Logic and revelation
Divine logic and revelation coincide. If we believe otherwise, we may be sure that either our 93:12 logic is at fault or that we have misinterpreted revelation. Good never causes evil, nor creates aught that can cause evil.
93:15 Good does not create a mind susceptible of causing evil, for evil is the opposing error and not the truth of creation. Destructive electricity is not the offspring of in- 93:18 finite good. Whatever contradicts the real nature of the divine _Esse_, though human faith may clothe it with angelic vestments, is without foundation.
Derivatives of spirit
93:21 The belief that Spirit is finite as well as infinite has darkened all history. In Christian Science, Spirit, as a proper noun, is the name of the Supreme Being. 93:24 It means quantity and quality, and applies ex- clusively to God. The modifying derivatives of the word _spirit_ refer only to quality, not to God. Man is spiritual. 93:27 He is not God, Spirit. If man were Spirit, then men would be spirits, gods. Finite spirit would be mortal, and this is the error embodied in the belief that the infi- 93:30 nite can be contained in the finite. This belief tends to becloud our apprehension of the kingdom of heaven and of the reign of harmony in the Science of being.
Scientific man
94:1 Jesus taught but one God, one Spirit, who makes man in the image and likeness of Himself, – of Spirit, not of 94:3 matter. Man reflects infinite Truth, Life, and Love. The nature of man, thus understood, includes all that is implied by the terms “image” and 94:6 “likeness” as used in Scripture. The truly Christian and scientific statement of personality and of the relation of man to God, with the demonstration which accompa- 94:9 nied it, incensed the rabbis, and they said: “Crucify him, crucify him . . . by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.”
94:12 The eastern empires and nations owe their false gov- ernment to the misconceptions of Deity there prevalent. Tyranny, intolerance, and bloodshed, wherever found, 94:15 arise from the belief that the infinite is formed after the pattern of mortal personality, passion, and impulse.
Ingratitude and denial
The progress of truth confirms its claims, and our 94:18 Master confirmed his words by his works. His healing- power evoked denial, ingratitude, and be- trayal, arising from sensuality. Of the ten 94:21 lepers whom Jesus healed, but one returned to give God thanks, – that is, to acknowledge the divine Principle which had healed him.
Spiritual insight
94:24 Our Master easily read the thoughts of mankind, and this insight better enabled him to direct those thoughts aright; but what would be said at this period of an in- 94:27 fidel blasphemer who should hint that Jesus used his in- cisive power injuriously? Our Master read mortal mind on a scientific basis, that of the omnipresence of Mind. 94:30 An approximation of this discernment indicates spiritual growth and union with the infinite capacities of the one Mind. Jesus could injure no one by his Mind-reading. 95:1 The effect of his Mind was always to heal and to save, and this is the only genuine Science of reading mortal 95:3 mind. His holy motives and aims were tra- duced by the sinners of that period, as they would be to-day if Jesus were personally present. Paul 95:6 said, “To be spiritually minded is life.” We approach God, or Life, in proportion to our spirituality, our fidel- ity to Truth and Love; and in that ratio we know all 95:9 human need and are able to discern the thought of the sick and the sinning for the purpose of healing them. Error of any kind cannot hide from the law of God.
95:12 Whoever reaches this point of moral culture and good- ness cannot injure others, and must do them good. The greater or lesser ability of a Christian Scientist to discern 95:15 thought scientifically, depends upon his genuine spirit- uality. This kind of mind-reading is not clairvoyance, but it is important to success in healing, and is one of the 95:18 special characteristics thereof.
Christ’s reappearance
We welcome the increase of knowledge and the end of error, because even human invention must have its 95:21 day, and we want that day to be succeeded by Christian Science, by divine reality. Mid- night foretells the dawn. Led by a solitary star amid 95:24 the darkness, the Magi of old foretold the Messiahship of Truth. Is the wise man of to-day believed, when he beholds the light which heralds Christ’s eternal dawn 95:27 and describes its effulgence?
Spiritual awakening
Lulled by stupefying illusions, the world is asleep in the cradle of infancy, dreaming away the hours. 95:30 Material sense does not unfold the facts of existence; but spiritual sense lifts human consciousness into eternal Truth. Humanity advances 96:1 slowly out of sinning sense into spiritual understanding; unwillingness to learn all things rightly, binds Christen- 96:3 dom with chains.
The darkest hours of all
Love will finally mark the hour of harmony, and spir- itualization will follow, for Love is Spirit. Before error 96:6 is wholly destroyed, there will be interrup- tions of the general material routine. Earth will become dreary and desolate, but summer and winter, 96:9 seedtime and harvest (though in changed forms), will continue unto the end, – until the final spiritualization of all things. “The darkest hour precedes the dawn.”
Arena of contest
96:12 This material world is even now becoming the arena for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord and dismay; on the other side there will be 96:15 Science and peace. The breaking up of mate- rial beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new 96:18 phases until their nothingness appears. These disturb- ances will continue until the end of error, when all discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth. 96:21 Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization. This mental fermentation has begun, and will continue until all errors of belief yield to understanding. Belief is 96:24 changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless.
Millennial glory
As this consummation draws nearer, he who has shaped his course in accordance with divine Science 96:27 will endure to the end. As material knowl- edge diminishes and spiritual understanding increases, real objects will be apprehended mentally 96:30 instead of materially.
During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but 97:1 those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They 97:3 will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the certainty of ultimate perfection.
Dangerous resemblances
In reality, the more closely error simulates truth and 97:6 so-called matter resembles its essence, mortal mind, the more impotent error becomes as a belief. Ac- cording to human belief, the lightning is fierce 97:9 and the electric current swift, yet in Christian Science the flight of one and the blow of the other will become harmless. The more destructive matter becomes, the 97:12 more its nothingness will appear, until matter reaches its mortal zenith in illusion and forever disappears. The nearer a false belief approaches truth without passing 97:15 the boundary where, having been destroyed by divine Love, it ceases to be even an illusion, the riper it becomes for destruction. The more material the belief, the more 97:18 obvious its error, until divine Spirit, supreme in its do- main, dominates all matter, and man is found in the like- ness of Spirit, his original being.
97:21 The broadest facts array the most falsities against themselves, for they bring error from under cover. It requires courage to utter truth; for the higher Truth 97:24 lifts her voice, the louder will error scream, until its in- articulate sound is forever silenced in oblivion.
“He uttered His voice, the earth melted.” This Scrip- 97:27 ture indicates that all matter will disappear before the supremacy of Spirit.
Christianity still rejected
Christianity is again demonstrating the Life that is 97:30 Truth, and the Truth that is Life, by the apos- tolic work of casting out error and healing the sick. Earth has no repayment for the persecutions which 98:1 attend a new step in Christianity; but the spiritual recom- pense of the persecuted is assured in the elevation of ex- 98:3 istence above mortal discord and in the gift of divine Love.
Spiritual foreshadowings
The prophet of to-day beholds in the mental horizon the signs of these times, the reappearance of the Chris- 98:6 tianity which heals the sick and destroys error, and no other sign shall be given. Body can- not be saved except through Mind. The Science of Chris- 98:9 tianity is misinterpreted by a material age, for it is the healing influence of Spirit (not _spirits_) which the material senses cannot comprehend, which can only be spiritu- 98:12 ally discerned. Creeds, doctrines, and human hypotheses do not express Christian Science; much less can they demonstrate it.
Revelation of Science
98:15 Beyond the frail premises of human beliefs, above the loosening grasp of creeds, the demonstration of Christian Mind-healing stands a revealed and practical 98:18 Science. It is imperious throughout all ages as Christ’s revelation of Truth, of Life, and of Love, which remains inviolate for every man to understand and to 98:21 practise.
Science as foreign to all religion
For centuries – yea, always – natural science has not been considered a part of any religion, Christianity not 98:24 excepted. Even now multitudes consider that which they call _science_ has no proper con- nection with faith and piety. Mystery does 98:27 not enshroud Christ’s teachings, and they are not theo- retical and fragmentary, but practical and complete; and being practical and complete, they are not deprived of 98:30 their essential vitality.
Key to the kingdom
The way through which immortality and life are learned is not ecclesiastical but Christian, not human but divine, 99:1 not physical but metaphysical, not material but scien- tifically spiritual. Human philosophy, ethics, and super- 99:3 stition afford no demonstrable divine Principle by which mortals can escape from sin; yet to escape from sin, is what the Bible demands. “Work 99:6 out your own salvation with fear and trembling,” says the apostle, and he straightway adds: “for it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good 99:9 pleasure” (Philippians ii. 12, 13). Truth has furnished the key to the kingdom, and with this key Christian Sci- ence has opened the door of the human understanding. 99:12 None may pick the lock nor enter by some other door. The ordinary teachings are material and not spiritual. Christian Science teaches only that which is spiritual and 99:15 divine, and not human. Christian Science is unerring and Divine; the human sense of things errs because it is human.
99:18 Those individuals, who adopt theosophy, spiritualism, or hypnotism, may possess natures above some others who eschew their false beliefs. Therefore my contest is 99:21 not with the individual, but with the false system. I love mankind, and shall continue to labor and to endure.
The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the 99:24 manifestations of which are health, purity, and self- immolation, must deepen human experience, until the beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposi- 99:27 tion, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to God’s spiritual, perfect man.
CHAPTER V – ANIMAL MAGNETISM UNMASKED
For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man. – JESUS.
Earliest investigations
100:1 MESMERISM or animal magnetism was first brought into notice by Mesmer in Germany in 1775. Ac- 100:3 cording to the American Cyclopaedia, he regarded this so-called force, which he said could be ex- erted by one living organism over another, as 100:6 a means of alleviating disease. His propositions were as follows:
“There exists a mutual influence between the celestial 100:9 bodies, the earth, and animated things. Animal bodies are susceptible to the influence of this agent, disseminat- ing itself through the substance of the nerves.” 100:12 In 1784, the French government ordered the medical faculty of Paris to investigate Mesmer’s theory and to report upon it. Under this order a commission was 100:15 appointed, and Benjamin Franklin was one of the com- missioners. This commission reported to the govern- ment as follows:
100:18 “In regard to the existence and utility of animal mag- netism, we have come to the unanimous conclusions that there is no proof of the existence of the animal magnetic 101:1 fluid; that the violent effects, which are observed in the public practice of magnetism, are due to manipula- 101:3 tions, or to the excitement of the imagination and the impressions made upon the senses; and that there is one more fact to be recorded in the history of the errors of 101:6 the human mind, and an important experiment upon the power of the imagination.”
Clairvoyance, magnetism
In 1837, a committee of nine persons was appointed, 101:9 among whom were Roux, Bouillaud, and Clo- quet, which tested during several sessions the phenomena exhibited by a reputed clairvoyant. Their 101:12 report stated the results as follows:
“The facts which had been promised by Monsieur Berna [the magnetizer] as conclusive, and as adapted to 101:15 throw light on physiological and therapeutical questions, are certainly not conclusive in favor of the doctrine of animal magnetism, and have nothing in common with 101:18 either physiology or therapeutics.”
This report was adopted by the Royal Academy of Medicine in Paris.
Personal conclusions
101:21 The author’s own observations of the workings of animal magnetism convince her that it is not a remedial agent, and that its effects upon 101:24 those who practise it, and upon their subjects who do not resist it, lead to moral and to physical death.
If animal magnetism seems to alleviate or to cure dis- 101:27 ease, this appearance is deceptive, since error cannot remove the effects of error. Discomfort under error is preferable to comfort. In no instance is the effect of 101:30 animal magnetism, recently called hypnotism, other than the effect of illusion. Any seeming benefit derived from it is proportional to one’s faith in esoteric magic.
Mere negation
102:1 Animal magnetism has no scientific foundation, for God governs all that is real, harmonious, and eternal, and 102:3 His power is neither animal nor human. Its basis being a belief and this belief animal, in Science animal magnetism, mesmerism, or hypnotism is 102:6 a mere negation, possessing neither intelligence, power, nor reality, and in sense it is an unreal concept of the so- called mortal mind.
102:9 There is but one real attraction, that of Spirit. The pointing of the needle to the pole symbolizes this all- embracing power or the attraction of God, divine Mind.
102:12 The planets have no more power over man than over his Maker, since God governs the universe; but man, reflecting God’s power, has dominion over all the earth 102:15 and its hosts.
Hidden agents
The mild forms of animal magnetism are disappear- ing, and its aggressive features are coming to the front. 102:18 The looms of crime, hidden in the dark re- cesses of mortal thought, are every hour weav- ing webs more complicated and subtle. So secret are the 102:21 present methods of animal magnetism that they ensnare the age into indolence, and produce the very apathy on the subject which the criminal desires. The following 102:24 is an extract from the Boston Herald:
“Mesmerism is a problem not lending itself to an easy explanation and development. It implies the exercise 102:27 of despotic control, and is much more likely to be abused by its possessor, than otherwise employed, for the in- dividual or society.”
Mental despotism
102:30 Mankind must learn that evil is not power. Its so- called despotism is but a phase of nothingness. Christian Science despoils the kingdom of evil, and pre-eminently 103:1 promotes affection and virtue in families and therefore in the community. The Apostle Paul refers to the 103:3 personification of evil as “the god of this world,” and further defines it as dishonesty and craftiness. Sin was the Assyrian moon-god.
Liberation of mental powers
103:6 The destruction of the claims of mortal mind through Science, by which man can escape from sin and mortality, blesses the whole human fam- 103:9 ily. As in the beginning, however, this libera- tion does not scientifically show itself in a knowledge of both good and evil, for the latter is unreal. 103:12 On the other hand, Mind-science is wholly separate from any half-way impertinent knowledge, because Mind- science is of God and demonstrates the divine Principle, 103:15 working out the purposes of good only. The maximum of good is the infinite God and His idea, the All-in-all. Evil is a suppositional lie.
The genus of error
103:18 As named in Christian Science, animal magnetism or hypnotism is the specific term for error, or mortal mind. It is the false belief that mind is in matter, and 103:21 is both evil and good; that evil is as real as good and more powerful. This belief has not one qual- ity of Truth. It is either ignorant or malicious. The 103:24 malicious form of hypnotism ultimates in moral idiocy. The truths of immortal Mind sustain man, and they anni- hilate the fables of mortal mind, whose flimsy and gaudy 103:27 pretensions, like silly moths, singe their own wings and fall into dust.
Thought-transference
In reality there is no _mortal_ mind, and conse- 103:30 quently no transference of mortal thought and will-power. Life and being are of God. In Christian Science, man can do no harm, for 104:1 scientific thoughts are true thoughts, passing from God to man.
104:3 When Christian Science and animal magnetism are both comprehended, as they will be at no distant date, it will be seen why the author of this book has been 104:6 so unjustly persecuted and belied by wolves in sheep’s clothing.
Agassiz, the celebrated naturalist and author, has 104:9 wisely said: “Every great scientific truth goes through three stages. First, people say it conflicts with the Bible. Next, they say it has been discovered before. Lastly, 104:12 they say they have always believed it.”
Perfection of divine government
Christian Science goes to the bottom of mental action, and reveals the theodicy which indicates the rightness of 104:15 all divine action, as the emanation of divine Mind, and the consequent wrongness of the opposite so-called action, – evil, occultism, 104:18 necromancy, mesmerism, animal magnetism, hypnotism.
Adulteration of Truth
The medicine of Science is divine Mind; and dishonesty, sensuality, falsehood, revenge, malice, are animal pro- 104:21 pensities and by no means the mental quali- ties which heal the sick. The hypnotizer employs one error to destroy another. If he heals sick- 104:24 ness through a belief, and a belief originally caused the sickness, it is a case of the greater error overcoming the lesser. This greater error thereafter occupies the ground, 104:27 leaving the case worse than before it was grasped by the stronger error.
Motives considered
Our courts recognize evidence to prove the motive as 104:30 well as the commission of a crime. Is it not clear that the human mind must move the body to a wicked act? Is not mortal mind the mur- 105:1 derer? The hands, without mortal mind to direct them, could not commit a murder.
Mental crimes
105:3 Courts and juries judge and sentence mortals in order to restrain crime, to prevent deeds of violence or to punish them. To say that these tribunals have no 105:6 jurisdiction over the carnal or mortal mind, would be to contradict precedent and to admit that the power of human law is restricted to matter, while mortal 105:9 mind, evil, which is the real outlaw, defies justice and is recommended to mercy. Can matter commit a crime? Can matter be punished? Can you separate the men- 105:12 tality from the body over which courts hold jurisdiction? Mortal mind, not matter, is the criminal in every case; and human law rightly estimates crime, and courts rea- 105:15 sonably pass sentence, according to the motive.
Important decision
When our laws eventually take cognizance of mental crime and no longer apply legal rulings wholly to physical 105:18 offences, these words of Judge Parmenter of Boston will become historic: “I see no reason why metaphysics is not as important to medicine as to 105:21 mechanics or mathematics.”
Evil let loose
Whoever uses his developed mental powers like an es- caped felon to commit fresh atrocities as opportunity oc- 105:24 curs is never safe. God will arrest him. Di- vine justice will manacle him. His sins will be millstones about his neck, weighing him down to the 105:27 depths of ignominy and death. The aggravation of er- ror foretells its doom, and confirms the ancient axiom: “Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad.”
The misuse of mental power
105:30 The distance from ordinary medical prac- tice to Christian Science is full many a league in the line of light; but to go in healing from the use of 106:1 inanimate drugs to the criminal misuse of human will- power, is to drop from the platform of common manhood 106:3 into the very mire of iniquity, to work against the free course of honesty and justice, and to push vainly against the current running heavenward.
Proper self-government
106:6 Like our nation, Christian Science has its Declaration of Independence. God has endowed man with inalien- able rights, among which are self-government, 106:9 reason, and conscience. Man is properly self- governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by his Maker, divine Truth and Love.
106:12 Man’s rights are invaded when the divine order is in- terfered with, and the mental trespasser incurs the divine penalty due this crime.
Right methods
106:15 Let this age, which sits in judgment on Christian Science, sanction only such methods as are demonstrable in Truth and known by their fruit, and classify 106:18 all others as did St. Paul in his great epistle to the Galatians, when he wrote as follows:
“Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are 106:21 these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, _witchcraft_, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, 106:24 revellings and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But 106:27 the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.”
CHAPTER VI – SCIENCE, THEOLOGY, MEDICINE
But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. – PAUL.
The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. – JESUS.
Christian Science discovered
107:1 In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science or divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and 107:3 named my discovery Christian Science. God had been graciously preparing me during many years for the reception of this final revelation of the ab- 107:6 solute divine Principle of scientific mental healing.
Mission of Christian Science
This apodictical Principle points to the revelation of Immanuel, “God with us,” – the sovereign ever-pres- 107:9 ence, delivering the children of men from every ill “that flesh is heir to.” Through Christian Science, religion and medicine are 107:12 inspired with a diviner nature and essence; fresh pinions are given to faith and understanding, and thoughts ac- quaint themselves intelligently with God.
Discontent with life
107:15 Feeling so perpetually the false consciousness that life inheres in the body, yet remembering that in reality God is our Life, we may well tremble 107:18 in the prospect of those days in which we must say, “I have no pleasure in them.”
108:1 Whence came to me this heavenly conviction, – a con- viction antagonistic to the testimony of the physical senses? 108:3 According to St. Paul, it was “the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of His power.” It was the divine law of Life and Love, unfolding to me 108:6 the demonstrable fact that matter possesses neither sen- sation nor life; that human experiences show the falsity of all material things; and that immortal cravings, “the 108:9 price of learning love,” establish the truism that the only sufferer is mortal mind, for the divine Mind cannot suffer.
Demonstrable evidence
108:12 My conclusions were reached by allowing the evidence of this revelation to multiply with mathematical certainty and the lesser demonstration to prove the 108:15 greater, as the product of three multiplied by three, equalling nine, proves conclusively that three times three duodecillions must be nine duodecillions, – not 108:18 a fraction more, not a unit less.
Light shining in darkness
When apparently near the confines of mortal existence, standing already within the shadow of the death-valley, 108:21 I learned these truths in divine Science: that all real being is in God, the divine Mind, and that Life, Truth, and Love are all-powerful and ever- 108:24 present; that the opposite of Truth, – called error, sin, sickness, disease, death, – is the false testimony of false material sense, of mind in matter; that this false sense 108:27 evolves, in belief, a subjective state of mortal mind which this same so-called mind names _matter_ thereby shutting out the true sense of Spirit.
New lines of thought
108:30 My discovery, that erring, mortal, misnamed _mind_ produces all the organism and action of the mortal body, set my thoughts to work in new channels, 109:1 and led up to my demonstration of the proposition that Mind is All and matter is naught as the leading factor in 109:3 Mind-science.
Scientific evidence
Christian Science reveals incontrovertibly that Mind is All-in-all, that the only realities are the divine Mind 109:6 and idea. This great fact is not, however, seen to be supported by sensible evidence, until its divine Principle is demonstrated by healing the sick and 109:9 thus proved absolute and divine. This proof once seen, no other conclusion can be reached.
Solitary research
For three years after my discovery, I sought the solu- 109:12 tion of this problem of Mind-healing, searched the Scrip- tures and read little else, kept aloof from so- ciety, and devoted time and energies to dis- 109:15 covering a positive rule. The search was sweet, calm, and buoyant with hope, not selfish nor depressing. I knew the Principle of all harmonious Mind-action to be God, 109:18 and that cures were produced in primitive Christian healing by holy, uplifting faith; but I must know the Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute 109:21 conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and dem- onstration. The revelation of Truth in the understand- ing came to me gradually and apparently through divine 109:24 power. When a new spiritual idea is borne to earth, the prophetic Scripture of Isaiah is renewedly fulfilled: “Unto us a child is born, . . . and his name shall be 109:27 called Wonderful.”
Jesus once said of his lessons: “My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me. If any man will do His will, 109:30 he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.” (John vii. 16,17.)
God’s allness learned
The three great verities of Spirit, omnipotence, omni- 110:1 presence, omniscience, – Spirit possessing all power, filling all space, constituting all Science, – contradict 110:3 forever the belief that matter can be actual. These eternal verities reveal primeval exist- ence as the radiant reality of God’s creation, 110:6 in which all that He has made is pronounced by His wis- dom good.
Thus it was that I beheld, as never before, the awful 110:9 unreality called evil. The equipollence of God brought to light another glorious proposition, – man’s perfecti- bility and the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on 110:12 earth.
Scriptural foundations
In following these leadings of scientific revelation, the Bible was my only textbook. The Scriptures were 110:15 illumined; reason and revelation were recon- ciled, and afterwards the truth of Christian Science was demonstrated. No human pen nor tongue 110:18 taught me the Science contained in this book, SCIENCE AND HEALTH; and neither tongue nor pen can over- throw it. This book may be distorted by shallow criti- 110:21 cism or by careless or malicious students, and its ideas may be temporarily abused and misrepresented; but the Science and truth therein will forever remain to be dis- 110:24 cerned and demonstrated.
The demonstration lost and found
Jesus demonstrated the power of Christian Science to heal mortal minds and bodies. But this power was lost 110:27 sight of, and must again be spiritually dis- cerned, taught, and demonstrated according to Christ’s command, with “signs following.” 110:30 Its Science must be apprehended by as many as believe on Christ and spiritually understand Truth.
Mystical antagonists
No analogy exists between the vague hypotheses of 111:1 agnosticism, pantheism, theosophy, spiritualism, or millenarianism and the demonstrable truths of Chris- 111:3 tian Science; and I find the will, or sensuous reason of the human mind, to be opposed to the divine Mind as expressed through divine Science.
Optical illustration of Science
111:6 Christian Science is natural, but not physical. The Science of God and man is no more supernatural than is the science of numbers, though departing 111:9 from the realm of the physical, as the Science of God, Spirit, must, some may deny its right to the name of Science. The Principle of divine metaphysics 111:12 is God; the practice of divine metaphysics is the utiliza- tion of the power of Truth over error; its rules demon- strate its Science. Divine metaphysics reverses perverted 111:15 and physical hypotheses as to Deity, even as the ex- planation of optics rejects the incidental or inverted image and shows what this inverted image is meant to 111:18 represent.
Pertinent proposal
A prize of one hundred pounds, offered in Oxford Uni- versity, England, for the best essay on Natural Science, 111:21 – an essay calculated to offset the tendency of the age to attribute physical effects to physical causes rather than to a final spiritual cause, – is one of 111:24 many incidents which show that Christian Science meets a yearning of the human race for spirituality.
Confirmatory tests
After a lengthy examination of my discovery and its 111:27 demonstration in healing the sick, this fact became evi- dent to me, – that Mind governs the body, not partially but wholly. I submitted my 111:30 metaphysical system of treating disease to the broad- est practical tests. Since then this system has gradually gained ground, and has proved itself, whenever scien- 112:1 tifically employed, to be the most effective curative agent in medical practice.
One school of Truth
112:3 Is there more than one school of Christian Science? Christian Science is demonstrable. There can, there- fore, be but one method in its teaching. Those who de- 112:6 part from this method forfeit their claims to belong to its school, and they become adher- ents of the Socratic, the Platonic, the Spencerian, or some 112:9 other school. By this is meant that they adopt and ad- here to some particular system of human opinions. Al- though these opinions may have occasional gleams of 112:12 divinity, borrowed from that truly divine Science which eschews man-made systems, they nevertheless remain wholly human in their origin and tendency and are not 112:15 scientifically Christian.
Unchanging Principle
From the infinite One in Christian Science comes one Principle and its infinite idea, and with this infinitude 112:18 come spiritual rules, laws, and their demon- stration, which, like the great Giver, are “the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever;” for thus are 112:21 the divine Principle of healing and the Christ-idea charac- terized in the epistle to the Hebrews.
On sandy foundations
Any theory of Christian Science, which departs from 112:24 what has already been stated and proved to be true, af- fords no foundation upon which to establish a genuine school of this Science. Also, if any 112:27 so-called new school claims to be Christian Science, and yet uses another author’s discoveries without giving that author proper credit, such a school is erroneous, for it 112:30 inculcates a breach of that divine commandment in the Hebrew Decalogue, “Thou shalt not steal.”
Principle and practice
God is the Principle of divine metaphysics. As there 113:1 is but one God, there can be but one divine Principle of all Science; and there must be fixed rules for the demon- 113:3 stration of this divine Principle. The letter of Science plentifully reaches humanity to-day, but its spirit comes only in small degrees. The vital part, 113:6 the heart and soul of Christian Science, is Love. With- out this, the letter is but the dead body of Science, – pulseless, cold, inanimate.
Reversible propositions
113:9 The fundamental propositions of divine metaphysics are summarized in the four following, to me, _self-evident_ propositions. Even if reversed, these proposi- 113:12 tions will be found to agree in statement and proof, showing mathematically their exact relation to Truth. De Quincey says mathematics has not a foot to 113:15 stand upon which is not purely metaphysical.
1. God is All-in-all.
2. God is good. Good is Mind.
113:18 3. God, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter. 4. Life, God, omnipotent good, deny death, evil, sin, disease. – Disease, sin, evil, death, deny good, omnipo- 113:21 tent God, Life.
Which of the denials in proposition four is true? Both are not, cannot be, true. According to the Scripture, 113:24 I find that God is true, “but every [mortal] man a liar.”
Metaphysical inversions
The divine metaphysics of Christian Science, like the 113:27 method in mathematics, proves the rule by inversion. For example: There is no pain in Truth, and no truth in pain; no nerve in Mind, and no 113:30 mind in nerve; no matter in Mind, and no mind in mat- ter; no matter in Life, and no life in matter; no matter in good, and no good in matter.
Definition of mortal mind
114:1 Usage classes both evil and good together as _mind_; therefore, to be understood, the author calls sick and sin- 114:3 ful humanity _mortal mind_, – meaning by this term the flesh opposed to Spirit, the human mind and evil in contradistinction to the divine Mind, or 114:6 Truth and good. The spiritually unscientific definition of mind is based on the evidence of the physical senses, which makes minds many and calls _mind_ both human and 114:9 divine.
In Science, Mind is _one_, including noumenon and phe- nomena, God and His thoughts.
Imperfect terminology
114:12 Mortal mind is a solecism in language, and involves an improper use of the word _mind_. As Mind is immortal, the phrase _mortal mind_ implies something un- 114:15 true and therefore unreal; and as the phrase is used in teaching Christian Science, it is meant to designate that which has no real existence. Indeed, if 114:18 a better word or phrase could be suggested, it would be used; but in expressing the new tongue we must sometimes recur to the old and imperfect, and the new 114:21 wine of the Spirit has to be poured into the old bottles of the letter.
Causation mental
Christian Science explains all cause and effect as men- 114:24 tal, not physical. It lifts the veil of mystery from Soul and body. It shows the scientific relation of man to God, disentangles the interlaced ambiguities 114:27 of being, and sets free the imprisoned thought. In divine Science, the universe, including man, is spiritual, harmoni- ous, and eternal. Science shows that what is termed _mat- 114:30 ter_ is but the subjective state of what is termed by the author _mortal mind_.
Philological inadequacy
Apart from the usual opposition to everything new, 115:1 the one great obstacle to the reception of that spiritual- ity, through which the understanding of Mind-science 115:3 comes, is the inadequacy of material terms for metaphysical statements, and the consequent difficulty of so expressing metaphysical ideas as to make 115:6 them comprehensible to any reader, who has not person- ally demonstrated Christian Science as brought forth in my discovery. Job says: “The ear trieth words, as the 115:9 mouth tasteth meat.” The great difficulty is to give the right impression, when translating material terms back into the original spiritual tongue.
115:12 SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION OF IMMORTAL MIND
Divine synonyms
GOD: Divine Principle, Life, Truth, Love, Soul, Spirit, Mind.
Divine image
115:15 MAN: God’s spiritual idea, individual, per- fect, eternal.
Divine reflection
IDEA: An image in Mind; the immediate 115:18 object of understanding. – _Webster_.
SCIENTIFIC TRANSLATION OF MORTAL MIND
_First Degree:_ Depravity.
Unreality
115:21 PHYSICAL. Evil beliefs, passions and appetites, fear, depraved will, self-justification, pride, envy, de- ceit, hatred, revenge, sin, sickness, disease, 115:24 death.
_Second Degree:_ Evil beliefs disappearing.
Transitional qualities
MORAL. Humanity, honesty, affection, com- passion, hope, faith, meekness, temperance. 116:1 _Third Degree:_ Understanding.
Reality
SPIRITUAL. Wisdom, purity, spiritual understanding, 116:3 spiritual power, love, health, holiness.
Spiritual universe
In the third degree mortal mind disappears, and man as God’s image appears. Science so reverses the evidence 116:6 before the corporeal human senses, as to make this Scriptural testimony true in our hearts, “The last shall be first, and the first last,” so that God 116:9 and His idea may be to us what divinity really is and must of necessity be, – all-inclusive.
Aim of Science
A correct view of Christian Science and of its adapta- 116:12 tion to healing includes vastly more than is at first seen. Works on metaphysics leave the grand point untouched. They never crown the power of 116:15 Mind as the Messiah, nor do they carry the day against physical enemies, – even to the extinction of all belief in matter, evil, disease, and death, – nor insist upon the fact 116:18 that God is all, therefore that matter is nothing beyond an image in mortal mind.
Divine personality
Christian Science strongly emphasizes the thought that 116:21 God is not _corporeal_, but _incorporeal_, – that is, bodiless. Mortals are corporeal, but God is incorporeal.
116:24 As the words _person_ and _personal_ are commonly and ignorantly employed, they often lead, when applied to Deity, to confused and erroneous conceptions of divinity 116:27 and its distinction from humanity. If the term personality, as applied to God, means infinite personality, then God is infinite _Person_, – in the sense of infinite personality, but 116:30 not in the lower sense. An infinite Mind in a finite form is an absolute impossibility.
117:1 The term _individuality_ is also open to objections, be- cause an individual may be one of a series, one of many, 117:3 as an individual man, an individual horse; whereas God is _One_, – not one of a series, but one alone and without an equal.
Spiritual language
117:6 God is Spirit; therefore the language of Spirit must be, and is, spiritual. Christian Science attaches no physi- cal nature and significance to the Supreme 117:9 Being or His manifestation; mortals alone do this. God’s essential language is spoken of in the last chapter of Mark’s Gospel as the new tongue, the spir- 117:12 itual meaning of which is attained through “signs following.”
The miracles of Jesus
Ear hath not heard, nor hath lip spoken, the pure lan- 117:15 guage of Spirit. Our Master taught spirituality by simili- tudes and parables. As a divine student he unfolded God to man, illustrating and demon- 117:18 strating Life and Truth in himself and by his power over the sick and sinning. Human theories are inadequate to interpret the divine Principle involved in the miracles 117:21 (marvels) wrought by Jesus and especially in his mighty, crowning, unparalleled, and triumphant exit from the flesh.
Opacity of the senses
117:24 Evidence drawn from the five physical senses relates solely to human reason; and because of opaci- ty to the true light, human reason dimly re- 117:27 flects and feebly transmits Jesus’ works and words. Truth is a revelation.
Leaven of Truth
Jesus bade his disciples beware of the leaven of the 117:30 Pharisees and of the Sadducees, which he de- fined as human doctrines. His parable of the “leaven, which a woman took, and hid in three measures 118:1 of meal, till the whole was leavened,” impels the infer- ence that the spiritual leaven signifies the Science of Christ 118:3 and its spiritual interpretation, – an inference far above the merely ecclesiastical and formal applications of the illustration.
118:6 Did not this parable point a moral with a prophecy, foretelling the second appearing in the flesh of the Christ, Truth, hidden in sacred secrecy from the visi- 118:9 ble world?
Ages pass, but this leaven of Truth is ever at work. It must destroy the entire mass of error, and so be eternally 118:12 glorified in man’s spiritual freedom.
The divine and human contrasted
In their spiritual significance, Science, Theology, and Medicine are means of divine thought, which include spirit- 118:15 ual laws emanating from the invisible and in- finite power and grace. The parable may import that these spiritual laws, perverted by 118:18 a perverse material sense of law, are metaphysically pre- sented as three measures of meal, – that is, three modes of mortal thought. In all mortal forms of thought, dust 118:21 is dignified as the natural status of men and things, and modes of material motion are honored with the name of _laws_. This continues until the leaven of Spirit changes 118:24 the whole of mortal thought, as yeast changes the chemical properties of meal.
Certain contradictions
The definitions of material law, as given by natural 118:27 science, represent a kingdom necessarily divided against itself, because these definitions portray law as physical, not spiritual. Therefore they con- 118:30 tradict the divine decrees and violate the law of Love, in which nature and God are one and the natural order of heaven comes down to earth.
Unescapable dilemma
119:1 When we endow matter with vague spiritual power, that is, when we do so in our theories, for of course we 119:3 cannot really endow matter with what it does not and cannot possess, – we disown the Al- mighty, for such theories lead to one of two things. They 119:6 either presuppose the self-evolution and self-government of matter, or else they assume that matter is the product of Spirit. To seize the first horn of this dilemma and con- 119:9 sider matter as a power in and of itself, is to leave the cre- ator out of His own universe; while to grasp the other horn of the dilemma and regard God as the creator of 119:12 matter, is not only to make Him responsible for all disas- ters, physical and moral, but to announce Him as their source, thereby making Him guilty of maintaining perpet- 119:15 ual misrule in the form and under the name of natural law.
God and nature
In one sense God is identical with nature, but this na- 119:18 ture is spiritual and is not expressed in matter. The law- giver, whose lightning palsies or prostrates in death the child at prayer, is not the divine ideal 119:21 of omnipresent Love. God is natural good, and is repre- sented only by the idea of goodness; while evil should be regarded as unnatural, because it is opposed to the nature 119:24 of Spirit, God.
The sun and Soul
In viewing the sunrise, one finds that it contradicts the evidence before the senses to believe that the earth 119:27 is in motion and the sun at rest. As astron- omy reverses the human perception of the movement of the solar system, so Christian Science re- 119:30 verses the seeming relation of Soul and body and makes body tributary to Mind. Thus it is with man, who is but the humble servant of the restful Mind, though it 120:1 seems otherwise to finite sense. But we shall never under- stand this while we admit that soul is in body or mind in 120:3 matter, and that man is included in non-intelligence. Soul, or Spirit, is God, unchangeable and eternal; and man coexists with and reflects Soul, God, for man is God’s 120:6 image.
Reversal of testimony
Science reverses the false testimony of the physical senses, and by this reversal mortals arrive at the funda- 120:9 mental facts of being. Then the question in- evitably arises: Is a man sick if the material senses indicate that he is in good health? No! for matter 120:12 can make no conditions for man. And is he well if the senses say he is sick? Yes, he is well in Science in which health is normal and disease is abnormal.
Health and the senses
120:15 Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind; nor can the material senses bear reliable testimony on the sub- ject of health. The Science of Mind-healing 120:18 shows it to be impossible for aught but Mind to testify truly or to exhibit the real status of man. There- fore the divine Principle of Science, reversing the testi- 120:21 mony of the physical senses, reveals man as harmoniously existent in Truth, which is the only basis of health; and thus Science denies all disease, heals the sick, overthrows 120:24 false evidence, and refutes materialistic logic.
Any conclusion _pro_ or _con_, deduced from supposed sen- sation in matter or from matter’s supposed consciousness 120:27 of health or disease, instead of reversing the testimony of the physical senses, confirms that testimony as legitimate and so leads to disease.
Historic illustrations
120:30 When Columbus gave freer breath to the globe, ignorance and superstition chained the limbs of the brave old navigator, and disgrace and star- 121:1 vation stared him in the face; but sterner still would have been his fate, if his discovery had undermined the favor- 121:3 ite inclinations of a sensuous philosophy.
Copernicus mapped out the stellar system, and before he spake, astrography was chaotic, and the heavenly fields 121:6 were incorrectly explored.
Perennial beauty
The Chaldean Wisemen read in the stars the fate of empires and the fortunes of men. Though no higher 121:9 revelation than the horoscope was to them dis- played upon the empyrean, earth and heaven were bright, and bird and blossom were glad in God’s 121:12 perennial and happy sunshine, golden with Truth. So we have goodness and beauty to gladden the heart; but man, left to the hypotheses of material sense unexplained 121:15 by Science, is as the wandering comet or the desolate star – “a weary searcher for a viewless home.”
Astronomic unfoldings
The earth’s diurnal rotation is invisible to the physical 121:18 eye, and the sun seems to move from east to west, instead of the earth from west to east. Until rebuked by clearer views of the everlasting facts, this 121:21 false testimony of the eye deluded the judgment and in- duced false conclusions. Science shows appearances often to be erroneous, and corrects these errors by the simple 121:24 rule that the greater controls the lesser. The sun is the central stillness, so far as our solar system is concerned, and the earth revolves about the sun once a year, besides 121:27 turning daily on its own axis.
As thus indicated, astronomical order imitates the action of divine Principle; and the universe, the reflec- 121:30 tion of God, is thus brought nearer the spiritual fact, and is allied to divine Science as displayed in the everlasting government of the universe.
Opposing testimony
122:1 The evidence of the physical senses often reverses the real Science of being, and so creates a reign of discord, – 122:3 assigning seeming power to sin, sickness, and death; but the great facts of Life, rightly un- derstood, defeat this triad of errors, contradict their false 122:6 witnesses, and reveal the kingdom of heaven, – the actual reign of harmony on earth. The material senses’ re- versal of the Science of Soul was practically exposed nine- 122:9 teen hundred years ago by the demonstrations of Jesus; yet these so-called senses still make mortal mind tributary to mortal body, and ordain certain sections of matter, such 122:12 as brain and nerves, as the seats of pain and pleasure, from which matter reports to this so-called mind its status of happiness or misery.
Testimony of the senses
122:15 The optical focus is another proof of the illusion of material sense. On the eye’s retina, sky and tree-tops apparently join hands, clouds and ocean meet 122:18 and mingle. The barometer, – that little prophet of storm and sunshine, denying the testimony of the senses, – points to fair weather in the midst of murky 122:21 clouds and drenching rain. Experience is full of instances of similar illusions, which every thinker can recall for himself.
Spiritual sense of life
122:24 To material sense, the severance of the jugular vein takes away life; but to spiritual sense and in Science, Life goes on unchanged and 122:27 being is eternal. Temporal life is a false sense of existence.
Ptolemaic and psychical error
Our theories make the same mistake regarding Soul 122:30 and body that Ptolemy made regarding the solar system. They insist that soul is in body and mind therefore tribu- tary to matter. Astronomical science has destroyed the 123:1 false theory as to the relations of the celestial bodies, and Christian Science will surely destroy the greater error as 123:3 to our terrestrial bodies. The true idea and Principle of man will then appear. The Ptole- maic blunder could not affect the harmony of 123:6 being as does the error relating to soul and body, which reverses the order of Science and assigns to matter the power and prerogative of Spirit, so that man becomes 123:9 the most absolutely weak and inharmonious creature in the universe.
Seeming and being
The verity of Mind shows conclusively how it is that 123:12 matter seems to be, but is not. Divine Science, rising above physical theories, excludes matter, resolves _things_ into _thoughts_, and replaces the objects of 123:15 material sense with spiritual ideas.
The term CHRISTIAN SCIENCE was introduced by the author to designate the scientific system of divine 123:18 healing.
The revelation consists of two parts:
1. The discovery of this divine Science of Mind- 123:21 healing, through a spiritual sense of the Scriptures and through the teachings of the Comforter, as promised by the Master.
123:24 2. The proof, by present demonstration, that the so- called miracles of Jesus did not specially belong to a dispensation now ended, but that they illustrated an 123:27 ever-operative divine Principle. The operation of this Principle indicates the eternality of the scientific order and continuity of being.
Scientific basis
123:30 Christian Science differs from material sci- ence, but not on that account is it less scien- tific. On the contrary, Christian Science is pre-emi- 124:1 mently scientific, being based on Truth, the Principle of all science.
Physical science a blind belief
124:3 Physical science (so-called) is human knowledge, – a law of mortal mind, a blind belief, a Samson shorn of his strength. When this human belief lacks organ- 124:6 izations to support it, its foundations are gone. Having neither moral might, spiritual basis, nor holy Principle of its own, this belief mistakes effect 124:9 for cause and seeks to find life and intelligence in matter, thus limiting Life and holding fast to discord and death. In a word, human belief is a blind conclusion from material 124:12 reasoning. This is a mortal, finite sense of things, which immortal Spirit silences forever.
Right interpretation
The universe, like man, is to be interpreted by Science 124:15 from its divine Principle, God, and then it can be under- stood; but when explained on the basis of physical sense and represented as subject to 124:18 growth, maturity, and decay, the universe, like man, is, and must continue to be, an enigma.
All force mental
Adhesion, cohesion, and attraction are properties of 124:21 Mind. They belong to divine Principle, and support the equipoise of that thought-force, which launched the earth in its orbit and said to the 124:24 proud wave, “Thus far and no farther.”
Spirit is the life, substance, and continuity of all things. We tread on forces. Withdraw them, and 124:27 creation must collapse. Human knowledge calls them forces of matter; but divine Science declares that they belong wholly to divine Mind, are inherent in this 124:30 Mind, and so restores them to their rightful home and classification.
Corporeal changes
The elements and functions of the physical body and 125:1 of the physical world will change as mortal mind changes its beliefs. What is now considered the best condition 125:3 for organic and functional health in the human body may no longer be found indispensable to health. Moral conditions will be found always har- 125:6 monious and health-giving. Neither organic inaction nor overaction is beyond God’s control; and man will be found normal and natural to changed mortal thought, 125:9 and therefore more harmonious in his manifestations than he was in the prior states which human belief created and sanctioned.
125:12 As human thought changes from one stage to an- other of conscious pain and painlessness, sorrow and joy, – from fear to hope and from faith to understand- 125:15 ing, – the visible manifestation will at last be man gov- erned by Soul, not by material sense. Reflecting God’s government, man is self-governed. When subordinate 125:18 to the divine Spirit, man cannot be controlled by sin or death, thus proving our material theories about laws of health to be valueless.
The time and tide
125:21 The seasons will come and go with changes of time and tide, cold and heat, latitude and longitude. The agri- culturist will find that these changes cannot 125:24 affect his crops. “As a vesture shalt Thou change them and they shall be changed.” The mariner will have dominion over the atmosphere and the great 125:27 deep, over the fish of the sea and the fowls of the air. The astronomer will no longer look up to the stars, – he will look out from them upon the universe; and the 125:30 florist will find his flower before its seed.
Mortal nothingness
Thus matter will finally be proved nothing more than a mortal belief, wholly inadequate to affect a man 126:1 through its supposed organic action or supposed exist- ence. Error will be no longer used in stating truth. The 126:3 problem of nothingness, or “dust to dust,” will be solved, and mortal mind will be without form and void, for mortality will cease when man beholds 126:6 himself God’s reflection, even as man sees his reflection in a glass.
A lack of originality
All Science is divine. Human thought never pro- 126:9 jected the least portion of true being. Human belief has sought and interpreted in its own way the echo of Spirit, and so seems to have 126:12 reversed it and repeated it materially; but the human mind never produced a real tone nor sent forth a positive sound.
Antagonistic questions
126:15 The point at issue between Christian Science on the one hand and popular theology on the other is this: Shall Science explain cause and effect as being 126:18 both natural and spiritual? Or shall all that is beyond the cognizance of the material senses be called supernatural, and be left to the mercy of speculative 126:21 hypotheses?
Biblical basis
I have set forth Christian Science and its application to the treatment of disease just as I have discovered them. 126:24 I have demonstrated through Mind the effects of Truth on the health, longevity, and morals of men; and I have found nothing in ancient or in modern 126:27 systems on which to found my own, except the teachings and demonstrations of our great Master and the lives of prophets and apostles. The Bible has been my only au- 126:30 thority. I have had no other guide in “the straight and narrow way” of Truth.
Science and Christianity
If Christendom resists the author’s application of the 127:1 word Science to Christianity, or questions her use of the word Science, she will not therefore lose faith in Chris- 127:3 tianity, nor will Christianity lose its hold upon her. If God, the All-in-all, be the creator of the spiritual universe, including man, then everything 127:6 entitled to a classification as truth, or Science, must be comprised in a knowledge or understanding of God, for there can be nothing beyond illimitable divinity.
Scientific terms
127:9 The terms Divine Science, Spiritual Science, Christ Science or Christian Science, or Science alone, she em- ploys interchangeably, according to the re- 127:12 quirements of the context. These synony- mous terms stand for everything relating to God, the in- finite, supreme, eternal Mind. It may be said, however, 127:15 that the term Christian Science relates especially to Science as applied to humanity. Christian Science re- veals God, not as the author of sin, sickness, and death, 127:18 but as divine Principle, Supreme Being, Mind, exempt from all evil. It teaches that matter is the falsity, not the fact, of existence; that nerves, brain, stomach, lungs, 127:21 and so forth, have – as matter – no intelligence, life, nor sensation.
No physical science
There is no physical science, inasmuch as all truth 127:24 proceeds from the divine Mind. Therefore truth is not human, and is not a law of matter, for matter is not a lawgiver. Science is an emanation of 127:27 divine Mind, and is alone able to interpret God aright. It has a spiritual, and not a material origin. It is a divine utterance, – the Comforter which leadeth into all truth. 127:30 Christian Science eschews what is called natural science, in so far as this is built on the false hypotheses that matter is its own lawgiver, that law is founded on material con- 128:1 ditions, and that these are final and overrule the might of divine Mind. Good is natural and primitive. It is not 128:3 miraculous to itself.
Practical Science
The term Science, properly understood, refers only to the laws of God and to His government of the universe, 128:6 inclusive of man. From this it follows that business men and cultured scholars have found that Christian Science enhances their endurance and 128:9 mental powers, enlarges their perception of character, gives them acuteness and comprehensiveness and an ability to exceed their ordinary capacity. The human 128:12 mind, imbued with this spiritual understanding, becomes more elastic, is capable of greater endurance, escapes somewhat from itself, and requires less repose. A knowl- 128:15 edge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher 128:18 realms. It raises the thinker into his native air of insight and perspicacity.
An odor becomes beneficent and agreeable only in pro- 128:21 portion to its escape into the surrounding atmosphere. So it is with our knowledge of Truth. If one would not quarrel with his fellow-man for waking him from 128:24 a cataleptic nightmare, he should not resist Truth, which banishes – yea, forever destroys with the higher testi- mony of Spirit – the so-called evidence of matter.
Mathematics and scientific logic
128:27 Science relates to Mind, not matter. It rests on fixed Principle and not upon the judgment of false sensation. The addition of two sums in mathematics must 128:30 always bring the same result. So is it with logic. If both the major and the minor propo- sitions of a syllogism are correct, the conclusion, if properly 129:1 drawn, cannot be false. So in Christian Science there are no discords nor contradictions, because its logic is as 129:3 harmonious as the reasoning of an accurately stated syl- logism or of a properly computed sum in arithmetic. Truth is ever truthful, and can tolerate no error in 129:6 premise or conclusion.
Truth by inversion
If you wish to know the spiritual fact, you can dis- cover it by reversing the material fable, be the 129:9 fable _pro_ or _con_, – be it in accord with your preconceptions or utterly contrary to them.
Antagonistic theories
Pantheism may be defined as a belief in the intelli- 129:12 gence of matter, – a belief which Science overthrows. In those days there will be “great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the 129:15 world;” and earth will echo the cry, “Art thou [Truth] come hither to torment us before the time?” Animal magnetism, hypnotism, spiritualism, theosophy, agnos- 129:18 ticism, pantheism, and infidelity are antagonistic to true being and fatal to its demonstration; and so are some other systems.
Ontology needed
129:21 We must abandon pharmaceutics, and take up ontol- ogy, – “the science of real being.” We must look deep into realism instead of accepting only the out- 129:24 ward sense of things. Can we gather peaches from a pine-tree, or learn from discord the concord of being? Yet quite as rational are some of the leading 129:27 illusions along the path which Science must tread in its reformatory mission among mortals. The very name, illusion, points to nothingness.
Reluctant guests
129:30 The generous liver may object to the author’s small estimate of the pleasures of the table. The sinner sees, in the system taught in this book, that the demands of 130:1 God must be met. The petty intellect is alarmed by con- stant appeals to Mind. The licentious disposition is dis- 130:3 couraged over its slight spiritual prospects. When all men are bidden to the feast, the ex- cuses come. One has a farm, another has merchandise, 130:6 and therefore they cannot accept.
Excuses for ignorance
It is vain to speak dishonestly of divine Science, which destroys all discord, when you can demonstrate 130:9 the actuality of Science. It is unwise to doubt if reality is in perfect harmony with God, divine Principle, – if Science, when understood and demonstrated, will 130:12 destroy all discord, – since you admit that God is om- nipotent; for from this premise it follows that good and its sweet concords have all-power.
Children and adults
130:15 Christian Science, properly understood, would dis- abuse the human mind of material beliefs which war against spiritual facts; and these material 130:18 beliefs must be denied and cast out to make place for truth. You cannot add to the contents of a vessel already full. Laboring long to shake the adult’s 130:21 faith in matter and to inculcate a grain of faith in God, – an inkling of the ability of Spirit to make the body har- monious, – the author has often remembered our Master’s 130:24 love for little children, and understood how truly such as they belong to the heavenly kingdom.
All evil unnatural
If thought is startled at the strong claim of Science 130:27 for the supremacy of God, or Truth, and doubts the su- premacy of good, ought we not, contrari- wise, to be astounded at the vigorous claims 130:30 of evil and doubt them, and no longer think it natural to love sin and unnatural to forsake it, – no longer imagine evil to be ever-present and good absent? Truth should 131:1 not seem so surprising and unnatural as error, and error should not seem so real as truth. Sickness should not seem 131:3 so real as health. There is no error in Science, and our lives must be governed by reality in order to be in har- mony with God, the divine Principle of all being.
The error of carnality
131:6 When once destroyed by divine Science, the false evi- dence before the corporeal senses disappears. Hence the opposition of sensuous man to the Science of 131:9 Soul and the significance of the Scripture, “The carnal mind is enmity against God.” The central fact of the Bible is the superiority of spiritual over physical power.
131:12 THEOLOGY
Churchly neglect
Must Christian Science come through the Christian churches as some persons insist? This Science has come 131:15 already, after the manner of God’s appoint- ing, but the churches seem not ready to re- ceive it, according to the Scriptural saying, “He came 131:18 unto his own, and his own received him not.” Jesus once said: “I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise 131:21 and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight.” As afore- time, the spirit of the Christ, which taketh away the cere- 131:24 monies and doctrines of men, is not accepted until the hearts of men are made ready for it.
John the Baptist, and the Messiah
The mission of Jesus confirmed prophecy, and ex- 131:27 plained the so-called miracles of olden time as natural demonstrations of the divine power, demonstra- tions which were not understood. Jesus’ works 131:30 established his claim to the Messiahship. In reply to John’s inquiry, “Art thou he that should come,” 132:1 Jesus returned an affirmative reply, recounting his works instead of referring to his doctrine, confident that this 132:3 exhibition of the divine power to heal would fully an- swer the question. Hence his reply: “Go and show John again those things which ye do hear and see: the 132:6 blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And 132:9 blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.” In other words, he gave his benediction to any one who should not deny that such effects, coming from divine 132:12 Mind, prove the unity of God, – the divine principle which brings out all harmony.
Christ rejected
The Pharisees of old thrust the spiritual idea and the 132:15 man who lived it out of their synagogues, and retained their materialistic beliefs about God. Jesus’ system of healing received no aid nor approval 132:18 from other sanitary or religious systems, from doctrines of physics or of divinity; and it has not yet been gener- ally accepted. To-day, as of yore, unconscious of the 132:21 reappearing of the spiritual idea, blind belief shuts the door upon it, and condemns the cure of the sick and sin- ning if it is wrought on any but a material and a doctrinal 132:24 theory. Anticipating this rejection of idealism, of the true idea of God, – this salvation from all error, physi- cal and mental, – Jesus asked, “When the Son of man 132:27 cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”
John’s misgivings
Did the doctrines of John the Baptist confer healing power upon him, or endow him with the truest concep- 132:30 tion of the Christ? This righteous preacher once pointed his disciples to Jesus as “the Lamb of God;” yet afterwards he seriously questioned 133:1 the signs of the Messianic appearing, and sent the inquiry to Jesus, “Art thou he that should come?”
Faith according to works
133:3 Was John’s faith greater than that of the Samaritan woman, who said, “Is not this the Christ?” There was also a certain centurion of whose 133:6 faith Jesus himself declared, “I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.”
In Egypt, it was Mind which saved the Israelites from 133:9 belief in the plagues. In the wilderness, streams flowed from the rock, and manna fell from the sky. The Israelites looked upon the brazen serpent, and straightway believed 133:12 that they were healed of the poisonous stings of vipers. In national prosperity, miracles attended the successes of the Hebrews; but when they departed from the true 133:15 idea, their demoralization began. Even in captivity among foreign nations, the divine Principle wrought wonders for the people of God in the fiery furnace and 133:18 in kings’ palaces.
Judaism antipathetic
Judaism was the antithesis of Christianity, because Judaism engendered the limited form of a national or 133:21 tribal religion. It was a finite and material system, carried out in special theories concern- ing God, man, sanitary methods, and a religious cultus. 133:24 That he made “himself equal with God,” was one of the Jewish accusations against him who planted Christianity on the foundation of Spirit, who taught as he was in- 133:27 spired by the Father and would recognize no life, intelli- gence, nor substance outside of God.
Priestly learning
The Jewish conception of God, as Yawah, Jehovah, 133:30 or only a mighty hero and king, has not quite given place to the true knowledge of God. Creeds and rituals have not cleansed their hands of 134:1 rabbinical lore. To-day the cry of bygone ages is re- peated, “Crucify him!” At every advancing step, truth 134:3 is still opposed with sword and spear.
Testimony of martyrs
The word _martyr_, from the Greek, means _witness_; but those who testified for Truth were so often persecuted 134:6 unto death, that at length the word _martyr_ was narrowed in its significance and so has come always to mean one who suffers for his convictions. 134:9 The new faith in the Christ, Truth, so roused the hatred of the opponents of Christianity, that the followers of Christ were burned, crucified, and otherwise persecuted; 134:12 and so it came about that human rights were hallowed by the gallows and the cross.
Absence of Christ-power
Man-made doctrines are waning. They have not waxed 134:15 strong in times of trouble. Devoid of the Christ-power, how can they illustrate the doctrines of Christ or the miracles of grace? Denial of the possi- 134:18 bility of Christian healing robs Christianity of the very element, which gave it divine force and its astonishing and unequalled success in the first century.
Basis of miracles
134:21 The true Logos is demonstrably Christian Science, the natural law of harmony which overcomes discord, – not because this Science is supernatural or pre- 134:24 ternatural, nor because it is an infraction of divine law, but because it is the immutable law of God, good. Jesus said: “I knew that Thou hearest me al- 134:27 ways;” and he raised Lazarus from the dead, stilled the tempest, healed the sick, walked on the water. There is divine authority for believing in the superiority of 134:30 spiritual power over material resistance.
Lawful wonders
A miracle fulfils God’s law, but does not violate that law. This fact at present seems more mysterious than 135:1 the miracle itself. The Psalmist sang: “What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? Thou Jordan, 135:3 that thou wast driven back? Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams, and ye little hills, like lambs? Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the 135:6 Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob.” The miracle introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order, establishing the Science of God’s unchangeable law. 135:9 Spiritual evolution alone is worthy of the exercise of divine power.
Fear and sickness identical
The same power which heals sin heals also sickness. 135:12 This is “the beauty of holiness,” that when Truth heals the sick it casts out evils, and when Truth casts out the evil called disease, it heals the 135:15 sick. When Christ cast out the devil of dumbness, “it came to pass, when the devil was gone out, the dumb spake.” There is to-day danger of repeating 135:18 the offence of the Jews by limiting the Holy One of Israel and asking: “Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?” What cannot God do?
The unity of Science and Christianity 135:21 It has been said, and truly, that Christianity must be Science, and Science must be Christianity, else one or the other is false and useless; but neither is unim- 135:24 portant or untrue, and they are alike in demon- stration. This proves the one to be identical with the other. Christianity as Jesus taught it was not 135:27 a creed, nor a system of ceremonies, nor a special gift from a ritualistic Jehovah; but it was the demonstration of divine Love casting out error and healing the sick, 135:30 not merely in the _name_ of Christ, or Truth, but in demon- stration of Truth, as must be the case in the cycles of divine light.
The Christ-mission
136:1 Jesus established his church and maintained his mission on a spiritual foundation of Christ-healing. He taught 136:3 his followers that his religion had a divine Principle, which would cast out error and heal both the sick and the sinning. He claimed no intelli- 136:6 gence, action, nor life separate from God. Despite the persecution this brought upon him, he used his divine power to save men both bodily and spiritually.
Ancient spiritualism
136:9 The question then as now was, How did Jesus heal the sick? His answer to this question the world rejected. He appealed to his students: “Whom do 136:12 men say that I, the Son of man, am?” That is: Who or what is it that is thus identified with casting out evils and healing the sick? They replied, “Some 136:15 say that thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias; and others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets.” These prophets were considered dead, and this reply may indicate that 136:18 some of the people believed that Jesus was a medium, controlled by the spirit of John or of Elias.
This ghostly fancy was repeated by Herod himself. 136:21 That a wicked king and debauched husband should have no high appreciation of divine Science and the great work of the Master, was not surprising; for how could such 136:24 a sinner comprehend what the disciples did not fully understand? But even Herod doubted if Jesus was con- trolled by the sainted preacher. Hence Herod’s asser- 136:27 tion: “John have I beheaded: but who is this?” No wonder Herod desired to see the new Teacher.
Doubting disciples
The disciples apprehended their Master better than 136:30 did others; but they did not comprehend all that he said and did, or they would not have questioned him so often. Jesus patiently persisted in 137:1 teaching and demonstrating the truth of being. His stu- dents saw this power of Truth heal the sick, cast out evil, 137:3 raise the dead; but the ultimate of this wonderful work was not spiritually discerned, even by them, until after the crucifixion, when their immaculate Teacher stood before 137:6 them, the victor over sickness, sin, disease, death, and the grave.
Yearning to be understood, the Master repeated, 137:9 “But whom say _ye_ that I am?” This renewed inquiry meant: Who or what is it that is able to do the work, so mysterious to the popular mind? In his rejection of the 137:12 answer already given and his renewal of the question, it is plain that Jesus completely eschewed the narrow opinion implied in their citation of the common report 137:15 about him.
A divine response
With his usual impetuosity, Simon replied for his brethren, and his reply set forth a great fact: “Thou 137:18 art the Christ, the Son of the living God!” That is: The Messiah is what thou hast de- clared, – Christ, the spirit of God, of Truth, Life, and 137:21 Love, which heals mentally. This assertion elicited from Jesus the benediction, “Blessed art thou, Simon Bar- jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, 137:24 but my Father which is in heaven;” that is, Love hath shown thee the way of Life!
The true and living rock
Before this the impetuous disciple had been called 137:27 only by his common names, Simon Bar-jona, or son of Jona; but now the Master gave him a spir- itual name in these words: “And I say also 137:30 unto thee, That thou art Peter; and upon this rock [the meaning of the Greek word _petros_, or _stone_] I will build my church; and the gates of hell [_hades_, the _under_- 138:1 _world_, or the _grave_] shall not prevail against it.” In other words, Jesus purposed founding his society, not 138:3 on the personal Peter as a mortal, but on the God- power which lay behind Peter’s confession of the true Messiah.
Sublime summary
138:6 It was now evident to Peter that divine Life, Truth, and Love, and not a human personality, was the healer of the sick and a rock, a firm foundation in the realm 138:9 of harmony. On this spiritually scientific basis Jesus explained his cures, which appeared miraculous to outsiders. He showed that diseases were cast out neither 138:12 by corporeality, by _materia medica_, nor by hygiene, but by the divine Spirit, casting out the errors of mortal mind. The supremacy of Spirit was the foundation on which 138:15 Jesus built. His sublime summary points to the religion of Love.
New era in Jesus
Jesus established in the Christian era the precedent for 138:18 all Christianity, theology, and healing. Christians are under as direct orders now, as they were then, to be Christlike, to possess the Christ-spirit, to 138:21 follow the Christ-example, and to heal the sick as well as the sinning. It is easier for Christianity to cast out sick- ness than sin, for the sick are more willing to part with 138:24 pain than are sinners to give up the sinful, so-called pleas- ure of the senses. The Christian can prove this to-day as readily is it was proved centuries ago.
Healthful theology
138:27 Our Master said to every follower: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature! . . . Heal the sick! . . . Love thy neighbor as 138:30 thyself!” It was this theology of Jesus which healed the sick and the sinning. It is his theology in this book and the spiritual meaning of this theology, which 139:1 heals the sick and causes the wicked to “forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts.” It was our Mas- 139:3 ter’s theology which the impious sought to destroy.
Marvels and reformations
From beginning to end, the Scriptures are full of accounts of the triumph of Spirit, Mind, over matter. 139:6 Moses proved the power of Mind by what men called miracles; so did Joshua, Elijah, and Elisha. The Christian era was ushered in with signs and 139:9 wonders. Reforms have commonly been attended with bloodshed and persecution, even when the end has been brightness and peace; but the present new, yet old, re- 139:12 form in religious faith will teach men patiently and wisely to stem the tide of sectarian bitterness, whenever it flows inward.
Science obscured
139:15 The decisions by vote of Church Councils as to what should and should not be considered Holy Writ; the man- ifest mistakes in the ancient versions; the 139:18 thirty thousand different readings in the Old Testament, and the three hundred thousand in the New, – these facts show how a mortal and material sense stole 139:21 into the divine record, with its own hue darkening to some extent the inspired pages. But mistakes could neither wholly obscure the divine Science of the Scriptures seen 139:24 from Genesis to Revelation, mar the demonstration of Jesus, nor annul the healing by the prophets, who foresaw that “the stone which the builders rejected” would be- 139:27 come “the head of the corner.”
Opponents benefited
Atheism, pantheism, theosophy, and agnosticism are opposed to Christian Science, as they are to ordinary re- 139:30 ligion; but it does not follow that the profane or atheistic invalid cannot be healed by Chris- tian Science. The moral condition of such a man de- 140:1 mands the remedy of Truth more than it is needed in most cases; and Science is more than usually effectual in the 140:3 treatment of moral ailments.
God invisible to the senses
That God is a corporeal being, nobody can truly affirm. The Bible represents Him as saying: “Thou canst not 140:6 see My face; for there shall no man see Me and live.” Not materially but spiritually we know Him as divine Mind, as Life, Truth, and Love. We 140:9 shall obey and adore in proportion as we apprehend the divine nature and love Him understandingly, warring no more over the corporeality, but rejoicing in the affluence 140:12 of our God. Religion will then be of the heart and not of the head. Mankind will no longer be tyrannical and pro- scriptive from lack of love, – straining out gnats and 140:15 swallowing camels.
The true worship
We worship spiritually, only as we cease to worship materially. Spiritual devoutness is the soul of Chris- 140:18 tianity. Worshipping through the medium of matter is paganism. Judaic and other rituals are but types and shadows of true worship. “The true 140:21 worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth.”
Anthropomorphism
The Jewish tribal Jehovah was a man-projected God, 140:24 liable to wrath, repentance, and human changeableness. The Christian Science God is universal, eter- nal, divine love, which changeth not and caus- 140:27 eth no evil, disease, nor death. It is indeed mournfully true that the older Scripture is reversed. In the begin- ing God created man in His, God’s, image; but mor- 140:30 tals would procreate man, and make God in their own human image. What is the god of a mortal, but a mortal magnified?
More than profession required
141:1 This indicates the distance between the theological and ritualistic religion of the ages and the truth preached by 141:3 Jesus. More than profession is requisite for Christian demonstration. Few understand or adhere to Jesus’ divine precepts for living and 141:6 healing. Why? Because his precepts require the disci- ple to cut off the right hand and pluck out the right eye, – that is, to set aside even the most cherished beliefs 141:9 and practices, to leave all for Christ.
No ecclesiastical monopoly
All revelation (such is the popular thought!) must come from the schools and along the line of scholarly and eccle- 141:12 siastical descent, as kings are crowned from a royal dynasty. In healing the sick and sinning, Jesus elaborated the fact that the healing effect 141:15 followed the understanding of the divine Principle and of the Christ-spirit which governed the corporeal Jesus. For this Principle there is no dynasty, no ecclesiastical 141:18 monopoly. Its only crowned head is immortal sover- eignty. Its only priest is the spiritualized man. The Bible declares that all believers are made “kings and 141:21 priests unto God.” The outsiders did not then, and do not now, understand this ruling of the Christ; there- fore they cannot demonstrate God’s healing power. 141:24 Neither can this manifestation of Christ be com- prehended, until its divine Principle is scientifically understood.