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

between vol-403:3 untary and involuntary mesmerism is that voluntary mesmerism is induced consciously and

should and does cause the perpetrator to suffer, while self-403:6 mesmerism is induced unconsciously and by his mistake

a man is often instructed. In the first instance it is understood that the difficulty is a mental illusion, while in the 403:9 second it is believed that the misfortune is a material effect.

The human mind is employed to remove the illusion in

one case, but matter is appealed to in the other. In real-403:12 ity, both have their origin in the human mind, and can be

healed only by the divine Mind.

 

Error’s power imaginary

 

You command the situation if you understand that 403:15 mortal existence is a state of self-deception and not the

truth of being. Mortal mind is constantly

producing on mortal body the results of false 403:18 opinions; and it will continue to do so, until mortal

error is deprived of its imaginary powers by Truth,

which sweeps away the gossamer web of mortal illusion. 403:21 The most Christian state is one of rectitude and spiritual understanding, and this is best adapted for healing the sick. Never conjure up some new discovery from 403:24 dark forebodings regarding disease and then acquaint

your patient with it.

 

Disease-production

 

The mortal so-called mind produces all that is unlike 403:27 the immortal Mind. The human mind determines the

nature of a case, and the practitioner improves

or injures the case in proportion to the truth 403:30 or error which influences his conclusions. The mental

conception and development of disease are not understood by the patient, but the physician should be familiar 404:1 with mental action and its effect in order to judge the case

according to Christian Science.

 

Appetites to be abandoned

404:3 If a man is an inebriate, a slave to tobacco, or the special

servant of any one of the myriad forms of sin, meet and

destroy these errors with the truth of being, - 404:6 by exhibiting to the wrong-doer the suffering

which his submission to such habits brings, and by convincing him that there is no real pleasure in false appe-404:9 tites. A corrupt mind is manifested in a corrupt body.

Lust, malice, and all sorts of evil are diseased beliefs, and

you can destroy them only by destroying the wicked 404:12 motives which produce them. If the evil is over in the

repentant mortal mind, while its effects still remain on the

individual, you can remove this disorder as God’s law is 404:15 fulfilled and reformation cancels the crime. The healthy

sinner is the hardened sinner.

 

Temperance reform

 

The temperance reform, felt all over our land, results 404:18 from metaphysical healing, which cuts down every tree

that brings not forth good fruit. This conviction, that there is no real pleasure in sin, 404:21 is one of the most important points in the theology of

Christian Science. Arouse the sinner to this new and

true view of sin, show him that sin confers no pleasure, 404:24 and this knowledge strengthens his moral courage and

increases his ability to master evil and to love good.

 

Sin or fear the root of sickness

 

Healing the sick and reforming the sinner are one and 404:27 the same thing in Christian Science. Both cures require

the same method and are inseparable in Truth.

Hatred, envy, dishonesty, fear, and so forth, 404:30 make a man sick, and neither material medicine nor Mind can help him permanently, even in body,

unless it makes him better mentally, and so delivers him 405:1 from his destroyers. The basic error is mortal mind.

Hatred inflames the brutal propensities. The indulgence 405:3 of evil motives and aims makes any man, who is above the

lowest type of manhood, a hopeless sufferer.

 

Mental conspirators

 

Christian Science commands man to master the pro-405:6 pensities, - to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness,

to conquer lust with chastity, revenge with

charity, and to overcome deceit with hon-405:9 esty. Choke these errors in their early stages, if you

would not cherish an army of conspirators against

health, happiness, and success. They will deliver you 405:12 to the judge, the arbiter of truth against error. The

judge will deliver you to justice, and the sentence of

the moral law will be executed upon mortal mind and 405:15 body. Both will be manacled until the last farthing

is paid, - until you have balanced your account with

God. “Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 405:18 reap.” The good man finally can overcome his fear of

sin. This is sin’s necessity, - to destroy itself. Immortal man demonstrates the government of God, good, 405:21 in which is no power to sin.

 

Cumulative repentence

 

It were better to be exposed to every plague on earth

than to endure the cumulative effects of a guilty con-405:24 science. The abiding consciousness of wrong-doing tends to destroy the ability to do right.

If sin is not regretted and is not lessening, then it is 405:27 hastening on to physical and moral doom. You are conquered by the moral penalties you incur and the ills they

bring. The pains of sinful sense are less harmful than its 405:30 pleasures. Belief in material suffering causes mortals to

retreat from their error, to flee from body to Spirit, and

to appeal to divine sources outside of themselves.

 

The leaves of healing

406:1 The Bible contains the recipe for all healing. “The

leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.” 406:3 Sin and sickness are both healed by the same

Principle. The tree is typical of man’s divine

Principle, which is equal to every emergency, offering 406:6 full salvation from sin, sickness, and death. Sin will

submit to Christian Science when, in place of modes and

forms, the power of God is understood and demonstrated 406:9 in the healing of mortals, both mind and body. “Perfect Love casteth out fear.”

 

Sickness will abate

 

The Science of being unveils the errors of sense, and 406:12 spiritual perception, aided by Science, reaches Truth.

Then error disappears. Sin and sickness will

abate and seem less real as we approach the 406:15 scientific period, in which mortal sense is subdued and

all that is unlike the true likeness disappears. The moral

man has no fear that he will commit a murder, and he 406:18 should be as fearless on the question of disease.

 

Resist to the end

 

Resist evil - error of every sort - and it will flee from

you. Error is opposed to Life. We can, and ultimately 406:21 shall, so rise as to avail ourselves in every direction of the supremacy of Truth over error, Life

over death, and good over evil, and this growth will go 406:24 on until we arrive at the fulness of God’s idea, and no

more fear that we shall be sick and die. Inharmony of

any kind involves weakness and suffering, - a loss of 406:27 control over the body.

 

Morbid cravings

 

The depraved appetite for alcoholic drinks, tobacco,

tea, coffee, opium, is destroyed only by Mind’s mastery 406:30 of the body. This normal control is gained

through divine strength and understanding.

There is no enjoyment in getting drunk, in becoming a 407:1 fool or an object of loathing; but there is a very sharp

remembrance of it, a suffering inconceivably terrible to 407:3 man’s self-respect. Puffing the obnoxious fumes of tobacco, or chewing a leaf naturally attractive to no creature except a loathsome worm, is at least disgusting.

 

Universal panacea

407:6 Man’s enslavement to the most relentless masters -

passion, selfishness, envy, hatred, and revenge - is conquered only by a mighty struggle. Every 407:9 hour of delay makes the struggle more severe.

If man is not victorious over the passions, they crush

out happiness, health, and manhood. Here Christian 407:12 Science is the sovereign panacea, giving strength to the

weakness of mortal mind, - strength from the immortal

and omnipotent Mind, - and lifting humanity above 407:15 itself into purer desires, even into spiritual power and

good-will to man.

 

Let the slave of wrong desire learn the lessons of Chris-407:18 tian Science, and he will get the better of that desire

and ascend a degree in the scale of health, happiness,

and existence.

 

Immortal memory

407:21 If delusion says, “I have lost my memory,” contradict it. No faculty of Mind is lost. In Science, all

being is eternal, spiritual, perfect, harmoni-407:24 ous in every action. Let the perfect model be

present in your thoughts instead of its demoralized opposite. This spiritualization of thought lets in the light, 407:27 and brings the divine Mind, Life not death, into your

consciousness.

 

Sin a form of insanity

 

There are many species of insanity. All sin is insan-407:30 ity in different degrees. Sin is spared from

this classification, only because its method of

madness is in consonance with common mortal belief. 408:1 Every sort of sickness is error, - that is, sickness is

loss of harmony. This view is not altered by the fact 408:3 that sin is worse than sickness, and sickness is not acknowledged nor discovered to be error by many who are

sick.

408:6 There is a universal insanity of so-called health, which

mistakes fable for fact throughout the entire round of the

material senses, but this general craze cannot, in a scien-408:9 tific diagnosis, shield the individual case from the special

name of insanity. Those unfortunate people who are

committed to insane asylums are only so many distinctly 408:12 defined instances of the baneful effects of illusion on mortal minds and bodies.

 

Drugs and brain-lobes

 

The supposition that we can correct insanity by the use 408:15 of purgatives and narcotics is in itself a mild species of

insanity. Can drugs go of their own accord

to the brain and destroy the so-called inflam-408:18 mation of disordered functions, thus reaching mortal

mind through matter? Drugs do not affect a corpse, and

Truth does not distribute drugs through the blood, and 408:21 from them derive a supposed effect on intelligence and sentiment. A dislocation of the tarsal joint would produce

insanity as perceptibly as would congestion of the brain, 408:24 were it not that mortal mind thinks that the tarsal joint is

less intimately connected with the mind than is the brain.

Reverse the belief, and the results would be perceptibly 408:27 different.

 

Matter and animate error

 

The unconscious thought in the corporeal substratum of brain produces no effect, and that condition of 408:30 the body which we call sensation in matter

is unreal. Mortal mind is ignorant of itself, - ignorant of the errors it includes and of their 409:1 effects. Intelligent matter is an impossibility. You

may say: “But if disease obtains in matter, why do 409:3 you insist that disease is formed by mortal mind and

not by matter?” Mortal mind and body combine as

one, and the nearer matter approaches its final state-409:6 ment, - animate error called nerves, brain, mind, - the

more prolific it is likely to become in sin and disease—

beliefs.

 

Dictation of error

409:9 Unconscious mortal mind - alias matter, brain - cannot dictate terms to consciousness nor say, “I am sick.”

The belief, that the unconscious substratum 409:12 of mortal mind, termed the body, suffers and

reports disease independently of this so-called conscious

mind, is the error which prevents mortals from knowing 409:15 how to govern their bodies.

 

So-called superiority

 

The so-called conscious mortal mind is believed to be

superior to its unconscious substratum, matter, and 409:18 the stronger never yields to the weaker, except through fear or choice. The animate

should be governed by God alone. The real man is 409:21 spiritual and immortal, but the mortal and imperfect

so-called “children of men” are counterfeits from the

beginning, to be laid aside for