Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures
by
Mary Baker Eddy
Part 4 out of 14
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 con-
trol over God's man. The divine Mind that made man
151:24 maintains 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-
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