writ, + the sick are never really healed by drugs, hygiene, or any +230:24 material method. These merely evade the question. + They are soothing syrups to put children to sleep, satisfy + mortal belief, and quiet fear. + + The true healing + +230:27 We think that we are healed when a disease disap- + pears, though it is liable to reappear; but we are never + thoroughly healed until the liability to be +230:30 ill is removed. So-called mortal mind or the + mind of mortals being the remote, predisposing, and + the exciting cause of all suffering, the cause of disease +231:1 must be obliterated through Christ in divine Science, or + the so-called physical senses will get the victory. + + Destruction of all evil + +231:3 Unless an ill is rightly met and fairly overcome by + Truth, the ill is never conquered. If God destroys not + sin, sickness, and death, they are not de- +231:6 stroyed in the mind of mortals, but seem to + this so-called mind to be immortal. What God cannot + do, man need not attempt. If God heals not the sick, +231:9 they are not healed, for no lesser power equals the infinite + All-power; but God, Truth, Life, Love, does heal the + sick through the prayer of the righteous. + +231:12 If God makes sin, if good produces evil, if truth results + in error, then Science and Christianity are helpless; but + there are no antagonistic powers nor laws, spiritual or +231:15 material, creating and governing man through perpetual + warfare. God is not the author of mortal discords. + Therefore we accept the conclusion that discords have +231:18 only a fabulous existence, are mortal beliefs which divine + Truth and Love destroy. + + Superiority to sickness and sin + + To hold yourself superior to sin, because God made +231:21 you superior to it and governs man, is true wisdom. To + fear sin is to misunderstand the power of Love + and the divine Science of being in man's rela- +231:24 tion to God, - to doubt His government and + distrust His omnipotent care. To hold yourself superior + to sickness and death is equally wise, and is in accordance +231:27 with divine Science. To fear them is impossible, when + you fully apprehend God and know that they are no part + of His creation. + +231:30 Man, governed by his Maker, having no other Mind, - + planted on the Evangelist's statement that "all things + were made by Him [the Word of God]; and without +232:1 Him was not anything made that was made," - can + triumph over sin, sickness, and death. + + Denials of divine power + +232:3 Many theories relative to God and man neither make + man harmonious nor God lovable. The beliefs we com- + monly entertain about happiness and life +232:6 afford no scatheless and permanent evidence + of either. Security for the claims of harmonious and + eternal being is found only in divine Science. + +232:9 Scripture informs us that "with God all things are + possible," - all good is possible to Spirit; but our prev- + alent theories practically deny this, and make healing +232:12 possible only through matter. These theories must be + untrue, for the Scripture is true. Christianity is not + false, but religions which contradict its Principle are +232:15 false. + + In our age Christianity is again demonstrating the + power of divine Principle, as it did over nineteen hun- +232:18 dred years ago, by healing the sick and triumphing over + death. Jesus never taught that drugs, food, air, and ex- + ercise could make a man healthy, or that they could de- +232:21 stroy human life; nor did he illustrate these errors by his + practice. He referred man's harmony to Mind, not to + matter, and never tried to make of none effect the sen- +232:24 tence of God, which sealed God's condemnation of sin, + sickness, and death. + + Signs following + + In the sacred sanctuary of Truth are voices of sol- +232:27 emn import, but we heed them not. It is only when the + so-called pleasures and pains of sense pass + away in our lives, that we find unquestion- +232:30 able signs of the burial of error and the resurrection to + spiritual life. + + Profession and proof + + There is neither place nor opportunity in Science for error +233:1 of any sort. Every day makes its demands upon us for + higher proofs rather than professions of Christian power. +233:3 These proofs consist solely in the destruction + of sin, sickness, and death by the power of + Spirit, as Jesus destroyed them. This is an element of +233:6 progress, and progress is the law of God, whose law de- + mands of us only what we can certainly fulfil. + + Perfection gained slowly + + In the midst of imperfection, perfection is seen and +233:9 acknowledged only by degrees. The ages must slowly + work up to perfection. How long it must be + before we arrive at the demonstration of scien- +233:12 tific being, no man knoweth, - not even "the + Son but the Father;" but the false claim of error con- + tinues its delusions until the goal of goodness is assidu- +233:15 ously earned and won. + + Christ's mission + + Already the shadow of His right hand rests upon the + hour. Ye who can discern the face of the sky, - the +233:18 sign material, - how much more should ye + discern the sign mental, and compass the de- + struction of sin and sickness by overcoming the thoughts +233:21 which produce them, and by understanding the spiritual + idea which corrects and destroys them. To reveal this + truth was our Master's mission to all mankind, including +233:24 the hearts which rejected him. + + Efficacy of truth + + When numbers have been divided according to a fixed + rule, the quotient is not more unquestionable than the +233:27 scientific tests I have made of the effects of + truth upon the sick. The counter fact rela- + tive to any disease is required to cure it. The utterance +233:30 of truth is designed to rebuke and destroy error. Why + should truth not be efficient in sickness, which is solely + the result of inharmony? + +234:1 Spiritual draughts heal, while material lotions interfere + with truth, even as ritualism and creed hamper spirit- +234:3 uality. If we trust matter, we distrust Spirit. + + Crumbs of comfort + + Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love - be + it song, sermon, or Science - blesses the human family +234:6 with crumbs of comfort from Christ's table + feeding the hungry and giving living waters to + the thirsty. + + Hospitality to health and good + +234:9 We should become more familiar with good than with + evil, and guard against false beliefs as watchfully as we + bar our doors against the approach of thieves +234:12 and murderers. We should love our enemies + and help them on the basis of the Golden + Rule; but avoid casting pearls before those who trample +234:15 them under foot, thereby robbing both themselves and + others. + + Cleansing the mind + + If mortals would keep proper ward over mortal mind, +234:18 the brood of evils which infest it would be cleared out. + We must begin with this so-called mind and + empty it of sin and sickness, or sin and sick- +234:21 ness will never cease. The present codes of human + systems disappoint the weary searcher after a divine + theology, adequate to the right education of human +234:24 thought. + + Sin and disease must be thought before they can be + manifested. You must control evil thoughts in the first +234:27 instance, or they will control you in the second. Jesus + declared that to look with desire on forbidden objects was + to break a moral precept. He laid great stress on the +234:30 action of the human mind, unseen to the senses. + + Evil thoughts and aims reach no farther and do no more + harm than one's belief permits. Evil thoughts, lusts, and +235:1 malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen, + from one human mind to another, finding unsuspected +235:3 lodgment, if virtue and truth build a strong defence. + Better suffer a doctor infected with smallpox to attend + you than to be treated mentally by one who does not obey +235:6 the requirements of divine Science. + + Teachers' functions + + The teachers of schools and the readers in churches + should be selected with as direct reference to their +235:9 morals as to their learning or their correct + reading. Nurseries of character should be + strongly garrisoned with virtue. School-examinations are +235:12 one-sided; it is not so much academic education, as a + moral and spiritual culture, which lifts one higher. The + pure and uplifting thoughts of the teacher, constantly +235:15 imparted to pupils, will reach higher than the heavens of + astronomy; while the debased and unscrupulous mind, + though adorned with gems of scholarly attainment, will +235:18 degrade the characters it should inform and elevate. + + Physicians' privilege + + Physicians, whom the sick employ in their helplessness, + should be models of virtue. They should be wise spir- +235:21 itual guides to health and hope. To the trem- + blers on the brink of death, who understand + not the divine Truth which is Life and perpetuates being, +235:24 physicians should be able to teach it. Then when the soul + is willing and the flesh weak, the patient's feet may be + planted on the rock Christ Jesus, the true idea of spiritual +235:27 power. + + Clergymen's duty + + Clergymen, occupying the watchtowers of the world, + should uplift the standard of Truth. They should so raise +235:30 their hearers spiritually, that their listeners + will love to grapple with a new, right idea + and broaden their concepts. Love of Christianity, rather +236:1 than love of popularity, should stimulate clerical labor + and progress. Truth should emanate from the pulpit, +236:3 but never be strangled there. A special privilege is vested + in the ministry. How shall it be used? Sacredly, in the + interests of humanity, not of sect. + +236:6 Is it not professional reputation and emolument rather + than the dignity of God's laws, which many leaders seek? + Do not inferior motives induce the infuriated attacks on +236:9 individuals, who reiterate Christ's teachings in support + of his proof by example that the divine Mind heals sick- + ness as well as sin? + + A mother's responsibility + +236:12 A mother is the strongest educator, either for or + against crime. Her thoughts form the embryo of an- + other mortal mind, and unconsciously mould +236:15 it, either after a model odious to herself or + through divine influence, "according to the pattern + showed to thee in the mount." Hence the importance +236:18 of Christian Science, from which we learn of the one + Mind and of the availability of good as the remedy for + every woe. + + Children's tractability + +236:21 Children should obey their parents; insubordination + is an evil, blighting the buddings of self-government. + Parents should teach their children at the +236:24 earliest possible period the truths of health + and holiness. Children are more tractable than adults, + and learn more readily to love the simple verities that will +236:27 make them happy and good. + + Jesus loved little children because of their freedom + from wrong and their receptiveness of right. While +236:30 age is halting between two opinions or battling with + false beliefs, youth makes easy and rapid strides towards + Truth. + +237:1 A little girl, who had occasionally listened to my ex- + planations, badly wounded her finger. She seemed not +237:3 to notice it. On being questioned about it she answered + ingenuously, "There is no sensation in matter." Bound- + ing off with laughing eyes, she presently added, "Mamma, +237:6 my finger is not a bit sore." + + Soil and seed + + It might have been months or years before her parents + would have laid aside their drugs, or reached the mental +237:9 height their little daughter so naturally at- + tained. The more stubborn beliefs and theo- + ries of parents often choke the good seed in the minds of +237:12 themselves and their offspring. Superstition, like "the + fowls of the air," snatches away the good seed before it + has sprouted. + + Teaching children + +237:15 Children should be taught the Truth-cure, Christian + Science, among their first lessons, and kept from discuss- + ing or entertaining theories or thoughts about +237:18 sickness. To prevent the experience of error + and its sufferings, keep out of the minds of your children + either sinful or diseased thoughts. The latter should +237:21 be excluded on the same principle as the former. This + makes Christian Science early available. + + Deluded invalids + + Some invalids are unwilling to know the facts or to +237:24 hear about the fallacy of matter and its supposed laws. + They devote themselves a little longer to their + material gods, cling to a belief in the life and +237:27 intelligence of matter, and expect this error to do more + for them than they are willing to admit the only living and + true God can do. Impatient at your explanation, unwill- +237:30 ing to investigate the Science of Mind which would rid + them of their complaints, they hug false beliefs and suffer + the delusive consequences. + + Patient waiting + +238:1 Motives and acts are not rightly valued before they are + understood. It is well to wait till those whom you would +238:3 benefit are ready for the blessing, for Science + is working changes in personal character as + well as in the material universe. +238:6 To obey the Scriptural command, "Come out from + among them, and be ye separate," is to incur society's + frown; but this frown, more than flatteries, enables one +238:9 to be Christian. Losing her crucifix, the Roman Catholic + girl said, "I have nothing left but Christ." "If God be + for us, who can be against us?" + + Unimproved opportunities + +238:12 To fall away from Truth in times of persecution, shows + that we never understood Truth. From out the bridal + chamber of wisdom there will come the warn- +238:15 ing, "I know you not." Unimproved op- + portunities will rebuke us when we attempt to claim the + benefits of an experience we have not made our own, try +238:18 to reap the harvest we have not sown, and wish to enter + unlawfully into the labors of others. Truth often remains + unsought, until we seek this remedy for human woe be- +238:21 cause we suffer severely from error. + + Attempts to conciliate society and so gain dominion over + mankind, arise from worldly weakness. He who leaves +238:24 all for Christ forsakes popularity and gains Christianity. + + Society and intolerance + + Society is a foolish juror, listening only to one side of + the case. Justice often comes too late to secure a verdict. +238:27 People with mental work before them have + no time for gossip about false law or testimony. + To reconstruct timid justice and place the fact above the +238:30 falsehood, is the work of time. + + The cross is the central emblem of history. It is the + lodestar in the demonstration of Christian healing, - the +239:1 demonstration by which sin and sickness are destroyed. + The sects, which endured the lash of their predecessors, +239:3 in their turn lay it upon those who are in advance of + creeds. + + Right views of humanity + + Take away wealth, fame, and social organizations, +239:6 which weigh not one jot in the balance of God, and we + get clearer views of Principle. Break up + cliques, level wealth with honesty, let worth +239:9 be judged according to wisdom, and we get better views + of humanity. + + The wicked man is not the ruler of his upright +239:12 neighbor. Let it be understood that success in error is + defeat in Truth. The watchword of Christian Science + is Scriptural: "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the +239:15 unrighteous man his thoughts." + + Standpoint revealed + + To ascertain our progress, we must learn where our + affections are placed and whom we acknowledge and +239:18 obey as God. If divine Love is becoming + nearer, dearer, and more real to us, matter is + then submitting to Spirit. The objects we pursue and +239:21 the spirit we manifest reveal our standpoint, and show + what we are winning. + + Antagonistic sources + + Mortal mind is the acknowledged seat of human mo- +239:24 tives. It forms material concepts and produces every + discordant action of the body. If action pro- + ceeds from the divine Mind, action is harmo- +239:27 nious. If it comes from erring mortal mind, it is discord- + ant and ends in sin, sickness, death. Those two opposite + sources never mingle in fount or stream. The perfect +239:30 Mind sends forth perfection, for God is Mind. Imper- + fect mortal mind sends forth its own resemblances, of + which the wise man said, "All is vanity." + + Some lessons from nature + +240:1 Nature voices natural, spiritual law and divine Love, + but human belief misinterprets nature. Arctic regions, +240:3 sunny tropics, giant hills, winged winds, + mighty billows, verdant vales, festive flowers, + and glorious heavens, - all point to Mind, the spiritual +240:6 intelligence they reflect. The floral apostles are hiero- + glyphs of Deity. Suns and planets teach grand lessons. + The stars make night beautiful, and the leaflet turns nat- +240:9 urally towards the light. + + Perpetual motions + + In the order of Science, in which the Principle is above + what it reflects, all is one grand concord. Change this +240:12 statement, suppose Mind to be governed by + matter or Soul in body, and you lose the key- + note of being, and there is continual discord. Mind is +240:15 perpetual motion. Its symbol is the sphere. The rota- + tions and revolutions of the universe of Mind go on + eternally. + + Progress demanded + +240:18 Mortals move onward towards good or evil as time + glides on. If mortals are not progressive, past failures + will be repeated until all wrong work is ef- +240:21 faced or rectified. If at present satisfied with + wrong-doing, we must learn to loathe it. If at present + content with idleness, we must become dissatisfied with +240:24 it. Remember that mankind must sooner or later, either + by suffering or by Science, be convinced of the error that + is to be overcome. + +240:27 In trying to undo the errors of sense one must pay fully + and fairly the utmost farthing, until all error is finally + brought into subjection to Truth. The divine method +240:30 of paying sin's wages involves unwinding one's snarls + and learning from experience how to divide between sense + and Soul. + +241:1 "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth." He, who + knows God's will or the demands of divine Science and +241:3 obeys them, incurs the hostility of envy; and he who + refuses obedience to God, is chastened by Love. + + The doom of sin + + Sensual treasures are laid up "where moth and rust +241:6 doth corrupt." Mortality is their doom. Sin breaks in + upon them, and carries off their fleeting joys. + The sensualist's affections are as imaginary, +241:9 whimsical, and unreal as his pleasures. Falsehood, envy, + hypocrisy, malice, hate, revenge, and so forth, steal away + the treasures of Truth. Stripped of its coverings, what +241:12 a mocking spectacle is sin! + + Spirit transforms + + The Bible teaches transformation of the body by the + renewal of Spirit. Take away the spiritual signification +241:15 of Scripture, and that compilation can do no + more for mortals than can moonbeams to melt + a river of ice. The error of the ages is preaching without +241:18 practice. + + The substance of all devotion is the reflection and + demonstration of divine Love, healing sickness and +241:21 destroying sin. Our Master said, "If ye love me, keep + my commandments." + + One's aim, a point beyond faith, should be to find the +241:24 footsteps of Truth, the way to health and holiness. We + should strive to reach the Horeb height where God is re- + vealed; and the corner-stone of all spiritual building is +241:27 purity. The baptism of Spirit, washing the body of all + the impurities of flesh, signifies that the pure in heart + see God and are approaching spiritual Life and its +241:30 demonstration. + + Spiritual baptism + + It is "easier for a camel to go through the eye of a + needle," than for sinful beliefs to enter the kingdom of +242:1 heaven, eternal harmony. Through repentance, spiritual + baptism, and regeneration, mortals put off their material +242:3 beliefs and false individuality. It is only a + question of time when "they shall all know + Me [God], from the least of them unto the greatest." +242:6 Denial of the claims of matter is a great step towards + the joys of Spirit, towards human freedom and the final + triumph over the body. + + The one only way + +242:9 There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ + in divine Science shows us this way. It is to know no + other reality - to have no other conscious- +242:12 ness of life - than good, God and His reflec- + tion, and to rise superior to the so-called pain and pleasure + of the senses. + +242:15 Self-love is more opaque than a solid body. In pa- + tient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dis- + solve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant +242:18 of error, - self-will, self-justification, and self-love, - + which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin + and death. + + Divided vestments + +242:21 The vesture of Life is Truth. According to the Bible, + the facts of being are commonly misconstrued, for it is + written: "They parted my raiment among +242:24 them, and for my vesture they did cast lots." + The divine Science of man is woven into one web of + consistency without seam or rent. Mere speculation or +242:27 superstition appropriates no part of the divine vesture, + while inspiration restores every part of the Christly gar- + ment of righteousness. + +242:30 The finger-posts of divine Science show the way our + Master trod, and require of Christians the proof which + he gave, instead of mere profession. We may hide +243:1 spiritual ignorance from the world, but we can never + succeed in the Science and demonstration of spiritual +243:3 good through ignorance or hypocrisy. + + Ancient and modern miracles + + The divine Love, which made harmless the poisonous + viper, which delivered men from the boiling oil, from +243:6 the fiery furnace, from the jaws of the lion, + can heal the sick in every age and triumph + over sin and death. It crowned the demon- +243:9 strations of Jesus with unsurpassed power and love. But + the same "Mind . . . which was also in Christ Jesus" + must always accompany the letter of Science in order to +243:12 confirm and repeat the ancient demonstrations of prophets + and apostles. That those wonders are not more com- + monly repeated to-day, arises not so much from lack of +243:15 desire as from lack of spiritual growth. + + Mental telegraphy + + The clay cannot reply to the potter. The head, heart, + lungs, and limbs do not inform us that they are dizzy, +243:18 diseased, consumptive, or lame. If this in- + formation is conveyed, mortal mind conveys + it. Neither immortal and unerring Mind nor matter, +243:21 the inanimate substratum of mortal mind, can carry + on such telegraphy; for God is "of purer eyes than + to behold evil," and matter has neither intelligence nor +243:24 sensation. + + Annihilation of error + + Truth has no consciousness of error. Love has no + sense of hatred. Life has no partnership +243:27 with death. Truth, Life, and Love are a law + of annihilation to everything unlike themselves, because + they declare nothing except God. + + Deformity and perfection + +243:30 Sickness, sin, and death are not the fruits of Life. + They are inharmonies which Truth destroys. Perfection + does not animate imperfection. Inasmuch as God is +244:1 good and the fount of all being, He does not produce + moral or physical deformity; therefore such deformity is +244:3 not real, but is illusion, the mirage of error. + Divine Science reveals these grand facts. On + their basis Jesus demonstrated Life, never +244:6 fearing nor obeying error in any form. + + If we were to derive all our conceptions of man from + what is seen between the cradle and the grave, happi- +244:9 ness and goodness would have no abiding-place in man, + and the worms would rob him of the flesh; but Paul + writes: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath +244:12 made me free from the law of sin and death." + + Man never less than man + + Man undergoing birth, maturity, and decay is like the + beasts and vegetables, - subject to laws of decay. If +244:15 man were dust in his earliest stage of exist- + ence, we might admit the hypothesis that he + returns eventually to his primitive condition; +244:18 but man was never more nor less than man. + + If man flickers out in death or springs from matter into + being, there must be an instant when God is without His +244:21 entire manifestation, - when there is no full reflection + of the infinite Mind. + + Man not evolved + + Man in Science is neither young nor old. He has +244:24 neither birth nor death. He is not a beast, a vegetable, + nor a migratory mind. He does not pass from + matter to Mind, from the mortal to the im- +244:27 mortal, from evil to good, or from good to evil. Such + admissions cast us headlong into darkness and dogma. + Even Shakespeare's poetry pictures age as infancy, as +244:30 helplessness and decadence, instead of assigning to man + the everlasting grandeur and immortality of development, + power, and prestige. + +245:1 The error of thinking that we are growing old, and the + benefits of destroying that illusion, are illustrated in a +245:3 sketch from the history of an English woman, published + in the London medical magazine called The Lancet. + + Perpetual youth + + Disappointed in love in her early years, she became +245:6 insane and lost all account of time. Believing that she + was still living in the same hour which parted + her from her lover, taking no note of years, +245:9 she stood daily before the window watching for her + lover's coming. In this mental state she remained young. + Having no consciousness of time, she literally grew no +245:12 older. Some American travellers saw her when she was + seventy-four, and supposed her to be a young woman. + She had no care-lined face, no wrinkles nor gray hair, but +245:15 youth sat gently on cheek and brow. Asked to guess her + age, those unacquainted with her history conjectured that + she must be under twenty. + +245:18 This instance of youth preserved furnishes a useful + hint, upon which a Franklin might work with more cer- + tainty than when he coaxed the enamoured lightning +245:21 from the clouds. Years had not made her old, because + she had taken no cognizance of passing time nor thought + of herself as growing old. The bodily results of her belief +245:24 that she was young manifested the influence of such a be- + lief. She could not age while believing herself young, for + the mental state governed the physical. + +245:27 Impossibilities never occur. One instance like the + foregoing proves it possible to be young at seventy-four; + and the primary of that illustration makes it plain that +245:30 decrepitude is not according to law, nor is it a necessity of + nature, but an illusion. + + Man reflects God + + The infinite never began nor will it ever end. Mind +246:1 and its formations can never be annihilated. Man is not + a pendulum, swinging between evil and good, joy and +246:3 sorrow, sickness and health, life and death. + Life and its faculties are not measured by + calendars. The perfect and immortal are the eternal +246:6 likeness of their Maker. Man is by no means a material + germ rising from the imperfect and endeavoring to reach + Spirit above his origin. The stream rises no higher than +246:9 its source. + + The measurement of life by solar years robs youth and + gives ugliness to age. The radiant sun of virtue and truth +246:12 coexists with being. Manhood is its eternal noon, un- + dimmed by a declining sun. As the physical and mate- + rial, the transient sense of beauty fades, the radiance of +246:15 Spirit should dawn upon the enraptured sense with bright + and imperishable glories. + + Undesirable records + + Never record ages. Chronological data are no part +246:18 of the vast forever. Time-tables of birth and death are + so many conspiracies against manhood and + womanhood. Except for the error of meas- +246:21 uring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man + would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and + still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise. Man, +246:24 governed by immortal Mind, is always beautiful and + grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty, + and holiness. + + True life eternal + +246:27 Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the + demonstration thereof. Life and goodness are immortal. + Let us then shape our views of existence into +246:30 loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather + than into age and blight. + + Acute and chronic beliefs reproduce their own types. +247:1 The acute belief of physical life comes on at a remote + period, and is not so disastrous as the chronic belief. + + Eyes and teeth renewed + +247:3 I have seen age regain two of the elements it had lost, + sight and teeth. A woman of eighty-five, whom I knew, + had a return of sight. Another woman at +247:6 ninety had new teeth, incisors, cuspids, bi- + cuspids, and one molar. One man at sixty + had retained his full set of upper and lower teeth without +247:9 a decaying cavity. + + Eternal beauty + + Beauty, as well as truth, is eternal; but the beauty + of material things passes away, fading and fleeting as +247:12 mortal belief. Custom, education, and fashion + form the transient standards of mortals. Im- + mortality, exempt from age or decay, has a glory of its +247:15 own, - the radiance of Soul. Immortal men and women + are models of spiritual sense, drawn by perfect Mind + and reflecting those higher conceptions of loveliness +247:18 which transcend all material sense. + + The divine loveliness + + Comeliness and grace are independent of matter. Be- + ing possesses its qualities before they are perceived hu- +247:21 manly. Beauty is a thing of life, which + dwells forever in the eternal Mind and re- + flects the charms of His goodness in expression, form, +247:24 outline, and color. It is Love which paints the petal + with myriad hues, glances in the warm sunbeam, arches + the cloud with the bow of beauty, blazons the night with +247:27 starry gems, and covers earth with loveliness. + + The embellishments of the person are poor substitutes + for the charms of being, shining resplendent and eternal +247:30 over age and decay. + + The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and + more Soul, to retreat from the belief of pain or pleasure +248:1 in the body into the unchanging calm and glorious free- + dom of spiritual harmony. + + Love's endowment + +248:3 Love never loses sight of loveliness. Its halo rests upon + its object. One marvels that a friend can ever seem less + than beautiful. Men and women of riper +248:6 years and larger lessons ought to ripen into + health and immortality, instead of lapsing into darkness + or gloom. Immortal Mind feeds the body with supernal +248:9 freshness and fairness, supplying it with beautiful images + of thought and destroying the woes of sense which each + day brings to a nearer tomb. + + Mental sculpture + +248:12 The sculptor turns from the marble to his model in + order to perfect his conception. We are all sculptors, + working at various forms, moulding and chisel- +248:15 ing thought. What is the model before mortal + mind? Is it imperfection, joy, sorrow, sin, suffering? + Have you accepted the mortal model? Are you repro- +248:18 ducing it? Then you are haunted in your work by vicious + sculptors and hideous forms. Do you not hear from all + mankind of the imperfect model? The world is holding +248:21 it before your gaze continually. The result is that you + are liable to follow those lower patterns, limit your life- + work, and adopt into your experience the angular outline +248:24 and deformity of matter models. + + Perfect models + + To remedy this, we must first turn our gaze in the right + direction, and then walk that way. We must form perfect +248:27 models in thought and look at them continually, + or we shall never carve them out in grand and + noble lives. Let unselfishness, goodness, mercy, justice, +248:30 health, holiness, love - the kingdom of heaven - reign + within us, and sin, disease, and death will diminish until + they finally disappear. + +249:1 Let us accept Science, relinquish all theories based on + sense-testimony, give up imperfect models and illusive +249:3 ideals; and so let us have one God, one Mind, and that + one perfect, producing His own models of excellence. + + Renewed selfhood + + Let the "male and female" of God's creating appear. +249:6 Let us feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into + newness of life and recognizing no mortal nor + material power as able to destroy. Let us re- +249:9 joice that we are subject to the divine "powers that be." + Such is the true Science of being. Any other theory of + Life, or God, is delusive and mythological. + +249:12 Mind is not the author of matter, and the creator of + ideas is not the creator of illusions. Either there is no + omnipotence, or omnipotence is the only power. God is +249:15 the infinite, and infinity never began, will never end, and + includes nothing unlike God. Whence then is soulless + matter? + + Illusive dreams + +249:18 Life is, like Christ, "the same yesterday, and to-day, + and forever." Organization and time have nothing to do + with Life. You say, "I dreamed last night." +249:21 What a mistake is that! The I is Spirit. God + never slumbers, and His likeness never dreams. Mortals + are the Adam dreamers. + +249:24 Sleep and apath are phases of the dream that life, sub- + stance, and intelligence are material. The mortal night- + dream is sometimes nearer the fact of being than are the +249:27 thoughts of mortals when awake. The night-dream has + less matter as its accompaniment. It throws off some + material fetters. It falls short of the skies, but makes its +249:30 mundane flights quite ethereal. + + Philosophical blunders + + Man is the reflection of Soul. He is the direct oppo- + site of material sensation, and there is but one Ego. We +250:1 run into error when we divide Soul into souls, multiply + Mind into minds and suppose error to be mind, then mind +250:3 to be in matter and matter to be a lawgiver, + unintelligence to act like intelligence, and mor- + tality to be the matrix of immortality. + + Spirit the one Ego + +250:6 Mortal existence is a dream; mortal existence has no + real entity, but saith "It is I." Spirit is the Ego which + never dreams, but understands all things; +250:9 which never errs, and is ever conscious; which + never believes, but knows; which is never born and + never dies. Spiritual man is the likeness of this Ego. +250:12 Man is not God, but like a ray of light which comes from + the sun, man, the outcome of God, reflects God. + + Mortal existence a dream + + Mortal body and mind are one, and that one is called +250:15 man; but a mortal is not man, for man is immortal. A + mortal may be weary or pained, enjoy or suffer, + according to the dream he entertains in sleep. +250:18 When that dream vanishes, the mortal finds himself + experiencing none of these dream-sensations. To the + observer, the body lies listless, undisturbed, and sensa- +250:21 tionless, and the mind seems to be absent. + + Now I ask, Is there any more reality in the waking + dream of mortal existence than in the sleeping dream? +250:24 There cannot be, since whatever appears to be a mortal + man is a mortal dream. Take away the mortal mind, + and matter has no more sense as a man than it has as +250:27 a tree. But the spiritual, real man is immortal. + + Upon this stage of existence goes on the dance of mortal + mind. Mortal thoughts chase one another like snowflakes, +250:30 and drift to the ground. Science reveals Life as not being + at the mercy of death, nor will Science admit that happi- + ness is ever the sport of circumstance. + + Error self-destroyed + +251:1 Error is not real, hence it is not more imperative + as it hastens towards self-destruction. The so-called +251:3 belief of mortal mind apparent as an abscess + should not grow more painful before it suppu- + rates neither should a fever become more severe before +251:6 it ends. + + Illusion of death + + Fright is so great at certain stages of mortal belief + as to drive belief into new paths. In the illusion of +251:9 death, mortals wake to the knowledge of two + facts: (1) that they are not dead; (2) that + they have but passed the portals of a new belief. Truth +251:12 works out the nothingness of error in just these ways. + Sickness, as well as sin, is an error that Christ, Truth, + alone can destroy. + + Mortal mind's disappearance + +251:15 We must learn how mankind govern the body, - + whether through faith in hygiene, in drugs, or in will- + power. We should learn whether they govern +251:18 the body through a belief in the necessity of + sickness and death, sin and pardon, or govern + it from the higher understanding that the divine Mind +251:21 makes perfect, acts upon the so-called human mind + through truth, leads the human mind to relinquish all + error, to find the divine Mind to be the only Mind, +251:24 and the healer of sin, disease, death. This process of + higher spiritual understanding improves mankind until + error disappears, and nothing is left which deserves to +251:27 perish or to be punished. + + Spiritual ignorance + + Ignorance, like intentional wrong, is not Science. + Ignorance must be seen and corrected before we can at- +251:30 tain harmony. Inharmonious beliefs, which + rob Mind, calling it matter, and deify their + own notions, imprison themselves in what they create. +252:1 They are at war with Science, and as our Master said, + "If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom +252:3 cannot stand." + + Human ignorance of Mind and of the recuperative + energies of Truth occasions the only skepticism regard- +252:6 ing the pathology and theology of Christian Science. + + Eternal man recognized + + When false human beliefs learn even a little of their + own falsity, they begin to disappear. A knowledge of +252:9 error and of its operations must precede that + understanding of Truth which destroys error, + until the entire mortal, material error finally disappears, +252:12 and the eternal verity, man created by and of Spirit, + is understood and recognized as the true likeness of his + Maker. + +252:15 The false evidence of material sense contrasts strikingly + with the testimony of Spirit. Material sense lifts its voice + with the arrogance of reality and says: + + Testimony of sense + +252:18 I am wholly dishonest, and no man knoweth it. I can + cheat, lie, commit adultery, rob, murder, and I elude + detection by smooth-tongued villainy. Ani- +252:21 mal in propensity, deceitful in sentiment, + fraudulent in purpose, I mean to make my short span + of life one gala day. What a nice thing is sin! How +252:24 sin succeeds, where the good purpose waits! The world + is my kingdom. I am enthroned in the gorgeousness + of matter. But a touch, an accident, the law of God, +252:27 may at any moment annihilate my peace, for all my + fancied joys are fatal. Like bursting lava, I expand but + to my own despair, and shine with the resplendency of +252:30 consuming fire. + + Testimony of Soul + + Spirit, bearing opposite testimony, saith: + + I am Spirit. Man, whose senses are spiritual, is my +253:1 likeness. He reflects the infinite understanding, for I am + Infinity. The beauty of holiness, the perfection of being, +253:3 imperishable glory, - all are Mine, for I am + God. I give immortality to man, for I am + Truth. I include and impart all bliss, for I am Love. +253:6 I give life, without beginning and without end, for I am + Life. I am supreme and give all, for I am Mind. I am + the substance of all, because I AM THAT I AM. + + Heaven-bestowed prerogative + +253:9 I hope, dear reader, I am leading you into the under- + standing of your divine rights, your heaven-bestowed har- + mony, - that, as you read, you see there is no +253:12 cause (outside of erring, mortal, material sense + which is not power) able to make you sick or + sinful; and I hope that you are conquering this false sense. +253:15 Knowing the falsity of so-called material sense, you can + assert your prerogative to overcome the belief in sin, dis- + ease, or death. + + Right endeavor possible + +253:18 If you believe in and practise wrong knowingly, you + can at once change your course and do right. Matter can + make no opposition to right endeavors against +253:21 sin or sickness, for matter is inert, mindless. + Also, if you believe yourself diseased, you can + alter this wrong belief and action without hindrance from +253:24 the body. + + Do not believe in any supposed necessity for sin, dis- + ease, or death, knowing (as you ought to know) that God +253:27 never requires obedience to a so-called material law, for + no such law exists. The belief in sin and death is de- + stroyed by the law of God, which is the law of Life in- +253:30 stead of death, of harmony instead of discord, of Spirit + instead of the flesh. + + Patience and final perfection + + The divine demand, "Be ye therefore perfect," is sci- +254:1 entific, and the human footsteps leading to perfection are + indispensable. Individuals are consistent who, watching +254:3 and praying, can "run, and not be weary; . . . + walk, and not faint," who gain good rapidly + and hold their position, or attain slowly and +254:6 yield not to discouragement. God requires perfection, + but not until the battle between Spirit and flesh is fought + and the victory won. To stop eating, drinking, or being +254:9 clothed materially before the spiritual facts of existence + are gained step by step, is not legitimate. When we wait + patiently on God and seek Truth righteously, He directs +254:12 our path. Imperfect mortals grasp the ultimate of spir- + itual perfection slowly; but to /begin/ aright and to con- + tinue the strife of demonstrating the great problem of +254:15 being, is doing much. + + During the sensual ages, absolute Christian Science + may not be achieved prior to the change called death, +254:18 for we have not the power to demonstrate what we do + not understand. But the human self must be evangel- + ized. This task God demands us to accept lovingly +254:21 to-day, and to abandon so fast as practical the material, + and to work out the spiritual which determines the out- + ward and actual. + +254:24 If you venture upon the quiet surface of error and are + in sympathy with error, what is there to disturb the waters? + What is there to strip off error's disguise? + + The cross and crown + +254:27 If you launch your bark upon the ever-agitated but + healthful waters of truth, you will encounter storms. + Your good will be evil spoken of. This is the +254:30 cross. Take it up and bear it, for through it + you win and wear the crown. Pilgrim on earth, thy home + is heaven; stranger, thou art the guest of God. + + + + + CHAPTER IX - CREATION + + Thy throne is established of old + Thou art from everlasting. - PSALMS. + + For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth + in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves + also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we + ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, + to wit, the redemption of our body. - PAUL. + + Inadequate theories of creation + +255:1 ETERNAL Truth is changing the universe. As mor- + tals drop off their mental swaddling-clothes, thought +255:3 expands into expression. "Let there be light," + is the perpetual demand of Truth and Love, + changing chaos into order and discord into the +255:6 music of the spheres. The mythical human theories of + creation, anciently classified as the higher criticism, sprang + from cultured scholars in Rome and in Greece, but they +255:9 afforded no foundation for accurate views of creation by + the divine Mind. + + Finite views of Deity + + Mortal man has made a covenant with his eyes to be- +255:12 little Deity with human conceptions. In league + with material sense, mortals take limited views + of all things. That God is corporeal or material, no man +255:15 should affirm. + + The human form, or physical finiteness, cannot be + made the basis of any true idea of the infinite Godhead. +255:18 Eye hath not seen Spirit, nor hath ear heard His voice. + + No material creation + +256:1 Progress takes off human shackles. The finite must + yield to the infinite. Advancing to a higher plane of ac- +256:3 tion, thought rises from the material sense to + the spiritual, from the scholastic to the in- + spirational, and from the mortal to the immortal. All +256:6 things are created spiritually. Mind, not matter, is the + creator. Love, the divine Principle, is the Father and + Mother of the universe, including man. + + Tritheism impossible + +256:9 The theory of three persons in one God (that is, a per- + sonal Trinity or Tri-unity) suggests polythe- + ism, rather than the one ever-present I AM. +256:12 "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord." + + No divine corporeality + + The everlasting I AM is not bounded nor compressed + within the narrow limits of physical humanity, nor can +256:15 He be understood aright through mortal con- + cepts. The precise form of God must be of + small importance in comparison with the sublime ques- +256:18 tion, What is infinite Mind or divine Love? + + Who is it that demands our obedience? He who, in + the language of Scripture, "doeth according to His will +256:21 in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the + earth; and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, + What doest Thou?" + +256:24 No form nor physical combination is adequate to rep- + resent infinite Love. A finite and material sense of God + leads to formalism and narrowness; it chills the spirit of +256:27 Christianity. + + Limitless Mind + + A limitless Mind cannot proceed from physical limita- + tions. Finiteness cannot present the idea or the vast- +256:30 ness of infinity. A mind originating from a + finite or material source must be limited and + finite. Infinite Mind is the creator, and creation is the +257:1 infinite image or idea emanating from this Mind. If + Mind is within and without all things, then all is Mind; +257:3 and this definition is scientific. + + Matter is not substance + + If matter, so-called, is substance, then Spirit, matter's + unlikeness, must be shadow; and shadow cannot produce +257:6 substance. The theory that Spirit is not the + only substance and creator is pantheistic het- + erodoxy, which ultimates in sickness, sin, and death; it is +257:9 the belief in a bodily soul and a material mind, a soul + governed by the body and a mind in matter. This be- + lief is shallow pantheism. + +257:12 Mind creates His own likeness in ideas, and the sub- + stance of an idea is very far from being the supposed sub- + stance of non-intelligent matter. Hence the Father Mind +257:15 is not the father of matter. The material senses and + human conceptions would translate spiritual ideas into + material beliefs, and would say that an anthropomorphic +257:18 God, instead of infinite Principle, - in other words, divine + Love, - is the father of the rain, "who hath begotten the + drops of dew," who bringeth "forth Mazzaroth in his sea- +257:21 son," and guideth "Arcturus with his sons." + + Inexhaustible divine Love + + Finite mind manifests all sorts of errors, and thus + proves the material theory of mind in matter to be the +257:24 antipode of Mind. Who hath found finite life + or love sufficient to meet the demands of human + want and woe, - to still the desires, to satisfy the aspira- +257:27 tions? Infinite Mind cannot be limited to a finite form, + or Mind would lose its infinite character as inexhaustible + Love, eternal Life, omnipotent Truth. + + Infinite physique impossible + +257:30 It would require an infinite form to contain infinite + Mind. Indeed, the phrase /infinite form/ involves a con- + tradiction of terms. Finite man cannot be the image and +258:1 likeness of the infinite God. A mortal, corporeal, or + finite conception of God cannot embrace the glories of +258:3 limitless, incorporeal Life and Love. Hence + the unsatisfied human craving for something + better, higher, holier, than is afforded by a +258:6 material belief in a physical God and man. The insuffi- + ciency of this belief to supply the true idea proves the + falsity of material belief. + + Infinity's reflection + +258:9 Man is more than a material form with a mind inside, + which must escape from its environments in + order to be immortal. Man reflects infinity, +258:12 and this reflection is the true idea of God. + + God expresses in man the infinite idea forever develop- + ing itself, broadening and rising higher and higher from +258:15 a boundless basis. Mind manifests all that exists in + the infinitude of Truth. We know no more of man as + the true divine image and likeness, than we know of +258:18 God. + + The infinite Principle is reflected by the infinite idea + and spiritual individuality, but the material so-called senses +258:21 have no cognizance of either Principle or its idea. The + human capacities are enlarged and perfected in propor- + tion as humanity gains the true conception of man and +258:24 God. + + Individual permanency + + Mortals have a very imperfect sense of the spiritual + man and of the infinite range of his thought. To him +258:27 belongs eternal Life. Never born and + never dying, it were impossible for man, under + the government of God in eternal Science, to fall from his +258:30 high estate. + + God's man discerned + + Through spiritual sense you can discern the heart of + divinity, and thus begin to comprehend in Science the +259:1 generic term /man. /Man is not absorbed in Deity, and + man cannot lose his individuality, for he re- +259:3 flects eternal Life; nor is he an isolated, soli- + tary idea, for he represents infinite Mind, the sum of all + substance. + +259:6 In divine Science, man is the true image of God. The + divine nature was best expressed in Christ Jesus, who + threw upon mortals the truer reflection of God and lifted +259:9 their lives higher than their poor thought-models would + allow, - thoughts which presented man as fallen, sick, + sinning, and dying. The Christlike understanding of +259:12 scientific being and divine healing includes a perfect Prin- + ciple and idea, - perfect God and perfect man, - as the + basis of thought and demonstration. + + The divine image not lost + +259:15 If man was once perfect but has now lost his perfection, + then mortals have never beheld in man the reflex image + of God. The /lost/ image is no image. The +259:18 true likeness cannot be lost in divine reflection. + Understanding this, Jesus said: "Be ye there- + fore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is +259:21 perfect." + + Immortal models + + Mortal thought transmits its own images, and forms + its offspring after human illusions. God, Spirit, works +259:24 spiritually, not materially. Brain or matter + never formed a human concept. Vibration is + not intelligence; hence it is not a creator. Immortal +259:27 ideas, pure, perfect, and enduring, are transmitted by + the divine Mind through divine Science, which corrects + error with truth and demands spiritual thoughts, divine +259:30 concepts, to the end that they may produce harmonious + results. + + Deducing one's conclusions as to man from imperfec- +260:1 tion instead of perfection, one can no more arrive at the + true conception or understanding of man, and make him- +260:3 self like it, than the sculptor can perfect his outlines from + an imperfect model, or the painter can depict the form + and face of Jesus, while holding in thought the character +260:6 of Judas. + + Spiritual discovery + + The conceptions of mortal, erring thought must give + way to the ideal of all that is perfect and eternal. Through +260:9 many generations human beliefs will be attain- + ing diviner conceptions, and the immortal and + perfect model of God's creation will finally be seen as +260:12 the only true conception of being. + + Science reveals the possibility of achieving all good, + and sets mortals at work to discover what God has already +260:15 done; but distrust of one's ability to gain the goodness + desired and to bring out better and higher results, often + hampers the trial of one's wings and ensures failure at the +260:18 outset. + + Requisite change of our ideals + + Mortals must change their ideals in order to improve + their models. A sick body is evolved from +260:21 sick thoughts. Sickness, disease, and death + proceed from fear. Sensualism evolves bad + physical and moral conditions. + +260:24 Selfishness and sensualism are educated in mortal + mind by the thoughts ever recurring to one's self, by + conversation about the body, and by the expectation of +260:27 perpetual pleasure or pain from it; and this education + is at the expense of spiritual growth. If we array + thought in mortal vestures, it must lose its immortal +260:30 nature. + + Thoughts are things + + If we look to the body for pleasure, we find pain; for + Life, we find death; for Truth, we find error; for Spirit, +261:1 we find its opposite, matter. Now reverse this action. + Look away from the body into Truth and Love, +261:3 the Principle of all happiness, harmony, and + immortality. Hold thought steadfastly to the endur- + ing, the good, and the true, and you will bring these +261:6 into your experience proportionably to their occupancy + of your thoughts. + + Unreality of pain + + The effect of mortal mind on health and happiness is +261:9 seen in this: If one turns away from the body with such + absorbed interest as to forget it, the body + experiences no pain. Under the strong im- +261:12 pulse of a desire to perform his part, a noted actor was + accustomed night after night to go upon the stage and + sustain his appointed task, walking about as actively +261:15 as the youngest member of the company. This old man + was so lame that he hobbled every day to the theatre, and + sat aching in his chair till his cue was spoken, - a signal +261:18 which made him as oblivious of physical infirmity as if + he had inhaled chloroform, though he was in the full pos- + session of his so-called senses. + + Immutable identity of man + +261:21 Detach sense from the body, or matter, which is only + a form of human belief, and you may learn the meaning + of God, or good, and the nature of the immu- +261:24 table and immortal. Breaking away from the + mutations of time and sense, you will neither + lose the solid objects and ends of life nor your own iden- +261:27 tity. Fixing your gaze on the realities supernal, you will + rise to the spiritual consciousness of being, even as the bird + which has burst from the egg and preens its wings for a +261:30 skyward flight. + + Forgetfulness of self + + We should forget our bodies in remembering good and + the human race. Good demands of man every hour, in +262:1 which to work out the problem of being. Consecration + to good does not lessen man's dependence on God, but +262:3 heightens it. Neither does consecration di- + minish man's obligations to God, but shows + the paramount necessity of meeting them. Christian +262:6 Science takes naught from the perfection of God, but it + ascribes to Him the entire glory. By putting "off the old + man with his deeds," mortals "put on immortality." + +262:9 We cannot fathom the nature and quality of God's + creation by diving into the shallows of mortal belief. We + must reverse our feeble flutterings - our efforts to find +262:12 life and truth in matter - and rise above the testimony + of the material senses, above the mortal to the immortal + idea of God. These clearer, higher views inspire the God- +262:15 like man to reach the absolute centre and circumference + of his being. + + The true sense + + Job said: "I have heard of Thee by the hearing of the +262:18 ear: but now mine eye seeth Thee." Mortals will echo + Job's thought, when the supposed pain and + pleasure of matter cease to predominate. They +262:21 will then drop the false estimate of life and happiness, of + joy and sorrow, and attain the bliss of loving unselfishly, + working patiently, and conquering all that is unlike God. +262:24 Starting from a higher standpoint, one rises spontane- + ously, even as light emits light without effort; for "where + your treasure is, there will your heart be also." + + Mind only the cause + +262:27 The foundation of mortal discord is a false sense of + man's origin. To begin rightly is to end rightly. Every + concept which seems to begin with the brain +262:30 begins falsely. Divine Mind is the only cause + or Principle of existence. Cause does not exist in matter, + in mortal mind, or in physical forms. + + Human egotism + +263:1 Mortals are egotists. They believe themselves to be + independent workers, personal authors, and even privi- +263:3 leged originators of something which Deity + would not or could not create. The creations + of mortal mind are material. Immortal spiritual man +263:6 alone represents the truth of creation. + + Mortal man a mis-creator + + When mortal man blends his thoughts of existence + with the spiritual and works only as God works, +263:9 he will no longer grope in the dark and cling + to earth because he has not tasted heaven. + Carnal beliefs defraud us. They make man an involun- +263:12 tary hypocrite, - producing evil when he would create + good, forming deformity when he would outline grace + and beauty, injuring those whom he would bless. He +263:15 becomes a general mis-creator, who believes he is a + semi-god. His "touch turns hope to dust, the dust we + all have trod." He might say in Bible language: "The +263:18 good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would + not, /that I do./" + + No new creation + + There can be but one creator, who has created all. +263:21 Whatever seems to be a new creation, is but the discovery + of some distant idea of Truth; else it is a + new multiplication or self-division of mor- +263:24 tal thought, as when some finite sense peers from its + cloister with amazement and attempts to pattern the + infinite. + +263:27 The multiplication of a human and mortal sense of per- + sons and things is not creation. A sensual thought, like + an atom of dust thrown into the face of spiritual im- +263:30 mensity, is dense blindness instead of a scientific eternal + consciousness of creation. + + Mind's true camera + + The fading forms of matter, the mortal body and ma- +264:1 terial earth, are the fleeting concepts of the human mind. + They have their day before the permanent facts and their +264:3 perfection in Spirit appear. The crude crea- + tions of mortal thought must finally give place + to the glorious forms which we sometimes behold in the +264:6 camera of divine Mind, when the mental picture is spir- + itual and eternal. Mortals must look beyond fading, + finite forms, if they would gain the true sense of things. +264:9 Where shall the gaze rest but in the unsearchable realm + of Mind? We must look where we would walk, and we + must act as possessing all power from Him in whom we +264:12 have our being. + + Self-completeness + + As mortals gain more correct views of God and man, + multitudinous objects of creation, which before were +264:15 invisible, will become visible. When we + realize that Life is Spirit, never in nor of + matter, this understanding will expand into self-com- +264:18 pleteness, finding all in God, good, and needing no other + consciousness. + + Spiritual proofs of existence + + Spirit and its formations are the only realities of being. +264:21 Matter disappears under the microscope of Spirit. Sin + is unsustained by Truth, and sickness and + death were overcome by Jesus, who proved +264:24 them to be forms of error. Spiritual living + and blessedness are the only evidences, by which we can + recognize true existence and feel the unspeakable peace +264:27 which comes from an all-absorbing spiritual love. + + When we learn the way in Christian Science and rec- + ognize man's spiritual being, we shall behold and under- +264:30 stand God's creation, - all the glories of earth and heaven + and man. + + Godward gravitation + + The universe of Spirit is peopled with spiritual beings, +265:1 and its government is divine Science. Man is the off- + spring, not of the lowest, but of the highest qualities of +265:3 Mind. Man understands spiritual existence + in proportion as his treasures of Truth and + Love are enlarged. Mortals must gravitate Godward, +265:6 their affections and aims grow spiritual, - they must near + the broader interpretations of being, and gain some proper + sense of the infinite, - in order that sin and mortality +265:9 may be put off. + + This scientific sense of being, forsaking matter for + Spirit, by no means suggests man's absorption into Deity +265:12 and the loss of his identity, but confers upon man en- + larged individuality, a wider sphere of thought and action, + a more expansive love, a higher and more permanent +265:15 peace. + + Mortal birth and death + + The senses represent birth as untimely and death as + irresistible, as if man were a weed growing apace or a +265:18 flower withered by the sun and nipped by + untimely frosts; but this is true only of a + mortal, not of a man in God's image and likeness. The +265:21 truth of being is perennial, and the error is unreal and + obsolete. + + Blessings from pain + + Who that has felt the loss of human peace has not gained +265:24 stronger desires for spiritual joy? The aspiration after + heavenly good comes even before we discover + what belongs to wisdom and Love. The loss +265:27 of earthly hopes and pleasures brightens the ascending + path of many a heart. The pains of sense quickly inform + us that the pleasures of sense are mortal and that joy is +265:30 spiritual. + + Decapitation of error + + The pains of sense are salutary, if they wrench away + false pleasurable beliefs and transplant the affections +266:1 from sense to Soul, where the creations of God are good, + "rejoicing the heart." Such is the sword of +266:3 Science, with which Truth decapitates error, + materiality giving place to man's higher individuality and + destiny. + + Uses of adversity + +266:6 Would existence without personal friends be to you + a blank? Then the time will come when you will be + solitary, left without sympathy; but this +266:9 seeming vacuum is already filled with divine + Love. When this hour of development comes, even if + you cling to a sense of personal joys, spiritual Love will +266:12 force you to accept what best promotes your growth. + Friends will betray and enemies will slander, until the + lesson is sufficient to exalt you; for "man's extremity +266:15 is God's opportunity." The author has experienced the + foregoing prophecy and its blessings. Thus He teaches + mortals to lay down their fleshliness and gain spirituality. +266:18 This is done through self-abnegation. Universal Love + is the divine way in Christian Science. + + The sinner makes his own hell by doing evil, and the +266:21 saint his own heaven by doing right. The opposite per- + secutions of material sense, aiding evil with evil, would + deceive the very elect. + + Beatific presence + +266:24 Mortals must follow Jesus' sayings and his demonstra- + tions, which dominate the flesh. Perfect and infinite + Mind enthroned is heaven. The evil beliefs +266:27 which originate in mortals are hell. Man is the + idea of Spirit; he reflects the beatific presence, illuming + the universe with light. Man is deathless, spiritual. He +266:30 is above sin or frailty. He does not cross the barriers + of time into the vast forever of Life, but he coexists with + God and the universe. + + The infinitude of God + +267:1 Every object in material thought will be destroyed, but + the spiritual idea, whose substance is in Mind, is eternal. +267:3 The offspring of God start not from matter + or ephemeral dust. They are in and of Spirit, + divine Mind, and so forever continue. God is one. The +267:6 allness of Deity is His oneness. Generically man is one, + and specifically man means all men. + + It is generally conceded that God is Father, eternal, self- +267:9 created, infinite. If this is so, the forever Father must + have had children prior to Adam. The great I AM made + all "that was made." Hence man and the spiritual uni- +267:12 verse coexist with God. + + Christian Scientists understand that, in a religious + sense, they have the same authority for the appellative +267:15 mother, as for that of brother and sister. Jesus said: + "For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which + is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and +267:18 mother." + + Waymarks to eternal Truth + + When examined in the light of divine Science, mortals + present more than is detected upon the surface, since +267:21 inverted thoughts and erroneous beliefs must + be counterfeits of Truth. Thought is bor- + rowed from a higher source than matter, and +267:24 by reversal, errors serve as waymarks to the one Mind, + in which all error disappears in celestial Truth. The + robes of Spirit are "white and glistering," like the raiment +267:27 of Christ. Even in this world, therefore, "let thy gar- + ments be always white." "Blessed is the man that en- + dureth [overcometh] temptation: for when he is tried, +267:30 [proved faithful], he shall receive the crown of life, + which the Lord hath promised to them that love him." + (James i. 12.) + + + + + CHAPTER X - SCIENCE OF BEING + + That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, + which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, + and our hands have handled, of the Word of life, . . . + That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, + that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly our + fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. + - JOHN, First Epistle. + + Here I stand. I can do no otherwise; so help me God! Amen! + - MARTIN LUTHER. + + Materialistic challenge + +268:1 In the material world, thought has brought to light + with great rapidity many useful wonders. With +268:3 like activity have thought's swift pinions been rising + towards the realm of the real, to the spiritual + cause of those lower things which give im- +268:6 pulse to inquiry. Belief in a material basis, from + which may be deduced all rationality, is slowly yielding + to the idea of a metaphysical basis, looking away from +268:9 matter to Mind as the cause of every effect. Material- + istic hypotheses challenge metaphysics to meet in final + combat. In this revolutionary period, like the shep- +268:12 herd-boy with his sling, woman goes forth to battle with + Goliath. + + Confusion confounded + + In this final struggle for supremacy, semi-metaphysi- +268:15 cal systems afford no substantial aid to scientific meta- + physics, for their arguments are based on + the false testimony of the material senses as +268:18 well as on the facts of Mind. These semi-metaphysical +269:1 systems are one and all pantheistic, and savor of Pan- + demonium, a house divided against itself. + +269:3 From first to last the supposed coexistence of Mind + and matter and the mingling of good and evil have re- + sulted from the philosophy of the serpent. Jesus' demon- +269:6 strations sift the chaff from the wheat, and unfold the + unity and the reality of good, the unreality, the nothing- + ness, of evil. + + Divine metaphysics + +269:9 Human philosophy has made God manlike. Christian + Science makes man Godlike. The first is error; the latter + is truth. Metaphysics is above physics, and +269:12 matter does not enter into metaphysical prem- + ises or conclusions. The categories of metaphysics rest + on one basis, the divine Mind. Metaphysics resolves +269:15 things into thoughts, and exchanges the objects of sense + for the ideas of Soul. + + These ideas are perfectly real and tangible to spiritual +269:18 consciousness, and they have this, advantage over the ob- + jects and thoughts of material sense, - they are good and + eternal. + + Biblical foundations + +269:21 The testimony of the material senses is neither abso- + lute nor divine. I therefore plant myself unreservedly + on the teachings of Jesus, of his apostles, of +269:24 the prophets, and on the testimony of the + Science of Mind. Other foundations there are none. + All other systems - systems based wholly or partly on +269:27 knowledge gained through the material senses - are reeds + shaken by the wind, not houses built on the rock. + + Rejected theories + + The theories I combat are these: (1) that all is matter; +269:30 (2) that matter originates in Mind, and is as + real as Mind, possessing intelligence and life. + The first theory, that matter is everything, is quite as +270:1 reasonable as the second, that Mind and matter coexist + and cooperate. One only of the following statements can +270:3 be true: (1) that everything is matter; (2) that every- + thing is Mind. Which one is it? + + Matter and Mind are opposites. One is contrary to +270:6 the other in its very nature and essence; hence both can- + not be real. If one is real, the other must be unreal. Only + by understanding that there is but one power, - not two +270:9 powers, matter and Mind, - are scientific and logical + conclusions reached. Few deny the hypothesis that in- + telligence, apart from man and matter, governs the uni- +270:12 verse; and it is generally admitted that this intelligence + is the eternal Mind or divine principle, Love. + + Prophetic ignorance + + The prophets of old looked for something higher than +270:15 the systems of their times; hence their fore- + sight of the new dispensation of Truth. But + they knew not what would be the precise nature of the +270:18 teaching and demonstration of God, divine Mind, in His + more infinite meanings, - the demonstration which was + to destroy sin, sickness, and death, establish the definition +270:21 of omnipotence, and maintain the Science of Spirit. + + The pride of priesthood is the prince of this world. It + has nothing in Christ. Meekness and charity have divine +270:24 authority. Mortals think wickedly; consequently they + are wicked. They think sickly thoughts, and so become + sick. If sin makes sinners, Truth and Love alone can +270:27 unmake them. If a sense of disease produces suffering + and a sense of ease antidotes suffering, disease is mental, + not material. Hence the fact that the human mind alone +270:30 suffers, is sick, and that the divine Mind alone heals. + + The life of Christ Jesus was not miraculous, but it was + indigenous to his spirituality, - the good soil wherein the +271:1 seed of Truth springs up and bears much fruit. Christ's + Christianity is the chain of scientific being reappearing +271:3 in all ages, maintaining its obvious correspondence with + the Scriptures and uniting all periods in the design of + God. Neither emasculation, illusion, nor insubordination +271:6 exists in divine Science. + + Jesus instructed his disciples whereby to heal the sick + through Mind instead of matter. He knew that the phi- +271:9 losophy, Science, and proof of Christianity were in Truth, + casting out all inharmony. + + Studious disciples + + In Latin the word rendered /disciple/ signifies student; +271:12 and the word indicates that the power of healing was not + a supernatural gift to those learners, but the + result of their cultivated spiritual understand- +271:15 ing of the divine Science, which their Master demonstrated + by healing the sick and sinning. Hence the universal ap- + plication of his saying: "Neither pray I for these alone, +271:18 but for them also which shall believe on me [understand + me] through their word." + + New Testament basis + + Our Master said, "But the Comforter . . . shall +271:21 teach you all things." When the Science of Christianity + appears, it will lead you into all truth. The + Sermon on the Mount is the essence of this +271:24 Science, and the eternal life, not the death of Jesus, is + its outcome. + + Modern evangel + + Those, who are willing to leave their nets or to cast +271:27 them on the right side for Truth, have the opportunity + now, as aforetime, to learn and to practise + Christian healing. The Scriptures contain it. +271:30 The spiritual import of the Word imparts this power. + But, as Paul says, "How shall they hear without a + preacher? and how shall they preach, except they be +272:1 sent?" If sent, how shall they preach, convert, and heal + multitudes, except the people hear? + + Spirituality of Scripture + +272:3 The spiritual sense of truth must be gained before + Truth can be understood. This sense is assimilated only + as we are honest, unselfish, loving, and meek. +272:6 In the soil of an "honest and good heart" the + seed must be sown; else it beareth not much fruit, for the + swinish element in human nature uproots it. Jesus said: +272:9 "Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures." The spiritual + sense of the Scriptures brings out the scientific sense, and + is the new tongue referred to in the last chapter of Mark's +272:12 Gospel. + + Jesus' parable of "the sower" shows the care our + Master took not to impart to dull ears and gross hearts +272:15 the spiritual teachings which dulness and grossness could + not accept. Reading the thoughts of the people, he said: + "Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast +272:18 ye your pearls before swine." + + Unspiritual contrasts + + It is the spiritualization of thought and Christianization + of daily life, in contrast with the results of the ghastly farce +272:21 of material existence; it is chastity and purity, + in contrast with the downward tendencies + and earthward gravitation of sensualism and impurity, +272:24 which really attest the divine origin and operation of Chris- + tian Science. The triumphs of Christian Science are re- + corded in the destruction of error and evil, from which are +272:27 propagated the dismal beliefs of sin, sickness, and death. + + God the Principle of all + + The divine Principle of the universe must interpret the + universe. God is the divine Principle of all that repre- +272:30 sents Him and of all that really exists. Chris- + tian Science, as demonstrated by Jesus, alone + reveals the natural, divine Principle of Science. + +273:1 Matter and its claims of sin, sickness, and death are + contrary to God, and cannot emanate from Him. There +273:3 is no /material/ truth. The physical senses can take no + cognizance of God and spiritual Truth. Human belief + has sought out many inventions, but not one of them +273:6 can solve the problem of being without the divine Prin- + ciple of divine Science. Deductions from material hy- + potheses are not scientific. They differ from real Science +273:9 because they are not based on the divine law. + + Science /versus/ sense + + Divine Science reverses the false testimony of the ma- + terial senses, and thus tears away the foun- +273:12 dations of error. Hence the enmity between + Science and the senses, and the impossibility + of attaining perfect understanding till the errors of sense +273:15 are eliminated. + + The so-called laws of matter and of medical science have + never made mortals whole, harmonious, and immortal. +273:18 Man is harmonious when governed by Soul. Hence the + importance of understanding the truth of being, which + reveals the laws of spiritual existence. + + Spiritual law the only law + +273:21 God never ordained a material law to annul the spiritual + law. If there were such a material law, it would oppose + the supremacy of Spirit, God, and impugn the +273:24 wisdom of the creator. Jesus walked on the + waves, fed the multitude, healed the sick, and raised the + dead in direct opposition to material laws. His acts were +273:27 the demonstration of Science, overcoming the false claims + of material sense or law. + + Material knowledge illusive + + Science shows that material, conflicting mortal opin- +273:30 ions and beliefs emit the effects of error at all times, but + this atmosphere of mortal mind cannot be destructive to + morals and health when it is opposed promptly and per- +274:1 sistently by Christian Science. Truth and Love antidote + this mental miasma, and thus invigorate and sustain ex- +274:3 istence. Unnecessary knowledge gained from + the five senses is only temporal, - the concep- + tion of mortal mind, the offspring of sense, not +274:6 of Soul, Spirit, - and symbolizes all that is evil and + perishable. /Natural science/, as it is commonly called, is + not really natural nor scientific, because it is deduced from +274:9 the evidence of the material senses. Ideas, on the con- + trary, are born of Spirit, and are not mere inferences + drawn from material premises. + + Five senses deceptive + +274:12 The senses of Spirit abide in Love, and they demon- + strate Truth and Life. Hence Christianity and the Sci- + ence which expounds it are based on spiritual +274:15 understanding, and they supersede the so- + called laws of matter. Jesus demonstrated this great + verity. When what we erroneously term the five physical +274:18 senses are misdirected, they are simply the manifested + beliefs of mortal mind, which affirm that life, substance, + and intelligence are material, instead of spiritual. These +274:21 false beliefs and their products constitute the flesh, and + the flesh wars against Spirit. + + Impossible partnership + + Divine Science is absolute, and permits no half-way +274:24 position in learning its Principle and rule - establishing + it by demonstration. The conventional firm, + called matter and mind, God never formed. +274:27 Science and understanding, governed by the unerring and + eternal Mind, destroy the imaginary copartnership, matter + and mind, formed only to be destroyed in a manner and +274:30 at a period as yet unknown. This suppositional partner- + ship is already obsolete, for matter, examined in the light + of divine metaphysics, disappears. + + Spirit the starting-point + +275:1 Matter has no life to lose, and Spirit never dies. A + partnership of mind with matter would ignore omnipres- +275:3 ent and omnipotent Mind. This shows that + matter did not originate in God, Spirit, and is + not eternal. Therefore matter is neither substantial, living, +275:6 nor intelligent. The starting-point of divine Science is + that God, Spirit, is All-in-all, and that there is no other + might nor Mind, - that God is Love, and therefore He +275:9 is divine Principle. + + Divine synonyms + + To grasp the reality and order of being in its Science, + you must begin by reckoning God as the divine Principle +275:12 of all that really is. Spirit, Life, Truth, Love, + combine as one, - and are the Scriptural names + for God. All substance, intelligence, wisdom, being, im- +275:15 mortality, cause, and effect belong to God. These are + His attributes, the eternal manifestations of the infinite + divine Principle, Love. No wisdom is wise but His +275:18 wisdom; no truth is true, no love is lovely, no life is Life + but the divine; no good is, but the good God bestows. + + The divine completeness + + Divine metaphysics, as revealed to spiritual understand- +275:21 ing, shows clearly that all is Mind, and that Mind is + God, omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, + - that is, all power, all presence, all Science. +275:24 Hence all is in reality the manifestation of Mind. + + Our material human theories are destitute of Science. + The true understanding of God is spiritual. It robs the +275:27 grave of victory. It destroys the false evidence that mis- + leads thought and points to other gods, or other so-called + powers, such as matter, disease, sin, and death, superior +275:30 or contrary to the one Spirit. + + Truth, spiritually discerned, is scientifically understood. + It casts out error and heals the sick. + + Universal brotherhood + +276:1 Having one God, one Mind, unfolds the power that + heals the sick, and fulfils these sayings of Scripture, "I +276:3 am the Lord that healeth thee," and "I have + found a ransom." When the divine precepts + are understood, they unfold the foundation of fellowship, +276:6 in which one mind is not at war with another, but all have + one Spirit, God, one intelligent source, in accordance with + the Scriptural command: "Let this Mind be in you, +276:9 which was also in Christ Jesus." Man and his Maker + are correlated in divine Science, and real consciousness + is cognizant only of the things of God. + +276:12 The realization that all inharmony is unreal brings + objects and thoughts into human view in their true light, + and presents them as beautiful and immortal. Harmony +276:15 in man is as real and immortal as in music. Discord is + unreal and mortal. + + Perfection requisite + + If God is admitted to be the only Mind and Life, +276:18 there ceases to be any opportunity for sin and death. + When we learn in Science how to be perfect + even as our Father in heaven is perfect, +276:21 thought is turned into new and healthy channels, - + towards the contemplation of things immortal and away + from materiality to the Principle of the universe, includ- +276:24 ing harmonious man. + + Material beliefs and spiritual understanding never + mingle. The latter destroys the former. Discord is the +276:27 /nothingness/ named error. Harmony is the /somethingness/ + named Truth. + + Like evolving like + + Nature and revelation inform us that like produces +276:30 like. Divine Science does not gather grapes + from thorns nor figs from thistles. Intelli- + gence never produces non-intelligence; but matter is +277:1 ever non-intelligent and therefore cannot spring from + intelligence. To all that is unlike unerring and eternal +277:3 Mind, this Mind saith, "Thou shalt surely die;" and else- + where the Scripture says that dust returns to dust. The + non-intelligent relapses into its own unreality. Matter +277:6 never produces mind. The immortal never produces the + mortal. Good cannot result in evil. As God Himself is + good and is Spirit, goodness and spirituality must be im- +277:9 mortal. Their opposites, evil and matter, are mortal + error, and error has no creator. If goodness and spirit- + uality are real, evil and materiality are unreal and can- +277:12 not be the outcome of an infinite God, good. + + Natural history presents vegetables and animals as + preserving their original species, - like reproducing like. +277:15 A mineral is not produced by a vegetable nor the man + by the brute. In reproduction, the order of genus and + species is preserved throughout the entire round of nature. +277:18 This points to the spiritual truth and Science of being. + Error relies upon a reversal of this order, asserts that + Spirit produces matter and matter produces all the ills +277:21 of flesh, and therefore that good is the origin of evil. + These suppositions contradict even the order of material + so-called science. + + Material error + +277:24 The realm of the real is Spirit. The unlikeness of Spirit + is matter, and the opposite of the real is not divine, - it is + a human concept. Matter is an error of state- +277:27 ment. This error in the premise leads to errors + in the conclusion in every statement into which it enters. + Nothing we can say or believe regarding matter is immor- +277:30 tal, for matter is temporal and is therefore a mortal phe- + nomenon, a human concept, sometimes beautiful, always + erroneous. + + Substance /versus/ supposition + +278:1 Is Spirit the source or creator of matter? Science re- + veals nothing in Spirit out of which to create matter. +278:3 Divine metaphysics explains away matter. + Spirit is the only substance and consciousness + recognized by divine Science. The material +278:6 senses oppose this, but there are no material senses, for + matter has no mind. In Spirit there is no matter, even + as in Truth there is no error, and in good no evil. It is +278:9 a false supposition, the notion that there is real substance- + matter, the opposite of Spirit. Spirit, God, is infinite, + all. Spirit can have no opposite. + + One cause supreme + +278:12 That matter is substantial or has life and sensation, is + one of the false beliefs of mortals, and exists only in a + supposititious mortal consciousness. Hence, +278:15 as we approach Spirit and Truth, we lose the + consciousness of matter. The admission that there can + be material substance requires another admission, - +278:18 namely, that Spirit is not infinite and that matter is self- + creative, self-existent, and eternal. From this it would + follow that there are two eternal causes, warring forever +278:21 with each other; and yet we say that Spirit is supreme + and all-presence. + + The belief of the eternity of matter contradicts the +278:24 demonstration of life as Spirit, and leads to the conclu- + sion that if man is material, he originated in matter and + must return to dust, - logic which would prove his an- +278:27 nihilation. + + Substance is Spirit + + All that we term sin, sickness, and death is a mortal + belief. We define matter as error, because it is the oppo- +278:30 site of life, substance, and intelligence. Mat- + ter, with its mortality, cannot be substantial + if Spirit is substantial and eternal. Which ought to +279:1 be substance to us, - the erring, changing, and dying, + the mutable and mortal, or the unerring, immutable, +279:3 and immortal? A New Testament writer plainly de- + scribes faith, a quality of mind, as "the /substance/ of things + hoped for." + + Material mortality + +279:6 The doom of matter establishes the conclusion that + matter, slime, or protoplasm never originated + in the immortal Mind, and is therefore not +279:9 eternal. Matter is neither created by Mind nor for the + manifestation and support of Mind. + + Spiritual tangibility + + Ideas are tangible and real to immortal consciousness, +279:12 and they have the advantage of being eternal. + Spirit and matter can neither coexist nor co- + operate, and one can no more create the other than +279:15 Truth can create error, or /vice versa/. + + In proportion as the belief disappears that life and in- + telligence are in or of matter, the immortal facts of +279:18 being are seen, and their only idea or intelligence is + in God. Spirit is reached only through the understand- + ing and demonstration of eternal Life and Truth and +279:21 Love. + + Pantheistic tendencies + + Every system of human philosophy, doctrine, and + medicine is more or less infected with the pantheistic +279:24 belief that there is mind in matter; but this + belief contradicts alike revelation and right + reasoning. A logical and scientific conclusion is reached +279:27 only through the knowledge that there are not two + bases of being, matter and mind, but one alone, - + Mind. + +279:30 Pantheism, starting from a material sense of God, + seeks cause in effect, Principle in its idea, and life and + intelligence in matter. + + The things of God are beautiful + +280:1 In the infinitude of Mind, matter must be unknown. + Symbols and elements of discord and decay are not prod- +280:3 ucts of the infinite, perfect, and eternal /All/. + From Love and from the light and harmony + which are the abode of Spirit, only reflections +280:6 of good can come. All things beautiful and harmless are + ideas of Mind. Mind creates and multiplies them, and + the product must be mental. + +280:9 Finite belief can never do justice to Truth in any direc- + tion. Finite belief limits all things, and would compress + Mind, which is infinite, beneath a skull bone. Such be- +280:12 lief can neither apprehend nor worship the infinite; and + to accommodate its finite sense of the divisibility of Soul + and substance, it seeks to divide the one Spirit into per- +280:15 sons and souls. + + Belief in many gods + + Through this error, human belief comes to have "gods + many and lords many." Moses declared as Jehovah's +280:18 first command of the Ten: "Thou shalt have + no other gods before me!" But behold the + zeal of belief to establish the opposite error of many +280:21 minds. The argument of the serpent in the allegory, "Ye + shall be as gods," urges through every avenue the belief + that Soul is in body, and that infinite Spirit, and Life, is +280:24 in finite forms. + + Sensationless body + + Rightly understood, instead of possessing a sentient + material form, man has a sensationless body; and God, +280:27 the Soul of man and of all existence, being + perpetual in His own individuality, harmony, + and immortality, imparts and perpetuates these qualities +280:30 in man, - through Mind, not matter. The only excuse + for entertaining human opinions and rejecting the Science + of being is our mortal ignorance of Spirit, - ignorance +281:1 which yields only to the understanding of divine Science, + the understanding by which we enter into the kingdom +281:3 of Truth on earth and learn that Spirit is infinite and + supreme. Spirit and matter no more commingle than + light and darkness. When one appears, the other dis- +281:6 appears. + + God and His image + + Error presupposes man to be both mind and matter. + Divine Science contradicts the corporeal senses, rebukes +281:9 mortal belief, and asks: What is the Ego, + whence its origin and what its destiny? The + Ego-man is the reflection of the Ego-God; the Ego-man +281:12 is the image and likeness of perfect Mind, Spirit, divine + Principle. + + The one Ego, the one Mind or Spirit called God, is +281:15 infinite individuality, which supplies all form and come- + liness and which reflects reality and divinity in individual + spiritual man and things. + +281:18 The mind supposed to exist in matter or beneath a + skull bone is a myth, a misconceived sense and false + conception as to man and Mind. When we put off the +281:21 false sense for the true, and see that sin and mortality + have neither Principle nor permanency, we shall learn + that sin and mortality are without actual origin or right- +281:24 ful existence. They are native nothingness, out of which + error would simulate creation through a man formed from + dust. + + The true new idea + +281:27 Divine Science does not put new wine into old bottles, + Soul into matter, nor the infinite into the finite. Our + false views of matter perish as we grasp +281:30 the facts of Spirit. The old belief must be + cast out or the new idea will be spilled, and the in- + spiration, which is to change our standpoint, will be +282:1 lost. Now, as of old, Truth casts out evils and heals + the sick. + + Figures of being + +282:3 The real Life, or Mind, and its opposite, the so-called + material life and mind, are figured by two geometrical + symbols, a circle or sphere and a straight +282:6 line. The circle represents the infinite with- + out beginning or end; the straight line represents the + finite, which has both beginning and end. The sphere +282:9 represents good, the self-existent and eternal individuality + or Mind; the straight line represents evil, a belief in + a self-made and temporary material existence. Eternal +282:12 Mind and temporary material existence never unite in + figure or in fact. + + Opposite symbols + + A straight line finds no abiding-place in a curve, and a +282:15 curve finds no adjustment to a straight line. Similarly, + matter has no place in Spirit, and Spirit has + no place in matter. Truth has no home in +282:18 error, and error has no foothold in Truth. Mind cannot + pass into non-intelligence and matter, nor can non-intel- + ligence become Soul. At no point can these opposites +282:21 mingle or unite. Even though they seem to touch, one + is still a curve and the other a straight line. + + There is no inherent power in matter; for all that is +282:24 material is a material, human, mortal thought, always + governing itself erroneously. + + Truth is the intelligence of immortal Mind. Error is +282:27 the so-called intelligence of mortal mind. + + Truth is not inverted + + Whatever indicates the fall of man or the opposite of + God or God's absence, is the Adam-dream, which is neither +282:30 Mind nor man, for it is not begotten of the + Father. The rule of inversion infers from + error its opposite, Truth; but Truth is the light which +283:1 dispels error. As mortals begin to understand Spirit, + they give up the belief that there is any true existence +283:3 apart from God. + + Source of all life and action + + Mind is the source of all movement, and there is no + inertia to retard or check its perpetual and harmonious +283:6 action. Mind is the same Life, Love, and wis- + dom "yesterday, and to-day, and forever." + Matter and its effects - sin, sickness, and +283:9 death - are states of mortal mind which act, react, and + then come to a stop. They are not facts of Mind. They + are not ideas, but illusions. Principle is absolute. It +283:12 admits of no error, but rests upon understanding. + + But what say prevalent theories? They insist that + Life, or God, is one and the same with material life so- +283:15 called. They speak of both Truth and error as /mind/, + and of good and evil as /spirit/. They claim that to be + life which is but the objective state of material sense, - +283:18 such as the structural life of the tree and of material + man, - and deem this the manifestation of the one Life, + God. + + Spiritual structure + +283:21 This false belief as to what really constitutes life so + detracts from God's character and nature, that the true + sense of His power is lost to all who cling to +283:24 this falsity. The divine Principle, or Life, can- + not be practically demonstrated in length of days, as it + was by the patriarchs, unless its Science be accurately +283:27 stated. We must receive the divine Principle in the under- + standing, and live it in daily life; and unless we so do, we + can no more demonstrate Science, than we can teach and +283:30 illustrate geometry by calling a curve a straight line or a + straight line a sphere. + + Are mentality, immortality, consciousness, resident in +284:1 matter? It is not rational to say that Mind is infinite, + but dwells in finiteness, - in matter, - or that matter is +284:3 infinite and the medium of Mind. + + Mind never limited + + If God were limited to man or matter, or if the infinite + could be circumscribed within the finite, God would be +284:6 corporeal, and unlimited Mind would seem + to spring from a limited body; but this is an + impossibility. Infinite Mind can have no starting-point, +284:9 and can return to no limit. It can never be in bonds, + nor be fully manifested through corporeality. + + Material recognition impossible + + Is God's image or likeness matter, or a mortal, sin, +284:12 sickness, and death? Can matter recognize Mind? + Can infinite Mind recognize matter? Can the + infinite dwell in the finite or know aught un- +284:15 like the infinite? Can Deity be known through + the material senses? Can the material senses, which re- + ceive no direct evidence of Spirit, give correct testimony +284:18 as to spiritual life, truth, and love? + + The answer to all these questions must forever be in + the negative. + + Our physical insensibility to Spirit + +284:21 The physical senses can obtain no proof of God. They + can neither see Spirit through the eye nor hear it through + the ear, nor can they feel, taste, or smell Spirit. +284:24 Even the more subtile and misnamed ma- + terial elements are beyond the cognizance + of these senses, and are known only by the effects com- +284:27 monly attributed to them. + + According to Christian Science, the only real senses + of man are spiritual, emanating from divine Mind. +284:30 Thought passes from God to man, but neither sensation + nor report goes from material body to Mind. The in- + tercommunication is always from God to His idea, man. +285:1 Matter is not sentient and cannot be cognizant of good + or of evil, of pleasure or of pain. Man's individu- +285:3 ality is not material. This Science of being obtains not + alone hereafter in what men call Paradise, but here + and now; it is the great fact of being for time and +285:6 eternity. + + The human counterfeit + + What, then, is the material personality which suffers, + sins, and dies? It is not man, the image and likeness +285:9 of God, but man's counterfeit, the inverted + likeness, the /unlikeness/ called sin, sickness, + and death. The unreality of the claim that a mortal is +285:12 the true image of God is illustrated by the opposite na- + tures of Spirit and matter, Mind and body, for one is + intelligence while the other is non-intelligence. + + Material misconceptions + +285:15 Is God a physical personality? Spirit is not physical. + The belief that a material body is man is a false con- + ception of man. The time has come for a +285:18 finite conception of the infinite and of a ma- + terial body as the seat of Mind to give place + to a diviner sense of intelligence and its manifestations, +285:21 to the better understanding that Science gives of the + Supreme Being, or divine Principle, and idea. + + Salvation is through reform + + By interpreting God as a corporeal Saviour but not as +285:24 the saving Principle, or divine Love, we shall continue + to seek salvation through pardon and not + through reform, and resort to matter instead +285:27 of Spirit for the cure of the sick. As mortals + reach, through knowledge of Christian Science, a higher + sense, they will seek to learn, not from matter, but from +285:30 the divine Principle, God, how to demonstrate the Christ, + Truth, as the healing and saving power. + + It is essential to understand, instead of believe, what +286:1 relates most nearly to the happiness of being. To seek + Truth through belief in a human doctrine is not to un- +286:3 derstand the infinite. We must not seek the immutable + and immortal through the finite, mutable, and mortal, + and so depend upon belief instead of demonstration, for +286:6 this is fatal to a knowledge of Science. The understand- + ing of Truth gives full faith in Truth, and spiritual un- + derstanding is better than all burnt offerings. + +286:9 The Master said, "No man cometh unto the Father + [the divine Principle of being] but by me," Christ, + Life, Truth, Love; for Christ says, "I am the way." +286:12 Physical causation was put aside from first to + last by this original man, Jesus. He knew that the + divine. Principle, Love, creates and governs all that +286:15 is real. + + Goodness a portion of God + + In the Saxon and twenty other tongues /good/ is the term + for God. The Scriptures declare all that He +286:18 made to be good, like Himself, - good in + Principle and in idea. Therefore the spiritual + universe is good, and reflects God as He is. + + Spiritual thoughts + +286:21 God's thoughts are perfect and eternal, are substance + and Life. Material and temporal thoughts are human, + involving error, and since God, Spirit, is the +286:24 only cause, they lack a divine cause. The + temporal and material are not then creations of Spirit. + They are but counterfeits of the spiritual and eternal. +286:27 Transitory thoughts are the antipodes of everlasting + Truth, though (by the supposition of opposite qualities) + error must also say, "I am true." But by this saying +286:30 error, the lie, destroys itself. + + Sin, sickness, and death are comprised in human ma- + terial belief, and belong not to the divine Mind. They +287:1 are without a real origin or existence. They have neither + Principle nor permanence, but belong, with all that is +287:3 material and temporal, to the nothingness of error, which + simulates the creations of Truth. All creations of Spirit + are eternal; but creations of matter must return to dust. +287:6 Error supposes man to be both mental and material. + Divine Science contradicts this postulate and maintains + man's spiritual identity. + + Divine allness + +287:9 We call the absence of Truth, /error/. Truth and error + are unlike. In Science, Truth is divine, and the /infinite/ + God can have no unlikeness. Did God, Truth, +287:12 create error? No! "Doth a fountain send + forth at the same place sweet water and bitter?" God + being everywhere and all-inclusive, how can He be absent +287:15 or suggest the absence of omnipresence and omnipotence? + How can there be more than /all/? + + Neither understanding nor truth accompanies error, +287:18 nor is error the offshoot of Mind. Evil calls itself some- + thing, when it is nothing. It saith, "I am man, but I am + not the image and likeness of God;" whereas the Scrip- +287:21 tures declare that man was made in God's likeness. + + Error unveiled + + Error is false, mortal belief; it is illusion, without spir- + itual identity or foundation, and it has no real existence. +287:24 The supposition that life, substance, and in- + telligence are /in/ matter, or /of/ it, is an error. + Matter is neither a thing nor a person, but merely the +287:27 objective supposition of Spirit's opposite. The five mate- + rial senses testify to truth and error as united in a mind + both good and evil. Their false evidence will finally +287:30 yield to Truth, - to the recognition of Spirit and of the + spiritual creation. + + Truth cannot be contaminated by error. The state- +288:1 ment that /Truth is real/ necessarily includes the correlated + statement, that /error, Truth's unlikeness, is unreal/. + + The great conflict + +288:3 The suppositional warfare between truth and error is + only the mental conflict between the evidence of the spir- + itual senses and the testimony of the material +288:6 senses, and this warfare between the Spirit and + flesh will settle all questions through faith in and the un- + derstanding of divine Love. +288:9 Superstition and understanding can never combine. + When the final physical and moral effects of Christian + Science are fully apprehended, the conflict between truth +288:12 and error, understanding and belief, Science and material + sense, foreshadowed by the prophets and inaugurated + by Jesus, will cease, and spiritual harmony reign. The +288:15 lightnings and thunderbolts of error may burst and flash + till the cloud is cleared and the tumult dies away in the + distance. Then the raindrops of divinity refresh the +288:18 earth. As St. Paul says: "There remaineth therefore + a rest to the people of God" (of Spirit). + + The chief stones in the temple + + The chief stones in the temple of Christian Science are +288:21 to be found in the following postulates: that Life is God, + good, and not evil; that Soul is sinless, not + to be found in the body; that Spirit is not, and +288:24 cannot be, materialized; that Life is not subject + to death; that the spiritual real man has no birth, no ma- + terial life, and no death. + + The Christ-element + +288:27 Science reveals the glorious possibilities of immortal + man, forever unlimited by the mortal senses. + The Christ-element in the Messiah made him +288:30 the Way-shower, Truth and Life. + + The eternal Truth destroys what mortals seem to have + learned from error, and man's real existence as a child +289:1 of God comes to light. Truth demonstrated is eternal + life. Mortal man can never rise from the temporal /debris/ +289:3 of error, belief in sin, sickness, and death, until he learns + that God is the only Life. The belief that life and sensa- + tion are in the body should be overcome by the under- +289:6 standing of what constitutes man as the image of God. + Then Spirit will have overcome the flesh. + + Wickedness is not man + + A wicked mortal is not the idea of God. He is little +289:9 else than the expression of error. To suppose that sin, + lust, hatred, envy, hypocrisy, revenge, have life + abiding in them, is a terrible mistake. Life +289:12 and life's idea, Truth and Truth's idea, never make men + sick, sinful, or mortal. + + Death but an illusion + + The fact that the Christ, or Truth, overcame and still +289:15 overcomes death proves the "king of terrors" to be but + a mortal belief, or error, which Truth destroys + with the spiritual evidences of Life; and this +289:18 shows that what appears to the senses to be death is but a + mortal illusion, for to the real man and the real universe + there is no death-process. + +289:21 The belief that matter has life results, by the universal + law of mortal mind, in a belief in death. So man, tree, + and flower are supposed to die; but the fact remains, +289:24 that God's universe is spiritual and immortal. + + Spiritual offspring + + The spiritual fact and the material belief of things are + contradictions; but the spiritual is true, and therefore the +289:27 material must be untrue. Life is not in matter. + Therefore it cannot be said to pass out of mat- + ter. Matter and death are mortal illusions. Spirit and +289:30 all things spiritual are the real and eternal. + + Man is not the offspring of flesh, but of Spirit, - of + Life, not of matter. Because Life is God, Life must be +290:1 eternal, self-existent. Life is the everlasting I AM, the Be- + ing who was and is and shall be, whom nothing can erase. + + Death no advantage + +290:3 If the Principle, rule, and demonstration of man's being + are not in the least understood before what is termed death + overtakes mortals, they will rise no higher spir- +290:6 itually in the scale of existence on account of + that single experience, but will remain as material as be- + fore the transition, still seeking happiness through a ma- +290:9 terial, instead of through a spiritual sense of life, and from + selfish and inferior motives. That Life or Mind is finite + and physical or is manifested through brain and nerves, +290:12 is false. Hence Truth comes to destroy this error and + its effects, - sickness, sin, and death. To the spiritual + class, relates the Scripture: "On such the second death +290:15 hath no power." + + Future purification + + If the change called /death/ destroyed the belief in sin, + sickness, and death, happiness would be won at the mo- +290:18 ment of dissolution, and be forever permanent; + but this is not so. Perfection is gained only + by perfection. They who are unrighteous shall be un- +290:21 righteous still, until in divine Science Christ, Truth, re- + moves all ignorance and sin. + + Sin is punished + + The sin and error which possess us at the instant of +290:24 death do not cease at that moment, but endure until the + death of these errors. To be wholly spiritual, + man must be sinless, and he becomes thus only +290:27 when he reaches perfection. The murderer, though slain + in the act, does not thereby forsake sin. He is no more + spiritual for believing that his body died and learning that +290:30 his cruel mind died not. His thoughts are no purer until + evil is disarmed by good. His body is as material as his + mind, and /vice versa/. + +291:1 The suppositions that sin is pardoned while unfor- + saken, that happiness can be genuine in the midst of +291:3 sin, that the so-called death of the body frees from sin, + and that God's pardon is aught but the destruction of + sin, - these are grave mistakes. We know that all will +291:6 be changed "in the twinkling of an eye," when the last + trump shall sound; but this last call of wisdom cannot + come till mortals have already yielded to each lesser call +291:9 in the growth of Christian character. Mortals need not + fancy that belief in the experience of death will awaken + them to glorified being. + + Salvation and probation + +291:12 Universal salvation rests on progression and probation, + and is unattainable without them. Heaven is not a local- + ity, but a divine state of Mind in which all the +291:15 manifestations of Mind are harmonious and + immortal, because sin is not there and man is + found having no righteousness of his own, but in posses- +291:18 sion of "the mind of the Lord," as the Scripture says. + + "In the place where the tree falleth, there it shall + be." So we read in Ecclesiastes. This text has been +291:21 transformed into the popular proverb, "As the tree + falls, so it must lie." As man falleth asleep, so shall he + awake. As death findeth mortal man, so shall he be +291:24 after death, until probation and growth shall effect the + needed change. Mind never becomes dust. No resur- + rection from the grave awaits Mind or Life, for the grave +291:27 has no power over either. + + Day of judgment + + No final judgment awaits mortals, for the judgment- + day of wisdom comes hourly and continually, +291:30 even the judgment by which mortal man is di- + vested of all material error. As for spiritual error there + is none. + +292:1 When the last mortal fault is destroyed, then the final + trump will sound which will end the battle of Truth with +292:3 error and mortality; "but of that day and hour, knoweth + no man." Here prophecy pauses. Divine Science alone + can compass the heights and depths of being and reveal +292:6 the infinite. + + Primitive error + + Truth will be to us "the resurrection and the life" only + as it destroys all error and the belief that Mind, the only +292:9 immortality of man, can be fettered by the + body, and Life be controlled by death. A sin- + ful, sick, and dying mortal is not the likeness of God, the +292:12 perfect and eternal. + + Matter is the primitive belief of mortal mind, because + this so-called mind has no cognizance of Spirit. To +292:15 mortal mind, matter is substantial, and evil is + real. The so-called senses of mortals are material. + Hence the so-called life of mortals is dependent on +292:18 matter. + + Explaining the origin of material man and mortal mind, + Jesus said: "Why do ye not understand my speech? +292:21 Even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your + father, the devil [evil], and the lusts of your father ye will + do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode +292:24 not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When + he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, + and the father of it." + + Immortal man + +292:27 This carnal material mentality, misnamed /mind/, is + mortal. Therefore man would be annihilated, were it + not for the spiritual real man's indissoluble +292:30 connection with his God, which Jesus brought + to light. In his resurrection and ascension, Jesus showed + that a mortal man is not the real essence of manhood, and +293:1 that this unreal material mortality disappears in presence + of the reality. + + Elementary electricity + +293:3 Electricity is not a vital fluid, but the least material + form of illusive consciousness, - the material mindless- + ness, which forms no link between matter and +293:6 Mind, and which destroys itself. Matter and + mortal mind are but different strata of human belief. The + grosser substratum is named matter or body; the more +293:9 ethereal is called mind. This so-called mind and body + is the illusion called a mortal, a mind in matter. In reality + and in Science, both strata, mortal mind and mortal body, +293:12 are false representatives of man. + + The material so-called gases and forces are counter- + feits of the spiritual forces of divine Mind, whose potency +293:15 is Truth, whose attraction is Love, whose adhesion and + cohesion are Life, perpetuating the eternal facts of being. + Electricity is the sharp surplus of materiality which coun- +293:18 terfeits the true essence of spirituality or truth, - the + great difference being that electricity is not intelligent, + while spiritual truth is Mind. + + The counterfeit forces + +293:21 There is no vapid fury of mortal mind - expressed in + earthquake, wind, wave, lightning, fire, bestial ferocity + - and this so-called mind is self-destroyed. +293:24 The manifestations of evil, which counterfeit + divine justice, are called in the Scriptures, "The anger + of the Lord." In reality, they show the self-destruction +293:27 of error or matter and point to matter's opposite, the + strength and permanency of Spirit. Christian Science + brings to light Truth and its supremacy, universal har- +293:30 mony, the entireness of God, good, and the nothingness + of evil. + + Instruments of error + + The five physical senses are the avenues and instru- +294:1 ments of human error, and they correspond with error. + These senses indicate the common human belief, that life, +294:3 substance, and intelligence are a unison of + matter with Spirit. This is pantheism, and + carries within itself the seeds of all error. + +294:6 If man is both mind and matter, the loss of one finger + would take away some quality and quantity of the man, + for matter and man would be one. + + Mortal verdict + +294:9 The belief that matter thinks, sees, or feels is not more + real than the belief that matter enjoys and suffers. This + mortal belief, misnamed /man/, is error, saying: +294:12 "Matter has intelligence and sensation. Nerves + feel. Brain thinks and sins. The stomach can make a + man cross. Injury can cripple and matter can kill man." +294:15 This verdict of the so-called material senses victimizes + mortals, taught, as they are by physiology and pathology, + to revere false testimony, even the errors that are destroyed +294:18 by Truth through spiritual sense and Science. + + Mythical pleasure + + The lines of demarcation between immortal man, repre- + senting Spirit, and mortal man, representing the error that +294:21 life and intelligence are in matter, show the + pleasures and pains of matter to be myths, and + human belief in them to be the father of mythology, in +294:24 which matter is represented as divided into intelligent gods. + Man's genuine selfhood is recognizable only in what is + good and true. Man is neither self-made nor made by +294:27 mortals. God created man. + + Severed members + + The inebriate believes that there is pleasure in intoxica- + tion. The thief believes that he gains something by steal- +294:30 ing, and the hypocrite that he is hiding himself. The + Science of Mind corrects such mistakes, for Truth demon- + strates the falsity of error. + + Severed members + +295:1 The belief that a severed limb is aching in the old loca- + tion, the sensation seeming to be in nerves which +295:3 are no longer there, is an added proof of the un- + reliability of physical testimony. + + Mortals unlike immortals + + God creates and governs the universe, including man. +295:6 The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He + evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind + that makes them. Mortal mind would trans- +295:9 form the spiritual into the material, and then + recover man's original self in order to escape from the + mortality of this error. Mortals are not like immortals, +295:12 created in God's own image; but infinite Spirit being all, + mortal consciousness will at last yield to the scientific fact + and disappear, and the real sense of being, perfect and +295:15 forever intact, will appear. + + Goodness transparent + + The manifestation of God through mortals is as light + passing through the window-pane. The light and the +295:18 glass never mingle, but as matter, the glass + is less opaque than the walls. The mortal + mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that +295:21 one which has lost much materiality - much error - in + order to become a better transparency for Truth. Then, + like a cloud melting into thin vapor, it no longer hides +295:24 the sun. + + Brainology a myth + + All that is called mortal thought is made up of error. + The theoretical mind is matter, named /brain/, or /mate/- +295:27 /rial consciousness/, the exact opposite of real + Mind, or Spirit. Brainology teaches that + mortals are created to suffer and die. It further +295:30 teaches that when man is dead, his immortal soul is + resurrected from death and mortality. Thus error the- + orizes that spirit is born of matter and returns to mat- +296:1 ter, and that man has a resurrection from dust; whereas + Science unfolds the eternal verity, that man is the spiritual, +296:3 eternal reflection of God. + + Scientific purgation + + Progress is born of experience. It is the ripening of + mortal man, through which the mortal is dropped for +296:6 the immortal. Either here or hereafter, suf- + fering or Science must destroy all illusions + regarding life and mind, and regenerate material sense +296:9 and self. The old man with his deeds must be put off. + Nothing sensual or sinful is immortal. The death of a + false material sense and of sin, not the death of organic +296:12 matter, is what reveals man and Life, harmonious, real, + and eternal. + + The so-called pleasures and pains of matter perish, +296:15 and they must go out under the blaze of Truth, spiritual + sense, and the actuality of being. Mortal belief must lose + all satisfaction in error and sin in order to part with +296:18 them. + + Whether mortals will learn this sooner or later, and + how long they will suffer the pangs of destruction, de- +296:21 pends upon the tenacity of error. + + Mixed testimony + + The knowledge obtained from the corporeal senses + leads to sin and death. When the evidence of Spirit +296:24 and matter, Truth and error, seems to com- + mingle, it rests upon foundations which time + is wearing away. Mortal mind judges by the testimony +296:27 of the material senses, until Science obliterates this false + testimony. An improved belief is one step out of error, + and aids in taking the next step and in understanding +296:30 the situation in Christian Science. + + Belief an autocrat + + Mortal belief is a liar from the beginning, not deserving + power. It says to mortals, "You are wretched!" and they +297:1 think they are so; and nothing can change this state, until + the belief changes. Mortal belief says, "You are happy!" +297:3 and mortals are so; and no circumstance can + alter the situation, until the belief on this sub- + ject changes. Human belief says to mortals, "You are +297:6 sick!" and this testimony manifests itself on the body as + sickness. It is as necessary for a health-illusion, as for + an illusion of sickness, to be instructed out of itself into +297:9 the understanding of what constitutes health; for a change + in either a health-belief or a belief in sickness affects the + physical condition. + + Self-improvement + +297:12 Erroneous belief is destroyed by truth. Change the + evidence, and that disappears which before seemed real + to this false belief, and the human conscious- +297:15 ness rises higher. Thus the reality of being + is attained and man found to be immortal. The only + fact concerning any material concept is, that it is neither +297:18 scientific nor eternal, but subject to change and dis- + solution. + + Faith higher than belief + + Faith is higher and more spiritual than belief. It is +297:21 a chrysalis state of human thought, in which spiritual + evidence, contradicting the testimony of mate- + rial sense, begins to appear, and Truth, the +297:24 ever-present, is becoming understood. Human thoughts + have their degrees of comparison. Some thoughts are + better than others. A belief in Truth is better than a +297:27 belief in error, but no mortal testimony is founded on the + divine rock. Mortal testimony can be shaken. Until + belief becomes faith, and faith becomes spiritual under- +297:30 standing, human thought has little relation to the actual + or divine. + + A mortal belief fulfils its own conditions. Sickness, +298:1 sin, and death are the vague realities of human conclu- + sions. Life, Truth, and Love are the realities of divine +298:3 Science. They dawn in faith and glow full-orbed in + spiritual understanding. As a cloud hides the sun it + cannot extinguish, so false belief silences for a while the +298:6 voice of immutable harmony, but false belief cannot de- + stroy Science armed with faith, hope, and fruition. + + Truth's witness + + What is termed material sense can report only a mor- +298:9 tal temporary sense of things, whereas spiritual sense can + bear witness only to Truth. To material sense, + the unreal is the real until this sense is corrected +298:12 by Christian Science. + + Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, in- + volves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, real- +298:15 ity. Material sense expresses the belief that mind is in + matter. This human belief, alternating between a sense + of pleasure and pain, hope and fear, life and death, never +298:18 reaches beyond the boundary of the mortal or the unreal. + When the real is attained, which is announced by Science, + joy is no longer a trembler, nor is hope a cheat. Spirit- +298:21 ual ideas, like numbers and notes, start from Principle, + and admit no materialistic beliefs. Spiritual ideas lead + up to their divine origin, God, and to the spiritual sense +298:24 of being. + + Thought-angels + + Angels are not etherealized human beings, evolving + animal qualities in their wings; but they are celestial +298:27 visitants, flying on spiritual, not material, + pinions. Angels are pure thoughts from God, + winged with Truth and Love, no matter what their indi- +298:30 vidualism may be. Human conjecture confers upon angels + its own forms of thought, marked with superstitious out- + lines, making them human creatures with suggestive +299:1 feathers; but this is only fancy. It has behind it no more + reality than has the sculptor's thought when he carves +299:3 his "Statue of Liberty," which embodies his concep- + tion of an unseen quality or condition, but which has + no physical antecedent reality save in the artist's own ob- +299:6 servation and "chambers of imagery." + + Our Angelic messengers + + My angels are exalted thoughts, appearing at the door + of some sepulchre, in which human belief has buried +299:9 its fondest earthly hopes. With white fin- + gers they point upward to a new and glo- + rified trust, to higher ideals of life and its joys. Angels +299:12 are God's representatives. These upward-soaring beings + never lead towards self, sin, or materiality, but guide to + the divine Principle of all good, whither every real indi- +299:15 viduality, image, or likeness of God, gathers. By giving + earnest heed to these spiritual guides they tarry with us, + and we entertain "angels unawares." + + Knowledge and Truth + +299:18 Knowledge gained from material sense is figuratively + represented in Scripture as a tree, bearing the fruits of + sin, sickness, and death. Ought we not then +299:21 to judge the knowledge thus obtained to be + untrue and dangerous, since "the tree is known by his + fruit"? + +299:24 Truth never destroys God's idea. Truth is spiritual, + eternal substance, which cannot destroy the right reflec- + tion. Corporeal sense, or error, may seem to hide Truth, +299:27 health, harmony, and Science, as the mist obscures the + sun or the mountain; but Science, the sunshine of Truth, + will melt away the shadow and reveal the celestial +299:30 peaks. + + Old and new man + + If man were solely a creature of the material senses, + he would have no eternal Principle and would be mutable +300:1 and mortal. Human logic is awry when it attempts + to draw correct spiritual conclusions regarding life from +300:3 matter. Finite sense has no true apprecia- + tion of infinite Principle, God, or of His infi- + nite image or reflection, man. The mirage, which makes +300:6 trees and cities seem to be where they are not, illustrates + the illusion of material man, who cannot be the image + of God. + +300:9 So far as the scientific statement as to man is under- + stood, it can be proved and will bring to light the true + reflection of God - the real man, or the /new/ man (as +300:12 St. Paul has it). + + The tares and wheat + + The temporal and unreal never touch the eternal and + real. The mutable and imperfect never touch the im- +300:15 mutable and perfect. The inharmonious and + self-destructive never touch the harmonious + and self-existent. These opposite qualities are the tares +300:18 and wheat, which never really mingle, though (to mortal + sight) they grow side by side until the harvest; then, Sci- + ence separates the wheat from the tares, through the real- +300:21 ization of God as ever present and of man as reflecting + the divine likeness. + + The divine reflection + + Spirit is God, Soul; therefore Soul is not in matter. If +300:24 Spirit were in matter, God would have no representative, + and matter would be identical with God. + The theory that soul, spirit, intelligence, in- +300:27 habits matter is taught by the schools. This theory is + unscientific. The universe reflects and expresses the di- + vine substance or Mind; therefore God is seen only in the +300:30 spiritual universe and spiritual man, as the sun is seen in + the ray of light which goes out from it. God is re- + vealed only in that which reflects Life, Truth, Love, - +301:1 yea, which manifests God's attributes and power, even + as the human likeness thrown upon the mirror, repeats +301:3 the color, form, and action of the person in front of the + mirror. + + Few persons comprehend what Christian Science +301:6 means by the word /reflection. /To himself, mortal and + material man seems to be substance, but his sense of + substance involves error and therefore is material, +301:9 temporal. + + On the other hand, the immortal, spiritual man is really + substantial, and reflects the eternal substance, or Spirit, +301:12 which mortals hope for. He reflects the divine, which + constitutes the only real and eternal entity. This reflection + seems to mortal sense transcendental, because the spiritual +301:15 man's substantiality transcends mortal vision and is re- + vealed only through divine Science. + + Inverted images and ideas + + As God is substance and man is the divine image and +301:18 likeness, man should wish for, and in reality has, only + the substance of good, the substance of Spirit, + not matter. The belief that man has any other +301:21 substance, or mind, is not spiritual and breaks + the First Commandment, Thou shalt have one God, one + Mind. Mortal man seems to himself to be material sub- +301:24 stance, while man is "image" (idea). Delusion, sin, dis- + ease, and death arise from the false testimony of material + sense, which, from a supposed standpoint outside the +301:27 focal distance of infinite Spirit, presents an inverted image + of Mind and substance with everything turned upside + down. + +301:30 This falsity presupposes soul to be an unsubstantial + dweller in material forms, and man to be material instead + of spiritual. Immortality is not bounded by mortality. +302:1 Soul is not compassed by finiteness. Principle is not to + be found in fragmentary ideas. + + Identity not lost + +302:3 The material body and mind are temporal, but the + real man is spiritual and eternal. The identity of the + real man is not lost, but found through this +302:6 explanation; for the conscious infinitude of + existence and of all identity is thereby discerned and re- + mains unchanged. It is impossible that man should lose +302:9 aught that is real, when God is all and eternally his. The + notion that mind is in matter, and that the so-called pleas- + ures and pains, the birth, sin, sickness, and death of +302:12 matter, are real, is a mortal belief; and this belief is all + that will ever be lost. + + Definition of man + + Continuing our definition of/ man/, let us remember that +302:15 harmonious and immortal man has existed forever, and + is always beyond and above the mortal illu- + sion of any life, substance and intelligence +302:18 as existent in matter. This statement is based on fact, + not fable. The Science of being reveals man as perfect, + even as the Father is perfect, because the Soul, or Mind, +302:21 of the spiritual man is God, the divine Principle of all + being, and because this real man is governed by Soul + instead of sense, by the law of Spirit, not by the so-called +302:24 laws of matter. + + God is Love. He is therefore the divine, infinite Prin- + ciple, called Person or God. Man's true consciousness +302:27 is in the mental, not in any bodily or personal likeness + to Spirit. Indeed, the body presents no proper likeness + of divinity, though mortal sense would fain have us so +302:30 believe. + + Mental propagation + + Even in Christian Science, reproduction by Spirit's + individual ideas is but the reflection of the creative power +303:1 of the divine Principle of those ideas. The reflection, + through mental manifestation, of the multitudinous +303:3 forms of Mind which people the realm of + the real is controlled by Mind, the Principle + governing the reflection. Multiplication of God's chil- +303:6 dren comes from no power of propagation in matter, it + is the reflection of Spirit. + + The minutiae of lesser individualities reflect the one di- +303:9 vine individuality and are comprehended in and formed + by Spirit, not by material sensation. Whatever reflects + Mind, Life, Truth, and Love, is spiritually conceived and +303:12 brought forth; but the statement that man is conceived + and evolved both spiritually and materially, or by both + God and man, contradicts this eternal truth. All the +303:15 vanity of the ages can never make both these contraries + true. Divine Science lays the axe at the root of the illu- + sion that life, or mind, is formed by or is in the material +303:18 body, and Science will eventually destroy this illusion + through the self-destruction of all error and the beatified + understanding of the Science of Life. + + Error defined + +303:21 The belief that pain and pleasure, life and death, holi- + ness and unholiness, mingle in man, - that + mortal, material man is the likeness of God +303:24 and is himself a creator, - is a fatal error. + + Man's entity spiritual + + God, without the image and likeness of Himself, would + be a nonentity, or Mind unexpressed. He would be +303:27 without a witness or proof of His own na- + ture. Spiritual man is the image or idea of + God, an idea which cannot be lost nor sep- +303:30 arated from its divine Principle. When the evidence + before the material senses yielded to spiritual sense, the + apostle declared that nothing could alienate him from +304:1 God, from the sweet sense and presence of Life and + Truth. + + Man inseparable from Love + +304:3 It is ignorance and false belief, based on a material + sense of things, which hide spiritual beauty and good- + ness. Understanding this, Paul said: "Nei- +304:6 ther death, nor life, . . . nor things present, + nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor + any other creature, shall be able to separate us from +304:9 the love of God." This is the doctrine of Christian + Science: that divine Love cannot be deprived of its + manifestation, or object; that joy cannot be turned into +304:12 sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy; that good can + never produce evil; that matter can never produce mind + nor life result in death. The perfect man - governed +304:15 by God, his perfect Principle - is sinless and eternal. + + Harmony natural + + Harmony is produced by its Principle, is controlled + by it and abides with it. Divine Principle is the Life +304:18 of man. Man's happiness is not, therefore, at + the disposal of physical sense. Truth is not + contaminated by error. Harmony in man is as beautiful +304:21 as in music, and discord is unnatural, unreal. + + The science of music governs tones. If mortals caught + harmony through material sense, they would lose har- +304:24 mony, if time or accident robbed them of material sense. + To be master of chords and discords, the science of + music must be understood. Left to the decisions +304:27 of material sense, music is liable to be misappre- + hended and lost in confusion. Controlled by belief, + instead of understanding, music is, must be, imper- +304:30 fectly expressed. So man, not understanding the Sci- + ence of being, - thrusting aside his divine Principle as + incomprehensible, - is abandoned to conjectures, left in +305:1 the hands of ignorance, placed at the disposal of illusions, + subjected to material sense which is discord. A discon- +305:3 tented, discordant mortal is no more a /man/ than discord + is music. + + Human reflection + + A picture in the camera or a face reflected in the mirror +305:6 is not the original, though resembling it. Man, in the + likeness of his Maker, reflects the central light + of being, the invisible God. As there is no cor- +305:9 poreality in the mirrored form, which is but a reflection, + so man, like all things real, reflects God, his divine Prin- + ciple, not in a mortal body. + +305:12 Gender also is a quality, not of God, but a character- + istic of mortal mind. The verity that God's image is not + a creator, though he reflects the creation of Mind, God, +305:15 constitutes the underlying reality of reflection. "Then + answered Jesus and said unto them: Verily, verily I say + unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he +305:18 seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth, + these also doeth the Son likewise." + + Inverted images + + The inverted images presented by the senses, the de- +305:21 flections of matter as opposed to the Science of spirit- + ual reflection, are all unlike Spirit, God. In + the illusion of life that is here to-day and +305:24 gone to-morrow, man would be wholly mortal, were + it not that Love, the divine Principle that obtains in + divine Science, destroys all error and brings immor- +305:27 tality to light. Because man is the reflection of his + Maker, he is not subject to birth, growth, maturity, de- + cay. These mortal dreams are of human origin, not +305:30 divine. + + Jewish traditions + + The Sadducees reasoned falsely about the resurrec- + tion, but not so blindly as the Pharisees, who believed +306:1 error to be as immortal as Truth. The Pharisees thought + that they could raise the spiritual from the material. They +306:3 would first make life result in death, and then + resort to death to reproduce spiritual life. + Jesus taught them how death was to be overcome by +306:6 spiritual Life, and demonstrated this beyond cavil. + + Divinity not childless + + Life demonstrates Life. The immortality of Soul makes + man immortal. If God, who is Life, were parted for a +306:9 moment from His reflection, man, during that + moment there would be no divinity reflected. + The Ego would be unexpressed, and the Father would be +306:12 childless, - no Father. + + If Life or Soul and its representative, man, unite for + a period and then are separated as by a law of divorce to +306:15 be brought together again at some uncertain future time + and in a manner unknown, - and this is the general + religious opinion of mankind, - we are left without a +306:18 rational proof of immortality. But man cannot be sep- + arated for an instant from God, if man reflects God. + Thus Science proves man's existence to be intact. + + Thought-forms + +306:21 The myriad forms of mortal thought, made manifest + as matter, are not more distinct nor real to the mate- + rial senses than are the Soul-created forms +306:24 to spiritual sense, which cognizes Life as per- + manent. Undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the + material senses, Science, still enthroned, is unfolding +306:27 to mortals the immutable, harmonious, divine Principle, + - is unfolding Life and the universe, ever present and + eternal. + +306:30 God's man, spiritually created, is not material and + mortal. + + The serpent's whisper + + The parent of all human discord was the Adam-dream, +307:1 the deep sleep, in which originated the delusion that life + and intelligence proceeded from and passed into matter. +307:3 This pantheistic error, or so-called /serpent/, in- + sists still upon the opposite of Truth, saying, + "Ye shall be as gods;" that is, I will make error as real +307:6 and eternal as Truth. + + Evil still affirms itself to be mind, and declares that + there is more than one intelligence or God. It says: +307:9 "There shall be lords and gods many. I declare that God + makes evil minds and evil spirits, and that I aid Him. + Truth shall change sides and be unlike Spirit. I will +307:12 put spirit into what I call matter, and matter shall seem + to have life as much as God, Spirit, who /is/ the only life." + + Bad results from error + + This error has proved itself to be error. Its life is found +307:15 to be not Life, but only a transient, false sense of an ex- + istence which ends in death. Error charges + its lie to Truth and says: "The Lord knows +307:18 it. He has made man immortal and material, out of mat- + ter instead of Spirit." Thus error partakes of its own + nature and utters its own falsities. If we regard matter +307:21 as intelligent, and Mind as both good and evil, every sin + or supposed material pain and pleasure seems normal, + a part of God's creation, and so weighs against our course +307:24 Spiritward. + + Higher statutes + + Truth has no beginning. The divine Mind is the Soul + of man, and gives man dominion over all things. Man +307:27 was not created from a material basis, nor + bidden to obey material laws which Spirit never + made; his province is in spiritual statutes, in the higher +307:30 law of Mind. + + The great question + + Above error's awful din, blackness, and chaos, the voice + of Truth still calls: "Adam, where art thou? Conscious- +308:1 ness, where art thou? Art thou dwelling in the belief + that mind is in matter, and that evil is mind, or art thou +308:3 in the living faith that there is and can be but + one God, and keeping His commandment?" + Until the lesson is learned that God is the only Mind gov- +308:6 erning man, mortal belief will be afraid as it was in the + beginning, and will hide from the demand, "Where art + thou?" This awful demand, "Adam, where art thou?" +308:9 is met by the admission from the head, heart, stomach, + blood, nerves, etc.: "Lo, here I am, looking for happiness + and life in the body, but finding only an illusion, a blend- +308:12 ing of false claims, false pleasure, pain, sin, sickness, and + death." + + The Soul-inspired patriarchs heard the voice of Truth, +308:15 and talked with God as consciously as man talks with man. + + Wrestling of Jacob + + Jacob was /alone/, wrestling with error, - struggling + with a mortal sense of life, substance, and intelligence +308:18 as existent in matter with its false pleasures + and pains, - when an angel, a message from + Truth and Love, appeared to him and smote the sinew, +308:21 or strength, of his error, till he saw its unreality; and + Truth, being thereby understood, gave him spiritual + strength in this Peniel of divine Science. Then said +308:24 the spiritual evangel: "Let me go, for the day breaketh;" + that is, the light of Truth and Love dawns upon thee. + But the patriarch, perceiving his error and his need +308:27 of help, did not loosen his hold upon this glorious light + until his nature was transformed. When Jacob was + asked, "What is thy name?" he straightway answered; +308:30 and then his name was changed to Israel, for "as a prince" + had he prevailed and had "power with God and with + men." Then Jacob questioned his deliverer, "Tell me, +309:1 I pray thee, /thy/ name;" but this appellation was withheld, + for the messenger was not a corporeal being, but a name- +309:3 less, incorporeal impartation of divine Love to man, which, + to use the word of the Psalmist, /restored /his Soul, - gave + him the spiritual sense of being and rebuked his material +309:6 sense. + + Israel the new name + + The result of Jacob's struggle thus appeared. He had + conquered material error with the understanding of Spirit +309:9 and of spiritual power. This changed the man. + He was no longer called Jacob, but Israel, - + a prince of God, or a soldier of God, who had fought +309:12 a good fight. He was to become the father of those, who + through earnest striving followed his demonstration of the + power of Spirit over the material senses; and the children +309:15 of earth who followed his example were to be called the + children of Israel, until the Messiah should rename them. + If these children should go astray, and forget that Life +309:18 is God, good, and that good is not in elements which are + not spiritual, - thus losing the divine power which heals + the sick and sinning, - they were to be brought back +309:21 through great tribulation, to be renamed in Christian + Science and led to deny material sense, or mind in matter, + even as the gospel teaches. + + Life never structural + +309:24 The Science of being shows it to be impossible for in- + finite Spirit or Soul to be in a finite body or for man to + have an intelligence separate from his Maker. +309:27 It is a self-evident error to suppose that there + can be such a reality as organic animal or vegetable life, + when such so-called life always ends in death. Life is +309:30 never for a moment extinct. Therefore it is never struc- + tural nor organic, and is never absorbed nor limited by its + own formations. + + Thought seen as substance + +310:1 The artist is not in his painting. The picture is the + artist's thought objectified. The human belief fancies +310:3 that it delineates thought on matter, but what + is matter? Did it exist prior to thought? + Matter is made up of supposititious mortal mind-force; +310:6 but all might is divine Mind. Thought will finally be + understood and seen in all form, substance, and color, but + without material accompaniments. The potter is not in +310:9 the clay; else the clay would have power over the potter. + God is His own infinite Mind, and expresses all. + + The central intelligence + + Day may decline and shadows fall, but darkness flees +310:12 when the earth has again turned upon its axis. The sun + is not affected by the revolution of the earth. + So Science reveals Soul as God, untouched +310:15 by sin and death, - as the central life and intelligence + around which circle harmoniously all things in the sys- + tems of Mind. + + Soul imperishable + +310:18 Soul changeth not. We are commonly taught that there + is a human soul which sins and is spiritually lost, - that + soul may be lost, and yet be immortal. If +310:21 Soul could sin, Spirit, Soul, would be flesh in- + stead of Spirit. It is the belief of the flesh and of mate- + rial sense which sins. If Soul sinned, Soul would die. +310:24 Sin is the element of self-destruction, and spiritual death + is oblivion. If there was sin in Soul, the annihilation of + Spirit would be inevitable. The only Life is Spirit, and +310:27 if Spirit should lose Life as God, good, then Spirit, which + has no other existence, would be annihilated. + + Mind is God, and God is not seen by material sense, +310:30 because Mind is Spirit, which material sense cannot dis- + cern. There is neither growth, maturity, nor decay in + Soul. These changes are the mutations of material sense, +311:1 the varying clouds of mortal belief, which hide the truth + of being. + +311:3 What we term mortal mind or carnal mind, dependent + on matter for manifestation, is not Mind. God is Mind: + all that Mind, God, is, or hath made, is good, and He +311:6 made all. Hence evil is not made and is not real. + + Sin only of the flesh + + Soul is immortal because it is Spirit, which has no ele- + ment of self-destruction. is man lost spiritually? No, +311:9 he can only lose a sense material. All sin is + of the flesh. It cannot be spiritual. Sin exists + here or hereafter only so long as the illusion of mind in +311:12 matter remains. It is a sense of sin, and not a sinful soul, + which is lost. Evil is destroyed by the sense of good. + + Soul impeccable + + Through false estimates of soul as dwelling in sense +311:15 and of mind as dwelling in matter, belief strays into a + sense of temporary loss or absence of soul, spir- + itual truth. This state of error is the mortal +311:18 dream of life and substance as existent in matter, and is + directly opposite to the immortal reality of being. So long + as we believe that soul can sin or that immortal Soul is in +311:21 mortal body, we can never understand the Science of be- + ing. When humanity does understand this Science, it + will become the law of Life to man, - even the higher law +311:24 of Soul, which prevails over material sense through har- + mony and immortality. + + The objects cognized by the physical senses have not +311:27 the reality of substance. They are only what mortal + belief calls them. Matter, sin, and mortality lose all + supposed consciousness or claim to life or existence, as +311:30 mortals lay off a false sense of life, substance, and intelli- + gence. but the spiritual, eternal man is not touched by + these phases of mortality. + + Sense-dreams + +312:1 How true it is that whatever is learned through material + sense must be lost because such so-called knowledge is +312:3 reversed by the spiritual facts of being in + Science. That which material sense calls + intangible, is found to be substance. What to material +312:6 sense seems substance, becomes nothingness, as the sense- + dream vanishes and reality appears. + + The senses regard a corpse, not as man, but simply as +312:9 matter. People say, "Man is dead;" but this death is + the departure of a mortal's mind, not of matter. The + matter is still there. The belief of that mortal that he +312:12 must die occasioned his departure; yet you say that + matter has caused his death. + + Vain ecstasies + + People go into ecstasies over the sense of a corporeal +312:15 Jehovah, though with scarcely a spark of love in their + hearts; yet God /is/ love, and without Love, + God, immortality cannot appear. Mortals try +312:18 to believe without understanding Truth; yet God /is/ + Truth. Mortals claim that death is inevitable; but man's + eternal Principle is ever-present life. Mortals believe in +312:21 a finite personal God; while God is infinite Love, which + must be unlimited. + + Man-made theories + + Our theories are based on finite premises, which can- +312:24 not penetrate beyond matter. A personal sense of God + and of man's capabilities necessarily limits + faith and hinders spiritual understanding. It +312:27 divides faith and understanding between matter and Spirit, + the finite and the infinite, and so turns away from the + intelligent and divine healing Principle to the inanimate +312:30 drug. + + The one anointed + + Jesus' spiritual origin and his demonstration of divine + Principle richly endowed him and entitled him to sonship +313:1 in Science. He was the son of a virgin. The term + Christ Jesus, or Jesus the Christ (to give the full and +313:3 proper translation of the Greek), may be ren- + dered "Jesus the anointed," Jesus the God- + crowned or the divinely royal man, as it is said of him in +313:6 the first chapter of Hebrews: - + Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee + With the oil of gladness above thy fellows. + +313:9 With this agrees another passage in the same chapter, + which refers to the Son as "the brightness of His [God's] + glory, and the express [expressed] image of His person +313:12 [infinite Mind]." It is noteworthy that the phrase "ex- + press image" in the Common Version is, in the Greek + Testament, /character/. Using this word in its higher mean- +313:15 ing, we may assume that the author of this remarkable + epistle regarded Christ as the Son of God, the royal + reflection of the infinite; and the cause given for the ex- +313:18 altation of Jesus, Mary's son, was that he "loved right- + eousness and hated iniquity." The passage is made + even clearer in the translation of the late George R. +313:21 Noyes, D.D.: "Who, being a brightness from His glory, + and an image of His being." + + Jesus the Scientist + + Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that +313:24 ever trod the globe. He plunged beneath the material + surface of things, and found the spiritual + cause. To accommodate himself to imma- +313:27 ture ideas of spiritual power, - for spirituality was pos + sessed only in a limited degree even by his disciples, - + Jesus called the body, which by spiritual power he +313:30 raised from the grave, "flesh and bones." To show + that the substance of himself was Spirit and the body +314:1 no more perfect because of death and no less material + until the ascension (his further spiritual exaltation), +314:3 Jesus waited until the mortal or fleshly sense had re- + linquished the belief of substance-matter, and spiritual + sense had quenched all earthly yearnings. Thus he found +314:6 the eternal Ego, and proved that he and the Father were + inseparable as God and His reflection or spiritual man. + Our Master gained the solution of being, demonstrating +314:9 the existence of but one Mind without a second or equal. + + The bodily resurrection + + The Jews, who sought to kill this man of God, showed + plainly that their material views were the parents of their +314:12 wicked deeds. When Jesus spoke of repro- + ducing his body, - knowing, as he did, that + Mind was the builder, - and said, "Destroy this temple, +314:15 and in three days I will raise it up," they thought that he + meant their material temple instead of his body. To such + materialists, the real man seemed a spectre, unseen and +314:18 unfamiliar, and the body, which they laid in a sepulchre, + seemed to be substance. This materialism lost sight of + the true Jesus; but the faithful Mary saw him, and he +314:21 presented to her, more than ever before, the true idea of + Life and substance. + + Opposition of materialists + + Because of mortals' material and sinful belief, the +314:24 spiritual Jesus was imperceptible to them. The higher + his demonstration of divine Science carried + the problem of being, and the more dis- +314:27 tinctly he uttered the demands of its divine Principle, + Truth and Love, the more odious he became to sinners + and to those who, depending on doctrines and material +314:30 laws to save them from sin and sickness, were submis- + sive to death as being in supposed accord with the + inevitable law of life. Jesus proved them wrong by +315:1 his resurrection, and said: "Whosoever liveth and be- + lieveth in me shall never die." + + Hebrew theology + +315:3 That saying of our Master, "I and my Father are one," + separated him from the scholastic theology of the rabbis. + His better understanding of God was a rebuke +315:6 to them. He knew of but one Mind and laid + no claim to any other. He knew that the Ego was Mind + instead of body and that matter, sin, and evil were not +315:9 Mind; and his understanding of this divine Science + brought upon him the anathemas of the age. + + The true sonship + + The opposite and false views of the people hid from +315:12 their sense Christ's sonship with God. They could not + discern his spiritual existence. Their carnal + minds were at enmity with it. Their thoughts +315:15 were filled with mortal error, instead of with God's spirit- + ual idea as presented by Christ Jesus. The likeness of + God we lose sight of through sin, which beclouds the spir- +315:18 itual sense of Truth; and we realize this likeness only + when we subdue sin and prove man's heritage, the liberty + of the sons of God. + + Immaculate conception + +315:21 Jesus' spiritual origin and understanding enabled him + to demonstrate the facts of being, - to prove irrefutably + how spiritual Truth destroys material error, +315:24 heals sickness, and overcomes death. The + divine conception of Jesus pointed to this truth and pre- + sented an illustration of creation. The history of Jesus +315:27 shows him to have been more spiritual than all other + earthly personalities. + + Jesus as mediator + + Wearing in part a human form (that is, as it seemed +315:30 to mortal view), being conceived by a human mother, + Jesus was the mediator between Spirit and the flesh, + between Truth and error. Explaining and demonstrat- +316:1 ing the way of divine Science, he became the way of + salvation to all who accepted his word. From him mor- +316:3 tals may learn how to escape from evil. The + real man being linked by Science to his Maker, + mortals need only turn from sin and lose sight of mortal +316:6 selfhood to find Christ, the real man and his relation to + God, and to recognize the divine sonship. Christ, Truth, + was demonstrated through Jesus to prove the power of +316:9 Spirit over the flesh, - to show that Truth is made + manifest by its effects upon the human mind and body, + healing sickness and destroying sin. + + Spiritual government + +316:12 Jesus represented Christ, the true idea of God. Hence + the warfare between this spiritual idea and perfunctory + religion, between spiritual clear-sightedness +316:15 and the blindness of popular belief, which led + to the conclusion that the spiritual idea could be killed + by crucifying the flesh. The Christ-idea, or the Christ- +316:18 man, rose higher to human view because of the crucifixion, + and thus proved that truth was the master of death. + Christ presents the indestructible man, whom Spirit cre- +316:21 ates, constitutes, and governs. Christ illustrates that + blending with God, his divine Principle, which gives man + dominion over all the earth. + + Deadness in sin + +316:24 The spiritual idea of God, as presented by Jesus, was + scourged in person, and its Principle was rejected. That + man was accounted a criminal who could +316:27 prove God's divine power by healing the + sick, casting out evils, spiritualizing materialistic beliefs, + and raising the dead, - those dead in trespasses and +316:30 sins, satisfied with the flesh, resting on the basis of mat- + ter, blind to the possibilities of Spirit and its correla- + tive truth. +317:1 Jesus uttered things which had been "secret from the + foundation of the world," - since material knowledge +317:3 usurped the throne of the creative divine Principle, insisted + on the might of matter, the force of falsity, the insignifi- + cance of spirit, and proclaimed an anthropomorphic God. + + The cup of Jesus + +317:6 Whosoever lives most the life of Jesus in this age + and declares best the power of Christian Science, will + drink of his Master's cup. Resistance to +317:9 Truth will haunt his steps, and he will in- + cur the hatred of sinners, till "wisdom is justified of + her children." These blessed benedictions rest upon +317:12 Jesus' followers: "If the world hate you, ye know that + it hated me before it hated you;" "Lo, I am with you + alway," - that is, not only in all time, but in /all ways/ +317:15 and conditions. + + The individuality of man is no less tangible because + it is spiritual and because his life is not at the mercy of +317:18 matter. The understanding of his spiritual individuality + makes man more real, more formidable in truth, and en- + ables him to conquer sin, disease, and death. Our Lord +317:21 and Master presented himself to his disciples after his + resurrection from the grave, as the self-same Jesus whom + they had loved before the tragedy on Calvary. + + Material skepticism + +317:24 To the materialistic Thomas, looking for the ideal + Saviour in matter instead of in Spirit and to the testi- + mony of the material senses and the body, +317:27 more than to Soul, for an earnest of immor- + tality, - to him Jesus furnished the proof that he was + unchanged by the crucifixion. To this dull and doubt- +317:30 ing disciple Jesus remained a fleshly reality, so long as + the Master remained an inhabitant of the earth. Noth- + ing but a display of matter could make existence real +318:1 to Thomas. For him to believe in matter was no task, + but for him to conceive of the substantiality of Spirit - +318:3 to know that nothing can efface Mind and immortality, in + which Spirit reigns - was more difficult. + + What the senses originate + + Corporeal senses define diseases as realities; but the +318:6 Scriptures declare that God made all, even while the cor- + poreal senses are saying that matter causes + disease and the divine Mind cannot or will +318:9 not heal it. The material senses originate and + support all that is material, untrue, selfish, or debased. + They would put soul into soil, life into limbo, and doom +318:12 all things to decay. We must silence this lie of material + sense with the truth of spiritual sense. We must cause + the error to cease that brought the belief of sin and death +318:15 and would efface the pure sense of omnipotence. + + Sickness as discord + + Is the sick man sinful above all others? No! but + so far as he is discordant, he is not the image of God. +318:18 Weary of their material beliefs, from which + comes so much suffering, invalids grow more + spiritual, as the error - or belief that life is in matter - +318:21 yields to the reality of spiritual Life. + + The Science of Mind denies the error of sensation in + matter, and heals with Truth. Medical science treats +318:24 disease as though disease were real, therefore right, and + attempts to heal it with matter. If disease is right it is + wrong to heal it. Material methods are temporary, and +318:27 are not adapted to elevate mankind. + + The governor is not subjected to the governed. In + Science man is governed by God, divine Principle, as +318:30 numbers are controlled and proved by His laws. Intelli- + gence does not originate in numbers, but is manifested + through them. The body does not include soul, but man- +319:1 ifests mortality, a false sense of soul. The delusion that + there is life in matter has no kinship with the Life supernal. + + Unscientific introspection + +319:3 Science depicts disease as error, as matter /versus/ + Mind, and error reversed as subserving the facts of + health. To calculate one's life-prospects +319:6 from a material basis, would infringe upon + spiritual law and misguide human hope. Having faith + in the divine Principle of Health and spiritually under- +319:9 standing God, sustains man under all circumstances; + whereas the lower appeal to the general faith in material + means (commonly called nature) must yield to the all- +319:12 might of infinite Spirit. + + Throughout the infinite cycles of eternal existence, + Spirit and matter neither concur in man nor in the universe. + + God the only Mind + +319:15 The varied doctrines and theories which presuppose + life and intelligence to exist in matter are so many ancient + and modern mythologies. Mystery, miracle, +319:18 sin, and death will disappear when it becomes + fairly understood that the divine Mind controls man and + man has no Mind but God. + + Scriptures misinterpreted + +319:21 The divine Science taught in the original language + of the Bible came through inspiration, and needs inspi- + ration to be understood. Hence the misappre- +319:24 hension of the spiritual meaning of the Bible, + and the misinterpretation of the Word in + some instances by uninspired writers, who only wrote +319:27 down what an inspired teacher had said. A misplaced + word changes the sense and misstates the Science of + the Scriptures, as, for instance, to name Love as merely +319:30 an attribute of God; but we can by special and proper + capitalization speak of the love of Love, meaning by that + what the beloved disciple meant in one of his epistles, +320:1 when he said, "God is love." Likewise we can speak of + the truth of Truth and of the life of Life, for Christ plainly +320:3 declared, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." + + Interior meaning + + Metaphors abound in the Bible, and names are often + expressive of spiritual ideas. The most distinguished +320:6 theologians in Europe and America agree that + the Scriptures have both a spiritual and lit- + eral meaning. In Smith's Bible Dictionary it is said: +320:9 "The spiritual interpretation of Scripture must rest + upon both the literal and moral;" and in the learned + article on Noah in the same work, the familiar text, +320:12 Genesis vi. 3, "And the Lord said, My spirit shall not + always strive with man, for that he also is flesh," is quoted + as follows, from the original Hebrew: "And Jehovah +320:15 said, My spirit shall not forever rule [or be humbled] in + men, seeing that they are [or, in their error they are] + but flesh." Here the original text declares plainly the +320:18 spiritual fact of being, even man's eternal and harmo- + nious existence as image, idea, instead of matter (how- + ever transcendental such a thought appears), and avers +320:21 that this fact is not forever to be humbled by the belief + that man is flesh and matter, for according to that error + man is mortal. + + Job, on the resurrection + +320:24 The one important interpretation of Scripture is the + spiritual. For example, the text, "In my flesh shall I + see God," gives a profound idea of the di- +320:27 vine power to heal the ills of the flesh, and + encourages mortals to hope in Him who healeth all our + diseases; whereas this passage is continually quoted +320:30 as if Job intended to declare that even if disease and + worms destroyed his body, yet in the latter days he should + stand in celestial perfection before Elohim, still clad +321:1 in material flesh, - an interpretation which is just the op- + posite of the true, as may be seen by studying the book +321:3 of Job. As Paul says, in his first epistle to the Corin- + thians, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of + God." + + Fear of the serpent overcome + +321:6 The Hebrew Lawgiver, slow of speech, despaired of + making the people understand what should be revealed + to him. When, led by wisdom to cast down his +321:9 rod, he saw it become a serpent, Moses fled be- + fore it; but wisdom bade him come back and + handle the serpent, and then Moses' fear departed. In +321:12 this incident was seen the actuality of Science. Matter + was shown to be a belief only. The serpent, evil, under + wisdom's bidding, was destroyed through understanding +321:15 divine Science, and this proof was a staff upon which to + lean. The illusion of Moses lost its power to alarm him, + when he discovered that what he apparently saw was really +321:18 but a phase of mortal belief. + + Leprosy healed + + It was scientifically demonstrated that leprosy was a + creation of mortal mind and not a condition of matter, +321:21 when Moses first put his hand into his bosom + and drew it forth white as snow with the dread + disease, and presently restored his hand to its natural con- +321:24 dition by the same simple process. God had lessened + Moses' fear by this proof in divine Science, and the in- + ward voice became to him the voice of God, which said: +321:27 "It shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither + hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe + the voice of the latter sign." And so it was in the coming +321:30 centuries, when the Science of being was demonstrated + by Jesus, who showed his students the power of Mind by + changing water into wine, and taught them how to handle +322:1 serpents unharmed, to heal the sick and cast out evils in + proof of the supremacy of Mind. + + Standpoints changed + +322:3 When understanding changes the standpoints of life and + intelligence from a material to a spiritual basis, we shall + gain the reality of Life, the control of Soul over +322:6 sense, and we shall perceive Christianity, or + Truth, in its divine Principle. This must be the climax + before harmonious and immortal man is obtained and his +322:9 capabilities revealed. It is highly important - in view + of the immense work to be accomplished before this recog- + nition of divine Science can come - to turn our thoughts +322:12 towards divine Principle, that finite belief may be pre- + pared to relinquish its error. + + Saving the inebriate + + Man's wisdom finds no satisfaction in sin, since God +322:15 has sentenced sin to suffer. The necromancy of yester- + day foreshadowed the mesmerism and hypno- + tism of to-day. The drunkard thinks he enjoys +322:18 drunkenness, and you cannot make the inebriate leave + his besottedness, until his physical sense of pleasure yields + to a higher sense. Then he turns from his cups, as +322:21 the startled dreamer who wakens from an incubus in- + curred through the pains of distorted sense. A man who + likes to do wrong - finding pleasure in it and refraining +322:24 from it only through fear of consequences - is neither + a temperate man nor a reliable religionist. + + Uses of suffering + + The sharp experiences of belief in the supposititious life +322:27 of matter, as well as our disappointments and ceaseless + woes, turn us like tired children to the arms + of divine Love. Then we begin to learn Life +322:30 in divine Science. Without this process of weaning, + "Canst thou by searching find out God?" It is easier + to desire Truth than to rid one's self of error. Mortals +323:1 may seek the understanding of Christian Science, but they + will not be able to glean from Christian Science the facts +323:3 of being without striving for them. This strife consists + in the endeavor to forsake error of every kind and to pos- + sess no other consciousness but good. + + A bright outlook + +323:6 Through the wholesome chastisements of Love, we + are helped onward in the march towards righteousness, + peace, and purity, which are the landmarks +323:9 of Science. Beholding the infinite tasks of + truth, we pause, - wait on God. Then we push onward, + until boundless thought walks enraptured, and concep- +323:12 tion unconfined is winged to reach the divine glory. + + Need and supply + + In order to apprehend more, we must put into prac- + tice what we already know. We must recollect that +323:15 Truth is demonstrable when understood, and + that good is not understood until demonstrated. + If "faithful over a few things," we shall be made rulers +323:18 over many; but the one unused talent decays and is lost. + When the sick or the sinning awake to realize their need + of what they have not, they will be receptive of divine +323:21 Science, which gravitates towards Soul and away from + material sense, removes thought from the body, and ele- + vates even mortal mind to the contemplation of some- +323:24 thing better than disease or sin. The true idea of God + gives the true understanding of Life and Love, robs the + grave of victory, takes away all sin and the delusion that +323:27 there are other minds, and destroys mortality. + + Childlike receptivity + + The effects of Christian Science are not so much seen + as felt. It is the "still, small voice" of Truth +323:30 uttering itself. We are either turning away + from this utterance, or we are listening to it and going + up higher. Willingness to become as a little child and +324:1 to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of + the advanced idea. Gladness to leave the false landmarks +324:3 and joy to see them disappear, - this disposition helps + to precipitate the ultimate harmony. The purification + of sense and self is a proof of progress. "Blessed are the +324:6 pure in heart: for they shall see God." + + Narrow pathway + + Unless the harmony and immortality of man are be- + coming more apparent, we are not gaining the true idea +324:9 of God; and the body will reflect what gov- + erns it, whether it be Truth or error, + understanding or belief, Spirit or matter. Therefore +324:12 "acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace." + Be watchful, sober, and vigilant. The way is straight + and narrow, which leads to the understanding that God +324:15 is the only Life. It is a warfare with the flesh, in which + we must conquer sin, sickness, and death, either here + or hereafter, - certainly before we can reach the goal +324:18 of Spirit, or life in God. + + Paul's enlightenment + + Paul was not at first a disciple of Jesus but a perse- + cutor of Jesus' followers. When the truth first appeared +324:21 to him in Science, Paul was made blind, + and his blindness was felt; but spiritual + light soon enabled him to follow the example and teach- +324:24 ings of Jesus, healing the sick and preaching Christian- + ity throughout Asia Minor, Greece, and even in imperial + Rome. + +324:27 Paul writes, "If Christ [Truth] be not risen, then is + our preaching vain." That is, if the idea of the suprem- + acy of Spirit, which is the true conception of being, +324:30 come not to your thought, you cannot be benefited by + what I say. + + Abiding in Life + + Jesus said substantially, "He that believeth in me +325:1 shall not see death." That is, he who perceives the + true idea of Life loses his belief in death. He who has +325:3 the true idea of good loses all sense of evil, + and by reason of this is being ushered into the + undying realities of Spirit. Such a one abideth in Life, - +325:6 life obtained not of the body incapable of supporting life, + but of Truth, unfolding its own immortal idea. Jesus + gave the true idea of being, which results in infinite bless- +325:9 ings to mortals. + + Indestructible being + + In Colossians (iii. 4) Paul writes: "When Christ, who + is our life, shall appear [be manifested], then shall ye also +325:12 appear [be manifested] with him in glory." + When spiritual being is understood in all its + perfection, continuity, and might, then shall man be found +325:15 in God's image. The absolute meaning of the apostolic + words is this: Then shall man be found, in His likeness, + perfect as the Father, indestructible in Life, "hid with +325:18 Christ in God," - with Truth in divine Love, where + human sense hath not seen man. + + Consecration required + + Paul had a clear sense of the demands of Truth upon +325:21 mortals physically and spiritually, when he said: "Pre- + sent your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, ac- + ceptable unto God, which is your reasonable +325:24 service." But he, who is begotten of the beliefs of the + flesh and serves them, can never reach in this world the + divine heights of our Lord. The time cometh when +325:27 the spiritual origin of man, the divine Science which + ushered Jesus into human presence, will be understood + and demonstrated. + +325:30 When first spoken in any age, Truth, like the light, + "shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended + it not." A false sense of life, substance, and mind +326:1 hides the divine possibilities, and conceals scientific + demonstration. + + Loving God supremely + +326:3 If we wish to follow Christ, Truth, it must be in the + way of God's appointing. Jesus said, "He that believeth + on me, the works that I do shall he do also." +326:6 He, who would reach the source and find the + divine remedy for every ill, must not try to climb the hill + of Science by some other road. All nature teaches God's +326:9 love to man, but man cannot love God supremely and set + his whole affections on spiritual things, while loving the + material or trusting in it more than in the spiritual. + +326:12 We must forsake the foundation of material systems, + however time-honored, if we would gain the Christ as + our only Saviour. Not partially, but fully, the great +326:15 healer of mortal mind is the healer of the body. + + The purpose and motive to live aright can be gained + now. This point won, you have started as you should. +326:18 You have begun at the numeration-table of Christian + Science, and nothing but wrong intention can hinder your + advancement. Working and praying with true motives, +326:21 your Father will open the way. "Who did hinder you, + that ye should not obey the truth?" + + Conversion of Saul + + Saul of Tarsus beheld the way - the Christ, or Truth +326:24 - only when his uncertain sense of right yielded to a + spiritual sense, which is always right. Then + the man was changed. Thought assumed a +326:27 nobler outlook, and his life became more spiritual. He + learned the wrong that he had done in persecuting Chris- + tians, whose religion he had not understood, and in hu- +326:30 mility he took the new name of Paul. He beheld for the + first time the true idea of Love, and learned a lesson in + divine Science. + +327:1 Reform comes by understanding that there is no abid- + ing pleasure in evil, and also by gaining an affection for +327:3 good according to Science, which reveals the immortal + fact that neither pleasure nor pain, appetite nor passion, + can exist in or of matter, while divine Mind can and does +327:6 destroy the false beliefs of pleasure, pain, or fear and all + the sinful appetites of the human mind. + + Image of the beast + + What a pitiful sight is malice, finding pleasure in re- +327:9 venge! Evil is sometimes a man's highest conception + of right, until his grasp on good grows stronger. + Then he loses pleasure in wickedness, and it +327:12 becomes his torment. The way to escape the misery of + sin is to cease sinning. There is no other way. Sin is + the image of the beast to be effaced by the sweat of agony. +327:15 It is a moral madness which rushes forth to clamor with + midnight and tempest. + + Peremptory demands + + To the physical senses, the strict demands of Christian +327:18 Science seem peremptory; but mortals are has- + tening to learn that Life is God, good, and that + evil has in reality neither place nor power in the human or +327:21 the divine economy. + + Moral courage + + Fear of punishment never made man truly honest. + Moral courage is requisite to meet the wrong and to +327:24 proclaim the right. But how shall we re- + form the man who has more animal than + moral courage, and who has not the true idea of good? +327:27 Through human consciousness, convince the mortal of + his mistake in seeking material means for gaining hap- + piness. Reason is the most active human faculty. Let +327:30 that inform the sentiments and awaken the man's dor- + mant sense of moral obligation, and by degrees he will + learn the nothingness of the pleasures of human sense +328:1 and the grandeur and bliss of a spiritual sense, which + silences the material or corporeal. Then he not only will +328:3 be saved, but /is/ saved. + + Final destruction of error + + Mortals suppose that they can live without goodness, + when God is good and the only real Life. What is the +328:6 result? Understanding little about the divine + Principle which saves and heals, mortals get + rid of sin, sickness, and death only in belief. These errors +328:9 are not thus really destroyed, and must therefore cling + to mortals until, here or hereafter, they gain the true un- + derstanding of God in the Science which destroys human +328:12 delusions about Him and reveals the grand realities of + His allness. + + Promise perpetual + + This understanding of man's power, when he is +328:15 equipped by God, has sadly disappeared from Christian + history. For centuries it has been dormant, a + lost element of Christianity. Our missionaries +328:18 carry the Bible to India, but can it be said that they + explain it practically, as Jesus did, when hundreds of + persons die there annually from serpent-bites? Under- +328:21 standing spiritual law and knowing that there is no mate- + rial law, Jesus said: "These signs shall follow them that + believe, . . . they shall take up serpents, and if they +328:24 drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They + shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." It + were well had Christendom believed and obeyed this +328:27 sacred saying. + + Jesus' promise is perpetual. Had it been given only + to his immediate disciples, the Scriptural passage would +328:30 read you, not /they/. The purpose of his great life-work + extends through time and includes universal humanity. + Its Principle is infinite, reaching beyond the pale of a +329:1 single period or of a limited following. As time moves + on, the healing elements of pure Christianity will be fairly +329:3 dealt with; they will be sought and taught, and will glow + in all the grandeur of universal goodness. + + Imitation of Jesus + + A little leaven leavens the whole lump. A little under- +329:6 standing of Christian Science proves the truth of all that + I say of it. Because you cannot walk on the + water and raise the dead, you have no right to +329:9 question the great might of divine Science in these direc- + tions. Be thankful that Jesus, who was the true demon- + strator of Science, did these things, and left his example for +329:12 us. In Science we can use only what we understand. We + must prove our faith by demonstration. + + One should not tarry in the storm if the body is freez- +329:15 ing, nor should he remain in the devouring flames. Un- + til one is able to prevent bad results, he should avoid their + occasion. To be discouraged, is to resemble a pupil in +329:18 addition, who attempts to solve a problem of Euclid, and + denies the rule of the problem because he fails in his first + effort. + + Error destroyed, not pardoned + +329:21 There is no hypocrisy in Science. Principle is impera- + tive. You cannot mock it by human will. Science is a + divine demand, not a human. Always right, +329:24 its divine Principle never repents, but main- + tains the claim of Truth by quenching error. + The pardon of divine mercy is the destruction of error. If +329:27 men understood their real spiritual source to be all bless- + edness, they would struggle for recourse to the spiritual + and be at peace; but the deeper the error into which mor- +329:30 tal mind is plunged, the more intense the opposition to + spirituality, till error yields to Truth. + + The hopeful outlook + + Human resistance to divine Science weakens in pro- +330:1 portion as mortals give up error for Truth and the un- + derstanding of being supersedes mere belief. Until the +330:3 author of this book learned the vastness of + Christian Science, the fixedness of mortal illu- + sions, and the human hatred of Truth, she cherished +330:6 sanguine hopes that Christian Science would meet with + immiediate and universal acceptance. + + When the following platform is understood and the +330:9 letter and the spirit bear witness, the infallibility of divine + metaphysics will be demonstrated. + + The deific supremacy + + I. God is infinite, the only Life, substance, Spirit, or +330:12 Soul, the only intelligence of the universe, including man. + Eye hath neither seen God nor His image and + likeness. Neither God nor the perfect man +330:15 can be discerned by the material senses. The individ- + uality of Spirit, or the infinite, is unknown, and thus a + knowledge of it is left either to human conjecture or to the +330:18 revelation of divine Science. + + The deific definitions + + II. God is what the Scriptures declare Him to be, - + Life, Truth, Love. Spirit is divine Principle, and divine +330:21 Principle is Love, and Love is Mind, and + Mind is not both good and bad, for God is + Mind; therefore there is in reality one Mind only, be- +330:24 cause there is one God. + + Evil obsolete + + III. The notion that both evil and good are real is a + delusion of material sense, which Science annihilates. +330:27 Evil is nothing, no thing, mind, nor power. + As manifested by mankind it stands for a lie, + nothing claiming to be something, - for lust, dishonesty, +330:30 selfishness, envy, hypocrisy, slander, hate, theft, adultery, + murder, dementia, insanity, inanity, devil, hell, with all + the etceteras that word includes. + + Life the creator + +331:1 IV. God is divine Life, and Life is no more confined + to the forms which reflect it than substance is in its +331:3 shadow. If life were in mortal man or mate- + rial things, it would be subject to their limi- + tations and would end in death. Life is Mind, the creator +331:6 reflected in His creations. If He dwelt within what He + creates, God would not be reflected but absorbed, and the + Science of being would be forever lost through a mortal +331:9 sense, which falsely testifies to a beginning and an + end. + + Allness of Spirit + + V. The Scriptures imply that God is All-in-all. From +331:12 this it follows that nothing possesses reality nor existence + except the divine Mind and His ideas. The + Scriptures also declare that God is Spirit. +331:15 Therefore in Spirit all is harmony, and there can be no + discord; all is Life, and there is no death. Everything + in God's universe expresses Him. + + The universal cause + +331:18 VI. God is individual, incorporeal. He is divine Prin- + ciple, Love, the universal cause, the only creator, and + there is no other self-existence. He is all- +331:21 inclusive, and is reflected by all that is real + and eternal and by nothing else. He fills all space, and + it is impossible to conceive of such omnipresence and in- +331:24 dividuality except as infinite Spirit or Mind. Hence all + is Spirit and spiritual. + + Divine trinity + + VII. Life, Truth, and Love constitute the triune Person +331:27 called God, - that is, the triply divine Principle, Love. + They represent a trinity in unity, three in + one, - the same in essence, though multi- +331:30 form in office: God the Father-Mother; Christ the spirit- + ual idea of sonship; divine Science or the Holy Comforter. + These three express in divine Science the threefold, essen- +332:1 tial nature of the infinite. They also indicate the divine + Principle of scientific being, the intelligent relation of God +332:3 to man and the universe. + + Father-Mother + + VIII. Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which in- + dicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation. +332:6 As the apostle expressed it in words which he + quoted with approbation from a classic poet: + "For we are also His offspring." + + The Son of God + +332:9 IX. Jesus was born of Mary. Christ is the true idea + voicing good, the divine message from God to men speak- + ing to the human consciousness. The Christ +332:12 is incorporeal, spiritual, - yea, the divine + image and likeness, dispelling the illusions of the senses; + the Way, the Truth, and the Life, healing the sick and +332:15 casting out evils, destroying sin, disease, and death. As + Paul says: "There is one God, and one mediator between + God and men, the man Christ Jesus." The corporeal +332:18 man Jesus was human. + + Holy Ghost or Comforter + + X. Jesus demonstrated Christ; he proved that Christ + is the divine idea of God - the Holy Ghost, +332:21 or Comforter, revealing the divine Principle, + Love, and leading into all truth. + + Christ Jesus + + XI. Jesus was the son of a virgin. He was appointed +332:24 to speak God's word and to appear to mortals in such + a form of humanity as they could understand + as well as perceive. Mary's conception of +332:27 him was spiritual, for only purity could reflect Truth + and Love, which were plainly incarnate in the good and + pure Christ Jesus. He expressed the highest type of +332:30 divinity, which a fleshly form could express in that age. + Into the real and ideal man the fleshly element cannot + enter. Thus it is that Christ illustrates the coincidence, +333:1 or spiritual agreement, between God and man in His + image. + + Messiah or Christ + +333:3 XII. The word /Christ/ is not properly a synonym for + Jesus, though it is commonly so used. Jesus was a human + name, which belonged to him in common with +333:6 other Hebrew boys and men, for it is identical + with the name Joshua, the renowned Hebrew leader. On + the other hand, Christ is not a name so much as the divine +333:9 title of Jesus. Christ expresses God's spiritual, eternal + nature. The name is synonymous with Messiah, and al- + ludes to the spirituality which is taught, illustrated, and +333:12 demonstrated in the life of which Christ Jesus was the + embodiment. The proper name of our Master in the + Greek was Jesus the Christ; but Christ Jesus better sig- +333:15 nifies the Godlike. + + The divine Principle and idea + + XIII. The advent of Jesus of Nazareth marked the + first century of the Christian era, but the Christ is +333:18 without beginning of years or end of days. + Throughout all generations both before and + after the Christian era, the Christ, as the spirit- +333:21 ual idea, - the reflection of God, - has come with some + measure of power and grace to all prepared to receive + Christ, Truth. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and the prophets +333:24 caught glorious glimpses of the Messiah, or Christ, which + baptized these seers in the divine nature, the essence of + Love. The divine image, idea, or Christ was, is, and +333:27 ever will be inseparable from the divine Principle, God. + Jesus referred to this unity of his spiritual identity thus: + "Before Abraham was, I am;" "I and my Father are +333:30 one;" "My Father is greater than I." The one Spirit + includes all identities. + + Spiritual oneness + + XIV. By these sayings Jesus meant, not that the hu- +334:1 man Jesus was or is eternal, but that the divine idea or + Christ was and is so and therefore antedated Abraham; +334:3 not that the corporeal Jesus was one with the + Father, but that the spiritual idea, Christ, + dwells forever in the bosom of the Father, God, from +334:6 which it illumines heaven and earth; not that the Father + is greater than Spirit, which is God, but greater, infinitely + greater, than the fleshly Jesus, whose earthly career was +334:9 brief. + + The Son's duality + + XV. The invisible Christ was imperceptible to the + so-called personal senses, whereas Jesus appeared as a +334:12 bodily existence. This dual personality of the + unseen and the seen, the spiritual and mate- + rial, the eternal Christ and the corporeal Jesus manifest +334:15 in flesh, continued until the Master's ascension, when + the human, material concept, or Jesus, disappeared, + while the spiritual self, or Christ, continues to exist in +334:18 the eternal order of divine Science, taking away the sins + of the world, as the Christ has always done, even before + the human Jesus was incarnate to mortal eyes. + + Eternity of the Christ + +334:21 XVI. This was "the Lamb slain from the foundation + of the world," - slain, that is, according to the testi- + mony of the corporeal senses, but undying in +334:24 the deific Mind. The Revelator represents the + Son of man as saying (Revelation i. 17, 18): "I am the + first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead +334:27 [not understood]; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, + [Science has explained me]." This is a mystical state- + ment of the eternity of the Christ, and is also a reference +334:30 to the human sense of Jesus crucified. + + Infinite Spirit + + XVII. Spirit being God, there is but one Spirit, for + there can be but one infinite and therefore one God. +335:1 There are neither spirits many nor gods many. There + is no evil in Spirit, because God is Spirit. The theory, +335:3 that Spirit is distinct from matter but must + pass through it, or into it, to be individualized, + would reduce God to dependency on matter, and establish +335:6 a basis for pantheism. + + The only substance + + XVIII. Spirit, God, has created all in and of Him- + self. Spirit never created matter. There is nothing in +335:9 Spirit out of which matter could be made, + for, as the Bible declares, without the Logos, + the AEon or Word of God, "was not anything made +335:12 that was made." Spirit is the only substance, the in- + visible and indivisible infinite God. Things spiritual and + eternal are substantial. Things material and temporal +335:15 are insubstantial. + + Soul and Spirit one + + XIX. Soul and Spirit being one, God and Soul are + one, and this one never included in a limited mind or a +335:18 limited body. Spirit is eternal, divine. Noth- + ing but Spirit, Soul, can evolve Life, for Spirit + is more than all else. Because Soul is immortal, it does +335:21 not exist in mortality. Soul must be incorporeal to be + Spirit, for Spirit is not finite. Only by losing the false + sense of Soul can we gain the eternal unfolding of Life as +335:24 immortality brought to light. + + The one divine Mind + + XX. Mind is the divine Principle, Love, and can pro- + duce nothing unlike the eternal Father-Mother, God. +335:27 Reality is spiritual, harmonious, immutable, + immortal, divine, eternal. Nothing unspirit- + ual can be real, harmonious, or eternal. Sin, sickness, +335:30 and mortality are the suppositional antipodes of Spirit, + and must be contradictions of reality. + + The divine Ego + + XXI. The Ego is deathless and limitless, for limits +336:1 would imply and impose ignorance. Mind is the I AM, + or infinity. Mind never enters the finite. Intelligence +336:3 never passes into non-intelligence, or matter. + Good never enters into evil the unlimited into + the limited, the eternal into the temporal, nor the im- +336:6 mortal into mortality. The divine Ego, or individuality, + is reflected in all spiritual individuality from the infini- + tesimal to the infinite. + + The real manhood + +336:9 XXII. Immortal man was and is God's image or idea, + even the infinite expression of infinite Mind, and immor- + tal man is coexistent and coeternal with that +336:12 Mind. He has been forever in the eternal + Mind, God; but infinite Mind can never be in man, but + is reflected by man. The spiritual man's consciousness +336:15 and individuality are reflections of God. They are the + emanations of Him who is Life, Truth, and Love. Im- + mortal man is not and never was material, but always +336:18 spiritual and eternal. + + Indivisibility of the infinite + + XXIII. God is indivisible. A portion of God could + not enter man; neither could God's fulness be reflected +336:21 by a single man, else God would be manifestly + finite, lose the deific character, and become + less than God. Allness is the measure of the infinite, and +336:24 nothing less can express God. + + God the parent Mind + + XXIV. God, the divine Principle of man, and man in + God's likeness are inseparable, harmonious, and eternal. +336:27 The Science of being furnishes the rule of per- + fection, and brings immortality to light. God + and man are not the same, but in the order of divine Sci- +336:30 ence, God and man coexist and are eternal. God is the + parent Mind, and man is God's spiritual offspring. + + Man reflects the perfect God + + XXV. God is individual and personal in a scientific +337:1 sense, but not in any anthropomorphic sense. Therefore + man, reflecting God, cannot lose his individuality; but as +337:3 material sensation, or a soul in the body, blind + mortals do lose sight of spiritual individuality. + Material personality is not realism; it is not +337:6 the reflection or likeness of Spirit, the perfect God. Sen- + sualism is not bliss, but bondage. For true happiness, + man must harmonize with his Principle, divine Love; the +337:9 Son must be in accord with the Father, in conformity with + Christ. According to divine Science, man is in a degree + as perfect as the Mind that forms him. The truth of be- +337:12 ing makes man harmonious and immortal, while error is + mortal and discordant. + + Purity the path to perfection + + XXVI. Christian Science demonstrates that none but +337:15 the pure in heart can see God, as the gospel + teaches. In proportion to his purity is man + perfect; and perfection is the order of celestial +337:18 being which demonstrates Life in Christ, Life's spiritual + ideal. + + True idea of man + + XXVII. The true idea of man, as the reflection of the +337:21 invisible God, is as incomprehensible to the limited senses + as is man's infinite Principle. The visible uni- + verse and material man are the poor counter- +337:24 feits of the invisible universe and spiritual man. Eternal + things (verities) are God's thoughts as they exist in the + spiritual realm of the real. Temporal things are the +337:27 thoughts of mortals and are the unreal, being the oppo- + site of the real or the spiritual and eternal. + + Truth demonstrated + + XXVIII. Subject sickness, sin, and death to the rule +337:30 of health and holiness in Christian Science, + and you ascertain that this Science is demon- + strably true, for it heals the sick and sinning as no +338:1 other system can. Christian Science, rightly under- + stood, leads to eternal harmony. It brings to light the +338:3 only living and true God and man as made in His like- + ness; whereas the opposite belief - that man originates + in matter and has beginning and end, that he is both +338:6 soul and body, both good and evil, both spiritual and + material - terminates in discord and mortality, in the + error which must be destroyed by Truth. The mortality +338:9 of material man proves that error has been ingrafted + into the premises and conclusions of material and mortal + humanity. + + Adam not ideal man + +338:12 XXIX. The word /Adam /is from the Hebrew /adamah/, + signifying the /red color of the ground, dust, nothingness/. + Divide the name Adam into two syllables, +338:15 and it reads, /a dam/, or obstruction. This + suggests the thought of something fluid, of mortal mind + in solution. It further suggests the thought of that +338:18 " darkness . . . upon the face of the deep," when mat- + ter or dust was deemed the agent of Deity in creating + man, - when matter, as that which is accursed, stood +338:21 opposed to Spirit. Here /a dam/ is not a mere play upon + words; it stands for obstruction, error, even the sup- + posed separation of man from God, and the obstacle +338:24 which the serpent, sin, would impose between man and + his creator. The dissection and definition of words, + aside from their metaphysical derivation, is not scien- +338:27 tific. Jehovah declared the ground was accursed; and + from this ground, or matter, sprang Adam, notwith- + standing God had blessed the earth "for man's sake." +338:30 From this it follows that Adam was not the ideal man + for whom the earth was blessed. The ideal man was + revealed in due time, and was known as Christ Jesus. + + Divine pardon + +339:1 XXX. The destruction of sin is the divine method of + pardon. Divine Life destroys death, Truth destroys +339:3 error, and Love destroys hate. Being de- + stroyed, sin needs no other form of forgiveness. + Does not God's pardon, destroying any one sin, prophesy +339:6 and involve the final destruction of all sin? + + Evil not produced by God + + XXXI. Since God is All, there is no room for His + unlikeness. God, Spirit, alone created all, and called it +339:9 good. Therefore evil, being contrary to good, + is unreal, and cannot be the product of God. + A sinner can receive no encouragement from the fact that +339:12 Science demonstrates the unreality of evil, for the sinner + would make a reality of sin, - would make that real + which is unreal, and thus heap up "wrath against the +339:15 day of wrath." He is joining in a conspiracy against + himself, - against his own awakening to the awful un- + reality by which he has been deceived. Only those, who +339:18 repent of sin and forsake the unreal, can fully understand + the unreality of evil. + + Basis of health and immortality + + XXXII. As the mythology of pagan Rome has yielded +339:21 to a more spiritual idea of Deity, so will our material + theories yield to spiritual ideas, until the finite + gives place to the infinite, sickness to health, +339:24 sin to holiness, and God's kingdom comes "in + earth, as it is in heaven." The basis of all health, sin- + lessness, and immortality is the great fact that God is +339:27 the only Mind; and this Mind must be not merely be- + lieved, but it must be understood. To get rid of sin + through Science, is to divest sin of any supposed mind +339:30 or reality, and never to admit that sin can have intelli- + gence or power, pain or pleasure. You conquer error by + denying its verity. Our various theories will never lose +340:1 their imaginary power for good or evil, until we lose our + faith in them and make life its own proof of harmony +340:3 and God. + + This text in the book of Ecclesiastes conveys the + Christian Science thought, especially when the word +340:6 /duty/, which is not in the original, is omitted: "Let + us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, + and keep His commandments: for this is the whole +340:9 duty of man." In other words: Let us hear the con- + clusion of the whole matter: love God and keep His + commandments: for this is the whole of man in His +340:12 image and likeness. Divine Love is infinite. Therefore + all that really exists is in and of God, and manifests His + love. + +340:15 "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (Exodus + xx. 3.) The First Commandment is my favorite text. + It demonstrates Christian Science. It inculcates the tri- +340:18 unity of God, Spirit, Mind; it signifies that man shall + have no other spirit or mind but God, eternal good, and + that all men shall have one Mind. The divine Principle +340:21 of the First Commandment bases the Science of being, by + which man demonstrates health, holiness, and life eternal. + One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; con- +340:24 stitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the + Scripture, "Love thy neighbor as thyself;" annihilates + pagan and Christian idolatry, - whatever is wrong in +340:27 social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes; + equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves + nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed. + + + + + CHAPTER XI - SOME OBJECTIONS ANSWERED + + And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. + Which of you convinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, + why do ye not believe me? - JESUS. + + But if the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead + dwell in you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall + also quicken your mortal bodies by His spirit that dwelleth + in you. - PAUL. + +341:1 THE strictures on this volume would condemn to + oblivion the truth, which is raising up thousands +341:3 from helplessness to strength and elevating them from + a theoretical to a practical Christianity. These criticisms + are generally based on detached sentences or clauses sep- +341:6 arated from their context. Even the Scriptures, which + grow in beauty and consistency from one grand root, ap- + pear contradictory when subjected to such usage. Jesus +341:9 said, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see + God" [Truth]. + + Supported by facts + + In Christian Science mere opinion is valueless. Proof +341:12 is essential to a due estimate of this subject. Sneers at + the application of the word/ Science /to Chris- + tianity cannot prevent that from being scien- +341:15 tific which is based on divine Principle, demonstrated ac- + cording to a divine given rule, and subjected to proof. + The facts are so absolute and numerous in support of +341:18 Christian Science, that misrepresentation and denuncia- +342:1 tion cannot overthrow it. Paul alludes to "doubtful dis- + putations." The hour has struck when proof and demon- +342:3 stration, instead of opinion and dogma, are summoned to + the support of Christianity, "making wise the simple." + + Commands of Jesus + + In the result of some unqualified condemnations of +342:6 scientific Mind-healing, one may see with sorrow the sad + effects on the sick of denying Truth. He that + decries this Science does it presumptuously, +342:9 in the face of Bible history and in defiance of the direct + command of Jesus, "Go ye into all the world, and preach + the gospel," to which command was added the promise +342:12 that his students should cast out evils and heal the sick. + He bade the seventy disciples, as well as the twelve, + heal the sick in any town where they should be hospitably +342:15 received. + + Christianity scientific + + If Christianity is not scientific, and Science is not of + God, then there is no invariable law, and truth becomes +342:18 an accident. Shall it be denied that a system + which works according to the Scriptures has + Scriptural authority? + + Argument of good works + +342:21 Christian Science awakens the sinner, reclaims the + infidel, and raises from the couch of pain the helpless + invalid. It speaks to the dumb the words of +342:24 Truth, and they answer with rejoicing. It + causes the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and the blind + to see. Who would be the first to disown the Christli- +342:27 ness of good works, when our Master says, "By their + fruits ye shall know them"? + + If Christian Scientists were teaching or practising +342:30 pharmacy or obstetrics according to the common theo- + ries, no denunciations would follow them, even if their + treatment resulted in the death of a patient. The people +343:1 are taught in such cases to say, Amen. Shall I then be + smitten for healing and for teaching Truth as the Prin- +343:3 ciple of healing, and for proving my word by my deed? + James said: "Show me thy faith without thy works, and + I will show thee my faith by my works." + + Personal experience + +343:6 Is not finite mind ignorant of God's method? This + makes it doubly unfair to impugn and misrepresent the + facts, although, without this cross-bearing, +343:9 one might not be able to say with the apostle, + "None of these things move me." The sick, the halt, + and the blind look up to Christian Science with blessings, +343:12 and Truth will not be forever hidden by unjust parody + from the quickened sense of the people. + + Proof from miracles + + Jesus strips all disguise from error, when his teachings +343:15 are fully understood. By parable and argument he ex- + plains the impossibility of good producing evil; + and he also scientifically demonstrates this great +343:18 fact, proving by what are wrongly called miracles, that + sin, sickness, and death are beliefs - illusive errors - + which he could and did destroy. +343:21 It would sometimes seem as if truth were rejected be- + cause meekness and spirituality are the conditions of its + acceptance, while Christendom generally demands so +343:24 much less. + + Example of the disciples + + Anciently those apostles who were Jesus' students, + as well as Paul who was not one of his students, healed +343:27 the sick and reformed the sinner by their + religion. Hence the mistake which allows + words, rather than works, to follow such examples! +343:30 Whoever is the first meekly and conscientiously to press + along the line of gospel-healing, is often accounted a + heretic. + + Strong position + +344:1 It is objected to Christian Science that it claims God + as the only absolute Life and Soul, and man to be His +344:3 idea, - that is, His image. It should be + added that this is claimed to represent the + normal, healthful, and sinless condition of man in divine +344:6 Science, and that this claim is made because the Scrip- + tures say that God has created man in His own image + and after His likeness. Is it sacrilegious to assume that +344:9 God's likeness is not found in matter, sin, sickness, and + death? + + Efficacy may be attested + + Were it more fully understood that Truth heals and +344:12 that error causes disease, the opponents of a demonstrable + Science would perhaps mercifully withhold + their misrepresentations, which harm the sick; +344:15 and until the enemies of Christian Science test its efficacy + according to the rules which disclose its merits or de- + merits, it would be just to observe the Scriptural precept, +344:18 "Judge not." + + The one divine method + + There are various methods of treating disease, which + are not included in the commonly accepted systems; but +344:21 there is only one which should be presented + to the whole world, and that is the Christian + Science which Jesus preached and practised and left to us +344:24 as his rich legacy. + + Why should one refuse to investigate this method + of treating disease? Why support the popular systems +344:27 of medicine, when the physician may perchance be an + infidel and may lose ninety-and-nine patients, while + Christian Science cures its hundred? Is it because +344:30 allopathy and homoeopathy are more fashionable and + less spiritual? + + Omnipotence set forth + + In the Bible the word /Spirit /is so commonly applied +345:1 to Deity, that Spirit and God are often regarded as syn- + onymous terms; and it is thus they are uniformly used +345:3 and understood in Christian Science. As it + is evident that the likeness of Spirit cannot be + material, does it not follow that God cannot be in His +345:6 unlikeness and work through drugs to heal the sick? + When the omnipotence of God is preached and His ab- + soluteness is set forth, Christian sermons will heal the +345:9 sick. + + Contradictions not found + + It is sometimes said, in criticising Christian Science, + that the mind which contradicts itself neither knows +345:12 itself nor what it is saying. It is indeed no + small matter to know one's self; but in this + volume of mine there are no contradictory +345:15 statements, - at least none which are apparent to those + who understand its propositions well enough to pass + judgment upon them. One who understands Christian +345:18 Science can heal the sick on the divine Principle of Chris- + tian Science, and this practical proof is the only feasible + evidence that one does understand this Science. + +345:21 Anybody, who is able to perceive the incongruity be- + tween God's idea and poor humanity, ought to be able + to discern the distinction (made by Christian Science) +345:24 between God's man, made in His image, and the sinning + race of Adam. + + The apostle says: "For if a man think himself to be +345:27 something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself." + This thought of human, material nothingness, which + Science inculcates, enrages the carnal mind and is the +345:30 main cause of the carnal mind's antagonism. + + God's idea the ideal man + + It is not the purpose of Christian Science to "educate + the idea of God, or treat it for disease," as is alleged +346:1 by one critic. I regret that such criticism confounds /man/ + with Adam. When man is spoken of as made in God's +346:3 image, it is not sinful and sickly mortal man + who is referred to, but the ideal man, reflecting + God's likeness. + + Nothingness of error + +346:6 It is sometimes said that Christian Science teaches the + nothingness of sin, sickness, and death, and then teaches + how this nothingness is to be saved and healed. +346:9 The nothingness of nothing is plain; but we + need to understand that error is nothing, and that its + nothingness is not saved, but must be demonstrated in +346:12 order to prove the somethingness - yea, the allness - + of Truth. It is self-evident that we are harmonious only + as we cease to manifest evil or the belief that we suffer +346:15 from the sins of others. Disbelief in error destroys error, + and leads to the discernment of Truth. There are no + vacuums. How then can this demonstration be "fraught +346:18 with falsities painful to behold"? + + Truth antidotes error + + We treat error through the understanding of Truth, + because Truth is error's antidote. If a dream ceases, it +346:21 is self-destroyed, and the terror is over. When + a sufferer is convinced that there is no reality + in his belief of pain, - because matter has no sensation, +346:24 hence pain in matter is a false belief, - how can he suffer + longer? Do you feel the pain of tooth-pulling, when you + believe that nitrous-oxide gas has made you unconscious? +346:27 Yet, in your concept, the tooth, the operation, and the + forceps are unchanged. + + Serving two masters + + Material beliefs must be expelled to make room for +346:30 spiritual understanding. We cannot serve both + God and mammon at the same time; but is + not this what frail mortals are trying to do? Paul says: +347:1 "The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against + the flesh." Who is ready to admit this? + +347:3 It is said by one critic, that to verify this wonderful + philosophy Christian Science declares that whatever is + mortal or discordant has no origin, existence, nor real- +347:6 ness. Nothing really has Life but God, who is infinite + Life; hence all is Life, and death has no dominion. This + writer infers that if anything needs to be doctored, it +347:9 must be the one God, or Mind. Had he stated his syllo- + gism correctly, the conclusion would be that there is noth- + ing left to be doctored. + + Essential element of Christianity + +347:12 Critics should consider that the so-called mortal man + is not the reality of man. Then they would behold the + signs of Christ's coming. Christ, as the spir- +347:15 itual or true idea of God, comes now as of + old, preaching the gospel to the poor, heal- + ing the sick, and casting out evils. Is it error which +347:18 is restoring an essential element of Christianity, - + namely, apostolic, divine healing? No; it is the Science + of Christianity which is restoring it, and is the light +347:21 shining in darkness, which the darkness comprehends + not. + + If Christian Science takes away the popular gods, - +347:24 sin, sickness, and death, - it is Christ, Truth, who de- + stroys these evils, and so proves their nothingness. + + The dream that matter and error are something +347:27 must yield to reason and revelation. Then mortals + will behold the nothingness of sickness and sin, and + sin and sickness will disappear from consciousness. +347:30 The harmonious will appear real, and the inharmo- + nious unreal. These critics will then see that error + is indeed the nothingness, which they chide us for +348:1 naming nothing and which we desire neither to honor + nor to fear. + +348:3 Medical theories virtually admit the nothingness of + hallucinations, even while treating them as disease; and + who objects to this? Ought we not, then, to approve +348:6 any cure, which is effected by making the disease appear + to be - what it really is - an illusion? + + All disease a delusion + + Here is the difficulty: it is not generally understood how +348:9 one disease can be just as much a delusion as another. It + is a pity that the medical faculty and clergy + have not learned this, for Jesus established +348:12 this foundational fact, when devils, delusions, were cast + out and the dumb spake. + + Elimination of sickness + + Are we irreverent towards sin, or imputing too much +348:15 power to God, when we ascribe to Him almighty Life + and Love? I deny His cooperation with evil, + because I desire to have no faith in evil or in +348:18 any power but God, good. Is it not well to eliminate from + so-called mortal mind that which, so long as it remains in + mortal mind, will show itself in forms of sin, sickness, and +348:21 death? Instead of tenaciously defending the supposed + rights of disease, while complaining of the suffering, dis- + ease brings, would it not be well to abandon the defence, +348:24 especially when by so doing our own condition can be im- + proved and that of other persons as well? + + Full fruitage yet to come + + I have never supposed the world would immediately +348:27 witness the full fruitage of Christian Science, or that sin, + disease, and death would not be believed for + an indefinite time; but this I do aver, that, +348:30 as a result of teaching Christian Science, ethics and + temperance have received all impulse, health has been + restored, and longevity increased. If such are the pres- +349:1 ent fruits, what will the harvest be, when this Science is + more generally understood? + + Law and gospel + +349:3 As Paul asked of the unfaithful in ancient days, so + the rabbis of the present day ask concerning our heal- + ing and teaching, "Through breaking the law, +349:6 dishonorest thou God?" We have the gospel, + however, and our Master annulled material law by heal- + ing contrary to it. We propose to follow the Master's +349:9 example. We should subordinate material law to spirit- + ual law. Two essential points of Christian Science are, + that neither Life nor man dies, and that God is not the +349:12 author of sickness. + + Language inadequate + + The chief difficulty in conveying the teachings of divine + Science accurately to human thought lies in this, that like +349:15 all other languages, English is inadequate to + the expression of spiritual conceptions and + propositions, because one is obliged to use material terms +349:18 in dealing with spiritual ideas. The elucidation of Chris- + tian Science lies in its spiritual sense, and this sense must + be gained by its disciples in order to grasp the meaning of +349:21 this Science. Out of this condition grew the prophecy + concerning the Christian apostles, "They shall speak with + new tongues." + +349:24 Speaking of the things of Spirit while dwelling on + a material plane, material terms must be generally em- + ployed. Mortal thought does not at once catch the +349:27 higher meaning, and can do so only as thought is edu- + cated up to spiritual apprehension. To a certain extent + this is equally true of all learning, even that which is +349:30 wholly material. + + Substance spiritual + + In Christian Science, substance is understood to be + Spirit, while the opponents of Christian Science believe +350:1 substance to be matter. They think of matter as some- + thing and almost the only thing, and of the things which +350:3 pertain to Spirit as next to nothing, or as very + far removed from daily experience. Christian + Science takes exactly the opposite view. + + Both words and works + +350:6 To understand all our Master's sayings as recorded + in the New Testament, sayings infinitely important, + his followers must grow into that stature of +350:9 manhood in Christ Jesus which enables them + to interpret his spiritual meaning. Then they know + how Truth casts out error and heals the sick. His +350:12 words were the offspring of his deeds, both of which + must be understood. Unless the works are com- + prehended which his words explained, the words are +350:15 blind. + + The Master often refused to explain his words, because + it was difficult in a material age to apprehend spiritual +350:18 Truth. He said: "This people's heart is waxed gross, + and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they + have closed; lest at any time they should see with their +350:21 eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand + with their heart, and should be converted, and I should + heal them." + + The divine life-link + +350:24 "The Word was made flesh." Divine Truth must be + known by its effects on the body as well as on the mind, + before the Science of being can be demon- +350:27 strated. Hence its embodiment in the incar- + nate Jesus, - that life-link forming the connection through + which the real reaches the unreal, Soul rebukes sense, and +350:30 Truth destroys error. + + Truth a present help + + In Jewish worship the Word was materially explained, + and the spiritual sense was scarcely perceived. The +351:1 religion which sprang from half-hidden Israelitish history + was pedantic and void of healing power. When we lose +351:3 faith in God's power to heal, we distrust the + divine Principle which demonstrates Christian + Science, and then we cannot heal the sick. Neither can +351:6 we heal through the help of Spirit, if we plant ourselves + on a material basis. + + The author became a member of the orthodox Con- +351:9 gregational Church in early years. Later she learned + that her own prayers failed to heal her as did the prayers + of her devout parents and the church; but when the +351:12 spiritual sense of the creed was discerned in the Science + of Christianity, this spiritual sense was a/ present help/. It + was the living, palpitating presence of Christ, Truth, which +351:15 healed the sick. + + Fatal premises + + We cannot bring out the practical proof of Christianity, + which Jesus required, while error seems as potent and +351:18 real to us as Truth, and while we make a per- + sonal devil and an anthropomorphic God our + starting-points, - especially if we consider Satan as a +351:21 being coequal in power with Deity, if not superior to Him. + Because such starting-points are neither spiritual nor + scientific, they cannot work out the Spirit-rule of Christian +351:24 healing, which proves the nothingness of error, discord, + by demonstrating the all-inclusiveness of harmonious + Truth. + + Fruitless worship + +351:27 The Israelites centred their thoughts on the material + in their attempted worship of the spiritual. To them + matter was substance, and Spirit was shadow. +351:30 They thought to worship Spirit from a ma- + terial standpoint, but this was impossible. They might + appeal to Jehovah, but their prayer brought down no +352:1 proof that it was heard, because they did not sufficiently + understand God to be able to demonstrate His power +352:3 to heal, - to make harmony the reality and discord the + unreality. + + Spirit the tangible + + Our Master declared that his material body was not +352:6 spirit, evidently considering it a mortal and material be- + lief of flesh and bones, whereas the Jews took + a diametrically opposite view. To Jesus, not +352:9 materiality, but spirituality, was the reality of man's ex- + istence, while to the rabbis the spiritual was the intangi- + ble and uncertain, if not the unreal. + + Ghosts not realities + +352:12 Would a mother say to her child, who is frightened at + imaginary ghosts and sick in consequence of the fear: + "I know that ghosts are real. They exist, +352:15 and are to be feared; but you must not be + afraid of them"? + + Children, like adults, /ought/ to fear a reality which +352:18 can harm them and which they do not understand, for + at any moment they may become its helpless victims; + but instead of increasing children's fears by declaring +352:21 ghosts to be real, merciless, and powerful, thus water- + ing the very roots of childish timidity, children should + be assured that their fears are groundless, that ghosts +352:24 are not realities, but traditional beliefs, erroneous and + man-made. + + In short, children should be told not to believe in ghosts, +352:27 because there are no such things. If belief in their reality + is destroyed, terror of ghosts will depart and health be re- + stored. The objects of alarm will then vanish into noth- +352:30 ingness, no longer seeming worthy of fear or honor. To + accomplish a good result, it is certainly not irrational to + tell the truth about ghosts. + + The real and the unreal + +353:1 The Christianly scientific real is the sensuous unreal. + Sin, disease, whatever seems real to material sense, is un- +353:3 real in divine Science. The physical senses + and Science have ever been antagonistic, and + they will so continue, till the testimony of the physical +353:6 senses yields entirely to Christian Science. + + How can a Christian, having the stronger evidence of + Truth which contradicts the evidence of error, think of +353:9 the latter as real or true, either in the form of sickness or + of sin? All must admit that Christ is "the way, the + truth, and the life," and that omnipotent Truth certainly +353:12 does destroy error. + + Superstition obsolete + + The age has not wholly outlived the sense of ghostly + beliefs. It still holds them more or less. Time has not +353:15 yet reached eternity, immortality, complete + reality. All the real is eternal. Perfection + underlies reality. Without perfection, nothing is wholly +353:18 real. All things will continue to disappear, until per- + fection appears and reality is reached. We must give up + the spectral at all points. We must not continue to admit +353:21 the somethingness of superstition, but we must yield up + all belief in it and be wise. When we learn that error + is not real, we shall be ready for progress, "forgetting +353:24 those things which are behind." + + The grave does not banish the ghost of materiality. + So long as there are supposed limits to Mind, and those +353:27 limits are human, so long will ghosts seem to continue. + Mind is limitless. It never was material. The true idea + of being is spiritual and immortal, and from this it follows +353:30 that whatever is laid off is the ghost, some unreal belief. + Mortal beliefs can neither demonstrate Christianity nor + apprehend the reality of Life. + + Christian warfare + +354:1 Are the protests of Christian Science against the notion + that there can be material life, substance, or mind "utter +354:3 falsities and absurdities," as some aver? Why + then do Christians try to obey the Scriptures + and war against "the world, the flesh, and the devil"? +354:6 Why do they invoke the divine aid to enable them to leave + all for Christ, Truth? Why do they use this phraseology, + and yet deny Christian Science, when it teaches precisely +354:9 this thought? The words of divine Science find their + immortality in deeds, for their Principle heals the sick + and spiritualizes humanity. + + Healing omitted + +354:12 On the other hand, the Christian opponents of Chris- + tian Science neither give nor offer any proofs that their + Master's religion can heal the sick. Surely +354:15 it is not enough to cleave to barren and desul- + tory dogmas, derived from the traditions of the elders who + thereunto have set their seals. + + Scientific consistency + +354:18 Consistency is seen in example more than in precept. + Inconsistency is shown by words without deeds, which + are like clouds without rain. If our words +354:21 fail to express our deeds, God will redeem that + weakness, and out of the mouth of babes He will perfect + praise. The night of materiality is far spent, and with +354:24 the dawn Truth will waken men spiritually to hear and + to speak the new tongue. + + Sin should become unreal to every one. It is in itself +354:27 inconsistent, a divided kingdom. Its supposed realism + has no divine authority, and I rejoice in the apprehension + of this grand verity. + + Spiritual meaning + +354:30 The opponents of divine Science must be + charitable, if they would be Christian. If the + letter of Christian Science appears inconsistent, they should +355:1 gain the spiritual meaning of Christian Science, and then + the ambiguity will vanish. + + Practical arguments + +355:3 The charge of inconsistency in Christianly scientific + methods of dealing with sin and disease is met by some- + thing practical, - namely, the proof of the +355:6 utility of these methods; and proofs are better + than mere verbal arguments or prayers which evince no + spiritual power to heal. + +355:9 As for sin and disease, Christian Science says, in the + language of the Master, "Follow me; and let the dead + bury their dead." Let discord of every name and nature +355:12 be heard no more, and let the harmonious and true sense + of Life and being take possession of human consciousness. + + What is the relative value of the two conflicting the- +355:15 ories regarding Christian healing? One, according to + the commands of our Master, heals the sick. The other, + popular religion, declines to admit that Christ's religion +355:18 has exercised any systematic healing power since the first + century. + + Conditions of criticism + + The statement that the teachings of Christian Sci- +355:21 ence in this work are "absolutely false, and the most + egregious fallacies ever offered for accept- + ance," is an opinion wholly due to a misap- +355:24 prehension both of the divine Principle and practice of + Christian Science and to a consequent inability to demon- + strate this Science. Without this understanding, no one +355:27 is capable of impartial or correct criticism, because demon- + stration and spiritual understanding are God's immortal + keynotes, proved to be such by our Master and evidenced +355:30 by the sick who are cured and by the sinners who are + reformed. + + Weakness of material theories + + Strangely enough, we ask for material theories in sup- +356:1 port of spiritual and eternal truths, when the two are so + antagonistic that the material thought must become spir- +356:3 itualized before the spiritual fact is attained. + So-called material existence affords no evidence + theories of spiritual existence and immortality. Sin, +356:6 sickness, and death do not prove man's entity or immor- + tality. Discord can never establish the facts of harmony. + Matter is not the vestibule of Spirit. + + Irreconciliable differences + +356:9 Jesus reasoned on this subject practically, and con- + trolled sickness, sin, and death on the basis of his spir- + ituality. Understanding the nothingness of +356:12 material things, he spoke of flesh and Spirit + as the two opposites, - as error and Truth, not contrib- + uting in any way to each other's happiness and existence. +356:15 Jesus knew, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh + profiteth nothing." + + Copartnership impossible + + There is neither a present nor an eternal copartner- +356:18 ship between error and Truth, between flesh and Spirit. + God is as incapable of producing sin, sick- + ness, and death as He is of experiencing these +356:21 errors. How then is it possible for Him to create man + subject to this triad of errors, - man who is made in the + divine likeness? + +356:24 Does God create a material man out of Himself, Spirit? + Does evil proceed from good? Does divine Love com- + mit a fraud on humanity by making man inclined to sin, +356:27 and then punishing him for it? Would any one call it + wise and good to create the primitive, and then punish its + derivative? + + Two infinite creators absurd + +356:30 Does subsequent follow its antecedent? It does. + Was there original self-creative sin? Then there must + have been more than one creator, more than one God. +357:1 In common justice, we must admit that God will not + punish man for doing what He created man +357:3 capable of doing, and knew from the outset + that man would do. God is "of purer eyes + than to behold evil." We sustain Truth, not by accept- +357:6 ing, but by rejecting a lie. + + Jesus said of personified evil, that it was "a liar, and + the father of it." Truth creates neither a lie, a capacity +357:9 to lie, nor a liar. If mankind would relinquish the belief + that God makes sickness, sin, and death, or makes man + capable of suffering on account of this malevolent triad, +357:12 the foundations of error would be sapped and error's de- + struction ensured; but if we theoretically endow mortals + with the creativeness and authority of Deity, how dare we +357:15 attempt to destroy what He hath made, or even to deny + that God made man evil and made evil good? + + Anthropomorphism + + History teaches that the popular and false notions +357:18 about the Divine Being and character have originated + in the human mind. As there is in reality but + one God, one Mind, wrong notions about God +357:21 must have originated in a false supposition, not in im- + mortal Truth, and they are fading out. They are false + claims, which will eventually disappear, according to the +357:24 vision of St. John in the Apocalypse. + + One supremacy + + If what opposes God is real, there must be two + powers, and God is not supreme and infinite. Can +357:27 Deity be almighty, if another mighty and + self-creative cause exists and sways man- + kind? Has the Father "Life in Himself," as the Scrip- +357:30 tures say, and, if so, can Life, or God, dwell in evil and + create it? Can matter drive Life, Spirit, hence, and so + defeat omnipotence? + + Matter impotent + +358:1 Is the woodman's axe, which destroys a tree's so-called + life, superior to omnipotence? Can a leaden bullet de- +358:3 prive a man of Life, - that is, of God, who is + man's Life? If God is at the mercy of matter, + then matter is omnipotent. Such doctrines are "confu- +358:6 sion worse confounded." If two statements directly con- + tradict each other and one is true, the other must be false. + Is Science thus contradictory? + + Scientific and Biblical facts + +358:9 Christian Science, understood, coincides with the + Scriptures, and sustains logically and demonstratively + every point it presents. Otherwise it would +358:12 not be Science, and could not present its + proofs. Christian Science is neither made up of contra- + dictory aphorisms nor of the inventions of those who scoff +358:15 at God. It presents the calm and clear verdict of Truth + against error, uttered and illustrated by the prophets, + by Jesus, by his apostles, as is recorded throughout the +358:18 Scriptures. + + Why are the words of Jesus more frequently cited + for our instruction than are his remarkable works? Is +358:21 it not because there are few who have gained a true + knowledge of the great import to Christianity of those + works? + + Personal confidence + +358:24 Sometimes it is said; "Rest assured that whatever + effect Christian Scientists may have on the sick, comes + through rousing within the sick a belief +358:27 that in the removal of disease these healers + have wonderful power, derived from the Holy Ghost." + Is it likely that church-members have more faith in +358:30 some Christian Scientist, whom they have perhaps + never seen and against whom they have been warned, + than they have in their own accredited and orthodox +359:1 pastors, whom they have seen and have been taught + to love and to trust? + +359:3 Let any clergyman try to cure his friends by their + faith in him. Will that faith heal them? Yet Scien- + tists will take the same cases, and cures will follow. +359:6 Is this because the patients have more faith in the Scien- + tist than in their pastor? I have healed infidels whose + only objection to this method was, that I as a Chris- +359:9 tian Scientist believed in the Holy Spirit, while they, the + patients, did not. + + Even though you aver that the material senses are +359:12 indispensable to man's existence or entity, you must + change the human concept of life, and must at length + know yourself spiritually and scientifically. The evi- +359:15 dence of the existence of Spirit, Soul, is palpable only to + spiritual sense, and is not apparent to the material senses, + which cognize only that which is the opposite of Spirit. + +359:18 True Christianity is to be honored wherever found, + but when shall we arrive at the goal which that word + implies? From Puritan parents, the discov- +359:21 erer of Christian Science early received her + religious education. In childhood, she often listened + with joy to these words, falling from the lips of her +359:24 saintly mother, "God is able to raise you up from sick- + ness;" and she pondered the meaning of that Scripture + she so often quotes: "And these signs shall follow them +359:27 that believe; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick, + and they shall recover." + + Two different artists + + A Christian Scientist and an opponent are like two +359:30 artists. One says: "I have spiritual ideals, + indestructible and glorious. When others see + them as I do, in their true light and loveliness, - and +360:1 know that these ideals are real and eternal because drawn + from Truth, - they will find that nothing is lost, and all +360:3 is won, by a right estimate of what is real." + + The other artist replies: "You wrong my experience. + I have no mind-ideals except those which are both mental +360:6 and material. It is true that materiality renders these + ideals imperfect and destructible; yet I would not ex- + change mine for thine, for mine give me such personal +360:9 pleasure, and they are not so shockingly transcendental. + They require less self-abnegation, and keep Soul well out + of sight. Moreover, I have no notion of losing my old +360:12 doctrines or human opinions." + + Choose ye to-day + + Dear reader, which mind-picture or externalized thought + shall be real to you, - the material or the spiritual? +360:15 Both you cannot have. You are bringing out + your own ideal. This ideal is either temporal + or eternal. Either Spirit or matter is your model. If you +360:18 try to have two models, then you practically have none. + Like a pendulum in a clock, you will be thrown back and + forth, striking the ribs of matter and swinging between the +360:21 real and the unreal. + + Hear the wisdom of Job, as given in the excellent trans- + lation of the late Rev. George R. Noyes, D.D.: - +360:24 Shall mortal man be more just than God? + Shall man be more pure than his Maker? + Behold, He putteth no trust in His ministering spirits, +360:27 And His angels He chargeth with frailty. + + Of old, the Jews put to death the Galilean Prophet, + the best Christian on earth, for the truth he spoke and +360:30 demonstrated, while to-day, Jew and Christian can unite + in doctrine and denomination on the very basis of Jesus' + words and works. The Jew believes that the Messiah or +361:1 Christ has not yet come; the Christian believes that + Christ is God. Here Christian Science intervenes, ex- +361:3 plains these doctrinal points, cancels the disagreement, + and settles the question. Christ, as the true spiritual idea, + is the ideal of God now and forever, here and everywhere. +361:6 The Jew who believes in the First Commandment is a + monotheist; he has one omnipresent God. Thus the Jew + unites with the Christian's doctrine that God is come and + is present now and forever. The Christian who believes + in the First Commandment is a monotheist. This he + virtually unites with the Jew's belief in one God, and +361:12 recognizes that Jesus Christ is not God, as Jesus himself + declared, but is the Son of God. This declaration of + Jesus, understood, conflicts not at all with another of his +361:15 sayings: "I and my Father are one," - that is, one in + quality, not in quantity. As a drop of water is one with + the ocean, a ray of light one with the, sun, even so God +361:18 and man, Father and son, are one in being. The Scrip- + ture reads: "For in Him we live, and move, and have + our being." + +361:21 I have revised /Science and Health/ only to give a + clearer and fuller expression of its original meaning. Spir- + itual ideas unfold as we advance. A human perception of +361:24 divine Science, however limited, must be correct in order + to be Science and subject to demonstration. A germ of in- + finite Truth, though least in the kingdom of heaven is the +361:27 higher hope on earth, but it will be rejected and reviled + until God prepares the soil for the seed. That which + when sown bears immortal fruit, enriches mankind only +361:30 when it is understood, - hence the many readings given + the Scriptures, and the requisite revisions of /Science and + Health with Key to the Scriptures/. + + + + + CHAPTER XII - CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PRACTICE + + Why art thou cast down, O my soul [sense]? + And why art thou disquieted within me? + Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him, + Who is the health of my countenance and my God. - PSALMS. + + And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name + shall they cast out devils: they shall speak with new tongues; + they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly + thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the + sick, and they shall recover. - JESUS. + + A gospel narrative + +362:1 IT is related in the seventh chapter of Luke's Gospel + that Jesus was once the honored guest of a certain +362:3 Pharisee, by name Simon, though he was quite unlike + Simon the disciple. While they were at meat, an unusual + incident occurred, as if to interrupt the scene +362:6 of Oriental festivity. A "strange woman" + came in. Heedless of the fact that she was debarred from + such a place and such society, especially under the stern +362:9 rules of rabbinical law, as positively as if she were a Hin- + doo pariah intruding upon the household of a high-caste + Brahman, this woman (Mary Magdalene, as she has +362:12 since been called) approached Jesus. According to the + custom of those days, he reclined on a couch with his + head towards the table and his bare feet away from it. +362:15 It was therefore easy for the Magdalen to come behind +363:1 the couch and reach his feet. She bore an alabaster jar + containing costly and fragrant oil, - sandal oil perhaps, +363:3 which is in such common use in the East. Breaking + the sealed jar, she perfumed Jesus' feet with the oil, + wiping them with her long hair, which hung loosely +363:6 about her shoulders, as was customary with women of her + grade. + + Parable of the creditor + + Did Jesus spurn the woman? Did he repel her adora- +363:9 tion? No! He regarded her compassionately. Nor was + this all. Knowing what those around him + were saying in their hearts, especially his host, +363:12 - that they were wondering why, being a prophet, the + exalted guest did not at once detect the woman's immoral + status and bid her depart, - knowing this, Jesus rebuked +363:15 them with a short story or parable. He described two + debtors, one for a large sum and one for a smaller, who + were released from their obligations by their common +363:18 creditor. "Which of them will love him most?" was the + Master's question to Simon the Pharisee; and Simon re- + plied, "He to whom he forgave most." Jesus approved +363:21 the answer, and so brought home the lesson to all, follow- + ing it with that remarkable declaration to the woman, + "Thy sins are forgiven." + + Divine insight + +363:24 Why did he thus summarize her debt to divine Love? + Had she repented and reformed, and did his insight + detect this unspoken moral uprising? She +363:27 bathed his feet with her tears before she + anointed them with the oil. In the absence of other + proofs, was her grief sufficient evidence to warrant the +363:30 expectation of her repentance, reformation, and growth + in wisdom? Certainly there was encouragement in the + mere fact that she was showing her affection for a man +364:1 of undoubted goodness and purity, who has since been + rightfully regarded as the best man that ever trod this +364:3 planet. Her reverence was unfeigned, and it was mani- + fested towards one who was soon, though they knew it + not, to lay down his mortal existence in behalf of all +364:6 sinners, that through his word and works they might be + redeemed from sensuality and sin. + + Penitence or hospitality + + Which was the higher tribute to such ineffable affec- +364:9 tion, the hospitality of the Pharisee or the contrition of + the Magdalen? This query Jesus answered + by rebuking self-righteousness and declaring +364:12 the absolution of the penitent. He even said that this + poor woman had done what his rich entertainer had neg- + lected to do, - wash and anoint his guest's feet, a special +364:15 sign of Oriental courtesy. + + Here is suggested a solemn question, a question indi- + cated by one of the needs of this age. Do Christian +364:18 Scientists seek Truth as Simon sought the Saviour, through + material conservatism and for personal homage? Jesus + told Simon that such seekers as he gave small reward +364:21 in return for the spiritual purgation which came through + the Messiah. If Christian Scientists are like Simon, + then it must be said of them also that they /love/ +364:24 little. + + Genuine repentance + + On the other hand, do they show their regard for + Truth, or Christ, by their genuine repentance, by their +364:27 broken hearts, expressed by meekness and + human affection, as did this woman? If + so, then it may be said of them, as Jesus said of the +364:30 unwelcome visitor, that they indeed love much, because + much is forgiven them. + + Compassion requisite + + Did the careless doctor, the nurse, the cook, and the +365:1 brusque business visitor sympathetically know the thorns + they plant in the pillow of the sick and the heavenly +365:3 homesick looking away from earth, - Oh, did + they know! - this knowledge would do much + more towards healing the sick and preparing their helpers +365:6 for the "midnight call," than all cries of "Lord, Lord!" + The benign thought of Jesus, finding utterance in such + words as "Take no thought for your life," would heal +365:9 the sick, and so enable them to rise above the supposed + necessity for physical thought-taking and doctoring; + but if the unselfish affections be lacking, and common +365:12 sense and common humanity are disregarded, what men- + tal quality remains, with which to evoke healing from + the outstretched arm of righteousness? + + Speedy healing + +365:15 If the Scientist reaches his patient through divine + Love, the healing work will be accomplished at one + visit, and the disease will vanish into its native +365:18 nothingness like dew before the morning sun- + shine. If the Scientist has enough Christly affection to + win his own pardon, and such commendation as the Mag- +365:21 dalen gained from Jesus, then he is Christian enough to + practise scientifically and deal with his patients compas- + sionately; and the result will correspond with the spiritual +365:24 intent. + + Truth desecrated + + If hypocrisy, stolidity, inhumanity, or vice finds its + way into the chambers of disease through the would-be +365:27 healer, it would, if it were possible, convert + into a den of thieves the temple of the Holy + Ghost, - the patient's spiritual power to resuscitate him- +365:30 self. The unchristian practitioner is not giving to mind + or body the joy and strength of Truth. The poor suf- + fering heart needs its rightful nutriment, such as peace, +366:1 patience in tribulation, and a priceless sense of the dear + Father's loving-kindness. + + Moral evils to be cast out + +366:3 In order to cure his patient, the metaphysician + must first cast moral evils out of himself and thus + attain the spiritual freedom which will en- +366:6 able him to cast physical evils out of his + patient; but heal he cannot, while his own spiritual + barrenness debars him from giving drink to the thirsty +366:9 and hinders him from reaching his patient's thought, - + yea, while mental penury chills his faith and under- + standing. + + The true physician + +366:12 The physician who lacks sympathy for his fellow- + being is deficient in human affection, and we have the + apostolic warrant for asking: "He that loveth +366:15 not his brother whom he hath seen, how can + he love God whom he hath not seen?" Not having this + spiritual affection, the physician lacks faith in the divine +366:18 Mind and has not that recognition of infinite Love which + alone confers the healing power. Such so-called Scien- + tists will strain out gnats, while they swallow the camels +366:21 of bigoted pedantry. + + Source of calmness + + The physician must also watch, lest he be over- + whelmed by a sense of the odiousness of sin and by the +366:24 unveiling of sin in his own thoughts. The + sick are terrified by their sick beliefs, and + sinners should be affrighted by their sinful beliefs; but +366:27 the Christian Scientist will be calm in the presence of + both sin and disease, knowing, as he does, that Life is + God and God is All. + + Genuine healing + +366:30 If we would open their prison doors for the sick, we + must first learn to bind up the broken-hearted. If we + would heal by the Spirit, we must not hide the talent +367:1 of spiritual healing under the napkin of its form, nor + bury the /morale /of Christian Science in the grave-clothes +367:3 of its letter. The tender word and Christian + encouragement of an invalid, pitiful patience + with his fears and the removal of them, are better than +367:6 hecatombs of gushing theories, stereotyped borrowed + speeches, and the doling of arguments, which are but so + many parodies on legitimate Christian Science, aflame +367:9 with divine Love. + + Gratitude and humility + + This is what is meant by seeking Truth, Christ, not + "for the loaves and fishes," nor, like the Pharisee, with +367:12 the arrogance of rank and display of scholar- + ship, but like Mary Magdalene, from the sum- + mit of devout consecration, with the oil of gladness and +367:15 the perfume of /gratitude/, with tears of repentance and + with those hairs all numbered by the Father. + + The salt of the earth + + A Christian Scientist occupies the place at this period +367:18 of which Jesus spoke to his disciples, when he said: "Ye + are the salt of the earth." "Ye are the light + of the world. A city that is set on an hill can- +367:21 not be hid." Let us watch, work, and pray that this salt + lose not its saltness, and that this light be not hid, but + radiate and glow into noontide glory. + +367:24 The infinite Truth of the Christ-cure has come to this + age through a "still, small voice," through silent utter- + ances and divine anointing which quicken and increase +367:27 the beneficial effects of Christianity. I long to see the + consummation of my hope, namely, the student's higher + attainments in this line of light. + + Real and counterfeit + +367:30 Because Truth is infinite, error should be known as + nothing. Because Truth is omnipotent in goodness, + error, Truth's opposite, has no might. Evil is but the +368:1 counterpoise of nothingness. The greatest wrong is + but a supposititious opposite of the highest right. The +368:3 confidence inspired by Science lies in the fact + that Truth is real and error is unreal. Error + is a coward before Truth. Divine Science insists that +368:6 time will prove all this. Both truth and error have come + nearer than ever before to the apprehension of mortals, + and truth will become still clearer as error is self- +368:9 destroyed. + + Results of faith in Truth + + Against the fatal beliefs that error is as real as Truth, + that evil is equal in power to good if not superior, and that +368:12 discord is as normal as harmony, even the hope + of freedom from the bondage of sickness and + sin has little inspiration to nerve endeavor. When we +368:15 come to have more faith in the truth of being than we have + in error, more faith in Spirit than in matter, more faith + in living than in dying, more faith in God than in man, +368:18 then no material suppositions can prevent us from healing + the sick and destroying error. + + Life independent of matter + + That Life is not contingent on bodily conditions is +368:21 proved, when we learn that life and man survive this + body. Neither evil, disease, nor death can be + spiritual, and the material belief in them dis- +368:24 appears in the ratio of one's spiritual growth. Because + matter has no consciousness or Ego, it cannot act; its + conditions are illusions, and these false conditions are the +368:27 source of all seeming sickness. Admit the existence of + matter, and you admit that mortality (and therefore dis- + ease) has a foundation in fact. Deny the existence of + matter, and you can destroy the belief in material con- + ditions. When fear disappears, the foundation of disease + is gone. Once let the mental physician believe in the +369:1 reality of matter, and he is liable to admit also the reality + of all discordant conditions, and this hinders his de- +369:3 stroying them. Thus he is unfitted for the successful + treatment of disease. + + Man's entity + + In proportion as matter loses to human sense all en- +369:6 tity as man, in that proportion does man become its + master. He enters into a diviner sense of the + facts, and comprehends the theology of Jesus +369:9 as demonstrated in healing the sick, raising the dead, + and walking over the wave. All these deeds manifested + Jesus' control over the belief that matter is substance, +369:12 that it can be the arbiter of life or the constructor of any + form of existence. + + The Christ treatment + + We never read that Luke or Paul made a reality of +369:15 disease in order to discover some means of healing it. + Jesus never asked if disease were acute or + chronic, and he never recommended atten- +369:18 tion to laws of health, never give drugs, never prayed + to know if God were willing that a man should live. He + understood man, whose life is God, to be immortal, and +369:21 knew that man has not two lives, one to be destroyed and + the other to be made indestructible. + + Matter not medicine + + The prophylactic and therapeutic (that is, the prevent- +369:24 ive and curative) arts belong emphatically to Christian + Science, as would be readily seen, if psychology, + or the Science of Spirit, God, was understood. +369:27 Unscientific methods are finding their dead level. Lim- + ited to matter by their own law, what have they of the + advantages of Mind and immortality? + + No healing in sin + +369:30 No man is physically healed in wilful error or by it, + any more than he is morally saved in or by sin. It is + error even to murmur or to be angry over sin. To be +370:1 every whit whole, man must be better spiritually as well + as physically. To be immortal, we must forsake the +370:3 mortal sense of things, turn from the lie of false + belief to Truth, and gather the facts of being + from the divine Mind. The body improves under the +370:6 same regimen which spiritualizes the thought; and if + health is not made manifest under this regimen, this + proves that fear is governing the body. This is the law +370:9 of cause and effect, or like producing like. + + Like curing like + + Homoeopathy furnishes the evidence to the senses, that + symptoms, which might be produced by a certain drug, +370:12 are removed by using the same drug which + might cause the symptoms. This confirms + my theory that faith in the drug is the sole factor in the +370:15 cure. The effect, which mortal mind produces through + one belief, it removes through an opposite belief, but it + uses the same medicine in both cases. +370:18 The moral and spiritual facts of health, whispered + into thought, produce very direct and marked effects on + the body. A physical diagnosis of disease - since mor- +370:21 tal mind must be the cause of disease - tends to induce + disease. + + Transient potency of drugs + + According to both medical testimony and individual +370:24 experience, a drug may eventually lose its supposed power + and do no more for the patient. Hygienic + treatment also loses its efficacy. Quackery +370:27 likewise fails at length to inspire the credulity + of the sick, and then they cease to improve. These les- + sons are useful. They should naturally and genuinely +370:30 change our basis from sensation to Christian Science, + from error to Truth, from matter to Spirit. + + Diagnosis of matter + + Physicians examine the pulse, tongue, lungs, to dis- +371:1 cover the condition of matter, when in fact all is + Mind. The body is the substratum of mortal mind, +371:3 and this so-called mind must finally yield + to the mandate of immortal Mind. + + Ghost-stories inducing fear + + Disquisitions on disease have a mental effect similar +371:6 to that produced on children by telling ghost-stories in + the dark. By those uninstructed in Christian + Science, nothing is really understood of material +371:9 existence. Mortals are believed to be here without their + consent and to be removed as involuntarily, not knowing + why nor when. As frightened children look everywhere +371:12 for the imaginary ghost, so sick humanity sees danger in + every direction, and looks for relief in all ways except the + right one. Darkness induces fear. The adult, in bond- +371:15 age to his beliefs, no more comprehends his real being + than does the child; and the adult must be taken out of + his darkness, before he can get rid of the illusive suffer- +371:18 ings which throng the gloaming. The way in divine + Science is the only way out of this condition. + + Mind imparts purity, health, and beauty + + I would not transform the infant at once into a +371:21 man, nor would I keep the suckling a lifelong babe. + No impossible thing do I ask when urging + the claims of Christian Science; but because +371:24 this teaching is in advance of the age, we + should not deny our need of its spiritual unfoldment. + Mankind will improve through Science and Christi- +371:27 anity. The necessity for uplifting the race is father to + the fact that Mind can do it; for Mind can impart + purity instead of impurity, strength instead of weak- +371:30 ness, and health instead of disease. Truth is an altera- + tive in the entire system, and can make it "every whit + whole." + + Brain not intelligent + +372:1 Remember, brain is not mind. Matter cannot be sick, + and Mind is immortal. The mortal body is only an erro- +372:3 neous mortal belief of mind in matter. What + you call matter was originally error in solu- + tion, elementary mortal mind, - likened by Milton to +372:6 "chaos and old night." One theory about this mortal + mind is, that its sensations can reproduce man, can form + blood, flesh, and bones. The Science of being, in which +372:9 all is divine Mind, or God and His idea, would be clearer + in this age, but for the belief that matter is the medium + of man, or that man can enter his own embodied thought, +372:12 bind himself with his own beliefs, and then call his bonds + material and name them divine law. + + Veritable success + + When man demonstrates Christian Science absolutely, +372:15 he will be perfect. He can neither sin, suffer, be subject + to matter, nor disobey the law of God. There- + fore he will be as the angels in heaven. Chris- +372:18 tian Science and Christianity are one. How, then, in + Christianity any more than in Christian Science, can we + believe in the reality and power of both Truth and error, +372:21 Spirit and matter, and hope to succeed with contraries? + Matter is not self-sustaining. Its false supports fail one + after another. Matter succeeds for a period only by +372:24 falsely parading in the vestments of law. + + Recognition of benefits + + "Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also + deny before my Father which is in heaven." In Chris- +372:27 tian Science, a denial of Truth is fatal, while + a just acknowledgment of Truth and of what + it has done for us is an effectual help. If pride, super- +372:30 stition, or any error prevents the honest recognition of + benefits received, this will be a hindrance to the recovery + of the sick and the success of the student. + + Disease far more docile than iniquity + +373:1 If we are Christians on all moral questions, but are in + darkness as to the physical exemption which Christian- +373:3 ity includes, then we must have more faith + in God on this subject and be more alive to + His promises. It is easier to cure the most +373:6 malignant disease than it is to cure sin. The author has + raised up the dying, partly because they were willing to + be restored, while she has struggled long, and perhaps in +373:9 vain, to lift a student out of a chronic sin. Under all + modes of pathological treatment, the sick recover more + rapidly from disease than does the sinner from his sin. +373:12 Healing is easier than teaching, if the teaching is faithfully + done. + + Love frees from fear + + The fear of disease and the love of sin are the sources +373:15 of man's enslavement. "The fear of the Lord + is the beginning of wisdom," but the Scriptures + also declare, through the exalted thought of John, that +373:18 "perfect Love casteth out fear." + + The fear occasioned by ignorance can be cured; but + to remove the effects of fear produced by sin, you must +373:21 rise above both fear and sin. Disease is expressed not + so much by the lips as in the functions of the body. Es- + tablish the scientific sense of health, and you relieve the +373:24 oppressed organ. The inflammation, decomposition, or + deposit will abate, and the disabled organ will resume its + healthy functions. + + Mind circulates blood + +373:27 When the blood rushes madly through the veins or + languidly creeps along its frozen channels, we call these + conditions disease. This is a misconception. +373:30 Mortal mind is producing the propulsion or the + languor, and we prove this to be so when by mental means + the circulation is changed, and returns to that standard +374:1 which mortal mind has decided upon as essential for + health. Anodynes, counter-irritants, and depletion never +374:3 reduce inflammation scientifically, but the truth of being, + whispered into the ear of mortal mind, will bring relief. + + Mind can destroy all ills + + Hatred and its effects on the body are removed by +374:6 Love. Because mortal mind seems to be conscious, the + sick say: "How can my mind cause a disease + I never thought of and knew nothing about, +374:9 until it appeared on my body?" The author has an- + swered this question in her explanation of disease as origi- + nating in human belief before it is consciously apparent +374:12 on the body, which is in fact the objective state of mortal + mind, though it is called matter. This mortal blindness + and its sharp consequences show our need of divine meta- +374:15 physics. Through immortal Mind, or Truth, we can + destroy all ills which proceed from mortal mind. + + Ignorance of the cause or approach of disease is no +374:18 argument against the mental origin of disease. You con- + fess to ignorance of the future and incapacity to preserve + your own existence, and this belief helps rather than +374:21 hinders disease. Such a state of mind induces sickness. + It is like walking in darkness on the edge of a precipice. + You cannot forget the belief of danger, and your steps +374:24 are less firm because of your fear, and ignorance of mental + cause and effect. + + Temperature is mental + + Heat and cold are products of mortal mind. The body, +374:27 when bereft of mortal mind, at first cools, and after- + wards it is resolved into its primitive mortal + elements. Nothing that lives ever dies, and +374:30 /vice versa/. Mortal mind produces animal heat, and then + expels it through the abandonment of a belief, or in- + creases it to the point of self-destruction. Hence it is +375:1 mortal mind, not matter, which says, "I die." Heat + would pass from the body as painlessly as gas dissipates +375:3 into the air when it evaporates but for the belief that in- + flammation and pain must accompany the separation of + heat from the body. + + Science /versus /hypnotism + +375:6 Chills and heat are often the form in which fever mani- + fests itself. Change the mental state, and the chills and + fever disappear. The old-school physician +375:9 proves this when his patient says, " I am better," + but the patient believes that matter, not mind, + has helped him. The Christian Scientist demonstrates +375:12 that divine Mind heals, while the hypnotist dispossesses + the patient of his individuality in order to control him. + No person is benefited by yielding his mentality to any +375:15 mental despotism or malpractice. All unscientific mental + practice is erroneous and powerless, and should be under- + stood and so rendered fruitless. The genuine Christian +375:18 Scientist is adding to his patient's mental and moral power, + and is increasing his patient's spirituality while restoring + him physically through divine Love. + + Cure for palsy + +375:21 Palsy is a belief that matter governs mortals, and can + paralyze the body, making certain portions of + it motionless. Destroy the belief, show mortal +375:24 mind that muscles have no power to be lost, for Mind is + supreme, and you cure the palsy. + + Latent fear diagnosed + + Consumptive patients always show great hopeful- +375:27 ness and courage, even when they are supposed to be in + hopeless danger. This state of mind seems + anomalous except to the expert in Christian +375:30 Science. This mental state is not understood, simply + because it is a stage of fear so excessive that it amounts + to fortitude. The belief in consumption presents to mor- +376:1 tal thought a hopeless state, an image more terrifying than + that of most other diseases. The patient turns involun- +376:3 tarily from the contemplation of it, but though unacknowl- + edged, the latent fear and the despair of recovery remain + in thought. + + Insidious concepts + +376:6 Just so is it with the greatest sin. It is the most subtle, + and does its work almost self-deceived. The diseases + deemed dangerous sometimes come from the +376:9 most hidden, undefined, and insidious beliefs. + The pallid invalid, whom you declare to be wasting away + with consumption of the blood, should be told that blood +376:12 never gave life and can never take it away, - that Life is + Spirit, and that there is more life and immortality in one + good motive and act, than in all the blood which ever +376:15 flowed through mortal veins and simulated a corporeal + sense of life. + + Remedy for fever + + If the body is material, it cannot, for that very reason, +376:18 suffer with a fever. Because the so-called material body + is a mental concept and governed by mortal + mind, it manifests only what that so-called +376:21 mind expresses. Therefore the efficient remedy is to + destroy the patient's false belief by both silently and au- + dibly arguing the true facts in regard to harmonious +376:24 being, - representing man as healthy instead of diseased, + and showing that it is impossible for matter to suffer, to + feel pain or heat, to be thirsty or sick. Destroy fear, +376:27 and you end fever. Some people, mistaught as to Mind- + science, inquire when it will be safe to check a fever. + Know that in Science you cannot check a fever after ad- +376:30 mitting that it must have its course. To fear and admit + the power of disease, is to paralyze mental and scientific + demonstration. + +377:1 If your patient believes in taking cold, mentally con- + vince him that matter cannot take cold, and that thought +377:3 governs this liability. If grief causes suffering, convince + the sufferer that affliction is often the source of joy, and + that he should rejoice always in ever-present Love. + + Climate harmless + +377:6 Invalids flee to tropical climates in order to save their + lives, but they come back no better than when they went + away. Then is the time to cure them through +377:9 Christian Science, and prove that they can + be healthy in all climates, when their fear of climate is + exterminated. + + Mind governs body + +377:12 Through different states of mind, the body becomes + suddenly weak or abnormally strong, showing mortal + mind to be the producer of strength or weak- +377:15 ness. A sudden joy or grief has caused what + is termed instantaneous death. Because a belief origi- + nates unseen, the mental state should be continually +377:18 watched that it may not produce blindly its bad effects. + The author never knew a patient who did not recover + when the belief of the disease had gone. Remove the +377:21 leading error or governing fear of this lower so-called mind, + and you remove the cause of all disease as well as the mor- + bid or excited action of any organ. You also remove in +377:24 this way what are termed organic diseases as readily as + functional difficulties. + + The cause of all so-called disease is mental, a mortal +377:27 fear, a mistaken belief or conviction of the necessity and + power of ill-health; also a fear that Mind is helpless to + defend the life of man and incompetent to control it. With- +377:30 out this ignorant human belief, any circumstance is of it- + self powerless to produce suffering. It is latent belief in + disease, as well as the fear of disease, which associates sick- +378:1 ness with certain circumstances and causes the two to + appear conjoined, even as poetry and music are repro- +378:3 duced in union by human memory. Disease has no in- + telligence. Unwittingly you sentence yourself to suffer. + The understanding of this will enable you to commute this +378:6 self-sentence, and meet every circumstance with truth. + Disease is less than mind, and Mind can control it. + + Latent power + + Without the so-called human mind, there can be no +378:9 inflammatory nor torpid action of the system. Remove + the error, and you destroy its effects. By + looking a tiger fearlessly in the eye, Sir Charles +378:12 Napier sent it cowering back into the jungle. An ani- + mal may infuriate another by looking it in the eye, and + both will fight for nothing. A man's gaze, fastened +378:15 fearlessly on a ferocious beast, often causes the beast to + retreat in terror. This latter occurrence represents the + power of Truth over error, - the might of intelligence +378:18 exercised over mortal beliefs to destroy them; whereas + hypnotism and hygienic drilling and drugging, adopted + to cure matter, is represented by two material erroneous +378:21 bases. + + Disease powerless + + Disease is not an intelligence to dispute the empire of + Mind or to dethrone Mind and take the government into +378:24 its own hands. Sickness is not a God-given, + nor a self-constituted material power, which + copes astutely with Mind and finally conquers it. God +378:27 never endowed matter with power to disable Life or to + chill harmony with a long and cold night of discord. + Such a power, without the divine permission, is incon- +378:30 ceivable; and if such a power could be divinely directed, + it would manifest less wisdom than we usually find dis- + played in human governments. + + Jurisdiction of Mind + +379:1 If disease can attack and control the body without + the consent of mortals, sin can do the same, for both +379:3 are errors, announced as partners in the be- + ginning. The Christian Scientist finds only + effects, where the ordinary physician looks for causes. +379:6 The real jurisdiction of the world is in Mind, controlling + every effect and recognizing all causation as vested in + divine Mind. + + Power of imagination + +379:9 A felon, on whom certain English students experi- + mented, fancied himself bleeding to death, and died be- + cause of that belief, when only a stream of +379:12 warm water was trickling over his arm. Had + he known his sense of bleeding was an illusion, he would + have risen above the false belief. Let the despairing in- +379:15 valid, inspecting the hue of her blood on a cambric hand- + kerchief, think of the experiment of those Oxford boys, + who caused the death of a man, when not a drop of his +379:18 blood was shed. Then let her learn the opposite state- + ment of life as taught in Christian Science, and she will + understand that she is not dying on account of the state of +379:21 her blood, but is suffering from her belief that blood is + destroying her life. The so-called vital current does not + affect the invalid's health, but her belief produces the +379:24 very results she dreads. + + Fevers the effect of fear + + Fevers are errors of various types. The quickened + pulse, coated tongue, febrile heat, dry skin, pain in the +379:27 head and limbs, are pictures drawn on the + body by a mortal mind. The images, held in + this disturbed mind, frighten conscious thought. Unless +379:30 the fever-picture, drawn by millions of mortals and im- + aged on the body through the belief that mind is in matter + and discord is as real as harmony, is destroyed through +380:1 Science, it may rest at length on some receptive thought, + and become a fever case, which ends in a belief called +380:3 death, which belief must be finally conquered by eternal + Life. Truth is always the victor. Sickness and sin fall + by their own weight. Truth is the rock of ages, the head- +380:6 stone of the corner, "but on whomsoever it shall fall, it + will grind him to powder." + + Misdirected contention + + Contending for the evidence or indulging the demands +380:9 of sin, disease, or death, we virtually contend against + the control of Mind over body, and deny the + power of Mind to heal. This false method +380:12 is as though the defendant should argue for the plaintiff + in favor of a decision which the defendant knows will + be turned against himself. + + Benefits of metaphysics + +380:15 The physical effects of fear illustrate its illusion. Gaz- + ing at a chained lion, crouched for a spring, should not + terrify a man. The body is affected only with +380:18 the belief of disease produced by a so-called + mind ignorant of the truth which chains disease. Noth- + ing but the power of Truth can prevent the fear of +380:21 error, and prove man's dominion over error. + + A higher discovery + + Many years ago the author made a spiritual discov- + ery, the scientific evidence of which has accumulated to +380:24 prove that the divine Mind produces in man + health, harmony, and immortality. Gradu- + ally this evidence will gather momentum and clearness, +380:27 until it reaches its culmination of scientific statement and + proof. Nothing is more disheartening than to believe + that there is a power opposite to God, or good, and that +380:30 God endows this opposing power with strength to be used + against Himself, against Life, health, harmony. + + Ignorance of our rights + + Every law of matter or the body, supposed to govern +381:1 man, is rendered null and void by the law of Life, God. + Ignorant of our God-given rights, we submit to unjust +381:3 decrees, and the bias of education enforces + this slavery. Be no more willing to suffer the + illusion that you are sick or that some disease is develop- +381:6 ing in the system, than you are to yield to a sinful temp- + tation on the ground that sin has its necessities. + + No laws of matter + + When infringing some supposed law, you say that +381:9 there is danger. This fear is the danger and induces the + physical effects. We cannot in reality suffer + from breaking anything except a moral or +381:12 spiritual law. The so-called laws of mortal belief are + destroyed by the understanding that Soul is immortal, + and that mortal mind cannot legislate the times, periods, +381:15 and types of disease, with which mortals die. God is the + lawmaker, but He is not the author of barbarous codes. + In infinite Life and Love there is no sickness, sin, nor +381:18 death, and the Scriptures declare that we live, move, and + have our being in the infinite God. + + God-given dominion + + Think less of the enactments of mortal mind, and you +381:21 will sooner grasp man's God-given dominion. You must + understand your way out of human theories + relating to health, or you will never believe +381:24 that you are quite free from some ailment. The har- + mony and immortality of man will never be reached + without the understanding that Mind is not in matter. +381:27 Let us banish sickness as an outlaw, and abide by the + rule of perpetual harmony, - God's law. It is man's + moral right to annul an unjust sentence, a sentence never +381:30 inflicted by divine authority. + + Begin rightly + + Christ Jesus overruled the error which would impose + penalties for transgressions of the physical laws of +382:1 health; he annulled supposed laws of matter, opposed + to the harmonies of Spirit, lacking divine au- +382:3 thority and having only human approval for + their sanction. + + Hygiene excessive + + If half the attention given to hygiene were given to the +382:6 study of Christian Science and to the spiritualization of + thought, this alone would usher in the millen- + inium. Constant bathing and rubbing to alter +382:9 the secretions or to remove unhealthy exhalations from + the cuticle receive a useful rebuke from Jesus' precept, + "Take no thought . . . for the body." We must beware +382:12 of making clean merely the outside of the platter. + + Blissful ignorance + + He, who is ignorant of what is termed hygienic law, is + more receptive of spiritual power and of faith in one +382:15 God, than is the devotee of supposed hygienic + law, who comes to teach the so-called igno- + rant one. Must we not then consider the so-called law +382:18 of matter a canon "more honored in the breach than + the observance"? A patient thoroughly booked in medi- + cal theories is more difficult to heal through Mind than +382:21 one who is not. This verifies the saying of our Master: + "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a + little child, shall in no wise enter therein." + +382:24 One whom I rescued from seeming spiritual oblivion, + in which the senses had engulfed him, wrote to me: "I + should have died, but for the glorious Principle you teach, +382:27 - supporting the power of Mind over the body and show- + ing me the nothingness of the so-called pleasures and pains + of sense. The treatises I had read and the medicines I +382:30 had taken only abandoned me to more hopeless suffering + and despair. Adherence to hygiene was useless. Mortal + mind needed to be set right. The ailment was not bodily, +383:1 but mental, and I was cured when I learned my way in + Christian Science." + + A clean mind and body + +383:3 We need a clean body and a clean mind, - a body + rendered pure by Mind as well as washed by water. + One says: "I take good care of my body." +383:6 To do this, the pure and exalting influence of + the divine Mind on the body is requisite, and the Christian + Scientist takes the best care of his body when he leaves +383:9 it most out of his thought, and, like the Apostle Paul, is + "willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be pres- + ent with the Lord." + +383:12 A hint may be taken from the emigrant, whose filth + does not affect his happiness, because mind and body + rest on the same basis. To the mind equally gross, dirt +383:15 gives no uneasiness. It is the native element of such a + mind, which is symbolized, and not chafed, by its sur- + roundings; but impurity and uncleanliness, which do +383:18 not trouble the gross, could not be borne by the refined. + This shows that the mind must be clean to keep the body + in proper condition. + + Beliefs illusive + +383:21 The tobacco-user, eating or smoking poison for half a + century, sometimes tells you that the weed preserves + his health, but does this make it so? Does his +383:24 assertion prove the use of tobacco to be a salu- + brious habit, and man to be the better for it? Such in- + stances only prove the illusive physical effect of a false +383:27 belief, confirming the Scriptural conclusion concerning a + man, "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he." + + The movement-cure - pinching and pounding the poor +383:30 body, to make it sensibly well when it ought to be in- + sensibly so - is another medical mistake, resulting from + the common notion that health depends on inert matter +384:1 instead of on Mind. Can matter, or what is termed + matter, either feel or act without mind? + + Corporeal penalties + +384:3 We should relieve our minds from the depressing thought + that we have transgressed a material law and must of + necessity pay the penalty. Let us reassure +384:6 ourselves with the law of Love. God never + punishes man for doing right, for honest labor, or for + deeds of kindness, though they expose him to fatigue, +384:9 cold, heat, contagion. If man seems to incur the penalty + through matter, this is but a belief of mortal mind, not + an enactment of wisdom, and man has only to enter his +384:12 protest against this belief in order to annul it. Through + this action of thought and its results upon the body, the + student will prove to himself, by small beginnings, the +384:15 grand verities of Christian Science. + + Not matter, but Mind + + If exposure to a draught of air while in a state of + perspiration is followed by chills, dry cough, influenza, +384:18 congestive symptoms in the lungs, or hints of + inflammatory rheumatism, your Mind-remedy + is safe and sure. If you are a Christian Scientist, such +384:21 symptoms are not apt to follow exposure; but if you + believe in laws of matter and their fatal effects when + transgressed, you are not fit to conduct your own case or +384:24 to destroy the bad effects of your belief. When the fear + subsides and the conviction abides that you have broken + no law, neither rheumatism, consumption, nor any other +384:27 disease will ever result from exposure to the weather. In + Science this is an established fact which all the evidence + before the senses can never overrule. + + Benefit of philanthropy + +384:30 Sickness, sin, and death must at length quail before + the divine rights of intelligence, and then the power + of Mind over the entire functions and organs of the +385:1 human system will be acknowledged. It is proverbial + that Florence Nightingale and other philanthropists en- +385:3 gaged in humane labors have been able to + undergo without sinking fatigues and expo- + sures which ordinary people could not endure. The ex- +385:6 planation lies in the support which they derived from + the divine law, rising above the human. The spiritual + demand, quelling the material, supplies energy and en- +385:9 durance surpassing all other aids, and forestalls the + penalty which our beliefs would attach to our best + deeds. Let us remember that the eternal law of right, +385:12 though it can never annul the law which makes sin its + own executioner, exempts man from all penalties but + those due for wrong-doing. + + Honest toil has no penalty + +385:15 Constant toil, deprivations, exposures, and all untow- + ard conditions, /if without sin/, can be experienced with- + out suffering. Whatever it is your duty to do, +385:18 you can do without harm to yourself. If you + sprain the muscles or wound the flesh, your + remedy is at hand. Mind decides whether or not the +385:21 flesh shall be discolored, painful, swollen, and inflamed. + + Our sleep and food + + You say that you have not slept well or have overeaten. + You are a law unto yourself. Saying this and believing +385:24 it, you will suffer in proportion to your belief + and fear. Your sufferings are not the penalty + for having broken a law of matter, for it is a law of mortal +385:27 mind which you have disobeyed. You say or think, be- + cause you have partaken of salt fish, that you must be + thirsty, and you are thirsty accordingly, while the oppo- +385:30 site belief would produce the opposite result. + + Doubtful evidence + + Any supposed information, coming from the body or + from inert matter as if either were intelligent, is an illu- +386:1 sion of mortal mind, - one of its dreams. Realize that + the evidence of the senses is not to be accepted +386:3 in the case of sickness, any more than it is in + the case of sin. + + Climate and belief + + Expose the body to certain temperatures, and belief +386:6 says that you may catch cold and have catarrh; but no + such result occurs without mind to demand + it and produce it. So long as mortals declare +386:9 that certain states of the atmosphere produce catarrh, + fever, rheumatism, or consumption, those effects will + follow, - not because of the climate, but on account of +386:12 the belief. The author has in too many instances healed + disease through the action of Truth on the minds of mor- + tals, and the corresponding effects of Truth on the body, +386:15 not to know that this is so. + + Erroneous despatch + + A blundering despatch, mistakenly announcing the + death of a friend, occasions the same grief that the friend's +386:18 real death would bring. You think that your + anguish is occasioned by your loss. Another + despatch, correcting the mistake, heals your grief, and +386:21 you learn that your suffering was merely the result of + your belief. Thus it is with all sorrow, sickness, and + death. You will learn at length that there is no cause +386:24 for grief, and divine wisdom will then be understood. + Error, not Truth, produces all the suffering on earth. + + Mourning causeless + + If a Christian Scientist had said, while you were labor- +386:27 ing under the influence of the belief of grief, "Your sor- + row is without cause," you would not have + understood him, although the correctness of +386:30 the assertion might afterwards be proved to you. So, + when our friends pass from our sight and we lament, + that lamentation is needless and causeless. We shall +387:1 perceive this to be true when we grow into the under- + standing of Life, and know that there is no death. + + Mind heals brain-disease + +387:3 Because mortal mind is kept active, must it pay the + penalty in a softened brain? Who dares to say that actual + Mind can be overworked? When we reach +387:6 our limits of mental endurance, we conclude + that intellectual labor has been carried sufficiently far; + but when we realize that immortal Mind is ever active, +387:9 and that spiritual energies can neither wear out nor can + so-called material law trespass upon God-given powers + and resources, we are able to rest in Truth, refreshed by +387:12 the assurances of immortality, opposed to mortality. + + Right never punishable + + Our thinkers do not die early because they faithfully + perform the natural functions of being. If printers and +387:15 authors have the shortest span of earthly ex- + istence, it is not because they occupy the most + important posts and perform the most vital functions in +387:18 society. That man does not pay the severest penalty + who does the most good. By adhering to the realities of + eternal existence, - instead of reading disquisitions on +387:21 the inconsistent supposition that death comes in obedience + to the law of life, and that God punishes man for doing + good, - one cannot suffer as the result of any labor of +387:24 love, but grows stronger because of it. It is a law of so- + called mortal mind, misnamed matter, which causes all + things discordant. + + Christian history + +387:27 The history of Christianity furnishes sublime proofs + of the supporting influence and protecting power bestowed + on man by his heavenly Father, omnipotent +387:30 Mind, who gives man faith and understanding + whereby to defend himself, not only from temptation, but + from bodily suffering. + +388:1 The Christian martyrs were prophets of Christian + Science. Through the uplifting and consecrating power +388:3 of divine Truth, they obtained a victory over the corpo- + real senses, a victory which Science alone can explain. + Stolidity, which is a resisting state of mortal mind, suffers +388:6 less, only because it knows less of material law. + + The Apostle John testified to the divine basis of Chris- + tian Science, when dire inflictions failed to destroy his +388:9 body. Idolaters, believing in more than one mind, had + "gods many," and thought that they could kill the body + with matter, independently of mind. + + Sustenance spiritual + +388:12 Admit the common hypothesis that food is the nutri- + ment of life, and the follows the necessity for another + admission in the opposite direction, - that +388:15 food has power to destroy Life, God, through + a deficiency or an excess, a quality or a quantity. This + is a specimen of the ambiguous nature of all material +388:18 health-theories. They are self-contradictory and self-de- + structive, constituting a "kingdom divided against itself," + which is "brought to desolation." If food was prepared +388:21 by Jesus for his disciples, it cannot destroy life. + + God sustains man + + The fact is, food does not affect the absolute Life of + man, and this becomes self-evident, when we learn that +388:24 God is our Life. Because sin and sickness are + not qualities of Soul, or Life, we have hope in + immortality; but it would be foolish to venture beyond +388:27 our present understanding, foolish to stop eating until + we gain perfection and a clear comprehension of the living + Spirit. In that perfect day of understanding, we shall +388:30 neither eat to live nor live to eat. + + Diet and digestion + + If mortals think that food disturbs the harmonious + functions of mind and body, either the food or this thought +389:1 must be dispensed with, for the penalty is coupled with + the belief. Which shall it be? If this decision be left +389:3 to Christian Science, it will be given in behalf + of the control of Mind over this belief and every + erroneous belief, or material condition. The less we +389:6 know or think about hygiene, the less we are predisposed + to sickness. Recollect that it is not the nerves, not mat- + ter, but mortal mind, which reports food as undigested. +389:9 Matter does not inform you of bodily derangements; it + is supposed to do so. This pseudo-mental testimony can + be destroyed only by the better results of Mind's oppo- +389:12 site evidence. + + Scripture rebukes + + Our dietetic theories first admit that food sustains the + life of man, and then discuss the certainty that food can +389:15 kill man. This false reasoning is rebuked in + Scripture by the metaphors about the fount + and stream, the tree and its fruit, and the kingdom di- +389:18 vided against itself. If God has, as prevalent theories + maintain, instituted laws that food shall support human + life, He cannot annul these regulations by an opposite +389:21 law that food shall be inimical to existence. + + Ancient confusion + + Materialists contradict their own statements. Their + belief in material laws and in penalties for their infrac- +389:24 tion is the ancient error that there is fraternity + between pain and pleasure, good and evil, God + and Satan. This belief totters to its falling before the +389:27 battle-axe of Science. + + A case of convulsions, produced by indigestion, came + under my observation. In her belief the woman had +389:30 chronic liver-complaint, and was then suffering from a + complication of symptoms connected with this belief. I + cured her in a few minutes. One instant she spoke de- +390:1 spairingly of herself. The next minute she said, "My + food is all digested, and I should like something more +390:3 to eat." + + Ultimate harmony + + We cannot deny that Life is self-sustained, and we + should never deny the everlasting harmony of Soul, sim- +390:6 ply because, to the mortal senses, there is seem- + ing discord. It is our ignorance of God, the + divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and +390:9 the right understanding of Him restores harmony. Truth + will at length compel us all to exchange the pleasures and + pains of sense for the joys of Soul. + + Unnecessary prostration + +390:12 When the first symptoms of disease appear, dispute the + testimony of the material senses with divine Science. Let + your higher sense of justice destroy the false +390:15 process of mortal opinions which you name + law, and then you will not be confined to a sick-room nor + laid upon a bed of suffering in payment of the last far- +390:18 thing, the last penalty demanded by error. "Agree with + thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with + him." Suffer no claim of sin or of sickness to grow upon +390:21 the thought. Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that + it is illegitimate, because you know that God is no more + the author of sickness than He is of sin. You have no +390:24 law of His to support the necessity either of sin or sick- + ness, but you have divine authority for denying that neces- + sity and healing the sick. + + Treatment of disease + +390:27 "Agree to disagree" with approaching symptoms of + chronic or acute disease, whether it is cancer, consump- + tion, or smallpox. Meet the incipient stages +390:30 of disease with as powerful mental opposi- + tion as a legislator would employ to defeat the passage of + an inhuman law. Rise in the conscious strength of the +391:1 spirit of Truth to overthrow the plea of mortal mind, + /alias/ matter, arrayed against the supremacy of Spirit. +391:3 Blot out the images of mortal thought and its beliefs in + sickness and sin. Then, when thou art delivered to the + judgment of Truth, Christ, the judge will say, "Thou +391:6 art whole!" + + Righteous rebellion + + Instead of blind and calm submission to the incipient + or advanced stages of disease, rise in rebellion against +391:9 them. Banish the belief that you can possi- + bly entertain a single intruding pain which can- + not be ruled out by the might of Mind, and in this way +391:12 you can prevent the development of pain in the body. + No law of God hinders this result. It is error to suffer + for aught but your own sins. Christ, or Truth, will de- +391:15 stroy all other supposed suffering, and real suffering for + your own sins will cease in proportion as the sin ceases. + + Contradict error + + Justice is the moral signification of law. Injustice de- +391:18 clares the absence of law. When the body is supposed + to say, "I am sick," never plead guilty. Since + matter cannot talk, it must be mortal mind +391:21 which speaks; therefore meet the intimation with a pro- + test. If you say, "I am sick," you plead guilty. Then + your adversary will deliver you to the judge (mortal +391:24 mind), and the judge will sentence you. Disease has + no intelligence to declare itself something and announce + its name. Mortal mind alone sentences itself. Therefore +391:27 make your own terms with sickness, and be just to yourself + and to others. + + Sin to be overcome + + Mentally contradict every complaint from the body, +391:30 and rise to the true consciousness of Life as + Love, - as all that is pure, and bearing the + fruits of Spirit. Fear is the fountain of sickness, +392:1 and you master fear and sin through divine Mind; hence + it is through divine Mind that you overcome disease. +392:3 Only while fear or sin remains can it bring forth death. + To cure a bodily ailment, every broken moral law should + be taken into account and the error be rebuked. Fear, +392:6 which is an element of all disease, must be cast out to + readjust the balance for God. Casting out evil and fear + enables truth to outweigh error. The only course is to +392:9 take antagonistic grounds against all that is opposed to + the health, holiness, and harmony of man, God's image. + + Illusions about nerves + + The physical affirmation of disease should always be +392:12 met with the mental negation. Whatever benefit is pro- + duced on the body, must be expressed men- + tally, and thought should be held fast to this +392:15 ideal. If you believe in inflamed and weak nerves, you + are liable to an attack from that source. You will call it + neuralgia, but we call it a belief. If you think that con- +392:18 sumption is hereditary in your family, you are liable to + the development of that thought in the form of what is + termed pulmonary disease, unless Science shows you +392:21 otherwise. If you decide that climate or atmosphere is + unhealthy, it will be so to you. Your decisions will mas- + ter you, whichever direction they take. + + Guarding the door + +392:24 Reverse the case. Stand porter at the door of thought. + Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in + bodily results, you will control yourself har- +392:27 moniously. When the condition is present + which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise, + heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office +392:30 as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears. + Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then the + body cannot suffer from them. The issues of pain or +393:1 pleasure must come through mind, and like a watchman + forsaking his post, we admit the intruding belief, forget- +393:3 ting that through divine help we can forbid this entrance. + + The strength of Spirit + + The body seems to be self-acting, only because mortal + mind is ignorant of itself, of its own actions, and of their +393:6 results, - ignorant that the predisposing, re- + mote, and exciting cause of all bad effects is a + law of so-called mortal mind, not of matter. Mind is the +393:9 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. +393:12 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 +393:15 man. + + No pain in matter + + Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mind + governs, and that in Science man reflects God's govern- +393:18 ment. Have no fear that matter can ache, + swell, and be inflamed as the result of a law + of any kind, when it is self-evident that matter can have +393:21 no pain nor inflammation. Your body would suffer no + more from tension or wounds than the trunk of a tree + which you gash or the electric wire which you stretch, +393:24 were it not for mortal mind. + + When Jesus declares that "the light of the body is the + eye," he certainly means that light depends upon Mind, +393:27 not upon the complex humors, lenses, muscles, the iris + and pupil, constituting the visual organism. + + No real disease + + Man is never sick, for Mind is not sick and matter +393:30 cannot be. A false belief is both the tempter + and the tempted, the sin and the sinner, the + disease and its cause. It is well to be calm in sickness; +394:1 to be hopeful is still better; but to understand that sick- + ness is not real and that Truth can destroy its seeming +394:3 reality, is best of all, for this understanding is the uni- + versal and perfect remedy. + + Recuperation mental + + By conceding power to discord, a large majority of +394:6 doctors depress mental energy, which is the only real + recuperative power. Knowledge that we + can accomplish the good we hope for, stimu- +394:9 lates the system to act in the direction which Mind points + out. The admission that any bodily condition is beyond + the control of Mind disarms man, prevents him from +394:12 helping himself, and enthrones matter through error. To + those struggling with sickness, such admissions are dis- + couraging, - as much so as would be the advice to a man +394:15 who is down in the world, that he should not try to rise + above his difficulties. + + Experience has proved to the author the fallacy of +394:18 material systems in general, - that their theories are + sometimes pernicious, and that their denials are better + than their affirmations. Will you bid a man let evils +394:21 overcome him, assuring him that all misfortunes are from + God, against whom mortals should not contend? Will + you tell the sick that their condition is hopeless, unless it +394:24 can be aided by a drug or climate? Are material means + the only refuge from fatal chances? Is there no divine + permission to conquer discord of every kind with harmony, +394:27 with Truth and Love? + + Arguing wrongly + + We should remember that Life is God, and that God + is omnipotent. Not understanding Christian +394:30 Science, the sick usually have little faith in + it till they feel its beneficent influence. This shows + that faith is not the healer in such cases. The sick +395:1 unconsciously argue for suffering, instead of against it. + They admit its reality, whereas they should deny it. +395:3 They should plead in opposition to the testimony of the + deceitful senses, and maintain man's immortality and + eternal likeness to God. + + Divine authority + +395:6 Like the great Exemplar, the healer should speak to + disease as one having authority over it, leaving Soul to + master the false evidences of the corporeal +395:9 senses and to assert its claims over mortal- + ity and disease. The same Principle cures both sin and + sickness. When divine Science overcomes faith in a car- +395:12 nal mind, and faith in God destroys all faith in sin and in + material methods of healing, then sin, disease, and death + will disappear. + + Aids in sickness + +395:15 Prayers, in which God is not asked to heal but is be- + sought to take the patient to Himself, do not benefit the + sick. An ill-tempered, complaining, or deceit- +395:18 ful person should not be a nurse. The nurse + should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of + faith, - receptive to Truth and Love. + + Mental quackery + +395:21 It is mental quackery to make disease a reality - to + hold it as something seen and felt - and then to attempt + its cure through Mind. It is no less erroneous +395:24 to believe in the real existence of a tumor, a + cancer, or decayed lungs, while you argue against their + reality, than it is for your patient to feel these ills in +395:27 physical belief. Mental practice, which holds disease + as a reality, fastens disease on the patient, and it may + appear in a more alarming form. + + Effacing images of disease + +395:30 The knowledge that brain-lobes cannot kill a man nor + affect the functions of mind would prevent the brain from + becoming diseased, though a moral offence is indeed the +396:1 worst of diseases. One should never hold in mind + the thought of disease, but should efface from +396:3 thought all forms and types of disease, both for + one's own sake and for that of the patient. + + Avoid talking disease + + Avoid talking illness to the patient. Make no unne- +396:6 cessary inquiries relative to feelings or disease. Never + startle with a discouraging remark about re- + covery, nor draw attention to certain symp- +396:9 toms as unfavorable, avoid speaking aloud the name of + the disease. Never say beforehand how much you have + to contend with in a case, nor encourage in the patient's +396:12 thought the expectation of growing worse before a crisis + is passed. + + False testimony refuted + + The refutation of the testimony of material sense is +396:15 not a difficult task in view of the conceded falsity of this + testimony. The refutation becomes arduous, + not because the testimony of sin or disease is +396:18 true, but solely on account of the tenacity of belief in its + truth, due to the force of education and the overwhelm- + ing weight of opinions on the wrong side, - all teaching +396:21 that the body suffers, as if matter could have sensation. + + Healthful explanation + + At the right time explain to the sick the power which + their beliefs exercise over their bodies. Give them divine +396:24 and wholesome understanding, with which to + combat their erroneous sense, and so efface the + images of sickness from mortal mind. Keep distinctly in +396:27 thought that man is the offspring of God, not of man; + that man is spiritual, not material; that Soul is Spirit, + outside of matter, never in it, never giving the body life +396:30 and sensation. It breaks the dream of disease to under- + stand that sickness is formed by the human mind, not by + matter nor by the divine Mind. + + Misleading methods + +397:1 By not perceiving vital metaphysical points, not seeing + how mortal mind affects the body, - acting beneficially +397:3 or injuriously on the health, as well as on the + morals and the happiness of mortals, - we are + misled in our conclusions and methods. We throw the +397:6 mental influence on the wrong side, thereby actually in- + juring those whom we mean to bless. + + Remedy for accidents + + Suffering is no less a mental condition than is enjoy- +397:9 ment. You cause bodily sufferings and increase them + by admitting their reality and continuance, + as directly as you enhance your joys by be- +397:12 lieving them to be real and continuous. When an ac- + cident happens, you think or exclaim, "I am hurt!" + Your thought is more powerful than your words, more +397:15 powerful than the accident itself, to make the injury + real. + + Now reverse the process. Declare that you are not hurt +397:18 and understand the reason why, and you will find the + ensuing good effects to be in exact proportion to your + disbelief in physics, and your fidelity to divine meta- +397:21 physics, confidence in God as All, which the Scriptures + declare Him to be. + + Independent mentality + + To heal the sick, one must be familiar with the great +397:24 verities of being. Mortals are no more material in their + waking hours than when they act, walk, see, + hear, enjoy, or suffer in dreams. We can +397:27 never treat mortal mind and matter separately, because + they combine as one. Give up the belief that mind + is, even temporarily, compressed within the skull, and +397:30 you will quickly become more manly or womanly. You + will understand yourself and your Maker better than + before. + + Naming maladies + +398:1 Sometimes Jesus called a disease by name, as when he + said to the epileptic boy, "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I +398:3 charge thee, come out of him, and enter no + more into him." It is added that "the spirit + [error] cried, and rent him sore and came out of him, and +398:6 he was as one dead," - clear evidence that the malady + was not material. These instances show the concessions + which Jesus was willing to make to the popular ignorance +398:9 of spiritual Life-laws. Often he gave no name to the + distemper he cured. To the synagogue ruler's daughter, + whom they called dead but of whom he said, "she is not +398:12 dead, but sleepeth," he simply said, "Damsel, I say unto + thee, arise!" To the sufferer with the withered hand + he said, "Stretch forth thine hand," and it "was restored +398:15 whole, like as the other." + + The action of faith + + Homoeopathic remedies, sometimes not containing a + particle of medicine, are known to relieve the symptoms +398:18 of disease. What produces the change? It is + the faith of the doctor and the patient, which + reduces self-inflicted sufferings and produces a new effect +398:21 upon the body. In like manner destroy the illusion of + pleasure in intoxication, and the desire for strong drink + is gone. Appetite and disease reside in mortal mind, not +398:24 in matter. + + So also faith, cooperating with a belief in the healing + effects of time and medication, will soothe fear and change +398:27 the belief of disease to a belief of health. Even a blind + faith removes bodily ailments for a season, but hypnotism + changes such ills into new and more difficult forms of dis- +398:30 ease. The Science of Mind must come to the rescue, + to work a radical cure. Then we understand the process. + The great fact remains that evil is not mind. Evil has +399:1 no power, no intelligence, for God is good, and therefore + good is infinite, is All. + + Corporeal combinations + +399:3 You say that certain material combinations produce + disease; but if the material body causes disease, can + matter cure what matter has caused? Mortal +399:6 mind prescribes the drug, and administers it. + Mortal mind plans the exercise, and puts the body through + certain motions. No gastric gas accumulates, not a se- +399:9 cretion nor combination can operate, apart from the + action of mortal thought, /alias /mortal mind. + + Automatic mechanism + + So-called mortal mind sends its despatches over its +399:12 body, but this so-called mind is both the service and + message of this telegraphy. Nerves are un- + able to talk, and matter can return no an- +399:15 swer to immortal Mind. If Mind is the only actor, how + can mechanism be automatic? Mortal mind perpetuates + its own thought. It constructs a machine, manages it, +399:18 and then calls it material. A mill at work or the action + of a water-wheel is but a derivative from, and continua- + tion of, the primitive mortal mind. Without this force +399:21 the body is devoid of action, and this deadness shows + that so-called mortal life is mortal mind, not matter. + + Mental strength + + Scientifically speaking, there is no mortal mind out of +399:24 which to make material beliefs, springing from illusion. + This misnamed mind is not an entity. It is + only a false sense of matter, since matter is not +399:27 sensible. The one Mind, God, contains no mortal opin- + ions. All that is real is included in this immortal Mind. + + Confirmation in a parable + + Our Master asked: "How can one enter into a strong +399:30 man's house and spoil his goods, except he first + bind the strong man?" In other words: How + can I heal the body, without beginning with so-called +400:1 mortal mind, which directly controls the body? When + disease is once destroyed in this so-called mind, the fear +400:3 of disease is gone, and therefore the disease is thor- + oughly cured. Mortal mind is "the strong man," which + must be held in subjection before its influence upon health +400:6 and morals can be removed. This error conquered, we + can despoil "the strong man" of his goods, - namely, of + sin and disease. + + Eradicate error from thought + +400:9 Mortals obtain the harmony of health, only as they + forsake discord, acknowledge the supremacy of divine + Mind, and abandon their material beliefs. +400:12 Eradicate the image of disease from the per- + turbed thought before it has taken tangible + shape in conscious thought, /alias/ the body, and you pre- +400:15 vent the development of disease. This task becomes easy, + if you understand that every disease is an error, and has + no character nor type, except what mortal mind assigns to +400:18 it. By lifting thought above error, or disease, and con- + tending persistently for truth, you destroy error. + + Mortal mind controlled + + When we remove disease by addressing the disturbed +400:21 mind, giving no heed to the body, we prove that thought + alone creates the suffering. Mortal mind + rules all that is mortal. We see in the body +400:24 the images of this mind, even as in optics we see painted + on the retina the image which becomes visible to the + senses. The action of so-called mortal mind must be +400:27 destroyed by the divine Mind to bring out the harmony + of being. Without divine control there is discord, mani- + fest as sin, sickness, and death. + + Mortal mind not a healer + +400:30 The Scriptures plainly declare the baneful influence of + sinful thought on the body. Even our Master felt this. + It is recorded that in certain localities he did not many +401:1 mighty works "because of their unbelief" in Truth. Any + human error is its own enemy, and works against itself; +401:3 it does nothing in the right direction and much + in the wrong. If so-called mind is cherishing + evil passions and malicious purposes, it is not a healer, +401:6 but it engenders disease and death. + + Effect of opposites + + If faith in the truth of being, which you impart men- + tally while destroying error, causes chemicalization (as +401:9 when an alkali is destroying an acid), it is be- + cause the truth of being must transform the + error to the end of producing a higher manifestation. +401:12 This fermentation should not aggravate the disease, but + should be as painless to man as to a fluid, since matter + has no sensation and mortal mind only feels and sees +401:15 materially. + + What I term /chemicalization/ is the upheaval produced + when immortal Truth is destroying erroneous mortal be- +401:18 lief. Mental chemicalization brings sin and sickness to + the surface, forcing impurities to pass away, as is the case + with a fermenting fluid. + + Medicine and brain + +401:21 The only effect produced by medicine is dependent upon + mental action. If the mind were parted from the body, + could you produce any effect upon the brain +401:24 or body by applying the drug to either? Would + the drug remove paralysis, affect organization, or restore + will and action to cerebrum and cerebellum? + + Skilful surgery + +401:27 Until the advancing age admits the efficacy and suprem- + acy of Mind, it is better for Christian Scientists to leave + surgery and the adjustment of broken bones +401:30 and dislocations to the fingers of a surgeon, + while the mental healer confines himself chiefly to mental + reconstruction and to the prevention of inflammation. +402:1 Christian Science is always the most skilful surgeon, but + surgery is the branch of its healing which will be last +402:3 acknowledged. However, it is but just to say that the + author has already in her possession well-authenticated + records of the cure, by herself and her students through +402:6 mental surgery alone, of broken bones, dislocated joints, + and spinal vertebrae. + + Indestructible life of man + + The time approaches when mortal mind will forsake +402:9 its corporeal, structural, and material basis, when im- + mortal Mind and its formations will be appre- + hended in Science, and material beliefs will +402:12 not interfere with spiritual facts. Man is indestructible + and eternal. Sometime it will be learned that mortal + mind constructs the mortal body with this mind's own +402:15 mortal materials. In Science, no breakage nor dislocation + can really occur. You say that accidents, injuries, and + disease kill man, but this is not true. The life of man is +402:18 Mind. The material body manifests only what mortal + mind believes, whether it be a broken bone, disease, or sin. + + The evil of mesmerism + + We say that one human mind can influence another and +402:21 in this way affect the body, but we rarely remember that + we govern our own bodies. The error, mes- + merism - or hypnotism, to use the recent term +402:24 - illustrates the fact just stated. The operator would + make his subjects believe that they cannot act voluntarily + and handle themselves as they should do. If they yield +402:27 to this influence, it is because their belief is not better + instructed by spiritual understanding. Hence the proof + that hypnotism is not scientific; Science cannot produce +402:30 both disorder and order. The involuntary pleasure or + pain of the person under hypnotic control is proved to be + a belief without a real cause. + + Wrong-doer should suffer + +403:1 So the sick through their beliefs have induced their own + diseased conditions. The great difference between vol- +403:3 untary and involuntary mesmerism is that vol- + untary mesmerism is induced consciously and + should and does cause the perpetrator to suffer, while self- +403:6 mesmerism is induced unconsciously and by his mistake + a man is often instructed. In the first instance it is under- + stood that the difficulty is a mental illusion, while in the +403:9 second it is believed that the misfortune is a material effect. + The human mind is employed to remove the illusion in + one case, but matter is appealed to in the other. In real- +403:12 ity, both have their origin in the human mind, and can be + healed only by the divine Mind. + + Error's power imaginary + + You command the situation if you understand that +403:15 mortal existence is a state of self-deception and not the + truth of being. Mortal mind is constantly + producing on mortal body the results of false +403:18 opinions; and it will continue to do so, until mortal + error is deprived of its imaginary powers by Truth, + which sweeps away the gossamer web of mortal illusion. +403:21 The most Christian state is one of rectitude and spir- + itual understanding, and this is best adapted for heal- + ing the sick. Never conjure up some new discovery from +403:24 dark forebodings regarding disease and then acquaint + your patient with it. + + Disease-production + + The mortal so-called mind produces all that is unlike +403:27 the immortal Mind. The human mind determines the + nature of a case, and the practitioner improves + or injures the case in proportion to the truth +403:30 or error which influences his conclusions. The mental + conception and development of disease are not under- + stood by the patient, but the physician should be familiar +404:1 with mental action and its effect in order to judge the case + according to Christian Science. + + Appetites to be abandoned + +404:3 If a man is an inebriate, a slave to tobacco, or the special + servant of any one of the myriad forms of sin, meet and + destroy these errors with the truth of being, - +404:6 by exhibiting to the wrong-doer the suffering + which his submission to such habits brings, and by con- + vincing him that there is no real pleasure in false appe- +404:9 tites. A corrupt mind is manifested in a corrupt body. + Lust, malice, and all sorts of evil are diseased beliefs, and + you can destroy them only by destroying the wicked +404:12 motives which produce them. If the evil is over in the + repentant mortal mind, while its effects still remain on the + individual, you can remove this disorder as God's law is +404:15 fulfilled and reformation cancels the crime. The healthy + sinner is the hardened sinner. + + Temperance reform + + The temperance reform, felt all over our land, results +404:18 from metaphysical healing, which cuts down every tree + that brings not forth good fruit. This con- + viction, that there is no real pleasure in sin, +404:21 is one of the most important points in the theology of + Christian Science. Arouse the sinner to this new and + true view of sin, show him that sin confers no pleasure, +404:24 and this knowledge strengthens his moral courage and + increases his ability to master evil and to love good. + + Sin or fear the root of sickness + + Healing the sick and reforming the sinner are one and +404:27 the same thing in Christian Science. Both cures require + the same method and are inseparable in Truth. + Hatred, envy, dishonesty, fear, and so forth, +404:30 make a man sick, and neither material medi- + cine nor Mind can help him permanently, even in body, + unless it makes him better mentally, and so delivers him +405:1 from his destroyers. The basic error is mortal mind. + Hatred inflames the brutal propensities. The indulgence +405:3 of evil motives and aims makes any man, who is above the + lowest type of manhood, a hopeless sufferer. + + Mental conspirators + + Christian Science commands man to master the pro- +405:6 pensities, - to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness, + to conquer lust with chastity, revenge with + charity, and to overcome deceit with hon- +405:9 esty. Choke these errors in their early stages, if you + would not cherish an army of conspirators against + health, happiness, and success. They will deliver you +405:12 to the judge, the arbiter of truth against error. The + judge will deliver you to justice, and the sentence of + the moral law will be executed upon mortal mind and +405:15 body. Both will be manacled until the last farthing + is paid, - until you have balanced your account with + God. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also +405:18 reap." The good man finally can overcome his fear of + sin. This is sin's necessity, - to destroy itself. Im- + mortal man demonstrates the government of God, good, +405:21 in which is no power to sin. + + Cumulative repentence + + It were better to be exposed to every plague on earth + than to endure the cumulative effects of a guilty con- +405:24 science. The abiding consciousness of wrong- + doing tends to destroy the ability to do right. + If sin is not regretted and is not lessening, then it is +405:27 hastening on to physical and moral doom. You are con- + quered by the moral penalties you incur and the ills they + bring. The pains of sinful sense are less harmful than its +405:30 pleasures. Belief in material suffering causes mortals to + retreat from their error, to flee from body to Spirit, and + to appeal to divine sources outside of themselves. + + The leaves of healing + +406:1 The Bible contains the recipe for all healing. "The + leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." +406:3 Sin and sickness are both healed by the same + Principle. The tree is typical of man's divine + Principle, which is equal to every emergency, offering +406:6 full salvation from sin, sickness, and death. Sin will + submit to Christian Science when, in place of modes and + forms, the power of God is understood and demonstrated +406:9 in the healing of mortals, both mind and body. "Per- + fect Love casteth out fear." + + Sickness will abate + + The Science of being unveils the errors of sense, and +406:12 spiritual perception, aided by Science, reaches Truth. + Then error disappears. Sin and sickness will + abate and seem less real as we approach the +406:15 scientific period, in which mortal sense is subdued and + all that is unlike the true likeness disappears. The moral + man has no fear that he will commit a murder, and he +406:18 should be as fearless on the question of disease. + + Resist to the end + + Resist evil - error of every sort - and it will flee from + you. Error is opposed to Life. We can, and ultimately +406:21 shall, so rise as to avail ourselves in every direc- + tion of the supremacy of Truth over error, Life + over death, and good over evil, and this growth will go +406:24 on until we arrive at the fulness of God's idea, and no + more fear that we shall be sick and die. Inharmony of + any kind involves weakness and suffering, - a loss of +406:27 control over the body. + + Morbid cravings + + The depraved appetite for alcoholic drinks, tobacco, + tea, coffee, opium, is destroyed only by Mind's mastery +406:30 of the body. This normal control is gained + through divine strength and understanding. + There is no enjoyment in getting drunk, in becoming a +407:1 fool or an object of loathing; but there is a very sharp + remembrance of it, a suffering inconceivably terrible to +407:3 man's self-respect. Puffing the obnoxious fumes of to- + bacco, or chewing a leaf naturally attractive to no crea- + ture except a loathsome worm, is at least disgusting. + + Universal panacea + +407:6 Man's enslavement to the most relentless masters - + passion, selfishness, envy, hatred, and revenge - is con- + quered only by a mighty struggle. Every +407:9 hour of delay makes the struggle more severe. + If man is not victorious over the passions, they crush + out happiness, health, and manhood. Here Christian +407:12 Science is the sovereign panacea, giving strength to the + weakness of mortal mind, - strength from the immortal + and omnipotent Mind, - and lifting humanity above +407:15 itself into purer desires, even into spiritual power and + good-will to man. + + Let the slave of wrong desire learn the lessons of Chris- +407:18 tian Science, and he will get the better of that desire + and ascend a degree in the scale of health, happiness, + and existence. + + Immortal memory + +407:21 If delusion says, "I have lost my memory," contra- + dict it. No faculty of Mind is lost. In Science, all + being is eternal, spiritual, perfect, harmoni- +407:24 ous in every action. Let the perfect model be + present in your thoughts instead of its demoralized op- + posite. This spiritualization of thought lets in the light, +407:27 and brings the divine Mind, Life not death, into your + consciousness. + + Sin a form of insanity + + There are many species of insanity. All sin is insan- +407:30 ity in different degrees. Sin is spared from + this classification, only because its method of + madness is in consonance with common mortal belief. +408:1 Every sort of sickness is error, - that is, sickness is + loss of harmony. This view is not altered by the fact +408:3 that sin is worse than sickness, and sickness is not ac- + knowledged nor discovered to be error by many who are + sick. + +408:6 There is a universal insanity of so-called health, which + mistakes fable for fact throughout the entire round of the + material senses, but this general craze cannot, in a scien- +408:9 tific diagnosis, shield the individual case from the special + name of insanity. Those unfortunate people who are + committed to insane asylums are only so many distinctly +408:12 defined instances of the baneful effects of illusion on mor- + tal minds and bodies. + + Drugs and brain-lobes + + The supposition that we can correct insanity by the use +408:15 of purgatives and narcotics is in itself a mild species of + insanity. Can drugs go of their own accord + to the brain and destroy the so-called inflam- +408:18 mation of disordered functions, thus reaching mortal + mind through matter? Drugs do not affect a corpse, and + Truth does not distribute drugs through the blood, and +408:21 from them derive a supposed effect on intelligence and sen- + timent. A dislocation of the tarsal joint would produce + insanity as perceptibly as would congestion of the brain, +408:24 were it not that mortal mind thinks that the tarsal joint is + less intimately connected with the mind than is the brain. + Reverse the belief, and the results would be perceptibly +408:27 different. + + Matter and animate error + + The unconscious thought in the corporeal substra- + tum of brain produces no effect, and that condition of +408:30 the body which we call sensation in matter + is unreal. Mortal mind is ignorant of it- + self, - ignorant of the errors it includes and of their +409:1 effects. Intelligent matter is an impossibility. You + may say: "But if disease obtains in matter, why do +409:3 you insist that disease is formed by mortal mind and + not by matter?" /Mortal mind /and body combine as + one, and the nearer matter approaches its final state- +409:6 ment, - animate error called nerves, brain, mind, - the + more prolific it is likely to become in sin and disease- + beliefs. + + Dictation of error + +409:9 Unconscious mortal mind - /alias /matter, brain - can- + not dictate terms to consciousness nor say, "I am sick." + The belief, that the unconscious substratum +409:12 of mortal mind, termed the body, suffers and + reports disease independently of this so-called conscious + mind, is the error which prevents mortals from knowing +409:15 how to govern their bodies. + + So-called superiority + + The so-called conscious mortal mind is believed to be + superior to its unconscious substratum, matter, and +409:18 the stronger never yields to the weaker, ex- + cept through fear or choice. The animate + should be governed by God alone. The real man is +409:21 spiritual and immortal, but the mortal and imperfect + so-called "children of men" are counterfeits from the + beginning, to be laid aside for the pure reality. This +409:24 mortal is put off, and the new man or real man is put + on, in proportion as mortals realize the Science of man + and seek the true model. + + Death no benefactor + +409:27 We have no right to say that life depends on matter + now, but will not depend on it after death. We cannot + spend our days here in ignorance of the Science +409:30 of Life, and expect to find beyond the grave + a reward for this ignorance. Death will not make us + harmonious and immortal as a recompense for ignorance. +410:1 If here we give no heed to Christian Science, which is + spiritual and eternal, we shall not be ready for spiritual +410:3 Life hereafter. + + Life eternal and present + + "This is life eternal," says Jesus, - /is/, not /shall be/; + and then he defines everlasting life as a present knowledge +410:6 of his Father and of himself, - the knowledge + of Love, Truth, and Life. "This is life eter- + nal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and +410:9 Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." The Scriptures + say, "Man shall not live by bread /alone/, but by every + word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," show- +410:12 ing that Truth is the actual life of man; but mankind + objects to making this teaching practical. + + Love casteth out fear + + Every trial of our faith in God makes us stronger. +410:15 The more difficult seems the material condition to be + overcome by Spirit, the stronger should be our + faith and the purer our love. The Apostle +410:18 John says: "There is no fear in Love, but perfect Love + casteth out fear. . . . He that feareth is not made per- + fect in Love." Here is a definite and inspired proclama- +410:21 tion of Christian Science. + + MENTAL TREATMENT ILLUSTRATED + + Be not afraid + + The Science of mental practice is susceptible of no +410:24 misuse. Selfishness does not appear in the practice of + Truth or Christian Science. If mental prac- + tice is abused or is used in any way except to +410:27 promote right thinking and doing, the power to heal + mentally will diminish, until the practitioner's healing + ability is wholly lost. Christian scientific practice be- +410:30 gins with Christ's keynote of harmony, "Be not afraid!" +411:1 Said Job: "The thing which I greatly feared is come + upon me." + + Naming diseases + +411:3 My first discovery in the student's practice was this: + If the student silently called the disease by name, when + he argued against it, as a general rule the body +411:6 would respond more quickly, - just as a per- + son replies more readily when his name is spoken; but + this was because the student was not perfectly attuned to +411:9 divine Science, and needed the arguments of truth for + reminders. If Spirit or the power of divine Love bear + witness to the truth, this is the ultimatum, the scientific +411:12 way, and the healing is instantaneous. + + Evils cast out + + It is recorded that once Jesus asked the name of a dis- + ease, - a disease which moderns would call /dementia/. +411:15 The demon, or evil, replied that his name was + Legion. Thereupon Jesus cast out the evil, + and the insane man was changed and straightway be- +411:18 came whole. The Scripture seems to import that Jesus + caused the evil to be self-seen and so destroyed. + + Fear as the foundation + + The procuring cause and foundation of all sickness is +411:21 fear, ignorance, or sin. Disease is always induced by a + false sense mentally entertained, not destroyed. + Disease is an image of thought externalized. +411:24 The mental state is called a material state. Whatever + is cherished in mortal mind as the physical condition is + imaged forth on the body. + + Unspoken pleading + +411:27 Always begin your treatment by allaying the fear + of patients. Silently reassure them as to their exemp- + tion from disease and danger. Watch the re- +411:30 sult of this simple rule of Christian Science, + and you will find that it alleviates the symptoms of every + disease. If you succeed in wholly removing the fear, +412:1 your patient is healed. The great fact that God lovingly + governs all, never punishing aught but sin, is your stand- +412:3 point, from which to advance and destroy the human fear + of sickness. Mentally and silently plead the case scien- + tifically for Truth. You may vary the arguments to meet +412:6 the peculiar or general symptoms of the case you treat, + but be thoroughly persuaded in your own mind concern- + ing the truth which you think or speak, and you will be +412:9 the victor. + + Eloquent silence + + You may call the disease by name when you mentally + deny it; but by naming it audibly, you are liable under +412:12 some circumstances to impress it upon the + thought. The power of Christian Science and + divine Love is omnipotent. It is indeed adequate to un- +412:15 clasp the hold and to destroy disease, sin, and death. + + Insistence requisite + + To prevent disease or to cure it, the power of Truth, + of divine Spirit, must break the dream of the material +412:18 senses. To heal by argument, find the type + of the ailment, get its name, and array your + mental plea against the physical. Argue at first men- +412:21 tally, not audibly, that the patient has no disease, and + conform the argument so as to destroy the evidence of + disease. Mentally insist that harmony is the fact, and +412:24 that sickness is a temporal dream. Realize the presence + of health and the fact of harmonious being, until the + body corresponds with the normal conditions of health +412:27 and harmony. + + The cure of infants + + If the case is that of a young child or an infant, it needs + to be met mainly through the parent's thought, silently +412:30 or audibly on the aforesaid basis of Christian + Science. The Scientist knows that there can + be no hereditary disease, since matter is not intelligent +413:1 and cannot transmit good or evil intelligence to man, and + God, the only Mind, does not produce pain in matter. +413:3 The act of yielding one's thoughts to the undue contem- + plation of physical wants or conditions induces those very + conditions. A single requirement, beyond what is neces- +413:6 sary to meet the simplest needs of the babe is harmful. + Mind regulates the condition of the stomach, bowels, and + food, the temperature of children and of men, and matter +413:9 does not. The wise or unwise views of parents and other + persons on these subjects produce good or bad effects on + the health of children. + + Ablutions for cleanliness + +413:12 The daily ablutions of an infant are no more natural + nor necessary than would be the process of taking a fish + out of water every day and covering it with dirt +413:15 in order to make it thrive more vigorously in its + own element. "Cleanliness is next to godliness," but + washing should be only for the purpose of keeping the +413:18 body clean, and this can be effected without scrubbing the + whole surface daily. Water is not the natural habitat of + humanity. I insist on bodily cleanliness within and with- +413:21 out. I am not patient with a speck of dirt; but in caring + for an infant one need not wash his little body all over each + day in order to keep it sweet as the new-blown flower. + + Juvenile ailments + +413:24 Giving drugs to infants, noticing every symptom of + flatulency, and constantly directing the mind to such + signs, - that mind being laden with illusions +413:27 about disease, health-laws, and death, - these + actions convey mental images to children's budding + thoughts, and often stamp them there, making it probable +413:30 at any time that such ills may be reproduced in the very + ailments feared. A child may have worms, if you say so, + or any other malady, timorously held in the beliefs con- +414:1 cerning his body. Thus are laid the foundations of the + belief in disease and death, and thus are children educated +414:3 into discord. + + Cure of insanity + + The treatment of insanity is especially interesting. + However obstinate the case, it yields more readily than +414:6 do most diseases to the salutary action of + truth, which counteracts error. The argu- + ments to be used in curing insanity are the same as in +414:9 other diseases: namely, the impossibility that matter, + brain, can control or derange mind, can suffer or cause + suffering; also the fact that truth and love will establish +414:12 a healthy state, guide and govern mortal mind or the + thought of the patient, and destroy all error, whether it is + called dementia, hatred, or any other discord. + +414:15 To fix truth steadfastly in your patients' thoughts, ex- + plain Christian Science to them, but not too soon, - not + until your patients are prepared for the explanation, - +414:18 lest you array the sick against their own interests by troub- + ling and perplexing their thought. The Christian Scien- + tist's argument rests on the Christianly scientific basis of +414:21 being. The Scripture declares, "The Lord He is God + [good]; there is none else beside Him." Even so, harmony + is universal, and discord is unreal. Christian Science de- +414:24 clares that Mind is substance, also that matter neither + feels, suffers, nor enjoys. Hold these points strongly in + view. Keep in mind the verity of being, - that man is +414:27 the image and likeness of God, in whom all being is + painless and permanent. Remember that man's perfec- + tion is real and unimpeachable, whereas imperfection is +414:30 blameworthy, unreal, and is not brought about by divine + Love. + + Matter is not inflamed + + Matter cannot be inflamed. Inflammation is fear, an +415:1 excited state of mortals which is not normal. Immor- + tal Mind is the only cause; therefore disease is neither a +415:3 cause nor an effect. Mind in every case is the + eternal God, good. Sin, disease, and death + have no foundations in Truth. Inflamation as a mor- +415:6 tal belief quickens or impedes the action of the system, + because thought moves quickly or slowly, leaps or halts + when it contemplates unpleasant things, or when the in- +415:9 dividual looks upon some object which he dreads. In- + flammation never appears in a part which mortal thought + does not reach. That is why opiates relieve inflammation. +415:12 They quiet the thought by inducing stupefaction and by + resorting to matter instead of to Mind. Opiates do not + remove the pain in any scientific sense. They only ren- +415:15 der mortal mind temporarily less fearful, till it can master + an erroneous belief. + + Truth calms the thought + + Note how thought makes the face pallid. It either re- +415:18 tards the circulation or quickens it, causing a pale or + flushed cheek. In the same way thought in- + creases or diminishes the secretions, the action +415:21 of the lungs, of the bowels, and of the heart. The mus- + cles, moving quickly or slowly and impelled or palsied by + thought, represent the action of all the organs of the hu- +415:24 man system, including brain and viscera. To remove + the error producing disorder, you must calm and instruct + mortal mind with immortal Truth. + + Effects of etherization + +415:27 Etherization will apparently cause the body to dis- + appear. Before the thoughts are fully at rest, the limbs + will vanish from consciousness. Indeed, the +415:30 whole frame will sink from sight along with + surrounding objects, leaving the pain standing forth as + distinctly as a mountain-peak, as if it were a separate +416:1 bodily member. At last the agony also vanishes. This + process shows the pain to be in the mind, for the inflam- +416:3 mation is not suppressed; and the belief of pain will + presently return, unless the mental image occasioning + the pain be removed by recognizing the truth of being. + + Sedatives valueless + +416:6 A hypodermic injection of morphine is administered + to a patient, and in twenty minutes the sufferer is qui- + etly asleep. To him there is no longer any +416:9 pain. Yet any physician - allopathic, homoe- + opathic, botanic, eclectic - will tell you that the trouble- + some material cause is unremoved, and that when the +416:12 soporific influence of the opium is exhausted, the pa- + tient will find himself in the same pain, unless the belief + which occasions the pain has meanwhile been changed. +416:15 Where is the pain while the patient sleeps? + + The so-called physical ego + + The material body, which you call /me/, is mortal mind, + and this mind is material in sensation, even as the body, +416:18 which has originated from this material sense + and been developed according to it, is mate- + rial. This materialism of parent and child is only in +416:21 mortal mind, as the dead body proves; for when the + mortal has resigned his body to dust, the body is no + longer the parent, even in appearance. + + Evil thought depletes + +416:24 The sick know nothing of the mental process by + which they are depleted, and next to nothing of the + metaphysical method by which they can be +416:27 healed. If they ask about their disease, tell + them only what is best for them to know. Assure them + that they think too much about their ailments, and +416:30 have already heard too much on that subject. Turn + their thoughts away from their bodies to higher ob- + jects. Teach them that their being is sustained by +417:1 Spirit, not by matter, and that they find health, peace, + and harmony in God, divine Love. + + Helpful encouragement + +417:3 Give sick people credit for sometimes knowing more + than their doctors. Always support their trust in the + power of Mind to sustain the body. Never +417:6 tell the sick that they have more courage + than strength. Tell them rather, that their strength + is in proportion to their courage. If you make the sick +417:9 realize this great truism, there will be no reaction from + over-exertion or from excited conditions. Maintain + the facts of Christian Science, - that Spirit is God, and +417:12 therefore cannot be sick; that what is termed matter + cannot be sick; that all causation is Mind, acting + through spiritual law. Then hold your ground with +417:15 the unshaken understanding of Truth and Love, and + you will win. When you silence the witness against your + plea, you destroy the evidence, for the disease disap- +417:18 pears. The evidence before the corporeal senses is not + the Science of immortal man. + + Disease to be made unreal + + To the Christian Science healer, sickness is a dream +417:21 from which the patient needs to be awakened. Dis- + ease should not appear real to the physician, + since it is demonstrable that the way to +417:24 cure the patient is to make disease unreal to him. To + do this, the physician must understand the unreality + of disease in Science. + +417:27 Explain audibly to your patients, as soon as they can + bear it, the complete control which Mind holds over the + body. Show them how mortal mind seems to induce +417:30 disease by certain fears and false conclusions, and how + divine Mind can cure by opposite thoughts. Give your + patients an underlying understanding to support them +418:1 and to shield them from the baneful effects of their own + conclusions. Show them that the conquest over sickness, +418:3 as well as over sin, depends on mentally destroying all + belief in material pleasure or pain. + + Christian pleading + + Stick to the truth of being in contradistinction to the +418:6 error that life, substance, or intelligence can be in matter. + Plead with an honest conviction of truth and + a clear perception of the unchanging, unerr- +418:9 ing, and certain effect of divine Science. Then, if your + fidelity is half equal to the truth of your plea, you will + heal the sick. + + Truthful arguments + +418:12 It must be clear to you that sickness is no more + the reality of being than is sin. This mortal dream + of sickness, sin, and death should cease +418:15 through Christian Science. Then one dis- + ease would be as readily destroyed as another. What- + ever the belief is, if arguments are used to destroy it, +418:18 the belief must be repudiated, and the negation must ex- + tend to the supposed disease and to whatever decides its + type and symptoms. Truth is affirmative, and confers +418:21 harmony. All metaphysical logic is inspired by this sim- + ple rule of Truth, which governs all reality. By the + truthful arguments you employ, and especially by the +418:24 spirit of Truth and Love which you entertain, you will + heal the sick. + + Morality required + + Include moral as well as physical belief in your efforts +418:27 to destroy error. Cast out all manner of evil. "Preach + the gospel to every creature." Speak the + truth to every form of error. Tumors, ulcers, +418:30 tubercles, inflammation, pain, deformed joints, are wak- + ing dream-shadows, dark images of mortal thought, which + flee before the light of Truth. + +419:1 A moral question may hinder the recovery of the sick. + Lurking error, lust, envy, revenge, malice, or hate will +419:3 perpetuate or even create the belief in disease. Errors + of all sorts tend in this direction. Your true course is + to destroy the foe, and leave the field to God, Life, Truth, +419:6 and Love, remembering that God and His ideas alone + are real and harmonious. + + Relapse unnecessary + + If your patient from any cause suffers a relapse, meet +419:9 the cause mentally and courageously, knowing that + there can be no reaction in Truth. Neither + disease itself, sin, nor fear has the power to +419:12 cause disease or a relapse. Disease has no intelligence + with which to move itself about or to change itself from + one form to another. If disease moves, mind, not mat- +419:15 ter, moves it; therefore be sure that you move it off. + Meet every adverse circumstance as its master. Ob- + serve mind instead of body, lest aught unfit for develop- +419:18 ment enter thought. Think less of material conditions + and more of spiritual. + + Conquer beliefs and fears + + Mind produces all action. If the action proceeds from +419:21 Truth, from immortal Mind, there is harmony; but mor- + tal mind is liable to any phase of belief. A + relapse cannot in reality occur in mortals or +419:24 so-called mortal minds, for there is but one + Mind, one God. Never fear the mental malpractitioner, + the mental assassin, who, in attempting to rule mankind, +419:27 tramples upon the divine Principle of metaphysics, for God + is the only power. To succeed in healing, you must con- + quer your own fears as well as those of your patients, and +419:30 rise into higher and holier consciousness. + + True government of man + + If it is found necessary to treat against relapse, know + that disease or its symptoms cannot change forms, nor +420:1 go from one part to another, for Truth destroys disease. + There is no metastasis, no stoppage of harmonious +420:3 action, no paralysis. Truth not error, Love + not hate, Spirit not matter, governs man. If + students do not readily heal themselves, they should +420:6 early call an experienced Christian Scientist to aid + them. If they are unwilling to do this for themselves, + they need only to know that error cannot produce this +420:9 unnatural reluctance. + + Positive reassurance + + Instruct the sick that they are not helpless victims, + for if they will only accept Truth, they can resist disease +420:12 and ward it off, as positively as they can the + temptation to sin. This fact of Christian Sci- + ence should be explained to invalids when they are in a +420:15 fit mood to receive it, - when they will not array them- + selves against it, but are ready to become receptive to the + new idea. The fact that Truth overcomes both disease +420:18 and sin reassures depressed hope. It imparts a healthy + stimulus to the body, and regulates the system. It in- + creases or diminishes the action, as the case may require, +420:21 better than any drug, alterative, or tonic. + + Proper stimulus + + Mind is the natural stimulus of the body, but erro- + neous belief, taken at its best, is not promotive of health +420:24 or happiness. Tell the sick that they can + meet disease fearlessly, if they only realize + that divine Love gives them all power over every physical +420:27 action and condition. + + Awaken the patient + + If it becomes necessary to startle mortal mind to break + its dream of suffering, vehemently tell your patient that +420:30 he must awake. Turn his gaze from the false + evidence of the senses to the harmonious facts + of Soul and immortal being. Tell him that he suffers +421:1 only as the insane suffer, from false beliefs. The only + difference is, that insanity implies belief in a diseased +421:3 brain, while physical ailments (so-called) arise from the + belief that other portions of the body are deranged. De- + rangement, or /disarrangement/, is a word which conveys +421:6 the true definition of all human belief in ill-health, or dis- + turbed harmony. Should you thus startle mortal mind + in order to remove its beliefs, afterwards make known +421:9 to the patient your motive for this shock, showing him + that it was to facilitate recovery. + + How to treat a crisis + + If a crisis occurs in your treatment, you must treat +421:12 the patient less for the disease and more for the mental + disturbance or fermentation, and subdue the + symptoms by removing the belief that this +421:15 chemicalization produces pain or disease. Insist vehe- + mently on the great fact which covers the whole ground, + that God, Spirit, is all, and that there is none beside +421:18 Him. There is /no disease/. When the supposed suffer- + ing is gone from mortal mind, there can be no pain; and + when the fear is destroyed, the inflammation will sub- +421:21 side. Calm the excitement sometimes induced by chemi- + calization, which is the alterative effect produced by + Truth upon error, and sometimes explain the symptoms +421:24 and their cause to the patient. + + No perversion of Mind-science + + It is no more Christianly scientific to see disease than + it is to experience it. If you would destroy the sense +421:27 of disease, you should not build it up by + wishing to see the forms it assumes or by + employing a single material application for +421:30 its relief. The perversion of Mind-science is like as- + serting that the products of eight multiplied by five, and + of seven by ten, are both forty, and that their combined +422:1 sum is fifty, and then calling the process mathematics. + Wiser than his persecutors, Jesus said: "If I by Beelze- +422:3 bub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them + out?" + + Effect of this book + + If the reader of this book observes a great stir through- +422:6 out his whole system, and certain moral and physical + symptoms seem aggravated, these indications + are favorable. Continue to read, and the book +422:9 will become the physician, allaying the tremor which + Truth often brings to error when destroying it. + + Disease neutralized + + Patients, unfamiliar with the cause of this commotion +422:12 and ignorant that it is a favorable omen, may be alarmed. + If such be the case, explain to them the law + of this action. As when an acid and alkali +422:15 meet and bring out a third quality, so mental and moral + chemistry changes the material base of thought, giving + more spirituality to consciousness and causing it to depend +422:18 less on material evidence. These changes which go on + in mortal mind serve to reconstruct the body. Thus + Christian Science, by the alchemy of Spirit, destroys sin +422:21 and death. + + Bone-healing by surgery + + Let us suppose two parallel cases of bone-disease, both + similarly produced and attended by the same symptoms. +422:24 A surgeon is employed in one case, and a + Christian Scientist in the other. The sur- + geon, holding that matter forms its own conditions and +422:27 renders them fatal at certain points, entertains fears and + doubts as to the ultimate outcome of the injury. Not + holding the reins of government in his own hands, he +422:30 believes that something stronger than Mind - namely, + matter - governs the case. His treatment is therefore + tentative. This mental state invites defeat. The belief +423:1 that he has met his master in matter and may not be + able to mend the bone, increases his fear; yet this belief +423:3 should not be communicated to the patient, either ver- + bally or otherwise, for this fear greatly diminishes the + tendency towards a favorable result. Remember that the +423:6 unexpressed belief oftentimes affects a sensitive patient + more strongly than the expressed thought. + + Scientific corrective + + The Christian Scientist, understanding scientifically +423:9 that all is Mind, commences with mental causation, the + truth of being, to destroy the error. This cor- + rective is an alterative, reaching to every part +423:12 of the human system. According to Scripture, it searches + "the joints and marrow," and it restores the harmony of + man. + + Coping with difficulties + +423:15 The matter-physician deals with matter as both his foe + and his remedy. He regards the ailment as weakened or + strengthened according to the evidence which +423:18 matter presents. The metaphysician, making + Mind his basis of operation irrespective of matter and + regarding the truth and harmony of being as superior to +423:21 error and discord, has rendered himself strong, instead + of weak, to cope with the case; and he proportionately + strengthens his patient with the stimulus of courage and +423:24 conscious power. Both Science and consciousness are + now at work in the economy of being according to the law + of Mind, which ultimately asserts its absolute supremacy. + + Formation from thought + +423:27 Ossification or any abnormal condition or derange- + ment of the body is as directly the action of mortal + mind as is dementia or insanity. Bones have +423:30 only the substance of thought which forms + them. They are only phenomena of the mind of mor- + tals. The so-called substance of bone is formed first +424:1 by the parent's mind, through self-division. Soon the + child becomes a separate, individualized mortal mind, +424:3 which takes possession of itself and its own thoughts of + bones. + + Accidents unknown to God + + Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, +424:6 and we must leave the mortal basis of belief + and unite with the one Mind, in order to + change the notion of chance to the proper sense +424:9 of God's unerring direction and thus bring out harmony. + + Opposing mentality + + Under divine Providence there can be no accidents, + since there is no room for imperfection in perfection. + +424:12 In medical practice objections would be raised if one + doctor should administer a drug to counteract the work- + ing of a remedy prescribed by another doctor. +424:15 It is equally important in metaphysical prac- + tice that the /minds /which surround your patient should + not act against your influence by continually expressing +424:18 such opinions as may alarm or discourage, - either by + giving antagonistic advice or through unspoken thoughts + resting on your patient. While it is certain that the +424:21 divine Mind can remove any obstacle, still you need the + ear of your auditor. It is not more difficult to make your- + self heard mentally while others are thinking about your +424:24 patients or conversing with them, if you understand + Christian Science - the oneness and the allness of divine + Love; but it is well to be alone with God and the sick +424:27 when treating disease. + + Mind removes scrofula + + To prevent or to cure scrofula and other so-called he- + reditary diseases, you must destroy the belief in these ills +424:30 and the faith in the possibility of their trans- + mission. The patient may tell you that he + has a humor in the blood, a scrofulous diathesis. His +425:1 parents or some of his progenitors farther back have so + believed. Mortal mind, not matter, induces this con- +425:3 clusion and its results. You will have humors, just so + long as you believe them to be safety-valves or to be + ineradicable. + + Nothing to consume + +425:6 If the case to be mentally treated is consumption, take + up the leading points included (according to belief) in + this disease. Show that it is not inherited; +425:9 that inflammation, tubercles, hemorrhage, and + decomposition are beliefs, images of mortal thought su- + perimposed upon the body; that they are not the truth +425:12 of man; that they should be treated as error and put out + of thought. Then these ills will disappear. + + The lungs re-formed + + If the body is diseased, this is but one of the beliefs of +425:15 mortal mind. Mortal man will be less mortal, when he + learns that matter never sustained existence + and can never destroy God, who is man's Life. +425:18 When this is understood, mankind will be more spiritual + and know that there is nothing to consume, since Spirit, + God, is All-in-all. What if the belief is consumption? +425:21 God is more to a man than his belief, and the less we ac- + knowledge matter or its laws, the more immortality we + possess. Consciousness constructs a better body when +425:24 faith in matter has been conquered. Correct material + belief by spiritual understanding, and Spirit will form + you anew. You will never fear again except to offend +425:27 God, and you will never believe that heart or any por- + tion of the body can destroy you. + + Soundness maintained + + If you have sound and capacious lungs and want +425:30 them to remain so, be always ready with the + mental protest against the opposite belief in + heredity. Discard all notions about lungs, tubercles, in- +426:1 herited consumption, or disease arising from any cir- + cumstance, and you will find that mortal mind, when +426:3 instructed by Truth, yields to divine power, which steers + the body into health. + + Our footsteps heavenward + + The discoverer of Christian Science finds the path less +426:6 difficult when she has the high goal always before her + thoughts, than when she counts her footsteps + in endeavoring to reach it. When the desti- +426:9 nation is desirable, expectation speeds our progress. The + struggle for Truth makes one strong instead of weak, + resting instead of wearying one. If the belief in death +426:12 were obliterated, and the understanding obtained that + there is no death, this would be a "tree of life," known + by its fruits. Man should renew his energies and en- +426:15 deavors, and see the folly of hypocrisy, while also learn- + ing the necessity of working out his own salvation. When + it is learned that disease cannot destroy life, and that +426:18 mortals are not saved from sin or sickness by death, this + understanding will quicken into newness of life. It will + master either a desire to die or a dread of the grave, +426:21 and thus destroy the great fear that besets mortal + existence. + + Christian standard + + The relinquishment of all faith in death and also of +426:24 the fear of its sting would raise the standard of health + and morals far beyond its present elevation, + and would enable us to hold the banner of +426:27 Christianity aloft with unflinching faith in God, in Life + eternal. Sin brought death, and death will disappear + with the disappearance of sin. Man is immortal, and +426:30 the body cannot die, because matter has no life to sur- + render. The human concepts named matter, death, dis- + ease, sickness, and sin are all that can be destroyed. + + Life not contingent on matter + +427:1 If it is true that man lives, this fact can never change + in Science to the opposite belief that man dies. Life is +427:3 the law of Soul, even the law of the spirit of + Truth, and Soul is never without its represent- + ative. Man's individual being can no more +427:6 die nor disappear in unconsciousness than can Soul, for + both are immortal. If man believes in death now, he + must disbelieve in it when learning that there is no reality +427:9 in death, since the truth of being is deathless. The be- + lief that existence is contingent on matter must be met + and mastered by Science, before Life can be understood +427:12 and harmony obtained. + + Mortality vanquished + + Death is but another phase of the dream that exist- + ence can be material. Nothing can interfere with the +427:15 harmony of being nor end the existence of + man in Science. Man is the same after as + before a bone is broken or the body guillotined. If man +427:18 is never to overcome death, why do the Scriptures say, + "The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death"? The + tenor of the Word shows that we shall obtain the victory +427:21 over death in proportion as we overcome sin. The great + difficulty lies in ignorance of what God is. God, Life, + Truth, and Love make man undying. Immortal Mind, +427:24 governing all, must be acknowledged as supreme in the + physical realm, so-called, as well as in the spiritual. + + No death nor inaction + + Called to the bed of death, what material remedy has +427:27 man when all such remedies have failed? Spirit is his + last resort, but it should have been his first + and only resort. The dream of death must +427:30 be mastered by Mind here or hereafter. Thought + will waken from its own material declaration, "I am + dead," to catch this trumpet-word of Truth, "There +428:1 is no death, no inaction, diseased action, overaction, nor + reaction." + + Vision opening + +428:3 Life is real, and death is the illusion. A demonstra- + tion of the facts of Soul in Jesus' way resolves the dark + visions of material sense into harmony and +428:6 immortality. Man's privilege at this supreme + moment is to prove the words of our Master: "If a man + keep my saying, he shall never see death." To divest +428:9 thought of false trusts and material evidences in order + that the spiritual facts of being may appear, - this is + the great attainment by means of which we shall sweep +428:12 away the false and give place to the true. Thus we may + establish in truth the temple, or body, "whose builder + and maker is God." + + Intelligent consecration + +428:15 We should consecrate existence, not "to the unknown + God" whom we "ignorantly worship," but to the eternal + builder, the everlasting Father, to the Life +428:18 which mortal sense cannot impair nor mortal + belief destroy. We must realize the ability of mental + might to offset human misconceptions and to replace them +428:21 with the life which is spiritual, not material. + + The present immortality + + The great spiritual fact must be brought out that man + /is/, not /shall be/, perfect and immortal. We must hold +428:24 forever the consciousness of existence, and + sooner or later, through Christ and Christian + Science, we must master sin and death. The evidence +428:27 of man's immortality will become more apparent, as ma- + terial beliefs are given up and the immortal facts of being + are admitted. + + Careful guidance + +428:30 The author has healed hopeless organic disease, and + raised the dying to life and health through the under- + standing of God as the only Life. It is a sin to believe +429:1 that aught can overpower omnipotent and eternal Life, + and this Life must be brought to light by the understand- +429:3 ing that there is no death, as well as by other + graces of Spirit. We must begin, however, + with the more simple demonstrations of control, and +429:6 the sooner we begin the better. The final demonstration + takes time for its accomplishment. When walking, we + are guided by the eye. We look before our feet, and if +429:9 we are wise, we look beyond a single step in the line of + spiritual advancement. + + Clay replying to the potter + + The corpse, deserted by thought, is cold and decays, +429:12 but it never suffers. Science declares that man is sub- + ject to Mind. Mortal mind affirms that mind + is subordinate to the body, that the body is +429:15 dying, that it must be buried and decomposed + into dust; but mortal mind's affirmation is not true. + Mortals waken from the dream of death with bodies un- +429:18 seen by those who think that they bury the body. + + Continuity of existence + + If man did not exist before the material organization + began, he could not exist after the body is disintegrated. +429:21 If we live after death and are immortal, we + must have lived before birth, for if Life ever + had any beginning, it must also have an ending, even ac- +429:24 cording to the calculations of natural science. Do you + believe this? No! Do you understand it? No! This + is why you doubt the statement and do not demonstrate +429:27 the facts it involves. We must have faith in all the say- + ings of our Master, though they are not included in the + teachings of the schools, and are not understood gener- +429:30 ally by our ethical instructors. + + Life all-inclusive + + Jesus said (John viii. 51), "If a man keep my saying, + he shall never see death." That statement is not con- +430:1 fined to spiritual life, but includes all the phenomena of + existence. Jesus demonstrated this, healing the dying +430:3 and raising the dead. Mortal mind must part + with error, must put off itself with its deeds, + and immortal manhood, the Christ ideal, will appear. +430:6 Faith should enlarge its borders and strengthen its base + by resting upon Spirit instead of matter. When man + gives up his belief in death, he will advance more rapidly +430:9 towards God, Life, and Love. Belief in sickness and + death, as certainly as belief in sin, tends to shut out the + true sense of Life and health. When will mankind wake +430:12 to this great fact in Science? + + I here present to my readers an allegory illustrative + of the law of divine Mind and of the supposed laws of mat- +430:15 ter and hygiene, an allegory in which the plea of Christian + Science heals the sick. + + A mental court case + + Suppose a mental case to be on trial, as cases are tried +430:18 in court. A man is charged with having committed liver- + complaint. The patient feels ill, ruminates, + and the trial commences. Personal Sense is +430:21 the plaintiff. Mortal Man is the defendant. False Belief + is the attorney for Personal Sense. Mortal Minds, Ma- + teria Medica, Anatomy, Physiology, Hypnotism, Envy, +430:24 Greed and Ingratitude, constitute the jury. The court- + room is filled with interested spectators, and Judge + Medicine is on the bench. +430:27 The evidence for the prosecution being called for, a + witness testifies thus: - + + I represent Health-laws. I was present on certain nights +430:30 when the prisoner, or patient, watched with a sick friend. + Although I have the superintendence of human affairs, I + was personally abused on those occasions. I was told that +431:1 I must remain silent until called for at this trial, when I + would be allowed to testify in the case. Notwithstanding +431:3 my rules to the contrary, the prisoner watched with the sick + every night in the week. When the sick mortal was thirsty, + the prisoner gave him drink. During all this time the pris- +431:6 oner attended to his daily labors, partaking of food at ir- + regular intervals, sometimes going to sleep immediately + after a heavy meal. At last he committed liver-complaint, +431:9 which I considered criminal, inasmuch as this offence is + deemed punishable with death. Therefore I arrested Mor- + tal Man in behalf of the state (namely, the body) and cast +431:12 him into prison. + + At the time of the arrest the prisoner summoned Physi- + ology, Materia Medica, and Hypnotism to prevent his pun- +431:15 ishment. The struggle on their part was long. Materia + Medica held out the longest, but at length all these assist- + ants resigned to me, Health-laws, and I succeeded in get- +431:18 ting Mortal Man into close confinement until I should + release him. + + The next witness is called:- + +431:21 I am Coated Tongue. I am covered with a foul fur, + placed on me the night of the liver-attack. Morbid Secre- + tion hypnotized the prisoner and took control of his mind, +431:24 making him despondent. + + Another witness takes the stand and testifies:- + + I am Sallow Skin. I have been dry, hot, and chilled by +431:27 turns since the night of the liver-attack. I have lost my + healthy hue and become unsightly, although nothing on my + part has occasioned this change. I practise daily ablutions +431:30 and perform my functions as usual, but I am robbed of my + good looks. + +432:1 The next witness testifies: - + + I am Nerve, the State Commissioner for Mortal Man. +432:3 I am intimately acquainted with the plaintiff, Personal + Sense, and know him to be truthful and upright, whereas + Mortal Man, the prisoner at the bar, is capable of false- +432:6 hood. I was witness to the crime of liver-complaint. I + knew the prisoner would commit it, for I convey messages + from my residence in matter, alias brain, to body. + +432:9 Another witness is called for by the Court of Error + and says: - + + I am Mortality, Governor of the Province of Body, in +432:12 which Mortal Man resides. In this province there is a stat- + ute regarding disease, - namely, that he upon whose per- + son disease is found shall be treated as a criminal and +432:15 punished with death. + + The Judge asks if by doing good to his neighbor, it is + possible for man to become diseased, transgress the laws, +432:18 and merit punishment, and Governor Mortality replies in + the affirmative. + + Another witness takes the stand and testifies: - + +432:21 I am Death. I was called for, shortly after the report of + the crime, by the officer of the Board of Health, who pro- + tested that the prisoner had abused him, and that my pres- +432:24 ence was required to confirm his testimony. One of the + prisoner's friends, Materia Medica, was present when I + arrived, endeavoring to assist the prisoner to escape from +432:27 the hands of justice, /alias /nature's so-called law; but my + appearance with a message from the Board of Health + changed the purpose of Materia Medica, and he decided at +432:30 once that the prisoner should die. + + Judge Medicine charges the jury + +433:1 The testimony for the plaintiff, Personal Sense, being + closed, Judge Medicine arises, and with great solemnity +433:3 addresses the jury of Mortal Minds. He an- + alyzes the offence, reviews the testimony, and + explains the law relating to liver-complaint. +433:6 His conclusion is, that laws of nature render disease + homicidal. In compliance with a stern duty, his Honor, + Judge Medicine, urges the jury not to allow their judg- +433:9 ment to be warped by the irrational, unchristian sugges- + tions of Christian Science. The jury must regard in such + cases only the evidence of Personal Sense against Mortal +433:12 Man. + + As the Judge proceeds, the prisoner grows restless. His + sallow face blanches with fear, and a look of despair and +433:15 death settles upon it. The case is given to the jury. A + brief consultation ensues, and the jury returns a verdict + of "Guilty of liver-complaint in the first degree." + + Mortal Man sentenced + +433:18 Judge Medicine then proceeds to pronounce the solemn + sentence of death upon the prisoner. Because he has + loved his neighbor as himself, Mortal Man has +433:21 been guilty of benevolence in the first degree, + and this has led him into the commission of the second + crime, liver-complaint, which material laws condemn as +433:24 homicide. For this crime Mortal Man is sentenced to + be tortured until he is dead. "May God have mercy on + your soul," is the Judge's solemn peroration. + +433:27 The prisoner is then remanded to his cell (sick-bed), + and Scholastic Theology is sent for to prepare the fright- + ened sense of Life, God, - which sense must be immortal, +433:30 - for /death/. + + Appeal to a higher tribunal + + Ah! but Christ, Truth, the spirit of Life and the + friend of Mortal Man, can open wide those prison doors +434:1 and set the captive free. Swift on the wings of divine + Love, there comes a despatch: "Delay the execution; +434:3 the prisoner is not guilty." Consternation fills + the prison-yard. Some exclaim, "It is con- + trary to law and justice." Others say, +434:6 "The law of Christ supersedes /our/ laws; let us follow + Christ." + + Counsel for defence + + After much debate and opposition, permission is ob- +434:9 tained for a trial in the Court of Spirit, where Christian + Science is allowed to appear as counsel for + the unfortunate prisoner. Witnesses, judges +434:12 and jurors, who were at the previous Court of Error, + are now summoned to appear before the bar of Justice + and eternal Truth. + +434:15 When the case for Mortal Man /versus/ Personal Sense + is opened, Mortal Man's counsel regards the prisoner + with the utmost tenderness. The counsel's earnest, +434:18 solemn eyes, kindling with hope and triumph, look up- + ward. Then Christian Science turns suddenly to the + supreme tribunal, and opens the argument for the +434:21 defence: - + + The prisoner at the bar has been unjustly sentenced. + His trial was a tragedy, and is morally illegal. Mortal +434:24 Man has had no proper counsel in the case. All the test- + mony has been on the side of Personal Sense, and we shall + unearth this foul conspiracy against the liberty and life of +434:27 Man. The only valid testimony in the case shows the + alleged crime never to have been committed. The pris- + oner is not proved "worthy of death, or of bonds." + +434:30 Your Honor, the lower court has sentenced Mortal Man + to die, but God made Man immortal and amenable to + Spirit only. Denying justice to the body, that court com- +435:1 mended man's immortal Spirit to heavenly mercy, - Spirit + which is God Himself and Man's only lawgiver! Who or +435:3 what has sinned? Has the body or has Mortal Mind + committed a criminal deed? Counsellor False Belief has + argued that the body should die, while Reverend Theology +435:6 would console conscious Mortal Mind, which alone is capa- + ble of sin and suffering. The body committed no offence. + Mortal Man, in obedience to higher law, helped his fellow- +435:9 man, an act which should result in good to himself as well + as to others. + + The law of our Supreme Court decrees that whosoever +435:12 /sinneth/ shall die; but good deeds are immortal, bringing + joy instead of grief, pleasure instead of pain, and life + instead of death. If liver-complaint was committed by +435:15 trampling on Laws of Health, this was a good deed, for the + agent of those laws is an outlaw, a destroyer of Mortal + Man's liberty and rights. Laws of Health should be sen- +435:18 tenced to die. + + Watching beside the couch of pain in the exercise of a + love that "is the fulfilling of the law," - doing "unto +435:21 others as ye would that they should do unto you," - this + is no infringement of law, for no demand, human or divine, + renders it just to punish a man for acting justly. If mor- +435:24 tals sin, our Supreme Judge in equity decides what penalty + is due for the sin, and Mortal Man can suffer only for his + sin. For naught else can he be punished, according to the +435:27 law of Spirit, God. + + Then what jurisdiction had his Honor, Judge Medicine, + in this case? To him I might say, in Bible language, "Sit- +435:30 test thou to judge . . . after the law, and commandest . . . + to be smitten contrary to the law?" The only jurisdiction + to which the prisoner can submit is that of Truth, Life, and +435:33 Love. If they condemn him not, neither shall Judge Medi- + cine condemn him; and I ask that the prisoner be restored + to the liberty of which he has been unjustly deprived. + +436:1 The principal witness (the officer of the Health-laws) + deposed that he was an eye-witness to the good deeds for +436:3 which Mortal Man is under sentence of death. After be- + traying him into the hands of your law, the Health-agent + disappeared, to reappear however at the trial as a witness +436:6 against Mortal Man and in the interest of Personal Sense, + a murderer. Your Supreme Court must find the pris- + oner on the night of the alleged offence to have been acting +436:9 within the limits of the divine law, and in obedience + thereto. Upon this statute hangs all the law and testimony. + Giving a cup of cold water in Christ's name, is a Christian +436:12 service. Laying down his life for a good deed, Mortal Man + should find it again. Such acts bear their own justifica- + tion, and are under the protection of the Most High. + +436:15 Prior to the night of his arrest, the prisoner summoned + two professed friends, Materia Medica and Physiology, to + prevent his committing liver-complaint, and thus save him +436:18 from arrest. But they brought with them Fear, the sheriff, + to precipitate the result which they were called to prevent. + It was Fear who handcuffed Mortal Man and would now +436:21 punish him. You have left Mortal Man no alternative. + He must obey your law, fear its consequences, and be pun- + ished for his fear. His friends struggled hard to rescue the +436:24 prisoner from the penalty they considered justly due, but + they were compelled to let him be taken into custody, tried, + and condemned. Thereupon Judge Medicine sat in judg- +436:27 ment on the case, and substantially charged the jury, twelve + Mortal Minds, to find the prisoner guilty. His Honor sen- + tenced Mortal Man to die for the very deeds which the di- +436:30 vine law compels man to commit. Thus the Court of Error + construed obedience to the law of divine Love as disobedi- + ence to the law of Life. Claiming to protect Mortal Man +436:33 in right-doing, that court pronounced a sentence of death + for doing right. + + One of the principal witnesses, Nerve, testified that he +437:1 was a ruler of Body, in which province Mortal Man resides. + He also testified that he was on intimate terms with the +437:3 plaintiff, and knew Personal Sense to be truthful; that he + knew Man, and that Man was made in the image of God, + but was a criminal. This is a foul aspersion on man's +437:6 Maker. It blots the fair escutcheon of omnipotence. It in- + dicates malice aforethought, a determination to condemn + Man in the interest of Personal Sense. At the bar of Truth, +437:9 in the presence of divine Justice, before the Judge of our + higher tribunal, the Supreme Court of Spirit, and before + its jurors, the Spiritual Senses, I proclaim this witness, +437:12 Nerve, to be destitute of intelligence and truth and to be + a false witness. + + Man self-destroyed; the testimony of matter respected; +437:15 Spirit not allowed a hearing; Soul a criminal though + recommended to mercy; the helpless innocent body tor- + tured, - these are the terrible records of your Court of +437:18 Error, and I ask that the Supreme Court of Spirit reverse + this decision. + + Here the opposing counsel, False Belief, called Chris- +437:21 tian Science to order for contempt of court. Various + notables - Materia Medica, Anatomy, Physiology, Scho- + lastic Theology, and Jurisprudence - rose to the ques- +437:24 tion of expelling Christian Science from the bar, for such + high-handed illegality. They declared that Christian Sci- + ence was overthrowing the judicial proceedings of a regu- +437:27 larly constituted court. + + But Judge Justice of the Supreme Court of Spirit over- + ruled their motions on the ground that unjust usages +437:30 were not allowed at the bar of Truth, which ranks above + the lower Court of Error. + + The attorney, Christian Science, then read from the +437:33 supreme statute-book, the Bible, certain extracts on the +438:1 Rights of Man, remarking, that the Bible was better au- + thority than Blackstone: - + +438:3 Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and + let them have dominion. + + Behold, I give unto you power . . . over all the power +438:6 of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. + + If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. + + Then Christian Science proved the witness, Nerve, to +438:9 be a perjurer. Instead of being a ruler in the Province + of Body, in which Mortal Man was reported to reside, + Nerve was an insubordinate citizen, putting in false +438:12 claims to office and bearing false witness against Man. + Turning suddenly to Personal Sense, by this time silent, + Christian Science continued: - + +438:15 I ask your arrest in the name of Almighty God on three + distinct charges of crime, to wit: perjury, treason, and con- + spiracy against the rights and life of man. + +438:18 Then Christian Science continued: + + Another witness, equally inadequate, said that on the + night of the crime a garment of foul fur was spread over +438:21 him by Morbid Secretion, while the facts in the case show + that this fur is a foreign substance, imported by False Be- + lief, the attorney for Personal Sense, who is in partnership +438:24 with Error and smuggles Error's goods into market with- + out the inspection of Soul's government officers. When + the Court of Truth summoned Furred Tongue for examina- +438:27 tion, he disappeared and was never heard of more. + + Morbid Secretion is not an importer or dealer in fur, but + we have heard Materia Medica explain how this fur is +438:30 manufactured, and we know Morbid Secretion to be on + friendly terms with the firm of Personal Sense, Error, & +439:1 Co., receiving pay from them and introducing their goods + into the market. Also, be it known that False Belief, the +439:3 counsel for the plaintiff, Personal Sense, is a buyer for this + firm. He manufactures for it, keeps a furnishing store, + and advertises largely for his employers. + +439:6 Death testified that he was absent from the Province of + Body, when a message came from False Belief, command- + ing him to take part in the homicide. At this request +439:9 Death repaired to the spot where the liver-complaint was + in process, frightening away Materia Medica, who was then + manacling the prisoner in the attempt to save him. True, +439:12 Materia Medica was a misguided participant in the misdeed + for which the Health-officer had Mortal Man in custody, + though Mortal Man was innocent. + +439:15 Christian Science turned from the abashed witnesses, + his words flashing as lightning in the perturbed faces + of these worthies, Scholastic Theology, Materia Medica, +439:18 Physiology, the blind Hypnotism, and the masked Per- + sonal Sense, and said: - + + God will smite you, O whited walls, for injuring in your +439:21 ignorance the unfortunate Mortal Man who sought your + aid in his struggles against liver-complaint and Death. + You came to his rescue, only to fasten upon him an offence +439:24 of which he was innocent. You aided and abetted Fear + and Health-laws. You betrayed Mortal Man, meanwhile + declaring Disease to be God's servant and the righteous +439:27 executor of His laws. Our higher statutes declare you all, + witnesses, jurors, and judges, to be offenders, awaiting the + sentence which General Progress and Divine Love will +439:30 pronounce. + + We send our best detectives to whatever locality is re- + ported to be haunted by Disease, but on visiting the spot, +439:33 they learn that Disease was never there, for he could not +440:1 possibly elude their search. Your Material Court of Errors, + when it condemned Mortal Man on the ground of hygienic +440:3 disobedience, was manipulated by the oleaginous machina- + tions of the counsel, False Belief, whom Truth arraigns + before the supreme bar of Spirit to answer for his crime. +440:6 Morbid Secretion is taught how to make sleep befool reason + before sacrificing mortals to their false gods. + + Mortal Minds were deceived by your attorney, False Be- +440:9 lief, and were influenced to give a verdict delivering Mortal + Man to Death. Good deeds are transformed into crimes, + to which you attach penalties; but no warping of justice +440:12 can render disobedience to the so-called laws of Matter + disobedience to God, or an act of homicide. Even penal + law holds homicide, under stress of circumstances, to be +440:15 justifiable. Now what greater justification can any deed + have, than that it is for the good of one's neighbor? Where- + fore, then, in the name of outraged justice, do you sentence +440:18 Mortal Man for ministering to the wants of his fellow-man + in obedience to divine law? You cannot trample upon the + decree of the Supreme Bench. Mortal Man has his appeal +440:21 to Spirit, God, who sentences only for sin. + + The false and unjust beliefs of your human mental legis- + lators compel them to enact wicked laws of sickness and so +440:24 forth, and then render obedience to these laws punishable + as crime. In the presence of the Supreme Lawgiver, stand- + ing at the bar of Truth, and in accordance with the divine +440:27 statutes, I repudiate the false testimony of Personal. Sense. + I ask that he be forbidden to enter against Mortal Man + any more suits to be tried at the Court of Material Error. +440:30 I appeal to the just and equitable decisions of divine Spirit + to restore to Mortal Man the rights of which he has been + deprived. + + Charge of the Chief Justice + +440:33 Here the counsel for the defence closed, and the Chief + Justice of the Supreme Court, with benign and imposing +441:1 presence, comprehending and defining all law and evi- + dence, explained from his statute-book, the +441:3 Bible, that any so-called law, which under- + takes to punish aught but sin, is null and void. + + He also decided that the plaintiff, Personal Sense, be +441:6 not permitted to enter any suits at the bar of Soul, but + be enjoined to keep perpetual silence, and in case of + temptation, to give heavy bonds for good behavior. He +441:9 concluded his charge thus: - + + The plea of False Belief we deem unworthy of a hearing. + Let what False Belief utters, now and forever, fall into +441:12 oblivion, "unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown." Accord- + ing to our statute, Material Law is a liar who cannot bear + witness against Mortal Man, neither can Fear arrest Mortal +441:15 Man nor can Disease cast him into prison. Our law refuses + to recognize Man as sick or dying, but holds him to be for- + ever in the image and likeness of his Maker. Reversing the +441:18 testimony of Personal Sense and the decrees of the Court of + Error in favor of Matter, Spirit decides in favor of Man + and against Matter. We further recommend that Materia +441:21 Medica adopt Christian Science and that Health-laws, + Mesmerism, Hypnotism, Oriental Witchcraft, and Esoteric + Magic be publicly executed at the hands of our sheriff, +441:24 Progress. + + The Supreme Bench decides in favor of intelligence, that + no law outside of divine Mind can punish or reward Mortal +441:27 Man. Your personal jurors in the Court of Error are + myths. Your attorney, False Belief, is an impostor, per- + suading Mortal Minds to return a verdict contrary to law +441:30 and gospel. The plaintiff, Personal Sense, is recorded in + our Book of books as a liar. Our great Teacher of mental + jurisprudence speaks of him also as "a murderer from the +441:33 beginning." We have no trials for sickness before the tri- +442:1 bunal of divine Spirit. There, Man is adjudged innocent + of transgressing physical laws, because there are no such +442:3 laws. Our statute is spiritual, our Government is divine. + "Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?" + + Divine verdict + + The Jury of Spiritual Senses agreed at once upon a +442:6 verdict, and there resounded throughout the vast audience- + chamber of Spirit the cry, Not guilty. Then + the prisoner rose up regenerated, strong, free. +442:9 We noticed, as he shook hands with his counsel, Chris- + tian Science, that all sallowness and debility had dis- + appeared. His form was erect and commanding, his +442:12 countenance beaming with health and happiness. Divine + Love had cast out fear. Mortal Man, no longer sick + and in prison, walked forth, his feet "beautiful upon the +442:15 mountains," as of one "that bringeth good tidings." + + Christ the great physician + + Neither animal magnetism nor hypnotism enters into + the practice of Christian Science, in which truth cannot +442:18 be reversed, but the reverse of error is true. + An improved belief cannot retrograde. When + Christ changes a belief of sin or of sickness into +442:21 a better belief, then belief melts into spiritual understand- + ing, and sin, disease, and death disappear. Christ, Truth, + gives mortals temporary food and clothing until the ma- +442:24 terial, transformed with the ideal, disappears, and man + is clothed and fed spiritually. St. Paul says, "Work + out your own salvation with fear and trembling:" Jesus +442:27 said, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good + pleasure to give you the kingdom." This truth is + Christian Science. + +442:30 Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental + malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when + awake. + + + + + CHAPTER XIII - TEACHING CHRISTIAN SCIENCE + + Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: + teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. - PROVERBS. + + Study of medicine + +443:1 WHEN the discoverer of Christian Science is con- + sulted by her followers as to the propriety, advan- +443:3 tage, and consistency of systematic medical + study, she tries to show them that under ordi- + nary circumstances a resort to faith in corporeal means +443:6 tends to deter those, who make such a compromise, from + entire confidence in omnipotent Mind as really possessing + all power. While a course of medical study is at times +443:9 severely condemned by some Scientists, she feels, as she + always has felt, that all are privileged to work out their + own salvation according to their light, and that our motto +443:12 should be the Master's counsel, "Judge not, that ye be + not judged." + + Failure's lessons + + If patients fail to experience the healing power of +443:15 Christian Science, and think they can be benefited by + certain ordinary physical methods of medical + treatment, then the Mind-physician should +443:18 give up such cases, and leave invalids free to resort to + whatever other systems they fancy will afford relief. + Thus such invalids may learn the value of the apostolic +443:21 precept: "Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering + and doctrine." If the sick find these material expedients +444:1 unsatisfactory, and they receive no help from them, these + very failures may open their blind eyes. In some way, +444:3 sooner or later, all must rise superior to materiality, and + suffering is oft the divine agent in this elevation. "All + things work together for good to them that love God," is +444:6 the dictum of Scripture. + + Refuge and strength + + If Christian Scientists ever fail to receive aid from + other Scientists, - their brethren upon whom they may +444:9 call, - God will still guide them into the right + use of temporary and eternal means. Step by + step will those who trust Him find that "God is our refuge +444:12 and strength, a very present help in trouble." + + Charity to those opposed + + Students are advised by the author to be charitable + and kind, not only towards differing forms of religion +444:15 and medicine, but to those who hold these dif- + fering opinions. Let us be faithful in pointing + the way through Christ, as we understand it, +444:18 but let us also be careful always to "judge righteous judg- + ment," and never to condemn rashly. "Whosoever shall + smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." +444:21 That is, Fear not that he will smite thee again for thy for- + bearance. If ecclesiastical sects or medical schools turn + a deaf ear to the teachings of Christian Science, then part +444:24 from these opponents as did Abraham when he parted + from Lot, and say in thy heart: "Let there be no strife, I + pray thee, between me and thee, and between My herd- +444:27 men and thy herdmen; for we be brethren." Immortals, + or God's children in divine Science, are one harmonious + family; but mortals, or the "children of men" in material +444:30 sense, are discordant and ofttimes false brethren. + + Conforming to explicit rules + + The teacher must make clear to students the Science + of healing, especially its ethics, - that all is Mind, and +445:1 that the Scientist must conform to God's requirements. + Also the teacher must thoroughly fit his students to defend +445:3 themselves against sin, and to guard against the + attacks of the would-be /mental assassin/, who + attempts to kill morally and physically. No +445:6 hypothesis as to the existence of another power should + interpose a doubt or fear to hinder the demonstration of + Christian Science. Unfold the latent energies and capac- +445:9 ities for good in your pupil. Teach the great possibilities + of man endued with divine Science. Teach the dangerous + possibility of dwarfing the spiritual understanding and +445:12 demonstration of Truth by sin, or by recourse to material + means for healing. Teach the meekness and might of life + "hid with Christ in God," and there will be no desire for +445:15 other healing methods. You render the divine law of + healing obscure and void, when you weigh the human in + the scale with the divine, or limit in any direction of +445:18 thought the omnipresence and omnipotence of God. + + Divine energy + + Christian Science silences human will, quiets fear with + Truth and Love, and illustrates the unlabored motion +445:21 of the divine energy in healing the sick. Self- + seeking, envy, passion, pride, hatred, and + revenge are cast out by the divine Mind which heals +445:24 disease. The human will which maketh and worketh a lie, + hiding the divine Principle of harmony, is destructive to + health, and is the cause of disease rather than its cure. + + Blight of avarice + +445:27 There is great danger in teaching Mind-healing indis- + criminately, thus disregarding the morals of the student + and caring only for the fees. Recalling Jeffer- +445:30 son's words about slavery, "I tremble, when I + remember that God is just," the author trembles whenever + she sees a man, for the petty consideration of money, +446:1 teaching his slight knowledge of Mind-power, - per- + haps communicating his own bad morals, and in this way +446:3 dealing pitilessly with a community unprepared for self- + defence. + + A thorough perusal of the author's publications heals +446:6 sickness. If patients sometimes seem worse while read- + ing this book, the change may either arise from the alarm + of the physician, or it may mark the crisis of the disease. +446:9 Perseverance in the perusal of the book has generally + completely healed such cases. + + Exclusion of malpractice + + Whoever practises the Science the author teaches, +446:12 through which Mind pours light and healing upon this + generation, can practise on no one from sin- + ister or malicious motives without destroying +446:15 his own power to heal and his own health. Good must + dominate in the thoughts of the healer, or his demon- + stration is protracted, dangerous, and impossible in Sci- +446:18 ence. A wrong motive involves defeat. In the Science + of Mind-healing, it is imperative to be honest, for victory + rests on the side of immutable right. To understand +446:21 God strengthens hope, enthrones faith in Truth, and + verifies Jesus' word: "Lo, I am with you alway, even + unto the end of the world." + + Iniquity overcome + +446:24 Resisting evil, you overcome it and prove its nothing- + ness. Not human platitudes, but divine beatitudes, re- + flect the spiritual light and might which heal +446:27 the sick. The exercise of will brings on a + hypnotic state, detrimental to health and integrity of + thought. This must therefore be watched and guarded +446:30 against. Covering iniquity will prevent prosperity and the + ultimate triumph of any cause. Ignorance of the error + to be eradicated oftentimes subjects you to its abuse. + + No trespass on human rights + +447:1 The heavenly law is broken by trespassing upon + man's individual right of self-government. We have no +447:3 authority in Christian Science and no moral + right to attempt to influence the thoughts of + others, except it be to benefit them. In men- +447:6 tal practice you must not forget that erring human opin- + ions, conflicting selfish motives, and ignorant attempts + to do good may render you incapable of knowing or +447:9 judging accurately the need of your fellow-men. There- + fore the rule is, heal the sick when called upon for aid, + and save the victims of the mental assassins. + + Expose sin without believing in it + +447:12 Ignorance, subtlety, or false charity does not for- + ever conceal error; evil will in time disclose and pun- + ish itself. The recuperative action of the +447:15 system, when mentally sustained by Truth, + goes on naturally. When sin or sickness - + the reverse of harmony - seems true to material sense, +447:18 impart without frightening or discouraging the pa- + tient the truth and spiritual understanding, which de- + stroy disease. Expose and denounce the claims of +447:21 evil and disease in all their forms, but realize no + reality in them. A sinner is not reformed merely + by assuring him that he cannot be a sinner because +447:24 there is no sin. To put down the claim of sin, + you must detect it, remove the mask, point out the + illusion, and thus get the victory over sin and so prove +447:27 its unreality. The sick are not healed merely by + declaring there is no sickness, but by knowing that + there is none. + + Wicked evasions + +447:30 A sinner is afraid to cast the first stone. He may + say, as a subterfuge, that evil is unreal, but to know it, + he must demonstrate his statement. To assume that +448:1 there are no claims of evil and yet to indulge them, is + a moral offence. Blindness and self-righteousness cling +448:3 fast to iniquity. When the Publican's wail + went out to the great heart of Love, it won his + humble desire. Evil which obtains in the bodily senses, +448:6 but which the heart condemns, has no foundation; but if + evil is uncondemned, it is undenied and nurtured. Under + such circumstances, to say that there is no evil, is an evil +448:9 in itself. When needed tell the truth concerning the lie. + Evasion of Truth cripples integrity, and casts thee down + from the pinnacle. + + Truth's grand results + +448:12 Christian Science rises above the evidence of the cor- + poreal senses; but if you have not risen above sin your- + self, do not congratulate yourself upon your +448:15 blindness to evil or upon the good you know + and /do/ not. A dishonest position is far from Christianly + scientific. "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: +448:18 but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have + mercy." Try to leave on every student's mind the strong + impress of divine Science, a high sense of the moral and +448:21 spiritual qualifications requisite for healing, well knowing + it to be impossible for error, evil, and hate to accomplish + the grand results of Truth and Love. The reception or +448:24 pursuit of instructions opposite to absolute Christian + Science must always hinder scientific demonstration. + + Adherence to righteousness + + If the student adheres strictly to the teachings of Chris- +448:27 tian Science and ventures not to break its rules, he can- + not fail of success in healing. It is Christian + Science to do right, and nothing short of right- +448:30 doing has any claim to the name. To talk the right and + live the wrong is foolish deceit, doing one's self the most + harm. Fettered by sin yourself, it is difficult to free +449:1 another from the fetters of disease. With your own wrists + manacled, it is hard to break another's chains. A little +449:3 leaven causes the whole mass to ferment. A grain of + Christian Science does wonders for mortals, so omnip- + otent is Truth, but more of Christian Science must be +449:6 gained in order to continue in well doing. + + Right adjusts the balance + + The wrong done another reacts most heavily against + one's self. Right adjusts the balance sooner or later. +449:9 Think it "easier for a camel to go through + the eye of a needle," than for you to benefit + yourself by injuring others. Man's moral mercury, ris- +449:12 ing or falling, registers his healing ability and fitness to + teach. You should practise well what you know, and + you will then advance in proportion to your honesty +449:15 and fidelity, - qualities which insure success in this + Science; but it requires a higher understanding to teach + this subject properly and correctly than it does to heal +449:18 the most difficult case. + + Inoculation of thought + + The baneful effect of evil associates is less seen than + felt. The inoculation of evil human thoughts ought to +449:21 be understood and guarded against. The + first impression, made on a mind which is + attracted or repelled according to personal merit or de- +449:24 merit, is a good detective of individual character. Cer- + tain minds meet only to separate through simultaneous + repulsion. They are enemies without the preliminary +449:27 offence. The impure are at peace with the impure. + Only virtue is a rebuke to vice. A proper teacher of Chris- + tian Science improves the health and the morals of his +449:30 student if the student practises what he is taught, and + unless this result follows, the teacher is a Scientist only + in name. + + Three classes of neophytes + +450:1 There is a large class of thinkers whose bigotry and + conceit twist every fact to suit themselves. Their creed +450:3 teaches belief in a mysterious, supernatural + God, and in a natural, all-powerful devil. An- + other class, still more unfortunate, are so depraved that +450:6 they appear to be innocent. They utter a falsehood, + while looking you blandly in the face, and they never + fail to stab their benefactor in the back. A third class +450:9 of thinkers build with solid masonry. They are sincere, + generous, noble, and are therefore open to the approach + and recognition of Truth. To teach Christian Science +450:12 to such as these is no task. They do not incline long- + ingly to error, whine over the demands of Truth, nor + play the traitor for place and power. + + Touchstone of Science + +450:15 Some people yield slowly to the touch of Truth. Few + yield without a struggle, and many are reluctant to ac- + knowledge that they have yielded; but un- +450:18 less this admission is made, evil will boast + itself above good. The Christian Scientist has enlisted + to lessen evil, disease, and death; and he will overcome +450:21 them by understanding their nothingness and the allness + of God, or good. Sickness to him is no less a temptation + than is sin, and he heals them both by understanding +450:24 God's power over them. The Christian Scientist knows + that they are errors of belief, which Truth can and will + destroy. + + False claims annihilated + +450:27 Who, that has felt the perilous beliefs in life, substance, + and intelligence separated from God, can say that there + is no error of belief? Knowing the claim of +450:30 animal magnetism, that all evil combines in + the belief of life, substance, and intelligence in matter, + electricity, animal nature, and organic life, who will deny +451:1 that these are the errors which Truth must and will an- + nihilate? Christian Scientists must live under the con- +451:3 stant pressure of the apostolic command to come out from + the material world and be separate. They must re- + nounce aggression, oppression and the pride of power. +451:6 Christianity, with the crown of Love upon her brow, + must be their queen of life. + + Treasure in heaven + + Students of Christian Science, who start with its letter +451:9 and think to succeed without the spirit, will either make + shipwreck of their faith or be turned sadly + awry. They must not only seek, but strive, +451:12 to enter the narrow path of Life, for "wide is the gate, + and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and + many there be which go in thereat." Man walks in the +451:15 direction towards which he looks, and where his treasure + is, there will his heart be also. If our hopes and affec- + tions are spiritual, they come from above, not from be- +451:18 neath, and they bear as of old the fruits of the Spirit. + + Obligations of teachers + + Every Christian Scientist, every conscientious teacher + of the Science of Mind-healing, knows that human will +451:21 is not Christian Science, and he must recog- + nize this in order to defend himself from the + influence of human will. He feels morally obligated to +451:24 open the eyes of his students that they may perceive the + nature and methods of error of every sort, especially any + subtle degree of evil, deceived and deceiving. All mental +451:27 malpractice arises from ignorance or malice aforethought. + It is the injurious action of one mortal mind controlling + another from wrong motives, and it is practised either +451:30 with a mistaken or a wicked purpose. + + Indispensable defence + + Show your student that mental malpractice tends to + blast moral sense, health, and the human life. Instruct +452:1 him how to bar the door of his thought against this + seeming power, - a task not difficult, when one under- +452:3 stands that evil has in reality no power. + Incorrect reasoning leads to practical error. + The wrong thought should be arrested before it has a +452:6 chance to manifest itself. + + Egotistic darkness + + Walking in the light, we are accustomed to the light + and require it; we cannot see in darkness. But eyes ac- +452:9 customed to darkness are pained by the light. + When outgrowing the old, you should not fear + to put on the new. Your advancing course may pro- +452:12 voke envy, but it will also attract respect. When error + confronts you, withhold not the rebuke or the explana- + tion which destroys error. Never breathe an immoral +452:15 atmosphere, unless in the attempt to purify it. Better is + the frugal intellectual repast with contentment and virtue, + than the luxury of learning with egotism and vice. + + Unwarranted expectations + +452:18 Right is radical. The teacher must know the truth + himself. He must live it and love it, or he cannot impart + it to others. We soil our garments with con- +452:21 servatism, and afterwards we must wash them + clean. When the spiritual sense of Truth unfolds its + harmonies, you take no risks in the policy of error. Ex- +452:24 pect to heal simply by repeating the author's words, by + right talking and wrong acting, and you will be disap- + pointed. Such a practice does not demonstrate the +452:27 Science by which divine Mind heals the sick. + + Reliable authority + + Acting from sinful motives destroys your power of + healing from the right motive. On the other hand, if +452:30 you had the inclination or power to practise + wrongly and then should adopt Christian + Science, the wrong power would be destroyed. You do +453:1 not deny the mathematician's right to distinguish the cor- + rect from the incorrect among the examples on the black- +453:3 board, nor disbelieve the musician when he distinguishes + concord from discord. In like manner it should be granted + that the author understands what she is saying. + + Winning the field + +453:6 Right and wrong, truth and error, will be at strife in + the minds of students, until victory rests on the side of + invincible truth. Mental chemicalization fol- +453:9 lows the explanation of Truth, and a higher + basis is thus won; but with some individuals the morbid + moral or physical symptoms constantly reappear. I +453:12 have never witnessed so decided effects from the use of + material remedies as from the use of spiritual. + + Knowledge and honesty + + Teach your student that he must know himself be- +453:15 fore he can know others and minister to human needs. + Honesty is spiritual power. Dishonesty is + human weakness, which forfeits divine help. +453:18 You uncover sin, not in order to injure, but in order + to bless the corporeal man; and a right motive has + its reward. Hidden sin is spiritual wickedness in high +453:21 places. The masquerader in this Science thanks God + that there is no evil, yet serves evil in the name of + good. + + Metaphysical treatment + +453:24 You should treat sickness mentally just as you would + sin, except that you must not tell the patient that he is + sick nor give names to diseases, for such a +453:27 course increases fear, the foundation of dis- + ease, and impresses more deeply the wrong mind-picture. + A Christian Scientist's medicine is Mind, the divine Truth +453:30 that makes man free. A Christian Scientist never recom- + mends material hygiene, never manipulates. He does + not trespass on the rights of mind nor can he practise +454:1 animal magnetism or hypnotism. It need not be added + that the use of tobacco or intoxicating drinks is not in +454:3 harmony with Christian Science. + + Impotence of hate + + Teach your students the omnipotence of Truth, which + illustrates the impotence of error. The understanding, +454:6 even in a degree, of the divine All-power de- + stroys fear, and plants the feet in the true path, + - the path which leads to the house built without hands +454:9 "eternal in the heavens." Human hate has no legiti- + mate mandate and no kingdom. Love is enthroned. + That evil or matter has neither intelligence nor power, +454:12 is the doctrine of absolute Christian Science, and this is + the great truth which strips all disguise from error. + + Love the incentive + + He, who understands in sufficient degree the Princi- +454:15 ple of Mind-healing, points out to his student error as + well as truth, the wrong as well as the right + practice. Love for God and man is the true +454:18 incentive in both healing and teaching. Love inspires, + illumines, designates, and leads the way. Right motives + give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to +454:21 speech and action. Love is priestess at the altar of + Truth. Wait patiently for divine Love to move upon the + waters of mortal mind, and form the perfect concept. +454:24 Patience must "have her perfect work." + + Continuity of interest + + Do not dismiss students at the close of a class term, + feeling that you have no more to do for them. Let your +454:27 loving care and counsel support all their feeble + footsteps, until your students tread firmly in + the straight and narrow way. The superiority of spir- +454:30 itual power over sensuous is the central point of Chris- + tian Science. Remember that the letter and mental + argument are only human auxiliaries to aid in bringing +455:1 thought into accord with the spirit of Truth and Love, + which heals the sick and the sinner. + + Weakness and guilt + +455:3 A mental state of self-condemnation and guilt or a + faltering and doubting trust in Truth are unsuitable + conditions for healing the sick. Such mental +455:6 states indicate weakness instead of strength. + Hence the necessity of being right yourself in order to + teach this Science of healing. You must utilize the moral +455:9 might of Mind in order to walk over the waves of error + and support your claims by demonstration. If you are + yourself lost in the belief and fear of disease or sin, and +455:12 if, knowing the remedy, you fail to use the energies of + Mind in your own behalf, you can exercise little or no + power for others' help. "First cast out the beam out +455:15 of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast + out the mote out of thy brother's eye." + + The trust of the All-wise + + The student, who receives his knowledge of Christian +455:18 Science, or metaphysical healing, from a human teacher, + may be mistaken in judgment and demonstra- + tion, but God cannot mistake. God selects +455:21 for the highest service one who has grown into such a + fitness for it as renders any abuse of the mission an im- + possibility. The All-wise does not bestow His highest +455:24 trusts upon the unworthy. When He commissions a mes- + senger, it is one who is spiritually near Himself. No per- + son can misuse this mental power, if he is taught of God +455:27 to discern it. + + Integrity assured + + This strong point in Christian Science is not to be + overlooked, - that the same fountain cannot send forth +455:30 both sweet waters and bitter. The higher + your attainment in the Science of mental + healing and teaching, the more impossible it will be- +456:1 come for you intentionally to influence mankind adverse + to its highest hope and achievement. + + Chicanery impossible + +456:3 Teaching or practising in the name of Truth, but con- + trary to its spirit or rules, is most dangerous quackery. + Strict adherence to the divine Principle and +456:6 rules of the scientific method has secured + the only success of the students of Christian Science. + This alone entitles them to the high standing which +456:9 most of them hold in the community, a reputation ex- + perimentally justified by their efforts. Whoever af- + firms that there is more than one Principle and method +456:12 of demonstrating Christian Science greatly errs, igno- + rantly or intentionally, and separates himself from the + true conception of Christian Science healing and from +456:15 its possible demonstration. + + No dishonest concessions + + Any dishonesty in your theory and practice betrays a + gross ignorance of the method of the Christ-cure. Science +456:18 makes no concessions to persons or opinions. + One must abide in the /morale/ of truth or he + cannot demonstrate the divine Principle. So long as +456:21 matter is the basis of practice, illness cannot be effica- + ciously treated by the metaphysical process. Truth does + the work, and you must both understand and abide by the +456:24 divine Principle of your demonstration. + + This volume indispensable + + A Christian Scientist requires my work SCIENCE AND + HEALTH for his textbook, and so do all his students and +456:27 patients. Why? /First/: Because it is the voice + of Truth to this age, and contains the full + statement of Christian Science, or the Science of healing +456:30 through Mind. /Second/: Because it was the first book + known, containing a thorough statement of Christian + Science. Hence it gave the first rules for demonstrating +457:1 this Science, and registered the revealed Truth uncon- + taminated by human hypotheses. Other works, which +457:3 have borrowed from this book without giving it credit, + have adulterated the Science. /Third/: Because this book + has done more for teacher and student, for healer and +457:6 patient, than has been accomplished by other books. + + Purity of science + + Since the divine light of Christian Science first dawned + upon the author, she has never used this newly discovered +457:9 power in any direction which she fears to have + fairly understood. Her prime object, since + entering this field of labor, has been to prevent suffering, +457:12 not to produce it. That we cannot scientifically both + cure and cause disease is self-evident. In the legend of + the shield, which led to a quarrel between two knights +457:15 because each of them could see but one face of it, both + sides were beautiful according to their degree; but to + mental malpractice, prolific of evil, there is no good as- +457:18 pect, either silvern or golden. + + Backsliders and mistakes + + Christian Science is not an exception to the general + rule, that there is no excellence without labor in a direct +457:21 line. One cannot scatter his fire, and at the + same time hit the mark. To pursue other + vocations and advance rapidly in the demonstration of +457:24 this Science, is not possible. Departing from Christian + Science, some learners commend diet and hygiene. + They even practise these, intending thereby to initiate +457:27 the cure which they mean to complete with Mind, as if + the non-intelligent could aid Mind! The Scientist's + demonstration rests on one Principle, and there must +457:30 and can be no opposite rule. Let this Principle be ap- + plied to the cure of disease without exploiting other + means. + + Mental charlatanism + +458:1 Mental quackery rests on the same platform as all + other quackery. The chief plank in this platform is the +458:3 doctrine that Science has two principles in + partnership, one good and the other evil, - + one spiritual, the other material, - and that these two +458:6 may be simultaneously at work on the sick. This + theory is supposed to favor practice from both a mental + and a material standpoint. Another plank in the plat- +458:9 form is this, that error will finally have the same effect + as truth. + + Divinity ever ready + + It is anything but scientifically Christian to think of +458:12 aiding the divine Principle of healing or of trying to sus- + tain the human body until the divine Mind + is ready to take the case. Divinity is always +458:15 ready. /Semper paratus/ is Truth's motto. Having seen + so much suffering from quackery, the author desires to + keep it out of Christian Science. The two-edged sword +458:18 of Truth must turn in every direction to guard "the tree + of life." + + The panoply of wisdom + + Sin makes deadly thrusts at the Christian Scientist as +458:21 ritualism and creed are summoned to give place to higher + law, but Science will ameliorate mortal malice. + The Christianly scientific man reflects the +458:24 divine law, thus becoming a law unto himself. He does + violence to no man. Neither is he a false accuser. The + Christian Scientist wisely shapes his course, and is hon- +458:27 est and consistent in following the leadings of divine + Mind. He must prove, through living as well as heal- + ing and teaching, that Christ's way is the only one +458:30 by which mortals are radically saved from sin and + sickness. + + Advancement by sacrifice + + Christianity causes men to turn naturally from matter +459:1 to Spirit, as the flower turns from darkness to light. + Man then appropriates those things which "eye hath +459:3 not seen nor ear heard." Paul and John + had a clear apprehension that, as mortal man + achieves no worldly honors except by sacrifice, +459:6 so he must gain heavenly riches by forsaking all worldli- + ness. Then he will have nothing in common with the + worldling's affections, motives, and aims. Judge not the +459:9 future advancement of Christian Science by the steps + already taken, lest you yourself be condemned for fail- + ing to take the first step. + + Dangerous knowledge + +459:12 Any attempt to heal mortals with erring mortal mind, + instead of resting on the omnipotence of the divine + Mind, must prove abortive. Committing the +459:15 bare process of mental healing to frail mor- + tals, untaught and unrestrained by Christian Science, + is like putting a sharp knife into the hands of a blind +459:18 man or a raging maniac, and turning him loose in + the crowded streets of a city. Whether animated by + malice or ignorance, a false practitioner will work mis- +459:21 chief, and ignorance is more harmful than wilful wicked- + ness, when the latter is distrusted and thwarted in its + incipiency. + + Certainty of results + +459:24 To mortal sense Christian Science seems abstract, but + the process is simple and the results are sure if the Science + is understood. The tree must be good, which +459:27 produces good fruit. Guided by divine Truth + and not guesswork, the /theologus/ (that is, the student - + the Christian and scientific expounder - of the divine +459:30 law) treats disease with more certain results than any + other healer on the globe. The Christian Scientist should + understand and adhere strictly to the rules of divine meta- +460:1 physics as laid down in this work, and rest his demonstra- + tion on this sure basis. + + Ontology defined + +460:3 Ontology is defined as "the science of the necessary + constituents and relations of all beings," and it under- + lies all metaphysical practice. Our system of +460:6 Mind-healing rests on the apprehension of the + nature and essence of all being, - on the divine Mind + and Love's essential qualities. Its pharmacy is moral, +460:9 and its medicine is intellectual and spiritual, though used + for physical healing. Yet this most fundamental part of + metaphysics is the one most difficult to understand and +460:12 demonstrate, for to the material thought all is material, + till such thought is rectified by Spirit. + + Mischievous imagination + + Sickness is neither imaginary nor unreal, - that is, +460:15 to the frightened, false sense of the patient. Sickness + is more than fancy; it is solid conviction. It + is therefore to be dealt with through right ap- +460:18 prehension of the truth of being. If Christian healing + is abused by mere smatterers in Science, it becomes a + tedious mischief-maker. Instead of scientifically effect- +460:21 ing a cure, it starts a petty crossfire over every cripple + and invalid, buffeting them with the superficial and cold + assertion, "Nothing ails you." + + Author's early instructions + +460:24 When the Science of Mind was a fresh revelation to + the author, she had to impart, while teaching its grand + facts, the hue of spiritual ideas from her own +460:27 spiritual condition, and she had to do this orally + through the meagre channel afforded by language and by + her manuscript circulated among the students. As for- +460:30 mer beliefs were gradually expelled from her thought, the + teaching became clearer, until finally the shadow of old + errors was no longer cast upon divine Science. + + Proof by induction + + I do not maintain that anyone can exist in the flesh + without food and raiment; but I do believe that the +461:3 real man is immortal and that he lives in + Spirit, not matter. Christian Science must + be accepted at this period by induction. We admit the +461:6 whole, because a part is proved and that part illustrates + and proves the entire Principle. Christian Science can + be taught only by those who are morally advanced and +461:9 spiritually endowed, for it is not superficial, nor is it + discerned from the standpoint of the human senses. + Only by the illumination of the spiritual sense, can +461:12 the light of understanding be thrown upon this Science, + because Science reverses the evidence before the material + senses and furnishes the eternal interpretation of God and +461:15 man. + + If you believe that you are sick, should you say, " I am + sick"? No, but you should tell your belief sometimes, +461:18 if this be requisite to protect others. If you commit a + crime, should you acknowledge to yourself that you are + a criminal? Yes. Your responses should differ because +461:21 of the different effects they produce. Usually to admit + that you are sick, renders your case less curable, while + to recognize your sin, aids in destroying it. Both sin and +461:24 sickness are error, and Truth is their remedy. The truth + regarding error is, that error is not true, hence it is unreal. + To prove scientifically the error or unreality of sin, you +461:27 must first see the claim of sin, and then destroy it. + Whereas, to prove scientifically the error or unreality of + disease, you must mentally unsee the disease; then you +461:30 will not feel it, and it is destroyed. + + Rapidity of assimilation + + Systematic teaching and the student's spiritual growth + and experience in practice are requisite for a thorough +462:1 comprehension of Christian Science. Some individu- + als assimilate truth more readily than others, but any +462:3 student, who adheres to the divine rules + of Christian Science and imbibes the spirit + of Christ, can demonstrate Christian Science, cast out +462:6 error, heal the sick, and add continually to his store of + spiritual understanding, potency, enlightenment, and + success. + + Divided loyalty + +462:9 If the student goes away to practise Truth's teach- + ings only in part, dividing his interests between God and + mammon and substituting his own views for +462:12 Truth, he will inevitably reap the error he sows. + Whoever would demonstrate the healing of Christian + Science must abide strictly by its rules, heed every state- +462:15 ment, and advance from the rudiments laid down. There + is nothing difficult nor toilsome in this task, when the way + is pointed out; but self-denial, sincerity, Christianity, and +462:18 persistence alone win the prize, as they usually do in every + department of life. + + Anatomy defined + + Anatomy, when conceived of spiritually, is mental self- +462:21 knowledge, and consists in the dissection of thoughts to + discover their quality, quantity, and origin. + Are thoughts divine or human? That is the +462:24 important question. This branch of study is indispen- + sable to the excision of error. The anatomy of Christian + Science teaches when and how to probe the self-in- +462:27 flicted wounds of selfishness, malice, envy, and hate. It + teaches the control of mad ambition. It unfolds the + hallowed influences of unselfishness, philanthropy, spir- +462:30 itual love. It urges the government of the body both + in health and in sickness. The Christian Scientist, + through understanding mental anatomy, discerns and +463:1 deals with the real cause of disease. The material physi- + cian gropes among phenomena, which fluctuate every in- +463:3 stant under influences not embraced in his diagnosis, and + so he may stumble and fall in the darkness. + + Scientific obstetrics + + Teacher and student should also be familiar with the +463:6 obstetrics taught by this Science. To attend properly + the birth of the new child, or divine idea, + you should so detach mortal thought from its +463:9 material conceptions, that the birth will be natural and + safe. Though gathering new energy, this idea cannot + injure its useful surroundings in the travail of spiritual +463:12 birth. A spiritual idea has not a single element of error, + and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive. + The new idea, conceived and born of Truth and Love, is +463:15 clad in white garments. Its beginning will be meek, its + growth sturdy, and its maturity undecaying. When + this new birth takes place, the Christian Science infant +463:18 is born of the Spirit, born of God, and can cause the + mother no more suffering. By this we know that Truth + is here and has fulfilled its perfect work. + + Unhesitating decision + +463:21 To decide quickly as to the proper treatment of error - + whether error is manifested in forms of sickness, sin, + or death - is the first step towards destroy- +463:24 ing error. Our Master treated error through + Mind. He never enjoined obedience to the laws of nature, + if by these are meant laws of matter, nor did he use drugs. +463:27 There is a law of God applicable to healing, and it is a + spiritual law instead of material. The sick are not healed + by inanimate matter or drugs, as they believe that they +463:30 are. Such seeming medical effect or action is that of so- + called mortal mind. + + Seclusion of the author + + It has been said to the author, "The world is bene- +464:1 fited by you, but it feels your influence without seeing + you. Why do you not make yourself more widely +464:3 known?" Could her friends know how little + time the author has had, in which to make + herself outwardly known except through her laborious +464:6 publications, - and how much time and toil are still re- + quired to establish the stately operations of Christian + Science, - they would understand why she is so secluded. +464:9 Others could not take her place, even if willing so to do. + She therefore remains unseen at her post, seeking no self- + aggrandizement but praying, watching, and working for +464:12 the redemption of mankind. + + If from an injury or from any cause, a Christian Scien- + tist were seized with pain so violent that he could not +464:15 treat himself mentally, - and the Scientists had failed + to relieve him, - the sufferer could call a surgeon, who + would give him a hypodermic injection, then, when the +464:18 belief of pain was lulled, he could handle his own case + mentally. Thus it is that we "prove all things; [and] + hold fast that which is good." + + The right motive and its reward + +464:21 In founding a pathological system of Christianity, the + author has labored to expound divine Principle, and not + to exalt personality. The weapons of bigotry, +464:24 ignorance, envy, fall before an honest heart. + Adulterating Christian Science, makes it void. + Falsity has no foundation. "The hireling fleeth, because +464:27 he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep." Neither + dishonesty nor ignorance ever founded, nor can they over- + throw a scientific system of ethics. + + + + + CHAPTER XIV - RECAPITULATION + + For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; + line upon line, line upon line; here a little, and there + a little. - ISAIAH. + +465:1 THIS chapter is from the first edition of the author's + class-book, copyrighted in 1870. After much labor +465:3 and increased spiritual understanding, she revised that + treatise for this volume in 1875. Absolute Christian + Science pervades its statements, to elucidate scientific +465:6 metaphysics. + + QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS + + /Question/. - What is God? +465:9 /Answer/. - God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite + Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love. + + /Question/. - Are these terms synonymous? +465:12 /Answer/. - They are. They refer to one absolute God. + They are also intended to express the nature, essence, and + wholeness of Deity. The attributes of God are justice, +465:15 mercy, wisdom, goodness, and so on. + + /Question/. - Is there more than one God or Principle? + /Answer/. - There is not. Principle and its idea is one, +465:18 and this one is God, omnipotent, omniscient, and omni- +466:1 present Being, and His reflection is man and the universe. + /Omni/ is adopted from the Latin adjective signifying /all/. +466:3 Hence God combines all-power or potency, all-science + or true knowledge, all-presence. The varied manifesta- + tions of Christian Science indicate Mind, never matter, +466:6 and have one Principle. + + Real /versus/ unreal + + /Question/. - What are spirits and souls? + /Answer/. - To human belief, they are personalities +466:9 constituted of mind and matter, life and death, truth and + error, good and evil; but these contrasting + pairs of terms represent contraries, as Chris- +466:12 tian Science reveals, which neither dwell together nor + assimilate. Truth is immortal; error is mortal. Truth + is limitless; error is limited. Truth is intelligent; error +466:15 is non-intelligent. Moreover, Truth is real, and error is + unreal. This last statement contains the point you will + most reluctantly admit, although first and last it is the +466:18 most important to understand. + + Mankind redeemed + + The term /souls/ or /spirits/ is as improper as the term + /gods/. Soul or Spirit signifies Deity and nothing else. +466:21 There is no finite soul nor spirit. Soul or + Spirit means only one Mind, and cannot be + rendered in the plural. Heathen mythology and Jewish +466:24 theology have perpetuated the fallacy that intelligence, + soul, and life can be in matter; and idolatry and ritualism + are the outcome of all man-made beliefs. The Science +466:27 of Christianity comes with fan in hand to separate the + chaff from the wheat. Science will declare God aright, + and Christianity will demonstrate this declaration and +466:30 its divine Principle, making mankind better physically, + morally, and spiritually. + + Two chief commands + +467:1 /Question/. - What are the demands of the Science of + Soul? +467:3 /Answer/. - The first demand of this Science is, " Thou + shalt have no other gods before me." This /me/ is Spirit. + Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt +467:6 have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no + truth, no love, but that which is spiritual. The second + is like unto it, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." +467:9 It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one + Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love. + Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact +467:12 becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brother- + hood of man will be established. Having no other gods, + turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide +467:15 him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, hav- + ing that Mind which was also in Christ. + + Soul not confined in body + + Science reveals Spirit, Soul, as not in the body, and +467:18 God as not in man but as reflected by man. The greater + cannot be in the lesser. The belief that the + greater can be in the lesser is an error that +467:21 works ill. This is a leading point in the Science of Soul, + that Principle is not in its idea. Spirit, Soul, is not + confined in man, and is never in matter. We reason im- +467:24 perfectly from effect to cause, when we conclude that + matter is the effect of Spirit; but /a priori/ reasoning + shows material existence to be enigmatical. Spirit gives +467:27 the true mental idea. We cannot interpret Spirit, Mind, + through matter. Matter neither sees, hears, nor feels. + + Sinlessness of Mind, Soul + + Reasoning from cause to effect in the Science of Mind, +467:30 we begin with Mind, which must be under- + stood through the idea which expresses it and + cannot be learned from its opposite, matter. Thus we +468:1 arrive at Truth, or intelligence, which evolves its own + unerring idea and never can be coordinate with human +468:3 illusions. If Soul sinned, it would be mortal, for sin is + mortality's self, because it kills itself. If Truth is im- + mortal, error must be mortal, because error is unlike +468:6 Truth. Because Soul is immortal, Soul cannot sin, for + sin is not the eternal verity of being. + + /Question/. - What is the scientific statement of being? +468:9 /Answer/. - There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor sub- + stance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite + manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal +468:12 Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and + eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is + God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore +468:15 man is not material; he is spiritual. + + Spiritual synonyms + + /Question/. - What is substance? + /Answer/. - Substance is that which is eternal and inca- +468:18 pable of discord and decay. Truth, Life, and Love are + substance, as the Scriptures use this word in + Hebrews: "The substance of things hoped +468:21 for, the evidence of things not seen." Spirit, the synonym + of Mind, Soul, or God, is the only real substance. The + spiritual universe, including individual man, is a com- +468:24 pound idea, reflecting the divine substance of Spirit. + + Eternity of Life + + /Question/. - What is Life? + /Answer/. - Life is divine Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit. +468:27 Life is without beginning and without end. + Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of + Life, and time is no part of eternity. One ceases in +468:30 proportion as the other is recognized. Time is finite; +469:1 eternity is forever infinite. Life is neither in nor of mat- + ter. What is termed matter is unknown to Spirit, which +469:3 includes in itself all substance and is Life eternal. Mat- + ter is a human concept. Life is divine Mind. Life is not + limited. Death and finiteness are unknown to Life. If +469:6 Life ever had a beginning, it would also have an ending. + + /Question/. - What is intelligence? + /Answer/. - Intelligence is omniscience, omnipresence, +469:9 and omnipotence. It is the primal and eternal quality + of infinite Mind, of the triune Principle, - Life, Truth, + and Love, - named God. + + True sense of infinitude + +469:12 /Question/. - What is Mind? + /Answer/. - Mind is God. The exterminator of error + is the great truth that God, good, is the /only/ Mind, and +469:15 that the supposititious opposite of infinite Mind + - called /devil/ or evil - is not Mind, is not + Truth, but error, without intelligence or reality. There +469:18 can be but one Mind, because there is but one God; and + if mortals claimed no other Mind and accepted no other, + sin would be unknown. We can have but one Mind, if +469:21 that one is infinite. We bury the sense of infinitude, + when we admit that, although God is infinite, evil has a + place in this infinity, for evil can have no place, where all +469:24 space is filled with God. + + The sole governor + + We lose the high signification of omnipotence, when + after admitting that God, or good, is omnipresent and +469:27 has all-power, we still believe there is another + power, named /evil/. This belief that there + is more than one mind is as pernicious to divine theology +469:30 as are ancient mythology and pagan idolatry. With +470:1 one Father, even God, the whole family of man would + be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good, +470:3 the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth, + and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which + constitute divine Science. The supposed existence of +470:6 more than one mind was the basic error of idolatry. This + error assumed the loss of spiritual power, the loss of the + spiritual presence of Life as infinite Truth without an +470:9 unlikeness, and the loss of Love as ever present and + universal. + + The divine standard of perfection + + Divine Science explains the abstract statement that +470:12 there is one Mind by the following self-evident propo- + sition: If God, or good, is real, then evil, the + unlikeness of God, is unreal. And evil can +470:15 only seem to be real by giving reality to the + unreal. The children of God have but one Mind. How + can good lapse into evil, when God, the Mind of man, +470:18 never sins? The standard of perfection was originally + God and man. Has God taken down His own standard, + and has man fallen? + + Indestructible relationship + +470:21 God is the creator of man, and, the divine Principle + of man remaining perfect, the divine idea or reflection, + man, remains perfect. Man is the expression +470:24 of God's being. If there ever was a moment + when man did not express the divine perfec- + tion, then there was a moment when man did not express +470:27 God, and consequently a time when Deity was unex- + pressed - that is, without entity. If man has lost per- + fection, then he has lost his perfect Principle, the divine +470:30 Mind. If man ever existed without this perfect Principle + or Mind, then man's existence was a myth. + + The relations of God and man, divine Principle and +471:1 idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows + no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine +471:3 order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He cre- + ates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged + in its eternal history. + + Celestial evidence + +471:6 The unlikeness of Truth, - named /error/, - the op- + posite of Science, and the evidence before the five cor- + poreal senses, afford no indication of the grand +471:9 facts of being; even as these so-called senses + receive no intimation of the earth's motions or of the + science of astronomy, but yield assent to astronomical +471:12 propositions on the authority of natural science. + + The facts of divine Science should be admitted, - + although the evidence as to these facts is not supported +471:15 by evil, by matter, or by material sense, - because the + evidence that God and man coexist is fully sustained by + spiritual sense. Man is, and forever has been, God's re- +471:18 flection. God is infinite, therefore ever present, and + there is no other power nor presence. Hence the spirit- + uality of the universe is the only fact of creation. "Let +471:21 God be true, but every [material] man a liar." + + The test of experience + + /Question/. - Are doctrines and creeds a benefit to man? + /Answer/. - The author subscribed to an orthodox +471:24 creed in early youth, and tried to adhere to it until she + caught the first gleam of that which inter- + prets God as above mortal sense. This +471:27 view rebuked human beliefs, and gave the spiritual im- + port, expressed through Science, of all that proceeds + from the divine Mind. Since then her highest creed has +471:30 been divine Science, which, reduced to human apprehen- + sion, she has named Christian Science. This Science +472:1 teaches man that God is the only Life, and that this Life + is Truth and Love; that God is to be understood, adored, +472:3 and demonstrated; that divine Truth casts out supposi- + tional error and heals the sick. + + God's law destroys evil + + The way which leads to Christian Science is straight +472:6 and narrow. God has set His signet upon Science, mak- + ing it coordinate with all that is real and only + with that which is harmonious and eternal. +472:9 Sickness, sin, and death, being inharmonious, do not + originate in God nor belong to His government. His + law, rightly understood, destroys them. Jesus furnished +472:12 proofs of these statements. + + Evanescent materiality + + /Question/. - What is error? + /Answer/. - Error is a supposition that pleasure and +472:15 pain, that intelligence, substance, life, are existent in mat- + ter. Error is neither Mind nor one of Mind's + faculties. Error is the contradiction of Truth. +472:18 Error is a belief without understanding. Error is unreal + because untrue. It is that which seemeth to be and is not. + If error were true, its truth would be error, and we should +472:21 have a self-evident absurdity - namely, /erroneous truth/. + Thus we should continue to lose the standard of Truth. + + Unrealities that seem real + + /Question/. - Is there no sin? +472:24 /Answer/. - All reality is in God and His creation, har- + monious and eternal. That which He creates is good, + and He makes all that is made. Therefore +472:27 the only reality of sin, sickness, or death is + the awful fact that unrealities seem real to human, erring + belief, until God strips off their disguise. They are not +472:30 true, because they are not of God. We learn in Christian +473:1 Science that all inharmony of mortal mind or body is illu- + sion, possessing neither reality nor identity though seeming +473:3 to be real and identical. + + Christ the ideal Truth + + The Science of Mind disposes of all evil. Truth, God, + is not the father of error. Sin, sickness, and death are +473:6 to be classified as effects of error. Christ + came to destroy the belief of sin. The God- + principle is omnipresent and omnipotent. God is every- +473:9 where, and nothing apart from Him is present or has + power. Christ is the ideal Truth, that comes to heal + sickness and sin through Christian Science, and attributes +473:12 all power to God. Jesus is the name of the man who, + more than all other men, has presented Christ, the true + idea of God, healing the sick and the sinning and destroy- +473:15 ing the power of death. Jesus is the human man, and + Christ is the divine idea; hence the duality of Jesus the + Christ. + + Jesus not God + +473:18 In an age of ecclesiastical despotism, Jesus introduced + the teaching and practice of Christianity, affording the + proof of Christianity's truth and love; but to +473:21 reach his example and to test its unerring Sci- + ence according to his rule, healing sickness, sin, and + death, a better understanding of God as divine Prin- +473:24 ciple, Love, rather than personality or the man Jesus, is + required. + + Jesus not understood + + Jesus established what he said by demonstration, +473:27 thus making his acts of higher importance than his + words. He proved what he taught. This + is the Science of Christianity. Jesus /proved/ +473:30 the Principle, which heals the sick and casts out error, + to be divine. Few, however, except his students un- + derstood in the least his teachings and their glorious +474:1 proofs, - namely, that Life, Truth, and Love (the Prin- + ciple of this unacknowledged Science) destroy all error, +474:3 evil, disease, and death. + + Miracles rejected + + The reception accorded to Truth in the early Chris- + tian era is repeated to-day. Whoever introduces the +474:6 Science of Christianity will be scoffed at and + scourged with worse cords than those which + cut the flesh. To the ignorant age in which it first +474:9 appears, Science seems to be a mistake, - hence the + misinterpretation and consequent maltreatment which + it receives. Christian marvels (and /marvel/ is the sim- +474:12 ple meaning of the Greek word rendered /miracle/ in the + New Testament) will be misunderstood and misused + by many, until the glorious Principle of these marvels is +474:15 gained. + + Divine fulfilment + + If sin, sickness, and death are as real as Life, Truth, + and Love, then they must all be from the same source; +474:18 God must be their author. Now Jesus came + to destroy sin, sickness, and death yet the + Scriptures aver, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil." +474:21 Is it possible, then, to believe that the evils which Jesus + lived to destroy are real or the offspring of the divine + will? + + Truth destroys falsity + +474:24 Despite the hallowing influence of Truth in the de- + struction of error, must error still be immortal? Truth + spares all that is true. If evil is real, Truth +474:27 must make it so; but error, not Truth, is + the author of the unreal, and the unreal vanishes, + while all that is real is eternal. The apostle says that +474:30 the mission of Christ is to "destroy the works of the + devil." Truth destroys falsity and error, for light and + darkness cannot dwell together. Light extinguishes the +475:1 darkness, and the Scripture declares that there is "no + night there." To Truth there is no error, - all is Truth. +475:3 To infinite Spirit there is no matter, - all is Spirit, divine + Principle and its idea. + + Fleshly factors unreal + + /Question/. - What is man? +475:6 /Answer/. - Man is not matter; he is not made up of + brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The + Scriptures inform us that man is made in +475:9 the image and likeness of God. Matter is + not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so + unlike Spirit. Man is spiritual and perfect; and be- +475:12 cause he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so under- + stood in Christian Science. Man is idea, the image, of + Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of +475:15 God, including all right ideas; the generic term for + all that reflects God's image and likeness; the conscious + identity of being as found in Science, in which man is +475:18 the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal; + that which has no separate mind from God; that which + has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which +475:21 possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his + own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker. + + And God said: "Let us make man in our image, after +475:24 our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish + of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, + and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that +475:27 creepeth upon the earth." + + Man unfallen + + Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death. The + real man cannot depart from holiness, nor +475:30 can God, by whom man is evolved, engender + the capacity or freedom to sin. A mortal sinner is not +476:1 God's man. Mortals are the counterfeits of immortals. + They are the children of the wicked one, or the one evil, +476:3 which declares that man begins in dust or as a material + embryo. In divine Science, God and the real man are + inseparable as divine Principle and idea. + + Mortals are not immortals + +476:6 Error, urged to its final limits, is self-destroyed. + Error will cease to claim that soul is in body, that life + and intelligence are in matter, and that +476:9 this matter is man. God is the Principle of + man, and man is the idea of God. Hence man is not + mortal nor material. Mortals will disappear, and im- +476:12 mortals, or the children of God, will appear as the only + and eternal verities of man. Mortals are not fallen chil- + dren of God. They never had a perfect state of being, +476:15 which may subsequently be regained. They were, from + the beginning of mortal history, "conceived in sin and + brought forth in iniquity." Mortality is finally swallowed +476:18 up in immortality. Sin, sickness, and death must dis- + appear to give place to the facts which belong to immortal + man. + + Imperishable identity + +476:21 Learn this, O mortal, and earnestly seek the spiritual + status of man, which is outside of all material selfhood. + Remember that the Scriptures say of mortal +476:24 man: "As for man, his days are as grass: as + a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind + passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall +476:27 know it no more." + + The kingdom within + + When speaking of God's children, not the children of + men, Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you;" +476:30 that is, Truth and Love reign in the real + man, showing that man in God's image is + unfallen and eternal. Jesus beheld in Science the per- +477:1 fect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal + man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour +477:3 saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man + healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom + of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy. +477:6 Man is not a material habitation for Soul; he is himself + spiritual. Soul, being Spirit, is seen in nothing imperfect + nor material. + + Material body never God's idea + +477:9 Whatever is material is mortal. To the five corporeal + senses, man appears to be matter and mind united; but + Christian Science reveals man as the idea of +477:12 God, and declares the corporeal senses to be + mortal and erring illusions. Divine Science + shows it to be impossible that a material body, though +477:15 interwoven with matter's highest stratum, misnamed + mind, should be man, - the genuine and perfect man, + the immortal idea of being, indestructible and eternal. +477:18 Were it otherwise, man would be annihilated. + + Reflection of Spirit + + /Question/. - What are body and Soul? + /Answer/. - Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the re- +477:21 flection in multifarious forms of the living Principle, + Love. Soul is the substance, Life, and intelli- + gence of man, which is individualized, but not +477:24 in matter. Soul can never reflect anything inferior to + Spirit. + + Man inseparable from Spirit + + Man is the expression of Soul. The Indians caught +477:27 some glimpses of the underlying reality, when + they called a certain beautiful lake "the smile + of the Great Spirit." Separated from man, +477:30 who expresses Soul, Spirit would be a nonentity; man, + divorced from Spirit, would lose his entity. But there is, +478:1 there can be, no such division, for man is coexistent with + God. + + A vacant domicile + +478:3 What evidence of Soul or of immortality have you + within mortality? Even according to the teachings of + natural science, man has never beheld Spirit +478:6 or Soul leaving a body or entering it. What + basis is there for the theory of indwelling spirit, except + the claim of mortal belief? What would be thought of +478:9 the declaration that a house was inhabited, and by a cer- + tain class of persons, when no such persons were ever seen + to go into the house or to come out of it, nor were they +478:12 even visible through the windows? Who can see a soul + in the body? + + Harmonious functions + + /Question/. - Does brain think, and do nerves feel, and +478:15 is there intelligence in matter? + /Answer/. - No, not if God is true and mortal man a + liar. The assertion that there can be pain or pleasure +478:18 in matter is erroneous. That body is most + harmonious in which the discharge of the nat- + ural functions is least noticeable. How can intelligence +478:21 dwell in matter when matter is non-intelligent and + brain-lobes cannot think? Matter cannot perform the + functions of Mind. Error says, "I am man;" but this +478:24 belief is mortal and far from actual. From beginning + to end, whatever is mortal is composed of material hu- + man beliefs and of nothing else. That only is real which +478:27 reflects God. St. Paul said, "But when it pleased God, + who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me + by His grace, . . . I conferred not with flesh and blood." + + Immortal birthright + +478:30 /Mortal man/ is really a self-contradictory phrase, for + man is not mortal, "neither indeed can be;" man is im- +479:1 mortal. If a child is the offspring of physical sense and + not of Soul, the child must have a material, not a spirit- +479:3 ual origin. With what truth, then, could the + Scriptural rejoicing be uttered by any mother, + "I have gotten a man from the Lord"? On the con- +479:6 trary, if aught comes from God, it cannot be mortal and + material; it must be immortal and spiritual. + + Matter's supposed selfhood + + Matter is neither self-existent nor a product of Spirit. +479:9 An image of mortal thought, reflected on the retina, is + all that the eye beholds. Matter cannot see, + feel, hear, taste, nor smell. It is not self- +479:12 cognizant, - cannot feel itself, see itself, nor + understand itself. Take away so-called mortal mind, + which constitutes matter's supposed selfhood, and matter +479:15 can take no cognizance of matter. Does that which we + call dead ever see, hear, feel, or use any of the physical + senses? + + Chaos and darkness + +479:18 "In the beginning God created the heaven and the + earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and + darkness was upon the face of the deep." +479:21 (Genesis i. 1, 2.) In the vast forever, in the + Science and truth of being, the only facts are Spirit + and its innumerable creations. Darkness and chaos +479:24 are the imaginary opposites of light, understanding, + and eternal harmony, and they are the elements of + nothingness. + + Spiritual reflection + +479:27 We admit that black is not a color, because it reflects + no light. So evil should be denied identity or power, + because it has none of the divine hues. Paul +479:30 says: "For the invisible things of Him, from + the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being under- + stood by the things that are made." (Romans i. 20.) +480:1 When the substance of Spirit appears in Christian Sci- + ence, the nothingness of matter is recognized. Where +480:3 the spirit of God is, and there is no place where God is + not, evil becomes nothing, - the opposite of the some- + thing of Spirit. If there is no spiritual reflection, then +480:6 there remains only the darkness of vacuity and not a trace + of heavenly tints. + + Harmony from Spirit + + Nerves are an element of the belief that there is sensa- +480:9 tion in matter, whereas matter is devoid of sensation. + Consciousness, as well as action, is governed + by Mind, - is in God, the origin and gov- +480:12 ernor of all that Science reveals. Material sense has + its realm apart from Science in the unreal. Harmonious + action proceeds from Spirit, God. inharmony has no +480:15 Principle; its action is erroneous and presupposes man + to be in matter. Inharmony would make matter the + cause as well as the effect of intelligence, or Soul, thus +480:18 attempting to separate Mind from God. + + Evil non-existent + + Man is not God, and God is not man. Again, God, + or good, never made man capable of sin. It is the oppo- +480:21 site of good - that is, evil - which seems to + make men capable of wrong-doing. Hence, + evil is but an illusion, and it has no real basis. Evil is a +480:24 false belief. God is not its author. The supposititious + parent of evil is a lie. + + Vapor and nothingness + + The Bible declares: "All things were made by Him +480:27 [the divine Word]; and without Him was not anything, + made that was made." This is the eternal + verity of divine Science. If sin, sickness, +480:30 death were understood as nothingness, they would dis- + appear. As vapor melts before the sun, so evil would + vanish before the reality of good. One must hide the +481:1 other. How important, then, to choose good as the + reality! Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing +481:3 else. God's being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and + boundless bliss. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, + there is liberty." Like the archpriests of yore, man is +481:6 free "to enter into the holiest," - the realm of God. + + The fruit forbidden + + Material sense never helps mortals to understand + Spirit, God. Through spiritual sense only, man com- +481:9 prehends and loves Deity. The various con- + tradictions of the Science of Mind by the ma- + terial senses do not change the unseen Truth, which re- +481:12 mains forever intact. The forbidden fruit of knowledge, + against which wisdom warns man, is the testimony of + error, declaring existence to be at the mercy of death, +481:15 and good and evil to be capable of commingling. This + is the significance of the Scripture concerning this "tree + of the knowledge of good and evil," - this growth of +481:18 material belief, of which it is said: "In the day that thou + eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Human hypotheses + first assume the reality of sickness, sin, and death, and +481:21 then assume the necessity of these evils because of their + admitted actuality. These human verdicts are the pro- + curers of all discord. + + Sense and pure Soul + +481:24 If Soul sins, it must be mortal. Sin has the elements + of self-destruction. It cannot sustain itself. If sin is + supported, God must uphold it, and this is +481:27 impossible, since Truth cannot support error. + Soul is the divine Principle of man and never sins, - + hence the immortality of Soul. In Science we learn that +481:30 it is material sense, not Soul, which sins; and it will be + found that it is the sense of sin which is lost, and not a + sinful soul. When reading the Scriptures, the substitu- +482:1 tion of the word /sense/ for /soul/ gives the exact meaning in + a majority of cases. + + Soul defined + +482:3 Human thought has adulterated the meaning of the + word /soul/ through the hypothesis that soul is both an evil + and a good intelligence, resident in matter. +482:6 The proper use of the word /soul/ can always + be gained by substituting the word /God/, where the deific + meaning is required. In other cases, use the word /sense/, +482:9 and you will have the scientific signification. As used + in Christian Science, Soul is properly the synonym of + Spirit, or God; but out of Science, soul is identical with +482:12 sense, with material sensation. + + Sonship of Jesus + + /Question/. - Is it important to understand these ex- + planations in order to heal the sick? +482:15 /Answer/. - It is, since Christ is "the way" and the + truth casting out all error. Jesus called himself " the + Son of man," but not the son of Joseph. As +482:18 woman is but a species of the genera, he was + literally the Son of Man. Jesus was the highest human + concept of the perfect man. He was inseparable from +482:21 Christ, the Messiah, - the divine idea of God outside + the flesh. This enabled Jesus to demonstrate his con- + trol over matter. Angels announced to the Wisemen of +482:24 old this dual appearing, and angels whisper it, through + faith, to the hungering heart in every age. + + Sickness erroneous + + Sickness is part of the error which Truth casts out. +482:27 Error will not expel error. Christian Science is the law + of Truth, which heals the sick, on the basis + of the one Mind or God. It can heal in no +482:30 other way, since the human, mortal mind so-called is not + a healer, but causes the belief in disease. + + True healing transcendent + +483:1 Then comes the question, how do drugs, hygiene, and + animal magnetism heal? It may be affirmed that they +483:3 do not heal, but only relieve suffering tempo- + rarily, exchanging one disease for another. + We classify disease as error, which nothing but Truth or +483:6 Mind can heal, and this Mind must be divine, not human. + Mind transcends all other power, and will ultimately su- + persede all other means in healing. In order to heal by +483:9 Science, you must not be ignorant of the moral and spir- + itual demands of Science nor disobey them. Moral igno- + rance or sin affects your demonstration, and hinders its +483:12 approach to the standard in Christian Science. + + Terms adopted by the author + + After the author's sacred discovery, she affixed the + name "Science" to Christianity, the name "error" to +483:15 corporeal sense, and the name "substance" to + Mind. Science has called the world to battle + over this issue and its demonstration, which +483:18 heals the sick, destroys error, and reveals the universal + harmony. To those natural Christian Scientists, the an- + cient worthies, and to Christ Jesus, God certainly revealed +483:21 the spirit of Christian Science, if not the absolute letter. + + Science the way + + Because the Science of Mind seems to bring into dis- + honor the ordinary scientific schools, which wrestle with +483:24 material observations alone, this Science has + met with opposition; but if any system honors + God, it ought to receive aid, not opposition, from all think- +483:27 ing persons. And Christian Science does honor God as + no other theory honors Him, and it does this in the way + of His appointing, by doing many wonderful works +483:30 through the divine name and nature. One must fulfil + one's mission without timidity or dissimulation, for to be + well done, the work must be done unselfishly. Christianity +484:1 will never be based on a divine Principle and so found to + be unerring, until its absolute Science is reached. When +484:3 this is accomplished, neither pride, prejudice, bigotry, + nor envy can wash away its foundation, for it is built upon + the rock, Christ. + + Mindless methods + +484:6 /Question/. - Does Christian Science, or metaphysical + healing, include medication, material hygiene, mesmer- + ism, hypnotism, theosophy, or spiritualism? +484:9 /Answer/. - Not one of them is included in it. In di- + vine Science, the supposed laws of matter yield to the + law of Mind. What are termed natural +484:12 science and material laws are the objective + states of mortal mind. The physical universe expresses + the conscious and unconscious thoughts of mortals. +484:15 Physical force and mortal mind are one. Drugs and + hygiene oppose the supremacy of the divine Mind. + Drugs and inert matter are unconscious, mindless. Cer- +484:18 tain results, supposed to proceed from drugs, are really + caused by the faith in them which the false human con- + sciousness is educated to feel. + + Animal magnetism error + +484:21 Mesmerism is mortal, material illusion. Animal mag- + netism is the voluntary or involuntary action of error + in all its forms; it is the human antipode +484:24 of divine Science. Science must triumph + over material sense, and Truth over error, thus putting + an end to the hypotheses involved in all false theories +484:27 and practices. + + Error only ephemeral + + /Question/. - Is materiality the concomitant of spirit- + uality, and is material sense a necessary preliminary to +484:30 the understanding and expression of Spirit? +485:1 /Answer/. - If error is necessary to define or to reveal + Truth, the answer is yes; but not otherwise. /Material +485:3 sense/ is an absurd phrase, for matter has no + sensation. Science declares that Mind, not + matter, sees, hears, feels, speaks. Whatever contradicts +485:6 this statement is the false sense, which ever betrays + mortals into sickness, sin, and death. If the unimpor- + tant and evil appear, only soon to disappear because +485:9 of their uselessness or their iniquity, then these ephem- + eral views of error ought to be obliterated by Truth. + Why malign Christian Science for instructing mortals how +485:12 to make sin, disease, and death appear more and more + unreal? + + Scientific translations + + Emerge gently from matter into Spirit. Think not +485:15 to thwart the spiritual ultimate of all things, but come + naturally into Spirit through better health and + morals and as the result of spiritual growth. +485:18 Not death, but the understanding of Life, makes man im- + mortal. The belief that life can be in matter or soul in + body, and that man springs from dust or from an egg, +485:21 is the result of the mortal error which Christ, or Truth, + destroys by fulfilling the spiritual law of being, in which + man is perfect, even as the "Father which is in heaven +485:24 is perfect." If thought yields its dominion to other ' + powers, it cannot outline on the body its own beautiful + images, but it effaces them and delineates foreign agents, +485:27 called disease and sin. + + Material beliefs + + The heathen gods of mythology controlled war and + agriculture as much as nerves control sensation or +485:30 muscles measure strength. To say that + strength is in matter, is like saying that the + power is in the lever. The notion of any life or intelli- +486:1 gence in matter is without foundation in fact, and you + can have no faith in falsehood when you have learned +486:3 falsehood's true nature. + + Sense /versus/ Soul + + Suppose one accident happens to the eye, another to + the ear, and so on, until every corporeal sense is quenched. +486:6 What is man's remedy? To die, that he may + regain these senses? Even then he must gain + spiritual understanding and spiritual sense in order to +486:9 possess immortal consciousness. Earth's preparatory + school must be improved to the utmost. In reality man + never dies. The belief that he dies will not establish his +486:12 scientific harmony. Death is not the result of Truth but + of error, and one error will not correct another. + + Death an error + + Jesus proved by the prints of the nails, that his body +486:15 was the same immediately after death as before. If death + restores sight, sound, and strength to man, + then death is not an enemy but a better friend +486:18 than Life. Alas for the blindness of belief, which makes + harmony conditional upon death and matter, and yet + supposes Mind unable to produce harmony! So long +486:21 as this error of belief remains, mortals will continue mor- + tal in belief and subject to chance and change. + + Permanent sensibility + + Sight, hearing, all the spiritual senses of man, are +486:24 eternal. They cannot be lost. Their reality and immor- + tality are in Spirit and understanding, not in + matter, - hence their permanence. If this +486:27 were not so, man would be speedily annihilated. If the + five corporeal senses were the medium through which + to understand God, then palsy, blindness, and deafness +486:30 would place man in a terrible situation, where he would + be like those "having no hope, and without God in the + world;" but as a matter of fact, these calamities often +487:1 drive mortals to seek and to find a higher sense of happi- + ness and existence. + + Exercise of Mind-faculties + +487:3 Life is deathless. Life is the origin and ultimate of + man, never attainable through death, but gained by walk- + ing in the pathway of Truth both before and +487:6 after that which is called death. There is more + Christianity in seeing and hearing spiritually + than materially. There is more Science in the perpetual +487:9 exercise of the Mind-faculties than in their loss. Lost + they cannot be, while Mind remains. The apprehension + of this gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf cen- +487:12 turies ago, and it will repeat the wonder. + + Understanding /versus/ belief + + /Question/. - You speak of belief. Who or what is it + that believes? +487:15 /Answer/. - Spirit is all-knowing; this precludes the + need of believing. Matter cannot believe, and Mind + understands. The body cannot believe. The +487:18 believer and belief are one and are mortal. + Christian evidence is founded on Science or + demonstrable Truth, flowing from immortal Mind, and +487:21 there is in reality no such thing as /mortal/ mind. Mere + belief is blindness without Principle from which to ex- + plain the reason of its hope. The belief that life is sen- +487:24 tient and intelligent matter is erroneous. + + The Apostle James said, "Show me thy faith without + thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works." +487:27 The understanding that Life is God, Spirit, lengthens + our days by strengthening our trust in the deathless + reality of Life, its almightiness and immortality. + + Confirmation by healing + +487:30 This faith relies upon an understood Principle. This + Principle makes whole the diseased, and brings out the +488:1 enduring and harmonious phases of things. The result + of our teachings is their sufficient confirmation. When, +488:3 on the strength of these instructions, you are + able to banish a severe malady, the cure shows + that you understand this teaching, and therefore you re- +488:6 ceive the blessing of Truth. + + Belief and firm trust + + The Hebrew and Greek words often translated /belief/ + differ somewhat in meaning from that conveyed by the +488:9 English verb /believe/; they have more the sig- + nificance of faith, understanding, trust, con- + stancy, firmness. Hence the Scriptures often appear in +488:12 our common version to approve and endorse belief, when + they mean to enforce the necessity of understanding. + + All faculties from Mind + + /Question/. - Do the five corporeal senses constitute +488:15 man? + /Answer/. - Christian Science sustains with immortal + proof the impossibility of any material sense, and defines +488:18 these so-called senses as /mortal beliefs/, the + testimony of which cannot be true either of + man or of his Maker. The corporeal senses can take no +488:21 cognizance of spiritual reality and immortality. Nerves + have no more sensation, apart from what belief be- + stows upon them, than the fibres of a plant. Mind alone +488:24 possesses all faculties, perception, and comprehension. + Therefore mental endowments are not at the mercy of + organization and decomposition, - otherwise the very +488:27 worms could unfashion man. If it were possible for the + real senses of man to be injured, Soul could reproduce + them in all their perfection; but they cannot be dis- +488:30 turbed nor destroyed, since they exist in immortal Mind, + not in matter. + + Possibilities of Life + +489:1 The less mind there is manifested in matter the better. + When the unthinking lobster loses its claw, the claw grows +489:3 again. If the Science of Life were understood, + it would be found that the senses of Mind are + never lost and that matter has no sensation. Then the +489:6 human limb would be replaced as readily as the lobster's + claw, - not with an artificial limb, but with the genuine + one. Any hypothesis which supposes life to be in matter +489:9 is an educated belief. In infancy this belief is not equal + to guiding the hand to the mouth; and as consciousness + develops, this belief goes out, - yields to the reality of +489:12 everlasting Life. + + Decalogue disregarded + + Corporeal sense defrauds and lies; it breaks all the + commands of the Mosaic Decalogue to meet its own de- +489:15 mands. How then can this sense be the God- + given channel to man of divine blessings or + understanding? How can man, reflecting God, be de- +489:18 pendent on material means for knowing, hearing, seeing? + Who dares to say that the senses of man can be at one time + the medium for sinning against God, at another the me- +489:21 dium for obeying God? An affirmative reply would con- + tradict the Scripture, for the same fountain sendeth not + forth sweet waters and bitter. + + Organic construction valueless + +489:24 The corporeal senses are the only source of evil or + error. Christian Science shows them to be false, be- + cause matter has no sensation, and no organic +489:27 construction can give it hearing and sight nor + make it the medium of Mind. Outside the + material sense of things, all is harmony. A wrong sense +489:30 of God, man, and creation is /non-sense/, want of sense. + Mortal belief would have the material senses sometimes + good and sometimes bad. It assures mortals that there +490:1 is real pleasure in sin; but the grand truths of Christian + Science dispute this error. + + Will-power an animal propensity + +490:3 Will-power is but a product of belief, and this belief + commits depredations on harmony. Human will is an + animal propensity, not a faculty of Soul. +490:6 Hence it cannot govern man aright. Chris- + tian Science reveals Truth and Love as the + motive-powers of man. Will - blind, stubborn, and head- +490:9 long - cooperates with appetite and passion. From this + cooperation arises its evil. From this also comes its pow- + erlessness, since all power belongs to God, good. + + Theories helpless + +490:12 The Science of Mind needs to be understood. Until + it is understood, mortals are more or less deprived of + Truth. Human theories are helpless to make +490:15 man harmonious or immortal, since he is so + already, according to Christian Science. Our only need + is to know this and reduce to practice the real man's di- +490:18 vine Principle, Love + + True nature and origin + + "Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings." + Human belief - or knowledge gained from the so-called +490:21 material senses - would, by fair logic, anni- + hilate man along with the dissolving elements + of clay. The scientifically Christian explanations of the +490:24 nature and origin of man destroy all material sense with + immortal testimony. This immortal testimony ushers + in the spiritual sense of being, which can be obtained +490:27 in no other way. + + Sleep an illusion + + Sleep and mesmerism explain the mythical nature of + material sense. Sleep shows material sense as either +490:30 oblivion, nothingness, or an illusion or dream. + Under the mesmeric illusion of belief, a man + will think that he is freezing when he is warm, and that he +491:1 is swimming when he is on dry land. Needle-thrusts will + not hurt him. A delicious perfume will seem intolerable. +491:3 Animal magnetism thus uncovers material sense, and + shows it to be a belief without actual foundation or va- + lidity. Change the belief, and the sensation changes. +491:6 Destroy the belief, and the sensation disappears. + + Man linked with Spirit + + Material man is made up of involuntary and voluntary + error, of a negative right and a positive wrong, the latter +491:9 calling itself right. Man's spiritual individual- + ity is never wrong. It is the likeness of man's + Maker. Matter cannot connect mortals with the true +491:12 origin and facts of being, in which all must end. It is only + by acknowledging the supremacy of Spirit, which annuls + the claims of matter, that mortals can lay off mortality and +491:15 find the indissoluble spiritual link which establishes man + forever in the divine likeness, inseparable from his creator. + + Material man as a dream + + The belief that matter and mind are one, - that mat- +491:18 ter is awake at one time and asleep at another, some- + times presenting no appearance of mind, - + this belief culminates in another belief, that +491:21 man dies. Science reveals material man as never the real + being. The dream or belief goes on, whether our eyes are + closed or open. In sleep, memory and consciousness are +491:24 lost from the body, and they wander whither they will + apparently with their own separate embodiment. Per- + sonality is not the individuality of man. A wicked man +491:27 may have an attractive personality. + + Spiritual existence the one fact + + When we are awake, we dream of the pains and pleas- + ures of matter. Who will say, even though he +491:30 does not understand Christian Science, that + this dream - rather than the dreamer - may + not be mortal man? Who can rationally say otherwise, +492:1 when the dream leaves mortal man intact in body and + thought, although the so-called dreamer is unconscious? +492:3 For right reasoning there should be but one fact before + the thought, namely, spiritual existence. In reality there + is no other existence, since Life cannot be united to its +492:6 unlikeness, mortality. + + Mind one and all + + Being is holiness, harmony, immortality. It is already + proved that a knowledge of this, even in small degree, +492:9 will uplift the physical and moral standard + of mortals, will increase longevity, will purify + and elevate character. Thus progress will finally destroy +492:12 all error, and bring immortality to light. We know that + a statement proved to be good must be correct. New + thoughts are constantly obtaining the floor. These two +492:15 contradictory theories - that matter is something, or + that all is Mind - will dispute the ground, until one is + acknowledged to be the victor. Discussing his cam- +492:18 paign, General Grant said: "I propose to fight it out on + this line, if it takes all summer." Science says: All is + Mind and Mind's idea. You must fight it out on this +492:21 line. Matter can afford you no aid. + + Scientific ultimatum + + The notion that mind and matter commingle in the + human illusion as to sin, sickness, and death must even- +492:24 tually submit to the Science of Mind, which + denies this notion. /God is Mind, and God is + infinite; hence all is Mind/. On this statement rests the +492:27 Science of being, and the Principle of this Science is di- + vine, demonstrating harmony and immortality. + + Victory for Truth + + The conservative theory, long believed, is that there +492:30 are two factors, matter and mind, uniting on some im- + possible basis. This theory would keep truth and error + always at war. Victory would perch on neither banner. +493:1 On the other hand, Christian Science speedily shows + Truth to be triumphant. To corporeal sense, the sun +493:3 appears to rise and set, and the earth to stand + still; but astronomical science contradicts this, + and explains the solar system as working on a differ- +493:6 ent plan. All the evidence of physical sense and all the + knowledge obtained from physical sense must yield to + Science, to the immortal truth of all things. + + Mental preparation + +493:9 /Question/, - Will you explain sickness and show how it + is to be healed? + /Answer/. - The method of Christian Science Mind-heal- +493:12 ing is touched upon in a previous chapter entitled Christian + Science Practice. A full answer to the above + question involves teaching, which enables the +493:15 healer to demonstrate and prove for himself the Principle + and rule of Christian Science or metaphysical healing. + + Mind destroys all ills + + Mind must be found superior to all the beliefs of the +493:18 five corporeal senses, and able to destroy all ills. Sick- + ness is a belief, which must be annihilated by + the divine Mind. Disease is an experience of +493:21 so-called mortal mind. It is fear made manifest on the + body. Christian Science takes away this physical sense + of discord, just as it removes any other sense of moral or +493:24 mental inharmony. That man is material, and that mat- + ter suffers, - these propositions can only seem real and + natural in illusion. Any sense of soul in matter is not the +493:27 reality of being. + + If Jesus awakened Lazarus from the dream, illusion, of + death, this proved that the Christ could improve on a false +493:30 sense. Who dares to doubt this consummate test of the + power and willingness of divine Mind to hold man forever +494:1 intact in his perfect state, and to govern man's entire + action? Jesus said: "Destroy this temple [body], and +494:3 in three days I [Mind] will raise it up;" and he did this + for tired humanity's reassurance. + + Inexhaustible divine Love + + Is it not a species of infidelity to believe that so great +494:6 a work as the Messiah's was done for himself or for God, + who needed no help from Jesus' example to + preserve the eternal harmony? But mortals +494:9 did need this help, and Jesus pointed the way for them. + Divine Love always has met and always will meet every + human need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus demon- +494:12 strated the divine power to heal only for a select number + or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and + in every hour, divine Love supplies all good. + + Reason and Science + +494:15 The miracle of grace is no miracle to Love. Jesus + demonstrated the inability of corporeality, as well as the + infinite ability of Spirit, thus helping erring +494:18 human sense to flee from its own convictions + and seek safety in divine Science. Reason, rightly di- + rected, serves to correct the errors of corporeal sense; but +494:21 sin, sickness, and death will seem real (even as the ex- + periences of the sleeping dream seem real) until the Sci- + ence of man's eternal harmony breaks their illusion with +494:24 the unbroken reality of scientific being. + + Which of these two theories concerning man are you + ready to accept? One is the mortal testimony, changing, +494:27 dying, unreal. The other is the eternal and real evidence, + bearing Truth's signet, its lap piled high with immortal + fruits. + + Followers of Jesus + +494:30 Our Master cast out devils (evils) and healed the sick. + It should be said of his followers also, that they cast fear + and all evil out of themselves and others and heal the sick. +495:1 God will heal the sick through man, whenever man is + governed by God. Truth casts out error now +495:3 as surely as it did nineteen centuries ago. All + of Truth is not understood; hence its healing power is not + fully demonstrated. + + Destruction of all evil + +495:6 If sickness is true or the idea of Truth, you cannot + destroy sickness, and it would be absurd to try. Then + classify sickness and error as our Master did, +495:9 when he spoke of the sick, "whom Satan hath + bound," and find a sovereign antidote for error in the life- + giving power of Truth acting on human belief, a power +495:12 which opens the prison doors to such as are bound, and + sets the captive free physically and morally. + + Steadfast and calm trust + + When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling +495:15 steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His + likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither + fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and +495:18 calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious - as + Life eternally is - can destroy any painful sense of, or + belief in, that which Life is not. Let Christian Science, +495:21 instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of + being, and this understanding will supplant error with + Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence dis- +495:24 cord with harmony. + + Rudiments and growth + + /Question/. - How can I progress most rapidly in the + understanding of Christian Science? +495:27 /Answer/. - Study thoroughly the letter and imbibe + the spirit. Adhere to the divine Principle of Chris- + tian Science and follow the behests of God, +495:30 abiding steadfastly in wisdom, Truth, and + Love. In the Science of Mind, you will soon ascertain +496:1 that error cannot destroy error. You will also learn + that in Science there is no transfer of evil suggestions +496:3 from one mortal to another, for there is but one Mind, + and this ever-present omnipotent Mind is reflected by + man and governs the entire universe. You will learn +496:6 that in Christian Science the first duty is to obey + God, to have one Mind, and to love another as + yourself. + + Condition of progress + +496:9 We all must learn that Life is God. Ask yourself: + Am I living the life that approaches the supreme good? + Am I demonstrating the healing power of +496:12 Truth and Love? If so then the way will + grow brighter "unto the perfect day." Your fruits + will prove what the understanding of God brings to man. +496:15 Hold perpetually this thought, - that it is the spiritual + idea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you to + demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing, +496:18 based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, over- + lying, and encompassing all true being. + + Triumph over death + + "The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is +496:21 the law," - the law of mortal belief, at war with the + facts of immortal Life, even with the spiritual + law which says to the grave, "Where is thy +496:24 victory?" But "when this corruptible shall have put + on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on im- + mortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that +496:27 is written, Death is swallowed up in victory." + + /Question/. - Have Christian Scientists any religious + creed? +496:30 /Answer/. - They have not, if by that term is meant + doctrinal beliefs. The following is a brief exposition of +497:1 the important points, or religious tenets, of Christian + Science: - + +497:3 1. As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word + of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life. + + 2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and in- +497:6 finite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the + Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God's + image and likeness. + +497:9 3. We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the + destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that + casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is pun- +497:12 ished so long as the belief lasts. + + 4. We acknowledge Jesus' atonement as the evi- + dence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man's unity +497:15 with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower; and + we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ, + through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the +497:18 Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming + sin and death. + + 5. We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and +497:21 his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eter- + nal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the noth- + ingness of matter. + +497:24 6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for + that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to + do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and +497:27 to be merciful, just, and pure. + + + + + + + + KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES + + These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that + hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; + and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, + I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. + - REVELATION. + + + + + CHAPTER XV - GENESIS + + And I appeared unto Abraham,, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the + name of God Almighty; but by My name Jehovah was I not known to + them. - EXODUS. + + All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything + made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light + of men. - JOHN. + + Spiritual interpretation + +501:1 SCIENTIFIC interpretation of the Scriptures prop- + erly starts with the beginning of the Old Testa- +501:3 ment, chiefly because the spiritual import of + the Word, in its earliest articulations, often + seems so smothered by the immediate context as to +501:6 require explication; whereas the New Testament narra- + tives are clearer and come nearer the heart. Jesus il- + lumines them, showing the poverty of mortal existence, +501:9 but richly recompensing human want and woe with + spiritual gain. The incarnation of Truth, that amplifi- + cation of wonder and glory which angels could only +501:12 whisper and which God illustrated by light and har- + mony, is consonant with ever-present Love. So-called + mystery and miracle, which subserve the end of natural +501:15 good, are explained by that Love for whose rest the + weary ones sigh when needing something more native + to their immortal cravings than the history of perpetual +501:18 evil. + + Spiritual overture + +502:1 A second necessity for beginning with Genesis is that + the living and real prelude of the older Scriptures is so +502:3 brief that it would almost seem, from the + preponderance of unreality in the entire nar- + rative, as if reality did not predominate over unreality, +502:6 the light over the dark, the straight line of Spirit over + the mortal deviations and inverted images of the creator + and His creation. + + Deflection of being + +502:9 Spiritually followed, the book of Genesis is the history + of the untrue image of God, named a sinful mortal. This + deflection of being, rightly viewed, serves to +502:12 suggest the proper reflection of God and the + spiritual actuality of man, as given in the first chapter + of Genesis. Even thus the crude forms of human thought +502:15 take on higher symbols and significations, when scien- + tifically Christian views of the universe appear, illuminat- + ing time with the glory of eternity. + +502:18 In the following exegesis, each text is followed by its + spiritual interpretation according to the teachings of Chris- + tian Science. + +502:21 EXEGESIS + + /Genesis/ i. 1. In the beginning God created the heaven + and the earth. + + Ideas and identities + +502:24 The infinite has no beginning. This word /beginning/ + is employed to signify /the only/, - that is, the eternal ver- + ity and unity of God and man, including +502:27 the universe. The creative Principle - Life, + Truth, and Love - is God. The universe reflects God. + There is but one creator and one creation. This crea- +503:1 tion consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their + identities, which are embraced in the infinite Mind and +503:3 forever reflected. These ideas range from the infini- + tesimal to infinity, and the highest ideas are the sons + and daughters of God. + +503:6 /Genesis/ i. 2. And the earth was without form, and void; + and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the + spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. + + Spiritual harmony + +503:9 The divine Principle and idea constitute spiritual har- + mony, - heaven and eternity. In the universe of Truth, + matter is unknown. No supposition of error +503:12 enters there. Divine Science, the Word of + God, saith to the darkness upon the face of error, "God + is All-in-all," and the light of ever-present Love illumines +503:15 the universe. Hence the eternal wonder, - that infinite + space is peopled with God's ideas, reflecting Him in + countless spiritual forms. + +503:18 /Genesis/ i. 3. And God said, Let there be light: and + there was light. + + Mind's idea faultless + + Immortal and divine Mind presents the idea of God: +503:21 /first/, in light; /second/, in reflection; /third/, in spiritual and + immortal forms of beauty and goodness. But + this Mind creates no element nor symbol of +503:24 discord and decay. God creates neither erring thought, + mortal life, mutable truth, nor variable love. + + /Genesis/ i. 4. And God saw the light, that it was good: +503:27 and God divided the light from the darkness. + + God, Spirit, dwelling in infinite light and harmony +504:1 from which emanates the true idea, is never reflected by + aught but the good. + +504:3 /Genesis/ i. 5. And God called the light Day, and the + darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morn- + ing were the first day. + + Light preceding the sun + +504:6 All questions as to the divine creation being both + spiritual and material are answered in this passage, for + though solar beams are not yet included in +504:9 the record of creation, still there is light. This + light is not from the sun nor from volcanic flames, but it + is the revelation of Truth and of spiritual ideas. This +504:12 also shows that there is no place where God's light is not + seen, since Truth, Life, and Love fill immensity and are + ever-present. Was not this a revelation instead of a +504:15 creation? + + Evenings and mornings + + The successive appearing of God's ideas is represented + as taking place on so many /evenings/ and /mornings/, - +504:18 words which indicate, in the absence of solar + time, spiritually clearer views of Him, views + which are not implied by material darkness and dawn. +504:21 Here we have the explanation of another passage of + Scripture, that "one day is with the Lord as a thousand + years." The rays of infinite Truth, when gathered into +504:24 the focus of ideas, bring light instantaneously, whereas + a thousand years of human doctrines, hypotheses, and + vague conjectures emit no such effulgence. + + Spirit /versus/ darkness + +504:27 Did infinite Mind create matter, and call it /light?/ + Spirit is light, and the contradiction of Spirit is matter, + darkness, and darkness obscures light. Mate- +504:30 rial sense is nothing but a supposition of the + absence of Spirit. No solar rays nor planetary revolutions +505:1 form the day of Spirit. Immortal Mind makes its own + record, but mortal mind, sleep, dreams, sin, disease, and +505:3 death have no record in the first chapter of Genesis. + + /Genesis/ i. 6. And God said, Let there be a firmament in + the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from +505:6 the waters. + + Spiritual firmament + + Spiritual understanding, by which human conception, + material sense, is separated from Truth, is the firmament. +505:9 The divine Mind, not matter, creates all iden- + tities, and they are forms of Mind, the ideas of + Spirit apparent only as Mind, never as mindless matter +505:12 nor the so-called material senses. + + /Genesis/ i. 7. And God made the firmament, and divided + the waters which were under the firmament from the waters +505:15 which were above the firmament: and it was so. + + Understanding imparted + + Spirit imparts the understanding which uplifts con- + sciousness and leads into all truth. The Psalmist saith: +505:18 "The Lord on high is mightier than the noise + of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of + the sea." Spiritual sense is the discernment of spiritual +505:21 good. Understanding is the line of demarcation between + the real and unreal. Spiritual understanding unfolds + Mind, - Life, Truth, and Love, - and demonstrates the +505:24 divine sense, giving the spiritual proof of the universe in + Christian Science. + + Original reflected + + This understanding is not intellectual, is not the result +505:27 of scholarly attainments; it is the reality of all things + brought to light. God's ideas reflect the im- + mortal, unerring, and infinite. The mortal, +505:30 erring, and finite are human beliefs, which apportion to +506:1 themselves a task impossible for them, that of distinguish- + ing between the false and the true. Objects utterly un- +506:3 like the original do not reflect that original. Therefore + matter, not being the reflection of Spirit, has no real en- + tity. Understanding is a quality of God, a quality which +506:6 separates Christian Science from supposition and makes + Truth final. + + /Genesis/ i. 8. And God called the firmament Heaven. +506:9 And the evening and the morning were the second day. + + Exalted thought + + Through divine Science, Spirit, God, unites under- + standing to eternal harmony. The calm and exalted +506:12 thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace. + Thus the dawn of ideas goes on, forming each + successive stage of progress. + +506:15 /Genesis/ i. 9. And God said, Let the waters under the + heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry + land appear: and it was so. + + Unfolding of thoughts + +506:18 Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their + proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts, + even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose +506:21 in order that the purpose may appear. + + /Genesis/ i. 10. And God called the dry land Earth; and + the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and +506:24 God saw that it was good. + + Spirit names and blesses + + Here the human concept and divine idea seem con- + fused by the translator, but they are not so in the scien- +506:27 tifically Christian meaning of the text. Upon + Adam devolved the pleasurable task of find- + ing names for all material things, but Adam has not yet +507:1 appeared in the narrative. In metaphor, the /dry land/ + illustrates the absolute formations instituted by Mind, +507:3 while /water/ symbolizes the elements of Mind. Spirit duly + feeds and clothes every object, as it appears in the line + of spiritual creation, thus tenderly expressing the father- +507:6 hood and motherhood of God. Spirit names and blesses + all. Without natures particularly defined, objects and + subjects would be obscure, and creation would be full of +507:9 nameless offspring, - wanderers from the parent Mind, + strangers in a tangled wilderness. + + /Genesis/ i. 11. And God said, Let the earth bring forth +507:12 grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding + fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: + and it was so. + + Divine propagation + +507:15 The universe of Spirit reflects the creative power of + the divine Principle, or Life, which reproduces the multi- + tudinous forms of Mind and governs the mul- +507:18 tiplication of the compound idea man. The + tree and herb do not yield fruit because of any propagat- + ing power of their own, but because they reflect the Mind +507:21 which includes all. A material world implies a mortal + mind and man a creator. The scientific divine creation + declares immortal Mind and the universe created by God. + + Ever-appearing creation + +507:24 Infinite Mind creates and governs all, from the men- + tal molecule to infinity. This divine Principle of all + expresses Science and art throughout His +507:27 creation, and the immortality of man and the + universe. Creation is ever appearing, and must ever con- + tinue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source. +507:30 Mortal sense inverts this appearing and calls ideas mate- + rial. Thus misinterpreted, the divine idea seems to fall +508:1 to the level of a human or material belief, called mortal + man. But the seed is in itself, only as the divine Mind +508:3 is All and reproduces all - as Mind is the multiplier, + and Mind's infinite idea, man and the universe, is the + product. The only intelligence or substance of a thought, +508:6 a seed, or a flower is God, the creator of it. Mind is the + Soul of all. Mind is Life, Truth, and Love which gov- + erns all. + +508:9 /Genesis/ i. 12. And the earth brought forth grass, and + herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding + fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw +508:12 that it was good. + + Mind's pure thought + + God determines the gender of His own ideas. Gen- + der is mental, not material. The seed within itself is +508:15 the pure thought emanating from divine + Mind. The feminine gender is not yet ex- + pressed in the text. /Gender/ means simply /kind/ or /sort/, +508:18 and does not necessarily refer either to masculinity or + femininity. The word is not confined to sexuality, and + grammars always recognize a neuter gender, neither +508:21 male nor female. The Mind or intelligence of produc- + tion names the female gender last in the ascending order + of creation. The intelligent individual idea, be it male +508:24 or female, rising from the lesser to the greater, unfolds + the infinitude of Love. + + /Genesis/ i. 13. And the evening and the morning were +508:27 the third day. + + Rising to the light + + The third stage in the order of Christian Science is an + important one to the human thought, letting in the light +509:1 of spiritual understanding. This period corresponds to + the resurrection, when Spirit is discerned to be the Life of +509:3 all, and the deathless Life, or Mind, dependent + upon no material organization. Our Master + reappeared to his students, - to their apprehension he +509:6 rose from the grave, - on the third day of his ascending + thought, and so presented to them the certain sense of + eternal Life. + +509:9 /Genesis/ i. 14. And God said, Let there be lights in the + firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night; + and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, +509:12 and years. + + Rarefaction of thought + + Spirit creates no other than heavenly or celestial bodies, + but the stellar universe is no more celestial than our earth. +509:15 This text gives the idea of the rarefaction of + thought as it ascends higher. God forms and + peoples the universe. The light of spiritual understand- +509:18 ing gives gleams of the infinite only, even as nebulae indi- + cate the immensity of space. + + Divine nature appearing + + So-called mineral, vegetable, and animal substances +509:21 are no more contingent now on time or material struc- + ture than they were when "the morning stars + sang together." Mind made the "plant of +509:24 the field before it was in the earth." The periods of + spiritual ascension are the days and seasons of Mind's + creation, in which beauty, sublimity, purity, and holiness +509:27 - yea, the divine nature - appear in man and the uni- + verse never to disappear. + + Spiritual ideas apprehended + + Knowing the Science of creation, in which all is Mind +509:30 and its ideas, Jesus rebuked the material thought of his + fellow-countrymen: "Ye can discern the face of the +510:1 sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" + How much more should we seek to apprehend the spirit- +510:3 ual ideas of God, than to dwell on the objects + of sense! To discern the rhythm of Spirit + and to be holy, thought must be purely spiritual. + +510:6 /Genesis/ i. 15. And let them be for lights in the firma- + ment of the heaven, to give light upon the earth: and it + was so. + +510:9 Truth and Love enlighten the understanding, in whose + "light shall we see light;" and this illumination is re- + flected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn +510:12 away from a false material sense. + + /Genesis/ i. 16. And God made two great lights; the + greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the +510:15 night: He made the stars also. + + Geology a failure + + The sun is a metaphorical representation of Soul out- + side the body, giving existence and intelligence to the +510:18 universe. Love alone can impart the limit- + less idea of infinite Mind. Geology has never + explained the earth's formations; it cannot explain them. +510:21 There is no Scriptural allusion to solar light until time has + been already divided into evening and morning; and the + allusion to fluids (Genesis i. 2) indicates a supposed for- +510:24 mation of matter by the resolving of fluids into solids, + analogous to the suppositional resolving of thoughts into + material things. + + Spiritual subdivision + +510:27 Light is a symbol of Mind, of Life, Truth, and Love, + and not a vitalizing property of matter. Sci- + ence reveals only one Mind, and this one shin- +510:30 ing by its own light and governing the universe, including +511:1 man, in perfect harmony. This Mind forms ideas, its + own images, subdivides and radiates their borrowed light, +511:3 intelligence, and so explains the Scripture phrase, "whose + seed is in itself." Thus God's ideas "multiply and re- + plenish the earth." The divine Mind supports the sub- +511:6 limity, magnitude, and infinitude of spiritual creation. + + /Genesis/ i. 17, 18. And God set them in the firmament of + the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over +511:9 the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the + darkness: and God saw that it was good. + + Darkness scattered + + In divine Science, which is the seal of Deity and has +511:12 the impress of heaven, God is revealed as in- + finite light. In the eternal Mind, no night is + there. + +511:15 /Genesis/ i. 19. And the evening and the morning were + the fourth day. + + The changing glow and full effulgence of God's infi- +511:18 nite ideas, images, mark the periods of progress. + + /Genesis/ i. 20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth + abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl +511:21 that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of + heaven. + + Soaring aspirations + + To mortal mind, the universe is liquid, solid, and aeri- +511:24 form. Spiritually interpreted, rocks and mountains stand + for solid and grand ideas. Animals and mor- + tals metaphorically present the gradation of +511:27 mortal thought, rising in the scale of intelligence, taking + form in masculine, feminine, or neuter gender. The + fowls, which fly above the earth in the open firmament +512:1 of heaven, correspond to aspirations soaring beyond and + above corporeality to the understanding of the incorporeal +512:3 and divine Principle, Love. + + /Genesis/ i. 21. And God created great whales, and every + living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth +512:6 abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after + his kind: and God saw that it was good. + + Seraphic symbols + + Spirit is symbolized by strength, presence, and power, +512:9 and also by holy thoughts, winged with Love. These an- + gels of His presence, which have the holiest + charge, abound in the spiritual atmosphere of +512:12 Mind, and consequently reproduce their own character- + istics. Their individual forms we know not, but we do + know that their natures are allied to God's nature; and +512:15 spiritual blessings, thus typified, are the externalized, yet + subjective, states of faith and spiritual understanding. + + /Genesis/ i. 22. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruit- +512:18 ful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas; and let + fowl multiply in the earth. + + Multiplication of pure ideas + + Spirit blesses the multiplication of its own pure and +512:21 perfect ideas. From the infinite elements of the one + Mind emanate all form, color, quality, and + quantity, and these are mental, both primarily +512:24 and secondarily. Their spiritual nature is discerned only + through the spiritual senses. Mortal mind inverts the true + likeness, and confers animal names and natures upon its +512:27 own misconceptions. Ignorant of the origin and opera- + tions of mortal mind, - that is, ignorant of itself, - this + so-called mind puts forth its own qualities, and claims +512:30 God as their author; albeit God is ignorant of the ex- +513:1 istence of both this mortal mentality, so-called, and its + claim, for the claim usurps the deific prerogatives and is +513:3 an attempted infringement on infinity. + + /Genesis/ i. 23. And the evening and the morning were + the fifth day. + + Spiritual spheres + +513:6 Advancing spiritual steps in the teeming universe of + Mind lead on to spiritual spheres and exalted beings. To + material sense, this divine universe is dim and +513:9 distant, gray in the sombre hues of twilight; + but anon the veil is lifted, and the scene shifts into light. + In the record, time is not yet measured by solar revolutions, +513:12 and the motions and reflections of deific power cannot be + apprehended until divine Science becomes the interpreter. + + /Genesis/ i. 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth +513:15 the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, + and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so. + + Continuity of thoughts + + Spirit diversifies, classifies, and individualizes all +513:18 thoughts, which are as eternal as the Mind + conceiving them; but the intelligence, exist- + ence, and continuity of all individuality remain in God, +513:21 who is the divinely creative Principle thereof. + + /Genesis/ i. 25. And God made the beast of the earth after + his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that +513:24 creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that + it was good. + + God's thoughts are spiritual realities + + God creates all forms of reality. His thoughts are +513:27 spiritual realities. So-called mortal mind - being non- + existent and consequently not within the range of im- +514:1 mortal existence - could not by simulating deific power + invert the divine creation, and afterwards recreate per- +514:3 sons or things upon its own plane, since noth- + ing exists beyond the range of all-inclusive + infinity, in which and of which God is the +514:6 sole creator. Mind, joyous in strength, dwells in the + realm of Mind. Mind's infinite ideas run and dis- + port themselves. In humility they climb the heights of +514:9 holiness. + + Qualities of thought + + Moral courage is "the lion of the tribe of Juda," the + king of the mental realm. Free and fearless it roams in +514:12 the forest. Undisturbed it lies in the open + field, or rests in "green pastures, . . . beside + the still waters." In the figurative transmission from the +514:15 divine thought to the human, diligence, promptness, and + perseverance are likened to "the cattle upon a thousand + hills." They carry the baggage of stern resolve, and +514:18 keep pace with highest purpose. Tenderness accompa- + nies all the might imparted by Spirit. The individ- + uality created by God is not carnivorous, as witness the +514:21 millennial estate pictured by Isaiah: - + + The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, + And the leopard shall lie down with the kid; +514:24 And the calf and the young lion, and the fatling together; + And a little child shall lead them. + + Creatures of God useful + + Understanding the control which Love held over all, +514:27 Daniel felt safe in the lions' den, and Paul proved the + viper to be harmless. All of God's creatures + moving in the harmony of Science, are harm- +514:30 less, useful, indestructible. A realization of this grand + verity was a source of strength to the ancient worthies. +515:1 It supports Christian healing, and enables its possessor + to emulate the example of Jesus. "And God saw that +515:3 it was good." + + The serpent harmless + + Patience is symbolized by the tireless worm, creeping + over lofty summits, persevering in its intent. The ser- +515:6 pent of God's creating is neither subtle nor + poisonous, but is a wise idea, charming in its + adroitness, for Love's ideas are subject to the Mind which +515:9 forms them, - the power which changeth the serpent + into a staff. + + /Genesis/ i. 26. And God said, Let us make man in our +515:12 image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over + the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over + the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping +515:15 thing that creepeth upon the earth. + + Elohistic plurality + + The eternal Elohim includes the forever universe. + The name Elohim is in the plural, but this plurality of +515:18 Spirit does not imply more than one God, nor + does it imply three persons in one. It relates + to the oneness, the triunity of Life, Truth, and Love. +515:21 "Let /them/ have dominion." Man is the family name + for all ideas, - the sons and daughters of God. All that + God imparts moves in accord with Him, reflecting good- +515:24 ness and power. + + Reflected likeness + + Your mirrored reflection is your own image or like- + ness. If you lift a weight, your reflection does this also. +515:27 If you speak, the lips of this likeness move in + accord with yours. Now compare man before + the mirror to his divine Principle, God. Call the mirror +515:30 divine Science, and call man the reflection. Then note +516:1 how true, according to Christian Science, is the reflection + to its original. As the reflection of yourself appears in +516:3 the mirror, so you, being spiritual, are the reflection of + God. The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love, + which constitute Deity, are reflected by His creation; +516:6 and when we subordinate the false testimony of the + corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see + this true likeness and reflection everywhere. + + Love imparts beauty + +516:9 God fashions all things, after His own likeness. Life + is reflected in existence, Truth in truthfulness, God in + goodness, which impart their own peace and +516:12 permanence. Love, redolent with unselfish- + ness, bathes all in beauty and light. The grass beneath + our feet silently exclaims, "The meek shall inherit the +516:15 earth." The modest arbutus sends her sweet breath to + heaven. The great rock gives shadow and shelter. The + sunlight glints from the church-dome, glances into the +516:18 prison-cell, glides into the sick-chamber, brightens the + flower, beautifies the landscape, blesses the earth. Man, + made in His likeness, possesses and reflects God's domin- +516:21 ion over all the earth. Man and woman as coexistent + and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality, + the infinite Father-Mother God. + +516:24 /Genesis/ i. 27. So God created man in His own image, + in the image of God created He him; male and female + created He them. + + Ideal man and woman + +516:27 To emphasize this momentous thought, it is repeated + that God made man in His own image, to reflect the + divine Spirit. It follows that man is a generic +516:30 term. Masculine, feminine, and neuter gen- + ders are human concepts. In one of the ancient lan- +517:1 guages the word for /man/ is used also as the synonym of + /mind/. This definition has been weakened by anthropo- +517:3 morphism, or a humanization of Deity. The word /an- + thropomorphic/, in such a phrase as "an anthropomorphic + God," is derived from two Greek words, signifying /man/ +517:6 and /form/, and may be defined as a mortally mental at- + tempt to reduce Deity to corporeality. The life-giving + quality of Mind is Spirit, not matter. The ideal man +517:9 corresponds to creation, to intelligence, and to Truth. + The ideal woman corresponds to Life and to Love. In + divine Science, we have not as much authority for con- +517:12 sidering God masculine, as we have for considering + Him feminine, for Love imparts the clearest idea of + Deity. + + Divine personality + +517:15 The world believes in many persons; but if God is per- + sonal, there is but one person, because there is but one + God. His personality can only be reflected, +517:18 not transmitted. God has countless ideas, and + they all have one Principle and parentage. The only + proper symbol of God as person is Mind's infinite ideal. +517:21 What is this ideal? Who shall behold it? This ideal + is God's own image, spiritual and infinite. Even eternity + can never reveal the whole of God, since there is no limit +517:24 to infinitude or to its reflections. + + /Genesis/ i. 28. And God blessed them, and God said unto + them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, +517:27 and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, + and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing + that moveth upon the earth. + + Birthright of man + +517:30 Divine Love blesses its own ideas, and causes them to + multiply, - to manifest His power. Man is not made +518:1 to till the soil. His birthright is dominion, not sub- + jection. He is lord of the belief in earth +518:3 and heaven, - himself subordinate alone to + his Maker. This is the Science of being. + + /Genesis/ i. 29, 30. And God said, Behold, I have given +518:6 you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all + the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree + yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every +518:9 beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to + everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is + life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it +518:12 was so. + + Assistance in brotherhood + + God gives the lesser idea of Himself for a link to the + greater, and in return, the higher always protects the +518:15 lower. The rich in spirit help the poor in + one grand brotherhood, all leaving the same + Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth +518:18 his brother's need and supplieth it, seeking his own in + another's good. Love giveth to the least spiritual idea + might, immortality, and goodness, which shine through +518:21 all as the blossom shines through the bud. All the varied + expressions of God reflect health, holiness, immortality - + infinite Life, Truth, and Love. + +518:24 /Genesis/ i. 31. And God saw everything that He had + made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and + the morning were the sixth day. + + Perfection of creation + +518:27 The divine Principle, or Spirit, comprehends and ex- + presses all, and all must therefore be as perfect is the + divine Principle is perfect. Nothing is new to Spirit. +519:1 Nothing can be novel to eternal Mind, the author of all + things, who from all eternity knoweth His own ideas. +519:3 Deity was satisfied with His work. How could + He be otherwise, since the spiritual creation + was the outgrowth, the emanation, of His infinite self- +519:6 containment and immortal wisdom? + + /Genesis/ ii. 1. Thus the heavens and the earth were + finished, and all the host of them. + + Infinity measureless + +519:9 Thus the ideas of God in universal being are complete + and forever expressed, for Science reveals infinity and + the fatherhood and motherhood of Love. Hu- +519:12 man capacity is slow to discern and to grasp + God's creation and the divine power and presence which + go with it, demonstrating its spiritual origin. Mortals +519:15 can never know the infinite, until they throw off the old + man and reach the spiritual image and likeness. What + can fathom infinity! How shall we declare Him, till, +519:18 in the language of the apostle, "we all come in the unity + of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto + a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the ful- +519:21 ness of Christ"? + + /Genesis/ ii. 2. And on the seventh day God ended His + work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh +519:24 day from all His work which He had made. + + Resting in holy work + + God rests in action. Imparting has not impoverished, + can never impoverish, the divine Mind. No +519:27 exhaustion follows the action of this Mind, + according to the apprehension of divine Science. The +520:1 highest and sweetest rest, even from a human standpoint, + is in holy work. + + Love and man coexistent + +520:3 Unfathomable Mind is expressed. The depth, breadth, + height, might, majesty, and glory of infinite Love fill all + space. That is enough! Human language +520:6 can repeat only an infinitesimal part of what + exists. The absolute ideal, man, is no more seen nor + comprehended by mortals, than is His infinite Principle, +520:9 Love. Principle and its idea, man, are coexistent and + eternal. The numerals of infinity, called /seven days/, can + never be reckoned according to the calendar of time. +520:12 These days will appear as mortality disappears, and they + will reveal eternity, newness of Life, in which all sense of + error forever disappears and thought accepts the divine +520:15 infinite calculus. + + /Genesis/ ii. 4, 5. These are the generations of the heavens + and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the +520:18 Lord God [Jehovah] made the earth and the heavens, and + every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every + herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God [Jehovah] +520:21 had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not + a man to till the ground. + + Growth is from Mind + + Here is the emphatic declaration that God creates all +520:24 through Mind, not through matter, - that the plant + grows, not because of seed or soil, but because + growth is the eternal mandate of Mind. Mor- +520:27 tal thought drops into the ground, but the immortal creat- + ing thought is from above, not from beneath. Because + Mind makes all, there is nothing left to be made by a +520:30 lower power. Spirit acts through the Science of Mind, + never causing man to till the ground, but making him +521:1 superior to the soil. Knowledge of this lifts man above + the sod, above earth and its environments, to conscious +521:3 spiritual harmony and eternal being. + + Spiritual narrative + + Here the inspired record closes its narrative of being + that is without beginning or end. All that is made is +521:6 the work of God, and all is good. We leave + this brief, glorious history of spiritual creation + (as stated in the first chapter of Genesis) in the hands of +521:9 God, not of man, in the keeping of Spirit, not matter, - + joyfully acknowledging now and forever God's supremacy, + omnipotence, and omnipresence. + +521:12 The harmony and immortality of man are intact. We + should look away from the opposite supposition that man + is created materially, and turn our gaze to the spiritual +521:15 record of creation, to that which should be engraved on + the understanding and heart "with the point of a diamond" + and the pen of an angel. + + +521:18 The reader will naturally ask if there is nothing more + about creation in the book of Genesis. Indeed there is, + but the continued account is mortal and material. + +521:21 /Genesis/ ii. 6. But there went up a mist from the earth, + and watered the whole face of the ground. + + The story of error + + The Science and truth of the divine creation have been +521:24 presented in the verses already considered, and now the + opposite error, a material view of creation, is + to be set forth. The second chapter of Gene- +521:27 sis contains a statement of this material view of God and + the universe, a statement which is the exact opposite of + scientific truth as before recorded. The history of error +521:30 or matter, if veritable, would set aside the omnipotence +522:1 of Spirit; but it is the false history in contradistinction + to the true. + + The two records + +522:3 The Science of the first record proves the falsity of + the second. If one is true, the other is false, for they are + antagonistic. The first record assigns all +522:6 might and government to God, and endows + man out of God's perfection and power. The second + record chronicles man as mutable and mortal, - as hav- +522:9 ing broken away from Deity and as revolving in an orbit + of his own. Existence, separate from divinity, Science + explains as impossible. + +522:12 This second record unmistakably gives the history of + error in its externalized forms, called life and intelli- + gence in matter. It records pantheism, opposed to the +522:15 supremacy of divine Spirit; but this state of things is + declared to be temporary and this man to be mortal, - + dust returning to dust. + + Erroneous representation + +522:18 In this erroneous theory, matter takes the place of Spirit. + Matter is represented as the life-giving principle of the + earth. Spirit is represented as entering mat- +522:21 ter in order to create man. God's glowing + denunciations of man when not found in His + image, the likeness of Spirit, convince reason and coincide +522:24 with revelation in declaring this material creation false. + + Hypothetical reversal + + This latter part of the second chapter of Genesis, which + portrays Spirit as supposedly cooperating with matter in +522:27 constructing the universe, is based on some + hypothesis of error, for the Scripture just pre- + ceding declares God's work to be finished. Does Life, +522:30 Truth, and Love produce death, error, and hatred? Does + the creator condemn His own creation? Does the un- + erring Principle of divine law change or repent? It can- +523:1 not be so. Yet one might so judge from an unintelligent + perusal of the Scriptural account now under comment. + + Mist, or false claim + +523:3 Because of its false basis, the mist of obscurity evolved + by error deepens the false claim, and finally declares that + God knows error and that error can improve +523:6 His creation. Although presenting the exact + opposite of Truth, the lie claims to be truth. The crea- + tions of matter arise from a mist or false claim, or from +523:9 mystification, and not from the firmament, or under- + standing, which God erects between the true and false. + In error everything comes from beneath, not from above. +523:12 All is material myth, instead of the reflection of + Spirit. + + Distinct documents + + It may be worth while here to remark that, according +523:15 to the best scholars, there are clear evidences of two dis- + tinct documents in the early part of the book of + Genesis. One is called the Elohistic, because +523:18 the Supreme Being is therein called Elohim. The other + document is called the Jehovistic, because Deity therein is + always called Jehovah, - or Lord God, as our common +523:21 version translates it. + + Jehovah or Elohim + + Throughout the first chapter of Genesis and in three + verses of the second, - in what we understand to be the +523:24 spiritually scientific account of creation, - it is + Elohim (God) who creates. From the fourth + verse of chapter two to chapter five, the creator is called +523:27 Jehovah, or the Lord. The different accounts become + more and more closely intertwined to the end of chapter + twelve, after which the distinction is not definitely trace- +523:30 able. In the historic parts of the Old Testament, it is + usually Jehovah, peculiarly the divine sovereign of the + Hebrew people, who is referred to. + + Gods of the heathen + +524:1 The idolatry which followed this material mythology is + seen in the Phoenician worship of Baal, in the Moabitish +524:3 god Chemosh, in the Moloch of the Amorites, + in the Hindoo Vishnu, in the Greek Aphro- + dite, and in a thousand other so-called deities. + + Jehovah a tribal deity + +524:6 It was also found among the Israelites, who constantly + went after "strange gods." They called the Supreme + Being by the national name of Jehovah. In +524:9 that name of Jehovah, the true idea of God + seems almost lost. God becomes "a man of war," a + tribal god to be worshipped, rather than Love, the divine +524:12 Principle to be lived and loved. + + /Genesis/ ii. 7. And the Lord God [Jehovah] formed man + of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils +524:15 the breath of life; and man became a living soul. + + Creation reversed + + Did the divine and infinite Principle become a finite + deity, that he should now be called Jehovah? With + l8 a single command, Mind had made man, + both male and female. How then could a + material organization become the basis of man? How +524:21 could the non-intelligent become the medium of Mind, + and error be the enunciator of Truth? Matter is not + the reflection of Spirit, yet God is reflected in all His +524:24 creation. Is this addition to His creation real or un- + real? Is it the truth, or is it a lie concerning man and + God? + +524:27 It must be a lie, for God presently curses the ground. + Could Spirit evolve its opposite, matter, and give matter + ability to sin and suffer? Is Spirit, God, injected into +524:30 dust, and eventually ejected at the demand of matter? + Does Spirit enter dust, and lose therein the divine nature +525:1 and omnipotence? Does Mind, God, enter matter to be- + come there a mortal sinner, animated by the breath of +525:3 God? In this narrative, the validity of matter is opposed, + not the validity of Spirit or Spirit's creations. Man re- + flects God; /mankind/ represents the Adamic race, and is +525:6 a human, not a divine, creation. + + Definitions of man + + The following are some of the equivalents of the term + /man/ in different languages. In the Saxon, /mankind, a +525:9 /woman, any one/; in the Welsh, /that which rises + up/, - the primary sense being /image, form/; in + the Hebrew, /image, similitude/; in the Icelandic, /mind/. +525:12 The following translation is from the Icelandic: - + + And God said, Let us make man after our mind and + our likeness; and God shaped man after His mind; after +525:15 God's mind shaped He Him; and He shaped them male and + female. + + No baneful creation + + In the Gospel of John, it is declared that all things were +525:18 made through the Word of God, "and without Him [the + /logos/, or /word/] was not anything made that + was made." Everything good or worthy, God +525:21 made. Whatever is valueless or baneful, He did not + make, - hence its unreality. In the Science of Genesis + we read that He saw everything which He had made, +525:24 "and, behold, it was very good." The corporeal senses + declare otherwise; and if we give the same heed to the + history of error as to the records of truth, the Scriptural +525:27 record of sin and death favors the false conclusion of the + material senses. Sin, sickness, and death must be deemed + as devoid of reality as they are of good, God. + +525:30 /Genesis/ ii. 9. And out of the ground made the Lord God + [Jehovah] to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, +526:1 and good for food; the tree of life also, in the midst of the + garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil. + + Contradicting first creation + +526:3 The previous and more scientific record of creation + declares that God made "every plant of the field be- + fore it was in the earth." This opposite +526:6 declaration, this statement that life issues + from matter, contradicts the teaching of the first chap- + ter, - namely, that all Life is God. Belief is less than +526:9 understanding. Belief involves theories of material hear- + ing, sight, touch, taste, and smell, termed the five senses. + The appetites and passions, sin, sickness, and death, +526:12 follow in the train of this error of a belief in intelligent + matter. + + Record of error + + The first mention of evil is in the legendary Scriptural +526:15 text in the second chapter of Genesis. God pronounced + good all that He created, and the Scriptures + declare that He created all. The "tree of +526:18 life" stands for the idea of Truth, and the sword which + guards it is the type of divine Science. The "tree of + knowledge" stands for the erroneous doctrine that the +526:21 knowledge of evil is as real, hence as God-bestowed, as + the knowledge of good. Was evil instituted through God, + Love? Did He create this fruit-bearer of sin in contra- +526:24 diction of the first creation? This second biblical account + is a picture of error throughout. + + /Genesis/ ii. 15. And the Lord God [Jehovah] took the +526:27 man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and + to keep it. + + Garden of Eden + + The name Eden, according to Cruden, means /pleasure/, +526:30 /delight./ In this text Eden stands for the mortal, mate- +527:1 rial body. God could not put Mind into matter nor in- + finite Spirit into finite form to dress it and +527:3 keep it, - to make it beautiful or to cause it + to live and grow. Man is God's reflection, needing no + cultivation, but ever beautiful and complete. + +527:6 /Genesis/ ii. 16, 17. And the Lord God [Jehovah] com- + manded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou + mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good +527:9 and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou + eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. + + No temptation from God + + Here the metaphor represents God, Love, as tempting +527:12 man, but the Apostle James says: "God cannot be + tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any + man." It is true that a knowledge of evil would +527:15 make man mortal. It is plain also that mate- + rial perception, gathered from the corporeal senses, consti- + tutes evil and mortal knowledge. But is it true that God, +527:18 good, made "the tree of life" to be the tree of death to His + own creation? Has evil the reality of good? Evil is un- + real because it is a lie, - false in every statement. + +527:21 /Genesis/ ii. 19. And out of the ground the Lord God + [Jehovah] formed every beast of the field, and every fowl + of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he +527:24 would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living + creature, that was the name thereof. + + Creation's counterfeit + + Here the lie represents God as repeating creation, but +527:27 doing so materially, not spiritually, and ask- + ing a prospective sinner to help Him. Is the + Supreme Being retrograding, and is man giving up his +527:30 dignity? Was it requisite for the formation of man +528:1 that dust should become sentient, when all being is the + reflection of the eternal Mind, and the record declares +528:3 that God has already created man, both male and + female? That Adam gave the name and nature of + animals, is solely mythological and material. It can- +528:6 not be true that man was ordered to create man anew + in partnership with God; this supposition was a dream, + a myth. + +528:9 /Genesis/ ii. 21, 22. And the Lord God [Jehovah, Yawah] + caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and + He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead +528:12 thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God [Jehovah] had + taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto + the man. + + Hypnotic surgery + +528:15 Here falsity, error, credits Truth, God, with inducing + a sleep or hypnotic state in Adam in order to perform a + surgical operation on him and thereby create +528:18 woman. This is the first record of magnet- + ism. Beginning creation with darkness instead of light, + - materially rather than spiritually, - error now simu- +528:21 lates the work of Truth, mocking Love and declar- + ing what great things error has done. Beholding the + creations of his own dream and calling them real and +528:24 God-given, Adam - /alias/ error - gives them names. + Afterwards he is supposed to become the basis of the + creation of woman and of his own kind, calling them +528:27 /mankind/, - that is, a kind of man. + + Mental midwifery + + But according to this narrative, surgery was first per- + formed mentally and without instruments; +528:30 and this may be a useful hint to the medical + faculty. Later in human history, when the forbidden +529:1 fruit was bringing forth fruit of its own kind, there + came a suggestion of change in the /modus operandi/, - +529:3 that man should be born of woman, not woman again + taken from man. It came about, also, that instruments + were needed to assist the birth of mortals. The first +529:6 system of suggestive obstetrics has changed. Another + change will come as to the nature and origin of man, + and this revelation will destroy the /dream/ of existence, +529:9 reinstate reality, usher in Science and the glorious fact + of creation, that both man and woman proceed from + God and are His eternal children, belonging to no lesser +529:12 parent. + + /Genesis/ iii. 1-3. Now the serpent was more subtle than + any beast of the field which the Lord God [Jehovah] had +529:15 made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, + Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the + woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of +529:18 the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is + in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat + of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. + + Mythical serpent + +529:21 Whence comes a talking, lying serpent to tempt the + children of divine Love? The serpent enters into the + metaphor only as evil. We have nothing in the +529:24 animal kingdom which represents the species + described, - a talking serpent, - and should rejoice that + evil, by whatever figure presented, contradicts itself and +529:27 has neither origin nor support in Truth and good. Seeing + this, we should have faith to fight all claims of evil, be- + cause we know that they are worthless and unreal. + + Error or Adam + +529:30 Adam, the synonym for error, stands for a belief of + material mind. He begins his reign over man some- +530:1 what mildly, but he increases in falsehood and his days + become shorter. In this development, the im- +530:3 mortal, spiritual law of Truth is made manifest + as forever opposed to mortal, material sense. + + Divine providence + + In divine Science, man is sustained by God, the divine +530:6 Principle of being. The earth, at God's command, brings + forth food for man's use. Knowing this, Jesus + once said, "Take no thought for your life, +530:9 what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink," - presuming + not on the prerogative of his creator, but recognizing God, + the Father and Mother of all, as able to feed and clothe +530:12 man as He doth the lilies. + + /Genesis/ iii. 4, 5. And the serpent said unto the woman, + Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day +530:15 ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall + be as gods, knowing good and evil. + + Error's assumption + + This myth represents error as always asserting its su- +530:18 periority over truth, giving the lie to divine Science and + saying, through the material senses: "I can + open your eyes. I can do what God has not +530:21 done for you. Bow down to me and have another god. + Only admit that I am real, that sin and sense are more + pleasant to the eyes than spiritual Life, more to be de- +530:24 sired than Truth, and I shall know you, and you will be + mine." Thus Spirit and flesh war. + + Scriptural allegory + + The history of error is a dream-narrative. The dream +530:27 has no reality, no intelligence, no mind; therefore the + dreamer and dream are one, for neither is + true nor real. /First/, this narrative supposes +530:30 that something springs from nothing, that matter pre- + cedes mind. /Second/, it supposes that mind enters matter, +531:1 and matter becomes living, substantial, and intelligent. + The order of this allegory - the belief that everything +531:3 springs from dust instead of from Deity - has been main- + tained in all the subsequent forms of belief. This is the + error, - that mortal man starts materially, that non- +531:6 intelligence becomes intelligence, that mind and soul are + both right and wrong. + + Higher hope + + It is well that the upper portions of the brain represent +531:9 the higher moral sentiments, as if hope were ever prophe- + sying thus: The human mind will sometime + rise above all material and physical sense, ex- +531:12 changing it for spiritual perception, and exchanging hu- + man concepts for the divine consciousness. Then man + will recognize his God-given dominion and being. + + Biological inventions + +531:15 If, in the beginning, man's body originated in non- + intelligent dust, and mind was afterwards put into body + by the creator, why is not this divine order +531:18 still maintained by God in perpetuating the + species? Who will say that minerals, vegetables, and + animals have a propagating property of their own? +531:21 Who dares to say either that God is in matter or that + matter exists without God? Has man sought out other + creative inventions, and so changed the method of his +531:24 Maker? + + Which institutes Life, - matter or Mind? Does Life + begin with Mind or with matter? Is Life sustained by +531:27 matter or by Spirit? Certainly not by both, since flesh + wars against Spirit and the corporeal senses can take no + cognizance of Spirit. The mythologic theory of mate- +531:30 rial life at no point resembles the scientifically Christian + record of man as created by Mind in the image and like- + ness of God and having dominion over all the earth. Did +532:1 God at first create one man unaided, - that is, Adam, - + but afterwards require the union of the two sexes in order +532:3 to create the rest of the human family? No! God makes + and governs all. + + Progeny cursed + + All human knowledge and material sense must be +532:6 gained from the five corporeal senses. Is this knowledge + safe, when eating its first fruits brought death? + "In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt +532:9 surely die," was the prediction in the story under consid- + eration. Adam and his progeny were cursed, not blessed; + and this indicates that the divine Spirit, or Father, con- +532:12 demns material man and remands him to dust. + + /Genesis/ iii. 9, 10. And the Lord God [Jehovah] called + unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he +532:15 said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, + because I was naked; and I hid myself. + + Shame the effect of sin + + Knowledge and pleasure, evolved through material +532:18 sense, produced the immediate fruits of fear and shame. + Ashamed before Truth, error shrank abashed + from the divine voice calling out to the cor- +532:21 poreal senses. Its summons may be thus paraphrased: + "Where art thou, man? Is Mind in matter? Is Mind + capable of error as well as of truth, of evil as well as of +532:24 good, when God is All and He is Mind and there is but + one God, hence one Mind?" + + Fear comes of error + + Fear was the first manifestation of the error of mate- +532:27 rial sense. Thus error began and will end the dream of + matter, In the allegory the body had been + naked, and Adam knew it not; but now error +532:30 demands that /mind/ shall see and feel through matter, the + five senses. The first impression material man had of +533:1 himself was one of nakedness and shame. Had he lost + man's rich inheritance and God's behest, dominion over +533:3 all the earth? No! This had never been bestowed on + Adam. + + /Genesis/ iii. 11, 12. And He said, Who told thee that +533:6 thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I + commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man + said, The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave +533:9 me of the tree, and I did eat. + + The beguiling first lie + + Here there is an attempt to trace all human errors + directly or indirectly to God, or good, as if He were the +533:12 creator of evil. The allegory shows that the + snake-talker utters the first voluble lie, which + beguiles the woman and demoralizes the man. Adam, +533:15 /alias mortal error/, charges God and woman with his own + dereliction, saying, "The woman, whom Thou gavest + me, is responsible." According to this belief, the rib taken +533:18 from Adam's side has grown into an evil mind, named + /woman/, who aids man to make sinners more rapidly than + he can alone. Is this an help meet for man? + +533:21 Materiality, so obnoxious to God, is already found in the + rapid deterioration of the bone and flesh which came from + Adam to form Eve. The belief in material life and in- +533:24 telligence is growing worse at every step, but error has its + suppositional day and multiplies until the end thereof. + + False womanhood + + Truth, cross-questioning man as to His knowledge of +533:27 error, finds woman the first to confess her fault. She + says, " The serpent beguiled me, and I did + eat;" as much as to say in meek penitence, +533:30 "Neither man nor God shall father my fault." She has + already learned that corporeal sense is the serpent. Hence +534:1 she is first to abandon the belief in the material origin of + man and to discern spiritual creation. This hereafter +534:3 enabled woman to be the mother of Jesus and to behold + at the sepulchre the risen Saviour, who was soon to mani- + fest the deathless man of God's creating. This enabled +534:6 woman to be first to interpret the Scriptures in their true + sense, which reveals the spiritual origin of man. + + /Genesis/ iii. 14, 15. And the Lord God [Jehovah] said +534:9 unto the serpent, . . . I will put enmity between thee and + the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall + bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. + + Spirit and flesh + +534:12 This prophecy has been fulfilled. The Son of the Virgin- + mother unfolded the remedy for Adam, or error; and the + Apostle Paul explains this warfare between the +534:15 idea of divine power, which Jesus presented, + and mythological material intelligence called /energy/ and + opposed to Spirit. + +534:18 Paul says in his epistle to the Romans: "The carnal + mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the + law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that +534:21 are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the + flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell + in you." + + Bruising sin's head + +534:24 There will be greater mental opposition to the spirit- + ual, scientific meaning of the Scriptures than there has + ever been since the Christian era began. The +534:27 serpent, material sense, will bite the heel of + the woman, - will struggle to destroy the spiritual idea + of Love; and the woman, this idea, will bruise the head +534:30 of lust. The spiritual idea has given the understanding +535:1 a foothold in Christian Science. The seed of Truth and + the seed of error, of belief and of understanding, - yea, +535:3 the seed of Spirit and the seed of matter, - are the wheat + and tares which time will separate, the one to be burned, + the other to be garnered into heavenly places. + +535:6 /Genesis/ iii. 16. Unto the woman He said, I will greatly + multiply thy sorrow and thy conception: in sorrow thou + shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy +535:9 husband, and he shall rule over thee. + + Judgment on error + + Divine Science deals its chief blow at the supposed ma- + terial foundations of life and intelligence. It dooms idol- +535:12 atry. A belief in other gods, other creators, + and other creations must go down before Chris- + tian Science. It unveils the results of sin as shown in +535:15 sickness and death. When will man pass through the + open gate of Christian Science into the heaven of Soul, + into the heritage of the first born among men? Truth is +535:18 indeed " the way." + + /Genesis/ iii. 17-19. And unto Adam He said, Because + thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast +535:21 eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou + shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in + sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: thorns +535:24 also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt + eat the herb of the field: in the sweat of thy face shalt thou + eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it +535:27 wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt + thou return. + + New earth and no more sea + + In the first chapter of Genesis we read: "And God +535:30 called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together +536:1 of the waters called He Seas." In the Apocalypse it is + written: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for +536:3 the first heaven and the first earth were passed + away; and there was no more sea." In St. + John's vision, heaven and earth stand for spir- +536:6 itual ideas, and the sea, as a symbol of tempest-tossed + human concepts advancing and receding, is represented + as having passed away. The divine understanding reigns, +536:9 is /all/ and there is no other consciousness. + + The fall of error + + The way of error is awful to contemplate. The illu- + sion of sin is without hope or God. If man's spiritual +536:12 gravitation and attraction to one Father, in + whom we " live, and move, and have our be- + ing," should be lost, and if man should be governed by +536:15 corporeality instead of divine Principle, by body instead + of by Soul, man would be annihilated. Created by flesh + instead of by Spirit, starting from matter instead of from +536:18 God, mortal man would be governed by himself. The + blind leading the blind, both would fall. + + True attainment + + Passions and appetites must end in pain. They are +536:21 "of few days, and full of trouble." Their supposed joys + are cheats. Their narrow limits belittle their gratifica- + tions, and hedge about their achievements with thorns. +536:24 Mortal mind accepts the erroneous, material concep- + tion of life and joy, but the true idea is gained from the + immortal side. Through toil, struggle, and sor- +536:27 row, what do mortals attain? They give up + their belief in perishable life and happiness; the mortal + and material return to dust, and the immortal is reached. + +536:30 /Genesis/ iii. 22-24. And the Lord God [Jehovah] said, + Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good +537:1 and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take + also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever; therefore +537:3 the Lord God [Jehovah] sent him forth from the garden + of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. + So He drove out the man: and He placed at the east +537:6 of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword + which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of + life. + + Justice and recompense + +537:9 A knowledge of evil was never the essence of divin- + ity or manhood. In the first chapter of Genesis, evil + has no local habitation nor name. Crea- +537:12 tion is there represented as spiritual, entire, + and good. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he + also reap." Error excludes itself from harmony. Sin +537:15 is its own punishment. Truth guards the gateway + to harmony. Error tills its own barren soil and buries + itself in the ground, since ground and dust stand for +537:18 nothingness. + + Inspired interpretation + + No one can reasonably doubt that the purpose of this + allegory - this second account in Genesis - is to depict +537:21 the falsity of error and the effects of error. + Subsequent Bible revelation is coordinate + with the Science of creation recorded in the +537:24 first chapter of Genesis. Inspired writers interpret the + Word spiritually, while the ordinary historian interprets + it literally. Literally taken, the text is made to appear +537:27 contradictory in some places, and divine Love, which + blessed the earth and gave it to man for a possession, is + represented as changeable. The literal meaning would +537:30 imply that God withheld from man the opportunity to + reform, lest man should improve it and become better; + but this is not the nature of God, who is Love always, - +538:1 Love infinitely wise and altogether lovely, who "seeketh + not her own." + + Spiritual gateway + +538:3 Truth should, and does, drive error out of all selfhood. + Truth is a two-edged sword, guarding and guiding. + Truth places the cherub wisdom at the gate +538:6 of understanding to note the proper guests. + Radiant with mercy and justice, the sword of Truth + gleams afar and indicates the infinite distance between +538:9 Truth and error, between the material and spiritual, - + the unreal and the real. + + Contrasted testimony + + The sun, giving light and heat to the earth, is a figure +538:12 of divine Life and Love, enlightening and sustaining the + universe. The "tree of life" is significant of + eternal reality or being. The "tree of knowl- +538:15 edge" typifies unreality. The testimony of the serpent is + significant of the illusion of error, of the false claims that + misrepresent God, good. Sin, sickness, and death have +538:18 no record in the Elohistic introduction of Genesis, in which + God creates the heavens, earth, and man. Until that + which contradicts the truth of being enters into the arena, +538:21 evil has no history, and evil is brought into view only as + the unreal in contradistinction to the real and eternal. + + /Genesis/ iv. 1. And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she +538:24 conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man + from the Lord [Jehovah]. + + Erroneous conception + + This account is given, not of immortal man, but of mor- +538:27 tal man, and of sin which is temporal. As both mortal + man and sin have a beginning, they must + consequently have an end, while the sinless, +538:30 real man is eternal. Eve's declaration, "I have gotten + a man from the Lord," supposes God to be the author +539:1 of sin and sin's progeny. This false sense of existence + is fratricidal. In the words of Jesus, it (evil, devil) is +539:3 "a murderer from the beginning." Error begins by + reckoning life as separate from Spirit, thus sapping the + foundations of immortality, as if life and immortality +539:6 were something which matter can both give and take + away. + + Only one standard + + What can be the standard of good, of Spirit, of Life, +539:9 or of Truth, if they produce their opposites, such as evil, + matter, error, and death? God could never + impart an element of evil, and man possesses +539:12 nothing which he has not derived from God. How then + has man a basis for wrong-doing? Whence does he + obtain the propensity or power to do evil? Has Spirit +539:15 resigned to matter the government of the universe? + + A type of falsehood + + The Scriptures declare that God condemned this lie as + to man's origin and character by condemning its symbol, +539:18 the serpent, to grovel beneath all the beasts + of the field. It is false to say that Truth and + error commingle in creation. In parable and argument, +539:21 this falsity is exposed by our Master as self-evidently + wrong. Disputing these points with the Pharisees and + arguing for the Science of creation, Jesus said: "Do men +539:24 gather grapes of thorns?" Paul asked: "What com- + munion hath light with darkness? And what concord + hath Christ with Belial?" + + Scientific offspring + +539:27 The divine origin of Jesus gave him more than human + power to expound the facts of creation, and demonstrate + the one Mind which makes and governs man +539:30 and the universe. The Science of creation, + so conspicuous in the birth of Jesus inspired his wisest + and least-understood sayings, and was the basis of his +540:1 marvellous demonstrations. Christ is the offspring of + Spirit, and spiritual existence shows that Spirit creates +540:3 neither a wicked nor a mortal man, lapsing into sin, sick- + ness, and death. + + Cleansing upheaval + + In Isaiah we read: "I make peace, and create evil. I +540:6 the Lord do all these things;" but the prophet referred to + divine law as stirring up the belief in evil to its + utmost, when bringing it to the surface and re- +540:9 ducing it to its common denominator, nothingness. The + muddy river-bed must be stirred in order to purify the + stream. In moral chemicalization, when the symptoms +540:12 of evil, illusion, are aggravated, we may think in our igno- + rance that the Lord hath wrought an evil; but we ought + to know that God's law uncovers so-called sin and its +540:15 effects, only that Truth may annihilate all sense of evil + and all power to sin. + + Allegiance to Spirit + + Science renders "unto Caesar the things which are +540:18 Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." It + saith to the human sense of sin, sickness, and + death, "God never made you, and you are a +540:21 false sense which hath no knowledge of God." The pur- + pose of the Hebrew allegory, representing error as assum- + ing a divine character, is to teach mortals never to believe +540:24 a lie. + + /Genesis/ iv. 3, 4. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground + an offering unto the Lord [Jehovah]. And Abel, he also +540:27 brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. + + Spiritual and material + + Cain is the type of mortal and material man, conceived + in sin and "shapen in iniquity;" he is not the +540:30 type of Truth and Love. Material in origin + and sense, he brings a material offering to God. Abel +541:1 takes his offering from the firstlings of the flock. A lamb + is a more animate form of existence, and more nearly re- +541:3 sembles a mind-offering than does Cain's fruit. Jealous + of his brother's gift, Cain seeks Abel's life, instead of mak- + ing his own gift a higher tribute to the Most High. + +541:6 /Genesis/ iv. 4, 5. And the Lord [Jehovah] had respect + unto Abel, and to his offering: but unto Cain, and to his + offering, He had not respect. + +541:9 Had God more respect for the homage bestowed through + a gentle animal than for the worship expressed by Cain's + fruit? No; but the lamb was a more spiritual type of +541:12 even the human concept of Love than the herbs of the + ground could be. + + /Genesis/ iv. 8. Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and +541:15 slew him. + + The erroneous belief that life, substance, and intelli- + gence can be material ruptures the life and brotherhood +541:18 of man at the very outset. + + /Genesis/ iv. 9. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto Cain, + Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am +541:21 I my brother's keeper? + + Brotherhood repudiated + + Here the serpentine lie invents new forms. At first it + usurps divine power. It is supposed to say +541:24 in the first instance, "Ye shall be as gods." + Now it repudiates even the human duty of man towards + his brother. + +541:27 /Genesis/ iv. 10, 11. And He [Jehovah] said, . . . The + voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground. + And now art thou cursed from the earth. + + Murder brings its curse + +542:1 The belief of life in matter sins at every step. It in- + curs divine displeasure, and it would kill Jesus that it +542:3 might be rid of troublesome Truth. Material + beliefs would slay the spiritual idea when- + ever and wherever it appears. Though error hides +542:6 behind a lie and excuses guilt, error cannot forever be + concealed. Truth, through her eternal laws, unveils + error. Truth causes sin to betray itself, and sets upon +542:9 error the mark of the beast. Even the disposition to + excuse guilt or to conceal it is punished. The avoidance + of justice and the denial of truth tend to perpetuate sin, +542:12 invoke crime, jeopardize self-control, and mock divine + mercy. + + /Genesis/ iv. 15. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto him +542:15 Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken + on him sevenfold. And the Lord [Jehovah] set a mark + upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him. + + Retribution and remorse + +542:18 "They that take the sword shall perish with the + sword." Let Truth uncover and destroy error in God's + own way, and let human justice pattern the +542:21 divine. Sin will receive its full penalty, both + for what it is and for what it does. Justice marks + the sinner, and teaches mortals not to remove the +542:24 waymarks of God. To envy's own hell, justice con- + signs the lie which, to advance itself, breaks God's + commandments. + +542:27 /Genesis/ iv. 16. And Cain went out from the presence of + the Lord [Jehovah], and dwelt in the land of Nod. + + Climax of suffering + + The sinful misconception of Life as something less +543:1 than God, having no truth to support it, falls back upon + itself. This error, after reaching the climax of suffering, +543:3 yields to Truth and returns to dust; but it + is only mortal man and not the real man, + who dies. The image of Spirit cannot be effaced, since it +543:6 is the idea of Truth and changes not, but becomes more + beautifully apparent at error's demise. + + Dwelling in dreamland + + In divine Science, the material man is shut out from +543:9 the presence of God. The five corporeal senses cannot + take cognizance of Spirit. They cannot come + into His presence, and must dwell in dream- +543:12 land, until mortals arrive at the understanding that ma- + terial life, with all its sin, sickness, and death, is an illu- + sion, against which divine Science is engaged in a warfare +543:15 of extermination. The great verities of existence are + never excluded by falsity. + + Man springs from Mind + + All error proceeds from the evidence before the mate- +543:18 rial senses. If man is material and originates in an + egg, who shall say that he is not primarily + dust? May not Darwin be right in think- +543:21 ing that apehood preceded mortal manhood? Minerals + and vegetables are found, according to divine Science, + to be the creations of erroneous thought, not of matter. +543:24 Did man, whom God created with a word, originate + in an egg? When Spirit made all, did it leave aught + for matter to create? Ideas of Truth alone are reflected +543:27 in the myriad manifestations of Life, and thus it is + seen that man springs solely from Mind. The belief + that matter supports life would make Life, or God, +543:30 mortal. + + Material inception + + The text, "In the day that the Lord God [Jehovah + God] made the earth and the heavens," introduces the +544:1 record of a material creation which followed the spiritual, + - a creation so wholly apart from God's, that Spirit +544:3 had no participation in it. In God's creation + ideas became productive, obedient to Mind. + There was no rain and "not a man to till the ground." +544:6 Mind, instead of matter, being the producer, Life was + self-sustained. Birth, decay, and death arise from the + material sense of things, not from the spiritual, for in +544:9 the latter Life consisteth not of the things which a man + eateth. Matter cannot change the eternal fact that + man exists because God exists. Nothing is new to the +544:12 infinite Mind. + + First evil suggestion + + In Science, Mind neither produces matter nor does + matter produce mind. No mortal mind has the might +544:15 or right or wisdom to create or to destroy. + All is under the control of the one Mind, + even God. The first statement about evil, - the first +544:18 suggestion of more than the one Mind, - is in the fable + of the serpent. The facts of creation, as previously re- + corded, include nothing of the kind. + + Material personality + +544:21 The serpent is supposed to say, "Ye shall be as gods," + but these gods must be evolved from materiality and be + the very antipodes of immortal and spiritual +544:24 being. Man is the likeness of Spirit, but a + material personality is not this likeness. Therefore man, + in this allegory, is neither a lesser god nor the image and +544:27 likeness of the one God. + + Material, erroneous belief reverses understanding and + truth. It declares mind to be in and of matter, so-called +544:30 mortal life to be Life, infinity to enter man's nostrils + so that matter becomes spiritual. Error begins with + corporeality as the producer instead of divine Prin- +545:1 ciple, and explains Deity through mortal and finite con- + ceptions. + +545:3 "Behold, the man is become as one of us." This could + not be the utterance of Truth or Science, for according + to the record, material man was fast degenerating and +545:6 never had been divinely conceived. + + Mental tillage + + The condemnation of mortals to till the ground means + this, - that mortals should so improve material belief +545:9 by thought tending spiritually upward as to + destroy materiality. Man, created by God, + was given dominion over the whole earth. The notion +545:12 of a material universe is utterly opposed to the theory + of man as evolved from Mind. Such fundamental errors + send falsity into all human doctrines and conclusions, +545:15 and do not accord infinity to Deity. Error tills the + whole ground in this material theory, which is entirely a + false view, destructive to existence and happiness. Out- +545:18 side of Christian Science all is vague and hypothetical, the + opposite of Truth; yet this opposite, in its false view of + God and man, impudently demands a blessing. + + Erroneous standpoint + +545:21 The translators of this record of scientific creation + entertained a false sense of being. They believed in + the existence of matter, its propagation and +545:24 power. From that standpoint of error, they + could not apprehend the nature and operation of Spirit. + Hence the seeming contradiction in that Scripture, which +545:27 is so glorious in its spiritual signification. Truth has + but one reply to all error, - to sin, sickness, and death: + "Dust [nothingness] thou art, and unto dust [nothingness] +545:30 shalt thou return." + + Mortality mythical + + "As in Adam [error] all die, even so in Christ [Truth] + shall all be made alive." The mortality of man is a +546:1 myth, for man is immortal. The false belief that spirit is + now submerged in matter, at some future time to be eman- +546:3 cipated from it, - this belief alone is mortal. + Spirit, God, never germinates, but is "the same + yesterday, and to-day, and forever." If Mind, God, cre- +546:6 ates error, that error must exist in the divine Mind, and + this assumption of error would dethrone the perfection + of Deity. + + No truth from a material basis + +546:9 Is Christian Science contradictory? Is the divine + Principle of creation misstated? Has God no Science to + declare Mind, while matter is governed by un- +546:12 erring intelligence? "There went up a mist + from the earth." This represents error as + starting from an idea of good on a material basis. It +546:15 supposes God and man to be manifested only through + the corporeal senses, although the material senses can + take no cognizance of Spirit or the spiritual idea. +546:18 Genesis and the Apocalypse seem more obscure than + other portions of the Scripture, because they cannot + possibly be interpreted from a material standpoint. To +546:21 the author, they are transparent, for they contain the deep + divinity of the Bible. + + Dawning of spiritual facts + + Christian Science is dawning upon a material age. +546:24 The great spiritual facts of being, like rays of light, shine + in the darkness, though the darkness, com- + prehending them not, may deny their reality. +546:27 The proof that the system stated in this book is Chris- + tianly scientific resides in the good this system accom- + plishes, for it cures on a divine demonstrable Principle +546:30 which all may understand. + + Proof given in healing + + If mathematics should present a thousand different + examples of one rule, the proving of one example would +547:1 authenticate all the others. A simple statement of Chris- + tian Science, if demonstrated by healing, contains the +547:3 proof of all here said of Christian Science. If + one of the statements in this book is true, every + one must be true, for not one departs from the stated sys- +547:6 tem and rule. You can prove for yourself, dear reader, + the Science of healing, and so ascertain if the author has + given you the correct interpretation of Scripture. + + Embryonic evolution + +547:9 The late Louis Agassiz, by his microscopic examination + of a vulture's ovum, strengthens the thinker's conclusions + as to the scientific theory of creation. Agassiz +547:12 was able to see in the egg the earth's atmos- + phere, the gathering clouds, the moon and stars, while the + germinating speck of so-called embryonic life seemed a +547:15 small sun. In its history of mortality, Darwin's theory + of evolution from a material basis is more consistent than + most theories. Briefly, this is Darwin's theory, - that +547:18 Mind produces its opposite, matter, and endues matter + with power to recreate the universe, including man. Ma- + terial evolution implies that the great First Cause must +547:21 become material, and afterwards must either return to + Mind or go down into dust and nothingness. + + True theory of the universe + + The Scriptures are very sacred. Our aim must be to +547:24 have them understood spiritually, for only by this under- + standing can truth be gained. The true the- + ory of the universe, including man, is not in +547:27 material history but in spiritual development. + Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and + mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and +547:30 immortal. + + Scriptural perception + + It is this spiritual perception of Scripture, which lifts + humanity out of disease and death and inspires faith. +548:1 "The Spirit and the bride say, Come! . . . and whoso- + ever will, let him take the water of life freely." Christian +548:3 Science separates error from truth, and breathes + through the sacred pages the spiritual sense of + life, substance, and intelligence. In this Science, we dis- +548:6 cover man in the image and likeness of God. We see that + man has never lost his spiritual estate and his eternal + harmony. + + The clouds dissolving + +548:9 How little light or heat reach our earth when clouds + cover the sun's face! So Christian Science can be seen + only as the clouds of corporeal sense roll away. +548:12 Earth has little light or joy for mortals before + Life is spiritually learned. Every agony of mortal error + helps error to destroy error, and so aids the apprehension +548:15 of immortal Truth. This is the new birth going on + hourly, by which men may entertain angels, the true + ideas of God, the spiritual sense of being. + + Prediction of a naturalist + +548:18 Speaking of the origin of mortals, a famous naturalist + says: "It is very possible that many general statements + now current, about birth and generation, will +548:21 be changed with the progress of information." + Had the naturalist, through his tireless researches, gained + the diviner side in Christian Science, - so far apart from +548:24 his material sense of animal growth and organization, - + he would have blessed the human race more abundantly. + + Methods of reproduction + + Natural history is richly endowed by the labors and +548:27 genius of great men. Modern discoveries have brought + to light important facts in regard to so-called + embryonic life. Agassiz declares ("Methods +548:30 of Study in Natural History,") "Certain ani- + mals, besides the ordinary process of generation, also + increase their numbers naturally and constantly by self- +549:1 division." This discovery is corroborative of the Science + of Mind, for this discovery shows that the multiplication +549:3 of certain animals takes place apart from sexual condi- + tions. The supposition that life germinates in eggs and + must decay after it has grown to maturity, if not before, +549:6 is shown by divine metaphysics to be a mistake, - a + blunder which will finally give place to higher theories + and demonstrations. + + The three processes + +549:9 Creatures of lower forms of organism are supposed + to have, as classes, three different methods of reproduc- + tion and to multiply their species sometimes +549:12 through eggs, sometimes through buds, and + sometimes through self-division. According to recent + lore, successive generations do not begin with the /birth/ of +549:15 new individuals, or personalities, but with the formation + of the nucleus, or egg, from which one or more individu- + alities subsequently emerge; and we must therefore look +549:18 upon the simple ovum as the germ, the starting-point, of + the most complicated corporeal structures, including those + which we call human. Here these material researches +549:21 culminate in such vague hypotheses as must necessarily + attend false systems, which rely upon physics and are de- + void of metaphysics. + + Deference to material law + +549:24 In one instance a celebrated naturalist, Agassiz, dis- + covers the pathway leading to divine Science, and beards + the lion of materialism in its den. At that +549:27 point, however, even this great observer mis- + takes nature, forsakes Spirit as the divine origin of + creative Truth, and allows matter and material law to +549:30 usurp the prerogatives of omnipotence. He absolutely + drops from his summit, coming down to a belief in the + material origin of man, for he virtually affirms that +550:1 the germ of humanity is in a circumscribed and non- + intelligent egg. + + Deep-reaching interrogations + +550:3 If this be so, whence cometh Life, or Mind, to the + human race? Matter surely does not possess Mind. + God is the Life, or intelligence, which forms +550:6 and preserves the individuality and identity + of animals as well as of men. God cannot + become finite, and be limited within material bounds. +550:9 Spirit cannot become matter, nor can Spirit be developed + through its opposite. Of what avail is it to investigate + what is miscalled material life, which ends, even as it be- +550:12 gins, in nameless nothingness? The true sense of being + and its eternal perfection should appear now, even as it + will hereafter. + + Stages of existence + +550:15 Error of thought is reflected in error of action. The + continual contemplation of existence as material and cor- + poreal - as beginning and ending, and with +550:18 birth, decay, and dissolution as its component + stages - hides the true and spiritual Life, and causes + our standard to trail in the dust. If Life has any starting- +550:21 point whatsoever, then the great I AM is a myth. If Life + is God, as the Scriptures imply, then Life is not embry- + onic, it is infinite. An egg is an impossible enclosure for +550:24 Deity. + + Embryology supplies no instance of one species pro- + ducing its opposite. A serpent never begets a bird, nor +550:27 does a lion bring forth a lamb. Amalgamation is deemed + monstrous and is seldom fruitful, but it is not so hideous + and absurd as the supposition that Spirit - the pure and +550:30 holy, the immutable and immortal - can originate the + impure and mortal and dwell in it. As Christian Science + repudiates self-evident impossibilities, the material senses +551:1 must father these absurdities, for both the material senses + and their reports are unnatural, impossible, and unreal. + + The real producer + +551:3 Either Mind produces, or it is produced. If Mind is + first, it cannot produce its opposite in quality and quantity, + called matter. If matter is first, it cannot pro- +551:6 duce Mind. Like produces like. In natural + history, the bird is not the product of a beast. In spiritual + history, matter is not the progenitor of Mind. + + The ascent of species + +551:9 One distinguished naturalist argues that mortals spring + from eggs and in races. Mr. Darwin admits this, but he + adds that mankind has ascended through all +551:12 the lower grades of existence. Evolution de- + scribes the gradations of human belief, but it does not + acknowledge the method of divine Mind, nor see that ma- +551:15 terial methods are impossible in divine Science and that + all Science is of God, not of man. + + Transmitted peculiarities + + Naturalists ask: "What can there be, of a material +551:18 nature, transmitted through these bodies called eggs, - + themselves composed of the simplest material + elements, - by which all peculiarities of an- +551:21 cestry, belonging to either sex, are brought down from + generation to generation?" The question of the natu- + ralist amounts to this: How can matter originate or trans- +551:24 mit mind? We answer that it cannot. Darkness and + doubt encompass thought, so long as it bases creation on + materiality. From a material standpoint, "Canst thou +551:27 by searching find out God?" All must be Mind, or + else all must be matter. Neither can produce the other. + Mind is immortal; but error declares that the material +551:30 seed must decay in order to propagate its species, and + the resulting germ is doomed to the same routine. + + Causation not in matter + + The ancient and hypothetical question, Which is first, +552:1 the egg or the bird? is answered, if the egg produces the + parent. But we cannot stop here. Another question +552:3 follows: Who or what produces the parent of + the egg? That the earth was hatched from the + "egg of night" was once an accepted theory. Heathen +552:6 philosophy, modern geology, and all other material hy- + potheses deal with causation as contingent on matter + and as necessarily apparent to the corporeal senses, even +552:9 where the proof requisite to sustain this assumption is un- + discovered. Mortal theories make friends of sin, sickness, + and death; whereas the spiritual scientific facts of exist- +552:12 ence include no member of this dolorous and fatal triad. + + Emergence of mortals + + Human experience in mortal life, which starts from an + egg, corresponds with that of Job, when he says, "Man +552:15 that is born of a woman is of few days, and + full of trouble." Mortals must emerge from + this notion of material life as all-in-all. They must peck +552:18 open their shells with Christian Science, and look outward + and upward. But thought, loosened from a material + basis but not yet instructed by Science, may become wild +552:21 with freedom and so be self-contradictory. + + Persistence of species + + From a material source flows no remedy for sorrow, + sin, and death, for the redeeming power, from the ills +552:24 they occasion, is not in egg nor in dust. The + blending tints of leaf and flower show the + order of matter to be the order of mortal mind. The +552:27 intermixture of different species, urged to its utmost + limits, results in a return to the original species. Thus + it is learned that matter is a manifestation of mortal +552:30 mind, and that matter always surrenders its claims when + the perfect and eternal Mind is understood. + + Better basis than embryology + + Naturalists describe the origin of mortal and material +553:1 existence in the various forms of embryology, and ac- + company their descriptions with important observations, +553:3 which should awaken thought to a higher and + purer contemplation of man's origin. This + clearer consciousness must precede an under- +553:6 standing of the harmony of being. Mortal thought must + obtain a better basis, get nearer the truth of being, or + health will never be universal, and harmony will never +553:9 become the standard of man. + + One of our ablest naturalists has said: "We have no + right to assume that individuals have grown or been +553:12 formed under circumstances which made material con- + ditions essential to their maintenance and reproduction, + or important to their origin and first introduction." +553:15 Why, then, is the naturalist's basis so materialistic, + and why are his deductions generally material? + + All nativity in thought + + Adam was created before Eve. In this instance, it is +553:18 seen that the maternal egg never brought forth Adam. + Eve was formed from Adam's rib, not from a + foetal ovum. Whatever theory may be adopted +553:21 by general mortal thought to account for human origin, + that theory is sure to become the signal for the appear- + ance of its method in finite forms and operations. If con- +553:24 sentaneous human belief agrees upon an ovum as the + point of emergence for the human race, this potent belief + will immediately supersede the more ancient supersti- +553:27 tion about the creation from dust or from the rib of our + primeval father. + + Being is immortal + + You may say that mortals are formed before they +553:30 think or know aught of their origin, and you + may also ask how belief can affect a result + which precedes the development of that belief. It can +554:1 only be replied, that Christian Science reveals what "eye + hath not seen," - even the cause of all that exists, - for +554:3 the universe, inclusive of man, is as eternal as God, who + is its divine immortal Principle. There is no such thing + as mortality, nor are there properly any mortal beings, +554:6 because being is immortal, like Deity, - or, rather, being + and Deity are inseparable. + + Our conscious development + + Error is always error. It is /no thing/. Any statement +554:9 of life, following from a misconception of life, is errone- + ous, because it is destitute of any knowledge + of the so-called selfhood of life, destitute of +554:12 any knowledge of its origin or existence. The mortal + is unconscious of his foetal and infantile existence; but + as he grows up into another false claim, that of self-con- +554:15 scious matter, he learns to say, "I am somebody; but + who made me?" Error replies, "God made you." The + first effort of error has been and is to impute to God the +554:18 creation of whatever is sinful and mortal; but infinite + Mind sets at naught such a mistaken belief. + + Mendacity of error + + Jesus defined this opposite of God and His creation +554:21 better than we can, when he said, "He is a liar, and the + father of it." Jesus also said, "Have not I + chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?" +554:24 This he said of Judas, one of Adam's race. Jesus never + intimated that God made a devil, but he did say, "Ye + are of your father, the devil." All these sayings were to +554:27 show that mind in matter is the author of itself, and is + simply a falsity and illusion. + + Ailments of animals + + It is the general belief that the lower animals are less +554:30 sickly than those possessing higher organiza- + tions, especially those of the human form. + This would indicate that there is less disease in propor- +555:1 tion as the force of mortal mind is less pungent or sensi- + tive, and that health attends the absence of mortal mind. +555:3 A fair conclusion from this might be, that it is the human + belief, and not the divine arbitrament, which brings the + physical organism under the yoke of disease. + + Ignorance the sign of error + +555:6 An inquirer once said to the discoverer of Christian + Science: "I like your explanations of truth, but I do + not comprehend what you say about error." +555:9 This is the nature of error. The mark of igno- + rance is on its forehead, for it neither understands nor + can be understood. Error would have itself received as +555:12 mind, as if it were as real and God-created as truth; but + Christian Science attributes to error neither entity nor + power, because error is neither mind nor the outcome of +555:15 Mind. + + The origin of divinity + + Searching for the origin of man, who is the reflection + of God, is like inquiring into the origin of God, the self- +555:18 existent and eternal. Only impotent error + would seek to unite Spirit with matter, good + with evil, immortality with mortality, and call this +555:21 sham unity /man/, as if man were the offspring of both + Mind and matter, of both Deity and humanity. Crea- + tion rests on a spiritual basis. We lose our standard of +555:24 perfection and set aside the proper conception of Deity, + when we admit that the perfect is the author of aught + that can become imperfect, that God bestows the power +555:27 to sin, or that Truth confers the ability to err. Our + great example, Jesus, could restore the individualized + manifestation of existence, which seemed to vanish in +555:30 death. Knowing that God was the Life of man, Jesus + was able to present himself unchanged after the cruci- + fixion. Truth fosters the idea of Truth, and not the be- +556:1 lief in illusion or error. That which is real, is sustained + by Spirit. + + Genera classified + +556:3 Vertebrata, articulata, mollusca, and radiata are mor- + tal and material concepts classified, and are supposed to + possess life and mind. These false beliefs +556:6 will disappear, when the radiation of Spirit + destroys forever all belief in intelligent matter. Then + will the new heaven and new earth appear, for the for- +556:9 mer things will have passed away. + + The Christian's privilege + + Mortal belief infolds the conditions of sin. Mortal + belief dies to live again in renewed forms, only to go out +556:12 at last forever; for life everlasting is not to be + gained by dying. Christian Science may ab- + sorb the attention of sage and philosopher, but +556:15 the Christian alone can fathom it. It is made known + most fully to him who understands best the divine Life. + Did the origin and the enlightenment of the race come +556:18 from the deep sleep which fell upon Adam? Sleep is + darkness, but God's creative mandate was, "Let there be + light." In sleep, cause and effect are mere illusions. +556:21 They seem to be something, but are not. Oblivion and + dreams, not realities, come with sleep. Even so goes on + the Adam-belief, of which mortal and material life is the +556:24 dream. + + Ontology /versus/ physiology + + Ontology receives less attention than physiology. Why? + Because mortal mind must waken to spiritual +556:27 life before it cares to solve the problem of + being, hence the author's experience; but when + that awakening comes, existence will be on a new stand- +556:30 point. + + It is related that a father plunged his infant babe, only + a few hours old, into the water for several minutes, and +557:1 repeated this operation daily, until the child could remain + under water twenty minutes, moving and playing with- +557:3 out harm, like a fish. Parents should remember this + and learn how to develop their children properly on dry + land. + + The curse removed + +557:6 Mind controls the birth-throes in the lower realms of + nature, where parturition is without suffering. Vege- + tables, minerals, and many animals suffer no +557:9 pain in multiplying; but human propagation + has its suffering because it is a false belief. Christian Sci- + ence reveals harmony as proportionately increasing as the +557:12 line of creation rises towards spiritual man, - towards + enlarged understanding and intelligence; but in the line + of the corporeal senses, the less a mortal knows of sin, +557:15 disease, and mortality, the better for him, - the less pain + and sorrow are his. When the mist of mortal mind evap- + orates, the curse will be removed which says to woman, +557:18 "In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children." Divine + Science rolls back the clouds of error with the light of + Truth, and lifts the curtain on man as never born and as +557:21 never dying, but as coexistent with his creator. + + Popular theology takes up the history of man as if he + began materially right, but immediately fell into mental +557:24 sin; whereas revealed religion proclaims the Science of + Mind and its formations as being in accordance with + the first chapter of the Old Testament, when God, Mind, +557:27 spake and it was done. + + + + + CHAPTER XVI - THE APOCALYPSE + + Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of + this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: + for the time is at hand. - REVELATION. + + Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of + our God, in the mountain of His holiness. - PSALMS. + +558:1 ST. JOHN writes, in the tenth chapter of his book of + Revelation: - + +558:3 And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, + clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and + his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of +558:6 fire: and he had in his hand a little book open: and he + set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the + earth. + + The new Evangel + +558:9 This angel or message which comes from God, clothed + with a cloud, prefigures divine Science. To mortal sense + Science seems at first obscure, abstract, and +558:12 dark; but a bright promise crowns its brow. + When understood, it is Truth's prism and praise. When + you look it fairly in the face, you can heal by its means, +558:15 and it has for you a light above the sun, for God "is the + light thereof." Its feet are pillars of fire, foundations + of Truth and Love. It brings the baptism of the Holy +558:18 Ghost, whose flames of Truth were prophetically de- + scribed by John the Baptist as consuming error. + + Truth's volume + +559:1 This angel had in his hand "a little book," open for + all to read and understand. Did this same book contain +559:3 the revelation of divine Science, the "right + foot" or dominant power of which was upon + the sea, - upon elementary, latent error, the source of +559:6 all error's visible forms? The angel's left foot was upon + the earth; that is, a secondary power was exercised upon + visible error and audible sin. The "still, small voice" +559:9 of scientific thought reaches over continent and ocean + to the globe's remotest bound. The inaudible voice of + Truth is, to the human mind, "as when a lion roareth." +559:12 It is heard in the desert and in dark places of fear. It + arouses the "seven thunders" of evil, and stirs their latent + forces to utter the full diapason of secret tones. Then is +559:15 the power of Truth demonstrated, - made manifest in + the destruction of error. Then will a voice from harmony + cry: "Go and take the little book. . . . Take it, and eat +559:18 it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in + thy mouth sweet as honey." Mortals, obey the heavenly + evangel. Take divine Science. Read this book from +559:21 beginning to end. Study it, ponder it. It will be indeed + sweet at its first taste, when it heals you; but murmur not + over Truth, if you find its digestion bitter. When you +559:24 approach nearer and nearer to this divine Principle, when + you eat the divine body of this Principle, - thus partak- + ing of the nature, or primal elements, of Truth and Love, +559:27 - do not be surprised nor discontented because you must + share the hemlock cup and eat the bitter herbs; for the + Israelites of old at the Paschal meal thus prefigured this +559:30 perilous passage out of bondage into the El Dorado of faith + and hope. + + To-day's lesson + + The twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse, or Revela- +560:1 tion of St. John, has a special suggestiveness in connec- + tion with the nineteenth century. In the opening of the +560:3 sixth seal, typical of six thousand years since + Adam, the distinctive feature has reference + to the present age. + +560:6 /Revelation/ xii. 1. And there appeared a great wonder in + heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon + under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve +560:9 stars. + + True estimate of God's messenger + + Heaven represents harmony, and divine Science inter- + prets the Principle of heavenly harmony. The great +560:12 miracle, to human sense, is divine Love, and + the grand necessity of existence is to gain the + true idea of what constitutes the kingdom of +560:15 heaven in man. This goal is never reached while we + hate our neighbor or entertain a false estimate of any- + one whom God has appointed to voice His Word. Again, +560:18 without a correct sense of its highest visible idea, we can + never understand the divine Principle. The botanist must + know the genus and species of a plant in order to classify +560:21 it correctly. As it is with things, so is it with persons. + + Persecution harmful + + Abuse of the motives and religion of St. Paul hid from + view the apostle's character, which made him equal to +560:24 his great mission. Persecution of all who have + spoken something new and better of God has + not only obscured the light of the ages, but has been fatal +560:27 to the persecutors. Why? Because it has hid from + them the true idea which has been presented. To mis- + understand Paul, was to be ignorant of the divine idea he +560:30 taught. Ignorance of the divine idea betrays at once a + greater ignorance of the divine Principle of the idea - igno- +561:1 rance of Truth and Love. The understanding of Truth + and Love, the Principle which works out the ends of eternal +561:3 good and destroys both faith in evil and the practice of + evil, leads to the discernment of the divine idea. + + Espousals supernal + + Agassiz, through his microscope, saw the sun in an +561:6 egg at a point of so-called embryonic life. Because of + his more spiritual vision, St. John saw an + "angel standing in the sun." The Revelator +561:9 beheld the spiritual idea from the mount of vision. + Purity was the symbol of Life and Love. The Revelator + saw also the spiritual ideal as a woman clothed in light, a +561:12 bride coming down from heaven, wedded to the Lamb + of Love. To John, "the bride" and "the Lamb" repre- + sented the correlation of divine Principle and spiritual idea, +561:15 God and His Christ, bringing harmony to earth. + + Divinity and humanity + + John saw the human and divine coincidence, shown in + the man Jesus, as divinity embracing humanity in Life +561:18 and its demonstration, - reducing to human + perception and understanding the Life which + is God. In divine revelation, material and corporeal self- +561:21 hood disappear, and the spiritual idea is understood. + + Spiritual sunlight + + The woman in the Apocalypse symbolizes generic man, + the spiritual idea of God; she illustrates the coincidence +561:24 of God and man as the divine Principle and + divine idea. The Revelator symbolizes Spirit + by the sun. The spiritual idea is clad with the radiance +561:27 of spiritual Truth, and matter is put under her feet. The + light portrayed is really neither solar nor lunar, but spirit- + ual Life, which is "the light of men." In the first chapter +561:30 of the Fourth Gospel it is written, "There was a man sent + from God . . . to bear witness of that Light." + + Spiritual idea revealed + + John the Baptist prophesied the coming of the im- +562:1 maculate Jesus, and John saw in those days the spiritual + idea as the Messiah, who would baptize with the Holy +562:3 Ghost,- divine Science. As Elias presented + the idea of the fatherhood of God, which Jesus + afterwards manifested, so the Revelator completed this +562:6 figure with woman, typifying the spiritual idea of God's + motherhood. The moon is under her feet. This idea + reveals the universe as secondary and tributary to Spirit, +562:9 from which the universe borrows its reflected light, sub- + stance, life, and intelligence. + + Spiritual idea crowned + + The spiritual idea is crowned with twelve stars. The +562:12 twelve tribes of Israel with all mortals, - separated by + belief from man's divine origin and the true + idea, - will through much tribulation yield to +562:15 the activities of the divine Principle of man in the har- + mony of Science. These are the stars in the crown of + rejoicing. They are the lamps in the spiritual heavens +562:18 of the age, which show the workings of the spiritual idea + by healing the sick and the sinning, and by manifesting + the light which shines "unto the perfect day" as the night +562:21 of materialism wanes. + + /Revelation/ xii. 2. And she being with child cried, travail- + ing in birth, and pained to be delivered. + + Travail and joy + +562:24 Also the spiritual idea is typified by a woman in tra- + vail, waiting to be delivered of her sweet promise, but re- + membering no more her sorrow for joy that +562:27 the birth goes on; for great is the idea, and the + travail portentous. + + /Revelation/ xii. 3. And there appeared another wonder in +562:30 heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads + and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. + + The dragon as a type + +563:1 Human sense may well marvel at discord, while, to a + diviner sense., harmony is the real and discord the unreal. +563:3 We may well be astonished at sin, sickness, and + death. We may well be perplexed at human + fear; and still more astounded at hatred, which lifts +563:6 its hydra head, showing its horns in the many inventions + of evil. But why should we stand aghast at nothingness? + The great red dragon symbolizes a lie, - the belief +563:9 that substance, life, and intelligence can be material. + This dragon stands for the sum total of human error. + The ten horns of the dragon typify the belief that mat- +563:12 ter has power of its own, and that by means of an + evil mind in matter the Ten Commandments can be + broken. + + The sting of the serpent + +563:15 The Revelator lifts the veil from this embodiment of + all evil, and beholds its awful character; but he also + sees the nothingness of evil and the allness of +563:18 God. The Revelator sees that old serpent, + whose name is devil or evil, holding untiring watch, that + he may bite the heel of truth and seemingly impede the +563:21 offspring of the spiritual idea, which is prolific in health, + holiness, and immortality. + + /Revelation/ xii. 4. And his tail drew the third part of the +563:24 stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the + dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be + delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. + + Animal tendency + +563:27 The serpentine form stands for subtlety, winding its + way amidst all evil, but doing this in the name of good. + Its sting is spoken of by Paul, when he refers +563:30 to "spiritual wickedness in high places." It + is the animal instinct in mortals, which would impel +564:1 them to devour each other and cast out devils through + Beelzebub. + +564:3 As of old, evil still charges the spiritual idea with error's + own nature and methods. This malicious animal in- + stinct, of which the dragon is the type, incites mortals to +564:6 kill morally and physically even their fellow-mortals, and + worse still, to charge the innocent with the crime. This + last infirmity of sin will sink its perpetrator into a night +564:9 without a star. + + Malicious barbarity + + The author is convinced that the accusations against + Jesus of Nazareth and even his crucifixion were instigated +564:12 by the criminal instinct here described. The + Revelator speaks of Jesus as the Lamb of God + and of the dragon as warring against innocence. Since Jesus +564:15 must have been tempted in all points, he, the immaculate, + met and conquered sin in every form. The brutal bar- + barity of his foes could emanate from no source except the +564:18 highest degree of human depravity. Jesus "/opened not + his mouth/." Until the majesty of Truth should be demon- + strated in divine Science, the spiritual idea was arraigned +564:21 before the tribunal of so-called mortal mind, which was + unloosed in order that the false claim of mind in matter + might uncover its own crime of defying immortal Mind. + + Doom of the dragon + +564:24 From Genesis to the Apocalypse, sin, sickness, and + death, envy, hatred, and revenge, - all evil, - are typi- + fied by a serpent, or animal subtlety. Jesus +564:27 said, quoting a line from the Psalms, "They + hated me without a cause." The serpent is perpetually + close upon the heel of harmony. From the beginning +564:30 to the end, the serpent pursues with hatred the spiritual + idea. In Genesis, this allegorical, talking serpent typi- + fies mortal mind, "more subtle than any beast of the +565:1 field." In the Apocalypse, when nearing its doom, this + evil increases and becomes the great red dragon, swollen +565:3 with sin, inflamed with war against spirituality, and ripe + for destruction. It is full of lust and hate, loathing the + brightness of divine glory. + +565:6 /Revelation/ xii. 5. And she brought forth a man child, + who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her + child was caught up unto God, and to His throne. + + The conflict with purity + +565:9 Led on by the grossest element of mortal mind, Herod + decreed the death of every male child in order that the + man Jesus, the masculine representative of the +565:12 spiritual idea might never hold sway and de- + prive Herod of his crown. The impersonation of the + spiritual idea had a brief history in the earthly life of our +565:15 Master; but "of his kingdom there shall be no end," + for Christ, God's idea, will eventually rule all nations + and peoples - imperatively, absolutely, finally - with di- +565:18 vine Science. This immaculate idea, represented first + by man and, according to the Revelator, last by woman, + will baptize with fire; and the fiery baptism will burn up +565:21 the chaff of error with the fervent heat of Truth and Love, + melting and purifying even the gold of human character. + After the stars sang together and all was primeval har- +565:24 mony, the material lie made war upon the spiritual idea; + but this only impelled the idea to rise to the zenith of + demonstration, destroying sin, sickness, and death, and +565:27 to be caught up unto God, - to be found in its divine + Principle. + + /Revelation/ xii. 6. And the woman fled into the wilder- +565:30 ness, where she hath a place prepared of God. + + Spiritual guidance + +566:1 As the children of Israel were guided triumphantly + through the Red Sea, the dark ebbing and flowing tides +566:3 of human fear, - as they were led through the + wilderness, walking wearily through the great + desert of human hopes, and anticipating the promised +566:6 joy, - so shall the spiritual idea guide all right desires + in their passage from sense to Soul, from a material sense + of existence to the spiritual, up to the glory prepared for +566:9 them who love God. Stately Science pauses not, but + moves before them, a pillar of cloud by day and of fire + by night, leading to divine heights. + +566:12 If we remember the beautiful description which Sir + Walter Scott puts into the mouth of Rebecca the Jewess + in the story of Ivanhoe, - +566:15 When Israel, of the Lord beloved, + Out of the land of bondage came, + Her fathers' God before her moved, +566:18 An awful guide, in smoke and flame, - + + we may also offer the prayer which concludes the same + hymn, - +566:21 And oh, when stoops on Judah's path + In shade and storm the frequent night, + Be Thou, longsuffering, slow to wrath, +566:24 A burning and a shining light! + + /Revelation/ xii. 7, 8. And there was war in heaven: + Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the +566:27 dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed not; neither + was their place found any more in heaven. + + Angelic offices + + The Old Testament assigns to the angels, God's divine +566:30 messages, different offices. Michael's charac- + teristic is spiritual strength. He leads the + hosts of heaven against the power of sin, Satan, and +567:1 fights the holy wars. Gabriel has the more quiet task + of imparting a sense of the ever-presence of ministering +567:3 Love. These angels deliver us from the depths. Truth + and Love come nearer in the hour of woe, when strong + faith or spiritual strength wrestles and prevails through +567:6 the understanding of God. The Gabriel of His presence + has no contests. To infinite, ever-present Love, all is + Love, and there is no error, no sin, sickness, nor death. +567:9 Against Love, the dragon warreth not long, for he is + killed by the divine Principle. Truth and Love prevail + against the dragon because the dragon cannot war with +567:12 them. Thus endeth the conflict between the flesh and + Spirit. + + /Revelation/ xii. 9. And the great dragon was cast out, +567:15 that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiv- + eth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his + angels were cast out with him. + + Dragon cast down to earth + +567:18 That false claim - that ancient belief, that old serpent + whose name is devil (evil), claiming that there is intelli- + gence in matter either to benefit or to injure +567:21 men - is pure delusion, the red dragon; and + it is cast out by Christ, Truth, the spiritual + idea, and so proved to be powerless. The words "cast +567:24 unto the earth" show the dragon to be nothingness, dust + to dust; and therefore, in his pretence of being a talker, + he must be a lie from the beginning. His angels, or mes- +567:27 sages, are cast out with their author. The beast and the + false prophets are lust and hypocrisy. These wolves in + sheep's clothing are detected and killed by innocence, the +567:30 Lamb of Love. + + Warfare with error + + Divine Science shows how the Lamb slays the wolf. +568:1 Innocence and Truth overcome guilt and error. Ever + since the foundation of the world, ever since error would +568:3 establish material belief, evil has tried to slay + the Lamb; but Science is able to destroy this + lie, called evil. The twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse +568:6 typifies the divine method of warfare in Science, and the + glorious results of this warfare. The following chapters + depict the fatal effects of trying to meet error with error. +568:9 The narrative follows the order used in Genesis. In + Genesis, first the true method of creation is set forth and + then the false. Here, also, the Revelator first exhibits +568:12 the true warfare and then the false. + + /Revelation/ xii. 10 - 12. And I heard a loud voice saying + in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the +568:15 kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the + accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them + before our God day and night. And they overcame him by +568:18 the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; + and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore + rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the +568:21 inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is + come down unto you, having great wrath, because he + knoweth that he hath but a short time. + + Paean of jubilee + +568:24 For victory over a single sin, we give thanks and mag- + nify the Lord of Hosts. What shall we say of the mighty + conquest over all sin? A louder song, sweeter +568:27 than has ever before reached high heaven, + now rises clearer and nearer to the great heart of Christ; + for the accuser is not there, and Love sends forth her +568:30 primal and everlasting strain. Self-abnegation, by which + we lay down all for Truth, or Christ, in our warfare against + error, is a rule in Christian Science. This rule clearly +569:1 interprets God as divine Principle, - as Life, represented + by the Father; as Truth, represented by the Son; as Love, +569:3 represented by the Mother. Every mortal at some period, + here or hereafter, must grapple with and overcome the + mortal belief in a power opposed to God. + + The robe of Science + +569:6 The Scripture, "Thou hast been faithful over a few + things, I will make thee ruler over many," is literally ful- + filled, when we are conscious of the supremacy +569:9 of Truth, by which the nothingness of error + is seen; and we know that the nothingness of error is in + proportion to its wickedness. He that touches the hem +569:12 of Christ's robe and masters his mortal beliefs, animality, + and hate, rejoices in the proof of healing, - in a sweet + and certain sense that God is Love. Alas for those who +569:15 break faith with divine Science and fail to strangle the + serpent of sin as well as of sickness! They are dwellers + still in the deep darkness of belief. They are in the surg- +569:18 ing sea of error, not struggling to lift their heads above the + drowning wave. + + Expiation by suffering + + What must the end be? They must eventually expi- +569:21 ate their sin through suffering. The sin, which one has + made his bosom companion, comes back to him + at last with accelerated force, for the devil +569:24 knoweth his time is short. Here the Scriptures declare + that evil is temporal, not eternal. The dragon is at last + stung to death by his own malice; but how many periods +569:27 of torture it may take to remove all sin, must depend upon + sin's obduracy. + + /Revelation/ xii. 13. And when the dragon saw that he +569:30 was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which + brought forth the man child. + + Apathy to occultism + +570:1 The march of mind and of honest investigation will + bring the hour when the people will chain, with fetters of +570:3 some sort, the growing occultism of this period. + The present apathy as to the tendency of + certain active yet unseen mental agencies will finally be +570:6 shocked into another extreme mortal mood, - into human + indignation; for one extreme follows another. + + /Revelation/ xii. 15, 16. And the serpent cast out of his +570:9 mouth water as a flood, after the woman, that he might + cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth + helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and +570:12 swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his + mouth. + + Receptive hearts + + Millions of unprejudiced minds - simple seekers for +570:15 Truth, weary wanderers, athirst in the desert - are wait- + ing and watching for rest and drink. Give + them a cup of cold water in Christ's name, +570:18 and never fear the consequences. What if the old dragon + should send forth a new flood to drown the Christ-idea? + He can neither drown your voice with its roar, nor again +570:21 sink the world into the deep waters of chaos and old night. + In this age the earth will help the woman; the spiritual + idea will be understood. Those ready for the blessing +570:24 you impart will give thanks. The waters will be paci- + fied, and Christ will command the wave. + + Hidden ways of iniquity + + When God heals the sick or the sinning, they should +570:27 know the great benefit which Mind has wrought. They + should also know the great delusion of mor- + tal mind, when it makes them sick or sinful. +570:30 Many are willing to open the eyes of the people to the + power of good resident in divine Mind, but they are +571:1 not so willing to point out the evil in human thought, + and expose evil's hidden mental ways of accomplishing +571:3 iniquity. + + Christly warning + + Why this backwardness, since exposure is necessary + to ensure the avoidance of the evil? Because people like +571:6 you better when you tell them their virtues + than when you tell them their vices. It re- + quires the spirit of our blessed Master to tell a man his +571:9 faults, and so risk human displeasure for the sake of doing + right and benefiting our race. Who is telling mankind + of the foe in ambush? Is the informer one who sees the +571:12 foe? If so, listen and be wise. Escape from evil, and + designate those as unfaithful stewards who have seen the + danger and yet have given no warning. + + The armor of divinity + +571:15 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 +571:18 over evil. Clad in the panoply of Love, + human hatred cannot reach you. The cement of a + higher humanity will unite all interests in the one +571:21 divinity. + + Pure religion enthroned + + + Through trope and metaphor, the Revelator, immortal + scribe of Spirit and of a true idealism, furnishes the +571:24 mirror in which mortals may see their own + image. In significant figures he depicts the + thoughts which he beholds in mortal mind. Thus he +571:27 rebukes the conceit of sin, and foreshadows its doom. + With his spiritual strength, he has opened wide the gates + of glory, and illumined the night of paganism with the +571:30 sublime grandeur of divine Science, outshining sin, sorcery, + lust, and hypocrisy. He takes away mitre and sceptre. + He enthrones pure and undefiled religion, and lifts on +572:1 high only those who have washed their robes white in + obedience and suffering. + + Native nothingness of sin + +572:3 Thus we see, in both the first and last books of the + Bible, - in Genesis and in the Apocalypse, - that sin + is to be Christianly and scientifically reduced +572:6 to its native nothingness. "Love one an- + other" (I John, iii. 23), is the most simple and profound + counsel of the inspired writer. In Science we are chil- +572:9 dren of God; but whatever is of material sense, or mor- + tal, belongs not to His children, for materiality is the + inverted image of spirituality. + + Fulfilment of the Law + +572:12 Love fulfils the law of Christian Science, and nothing + short of this divine Principle, understood and demon- + strated, can ever furnish the vision of the +572:15 Apocalypse, open the seven seals of error with + Truth, or uncover the myriad illusions of sin, sickness, + and death. Under the supremacy of Spirit, it will be seen +572:18 and acknowledged that matter must disappear. + + In Revelation xxi. 1 we read: - + + And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first +572:21 heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was + no more sea. + + Man's present possibilities + + The Revelator had not yet passed the transitional +572:24 stage in human experience called death, but he already + saw a new heaven and a new earth. Through + what sense came this vision to St. John? Not +572:27 through the material visual organs for seeing, for optics + are inadequate to take in so wonderful a scene. Were this + new heaven and new earth terrestrial or celestial, mate- +573:1 rial or spiritual? They could not be the former, for the + human sense of space is unable to grasp such a view. +573:3 The Revelator was on our plane of existence, while yet + beholding what the eye cannot see, - that which is in- + visible to the uninspired thought. This testimony of Holy +573:6 Writ sustains the fact in Science, that the heavens and + earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness + which God bestows, are spiritual, while to another, the +573:9 unillumined human mind, the vision is material. This + shows unmistakably that what the human mind terms + matter and spirit indicates states and stages of con- +573:12 sciousness. + + Nearness of Deity + + Accompanying this scientific consciousness was an- + other revelation, even the declaration from heaven, su- +573:15 preme harmony, that God, the divine Principle + of harmony, is ever with men, and they are + His people. Thus man was no longer regarded as a mis- +573:18 erable sinner, but as the blessed child of God. Why? + Because St. John's corporeal sense of the heavens and + earth had vanished, and in place of this false sense was +573:21 the spiritual sense, the subjective state by which he could + see the new heaven and new earth, which involve the + spiritual idea and consciousness of reality. This is Scrip- +573:24 tural authority for concluding that such a recognition of + being is, and has been, possible to men in this present + state of existence, - that we can become conscious, +573:27 here and now, of a cessation of death, sorrow, and pain. + This is indeed a foretaste of absolute Christian Science. + Take heart, dear sufferer, for this reality of being will +573:30 surely appear sometime and in some way. There will + be no more pain, and all tears will be wiped away. When + you read this, remember Jesus' words, "The kingdom of +574:1 God is within you." This spiritual consciousness is + therefore a present possibility. + +574:3 The Revelator also takes in another view, adapted to + console the weary pilgrim, journeying " uphill all the way." + + He writes, in Revelation xxi. 9: - + +574:6 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which + had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked + with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride, +574:9 the Lamb's wife. + + Vials of wrath and consolation + + This ministry of Truth, this message from divine Love, + carried John away in spirit. It exalted him till he be- +574:12 came conscious of the spiritual facts of being + and the "New Jerusalem, coming down from + God, out of heaven," - the spiritual outpour- +574:15 ing of bliss and glory, which he describes as the city + which "lieth foursquare." The beauty of this text is, + that the sum total of human misery, represented by +574:18 the seven angelic vials full of seven plagues, has full + compensation in the law of Love. Note this, - that the + very message, or swift-winged thought, which poured +574:21 forth hatred and torment, brought also the experience + which at last lifted the seer to behold the great city, the + four equal sides of which were heaven-bestowed and +574:24 heaven-bestowing. + + Spiritual wedlock + + Think of this, dear reader, for it will lift the sack- + cloth from your eyes, and you will behold the soft- +574:27 winged dove descending upon you. The very + circumstance, which your suffering sense + deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel +574:30 entertained unawares. Then thought gently whispers: +575:1 "Come hither! Arise from your false consciousness + into the true sense of Love, and behold the Lamb's +575:3 wife, - Love wedded to its own spiritual idea." Then + cometh the marriage feast, for this revelation will de- + stroy forever the physical plagues imposed by material +575:6 sense. + + The city foursquare + + This sacred city, described in the Apocalypse (xxi. 16) + as one that "lieth foursquare" and cometh "down from +575:9 God, out of heaven," represents the light and + glory of divine Science. The builder and + maker of this New Jerusalem is God, as we read in the +575:12 book of Hebrews; and it is "a city which hath founda- + tions." The description is metaphoric. Spiritual teach- + ing must always be by symbols. Did not Jesus illustrate +575:15 the truths he taught by the mustard-seed and the prodi- + gal? Taken in its allegorical sense, the description of + the city as foursquare has a profound meaning. The +575:18 four sides of our city are the Word, Christ, Christianity, + and divine Science; "and the gates of it shall not be shut + at all by day: for there shall be no night there." This +575:21 city is wholly spiritual, as its four sides indicate. + + The royally divine gates + + As the Psalmist saith, "Beautiful for situation, the + joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of +575:24 the north, the city of the great King." It is + indeed a city of the Spirit, fair, royal, and + square. Northward, its gates open to the North Star, +575:27 the Word, the polar magnet of Revelation; eastward, + to the star seen by the Wisemen of the Orient, who fol- + lowed it to the manger of Jesus; southward, to the +575:30 genial tropics, with the Southern Cross in the skies, + - the Cross of Calvary, which binds human society + into solemn union; westward, to the grand realization +576:1 of the Golden Shore of Love and the Peaceful Sea of + Harmony. + + Revelation's pure zenith + +576:3 This heavenly city, lighted by the Sun of Righteous- + ness, - this New Jerusalem, this infinite All, which to + us seems hidden in the mist of remoteness, - +576:6 reached St. John's vision while yet he taber- + nacled with mortals. + + In Revelation xxi. 22, further describing this holy city, +576:9 the beloved Disciple writes: - + + And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty + and the Lamb are the temple of it. + + The shrine celestial + +576:12 There was no temple, - that is, no material structure + in which to worship God, for He must be worshipped + in spirit and in love. The word /temple/ also +576:15 means body. The Revelator was familiar + with Jesus' use of this word, as when Jesus spoke of his + material body as the temple to be temporarily rebuilt +576:18 (John ii. 21). What further indication need we of the + real man's incorporeality than this, that John saw + heaven and earth with "no temple [body] therein"? +576:21 This kingdom of God "is within you," - is within + reach of man's consciousness here, and the spiritual + idea reveals it. In divine Science, man possesses this +576:24 recognition of harmony consciously in proportion to his + understanding of God. + + Divine sense of Deity + + The term Lord, as used in our version of the Old +576:27 Testament, is often synonymous with Jehovah, and ex- + presses the Jewish concept, not yet elevated + to deific apprehension through spiritual trans- +576:30 figuration. Yet the word gradually approaches a higher + meaning. This human sense of Deity yields to the divine +577:1 sense, even as the material sense of personality yields + to the incorporeal sense of God and man as the infinite +577:3 Principle and infinite idea, - as one Father with His uni- + versal family, held in the gospel of Love. The Lamb's + wife presents the unity of male and female as no longer +577:6 two wedded individuals, but as two individual natures + in one; and this compounded spiritual individuality re- + flects God as Father-Mother, not as a corporeal being. +577:9 In this divinely united spiritual consciousness, there is no + impediment to eternal bliss, - to the perfectibility of + God's creation. + + The city of our God + +577:12 This spiritual, holy habitation has no boundary + nor limit, but its four cardinal points are: first, the + Word of Life, Truth, and Love; second, +577:15 the Christ, the spiritual idea of God; third, + Christianity, which is the outcome of the divine Prin- + ciple of the Christ-idea in Christian history; fourth, +577:18 Christian Science, which to-day and forever interprets + this great example and the great Exemplar. This city + of our God has no need of sun or satellite, for Love +577:21 is the light of it, and divine Mind is its own interpreter. + All who are saved must walk in this light. Mighty + potentates and dynasties will lay down their honors +577:24 within the heavenly city. Its gates open towards light + and glory both within and without, for all is good, and + nothing can enter that city, which "defileth. . . . or +577:27 maketh a lie." + + The writer's present feeble sense of Christian Science + closes with St. John's Revelation as recorded by the +577:30 great apostle, for his vision is the acme of this Science + as the Bible reveals it. + + In the following Psalm one word shows, though faintly, +578:1 the light which Christian Science throws on the Scriptures + by substituting for the corporeal sense, the incorporeal +578:3 or spiritual sense of Deity: - + + PSALM XXIII + + [DIVINE LOVE] is my shepherd; I shall not want. + +578:6 [LOVE] maketh me to lie down in green pastures: + [LOVE] leadeth me beside the still waters. + + [LOVE] restoreth my soul [spiritual sense]: [Love] lead- +578:9 eth 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] +578:12 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 +578:15 runneth over. + + Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of + my life; and I will dwell in the house [the consciousness] +578:18 of [LOVE] for ever. + + + + + CHAPTER XVII - GLOSSARY + + These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that + hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; + and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, + I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. + - REVELATION. + +579:1 In Christian Science we learn that the substitution of + the spiritual for the material definition of a Scrip- +579:3 tural word often elucidates the meaning of the inspired + writer. On this account this chapter is added. It con- + tains the metaphysical interpretation of Bible terms, +579:6 giving their spiritual sense, which is also their original + meaning. + + ABEL. Watchfulness; self-offering; surrendering to +579:9 the creator the early fruits of experience. + + ABRAHAM. Fidelity; faith in the divine Life and in the + eternal Principle of being. +579:12 This patriarch illustrated the purpose of Love to create + trust in good, and showed the life-preserving power of + spiritual understanding. + +579:15 ADAM. Error; a falsity; the belief in "original sin," + sickness, and death; evil; the opposite of good, - of God + and His creation; a curse; a belief in intelligent matter, +580:1 finiteness, and mortality; "dust to dust;" red sand- + stone; nothingness; the first god of mythology; not +580:3 God's man, who represents the one God and is His own + image and likeness; the opposite of Spirit and His crea- + tions; that which is not the image and likeness of good, +580:6 but a material belief, opposed to the one Mind, or Spirit; + a so-called finite mind, producing other minds, thus mak- + ing "gods many and lords many" (I Corinthians viii. 5); +580:9 a product of nothing as the mimicry of something; an + unreality as opposed to the great reality of spiritual ex- + istence and creation; a so-called man, whose origin, +580:12 substance, and mind are found to be the antipode of + God, or Spirit; an inverted image of Spirit; the image + and likeness of what God has not created, namely, mat- +580:15 ter, sin, sickness, and death; the opposer of Truth, + termed error; Life's counterfeit, which ultimates in + death; the opposite of Love, called hate; the usurper +580:18 of Spirit's creation, called self-creative matter; immor- + tality's opposite, mortality; that of which wisdom saith, + "Thou shalt surely die." + +580:21 The name Adam represents the false supposition that + Life is not eternal, but has beginning and end; that the + infinite enters the finite, that intelligence passes into non- +580:24 intelligence, and that Soul dwells in material sense; that + immortal Mind results in matter, and matter in mortal + mind; that the one God and creator entered what He cre- +580:27 ated, and then disappeared in the atheism of matter. + + ADVERSARY. An adversary is one who opposes, denies, + disputes, not one who constructs and sustains reality and +580:30 Truth. Jesus said of the devil, "He was a murderer from + the beginning, . . . he is a liar and the father of it." +581:1 This view of Satan is confirmed by the name often con- + ferred upon him in Scripture, the "adversary." + +581:3 ALMIGHTY. All-power; infinity; omnipotence. + + ANGELS. God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual + intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness, +581:6 purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality, + and mortality. + + ARK. Safety; the idea, or reflection, of Truth, proved +581:9 to be as immortal as its Principle; the understanding of + Spirit, destroying belief in matter. + + God and man coexistent and eternal; Science show- +581:12 ing that the spiritual realities of all things are created + by Him and exist forever. The ark indicates temptation + overcome and followed by exaltation. + +581:15 ASHER (Jacob's son). Hope and faith; spiritual com- + pensation; the ills of the flesh rebuked. + + BABEL. Self-destroying error; a kingdom divided +581:18 against itself, which cannot stand; material knowledge. + + The higher false knowledge builds on the basis of evi- + dence obtained from the five corporeal senses, the more +581:21 confusion ensues, and the more certain is the downfall + of its structure. + + BAPTISM. Purification by Spirit; submergence in +581:24 Spirit. + + We are "willing rather to be absent from the body, + and to be present with the Lord." (II Corinthians v. 8.) + +582:1 BELIEVING. Firmness and constancy; not a faltering + nor a blind faith, but the perception of spiritual Truth. +582:3 Mortal thoughts, illusion. + + BENJAMIN (Jacob's son). A physical belief as to life, + substance, and mind; human knowledge, or so-called +582:6 mortal mind, devoted to matter; pride; envy; fame; + illusion; a false belief; error masquerading as the pos- + sessor of life, strength, animation, and power to act. + +582:9 Renewal of affections; self-offering; an improved + state of mortal mind; the introduction of a more spiritual + origin; a gleam of the infinite idea of the infinite Prin- +582:12 ciple; a spiritual type; that which comforts, consoles, + and supports. + + BRIDE. Purity and innocence, conceiving man in the +582:15 idea of God; a sense of Soul, which has spiritual bliss + and enjoys but cannot suffer. + + BRIDEGROOM. Spiritual understanding; the pure con- +582:18 sciousness that God, the divine Principle, creates man + as His own spiritual idea, and that God is the only crea- + tive power. + +582:21 BURIAL. Corporeality and physical sense put out of + sight and hearing; annihilation. Submergence in Spirit; + immortality brought to light. +582:24 CANAAN (the son of Ham). A sensuous belief; the + testimony of what is termed material sense; the error + which would make man mortal and would make mortal +582:27 mind a slave to the body. + + CHILDREN. The spiritual thoughts and representa- + tives of Life, Truth, and Love. + +583:1 Sensual and mortal beliefs; counterfeits of creation, + whose better originals are God's thoughts, not in em- +583:3 bryo, but in maturity; material suppositions of life, sub- + stance, and intelligence, opposed to the Science of being. + + CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. The representatives of Soul, not +583:6 corporeal sense; the offspring of Spirit, who, having + wrestled with error, sin, and sense, are governed by divine + Science; some of the ideas of God beheld as men, casting +583:9 out error and healing the sick; Christ's offspring. + + CHRIST. The divine manifestation of God, which comes + to the flesh to destroy incarnate error. +583:12 CHURCH. The structure of Truth and Love; what- + ever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle. + + The Church is that institution, which affords proof of +583:15 its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the + dormant understanding from material beliefs to the ap- + prehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of +583:18 divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and + healing the sick. + + CREATOR. Spirit; Mind; intelligence; the animating +583:21 divine Principle of all that is real and good; self-existent + Life, Truth, and Love; that which is perfect and eternal; + the opposite of matter and evil, which have no Prin- +583:24 ciple; God, who made all that was made and could not + create an atom or an element the opposite of Himself. + + DAN (Jacob's son). Animal magnetism; so-called mor- +583:27 tal mind controlling mortal mind; error, working out + the designs of error; one belief preying upon another. + +584:1 DAY. The irradiance of Life; light, the spiritual idea + of Truth and Love. + +584:3 "And the evening and the morning were the first day." + (Genesis i. 5.) The objects of time and sense disappear + in the illumination of spiritual understanding, and Mind +584:6 measures time according to the good that is unfolded. + This unfolding is God's day, and "there shall be no night + there." + +584:9 DEATH. An illusion, the lie of life in matter; the un- + real and untrue; the opposite of Life. + + Matter has no life, hence it has no real existence. Mind +584:12 is immortal. The flesh, warring against Spirit; that + which frets itself free from one belief only to be fettered + by another, until every belief of life where Life is not +584:15 yields to eternal Life. Any material evidence of death is + false, for it contradicts the spiritual facts of being. + + DEVIL. Evil; a lie; error; neither corporeality nor +584:18 mind; the opposite of Truth; a belief in sin, sickness, + and death; animal magnetism or hypnotism; the lust of + the flesh, which saith: " I am life and intelligence in +584:21 matter. There is more than one mind, for I am mind, - + a wicked mind, self-made or created by a tribal god and + put into the opposite of mind, termed matter, thence to +584:24 reproduce a mortal universe, including man, not after the + image and likeness of Spirit, but after its own image." + + DOVE. A symbol of divine Science; purity and peace; +584:27 hope and faith. + + DUST. Nothingness; the absence of substance, life, or + intelligence. + +585:1 EARS. Not organs of the so-called corporeal senses, + but spiritual understanding. + +585:3 Jesus said, referring to spiritual perception, "Having + ears, hear ye not?" (Mark viii. 18.) + + EARTH. A sphere; a type of eternity and immortality, +585:6 which are likewise without beginning or end. + + To material sense, earth is matter; to spiritual sense, + it is a compound idea. + +585:9 ELIAS. Prophecy; spiritual evidence opposed to mate- + rial sense; Christian Science, with which can be discerned + the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold; +585:12 the basis of immortality. + + "Elias truly shall first come and restore all things." + (Matthew xvii. 11.) +585:15 ERROR. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 472. + + EUPHRATES (river). Divine Science encompassing + the universe and man; the true idea of God; a type +585:18 of the glory which is to come; metaphysics taking the + place of physics; the reign of righteousness. The atmos- + phere of human belief before it accepts sin, sickness, or +585:21 death; a state of mortal thought, the only error of which + is limitation; finity; the opposite of infinity. + + EVE. A beginning; mortality; that which does not +585:24 last forever; a finite belief concerning life, substance, + and intelligence in matter; error; the belief that the hu- + man race originated materially instead of spiritually, - +585:27 that man started first from dust, second from a rib, and + third from an egg. + +586:1 EVENING. Mistiness of mortal thought; weariness of + mortal mind; obscured views; peace and rest. + +586:3 EYES. Spiritual discernment, - not material but + mental. Jesus said, thinking of the outward vision, "Having +586:6 eyes, see ye not?" (Mark viii. 18.) + + FAN. Separator of fable from fact; that which gives + action to thought. + +586:9 FATHER. Eternal Life; the one Mind; the divine + Principle, commonly called God. + + FEAR. Heat; inflammation; anxiety; ignorance; error; +586:12 desire; caution. + + FIRE. Fear; remorse; lust; hatred; destruction; afflic- + tion purifying and elevating man. + +586:15 FIRMAMENT. Spiritual understanding; the scientific + line of demarcation between Truth and error, between + Spirit and so-called matter. + +586:18 FLESH. An error of physical belief; a supposition that + life, substance, and intelligence are in matter; an illusion; + a belief that matter has sensation. + +586:21 GAD (Jacob's son). Science; spiritual being under- + stood; haste towards harmony. + + GETHSEMANE. Patient woe; the human yielding to +586:24 the divine; love meeting no response, but still remaining + love. + +587:1 GHOST. An illusion; a belief that mind is outlined + and limited; a supposition that spirit is finite. + +587:3 GIHON (river). The rights of woman acknowledged + morally, civilly, and socially. + + GOD. The great I AM; the all-knowing, all-seeing, +587:6 all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle; + Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance; + intelligence. + +587:9 GODS. Mythology; a belief that life, substance, and + intelligence are both mental and material; a supposition + of sentient physicality; the belief that infinite Mind is in +587:12 finite forms; the various theories that hold mind to be a + material sense, existing in brain, nerve, matter; supposi- + titious minds, or souls, going in and out of matter, erring +587:15 and mortal; the serpents of error, which say, "Ye shall + be as gods." + + God is one God, infinite and perfect, and cannot be- +587:18 come finite and imperfect. + + GOOD. God; Spirit; omnipotence; omniscience; om- + nipresence; omni-action. + +587:21 HAM (Noah's son). Corporeal belief; sensuality; + slavery; tyranny. + + HEART. Mortal feelings, motives, affections, joys, and +587:24 sorrows. + + HEAVEN. Harmony; the reign of Spirit; government + by divine Principle; spirituality; bliss; the atmosphere +587:27 of Soul. + +588:1 HELL. Mortal belief; error; lust; remorse; hatred; + revenge; sin; sickness; death; suffering and self-de- +588:3 struction, self-imposed agony; effects of sin; that which + "worketh abomination or maketh a lie." + + HIDDEKEL (river). Divine Science understood and +588:6 acknowledged. + + HOLY GHOST. Divine Science; the development of + eternal Life, Truth, and Love. + +588:9 I, or EGO. Divine Principle; Spirit; Soul; incor- + poreal, unerring, immortal, and eternal Mind. + + There is but one I, or Us, but one divine Principle, or +588:12 Mind, governing all existence; man and woman un- + changed forever in their individual characters, even as + numbers which never blend with each other, though they +588:15 are governed by one Principle. All the objects of God's + creation reflect one Mind, and whatever reflects not this + one Mind, is false and erroneous, even the belief that +588:18 life, substance, and intelligence are both mental and + material. + + I AM. God; incorporeal and eternal Mind; divine +588:21 Principle; the only Ego. + + IN. A term obsolete in Science if used with reference + to Spirit, or Deity. + +588:24 INTELLIGENCE. Substance; self-existent and eternal + Mind; that which is never unconscious nor limited. + + See chapter on Recapitulation, page 469. + +589:1 ISSACHAR (Jacob's son). A corporeal belief; the + offspring of error; envy; hatred; selfishness; self-will; +589:3 lust. + + JACOB. A corporeal mortal embracing duplicity, re- + pentance, sensualism. Inspiration; the revelation of +589:6 Science, in which the so-called material senses yield to + the spiritual sense of Life and Love. + + JAPHET (Noah's son). A type of spiritual peace, flow- +589:9 ing from the understanding that God is the divine Prin- + ciple of all existence, and that man is His idea, the child + of His care. + +589:12 JERUSALEM. Mortal belief and knowledge obtained + from the five corporeal senses; the pride of power and + the power of pride; sensuality; envy; oppression; tyr- +589:15 anny. Home, heaven. + + JESUS. The highest human corporeal concept of the + divine idea, rebuking and destroying error and bringing +589:18 to light man's immortality. + + JOSEPH. A corporeal mortal; a higher sense of Truth + rebuking mortal belief, or error, and showing the immor- +589:21 tality and supremacy of Truth; pure affection blessing + its enemies. + + JUDAH. A corporeal material belief progressing and +589:24 disappearing; the spiritual understanding of God and + man appearing. + +590:1 KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. The rein of harmony in divine + Science; the realm of unerring, eternal, and omnipotent +590:3 Mind; the atmosphere of Spirit, where Soul is supreme. + + KNOWLEDGE. Evidence obtained from the five cor- + poreal senses; mortality; beliefs and opinions; human +590:6 theories, doctrines, hypotheses; that which is not divine + and is the origin of sin, sickness, and death; the oppo- + site of spiritual Truth and understanding. + +590:9 LAMB OF GOD. The spiritual idea of Love; self-im- + molation; innocence and purity; sacrifice. + + LEVI (Jacob's son). A corporeal and sensual belief; +590:12 mortal man; denial of the fulness of God's creation; + ecclesiastical despotism. + + LIFE. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 468. + +590:15 LORD. In the Hebrew, this term is sometimes em- + ployed as a title, which has the inferior sense of master, + or ruler. In the Greek, the word /kurios/ almost always +590:18 has this lower sense, unless specially coupled with the + name God. Its higher signification is Supreme Ruler. + + LORD GOD. Jehovah. + +590:21 This double term is not used in the first chapter of + Genesis, the record of spiritual creation. It is intro- + duced in the second and following chapters, when the +590:24 spiritual sense of God and of infinity is disappearing + from the recorder's thought, - when the true scientific + statements of the Scriptures become clouded through a +591:1 physical sense of God as finite and corporeal. From this + follow idolatry and mythology, - belief in many gods, or +591:3 material intelligences, as the opposite of the one Spirit, + or intelligence, named Elohim, or God. + + MAN. The compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spirit- +591:6 ual image and likeness of God; the full representation of + Mind. + + MATTER. Mythology; mortality; another name for +591:9 mortal mind; illusion; intelligence, substance, and life + in non-intelligence and mortality; life resulting in death, + and death in life; sensation in the sensationless; mind +591:12 originating in matter; the opposite of Truth; the oppo- + site of Spirit; the opposite of God; that of which immortal + Mind takes no cognizance; that which mortal mind sees, +591:15 feels, hears, tastes, and smells only in belief. + + MIND. The only I, or Us; the only Spirit, Soul, divine + Principle, substance, Life, Truth, Love; the one God; +591:18 not that which is/ in/ man, but the divine Principle, or God, + of whom man is the full and perfect expression; Deity, + which outlines but is not outlined. + +591:21 MIRACLE. That which is divinely natural, but must + be learned humanly; a phenomenon of Science. + + MORNING. Light; symbol of Truth; revelation and +591:24 progress. + + MORTAL MIND. Nothing claiming to be something, + for Mind is immortal; mythology; error creating other +591:27 errors; a suppositional material sense, /alias/ the belief +592:1 that sensation is in matter, which is sensationless; a be- + lief that life, substance, and intelligence are in and of +592:3 matter; the opposite of Spirit, and therefore the opposite + of God, or good; the belief that life has a beginning + and therefore an end; the belief that man is the off- +592:6 spring of mortals; the belief that there can be more than + one creator; idolatry; the subjective states of error; + material senses; that which neither exists in Science nor +592:9 can be recognized by the spiritual sense; sin; sickness; + death. + + MOSES. A corporeal mortal; moral courage; a type +592:12 of moral law and the demonstration thereof; the proof + that, without the gospel, - the union of justice and affec- + tion, - there is something spiritually lacking, since justice +592:15 demands penalties under the law. + + MOTHER. God; divine and eternal Principle; Life, + Truth, and Love. + +592:18 NEW JERUSALEM. Divine Science; the spiritual facts + and harmony of the universe; the kingdom of heaven, + or reign of harmony. + +592:21 NIGHT. Darkness; doubt; fear. + + NOAH. A corporeal mortal; knowledge of the noth- + ingness of material things and of the immortality of all +592:24 that is spiritual. + + OIL. Consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heav- + enly inspiration. + +592:27 PHARISEE. Corporeal and sensuous belief; self-right- + eousness; vanity; hypocrisy. + +593:1 PISON (river). The love of the good and beautiful, and + their immortality. + +593:3 PRINCIPLE. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 465. + + PROPHET. A spiritual seer; disappearance of mate- + rial sense before the conscious facts of spiritual Truth. + +593:6 PURSE. Laying up treasures in matter; error. + + RED DRAGON. Error; fear; inflammation; sensuality; + subtlety; animal magnetism; envy; revenge. + +593:9 RESURRECTION. Spiritualization of thought; a new + and higher idea of immortality, or spiritual existence; + material belief yielding to spiritual understanding. + +593:12 REUBEN (Jacob's son). Corporeality; sensuality; de- + lusion; mortality; error. + + RIVER. Channel of thought. + +593:15 When smooth and unobstructed, it typifies the course + of Truth; but muddy, foaming, and dashing, it is a type + of error. + +593:18 ROCK. Spiritual foundation; Truth. Coldness and + stubbornness. + + SALVATION. Life, Truth, and Love understood and +593:21 demonstrated as supreme over all; sin, sickness, and + death destroyed. + + SEAL. The signet of error revealed by Truth + +594:1 SERPENT (/ophis/, in Greek; /nacash/, in Hebrew). + Subtlety; a lie; the opposite of Truth, named error; +594:3 the first statement of mythology and idolatry; the belief + in more than one God; animal magnetism; the first lie + of limitation; finity; the first claim that there is an oppo- +594:6 site of Spirit, or good, termed matter, or evil; the first + delusion that error exists as fact; the first claim that sin, + sickness, and death are the realities of life. The first +594:9 audible claim that God was not omnipotent and that + there was another power, named /evil/, which was as real + and eternal as God, good. + +594:12 SHEEP. Innocence; inoffensiveness; those who follow + their leader. + + SHEM (Noah's son). A corporeal mortal; kindly affec- +594:1 tion; love rebuking error; reproof of sensualism. + + SON. The Son of God, the Messiah or Christ. The + son of man, the offspring of the flesh. " Son of a year." + +594:18 SOULS. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 466. + + SPIRIT. Divine substance; Mind; divine Principle; + all that is good; God; that only which is perfect, ever- +594:21 lasting, omnipresent, omnipotent, infinite. + + SPIRITS. Mortal beliefs; corporeality; evil minds; + supposed intelligences, or gods; the opposites of God; +594:24 errors; hallucinations. (See page 466.) + + SUBSTANCE. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 468. + +595:1 SUN. The symbol of Soul governing man, - of + Truth, Life, and Love. + +595:3 SWORD. The idea of Truth; justice. Revenge; + anger. + + TARES. Mortality; error; sin; sickness; disease; +595:6 death. + + TEMPLE. Body; the idea of Life, substance, and in- + telligence; the superstructure of Truth; the shrine of +595:9 Love; a material superstructure, where mortals congre- + gate for worship. + + THUMMIM. Perfection; the eternal demand of divine +595:12 Science. + + The Urim and Thummim, which were to be on Aaron's + breast when he went before Jehovah, were holiness and +595:15 purification of thought and deed, which alone can fit us + for the office of spiritual teaching. + + TIME. Mortal measurements; limits, in which are +595:18 summed tip all human acts, thoughts, beliefs, opinions, + knowledge; matter; error; that which begins before, + and continues after, what is termed death, until the mortal +595:21 disappears and spiritual perfection appears. + + TITHE. Contribution; tenth part; homage; gratitude. + A sacrifice to the gods. + +595:24 UNCLEANLINESS. Impure thoughts; error; sin; dirt. + + UNGODLINESS. Opposition to the divine Principle and + its spiritual idea. + +596:1 UNKNOWN. That which spiritual sense alone compre- + hends, and which is unknown to the material senses. + +596:3 Paganism and agnosticism may define Deity as "the + great unknowable;" but Christian Science brings God + much nearer to man, and makes Him better known as +596:6 the All-in-all, forever near. + + Paul saw in Athens an altar dedicated "to the unknown + God." Referring to it, he said to the Athenians: "Whom +596:9 therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you." + (Acts xvii. 23.) + + URIM. Light. + +596:12 The rabbins believed that the stones in the breast- + plate of the high-priest had supernatural illumination, + but Christian Science reveals Spirit, not matter, as the +596:15 illuminator of all. The illuminations of Science give us + a sense of the nothingness of error, and they show the + spiritual inspiration of Love and Truth to be the only fit +596:18 preparation for admission to the presence and power of + the Most High. + + VALLEY. Depression; meekness; darkness. + +596:21 "Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of + death, I will fear no evil." (Psalm xxiii.4.) + + Though the way is dark in mortal sense, divine Life +596:24 and Love illumine it, destroy the unrest of mortal thought, + the fear of death, and the supposed reality of error. Chris- + tian Science, contradicting sense, maketh the valley to bud +596:27 and blossom as the rose. + + VEIL. A cover; concealment; hiding; hypocrisy. + + The Jewish women wore veils over their faces in token +597:1 of reverence and submission and in accordance with + Pharisaical notions. + +597:3 The Judaic religion consisted mostly of rites and cere- + monies. The motives and affections of a man were of + little value, if only he appeared unto men to fast. The +597:6 great Nazarene, as meek as he was mighty, rebuked the + hypocrisy, which offered long petitions for blessings upon + material methods, but cloaked the crime, latent in thought, +597:9 which was ready to spring into action and crucify God's + anointed. The martyrdom of Jesus was the culminating + sin of Pharisaism. It rent the veil of the temple. It re- +597:12 vealed the false foundations and superstructures of super- + ficial religion, tore from bigotry and superstition their + coverings, and opened the sepulchre with divine Science, +597:15 - immortality and Love. + + WILDERNESS. Loneliness; doubt; darkness. Spon- + taneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a +597:18 material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense + unfolds the great facts of existence. + + WILL. The motive-power of error; mortal belief; ani- +597:21 mal power. The might and wisdom of God. + + "For this is the will of God." (I Thessalonians + iv. 3.) + +597:24 Will, as a quality of so-called mortal mind, is a wrong- + doer; hence it should not be confounded with the term + as applied to Mind or to one of God's qualities. + +597:27 WIND. That which indicates the might of omnipo- + tence and the movements of God's spiritual government, + encompassing all things. Destruction; anger; mortal +597:30 passions. + +598:1 The Greek word for /wind/ (/pneuma/) is used also for + /spirit/, as in the passage in John's Gospel, the third chap- +598:3 ter, where we read: "The wind [/pneuma/] bloweth where + it listeth. . . . So is every one that is born of the Spirit + [/pneuma/]." Here the original word is the same in both +598:6 cases, yet it has received different translations, as in other + passages in this same chapter and elsewhere in the New + Testament. This shows how our Master had constantly +598:9 to employ words of material significance in order to unfold + spiritual thoughts. In the record of Jesus' supposed + death, we read: "He bowed his head, and gave up the +598:12 ghost;" but this word /ghost/ is /pneuma/. It might be trans- + lated /wind/ or /air/, and the phrase is equivalent to our + common statement, "He breathed his last." What +598:15 Jesus gave up was indeed air, an etherealized form of + matter, for never did he give up Spirit, or Soul. + + WINE. Inspiration; understanding. Error; fornica- +598:18 tion; temptation; passion. + + YEAR. A solar measurement of time; mortality; + space for repentance. + +598:21 "One day is with the Lord as a thousand years." + (II Peter iii. 8.) + + One moment of divine consciousness, or the spiritual +598:24 understanding of Life and Love, is a foretaste of eternity. + This exalted view, obtained and retained when the Sci- + ence of being is understood, would bridge over with life +598:27 discerned spiritually the interval of death, and man + would be in the full consciousness of his immortality and + eternal harmony, where sin, sickness, and death are un- +598:30 known. Time is a mortal thought, the divisor of which +599:1 is the solar year. Eternity is God's measurement of Soul- + filled years. + +599:3 YOU. As applied to corporeality, a mortal; finity. + + ZEAL. The reflected animation of Life, Truth, and + Love. Blind enthusiasm; mortal will. + +599:6 ZION. Spiritual foundation and superstructure; in- + spiration; spiritual strength. Emptiness; unfaithful- + ness; desolation. + + + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII - FRUITAGE + +Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. - JESUS. + +That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful +in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. - PAUL. + +Let us get up early to the vineyards: let us see if the vine flourish, +whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth. - +SOLOMON'S SONG. + +THOUSANDS of letters could be presented in testimony of the healing +efficacy of Christian Science and particularly concerning the vast +number of people who have been reformed and healed through the perusal +or study of this book. + +For the assurance and encouragement of the reader, a few of these +letters are here republished from THE CHRISTIAN SCIENCE JOURNAL and +CHRISTIAN SCIENCE SENTINEL. The originals are in the possession of the +Editor, who can authenticate the testimonials which follow. + +RHEUMATISM HEALED + +I was a great sufferer from a serious form of rheumatic trouble, my +hands being affected to such an extent that it was impossible for me +even to dress without assistance. The trouble finally reached the knees, +and I became very lame and had to be assisted in and out of bed. I went +to the different health resorts for the benefit I hoped to derive from +the baths and waters that were prescribed by physicians, but found no +permanent relief. I was placed under an X-ray examination, and was told +that the joints were becoming ossified. I then consulted a celebrated +specialist, who after a thorough examination said my condition would +continue to grow worse and that I would become completely helpless. + +At that time a copy of "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" +by Mrs. Eddy was loaned me. I read it more from curiosity than with the +thought of any physical benefit. As the truth was unfolded to me, I +realized that the mental condition was what needed correcting, and that +the Spirit of truth which inspired this book was my physician. My +healing is complete, and the liberation in thought is manifest in a life +of active usefulness rather than the bondage of helpless invalidism and +suffering. I owe to our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, gratitude which words +cannot express. Her revelation of the practical rather than the merely +theoretical application of Jesus' words, "Ye shall know the truth, and +the truth shall make you free," proved to be my redeemer. I did not even +have to apply to a practitioner, but am most grateful for the helpful +words of loving friends. - E. B. B., Pasadena, Cal. + +ASTIGMATISM AND HERNIA HEALED + +It is nearly five years since I bought my first copy of Science and +Health, the reading of which cured me of chronic constipation, nervous +headache, astigmatism, and hernia, in less than four months. + +Where would I be now, had not this blessed truth been brought to me by +much persuasion of a very dear friend? + +I certainly should have been deep in the slough of despond, if not in +the grave. Am I truly thankful for all the good that has come to me and +mine? I try to let my works testify of that; but to those whom I do not +meet in person, I can truly say, Yes; I am indeed more thankful than +words can express for the glorious healing that has come to me, both +physical, mental, and moral, and I also convey herein, my song of +gratitude to the dear Leader who has through her fidelity to Truth +enabled me to touch at least the hem of Christ's garment. - B. S. J., +Sioux City, Iowa. + +SUBSTANCE OF LUNGS RESTORED + +It was about fifteen years ago that Christian Science first +came to my notice. At that time I had been a chronic invalid for a good +many years. I had acute bowel trouble, bronchitis, and a number of other +troubles. One physician had told me that my lungs were like wet paper, ready +to tear at any time, and I was filled with fear, as my mother, two brothers, +and a sister had been victims of consumption. I tried many physicians and +every material remedy that promised help, but no help came until I found +a copy of Mrs. Eddy's book, Science and Health. The book was placed in my +hands by one who did not then appreciate it, and I was told that it would +be hard for me to understand it. I commenced reading it with this thought, +but I caught beautiful glimpses of Truth, which took away my fear and healed +me of all those diseases, and they have never returned. + +I would also like to tell how I was healed of a sprained ankle. The +accident occurred in the morning, and all that day and during the night +I gave myself Christian Science treatment, as best I could. The next +morning it seemed to be no better, being very sore, badly swollen, and +much discolored. Feeling that I had done all I could, I decided to stop +thinking about it. I took my copy of Science and Health and began +reading. Very soon I became so absorbed in the book that I forgot all +about my ankle; it went entirely out of my thought, for I had a glimpse +of all God's creation as spiritual, and for the time being lost sight of +my material selfhood. After two hours I laid the book down and walked +into another room. When next I thought of my ankle, I found it was not +hurting me. The swelling had gone down, the black and blue appearance +had nearly vanished, and it was perfectly well. It was healed while I +was "absent from the body" and "present with the Lord." This experience +was worth a great deal to me, for it showed me how the healing is done. +- C. H., Portland, Ore. + +FIBROID TUMOR HEALED IN A FEW DAYS + +My gratitude for Christian Science is boundless. I was afflicted with a +fibroid tumor which weighed not less than fifty pounds, attended by a +continuous hemorrhage for eleven years. The tumor was a growth of +eighteen years. + +I lived in Fort Worth, Tex., and I had never heard of Christian Science +before leaving there for Chicago in the year 1887. I had tried to live +near to God, and I feel sure He guided me in all my steps to this +healing and saving truth. After being there several weeks I received +letters from a Texas lady who had herself been healed, and who wrote +urging me to try Christian Science. + +Changing my boarding-place, I met a +lady who owned a copy of Science and Health, and in speaking to her of +having seen the book, she informed me she had one, and she got it and +told me I could read it. The revelation was marvelous and brought a +great spiritual awakening. This awakened sense never left me, and one +day when walking alone it came to me very suddenly that I was healed, +and I walked the faster declaring every step that I was healed. When I +reached my boarding-place, I found my hostess and told her I was healed. +She looked the picture of amazement. The tumor began to disappear at +once, the hemorrhage ceased, and perfect strength was manifest. + +There was no joy ever greater than mine for this Christ-cure, for I was +very weary and heavy laden. I thought very little of either sleeping or +eating, and my heart was filled with gratitude, since I knew I had +touched the hem of his garment. + +I must add that the reading of Science and Health, and that alone, +healed me, and it was the second copy I ever saw. - S. L., Fort Worth, +Tex. + +INSANITY AND EPILEPSY HEALED + +While an inmate of the State asylum for the insane at Middletown, Conn., +an epileptic, and at times confined to my bed with bilious attacks, +pronounced incurable by the doctors (at least six in number), the book, +Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mrs. Eddy was +placed in my hands. After reading a few pages, I became very much +impressed with the truth therein stated, and although I was surrounded +with opposition, I knew that "underneath are the everlasting arms." +Since that time - past the middle of the year 1899 - I have kept +pressing on, until I have been healed by reading Science and Health. At +times I was beset by what seemed unconquerable opposition, until the +first week in October, 1904, when, upon going to my home in Darien for a +visit, I was given my liberty, and I am now earning my living in this +city. After having been subject to epileptic attacks since 1892, and at +one time pronounced dying by the doctor in charge, I am now well. I have +had no fit, or symptoms of any, since the first week in May, 1904. + +I trust that this testimony to the healing power of Truth, realized by +reading Science and Health (for I had no treatment), may reach the eye +of some to whom the battle seems long, and inspire them with fresh +courage and a realization of the worth of the victory. I am filled with +inexpressible gratitude and love to God, and to Mrs. Eddy. - Mrs. B. B. +C., Stamford, Conn. + +A CASE OF MENTAL SURGERY + +I have felt for some time I should give my experience in mental surgery. +In May, 1902, going home for lunch, on a bicycle, and while riding down +a hill at a rapid gait, I was thrown from the wheel, and falling on my +left side with my arm under my head, the bone was broken about half-way +between the shoulder and elbow. While the pain was intense, I lay still +in the dust, declaring the truth and denying that there could be a break +or accident in the realm of divine Love, until a gentleman came to +assist me, saying, he thought I had been stunned. I was only two and a +half blocks from home, so I mounted my wheel again and managed to reach +it. On arriving there I lay down and asked my little boy to bring me our +textbook. He immediately brought Science and Health, which I read for +about ten minutes, when all pain left. + +I said nothing to my family of the accident, but attended to some duties +and was about half an hour late in returning to the office, this being +my only loss of time from work. My friends claimed that the arm had not +been broken, as it would have been impossible for me to continue my work +without having it set, and carrying it in a sling until the bone knit +together. Their insistence almost persuaded me that I might have been +mistaken, until one of my friends invited me to visit a physician's +office where they were experimenting with an X-ray machine. The +physician was asked to examine my left arm to see if it differed from +the ordinary. On looking through it, he said, "Yes, it has been broken, +but whoever set it made a perfect job of it, and you will never have any +further trouble from that break." My friend then asked the doctor to +show how he could tell where the break had been. The doctor pointed out +the place as being slightly thicker at that part, like a piece of steel +that had been welded. This was the first of several cases of mental +surgery that have come under my notice, and it made a deep impression on +me. + +For the benefit of others who may have something similar to meet, I will +say that I have overcome almost constant attacks of sick headaches, +extending back to my earliest recollection. - L. C. S., Salt Lake City, +Utah. + +CATARACT QUICKLY CURED + +I wish to add my testimony to those of others, and hope that it may be +the means of bringing some poor sufferer to health, to happiness, and to +God. I was healed through simply reading this wonderful book, Science +and Health. I had been troubled periodically for many years with sore +eyes, and had been to many doctors, who called the disease iritis and +cataract. They told me that my eyes would always give me trouble, and +that I would eventually lose my sight if I remained in an office, and +advised me to go under an operation. Later on I had to wear glasses at +my work, also out of doors as I could not bear the winds, and my eyes +were gradually becoming worse. I could not read for longer than a few +minutes at a time, otherwise they would smart severely. I had to rest my +eyes each evening to enable me to use them the next day; in fact +gas-light was getting unbearable because of the pain, and I made home +miserable. A dear brother told me about Christian Science, and said that +if I would read Science and Health it would help me. He procured for me +the loan of the book. The first night I read it, it so interested me I +quite forgot all about my eyes until my wife remarked that it was eleven +o'clock. I found that I had been reading this book for nearly four +hours, and I remarked immediately after, "I believe my eyes are cured," +which was really the case. The next day, on looking at my eyes, my wife +noticed that the cataract had disappeared. I put away my outdoor +glasses, which I have not required since, and through the understanding +gained by studying Christian Science I have been able to do away with my +indoor glasses also, and have had no return of pain in my eyes since. +This is now a year and a half ago. - G. F. S., Liverpool, England. + +VALVULAR HEART DISEASE HEALED + +Fourteen years ago my heart awoke to gratitude to God and the dear +Leader at the same time. After a patient and persistent effort of three +months' duration, to procure a copy of Science and Health (during which +time I had visited every bookstore, and many of the second-hand +bookstores in the city of St. Paul), and had failed to find it, I at +last remembered that the stranger who told me I might be healed, had +mentioned a name, and McVicker's Theatre Building in Chicago as being in +some way connected with the work. I sent there for information regarding +a book called Health and Science, and the return mail brought me the +book, Science and Health, and in it I at once found sure promise of +deliverance from valvular heart disease, with all the accompaniments, +such as extreme nervousness, weakness, dyspepsia, and insomnia. I had +suffered from these all my life, finding no permanent relief, even, in +material remedies, and no hope of cure at any time. Only those who have +been healed in such bondage and have been liberated by the same means, +can know the eager joy of the first perusal of that wonderful book. + +Half a day's reading convinced me that I had found the way to holiness +and health. I read on, thinking only of the spiritual enlightenment, +content to wait until I should be led to some person who would heal me; +but old things had passed away, and all things had become new. I was +completely healed before I had met a Scientist, or one who knew anything +about Christian Science, and before I had read a line of any other +Christian Science literature except one leaf of a tract; so it is +absolutely certain that the healing was entirely impersonal, as was also +the teaching, which enabled me to begin at once demonstrating the power +of Truth to destroy all forms of error. - E. J. W., North Yakima, Wash. + +THE TRUE PHYSICIAN FOUND + +It is with a deep sense of gratitude that I send the particulars of my +healing through Christian Science. While visiting friends in the +southwestern part of Ontario, about three years ago, my attention was +called to Christian Science and the wonderful healing it was doing. I +had lived in New York for twenty-five years, but had never heard of +Christian Science before, to my recollection. + +Up to that time, for seventeen years, I had suffered with indigestion +and gastritis in the worst form, often being overcome from a seeming +pressure against the heart. I had asthma for four years, also had worn +glasses for four years. It seemed to me that I had swallowed every known +medicine to relieve my indigestion, but they only gave me temporary +benefit. I purchased a copy of Science and Health, and simply from the +reading of that grand book I was completely healed of all my physical +ailments in two weeks' time. I have used no medicine from that day to +this, and with God's help, and the wonderful light revealed to me +through the reading of Mrs. Eddy's book, I never expect to again. I used +to smoke eight or ten cigars a day, and also took an occasional drink, +but the desire for these has gone, - I feel forever. I travel on the +road, and am constantly being invited to indulge, but it is no effort to +abstain, and in many instances I find that my refusal helps others. + +While I fully appreciate the release from my physical troubles, this +pales into insignificance in comparison with the spiritual uplifting +Christian Science has brought me. I had not been inside a church for +more than ten years, to attend regular services, until I entered a +Christian Science church. What I saw and realized there, seemed so +genuine that I loved Christian Science from the very start. I have never +taken a treatment, - every inch of the way has been through study and +practical demonstration, and I know that all can do the same thing if +they will try. + +Since I have been in Science I have overcome a case of ulcerated tooth +in one night through the reading of Science and Health; also a severe +attack of grip in thirty-six hours by obeying the Scripture saying, +"Physician, heal thyself." - B. H. N., New York, N. Y. + +CANCER AND CONSUMPTION HEALED + +I was a great sufferer for many years from internal cancer and +consumption. I was treated by the best of physicians in New York, +Minneapolis, and Duluth, and was finally given up as incurable, when I +heard of Christian Science. A neighbor who had been healed of +consumption, kindly loaned me Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy, which I +read and became interested in. In three months' time, I was healed, the +truth conveyed to me by this book being the healer, and not only of +these diseases, but I was made whole mentally as well. I have not been +in bed one day since, or rather in eleven years. I have had many good +demonstrations during this time, have passed through many a "fiery +trial," but this blessed truth has caused me to stand, at times +seemingly alone, and God was with me. + +I will mention a demonstration of painless childbirth which I have had +since coming to Idaho. Perhaps it may help some sister who is looking +through the /Journal/ for a demonstration of this kind, as I was before +my baby came. Good help being scarce here, I did my housework up to the +time I was confined, and was in perfect health. I awoke my husband one +morning at five o'clock, and at half past five baby was born, no one +being present but my husband and myself. It was quite a surprise to the +rest of the family to see me sitting by the fire with a new baby on my +lap. My son got the breakfast, of which I ate heartily; at noon I joined +the family in the dining-room. I was out on the porch the second day, +around the yard the third day, and have been perfectly well ever since, +which has been now over three years. To one who had previously passed +through agony untold, with a physician in attendance, this seemed +wonderful. I hope this will interest some one who is seeking the truth, +and I wish to express my sincere love for our beloved Leader, who has +given us the " Key to the Scriptures." - E. C. C., Lewiston, Idaho. + +A REMARKABLE CASE + +Nine years ago my only child was hovering between life and death. Some +of the best physicians in Boston had pronounced his case incurable, +saying that if he lived he would always be an invalid and a cripple. One +of the diseases was gastric catarrh. He was allowed to eat but very few +things, and even after taking every precaution, he suffered to the +extent that he would lie in spasms for half a day. He also had rickets; +physicians saying that there was not a natural bone in his body. + +It was while he was in what seemed to be his greatest agony, and when I +was in the darkest despair, that I first heard of Christian Science. The +bearer of the joyful tidings could only tell me to come and hear of the +wonderful things that Christian Science was doing. I accepted the +invitation, for I was willing to try anything to save my child, and the +following Friday evening I attended my first meeting, which was in The +Mother Church of Christ, Scientist. Long before the service began every +seat was filled, which was amazing to me, being an ordinary weekly +meeting, and that night I realized from the testimonies given that +Christian Science was the religion for which I had been searching for +years. The next day I went to find a practitioner, but was unable to get +the one who had been recommended, he being too busy. On my way home I +thought of some of the testimonies which I had heard the night before, - +of people being healed by simply reading Science and Health. I resolved at +once to borrow a copy, and not dreaming of the sacrifice that my friend +would make by conferring such a favor, I went and asked her for a loan of +Science and Health. I never saw any one part so reluctantly with a book +as my friend did with her copy of the textbook. + +I read it silently and audibly, day and night, in my home, and although +I could not seem to understand it, yet the healing commenced to take +place at once. The little mouth which had been twisted by spasms grew +natural and the child was soon able to be up, playing and romping about +the house as any child should. About this time we decided to move to the +far West. + +I was young in Science at the time, and my husband greatly feared that +the journey would cause a relapse for the child, but instead, he +continued to improve. I constantly read the Bible, Science and Health, +and Miscellaneous Writings, the two weeks we traveled, and we were the +only ones in our car who, throughout the journey, did not get train +sick. The child's limbs grew perfectly straight, he ate anything he +wanted, and for years he has been a natural, healthy child in every way. +He has passed through some of the worst forms of contagion untouched and +unharmed. + +I had been reading Science and Health several months, before I gave any +thought to myself and my numerous complaints. I had never been very +strong, and some of my ailments were supposed to be hereditary and +chronic, hence I dragged through many tedious years with a belief in +medical laws and hereditary laws resting upon me. + +Just before I commenced reading Science and Health I spent a half day in +having my eyes examined by one of the leading oculists in Boston. His +verdict was that my eyes were in a dreadful condition, and that I would +always need to wear glasses. In the meantime I commenced to read Science +and Health, and when I thought of my eyes, I had no need for glasses. +The years that I have been in Science I have used my eyes incessantly, +night as well as day, doing all kinds of trying work and without +requiring the aid of glasses. I was healed of all my complaints whilst +seeking the truth for my child, and many of them have never returned. +Those that appeared simply came to the surface to be destroyed. Teeth +have been restored and facial blemishes removed, unconsciously, simply +by reading Science and Health. All of this is, however, nothing to +compare with the spiritual uplifting which I have received, and I have +everything to be thankful for. - M. T. W., Los Angeles, Cal. + +INTENSE SUFFERING OVERCOME + +For about five years I was afflicted with sciatic rheumatism, in such a +severe form that my body was drawn out of shape. When able to be around, +I walked with the assistance of a cane. The attacks were periodical, +recurring every few months; any exposure to rain or dampness would bring +one. At one time I was in bed eleven weeks, suffering intensely all the +time except when relieved by hypodermic injections. When I had these +attacks, my regular physician was always in attendance. My daughter +consulted another physician, who said there would have to be an +operation which would include the exposing and scraping of the sciatic +nerve. There was also another physician who, knowing of the case, +examined my heart and claimed that it was weak and that I was liable to +pass on at any time from heart trouble. + +After suffering three years I heard of Christian Science, but did not +avail myself of it for two years, when I decided to give up all other +means and rely wholly upon it. It was not convenient to call a +practitioner, so I took Science and Health and applied its teachings as +best I could. In three days the trouble completely left me and there has +never been the slightest return. My health has been good ever since, and +I am at present in perfect physical health. I have been benefited in +every way by Christian Science, physically, mentally, and spiritually, +and would not be without my understanding of it for anything. - Mrs. E. +A. K., Billings, Mont. + +HEALED OF RHEUMATISM AND BRIGHT'S DISEASE + +I am very thankful to God for what He has done for me. I was suddenly +left alone, with many troubles and trials, and I took up the study of +the Bible. I was trying to understand it, prior to joining some church, +as it seemed to me this would be expected. I had attended all sorts of +churches from my childhood up, but never could find any that met my +need. As time passed on, my condition became very alarming. Sciatic +rheumatism, that had troubled me for some years, became so severe I +could scarcely do anything. + +Then there appeared some complications, so distressing that I was unable +to walk far, and had to sit down frequently by the way. I thought I had +Bright's disease, - such excruciating pains, no tongue could tell my +sufferings. With all these things upon me, death seemed very near. I had +never joined any church, and I thought it now too late, as I would have +to wait six months on probation, and I would be dead before that. + +About this time I made some inquiries of my sister in reference to +Christian Science, as she had already turned to that faith, and I soon +found that it was just what I had been looking for. I saw at once that +it declared the truth and nothing but the truth. I commenced reading +Science and Health, also the New Testament. I wanted to find out what +Jesus said, as I did not expect then to live long. I did not go to the +meetings, nor did I read Science and Health to be cured, - not thinking +of that, - but to be saved from an everlasting hell hereafter. My sister +urged me to have a practitioner, but I kept on reading, and praying to +God in silence, and what happened? Where had the diseases gone? I +persisted in reading Science and Health, together with the Bible, with +the knowledge that God as revealed by Christ Jesus can do everything, +that He made everything that was made, that He can and does heal the +afflicted. He has healed me, thanks to His most holy name. - G. J. H., +Charleston, Ill. + +GRATEFUL FOR MANY BLESSINGS + +In the year 1901, Christian Science found me a hopeless invalid. I had +suffered for seven years previous with a very painful back, the result +of an operation. I could get no rest or sleep at night, as I could not +lie down, but had to sit propped in a chair with pillows around me. Only +those who have suffered as I did can know the full misery of it. I had +come to the end of material means and never hoped to get well. One day, +however, while out walking, it was my good fortune to come to a +Christian Scientist's house, and there the teaching was explained to me. +I was advised to buy Science and Health, which I did, and the study of +this book has healed my back entirely. Christian Science has also cured +me of long-standing catarrh of the throat, and neuralgia with which I +had been afflicted from childhood. Before coming into Science I had +doctored with three of the best physicians in Seattle, but none could +give me relief. + +I am no longer a sufferer, but rejoice exceedingly in Christian Science. +God's promise has been fulfilled to me, " But unto you that fear my name +shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings." - E. +O., Georgetown, Wash. + +FREED FROM NEURASTHENIC AND OTHER TROUBLES + +Christian Science found in me a minister's son who had failed to profit +by continuous teaching in the old thought. Some years ago I was +pronounced by a professor of /materia medica/, whose works are in +general use, a neurasthenic. I had been in this condition more or less +for eight years, and up to two years ago, when Christian Science was +first brought to my attention (thanks to Almighty God) through a kind +friend, I was almost constantly taking medicine and had in all eleven +physicians who undoubtedly did their best, but without avail, not- +withstanding almost all known drugs were prescribed, and further I had +tried very many patent medicines. I was also put through forms of +hygienic treatment and other things that offered inducements. At the +time of coming into Science I was taking three times daily forty minims +of cod-liver oil and three of creosote, also three drops of Fowler's +solution of arsenic, and on the month or so previous had bought eighteen +dollars' worth of patent medicine. I was restricted to the simplest +means of diet, - all stews, fries, sweets, berries, and tomatoes I had +not touched for two years. + +I started to read Science and Health, and before I had half finished the +book once I was eating everything that any one does. I read the book +eleven times straight ahead and many times skipping about. The book has +done the work and I am a well man. - C. E. M., Philadelphia, Pa. + +MANY ILLS OVERCOME + +I have received much help, spiritually and physically, through Christian +Science. I had what the doctors diagnosed as muscular rheumatism, +dropsy, and constipation of thirty years' standing. A dear friend whom I +had known as an invalid had been healed by Christian Science and advised +me to read Science and Health. I did so, having a desire to know the +truth. One of my troubles was that I could not sleep. I began reading +the Bible and the Christian Science textbook, and troubles of every kind +disappeared before I had read Science and Health through. The thought +came, What about the old remedies? but truth prevailed, and I took all +the material remedies I had and threw them away. That was seven years +ago, and I have not had any use for them since. My husband was healed of +the tobacco habit of fifty years' standing, also of kidney trouble, by +reading Science and Health. I have not words to express the gratitude I +feel to-day for the many blessings that have come to our home. - Mrs. M. +K. O., Seattle, Wash. + +A HELPFUL HEALING + +I became interested in Christian Science about eleven years ago, and was +healed of neuralgia of the stomach, from which I had suffered from a +child. As I grew older, the spells became more frequent and more severe; +the only relief physicians could give me was by hypodermic injections of +morphine. Finally, after each spell, I would be prostrated for a day or +two with the after-effect of the morphine. I was entirely healed of this +trouble through the study of Science and Health. I think I never +realized what fear meant until I began to try and put into practice my +understanding of Christian Science for my children. I have proved, +however, many times, that fear can neither help nor hinder in our +demonstration of truth. The first time I realized this was in the +overcoming of a severe case of croup for my little boy. I was awakened +one night by the sound that seems to bring terror to every mother's +heart, and found the little fellow sitting up in bed, gasping for +breath. I got up, took him in my arms, and went into the next room. My +first thought was, "O if only there was another Christian Scientist in +town!" But there was not, and the work must be done and done quickly. I +tried to treat him, but was so frightened I could not think; so I picked +up Science and Health, which lay on the table beside me, and began +reading aloud. I had read but a few lines when these words came to me as +though a voice spoke, "The word of God is quick, and powerful, and +sharper than any two-edged sword." Almost immediately after, the little +one said, "Mamma, sing 'Shepherd,' " - our Leader's hymn, that both the +big and the little children love. I began singing, and commencing with +the second line, the little voice joined me. I shall never forget the +feeling of joy and peace that came over me, when I realized how quickly +God's word, through Science and Health and the beautiful hymn, had +accomplished the healing work. This is only one of many instances in +which the power of God's word to heal has been demonstrated in our home. +- A. J. G., Riverside, Cal. + +RELIEF FROM MANY ILLS + +Paul said, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind." In my own +case deafness has been overcome by an enlarged understanding of God's +word, as explained by Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health. Many times I have +been enabled to turn to God, to know it was His will to help in trouble, +and obtained the needed benefit. Catarrh has disappeared; tonsilitis, +which very frequently laid me aside from duties in the schoolroom and +home, is no longer manifest. When temptation comes (for Christian +Science is both preventive and curative), I turn to that wonderful book, +Science and Health, and my precious Bible, grown dearer since read in +the new light of spiritual understanding, until I know that my mind is +renewed, because the action is changed and the inflammation has abated. + +Thus in my experience in Christian Science, I have seen the +transformation begun, and Truth is able to perfect that which is begun +in me so gloriously. - Mrs. C.A. McL., Brooklyn, Nova Scotia. + +HEALTH AND PEACE ATTAINED + +For fifteen years I was a great sufferer physically and mentally. +Eminent physicians treated me for hereditary consumption, torpid liver, +and many other diseases. I sought relief at famous springs, the ozone of +Florida, and the pure air of Colorado, but in vain. My life was one +ceaseless torture. + +During all this time, however, I was an earnest seeker after Truth. I +examined every religious teaching with a calm and unprejudiced +attention. From an orthodox Protestant I became a skeptic, and a +follower of Voltaire, Tom Paine, and Ingersoll; yet all the while I +retained faith in a supreme intelligent Being who made all. Sick, weary, +doubting, and despairing, I accidentally went into a Christian Science +church in New York City, on a Wednesday evening, not knowing what kind +of a place it was. Seeing a large number of people going into the +building, I followed, supposing that a marriage ceremony had attracted +the crowd. Being informed it was their regular Wednesday evening +service, I inquired as to the denomination. I concluded that it was +another new fad, but after investigation I procured a copy of Science +and Health, promising I would read it carefully. I began reading the +book on Tuesday and finished on Friday of the same week. I was still in +the dark. I laid the book down, involuntarily closed my eyes, and +silently prayed to God. + +I remained in that attitude a few moments, when I felt like the mariner +who had been tossed for days upon a boisterous sea, the clouds bending +low, the billows rolling high, all nature wrapped in darkness; in his +despair he kneels and commits his soul to God, when he suddenly beholds +the North Star breaking through the clouds, enabling him to guide his +ship to the shores of safety. Many things were made plain to me. I saw +that there is one Fatherhood of God and one brotherhood of man; that +though "once I was blind, now I see;" that there was no more pain, nor +aches, no fear, nor indigestion. I slept that night like a babe and +awoke next morning refreshed. There are now no traces whatever of my +former complaint and I feel like a new being. - L. P., New York, N. Y. + +HEALTH AND PEACE GAINED + +About nine years ago I was drawn to Christian Science by a relative +whose many afflictions had given place to health and harmony, and whose +loving gratitude was reflected in every word and deed. The thought came +to me, God indeed healeth all our diseases. + +My first reading of Science and Health was without understanding. I was +full of darkness and gloom, and it was laid aside for a time. The good +seed had been sown, however, and erelong the reading was resumed, +and with such interest that my afflictions disappeared "like mist before +the morning sun." Asthma (thought to be hereditary), neuralgia in an +aggravated form, and besides these, the tobacco and liquor habit of many +years' standing left me. Bless the Lord, "He sent his word" and healed +me, - for the reading of Science and Health brought to my consciousness +the truth that makes free. - S., Shellman, Ga. + +CONSUMPTION QUICKLY CURED + +I became interested in Christian Science nearly five years ago through +the healing of my wife of what the doctors called consumption in its +last stages. I had tried everything that I could get in the way of +/materia medica/, and every doctor would tell me nearly the same story +about the case. At last they recommended for her only a higher, drier +climate, and when she would be at her worst to give her something to +quiet her. + +I tried different climates, but she was no better, indeed worse. At last +she struggled along until the first of March, 1899. She had taken to her +bed again. For two days and nights she suffered, and I called a +physician. He came and diagnosed the case, and said that he could do +nothing for her but give her some morphine tablets to make her rest. I +gave her two of them according to direction, and just before the time to +give her the third, she called me to her bedside, and said, " Don't give +me any more of that stuff, for it does me more harm than good," so I +turned and placed them in the fire, though I did not then know anything +about Christian Science. We had heard of it, but that was all. I gave +her the last tablet at eight o'clock that night, and about nine o'clock +the next day a lady who had been healed in Christian Science visited +her, and introduced her to this great truth. She accepted it and thought +she would try it. The lady loaned her Science and Health. She got the +book about ten o'clock that day and read it until dinner was called. She +ate a hearty dinner, the first in about three days, and that same +evening she dressed herself, walked into the dining-room, ate a hearty +supper and enjoyed it. She slept well that night. She borrowed this +lady's copy of Science and Health two hours each day for eight days, and +was healed. The first day that she read Science and Health she weighed +about ninety-five pounds. Three months later she weighed one hundred and +thirty-five pounds. - A. J. D., Houston, Tex. + +A PROFITABLE STUDY + +It may help others to know that some one was really healed of severe +illness through Christian Science. It is over nine years since we first +became interested in the Science, and it would be hard to find a +healthier person than I am now. I can go all day, from morning till +night, upheld by the thought that "they that wait upon the Lord shall +renew their strength." I can truly say that I scarcely know what +physical weariness is any more. Before I came into Science the +physicians said that one lung was gone, and that the other was affected +with tuberculosis; so, from their standpoint, there was little left for +me to hope for. We had tried every remedy that they had suggested. I had +gone to the mountains, but could not stay there on account of the +altitude; and when they did not know what else to do, they said we would +better go to England - that the ocean air would be beneficial. So we +spent three months in the British Isles, and when I came back I seemed +much better, but this only lasted a short time. In little more than a +month I was worse than ever, and my mother was told that I had but a few +weeks, or at most months, to live. + +At that time, a lady, a stranger to us, suggested that we try Christian +Science. There was no prejudice against it, as we did not even know what +it was. We knew of no Scientists in the Western town where we were +living, and when we were told that we could send to Kansas City for +absent treatment, we thought it was absurd. We were then told that many +people had been healed through the reading of the Christian Science +textbook, Science and Health, and to us this seemed a little worse than +the absent treatment, but as we had tried everything we had heard of up +to that time, my mother sent for the book. + +It came in the middle of October and we began to read it together. It +seemed to me from the first that it was something I had always believed, +but did not know how to express - it seemed such a natural thing. My +improvement was very gradual, but I felt I was recovering. After the +Christmas holidays I started in at school and went the whole term +without missing a day, - something I had never done before. I finished +my school course without missing a day - in fact, I have not spent a day +in bed since that time. I feel absolutely certain that I have two sound, +healthy lungs now. The hollows in my chest have filled out, and I +breathe perfectly on both sides; rarely have a cold to meet, and have +not a sign of a cough. + +People sometimes say, "Oh, well, maybe you never had consumption." Well, +I had all the symptoms, and they are every one gone through the reading +of Science and Health. - E. L. B., Chicago, Ill. + +HEALED OF INFIDELITY AND MANY PHYSICAL ILLS + +I feel compelled to write my testimony and hope that I may be accepted +as one more witness to the Truth as contained in Science and Health with +Key to the Scriptures. + +In the year 1883 I first heard of Christian Science. I was sitting in a +saloon in Leadville, Col., reading a daily paper of that place. My eyes +lighted upon an article which spoke of some peculiar people in Boston +who claimed to have discovered how to heal as Jesus healed. I do not +remember much of the article, but those words stayed with me. + +I had drifted out to Colorado from New York City (my home), where I had +been under the treatment of many leading physicians. The last one, who +was too honest to take my money knowing that he could not cure me, +advised me to keep away from doctors and quit taking medicine, as +nothing but death could cure me. My trouble was pronounced by some to be +Bright's disease, by others gravel on the kidneys with very acute +inflammation of the bladder and prostate gland. + +In the spring of 1888 my wife and myself were spending the evening at +the house of a gentleman whose wife had been healed in the East by +Christian Science. The gentleman took a book from its bookcase saying, +"Here is a work on Christian Science." It proved to be Science and +Health. I knew as soon as I had read the title-page that this was the +very book we wanted. We immediately sent for the book, and when it +arrived we obeyed the angel and feasted on it. I was very much +prejudiced against the Bible, and my first demonstration over self was +to consent to read the four Gospels. My wife bought me a New Testament +and I began to read it. What a change came over me! All my prejudice was +gone in an instant! When I read the Master's words, I caught his meaning +and the lesson he tried to convey. It was not difficult for me to accept +the whole Bible, for I could not help myself, I was just captured. The +disease with which I had been troubled for years tormented me worse than +ever for about six months, as if trying to turn me aside; but I lost all +fear of it. + +I kept up my study of Science and Health and the disease disappeared. I +can honestly say that Science and Health was my only healer, and it has +been my only teacher. - R. A. C., Los Angeles, Cal. + +DISEASED EYES CURED + +Christian Science came to me when I was a wreck, my body being +completely covered with sores. My eyes were very bad, so that I sat in a +darkened room for weeks together, most of the time in bed under opiates. +The home doctor and a specialist said the disease of the eyes could not +be cured, though they might help me for a while. I had one operation, +and the doctor said if I took cold I would become totally blind. My +suffering was beyond telling. + +A clergyman called almost every day, and sat by my bed and wept, and my +good, kind doctor shed tears many times. Finally, after a year of this +terrible suffering, I was sent to Indiana, to a sister who had been +healed of lung trouble by Christian Science. The first day I was there +she read to me from the Bible and from "Science and Health with Key to +the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, and I was healed. I knew that God was no +respecter of persons, and when I saw what had been done for my sister, +who was changed from being a mere frame to a strong, robust, healthy, +rosy-cheeked woman, the cough all gone, I said, "God has as much for me, +if I will accept it." I was healed instantaneously by Christian Science, +and am thankful to God for giving us this understanding through Mrs. +Eddy, our beloved Leader. I am now in perfect health. - Mrs. F. S., +Laurel, Miss. + +THE TEXTBOOK HEALED ME + +For twelve years previous to the fall of 1897 I had been under the care +of a physician much of the time. Different opinions were given by them, +as to the nature of the trouble, some diagnosing it as an abnormal +growth, etc. I was healed through reading" Science and Health with Key +to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. It was a clear case of transformation +of the body by the renewal of the mind. I am perfectly well at the +present time. - J. M. H., Omaha, Neb. + +OBSTINATE STOMACH TROUBLE HEALED + +There is no doubt that by far the greater number come to Christian +Science by the way of physical healing, but there are those to whom +this does not particularly appeal. In the hope +that it may be of benefit to some such, and in gratitude for help +received, I submit my own experience. Three years ago I knew nothing of +Christian Science, aside from the knowledge gathered from the daily +papers and current literature. When I thought of the subject at all, it +was to class Christian Science with various human theories with which I +could not be in sympathy, for they seemed to rely upon both good and +evil. I had never known of a case of healing, had never read the +textbook or heard of the /Journal/ or /Sentinel/, but I would sometimes +see people going into the Christian Science church. I was tired of +trying to find anything satisfactory in religious belief, for it seemed +as if God either could not or would not bring into harmony the terrible +conditions existing in human society. I had quit using any form of +prayer except the Lord's Prayer, and even then omitted the words "lead +us not into temptation." How I longed to know just a little of the +"why?" and "wherefore?" of it all. + +Here is where Christian Science found me. I was thrown in contact with a +dear friend of whom I had seen very little for a year or more, a +thoroughly educated woman and a thinker. She told me she had taken some +treatments in Christian Science for a physical trouble, and had become +very much interested in the study of "Science and Health with Key to the +Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. She asked me if I would like to look at the +book, and I said I would be glad to do so. The first chapter, "Prayer," +appealed to me from the first, and when I came to Mrs. Eddy's spiritual +sense of the Lord's Prayer (Science and Health, p. 17), my interest was +fully aroused. I knew that in a dim way I was learning what it means to +"pray without ceasing." Very soon I bought a book of my own, and with +the help of our Lesson-Sermons, as given in the /Quarterly/, I began in +earnest the study of Science and Health, in connection with the Bible. + +I stood very much in need of physical healing at this time, having +suffered for several years from an obstinate form of stomach trouble. So +far as I know, I gave no thought to the benefits I might derive +physically from the study, but I did believe this Science held the truth +of things, and I was so absorbed in getting an understanding of the +Principle that I thought very little of myself. After about three or +four months' study I realized that the stomach trouble was gone, and +with it went other physical troubles, which have never returned. This +healing was brought about by the earnest, conscientious seeking for the +truth, as contained in the Bible and interpreted by our Leader in our +textbook, Science and Health. I have since learned more of the Science +of healing and have been able in a small way to help others in need. I +have also learned that in living and loving is healing realized, and in +reflecting divine Love I have the "signs following." + +When we think of the pure, loving, unselfish life Mrs. Eddy must have +lived in order to become conscious of this truth and give it to us, +words are a poor medium through which to express the gratitude which her +followers feel for her. It is best expressed by obediently following +her, even as she is following Christ. - H. T., Omaha, Neb. + +DYSPEPSIA QUICKLY HEALED + +It has occurred to me that I have had ample time to meditate on the many +blessings which I have received through Christian Science, as it is now +more than six years since I was entirely healed of dyspepsia as well as +constipation in its worst form by the reading of Science and Health. So +aggravated were the conditions that for three years or more I was unable +to drink a glass of cold water. Everything that I drank had to be hot, and +my only means of relief from the bowel trouble was hot water injections, +for a period of more than three years. + +I can truthfully say that I was permanently, and I might say instantly, +healed of those two ailments by reading Science and Health as before +stated, and in fact I do not think I had read more than thirty pages of +this book when I ignored entirely the most rigid kind of diet. I ate and +drank everything I wished without a single harmful effect from that time +to this date, and there has not been a drop of medicine in our home for +more than six years, in a family of five. + +I have also seen the power of Truth manifested in our home by having our +youngest child relieved of the most excruciating pain, and changed to +his most playful mood, immediately upon notifying one of the faithful +practitioners of this city. For all this I am endeavoring to be thankful +to God and to our faithful Leader, Mrs. Eddy, whose pure and undefiled +life enabled her to discover this precious truth for the benefit of all +mankind. - M. C. McK., Denver, Col. + +AFTER TWENTY YEARS' SUFFERING + +From early girlhood I was considered an invalid, having been injured by +a hard fall while playing. The pain was intense for some time and for +several hours I was unable to walk or stand alone. Later, a growing +weakness of the back accompanied with sharp pains alarmed my parents, +who called a physician, and he pronounced it spinal trouble. Then +followed nearly twenty years of increased suffering, at times very +severe. As years went by and I became a wife and mother, my suffering +increased. Everything that medical skill could do was done, but finding +no lasting benefit from anything, I lost hope of recovery. + +When Christian Science found me I was under the doctor's sentence that +if I lived the week through I would become entirely helpless, not able +to move hand or foot. My husband was a travelling man, and being +urgently called home, he met an old friend on the train who asked why we +did not try Christian Science. The reply, We know nothing of it, was +followed by a brief explanation of its healing power and the benefit his +family had received. This inspired my husband with new hope, and on his +arrival at home he called on a practitioner, who recommended our getting +Science and Health, which we did, but ignorance and the prejudice of old +education produced such fear that I hid the book under the covers of the +bed whenever the children came into the room, fearing that it was not of +God and would injure them. God's dear love was, however, more potent +than these foolish fears, and the first day I read from its sacred pages +I was convinced its teachings were the same truths as Jesus Christ had +taught centuries ago. When I had read a few pages, I reached out and +threw my medicine from the open window at the head of my bed. I then +turned back to the book and began reading again, when, lo, the +Christ-idea dawned upon me, and I was healed instantaneously. + +I first noticed the spot in my back cooling, and soon I got out of bed. +I continued to read eagerly; I felt as if I wanted to devour the healing +truth, and drank it in as a thirsty plant does the gentle rain. When +dinner was prepared, I walked out and ate a hearty meal with the family, +to the amazement of all. We shall never forget what a joyful meal this +was. How we did thank God for Christian Science! + +As year after year has gone by, till twenty years have passed and the +healing has remained perfect, I have grown to thank God with deeper +sincerity that one brave woman was found pure enough to bring forth this +Christ-healing again, to remain forever among men and to save suffering +humanity from all disease and sin. - Mrs. P. L. H., Fairmont, Minn. + +FROM DESPAIR TO HOPE AND JOY + +I have often had a desire to make public what Christian Science has done +for me, but I never could tell of all my blessings, they are so many. +>From childhood I was always sick, never knew one hour of rest, and was +under the doctor's care most of the time. I was living in the East at +that time, and was advised to try change of climate, which I did. I came +West with my family in the spring of the year, but instead of growing +better I grew steadily worse, until at last I was obliged to keep my bed +for nearly three years, - a great sufferer. My ailments were, it seemed, +all that flesh is heir to, and were called incurable by the doctors; +viz., Bright's disease, and many others, - in the last stages. My case +was known among physicians, many of whom were prominent specialists, as +a most extreme one. Many, upon looking at me, would turn away with a +wise shake of the head and say, "What keeps her alive?" My physicians, +who were exceedingly kind and did all that lay within their power for +me, gave me up and the death sentence was pronounced on me by all who +attended me. + +It was then I realized that "man's extremity is God's opportunity." The +"little book" was handed me at this hour of great need. I read it, not +thinking it would heal me, but, like a drowning man, I grasped at it. I +read it, read it again, and soon found myself growing stronger; then I +kept on reading and was perfectly healed of all the supposedly incurable +diseases. - L. B., Austin, Minn. + +TRUTH MAKES FREE + +As the son of a physician, a graduate in pharmacy, and an ex-druggist, I +had a perfect contempt for what I thought Christian Science to be. About +six and a half years ago, however, having exhausted all material means +at my command, - /materia medica/, electricity, gymnastics, cycling, and +so on, - and being in a hopeless state, the study of Christian Science +was taken up. I had been a sufferer from catarrh and sore throat for +over thirty years, and in the last five were added several others, +including dyspepsia, and bronchitis, and a loss in flesh of sixty +pounds. I was completely healed, and regained health, strength, and +flesh through the spiritual understanding of Christian Science, the +result of about six weeks' study. This good and perfect gift came to me +through the careful and prayerful study of Christian Science, as +revealed to the world to-day through Science and Health. The promise of +Christ Jesus, "the truth shall make you free," was fulfilled, and the +past six years of health and harmony have been spent in striving to +"hold fast that which is good." + +While most grateful for the physical +healing, my gratitude for the mental and spiritual regeneration is +beyond expression. When I learned that Jesus' mission of healing +sickness as well as sin did not end with his short stay upon earth, but +is practical in all ages, my joy was unbounded. Having spent thousands +in the old way, it seemed wonderful to be healed at such small cost as +the price of the "little book" and a few weeks' study. Every thought of +prejudice immediately vanished before the proofs that Christian Science +is indeed the elucidation and practical application of Jesus' teachings, +which are demonstrable truth, "The same yesterday, and to-day, and +forever." - C. N. C., Memphis, Tenn. + +DEAF EARS UNSTOPPED + +As a mother of a family my heart goes out in love and gratitude to that +good woman we are privileged to call our Leader, for all she has done +through her book for me and mine. + +Ten years ago I was healed of hereditary deafness and catarrh of the +head, simply through reading the book, Science and Health. For years +previous I had consulted and taken treatment from some of the best +specialists for the ear and throat, both in England and America, but +grew worse all the time. I was then urged by a lady who had been healed +through Christian Science to buy this book and study it. I did so very +reluctantly, but had not read fifty pages before I felt I had indeed +found the truth which makes free, and can truly say, from that time I +have never had a return of the ailment. + +That for which I am, however, most grateful, is the daily help it is to +me in my household of young children. I am sure if mothers only knew +what Christian Science truly means they would give all they possess to +know it. We have seen croup, measles, fever, and various other +children's complaints, so-called, disappear like dew before the morning +sun, through the application of Christian Science, - the understanding +of God as ever-present and omnipotent. It has been proven to me without +a doubt that God is a very present help in trouble, and what a blessed +help this wonderful truth is in the training of our children, and how +quickly the child grasps it. + +Some time ago my little girl, then three years old, dislocated her +shoulder. I was alone in the house at the time. The pain was so intense +that she became faint. I treated her the best I knew how, but kept +holding the thought that just as soon as some one came I would run for +help. She seemed to grow worse and cried very much. I undressed her and +tried to twist the arm into place, but it caused such suffering that I +began to get afraid. Then like a flash came the thought, What would you +do if you were out of the reach of a practitioner? Now is your time to +prove God's power and presence. With these thoughts came such a sense of +calm and trustfulness that I lost all fear. I then asked the child if I +should read to her; she said "Yes, mamma, read the truth-book." I began +reading aloud to her from Science and Health. In about half an hour I +noticed she tried to lift the arm but screamed and became very pale. I +continued to read aloud and again she made an effort to put some candy +into her mouth. This time I noticed with joy that she almost reached her +mouth before she felt the pain. I kept reading aloud to her until my +sister and two boys came in, when she jumped off her bed, so delighted +to see her brothers that she forgot her arm. She then began to tell her +aunt that she had broken her arm and mamma treated it with the +truth-book. When this happened, it was about 10.30 A. M. and by 3 P. M. +she was playing out doors as though nothing had ever happened. - Mrs. M. +G., Winnipeg, Man. + +SAVED FROM INSANITY AND SUICIDE + +A few years ago, while under a sense of darkness and despair caused by +ill health and an unhappy home, Science and Health was loaned me with a +request that I should read it. + +At that time my daughter was given up by /materia medica/ to die of +lingering consumption, supposed to have been inherited. My own condition +seemed even more alarming, as insanity was being manifested, and rather +than go to an insane asylum, it seemed to me the only thing to do was to +commit suicide. Heart trouble, kidney complaint, and continual headaches +caused from female trouble were some of the many ailments I had to +contend with. My doctor tried to persuade me to undergo an operation as +a means of relief, but I had submitted to a severe operation ten years +previous, and found only additional suffering as a result, so I would +not consent. + +When I began with Science and Health, I read the chapter on "Prayer" +first, and at that time did not suppose it possible for me to remember +anything I read, but felt a sweet sense of God's protection and power, +and a hope that I should at last find Him to be what I so much needed, - +a present help in time of trouble. Before that chapter on "Prayer" was +finished, my daughter was downstairs eating three meals a day, and daily +growing stronger. Before I had finished reading the textbook she was +well, but never having heard that the reading of Science and Health +healed any one, it was several months before I gave God the glory. + +One by one my many ailments left me, all but the headaches; they were +less frequent, until at the end of three years the fear of them was +entirely overcome. + +Neither myself nor my daughter have ever received treatments, but the +study of the Bible and Science and Health, the Christian Science +textbook by Mrs. Eddy, has healed us and keeps us well. + +While Christian Science was very new to me, I attended an experience +meeting in First Church of Christ, Scientist, Chicago. A gentleman told +of an unhappy woman who was about to separate from her husband. This +gentleman had asked her if she did not love her husband. She replied, +"No; when I married him I did, but not now." He told her God made man in +His image and likeness, and that He is perfect. He said to her, "Go home +and see only God's perfect man; you don't need to love a sinful mortal +such as you have been looking upon." The lady followed his advice, as he +told her there is no separation in divine Mind. In a short time peace +and harmony were in her home, and both husband and wife became members +of a Christian Science church. + +This testimony was like a message from heaven to me. I had received many +benefits from the study of Science and Health, but it had never dawned +upon my darkened consciousness till then how wonderful our God is. I +knew what had taken place in that home could take place in my unhappy +home where there was neither rest nor peace. + +I hopefully took up my cross, and step by step my burden grew lighter, +as I journeyed along, realizing the presence of the Christ, Truth, that +indeed makes us free. Not all at once did any outward change appear, but +at the end of three years all was peace, all the members of the family +attending church together and realizing that there is but one Mind. - E. +J. B., Superior, Wis. + +STOMACH TROUBLE HEALED + +I was healed of stomach trouble of many years' standing by reading +Science and Health. My condition had reached the stage in which I had +periodical attacks, that came on with greater frequency. I was a +travelling salesman, and it was a common occurrence for me to have to +call a physician to my hotel to administer morphine for an acute form of +this disease. This became a regular thing at certain places, and these +attacks always left me worse than before. As a result of the last one I +lost a great deal in weight. I had tried many physicians and most of the +usual remedies during these years of suffering, without any good result. +Finally, as a last resort, I decided to try Christian Science, and I was +healed by reading "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by +Mrs. Eddy. + +My health has been of the best since I was healed, now six years ago. In +the family we have depended entirely on Christian Science for our +healing, and have ever found it efficacious. We consider the physical +healing, however, only incidental to the understanding of God and His +goodness. This, together with our increased love for the Bible, is +proving most valuable to us. We are humbly trying to live the lives that +will prove our gratitude to God, and to our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy. - +Charles E. Peck, St. Johnsbury, Vt. + +FREED FROM MANY YEARS OF SUFFERING + +In the spring of 1880 I was taken down with a severe attack of stomach +trouble, was bedfast for three months, and not able to drive out for +nearly six months. During this time I had three good doctors treating +me. I gained a little in strength, but had very little relief from the +stomach trouble. I was recommended to try mineral springs and did so, +but with the same disappointment. I went to a sanitarium, but yet the +stomach trouble prevailed. I had some friends who recommended patent +medicines, but no healing came. + +I worried along in this way for several years. Finally I read medicine +nearly two years with a good doctor friend, especially for my own +benefit, and during this time I had a severe attack of bladder trouble, +and for fifteen years I suffered so severely at times that I thought +life was not really worth living. In connection with these +troubles I suffered every winter with rheumatism and the grip. I also +had a growth coming on both eyes called cataract, which caused my eyes +to be inflamed nearly all the time, and this growth had made such +progress that it was causing my vision to be very dim when reading. +Corns were not forgotten, as I was reminded of them very frequently, and +for all these troubles I had tried every remedy I heard of that I was +able to get, specialists included, without relief. + +Thanks to a friend who took me in this hopeless, discouraged condition +and led me to the light that never knows darkness, I got a copy of +Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy and was healed in a short time by +reading this work. - D. W. L., Anderson, Ind. + +RELIEF FROM INTENSE SUFFERING + +I became interested in Christian Science in 1901. For four or five years +I had suffered with severe attacks which nothing but an opiate seemed to +relieve. After one which I think was the worst I ever had, I consulted +our family physician, who diagnosed my case as a dangerous kidney +disease and said that no medicine could help me but that I must undergo +a surgical operation. I continued to grow worse and went to see the +physician again, and he advised me to consult a doctor who was connected +with the city hospital of Augusta. This doctor made an examination and +diagnosed the difficulty as something different but quite as serious. +Meanwhile a friend offered me a copy of Science and Health. I said I did +not care to read the book, but she was so urgent that I finally promised +to do so. I received the book on Saturday, and on Sunday morning I sat +down to read it. When I reached the place where Mrs. Eddy says she found +this truth in the Bible, I began comparing the two books. I read +passages which looked very reasonable to me, and said to myself, This is +nearer to the truth than anything I have ever seen. I continued to read +all day, stopping only long enough to eat my dinner. As I read on, +everything became clearer to me, and I felt that I was healed. During +the evening a neighbor came in, and I said, "I am healed, and that book +has healed me." I read on and was certainly healed. Eight days after my +healing I did my own washing. This occurred in February, 1901. About six +weeks after, I was called to care for my mother, who was under the care +of my former physician. I again let him examine my side, as he wished to +see if the trouble was still there. He said, "It is certainly gone." I +said to him, "Doctor, you told me I would never be a well woman unless I +was operated upon; what has healed me?" He replied, "God has healed +you." - S. H. L., North Pittston, Me. + +GRATEFUL FOR MANY BLESSINGS + +It is with sincere gratitude for the many blessings Christian Science +has brought me, that I give this testimony. I first heard of Christian +Science about fifteen years ago. A friend of mine was taking treatment +for physical troubles, and was reading the textbook of Christian +Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. The title of the +book appealed to me very strongly. I said to my friend, "If that is a +Key to the Scriptures, I must have it." + +I had long been a member of a Bible class in an orthodox Sabbath school, +but I never felt satisfied with that which was taught; there was +something lacking, I did not understand then what it was. I purchased a +copy of Science and Health and began to study it. I wish I could express +in words what that book brought me. It illumined the Bible with a +glorious light and I began to understand some of the Master's sayings, +and tried to apply them. + +I had had a longing to live a better Christian life for many years, and +often wondered why I failed so utterly to understand the Bible. Now I +knew; it was lack of spiritual apprehension. + +I did not know at first that people were healed of disease and sin by +simply reading Science and Health, but found after a while that such was +the case. At that time I had many physical troubles, and one after +another of these ills simply disappeared and I found that I had no +disease, - I was perfectly free. The spiritual uplifting was glorious, +too, and as I go on in the study of this blessed Science, I find I am +gaining surely an understanding that helps me to overcome both sin and +disease in myself and in others. My faith in good is increased and I +know I am losing my belief in evil as a power equal to good. The pathway +is not wearisome, because each victory over self gives stronger faith +and a more earnest desire to press on. - E. J. R., Toledo, Ohio. + +GRATEFUL FOR MORAL AND SPIRITUAL AWAKENING + +About four years ago, after I had tried different ways and means to be +relieved from bodily suffering, a faithful friend called my attention to +the teaching of Christian Science. After some opposition, I decided to +investigate it, with the thoughtthat if this teaching would be helpful, +it was meant for me as well as for others; if it did not afford any help, I +could put it aside again, but that I would find out and be convinced. + +After I had read Mrs. Eddy's work, Science and Health, a few days, I +found that my ailments had disappeared, and a rest had come to me which +I had never before known. I had smoked almost incessantly, although I +had often determined to use my will power and never smoke again, but had +always failed. This desire as well as the desire for drink simply +disappeared, and I wish to say here, that I received all these benefits +before I had gained much understanding of what I was reading. Like a +prisoner, who had been in chains for years, I was suddenly set free. I +did not then know how the chain had been removed, but I had to +acknowledge that it came through the reading of this book. I then felt +an ardent desire to read more, and to know what this power was that had +freed me in a few days of that which I had been trying for years to +shake off and had failed. It then became clear to me that this was the +truth which Jesus Christ taught and preached to free humanity almost two +thousand years ago. It did not, however, occur to me to apply it in my +business affairs; on the contrary, I first thought that if I continued +in my study I would have to retire from business. + +This did not happen, however, for I gradually found that the little +understanding of this wonderful teaching which I had acquired became a +great help to me in my business. I became more friendly, more honest, +more loving to my fellow-men; and I also acquired better judgment and +was able to do the right thing at the right time. As a natural result my +business improved. Before I knew anything of Christian Science my +business had often been a burden to me, fear and worry deprived me of my +rest. How different it is now! Through the study of the Bible, which now +possesses unmeasurable treasures for me, and for our textbook, Science +and Health, and the other works of our Leader, I receive peace and +confidence in God and that insight into character which is necessary for +the correct management of any business. - W. H. H., Bloomfield, Neb. + +HEREDITARY DISEASE OF THE LUNGS CURED + +For a long time I have been impelled to contribute a testimony of the +healing power of Truth. As I read other testimonies and rejoice in them, +some one may rejoice in mine. I was healed by reading Science and +Health. By applying it, I found it to be the truth that Jesus taught, - +the truth that sets free. + +From childhood I had never known a well day. I was healed of lung +trouble of long standing. Consumption was hereditary in our family, my +mother and three brothers having passed on with it. The law of/ materia +medica /said that in a short time I must follow them. I also had severe +stomach trouble of over eight years' standing, during which time I +always retired without supper, as the fear of suffering from my food was +so great that I denied myself food when hungry. For over twenty years I +had ovarian trouble, which was almost unbearable at times. It dated from +the birth of my first child, and at one time necessitated an operation. +I suffered with about all the ills that flesh is heir to: I had trouble +with my eyes from a child; wore glasses for fourteen years, several +oculists saying I would go blind, one declaring I would be blind in less +than a year if I did not submit to an operation, which I refused to do. + +But thanks be to God whose Truth reached me through the study of our +textbook. Words fail to express what Christian Science has done for me +in various ways, for my children, my home, my all. The physical healing +is but a small part; the spiritual unfolding and uplifting is the "pearl +of great price," the half that has never been told. - Mrs. J. P. M., +Kansas City, Mo. + +TEXTBOOK APPRECIATED + +It has been my privilege to have interviews with representatives of more +than sixty per cent of the nations of this earth, under their own vine +and fig-tree. I had never heard a principle understandingly advanced +that would enable mankind to obey the apostolic command, "prove all +things," until Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures was placed +in my hands. I believe that the honest study of this book in connection +with the Bible will enable one to "prove all things." + +I make this unqualified statement because of what my eyes have seen and +my ears heard from my fellow-men of unquestioned integrity, and the +positive proofs I have gained by the study of these books. Many supposed +material laws that had been rooted and grounded in my mentality from +youth have been overcome. It required some time for me to wake up to our +Leader's words in Miscellaneous Writings, p. 206: "The advancing stages +of Christian Science are gained through growth, not accretion." I had +many disappointments and falls before I was willing to do the scientific +work required to prove this statement; yet notwithstanding the cost to +ourselves, I am convinced that we cannot do much credit to the cause we +profess to love until we place ourselves in a position to prove God as +He really is to us individually, and our relation to Him, by scientific +work. + +I wish to express loving gratitude to our Leader for the new edition of +Science and Health. In studying this new edition one cannot help seeing +the wisdom, love, and careful and prayerful thought expressed in the +revision. Often the changing of a single word in a sentence makes the +scientific thought not only more lucid to him who is familiar with the +book, but also to those just coming into the blessed light. All honor to +that God-loving, God-fearing woman, Mary Baker G. Eddy, whose only work +is the work of love in the helping of mankind to help themselves; who +has placed before her fellow-men understandingly, what man's divine +rights are, and what God really is. - H. W. B., Hartford, Conn. + +RUPTURE AND OTHER SERIOUS ILLS HEALED + +When I took up the study of Christian Science nearly three years ago, I +was suffering from a very bad rupture of thirty-two years' standing. +Sometimes the pain was so severe that it seemed as if I could not endure +it. These spells would last four or five hours, and while everything was +done for me that could be done, no permanent relief came to me until I +commenced reading Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. After I +had once looked into it I wanted to read all the time. I was so absorbed +in the study of the "little book" that I hardly realized when the +healing came, but I was healed, not only of the rupture, but also of +other troubles, - inflammatory rheumatism, catarrh, corns, and bunions. + +I would never part with the book if I could not get another. I am +seventy-seven years old, and am enjoying very good health. - Mrs. M. E. +P., St. Johnsbury, Vt. + +MOTHER AND DAUGHTER HEALED + +When Christian Science came to me, I had been taking medicine every day +for twenty years, on account of constipation. I had been treated by +doctors and specialists; had taken magnetic treatments and osteopathy; +had tried change of climate; had an operation in a hospital, and when I +came out was worse than before. I was so discouraged, after I had tried +everything I ever heard of, and was no better but rather grew worse, +that it seemed as though I must give up trying to get well, when a +friend suggested that I try Christian Science. I had heard that +Christian Scientists healed by prayer, and I thought this must be the +way Jesus had healed. I felt that this was all there was left for me to +try. I sent for the book, Science and Health, and commenced to read it +out of curiosity, not thinking or knowing that I could be helped by the +reading, but thinking I must still take medicine and that I must also +have treatment by a Scientist. I, however, dropped my medicine and read +for three days; then a light began to shine in the darkness. I was +healed of the trouble and have never had to take medicine since. I have +studied Science and Health faithfully ever since, and other ailments +have disappeared. My little daughter has also been healed and has +learned to use this knowledge in her school work. - Mrs. O. R., +Leadville, Col. + +LIVER COMPLAINT HEALED + +As my thoughts go back to the time when I believed I had nothing to live +for, and when each morning's awaking from sleep brought a sense of +disappointment to find myself still among the living (for I had hoped +each night that I closed my eyes in sleep that it would be the last +time), my heart overflows with love and gratitude to God for our dear +Leader who discovered this blessed truth and to the dear ones who have +helped me so lovingly and patiently over many rough places. + +Twelve years ago, I consulted a physician because I had noticed some +odd-looking spots on one of my arms. He said they were liver spots, but +that it was not worth while prescribing for those few, that I should +wait until I was covered with them. About three months later, with the +exception of my face and hands, I was covered with them. Then I became +alarmed and called on another physician who prescribed for me, but be +finally said he could do no more for me. Other physicians were consulted +with no better results. Six years ago, friends advised me to see their +family physician, and when I called on him he said he was positive he +could cure me, so I asked him to prescribe for me. At the end of two +years, after prescribing steadily, he said I was so full of medicine +that he was afraid to have me take any more, and advised a rest. After +having paid out a small fortune, I was no better, and very much +discouraged. + +Two years ago, having failed in business, I applied to one of my patrons +for a furnished room where I could meet the few I still had left. This +lady, who is a Christian Scientist, loaned me Science and Health, and +because she asked me so often how I was getting on with the book, I +began reading it. I also attended the Wednesday evening meetings which I +found very interesting. After hearing the testimonies at the meetings, I +decided to speak to some practitioner about these spots, but not until I +had at least a hundred dollars on hand, because I thought I would +require that amount for treatments, as I had been accustomed to paying +high prices. I had not inquired about prices, and in fact did not speak +to any one about my intentions, because I felt sensitive on this +subject. When I had read about half of Science and Health, I missed the +spots, and upon searching could find no trace of them. They had entirely +disappeared without treatment. In a few weeks the reading of that book +had accomplished what /materia medica/ had failed to accomplish in ten +years. It is impossible to express the feeling of relief and happiness +which came over me then. - C. K., Astoria, N. Y. + +A CONVINCING INVESTIGATION + +While I have testified to those around me and in many localities, of my +healing in Christian Science, I feel that it is high time I put the +candle in the candlestick where all who will may see. My earliest +recollection was a day of suffering, - a physical inheritance from my +mother, which gave simple interest for a time until years advanced and +compound interest was added. My father was a physician, and material +remedies were used for my mother without avail, consequently his +confidence in them for me was shaken, - in fact he often told me it was +better to suffer without medicine than become a chronic doser, without +pain. + +I began teaching in early life and continued for more than twenty years, +and during that time not a day passed without pain, or fear of pain, and +only for my innate love of life it would have become an intolerable +burden. For five years oatmeal was my chief food and I became almost as +attached to it as Kaspar Hauser to his crust. I was early taught to have +faith in God, and many times was relieved of pain only to have it appear +again in an aggravated form. + +At last my heart cried out for the living God, and the answer came by +one of His messengers, who told me of Christian Science. I replied that +I believed God could heal, but that I had no faith in the healing of +Christian Science, but would like to investigate its theology, as it +might aid in giving me some clue to the meaning of life. For three years +I had searched the works of the most scientific writers to find the +origin of life; many times I would think I had traced it to the +beginning, but it would elude my grasp every time. One day in talking +with my friend, she said she would like to loan me the textbook, Science +and Health, which I very willingly accepted. Not long afterward I felt a +severe attack of suffering. I opened the book for the first time and +found a paragraph near the middle which attracted my attention. I read +the same paragraph over and over for nearly two hours. When the tea bell +rang I closed the book and I shall never forget my perception of the new +heaven and the new earth, - everything in nature that I could see seemed +to have been washed and made clean. The flowers that I have always loved +so much, and that from childhood had told me such sweet stories, now +spoke to me of the All-in-all, the hearts of my friends seemed kinder, - +I had touched the hem of the garment of healing. + +I ate my supper that evening forgetful of the preparations I had made +for suffering, and when the next day began I was more zealous of good +work than ever before. Since closing Science and Health at my first +reading I have never been able to find the paragraph which I had read so +many times over, the words seemed to have slipped away from me, but my +joy knew no bounds at having found the pearl of great price. By the +continued reading of the book I was entirely healed, and for fourteen +years I have not seen a day of physical suffering. - Miss L. M., Rome, +N. Y. + +DEAFNESS AND DROPSY HEALED + +I had been deaf from childhood. I suffered intensely after eating, and +dropsy was another of my complaints. This, with consumption, caused one +doctor to say, " It puzzles me; I have never seen such a case before as +yours." + +I met a friend who had been cured in Christian +Science, and she said, "Try Christian Science." I got a copy of Science +and Health and in three weeks I was entirely cured. I felt uplifted. It +seemed as if God's arms were around and about me. I felt as if heaven +had come down to earth for me. After five years of suffering can any one +wonder at my unspeakable gratitude? - A. B., Pittsburg, Pa. + +GRATEFUL FOR MANY BLESSINGS + +In 1894 I began the study of Christian Science. At that time I was +greatly in need of its healing truth. For a number of years previous I +had been a semi-invalid with no hope of ever being well and strong +again. Several years before this time I had undergone an operation which +resulted in peritonitis. For three years previous to my study of Science +and Health by Mrs. Eddy, I was scarcely ever free from headache caused +by the weakened and diseased condition of the internal organs. At the +time I began the study of Christian Science I was taking five kinds of +medicine. + +I began to read Science and Health, and did not take treatment, for I +thought, "If this is truth, I shall be healed; if it is not, I shall be +able to detect it, and will have nothing to do with it." I became a +devoted student and gradually my bodily diseases left me, - I was free, +and since that time, nearly ten years ago, neither my two children nor +myself have taken any medicine; and our understanding of truth has been +able to meet and overcome any suggestion of illness. + +I was a devoted member of an orthodox church, but as I grew older I +began to question my beliefs, and to my questions I could find no +satisfactory answer. I became dissatisfied and finally ceased attending +church. I could not accept the idea of God taught there, and at last my +friends looked sadly upon me as an atheist. There I stood until I +learned to know God as revealed in Science and Health, and then all my +questionings were answered. In my girlhood I had always prayed to the +God I held in mind, and when the shadows of sickness pain, and death +came to my family, I prayed as only those can who know that if He helps +not, there is none; but my prayers were unanswered. Then I closed my +Bible, saying, "There is a mistake somewhere, perhaps some time I may +know." + +Only those who know the attitude of mind that I was in can understand +the joy that came to me as I began to learn of God in Christian Science, +and of my relation to Him. + +Many proofs of the healing power of Truth and of His protecting care +throng my thoughts. Seven years ago, when we were in a far distant +country, where Christian Science was then unknown, my little daughter +came in one morning from her school, saying, "Mother, I have measles; +twenty of the girls are sick in bed and I am afraid they will put me +there also." Her face, hands, and chest were covered with a deep red +rash, throat sore, and eyes inflamed. We began immediately to do our +work in Science and at night, when I left her at the door of the +college, her face was clear, her eyes bright, and all fear destroyed. +That was the end of the disease. - F. M. P., Boston, Mass. + +A JOYFUL EXPERIENCE + +In love and gratitude to God, and to Mrs. Eddy, the interpreter of +Jesus' beautiful teachings, I wish to tell of some of the benefits which +I have received from Christian Science. It is a little over a year since +Science found me in a deplorable condition, physically as well as +mentally. I had ailments of many years' standing, - chronic stomach +trouble, severe eye trouble, made almost unbearable from the constant +fear of losing any sight (a fate which had befallen my mother), also a +painful rupture of twenty-five years' standing. These ailments, combined +with unhappy conditions in my home, made me very despondent. I had +entirely lost my belief in an all-merciful God, and I did not know where +to turn for help. At that time Christian Science was brought to my +notice, and I shall never forget the sublime moment when I perceived +that an all-loving Father is always with me. Forgotten was all sorrow +and worry, and after four weeks' reading in Science and Health all my +ailments had disappeared. I am today a healthy, contented woman. + +All this has come to pass in one short year, and my earnest desire is to +be more and more worthy to be called a child of God. This is in loving +gratitude for an understanding of this glorious truth. - Mrs. R. J., +Chicago, Ill. + +AN EVER-PRESENT HELP + +It is a year since I began to read Science and Health, and I will now +try to outline what a knowledge of its teachings has done for me. + +My condition was then very trying; my eyes, which had caused me much +trouble since childhood, were very painful. For these I had been treated +by some of the best specialists in my native land, and after coming to +the United States I had been doctored much and had worn glasses for four +years. I also had catarrh, for which I had taken much medicine without +being relieved. In addition to this I was an excessive smoker, using +tobacco in some form almost constantly. I had contracted a smoker's +heart, and used liquors freely. + +The one who brought to me that which I now prize so highly, was a book +agent. I told him that I should be forced to leave my trade on account +of my eyes. He then told me of having been healed of a cancer, through +Christian Science treatment. He showed me a copy of Science and Health, +which had the signs of much use, and after being assured that if I did +my part I would be healed of all my diseases, I sent for a copy of the +book. + +My recovery was very rapid, for after reading the book only three weeks +I was completely healed of the tobacco habit. I will say, in regard to +this healing, that it did not require even as much as a resolution on my +part. I was smoking a cigar, while reading Science and Health, when all +the desire to continue smoking left me, and I have never had a desire to +use tobacco in any form since then. My eyes were the next to manifest +the influence of the new knowledge gained, and had soon so far recovered +that I could go about my work with ease, and I have had no more use for +glasses. To-day my heart is normal, the catarrh has totally disappeared, +and I am not addicted to the use of liquor. + +Christian Science has proved to be an ever-present help, not only in +overcoming physical ailments, but in business and daily life. It has +also overcome a great sense of fear. The Bible, which I regarded with +suspicion, has become my guide, and Christianity has become a sweet +reality, because the Christian Science textbook has indeed been a "Key +to the Scriptures" and has breathed through the Gospel pages a sweet +sense of harmony. - A. F., Sioux City, Iowa. + +SEVERE EYE TROUBLE OVERCOME + +After hearing Christian Science lightly spoken of, from a Christian +pulpit, I decided to go to one of the services and hear for myself. From +infancy I had been devoted to my church, and as soon as I was old enough +I was ever active in the work. Feeling it to be my duty to attend every +service held in my own church, I took advantage of the Wednesday evening +meetings. My first visit was not my last, I am thankful to say, for I +saw immediately that these people not only preached Christianity, but +practised and lived it. At that time I was wearing glasses and had worn +them for sixteen years. At times I suffered the most intense pain, and +for this phase of the trouble, one specialist after another had been +consulted. All gave me very much the same advice; each one urged extreme +carefulness and gave me glasses that seemed to relieve for a time. None +of them held out any hope that my sight would ever be restored, saying +that the defect had existed since infancy, and that in time I should be +blind. + +The thought of blindness was very distressing to me, but I tried to bear +it with Christian resignation, since I thought that God had seen fit to +afflict me; but since I have learned that He is a loving Father, who +gives only good, I regret that I ever charged Him with my affliction. I +had no treatment, but I read Science and Health, and my eyes were healed +and glasses laid aside. I can never find words to express my thanks to +our dear Leader, through whose teachings my sight has been regained. I +can truthfully say that "whereas I was blind, now I see" - through an +understanding of Truth I have found my sight perfect as God gave it. - +Miss B. S., Wilmington, N. C. + +A TESTIMONY FROM IRELAND + +It is with a heart full of love and gratitude to God, and to our dear +Leader, that I send this testimony to the Field. I had never been a +strong girl; had always been subject to colds and chills, and suffered +all my life from a delicate throat. Seven years ago I had a very severe +attack of rheumatic fever and subsequently two less severe ones. These +left all sorts of evils behind them, - debility, chronic constipation, +and several others, so that with these ills my life was often a burden +to me and I used to think I never should receive relief or health. I had +also lost all love for God and faith in Him. I could not accept a God +who, as I then believed, visited sickness and sorrow upon His children +as a means for drawing them to Him. + +I was in this state of mind and body when Christian Science found me. A +dear friend, seeing my suffering, presented the truth to me, and though +at first I did not believe that there could be healing for me, the +Christian Scientists' God seemed to be the one I had been looking for +all my life. I began to read Science and Health, and shall never forget +my joy at finding that I could love and trust God. I took to studying +the Bible, and read nothing but Science and Health and other Christian +Science literature for a year. After studying the "little book" for +about six weeks, I one day realized that I was a well woman, that I had +taken no medicine for three weeks, and that my body was perfectly +harmonious. The reading of Science and Health had healed me. The +wonderful joy and spiritual uplifting which came to me then no words of +mine can describe. I had also suffered from astigmatism and had for +several years been obliged to use special glasses when reading or +working, and could never use my eyes for more than half an hour; but +from the first reading of Science and Health I found that I could read +in any light and for any length of time without the slightest +discomfort. I am not only grateful for the physical healing but for the +mental regeneration. I rejoice that I am now able to help others who are +sick and sorrowing. - E. E. L., Curragh Camp, County Kildare, Ireland. + +THE TEXTBOOK MAKES OPERATION UNNECESSARY + +In the early part of the year 1895 my physician said I must undergo a +surgical operation in order ever to be well. + +While in great fear, and dreading the operation, a kind neighbor called, +and after telling me of Christian Science gave me a copy of Science and +Health. She said I must put aside all medicine, and by reading +faithfully she knew I could be healed. The book became my constant +companion, and in a short time I was healed. Besides the relief from an +operation, I was completely healed of severe headaches and stomach +trouble. Physicians could give me no help for either of these ailments. +For ten years I have not used medicine of any kind, and have not missed +a Christian Science service on account of sickness during this period. I +am perfectly well. To say that I am grateful to God for all this does +not express my feelings. The physical healing was wonderful, but the +understanding given me of God, and the ability to help others outweigh +all else. I also love our dear Leader. - Mrs. V. I. B., Concord, N. H. + +KIDNEY DISEASE AND EYE TROUBLE HEALED + +Early in 1904 I was teaching in a private boarding-school. I was a very +unhappy, discontented woman; I had kidney disease, besides sore eyes, +and my general health was very bad. The doctor said that the climate did +not suit me, and that I certainly should have a change. The best thing, +he said, was to go back to France (my own country); but I did not like +to leave the school, so I struggled on until July, when we went +travelling for a month, but I came home worse than ever. I had a lot of +worry, one disappointment after another, and I often thought that life +was not worth living. In September, 1904, we heard for the first time of +Christian Science through a girl who was attending our boarding-school, +and who was healed through Christian Science treatment. We bought the +textbook, "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, +and what a revelation it was and is to us; it is indeed the fountain of +Truth. I had read Science and Health but a very short time when I took +off my glasses, began to sleep well, and soon found myself well in mind +and body. Besides this, it has brought harmony into our school, where +there had been discord, and everything is changed for the better. I +cannot describe the happiness that has come to me through Christian +Science; I can only exclaim with the psalmist: "Bless the Lord, O my +soul;" and may God bless Mrs. Eddy. + +My one aim now is to live Christian Science, not in words only, but in +deeds; loving God more and my neighbor as myself, and following meekly +and obediently all our Leader's teachings. Words cannot express my +gratitude to Mrs. Eddy for Christian Science. - S. A. K., Vancouver, B. +C. + +DISEASE OF BOWELS HEALED + +When I first heard of Christian Science I had been afflicted for nine +years with a very painful disease of the bowels, which four physicians +failed even to diagnose, all giving different causes for the dreadful +sufferings I endured. The last physician advised me to take no more +medicine for these attacks, as drugs would not reach the cause, or do +any good. About this time I heard of Christian Science, and had the +opportunity of reading "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" +by Mrs. Eddy, a few minutes every day for about a week, and I +was thereby healed. In looking back I found I had not suffered in the +least from the time I began reading this book. It has been nearly +seventeen years since this wonderful healing, and I have had no return +of the disease. My gratitude is endless and can be best expressed by +striving mightily to walk in the path our Leader has so lovingly shown +us in Science and Health. - Mrs. J. W. C., Scranton, Pa. + +HEALED BY READING THE TEXTBOOK + +After doctoring about a year, I was obliged to give up school and was +under medical care for two years; but grew worse instead of better. I +was then taken to specialists, who pronounced my case incurable, saying +I was in the last stages of kidney disease and could live only a short +time. Shortly afterward my uncle gave me a copy of "Science and Health +with Key to the Scriptures," and asked me to study it. After studying a +short time I was able to walk a distance of several miles, which I had +not been able to do for three years. I also laid aside glasses which I +had worn seven years, having been told I would become blind if my eyes +did not receive proper care. It is over a year since I received God's +blessing, and I am now enjoying perfect health and happiness. I have +never had my glasses on since I first began reading Science and Health, +and I have not used any medicine. - L. R., Spring Valley, Minn. + +A TESTIMONY FROM SCOTLAND + +I came to Christian Science purely for physical healing. I was very ill +and unhappy; very cynical and disbelieving in regard to what I heard of +God and religion. + +I tried to live my life in my own way and put religion aside. I was a +great believer in fate and in will-power, and thought to put them in the +place of God, with the consequence that I was led to do many rash and +foolish things. I am now thankful to say that my outlook on life is +entirely changed; I have proved God's wisdom and goodness so often that +I am willing and thankful to know my future is in His hands and that all +things must work out for the best. I have found a God whom I can love +and worship with my whole heart, and I now read my Bible with interest +and understanding. + +I was healed of very bad rheumatism simply by reading Science and +Health. I had tried many medicines, also massage, with no result, and +the doctors told me that I would always suffer from this disease, as it +was inherited, and also because I had rheumatic fever when a child. I +suffered day and night, and nothing relieved me until Science proved to +me the falseness of this belief by removing it. I gave up all the +medicines I was taking and have never touched any since, and that is +more than two years ago. Before this I had often tried to do without a +medicine that I had taken every day for ten years, but was always ill +and had to return to it, until I found out that one Mind is the only +medicine, and then I was freed from the suffering. + +I had also suffered constantly from bilious attacks, colds, and a weak +chest, and had been warned not to be out in wet weather, etc., but now, +I am glad to say, I am quite free from all those material laws and go +out in all sorts of weather. - R. D. F., Edinburgh, Scotland. + +CURING BETTER THAN ENDURING + +For eight years I was a great sufferer from weak lungs and after being +treated by ten different physicians, in the States of Illinois, +Missouri, and Colorado, I was told there was no hope of my recovery from +what they pronounced tuberculosis, which was hereditary, my father +having been afflicted with it. I was greatly emaciated and hardly able +to be about. My general condition was aggravated by what the doctors +said was paralysis of the bowels. Three physicians so diagnosed it at +different times, and assured my husband that I could never get more than +temporary relief. This indeed I found difficult to obtain, in spite of +my almost frantic efforts. At times I was nearly insane from suffering, +and after eight years of doctoring I found myself steadily growing +worse. For four years I did not have a normal action of the bowels, and +it was only by extreme effort and by resort to powerful drugs or +mechanical means, with resultant suffering, that any action whatever +could be brought about. + +I had heard nothing of the curative power of Christian Science, and only +to oblige a friend I went one night, about three years ago, to one of +their mid-week testimonial meetings, in Boulder, Colorado. I was much +impressed by what I heard there, and determined at once to investigate +this strange religion, in the hope that it might have something good for +me. I bought the textbook, Science and Health, and from the first I +found myself growing stronger and better, both physically and mentally, +as I acquired a better understanding and endeavored to put into practice +what I learned. In one week I was able to get along better without drugs +than I had for years with them, and before three months had passed I was +better than I had been any time in my life, for I had always suffered +more or less from bowel trouble. Since that time I have taken no +medicine whatever, and rely wholly upon Christian Science. My lungs are +now sound, my bowels normally active, my general health excellent, and I +am able to endure without fatigue tasks that before would have +prostrated me. The study of our textbook was the sole means of my +healing. - L. M. St. C., Matachin, Canal Zone, Panama. + +SEVERE ECZEMA DESTROYED + +It is only two years since I came from darkness into the light of +Christian Science, and to me the spiritual uplifting has been wonderful, +to say nothing of the physical healing. Words cannot express my +gratitude for benefits I have received in that time. For five years I +suffered with that dreaded disease, eczema, all over my body. Five +doctors said there was no help for me. The suffering seemed as terrible +as the hell fire that I had been taught to believe in. When Christian +Science came to me two years ago through a dear friend, she gave me a +copy of Science and Health and asked me to read it. I told her that I +would, for I was like a drowning man grasping at a straw. I had been a +Bible student for twenty-eight years, but when I commenced reading +Science and Health with the Bible I was healed in less than a week. I +never had a treatment. A case of measles was also destroyed in +twenty-four hours after it appeared. - Mrs. M. B. G., Vermilion, Ohio. + +SCIENCE AND HEALTH A PRICELESS BOON + +I am a willing witness to the healing power of Christian Science, having +had a lifetime's battle with disease and medical experiments. Various +doctors finally admitted that they had exhausted their resources, and +could only offer me palliatives, saying that a cure was impossible. I +had paralysis of the bowels, frequent sick headaches with unutterable +agony, and my mortal career was nearly brought to an end by a malignant +type of yellow fever. Many were the attending evils of this physical +inharmony, but God confounds the wisdom of men, for while studying +Science and Health two years ago, the veil of ignorance was lifted and +perfect health was shown to me to be my real condition, and to such +there is no relapse. The constant use of glasses, which were apparently +a necessity to me for years, was proven needless, and they were laid +aside. Mrs. Eddy has made Scripture reading a never-failing well of +comfort to me. By her interpretation "the way of the Lord" is made +straight to me and mine. It aids us in our daily overcoming of the +tyranny of the flesh and its rebellion against the blessed leading of +Christ, Truth. The daily study of the Bible and our textbook is bringing +more and more into our consciousness the power of God unto salvation. - +J. C., Manatee, Fla. + +A CRITIC CONVINCED + +With gratitude to God I acknowledge my lifelong debt to Christian +Science. In 1895 I attended my first Christian Science meeting, and was +deeply impressed with the earnestness of the people and the love +reflected, but as for the spiritual healing of the physical body, I did +not believe such a thing to be possible. I bought Science and Health and +studied it to be able to dispute intelligently with the supposedly +deluded followers of Christian Science. I pursued the study carefully +and thoroughly, and I have had abundant reason since to be glad that I +did, for through this study, and the resultant understanding of my +relation to God, I was healed of a disease with which I had been +afflicted since childhood and for which there was no known remedy. +Surely my experience has been the fulfilling in part of the Scripture: +"He sent His Word and healed them, and delivered them from their +destructions." I believe that Science and Health reveals the Word +referred to by David. - C. A. B. B., Kansas City, Mo. + +BORN AGAIN + +It was in April, 1904, that I first heard the "still, small voice" of +the Christ and received healing through Christian Science; and the +blessings have been so many since, that it would take too much space to +name them. Reared from childhood in an intellectual atmosphere, my +paternal grandfather having been an orthodox minister of the old school +for forty years, and my father a deep student, ever seeking for the +truth of all things, I began early to ponder and to study into the +meaning of life, and came to the conclusion before I was twenty that +though God probably existed in some remote place, still it was +impossible to connect Him with my present living. My highest creed, +therefore, became, "Do right because it /is/ right and not for fear of +being punished." Then began the suffering. Sorrow after sorrow followed +each other in rapid succession; for ten long years there was no rest, +the road was indeed long and hard and had no turning, until finally the +one thing that had stood by me all through the trials, namely, my +health, gave way, and with that went my last hope. But the last hour of +the night had come, the dawn of day was at hand; a dear friend left +Science and Health upon my piano one day, saying that I would gain much +good by reading it. + +Glad to get away from my own poor thoughts, I opened the "little book" +and began to read. I had read only a short time when such a wonderful +transformation took place! I was renewed; born again. Mere words cannot +tell the story of the mighty up-lifting that carried me to the very +gates of heaven. When I began to read the book, life was a burden, but +before I had finished reading it the first time, I was doing all my +housework and doing it easily; and since that glorious day I have been a +well woman. My health is splendid, and I am striving to let my light so +shine that others may be led to the truth. There have been some mighty +struggles with error, and I have learned that we cannot reach heaven +with one long stride or easily drift inside the gate, but that the +"asking" and the "seeking" and the "knocking" must be earnest and +persistent. + +For a long time I was always looking back to see if +the error had gone, until one day when I realized that to catch a +glimpse of what spiritual sense means I must put corporeal sense behind +me. I then set to work in earnest to find the true way. I opened Science +and Health and these words were before me, "If God were understood, +instead of being merely believed, this understanding would establish +health" (p. 203). I saw that I must get the right understanding of God! +I closed the book and with head bowed in prayer I waited with longing +intensity for some answer. How long I waited I do not know, but +suddenly, like a wonderful burst of sunlight after a storm, came clearly +this thought, "Be still, and know that I am God." I held my breath - +deep into my hungering thought sank the infinite meaning of that "I." +All self-conceit, egotism, selfishness, everything that constitutes the +mortal "I," sank abashed out of sight. I trod, as it were, on holy +ground. Words are inadequate to convey the fullness of that spiritual +uplifting, but others who have had similar experiences will understand. + +From that hour I have had an intelligent consciousness of the +ever-presence of an infinite God who is only good. - C. B. G., Hudson, +Mass. + +A RESTLESS SENSE OF EXISTENCE DESTROYED + +Through reading Science and Health and the illumination which followed, +I was healed of ulceration of the stomach and kindred troubles, a +restless sense of existence, agnosticism, etc. The torture I endured +with the stomach trouble I will not attempt to describe. The attending +physician declared that I could live but a short time, and I felt there +would be a limit to my endurance of the torture, but the disease was +dissipated into nothingness through Christian Science, which brought me +peace. + +Like many others I had been seemingly lost in the sea of error, without +a compass, yet earnestly and honestly seeking a haven. I had +investigated all kinds of religions and philosophies that came under my +notice, with the exception of Christian Science, which was not then +deemed worthy of inquiry, and yet it held the very truth I was searching +for - the light which "shineth in the darkness; and the darkness +comprehended it not." Three years of stubborn resistance to Truth, with +increasing suffering, followed - then the light came, and with it a new +experience. Now, after nine years of Christian Science experience, under +severe tests, it can be truthfully said that it has not failed me in any +hour of need. - J. F. J., Cincinnati, Ohio. + +MORALLY AND PHYSICALLY HEALED + +I did not accept Christian Science on account of any healing of my own, +but after seeing my mother, who was fast drifting toward helplessness +with rheumatism, restored to perfect health with only a few treatments +in Christian Science, I thought surely this must be the truth as Jesus +taught and practised it, and if so it was what I had been longing for. + +This was about ten years ago and was the first I had ever heard of +Christian Science. We soon got a copy of Science and Health and I began +in the right way to see if Christian Science were the truth. I had no +thought of studying it for bodily healing; in fact, I did not think I +needed it for that, but my soul cried out for something I had not yet +found. This book was indeed a key to the Scriptures. + +It was not long after I began reading before I discovered that my eyes +were good and strong, I could read as much as I wished, and at any time, +which was something I could not do before, as my eyes had always been +weak. The doctors said they never would be very strong, and that if I +did not wear glasses, I might lose my sight altogether. I never gave up +to wearing glasses, and now, thanks to Christian Science, I do not need +them, my work for the past two years as a railway mail clerk being a +good test. At the same time my eyes were healed, I also noticed that I +was entirely healed of another ailment which had been with me all my +life, and which was believed to be inherited. Since that time my growth +has seemed to me slow, yet when I look back and view myself as I was +before Christian Science found me, and compare it with my life as it now +is, I can only close my eyes to the picture and rejoice that I have been +"born again" and that I have daily been putting off "the old man with +his deeds," and putting on "the new man." + +Some of the many things that have been overcome through the study of +Science and Health, and through realizing and practising the truth it +teaches, are profanity, the use of tobacco, a very quick temper, which +made both myself and those around me at times very miserable, and such +thoughts as malice, revenge, etc. - O. L. R., Fort Worth, Tex. + +HEALTH AND UNDERSTANDING GAINED + +Most of my boyhood days were spent in the hands of physicians. From +birth I was considered a very weakly child, but my mother was brave, and +being much devoted to me did everything within her knowledge and power +for my comfort. Sickness and medicine were continually before me, and by +the time I reached my teens I thought I knew a material remedy for every +ill. I continued in my delusion, because I was never told the real cause +of my trouble. Besides being under a leading specialist for two years, I +was also an outdoor patient at a noted hospital, but I was not healed. +It is wonderful how the "little ones" are cared for in the face of all +these seeming difficulties. I always used the prayers that I had been +taught, and as I grew older I began to ask for wisdom. Little by little +I gained a desire for freedom, and my prayers finally led me to the +truth. The first week that I heard of Christian Science, I visited the +home of dear Christian Science friends, and was at once refreshed by +their purity of thought and example. I bought a copy of Science and +Health, and, after studying it a little while with the Bible, I saw that +if the Bible was true, Science and Health must also be true. I began to +demonstrate over my physical and mental condition, and as soon as the +fear and pain began to leave me I felt encouraged to go on. I was +healed, and stopped complaining. I kept on studying our textbook, and +when I got an understanding in a small degree of the Science of Mind, my +first thought was to help others. I was guided where I could pro- +gress in Science, and was no longer "carried about with every wind of +doctrine," but held to Principle as closely as possible. From the time +the healing came into my consciousness, the desire for material remedies +left me, because Christian Science at once pointed out the way to get at +the cause of discord and disease. All that I had to give up were the +false beliefs of mortal mind. Christian Science then taught me to love +the church, and to appreciate what it had already done for mankind. I +often thought of the old adage, "Charity begins at home," and after +three years' preparation I felt able to take Christian Science to my +home, where it found, in due time, ready acceptance and willing +disciples. This gave me even greater joy than my own healing. The more +good I saw accomplished, the more love I had for the truth. Christian +Science changed my course from the first, and gave me a nobler aim and +purpose in life. I was not so easily influenced by other people's +shortcomings, when I learned that evil has neither personality nor +place. I was not so ready to take offence, when I found out the way to +work unselfishly for the upbuilding of the Cause. - A. E. J., Toledo, +Ohio. + +AN EVER-PRESENT HELP FOUND + +On the 23rd of March, 1900, I received from one of my daughters a copy +of Science and Health on my seventy-first birthday. Although a constant +reader of all kinds of papers and books, I had never heard anything of +Christian Science, except a short notice that spring in a San Francisco +newspaper, from an orthodox clergyman, referring to the Christian +Science people in not very complimentary style. + +In Mrs. Eddy's book I came across a great deal of thought that was not +readily understood at the first reading, but by continued and careful +study, and a good deal of help from my knowledge of chemistry and +natural philosophy, I soon shook off the belief of sensation in matter, +- the so-called elementary substance. One afternoon I put the belt on my +circular saw to cut blocks of firewood and also to split a small stick +of frame timber. In doing this the stick closed and pinched the saw. I +picked up a small wooden wedge and tried to drive it into the saw kerf, +but a bit of ice let the stick on to the back of the saw and instantly +it flew, with heavy force, into my face, and bouncing off my left cheek +fell about twenty feet off on the snow. The blood spattered on the snow +next the saw table, and on feeling with my hand there were two wounds, +one on the lock of the jaw and another forward, as big as a dollar, on +the cheek bone. "Now," I thought to myself, "there is a case of surgery +for you," and without further ceremony, I began to treat the case to the +best of my knowledge, with the result that the bleeding stopped almost +instantly, and so did a thumping pain, which had commenced. I paid no +more attention to the matter, but finished my work, and then went to +supper. When I washed my face, I felt a big lump on the jawbone where +the block of wood struck, but after my usual reading I went to bed and +slept all night until near daylight, when a pain on the right side awoke +me. On feeling with my hand there was another big lump on the right +side, but I treated it and went to sleep again. I never lost an hour +from the hurt, although I found out that my jaw was broken. There is no +scar, only a little red spot on the cheek, and the lumps on the bone +have long since disappeared. + +In summing up the benefits I have received from the reading of Science +and Health, I can but refer to a condition of sickness dating back to +the war (1862), when chronic and malignant diarrhea came near making an +end of my material existence. My hearing, also, was seriously impaired +from the effect of cannon firing at Shiloh, but it has come back to me, +and where I formerly dared not eat an orange, or grapes, I can now eat +anything without being hurt. My peace of mind is giving me a rest which +I never experienced before during my life, and I have ceased to look +away off for the divine presence that was always near, though I did not +know it. - L. B., Baldy, N. M. + +MANY PHYSICAL AND MENTAL TROUBLES OVERCOME + +Less than a year ago, when nothing but trouble seemed to encompass me, I +was led to Christian Science. My mother's copy of Science and Health was +always lying on the table, but I scarcely ever read it. One day, +however, the mental conflict was so great I commenced reading in the +hope of obtaining peace. Every day since then my companions have been +the Bible and Science and Health. At that time I had a very serious +eruption on my face, which had been there two years. We had consulted +several physicians, and used every remedy suggested to eradicate it, but +they proved useless. I had given up all hopes of its ever being healed, +as the physician we last consulted pronounced it tuberculosis of the +skin and incurable. A few weeks after I commenced reading, I was amazed +to see it almost healed over, and to-day my cheek is perfectly smooth, +while the scar is disappearing. + +In April my baby was born with only the practitioner and a woman friend +present. I suffered little pain, and the third day I went down-stairs. I +am able to nurse him, - a privilege of which I was deprived with my +first child. He is a picture of health, having never been sick a day +since he was born. - K. E. W. L., Mt. Dora, Fla. + +A NEW LIFE GAINED + +Leaving home when a young man, I carried with me a protection against +the temptation of a great city, - a mother's prayers and a small Bible. +For a time I read the Bible and prayed, but without understanding. This +did not suffice, and evil seemed to gain the victory. I soon omitted to +read my Bible; forgot to go to God in prayer for guidance and help, and +looked to the world for that which it never has and never can give, - +health, peace, and joy. + +Thus, years later, when Christian Science came into my home, it found me +prayerless, churchless, godless; a home discordant, and with no thought +or knowledge of spiritual things. Up to this time, my wife had for years +been seeking health through the physicians, but without success, and as +a last resort had been sent to Christian Science. The help received was +so wonderful that I commenced the study of Science and Health. The first +effect which I realized from the reading of our textbook, was a great +love for the Bible and a desire to read it, something which I had not +done for years. I went in silent prayer to God, that I might see the +light and truth which would enable me to be-come a better man. "Ye must +be born again." Thus again, and as a child, was I taught to pray "the +effectual fervent prayer" which "availeth much." In a few weeks' study +of Science and Health together with the Bible, and without other help, I +was healed of a desire for liquor, of years' standing, and of the use of +tobacco. Ten years have passed and these appetites have never returned. +I have never used either liquor or tobacco in any form from that time to +the present. Surely this Scripture is fulfilled in our home: "Old things +are passed away; behold, all things are become new." How can we estimate +the value of a book, the study of which brings such transformation and +regeneration? Only as we endeavor to live, and strive to practise what +it teaches, can we begin to pay our debt to God, and to her whom He has +sent to make plain to human understanding the life and teaching of +Christ Jesus. - W. H. P., Boston, Mass. + +A VOICE FROM ENGLAND + +For a number of years I was a weary woman, not ill enough in health to, +be called an invalid, but suffering more than could be told with fatigue +and weakness. Feeling that this was God's will, I did not ask to be +healed, although I was constantly doctoring. I suffered with dyspepsia, +congestion of the liver, and many other things, including weak eyesight. +With all the medicine, and with different changes for rest, I never +regained health, and thought I never should, so I prayed for grace to +bear my cross patiently for others' sake. One day, while lying on my +couch exhausted, which had become a frequent experience, the words came +to me, "Whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." +I rose, knelt down and said, O God, make me well. I was telling a friend +this and she kindly gave me a /Sentinel. /Imagine my joy when I saw the +testimonies of healing! I believed them, remembering our Lord's words, +"Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed." I obtained +a copy of Science and Health and before a week had passed I realized +that if God was my all I needed no glasses. My eyes were healed in a few +days, and since then I have never thought of glasses. I was also cured +of dyspepsia, and nothing that I have eaten has hurt me since then. The +belief in health laws was next destroyed, by knowing that our heavenly +Father did not make them, and from this has come the beautiful +experience of the overcoming of fatigue. + +For this alone I can never be thankful enough. True indeed are the +words, "They shall run, and not be weary." This was more than a year +ago, and I can say that not once have I felt inclined to lie on the +couch, nor have I had a headache, although I am doing more work than +ever before. Fear has also been overcome in many ways. - A. L., +Chelmsford, England. + +DEPRAVED APPETITES OVERCOME + +When Christian Science first came to me, or rather, when I first came to +Christian Science, I did not have a very bad opinion of myself. I +thought I was a pretty good fellow. I had no religious views. I seemed +to be getting along as well as, if not better than, some who +professed Christianity. So I drifted along until I was led to +investigate Christian Science. + +As I progressed in the understanding as gained from the study of both +Science and Health and the Bible, and commenced to know myself, I found +that a great change had been wrought in me. For fifteen years I had used +tobacco, both chewing and smoking; for ten years I had been a victim of +the drink habit, sometimes to excess; I was also addicted to profanity. +Christian Science removed these appetites. A stomach trouble and other +lesser ills, such as headache, a bad temper, an inordinate love of +money, etc., disappeared under the same benign influence. Those things +that seemed to be pleasure do not give me pleasure now. They were not +real pleasure. I have lost nothing, I have sacrificed nothing; but I +have gained everything, and not yet the whole, for I can see plenty yet +to be done. + +The condition of mind before investigating and after is as different as +black and white. As Mrs. Eddy says, "Not matter, but Mind, satisfieth." - +G. B. P., Henry, S. D. + +CATARRH OF THE STOMACH HEALED + +I should like to express my gratitude for the many benefits I have +received through Christian Science, and to mention the great joy brought +to me in the thought that man is not the helpless victim of sin, +disease, and death. Through its teachings I have been able to overcome +many errors. + +When Christian Science found me, one year ago last April, in Chicago, I +was suffering from catarrh of the stomach, which had been very +persistent, and I had been a slave to the cigarette habit for eighteen +years. Pain and weakness had robbed me of all that one holds dear. The +first symptoms of the disease appeared about five years ago in the form +of severe cramps of the stomach, which finally developed into other +symptoms of that painful disease. I doctored continually, my diet daily +becoming more rigid, until three slices of toast became my daily +allowance of food. + +In this condition I left the East for my home in Chicago, hoping that a +change of climate might benefit me. After spending six weeks there and +finding no relief, I concluded to return East. The Sunday morning before +leaving I picked up a Sunday paper, and glancing through the religious +items my eyes fell on the notices of Christian Science church services. +Curiosity led me to a service and I shall never forget that morning or +the surprise and joy it gave me to find that beautiful church, and to +know that so great a number actually believed that God does heal the +sick to-day. This brought a first ray of hope. The evening service found +me there again. Among the notices read was that of a reading room, +giving the location and time of opening. Monday morning found me there +promptly, and the first book I picked up was Science and Health which +opened a new world to me. + +I had dieted so long and suffered so much that I had a morbid fear of +food. When I had reached and read of "neither food nor the stomach, +without the consent of mortal mind, can make one suffer" (Science and +Health, p. 221), I left the reading room for something to eat. I found a +bakery near by, and bought a bag of cakes which I ate, and shortly after +I had a hearty dinner without the least complaint from my stomach. + +>From that time until now I have eaten anything that I wished, and the +craving for cigarettes, which I had for many years, has entirely +vanished. The understanding of Truth, which entirely relieved the +diseased stomach, healed also the morbid appetite for smoking. After +coming back East, I bought a copy of Science and Health, which I have +read daily, and find it a continual help in all the affairs of life. + +In my home and at work I find this Science a comfort and source of +strength. I have had many difficulties in the way, but it has helped me +out of them all. - W. E. B., New Britain, Conn. + +SPINAL DISEASE HEALED + +When I first heard of Christian Science, seven years ago, I supposed +that it was some old fad under a new name. In the little Texas town +where we then lived there were two or three Christian Scientists who met +at the home of one of their number to read the Lesson-Sermon. Meeting +one of them one day, I asked if unbelievers could come to their +meetings. She said that they could if they wanted to. I went, expecting +them to do something that I could laugh at when telling my friends about +it. How surprised I was to find out that they didn't do anything but +read the Bible and another book which they called Science and Health. I +still thought it all foolishness, but resolved to go to their meetings +until I found out all they believed. I continued to go until I began to +understand a little of what they knew, not what they believed; and +instead of spending my time telling others what a silly thing Christian +Science is, I am now trying to find words to tell what a great and +wonderful thing it is. I have been healed of so-called incurable spinal +disease of ten years' standing by studying the Bible and Science and +Health. Science and Health has been my only teacher, and I wish to send +my thanks to our dear Leader. + +There are no other Scientists near where we now live, but I have the +/Quarterly /and study the lessons by myself. I have five small children, +and Christian Science is invaluable to me in controlling them, and in +overcoming their common ills. They often help themselves and each other +to destroy their little hurts and fears. - Mrs. M. H., Oleta, Okla. + +MANY TROUBLES OVERCOME + +In the second chapter of First Peter, ninth verse, I read "that ye +should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness +into his marvellous light." The periodicals so wisely established by our +Leader give us one means of showing forth the praises of Truth. + +>From the darkness of physical pain and weariness into the light of +wholeness and joyousness in work and living, - from the darkness of a +clouded sight into the light of clearer vision, - from the darkness of +doubt and discord into the marvellous light of the reality of good, - +this is what a reading of the Christian Science textbook has done for +me. + +At the time the book was lent to me, I was teach- +ing in the public schools of Chicago, and absences from my work on +account of illness were of frequent occurrence. For five weeks I had +been under the care of a specialist for an organic trouble, and he said +I would have to come as many more months before a cure could be +effected. At this time, Science and Health was brought to my notice. I +never thought of such a thing as being healed by the reading of the +book, but my thought was so changed that I was healed, not only of the +organic trouble, but of blurred eyesight, fatigue, and a train of other +discordant manifestations. I did not go back to the physician until four +months later to pay my bill (which, by the way, was more than five times +the price of the Science and Health I had purchased). From the time I +read the book I taught steadily without losing time from my work. I was +helped, too, with my work in many other ways. + +Through reading the textbook I learned that God has given us strength to +do all we have to do, and that it is the things we do not have to do +(the envying, strife, emulating, vainglorying, and so on) that leave in +their wake fatigue and discord. + +Gratitude to our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, and to her faithful +students, with whom I afterwards became associated, can be expressed +only by daily efforts to put into practice what has been taught. - T. H. +A., Madison, Wis. + +PREJUDICE OVERCOME + +I became interested in Christian Science somewhat over three years ago +when in much need of help. I had never been strong, and as I grew older +I grew weaker and at last became so ill that life was a burden to me. +Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy was sent to me, in answer to prayer, as +I thought. I was a little afraid of all these new fads, as I thought +them, but I had not read far before I felt that I had found the truth +which makes us free. I was healed of stomach trouble, inward weakness, +and bilious attacks. + +One physician said I might have to undergo an operation before I could +get well, but, thanks to this Truth, I have found that the only +operation needed was the regeneration of this so-called human mind by +learning to know God. In many cases I have been able to help myself and +others. + +Words cannot express my thanks to Mrs. Eddy, and to all who are bringing +these great truths to the help of the whole world. - E. E. M., +Huntington, W. Va. + +A CONVINCING TESTIMONY + +I became interested in Christian Science some five years ago, the +practical nature of its statements appealing to me, and I must say, at +the outset, that with my little experience I have found it all and more +than I ever dreamt of realizing on this plane of existence. I am +satisfied that I have found Truth. God is indeed to me an ever-present +help. + +My little girl, some ten months old, was afflicted with constipation. It +was so severe I dreaded to go out anywhere with her, as I knew not when +she would be taken with a convulsion. I had tried all the usual remedies +in such cases, but it seemed to grow more obstinate. There was a +Christian Scientist living in the same house with us, a Scientist who +let her light shine, and while she said little, I felt the reflection of +Love. I had no knowledge of the teachings of Christian Science, save +that God was the physician at all times. In my own way I believed He was +all-powerful, and I said to my husband one day, "I am through with +medicine for baby. I am just going to leave her in God's care and see +what He will do. I have done all I can." I did as I said, laid my burden +at God's feet, and did not pick it up again. In two days the child was +perfectly natural, and has since been free from the trouble. She is now +six years of age. Some months later a second test came. She woke up at +nine o'clock at night crying and holding her ear. There was to sense a +gathering. I was alone. I took up my Science and Health and Bible, but +the more I worked the louder she screamed. Error kept suggesting +material remedies, but I said firmly: "No; I shall not go back to error. +God will help me." Just then I thought of my own fear, how excessive it +was, and a conversation I had with the Scientist who first voiced the +truth to me, came to mind. She said she always found it helpful to treat +herself and cast out her own fear before treating a patient. I put baby +down and again took up my Science and Health, and these were the words I +read: - + +"Every trial of our faith in God makes us stronger. The more difficult +seems the material condition to be overcome by Spirit, the stronger +should be our faith and the purer our love. The Apostle John says: +'There is no fear in Love, but perfect Love casteth out fear' " (Science +and Health, p. 410). I looked up, the crying had ceased, the child was +smiling, and in a few minutes asked to be put to bed. There has been no +further trouble of that kind. + +I have since seen the power of Truth overcome error of many forms, +including croup, whooping-cough, tonsilitis, etc. I am thankful for all +these proofs, but far more grateful am I for the spiritual teaching to +love, to forgive, to curb my tongue, and cease my criticism. - M. A. H., +Brockton, Mass. + +HEALED PHYSICALLY AND SPIRITUALLY + +I had been taking medicine continually for many years. Finally I was +taken suddenly ill and could not leave my room for about two months, +then I went away for three months, thinking that I should come back and +be able to continue my work. I improved very much, but the fear of quick +consumption was with my doctor and my family and friends, and I was +warned about the coming winter. Only too soon the fear manifested +itself. I had worked just three weeks when all the pains and aches +returned, and I had to go to bed as soon as I got home, so there was no +pleasure in living. My employer advised me to see my physician, and said +perhaps I should not work that winter. I then and there turned to +Christian Science. I could not afford to give up work and live away from +home, neither did I want to depend on doctors and medicine any longer. I +took the book and read it on my way to work, and at noon I lay down on a +couch instead of going out for luncheon and fell asleep. When I awoke I +was a different person, all pains and aches had gone, and I was free. I +was so happy I could hardly contain myself; to material sense it was +wonderful. As I walked I kept saying, "Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful," +and tried to understand "the scientific statement of being" by repeating +portions at a time, then pondering over them. I read the book four times +in succession, and every time I found more and more to aid in the +understanding. + +This healing was in October, l901, with no other help than Science and +Health, and soon I was relieved of other chronic ailments. In February I +was able to put away eyeglasses, which I had worn ten years and a half +for astigmatism. Oculists told me I would always have to wear them. A +month later my father asked me to help him, as he was suffering so much +from constipation, dyspepsia, and neuralgia. He had been subsisting on +bran, nearly starving himself until be was most miserable, and his limbs +seemed so cold that they were kept wrapped in blankets. I felt very +humble as he asked me, and told him I would have a practitioner help +him, as I had never treated any one; but he would not consent to have +any one but myself, and I finally told him I would try, but that he must +not hold Science responsible if he were not benefited, for my lack of +understanding, and not Science, would be at fault. At my request he read +Science and Health, ate whatever he wanted, and used no medicine in any +form. After two treatments I received word from him that he was healed +of that bondage of thirty years' standing. In view of all these signs +which followed my acceptance of Christian Science, I knew it must be +true. - R. L. A., Chicago, Ill. + +A VOICE FROM THE SOUTH + +I was delicate from childhood, and my parents did not think it was +possible for me to live more than a few years. I lived, however, +although there was not much improvement in my health. Travel and change +of climate brought only temporary relief, and the physicians gave me no +hope that I would ever be well. + +As a last resort I began the study of Science and Health, and before I +had finished reading the book I realized that its author was divinely +commissioned to bring this spiritual message to a waiting world. Through +this reading my health was restored, and I was healed of one disease +that has been called incurable by all physicians. + +For this, together with the greater and higher blessing of having the +spiritual fact of being unfolded to me, I am most grateful. + +What shall be rendered for such benefits received and made possible by +the consecrated life of our revered Leader? Only by following the +teachings of our textbook, and by loving obedience to her gentle and +timely admonitions can we show our true sense of gratitude. - F. H. D., +De Funiak Springs, Fla. + +HEALED AFTER MUCH SUFFERING + +A testimony given in the Journal led me to investigate Christian +Science, and I hope in return to be the means of leading some one else +to see the beauty of this saving truth, and to learn to know God aright +and man's relationship to Him. I know from experience that it is +prejudice and misapprehension of what Christian Science is, that keeps +many from enjoying the blessings it bestows. + +I had been taking patent medicines for several years, and had been to +one of the best sanitariums in this country, but was not healed, +although I received some benefit, for which I shall always feel +grateful, for I know the physicians did all they could for me. I +sometimes thought I had exhausted all remedies, but did not give up, for +I felt there must be something to heal me if I could find it. + +When in this state of mind Christian Science came to my notice, and +after reading several /Journals, /I purchased a copy of Science and +Health. I read for several days at odd times. I commenced to improve, +and in about a week I was healed of most of my ills, among which were +dyspepsia and nervous debility. + +Although I had heard about Christian Science before, I had never heard +that the reading of the Christian Science textbook had ever effected the +healing of anybody. I commenced reading to find out what Christian +Science was, but was surprised to find myself improving, and was soon +assured that it was the theology of Science and Health that healed me, +just as it was the theology of Jesus that healed the sick. + +It has also proved to me that there can be no Christian Science Church +that does not heal the sick and sinful, for healing follows as the +natural result of the teaching of Christian Science. The Bible has +become a new revelation to me, and I can read it much more +understandingly by the light received through the reading of Science and +Health. - A. F. M., Fairmont, Minn. + +THROUGH GREAT TRIBULATIONS + +When I attempt to make plain what Christian Science has done for me, +words fail me. For twenty years I was a constant sufferer, my spine +having been injured when I was very young. As a little child I suffered +so much that I would look up to the stars and beg God, who I thought +might be up there somewhere, to take me away from the earth, - I was so +tired. A great wall of pain seemed to separate me from the pleasures +enjoyed by others, and I could not explain how I felt, because no one +could understand. Years passed, and I saw my earthly happiness swept +away; my heart was broken and I did not know what to do. I cried for +help, day after day and night after night, although I was not sure what +God was, nor where He was. I only knew that I suffered, and was in need +of help, and that there was no earthly help for either mind or body. I +loved purity, truth, and right always, and this made evil seem a most +terrible reality. I was unable to cope with it, and so found myself in +despair. This was my condition when I commenced reading Science and +Health. I was ready for its message, and in about ten days there came a +wonderful insight into the truth which heals the sick and binds up the +broken-hearted. All pain left me, I had a glimpse of the new heavens and +the new earth, and was beginning to be fed by Love divine. + +I had suffered for years with insomnia. That night I rested like a +child, and awoke the next morning well and happy. A flood of light daily +illumined the pages of the "little book," and the revelation it holds +for all came to my waiting heart. "The peace which passeth all +understanding" rested upon me, and joy too deep for words transformed +my life. My prayers were answered, for I had found God in Christian +Science. + +The Bible, which I knew very little about, became my constant study, my +joy, and my guide. The copy which I bought at the time of my healing is +marked from Genesis to Revelation. It was so constantly in my hands for +three years that the cover became worn and the leaves loose, so it has +been laid away for a new one. Two and three o'clock in the morning often +found me poring over its pages, which grew more and more sacred to me +every day, and the help I received therefrom was wonderful, for which I +can find no words to express iny gratitude. - I. L., Los Angeles, Cal. + +A HELPFUL TESTIMONY + +Words cannot express my gratitude to God for Christian Science. When I +first read Science and Health, I had tried every remedy I had ever heard +of. I felt no change in mind or body that I was conscious of until I +read page 16 of the chapter on " Prayer," in Science and Health. The +first words of the "spiritual sense of the Lord's Prayer," telling of +our Father-Mother God, gave me a glimpse of heavenly light. I stopped +and reasoned, and remembered the teachings of Jesus. The truth of man's +spiritual being dawned on my consciousness. I realized I was not subject +to mortal laws, as I had been taught all my life. I could not explain +how I knew this, but I knew it. Through Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy had +given me what I had longed for all my life, - a Mother, a perfect +"Father-Mother God." I had known there was a great lack, and at that +time I believe the orthodox world had but half of the truth which Jesus +came to establish. When I read, "Give us this day our daily bread," and +its spiritual interpretation, my tears began to flow; all the years of +bitterness, hate, and fear melted away. I knew then, as I know now, that +nothing satisfies but Love. That day began the outward and inward +conscious healing, - mental and physical. There never came a doubt! I +absolutely knew that Christian Science was and is the truth. Money, +friends, materiality, are nothing beside the conscious knowledge of God, +man, and the universe. + +I did not need treatment from any one, - Science and Health was so clear +and beautiful. I could not understand the Bible before, but I found it +illumined now that I had a little understanding of Christian Science. +For ten years I have not had to lie down in the daytime from any +sickness. I am now, and have been all these years, the picture of +perfect health. When I first read Science and Health I weighed one +hundred and four pounds; I now weigh over one hundred and sixty. This +physical health is not to be compared to my happiness, - my harmony that +nothing can take away, - because it is the gift of God. Nothing has +shown me the perversity of the human mind more than in its conclusions +in regard to my healing. Even when I felt and knew that I was healed, +people constantly said, because I was thin and delicate looking, " You +are not well, any one could look at you and know it." Now that I am +fleshy, they say, "You don't look as if you ever had a pain in all your +life. You could not have had consumption." + +When I think what my life was before I had Christian Science, of the six +years of colds, suffering, and coughing, not to mention the unhappiness, +I want to "work, watch, and pray " for the Mind of Christ, that I may +work rightly in God's vineyard, and to know that in truth, what belongs +to one belongs to all, - that one God, one Life, Truth, and Love is all. +- A. C. L., Kansas City, Kans. + +DESIRE FOR LIQUOR AND TOBACCO DISAPPEARED + +I first heard of Christian Science four years ago. At that time drinking +and smoking were my comforters. I had no other companionship. I had +lived almost constantly from childhood in an evil atmosphere. Though I +was far from being satisfied with my condition, I failed to see how to +better it until I read Science and Health. I used occasionally to listen +to a sermon, but sermons did not give me any more comfort than I derived +from my pipe, hence I concluded that church-going could not satisfy me +and I preferred drinking and smoking. When I began to read Science and +Health, I saw it offered something substantial. After a few months' +study all desire for drinking and smoking disappeared. I did not give +them up; I made no sacrifices, I simply found something better. I might +mention that I had smoked ever since I can remember. I used to smoke +years before I left school, and, like most Englishmen, loved my pipe, +and would almost prefer to miss a meal rather than to go without my +smoke. I used to think it gave me comfort. + +During my four years' study of Christian Science I have not spent a cent +for doctors or medicine, neither have I lost a day from my work on +account of sickness, which compares wonderfully with the previous four +years. I take a great interest and pleasure in reading the Bible and +studying the lessons in the /Quarterly/. The Bible used to be a most +mysterious book to me, but Science and Health makes it a most precious +book, making its meaning clearer, plainer, and simpler. + +I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Mrs. Eddy and to the +friend who invited me to attend the service held in the Auditorium years +ago. I also wish to acknowledge the benefit I have had from the /Journal/ +and the /Sentinel. /They have helped me wonderfully. If the value of +Science and Health and these publications were measured as business men +value things, by the results or benefits they bring, they certainly +would be priceless to me. It would be impossible to measure their value, +as I have got something from Science and Health that all the money in +the world could not buy. - H. P. H., Chicago, Ill. + +AN EXPRESSION OF LOVING GRATITUDE + +In the spring of 1893, while studying for the ministry, Science and +Health was placed in my hands, and the truth contained therein at once +became to me the pearl of great price. I literally devoured the book, +reading it about eighteen hours a day. Its originality was startling, +upsetting my preconceived opinions of God, man, and creation. Two +sentences especially appealed to me: "The foundation of mortal discord +is a false sense of man's origin" (p. 262), and, "For right +reasoning, there should be but one fact before the thought, namely, +spiritual existence " (p. 492). I had found the keynote to the Science +of being as taught in this marvellous book, and persevered until a +glimpse of the new heavens and new earth came, for the old were passing +away. With this spiritual uplifting came also physical health. + +All my life had been spent in semi-invalidism, and I seemed destined to +a life of suffering. In three weeks after beginning Science and Health, +to my joyful surprise I found myself a well man, sound physically, and +uplifted spiritually. Life was being lived from a new basis, the old +things of personal sense were passing away and all things becoming new. +I learned that the infinite good is the one Friend upon whom we can call +at all times, an all-powerful, ever-present help in every time of +trouble; that His children are really governed in peace and harmony by +spiritual law, and as the right understanding of it is gained, the other +things soon follow, bringing a peace the human concept can never know. + +For the last twelve years my whole time has been devoted to Christian +Science practice, and I have seen nearly every so-called incurable +disease healed by its beneficent influence. God bless our dear Leader! +She has set before us an open door, which no man can shut, and it is but +a question of time when the world will know her better and love her +more. - E. E. N., Washington, D. C. + +HEALED OF BRIGHT'S DISEASE + +August 18, 1902, I was taken down with what three doctors pronounced +Bright's disease, and they stated that I would not live a year, or if I +did succeed in living longer, I would be mentally unbalanced. On +December 6, 1902, my wife presented me with Science and Health as a +birthday gift, and it was indeed the best present I ever received. Since +that time I have been reading it and attending the Second Church here. I +have not used any medicine since, nor has any one in our home. I am in +the finest of health and have lost all my bad habits. This truth has +brought a great spiritual uplifting to all of us, and words cannot +express my gratitude to Mrs. Eddy and to all who have helped me to the +same. - T. V., Chicago, Ill. + +FIBROID TUMOR DESTROYED + +When quite young I was impressed that the Bible was not properly +interpreted by the preachers, for I could not conceive of a God of wrath +who was unjust enough to allow His little ones to suffer pain, misery, +and death. I had hope, however, that some day the truth would be +revealed to an awakening world, but little did I dream that even then +there was one of God's noble women who reflected sufficient purity and +holiness to entertain the "angel of his presence," and commune with the +true God. + +I was believed to be predisposed to scrofula, so that I was not a strong +or attractive child, and my girlhood and womanhood were scarcely ever +free from dread of the laws of matter and lack of strength. The climax +was reached when a physician informed me, after weeks of treatment, that +I had a fibroid tumor, which required an operation. The conditions were +most trying and I was heartsick and discouraged when, in January, 1893, I +heard of Christian Science through a letter from a dear sister who had been +greatly benefited thereby, and I resolved to go at once to a +practitioner, for I believed it to be the long-lost truth that would +make me free. It meant a great effort and sacrifice for me to go to +Chicago at that time, but divine Love opened the way and I reached there +in March. I had been in my sister's home but a few days, reading Science +and Health almost constantly, when I asked her if I had not better have +treatment for the tumor, which had given me so much trouble. She said to +me, "You feel well, do you not?" I assured her that I never had felt so +well as I had since reaching there. "Well," she said with decision, +"your tumor is gone, for God never made it," and her statements were +true, for it has never been heard of from that day. Since then I have +been healed of chronic sore throat, hay fever, and other troubles, and I +know that Christian Science is the truth. - B. W. S., Coldwater, Mich. + +LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS + +I have received so much benefit from the testimonies in the /Sentinel +/and /Journal /that I send mine, hoping it may cheer some struggling +heart. I was reared by kind and loving Christian parents and was a +member of an orthodox church for over twenty years, but I was never +satisfied. I was filled with fear and bound down by the false gods of +this world, - sin, disease, and poverty; consequently every way I +turned, and in everything I attempted to do, I was met with +disappointment and failure; but God was leading me into a different +life. + +My interest was first awakened to Christian Science about thirteen years +ago, and I have been a willing disciple ever since. Through the reading +of Science and Health I was healed of chronic catarrh and laryngitis, +and it also enabled me to lay off my glasses. Christian Science has not +only helped me mentally, morally, and physically, but the greatest +blessing of all is the spiritual uplifting which enabled me to know that +God is both able and willing to care for His children, if we are but +willing to do our part and bear the cross which, though it seems heavy +at times, always brings a sure reward. Christian Science has not only +helped me, but it has enabled me to help others. + +The Bible is a new book to me. I now see what Jesus meant when he said, +"Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give +you rest." + +My heart goes out in gratitude to Mrs. Eddy for the work she has done +and is still doing for the world, and to God I am most grateful that He +has guided me into the truth, that I may have life, and have it more +abundantly. - Mrs. M. M., Chicago, Ill. + +A PRICELESS BOON + +I have long desired to express my gratitude for what Christian Science +has done, through reading Science and Health, for me and my family. I +was healed of profanity, the tobacco habit, and a bad temper, through +the understanding that man is the image and likeness of God. I was also +healed of kidney disease and rheumatism. What surprised me most, +however, was this; I had had one finger thrown out of place some fifteen +years before. It was crooked, but it became straight and useful. A bone +in my foot had also been broken, leaving a bunch, which disappeared +after I studied Christian Science and received class instruction. I am +an entirely well man and for this I am very grateful. I am also glad +that I have learned enough of Truth and love to be able to heal others. +I wish to express my thankful appreciation of our Leader, also of the +/Sentinel/ and the /Journal. /- N. R. F., Salina, Kans. + +HEALED OF CONSUMPTION AND ASTHMA + +It is a pleasure to acknowledge the great benefits which have come to me +through Christian Science. It is nearly ten years since I began the +investigation of the subject by borrowing a copy of Science and Health. +I had become a hopeless sufferer from asthma, - the disease being so +aggravated at times as to make breathing almost impossible. I was also a +victim of that dread disease, consumption. It was hereditary, nearly all +my family on both sides having passed away with it. I took up Christian +Science very much as a drowning man catches at a straw. However, I was +much interested as soon as I began to understand it, and having read the +book nearly all my waking hours for a few weeks, I became so much better +and so convinced of its truth, that myself and wife destroyed all the +medicines in the home, and have never since used any remedy except +Christian Science. I continued to study and to put into practice the +teaching as best I knew, and was restored to health in a few months. + +Prior to my investigation of Christian Science I had been from boyhood +an outspoken infidel, had read that class of literature extensively, and +had no desire for anything of a religious nature, - the orthodox +teaching never having appealed to me as a rational exposition of an +all-wise God. I now have no more doubt of the truth of the teaching of +the great Way-shower, Jesus of Nazareth, than I doubt the correctness of +the basic law of mathematics or music. I have no doubt whatever that +Christian Science saved me from the grave, and thus proved a most +practicable and efficient help in time of greatest need. However great +my physical suffering has been, I can but feel glad that through it the +door of consciousness was opened to let in the light of Truth. Thus I +have progressed a little way in the knowledge of God, good, as revealed +in Christian Science. - C. B., Webb City, Mo. + +A GRATEFUL TESTIMONY + +"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path. " + +This has been proven to me in every way. When Christian Science came to +me, I was a wreck, physically, mentally, and financially; but since the +reading of Science and Health turned my thought toward the light, I have +found that, as far as I am willing to receive the word and live it, all +comforts are supplied me. I am especially grateful for the spiritual +help. I know that things which I did and thought last year I would not +do or think this year, and am satisfied. Through the careful and +prayerful study of Science and Health I have been lifted from sickness +to health, from sorrow to peace, from lack to plenty, and, the most +beautiful of all, from darkness to light. - Mrs. H. S. C., Seattle, Wash. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg Etext of +Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy + diff --git a/3458.zip b/3458.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..ec5fe04 --- /dev/null +++ b/3458.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. 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