Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (universal ebook reader .TXT) 📖

84:12 of thought which is in rapport with this Mind, to know

the past, the present, and the future.

 

Acquaintance with the Science of being enables us to 84:15 commune more largely with the divine Mind, to foresee

and foretell events which concern the universal welfare,

to be divinely inspired, - yea, to reach the range of fetter-84:18 less Mind.

 

The Mind unbounded

 

To understand that Mind is infinite, not bounded by

corporeality, not dependent upon the ear and eye for 84:21 sound or sight nor upon muscles and bones

for locomotion, is a step towards the Mind-science by which we discern man’s nature and existence. 84:24 This true conception of being destroys the belief of spiritualism at its very inception, for without the concession of

material personalities called spirits, spiritualism has no 84:27 basis upon which to build.

 

Scientific foreknowing

 

All we correctly know of Spirit comes from God, divine

Principle, and is learned through Christ and Christian 84:30 Science. If this Science has been thoroughly

learned and properly digested, we can know

the truth more accurately than the astronomer can read 85:1 the stars or calculate an eclipse. This Mind-reading

is the opposite of clairvoyance. It is the illumination of 85:3 the spiritual understanding which demonstrates the capacity of Soul, not of material sense. This Soul-sense

comes to the human mind when the latter yields to the 85:6 divine Mind.

 

Value of intuition

 

Such intuitions reveal whatever constitutes and perpetuates harmony, enabling one to do good, but not 85:9 evil. You will reach the perfect Science of

healing when you are able to read the human

mind after this manner and discern the error you would 85:12 destroy. The Samaritan woman said: “Come, see a

man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this

the Christ?”

85:15 It is recorded that Jesus, as he once journeyed with his

students, “knew their thoughts,” - read them scientifically. In like manner he discerned disease and healed 85:18 the sick. After the same method, events of great moment were foretold by the Hebrew prophets. Our

Master rebuked the lack of this power when he said: 85:21 “O ye hypocrites! ye can discern the face of the sky;

but can ye not discern the signs of the times?”

 

Hypocrisy condemned

 

Both Jew and Gentile may have had acute corporeal 85:24 senses, but mortals need spiritual sense. Jesus knew the

generation to be wicked and adulterous, seeking the material more than the spiritual. His 85:27 thrusts at materialism were sharp, but needed. He never

spared hypocrisy the sternest condemnation.. He said:

“These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other 85:30 undone.” The great Teacher knew both cause and

effect, knew that truth communicates itself but never

imparts error.

 

Mental contact

86:1 Jesus once asked, “Who touched me?” Supposing

this inquiry to be occasioned by physical contact alone, 86:3 his disciples answered, “The multitude throng

thee.” Jesus knew, as others did not, that

it was not matter, but mortal mind, whose touch called 86:6 for aid. Repeating his inquiry, he was answered by the

faith of a sick woman. His quick apprehension of this

mental call illustrated his spirituality. The disciples’ 86:9 misconception of it uncovered their materiality. Jesus

possessed more spiritual susceptibility than the disciples.

Opposites come from contrary directions, and produce 86:12 unlike results.

 

Images of thought

 

Mortals evolve images of thought. These may appear

to the ignorant to be apparitions; but they are myste-86:15 rious only because it is unusual to see

thoughts, though we can always feel their

influence. Haunted houses, ghostly voices, unusual 86:18 noises, and apparitions brought out in dark seances

either involve feats by tricksters, or they are images and

sounds evolved involuntarily by mortal mind. Seeing 86:21 is no less a quality of physical sense than feeling. Then

why is it more difficult to see a thought than to feel one?

Education alone determines the difference. In reality 86:24 there is none.

 

Phenomena explained

 

Portraits, landscape-paintings, fac-similes of penman—

ship, peculiarities of expression, recollected sentences, 86:27 can all be taken from pictorial thought and

memory as readily as from objects cognizable

by the senses. Mortal mind sees what it believes as 86:30 certainly as it believes what it sees. It feels, hears, and

sees its own thoughts. Pictures are mentally formed

before the artist can convey them to canvas. So is it 87:1 with all material conceptions. Mind-readers perceive

these pictures of thought. They copy or reproduce 87:3 them, even when they are lost to the memory of the mind

in which they are discoverable.

 

Mental environment

 

It is needless for the thought or for the person hold-87:6 ing the transferred picture to be individually and consciously present. Though individuals have

passed away, their mental environment re-87:9 mains to be discerned, described, and transmitted. Though

bodies are leagues apart and their associations forgotten,

their associations float in the general atmosphere of human 87:12 mind.

 

Second sight

 

The Scotch call such vision “second sight”, when

really it is first sight instead of second, for it presents 87:15 primal facts to mortal mind. Science enables

one to read the human mind, but not as a

clairvoyant. It enables one to heal through Mind, but 87:18 not as a mesmerist.

 

Buried secrets

 

The mine knows naught of the emeralds within its

rocks; the sea is ignorant of the gems within its caverns, 87:21 of the corals, of its sharp reefs, of the tall ships

that float on its bosom, or of the bodies which

lie buried in its sands: yet these are all there. Do not 87:24 suppose that any mental concept is gone because you do

not think of it. The true concept is never lost. The

strong impressions produced on mortal mind by friend-87:27 ship or by any intense feeling are lasting, and mind—

readers can perceive and reproduce these impressions.

 

Recollected friends

 

Memory may reproduce voices long ago silent. We 87:30 have but to close the eyes, and forms rise

before us, which are thousands of miles away

or altogether gone from physical sight and sense, and 88:1 this not in dreamy sleep. In our day-dreams we can

recall that for which the poet Tennyson expressed the 88:3 heart’s desire, -

the touch of a vanished hand,

And the sound of a voice that is still.

88:6 The mind may even be cognizant of a present flavor and

odor, when no viand touches the palate and no scent

salutes the nostrils.

 

Illusions not ideas

88:9 How are veritable ideas to be distinguished from illusions? By learning the origin of each. Ideas are

emanations from the divine Mind. Thoughts, 88:12 proceeding from the brain or from matter, are

offshoots of mortal mind; they are mortal material beliefs. Ideas are spiritual, harmonious, and eternal. Beliefs 88:15 proceed from the so-called material senses, which at one

time are supposed to be substance-matter and at another

are called spirits.

88:18 To love one’s neighbor as one’s self, is a divine idea;

but this idea can never be seen, felt, nor understood

through the physical senses. Excite the organ of ven-88:21 eration or religious faith, and the individual manifests

profound adoration. Excite the opposite development,

and he blasphemes. These effects, however, do not pro-88:24 ceed from Christianity, nor are they spiritual phenomena,

for both arise from mortal belief.

 

Trance speaking illusion

 

Eloquence re-echoes the strains of Truth and Love. 88:27 It is due to inspiration rather than to erudition. It shows

the possibilities derived from divine Mind,

though it is said to be a gift whose endowment 88:30 is obtained from books or received from the

impulsion of departed spirits. When eloquence proceeds

from the belief that a departed spirit is speaking, who 89:1 can tell what the unaided medium is incapable of knowing or uttering? This phenomenon only shows that the 89:3 beliefs of mortal mind are loosed. Forgetting her ignorance in the belief that another mind is speaking through

her, the devotee may become unwontedly eloquent. Hav-89:6 ing more faith in others than in herself, and believing

that somebody else possesses her tongue and mind, she

talks freely.

89:9 Destroy her belief in outside aid, and her eloquence

disappears. The former limits of her belief return. She

says, ” I am incapable of words that glow, for I am un-89:12 educated.” This familiar instance reaffirms the Scriptural word concerning a man, “As he thinketh in his heart,

so is he.” If one believes that he cannot be an orator with-89:15 out study or a superinduced condition, the body responds

to this belief, and the tongue grows mute which before

was eloquent.

 

Scientific improvisation

89:18 Mind is not necessarily dependent upon educational

processes. It possesses of itself all beauty and poetry,

and the power of expressing them. Spirit, 89:21 God, is heard when the senses are silent. We

are all capable of more than we do. The influence or

action of Soul confers a freedom, which explains the phe-89:24 nomena of improvisation and the fervor of untutored lips.

 

Divine origination

 

Matter is neither intelligent nor creative. The tree is

not the author of itself. Sound is not the originator of 89:27 music, and man is not the father of man. Cain

very naturally concluded that if life was in the

body, and man gave it, man had the right to take it away. 89:30 This incident shows that the belief of life in matter was

“a murderer from the beginning.”

 

If seed is necessary to produce wheat, and wheat to 90:1 produce flour, or if one animal can originate another,

how then can we account for their primal origin? How 90:3 were the loaves and fishes multiplied on the shores of

Galilee, - and that, too, without meal or monad from

which loaf or fish could come?

 

Mind is substance

90:6 The earth’s orbit and the imaginary line called the

equator are not substance. The earth’s motion and

position are sustained by Mind alone. Divest 90:9 yourself of the thought that there can be substance in matter, and the movements and transitions now

possible for mortal mind will be found to be equally 90:12 possible for the body. Then being will be recognized

as spiritual, and death will be obsolete, though now

some insist that death is the necessary prelude to 90:15 immortality.

 

Mortal delusions

 

In dreams we fly to Europe and meet a far-off friend.

The looker-on sees the body in bed, but the supposed 90:18 inhabitant of that body carries it through

the air and over the ocean. This shows the

possibilities of thought. Opium and hashish eaters men-90:21 tally travel far and work wonders, yet their bodies stay

in one place. This shows what mortal mentality and

knowledge are.

 

Scientific finalities

90:24 The admission to one’s self that man is God’s own likeness sets man free to master the infinite idea. This conviction shuts the door on death, and opens it 90:27 wide towards immortality. The understanding

and recognition of Spirit must finally come, and we may

as well improve our time in solving the mysteries of being 90:30 through an apprehension of divine Principle. At present

we know not what man is, but we certainly shall know

this when man reflects God.

91:1 The Revelator tells us of “a new heaven and a

new earth.” Have you ever pictured this heaven and 91:3 earth, inhabited by beings under the control of supreme

wisdom?

 

Let us rid ourselves of the belief that man is separated 91:6 from God, and obey only the divine principle, Life and

Love. Here is the great point of departure for all true

spiritual growth.

 

Man’s genuine being

91:9 It is difficult for the sinner to accept divine Science,

because Science exposes his nothingness; but the sooner

error is reduced