John Young of Edinburgh writes: "God is the father208:18 of mind, and of nothing else." Such an utterance is"the voice of one crying in the wilderness" of humanbeliefs and preparing the way of Science. Let us learn208:21 of the real and eternal, and prepare for the reign ofSpirit, the kingdom of heaven, - the reign and rule ofuniversal harmony, which cannot be lost nor remain208:24 forever unseen.
Sickness as only thought
Mind, not matter, is causation. A material bodyonly expresses a material and mortal mind. A mortal208:27 man possesses this body, and he makes itharmonious or discordant according to theimages of thought impressed upon it. You embrace208:30 your body in your thought, and you should delineateupon it thoughts of health, not of sickness. You shouldbanish all thoughts of disease and sin and of other beliefs209:1 included in matter. Man, being immortal, has a perfectindestructible life. It is the mortal belief which makes209:3 the body discordant and diseased in proportion as igno-rance, /fear/, or human will governs mortals.
Allness of Truth
Mind, supreme over all its formations and governing209:6 them all, is the central sun of its own systems of ideas,the life and light of all its own vast creation;and man is tributary to divine Mind. The209:9 material and mortal body or mind is not the man.
The world would collapse without Mind, without the in-telligence which holds the winds in its grasp. Neither209:12 philosophy nor skepticism can hinder the march of theScience which reveals the supremacy of Mind. The im-manent sense of Mind-power enhances the glory of Mind.209:15 Nearness, not distance, lends enchantment to this view.
Spiritual translation
The compounded minerals or aggregated substancescomposing the earth, the relations which constituent209:18 masses hold to each other, the magnitudes,distances, and revolutions of the celestialbodies, are of no real importance, when we remember209:21 that they all must give place to the spiritual fact by thetranslation of man and the universe back into Spirit. Inproportion as this is done, man and the universe will be209:24 found harmonious and eternal.
Material substances or mundane formations, astro-nomical calculations, and all the paraphernalia of specu-209:27 lative theories, based on the hypothesis of material lawor life and intelligence resident in matter, will ulti-mately vanish, swallowed up in the infinite calculus of209:30 Spirit.
Spiritual sense is a conscious, constant capacity to un-derstand God. It shows the superiority of faith by works210:1 over faith in words. Its ideas are expressed only in "newtongues;" and these are interpreted by the translation of210:3 the spiritual original into the language which humanthought can comprehend.
Jesus' disregard of matter
The Principle and proof of Christianity are discerned210:6 by spiritual sense. They are set forth in Jesus' demon-strations, which show - by his healing thesick, casting out evils, and destroying death,210:9 "the last enemy that shall be destroyed," -his disregard of matter and its so-called laws.
Knowing that Soul and its attributes were forevermanifested through man, the Master healed the sick,gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, feet to thelame, thus bringing to light the scientific action of the210:15 divine Mind on human minds and bodies and givinga better understanding of Soul and salvation. Jesushealed sickness and sin by one and the same metaphysical210:18 process.
Mind not mortal
The expression /mortal mind/ is really a solecism, forMind is immortal, and Truth pierces the error of mortality210:21 as a sunbeam penetrates the cloud. Because,in obedience to the immutable law of Spirit,this so-called mind is self-destructive, I name it mortal.210:24 Error soweth the wind and reapeth the whirlwind.
Matter mindless
What is termed matter, being unintelligent, cannot say,"I suffer, I die, I am sick, or I am well." It is the so-210:27 called mortal mind which voices this and ap-pears to itself to make good its claim. Tomortal sense, sin and suffering are real, but immortal210:30 sense includes no evil nor pestilence. Because immortalsense has no error of sense, it has no sense of error; therefore it is without a destructive element.
211:1 If brain, nerves, stomach, are intelligent, - if they talkto us, tell us their condition, and report how they feel, -211:3 then Spirit and matter, Truth and error, commingleand produce sickness and health, good and evil, life anddeath; and who shall say whether Truth or error is the211:6 greater?
Matter sensationless
The sensations of the body must either be the sensa-tions of a so-called mortal mind or of matter. Nerves211:9 are not mind. Is it not provable that Mind isnot /mortal/ and that matter has no sensation?Is it not equally true that matter does not appear in the211:12 spiritual understanding of being?
The sensation of sickness and the impulse to sin seemto obtain in mortal mind. When a tear starts, does not211:15 this so-called mind produce the effect seen in the lachry-mal gland? Without mortal mind, the tear could notappear; and this action shows the nature of all so-called211:18 material cause and effect.
It should no longer be said in Israel that "the fathershave eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set211:21 on edge." Sympathy with error should disappear. Thetransfer of the thoughts of one erring mind to another,Science renders impossible.
Nerves painless
211:24 If it is true that nerves have sensation, that matter hasintelligence, that the material organism causes the eyes tosee and the ears to hear, then, when the body211:27 is dematerialized, these faculties must be lost,for their immortality is not in Spirit; whereas the factis that only through dematerialization and spiritualiza-211:30 tion of thought can these faculties be conceived of asimmortal.
Nerves are not the source of pain or pleasure. We212:1 suffer or enjoy in our dreams, but this pain or pleasureis not communicated through a nerve. A tooth which has212:3 been extracted sometimes aches again in belief, and thepain seems to be in its old place. A limb which has beenamputated has continued in belief to pain the owner. If212:6 the sensation of pain in the limb can return, can be pro-longed, why cannot the limb reappear?
Why need pain, rather than pleasure, come to this mor-212:9 tal sense? Because the memory of pain is more vividthan the memory of pleasure. I have seen an unwittingattempt to scratch the end of a finger which had been cut212:12 off for months. When the nerve is gone, which we saywas the occasion of pain, and the pain still remains, itproves sensation to be in the mortal mind, not in matter.212:15 Reverse the process; take away this so-called mind insteadof a piece of the flesh, and the nerves have no sensation.
Human falsities
Mortals have a modus of their own, undirected and un-212:18 sustained by God. They produce a rose through seed andsoil, and bring the rose into contact with theolfactory nerves that they may smell it. In212:21 legerdemain and credulous frenzy, mortals believe thatunseen spirits produce the flowers. God alone makesand clothes the lilies of the field, and this He does by212:24 means of Mind, not matter.
No miracles in Mind-methods
Because all the methods of Mind are not understood,we say the lips or hands must move in order to convey212:27 thought, that the undulations of the air conveysound, and possibly that other methods involveso-called miracles. The realities of being, its212:30 normal action, and the origin of all things are unseen tomortal sense; whereas the unreal and imitative move-ments of mortal belief, which would reverse the immortal213:1 modus and action, are styled the real. Whoever con-tradicts this mortal mind supposition of reality is called213:3 a deceiver, or is said to be deceived. Of a man it hasbeen said, "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he;" henceas a man spiritually /understandeth/, so is he in truth.
Good indefinable
213:6 Mortal mind conceives of something as either liquidor solid, and then classifies it materially. Immortal andspiritual facts exist apart from this mortal and213:9 material conception. God, good, is self-exist-ent and self-expressed, though indefinable as a whole.Every step towards goodness is a departure from materi-213:12 ality, and is a tendency towards God, Spirit. Materialtheories partially paralyze this attraction towards infiniteand eternal good by an opposite attraction towards the213:15 finite, temporary, and discordant.
Sound is a mental impression made on mortal belief.The ear does not really hear. Divine Science reveals213:18 sound as communicated through the senses of Soul -through spiritual understanding.
Music, rhythm of head and heart
Mozart experienced more than he expressed. The213:21 rapture of his grandest symphonies was never heard. Hewas a musician beyond what the world knew.This was even more strikingly true of Beet-213:24 hoven, who was so long hopelessly deaf. Men-tal melodies and strains of sweetest music supersede con-scious sound. Music is the rhythm of head and heart.213:27 Mortal mind is the harp of many strings, discoursingeither discord or harmony according as the hand, whichsweeps over it, is human or divine.213:30 Before human knowledge dipped to its depths into afalse sense of things, - into belief in material originswhich discard the one Mind and true source of being, -214:1 it is possible that the impressions from Truth were asdistinct as sound, and that they came as sound to the214:3 primitive prophets. If the medium of hearing is whollyspiritual, it is normal and indestructible.
If Enoch's perception had been confined to the evidence214:6 before his material senses, he could never have "walkedwith God," nor been guided into the demonstration oflife eternal.
Adam and the senses
214:9 Adam, represented in the Scriptures as formed fromdust, is an object-lesson for the human mind. The mate-rial senses, like Adam, originate in matter and214:12 return to dust, - are proved non-intelligent.They go out as they came in, for they are still the error,not the truth of being. When it is learned that the spirit-214:15 ual sense, and not the material, conveys the impressionsof Mind to man, then being will be understood and foundto be harmonious.
Idolatrous illusions
214:18 We bow down to matter, and entertain finite thoughtsof God like the pagan idolater. Mortals are inclined tofear and to obey what they consider a material214:21 body more than they do a spiritual God. Allmaterial knowledge, like the original "tree of knowledge,"multiplies their pains, for mortal illusions would rob God,214:24 slay man, and meanwhile would spread their table withcannibal tidbits and give thanks.
The senses of Soul
How transient a sense is mortal sight, when a wound on214:27 the retina may end the power of light and lens! But thereal sight or sense is not lost. Neither age noraccident can interfere with the senses of Soul,214:30 and there are no other real senses. It is evident that thebody as matter has no sensation of its own, and there is nooblivion for Soul and its faculties. Spirit's senses are with-215:1 out pain, and they are forever at peace. Nothing can hidefrom them the harmony of all things and the might and215:3 permanence of Truth.
Real being never lost
If Spirit, Soul, could sin or be lost, then being and im-mortality would be lost, together with all the faculties of215:6 Mind; but being cannot be lost while God ex-ists. Soul and matter are at variance from thevery necessity of their opposite natures. Mortals are215:9 unacquainted with the reality of existence, because matterand mortality do not reflect the facts of Spirit.
Spiritual vision is not subordinate to geometric alti-215:12 tudes. Whatever is governed by God, is never for aninstant deprived of the light and might of intelligenceand Life.
Light and darkness
215:15 We are sometimes led to believe that darkness is as realas light; but Science affirms darkness to be only a mortalsense of the absence of light, at the coming of215:18 which darkness loses the appearance of reality.So sin and sorrow, disease and death, are the suppositionalabsence of Life, God, and flee as phantoms of error before215:21 truth and love.
With its divine proof, Science reverses the evidence ofmaterial sense. Every quality and condition of mortality215:24 is lost, swallowed up in immortality. Mortal man is theantipode of immortal man in origin, in existence, and in hisrelation to God.
Faith of Socrates
215:27 Because he understood the superiority and immor-tality of good, Socrates feared not the hemlock poison.Even the faith of his philosophy spurned phys-215:30 ical timidity. Having sought man's spiritualstate, he recognized the immortality of man. The igno-rance and malice of the age would have killed the vener-216:1 able philosopher because of his faith in Soul and his in-difference to the body.
The serpent of error
216:3 Who shall say that man is alive to-day, but may be deadto-morrow? What has touched Life, God, to suchstrange issues? Here theories cease, and Sci-216:6 ence unveils the mystery and solves the prob-lem of man. Error bites the heel of truth, but cannot killtruth. Truth bruises the head of error - destroys error.216:9 Spirituality lays open siege to materialism. On whichside are we fighting?
Servants and masters
The understanding that the Ego is Mind, and that216:12 there is but one Mind or intelligence, begins at once todestroy the errors of mortal sense and to supplythe truth of immortal sense. This understand-216:15 ing makes the body harmonious; it makes the nerves,bones, brain, etc., servants, instead of masters. If manis governed by the law of divine Mind, his body is in sub-216:18 mission to everlasting Life and Truth and Love. Thegreat mistake of mortals is to suppose that man, God'simage and likeness, is both matter and Spirit, both good216:21 and evil.
If the decision were left to the corporeal senses, evilwould appear to be the master of good, and sickness to216:24 be the rule of existence, while health would seem theexception, death the inevitable, and life a paradox. Paulasked: "What concord hath Christ with Belial?" (2 Cor-216:27 inthians vi. 15.)
Personal identity
When you say, "Man's body is material," I say withPaul: Be "willing rather to be absent from the body,216:30 and to be present with the Lord." Give upyour material belief of mind in matter, andhave but one Mind, even God; for this Mind forms its217:1 own likeness. The loss of man's identity through theunderstanding which Science confers is impossible; and217:3 the notion of such a possibility is more absurd than toconclude that individual musical tones are lost in theorigin of harmony.
Paul's experience
217:6 Medical schools may inform us that the healing workof Christian Science and Paul's peculiar Christian con-version and experience, - which prove Mind217:9 to be scientifically distinct from matter, - areindications of unnatural mental and bodily conditions,even of catalepsy and hysteria; yet if we turn to the Scrip-217:12 tures, what do we read? Why, this: "If a man keep mysaying, he shall never see death!" and "Henceforth knowwe no man after the flesh!"
Fatigue is mental
217:15 That scientific methods are superior to others, isseen by their effects. When you have once conquereda diseased condition of the body through217:18 Mind, that condition never recurs, and youhave won a point in Science. When mentality givesrest to the body, the next toil will fatigue you less, for217:21 you are working out the problem of being in divine meta-physics; and in proportion as you understand the con-trol which Mind has over so-called matter, you will be217:24 able to demonstrate this control. The scientific andpermanent remedy for fatigue is to learn the power ofMind over the body or any illusion of physical weariness,217:27 and so destroy this illusion, for matter cannot be wearyand heavy-laden.
You say, "Toil fatigues me." But what is this /me/!217:30 Is it muscle or mind? Which is tired and so speaks?Without mind, could the muscles be tired? Do themuscles talk, or do you talk for them? Matter is non-218:1 intelligent. Mortal mind does the false talking, and thatwhich affirms weariness, made that weariness.
Mind never weary
218:3 You do not say a wheel is fatigued; and yet the bodyis as material as the wheel. If it were not for what thehuman mind says of the body, the body, like218:6 the inanimate wheel, would never be weary.The consciousness of Truth rests us more than hours ofrepose in unconsciousness.
Coalition of sin and sickness
218:9 The body is supposed to say, "I am ill." The reportsof sickness may form a coalition with the reports of sin,and say, "I am malice, lust, appetite, envy,218:12 hate." What renders both sin and sicknessdifficult of cure is, that the human mind is thesinner, disinclined to self-correction, and believing that218:15 the body can be sick independently of mortal mind andthat the divine Mind has no jurisdiction over the body.
Sickness akin to sin
Why pray for the recovery of the sick, if you are with-218:18 out faith in God's willingness and ability to heal them?If you do believe in God, why do you sub-stitute drugs for the Almighty's power, and218:21 employ means which lead only into material ways ofobtaining help, instead of turning in time of need toGod, divine Love, who is an ever-present help?
218:24 Treat a belief in sickness as you would sin, with suddendismissal. Resist the temptation to believe in matter asintelligent, as having sensation or power.
218:27 The Scriptures say, "They that wait upon the Lord. . . shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk,and not faint." The meaning of that passage is not218:30 perverted by applying it literally to moments of fatigue,for the moral and physical are as one in their results.When we wake to the truth of being, all disease,219:1 pain, weakness, weariness, sorrow, sin, death, will beunknown, and the mortal dream will forever cease. My219:3 method of treating fatigue applies to all bodily ailments,since Mind should be, and is, supreme, absolute, andfinal.
Affirmation and result
219:6 In mathematics, we do not multiply when we shouldsubtract, and then say the product is correct. No morecan we say in Science that muscles give strength,219:9 that nerves give pain or pleasure, or that mattergoverns, and then expect that the result will be harmony.Not muscles, nerves, nor bones, but mortal mind makes219:12 the whole body "sick, and the whole heart faint;" whereasdivine Mind heals.
When this is understood, we shall never affirm concern-219:15 ing the body what we do not wish to have manifested. Weshall not call the body weak, if we would have it strong;for the belief in feebleness must obtain in the human219:18 mind before it can be made manifest on the body, andthe destruction of the belief will be the removal of itseffects. Science includes no rule of discord, but governs219:21 harmoniously. "The wish," says the poet, "is ever fatherto the thought."
Scientific beginning
We may hear a sweet melody, and yet misunderstand219:24 the science that governs it. Those who are healedthrough metaphysical Science, not compre-hending the Principle of the cure, may misun-219:27 derstand it, and impute their recovery to change of air ordiet, not rendering to God the honor due to Him alone.Entire immunity from the belief in sin, suffering, and219:30 death may not be reached at this period, but we may lookfor an abatement of these evils; and this scientific begin-ning is in the right direction.
Hygiene ineffectual
220:1 We hear it said: " I exercise daily in the open air. Itake cold baths, in order to overcome a predisposition to220:3 take cold; and yet I have continual colds,catarrh, and cough." Such admissions oughtto open people's eyes to the inefficacy of material hygiene,220:6 and induce sufferers to look in other directions for causeand cure.
Instinct is better than misguided reason, as even na-220:9 ture declares. The violet lifts her blue eye to greet theearly spring. The leaves clap their hands as nature'suntired worshippers. The snowbird sings and soars220:12 amid the blasts; he has no catarrh from wet feet, andprocures a summer residence with more ease than a na-bob. The atmosphere of the earth, kinder than the at-220:15 mosphere of mortal mind, leaves catarrh to the latter.Colds, coughs, and contagion are engendered solely byhuman theories.
The reflex phenomena
220:18 Mortal mind produces its own phenomena, and thencharges them to something else, - like a kittenglancing into the mirror at itself and thinking220:21 it sees another kitten.
A clergyman once adopted a diet of bread and waterto increase his spirituality. Finding his health failing,220:24 he gave up his abstinence, and advised others never totry dietetics for growth in grace.
Volition far-reaching
The belief that either fasting or feasting makes men220:27 better morally or physically is one of the fruits of "thetree of the knowledge of good and evil," con-cerning which God said, "Thou shalt not eat220:30 of it." Mortal mind forms all conditions of the mortalbody, and controls the stomach, bones, lungs, heart, blood,etc., as directly as the volition or will moves the mind.
Starvation and dyspepsia
221:1 I knew a person who when quite a child adopted theGraham system to cure dyspepsia. For many years, he221:3 ate only bread and vegetables, and drank noth-ing but water. His dyspepsia increasing, hedecided that his diet should be more rigid, and221:6 thereafter he partook of but one meal in twenty-fourhours, this meal consisting of only a thin slice of breadwithout water. His physician also recommended that221:9 he should not wet his parched throat until three hoursafter eating. He passed many weary years in hungerand weakness, almost in starvation, and finally made up221:12 his mind to die, having exhausted the skill of the doctors,who kindly informed him that death was indeed his onlyalternative. At this point Christian Science saved him,221:15 and he is now in perfect health without a vestige of theold complaint.
He learned that suffering and disease were the self-221:18 imposed beliefs of mortals, and not the facts of being;that God never decreed disease, - never ordained a lawthat fasting should be a means of health. Hence semi-221:21 starvation is not acceptable to wisdom, and it is equallyfar from Science, in which being is sustained by God, Mind.These truths, opening his eyes, relieved his stomach, and221:24 he ate without suffering, "giving God thanks;" but henever enjoyed his food as he had imagined he wouldwhen, still the slave of matter, he thought of the flesh-221:27 pots of Egypt, feeling childhood's hunger and undisci-plined by self-denial and divine Science.
Mind and stomach
This new-born understanding, that neither food nor221:30 the stomach, without the consent of mortalmind, can make one suffer, brings with it an-other lesson, - that gluttony is a sensual illusion, and222:1 that this phantasm of mortal mind disappears as we betterapprehend our spiritual existence and ascend the ladder222:3 of life.
This person learned that food affects the body onlyas mortal mind has its material methods of working, one222:6 of which is to believe that proper food supplies nutrimentand strength to the human system. He learned also thatmortal mind makes a mortal body, whereas Truth re-222:9 generates this fleshly mind and feeds thought with thebread of Life.
Food had less power to help or to hurt him after he222:12 had availed himself of the fact that Mind governs man,and he also had less faith in the so-called pleasures andpains of matter. Taking less thought about what he222:15 should eat or drink, consulting the stomach less aboutthe economy of living and God more, he recoveredstrength and flesh rapidly. For many years he had222:18 been kept alive, as was believed, only by the strictest ad-herence to hygiene and drugs, and yet he continued illall the while. Now he dropped drugs and material222:21 hygiene, and was well.
He learned that a dyspeptic was very far from beingthe image and likeness of God, - far from having "do-222:24 minion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of theair, and over the cattle," if eating a bit of animal fleshcould overpower him. He finally concluded that God222:27 never made a dyspeptic, while fear, hygiene, physiology,and physics had made him one, contrary to His commands.
Life only in Spirit
In seeking a cure for dyspepsia consult matter not at222:30 all, and eat what is set before you, "askingno question for conscience sake." We mustdestroy the false belief that life and intelligence are in223:1 matter, and plant ourselves upon what is pure and per-fect. Paul said, "Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not223:3 fulfil the lust of the flesh." Sooner or later we shall learnthat the fetters of man's finite capacity are forged by theillusion that he lives in body instead of in Soul, in matter223:6 instead of in Spirit.
Soul greater than body
Matter does not express Spirit. God is infinite omni-present Spirit. If Spirit is /all/ and is everywhere, what223:9 and where is matter? Remember that truthis greater than error, and we cannot put thegreater into the less. Soul is Spirit, and Spirit is greater223:12 than body. If Spirit were once within the body, Spiritwould be finite, and therefore could not be Spirit.
The question of the ages
The question, "What is Truth," convulses the world.223:15 Many are ready to meet this inquiry with the assurancewhich comes of understanding; but more areblinded by their old illusions, and try to "give223:18 it pause." "If the blind lead the blind, both shall fall intothe ditch."
The efforts of error to answer this question by some223:21 /ology/ are vain. Spiritual rationality and free thought ac-company approaching Science, and cannot be put down.They will emancipate humanity, and supplant unscientific223:24 means and so-called laws.
Heralds of Science
Peals that should startle the slumbering thought fromits erroneous dream are partially unheeded; but the last223:27 trump has not sounded, or this would not beso. Marvels, calamities, and sin will muchmore abound as truth urges upon mortals its resisted223:30 claims; but the awful daring of sin destroys sin, andforeshadows the triumph of truth. God will over-turn, until "He come whose right it is." Longevity224:1 is increasing and the power of sin diminishing, for the,world feels the alterative effect of truth through every224:3 pore.
As the crude footprints of the past disappear from thedissolving paths of the present, we shall better understand224:6 the Science which governs these changes, and shall plantour feet on firmer ground. Every sensuous pleasure orpain is self-destroyed through suffering. There should224:9 be painless progress, attended by life and peace insteadof discord and death.
Sectarianism and opposition
In the record of nineteen centuries, there are sects224:12 many but not enough Christianity. Centuries ago re-ligionists were ready to hail an anthropomor-phic God, and array His vicegerent with pomp224:15 and splendor; but this was not the mannerof truth's appearing. Of old the cross was truth's cen-tral sign, and it is to-day. The modern lash is less224:18 material than the Roman scourge, but it is equally ascutting. Cold disdain, stubborn resistance, oppositionfrom church, state laws, and the press, are still the har-224:21 bingers of truth's full-orbed appearing.
A higher and more practical Christianity, demonstrat-ing justice and meeting the needs of mortals in sickness224:24 and in health, stands at the door of this age, knockingfor admission. Will you open or close the door upon thisangel visitant, who cometh in the quiet of meekness, as he224:27 came of old to the patriarch at noonday?
Mental emancipation
Truth brings the elements of liberty. On its banneris the Soul-inspired motto, "Slavery is abolished." The224:30 power of God brings deliverance to the cap-tive. No power can withstand divine Love.What is this supposed power, which opposes itself to God?225:1 Whence cometh it? What is it that binds man with ironshackles to sin, sickness, and death? Whatever enslaves225:3 man is opposed to the divine government. Truth makesman free.
Truth's ordeal
You may know when first Truth leads by the few-225:6 ness and faithfulness of its followers. Thus it is thatthe march of time bears onward freedom'sbanner. The powers of this world will fight,225:9 and will command their sentinels not to let truth passthe guard until it subscribes to their systems; but Science,heeding not the pointed bayonet, marches on. There is225:12 always some tumult, but there is a rallying to truth'sstandard.
Immortal sentences
The history of our country, like all history, illustrates225:15 the might of Mind, and shows human power to be propor-tionate to its embodiment of right thinking. Afew immortal sentences, breathing the omnipo-225:18 tence of divine justice, have been potent to break despoticfetters and abolish the whipping-post and slave market;but oppression neither went down in blood, nor did the225:21 breath of freedom come from the cannon's mouth. Loveis the liberator.
Slavery abolished
Legally to abolish unpaid servitude in the United225:24 States was hard; but the abolition of mental slavery isa more difficult task. The despotic tenden-cies, inherent in mortal mind and always ger-225:27 minating in new forms of tyranny, must be rooted outthrough the action of the divine Mind.
Men and women of all climes and races are still in225:30 bondage to material sense, ignorant how to obtain theirfreedom. The rights of man were vindicated in a singlesection and on the lowest plane of human life, when Afri-226:1 can slavery was abolished in our land. That was onlyprophetic of further steps towards the banishment of a226:3 world-wide slavery, found on higher planes of existenceand under more subtle and depraving forms.
Liberty's crusade
The voice of God in behalf of the African slave was226:6 still echoing in our land, when the voice of the herald ofthis new crusade sounded the keynote of uni-versal freedom, asking a fuller acknowledg-226:9 ment of the rights of man as a Son of God, demandingthat the fetters of sin, sickness, and death be strickenfrom the human mind and that its freedom be won, not226:12 through human warfare, not with bayonet and blood, butthrough Christ's divine Science.
Cramping systems
God has built a higher platform of human rights, and226:15 He has built it on diviner claims. These claims are notmade through code or creed, but in demonstra-tion of "on earth peace, good-will toward men."226:18 Human codes, scholastic theology, material medicine andhygiene, fetter faith and spiritual understanding. DivineScience rends asunder these fetters, and man's birthright226:21 of sole allegiance to his Maker asserts itself.
I saw before me the sick, wearing out years of servi-tude to an unreal master in the belief that the body gov-226:24 erned them, rather than Mind.
House of bondage
The lame, the deaf, the dumb, the blind, the sick, thesensual, the sinner, I wished to save from the slavery of226:27 their own beliefs and from the educationalsystems of the Pharaohs, who to-day, as ofyore, hold the children of Israel in bondage. I saw be-226:30 fore me the awful conflict, the Red Sea and the wilder-ness; but I pressed on through faith in God, trustingTruth, the strong deliverer, to guide me into the land227:1 of Christian Science, where fetters fall and the rights ofman are fully known and acknowledged.
Higher law ends bondage
227:3 I saw that the law of mortal belief included all error,and that, even as oppressive laws are disputed and mor-tals are taught their right to freedom, so the227:6 claims of the enslaving senses must be de-nied and superseded. The law of the divine Mind mustend human bondage, or mortals will continue unaware227:9 of man's inalienable rights and in subjection to hope-less slavery, because some public teachers permitan ignorance of divine power, - an ignorance that227:12 is the foundation of continued bondage and of humansuffering.
Native freedom
Discerning the rights of man, we cannot fail to fore-227:15 see the doom of all oppression. Slavery is not the legiti-mate state of man. God made man free.Paul said, "I was free born." All men should227:18 be free. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is lib-erty." Love and Truth make free, but evil and errorlead into captivity.
Standard of liberty
227:21 Christian Science raises the standard of liberty andcries: "Follow me! Escape from the bondage of sick-ness, sin, and death!" Jesus marked out the227:24 way. Citizens of the world, accept the "glori-ous liberty of the children of God," and be free! Thisis your divine right. The illusion of material sense, not227:27 divine law, has bound you, entangled your free limbs,crippled your capacities, enfeebled your body, and de-faced the tablet of your being.
227:30 If God had instituted material laws to govern man,disobedience to which would have made man ill, Jesuswould not have disregarded those laws by healing in228:1 direct opposition to them and in defiance of all materialconditions.
No fleshly heredity
228:3 The transmission of disease or of certain idiosyncra-sies of mortal mind would be impossible if this great factof being were learned, - namely, that nothing228:6 inharmonious can enter being, for Life /is/ God.Heredity is a prolific subject for mortal belief to pin the-ories upon; but if we learn that nothing is real but the228:9 right, we shall have no dangerous inheritances, and fleshlyills will disappear.
God-given dominion
The enslavement of man is not legitimate. It will228:12 cease when man enters into his heritage of freedom, hisGod-given dominion over the material senses.Mortals will some day assert their freedom in228:15 the name of Almighty God. Then they will control theirown bodies through the understanding of divine Science.Dropping their present beliefs, they will recognize har-228:18 mony as the spiritual reality and discord as the materialunreality.
If we follow the command of our Master, "Take no228:21 thought for your life," we shall never depend on bodilyconditions, structure, or economy, but we shall be mastersof the body, dictate its terms, and form and control it with228:24 Truth.
Priestly pride humbled
There is no power apart from God. Omnipotence hasall-power, and to acknowledge any other power is to dis-228:27 honor God. The humble Nazarene overthrewthe supposition that sin, sickness, and deathhave power. He proved them powerless. It should have228:30 humbled the pride of the priests, when they saw the dem-onstration of Christianity excel the influence of their deadfaith and ceremonies.
229:1 If Mind is not the master of sin, sickness, and death,they are immortal, for it is already proved that mat-229:3 ter has not destroyed them, but is their basis andsupport.
No union of opposites
We should hesitate to say that Jehovah sins or suffers;229:6 but if sin and suffering are realities of being, whence didthey emanate? God made all that was made,and Mind signifies God, - infinity, not finity.229:9 Not far removed from infidelity is the belief whichunites such opposites as sickness and health, holinessand unholiness, calls both the offspring of spirit, and229:12 at the same time admits that Spirit is God, - vir-tually declaring Him good in one instance and evil inanother.
Self-constituted law
229:15 By universal consent, mortal belief has constituteditself a law to bind mortals to sickness, sin, and death.This customary belief is misnamed material229:18 law, and the individual who upholds it is mis-taken in theory and in practice. The so-called law ofmortal mind, conjectural and speculative, is made void229:21 by the law of immortal Mind, and false law should betrampled under foot.
Sickness from mortal mind
If God causes man to be sick, sickness must be good,229:24 and its opposite, health, must be evil, for all that Hemakes is good and will stand forever. If thetransgression of God's law produces sickness, it229:27 is right to be sick; and we cannot if we would, and shouldnot if we could, annul the decrees of wisdom. It is thetransgression of a belief of mortal mind, not of a law of229:30 matter nor of divine Mind, which causes the belief of sick-ness. The remedy is Truth, not matter, - the truth thatdisease is /unreal/.
230:1 If sickness is real, it belongs to immortality; if true,it is a part of Truth. Would you attempt with drugs,230:3 or without, to destroy a quality or condition of Truth?But if sickness and sin are illusions, the awakening fromthis mortal dream, or illusion, will bring us into health,230:6 holiness, and immortality. This awakening is the for-ever coming of Christ, the advanced appearing of Truth,which casts out error and heals the sick. This is the sal-230:9 vation which comes through God, the divine Principle,Love, as demonstrated by Jesus.
God never inconsistent
It would be contrary to our highest ideas of God to230:12 suppose Him capable of first arranging law and causationso as to bring about certain evil results, andthen punishing the helpless victims of His vo-230:15 lition for doing what they could not avoid doing. Goodis not, cannot be, the author of experimental sins. God,good, can no more produce sickness than goodness can230:18 cause evil and health occasion disease.
Mental narcotics
Does wisdom make blunders which must afterwardsbe rectified by man? Does a law of God produce sick-230:21 ness, and can man put that law under his feetby healing sickness? According to Holy Writ,the sick are never really healed by drugs, hygiene, or any230:24 material method. These merely evade the question.They are soothing syrups to put children to sleep, satisfymortal belief, and quiet fear.
The true healing
230:27 We think that we are healed when a disease disap-pears, though it is liable to reappear; but we are neverthoroughly healed until the liability to be230:30 ill is removed. So-called mortal mind or themind of mortals being the remote, predisposing, andthe exciting cause of all suffering, the cause of disease231:1 must be obliterated through Christ in divine Science, orthe so-called physical senses will get the victory.
Destruction of all evil
231:3 Unless an ill is rightly met and fairly overcome byTruth, the ill is never conquered. If God destroys notsin, sickness, and death, they are not de-231:6 stroyed in the mind of mortals, but seem tothis so-called mind to be immortal. What God cannotdo, man need not attempt. If God heals not the sick,231:9 they are not healed, for no lesser power equals the infiniteAll-power; but God, Truth, Life, Love, does heal thesick through the prayer of the righteous.
231:12 If God makes sin, if good produces evil, if truth resultsin error, then Science and Christianity are helpless; butthere are no antagonistic powers nor laws, spiritual or231:15 material, creating and governing man through perpetualwarfare. God is not the author of mortal discords.Therefore we accept the conclusion that discords have231:18 only a fabulous existence, are mortal beliefs which divineTruth and Love destroy.
Superiority to sickness and sin
To hold yourself superior to sin, because God made231:21 you superior to it and governs man, is true wisdom. Tofear sin is to misunderstand the power of Loveand the divine Science of being in man's rela-231:24 tion to God, - to doubt His government anddistrust His omnipotent care. To hold yourself superiorto sickness and death is equally wise, and is in accordance231:27 with divine Science. To fear them is impossible, whenyou fully apprehend God and know that they are no partof His creation.
231:30 Man, governed by his Maker, having no other Mind, -planted on the Evangelist's statement that "all thingswere made by Him [the Word of God]; and without232:1 Him was not anything made that was made," - cantriumph over sin, sickness, and death.
Denials of divine power
232:3 Many theories relative to God and man neither makeman harmonious nor God lovable. The beliefs we com-monly entertain about happiness and life232:6 afford no scatheless and permanent evidenceof either. Security for the claims of harmonious andeternal being is found only in divine Science.
232:9 Scripture informs us that "with God all things arepossible," - all good is possible to Spirit; but our prev-alent theories practically deny this, and make healing232:12 possible only through matter. These theories must beuntrue, for the Scripture is true. Christianity is notfalse, but religions which contradict its Principle are232:15 false.
In our age Christianity is again demonstrating thepower of divine Principle, as it did over nineteen hun-232:18 dred years ago, by healing the sick and triumphing overdeath. Jesus never taught that drugs, food, air, and ex-ercise could make a man healthy, or that they could de-232:21 stroy human life; nor did he illustrate these errors by hispractice. He referred man's harmony to Mind, not tomatter, and never tried to make of none effect the sen-232:24 tence of God, which sealed God's condemnation of sin,sickness, and death.
Signs following
In the sacred sanctuary of Truth are voices of sol-232:27 emn import, but we heed them not. It is only when theso-called pleasures and pains of sense passaway in our lives, that we find unquestion-232:30 able signs of the burial of error and the resurrection tospiritual life.
Profession and proof
There is neither place nor opportunity in Science for error233:1 of any sort. Every day makes its demands upon us forhigher proofs rather than professions of Christian power.233:3 These proofs consist solely in the destructionof sin, sickness, and death by the power ofSpirit, as Jesus destroyed them. This is an element of233:6 progress, and progress is the law of God, whose law de-mands of us only what we can certainly fulfil.
Perfection gained slowly
In the midst of imperfection, perfection is seen and233:9 acknowledged only by degrees. The ages must slowlywork up to perfection. How long it must bebefore we arrive at the demonstration of scien-233:12 tific being, no man knoweth, - not even "theSon but the Father;" but the false claim of error con-tinues its delusions until the goal of goodness is assidu-233:15 ously earned and won.
Christ's mission
Already the shadow of His right hand rests upon thehour. Ye who can discern the face of the sky, - the233:18 sign material, - how much more should yediscern the sign mental, and compass the de-struction of sin and sickness by overcoming the thoughts233:21 which produce them, and by understanding the spiritualidea which corrects and destroys them. To reveal thistruth was our Master's mission to all mankind, including233:24 the hearts which rejected him.
Efficacy of truth
When numbers have been divided according to a fixedrule, the quotient is not more unquestionable than the233:27 scientific tests I have made of the effects oftruth upon the sick. The counter fact rela-tive to any disease is required to cure it. The utterance233:30 of truth is designed to rebuke and destroy error. Whyshould truth not be efficient in sickness, which is solelythe result of inharmony?
234:1 Spiritual draughts heal, while material lotions interfere with truth, even as ritualism and creed hamper spirit- 234:3 uality. If we trust matter, we distrust Spirit.
Crumbs of comfort
Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love - beit song, sermon, or Science - blesses the human family234:6 with crumbs of comfort from Christ's tablefeeding the hungry and giving living waters tothe thirsty.
Hospitality to health and good
234:9 We should become more familiar with good than withevil, and guard against false beliefs as watchfully as webar our doors against the approach of thieves234:12 and murderers. We should love our enemiesand help them on the basis of the GoldenRule; but avoid casting pearls before those who trample234:15 them under foot, thereby robbing both themselves andothers.
Cleansing the mind
If mortals would keep proper ward over mortal mind,234:18 the brood of evils which infest it would be cleared out.We must begin with this so-called mind andempty it of sin and sickness, or sin and sick-234:21 ness will never cease. The present codes of humansystems disappoint the weary searcher after a divinetheology, adequate to the right education of human234:24 thought.
Sin and disease must be thought before they can bemanifested. You must control evil thoughts in the first234:27 instance, or they will control you in the second. Jesusdeclared that to look with desire on forbidden objects wasto break a moral precept. He laid great stress on the234:30 action of the human mind, unseen to the senses.
Evil thoughts and aims reach no farther and do no moreharm than one's belief permits. Evil thoughts, lusts, and235:1 malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen,from one human mind to another, finding unsuspected235:3 lodgment, if virtue and truth build a strong defence.Better suffer a doctor infected with smallpox to attendyou than to be treated mentally by one who does not obey235:6 the requirements of divine Science.
Teachers' functions
The teachers of schools and the readers in churchesshould be selected with as direct reference to their235:9 morals as to their learning or their correctreading. Nurseries of character should bestrongly garrisoned with virtue. School-examinations are235:12 one-sided; it is not so much academic education, as amoral and spiritual culture, which lifts one higher. Thepure and uplifting thoughts of the teacher, constantly235:15 imparted to pupils, will reach higher than the heavens ofastronomy; while the debased and unscrupulous mind,though adorned with gems of scholarly attainment, will235:18 degrade the characters it should inform and elevate.
Physicians' privilege
Physicians, whom the sick employ in their helplessness,should be models of virtue. They should be wise spir-235:21 itual guides to health and hope. To the trem-blers on the brink of death, who understandnot the divine Truth which is Life and perpetuates being,235:24 physicians should be able to teach it. Then when the soulis willing and the flesh weak, the patient's feet may beplanted on the rock Christ Jesus, the true idea of spiritual235:27 power.
Clergymen's duty
Clergymen, occupying the watchtowers of the world,should uplift the standard of Truth. They should so raise235:30 their hearers spiritually, that their listenerswill love to grapple with a new, right ideaand broaden their concepts. Love of Christianity, rather236:1 than love of popularity, should stimulate clerical laborand progress. Truth should emanate from the pulpit,236:3 but never be strangled there. A special privilege is vestedin the ministry. How shall it be used? Sacredly, in theinterests of humanity, not of sect.
236:6 Is it not professional reputation and emolument ratherthan the dignity of God's laws, which many leaders seek?Do not inferior motives induce the infuriated attacks on236:9 individuals, who reiterate Christ's teachings in supportof his proof by example that the divine Mind heals sick-ness as well as sin?
A mother's responsibility
236:12 A mother is the strongest educator, either for oragainst crime. Her thoughts form the embryo of an-other mortal mind, and unconsciously mould236:15 it, either after a model odious to herself orthrough divine influence, "according to the patternshowed to thee in the mount." Hence the importance236:18 of Christian Science, from which we learn of the oneMind and of the availability of good as the remedy forevery woe.
Children's tractability
236:21 Children should obey their parents; insubordinationis an evil, blighting the buddings of self-government.Parents should teach their children at the236:24 earliest possible period the truths of healthand holiness. Children are more tractable than adults,and learn more readily to love the simple verities that will236:27 make them happy and good.
Jesus loved little children because of their freedomfrom wrong and their receptiveness of right. While236:30 age is halting between two opinions or battling withfalse beliefs, youth makes easy and rapid strides towardsTruth.
237:1 A little girl, who had occasionally listened to my ex-planations, badly wounded her finger. She seemed not237:3 to notice it. On being questioned about it she answeredingenuously, "There is no sensation in matter." Bound-ing off with laughing eyes, she presently added, "Mamma,237:6 my finger is not a bit sore."
Soil and seed
It might have been months or years before her parentswould have laid aside their drugs, or reached the mental237:9 height their little daughter so naturally at-tained. The more stubborn beliefs and theo-ries of parents often choke the good seed in the minds of237:12 themselves and their offspring. Superstition, like "thefowls of the air," snatches away the good seed before ithas sprouted.
Teaching children
237:15 Children should be taught the Truth-cure, ChristianScience, among their first lessons, and kept from discuss-ing or entertaining theories or thoughts about237:18 sickness. To prevent the experience of errorand its sufferings, keep out of the minds of your childreneither sinful or diseased thoughts. The latter should237:21 be excluded on the same principle as the former. Thismakes Christian Science early available.
Deluded invalids
Some invalids are unwilling to know the facts or to237:24 hear about the fallacy of matter and its supposed laws.They devote themselves a little longer to theirmaterial gods, cling to a belief in the life and237:27 intelligence of matter, and expect this error to do morefor them than they are willing to admit the only living andtrue God can do. Impatient at your explanation, unwill-237:30 ing to investigate the Science of Mind which would ridthem of their complaints, they hug false beliefs and sufferthe delusive consequences.
Patient waiting
238:1 Motives and acts are not rightly valued before they areunderstood. It is well to wait till those whom you would238:3 benefit are ready for the blessing, for Scienceis working changes in personal character aswell as in the material universe.238:6 To obey the Scriptural command, "Come out fromamong them, and be ye separate," is to incur society'sfrown; but this frown, more than flatteries, enables one238:9 to be Christian. Losing her crucifix, the Roman Catholicgirl said, "I have nothing left but Christ." "If God befor us, who can be against us?"
Unimproved opportunities
238:12 To fall away from Truth in times of persecution, showsthat we never understood Truth. From out the bridalchamber of wisdom there will come the warn-238:15 ing, "I know you not." Unimproved op-portunities will rebuke us when we attempt to claim thebenefits of an experience we have not made our own, try238:18 to reap the harvest we have not sown, and wish to enterunlawfully into the labors of others. Truth often remainsunsought, until we seek this remedy for human woe be-238:21 cause we suffer severely from error.