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

so brought home the lesson to all, following it with that remarkable declaration to the woman,

“Thy sins are forgiven.”

 

Divine insight

363:24 Why did he thus summarize her debt to divine Love?

Had she repented and reformed, and did his insight

detect this unspoken moral uprising? She 363:27 bathed his feet with her tears before she

anointed them with the oil. In the absence of other

proofs, was her grief sufficient evidence to warrant the 363:30 expectation of her repentance, reformation, and growth

in wisdom? Certainly there was encouragement in the

mere fact that she was showing her affection for a man 364:1 of undoubted goodness and purity, who has since been

rightfully regarded as the best man that ever trod this 364:3 planet. Her reverence was unfeigned, and it was manifested towards one who was soon, though they knew it

not, to lay down his mortal existence in behalf of all 364:6 sinners, that through his word and works they might be

redeemed from sensuality and sin.

 

Penitence or hospitality

 

Which was the higher tribute to such ineffable affec-364:9 tion, the hospitality of the Pharisee or the contrition of

the Magdalen? This query Jesus answered

by rebuking self-righteousness and declaring 364:12 the absolution of the penitent. He even said that this

poor woman had done what his rich entertainer had neglected to do, - wash and anoint his guest’s feet, a special 364:15 sign of Oriental courtesy.

 

Here is suggested a solemn question, a question indicated by one of the needs of this age. Do Christian 364:18 Scientists seek Truth as Simon sought the Saviour, through

material conservatism and for personal homage? Jesus

told Simon that such seekers as he gave small reward 364:21 in return for the spiritual purgation which came through

the Messiah. If Christian Scientists are like Simon,

then it must be said of them also that they love 364:24 little.

 

Genuine repentance

 

On the other hand, do they show their regard for

Truth, or Christ, by their genuine repentance, by their 364:27 broken hearts, expressed by meekness and

human affection, as did this woman? If

so, then it may be said of them, as Jesus said of the 364:30 unwelcome visitor, that they indeed love much, because

much is forgiven them.

 

Compassion requisite

 

Did the careless doctor, the nurse, the cook, and the 365:1 brusque business visitor sympathetically know the thorns

they plant in the pillow of the sick and the heavenly 365:3 homesick looking away from earth, - Oh, did

they know! - this knowledge would do much

more towards healing the sick and preparing their helpers 365:6 for the “midnight call,” than all cries of “Lord, Lord!”

The benign thought of Jesus, finding utterance in such

words as “Take no thought for your life,” would heal 365:9 the sick, and so enable them to rise above the supposed

necessity for physical thought-taking and doctoring;

but if the unselfish affections be lacking, and common 365:12 sense and common humanity are disregarded, what mental quality remains, with which to evoke healing from

the outstretched arm of righteousness?

 

Speedy healing

365:15 If the Scientist reaches his patient through divine

Love, the healing work will be accomplished at one

visit, and the disease will vanish into its native 365:18 nothingness like dew before the morning sunshine. If the Scientist has enough Christly affection to

win his own pardon, and such commendation as the Mag-365:21 dalen gained from Jesus, then he is Christian enough to

practise scientifically and deal with his patients compassionately; and the result will correspond with the spiritual 365:24 intent.

 

Truth desecrated

 

If hypocrisy, stolidity, inhumanity, or vice finds its

way into the chambers of disease through the would-be 365:27 healer, it would, if it were possible, convert

into a den of thieves the temple of the Holy

Ghost, - the patient’s spiritual power to resuscitate him-365:30 self. The unchristian practitioner is not giving to mind

or body the joy and strength of Truth. The poor suffering heart needs its rightful nutriment, such as peace, 366:1 patience in tribulation, and a priceless sense of the dear

Father’s loving-kindness.

 

Moral evils to be cast out

366:3 In order to cure his patient, the metaphysician

must first cast moral evils out of himself and thus

attain the spiritual freedom which will en-366:6 able him to cast physical evils out of his

patient; but heal he cannot, while his own spiritual

barrenness debars him from giving drink to the thirsty 366:9 and hinders him from reaching his patient’s thought, -

yea, while mental penury chills his faith and understanding.

 

The true physician

366:12 The physician who lacks sympathy for his fellow-being is deficient in human affection, and we have the

apostolic warrant for asking: “He that loveth 366:15 not his brother whom he hath seen, how can

he love God whom he hath not seen?” Not having this

spiritual affection, the physician lacks faith in the divine 366:18 Mind and has not that recognition of infinite Love which

alone confers the healing power. Such so-called Scientists will strain out gnats, while they swallow the camels 366:21 of bigoted pedantry.

 

Source of calmness

 

The physician must also watch, lest he be overwhelmed by a sense of the odiousness of sin and by the 366:24 unveiling of sin in his own thoughts. The

sick are terrified by their sick beliefs, and

sinners should be affrighted by their sinful beliefs; but 366:27 the Christian Scientist will be calm in the presence of

both sin and disease, knowing, as he does, that Life is

God and God is All.

 

Genuine healing

366:30 If we would open their prison doors for the sick, we

must first learn to bind up the broken-hearted. If we

would heal by the Spirit, we must not hide the talent 367:1 of spiritual healing under the napkin of its form, nor

bury the morale of Christian Science in the grave-clothes 367:3 of its letter. The tender word and Christian

encouragement of an invalid, pitiful patience

with his fears and the removal of them, are better than 367:6 hecatombs of gushing theories, stereotyped borrowed

speeches, and the doling of arguments, which are but so

many parodies on legitimate Christian Science, aflame 367:9 with divine Love.

 

Gratitude and humility

 

This is what is meant by seeking Truth, Christ, not

“for the loaves and fishes,” nor, like the Pharisee, with 367:12 the arrogance of rank and display of scholar—

ship, but like Mary Magdalene, from the summit of devout consecration, with the oil of gladness and 367:15 the perfume of gratitude, with tears of repentance and

with those hairs all numbered by the Father.

 

The salt of the earth

 

A Christian Scientist occupies the place at this period 367:18 of which Jesus spoke to his disciples, when he said: “Ye

are the salt of the earth.” “Ye are the light

of the world. A city that is set on an hill can-367:21 not be hid.” Let us watch, work, and pray that this salt

lose not its saltness, and that this light be not hid, but

radiate and glow into noontide glory.

367:24 The infinite Truth of the Christ-cure has come to this

age through a “still, small voice,” through silent utterances and divine anointing which quicken and increase 367:27 the beneficial effects of Christianity. I long to see the

consummation of my hope, namely, the student’s higher

attainments in this line of light.

 

Real and counterfeit

367:30 Because Truth is infinite, error should be known as

nothing. Because Truth is omnipotent in goodness,

error, Truth’s opposite, has no might. Evil is but the 368:1 counterpoise of nothingness. The greatest wrong is

but a supposititious opposite of the highest right. The 368:3 confidence inspired by Science lies in the fact

that Truth is real and error is unreal. Error

is a coward before Truth. Divine Science insists that 368:6 time will prove all this. Both truth and error have come

nearer than ever before to the apprehension of mortals,

and truth will become still clearer as error is self-368:9 destroyed.

 

Results of faith in Truth

 

Against the fatal beliefs that error is as real as Truth,

that evil is equal in power to good if not superior, and that 368:12 discord is as normal as harmony, even the hope

of freedom from the bondage of sickness and

sin has little inspiration to nerve endeavor. When we 368:15 come to have more faith in the truth of being than we have

in error, more faith in Spirit than in matter, more faith

in living than in dying, more faith in God than in man, 368:18 then no material suppositions can prevent us from healing

the sick and destroying error.

 

Life independent of matter

 

That Life is not contingent on bodily conditions is 368:21 proved, when we learn that life and man survive this

body. Neither evil, disease, nor death can be

spiritual, and the material belief in them dis-368:24 appears in the ratio of one’s spiritual growth. Because

matter has no consciousness or Ego, it cannot act; its

conditions are illusions, and these false conditions are the 368:27 source of all seeming sickness. Admit the existence of

matter, and you admit that mortality (and therefore disease) has a foundation in fact. Deny the existence of

matter, and you can destroy the belief in material conditions. When fear disappears, the foundation of disease

is gone. Once let the mental physician believe in the 369:1 reality of matter, and he is liable to admit also the reality

of all discordant conditions, and this hinders his de-369:3 stroying them. Thus he is unfitted for the successful

treatment of disease.

 

Man’s entity

 

In proportion as matter loses to human sense all en-369:6 tity as man, in that proportion does man become its

master. He enters into a diviner sense of the

facts, and comprehends the theology of Jesus 369:9 as demonstrated in healing the sick, raising the dead,

and walking over the wave. All these deeds manifested

Jesus’ control over the belief that matter is substance, 369:12 that it can be the arbiter of life or the constructor of any

form of existence.

 

The Christ treatment

 

We never read that Luke or Paul made a reality of 369:15 disease in order to discover some means of healing it.

Jesus never asked if disease were acute or

chronic, and he never recommended atten-369:18 tion to laws of health, never give drugs, never prayed

to know if God were willing that a man should live. He

understood man, whose life is God, to be immortal, and 369:21 knew that man has not two lives, one to be destroyed and

the other to be made indestructible.

 

Matter not medicine

 

The prophylactic and therapeutic (that is, the prevent-369:24 ive and curative) arts belong emphatically to Christian

Science, as would be readily seen, if psychology,

or the Science of Spirit, God, was understood. 369:27 Unscientific methods are finding their dead level. Limited to matter by their own law, what have they of the

advantages of Mind and immortality?

 

No healing in sin

369:30 No man is physically healed in wilful error or by it,

any more than he is morally saved in or by sin. It is

error even to murmur or to be angry over sin. To be 370:1 every whit whole, man must be better spiritually as well

as physically. To be immortal, we must forsake the 370:3 mortal sense of things, turn from the lie of false

belief to Truth, and gather the facts of being

from the divine Mind. The body improves under the 370:6 same regimen which spiritualizes the thought; and if

health is not made manifest under this regimen, this

proves that fear is governing the body. This is the law 370:9 of cause and effect, or like producing