Science and Health
with Key to The Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
Chapter X - Science Of Being

 

Infinite Spirit
335:1
There are neither spirits many nor gods many. There
is no evil in Spirit, because God is Spirit. The theory,
that Spirit is distinct from matter but must
pass through it, or into it, to be individualized,
would reduce God to dependency on matter, and establish
a basis for pantheism.
The only substance
335:7
XVIII. Spirit, God, has created all in and of Him-
self. Spirit never created matter. There is nothing in
Spirit out of which matter could be made,
for, as the Bible declares, without the Logos,
the AEon or Word of God, "was not anything made
that was made." Spirit is the only substance, the in-
visible and indivisible infinite God. Things spiritual and
eternal are substantial. Things material and temporal
are insubstantial.
Soul and Spirit one
335:16
XIX. Soul and Spirit being one, God and Soul are
one, and this one never included in a limited mind or a
limited body. Spirit is eternal, divine. Noth-
ing but Spirit, Soul, can evolve Life, for Spirit
is more than all else. Because Soul is immortal, it does
not exist in mortality. Soul must be incorporeal to be
Spirit, for Spirit is not finite. Only by losing the false
sense of Soul can we gain the eternal unfolding of Life as
immortality brought to light.
The one divine Mind
335:25
XX. Mind is the divine Principle, Love, and can pro-
duce nothing unlike the eternal Father-Mother, God.
Reality is spiritual, harmonious, immutable,
immortal, divine, eternal. Nothing unspirit-
ual can be real, harmonious, or eternal. Sin, sickness,
and mortality are the suppositional antipodes of Spirit,
and must be contradictions of reality.
The divine Ego
335:32
XXI. The Ego is deathless and limitless, for limits
336:1
would imply and impose ignorance. Mind is the I AM,
or infinity. Mind never enters the finite. Intelligence
never passes into non-intelligence, or matter.
Good never enters into evil the unlimited into
the limited, the eternal into the temporal, nor the im-
mortal into mortality. The divine Ego, or individuality,
is reflected in all spiritual individuality from the infini-
tesimal to the infinite.
The real manhood
336:9
XXII. Immortal man was and is God's image or idea,
even the infinite expression of infinite Mind, and immor-
tal man is coexistent and coeternal with that
Mind. He has been forever in the eternal
Mind, God; but infinite Mind can never be in man, but
is reflected by man. The spiritual man's consciousness
and individuality are reflections of God. They are the
emanations of Him who is Life, Truth, and Love. Im-
mortal man is not and never was material, but always
spiritual and eternal.
Indivisibility of the infinite
336:19
XXIII. God is indivisible. A portion of God could
not enter man; neither could God's fulness be reflected
by a single man, else God would be manifestly
finite, lose the deific character, and become
less than God. Allness is the measure of the infinite, and
nothing less can express God.
God the parent Mind
336:25
XXIV. God, the divine Principle of man, and man in
God's likeness are inseparable, harmonious, and eternal.
The Science of being furnishes the rule of per-
fection, and brings immortality to light. God
and man are not the same, but in the order of divine Sci-
ence, God and man coexist and are eternal. God is the
parent Mind, and man is God's spiritual offspring.
Man reflects the perfect God
336:32
XXV. God is individual and personal in a scientific
337:1
sense, but not in any anthropomorphic sense. Therefore
man, reflecting God, cannot lose his individuality; but as
material sensation, or a soul in the body, blind
mortals do lose sight of spiritual individuality.
Material personality is not realism; it is not
the reflection or likeness of Spirit, the perfect God. Sen-
sualism is not bliss, but bondage. For true happiness,
man must harmonize with his Principle, divine Love; the
Son must be in accord with the Father, in conformity with
Christ. According to divine Science, man is in a degree
as perfect as the Mind that forms him. The truth of be-
ing makes man harmonious and immortal, while error is
mortal and discordant.
Purity the path to perfection
337:14
XXVI. Christian Science demonstrates that none but
the pure in heart can see God, as the gospel
teaches. In proportion to his purity is man
perfect; and perfection is the order of celestial
being which demonstrates Life in Christ, Life's spiritual
ideal.
True idea of man
337:20
XXVII. The true idea of man, as the reflection of the
invisible God, is as incomprehensible to the limited senses
as is man's infinite Principle. The visible uni-
verse and material man are the poor counter-
feits of the invisible universe and spiritual man. Eternal
things (verities) are God's thoughts as they exist in the
spiritual realm of the real. Temporal things are the
thoughts of mortals and are the unreal, being the oppo-
site of the real or the spiritual and eternal.
Truth demonstrated
337:29
XXVIII. Subject sickness, sin, and death to the rule
of health and holiness in Christian Science,
and you ascertain that this Science is demon-
strably true, for it heals the sick and sinning as no
338:1
other system can. Christian Science, rightly under-
stood, leads to eternal harmony. It brings to light the
only living and true God and man as made in His like-
ness; whereas the opposite belief – that man originates
in matter and has beginning and end, that he is both
soul and body, both good and evil, both spiritual and
material – terminates in discord and mortality, in the
error which must be destroyed by Truth. The mortality
of material man proves that error has been ingrafted
into the premises and conclusions of material and mortal
humanity.
Adam not ideal man
338:12
XXIX. The word Adam is from the Hebrew adamah,
signifying the red color of the ground, dust, nothingness.
Divide the name Adam into two syllables,
and it reads, a dam, or obstruction. This
suggests the thought of something fluid, of mortal mind
in solution. It further suggests the thought of that
"darkness . . . upon the face of the deep," when mat-
ter or dust was deemed the agent of Deity in creating
man, – when matter, as that which is accursed, stood
opposed to Spirit. Here a dam is not a mere play upon
words; it stands for obstruction, error, even the sup-
posed separation of man from God, and the obstacle
which the serpent, sin, would impose between man and
his creator. The dissection and definition of words,
aside from their metaphysical derivation, is not scien-
tific. Jehovah declared the ground was accursed; and
from this ground, or matter, sprang Adam, notwith-
standing God had blessed the earth "for man's sake."
From this it follows that Adam was not the ideal man
for whom the earth was blessed. The ideal man was
revealed in due time, and was known as Christ Jesus.
Divine pardon
339:1
XXX. The destruction of sin is the divine method of
pardon. Divine Life destroys death, Truth destroys
error, and Love destroys hate. Being de-
stroyed, sin needs no other form of forgiveness.
Does not God's pardon, destroying any one sin, prophesy
and involve the final destruction of all sin?
Evil not produced by God
339:7
XXXI. Since God is All, there is no room for His
unlikeness. God, Spirit, alone created all, and called it
good. Therefore evil, being contrary to good,
is unreal, and cannot be the product of God.
A sinner can receive no encouragement from the fact that
Science demonstrates the unreality of evil, for the sinner
would make a reality of sin, – would make that real
which is unreal, and thus heap up "wrath against the
day of wrath." He is joining in a conspiracy against
himself, – against his own awakening to the awful un-
reality by which he has been deceived. Only those, who
repent of sin and forsake the unreal, can fully understand
the unreality of evil.
Basis of health and immortality
339:20
XXXII. As the mythology of pagan Rome has yielded
to a more spiritual idea of Deity, so will our material
theories yield to spiritual ideas, until the finite
gives place to the infinite, sickness to health,
sin to holiness, and God's kingdom comes "in
earth, as it is in heaven." The basis of all health, sin-
lessness, and immortality is the great fact that God is
the only Mind; and this Mind must be not merely be-
lieved, but it must be understood. To get rid of sin
through Science, is to divest sin of any supposed mind
or reality, and never to admit that sin can have intelli-
gence or power, pain or pleasure. You conquer error by
denying its verity. Our various theories will never lose
340:1
their imaginary power for good or evil, until we lose our
faith in them and make life its own proof of harmony
and God.
340:4
This text in the book of Ecclesiastes conveys the
Christian Science thought, especially when the word
duty, which is not in the original, is omitted: "Let
us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God,
and keep His commandments: for this is the whole
duty of man." In other words: Let us hear the con-
clusion of the whole matter: love God and keep His
commandments: for this is the whole of man in His
image and likeness. Divine Love is infinite. Therefore
all that really exists is in and of God, and manifests His
love.
340:15
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (Exodus
xx. 3.) The First Commandment is my favorite text.
It demonstrates Christian Science. It inculcates the tri‑
unity of God, Spirit, Mind; it signifies that man shall
have no other spirit or mind but God, eternal good, and
that all men shall have one Mind. The divine Principle
of the First Commandment bases the Science of being, by
which man demonstrates health, holiness, and life eternal.
One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; con-
stitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the
Scripture, "Love thy neighbor as thyself;" annihilates
pagan and Christian idolatry, – whatever is wrong in
social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes;
equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves
nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.
Chapter XI
Some Objections Answered
And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you con-
vinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? –
JESUS.
But if the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in
you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mor-
tal bodies by His spirit that dwelleth in you. – PAUL.
341:1
THE strictures on this volume would condemn to
oblivion the truth, which is raising up thousands
from helplessness to strength and elevating them from
a theoretical to a practical Christianity. These criticisms
are generally based on detached sentences or clauses sep-
arated from their context. Even the Scriptures, which
grow in beauty and consistency from one grand root, ap-
pear contradictory when subjected to such usage. Jesus
said, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see
God" [Truth].
Supported by facts
341:11
In Christian Science mere opinion is valueless. Proof
is essential to a due estimate of this subject. Sneers at
the application of the word Science to Chris-
tianity cannot prevent that from being scien-
tific which is based on divine Principle, demonstrated ac-
cording to a divine given rule, and subjected to proof.
The facts are so absolute and numerous in support of
Christian Science, that misrepresentation and denuncia-
342:1
tion cannot overthrow it. Paul alludes to "doubtful dis-
putations." The hour has struck when proof and demon-
stration, instead of opinion and dogma, are summoned to
the support of Christianity, "making wise the simple."
Commands of Jesus
342:5
In the result of some unqualified condemnations of
scientific Mind-healing, one may see with sorrow the sad
effects on the sick of denying Truth. He that
decries this Science does it presumptuously,
in the face of Bible history and in defiance of the direct
command of Jesus, "Go ye into all the world, and preach
the gospel," to which command was added the promise
that his students should cast out evils and heal the sick.
He bade the seventy disciples, as well as the twelve,
heal the sick in any town where they should be hospitably
received.
Christianity scientific
342:16
If Christianity is not scientific, and Science is not of
God, then there is no invariable law, and truth becomes
an accident. Shall it be denied that a system
which works according to the Scriptures has
Scriptural authority?
Argument of good works
342:21
Christian Science awakens the sinner, reclaims the
infidel, and raises from the couch of pain the helpless
invalid. It speaks to the dumb the words of
Truth, and they answer with rejoicing. It
causes the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and the blind
to see. Who would be the first to disown the Christli-
ness of good works, when our Master says, "By their
fruits ye shall know them"?
342:29
If Christian Scientists were teaching or practising
pharmacy or obstetrics according to the common theo-
ries, no denunciations would follow them, even if their
treatment resulted in the death of a patient. The people
343:1
are taught in such cases to say, Amen. Shall I then be
smitten for healing and for teaching Truth as the Prin-
ciple of healing, and for proving my word by my deed?
James said: "Show me thy faith without thy works, and
I will show thee my faith by my works."
Personal experience
343:6
Is not finite mind ignorant of God's method? This
makes it doubly unfair to impugn and misrepresent the
facts, although, without this cross-bearing,
one might not be able to say with the apostle,
"None of these things move me." The sick, the halt,
and the blind look up to Christian Science with blessings,
and Truth will not be forever hidden by unjust parody
from the quickened sense of the people.
Proof from miracles
343:14
Jesus strips all disguise from error, when his teachings
are fully understood. By parable and argument he ex-
plains the impossibility of good producing evil;
and he also scientifically demonstrates this great
fact, proving by what are wrongly called miracles, that
sin, sickness, and death are beliefs – illusive errors –
which he could and did destroy.
It would sometimes seem as if truth were rejected be-
cause meekness and spirituality are the conditions of its
acceptance, while Christendom generally demands so
much less.
Example of the disciples
343:25
Anciently those apostles who were Jesus' students,
as well as Paul who was not one of his students, healed
the sick and reformed the sinner by their
religion. Hence the mistake which allows
words, rather than works, to follow such examples!
Whoever is the first meekly and conscientiously to press
along the line of gospel-healing, is often accounted a
heretic.
Strong position
344:1
It is objected to Christian Science that it claims God
as the only absolute Life and Soul, and man to be His
idea, – that is, His image. It should be
added that this is claimed to represent the
normal, healthful, and sinless condition of man in divine
Science, and that this claim is made because the Scrip-
tures say that God has created man in His own image
and after His likeness. Is it sacrilegious to assume that
God's likeness is not found in matter, sin, sickness, and
death?
Efficacy may be attested
344:11
Were it more fully understood that Truth heals and
that error causes disease, the opponents of a demonstrable
Science would perhaps mercifully withhold
their misrepresentations, which harm the sick;
and until the enemies of Christian Science test its efficacy
according to the rules which disclose its merits or de-
merits, it would be just to observe the Scriptural precept,
"Judge not."
The one divine method
344:19
There are various methods of treating disease, which
are not included in the commonly accepted systems; but
there is only one which should be presented
to the whole world, and that is the Christian
Science which Jesus preached and practised and left to us
as his rich legacy.
344:25
Why should one refuse to investigate this method
of treating disease? Why support the popular systems
of medicine, when the physician may perchance be an
infidel and may lose ninety-and-nine patients, while
Christian Science cures its hundred? Is it because
allopathy and homoeopathy are more fashionable and
less spiritual?
Omnipotence set forth
344:32
In the Bible the word Spirit is so commonly applied
345:1
to Deity, that Spirit and God are often regarded as syn-
onymous terms; and it is thus they are uniformly used
and understood in Christian Science. As it
is evident that the likeness of Spirit cannot be
material, does it not follow that God cannot be in His
unlikeness and work through drugs to heal the sick?
When the omnipotence of God is preached and His ab-
soluteness is set forth, Christian sermons will heal the
sick.
Contradictions not found
345:10
It is sometimes said, in criticising Christian Science,
that the mind which contradicts itself neither knows
itself nor what it is saying. It is indeed no
small matter to know one's self; but in this
volume of mine there are no contradictory
statements, – at least none which are apparent to those
who understand its propositions well enough to pass
judgment upon them. One who understands Christian
Science can heal the sick on the divine Principle of Chris-
tian Science, and this practical proof is the only feasible
evidence that one does understand this Science.
345:21
Anybody, who is able to perceive the incongruity be-
tween God's idea and poor humanity, ought to be able
to discern the distinction (made by Christian Science)
between God's man, made in His image, and the sinning
race of Adam.
345:26
The apostle says: "For if a man think himself to be
something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself."
This thought of human, material nothingness, which
Science inculcates, enrages the carnal mind and is the
main cause of the carnal mind's antagonism.
God's idea the ideal man
345:31
It is not the purpose of Christian Science to "educate
the idea of God, or treat it for disease," as is alleged
346:1
by one critic. I regret that such criticism confounds man
with Adam. When man is spoken of as made in God's
image, it is not sinful and sickly mortal man
who is referred to, but the ideal man, reflecting
God's likeness.
Nothingness of error
346:6
It is sometimes said that Christian Science teaches the
nothingness of sin, sickness, and death, and then teaches
how this nothingness is to be saved and healed.
The nothingness of nothing is plain; but we
need to understand that error is nothing, and that its
nothingness is not saved, but must be demonstrated in
order to prove the somethingness – yea, the allness –
of Truth. It is self-evident that we are harmonious only
as we cease to manifest evil or the belief that we suffer
from the sins of others. Disbelief in error destroys error,
and leads to the discernment of Truth. There are no
vacuums. How then can this demonstration be "fraught
with falsities painful to behold"?
Truth antidotes error
346:19
We treat error through the understanding of Truth,
because Truth is error's antidote. If a dream ceases, it
is self-destroyed, and the terror is over. When
a sufferer is convinced that there is no reality
in his belief of pain, – because matter has no sensation,
hence pain in matter is a false belief, – how can he suffer
longer? Do you feel the pain of tooth-pulling, when you
believe that nitrous-oxide gas has made you unconscious?
Yet, in your concept, the tooth, the operation, and the
forceps are unchanged.
Serving two masters
346:29
Material beliefs must be expelled to make room for
spiritual understanding. We cannot serve both
God and mammon at the same time; but is
not this what frail mortals are trying to do? Paul says:
347:1
"The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against
the flesh." Who is ready to admit this?
347:3
It is said by one critic, that to verify this wonderful
philosophy Christian Science declares that whatever is
mortal or discordant has no origin, existence, nor real-
ness. Nothing really has Life but God, who is infinite
Life; hence all is Life, and death has no dominion. This
writer infers that if anything needs to be doctored, it
must be the one God, or Mind. Had he stated his syllo-
gism correctly, the conclusion would be that there is noth-
ing left to be doctored.
Essential element of Christianity
347:12
Critics should consider that the so-called mortal man
is not the reality of man. Then they would behold the
signs of Christ's coming. Christ, as the spir-
itual or true idea of God, comes now as of
old, preaching the gospel to the poor, heal-
ing the sick, and casting out evils. Is it error which
is restoring an essential element of Christianity, –
namely, apostolic, divine healing? No; it is the Science
of Christianity which is restoring it, and is the light
shining in darkness, which the darkness comprehends
not.
347:23
If Christian Science takes away the popular gods, –
sin, sickness, and death, – it is Christ, Truth, who de-
stroys these evils, and so proves their nothingness.
347:26
The dream that matter and error are something
must yield to reason and revelation. Then mortals
will behold the nothingness of sickness and sin, and
sin and sickness will disappear from consciousness.
The harmonious will appear real, and the inharmo-
nious unreal. These critics will then see that error
is indeed the nothingness, which they chide us for
348:1
naming nothing and which we desire neither to honor
nor to fear.
348:3
Medical theories virtually admit the nothingness of
hallucinations, even while treating them as disease; and
who objects to this? Ought we not, then, to approve
any cure, which is effected by making the disease appear
to be – what it really is – an illusion?
All disease a delusion
348:8
Here is the difficulty: it is not generally understood how
one disease can be just as much a delusion as another. It
is a pity that the medical faculty and clergy
have not learned this, for Jesus established
this foundational fact, when devils, delusions, were cast
out and the dumb spake.
Elimination of sickness
348:14
Are we irreverent towards sin, or imputing too much
power to God, when we ascribe to Him almighty Life
and Love? I deny His cooperation with evil,
because I desire to have no faith in evil or in
any power but God, good. Is it not well to eliminate from
so-called mortal mind that which, so long as it remains in
mortal mind, will show itself in forms of sin, sickness, and
death? Instead of tenaciously defending the supposed
rights of disease, while complaining of the suffering dis-
ease brings, would it not be well to abandon the defence,
especially when by so doing our own condition can be im-
proved and that of other persons as well?
Full fruitage yet to come
348:26
I have never supposed the world would immediately
witness the full fruitage of Christian Science, or that sin,
disease, and death would not be believed for
an indefinite time; but this I do aver, that,
as a result of teaching Christian Science, ethics and
temperance have received an impulse, health has been
restored, and longevity increased. If such are the pres-
349:1
ent fruits, what will the harvest be, when this Science is
more generally understood?
Law and gospel
349:3
As Paul asked of the unfaithful in ancient days, so
the rabbis of the present day ask concerning our heal-
ing and teaching, "Through breaking the law,
dishonorest thou God?" We have the gospel,
however, and our Master annulled material law by heal-
ing contrary to it. We propose to follow the Master's
example. We should subordinate material law to spirit-
ual law. Two essential points of Christian Science are,
that neither Life nor man dies, and that God is not the
author of sickness.
Language inadequate
349:13
The chief difficulty in conveying the teachings of divine
Science accurately to human thought lies in this, that like
all other languages, English is inadequate to
the expression of spiritual conceptions and
propositions, because one is obliged to use material terms
in dealing with spiritual ideas. The elucidation of Chris-
tian Science lies in its spiritual sense, and this sense must
be gained by its disciples in order to grasp the meaning of
this Science. Out of this condition grew the prophecy
concerning the Christian apostles, "They shall speak with
new tongues."
349:24
Speaking of the things of Spirit while dwelling on
a material plane, material terms must be generally em-
ployed. Mortal thought does not at once catch the
higher meaning, and can do so only as thought is edu-
cated up to spiritual apprehension. To a certain extent
this is equally true of all learning, even that which is
wholly material.
Substance spiritual
349:31
In Christian Science, substance is understood to be
Spirit, while the opponents of Christian Science believe
350:1
substance to be matter. They think of matter as some-
thing and almost the only thing, and of the things which
pertain to Spirit as next to nothing, or as very
far removed from daily experience. Christian
Science takes exactly the opposite view.
Both words and works
350:6
To understand all our Master's sayings as recorded
in the New Testament, sayings infinitely important,
his followers must grow into that stature of
manhood in Christ Jesus which enables them
to interpret his spiritual meaning. Then they know
how Truth casts out error and heals the sick. His
words were the offspring of his deeds, both of which
must be understood. Unless the works are com-
prehended which his words explained, the words are
blind.
350:16
The Master often refused to explain his words, because
it was difficult in a material age to apprehend spiritual
Truth. He said: "This people's heart is waxed gross,
and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they
have closed; lest at any time they should see with their
eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand
with their heart, and should be converted, and I should
heal them."
The divine life-link
350:24
"The Word was made flesh." Divine Truth must be
known by its effects on the body as well as on the mind,
before the Science of being can be demon-
strated. Hence its embodiment in the incar-
nate Jesus, – that life-link forming the connection through
which the real reaches the unreal, Soul rebukes sense, and
Truth destroys error.
Truth a present help
350:31
In Jewish worship the Word was materially explained,
and the spiritual sense was scarcely perceived. The
351:1
religion which sprang from half-hidden Israelitish history
was pedantic and void of healing power. When we lose
faith in God's power to heal, we distrust the
divine Principle which demonstrates Christian
Science, and then we cannot heal the sick. Neither can
we heal through the help of Spirit, if we plant ourselves
on a material basis.
351:8
The author became a member of the orthodox Con-
gregational Church in early years. Later she learned
that her own prayers failed to heal her as did the prayers
of her devout parents and the church; but when the
spiritual sense of the creed was discerned in the Science
of Christianity, this spiritual sense was a present help. It
was the living, palpitating presence of Christ, Truth, which
healed the sick.
Fatal premises
351:16
We cannot bring out the practical proof of Christianity,
which Jesus required, while error seems as potent and
real to us as Truth, and while we make a per-
sonal devil and an anthropomorphic God our
starting-points, – especially if we consider Satan as a
being coequal in power with Deity, if not superior to Him.
Because such starting-points are neither spiritual nor
scientific, they cannot work out the Spirit-rule of Christian
healing, which proves the nothingness of error, discord,
by demonstrating the all-inclusiveness of harmonious
Truth.
Fruitless worship
351:27
The Israelites centred their thoughts on the material
in their attempted worship of the spiritual. To them
matter was substance, and Spirit was shadow.
They thought to worship Spirit from a ma-
terial standpoint, but this was impossible. They might
appeal to Jehovah, but their prayer brought down no
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