Chapter 11: 'Science and Health with Key to The Scriptures' by Mary Baker Eddy

Chapter XI - Some Objections Answered

Two infinite creators absurd

357:1
In common justice, we must admit that God will not

punish man for doing what He created man

capable of doing, and knew from the outset

that man would do. God is "of purer eyes

than to behold evil." We sustain Truth, not by accept-

ing, but by rejecting a lie.

357:7
Jesus said of personified evil, that it was "a liar, and

the father of it." Truth creates neither a lie, a capacity

to lie, nor a liar. If mankind would relinquish the belief

that God makes sickness, sin, and death, or makes man

capable of suffering on account of this malevolent triad,

the foundations of error would be sapped and error's de-

struction ensured; but if we theoretically endow mortals

with the creativeness and authority of Deity, how dare we

attempt to destroy what He hath made, or even to deny

that God made man evil and made evil good?

Anthropomorphism

357:17
History teaches that the popular and false notions

about the Divine Being and character have originated

in the human mind. As there is in reality but

one God, one Mind, wrong notions about God

must have originated in a false supposition, not in im-

mortal Truth, and they are fading out. They are false

claims, which will eventually disappear, according to the

vision of St. John in the Apocalypse.

One supremacy

357:25
If what opposes God is real, there must be two

powers, and God is not supreme and infinite. Can

Deity be almighty, if another mighty and

self-creative cause exists and sways man-

kind? Has the Father "Life in Himself," as the Scrip-

tures say, and, if so, can Life, or God, dwell in evil and

create it? Can matter drive Life, Spirit, hence, and so

defeat omnipotence?

Matter impotent

358:1
Is the woodman's axe, which destroys a tree's so-called

life, superior to omnipotence? Can a leaden bullet de-

prive a man of Life, – that is, of God, who is

man's Life? If God is at the mercy of matter,

then matter is omnipotent. Such doctrines are "confu-

sion worse confounded." If two statements directly con-

tradict each other and one is true, the other must be false.

Is Science thus contradictory?

Scientific and Biblical facts

358:9
Christian Science, understood, coincides with the

Scriptures, and sustains logically and demonstratively

every point it presents. Otherwise it would

not be Science, and could not present its

proofs. Christian Science is neither made up of contra-

dictory aphorisms nor of the inventions of those who scoff

at God. It presents the calm and clear verdict of Truth

against error, uttered and illustrated by the prophets,

by Jesus, by his apostles, as is recorded throughout the

Scriptures.

358:19
Why are the words of Jesus more frequently cited

for our instruction than are his remarkable works? Is

it not because there are few who have gained a true

knowledge of the great import to Christianity of those

works?

Personal confidence

358:24
Sometimes it is said; "Rest assured that whatever

effect Christian Scientists may have on the sick, comes

through rousing within the sick a belief

that in the removal of disease these healers

have wonderful power, derived from the Holy Ghost."

Is it likely that church-members have more faith in

some Christian Scientist, whom they have perhaps

never seen and against whom they have been warned,

than they have in their own accredited and orthodox

359:1
pastors, whom they have seen and have been taught

to love and to trust?

359:3
Let any clergyman try to cure his friends by their

faith in him. Will that faith heal them? Yet Scien-

tists will take the same cases, and cures will follow.

Is this because the patients have more faith in the Scien-

tist than in their pastor? I have healed infidels whose

only objection to this method was, that I as a Chris-

tian Scientist believed in the Holy Spirit, while they, the

patients, did not.

359:11
Even though you aver that the material senses are

indispensable to man's existence or entity, you must

change the human concept of life, and must at length

know yourself spiritually and scientifically. The evi-

dence of the existence of Spirit, Soul, is palpable only to

spiritual sense, and is not apparent to the material senses,

which cognize only that which is the opposite of Spirit.

359:18
True Christianity is to be honored wherever found,

but when shall we arrive at the goal which that word

implies? From Puritan parents, the discov-

erer of Christian Science early received her

religious education. In childhood, she often listened

with joy to these words, falling from the lips of her

saintly mother, "God is able to raise you up from sick-

ness;" and she pondered the meaning of that Scripture

she so often quotes: "And these signs shall follow them

that believe; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick,

and they shall recover."

Two different artists

359:29
A Christian Scientist and an opponent are like two

artists. One says: "I have spiritual ideals,

indestructible and glorious. When others see

them as I do, in their true light and loveliness, – and

360:1
know that these ideals are real and eternal because drawn

from Truth, – they will find that nothing is lost, and all

is won, by a right estimate of what is real."

360:4
The other artist replies: "You wrong my experience.

I have no mind-ideals except those which are both mental

and material. It is true that materiality renders these

ideals imperfect and destructible; yet I would not ex-

change mine for thine, for mine give me such personal

pleasure, and they are not so shockingly transcendental.

They require less self-abnegation, and keep Soul well out

of sight. Moreover, I have no notion of losing my old

doctrines or human opinions."

Choose ye to-day

360:13
Dear reader, which mind-picture or externalized thought

shall be real to you, – the material or the spiritual?

Both you cannot have. You are bringing out

your own ideal. This ideal is either temporal

or eternal. Either Spirit or matter is your model. If you

try to have two models, then you practically have none.

Like a pendulum in a clock, you will be thrown back and

forth, striking the ribs of matter and swinging between the

real and the unreal.

360:22
Hear the wisdom of Job, as given in the excellent trans-

lation of the late Rev. George R. Noyes, D.D.: –

360:24
Shall mortal man be more just than God?

Shall man be more pure than his Maker?

Behold, He putteth no trust in His ministering spirits,

And His angels He chargeth with frailty.

360:28
Of old, the Jews put to death the Galilean Prophet,

the best Christian on earth, for the truth he spoke and

demonstrated, while to-day, Jew and Christian can unite

in doctrine and denomination on the very basis of Jesus'

words and works. The Jew believes that the Messiah or

361:1
Christ has not yet come; the Christian believes that

Christ is God. Here Christian Science intervenes, ex-

plains these doctrinal points, cancels the disagreement,

and settles the question. Christ, as the true spiritual idea,

is the ideal of God now and forever, here and everywhere.

The Jew who believes in the First Commandment is a

monotheist; he has one omnipresent God. Thus the Jew

unites with the Christian's doctrine that God is come and

is present now and forever. The Christian who believes

in the First Commandment is a monotheist. Thus he

virtually unites with the Jew's belief in one God, and

recognizes that Jesus Christ is not God, as Jesus himself

declared, but is the Son of God. This declaration of

Jesus, understood, conflicts not at all with another of his

sayings: "I and my Father are one," – that is, one in

quality, not in quantity. As a drop of water is one with

the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God

and man, Father and son, are one in being. The Scrip-

ture reads: "For in Him we live, and move, and have

our being."

361:21
I have revised Science and Health only to give a

clearer and fuller expression of its original meaning. Spir-

itual ideas unfold as we advance. A human perception of

divine Science, however limited, must be correct in order

to be Science and subject to demonstration. A germ of in-

finite Truth, though least in the kingdom of heaven is the

higher hope on earth, but it will be rejected and reviled

until God prepares the soil for the seed. That which

when sown bears immortal fruit, enriches mankind only

when it is understood, – hence the many readings given

the Scriptures, and the requisite revisions of Science and

Health with Key to the Scriptures.

Chapter XII

Christian Science Practice

Why art thou cast down, O my soul [sense]?

And why art thou disquieted within me?

Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him,

Who is the health of my countenance and my God. – PSALMS.

And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they

cast out devils: they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up

serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them;

they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. – JESUS.

A gospel narrative

362:1
IT is related in the seventh chapter of Luke's Gospel

that Jesus was once the honored guest of a certain

Pharisee, by name Simon, though he was quite unlike

Simon the disciple. While they were at meat, an unusual

incident occurred, as if to interrupt the scene

of Oriental festivity. A "strange woman"

came in. Heedless of the fact that she was debarred from

such a place and such society, especially under the stern

rules of rabbinical law, as positively as if she were a Hin-

doo pariah intruding upon the household of a high-caste

Brahman, this woman (Mary Magdalene, as she has

since been called) approached Jesus. According to the

custom of those days, he reclined on a couch with his

head towards the table and his bare feet away from it.

It was therefore easy for the Magdalen to come behind

363:1
the couch and reach his feet. She bore an alabaster jar

containing costly and fragrant oil, – sandal oil perhaps,

which is in such common use in the East. Breaking

the sealed jar, she perfumed Jesus' feet with the oil,

wiping them with her long hair, which hung loosely

about her shoulders, as was customary with women of her

grade.

Parable of the creditor

363:8
Did Jesus spurn the woman? Did he repel her adora-

tion? No! He regarded her compassionately. Nor was

this all. Knowing what those around him

were saying in their hearts, especially his host,

– that they were wondering why, being a prophet, the

exalted guest did not at once detect the woman's immoral

status and bid her depart, – knowing this, Jesus rebuked

them with a short story or parable. He described two

debtors, one for a large sum and one for a smaller, who

were released from their obligations by their common

creditor. "Which of them will love him most?" was the

Master's question to Simon the Pharisee; and Simon re-

plied, "He to whom he forgave most." Jesus approved

the answer, and so brought home the lesson to all, follow-

ing it with that remarkable declaration to the woman,

"Thy sins are forgiven."

Divine insight

363:24
Why did he thus summarize her debt to divine Love?

Had she repented and reformed, and did his insight

detect this unspoken moral uprising? She

bathed his feet with her tears before she

anointed them with the oil. In the absence of other

proofs, was her grief sufficient evidence to warrant the

expectation of her repentance, reformation, and growth

in wisdom? Certainly there was encouragement in the

mere fact that she was showing her affection for a man

364:1
of undoubted goodness and purity, who has since been

rightfully regarded as the best man that ever trod this

planet. Her reverence was unfeigned, and it was mani-

fested towards one who was soon, though they knew it

not, to lay down his mortal existence in behalf of all

sinners, that through his word and works they might be

redeemed from sensuality and sin.

Penitence or hospitality

364:8
Which was the higher tribute to such ineffable affec-

tion, the hospitality of the Pharisee or the contrition of

the Magdalen? This query Jesus answered

by rebuking self-righteousness and declaring

the absolution of the penitent. He even said that this

poor woman had done what his rich entertainer had neg-

lected to do, – wash and anoint his guest's feet, a special

sign of Oriental courtesy.

364:16
Here is suggested a solemn question, a question indi-

cated by one of the needs of this age. Do Christian

Scientists seek Truth as Simon sought the Saviour, through

material conservatism and for personal homage? Jesus

told Simon that such seekers as he gave small reward

in return for the spiritual purgation which came through

the Messiah. If Christian Scientists are like Simon,

then it must be said of them also that they love

little.

Genuine repentance

364:25
On the other hand, do they show their regard for

Truth, or Christ, by their genuine repentance, by their

broken hearts, expressed by meekness and

human affection, as did this woman? If

so, then it may be said of them, as Jesus said of the

unwelcome visitor, that they indeed love much, because

much is forgiven them.

Compassion requisite

364:32
Did the careless doctor, the nurse, the cook, and the

365:1
brusque business visitor sympathetically know the thorns

they plant in the pillow of the sick and the heavenly

homesick looking away from earth, – Oh, did

they know! – this knowledge would do much

more towards healing the sick and preparing their helpers

for the "midnight call," than all cries of "Lord, Lord!"

The benign thought of Jesus, finding utterance in such

words as "Take no thought for your life," would heal

the sick, and so enable them to rise above the supposed

necessity for physical thought-taking and doctoring;

but if the unselfish affections be lacking, and common

sense and common humanity are disregarded, what men-

tal quality remains, with which to evoke healing from

the outstretched arm of righteousness?

Speedy healing

365:15
If the Scientist reaches his patient through divine

Love, the healing work will be accomplished at one

visit, and the disease will vanish into its native

nothingness like dew before the morning sun-

shine. If the Scientist has enough Christly affection to

win his own pardon, and such commendation as the Mag-

dalen gained from Jesus, then he is Christian enough to

practise scientifically and deal with his patients compas-

sionately; and the result will correspond with the spiritual

intent.

Truth desecrated

365:25
If hypocrisy, stolidity, inhumanity, or vice finds its

way into the chambers of disease through the would-be

healer, it would, if it were possible, convert

into a den of thieves the temple of the Holy

Ghost, – the patient's spiritual power to resuscitate him-

self. The unchristian practitioner is not giving to mind

or body the joy and strength of Truth. The poor suf-

fering heart needs its rightful nutriment, such as peace,

366:1
patience in tribulation, and a priceless sense of the dear

Father's loving-kindness.

Moral evils to be cast out

366:3
In order to cure his patient, the metaphysician

must first cast moral evils out of himself and thus

attain the spiritual freedom which will en-

able him to cast physical evils out of his

patient; but heal he cannot, while his own spiritual

barrenness debars him from giving drink to the thirsty

and hinders him from reaching his patient's thought, –

yea, while mental penury chills his faith and under-

standing.

The true physician

366:12
The physician who lacks sympathy for his fellow‑

being is deficient in human affection, and we have the

apostolic warrant for asking: "He that loveth

not his brother whom he hath seen, how can

he love God whom he hath not seen?" Not having this

spiritual affection, the physician lacks faith in the divine

Mind and has not that recognition of infinite Love which

alone confers the healing power. Such so-called Scien-

tists will strain out gnats, while they swallow the camels

of bigoted pedantry.

Source of calmness

366:22
The physician must also watch, lest he be over-

whelmed by a sense of the odiousness of sin and by the

unveiling of sin in his own thoughts. The

sick are terrified by their sick beliefs, and

sinners should be affrighted by their sinful beliefs; but

the Christian Scientist will be calm in the presence of

both sin and disease, knowing, as he does, that Life is

God and God is All.

Genuine healing

366:30
If we would open their prison doors for the sick, we

must first learn to bind up the broken-hearted. If we

would heal by the Spirit, we must not hide the talent

367:1
of spiritual healing under the napkin of its form, nor

bury the morale of Christian Science in the grave-clothes

of its letter. The tender word and Christian

encouragement of an invalid, pitiful patience

with his fears and the removal of them, are better than

hecatombs of gushing theories, stereotyped borrowed

speeches, and the doling of arguments, which are but so

many parodies on legitimate Christian Science, aflame

with divine Love.

Gratitude and humility

367:10
This is what is meant by seeking Truth, Christ, not

"for the loaves and fishes," nor, like the Pharisee, with

the arrogance of rank and display of scholar-

ship, but like Mary Magdalene, from the sum-

mit of devout consecration, with the oil of gladness and

the perfume of gratitude, with tears of repentance and

with those hairs all numbered by the Father.

The salt of the earth

367:17
A Christian Scientist occupies the place at this period

of which Jesus spoke to his disciples, when he said: "Ye

are the salt of the earth." "Ye are the light

of the world. A city that is set on an hill can-

not be hid." Let us watch, work, and pray that this salt

lose not its saltness, and that this light be not hid, but

radiate and glow into noontide glory.

367:24
The infinite Truth of the Christ-cure has come to this

age through a "still, small voice," through silent utter-

ances and divine anointing which quicken and increase

the beneficial effects of Christianity. I long to see the

consummation of my hope, namely, the student's higher

attainments in this line of light.

Real and counterfeit

367:30
Because Truth is infinite, error should be known as

nothing. Because Truth is omnipotent in goodness,

error, Truth's opposite, has no might. Evil is but the

368:1
counterpoise of nothingness. The greatest wrong is

but a supposititious opposite of the highest right. The

confidence inspired by Science lies in the fact

that Truth is real and error is unreal. Error

is a coward before Truth. Divine Science insists that

time will prove all this. Both truth and error have come

nearer than ever before to the apprehension of mortals,

and truth will become still clearer as error is self‑

destroyed.

Results of faith in Truth

368:10
Against the fatal beliefs that error is as real as Truth,

that evil is equal in power to good if not superior, and that

discord is as normal as harmony, even the hope

of freedom from the bondage of sickness and

sin has little inspiration to nerve endeavor. When we

come to have more faith in the truth of being than we have

in error, more faith in Spirit than in matter, more faith

in living than in dying, more faith in God than in man,

then no material suppositions can prevent us from healing

the sick and destroying error.

Life independent of matter

368:20
That Life is not contingent on bodily conditions is

proved, when we learn that life and man survive this

body. Neither evil, disease, nor death can be

spiritual, and the material belief in them dis-

appears in the ratio of one's spiritual growth. Because

matter has no consciousness or Ego, it cannot act; its

conditions are illusions, and these false conditions are the

source of all seeming sickness. Admit the existence of

matter, and you admit that mortality (and therefore dis-

ease) has a foundation in fact. Deny the existence of

matter, and you can destroy the belief in material con-

ditions. When fear disappears, the foundation of disease

is gone. Once let the mental physician believe in the

369:1
reality of matter, and he is liable to admit also the reality

of all discordant conditions, and this hinders his de-

stroying them. Thus he is unfitted for the successful

treatment of disease.

Man's entity

369:5
In proportion as matter loses to human sense all en-

tity as man, in that proportion does man become its

master. He enters into a diviner sense of the

facts, and comprehends the theology of Jesus

as demonstrated in healing the sick, raising the dead,

and walking over the wave. All these deeds manifested

Jesus' control over the belief that matter is substance,

that it can be the arbiter of life or the constructor of any

form of existence.

The Christ treatment

369:14
We never read that Luke or Paul made a reality of

disease in order to discover some means of healing it.

Jesus never asked if disease were acute or

chronic, and he never recommended atten-

tion to laws of health, never gave drugs, never prayed

to know if God were willing that a man should live. He

understood man, whose life is God, to be immortal, and

knew that man has not two lives, one to be destroyed and

the other to be made indestructible.

Matter not medicine

369:23
The prophylactic and therapeutic (that is, the prevent-

ive and curative) arts belong emphatically to Christian

Science, as would be readily seen, if psychology,

or the Science of Spirit, God, was understood.

Unscientific methods are finding their dead level. Lim-

ited to matter by their own law, what have they of the

advantages of Mind and immortality?

No healing in sin

369:30
No man is physically healed in wilful error or by it,

any more than he is morally saved in or by sin. It is

error even to murmur or to be angry over sin. To be

370:1
every whit whole, man must be better spiritually as well

as physically. To be immortal, we must forsake the

mortal sense of things, turn from the lie of false

belief to Truth, and gather the facts of being

from the divine Mind. The body improves under the

same regimen which spiritualizes the thought; and if

health is not made manifest under this regimen, this

proves that fear is governing the body. This is the law

of cause and effect, or like producing like.

Like curing like

370:10
Homoeopathy furnishes the evidence to the senses, that

symptoms, which might be produced by a certain drug,

are removed by using the same drug which

might cause the symptoms. This confirms

my theory that faith in the drug is the sole factor in the

cure. The effect, which mortal mind produces through

one belief, it removes through an opposite belief, but it

uses the same medicine in both cases.

The moral and spiritual facts of health, whispered

into thought, produce very direct and marked effects on

the body. A physical diagnosis of disease – since mor-

tal mind must be the cause of disease – tends to induce

disease.

Transient potency of drugs

370:23
According to both medical testimony and individual

experience, a drug may eventually lose its supposed power

and do no more for the patient. Hygienic

treatment also loses its efficacy. Quackery

likewise fails at length to inspire the credulity

of the sick, and then they cease to improve. These les-

sons are useful. They should naturally and genuinely

change our basis from sensation to Christian Science,

from error to Truth, from matter to Spirit.

Diagnosis of matter

370:32
Physicians examine the pulse, tongue, lungs, to dis-

371:1
cover the condition of matter, when in fact all is

Mind. The body is the substratum of mortal mind,

and this so-called mind must finally yield

to the mandate of immortal Mind.

Ghost-stories inducing fear

371:5
Disquisitions on disease have a mental effect similar

to that produced on children by telling ghost-stories in

the dark. By those uninstructed in Christian

Science, nothing is really understood of material

existence. Mortals are believed to be here without their

consent and to be removed as involuntarily, not knowing

why nor when. As frightened children look everywhere

for the imaginary ghost, so sick humanity sees danger in

every direction, and looks for relief in all ways except the

right one. Darkness induces fear. The adult, in bond-

age to his beliefs, no more comprehends his real being

than does the child; and the adult must be taken out of

his darkness, before he can get rid of the illusive suffer-

ings which throng the gloaming. The way in divine

Science is the only way out of this condition.

Mind imparts purity, health, and beauty

371:20
I would not transform the infant at once into a

man, nor would I keep the suckling a lifelong babe.

No impossible thing do I ask when urging

the claims of Christian Science; but because

this teaching is in advance of the age, we

should not deny our need of its spiritual unfoldment.

Mankind will improve through Science and Christi-

anity. The necessity for uplifting the race is father to

the fact that Mind can do it; for Mind can impart

purity instead of impurity, strength instead of weak-

ness, and health instead of disease. Truth is an altera-

tive in the entire system, and can make it "every whit

whole."

Brain not intelligent

372:1
Remember, brain is not mind. Matter cannot be sick,

and Mind is immortal. The mortal body is only an erro-

neous mortal belief of mind in matter. What

you call matter was originally error in solu-

tion, elementary mortal mind, – likened by Milton to

"chaos and old night." One theory about this mortal

mind is, that its sensations can reproduce man, can form

blood, flesh, and bones. The Science of being, in which

all is divine Mind, or God and His idea, would be clearer

in this age, but for the belief that matter is the medium

of man, or that man can enter his own embodied thought,

bind himself with his own beliefs, and then call his bonds

material and name them divine law.

Veritable success

372:14
When man demonstrates Christian Science absolutely,

he will be perfect. He can neither sin, suffer, be subject

to matter, nor disobey the law of God. There-

fore he will be as the angels in heaven. Chris-

tian Science and Christianity are one. How, then, in

Christianity any more than in Christian Science, can we

believe in the reality and power of both Truth and error,

Spirit and matter, and hope to succeed with contraries?

Matter is not self-sustaining. Its false supports fail one

after another. Matter succeeds for a period only by

falsely parading in the vestments of law.

Recognition of benefits

372:25
"Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also

deny before my Father which is in heaven." In Chris-

tian Science, a denial of Truth is fatal, while

a just acknowledgment of Truth and of what

it has done for us is an effectual help. If pride, super-

stition, or any error prevents the honest recognition of

benefits received, this will be a hindrance to the recovery

of the sick and the success of the student.

Disease far more docile than iniquity

373:1
If we are Christians on all moral questions, but are in

darkness as to the physical exemption which Christian-

ity includes, then we must have more faith

in God on this subject and be more alive to

His promises. It is easier to cure the most

malignant disease than it is to cure sin. The author has

raised up the dying, partly because they were willing to

be restored, while she has struggled long, and perhaps in

vain, to lift a student out of a chronic sin. Under all

modes of pathological treatment, the sick recover more

rapidly from disease than does the sinner from his sin.

Healing is easier than teaching, if the teaching is faithfully

done.

Love frees from fear

373:14
The fear of disease and the love of sin are the sources

of man's enslavement. "The fear of the Lord

is the beginning of wisdom," but the Scriptures

also declare, through the exalted thought of John, that

"perfect Love casteth out fear."

373:19
The fear occasioned by ignorance can be cured; but

to remove the effects of fear produced by sin, you must

rise above both fear and sin. Disease is expressed not

so much by the lips as in the functions of the body. Es-

tablish the scientific sense of health, and you relieve the

oppressed organ. The inflammation, decomposition, or

deposit will abate, and the disabled organ will resume its

healthy functions.

Mind circulates blood

373:27
When the blood rushes madly through the veins or

languidly creeps along its frozen channels, we call these

conditions disease. This is a misconception.

Mortal mind is producing the propulsion or the

languor, and we prove this to be so when by mental means

the circulation is changed, and returns to that standard

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