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

belief. I

cured her in a few minutes. One instant she spoke de-390:1 spairingly of herself. The next minute she said, “My

food is all digested, and I should like something more 390:3 to eat.”

 

Ultimate harmony

 

We cannot deny that Life is self-sustained, and we

should never deny the everlasting harmony of Soul, sim-390:6 ply because, to the mortal senses, there is seeming discord. It is our ignorance of God, the

divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and 390:9 the right understanding of Him restores harmony. Truth

will at length compel us all to exchange the pleasures and

pains of sense for the joys of Soul.

 

Unnecessary prostration

390:12 When the first symptoms of disease appear, dispute the

testimony of the material senses with divine Science. Let

your higher sense of justice destroy the false 390:15 process of mortal opinions which you name

law, and then you will not be confined to a sick-room nor

laid upon a bed of suffering in payment of the last far-390:18 thing, the last penalty demanded by error. “Agree with

thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with

him.” Suffer no claim of sin or of sickness to grow upon 390:21 the thought. Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that

it is illegitimate, because you know that God is no more

the author of sickness than He is of sin. You have no 390:24 law of His to support the necessity either of sin or sickness, but you have divine authority for denying that necessity and healing the sick.

 

Treatment of disease

390:27 “Agree to disagree” with approaching symptoms of

chronic or acute disease, whether it is cancer, consumption, or smallpox. Meet the incipient stages 390:30 of disease with as powerful mental opposition as a legislator would employ to defeat the passage of

an inhuman law. Rise in the conscious strength of the 391:1 spirit of Truth to overthrow the plea of mortal mind,

alias matter, arrayed against the supremacy of Spirit. 391:3 Blot out the images of mortal thought and its beliefs in

sickness and sin. Then, when thou art delivered to the

judgment of Truth, Christ, the judge will say, “Thou 391:6 art whole!”

 

Righteous rebellion

 

Instead of blind and calm submission to the incipient

or advanced stages of disease, rise in rebellion against 391:9 them. Banish the belief that you can possibly entertain a single intruding pain which cannot be ruled out by the might of Mind, and in this way 391:12 you can prevent the development of pain in the body.

No law of God hinders this result. It is error to suffer

for aught but your own sins. Christ, or Truth, will de-391:15 stroy all other supposed suffering, and real suffering for

your own sins will cease in proportion as the sin ceases.

 

Contradict error

 

Justice is the moral signification of law. Injustice de-391:18 clares the absence of law. When the body is supposed

to say, “I am sick,” never plead guilty. Since

matter cannot talk, it must be mortal mind 391:21 which speaks; therefore meet the intimation with a protest. If you say, “I am sick,” you plead guilty. Then

your adversary will deliver you to the judge (mortal 391:24 mind), and the judge will sentence you. Disease has

no intelligence to declare itself something and announce

its name. Mortal mind alone sentences itself. Therefore 391:27 make your own terms with sickness, and be just to yourself

and to others.

 

Sin to be overcome

 

Mentally contradict every complaint from the body, 391:30 and rise to the true consciousness of Life as

Love, - as all that is pure, and bearing the

fruits of Spirit. Fear is the fountain of sickness, 392:1 and you master fear and sin through divine Mind; hence

it is through divine Mind that you overcome disease. 392:3 Only while fear or sin remains can it bring forth death.

To cure a bodily ailment, every broken moral law should

be taken into account and the error be rebuked. Fear, 392:6 which is an element of all disease, must be cast out to

readjust the balance for God. Casting out evil and fear

enables truth to outweigh error. The only course is to 392:9 take antagonistic grounds against all that is opposed to

the health, holiness, and harmony of man, God’s image.

 

Illusions about nerves

 

The physical affirmation of disease should always be 392:12 met with the mental negation. Whatever benefit is produced on the body, must be expressed mentally, and thought should be held fast to this 392:15 ideal. If you believe in inflamed and weak nerves, you

are liable to an attack from that source. You will call it

neuralgia, but we call it a belief. If you think that con-392:18 sumption is hereditary in your family, you are liable to

the development of that thought in the form of what is

termed pulmonary disease, unless Science shows you 392:21 otherwise. If you decide that climate or atmosphere is

unhealthy, it will be so to you. Your decisions will master you, whichever direction they take.

 

Guarding the door

392:24 Reverse the case. Stand porter at the door of thought.

Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in

bodily results, you will control yourself har-392:27 moniously. When the condition is present

which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise,

heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office 392:30 as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears.

Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then the

body cannot suffer from them. The issues of pain or 393:1 pleasure must come through mind, and like a watchman

forsaking his post, we admit the intruding belief, forget-393:3 ting that through divine help we can forbid this entrance.

 

The strength of Spirit

 

The body seems to be self-acting, only because mortal

mind is ignorant of itself, of its own actions, and of their 393:6 results, - ignorant that the predisposing, remote, and exciting cause of all bad effects is a

law of so-called mortal mind, not of matter. Mind is the 393:9 master of the corporeal senses, and can conquer sickness,

sin, and death. Exercise this God-given authority. Take

possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action. 393:12 Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike

good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing

can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on 393:15 man.

 

No pain in matter

 

Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mind

governs, and that in Science man reflects God’s govern-393:18 ment. Have no fear that matter can ache,

swell, and be inflamed as the result of a law

of any kind, when it is self-evident that matter can have 393:21 no pain nor inflammation. Your body would suffer no

more from tension or wounds than the trunk of a tree

which you gash or the electric wire which you stretch, 393:24 were it not for mortal mind.

 

When Jesus declares that “the light of the body is the

eye,” he certainly means that light depends upon Mind, 393:27 not upon the complex humors, lenses, muscles, the iris

and pupil, constituting the visual organism.

 

No real disease

 

Man is never sick, for Mind is not sick and matter 393:30 cannot be. A false belief is both the tempter

and the tempted, the sin and the sinner, the

disease and its cause. It is well to be calm in sickness; 394:1 to be hopeful is still better; but to understand that sickness is not real and that Truth can destroy its seeming 394:3 reality, is best of all, for this understanding is the universal and perfect remedy.

 

Recuperation mental

 

By conceding power to discord, a large majority of 394:6 doctors depress mental energy, which is the only real

recuperative power. Knowledge that we

can accomplish the good we hope for, stimu-394:9 lates the system to act in the direction which Mind points

out. The admission that any bodily condition is beyond

the control of Mind disarms man, prevents him from 394:12 helping himself, and enthrones matter through error. To

those struggling with sickness, such admissions are discouraging, - as much so as would be the advice to a man 394:15 who is down in the world, that he should not try to rise

above his difficulties.

 

Experience has proved to the author the fallacy of 394:18 material systems in general, - that their theories are

sometimes pernicious, and that their denials are better

than their affirmations. Will you bid a man let evils 394:21 overcome him, assuring him that all misfortunes are from

God, against whom mortals should not contend? Will

you tell the sick that their condition is hopeless, unless it 394:24 can be aided by a drug or climate? Are material means

the only refuge from fatal chances? Is there no divine

permission to conquer discord of every kind with harmony, 394:27 with Truth and Love?

 

Arguing wrongly

 

We should remember that Life is God, and that God

is omnipotent. Not understanding Christian 394:30 Science, the sick usually have little faith in

it till they feel its beneficent influence. This shows

that faith is not the healer in such cases. The sick 395:1 unconsciously argue for suffering, instead of against it.

They admit its reality, whereas they should deny it. 395:3 They should plead in opposition to the testimony of the

deceitful senses, and maintain man’s immortality and

eternal likeness to God.

 

Divine authority

395:6 Like the great Exemplar, the healer should speak to

disease as one having authority over it, leaving Soul to

master the false evidences of the corporeal 395:9 senses and to assert its claims over mortality and disease. The same Principle cures both sin and

sickness. When divine Science overcomes faith in a car-395:12 nal mind, and faith in God destroys all faith in sin and in

material methods of healing, then sin, disease, and death

will disappear.

 

Aids in sickness

395:15 Prayers, in which God is not asked to heal but is besought to take the patient to Himself, do not benefit the

sick. An ill-tempered, complaining, or deceit-395:18 ful person should not be a nurse. The nurse

should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of

faith, - receptive to Truth and Love.

 

Mental quackery

395:21 It is mental quackery to make disease a reality - to

hold it as something seen and felt - and then to attempt

its cure through Mind. It is no less erroneous 395:24 to believe in the real existence of a tumor, a

cancer, or decayed lungs, while you argue against their

reality, than it is for your patient to feel these ills in 395:27 physical belief. Mental practice, which holds disease

as a reality, fastens disease on the patient, and it may

appear in a more alarming form.

 

Effacing images of disease

395:30 The knowledge that brain-lobes cannot kill a man nor

affect the functions of mind would prevent the brain from

becoming diseased, though a moral offence is indeed the 396:1 worst of diseases. One should never hold in mind

the thought of disease, but should efface from 396:3 thought all forms and types of disease, both for

one’s own sake and for that of the patient.

 

Avoid talking disease

 

Avoid talking illness to the patient. Make no unne-396:6 cessary inquiries relative to feelings or disease. Never

startle with a discouraging remark about recovery, nor draw attention to certain symp-396:9 toms as unfavorable, avoid speaking aloud the name of

the disease. Never say beforehand how much you have

to contend with in a case, nor encourage in the patient’s 396:12 thought the expectation of growing worse before a crisis

is passed.

 

False testimony refuted

 

The refutation of the testimony of material sense is 396:15 not a difficult task in