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

“Show me thy faith without thy works, and

I will show thee my faith by my works.”

 

Personal experience

343:6 Is not finite mind ignorant of God’s method? This

makes it doubly unfair to impugn and misrepresent the

facts, although, without this cross-bearing, 343:9 one might not be able to say with the apostle,

“None of these things move me.” The sick, the halt,

and the blind look up to Christian Science with blessings, 343:12 and Truth will not be forever hidden by unjust parody

from the quickened sense of the people.

 

Proof from miracles

 

Jesus strips all disguise from error, when his teachings 343:15 are fully understood. By parable and argument he explains the impossibility of good producing evil;

and he also scientifically demonstrates this great 343:18 fact, proving by what are wrongly called miracles, that

sin, sickness, and death are beliefs - illusive errors -

which he could and did destroy. 343:21 It would sometimes seem as if truth were rejected because meekness and spirituality are the conditions of its

acceptance, while Christendom generally demands so 343:24 much less.

 

Example of the disciples

 

Anciently those apostles who were Jesus’ students,

as well as Paul who was not one of his students, healed 343:27 the sick and reformed the sinner by their

religion. Hence the mistake which allows

words, rather than works, to follow such examples! 343:30 Whoever is the first meekly and conscientiously to press

along the line of gospel-healing, is often accounted a

heretic.

 

Strong position

344:1 It is objected to Christian Science that it claims God

as the only absolute Life and Soul, and man to be His 344:3 idea, - that is, His image. It should be

added that this is claimed to represent the

normal, healthful, and sinless condition of man in divine 344:6 Science, and that this claim is made because the Scriptures say that God has created man in His own image

and after His likeness. Is it sacrilegious to assume that 344:9 God’s likeness is not found in matter, sin, sickness, and

death?

 

Efficacy may be attested

 

Were it more fully understood that Truth heals and 344:12 that error causes disease, the opponents of a demonstrable

Science would perhaps mercifully withhold

their misrepresentations, which harm the sick; 344:15 and until the enemies of Christian Science test its efficacy

according to the rules which disclose its merits or de—

merits, it would be just to observe the Scriptural precept, 344:18 “Judge not.”

 

The one divine method

 

There are various methods of treating disease, which

are not included in the commonly accepted systems; but 344:21 there is only one which should be presented

to the whole world, and that is the Christian

Science which Jesus preached and practised and left to us 344:24 as his rich legacy.

 

Why should one refuse to investigate this method

of treating disease? Why support the popular systems 344:27 of medicine, when the physician may perchance be an

infidel and may lose ninety-and-nine patients, while

Christian Science cures its hundred? Is it because 344:30 allopathy and homoeopathy are more fashionable and

less spiritual?

 

Omnipotence set forth

 

In the Bible the word /Spirit /is so commonly applied 345:1 to Deity, that Spirit and God are often regarded as synonymous terms; and it is thus they are uniformly used 345:3 and understood in Christian Science. As it

is evident that the likeness of Spirit cannot be

material, does it not follow that God cannot be in His 345:6 unlikeness and work through drugs to heal the sick?

When the omnipotence of God is preached and His absoluteness is set forth, Christian sermons will heal the 345:9 sick.

 

Contradictions not found

 

It is sometimes said, in criticising Christian Science,

that the mind which contradicts itself neither knows 345:12 itself nor what it is saying. It is indeed no

small matter to know one’s self; but in this

volume of mine there are no contradictory 345:15 statements, - at least none which are apparent to those

who understand its propositions well enough to pass

judgment upon them. One who understands Christian 345:18 Science can heal the sick on the divine Principle of Christian Science, and this practical proof is the only feasible

evidence that one does understand this Science.

345:21 Anybody, who is able to perceive the incongruity between God’s idea and poor humanity, ought to be able

to discern the distinction (made by Christian Science) 345:24 between God’s man, made in His image, and the sinning

race of Adam.

 

The apostle says: “For if a man think himself to be 345:27 something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself.”

This thought of human, material nothingness, which

Science inculcates, enrages the carnal mind and is the 345:30 main cause of the carnal mind’s antagonism.

 

God’s idea the ideal man

 

It is not the purpose of Christian Science to “educate

the idea of God, or treat it for disease,” as is alleged 346:1 by one critic. I regret that such criticism confounds man

with Adam. When man is spoken of as made in God’s 346:3 image, it is not sinful and sickly mortal man

who is referred to, but the ideal man, reflecting

God’s likeness.

 

Nothingness of error

346:6 It is sometimes said that Christian Science teaches the

nothingness of sin, sickness, and death, and then teaches

how this nothingness is to be saved and healed. 346:9 The nothingness of nothing is plain; but we

need to understand that error is nothing, and that its

nothingness is not saved, but must be demonstrated in 346:12 order to prove the somethingness - yea, the allness -

of Truth. It is self-evident that we are harmonious only

as we cease to manifest evil or the belief that we suffer 346:15 from the sins of others. Disbelief in error destroys error,

and leads to the discernment of Truth. There are no

vacuums. How then can this demonstration be “fraught 346:18 with falsities painful to behold”?

 

Truth antidotes error

 

We treat error through the understanding of Truth,

because Truth is error’s antidote. If a dream ceases, it 346:21 is self-destroyed, and the terror is over. When

a sufferer is convinced that there is no reality

in his belief of pain, - because matter has no sensation, 346:24 hence pain in matter is a false belief, - how can he suffer

longer? Do you feel the pain of tooth-pulling, when you

believe that nitrous-oxide gas has made you unconscious? 346:27 Yet, in your concept, the tooth, the operation, and the

forceps are unchanged.

 

Serving two masters

 

Material beliefs must be expelled to make room for 346:30 spiritual understanding. We cannot serve both

God and mammon at the same time; but is

not this what frail mortals are trying to do? Paul says: 347:1 “The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against

the flesh.” Who is ready to admit this?

347:3 It is said by one critic, that to verify this wonderful

philosophy Christian Science declares that whatever is

mortal or discordant has no origin, existence, nor real-347:6 ness. Nothing really has Life but God, who is infinite

Life; hence all is Life, and death has no dominion. This

writer infers that if anything needs to be doctored, it 347:9 must be the one God, or Mind. Had he stated his syllogism correctly, the conclusion would be that there is nothing left to be doctored.

 

Essential element of Christianity

347:12 Critics should consider that the so-called mortal man

is not the reality of man. Then they would behold the

signs of Christ’s coming. Christ, as the spir-347:15 itual or true idea of God, comes now as of

old, preaching the gospel to the poor, healing the sick, and casting out evils. Is it error which 347:18 is restoring an essential element of Christianity, -

namely, apostolic, divine healing? No; it is the Science

of Christianity which is restoring it, and is the light 347:21 shining in darkness, which the darkness comprehends

not.

 

If Christian Science takes away the popular gods, - 347:24 sin, sickness, and death, - it is Christ, Truth, who destroys these evils, and so proves their nothingness.

 

The dream that matter and error are something 347:27 must yield to reason and revelation. Then mortals

will behold the nothingness of sickness and sin, and

sin and sickness will disappear from consciousness. 347:30 The harmonious will appear real, and the inharmonious unreal. These critics will then see that error

is indeed the nothingness, which they chide us for 348:1 naming nothing and which we desire neither to honor

nor to fear.

348:3 Medical theories virtually admit the nothingness of

hallucinations, even while treating them as disease; and

who objects to this? Ought we not, then, to approve 348:6 any cure, which is effected by making the disease appear

to be - what it really is - an illusion?

 

All disease a delusion

 

Here is the difficulty: it is not generally understood how 348:9 one disease can be just as much a delusion as another. It

is a pity that the medical faculty and clergy

have not learned this, for Jesus established 348:12 this foundational fact, when devils, delusions, were cast

out and the dumb spake.

 

Elimination of sickness

 

Are we irreverent towards sin, or imputing too much 348:15 power to God, when we ascribe to Him almighty Life

and Love? I deny His cooperation with evil,

because I desire to have no faith in evil or in 348:18 any power but God, good. Is it not well to eliminate from

so-called mortal mind that which, so long as it remains in

mortal mind, will show itself in forms of sin, sickness, and 348:21 death? Instead of tenaciously defending the supposed

rights of disease, while complaining of the suffering, disease brings, would it not be well to abandon the defence, 348:24 especially when by so doing our own condition can be improved and that of other persons as well?

 

Full fruitage yet to come

 

I have never supposed the world would immediately 348:27 witness the full fruitage of Christian Science, or that sin,

disease, and death would not be believed for

an indefinite time; but this I do aver, that, 348:30 as a result of teaching Christian Science, ethics and

temperance have received all impulse, health has been

restored, and longevity increased. If such are the pres-349:1 ent fruits, what will the harvest be, when this Science is

more generally understood?

 

Law and gospel

349:3 As Paul asked of the unfaithful in ancient days, so

the rabbis of the present day ask concerning our healing and teaching, “Through breaking the law, 349:6 dishonorest thou God?” We have the gospel,

however, and our Master annulled material law by healing contrary to it. We propose to follow the Master’s 349:9 example. We should subordinate material law to spiritual law. Two essential points of Christian Science are,

that neither Life nor man dies, and that God is not the 349:12 author of sickness.

 

Language inadequate

 

The chief difficulty in conveying the teachings of divine

Science accurately to human thought lies in this, that like 349:15 all other languages, English is inadequate to

the expression of spiritual conceptions and

propositions, because one is obliged to use material terms 349:18 in dealing with spiritual ideas. The elucidation of Christian Science lies in its spiritual sense, and this sense must

be gained by its disciples in order to grasp the meaning of 349:21 this Science. Out of this condition grew the prophecy

concerning the Christian apostles, “They shall speak with

new tongues.”

349:24 Speaking of the things of Spirit while dwelling on

a material plane, material terms must be generally employed. Mortal thought does not at once catch the 349:27 higher meaning, and can do so only as thought is educated up to spiritual apprehension. To a