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

certain extent

this is equally true of all learning, even that which is 349:30 wholly material.

 

Substance spiritual

 

In Christian Science, substance is understood to be

Spirit, while the opponents of Christian Science believe 350:1 substance to be matter. They think of matter as something and almost the only thing, and of the things which 350:3 pertain to Spirit as next to nothing, or as very

far removed from daily experience. Christian

Science takes exactly the opposite view.

 

Both words and works

350:6 To understand all our Master’s sayings as recorded

in the New Testament, sayings infinitely important,

his followers must grow into that stature of 350:9 manhood in Christ Jesus which enables them

to interpret his spiritual meaning. Then they know

how Truth casts out error and heals the sick. His 350:12 words were the offspring of his deeds, both of which

must be understood. Unless the works are comprehended which his words explained, the words are 350:15 blind.

 

The Master often refused to explain his words, because

it was difficult in a material age to apprehend spiritual 350:18 Truth. He said: “This people’s heart is waxed gross,

and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they

have closed; lest at any time they should see with their 350:21 eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand

with their heart, and should be converted, and I should

heal them.”

 

The divine life-link

350:24 “The Word was made flesh.” Divine Truth must be

known by its effects on the body as well as on the mind,

before the Science of being can be demon-350:27 strated. Hence its embodiment in the incarnate Jesus, - that life-link forming the connection through

which the real reaches the unreal, Soul rebukes sense, and 350:30 Truth destroys error.

 

Truth a present help

 

In Jewish worship the Word was materially explained,

and the spiritual sense was scarcely perceived. The 351:1 religion which sprang from half-hidden Israelitish history

was pedantic and void of healing power. When we lose 351:3 faith in God’s power to heal, we distrust the

divine Principle which demonstrates Christian

Science, and then we cannot heal the sick. Neither can 351:6 we heal through the help of Spirit, if we plant ourselves

on a material basis.

 

The author became a member of the orthodox Con-351:9 gregational Church in early years. Later she learned

that her own prayers failed to heal her as did the prayers

of her devout parents and the church; but when the 351:12 spiritual sense of the creed was discerned in the Science

of Christianity, this spiritual sense was a/ present help/. It

was the living, palpitating presence of Christ, Truth, which 351:15 healed the sick.

 

Fatal premises

 

We cannot bring out the practical proof of Christianity,

which Jesus required, while error seems as potent and 351:18 real to us as Truth, and while we make a personal devil and an anthropomorphic God our

starting-points, - especially if we consider Satan as a 351:21 being coequal in power with Deity, if not superior to Him.

Because such starting-points are neither spiritual nor

scientific, they cannot work out the Spirit-rule of Christian 351:24 healing, which proves the nothingness of error, discord,

by demonstrating the all-inclusiveness of harmonious

Truth.

 

Fruitless worship

351:27 The Israelites centred their thoughts on the material

in their attempted worship of the spiritual. To them

matter was substance, and Spirit was shadow. 351:30 They thought to worship Spirit from a material standpoint, but this was impossible. They might

appeal to Jehovah, but their prayer brought down no 352:1 proof that it was heard, because they did not sufficiently

understand God to be able to demonstrate His power 352:3 to heal, - to make harmony the reality and discord the

unreality.

 

Spirit the tangible

 

Our Master declared that his material body was not 352:6 spirit, evidently considering it a mortal and material belief of flesh and bones, whereas the Jews took

a diametrically opposite view. To Jesus, not 352:9 materiality, but spirituality, was the reality of man’s existence, while to the rabbis the spiritual was the intangible and uncertain, if not the unreal.

 

Ghosts not realities

352:12 Would a mother say to her child, who is frightened at

imaginary ghosts and sick in consequence of the fear:

“I know that ghosts are real. They exist, 352:15 and are to be feared; but you must not be

afraid of them”?

 

Children, like adults, ought to fear a reality which 352:18 can harm them and which they do not understand, for

at any moment they may become its helpless victims;

but instead of increasing children’s fears by declaring 352:21 ghosts to be real, merciless, and powerful, thus water—

ing the very roots of childish timidity, children should

be assured that their fears are groundless, that ghosts 352:24 are not realities, but traditional beliefs, erroneous and

man-made.

 

In short, children should be told not to believe in ghosts, 352:27 because there are no such things. If belief in their reality

is destroyed, terror of ghosts will depart and health be restored. The objects of alarm will then vanish into noth-352:30 ingness, no longer seeming worthy of fear or honor. To

accomplish a good result, it is certainly not irrational to

tell the truth about ghosts.

 

The real and the unreal

353:1 The Christianly scientific real is the sensuous unreal.

Sin, disease, whatever seems real to material sense, is un-353:3 real in divine Science. The physical senses

and Science have ever been antagonistic, and

they will so continue, till the testimony of the physical 353:6 senses yields entirely to Christian Science.

 

How can a Christian, having the stronger evidence of

Truth which contradicts the evidence of error, think of 353:9 the latter as real or true, either in the form of sickness or

of sin? All must admit that Christ is “the way, the

truth, and the life,” and that omnipotent Truth certainly 353:12 does destroy error.

 

Superstition obsolete

 

The age has not wholly outlived the sense of ghostly

beliefs. It still holds them more or less. Time has not 353:15 yet reached eternity, immortality, complete

reality. All the real is eternal. Perfection

underlies reality. Without perfection, nothing is wholly 353:18 real. All things will continue to disappear, until perfection appears and reality is reached. We must give up

the spectral at all points. We must not continue to admit 353:21 the somethingness of superstition, but we must yield up

all belief in it and be wise. When we learn that error

is not real, we shall be ready for progress, “forgetting 353:24 those things which are behind.”

 

The grave does not banish the ghost of materiality.

So long as there are supposed limits to Mind, and those 353:27 limits are human, so long will ghosts seem to continue.

Mind is limitless. It never was material. The true idea

of being is spiritual and immortal, and from this it follows 353:30 that whatever is laid off is the ghost, some unreal belief.

Mortal beliefs can neither demonstrate Christianity nor

apprehend the reality of Life.

 

Christian warfare

354:1 Are the protests of Christian Science against the notion

that there can be material life, substance, or mind “utter 354:3 falsities and absurdities,” as some aver? Why

then do Christians try to obey the Scriptures

and war against “the world, the flesh, and the devil”? 354:6 Why do they invoke the divine aid to enable them to leave

all for Christ, Truth? Why do they use this phraseology,

and yet deny Christian Science, when it teaches precisely 354:9 this thought? The words of divine Science find their

immortality in deeds, for their Principle heals the sick

and spiritualizes humanity.

 

Healing omitted

354:12 On the other hand, the Christian opponents of Christian Science neither give nor offer any proofs that their

Master’s religion can heal the sick. Surely 354:15 it is not enough to cleave to barren and desul—

tory dogmas, derived from the traditions of the elders who

thereunto have set their seals.

 

Scientific consistency

354:18 Consistency is seen in example more than in precept.

Inconsistency is shown by words without deeds, which

are like clouds without rain. If our words 354:21 fail to express our deeds, God will redeem that

weakness, and out of the mouth of babes He will perfect

praise. The night of materiality is far spent, and with 354:24 the dawn Truth will waken men spiritually to hear and

to speak the new tongue.

 

Sin should become unreal to every one. It is in itself 354:27 inconsistent, a divided kingdom. Its supposed realism

has no divine authority, and I rejoice in the apprehension

of this grand verity.

 

Spiritual meaning

354:30 The opponents of divine Science must be

charitable, if they would be Christian. If the

letter of Christian Science appears inconsistent, they should 355:1 gain the spiritual meaning of Christian Science, and then

the ambiguity will vanish.

 

Practical arguments

355:3 The charge of inconsistency in Christianly scientific

methods of dealing with sin and disease is met by something practical, - namely, the proof of the 355:6 utility of these methods; and proofs are better

than mere verbal arguments or prayers which evince no

spiritual power to heal.

355:9 As for sin and disease, Christian Science says, in the

language of the Master, “Follow me; and let the dead

bury their dead.” Let discord of every name and nature 355:12 be heard no more, and let the harmonious and true sense

of Life and being take possession of human consciousness.

 

What is the relative value of the two conflicting the-355:15 ories regarding Christian healing? One, according to

the commands of our Master, heals the sick. The other,

popular religion, declines to admit that Christ’s religion 355:18 has exercised any systematic healing power since the first

century.

 

Conditions of criticism

 

The statement that the teachings of Christian Sci-355:21 ence in this work are “absolutely false, and the most

egregious fallacies ever offered for acceptance,” is an opinion wholly due to a misap-355:24 prehension both of the divine Principle and practice of

Christian Science and to a consequent inability to demonstrate this Science. Without this understanding, no one 355:27 is capable of impartial or correct criticism, because demonstration and spiritual understanding are God’s immortal

keynotes, proved to be such by our Master and evidenced 355:30 by the sick who are cured and by the sinners who are

reformed.

 

Weakness of material theories

 

Strangely enough, we ask for material theories in sup-356:1 port of spiritual and eternal truths, when the two are so

antagonistic that the material thought must become spir-356:3 itualized before the spiritual fact is attained.

So-called material existence affords no evidence

theories of spiritual existence and immortality. Sin, 356:6 sickness, and death do not prove man’s entity or immortality. Discord can never establish the facts of harmony.

Matter is not the vestibule of Spirit.

 

Irreconciliable differences

356:9 Jesus reasoned on this subject practically, and controlled sickness, sin, and death on the basis of his spirituality. Understanding the nothingness of 356:12 material things, he spoke of flesh and Spirit

as the two opposites, - as error and Truth, not contributing in any way to each other’s happiness and existence. 356:15 Jesus knew, “It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh

profiteth nothing.”

 

Copartnership impossible

 

There is neither a present nor an eternal copartner-356:18 ship between error and Truth, between flesh and Spirit.

God is as incapable of producing sin, sickness, and death as He is of experiencing these 356:21 errors. How then is it possible for Him to create man

subject to this triad of errors, - man who is made in the

divine likeness?

356:24 Does God create a material man out of Himself, Spirit?

Does evil proceed from good? Does divine Love commit a fraud on humanity by making man inclined to sin, 356:27