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

right, we shall have no dangerous inheritances, and fleshly

ills will disappear.

 

God-given dominion

 

The enslavement of man is not legitimate. It will 228:12 cease when man enters into his heritage of freedom, his

God-given dominion over the material senses.

Mortals will some day assert their freedom in 228:15 the name of Almighty God. Then they will control their

own bodies through the understanding of divine Science.

Dropping their present beliefs, they will recognize har-228:18 mony as the spiritual reality and discord as the material

unreality.

 

If we follow the command of our Master, “Take no 228:21 thought for your life,” we shall never depend on bodily

conditions, structure, or economy, but we shall be masters

of the body, dictate its terms, and form and control it with 228:24 Truth.

 

Priestly pride humbled

 

There is no power apart from God. Omnipotence has

all-power, and to acknowledge any other power is to dis-228:27 honor God. The humble Nazarene overthrew

the supposition that sin, sickness, and death

have power. He proved them powerless. It should have 228:30 humbled the pride of the priests, when they saw the demonstration of Christianity excel the influence of their dead

faith and ceremonies.

229:1 If Mind is not the master of sin, sickness, and death,

they are immortal, for it is already proved that mat-229:3 ter has not destroyed them, but is their basis and

support.

 

No union of opposites

 

We should hesitate to say that Jehovah sins or suffers; 229:6 but if sin and suffering are realities of being, whence did

they emanate? God made all that was made,

and Mind signifies God, - infinity, not finity. 229:9 Not far removed from infidelity is the belief which

unites such opposites as sickness and health, holiness

and unholiness, calls both the offspring of spirit, and 229:12 at the same time admits that Spirit is God, - virtually declaring Him good in one instance and evil in

another.

 

Self-constituted law

229:15 By universal consent, mortal belief has constituted

itself a law to bind mortals to sickness, sin, and death.

This customary belief is misnamed material 229:18 law, and the individual who upholds it is mistaken in theory and in practice. The so-called law of

mortal mind, conjectural and speculative, is made void 229:21 by the law of immortal Mind, and false law should be

trampled under foot.

 

Sickness from mortal mind

 

If God causes man to be sick, sickness must be good, 229:24 and its opposite, health, must be evil, for all that He

makes is good and will stand forever. If the

transgression of God’s law produces sickness, it 229:27 is right to be sick; and we cannot if we would, and should

not if we could, annul the decrees of wisdom. It is the

transgression of a belief of mortal mind, not of a law of 229:30 matter nor of divine Mind, which causes the belief of sickness. The remedy is Truth, not matter, - the truth that

disease is unreal.

230:1 If sickness is real, it belongs to immortality; if true,

it is a part of Truth. Would you attempt with drugs, 230:3 or without, to destroy a quality or condition of Truth?

But if sickness and sin are illusions, the awakening from

this mortal dream, or illusion, will bring us into health, 230:6 holiness, and immortality. This awakening is the forever coming of Christ, the advanced appearing of Truth,

which casts out error and heals the sick. This is the sal-230:9 vation which comes through God, the divine Principle,

Love, as demonstrated by Jesus.

 

God never inconsistent

 

It would be contrary to our highest ideas of God to 230:12 suppose Him capable of first arranging law and causation

so as to bring about certain evil results, and

then punishing the helpless victims of His vo-230:15 lition for doing what they could not avoid doing. Good

is not, cannot be, the author of experimental sins. God,

good, can no more produce sickness than goodness can 230:18 cause evil and health occasion disease.

 

Mental narcotics

 

Does wisdom make blunders which must afterwards

be rectified by man? Does a law of God produce sick-230:21 ness, and can man put that law under his feet

by healing sickness? According to Holy Writ,

the sick are never really healed by drugs, hygiene, or any 230:24 material method. These merely evade the question.

They are soothing syrups to put children to sleep, satisfy

mortal belief, and quiet fear.

 

The true healing

230:27 We think that we are healed when a disease disappears, though it is liable to reappear; but we are never

thoroughly healed until the liability to be 230:30 ill is removed. So-called mortal mind or the

mind of mortals being the remote, predisposing, and

the exciting cause of all suffering, the cause of disease 231:1 must be obliterated through Christ in divine Science, or

the so-called physical senses will get the victory.

 

Destruction of all evil

231:3 Unless an ill is rightly met and fairly overcome by

Truth, the ill is never conquered. If God destroys not

sin, sickness, and death, they are not de-231:6 stroyed in the mind of mortals, but seem to

this so-called mind to be immortal. What God cannot

do, man need not attempt. If God heals not the sick, 231:9 they are not healed, for no lesser power equals the infinite

All-power; but God, Truth, Life, Love, does heal the

sick through the prayer of the righteous.

231:12 If God makes sin, if good produces evil, if truth results

in error, then Science and Christianity are helpless; but

there are no antagonistic powers nor laws, spiritual or 231:15 material, creating and governing man through perpetual

warfare. God is not the author of mortal discords.

Therefore we accept the conclusion that discords have 231:18 only a fabulous existence, are mortal beliefs which divine

Truth and Love destroy.

 

Superiority to sickness and sin

 

To hold yourself superior to sin, because God made 231:21 you superior to it and governs man, is true wisdom. To

fear sin is to misunderstand the power of Love

and the divine Science of being in man’s rela-231:24 tion to God, - to doubt His government and

distrust His omnipotent care. To hold yourself superior

to sickness and death is equally wise, and is in accordance 231:27 with divine Science. To fear them is impossible, when

you fully apprehend God and know that they are no part

of His creation.

231:30 Man, governed by his Maker, having no other Mind, -

planted on the Evangelist’s statement that “all things

were made by Him [the Word of God]; and without 232:1 Him was not anything made that was made,” - can

triumph over sin, sickness, and death.

 

Denials of divine power

232:3 Many theories relative to God and man neither make

man harmonious nor God lovable. The beliefs we commonly entertain about happiness and life 232:6 afford no scatheless and permanent evidence

of either. Security for the claims of harmonious and

eternal being is found only in divine Science.

232:9 Scripture informs us that “with God all things are

possible,” - all good is possible to Spirit; but our prevalent theories practically deny this, and make healing 232:12 possible only through matter. These theories must be

untrue, for the Scripture is true. Christianity is not

false, but religions which contradict its Principle are 232:15 false.

 

In our age Christianity is again demonstrating the

power of divine Principle, as it did over nineteen hun-232:18 dred years ago, by healing the sick and triumphing over

death. Jesus never taught that drugs, food, air, and exercise could make a man healthy, or that they could de-232:21 stroy human life; nor did he illustrate these errors by his

practice. He referred man’s harmony to Mind, not to

matter, and never tried to make of none effect the sen-232:24 tence of God, which sealed God’s condemnation of sin,

sickness, and death.

 

Signs following

 

In the sacred sanctuary of Truth are voices of sol-232:27 emn import, but we heed them not. It is only when the

so-called pleasures and pains of sense pass

away in our lives, that we find unquestion-232:30 able signs of the burial of error and the resurrection to

spiritual life.

 

Profession and proof

 

There is neither place nor opportunity in Science for error 233:1 of any sort. Every day makes its demands upon us for

higher proofs rather than professions of Christian power. 233:3 These proofs consist solely in the destruction

of sin, sickness, and death by the power of

Spirit, as Jesus destroyed them. This is an element of 233:6 progress, and progress is the law of God, whose law demands of us only what we can certainly fulfil.

 

Perfection gained slowly

 

In the midst of imperfection, perfection is seen and 233:9 acknowledged only by degrees. The ages must slowly

work up to perfection. How long it must be

before we arrive at the demonstration of scien-233:12 tific being, no man knoweth, - not even “the

Son but the Father;” but the false claim of error continues its delusions until the goal of goodness is assidu-233:15 ously earned and won.

 

Christ’s mission

 

Already the shadow of His right hand rests upon the

hour. Ye who can discern the face of the sky, - the 233:18 sign material, - how much more should ye

discern the sign mental, and compass the destruction of sin and sickness by overcoming the thoughts 233:21 which produce them, and by understanding the spiritual

idea which corrects and destroys them. To reveal this

truth was our Master’s mission to all mankind, including 233:24 the hearts which rejected him.

 

Efficacy of truth

 

When numbers have been divided according to a fixed

rule, the quotient is not more unquestionable than the 233:27 scientific tests I have made of the effects of

truth upon the sick. The counter fact relative to any disease is required to cure it. The utterance 233:30 of truth is designed to rebuke and destroy error. Why

should truth not be efficient in sickness, which is solely

the result of inharmony?

234:1 Spiritual draughts heal, while material lotions interfere

with truth, even as ritualism and creed hamper spirit-234:3 uality. If we trust matter, we distrust Spirit.

 

Crumbs of comfort

 

Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love - be

it song, sermon, or Science - blesses the human family 234:6 with crumbs of comfort from Christ’s table

feeding the hungry and giving living waters to

the thirsty.

 

Hospitality to health and good

234:9 We should become more familiar with good than with

evil, and guard against false beliefs as watchfully as we

bar our doors against the approach of thieves 234:12 and murderers. We should love our enemies

and help them on the basis of the Golden

Rule; but avoid casting pearls before those who trample 234:15 them under foot, thereby robbing both themselves and

others.

 

Cleansing the mind

 

If mortals would keep proper ward over mortal mind, 234:18 the brood of evils which infest it would be cleared out.

We must begin with this so-called mind and

empty it of sin and sickness, or sin and sick-234:21 ness will never cease. The present codes of human

systems disappoint the weary searcher after a divine

theology, adequate to the right education of human 234:24 thought.

 

Sin and disease must be thought before they can be

manifested. You must control evil thoughts in the first 234:27 instance, or they will control you in the second. Jesus

declared that to look with desire on forbidden objects was

to break a moral precept. He laid great stress on the 234:30 action of the human mind, unseen to the senses.

 

Evil thoughts and aims reach no farther and do no more

harm than one’s belief permits. Evil thoughts, lusts, and 235:1 malicious purposes cannot