147:6 Late in the nineteenth century I demonstrated the divinerules of Christian Science. They were submitted to thebroadest practical test, and everywhere, when honestly ap-147:9 plied under circumstances where demonstration was hu-manly possible, this Science showed that Truth had lostnone of its divine and healing efficacy, even though cen-147:12 turies had passed away since Jesus practised these ruleson the hills of Judaea and in the valleys of Galilee.
Perusal and practice
Although this volume contains the complete Science of147:15 Mind-healing, never believe that you can absorb the wholemeaning 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 healingwill plant you firmly on the spiritual groundwork ofChristian Science. This proof lifts you high above the147:21 perishing fossils of theories already antiquated, and en-ables you to grasp the spiritual facts of being hithertounattained 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 tohis students; but he left no definite rule for147:27 demonstrating this Principle of healing andpreventing disease. This rule remained to be discoveredin Christian Science. A pure affection takes form in good-147:30 ness, but Science alone reveals the divine Principle ofgoodness and demonstrates its rules.
Jesus' own practice
Jesus never spoke of disease as dangerous or as difficult148:1 to heal. When his students brought to him a case theyhad failed to heal, he said to them, "O faithless gen-148:3 eration," implying that the requisite powerto heal was in Mind. He prescribed no drugs,urged no obedience to material laws, but acted in direct148:6 disobedience to them.
The man of anatomy and of theology
Neither anatomy nor theology has ever described manas created by Spirit, - as God's man. The former ex-148:9 plains the men of /men/, or the "children ofmen," as created corporeally instead of spir-itually and as emerging from the lowest, in-148:12 stead of from the highest, conception of being. Bothanatomy and theology define man as both physical andmental, and place mind at the mercy of matter for every148:15 function, formation, and manifestation. Anatomy takesup man at all points materially. It loses Spirit, drops thetrue 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 theologytries to explain how to make this man a Christian, - howfrom 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 claimsto rule man by material law, instead of spiritual. When148:27 physiology fails to give health or life by thisprocess, it ignores the divine Spirit as unableor unwilling to render help in time of physical need.148:30 When mortals sin, this ruling of the schools leaves themto the guidance of a theology which admits God to bethe healer of sin but not of sickness, although our great149:1 Master demonstrated that Truth could save from sicknessas well as from sin.
Blunders and blunderers
149:3 Mind as far outweighs drugs in the cure of disease asin the cure of sin. The more excellent way is divineScience in every case. Is /materia medica/ a149:6 science or a bundle of speculative humantheories? The prescription which succeeds in one in-stance fails in another, and this is owing to the different149:9 mental states of the patient. These states are not com-prehended and they are left without explanation exceptin Christian Science. The rule and its perfection of opera-149:12 tion never vary in Science. If you fail to succeed in anycase, it is because you have not demonstrated the life ofChrist, Truth, more in your own life, - because you have149:15 not obeyed the rule and proved the Principle of divineScience.
Old-school physician
A physician of the old school remarked with great149:18 gravity: "We know that mind affects the body some-what, and advise our patients to be hopefuland cheerful and to take as little medicine as149:21 possible; but mind can never cure organic difficulties."The logic is lame, and facts contradict it. The authorhas cured what is termed organic disease as readily as she149:24 has cured purely functional disease, and with no powerbut the divine Mind.
Tests in our day
Since God, divine Mind, governs all, not partially but149:27 supremely, predicting disease does not dignify therapeutics.Whatever guides thought spiritually benefitsmind and body. We need to understand the149:30 affirmations of divine Science, dismiss superstition, anddemonstrate truth according to Christ. To-day thereis hardly a city, village, or hamlet, in which are not to150:1 be found living witnesses and monuments to the virtueand power of Truth, as applied through this Christian150:3 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 a150:6 phenomenal exhibition. Its appearing is thecoming anew of the gospel of "on earth peace,good-will toward men." This coming, as was promised150:9 by the Master, is for its establishment as a permanentdispensation among men; but the mission of ChristianScience 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 highermission of the Christ-power to take away the sins of theworld.
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; andit is as evidently erroneous to the author, and will be to150:24 all others at some future day, as the practically rejecteddoctrine of the predestination of souls to damnation orsalvation. The doctrine that man's harmony is gov-150:27 erned by physical conditions all his earthly days, and thathe is then thrust out of his own body by the operation ofmatter, - even the doctrine of the superiority of matter150:30 over Mind, - is fading out.
Disease mental
The hosts of AEsculapius are flooding the world withdiseases, because they are ignorant that the human mind151:1 and body are myths. To be sure, they sometimes treatthe sick as if there was but one factor in the case; but151:3 this one factor they represent to be body, notmind. Infinite Mind could not possibly createa remedy outside of itself, but erring, finite, human mind151:6 has an absolute need of something beyond itself for itsredemption and healing.
Intentions respected
Great respect is due the motives and philanthropy of151:9 the higher class of physicians. We know that if they un-derstood the Science of Mind-healing, and werein possession of the enlarged power it confers151:12 to benefit the race physically and spiritually, they wouldrejoice with us. Even this one reform in medicine wouldultimately deliver mankind from the awful and oppres-151:15 sive bondage now enforced by false theories, from whichmultitudes would gladly escape.
Man governed by Mind
Mortal belief says that death has been occasioned by151:18 fright. Fear never stopped being and its action. Theblood, heart, lungs, brain, etc., have nothingto do with Life, God. Every function of the151:21 real man is governed by the divine Mind. The humanmind has no power to kill or to cure, and it has no com-trol over God's man. The divine Mind that made man151:24 maintain His own image and likeness. The humanmind is opposed to God and must be put off, as St. Pauldeclares. All that really exists is the divine Mind and151:27 its idea, and in this Mind the entire being is found har-monious and eternal. The straight and narrow way is tosee and acknowledge this fact, yield to this power, and151:30 follow the leadings of truth.
Mortal mind dethroned
That mortal mind claims to govern every organ of themortal body, we have overwhelming proof. But this so-152:1 called mind is a myth, and must by its own consent yieldto Truth. It would wield the sceptre of a monarch, but152:3 it is powerless. The immortal divine Mindtakes away all its supposed sovereignty, andsaves mortal mind from itself. The author has endeavored152:6 to make this book the AEsculapius of mind as well as ofbody, that it may give hope to the sick and heal them,although they know not how the work is done. Truth152:9 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 hadprepared her thought for the metaphysics of ChristianScience. Every material dependence had152:24 failed her in her search for truth; and she cannow understand why, and can see the meansby which mortals are divinely driven to a spiritual source152:27 for health and happiness.
Homoeopathic attenuations
Her experiments in homoeopathy had made her skep-tical as to material curative methods. Jahr, from152:30 /Aconitum/ to /Zincum oxydatum/, enumeratesthe general symptoms, the characteristicsigns, which demand different remedies; but the drug153:1 is frequently attenuated to such a degree that not a ves-tige of it remains. Thus we learn that it is not the drug153:3 which expels the disease or changes one of the symptomsof disease.
Only salt and water
The author has attenuated /Natrum muriaticum/ (com-153:6 mon table-salt) until there was not a single saline propertyleft. The salt had "lost his savour;" and yet,with one drop of that attenuation in a goblet of153:9 water, and a teaspoonful of the water administered at in-tervals of three hours, she has cured a patient sinking inthe last stage of typhoid fever. The highest attenuation153:12 of homoeopathy and the most potent rises above matter intomind. This discovery leads to more light. From it maybe learned that either human faith or the divine Mind is153:15 the healer and that there is no efficacy in a drug.
Origin of pain
You say a boil is painful; but that is impossible, formatter without mind is not painful. The boil simply153:18 manifests, through inflammation and swell-ing, a belief in pain, and this belief is called aboil. Now administer mentally to your patient a high153:21 attenuation of truth, and it will soon cure the boil. Thefact that pain cannot exist where there is no mortal mindto feel it is a proof that this so-called mind makes its153:24 own pain - that is, its own /belief/ in pain.
Source of contagion
We weep because others weep, we yawn because theyyawn, and we have smallpox because others have it; but153:27 mortal mind, not matter, contains and carriesthe infection. When this mental contagion isunderstood, we shall be more careful of our mental con-153:30 ditions and we shall avoid loquacious tattling aboutdisease, as we would avoid advocating crime. Neithersympathy nor society should ever tempt us to cherish154:1 error in any form, and certainly we should not be error'sadvocate.154:3 Disease arises, like other mental conditions, from as-sociation. Since it is a law of mortal mind that certaindiseases should be regarded as contagious, this law ob-154:6 tains credit through association, - calling up the fear thatcreates the image of disease and its consequent manifes-tation in the body.
Imaginary cholera
154:9 This fact in metaphysics is illustrated by the followingincident: A man was made to believe that he occupied abed 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 caughtthe cholera by material contact, because no cholera patient154:15 had been in that bed.
Children's ailments
If a child is exposed to contagion or infection, themother 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 might154:21 have been prevented through the opposite understanding.Then it is believed that exposure to the contagion wroughtthe mischief.
154:24 That mother is not a Christian Scientist, and her affec-tions need better guidance, who says to her child: "Youlook sick," "You look tired," "You need rest," or "You154:27 need medicine."
Such a mother runs to her little one, who thinks she hashurt her face by falling on the carpet, and says, moaning154:30 more childishly than her child, "Mamma knows you arehurt." The better and more successful method for anymother to adopt is to say: "Oh, never mind! You're not155:1 hurt, so don't think you are." Presently the child forgetsall about the accident, and is at play.
Drug-power mental
155:3 When the sick recover by the use of drugs, it is the lawof a general belief, culminating in individual faith, whichheals; and according to this faith will the effect155:6 be. Even when you take away the individualconfidence in the drug, you have not yet divorced the drugfrom the general faith. The chemist, the botanist, the155:9 druggist, the doctor, and the nurse equip the medicinewith their faith, and the beliefs which are in the majorityrule. When the general belief endorses the inanimate155:12 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 highand mighty truths of Christian metaphysics. This errone-ous general belief, which sustains medicine and155:18 produces all medical results, works againstChristian Science; and the percentage of power on theside of this Science must mightily outweigh the power of155:21 popular belief in order to heal a single case of disease. Thehuman mind acts more powerfully to offset the discordsof matter and the ills of flesh, in proportion as it puts less155:24 weight into the material or fleshly scale and more weightinto the spiritual scale. Homoeopathy diminishes thedrug, but the potency of the medicine increases as the155:27 drug disappears.
Nature of drugs
Vegetarianism, homoeopathy, and hydropathy havediminished drugging; but if drugs are an antidote to155:30 disease, why lessen the antidote? If drugsare good things, is it safe to say that theless in quantity you have of them the better? If drugs156:1 possess intrinsic virtues or intelligent curative qualities,these qualities must be mental. Who named drugs, and156:3 what made them good or bad for mortals, beneficial orinjurious?
Dropsy cured without drugs
A case of dropsy, given up by the faculty, fell into156:6 my hands. It was a terrible case. Tapping had beenemployed, and yet, as she lay in her bed, thepatient looked like a barrel. I prescribed156:9 the fourth attenuation of /Argentum nitratum/ with occa-sional doses of a high attenuation of /Sulphuris/. She im-proved perceptibly. Believing then somewhat in the156:12 ordinary theories of medical practice, and learning thather former physician had prescribed these remedies, Ibegan to fear an aggravation of symptoms from their156:15 prolonged use, and told the patient so; but she wasunwilling 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, andshe continued to gain. Finally she said that she wouldgive up her medicine for one day, and risk the156:21 effects. After trying this, she informed me that shecould get along two days without globules; but onthe third day she again suffered, and was relieved by156:24 taking them. She went on in this way, taking theunmedicated pellets, - and receiving occasional visitsfrom me, - but employing no other means, and she was156:27 cured.
A stately advance
Metaphysics, as taught in Christian Science, is thenext stately step beyond homoeopathy. In metaphysics,156:30 matter disappears from the remedy entirely,and Mind takes its rightful and supremeplace. Homoeopathy takes mental symptoms largely157:1 into consideration in its diagnosis of disease. ChristianScience deals wholly with the mental cause in judging and157:3 destroying disease. It succeeds where homoeopathy fails,solely because its one recognized Principle of healing isMind, and the whole force of the mental element is em-157:6 ployed through the Science of Mind, which never sharesits rights with inanimate matter.
The modus of homoeopathy
Christian Science exterminates the drug, and rests on157:9 Mind alone as the curative Principle, acknowledging thatthe divine Mind has all power. Homoeopathymentalizes a drug with such repetition of157:12 thought-attenuations, that the drug becomesmore like the human mind than the substratum of this so-called mind, which we call matter; and the drug's power157:15 of action is proportionately increased.
Drugging unchristian
If drugs are part of God's creation, which (accordingto the narrative in Genesis) He pronounced/ good/, then157:18 drugs cannot be poisonous. If He could cre-ate drugs intrinsically bad, then they shouldnever be used. If He creates drugs at all and designs157:21 them for medical use, why did Jesus not employ themand recommend them for the treatment of disease?Matter is not self-creative, for it is unintelligent. Erring157:24 mortal mind confers the power which the drug seems topossess.
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 the157:30 proof that Life is continuous and harmonious. Scienceboth neutralizes error and destroys it. Mankind is thebetter for this spiritual and profound pathology.
Mythology and materia medica
158:1 It is recorded that the profession of medicine originatedin idolatry with pagan priests, who besought the gods to158:3 heal the sick and designated Apollo as "the godof medicine." He was supposed to have dic-tated the first prescription, according to the158:6 "History of Four Thousand Years of Medicine." It ishere noticeable that Apollo was also regarded as the senderof disease, "the god of pestilence." Hippocrates turned158:9 from image-gods to vegetable and mineral drugs for heal-ing. This was deemed progress in medicine; butwhat we need is the truth which heals both mind and158:12 body. The future history of material medicine maycorrespond with that of its material god, Apollo, who wasbanished from heaven and endured great sufferings158:15 upon earth.
Footsteps to intemperance
Drugs, cataplasms, and whiskey are stupid substitutesfor the dignity and potency of divine Mind and its effi-158:18 cacy to heal. It is pitiful to lead men intotemptation through the byways of this wil-derness world, - to victimize the race with intoxicating158:21 prescriptions for the sick, until mortal mind acquires aneducated appetite for strong drink, and men and womenbecome loathsome sots.
Advancing degrees
158:24 Evidences of progress and of spiritualization greet uson every hand. Drug-systems are quitting their hold onmatter and so letting in matter's higher stra-158:27 tum, mortal mind. Homoeopathy, a step inadvance of allopathy, is doing this. Matter is going outof medicine; and mortal mind, of a higher attenuation158:30 than the drug, is governing the pellet.
Effects of fear
A woman in the city of Lynn, Massachusetts, wasetherized and died in consequence, although her physi-159:1 cians insisted that it would be unsafe to perform a neededsurgical operation without the ether. After the autopsy,159:3 her sister testified that the deceased protestedagainst inhaling the ether and said it would killher, but that she was compelled by her physicians to take159:6 it. Her hands were held, and she was forced into sub-mission. The case was brought to trial. The evidencewas found to be conclusive, and a verdict was returned that159:9 death was occasioned, not by the ether, but by fear ofinhaling 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 somuch mindless matter, and as if matter werethe only factor to be consulted? Had these159:15 unscientific surgeons understood metaphysics,they would have considered the woman's state of mind,and not have risked such treatment. They would either159:18 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 man159:24 from matter instead of from Mind. They examine thelungs, tongue, and pulse to ascertain howmuch harmony, or health, matter is permit-159:27 ting to matter, - how much pain or pleasure, action orstagnation, one form of matter is allowing another formof matter.
159:30 Ignorant of the fact that a man's belief produces dis-ease and all its symptoms, the ordinary physician isliable to increase disease with his own mind, when he160:1 should address himself to the work of destroying it throughthe power of the divine Mind.
160:3 The systems of physics act against metaphysics, and/vice versa/. When mortals forsake the material for thespiritual basis of action, drugs lose their healing force,160:6 for they have no innate power. Unsupported by thefaith reposed in it, the inanimate drug becomespowerless.
Obedient muscles
160:9 The motion of the arm is no more dependent upon thedirection of mortal mind, than are the organic action andsecretion of the viscera. When this so-called160:12 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 doesanatomy say when the cords contract and be-come immovable? Has mortal mind ceased160:18 speaking to them, or has it bidden them to be impotent?Can muscles, bones, blood, and nerves rebel against mindin one instance and not in another, and become cramped160:21 despite the mental protest?
Unless muscles are self-acting at all times, they arenever so, - never capable of acting contrary to mental160:24 direction. If muscles can cease to act and become rigidof 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 fromanatomy that muscle is not so governed?
Mind over matter
160:30 Is man a material fungus without Mindto help him? Is a stiff joint or a contractedmuscle as much a result of law as the supple and161:1 elastic condition of the healthy limb, and is God thelawgiver?
161:3 You say, "/I/ have burned my finger." This is anexact statement, more exact than you suppose; for mor-tal mind, and not matter, burns it. Holy inspiration161:6 has created states of mind which have been able to nullifythe action of the flames, as in the Bible case of the threeyoung Hebrew captives, cast into the Babylonian furnace;161:9 while an opposite mental state might produce spontaneouscombustion.
Restrictive regulations
In 1880, Massachusetts put her foot on a proposed161:12 tyrannical law, restricting the practice of medicine. Ifher 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 theDeclaration, "Man is endowed by his Maker with certaininalienable rights, among which are life, liberty, and the161:18 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 theguillotine: "Liberty, what crimes are committed in thyname!"
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, if161:30 this old class of philanthropists looked as deeply for causeand effect into mind as into matter. The physician agreeswith his "adversary quickly," but upon different terms162:1 than does the metaphysician; for the matter-physicianagrees with the disease, while the metaphysician agrees162:3 only with health and challenges disease.
Truth an alterative
Christian Science brings to the body the sunlight ofTruth, which invigorates and purifies. Christian Science162:6 acts as an alterative, neutralizing error withTruth. It changes the secretions, expels hu-mors, dissolves tumors, relaxes rigid muscles, restores162:9 carious bones to soundness. The effect of this Science isto stir the human mind to a change of base, on which itmay yield to the harmony of the divine Mind.
Practical success
162:12 Experiments have favored the fact that Mind governsthe body, not in one instance, but in every instance. Theindestructible faculties of Spirit exist without162:15 the conditions of matter and also without thefalse beliefs of a so-called material existence. Workingout the rules of Science in practice, the author has re-162:18 stored health in cases of both acute and chronic disease intheir severest forms. Secretions have been changed, thestructure has been renewed, shortened limbs have been162:21 elongated, ankylosed joints have been made supple, andcarious bones have been restored to healthy conditions. Ihave restored what is called the lost substance of lungs, and162:24 healthy organizations have been established where diseasewas organic. Christian Science heals organic disease assurely as it heals what is called functional, for it requires162:27 only a fuller understanding of the divine Principle ofChristian Science to demonstrate the higher rule.
Testimony of medical teachers
With due respect for the faculty, I kindly162:30 quote from Dr. Benjamin Rush, the famousPhiladelphia teacher of medical practice. Hedeclared that "it is impossible to calculate the mischief163:1 which Hippocrates has done, by first marking Naturewith his name, and afterward letting her loose upon sick163:3 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 OfEngland, said:
"I declare my conscientious opinion, founded on long163:9 observation and reflection, that if there were not a singlephysician, surgeon, apothecary, man-midwife, chemist,druggist, or drug on the face of the earth, there would be163:12 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 inthe highest degree uncertain; except, indeed, that it hasalready destroyed more lives than war, pestilence, and163:18 famine, all combined."
Dr. Chapman, Professor of the Institutes and Practiceof Physic in the University of Pennsylvania, in a published163:21 essay said:
"Consulting the records of our science, we cannothelp being disgusted with the multitude of hypotheses163:24 obtruded upon us at different times. Nowhere is theimagination displayed to a greater extent; and perhapsso ample an exhibition of human invention might gratify163:27 our vanity, if it were not more than compensated by thehumiliating 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 toarrange the fleeting vapors around us, or to reconcile thefixed and repulsive antipathies of nature. Dark and164:1 perplexed, our devious career resembles the groping ofHomer's Cyclops around his cave."
164:3 Sir John Forbes, M.D., F.R.S., Fellow of the RoyalCollege of Physicians, London, said:
"No systematic or theoretical classification of diseases164:6 or of therapeutic agents, ever yet promulgated, is true, oranything like the truth, and none can be adopted as a safeguidance in practice."
164:9 It is just to say that generally the cultured class of medi-cal practitioners are grand men and women, thereforethey are more scientific than are false claimants to Chris-164:12 tian Science. But all human systems based on materialpremises are minus the unction of divine Science. Muchyet remains to be said and done before all mankind is164:15 saved and all the mental microbes of sin and all diseasedthought-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).
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 theirdestructions. - PSALMS.
165:1 PHYSIOLOGY is one of the apples from "the treeof knowledge." Evil declared that eating this fruit165:3 would open man's eyes and make him as a god. Insteadof 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 thebrain and strength by the exercise of muscle, is tosubjugate intelligence, to make mind mor-165:9 tal, and to place this so-called mind at themercy of material organization and non-intelligentmatter.
165:12 Obedience to the so-called physical laws of health hasnot checked sickness. Diseases have multiplied, sinceman-made material theories took the place of spiritual165:15 truth.
Causes of sickness
You say that indigestion, fatigue, sleeplessness, causedistressed stomachs and aching heads. Then165:18 you consult your brain in order to rememberwhat has hurt you, when your remedy lies in forgetting166:1 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 shrinkingfrom its implied responsibility, the healing effort is made166:6 on the wrong side, and thus the conscious control over thebody is lost.
Delusions pagan and medical
The Mohammedan believes in a pilgrimage to Mecca166:9 for the salvation of his soul. The popular doctor believesin his prescription, and the pharmacist believesin the power of his drugs to save a man's166:12 life. The Mohammedan's belief is a religiousdelusion; the doctor's and pharmacist's is a medicalmistake.
Health from reliance on spirituality
166:15 The erring human mind is inharmonious in itself.From it arises the inharmonious body. To ignoreGod as of little use in sickness is a mistake.166:18 Instead of thrusting Him aside in times ofbodily trouble, and waiting for the hour ofstrength in which to acknowledge Him, we should learn166:21 that He can do all things for us in sickness as inhealth.
Failing to recover health through adherence to physi-166:24 ology and hygiene, the despairing invalid often dropsthem, and in his extremity and only as a last resort, turnsto God. The invalid's faith in the divine Mind is less166:27 than in drugs, air, and exercise, or he would have resortedto Mind first. The balance of power is conceded to bewith matter by most of the medical systems; but when166:30 Mind at last asserts its mastery over sin, disease, anddeath, then is man found to be harmonious andimmortal.
167:1 Should we implore a corporeal God to heal the sickout of His personal volition, or should we understand the167:3 infinite divine Principle which heals? If we rise no higherthan blind faith, the Science of healing is not attained, andSoul-existence, in the place of sense-existence, is not com-167:6 prehended. We apprehend Life in divine Science onlyas 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, ourlongevity, 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 cannotsuccessfully usurp the place and power of thedivine source of all health and perfection. If167:15 God made man both good and evil, man must remainthus. What can improve God's work? Again, an errorin the premise must appear in the conclusion. To have167:18 one God and avail yourself of the power of Spirit, youmust love God supremely.
Half-way success
The "flesh lusteth against the Spirit." The flesh and167:21 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 work167:24 equally with Spirit and matter, Truth and error. There,is but one way - namely, God and His idea - whichleads to spiritual being. The scientific government of the167:27 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 onTruth can scientific healing power be realized.
Substituting good words for a good life, fair seeming168:1 for straightforward character, is a poor shift for the weakand worldly, who think the standard of Christian Science168:3 too high for them.
Belief on the wrong side
If the scales are evenly adjusted, the removal of a singleweight from either scale gives preponderance to the oppo-168:6 site. Whatever influence you cast on the sideof matter, you take away from Mind, whichwould otherwise outweigh all else. Your belief militates168:9 against your health, when it ought to be enlisted on theside of health. When sick (according to belief) you rushafter drugs, search out the material so-called laws of168:12 health, and depend upon them to heal you, though youhave already brought yourself into the slough of diseasethrough just this false belief.
The divine authority
168:15 Because man-made systems insist that man becomessick and useless, suffers and dies, all in consonance withthe laws of God, are we to believe it? Are168:18 we to believe an authority which denies God'sspiritual command relating to perfection, - an authoritywhich Jesus proved to be false? He did the will of the168:21 Father. He healed sickness in defiance of what is calledmaterial law, but in accordance with God's law, the lawof 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-calleddisease made its appearance in the body. Dis-168:27 ease being a belief, a latent illusion of mortalmind, the sensation would not appear if the error of beliefwas met and destroyed by truth.
Changed mentality
168:30 Here let a word be noticed which will bebetter understood hereafter, - /chemicalization/.By chemicalization I mean the process which mortal169:1 mind and body undergo in the change of belief from amaterial to a spiritual basis.
Scientific foresight
169:3 Whenever an aggravation of symptoms has occurredthrough mental chemicalization, I have seen the mentalsigns, assuring me that danger was over, before169:6 the patient felt the change; and I have saidto the patient, "You are healed," - sometimes to his dis-comfiture, when he was incredulous. But it always came169:9 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 drugs169:12 begets and fosters disease by attracting the mind to thesubject of sickness, by exciting fear of disease, and by dos-ing the body in order to avoid it. The faith reposed in169:15 these things should find stronger supports and a higherhome. 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 asmental, but it also declares that all disease is cured bydivine Mind. There can be no healing ex-169:21 cept by this Mind, however much we trusta drug or any other means towards which human faithor endeavor is directed. It is mortal mind, not mat-169:24 ter, which brings to the sick whatever good they mayseem to receive from materiality. But the sick are neverreally healed except by means of the divine power.169:27 Only the action of Truth, Life, and Love can giveharmony.
Modes of matter
Whatever teaches man to have other laws and to169:30 acknowledge other powers than the divineMind, is anti-Christian. The good that apoisonous drug seems to do is evil, for it robs man of170:1 reliance on God, omnipotent Mind, and according to be-lief, poisons the human system. Truth is not the basis of170:3 theogony. Modes of matter form neither a moral nor aspiritual system. The discord which calls for materialmethods is the result of the exercise of faith in material170:6 modes, - faith in matter instead of in Spirit.
Physiology unscientific
Did Jesus understand the economy of man less thanGraham or Cutter? Christian ideas certainly present170:9 what human theories exclude - the Principleof man's harmony. The text, "Whosoeverliveth and believeth in me shall never die," not only con-170:12 tradicts human systems, but points to the self-sustainingand eternal Truth.
The demands of Truth are spiritual, and reach the170:15 body through Mind. The best interpreter of man's needssaid: "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, whatthen causes it? Not divine law, for Jesus healed thesick and cast out error, always in opposition, never in170:21 obedience, to physics.
Causation considered
Spiritual causation is the one question to be considered,for more than all others spiritual causation relates to170:24 human progress. The age seems ready toapproach this subject, to ponder somewhatthe supremacy of Spirit, and at least to touch the hem170:27 of Truth's garment.
The description of man as purely physical, or as bothmaterial and spiritual, - but in either case dependent170:30 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 and171:1 claims to be a creator, is a fiction, in which paganism andlust are so sanctioned by society that mankind has caught171:3 their moral contagion.
Paradise regained
Through discernment of the spiritual opposite of ma-teriality, even the way through Christ, Truth, man will171:6 reopen with the key of divine Science the gatesof 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 eitherof 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, isno longer an open question, but is demonstrable Science.Jesus illustrated the divine Principle and the171:15 power of immortal Mind by healing sicknessand sin and destroying the foundations of death.
Matter /versus/ Spirit
Mistaking his origin and nature, man believes himself to171:18 be combined matter and Spirit. He believes that Spiritis 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 imageof infinite Mind, - subject to non-intelligence!
No more sympathy exists between the flesh and Spirit171:24 than between Belial and Christ.
The so-called laws of matter are nothing but false be-liefs that intelligence and life are present where Mind171:27 is not. These false beliefs are the procuring cause of allsin and disease. The opposite truth, that intelligence andlife are spiritual, never material, destroys sin, sickness,171:30 and death.
The fundamental error lies in the supposition that manis a material outgrowth and that the cognizance of good172:1 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 mushroomsto monkeys and from monkeys into menamounts to nothing in the right direction and172:6 very much in the wrong.
Materialism grades the human species as rising frommatter upward. How then is the material species main-172:9 tained, if man passes through what we call death anddeath is the Rubicon of spirituality? Spirit can formno real link in this supposed chain of material being.172:12 But divine Science reveals the eternal chain of existenceas uninterrupted and wholly spiritual; yet this can berealized only as the false sense of being disappears.
Degrees of development
172:15 If man was first a material being, he must have passedthrough all the forms of matter in order to become man.If the material body is man, he is a portion of172:18 matter, or dust. On the contrary, man is theimage and likeness of Spirit; and the belief that there isSoul in sense or Life in matter obtains in mortals, /alias/172:21 mortal mind, to which the apostle refers when he saysthat we must "put off the old man."
Identity not lost
What is man? Brain, heart, blood, bones, etc., the172:24 material structure? If the real man is in the materialbody, you take away a portion of the man whenyou amputate a limb; the surgeon destroys172:27 manhood, and worms annihilate it. But the loss of a limbor 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 hisvery deprivations, that "a man's a man, for a' that."
When man is man
When we admit that matter (heart, blood, brain, acting173:1 through the five physical senses) constitutes man, we failto see how anatomy can distinguish between173:3 humanity and the brute, or determine whenman is really /man/ and has progressed farther than hisanimal progenitors.
Individualization
173:6 When the supposition, that Spirit is within what itcreates and the potter is subject to the clay,is individualized, Truth is reduced to the level173:9 of error, and the sensible is required to be made manifestthrough the insensible.
What is termed matter manifests nothing but a material173:12 mentality. Neither the substance nor the manifestationof Spirit is obtainable through matter. Spirit is positive.Matter is Spirit's contrary, the absence of Spirit. For173:15 positive Spirit to pass through a negative conditionwould be Spirit's destruction.
Man not structural
Anatomy declares man to be structural. Physiology173:18 continues this explanation, measuring humanstrength by bones and sinews, and human lifeby material law. Man is spiritual, individual, and eter-173:21 nal; material structure is mortal.Phrenology makes man knavish or honest according tothe 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 uponmatter to remove the error which the human mind alonehas created.
173:30 The idols of civilization are far more fatal to healthand longevity than are the idols of barbarism. The idolsof civilization call into action less faith than Buddhism174:1 in a supreme governing intelligence. The Esquimauxrestore 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, thatman should bow down to a flesh-brush, to flannels, to174:6 baths, diet, exercise, and air? Nothing save divinepower is capable of doing so much for man as he cando 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 spiritual174:12 intuitions that tell us when "the night is farspent, the day is at hand" - are our guardians in thegloom. Whoever opens the way in Christian Science is174:15 a pilgrim and stranger, marking out the path for gen-erations yet unborn.
The thunder of Sinai and the Sermon on the Mount174:18 are pursuing and will overtake the ages, rebuking intheir course all error and proclaiming the kingdom ofheaven on earth. Truth is revealed. It needs only to174:21 be practised.
Medical errors
Mortal belief is all that enables a drug to cure mortalailments. Anatomy admits that mind is somewhere in174:24 man, though out of sight. Then, if an indi-vidual is sick, why treat the body alone andadminister a dose of despair to the mind? Why declare174:27 that the body is diseased, and picture this disease to themind, rolling it under the tongue as a sweet morsel andholding it before the thought of both physician and pa-174:30 tient? We should understand that the cause of diseaseobtains in the mortal human mind, and its cure comesfrom the immortal divine Mind. We should prevent the175:1 images of disease from taking form in thought, and weshould efface the outlines of disease already formulated in175:3 the minds of mortals.
Novel Diseases
When there are fewer prescriptions, and less thought isgiven to sanitary subjects, there will be better175:6 constitutions and less disease. In old timeswho 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 itspresence, its beauty and fragrance, should uplift the175:12 thought, and dissuade any sense of fear or fever. It isprofane to fancy that the perfume of clover and the breathof new-mown hay can cause glandular inflammation,175:15 sneezing, and nasal pangs.
No ancestral dyspepsia
If a random thought, calling itself dyspepsia, hadtried to tyrannize over our forefathers, it would have175:18 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 notdiscussed according to Cutter nor referred to sanitarylaws. A man's belief in those days was not so severe175:24 upon the gastric juices. Beaumont's "Medical Experi-ments" did not govern the digestion.
Pulmonary misbeliefs
Damp atmosphere and freezing snow empurpled the175:27 plump cheeks of our ancestors, but they never indulgedin the refinement of inflamed bronchial tubes.They were as innocent as Adam, before he ate175:30 the fruit of false knowledge, of the existence of tuberclesand troches, lungs and lozenges.
Our modern Eves
"Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise," says176:1 the English poet, and there is truth in his sentiment. Theaction of mortal mind on the body was not so injurious176:3 before inquisitive modern Eves took up thestudy of medical works and unmanly Adamsattributed 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 aboutfood left the stomach and bowels free to act in obedi-176:9 ence to nature, and gave the gospel a chance to be seenin its glorious effects upon the body. A ghastly array ofdiseases was not paraded before the imagination. There176:12 were fewer books on digestion and more "sermons instones, and good in everything." When the mechanismof the human mind gives place to the divine Mind, self-176:15 ishness and sin, disease and death, will lose theirfoothold.
Human fear of miasma would load with disease the176:18 air of Eden, and weigh down mankind with superimposedand conjectural evils. Mortal mind is the worst foe ofthe body, while divine Mind is its best friend.
Diseases not to be classified
176:21 Should all cases of organic disease be treated by aregular practitioner, and the Christian Scientist trytruth only in cases of hysteria, hypochon-176:24 dria, and hallucination? One disease is nomore real than another. All disease is theresult of education, and disease can carry its ill-effects176:27 no farther than mortal mind maps out the way. Thehuman mind, not matter, is supposed to feel, suffer, en-joy. Hence decided types of acute disease are quite as176:30 ready to yield to Truth as the less distinct type and chronicform 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 ownexistence.
Mental and physical oneness
Mortal mind and body are one. Neither exists without177:9 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 own177:12 superstructure, of which the material body isthe grosser portion; but from first to last, the body is asensuous, human concept.
The effect of names
177:15 In the Scriptural allegory of the material creation,Adam or error, which represents the erroneous theoryof life and intelligence in matter, had the177:18 naming of all that was material. These namesindicated matter's properties, qualities, and forms. Buta lie, the opposite of Truth, cannot name the qualities and177:21 effects of what is termed matter, and create the so-calledlaws of the flesh, nor can a lie hold the preponderanceof power in any direction against God, Spirit and177:24 Truth.