Ultimate harmony
We cannot deny that Life is self-sustained, and weshould never deny the everlasting harmony of Soul, sim-390:6 ply because, to the mortal senses, there is seem-ing discord. It is our ignorance of God, thedivine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and390:9 the right understanding of Him restores harmony. Truthwill at length compel us all to exchange the pleasures andpains of sense for the joys of Soul.
Unnecessary prostration
390:12 When the first symptoms of disease appear, dispute thetestimony of the material senses with divine Science. Letyour higher sense of justice destroy the false390:15 process of mortal opinions which you namelaw, and then you will not be confined to a sick-room norlaid upon a bed of suffering in payment of the last far-390:18 thing, the last penalty demanded by error. "Agree withthine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way withhim." Suffer no claim of sin or of sickness to grow upon390:21 the thought. Dismiss it with an abiding conviction thatit is illegitimate, because you know that God is no morethe author of sickness than He is of sin. You have no390:24 law of His to support the necessity either of sin or sick-ness, but you have divine authority for denying that neces-sity and healing the sick.
Treatment of disease
390:27 "Agree to disagree" with approaching symptoms ofchronic or acute disease, whether it is cancer, consump-tion, or smallpox. Meet the incipient stages390:30 of disease with as powerful mental opposi-tion as a legislator would employ to defeat the passage ofan inhuman law. Rise in the conscious strength of the391:1 spirit of Truth to overthrow the plea of mortal mind,/alias/ matter, arrayed against the supremacy of Spirit.391:3 Blot out the images of mortal thought and its beliefs insickness and sin. Then, when thou art delivered to thejudgment of Truth, Christ, the judge will say, "Thou391:6 art whole!"
Righteous rebellion
Instead of blind and calm submission to the incipientor advanced stages of disease, rise in rebellion against391:9 them. Banish the belief that you can possi-bly entertain a single intruding pain which can-not be ruled out by the might of Mind, and in this way391:12 you can prevent the development of pain in the body.No law of God hinders this result. It is error to sufferfor aught but your own sins. Christ, or Truth, will de-391:15 stroy all other supposed suffering, and real suffering foryour own sins will cease in proportion as the sin ceases.
Contradict error
Justice is the moral signification of law. Injustice de-391:18 clares the absence of law. When the body is supposedto say, "I am sick," never plead guilty. Sincematter cannot talk, it must be mortal mind391:21 which speaks; therefore meet the intimation with a pro-test. If you say, "I am sick," you plead guilty. Thenyour adversary will deliver you to the judge (mortal391:24 mind), and the judge will sentence you. Disease hasno intelligence to declare itself something and announceits name. Mortal mind alone sentences itself. Therefore391:27 make your own terms with sickness, and be just to yourselfand to others.
Sin to be overcome
Mentally contradict every complaint from the body,391:30 and rise to the true consciousness of Life asLove, - as all that is pure, and bearing thefruits of Spirit. Fear is the fountain of sickness,392:1 and you master fear and sin through divine Mind; henceit is through divine Mind that you overcome disease.392:3 Only while fear or sin remains can it bring forth death.To cure a bodily ailment, every broken moral law shouldbe taken into account and the error be rebuked. Fear,392:6 which is an element of all disease, must be cast out toreadjust the balance for God. Casting out evil and fearenables truth to outweigh error. The only course is to392:9 take antagonistic grounds against all that is opposed tothe health, holiness, and harmony of man, God's image.
Illusions about nerves
The physical affirmation of disease should always be392:12 met with the mental negation. Whatever benefit is pro-duced on the body, must be expressed men-tally, and thought should be held fast to this392:15 ideal. If you believe in inflamed and weak nerves, youare liable to an attack from that source. You will call itneuralgia, but we call it a belief. If you think that con-392:18 sumption is hereditary in your family, you are liable tothe development of that thought in the form of what istermed pulmonary disease, unless Science shows you392:21 otherwise. If you decide that climate or atmosphere isunhealthy, it will be so to you. Your decisions will mas-ter you, whichever direction they take.
Guarding the door
392:24 Reverse the case. Stand porter at the door of thought.Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized inbodily results, you will control yourself har-392:27 moniously. When the condition is presentwhich you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise,heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office392:30 as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears.Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then thebody cannot suffer from them. The issues of pain or393:1 pleasure must come through mind, and like a watchmanforsaking his post, we admit the intruding belief, forget-393:3 ting that through divine help we can forbid this entrance.
The strength of Spirit
The body seems to be self-acting, only because mortalmind is ignorant of itself, of its own actions, and of their393:6 results, - ignorant that the predisposing, re-mote, and exciting cause of all bad effects is alaw of so-called mortal mind, not of matter. Mind is the393:9 master of the corporeal senses, and can conquer sickness,sin, and death. Exercise this God-given authority. Takepossession of your body, and govern its feeling and action.393:12 Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlikegood. God has made man capable of this, and nothingcan vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on393:15 man.
No pain in matter
Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mindgoverns, and that in Science man reflects God's govern-393:18 ment. Have no fear that matter can ache,swell, and be inflamed as the result of a lawof any kind, when it is self-evident that matter can have393:21 no pain nor inflammation. Your body would suffer nomore from tension or wounds than the trunk of a treewhich you gash or the electric wire which you stretch,393:24 were it not for mortal mind.
When Jesus declares that "the light of the body is theeye," he certainly means that light depends upon Mind,393:27 not upon the complex humors, lenses, muscles, the irisand pupil, constituting the visual organism.
No real disease
Man is never sick, for Mind is not sick and matter393:30 cannot be. A false belief is both the tempterand the tempted, the sin and the sinner, thedisease and its cause. It is well to be calm in sickness;394:1 to be hopeful is still better; but to understand that sick-ness is not real and that Truth can destroy its seeming394:3 reality, is best of all, for this understanding is the uni-versal and perfect remedy.
Recuperation mental
By conceding power to discord, a large majority of394:6 doctors depress mental energy, which is the only realrecuperative power. Knowledge that wecan accomplish the good we hope for, stimu-394:9 lates the system to act in the direction which Mind pointsout. The admission that any bodily condition is beyondthe control of Mind disarms man, prevents him from394:12 helping himself, and enthrones matter through error. Tothose struggling with sickness, such admissions are dis-couraging, - as much so as would be the advice to a man394:15 who is down in the world, that he should not try to riseabove his difficulties.
Experience has proved to the author the fallacy of394:18 material systems in general, - that their theories aresometimes pernicious, and that their denials are betterthan their affirmations. Will you bid a man let evils394:21 overcome him, assuring him that all misfortunes are fromGod, against whom mortals should not contend? Willyou tell the sick that their condition is hopeless, unless it394:24 can be aided by a drug or climate? Are material meansthe only refuge from fatal chances? Is there no divinepermission to conquer discord of every kind with harmony,394:27 with Truth and Love?
Arguing wrongly
We should remember that Life is God, and that Godis omnipotent. Not understanding Christian394:30 Science, the sick usually have little faith init till they feel its beneficent influence. This showsthat faith is not the healer in such cases. The sick395:1 unconsciously argue for suffering, instead of against it.They admit its reality, whereas they should deny it.395:3 They should plead in opposition to the testimony of thedeceitful senses, and maintain man's immortality andeternal likeness to God.
Divine authority
395:6 Like the great Exemplar, the healer should speak todisease as one having authority over it, leaving Soul tomaster the false evidences of the corporeal395:9 senses and to assert its claims over mortal-ity and disease. The same Principle cures both sin andsickness. When divine Science overcomes faith in a car-395:12 nal mind, and faith in God destroys all faith in sin and inmaterial methods of healing, then sin, disease, and deathwill disappear.
Aids in sickness
395:15 Prayers, in which God is not asked to heal but is be-sought to take the patient to Himself, do not benefit thesick. An ill-tempered, complaining, or deceit-395:18 ful person should not be a nurse. The nurseshould be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full offaith, - receptive to Truth and Love.
Mental quackery
395:21 It is mental quackery to make disease a reality - tohold it as something seen and felt - and then to attemptits cure through Mind. It is no less erroneous395:24 to believe in the real existence of a tumor, acancer, or decayed lungs, while you argue against theirreality, than it is for your patient to feel these ills in395:27 physical belief. Mental practice, which holds diseaseas a reality, fastens disease on the patient, and it mayappear in a more alarming form.
Effacing images of disease
395:30 The knowledge that brain-lobes cannot kill a man noraffect the functions of mind would prevent the brain frombecoming diseased, though a moral offence is indeed the396:1 worst of diseases. One should never hold in mindthe thought of disease, but should efface from396:3 thought all forms and types of disease, both forone's own sake and for that of the patient.
Avoid talking disease
Avoid talking illness to the patient. Make no unne-396:6 cessary inquiries relative to feelings or disease. Neverstartle with a discouraging remark about re-covery, nor draw attention to certain symp-396:9 toms as unfavorable, avoid speaking aloud the name ofthe disease. Never say beforehand how much you haveto contend with in a case, nor encourage in the patient's396:12 thought the expectation of growing worse before a crisisis passed.
False testimony refuted
The refutation of the testimony of material sense is396:15 not a difficult task in view of the conceded falsity of thistestimony. The refutation becomes arduous,not because the testimony of sin or disease is396:18 true, but solely on account of the tenacity of belief in itstruth, due to the force of education and the overwhelm-ing weight of opinions on the wrong side, - all teaching396:21 that the body suffers, as if matter could have sensation.
Healthful explanation
At the right time explain to the sick the power whichtheir beliefs exercise over their bodies. Give them divine396:24 and wholesome understanding, with which tocombat their erroneous sense, and so efface theimages of sickness from mortal mind. Keep distinctly in396:27 thought that man is the offspring of God, not of man;that man is spiritual, not material; that Soul is Spirit,outside of matter, never in it, never giving the body life396:30 and sensation. It breaks the dream of disease to under-stand that sickness is formed by the human mind, not bymatter nor by the divine Mind.
Misleading methods
397:1 By not perceiving vital metaphysical points, not seeinghow mortal mind affects the body, - acting beneficially397:3 or injuriously on the health, as well as on themorals and the happiness of mortals, - we aremisled in our conclusions and methods. We throw the397:6 mental influence on the wrong side, thereby actually in-juring those whom we mean to bless.
Remedy for accidents
Suffering is no less a mental condition than is enjoy-397:9 ment. You cause bodily sufferings and increase themby admitting their reality and continuance,as directly as you enhance your joys by be-397:12 lieving them to be real and continuous. When an ac-cident happens, you think or exclaim, "I am hurt!"Your thought is more powerful than your words, more397:15 powerful than the accident itself, to make the injuryreal.
Now reverse the process. Declare that you are not hurt397:18 and understand the reason why, and you will find theensuing good effects to be in exact proportion to yourdisbelief in physics, and your fidelity to divine meta-397:21 physics, confidence in God as All, which the Scripturesdeclare Him to be.
Independent mentality
To heal the sick, one must be familiar with the great397:24 verities of being. Mortals are no more material in theirwaking hours than when they act, walk, see,hear, enjoy, or suffer in dreams. We can397:27 never treat mortal mind and matter separately, becausethey combine as one. Give up the belief that mindis, even temporarily, compressed within the skull, and397:30 you will quickly become more manly or womanly. Youwill understand yourself and your Maker better thanbefore.
Naming maladies
398:1 Sometimes Jesus called a disease by name, as when hesaid to the epileptic boy, "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I398:3 charge thee, come out of him, and enter nomore into him." It is added that "the spirit[error] cried, and rent him sore and came out of him, and398:6 he was as one dead," - clear evidence that the maladywas not material. These instances show the concessionswhich Jesus was willing to make to the popular ignorance398:9 of spiritual Life-laws. Often he gave no name to thedistemper he cured. To the synagogue ruler's daughter,whom they called dead but of whom he said, "she is not398:12 dead, but sleepeth," he simply said, "Damsel, I say untothee, arise!" To the sufferer with the withered handhe said, "Stretch forth thine hand," and it "was restored398:15 whole, like as the other."
The action of faith
Homoeopathic remedies, sometimes not containing aparticle of medicine, are known to relieve the symptoms398:18 of disease. What produces the change? It isthe faith of the doctor and the patient, whichreduces self-inflicted sufferings and produces a new effect398:21 upon the body. In like manner destroy the illusion ofpleasure in intoxication, and the desire for strong drinkis gone. Appetite and disease reside in mortal mind, not398:24 in matter.
So also faith, cooperating with a belief in the healingeffects of time and medication, will soothe fear and change398:27 the belief of disease to a belief of health. Even a blindfaith removes bodily ailments for a season, but hypnotismchanges such ills into new and more difficult forms of dis-398:30 ease. The Science of Mind must come to the rescue,to work a radical cure. Then we understand the process.The great fact remains that evil is not mind. Evil has399:1 no power, no intelligence, for God is good, and thereforegood is infinite, is All.
Corporeal combinations
399:3 You say that certain material combinations producedisease; but if the material body causes disease, canmatter cure what matter has caused? Mortal399:6 mind prescribes the drug, and administers it.Mortal mind plans the exercise, and puts the body throughcertain motions. No gastric gas accumulates, not a se-399:9 cretion nor combination can operate, apart from theaction of mortal thought, /alias /mortal mind.
Automatic mechanism
So-called mortal mind sends its despatches over its399:12 body, but this so-called mind is both the service andmessage of this telegraphy. Nerves are un-able to talk, and matter can return no an-399:15 swer to immortal Mind. If Mind is the only actor, howcan mechanism be automatic? Mortal mind perpetuatesits own thought. It constructs a machine, manages it,399:18 and then calls it material. A mill at work or the actionof a water-wheel is but a derivative from, and continua-tion of, the primitive mortal mind. Without this force399:21 the body is devoid of action, and this deadness showsthat so-called mortal life is mortal mind, not matter.
Mental strength
Scientifically speaking, there is no mortal mind out of399:24 which to make material beliefs, springing from illusion.This misnamed mind is not an entity. It isonly a false sense of matter, since matter is not399:27 sensible. The one Mind, God, contains no mortal opin-ions. All that is real is included in this immortal Mind.
Confirmation in a parable
Our Master asked: "How can one enter into a strong399:30 man's house and spoil his goods, except he firstbind the strong man?" In other words: Howcan I heal the body, without beginning with so-called400:1 mortal mind, which directly controls the body? Whendisease is once destroyed in this so-called mind, the fear400:3 of disease is gone, and therefore the disease is thor-oughly cured. Mortal mind is "the strong man," whichmust be held in subjection before its influence upon health400:6 and morals can be removed. This error conquered, wecan despoil "the strong man" of his goods, - namely, ofsin and disease.
Eradicate error from thought
400:9 Mortals obtain the harmony of health, only as theyforsake discord, acknowledge the supremacy of divineMind, and abandon their material beliefs.400:12 Eradicate the image of disease from the per-turbed thought before it has taken tangibleshape in conscious thought, /alias/ the body, and you pre-400:15 vent the development of disease. This task becomes easy,if you understand that every disease is an error, and hasno character nor type, except what mortal mind assigns to400:18 it. By lifting thought above error, or disease, and con-tending persistently for truth, you destroy error.
Mortal mind controlled
When we remove disease by addressing the disturbed400:21 mind, giving no heed to the body, we prove that thoughtalone creates the suffering. Mortal mindrules all that is mortal. We see in the body400:24 the images of this mind, even as in optics we see paintedon the retina the image which becomes visible to thesenses. The action of so-called mortal mind must be400:27 destroyed by the divine Mind to bring out the harmonyof being. Without divine control there is discord, mani-fest as sin, sickness, and death.
Mortal mind not a healer
400:30 The Scriptures plainly declare the baneful influence ofsinful thought on the body. Even our Master felt this.It is recorded that in certain localities he did not many401:1 mighty works "because of their unbelief" in Truth. Anyhuman error is its own enemy, and works against itself;401:3 it does nothing in the right direction and muchin the wrong. If so-called mind is cherishingevil passions and malicious purposes, it is not a healer,401:6 but it engenders disease and death.
Effect of opposites
If faith in the truth of being, which you impart men-tally while destroying error, causes chemicalization (as401:9 when an alkali is destroying an acid), it is be-cause the truth of being must transform theerror to the end of producing a higher manifestation.401:12 This fermentation should not aggravate the disease, butshould be as painless to man as to a fluid, since matterhas no sensation and mortal mind only feels and sees401:15 materially.
What I term /chemicalization/ is the upheaval producedwhen immortal Truth is destroying erroneous mortal be-401:18 lief. Mental chemicalization brings sin and sickness tothe surface, forcing impurities to pass away, as is the casewith a fermenting fluid.
Medicine and brain
401:21 The only effect produced by medicine is dependent upon mental action. If the mind were parted from the body, could you produce any effect upon the brain 401:24 or body by applying the drug to either? Would the drug remove paralysis, affect organization, or restore will and action to cerebrum and cerebellum?
Skilful surgery
401:27 Until the advancing age admits the efficacy and suprem-acy of Mind, it is better for Christian Scientists to leavesurgery and the adjustment of broken bones401:30 and dislocations to the fingers of a surgeon,while the mental healer confines himself chiefly to mentalreconstruction and to the prevention of inflammation.402:1 Christian Science is always the most skilful surgeon, butsurgery is the branch of its healing which will be last402:3 acknowledged. However, it is but just to say that theauthor has already in her possession well-authenticatedrecords of the cure, by herself and her students through402:6 mental surgery alone, of broken bones, dislocated joints,and spinal vertebrae.
Indestructible life of man
The time approaches when mortal mind will forsake402:9 its corporeal, structural, and material basis, when im-mortal Mind and its formations will be appre-hended in Science, and material beliefs will402:12 not interfere with spiritual facts. Man is indestructibleand eternal. Sometime it will be learned that mortalmind constructs the mortal body with this mind's own402:15 mortal materials. In Science, no breakage nor dislocationcan really occur. You say that accidents, injuries, anddisease kill man, but this is not true. The life of man is402:18 Mind. The material body manifests only what mortalmind believes, whether it be a broken bone, disease, or sin.
The evil of mesmerism
We say that one human mind can influence another and402:21 in this way affect the body, but we rarely remember thatwe govern our own bodies. The error, mes-merism - or hypnotism, to use the recent term402:24 - illustrates the fact just stated. The operator wouldmake his subjects believe that they cannot act voluntarilyand handle themselves as they should do. If they yield402:27 to this influence, it is because their belief is not betterinstructed by spiritual understanding. Hence the proofthat hypnotism is not scientific; Science cannot produce402:30 both disorder and order. The involuntary pleasure orpain of the person under hypnotic control is proved to bea belief without a real cause.
Wrong-doer should suffer
403:1 So the sick through their beliefs have induced their owndiseased conditions. The great difference between vol-403:3 untary and involuntary mesmerism is that vol-untary mesmerism is induced consciously andshould and does cause the perpetrator to suffer, while self-403:6 mesmerism is induced unconsciously and by his mistakea man is often instructed. In the first instance it is under-stood that the difficulty is a mental illusion, while in the403:9 second it is believed that the misfortune is a material effect.The human mind is employed to remove the illusion inone case, but matter is appealed to in the other. In real-403:12 ity, both have their origin in the human mind, and can behealed only by the divine Mind.
Error's power imaginary
You command the situation if you understand that403:15 mortal existence is a state of self-deception and not thetruth of being. Mortal mind is constantlyproducing on mortal body the results of false403:18 opinions; and it will continue to do so, until mortalerror is deprived of its imaginary powers by Truth,which sweeps away the gossamer web of mortal illusion.403:21 The most Christian state is one of rectitude and spir-itual understanding, and this is best adapted for heal-ing the sick. Never conjure up some new discovery from403:24 dark forebodings regarding disease and then acquaintyour patient with it.
Disease-production
The mortal so-called mind produces all that is unlike403:27 the immortal Mind. The human mind determines thenature of a case, and the practitioner improvesor injures the case in proportion to the truth403:30 or error which influences his conclusions. The mentalconception and development of disease are not under-stood by the patient, but the physician should be familiar404:1 with mental action and its effect in order to judge the caseaccording to Christian Science.
Appetites to be abandoned
404:3 If a man is an inebriate, a slave to tobacco, or the specialservant of any one of the myriad forms of sin, meet anddestroy these errors with the truth of being, -404:6 by exhibiting to the wrong-doer the sufferingwhich his submission to such habits brings, and by con-vincing him that there is no real pleasure in false appe-404:9 tites. A corrupt mind is manifested in a corrupt body.Lust, malice, and all sorts of evil are diseased beliefs, andyou can destroy them only by destroying the wicked404:12 motives which produce them. If the evil is over in therepentant mortal mind, while its effects still remain on theindividual, you can remove this disorder as God's law is404:15 fulfilled and reformation cancels the crime. The healthysinner is the hardened sinner.
Temperance reform
The temperance reform, felt all over our land, results404:18 from metaphysical healing, which cuts down every treethat brings not forth good fruit. This con-viction, that there is no real pleasure in sin,404:21 is one of the most important points in the theology ofChristian Science. Arouse the sinner to this new andtrue view of sin, show him that sin confers no pleasure,404:24 and this knowledge strengthens his moral courage andincreases his ability to master evil and to love good.
Sin or fear the root of sickness
Healing the sick and reforming the sinner are one and404:27 the same thing in Christian Science. Both cures requirethe same method and are inseparable in Truth.Hatred, envy, dishonesty, fear, and so forth,404:30 make a man sick, and neither material medi-cine nor Mind can help him permanently, even in body,unless it makes him better mentally, and so delivers him405:1 from his destroyers. The basic error is mortal mind.Hatred inflames the brutal propensities. The indulgence405:3 of evil motives and aims makes any man, who is above thelowest type of manhood, a hopeless sufferer.
Mental conspirators
Christian Science commands man to master the pro-405:6 pensities, - to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness,to conquer lust with chastity, revenge withcharity, and to overcome deceit with hon-405:9 esty. Choke these errors in their early stages, if youwould not cherish an army of conspirators againsthealth, happiness, and success. They will deliver you405:12 to the judge, the arbiter of truth against error. Thejudge will deliver you to justice, and the sentence ofthe moral law will be executed upon mortal mind and405:15 body. Both will be manacled until the last farthingis paid, - until you have balanced your account withGod. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also405:18 reap." The good man finally can overcome his fear ofsin. This is sin's necessity, - to destroy itself. Im-mortal man demonstrates the government of God, good,405:21 in which is no power to sin.
Cumulative repentence
It were better to be exposed to every plague on earththan to endure the cumulative effects of a guilty con-405:24 science. The abiding consciousness of wrong-doing tends to destroy the ability to do right.If sin is not regretted and is not lessening, then it is405:27 hastening on to physical and moral doom. You are con-quered by the moral penalties you incur and the ills theybring. The pains of sinful sense are less harmful than its405:30 pleasures. Belief in material suffering causes mortals toretreat from their error, to flee from body to Spirit, andto appeal to divine sources outside of themselves.
The leaves of healing
406:1 The Bible contains the recipe for all healing. "Theleaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."406:3 Sin and sickness are both healed by the samePrinciple. The tree is typical of man's divinePrinciple, which is equal to every emergency, offering406:6 full salvation from sin, sickness, and death. Sin willsubmit to Christian Science when, in place of modes andforms, the power of God is understood and demonstrated406:9 in the healing of mortals, both mind and body. "Per-fect Love casteth out fear."
Sickness will abate
The Science of being unveils the errors of sense, and406:12 spiritual perception, aided by Science, reaches Truth.Then error disappears. Sin and sickness willabate and seem less real as we approach the406:15 scientific period, in which mortal sense is subdued andall that is unlike the true likeness disappears. The moralman has no fear that he will commit a murder, and he406:18 should be as fearless on the question of disease.
Resist to the end
Resist evil - error of every sort - and it will flee fromyou. Error is opposed to Life. We can, and ultimately406:21 shall, so rise as to avail ourselves in every direc-tion of the supremacy of Truth over error, Lifeover death, and good over evil, and this growth will go406:24 on until we arrive at the fulness of God's idea, and nomore fear that we shall be sick and die. Inharmony ofany kind involves weakness and suffering, - a loss of406:27 control over the body.
Morbid cravings
The depraved appetite for alcoholic drinks, tobacco,tea, coffee, opium, is destroyed only by Mind's mastery406:30 of the body. This normal control is gainedthrough divine strength and understanding.There is no enjoyment in getting drunk, in becoming a407:1 fool or an object of loathing; but there is a very sharpremembrance of it, a suffering inconceivably terrible to407:3 man's self-respect. Puffing the obnoxious fumes of to-bacco, or chewing a leaf naturally attractive to no crea-ture except a loathsome worm, is at least disgusting.
Universal panacea
407:6 Man's enslavement to the most relentless masters -passion, selfishness, envy, hatred, and revenge - is con-quered only by a mighty struggle. Every407:9 hour of delay makes the struggle more severe.If man is not victorious over the passions, they crushout happiness, health, and manhood. Here Christian407:12 Science is the sovereign panacea, giving strength to theweakness of mortal mind, - strength from the immortaland omnipotent Mind, - and lifting humanity above407:15 itself into purer desires, even into spiritual power andgood-will to man.
Let the slave of wrong desire learn the lessons of Chris-407:18 tian Science, and he will get the better of that desireand ascend a degree in the scale of health, happiness,and existence.
Immortal memory
407:21 If delusion says, "I have lost my memory," contra-dict it. No faculty of Mind is lost. In Science, allbeing is eternal, spiritual, perfect, harmoni-407:24 ous in every action. Let the perfect model bepresent in your thoughts instead of its demoralized op-posite. This spiritualization of thought lets in the light,407:27 and brings the divine Mind, Life not death, into yourconsciousness.
Sin a form of insanity
There are many species of insanity. All sin is insan-407:30 ity in different degrees. Sin is spared fromthis classification, only because its method ofmadness is in consonance with common mortal belief.408:1 Every sort of sickness is error, - that is, sickness isloss of harmony. This view is not altered by the fact408:3 that sin is worse than sickness, and sickness is not ac-knowledged nor discovered to be error by many who aresick.
408:6 There is a universal insanity of so-called health, whichmistakes fable for fact throughout the entire round of thematerial senses, but this general craze cannot, in a scien-408:9 tific diagnosis, shield the individual case from the specialname of insanity. Those unfortunate people who arecommitted to insane asylums are only so many distinctly408:12 defined instances of the baneful effects of illusion on mor-tal minds and bodies.
Drugs and brain-lobes
The supposition that we can correct insanity by the use408:15 of purgatives and narcotics is in itself a mild species ofinsanity. Can drugs go of their own accordto the brain and destroy the so-called inflam-408:18 mation of disordered functions, thus reaching mortalmind through matter? Drugs do not affect a corpse, andTruth does not distribute drugs through the blood, and408:21 from them derive a supposed effect on intelligence and sen-timent. A dislocation of the tarsal joint would produceinsanity as perceptibly as would congestion of the brain,408:24 were it not that mortal mind thinks that the tarsal joint isless intimately connected with the mind than is the brain.Reverse the belief, and the results would be perceptibly408:27 different.
Matter and animate error
The unconscious thought in the corporeal substra-tum of brain produces no effect, and that condition of408:30 the body which we call sensation in matteris unreal. Mortal mind is ignorant of it-self, - ignorant of the errors it includes and of their409:1 effects. Intelligent matter is an impossibility. Youmay say: "But if disease obtains in matter, why do409:3 you insist that disease is formed by mortal mind andnot by matter?" /Mortal mind /and body combine asone, and the nearer matter approaches its final state-409:6 ment, - animate error called nerves, brain, mind, - themore prolific it is likely to become in sin and disease-beliefs.
Dictation of error
409:9 Unconscious mortal mind - /alias /matter, brain - can-not dictate terms to consciousness nor say, "I am sick."The belief, that the unconscious substratum409:12 of mortal mind, termed the body, suffers andreports disease independently of this so-called consciousmind, is the error which prevents mortals from knowing409:15 how to govern their bodies.
So-called superiority
The so-called conscious mortal mind is believed to besuperior to its unconscious substratum, matter, and409:18 the stronger never yields to the weaker, ex-cept through fear or choice. The animateshould be governed by God alone. The real man is409:21 spiritual and immortal, but the mortal and imperfectso-called "children of men" are counterfeits from thebeginning, to be laid aside for the pure reality. This409:24 mortal is put off, and the new man or real man is puton, in proportion as mortals realize the Science of manand seek the true model.
Death no benefactor
409:27 We have no right to say that life depends on matternow, but will not depend on it after death. We cannotspend our days here in ignorance of the Science409:30 of Life, and expect to find beyond the gravea reward for this ignorance. Death will not make usharmonious and immortal as a recompense for ignorance.410:1 If here we give no heed to Christian Science, which isspiritual and eternal, we shall not be ready for spiritual410:3 Life hereafter.
Life eternal and present
"This is life eternal," says Jesus, - /is/, not /shall be/;and then he defines everlasting life as a present knowledge410:6 of his Father and of himself, - the knowledgeof Love, Truth, and Life. "This is life eter-nal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and410:9 Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." The Scripturessay, "Man shall not live by bread /alone/, but by everyword that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," show-410:12 ing that Truth is the actual life of man; but mankindobjects to making this teaching practical.
Love casteth out fear
Every trial of our faith in God makes us stronger.410:15 The more difficult seems the material condition to beovercome by Spirit, the stronger should be ourfaith and the purer our love. The Apostle410:18 John says: "There is no fear in Love, but perfect Lovecasteth out fear. . . . He that feareth is not made per-fect in Love." Here is a definite and inspired proclama-410:21 tion of Christian Science.
Be not afraid
The Science of mental practice is susceptible of no410:24 misuse. Selfishness does not appear in the practice ofTruth or Christian Science. If mental prac-tice is abused or is used in any way except to410:27 promote right thinking and doing, the power to healmentally will diminish, until the practitioner's healingability is wholly lost. Christian scientific practice be-410:30 gins with Christ's keynote of harmony, "Be not afraid!"411:1 Said Job: "The thing which I greatly feared is comeupon me."
Naming diseases
411:3 My first discovery in the student's practice was this:If the student silently called the disease by name, whenhe argued against it, as a general rule the body411:6 would respond more quickly, - just as a per-son replies more readily when his name is spoken; butthis was because the student was not perfectly attuned to411:9 divine Science, and needed the arguments of truth forreminders. If Spirit or the power of divine Love bearwitness to the truth, this is the ultimatum, the scientific411:12 way, and the healing is instantaneous.
Evils cast out
It is recorded that once Jesus asked the name of a dis-ease, - a disease which moderns would call /dementia/.411:15 The demon, or evil, replied that his name wasLegion. Thereupon Jesus cast out the evil,and the insane man was changed and straightway be-411:18 came whole. The Scripture seems to import that Jesuscaused the evil to be self-seen and so destroyed.
Fear as the foundation
The procuring cause and foundation of all sickness is411:21 fear, ignorance, or sin. Disease is always induced by afalse sense mentally entertained, not destroyed.Disease is an image of thought externalized.411:24 The mental state is called a material state. Whateveris cherished in mortal mind as the physical condition isimaged forth on the body.
Unspoken pleading
411:27 Always begin your treatment by allaying the fearof patients. Silently reassure them as to their exemp-tion from disease and danger. Watch the re-411:30 sult of this simple rule of Christian Science,and you will find that it alleviates the symptoms of everydisease. If you succeed in wholly removing the fear,412:1 your patient is healed. The great fact that God lovinglygoverns all, never punishing aught but sin, is your stand-412:3 point, from which to advance and destroy the human fearof sickness. Mentally and silently plead the case scien-tifically for Truth. You may vary the arguments to meet412:6 the peculiar or general symptoms of the case you treat,but be thoroughly persuaded in your own mind concern-ing the truth which you think or speak, and you will be412:9 the victor.
Eloquent silence
You may call the disease by name when you mentallydeny it; but by naming it audibly, you are liable under412:12 some circumstances to impress it upon thethought. The power of Christian Science anddivine Love is omnipotent. It is indeed adequate to un-412:15 clasp the hold and to destroy disease, sin, and death.
Insistence requisite
To prevent disease or to cure it, the power of Truth,of divine Spirit, must break the dream of the material412:18 senses. To heal by argument, find the typeof the ailment, get its name, and array yourmental plea against the physical. Argue at first men-412:21 tally, not audibly, that the patient has no disease, andconform the argument so as to destroy the evidence ofdisease. Mentally insist that harmony is the fact, and412:24 that sickness is a temporal dream. Realize the presenceof health and the fact of harmonious being, until thebody corresponds with the normal conditions of health412:27 and harmony.
The cure of infants
If the case is that of a young child or an infant, it needsto be met mainly through the parent's thought, silently412:30 or audibly on the aforesaid basis of ChristianScience. The Scientist knows that there canbe no hereditary disease, since matter is not intelligent413:1 and cannot transmit good or evil intelligence to man, andGod, the only Mind, does not produce pain in matter.413:3 The act of yielding one's thoughts to the undue contem-plation of physical wants or conditions induces those veryconditions. A single requirement, beyond what is neces-413:6 sary to meet the simplest needs of the babe is harmful.Mind regulates the condition of the stomach, bowels, andfood, the temperature of children and of men, and matter413:9 does not. The wise or unwise views of parents and otherpersons on these subjects produce good or bad effects onthe health of children.
Ablutions for cleanliness
413:12 The daily ablutions of an infant are no more naturalnor necessary than would be the process of taking a fishout of water every day and covering it with dirt413:15 in order to make it thrive more vigorously in itsown element. "Cleanliness is next to godliness," butwashing should be only for the purpose of keeping the413:18 body clean, and this can be effected without scrubbing thewhole surface daily. Water is not the natural habitat ofhumanity. I insist on bodily cleanliness within and with-413:21 out. I am not patient with a speck of dirt; but in caringfor an infant one need not wash his little body all over eachday in order to keep it sweet as the new-blown flower.
Juvenile ailments
413:24 Giving drugs to infants, noticing every symptom offlatulency, and constantly directing the mind to suchsigns, - that mind being laden with illusions413:27 about disease, health-laws, and death, - theseactions convey mental images to children's buddingthoughts, and often stamp them there, making it probable413:30 at any time that such ills may be reproduced in the veryailments feared. A child may have worms, if you say so,or any other malady, timorously held in the beliefs con-414:1 cerning his body. Thus are laid the foundations of thebelief in disease and death, and thus are children educated414:3 into discord.
Cure of insanity
The treatment of insanity is especially interesting.However obstinate the case, it yields more readily than414:6 do most diseases to the salutary action oftruth, which counteracts error. The argu-ments to be used in curing insanity are the same as in414:9 other diseases: namely, the impossibility that matter,brain, can control or derange mind, can suffer or causesuffering; also the fact that truth and love will establish414:12 a healthy state, guide and govern mortal mind or thethought of the patient, and destroy all error, whether it iscalled dementia, hatred, or any other discord.
414:15 To fix truth steadfastly in your patients' thoughts, ex-plain Christian Science to them, but not too soon, - notuntil your patients are prepared for the explanation, -414:18 lest you array the sick against their own interests by troub-ling and perplexing their thought. The Christian Scien-tist's argument rests on the Christianly scientific basis of414:21 being. The Scripture declares, "The Lord He is God[good]; there is none else beside Him." Even so, harmonyis universal, and discord is unreal. Christian Science de-414:24 clares that Mind is substance, also that matter neitherfeels, suffers, nor enjoys. Hold these points strongly inview. Keep in mind the verity of being, - that man is414:27 the image and likeness of God, in whom all being ispainless and permanent. Remember that man's perfec-tion is real and unimpeachable, whereas imperfection is414:30 blameworthy, unreal, and is not brought about by divineLove.
Matter is not inflamed
Matter cannot be inflamed. Inflammation is fear, an415:1 excited state of mortals which is not normal. Immor-tal Mind is the only cause; therefore disease is neither a415:3 cause nor an effect. Mind in every case is theeternal God, good. Sin, disease, and deathhave no foundations in Truth. Inflamation as a mor-415:6 tal belief quickens or impedes the action of the system,because thought moves quickly or slowly, leaps or haltswhen it contemplates unpleasant things, or when the in-415:9 dividual looks upon some object which he dreads. In-flammation never appears in a part which mortal thoughtdoes not reach. That is why opiates relieve inflammation.415:12 They quiet the thought by inducing stupefaction and byresorting to matter instead of to Mind. Opiates do notremove the pain in any scientific sense. They only ren-415:15 der mortal mind temporarily less fearful, till it can masteran erroneous belief.
Truth calms the thought
Note how thought makes the face pallid. It either re-415:18 tards the circulation or quickens it, causing a pale orflushed cheek. In the same way thought in-creases or diminishes the secretions, the action415:21 of the lungs, of the bowels, and of the heart. The mus-cles, moving quickly or slowly and impelled or palsied bythought, represent the action of all the organs of the hu-415:24 man system, including brain and viscera. To removethe error producing disorder, you must calm and instructmortal mind with immortal Truth.
Effects of etherization
415:27 Etherization will apparently cause the body to dis-appear. Before the thoughts are fully at rest, the limbswill vanish from consciousness. Indeed, the415:30 whole frame will sink from sight along withsurrounding objects, leaving the pain standing forth asdistinctly as a mountain-peak, as if it were a separate416:1 bodily member. At last the agony also vanishes. Thisprocess shows the pain to be in the mind, for the inflam-416:3 mation is not suppressed; and the belief of pain willpresently return, unless the mental image occasioningthe pain be removed by recognizing the truth of being.
Sedatives valueless
416:6 A hypodermic injection of morphine is administeredto a patient, and in twenty minutes the sufferer is qui-etly asleep. To him there is no longer any416:9 pain. Yet any physician - allopathic, homoe-opathic, botanic, eclectic - will tell you that the trouble-some material cause is unremoved, and that when the416:12 soporific influence of the opium is exhausted, the pa-tient will find himself in the same pain, unless the beliefwhich occasions the pain has meanwhile been changed.416:15 Where is the pain while the patient sleeps?
The so-called physical ego
The material body, which you call /me/, is mortal mind,and this mind is material in sensation, even as the body,416:18 which has originated from this material senseand been developed according to it, is mate-rial. This materialism of parent and child is only in416:21 mortal mind, as the dead body proves; for when themortal has resigned his body to dust, the body is nolonger the parent, even in appearance.
Evil thought depletes
416:24 The sick know nothing of the mental process bywhich they are depleted, and next to nothing of themetaphysical method by which they can be416:27 healed. If they ask about their disease, tellthem only what is best for them to know. Assure themthat they think too much about their ailments, and416:30 have already heard too much on that subject. Turntheir thoughts away from their bodies to higher ob-jects. Teach them that their being is sustained by417:1 Spirit, not by matter, and that they find health, peace,and harmony in God, divine Love.
Helpful encouragement
417:3 Give sick people credit for sometimes knowing morethan their doctors. Always support their trust in thepower of Mind to sustain the body. Never417:6 tell the sick that they have more couragethan strength. Tell them rather, that their strengthis in proportion to their courage. If you make the sick417:9 realize this great truism, there will be no reaction fromover-exertion or from excited conditions. Maintainthe facts of Christian Science, - that Spirit is God, and417:12 therefore cannot be sick; that what is termed mattercannot be sick; that all causation is Mind, actingthrough spiritual law. Then hold your ground with417:15 the unshaken understanding of Truth and Love, andyou will win. When you silence the witness against yourplea, you destroy the evidence, for the disease disap-417:18 pears. The evidence before the corporeal senses is notthe Science of immortal man.
Disease to be made unreal
To the Christian Science healer, sickness is a dream417:21 from which the patient needs to be awakened. Dis-ease should not appear real to the physician,since it is demonstrable that the way to417:24 cure the patient is to make disease unreal to him. Todo this, the physician must understand the unrealityof disease in Science.
417:27 Explain audibly to your patients, as soon as they canbear it, the complete control which Mind holds over thebody. Show them how mortal mind seems to induce417:30 disease by certain fears and false conclusions, and howdivine Mind can cure by opposite thoughts. Give yourpatients an underlying understanding to support them418:1 and to shield them from the baneful effects of their ownconclusions. Show them that the conquest over sickness,418:3 as well as over sin, depends on mentally destroying allbelief in material pleasure or pain.
Christian pleading
Stick to the truth of being in contradistinction to the418:6 error that life, substance, or intelligence can be in matter.Plead with an honest conviction of truth anda clear perception of the unchanging, unerr-418:9 ing, and certain effect of divine Science. Then, if yourfidelity is half equal to the truth of your plea, you willheal the sick.
Truthful arguments
418:12 It must be clear to you that sickness is no morethe reality of being than is sin. This mortal dreamof sickness, sin, and death should cease418:15 through Christian Science. Then one dis-ease would be as readily destroyed as another. What-ever the belief is, if arguments are used to destroy it,418:18 the belief must be repudiated, and the negation must ex-tend to the supposed disease and to whatever decides itstype and symptoms. Truth is affirmative, and confers418:21 harmony. All metaphysical logic is inspired by this sim-ple rule of Truth, which governs all reality. By thetruthful arguments you employ, and especially by the418:24 spirit of Truth and Love which you entertain, you willheal the sick.
Morality required
Include moral as well as physical belief in your efforts418:27 to destroy error. Cast out all manner of evil. "Preachthe gospel to every creature." Speak thetruth to every form of error. Tumors, ulcers,418:30 tubercles, inflammation, pain, deformed joints, are wak-ing dream-shadows, dark images of mortal thought, whichflee before the light of Truth.
419:1 A moral question may hinder the recovery of the sick.Lurking error, lust, envy, revenge, malice, or hate will419:3 perpetuate or even create the belief in disease. Errorsof all sorts tend in this direction. Your true course isto destroy the foe, and leave the field to God, Life, Truth,419:6 and Love, remembering that God and His ideas aloneare real and harmonious.
Relapse unnecessary
If your patient from any cause suffers a relapse, meet419:9 the cause mentally and courageously, knowing thatthere can be no reaction in Truth. Neitherdisease itself, sin, nor fear has the power to419:12 cause disease or a relapse. Disease has no intelligencewith which to move itself about or to change itself fromone form to another. If disease moves, mind, not mat-419:15 ter, moves it; therefore be sure that you move it off.Meet every adverse circumstance as its master. Ob-serve mind instead of body, lest aught unfit for develop-419:18 ment enter thought. Think less of material conditionsand more of spiritual.
Conquer beliefs and fears
Mind produces all action. If the action proceeds from419:21 Truth, from immortal Mind, there is harmony; but mor-tal mind is liable to any phase of belief. Arelapse cannot in reality occur in mortals or419:24 so-called mortal minds, for there is but oneMind, one God. Never fear the mental malpractitioner,the mental assassin, who, in attempting to rule mankind,419:27 tramples upon the divine Principle of metaphysics, for Godis the only power. To succeed in healing, you must con-quer your own fears as well as those of your patients, and419:30 rise into higher and holier consciousness.
True government of man
If it is found necessary to treat against relapse, knowthat disease or its symptoms cannot change forms, nor420:1 go from one part to another, for Truth destroys disease.There is no metastasis, no stoppage of harmonious420:3 action, no paralysis. Truth not error, Lovenot hate, Spirit not matter, governs man. Ifstudents do not readily heal themselves, they should420:6 early call an experienced Christian Scientist to aidthem. If they are unwilling to do this for themselves,they need only to know that error cannot produce this420:9 unnatural reluctance.