Chapter 8: 'Science and Health' by Mary Baker Glover

Chapter VIII - Healing the Sick

421:1
When "in him we live, move, and have being," is it

impossible to conclude God is equal to camphor or a

sweat? Life is proved Spirit, and not matter; and the

only possible objection to our eagerly accepting this

munificence of being is, that it requires a better demon-

stration of Life. The centuries are slowly, but surely,

tumbling down the old corner stones, and building on

better foundations. Not far distant, the hour looks

down on us when sickness, sin, and death will be ad-

mitted error, and the Truth that destroys them sought

instead of drugs.

421:12
Mind is the only alterative of the body; every secre-

tion and function of the human system depend on

mind and are controlled by it. The pallid invalid sup-

posed to be dying from a bad state of blood, is restored

to strength and health by changing her belief on this

subject; it matters not whether she knows or does not

know the working of mind and its bad effect on her

body, she will recover when mind is set right on the

physical question, and the blood will circulate naturally

and healthily. The Oxford students furnished this

precedent, who caused a felon to die of the belief he

was bled to death; when not a drop of blood had

flowed. This single case proved the superiority of

belief over matter and blood, to kill a man. The be-

lief that Life is contingent on matter, or that certain

conditions of the blood and organic structure are fatal

to man, must be met and mastered, before Life is un-

derstood, or found immortal. Mind causes all condi-

tions of the body, and you can change them effectually

and permanently only through this medium. To heal

the sick with science, has this advantage over physiolo-

422:1
gy, drugs, mesmerism, etc.; it is the Truth of being op-

posed to its error, by which man goes up higher in the

scale of being; other methods are error opposing error,

that have a temporary advantage only. Belief is on

their side to be sure, for error coincides with error,

strengthens it and weighs against the science of Life;

but this has no advantage in the scale of Truth. The

perception of man's possibilities enlarges his being, giv-

ing higher aims and broader scope to manhood. If

there were no other and higher motives for acquaint-

ing ourself with God, the Principle of man, than to be

rid of sickness, this would seem sufficient.

422:13
A student once said, "this science has made me all

I am," and that was saying more, perhaps, than he was

aware. There is infinite room in the science of man, for

here the limits of personality confine not Intelligence.

422:17
Disease is one of the beliefs of personal sense that

Truth finally destroys. No scientific work can treat

of disease as an identity, or power. Any allusion to

disease, or confession that you are sick, should be avoid-

ed, as you would shun telling ghost stories to children

in the dark. Shut out from the light, a child suffers

from thoughts of danger, and so does the adult who

comprehends not his own being; the child must be

taken out of darkness to get rid of his fear, and the

suffering it occasions, and so must the man. The

universal belief that suffering is physical, and not a

creation of mind, produces suffering, owing to our ig-

norance of its origin. That Life is not dependent on

matter we prove when Life goes on and matter is de-

stroyed. Spiritually, I cannot perceive sickness, sin

or death; and recognize these only as beliefs of matter.