Science and Health With Key to The Scriptures

M >> Mary Baker Eddy >> Science and Health With Key to The Scriptures

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To ascertain our progress, we must learn where our
affections are placed and whom we acknowledge and
239:18 obey as God. If divine Love is becoming
nearer, dearer, and more real to us, matter is
then submitting to Spirit. The objects we pursue and
239:21 the spirit we manifest reveal our standpoint, and show
what we are winning.

Antagonistic sources

Mortal mind is the acknowledged seat of human mo-
239:24 tives. It forms material concepts and produces every
discordant action of the body. If action pro-
ceeds from the divine Mind, action is harmo-
239:27 nious. If it comes from erring mortal mind, it is discord-
ant and ends in sin, sickness, death. Those two opposite
sources never mingle in fount or stream. The perfect
239:30 Mind sends forth perfection, for God is Mind. Imper-
fect mortal mind sends forth its own resemblances, of
which the wise man said, "All is vanity."

Some lessons from nature

240:1 Nature voices natural, spiritual law and divine Love,
but human belief misinterprets nature. Arctic regions,
240:3 sunny tropics, giant hills, winged winds,
mighty billows, verdant vales, festive flowers,
and glorious heavens, - all point to Mind, the spiritual
240:6 intelligence they reflect. The floral apostles are hiero-
glyphs of Deity. Suns and planets teach grand lessons.
The stars make night beautiful, and the leaflet turns nat-
240:9 urally towards the light.

Perpetual motions

In the order of Science, in which the Principle is above
what it reflects, all is one grand concord. Change this
240:12 statement, suppose Mind to be governed by
matter or Soul in body, and you lose the key-
note of being, and there is continual discord. Mind is
240:15 perpetual motion. Its symbol is the sphere. The rota-
tions and revolutions of the universe of Mind go on
eternally.

Progress demanded

240:18 Mortals move onward towards good or evil as time
glides on. If mortals are not progressive, past failures
will be repeated until all wrong work is ef-
240:21 faced or rectified. If at present satisfied with
wrong-doing, we must learn to loathe it. If at present
content with idleness, we must become dissatisfied with
240:24 it. Remember that mankind must sooner or later, either
by suffering or by Science, be convinced of the error that
is to be overcome.

240:27 In trying to undo the errors of sense one must pay fully
and fairly the utmost farthing, until all error is finally
brought into subjection to Truth. The divine method
240:30 of paying sin's wages involves unwinding one's snarls
and learning from experience how to divide between sense
and Soul.

241:1 "Whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth." He, who
knows God's will or the demands of divine Science and
241:3 obeys them, incurs the hostility of envy; and he who
refuses obedience to God, is chastened by Love.

The doom of sin

Sensual treasures are laid up "where moth and rust
241:6 doth corrupt." Mortality is their doom. Sin breaks in
upon them, and carries off their fleeting joys.
The sensualist's affections are as imaginary,
241:9 whimsical, and unreal as his pleasures. Falsehood, envy,
hypocrisy, malice, hate, revenge, and so forth, steal away
the treasures of Truth. Stripped of its coverings, what
241:12 a mocking spectacle is sin!

Spirit transforms

The Bible teaches transformation of the body by the
renewal of Spirit. Take away the spiritual signification
241:15 of Scripture, and that compilation can do no
more for mortals than can moonbeams to melt
a river of ice. The error of the ages is preaching without
241:18 practice.

The substance of all devotion is the reflection and
demonstration of divine Love, healing sickness and
241:21 destroying sin. Our Master said, "If ye love me, keep
my commandments."

One's aim, a point beyond faith, should be to find the
241:24 footsteps of Truth, the way to health and holiness. We
should strive to reach the Horeb height where God is re-
vealed; and the corner-stone of all spiritual building is
241:27 purity. The baptism of Spirit, washing the body of all
the impurities of flesh, signifies that the pure in heart
see God and are approaching spiritual Life and its
241:30 demonstration.

Spiritual baptism

It is "easier for a camel to go through the eye of a
needle," than for sinful beliefs to enter the kingdom of
242:1 heaven, eternal harmony. Through repentance, spiritual
baptism, and regeneration, mortals put off their material
242:3 beliefs and false individuality. It is only a
question of time when "they shall all know
Me [God], from the least of them unto the greatest."
242:6 Denial of the claims of matter is a great step towards
the joys of Spirit, towards human freedom and the final
triumph over the body.

The one only way

242:9 There is but one way to heaven, harmony, and Christ
in divine Science shows us this way. It is to know no
other reality - to have no other conscious-
242:12 ness of life - than good, God and His reflec-
tion, and to rise superior to the so-called pain and pleasure
of the senses.

242:15 Self-love is more opaque than a solid body. In pa-
tient obedience to a patient God, let us labor to dis-
solve with the universal solvent of Love the adamant
242:18 of error, - self-will, self-justification, and self-love, -
which wars against spirituality and is the law of sin
and death.

Divided vestments

242:21 The vesture of Life is Truth. According to the Bible,
the facts of being are commonly misconstrued, for it is
written: "They parted my raiment among
242:24 them, and for my vesture they did cast lots."
The divine Science of man is woven into one web of
consistency without seam or rent. Mere speculation or
242:27 superstition appropriates no part of the divine vesture,
while inspiration restores every part of the Christly gar-
ment of righteousness.

242:30 The finger-posts of divine Science show the way our
Master trod, and require of Christians the proof which
he gave, instead of mere profession. We may hide
243:1 spiritual ignorance from the world, but we can never
succeed in the Science and demonstration of spiritual
243:3 good through ignorance or hypocrisy.

Ancient and modern miracles

The divine Love, which made harmless the poisonous
viper, which delivered men from the boiling oil, from
243:6 the fiery furnace, from the jaws of the lion,
can heal the sick in every age and triumph
over sin and death. It crowned the demon-
243:9 strations of Jesus with unsurpassed power and love. But
the same "Mind . . . which was also in Christ Jesus"
must always accompany the letter of Science in order to
243:12 confirm and repeat the ancient demonstrations of prophets
and apostles. That those wonders are not more com-
monly repeated to-day, arises not so much from lack of
243:15 desire as from lack of spiritual growth.

Mental telegraphy

The clay cannot reply to the potter. The head, heart,
lungs, and limbs do not inform us that they are dizzy,
243:18 diseased, consumptive, or lame. If this in-
formation is conveyed, mortal mind conveys
it. Neither immortal and unerring Mind nor matter,
243:21 the inanimate substratum of mortal mind, can carry
on such telegraphy; for God is "of purer eyes than
to behold evil," and matter has neither intelligence nor
243:24 sensation.

Annihilation of error

Truth has no consciousness of error. Love has no
sense of hatred. Life has no partnership
243:27 with death. Truth, Life, and Love are a law
of annihilation to everything unlike themselves, because
they declare nothing except God.

Deformity and perfection

243:30 Sickness, sin, and death are not the fruits of Life.
They are inharmonies which Truth destroys. Perfection
does not animate imperfection. Inasmuch as God is
244:1 good and the fount of all being, He does not produce
moral or physical deformity; therefore such deformity is
244:3 not real, but is illusion, the mirage of error.
Divine Science reveals these grand facts. On
their basis Jesus demonstrated Life, never
244:6 fearing nor obeying error in any form.

If we were to derive all our conceptions of man from
what is seen between the cradle and the grave, happi-
244:9 ness and goodness would have no abiding-place in man,
and the worms would rob him of the flesh; but Paul
writes: "The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath
244:12 made me free from the law of sin and death."

Man never less than man

Man undergoing birth, maturity, and decay is like the
beasts and vegetables, - subject to laws of decay. If
244:15 man were dust in his earliest stage of exist-
ence, we might admit the hypothesis that he
returns eventually to his primitive condition;
244:18 but man was never more nor less than man.

If man flickers out in death or springs from matter into
being, there must be an instant when God is without His
244:21 entire manifestation, - when there is no full reflection
of the infinite Mind.

Man not evolved

Man in Science is neither young nor old. He has
244:24 neither birth nor death. He is not a beast, a vegetable,
nor a migratory mind. He does not pass from
matter to Mind, from the mortal to the im-
244:27 mortal, from evil to good, or from good to evil. Such
admissions cast us headlong into darkness and dogma.
Even Shakespeare's poetry pictures age as infancy, as
244:30 helplessness and decadence, instead of assigning to man
the everlasting grandeur and immortality of development,
power, and prestige.

245:1 The error of thinking that we are growing old, and the
benefits of destroying that illusion, are illustrated in a
245:3 sketch from the history of an English woman, published
in the London medical magazine called The Lancet.

Perpetual youth

Disappointed in love in her early years, she became
245:6 insane and lost all account of time. Believing that she
was still living in the same hour which parted
her from her lover, taking no note of years,
245:9 she stood daily before the window watching for her
lover's coming. In this mental state she remained young.
Having no consciousness of time, she literally grew no
245:12 older. Some American travellers saw her when she was
seventy-four, and supposed her to be a young woman.
She had no care-lined face, no wrinkles nor gray hair, but
245:15 youth sat gently on cheek and brow. Asked to guess her
age, those unacquainted with her history conjectured that
she must be under twenty.

245:18 This instance of youth preserved furnishes a useful
hint, upon which a Franklin might work with more cer-
tainty than when he coaxed the enamoured lightning
245:21 from the clouds. Years had not made her old, because
she had taken no cognizance of passing time nor thought
of herself as growing old. The bodily results of her belief
245:24 that she was young manifested the influence of such a be-
lief. She could not age while believing herself young, for
the mental state governed the physical.

245:27 Impossibilities never occur. One instance like the
foregoing proves it possible to be young at seventy-four;
and the primary of that illustration makes it plain that
245:30 decrepitude is not according to law, nor is it a necessity of
nature, but an illusion.

Man reflects God

The infinite never began nor will it ever end. Mind
246:1 and its formations can never be annihilated. Man is not
a pendulum, swinging between evil and good, joy and
246:3 sorrow, sickness and health, life and death.
Life and its faculties are not measured by
calendars. The perfect and immortal are the eternal
246:6 likeness of their Maker. Man is by no means a material
germ rising from the imperfect and endeavoring to reach
Spirit above his origin. The stream rises no higher than
246:9 its source.

The measurement of life by solar years robs youth and
gives ugliness to age. The radiant sun of virtue and truth
246:12 coexists with being. Manhood is its eternal noon, un-
dimmed by a declining sun. As the physical and mate-
rial, the transient sense of beauty fades, the radiance of
246:15 Spirit should dawn upon the enraptured sense with bright
and imperishable glories.

Undesirable records

Never record ages. Chronological data are no part
246:18 of the vast forever. Time-tables of birth and death are
so many conspiracies against manhood and
womanhood. Except for the error of meas-
246:21 uring and limiting all that is good and beautiful, man
would enjoy more than threescore years and ten and
still maintain his vigor, freshness, and promise. Man,
246:24 governed by immortal Mind, is always beautiful and
grand. Each succeeding year unfolds wisdom, beauty,
and holiness.

True life eternal

246:27 Life is eternal. We should find this out, and begin the
demonstration thereof. Life and goodness are immortal.
Let us then shape our views of existence into
246:30 loveliness, freshness, and continuity, rather
than into age and blight.

Acute and chronic beliefs reproduce their own types.
247:1 The acute belief of physical life comes on at a remote
period, and is not so disastrous as the chronic belief.

Eyes and teeth renewed

247:3 I have seen age regain two of the elements it had lost,
sight and teeth. A woman of eighty-five, whom I knew,
had a return of sight. Another woman at
247:6 ninety had new teeth, incisors, cuspids, bi-
cuspids, and one molar. One man at sixty
had retained his full set of upper and lower teeth without
247:9 a decaying cavity.

Eternal beauty

Beauty, as well as truth, is eternal; but the beauty
of material things passes away, fading and fleeting as
247:12 mortal belief. Custom, education, and fashion
form the transient standards of mortals. Im-
mortality, exempt from age or decay, has a glory of its
247:15 own, - the radiance of Soul. Immortal men and women
are models of spiritual sense, drawn by perfect Mind
and reflecting those higher conceptions of loveliness
247:18 which transcend all material sense.

The divine loveliness

Comeliness and grace are independent of matter. Be-
ing possesses its qualities before they are perceived hu-
247:21 manly. Beauty is a thing of life, which
dwells forever in the eternal Mind and re-
flects the charms of His goodness in expression, form,
247:24 outline, and color. It is Love which paints the petal
with myriad hues, glances in the warm sunbeam, arches
the cloud with the bow of beauty, blazons the night with
247:27 starry gems, and covers earth with loveliness.

The embellishments of the person are poor substitutes
for the charms of being, shining resplendent and eternal
247:30 over age and decay.

The recipe for beauty is to have less illusion and
more Soul, to retreat from the belief of pain or pleasure
248:1 in the body into the unchanging calm and glorious free-
dom of spiritual harmony.

Love's endowment

248:3 Love never loses sight of loveliness. Its halo rests upon
its object. One marvels that a friend can ever seem less
than beautiful. Men and women of riper
248:6 years and larger lessons ought to ripen into
health and immortality, instead of lapsing into darkness
or gloom. Immortal Mind feeds the body with supernal
248:9 freshness and fairness, supplying it with beautiful images
of thought and destroying the woes of sense which each
day brings to a nearer tomb.

Mental sculpture

248:12 The sculptor turns from the marble to his model in
order to perfect his conception. We are all sculptors,
working at various forms, moulding and chisel-
248:15 ing thought. What is the model before mortal
mind? Is it imperfection, joy, sorrow, sin, suffering?
Have you accepted the mortal model? Are you repro-
248:18 ducing it? Then you are haunted in your work by vicious
sculptors and hideous forms. Do you not hear from all
mankind of the imperfect model? The world is holding
248:21 it before your gaze continually. The result is that you
are liable to follow those lower patterns, limit your life-
work, and adopt into your experience the angular outline
248:24 and deformity of matter models.

Perfect models

To remedy this, we must first turn our gaze in the right
direction, and then walk that way. We must form perfect
248:27 models in thought and look at them continually,
or we shall never carve them out in grand and
noble lives. Let unselfishness, goodness, mercy, justice,
248:30 health, holiness, love - the kingdom of heaven - reign
within us, and sin, disease, and death will diminish until
they finally disappear.

249:1 Let us accept Science, relinquish all theories based on
sense-testimony, give up imperfect models and illusive
249:3 ideals; and so let us have one God, one Mind, and that
one perfect, producing His own models of excellence.

Renewed selfhood

Let the "male and female" of God's creating appear.
249:6 Let us feel the divine energy of Spirit, bringing us into
newness of life and recognizing no mortal nor
material power as able to destroy. Let us re-
249:9 joice that we are subject to the divine "powers that be."
Such is the true Science of being. Any other theory of
Life, or God, is delusive and mythological.

249:12 Mind is not the author of matter, and the creator of
ideas is not the creator of illusions. Either there is no
omnipotence, or omnipotence is the only power. God is
249:15 the infinite, and infinity never began, will never end, and
includes nothing unlike God. Whence then is soulless
matter?

Illusive dreams

249:18 Life is, like Christ, "the same yesterday, and to-day,
and forever." Organization and time have nothing to do
with Life. You say, "I dreamed last night."
249:21 What a mistake is that! The I is Spirit. God
never slumbers, and His likeness never dreams. Mortals
are the Adam dreamers.

249:24 Sleep and apath are phases of the dream that life, sub-
stance, and intelligence are material. The mortal night-
dream is sometimes nearer the fact of being than are the
249:27 thoughts of mortals when awake. The night-dream has
less matter as its accompaniment. It throws off some
material fetters. It falls short of the skies, but makes its
249:30 mundane flights quite ethereal.

Philosophical blunders

Man is the reflection of Soul. He is the direct oppo-
site of material sensation, and there is but one Ego. We
250:1 run into error when we divide Soul into souls, multiply
Mind into minds and suppose error to be mind, then mind
250:3 to be in matter and matter to be a lawgiver,
unintelligence to act like intelligence, and mor-
tality to be the matrix of immortality.

Spirit the one Ego

250:6 Mortal existence is a dream; mortal existence has no
real entity, but saith "It is I." Spirit is the Ego which
never dreams, but understands all things;
250:9 which never errs, and is ever conscious; which
never believes, but knows; which is never born and
never dies. Spiritual man is the likeness of this Ego.
250:12 Man is not God, but like a ray of light which comes from
the sun, man, the outcome of God, reflects God.

Mortal existence a dream

Mortal body and mind are one, and that one is called
250:15 man; but a mortal is not man, for man is immortal. A
mortal may be weary or pained, enjoy or suffer,
according to the dream he entertains in sleep.
250:18 When that dream vanishes, the mortal finds himself
experiencing none of these dream-sensations. To the
observer, the body lies listless, undisturbed, and sensa-
250:21 tionless, and the mind seems to be absent.

Now I ask, Is there any more reality in the waking
dream of mortal existence than in the sleeping dream?
250:24 There cannot be, since whatever appears to be a mortal
man is a mortal dream. Take away the mortal mind,
and matter has no more sense as a man than it has as
250:27 a tree. But the spiritual, real man is immortal.

Upon this stage of existence goes on the dance of mortal
mind. Mortal thoughts chase one another like snowflakes,
250:30 and drift to the ground. Science reveals Life as not being
at the mercy of death, nor will Science admit that happi-
ness is ever the sport of circumstance.

Error self-destroyed

251:1 Error is not real, hence it is not more imperative
as it hastens towards self-destruction. The so-called
251:3 belief of mortal mind apparent as an abscess
should not grow more painful before it suppu-
rates neither should a fever become more severe before
251:6 it ends.

Illusion of death

Fright is so great at certain stages of mortal belief
as to drive belief into new paths. In the illusion of
251:9 death, mortals wake to the knowledge of two
facts: (1) that they are not dead; (2) that
they have but passed the portals of a new belief. Truth
251:12 works out the nothingness of error in just these ways.
Sickness, as well as sin, is an error that Christ, Truth,
alone can destroy.

Mortal mind's disappearance

251:15 We must learn how mankind govern the body, -
whether through faith in hygiene, in drugs, or in will-
power. We should learn whether they govern
251:18 the body through a belief in the necessity of
sickness and death, sin and pardon, or govern
it from the higher understanding that the divine Mind
251:21 makes perfect, acts upon the so-called human mind
through truth, leads the human mind to relinquish all
error, to find the divine Mind to be the only Mind,
251:24 and the healer of sin, disease, death. This process of
higher spiritual understanding improves mankind until
error disappears, and nothing is left which deserves to
251:27 perish or to be punished.

Spiritual ignorance

Ignorance, like intentional wrong, is not Science.
Ignorance must be seen and corrected before we can at-
251:30 tain harmony. Inharmonious beliefs, which
rob Mind, calling it matter, and deify their
own notions, imprison themselves in what they create.
252:1 They are at war with Science, and as our Master said,
"If a kingdom be divided against itself, that kingdom
252:3 cannot stand."

Human ignorance of Mind and of the recuperative
energies of Truth occasions the only skepticism regard-
252:6 ing the pathology and theology of Christian Science.

Eternal man recognized