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

effectual in the 140:3 treatment of moral ailments.

 

God invisible to the senses

 

That God is a corporeal being, nobody can truly affirm.

The Bible represents Him as saying: “Thou canst not 140:6 see My face; for there shall no man see Me

and live.” Not materially but spiritually we

know Him as divine Mind, as Life, Truth, and Love. We 140:9 shall obey and adore in proportion as we apprehend the

divine nature and love Him understandingly, warring no

more over the corporeality, but rejoicing in the affluence 140:12 of our God. Religion will then be of the heart and not of

the head. Mankind will no longer be tyrannical and pro—

scriptive from lack of love, - straining out gnats and 140:15 swallowing camels.

 

The true worship

 

We worship spiritually, only as we cease to worship

materially. Spiritual devoutness is the soul of Chris-140:18 tianity. Worshipping through the medium of

matter is paganism. Judaic and other rituals

are but types and shadows of true worship. “The true 140:21 worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in

truth.”

 

Anthropomorphism

 

The Jewish tribal Jehovah was a man-projected God, 140:24 liable to wrath, repentance, and human changeableness.

The Christian Science God is universal, eternal, divine love, which changeth not and caus-140:27 eth no evil, disease, nor death. It is indeed mournfully

true that the older Scripture is reversed. In the begin—

ing God created man in His, God’s, image; but mor-140:30 tals would procreate man, and make God in their own

human image. What is the god of a mortal, but a mortal

magnified?

 

More than profession required

141:1 This indicates the distance between the theological and

ritualistic religion of the ages and the truth preached by 141:3 Jesus. More than profession is requisite for

Christian demonstration. Few understand or

adhere to Jesus’ divine precepts for living and 141:6 healing. Why? Because his precepts require the disciple to cut off the right hand and pluck out the right eye,

- that is, to set aside even the most cherished beliefs 141:9 and practices, to leave all for Christ.

 

No ecclesiastical monopoly

 

All revelation (such is the popular thought!) must come

from the schools and along the line of scholarly and eccle-141:12 siastical descent, as kings are crowned from a

royal dynasty. In healing the sick and sinning,

Jesus elaborated the fact that the healing effect 141:15 followed the understanding of the divine Principle and

of the Christ-spirit which governed the corporeal Jesus.

For this Principle there is no dynasty, no ecclesiastical 141:18 monopoly. Its only crowned head is immortal sovereignty. Its only priest is the spiritualized man. The

Bible declares that all believers are made “kings and 141:21 priests unto God.” The outsiders did not then, and

do not now, understand this ruling of the Christ; therefore they cannot demonstrate God’s healing power. 141:24 Neither can this manifestation of Christ be comprehended, until its divine Principle is scientifically

understood.

 

A change demanded

141:27 The adoption of scientific religion and of divine healing will ameliorate sin, sickness, and death. Let our

pulpits do justice to Christian Science. Let 141:30 it have fair representation by the press. Give

to it the place in our institutions of learning now occupied by scholastic theology and physiology, and it will 142:1 eradicate sickness and sin in less time than the old systems,

devised for subduing them, have required for self-estab- 142:3 lishment and propagation.

 

Two claims omitted

 

Anciently the followers of Christ, or Truth, measured

Christianity by its power over sickness, sin, and death; 142:6 but modern religions generally omit all but one

of these powers, - the power over sin. We

must seek the undivided garment, the whole Christ, as our 142:9 first proof of Christianity, for Christ, Truth, alone can

furnish us with absolute evidence.

 

Selfishness and loss

 

If the soft palm, upturned to a lordly salary, and archi-142:12 tectural skill, making dome and spire tremulous with

beauty, turn the poor and the stranger from the

gate, they at the same time shut the door on 142:15 progress. In vain do the manger and the cross tell their

story to pride and fustian. Sensuality palsies the right

hand, and causes the left to let go its grasp on the divine.

 

Temple cleansed

142:18 As in Jesus’ time, so to-day, tyranny and pride need to

be whipped out of the temple, and humility and divine Science to be welcomed in. The strong cords of 142:21 scientific demonstration, as twisted and wielded

by Jesus, are still needed to purge the temples of their

vain traffic in worldly worship and to make them meet 142:24 dwelling-places for the Most High.

 

MEDICINE

 

Question of precedence

 

Which was first, Mind or medicine? If Mind was 142:27 first and self-existent, then Mind, not matter, must have

been the first medicine. God being All-inall, He made medicine; but that medicine was 142:30 Mind. It could not have been matter, which departs

from the nature and character of Mind, God. Truth 143:1 is God’s remedy for error of every kind, and Truth destroys only what is untrue. Hence the fact that, to-day, 143:3 as yesterday, Christ casts out evils and heals the

sick.

 

Methods rejected

 

It is plain that God does not employ drugs or hygiene, 143:6 nor provide them for human use; else Jesus would have

recommended and employed them in his healing. The sick are more deplorably lost than 143:9 the sinning, if the sick cannot rely on God for help and

the sinning can. The divine Mind never called matter

medicine, and matter required a material and human be-143:12 lief before it could be considered as medicine.

 

Error not curative

 

Sometimes the human mind uses one error to medicine another. Driven to choose between two difficulties, 143:15 the human mind takes the lesser to relieve the

greater. On this basis it saves from starvation by theft, and quiets pain with anodynes. You 143:18 admit that mind influences the body somewhat, but

you conclude that the stomach, blood, nerves, bones,

etc., hold the preponderance of power. Controlled by 143:21 this belief, you continue in the old routine. You lean on

the inert and unintelligent, never discerning how this deprives you of the available superiority of divine Mind. 143:24 The body is not controlled scientifically by a negative

mind.

 

Impossible coalescence

 

Mind is the grand creator, and there can be no power 143:27 except that which is derived from Mind. If Mind was

first chronologically, is first potentially, and

must be first eternally, then give to Mind the 143:30 glory, honor, dominion, and power everlastingly due its

holy name. Inferior and unspiritual methods of healing

may try to make Mind and drugs coalesce, but the two will 144:1 not mingle scientifically. Why should we wish to make

them do so, since no good can come of it? 144:3 If Mind is foremost and superior, let us rely upon Mind,

which needs no cooperation from lower powers, even if

these so-called powers are real.

144:6 Naught is the squire, when the king is nigh;

Withdraws the star, when dawns the sun’s brave light.

 

Soul and sense

 

The various mortal beliefs formulated in human philoso-144:9 phy, physiology, hygiene, are mainly predicated of matter,

and afford faint gleams of God, or Truth.

The more material a belief, the more obstinately 144:12 tenacious its error; the stronger are the manifestations of

the corporeal senses, the weaker the indications of Soul.

 

Will-power detrimental

 

Human will-power is not Science. Human will belongs 144:15 to the so-called material senses, and its use is to be condemned. Willing the sick to recover is not the

metaphysical practice of Christian Science, but 144:18 is sheer animal magnetism. Human will-power may infringe the rights of man. It produces evil continually,

and is not a factor in the realism of being. Truth, and 144:21 not corporeal will, is the divine power which says to

disease, “Peace, be still.”

 

Conservative antagonism

 

Because divine Science wars with so-called physical 144:24 science, even as Truth wars with error, the old schools

still oppose it. Ignorance, pride, or prejudice

closes the door to whatever is not stereotyped. 144:27 When the Science of being is universally understood,

every man will be his own physician, and Truth will be

the universal panacea.

 

Ancient healers

144:30 It is a question to-day, whether the ancient inspired

healers understood the Science of Christian healing, or 145:1 whether they caught its sweet tones, as the natural

musician catches the tones of harmony, without being 145:3 able to explain them. So divinely imbued

were they with the spirit of Science, that the

lack of the letter could not hinder their work; and that 145:6 letter, without the spirit, would have made void their

practice.

 

The struggle and victory

 

The struggle for the recovery of invalids goes on, not 145:9 between material methods, but between mortal minds

and immortal Mind. The victory will be on

the patient’s side only as immortal Mind 145:12 through Christ, Truth, subdues the human belief in

disease. It matters not what material method one may

adopt, whether faith in drugs, trust in hygiene, or reliance 145:15 on some other minor curative.

 

Mystery of godliness

 

Scientific healing has this advantage over other methods, - that in it Truth controls error. From this fact 145:18 arise its ethical as well as its physical effects. Indeed, its ethical and physical effects

are indissolubly connected. If there is any mystery 145:21 in Christian healing, it is the mystery which godliness

always presents to the ungodly, - the mystery always

arising from ignorance of the laws of eternal and unerr-145:24 ing Mind.

 

Matter versus matter

 

Other methods undertake to oppose error with error,

and thus they increase the antagonism of one form of 145:27 matter towards other forms of matter or error,

and the warfare between Spirit and the flesh

goes on. By this antagonism mortal mind must con-145:30 tinually weaken its own assumed power.

 

How healing was lost

 

The theology of Christian Science includes healing

the sick. Our Master’s first article of faith propounded 146:1 to his students was healing, and he proved his faith by

his works. The ancient Christians were healers. Why 146:3 has this element of Christianity been lost?

Because our systems of religion are governed

more or less by our systems of medicine. The first idol-146:6 atry was faith in matter. The schools have rendered

faith in drugs the fashion, rather than faith in Deity. By

trusting matter to destroy its own discord, health and 146:9 harmony have been sacrificed. Such systems are barren

of the vitality of spiritual power, by which material sense

is made the servant of Science and religion becomes 146:12 Christlike.

 

Drugs and divinity

 

Material medicine substitutes drugs for the power of

God - even the might of Mind - to heal the body. 146:15 Scholasticism clings for salvation to the person, instead of to the divine Principle, of the

man Jesus; and his Science, the curative agent of God, 146:18 is silenced. Why? Because truth divests material drugs

of their imaginary power, and clothes Spirit with supremacy. Science is the “stranger that is within thy gates,” 146:21 remembered not, even when its elevating effects practically prove its divine origin and efficacy.

 

Christian Science as old as God

 

Divine Science derives its sanction from the Bible, 146:24 and the divine origin of Science is demonstrated through

the holy influence of Truth in healing sickness and sin. This healing power of Truth 146:27 must have been far anterior to the period in

which Jesus lived. It is as ancient as “the Ancient of

days.” It lives through all Life, and extends throughout 146:30 all space.

 

Reduction to system

 

Divine metaphysics is now reduced to a system, to a