Science and Health With Key to The Scriptures

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

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481:24 If Soul sins, it must be mortal. Sin has the elements
of self-destruction. It cannot sustain itself. If sin is
supported, God must uphold it, and this is
481:27 impossible, since Truth cannot support error.
Soul is the divine Principle of man and never sins, -
hence the immortality of Soul. In Science we learn that
481:30 it is material sense, not Soul, which sins; and it will be
found that it is the sense of sin which is lost, and not a
sinful soul. When reading the Scriptures, the substitu-
482:1 tion of the word /sense/ for /soul/ gives the exact meaning in
a majority of cases.

Soul defined

482:3 Human thought has adulterated the meaning of the
word /soul/ through the hypothesis that soul is both an evil
and a good intelligence, resident in matter.
482:6 The proper use of the word /soul/ can always
be gained by substituting the word /God/, where the deific
meaning is required. In other cases, use the word /sense/,
482:9 and you will have the scientific signification. As used
in Christian Science, Soul is properly the synonym of
Spirit, or God; but out of Science, soul is identical with
482:12 sense, with material sensation.

Sonship of Jesus

/Question/. - Is it important to understand these ex-
planations in order to heal the sick?
482:15 /Answer/. - It is, since Christ is "the way" and the
truth casting out all error. Jesus called himself " the
Son of man," but not the son of Joseph. As
482:18 woman is but a species of the genera, he was
literally the Son of Man. Jesus was the highest human
concept of the perfect man. He was inseparable from
482:21 Christ, the Messiah, - the divine idea of God outside
the flesh. This enabled Jesus to demonstrate his con-
trol over matter. Angels announced to the Wisemen of
482:24 old this dual appearing, and angels whisper it, through
faith, to the hungering heart in every age.

Sickness erroneous

Sickness is part of the error which Truth casts out.
482:27 Error will not expel error. Christian Science is the law
of Truth, which heals the sick, on the basis
of the one Mind or God. It can heal in no
482:30 other way, since the human, mortal mind so-called is not
a healer, but causes the belief in disease.

True healing transcendent

483:1 Then comes the question, how do drugs, hygiene, and
animal magnetism heal? It may be affirmed that they
483:3 do not heal, but only relieve suffering tempo-
rarily, exchanging one disease for another.
We classify disease as error, which nothing but Truth or
483:6 Mind can heal, and this Mind must be divine, not human.
Mind transcends all other power, and will ultimately su-
persede all other means in healing. In order to heal by
483:9 Science, you must not be ignorant of the moral and spir-
itual demands of Science nor disobey them. Moral igno-
rance or sin affects your demonstration, and hinders its
483:12 approach to the standard in Christian Science.

Terms adopted by the author

After the author's sacred discovery, she affixed the
name "Science" to Christianity, the name "error" to
483:15 corporeal sense, and the name "substance" to
Mind. Science has called the world to battle
over this issue and its demonstration, which
483:18 heals the sick, destroys error, and reveals the universal
harmony. To those natural Christian Scientists, the an-
cient worthies, and to Christ Jesus, God certainly revealed
483:21 the spirit of Christian Science, if not the absolute letter.

Science the way

Because the Science of Mind seems to bring into dis-
honor the ordinary scientific schools, which wrestle with
483:24 material observations alone, this Science has
met with opposition; but if any system honors
God, it ought to receive aid, not opposition, from all think-
483:27 ing persons. And Christian Science does honor God as
no other theory honors Him, and it does this in the way
of His appointing, by doing many wonderful works
483:30 through the divine name and nature. One must fulfil
one's mission without timidity or dissimulation, for to be
well done, the work must be done unselfishly. Christianity
484:1 will never be based on a divine Principle and so found to
be unerring, until its absolute Science is reached. When
484:3 this is accomplished, neither pride, prejudice, bigotry,
nor envy can wash away its foundation, for it is built upon
the rock, Christ.

Mindless methods

484:6 /Question/. - Does Christian Science, or metaphysical
healing, include medication, material hygiene, mesmer-
ism, hypnotism, theosophy, or spiritualism?
484:9 /Answer/. - Not one of them is included in it. In di-
vine Science, the supposed laws of matter yield to the
law of Mind. What are termed natural
484:12 science and material laws are the objective
states of mortal mind. The physical universe expresses
the conscious and unconscious thoughts of mortals.
484:15 Physical force and mortal mind are one. Drugs and
hygiene oppose the supremacy of the divine Mind.
Drugs and inert matter are unconscious, mindless. Cer-
484:18 tain results, supposed to proceed from drugs, are really
caused by the faith in them which the false human con-
sciousness is educated to feel.

Animal magnetism error

484:21 Mesmerism is mortal, material illusion. Animal mag-
netism is the voluntary or involuntary action of error
in all its forms; it is the human antipode
484:24 of divine Science. Science must triumph
over material sense, and Truth over error, thus putting
an end to the hypotheses involved in all false theories
484:27 and practices.

Error only ephemeral

/Question/. - Is materiality the concomitant of spirit-
uality, and is material sense a necessary preliminary to
484:30 the understanding and expression of Spirit?
485:1 /Answer/. - If error is necessary to define or to reveal
Truth, the answer is yes; but not otherwise. /Material
485:3 sense/ is an absurd phrase, for matter has no
sensation. Science declares that Mind, not
matter, sees, hears, feels, speaks. Whatever contradicts
485:6 this statement is the false sense, which ever betrays
mortals into sickness, sin, and death. If the unimpor-
tant and evil appear, only soon to disappear because
485:9 of their uselessness or their iniquity, then these ephem-
eral views of error ought to be obliterated by Truth.
Why malign Christian Science for instructing mortals how
485:12 to make sin, disease, and death appear more and more
unreal?

Scientific translations

Emerge gently from matter into Spirit. Think not
485:15 to thwart the spiritual ultimate of all things, but come
naturally into Spirit through better health and
morals and as the result of spiritual growth.
485:18 Not death, but the understanding of Life, makes man im-
mortal. The belief that life can be in matter or soul in
body, and that man springs from dust or from an egg,
485:21 is the result of the mortal error which Christ, or Truth,
destroys by fulfilling the spiritual law of being, in which
man is perfect, even as the "Father which is in heaven
485:24 is perfect." If thought yields its dominion to other '
powers, it cannot outline on the body its own beautiful
images, but it effaces them and delineates foreign agents,
485:27 called disease and sin.

Material beliefs

The heathen gods of mythology controlled war and
agriculture as much as nerves control sensation or
485:30 muscles measure strength. To say that
strength is in matter, is like saying that the
power is in the lever. The notion of any life or intelli-
486:1 gence in matter is without foundation in fact, and you
can have no faith in falsehood when you have learned
486:3 falsehood's true nature.

Sense /versus/ Soul

Suppose one accident happens to the eye, another to
the ear, and so on, until every corporeal sense is quenched.
486:6 What is man's remedy? To die, that he may
regain these senses? Even then he must gain
spiritual understanding and spiritual sense in order to
486:9 possess immortal consciousness. Earth's preparatory
school must be improved to the utmost. In reality man
never dies. The belief that he dies will not establish his
486:12 scientific harmony. Death is not the result of Truth but
of error, and one error will not correct another.

Death an error

Jesus proved by the prints of the nails, that his body
486:15 was the same immediately after death as before. If death
restores sight, sound, and strength to man,
then death is not an enemy but a better friend
486:18 than Life. Alas for the blindness of belief, which makes
harmony conditional upon death and matter, and yet
supposes Mind unable to produce harmony! So long
486:21 as this error of belief remains, mortals will continue mor-
tal in belief and subject to chance and change.

Permanent sensibility

Sight, hearing, all the spiritual senses of man, are
486:24 eternal. They cannot be lost. Their reality and immor-
tality are in Spirit and understanding, not in
matter, - hence their permanence. If this
486:27 were not so, man would be speedily annihilated. If the
five corporeal senses were the medium through which
to understand God, then palsy, blindness, and deafness
486:30 would place man in a terrible situation, where he would
be like those "having no hope, and without God in the
world;" but as a matter of fact, these calamities often
487:1 drive mortals to seek and to find a higher sense of happi-
ness and existence.

Exercise of Mind-faculties

487:3 Life is deathless. Life is the origin and ultimate of
man, never attainable through death, but gained by walk-
ing in the pathway of Truth both before and
487:6 after that which is called death. There is more
Christianity in seeing and hearing spiritually
than materially. There is more Science in the perpetual
487:9 exercise of the Mind-faculties than in their loss. Lost
they cannot be, while Mind remains. The apprehension
of this gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf cen-
487:12 turies ago, and it will repeat the wonder.

Understanding /versus/ belief

/Question/. - You speak of belief. Who or what is it
that believes?
487:15 /Answer/. - Spirit is all-knowing; this precludes the
need of believing. Matter cannot believe, and Mind
understands. The body cannot believe. The
487:18 believer and belief are one and are mortal.
Christian evidence is founded on Science or
demonstrable Truth, flowing from immortal Mind, and
487:21 there is in reality no such thing as /mortal/ mind. Mere
belief is blindness without Principle from which to ex-
plain the reason of its hope. The belief that life is sen-
487:24 tient and intelligent matter is erroneous.

The Apostle James said, "Show me thy faith without
thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works."
487:27 The understanding that Life is God, Spirit, lengthens
our days by strengthening our trust in the deathless
reality of Life, its almightiness and immortality.

Confirmation by healing

487:30 This faith relies upon an understood Principle. This
Principle makes whole the diseased, and brings out the
488:1 enduring and harmonious phases of things. The result
of our teachings is their sufficient confirmation. When,
488:3 on the strength of these instructions, you are
able to banish a severe malady, the cure shows
that you understand this teaching, and therefore you re-
488:6 ceive the blessing of Truth.

Belief and firm trust

The Hebrew and Greek words often translated /belief/
differ somewhat in meaning from that conveyed by the
488:9 English verb /believe/; they have more the sig-
nificance of faith, understanding, trust, con-
stancy, firmness. Hence the Scriptures often appear in
488:12 our common version to approve and endorse belief, when
they mean to enforce the necessity of understanding.

All faculties from Mind

/Question/. - Do the five corporeal senses constitute
488:15 man?
/Answer/. - Christian Science sustains with immortal
proof the impossibility of any material sense, and defines
488:18 these so-called senses as /mortal beliefs/, the
testimony of which cannot be true either of
man or of his Maker. The corporeal senses can take no
488:21 cognizance of spiritual reality and immortality. Nerves
have no more sensation, apart from what belief be-
stows upon them, than the fibres of a plant. Mind alone
488:24 possesses all faculties, perception, and comprehension.
Therefore mental endowments are not at the mercy of
organization and decomposition, - otherwise the very
488:27 worms could unfashion man. If it were possible for the
real senses of man to be injured, Soul could reproduce
them in all their perfection; but they cannot be dis-
488:30 turbed nor destroyed, since they exist in immortal Mind,
not in matter.

Possibilities of Life

489:1 The less mind there is manifested in matter the better.
When the unthinking lobster loses its claw, the claw grows
489:3 again. If the Science of Life were understood,
it would be found that the senses of Mind are
never lost and that matter has no sensation. Then the
489:6 human limb would be replaced as readily as the lobster's
claw, - not with an artificial limb, but with the genuine
one. Any hypothesis which supposes life to be in matter
489:9 is an educated belief. In infancy this belief is not equal
to guiding the hand to the mouth; and as consciousness
develops, this belief goes out, - yields to the reality of
489:12 everlasting Life.

Decalogue disregarded

Corporeal sense defrauds and lies; it breaks all the
commands of the Mosaic Decalogue to meet its own de-
489:15 mands. How then can this sense be the God-
given channel to man of divine blessings or
understanding? How can man, reflecting God, be de-
489:18 pendent on material means for knowing, hearing, seeing?
Who dares to say that the senses of man can be at one time
the medium for sinning against God, at another the me-
489:21 dium for obeying God? An affirmative reply would con-
tradict the Scripture, for the same fountain sendeth not
forth sweet waters and bitter.

Organic construction valueless

489:24 The corporeal senses are the only source of evil or
error. Christian Science shows them to be false, be-
cause matter has no sensation, and no organic
489:27 construction can give it hearing and sight nor
make it the medium of Mind. Outside the
material sense of things, all is harmony. A wrong sense
489:30 of God, man, and creation is /non-sense/, want of sense.
Mortal belief would have the material senses sometimes
good and sometimes bad. It assures mortals that there
490:1 is real pleasure in sin; but the grand truths of Christian
Science dispute this error.

Will-power an animal propensity

490:3 Will-power is but a product of belief, and this belief
commits depredations on harmony. Human will is an
animal propensity, not a faculty of Soul.
490:6 Hence it cannot govern man aright. Chris-
tian Science reveals Truth and Love as the
motive-powers of man. Will - blind, stubborn, and head-
490:9 long - cooperates with appetite and passion. From this
cooperation arises its evil. From this also comes its pow-
erlessness, since all power belongs to God, good.

Theories helpless

490:12 The Science of Mind needs to be understood. Until
it is understood, mortals are more or less deprived of
Truth. Human theories are helpless to make
490:15 man harmonious or immortal, since he is so
already, according to Christian Science. Our only need
is to know this and reduce to practice the real man's di-
490:18 vine Principle, Love

True nature and origin

"Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings."
Human belief - or knowledge gained from the so-called
490:21 material senses - would, by fair logic, anni-
hilate man along with the dissolving elements
of clay. The scientifically Christian explanations of the
490:24 nature and origin of man destroy all material sense with
immortal testimony. This immortal testimony ushers
in the spiritual sense of being, which can be obtained
490:27 in no other way.

Sleep an illusion

Sleep and mesmerism explain the mythical nature of
material sense. Sleep shows material sense as either
490:30 oblivion, nothingness, or an illusion or dream.
Under the mesmeric illusion of belief, a man
will think that he is freezing when he is warm, and that he
491:1 is swimming when he is on dry land. Needle-thrusts will
not hurt him. A delicious perfume will seem intolerable.
491:3 Animal magnetism thus uncovers material sense, and
shows it to be a belief without actual foundation or va-
lidity. Change the belief, and the sensation changes.
491:6 Destroy the belief, and the sensation disappears.

Man linked with Spirit

Material man is made up of involuntary and voluntary
error, of a negative right and a positive wrong, the latter
491:9 calling itself right. Man's spiritual individual-
ity is never wrong. It is the likeness of man's
Maker. Matter cannot connect mortals with the true
491:12 origin and facts of being, in which all must end. It is only
by acknowledging the supremacy of Spirit, which annuls
the claims of matter, that mortals can lay off mortality and
491:15 find the indissoluble spiritual link which establishes man
forever in the divine likeness, inseparable from his creator.

Material man as a dream

The belief that matter and mind are one, - that mat-
491:18 ter is awake at one time and asleep at another, some-
times presenting no appearance of mind, -
this belief culminates in another belief, that
491:21 man dies. Science reveals material man as never the real
being. The dream or belief goes on, whether our eyes are
closed or open. In sleep, memory and consciousness are
491:24 lost from the body, and they wander whither they will
apparently with their own separate embodiment. Per-
sonality is not the individuality of man. A wicked man
491:27 may have an attractive personality.

Spiritual existence the one fact

When we are awake, we dream of the pains and pleas-
ures of matter. Who will say, even though he
491:30 does not understand Christian Science, that
this dream - rather than the dreamer - may
not be mortal man? Who can rationally say otherwise,
492:1 when the dream leaves mortal man intact in body and
thought, although the so-called dreamer is unconscious?
492:3 For right reasoning there should be but one fact before
the thought, namely, spiritual existence. In reality there
is no other existence, since Life cannot be united to its
492:6 unlikeness, mortality.

Mind one and all

Being is holiness, harmony, immortality. It is already
proved that a knowledge of this, even in small degree,
492:9 will uplift the physical and moral standard
of mortals, will increase longevity, will purify
and elevate character. Thus progress will finally destroy
492:12 all error, and bring immortality to light. We know that
a statement proved to be good must be correct. New
thoughts are constantly obtaining the floor. These two
492:15 contradictory theories - that matter is something, or
that all is Mind - will dispute the ground, until one is
acknowledged to be the victor. Discussing his cam-
492:18 paign, General Grant said: "I propose to fight it out on
this line, if it takes all summer." Science says: All is
Mind and Mind's idea. You must fight it out on this
492:21 line. Matter can afford you no aid.

Scientific ultimatum

The notion that mind and matter commingle in the
human illusion as to sin, sickness, and death must even-
492:24 tually submit to the Science of Mind, which
denies this notion. /God is Mind, and God is
infinite; hence all is Mind/. On this statement rests the
492:27 Science of being, and the Principle of this Science is di-
vine, demonstrating harmony and immortality.

Victory for Truth

The conservative theory, long believed, is that there
492:30 are two factors, matter and mind, uniting on some im-
possible basis. This theory would keep truth and error
always at war. Victory would perch on neither banner.
493:1 On the other hand, Christian Science speedily shows
Truth to be triumphant. To corporeal sense, the sun
493:3 appears to rise and set, and the earth to stand
still; but astronomical science contradicts this,
and explains the solar system as working on a differ-
493:6 ent plan. All the evidence of physical sense and all the
knowledge obtained from physical sense must yield to
Science, to the immortal truth of all things.

Mental preparation

493:9 /Question/, - Will you explain sickness and show how it
is to be healed?
/Answer/. - The method of Christian Science Mind-heal-
493:12 ing is touched upon in a previous chapter entitled Christian
Science Practice. A full answer to the above
question involves teaching, which enables the
493:15 healer to demonstrate and prove for himself the Principle
and rule of Christian Science or metaphysical healing.

Mind destroys all ills

Mind must be found superior to all the beliefs of the
493:18 five corporeal senses, and able to destroy all ills. Sick-
ness is a belief, which must be annihilated by
the divine Mind. Disease is an experience of
493:21 so-called mortal mind. It is fear made manifest on the
body. Christian Science takes away this physical sense
of discord, just as it removes any other sense of moral or
493:24 mental inharmony. That man is material, and that mat-
ter suffers, - these propositions can only seem real and
natural in illusion. Any sense of soul in matter is not the
493:27 reality of being.

If Jesus awakened Lazarus from the dream, illusion, of
death, this proved that the Christ could improve on a false
493:30 sense. Who dares to doubt this consummate test of the
power and willingness of divine Mind to hold man forever
494:1 intact in his perfect state, and to govern man's entire
action? Jesus said: "Destroy this temple [body], and
494:3 in three days I [Mind] will raise it up;" and he did this
for tired humanity's reassurance.

Inexhaustible divine Love

Is it not a species of infidelity to believe that so great
494:6 a work as the Messiah's was done for himself or for God,
who needed no help from Jesus' example to
preserve the eternal harmony? But mortals
494:9 did need this help, and Jesus pointed the way for them.
Divine Love always has met and always will meet every
human need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus demon-
494:12 strated the divine power to heal only for a select number
or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and
in every hour, divine Love supplies all good.

Reason and Science