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

with man, who

is but the humble servant of the restful Mind, though it 120:1 seems otherwise to finite sense. But we shall never understand this while we admit that soul is in body or mind in 120:3 matter, and that man is included in non-intelligence.

Soul, or Spirit, is God, unchangeable and eternal; and

man coexists with and reflects Soul, God, for man is God’s 120:6 image.

 

Reversal of testimony

 

Science reverses the false testimony of the physical

senses, and by this reversal mortals arrive at the funda-120:9 mental facts of being. Then the question inevitably arises: Is a man sick if the material

senses indicate that he is in good health? No! for matter 120:12 can make no conditions for man. And is he well if the

senses say he is sick? Yes, he is well in Science in which

health is normal and disease is abnormal.

 

Health and the senses

120:15 Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind; nor

can the material senses bear reliable testimony on the subject of health. The Science of Mind-healing 120:18 shows it to be impossible for aught but Mind

to testify truly or to exhibit the real status of man. Therefore the divine Principle of Science, reversing the testi-120:21 mony of the physical senses, reveals man as harmoniously

existent in Truth, which is the only basis of health; and

thus Science denies all disease, heals the sick, overthrows 120:24 false evidence, and refutes materialistic logic.

 

Any conclusion pro or con, deduced from supposed sensation in matter or from matter’s supposed consciousness 120:27 of health or disease, instead of reversing the testimony of

the physical senses, confirms that testimony as legitimate

and so leads to disease.

 

Historic illustrations

120:30 When Columbus gave freer breath to the

globe, ignorance and superstition chained the

limbs of the brave old navigator, and disgrace and star-121:1 vation stared him in the face; but sterner still would have

been his fate, if his discovery had undermined the favor-121:3 ite inclinations of a sensuous philosophy.

 

Copernicus mapped out the stellar system, and before

he spake, astrography was chaotic, and the heavenly fields 121:6 were incorrectly explored.

 

Perennial beauty

 

The Chaldean Wisemen read in the stars the fate of

empires and the fortunes of men. Though no higher 121:9 revelation than the horoscope was to them displayed upon the empyrean, earth and heaven

were bright, and bird and blossom were glad in God’s 121:12 perennial and happy sunshine, golden with Truth. So

we have goodness and beauty to gladden the heart; but

man, left to the hypotheses of material sense unexplained 121:15 by Science, is as the wandering comet or the desolate

star - “a weary searcher for a viewless home.”

 

Astronomic unfoldings

 

The earth’s diurnal rotation is invisible to the physical 121:18 eye, and the sun seems to move from east to west, instead

of the earth from west to east. Until rebuked

by clearer views of the everlasting facts, this 121:21 false testimony of the eye deluded the judgment and induced false conclusions. Science shows appearances often

to be erroneous, and corrects these errors by the simple 121:24 rule that the greater controls the lesser. The sun is the

central stillness, so far as our solar system is concerned,

and the earth revolves about the sun once a year, besides 121:27 turning daily on its own axis.

 

As thus indicated, astronomical order imitates the

action of divine Principle; and the universe, the reflec-121:30 tion of God, is thus brought nearer the spiritual fact, and

is allied to divine Science as displayed in the everlasting

government of the universe.

 

Opposing testimony

122:1 The evidence of the physical senses often reverses the

real Science of being, and so creates a reign of discord, - 122:3 assigning seeming power to sin, sickness, and

death; but the great facts of Life, rightly understood, defeat this triad of errors, contradict their false 122:6 witnesses, and reveal the kingdom of heaven, - the actual

reign of harmony on earth. The material senses’ reversal of the Science of Soul was practically exposed nine-122:9 teen hundred years ago by the demonstrations of Jesus;

yet these so-called senses still make mortal mind tributary

to mortal body, and ordain certain sections of matter, such 122:12 as brain and nerves, as the seats of pain and pleasure,

from which matter reports to this so-called mind its status

of happiness or misery.

 

Testimony of the senses

122:15 The optical focus is another proof of the illusion of

material sense. On the eye’s retina, sky and tree-tops

apparently join hands, clouds and ocean meet 122:18 and mingle. The barometer, - that little

prophet of storm and sunshine, denying the testimony of

the senses, - points to fair weather in the midst of murky 122:21 clouds and drenching rain. Experience is full of instances

of similar illusions, which every thinker can recall for

himself.

 

Spiritual sense of life

122:24 To material sense, the severance of the jugular vein

takes away life; but to spiritual sense and

in Science, Life goes on unchanged and 122:27 being is eternal. Temporal life is a false sense of

existence.

 

Ptolemaic and psychical error

 

Our theories make the same mistake regarding Soul 122:30 and body that Ptolemy made regarding the solar system.

They insist that soul is in body and mind therefore tributary to matter. Astronomical science has destroyed the 123:1 false theory as to the relations of the celestial bodies, and

Christian Science will surely destroy the greater error as 123:3 to our terrestrial bodies. The true idea and

Principle of man will then appear. The Ptolemaic blunder could not affect the harmony of 123:6 being as does the error relating to soul and body, which

reverses the order of Science and assigns to matter the

power and prerogative of Spirit, so that man becomes 123:9 the most absolutely weak and inharmonious creature in

the universe.

 

Seeming and being

 

The verity of Mind shows conclusively how it is that 123:12 matter seems to be, but is not. Divine Science,

rising above physical theories, excludes matter,

resolves things into thoughts, and replaces the objects of 123:15 material sense with spiritual ideas.

 

The term CHRISTIAN SCIENCE was introduced by

the author to designate the scientific system of divine 123:18 healing.

 

The revelation consists of two parts:

 

1. The discovery of this divine Science of Mind-123:21 healing, through a spiritual sense of the Scriptures and

through the teachings of the Comforter, as promised by

the Master. 123:24 2. The proof, by present demonstration, that the so-called miracles of Jesus did not specially belong to a

dispensation now ended, but that they illustrated an 123:27 ever-operative divine Principle. The operation of this

Principle indicates the eternality of the scientific order

and continuity of being.

 

Scientific basis

123:30 Christian Science differs from material science, but not on that account is it less scientific. On the contrary, Christian Science is pre-emi- 124:1 mently scientific, being based on Truth, the Principle of

all science.

 

Physical science a blind belief

124:3 Physical science (so-called) is human knowledge, - a

law of mortal mind, a blind belief, a Samson shorn of his

strength. When this human belief lacks organ-124:6 izations to support it, its foundations are gone.

Having neither moral might, spiritual basis,

nor holy Principle of its own, this belief mistakes effect 124:9 for cause and seeks to find life and intelligence in matter,

thus limiting Life and holding fast to discord and death.

In a word, human belief is a blind conclusion from material 124:12 reasoning. This is a mortal, finite sense of things, which

immortal Spirit silences forever.

 

Right interpretation

 

The universe, like man, is to be interpreted by Science 124:15 from its divine Principle, God, and then it can be understood; but when explained on the basis of

physical sense and represented as subject to 124:18 growth, maturity, and decay, the universe, like man, is,

and must continue to be, an enigma.

 

All force mental

 

Adhesion, cohesion, and attraction are properties of 124:21 Mind. They belong to divine Principle, and support

the equipoise of that thought-force, which

launched the earth in its orbit and said to the 124:24 proud wave, “Thus far and no farther.”

 

Spirit is the life, substance, and continuity of all

things. We tread on forces. Withdraw them, and 124:27 creation must collapse. Human knowledge calls them

forces of matter; but divine Science declares that they

belong wholly to divine Mind, are inherent in this 124:30 Mind, and so restores them to their rightful home and

classification.

 

Corporeal changes

 

The elements and functions of the physical body and 125:1 of the physical world will change as mortal mind changes

its beliefs. What is now considered the best condition 125:3 for organic and functional health in the human

body may no longer be found indispensable

to health. Moral conditions will be found always har-125:6 monious and health-giving. Neither organic inaction

nor overaction is beyond God’s control; and man will

be found normal and natural to changed mortal thought, 125:9 and therefore more harmonious in his manifestations than

he was in the prior states which human belief created and

sanctioned.

125:12 As human thought changes from one stage to another of conscious pain and painlessness, sorrow and

joy, - from fear to hope and from faith to understand-125:15 ing, - the visible manifestation will at last be man governed by Soul, not by material sense. Reflecting God’s

government, man is self-governed. When subordinate 125:18 to the divine Spirit, man cannot be controlled by sin or

death, thus proving our material theories about laws of

health to be valueless.

 

The time and tide

125:21 The seasons will come and go with changes of time and

tide, cold and heat, latitude and longitude. The agriculturist will find that these changes cannot 125:24 affect his crops. “As a vesture shalt Thou

change them and they shall be changed.” The mariner

will have dominion over the atmosphere and the great 125:27 deep, over the fish of the sea and the fowls of the air.

The astronomer will no longer look up to the stars, -

he will look out from them upon the universe; and the 125:30 florist will find his flower before its seed.

 

Mortal nothingness

 

Thus matter will finally be proved nothing more

than a mortal belief, wholly inadequate to affect a man 126:1 through its supposed organic action or supposed existence. Error will be no longer used in stating truth. The 126:3 problem of nothingness, or “dust to dust,” will

be solved, and mortal mind will be without

form and void, for mortality will cease when man beholds 126:6 himself God’s reflection, even as man sees his reflection

in a glass.

 

A lack of originality

 

All Science is divine. Human thought never pro-126:9 jected the least portion of true being. Human belief

has sought and interpreted in its own way

the echo of Spirit, and so seems to have 126:12 reversed it and repeated it materially; but the human

mind never produced a real tone nor sent forth a positive

sound.

 

Antagonistic questions

126:15 The point at issue between Christian Science on the

one hand and popular theology on the other is this: Shall

Science explain cause and effect as being 126:18 both natural and spiritual? Or shall all that

is beyond the cognizance of the material senses be called

supernatural, and be left to the mercy of speculative 126:21 hypotheses?

 

Biblical basis

 

I have set forth Christian Science and its application

to the treatment of disease just as I have discovered them. 126:24 I have demonstrated through Mind the effects

of Truth on the health, longevity, and morals

of men; and I have found nothing in ancient or in modern 126:27 systems on which