Science and Health With Key to The Scriptures

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

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47 | 48 | 49 | 50 | 51 | 52 | 53

354:30 The opponents of divine Science must be
charitable, if they would be Christian. If the
letter of Christian Science appears inconsistent, they should
355:1 gain the spiritual meaning of Christian Science, and then
the ambiguity will vanish.

Practical arguments

355:3 The charge of inconsistency in Christianly scientific
methods of dealing with sin and disease is met by some-
thing practical, - namely, the proof of the
355:6 utility of these methods; and proofs are better
than mere verbal arguments or prayers which evince no
spiritual power to heal.

355:9 As for sin and disease, Christian Science says, in the
language of the Master, "Follow me; and let the dead
bury their dead." Let discord of every name and nature
355:12 be heard no more, and let the harmonious and true sense
of Life and being take possession of human consciousness.

What is the relative value of the two conflicting the-
355:15 ories regarding Christian healing? One, according to
the commands of our Master, heals the sick. The other,
popular religion, declines to admit that Christ's religion
355:18 has exercised any systematic healing power since the first
century.

Conditions of criticism

The statement that the teachings of Christian Sci-
355:21 ence in this work are "absolutely false, and the most
egregious fallacies ever offered for accept-
ance," is an opinion wholly due to a misap-
355:24 prehension both of the divine Principle and practice of
Christian Science and to a consequent inability to demon-
strate this Science. Without this understanding, no one
355:27 is capable of impartial or correct criticism, because demon-
stration and spiritual understanding are God's immortal
keynotes, proved to be such by our Master and evidenced
355:30 by the sick who are cured and by the sinners who are
reformed.

Weakness of material theories

Strangely enough, we ask for material theories in sup-
356:1 port of spiritual and eternal truths, when the two are so
antagonistic that the material thought must become spir-
356:3 itualized before the spiritual fact is attained.
So-called material existence affords no evidence
theories of spiritual existence and immortality. Sin,
356:6 sickness, and death do not prove man's entity or immor-
tality. Discord can never establish the facts of harmony.
Matter is not the vestibule of Spirit.

Irreconciliable differences

356:9 Jesus reasoned on this subject practically, and con-
trolled sickness, sin, and death on the basis of his spir-
ituality. Understanding the nothingness of
356:12 material things, he spoke of flesh and Spirit
as the two opposites, - as error and Truth, not contrib-
uting in any way to each other's happiness and existence.
356:15 Jesus knew, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh
profiteth nothing."

Copartnership impossible

There is neither a present nor an eternal copartner-
356:18 ship between error and Truth, between flesh and Spirit.
God is as incapable of producing sin, sick-
ness, and death as He is of experiencing these
356:21 errors. How then is it possible for Him to create man
subject to this triad of errors, - man who is made in the
divine likeness?

356:24 Does God create a material man out of Himself, Spirit?
Does evil proceed from good? Does divine Love com-
mit a fraud on humanity by making man inclined to sin,
356:27 and then punishing him for it? Would any one call it
wise and good to create the primitive, and then punish its
derivative?

Two infinite creators absurd

356:30 Does subsequent follow its antecedent? It does.
Was there original self-creative sin? Then there must
have been more than one creator, more than one God.
357:1 In common justice, we must admit that God will not
punish man for doing what He created man
357:3 capable of doing, and knew from the outset
that man would do. God is "of purer eyes
than to behold evil." We sustain Truth, not by accept-
357:6 ing, but by rejecting a lie.

Jesus said of personified evil, that it was "a liar, and
the father of it." Truth creates neither a lie, a capacity
357:9 to lie, nor a liar. If mankind would relinquish the belief
that God makes sickness, sin, and death, or makes man
capable of suffering on account of this malevolent triad,
357:12 the foundations of error would be sapped and error's de-
struction ensured; but if we theoretically endow mortals
with the creativeness and authority of Deity, how dare we
357:15 attempt to destroy what He hath made, or even to deny
that God made man evil and made evil good?

Anthropomorphism

History teaches that the popular and false notions
357:18 about the Divine Being and character have originated
in the human mind. As there is in reality but
one God, one Mind, wrong notions about God
357:21 must have originated in a false supposition, not in im-
mortal Truth, and they are fading out. They are false
claims, which will eventually disappear, according to the
357:24 vision of St. John in the Apocalypse.

One supremacy

If what opposes God is real, there must be two
powers, and God is not supreme and infinite. Can
357:27 Deity be almighty, if another mighty and
self-creative cause exists and sways man-
kind? Has the Father "Life in Himself," as the Scrip-
357:30 tures say, and, if so, can Life, or God, dwell in evil and
create it? Can matter drive Life, Spirit, hence, and so
defeat omnipotence?

Matter impotent

358:1 Is the woodman's axe, which destroys a tree's so-called
life, superior to omnipotence? Can a leaden bullet de-
358:3 prive a man of Life, - that is, of God, who is
man's Life? If God is at the mercy of matter,
then matter is omnipotent. Such doctrines are "confu-
358:6 sion worse confounded." If two statements directly con-
tradict each other and one is true, the other must be false.
Is Science thus contradictory?

Scientific and Biblical facts

358:9 Christian Science, understood, coincides with the
Scriptures, and sustains logically and demonstratively
every point it presents. Otherwise it would
358:12 not be Science, and could not present its
proofs. Christian Science is neither made up of contra-
dictory aphorisms nor of the inventions of those who scoff
358:15 at God. It presents the calm and clear verdict of Truth
against error, uttered and illustrated by the prophets,
by Jesus, by his apostles, as is recorded throughout the
358:18 Scriptures.

Why are the words of Jesus more frequently cited
for our instruction than are his remarkable works? Is
358:21 it not because there are few who have gained a true
knowledge of the great import to Christianity of those
works?

Personal confidence

358:24 Sometimes it is said; "Rest assured that whatever
effect Christian Scientists may have on the sick, comes
through rousing within the sick a belief
358:27 that in the removal of disease these healers
have wonderful power, derived from the Holy Ghost."
Is it likely that church-members have more faith in
358:30 some Christian Scientist, whom they have perhaps
never seen and against whom they have been warned,
than they have in their own accredited and orthodox
359:1 pastors, whom they have seen and have been taught
to love and to trust?

359:3 Let any clergyman try to cure his friends by their
faith in him. Will that faith heal them? Yet Scien-
tists will take the same cases, and cures will follow.
359:6 Is this because the patients have more faith in the Scien-
tist than in their pastor? I have healed infidels whose
only objection to this method was, that I as a Chris-
359:9 tian Scientist believed in the Holy Spirit, while they, the
patients, did not.

Even though you aver that the material senses are
359:12 indispensable to man's existence or entity, you must
change the human concept of life, and must at length
know yourself spiritually and scientifically. The evi-
359:15 dence of the existence of Spirit, Soul, is palpable only to
spiritual sense, and is not apparent to the material senses,
which cognize only that which is the opposite of Spirit.

359:18 True Christianity is to be honored wherever found,
but when shall we arrive at the goal which that word
implies? From Puritan parents, the discov-
359:21 erer of Christian Science early received her
religious education. In childhood, she often listened
with joy to these words, falling from the lips of her
359:24 saintly mother, "God is able to raise you up from sick-
ness;" and she pondered the meaning of that Scripture
she so often quotes: "And these signs shall follow them
359:27 that believe; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick,
and they shall recover."

Two different artists

A Christian Scientist and an opponent are like two
359:30 artists. One says: "I have spiritual ideals,
indestructible and glorious. When others see
them as I do, in their true light and loveliness, - and
360:1 know that these ideals are real and eternal because drawn
from Truth, - they will find that nothing is lost, and all
360:3 is won, by a right estimate of what is real."

The other artist replies: "You wrong my experience.
I have no mind-ideals except those which are both mental
360:6 and material. It is true that materiality renders these
ideals imperfect and destructible; yet I would not ex-
change mine for thine, for mine give me such personal
360:9 pleasure, and they are not so shockingly transcendental.
They require less self-abnegation, and keep Soul well out
of sight. Moreover, I have no notion of losing my old
360:12 doctrines or human opinions."

Choose ye to-day

Dear reader, which mind-picture or externalized thought
shall be real to you, - the material or the spiritual?
360:15 Both you cannot have. You are bringing out
your own ideal. This ideal is either temporal
or eternal. Either Spirit or matter is your model. If you
360:18 try to have two models, then you practically have none.
Like a pendulum in a clock, you will be thrown back and
forth, striking the ribs of matter and swinging between the
360:21 real and the unreal.

Hear the wisdom of Job, as given in the excellent trans-
lation of the late Rev. George R. Noyes, D.D.: -
360:24 Shall mortal man be more just than God?
Shall man be more pure than his Maker?
Behold, He putteth no trust in His ministering spirits,
360:27 And His angels He chargeth with frailty.

Of old, the Jews put to death the Galilean Prophet,
the best Christian on earth, for the truth he spoke and
360:30 demonstrated, while to-day, Jew and Christian can unite
in doctrine and denomination on the very basis of Jesus'
words and works. The Jew believes that the Messiah or
361:1 Christ has not yet come; the Christian believes that
Christ is God. Here Christian Science intervenes, ex-
361:3 plains these doctrinal points, cancels the disagreement,
and settles the question. Christ, as the true spiritual idea,
is the ideal of God now and forever, here and everywhere.
361:6 The Jew who believes in the First Commandment is a
monotheist; he has one omnipresent God. Thus the Jew
unites with the Christian's doctrine that God is come and
is present now and forever. The Christian who believes
in the First Commandment is a monotheist. This he
virtually unites with the Jew's belief in one God, and
361:12 recognizes that Jesus Christ is not God, as Jesus himself
declared, but is the Son of God. This declaration of
Jesus, understood, conflicts not at all with another of his
361:15 sayings: "I and my Father are one," - that is, one in
quality, not in quantity. As a drop of water is one with
the ocean, a ray of light one with the, sun, even so God
361:18 and man, Father and son, are one in being. The Scrip-
ture reads: "For in Him we live, and move, and have
our being."

361:21 I have revised /Science and Health/ only to give a
clearer and fuller expression of its original meaning. Spir-
itual ideas unfold as we advance. A human perception of
361:24 divine Science, however limited, must be correct in order
to be Science and subject to demonstration. A germ of in-
finite Truth, though least in the kingdom of heaven is the
361:27 higher hope on earth, but it will be rejected and reviled
until God prepares the soil for the seed. That which
when sown bears immortal fruit, enriches mankind only
361:30 when it is understood, - hence the many readings given
the Scriptures, and the requisite revisions of /Science and
Health with Key to the Scriptures/.

CHAPTER XII - CHRISTIAN SCIENCE PRACTICE

Why art thou cast down, O my soul [sense]?
And why art thou disquieted within me?
Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him,
Who is the health of my countenance and my God. - PSALMS.

And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name
shall they cast out devils: they shall speak with new tongues;
they shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly
thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the
sick, and they shall recover. - JESUS.

A gospel narrative

362:1 IT is related in the seventh chapter of Luke's Gospel
that Jesus was once the honored guest of a certain
362:3 Pharisee, by name Simon, though he was quite unlike
Simon the disciple. While they were at meat, an unusual
incident occurred, as if to interrupt the scene
362:6 of Oriental festivity. A "strange woman"
came in. Heedless of the fact that she was debarred from
such a place and such society, especially under the stern
362:9 rules of rabbinical law, as positively as if she were a Hin-
doo pariah intruding upon the household of a high-caste
Brahman, this woman (Mary Magdalene, as she has
362:12 since been called) approached Jesus. According to the
custom of those days, he reclined on a couch with his
head towards the table and his bare feet away from it.
362:15 It was therefore easy for the Magdalen to come behind
363:1 the couch and reach his feet. She bore an alabaster jar
containing costly and fragrant oil, - sandal oil perhaps,
363:3 which is in such common use in the East. Breaking
the sealed jar, she perfumed Jesus' feet with the oil,
wiping them with her long hair, which hung loosely
363:6 about her shoulders, as was customary with women of her
grade.

Parable of the creditor

Did Jesus spurn the woman? Did he repel her adora-
363:9 tion? No! He regarded her compassionately. Nor was
this all. Knowing what those around him
were saying in their hearts, especially his host,
363:12 - that they were wondering why, being a prophet, the
exalted guest did not at once detect the woman's immoral
status and bid her depart, - knowing this, Jesus rebuked
363:15 them with a short story or parable. He described two
debtors, one for a large sum and one for a smaller, who
were released from their obligations by their common
363:18 creditor. "Which of them will love him most?" was the
Master's question to Simon the Pharisee; and Simon re-
plied, "He to whom he forgave most." Jesus approved
363:21 the answer, and so brought home the lesson to all, follow-
ing it with that remarkable declaration to the woman,
"Thy sins are forgiven."

Divine insight

363:24 Why did he thus summarize her debt to divine Love?
Had she repented and reformed, and did his insight
detect this unspoken moral uprising? She
363:27 bathed his feet with her tears before she
anointed them with the oil. In the absence of other
proofs, was her grief sufficient evidence to warrant the
363:30 expectation of her repentance, reformation, and growth
in wisdom? Certainly there was encouragement in the
mere fact that she was showing her affection for a man
364:1 of undoubted goodness and purity, who has since been
rightfully regarded as the best man that ever trod this
364:3 planet. Her reverence was unfeigned, and it was mani-
fested towards one who was soon, though they knew it
not, to lay down his mortal existence in behalf of all
364:6 sinners, that through his word and works they might be
redeemed from sensuality and sin.

Penitence or hospitality

Which was the higher tribute to such ineffable affec-
364:9 tion, the hospitality of the Pharisee or the contrition of
the Magdalen? This query Jesus answered
by rebuking self-righteousness and declaring
364:12 the absolution of the penitent. He even said that this
poor woman had done what his rich entertainer had neg-
lected to do, - wash and anoint his guest's feet, a special
364:15 sign of Oriental courtesy.

Here is suggested a solemn question, a question indi-
cated by one of the needs of this age. Do Christian
364:18 Scientists seek Truth as Simon sought the Saviour, through
material conservatism and for personal homage? Jesus
told Simon that such seekers as he gave small reward
364:21 in return for the spiritual purgation which came through
the Messiah. If Christian Scientists are like Simon,
then it must be said of them also that they /love/
364:24 little.

Genuine repentance

On the other hand, do they show their regard for
Truth, or Christ, by their genuine repentance, by their
364:27 broken hearts, expressed by meekness and
human affection, as did this woman? If
so, then it may be said of them, as Jesus said of the
364:30 unwelcome visitor, that they indeed love much, because
much is forgiven them.

Compassion requisite

Did the careless doctor, the nurse, the cook, and the
365:1 brusque business visitor sympathetically know the thorns
they plant in the pillow of the sick and the heavenly
365:3 homesick looking away from earth, - Oh, did
they know! - this knowledge would do much
more towards healing the sick and preparing their helpers
365:6 for the "midnight call," than all cries of "Lord, Lord!"
The benign thought of Jesus, finding utterance in such
words as "Take no thought for your life," would heal
365:9 the sick, and so enable them to rise above the supposed
necessity for physical thought-taking and doctoring;
but if the unselfish affections be lacking, and common
365:12 sense and common humanity are disregarded, what men-
tal quality remains, with which to evoke healing from
the outstretched arm of righteousness?

Speedy healing

365:15 If the Scientist reaches his patient through divine
Love, the healing work will be accomplished at one
visit, and the disease will vanish into its native
365:18 nothingness like dew before the morning sun-
shine. If the Scientist has enough Christly affection to
win his own pardon, and such commendation as the Mag-
365:21 dalen gained from Jesus, then he is Christian enough to
practise scientifically and deal with his patients compas-
sionately; and the result will correspond with the spiritual
365:24 intent.

Truth desecrated

If hypocrisy, stolidity, inhumanity, or vice finds its
way into the chambers of disease through the would-be
365:27 healer, it would, if it were possible, convert
into a den of thieves the temple of the Holy
Ghost, - the patient's spiritual power to resuscitate him-
365:30 self. The unchristian practitioner is not giving to mind
or body the joy and strength of Truth. The poor suf-
fering heart needs its rightful nutriment, such as peace,
366:1 patience in tribulation, and a priceless sense of the dear
Father's loving-kindness.

Moral evils to be cast out

366:3 In order to cure his patient, the metaphysician
must first cast moral evils out of himself and thus
attain the spiritual freedom which will en-
366:6 able him to cast physical evils out of his
patient; but heal he cannot, while his own spiritual
barrenness debars him from giving drink to the thirsty
366:9 and hinders him from reaching his patient's thought, -
yea, while mental penury chills his faith and under-
standing.

The true physician

366:12 The physician who lacks sympathy for his fellow-
being is deficient in human affection, and we have the
apostolic warrant for asking: "He that loveth
366:15 not his brother whom he hath seen, how can
he love God whom he hath not seen?" Not having this
spiritual affection, the physician lacks faith in the divine
366:18 Mind and has not that recognition of infinite Love which
alone confers the healing power. Such so-called Scien-
tists will strain out gnats, while they swallow the camels
366:21 of bigoted pedantry.

Source of calmness

The physician must also watch, lest he be over-
whelmed by a sense of the odiousness of sin and by the
366:24 unveiling of sin in his own thoughts. The
sick are terrified by their sick beliefs, and
sinners should be affrighted by their sinful beliefs; but
366:27 the Christian Scientist will be calm in the presence of
both sin and disease, knowing, as he does, that Life is
God and God is All.

Genuine healing

366:30 If we would open their prison doors for the sick, we
must first learn to bind up the broken-hearted. If we
would heal by the Spirit, we must not hide the talent
367:1 of spiritual healing under the napkin of its form, nor
bury the /morale /of Christian Science in the grave-clothes
367:3 of its letter. The tender word and Christian
encouragement of an invalid, pitiful patience
with his fears and the removal of them, are better than
367:6 hecatombs of gushing theories, stereotyped borrowed
speeches, and the doling of arguments, which are but so
many parodies on legitimate Christian Science, aflame
367:9 with divine Love.

Gratitude and humility

This is what is meant by seeking Truth, Christ, not
"for the loaves and fishes," nor, like the Pharisee, with
367:12 the arrogance of rank and display of scholar-
ship, but like Mary Magdalene, from the sum-
mit of devout consecration, with the oil of gladness and
367:15 the perfume of /gratitude/, with tears of repentance and
with those hairs all numbered by the Father.

The salt of the earth

A Christian Scientist occupies the place at this period
367:18 of which Jesus spoke to his disciples, when he said: "Ye
are the salt of the earth." "Ye are the light
of the world. A city that is set on an hill can-
367:21 not be hid." Let us watch, work, and pray that this salt
lose not its saltness, and that this light be not hid, but
radiate and glow into noontide glory.