Chapter VIII - Healing the Sick
387:1
pleasure is derived from intoxicating drink, and the
pleasure is derived from intoxicating drink, and the
habit yields at once, but until this is done, it intermits
and lingers, proving intoxication a mental, and not a
physical error. Here are two points we desire you to
note; first, the moral advantage this healing has over
other methods, and the falsity of the arguments of per-
sonal sense, assuming drunkenness enjoyment. This
admission, however, is not more false than to conclude a
liquid distilled from matter is capable of destroying
body and mind.
387:11
The belief that pain and pleasure, good and evil,
The belief that pain and pleasure, good and evil,
God and devil, fraternize, is a hoary mistake meeting us
at every point. Pleasure or pain in matter is a self‑
evident falsehood. Lifting yourself, somewhat, to the
understanding of the Life that is Wisdom, Love, and
Truth, you will break the spell of personal sense. The
Truth of being, coming to their consciousness, opens
the prison doors to the sick and affects the body as
nothing else can. One mind, partly rid of the errors
of personal sense, touches another with the science of
being that reproduces harmony, causing what we term a
chemical change in the body that goes on to form a new
basis of being; even as when an acid and alkali meet
that form a neutral salt. But remember, the opposites
that destroy each other are without spiritual affinity.
To admit the positions of personal sense, would never
destroy them. To reform the drunkard, or heal the
sick, or turn the sinner from his way, we must argue
against their positions; nothing else destroys them.
387:30
That mind controls matter, is the fundamental
That mind controls matter, is the fundamental
strength of morality, for it gives man control over sin,
sickness, and death, whereas the old systems take it
388:1
away. To understand that brains never killed a man
away. To understand that brains never killed a man
would prevent his ever having disease of the brain; but
this result is not gained, simply repeating this fact to
the sick, or to one's self; it must be a mental conviction
reached through science and admitted only because it
is understood. If a doubt exists in regard to a patient's
recovery, there should be none about the method of
promoting it; no fears entertained that Intelligence
is not sufficient to govern the body and make it harmo-
nious. The fact seems to us self-evident, that the body
cannot destroy the body, or consign it to dust, and so
put out the image of Soul. Besides, there is no justice
in law that punishes a man for doing good, for honest
labor, or deeds of kindness. Through the eternal law
of right, we are exempt from all sentences not passed
on sin.
388:17
When the sick are made to realize the lie of personal
When the sick are made to realize the lie of personal
sense the body is healed. Faith generally lies in the
direction of material means; therefore the suffering or
sick are apt to overlook the fact, that science heals
them, and impute their recovery to some extraneous
circumstance. The action of mind on the body is not
more perceptible to personal sense than the origin of the
wind, or the chambers of the hail. Turn to the eighth
chapter of John, and you find the following reply to the
testimony of personal sense. "Ye are of your father,
the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do; he
was a murderer from the beginning "(referring to Cain,
the first offspring of Adam, error), "and abode not in
the Truth; when he speaketh a lie he speaketh of his
own, for he is a liar and the father of it.
388:32
If there be any mystery in healing the sick on this
If there be any mystery in healing the sick on this