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

This mental state invites defeat. The belief 423:1 that he has met his master in matter and may not be

able to mend the bone, increases his fear; yet this belief 423:3 should not be communicated to the patient, either verbally or otherwise, for this fear greatly diminishes the

tendency towards a favorable result. Remember that the 423:6 unexpressed belief oftentimes affects a sensitive patient

more strongly than the expressed thought.

 

Scientific corrective

 

The Christian Scientist, understanding scientifically 423:9 that all is Mind, commences with mental causation, the

truth of being, to destroy the error. This corrective is an alterative, reaching to every part 423:12 of the human system. According to Scripture, it searches

“the joints and marrow,” and it restores the harmony of

man.

 

Coping with difficulties

423:15 The matter-physician deals with matter as both his foe

and his remedy. He regards the ailment as weakened or

strengthened according to the evidence which 423:18 matter presents. The metaphysician, making

Mind his basis of operation irrespective of matter and

regarding the truth and harmony of being as superior to 423:21 error and discord, has rendered himself strong, instead

of weak, to cope with the case; and he proportionately

strengthens his patient with the stimulus of courage and 423:24 conscious power. Both Science and consciousness are

now at work in the economy of being according to the law

of Mind, which ultimately asserts its absolute supremacy.

 

Formation from thought

423:27 Ossification or any abnormal condition or derangement of the body is as directly the action of mortal

mind as is dementia or insanity. Bones have 423:30 only the substance of thought which forms

them. They are only phenomena of the mind of mortals. The so-called substance of bone is formed first 424:1 by the parent’s mind, through self-division. Soon the

child becomes a separate, individualized mortal mind, 424:3 which takes possession of itself and its own thoughts of

bones.

 

Accidents unknown to God

 

Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind, 424:6 and we must leave the mortal basis of belief

and unite with the one Mind, in order to

change the notion of chance to the proper sense 424:9 of God’s unerring direction and thus bring out harmony.

 

Opposing mentality

 

Under divine Providence there can be no accidents,

since there is no room for imperfection in perfection.

424:12 In medical practice objections would be raised if one

doctor should administer a drug to counteract the working of a remedy prescribed by another doctor. 424:15 It is equally important in metaphysical practice that the minds which surround your patient should

not act against your influence by continually expressing 424:18 such opinions as may alarm or discourage, - either by

giving antagonistic advice or through unspoken thoughts

resting on your patient. While it is certain that the 424:21 divine Mind can remove any obstacle, still you need the

ear of your auditor. It is not more difficult to make yourself heard mentally while others are thinking about your 424:24 patients or conversing with them, if you understand

Christian Science - the oneness and the allness of divine

Love; but it is well to be alone with God and the sick 424:27 when treating disease.

 

Mind removes scrofula

 

To prevent or to cure scrofula and other so-called hereditary diseases, you must destroy the belief in these ills 424:30 and the faith in the possibility of their transmission. The patient may tell you that he

has a humor in the blood, a scrofulous diathesis. His 425:1 parents or some of his progenitors farther back have so

believed. Mortal mind, not matter, induces this con-425:3 clusion and its results. You will have humors, just so

long as you believe them to be safety-valves or to be

ineradicable.

 

Nothing to consume

425:6 If the case to be mentally treated is consumption, take

up the leading points included (according to belief) in

this disease. Show that it is not inherited; 425:9 that inflammation, tubercles, hemorrhage, and

decomposition are beliefs, images of mortal thought superimposed upon the body; that they are not the truth 425:12 of man; that they should be treated as error and put out

of thought. Then these ills will disappear.

 

The lungs reformed

 

If the body is diseased, this is but one of the beliefs of 425:15 mortal mind. Mortal man will be less mortal, when he

learns that matter never sustained existence

and can never destroy God, who is man’s Life. 425:18 When this is understood, mankind will be more spiritual

and know that there is nothing to consume, since Spirit,

God, is All-in-all. What if the belief is consumption? 425:21 God is more to a man than his belief, and the less we acknowledge matter or its laws, the more immortality we

possess. Consciousness constructs a better body when 425:24 faith in matter has been conquered. Correct material

belief by spiritual understanding, and Spirit will form

you anew. You will never fear again except to offend 425:27 God, and you will never believe that heart or any portion of the body can destroy you.

 

Soundness maintained

 

If you have sound and capacious lungs and want 425:30 them to remain so, be always ready with the

mental protest against the opposite belief in

heredity. Discard all notions about lungs, tubercles, in-426:1 herited consumption, or disease arising from any circumstance, and you will find that mortal mind, when 426:3 instructed by Truth, yields to divine power, which steers

the body into health.

 

Our footsteps heavenward

 

The discoverer of Christian Science finds the path less 426:6 difficult when she has the high goal always before her

thoughts, than when she counts her footsteps

in endeavoring to reach it. When the desti-426:9 nation is desirable, expectation speeds our progress. The

struggle for Truth makes one strong instead of weak,

resting instead of wearying one. If the belief in death 426:12 were obliterated, and the understanding obtained that

there is no death, this would be a “tree of life,” known

by its fruits. Man should renew his energies and en-426:15 deavors, and see the folly of hypocrisy, while also learning the necessity of working out his own salvation. When

it is learned that disease cannot destroy life, and that 426:18 mortals are not saved from sin or sickness by death, this

understanding will quicken into newness of life. It will

master either a desire to die or a dread of the grave, 426:21 and thus destroy the great fear that besets mortal

existence.

 

Christian standard

 

The relinquishment of all faith in death and also of 426:24 the fear of its sting would raise the standard of health

and morals far beyond its present elevation,

and would enable us to hold the banner of 426:27 Christianity aloft with unflinching faith in God, in Life

eternal. Sin brought death, and death will disappear

with the disappearance of sin. Man is immortal, and 426:30 the body cannot die, because matter has no life to surrender. The human concepts named matter, death, disease, sickness, and sin are all that can be destroyed.

 

Life not contingent on matter

427:1 If it is true that man lives, this fact can never change

in Science to the opposite belief that man dies. Life is 427:3 the law of Soul, even the law of the spirit of

Truth, and Soul is never without its representative. Man’s individual being can no more 427:6 die nor disappear in unconsciousness than can Soul, for

both are immortal. If man believes in death now, he

must disbelieve in it when learning that there is no reality 427:9 in death, since the truth of being is deathless. The belief that existence is contingent on matter must be met

and mastered by Science, before Life can be understood 427:12 and harmony obtained.

 

Mortality vanquished

 

Death is but another phase of the dream that existence can be material. Nothing can interfere with the 427:15 harmony of being nor end the existence of

man in Science. Man is the same after as

before a bone is broken or the body guillotined. If man 427:18 is never to overcome death, why do the Scriptures say,

“The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death”? The

tenor of the Word shows that we shall obtain the victory 427:21 over death in proportion as we overcome sin. The great

difficulty lies in ignorance of what God is. God, Life,

Truth, and Love make man undying. Immortal Mind, 427:24 governing all, must be acknowledged as supreme in the

physical realm, so-called, as well as in the spiritual.

 

No death nor inaction

 

Called to the bed of death, what material remedy has 427:27 man when all such remedies have failed? Spirit is his

last resort, but it should have been his first

and only resort. The dream of death must 427:30 be mastered by Mind here or hereafter. Thought

will waken from its own material declaration, “I am

dead,” to catch this trumpet-word of Truth, “There 428:1 is no death, no inaction, diseased action, overaction, nor

reaction.”

 

Vision opening

428:3 Life is real, and death is the illusion. A demonstration of the facts of Soul in Jesus’ way resolves the dark

visions of material sense into harmony and 428:6 immortality. Man’s privilege at this supreme

moment is to prove the words of our Master: “If a man

keep my saying, he shall never see death.” To divest 428:9 thought of false trusts and material evidences in order

that the spiritual facts of being may appear, - this is

the great attainment by means of which we shall sweep 428:12 away the false and give place to the true. Thus we may

establish in truth the temple, or body, “whose builder

and maker is God.”

 

Intelligent consecration

428:15 We should consecrate existence, not “to the unknown

God” whom we “ignorantly worship,” but to the eternal

builder, the everlasting Father, to the Life 428:18 which mortal sense cannot impair nor mortal

belief destroy. We must realize the ability of mental

might to offset human misconceptions and to replace them 428:21 with the life which is spiritual, not material.

 

The present immortality

 

The great spiritual fact must be brought out that man

is, not shall be, perfect and immortal. We must hold 428:24 forever the consciousness of existence, and

sooner or later, through Christ and Christian

Science, we must master sin and death. The evidence 428:27 of man’s immortality will become more apparent, as material beliefs are given up and the immortal facts of being

are admitted.

 

Careful guidance

428:30 The author has healed hopeless organic disease, and

raised the dying to life and health through the understanding of God as the only Life. It is a sin to believe 429:1 that aught can overpower omnipotent and eternal Life,

and this Life must be brought to light by the understand-429:3 ing that there is no death, as well as by other

graces of Spirit. We must begin, however,

with the more simple demonstrations of control, and 429:6 the sooner we begin the better. The final demonstration

takes time for its accomplishment. When walking, we

are guided by the eye. We look before our feet, and if 429:9 we are wise, we look beyond a single step in the line of

spiritual advancement.

 

Clay replying to the potter

 

The corpse, deserted by thought, is cold and decays, 429:12 but it never suffers. Science declares that man is subject to Mind. Mortal mind affirms that mind

is subordinate to the body, that the body is 429:15 dying, that it must be buried and decomposed

into dust; but mortal mind’s affirmation is not true.

Mortals waken from the dream of death with bodies un-429:18 seen by those who think that they bury the body.

 

Continuity of existence

 

If man did not exist before the material organization

began, he