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

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. Without 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 matter; 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 phenomena, 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, harmonious, 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 spirituality, 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 personally 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, perfect, 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, deceit, hatred, revenge, sin, sickness, disease, 115:24 death.

 

Second Degree: Evil beliefs disappearing.

 

Transitional qualities

 

MORAL. Humanity, honesty, affection, compassion, 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, because 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 physical 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 similitudes 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 opacity 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 defined 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 inference 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 infinite power and grace. The parable may

import that these spiritual laws, perverted by 118:18 a perverse material sense of law, are metaphysically presented 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 Almighty, 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 creator 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 disasters, 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 lawgiver, 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 represented 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 astronomy 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