Science and Health With Key to the Scriptures
by
Mary Baker Eddy
Part 5 out of 14
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. Thus 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 mortal 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 hand.
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.
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