Science and Health
with Key to The Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
Chapter I - Prayer

 

7:1
The only civil sentence which he had for error was,
"Get thee behind me, Satan." Still stronger evidence
that Jesus' reproof was pointed and pungent is found
in his own words, – showing the necessity for such
forcible utterance, when he cast out devils and healed
the sick and sinning. The relinquishment of error de-
prives material sense of its false claims.
Audible praying
7:8
Audible prayer is impressive; it gives momentary
solemnity and elevation to thought. But does it pro-
duce any lasting benefit? Looking deeply
into these things, we find that "a zeal . . .
not according to knowledge" gives occasion for reac-
tion unfavorable to spiritual growth, sober resolve, and
wholesome perception of God's requirements. The mo-
tives for verbal prayer may embrace too much love of
applause to induce or encourage Christian sentiment.
Emotional utterances
7:17
Physical sensation, not Soul, produces material ec-
stasy and emotion. If spiritual sense always guided
men, there would grow out of ecstatic mo-
ments a higher experience and a better life
with more devout self-abnegation and purity. A self‑
satisfied ventilation of fervent sentiments never makes
a Christian. God is not influenced by man. The "di-
vine ear" is not an auditory nerve. It is the all-hearing
and all-knowing Mind, to whom each need of man is
always known and by whom it will be supplied.
Danger from audible prayer
7:27
The danger from prayer is that it may lead us into temp-
tation. By it we may become involuntary hypocrites, ut-
tering desires which are not real and consoling
ourselves in the midst of sin with the recollection
that we have prayed over it or mean to ask for-
giveness at some later day. Hypocrisy is fatal to religion.
8:1
A wordy prayer may afford a quiet sense of self‑
justification, though it makes the sinner a hypocrite.
We never need to despair of an honest heart; but
there is little hope for those who come only spasmodi-
cally face to face with their wickedness and then seek to
hide it. Their prayers are indexes which do not correspond
with their character. They hold secret fellowship with
sin, and such externals are spoken of by Jesus as "like
unto whited sepulchres . . . full . . . of all uncleanness."
Aspiration and love
8:10
If a man, though apparently fervent and prayerful,
is impure and therefore insincere, what must be the
comment upon him? If he reached the
loftiness of his prayer, there would be no
occasion for comment. If we feel the aspiration, hu-
mility, gratitude, and love which our words express, –
this God accepts; and it is wise not to try to deceive
ourselves or others, for "there is nothing covered that
shall not be revealed." Professions and audible pray-
ers are like charity in one respect, – they "cover the
multitude of sins." Praying for humility with what-
ever fervency of expression does not always mean a
desire for it. If we turn away from the poor, we are
not ready to receive the reward of Him who blesses
the poor. We confess to having a very wicked heart
and ask that it may be laid bare before us, but do
we not already know more of this heart than we are
willing to have our neighbor see?
Searching the heart
8:28
We should examine ourselves and learn what is the
affection and purpose of the heart, for in this way
only can we learn what we honestly are. If a
friend informs us of a fault, do we listen pa-
tiently to the rebuke and credit what is said? Do we not
9:1
rather give thanks that we are "not as other men"?
During many years the author has been most grateful
for merited rebuke. The wrong lies in unmerited cen-
sure, – in the falsehood which does no one any good.
Summit of aspiration
9:5
The test of all prayer lies in the answer to these
questions: Do we love our neighbor better because of
this asking? Do we pursue the old selfish-
ness, satisfied with having prayed for some-
thing better, though we give no evidence of the sin-
cerity of our requests by living consistently with our
prayer? If selfishness has given place to kindness,
we shall regard our neighbor unselfishly, and bless
them that curse us; but we shall never meet this great
duty simply by asking that it may be done. There is
a cross to be taken up before we can enjoy the fruition
of our hope and faith.
Practical religion
9:17
Dost thou "love the Lord thy God with all thy
heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind"?
This command includes much, even the sur-
render of all merely material sensation, affec-
tion, and worship. This is the El Dorado of Christianity.
It involves the Science of Life, and recognizes only the
divine control of Spirit, in which Soul is our master,
and material sense and human will have no place.
The chalice sacrificial
9:25
Are you willing to leave all for Christ, for Truth, and
so be counted among sinners? No! Do you really desire
to attain this point? No! Then why make long
prayers about it and ask to be Christians,
since you do not care to tread in the footsteps of our
dear Master? If unwilling to follow his example, why
pray with the lips that you may be partakers of his
nature? Consistent prayer is the desire to do right.
10:1
Prayer means that we desire to walk and will walk in
the light so far as we receive it, even though with bleed-
ing footsteps, and that waiting patiently on the Lord,
we will leave our real desires to be rewarded by Him.
10:5
The world must grow to the spiritual understanding
of prayer. If good enough to profit by Jesus' cup of
earthly sorrows, God will sustain us under these sor-
rows. Until we are thus divinely qualified and are
willing to drink his cup, millions of vain repetitions
will never pour into prayer the unction of Spirit in
demonstration of power and "with signs following."
Christian Science reveals a necessity for overcoming the
world, the flesh, and evil, and thus destroying all error.
10:14
Seeking is not sufficient. It is striving that enables
us to enter. Spiritual attainments open the door to a
higher understanding of the divine Life.
Perfunctory prayers
10:17
One of the forms of worship in Thibet is to carry a
praying-machine through the streets, and stop at the
doors to earn a penny by grinding out a
prayer. But the advance guard of progress has
paid for the privilege of prayer the price of persecution.
Asking amiss
10:22
Experience teaches us that we do not always receive
the blessings we ask for in prayer. There is some mis-
apprehension of the source and means of
all goodness and blessedness, or we should
certainly receive that for which we ask. The Scrip-
tures say: "Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask
amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts." That
which we desire and for which we ask, it is not always
best for us to receive. In this case infinite Love will
not grant the request. Do you ask wisdom to be mer-
ciful and not to punish sin? Then "ye ask amiss."
11:1
Without punishment, sin would multiply. Jesus' prayer,
"Forgive us our debts," specified also the terms of
forgiveness. When forgiving the adulterous woman he
said, "Go, and sin no more."
Remission of penalty
11:5
A magistrate sometimes remits the penalty, but this
may be no moral benefit to the criminal, and at best, it
only saves the criminal from one form of
punishment. The moral law, which has the
right to acquit or condemn, always demands restitu-
tion before mortals can "go up higher." Broken law
brings penalty in order to compel this progress.
Truth annihilates error
11:12
Mere legal pardon (and there is no other, for divine
Principle never pardons our sins or mistakes till they
are corrected) leaves the offender free to re-
peat the offence, if indeed, he has not already
suffered sufficiently from vice to make him turn from it
with loathing. Truth bestows no pardon upon error, but
wipes it out in the most effectual manner. Jesus suffered
for our sins, not to annul the divine sentence for an in-
dividual's sin, but because sin brings inevitable suffering.
Desire for holiness
11:21
Petitions bring to mortals only the results of mor-
tals' own faith. We know that a desire for holiness is
requisite in order to gain holiness; but if we
desire holiness above all else, we shall sac-
rifice everything for it. We must be willing to do this,
that we may walk securely in the only practical road
to holiness. Prayer cannot change the unalterable
Truth, nor can prayer alone give us an understanding
of Truth; but prayer, coupled with a fervent habitual
desire to know and do the will of God, will bring us
into all Truth. Such a desire has little need of audible
expression. It is best expressed in thought and in life.
Prayer for the sick
12:1
"The prayer of faith shall save the sick," says the
Scripture. What is this healing prayer? A mere re-
quest that God will heal the sick has no
power to gain more of the divine presence
than is always at hand. The beneficial effect of
such prayer for the sick is on the human mind, mak-
ing it act more powerfully on the body through a blind
faith in God. This, however, is one belief casting out
another, – a belief in the unknown casting out a belief
in sickness. It is neither Science nor Truth which
acts through blind belief, nor is it the human under-
standing of the divine healing Principle as manifested
in Jesus, whose humble prayers were deep and con-
scientious protests of Truth, – of man's likeness to
God and of man's unity with Truth and Love.
12:16
Prayer to a corporeal God affects the sick like a
drug, which has no efficacy of its own but borrows its
power from human faith and belief. The drug does
nothing, because it has no intelligence. It is a mortal
belief, not divine Principle or Love, which causes a
drug to be apparently either poisonous or sanative.
12:22
The common custom of praying for the recovery of the
sick finds help in blind belief, whereas help should come
from the enlightened understanding. Changes in belief
may go on indefinitely, but they are the merchandise of
human thought and not the outgrowth of divine Science.
Love impartial and universal
12:27
Does Deity interpose in behalf of one worshipper,
and not help another who offers the same measure of
prayer? If the sick recover because they
pray or are prayed for audibly, only peti-
tioners (per se or by proxy) should get well. In divine
Science, where prayers are mental, all may avail them-
13:1
selves of God as "a very present help in trouble."
Love is impartial and universal in its adaptation and
bestowals. It is the open fount which cries, "Ho,
every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters."
Public exaggerations
13:5
In public prayer we often go beyond our convictions,
beyond the honest standpoint of fervent desire. If we
are not secretly yearning and openly striv-
ing for the accomplishment of all we ask,
our prayers are "vain repetitions," such as the heathen
use. If our petitions are sincere, we labor for what we
ask; and our Father, who seeth in secret, will reward
us openly. Can the mere public expression of our de-
sires increase them? Do we gain the omnipotent ear
sooner by words than by thoughts? Even if prayer is
sincere, God knows our need before we tell Him or our
fellow-beings about it. If we cherish the desire hon-
estly and silently and humbly, God will bless it, and
we shall incur less risk of overwhelming our real
wishes with a torrent of words.
Corporeal ignorance
13:20
If we pray to God as a corporeal person, this will
prevent us from relinquishing the human doubts and
fears which attend such a belief, and so we
cannot grasp the wonders wrought by infi-
nite, incorporeal Love, to whom all things are possible.
Because of human ignorance of the divine Principle,
Love, the Father of all is represented as a corporeal
creator; hence men recognize themselves as merely
physical, and are ignorant of man as God's image or re-
flection and of man's eternal incorporeal existence. The
world of error is ignorant of the world of Truth, – blind
to the reality of man's existence, – for the world of sen-
sation is not cognizant of life in Soul, not in body.
Bodily presence
14:1
If we are sensibly with the body and regard omnipo-
tence as a corporeal, material person, whose ear we
would gain, we are not "absent from the
body" and "present with the Lord" in the
demonstration of Spirit. We cannot "serve two mas-
ters." To be "present with the Lord" is to have, not
mere emotional ecstasy or faith, but the actual demon-
stration and understanding of Life as revealed in
Christian Science. To be "with the Lord" is to be in
obedience to the law of God, to be absolutely governed
by divine Love, – by Spirit, not by matter.
Spiritualized consciousness
14:12
Become conscious for a single moment that Life and
intelligence are purely spiritual, – neither in nor of
matter, – and the body will then utter no
complaints. If suffering from a belief in
sickness, you will find yourself suddenly well. Sorrow
is turned into joy when the body is controlled by spir-
itual Life, Truth, and Love. Hence the hope of the
promise Jesus bestows: "He that believeth on me,
the works that I do shall he do also; . . . because I
go unto my Father," – [because the Ego is absent from
the body, and present with Truth and Love.] The
Lord's Prayer is the prayer of Soul, not of material
sense.
14:25
Entirely separate from the belief and dream of mate-
rial living, is the Life divine, revealing spiritual under-
standing and the consciousness of man's dominion
over the whole earth. This understanding casts out
error and heals the sick, and with it you can speak
"as one having authority."
14:31
"When thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and,
when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father
15:1
which is in secret; and thy Father, which seeth in
secret, shall reward thee openly."
Spiritual sanctuary
15:3
So spake Jesus. The closet typifies the sanctuary of
Spirit, the door of which shuts out sinful sense but
lets in Truth, Life, and Love. Closed to
error, it is open to Truth, and vice versa.
The Father in secret is unseen to the physical senses,
but He knows all things and rewards according to
motives, not according to speech. To enter into the
heart of prayer, the door of the erring senses must be
closed. Lips must be mute and materialism silent,
that man may have audience with Spirit, the divine
Principle, Love, which destroys all error.
Effectual invocation
15:14
In order to pray aright, we must enter into the
closet and shut the door. We must close the lips and
silence the material senses. In the quiet
sanctuary of earnest longings, we must
deny sin and plead God's allness. We must resolve to
take up the cross, and go forth with honest hearts to
work and watch for wisdom, Truth, and Love. We
must "pray without ceasing." Such prayer is an-
swered, in so far as we put our desires into practice.
The Master's injunction is, that we pray in secret and
let our lives attest our sincerity.
Trustworthy beneficence
15:25
Christians rejoice in secret beauty and bounty, hidden
from the world, but known to God. Self-forgetfulness,
purity, and affection are constant prayers.
Practice not profession, understanding not
belief, gain the ear and right hand of omnipotence and
they assuredly call down infinite blessings. Trustworthi-
ness is the foundation of enlightened faith. Without a
fitness for holiness, we cannot receive holiness.
Loftiest adoration
16:1
A great sacrifice of material things must precede this
advanced spiritual understanding. The highest prayer
is not one of faith merely; it is demonstra-
tion. Such prayer heals sickness, and must
destroy sin and death. It distinguishes between Truth
that is sinless and the falsity of sinful sense.
The prayer of Jesus Christ
16:7
Our Master taught his disciples one brief prayer,
which we name after him the Lord's Prayer. Our Mas-
ter said, "After this manner therefore pray
ye," and then he gave that prayer which
covers all human needs. There is indeed some doubt
among Bible scholars, whether the last line is not an
addition to the prayer by a later copyist; but this does
not affect the meaning of the prayer itself.
16:15
In the phrase, "Deliver us from evil," the original
properly reads, "Deliver us from the evil one." This
reading strengthens our scientific apprehension of the peti-
tion, for Christian Science teaches us that "the evil one," or
one evil, is but another name for the first lie and all liars.
16:20
Only as we rise above all material sensuousness and
sin, can we reach the heaven-born aspiration and spir-
itual consciousness, which is indicated in the Lord's
Prayer and which instantaneously heals the sick.
Here let me give what I understand to be the spir-
itual sense of the Lord's Prayer:
16:26
Our Father which art in heaven,
Our Father-Mother God, all-harmonious,
16:28
Hallowed be Thy name.
Adorable One.
16:30
Thy kingdom come.
Thy kingdom is come; Thou art ever-present.
17:1
Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
Enable us to know, – as in heaven, so on earth, – God is
omnipotent, supreme.
17:4
Give us this day our daily bread;
Give us grace for to-day; feed the famished affections;
17:6
And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
And Love is reflected in love;
17:8
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
evil;
And God leadeth us not into temptation, but delivereth
us from sin, disease, and death.
17:12
For Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the
glory, forever.
For God is infinite, all-power, all Life, Truth, Love, over
all, and All.
Chapter II
Atonement And Eucharist
And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections
and lusts. – PAUL.
For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel. – PAUL.
For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the
kingdom of God shall come. – JESUS.
Divine oneness
18:1
ATONEMENT is the exemplification of man's unity
with God, whereby man reflects divine Truth, Life,
and Love. Jesus of Nazareth taught and demonstrated
man's oneness with the Father, and for this we owe him
endless homage. His mission was both in-
dividual and collective. He did life's work
aright not only in justice to himself, but in mercy to
mortals, – to show them how to do theirs, but not to do
it for them nor to relieve them of a single responsibility.
Jesus acted boldly, against the accredited evidence of the
senses, against Pharisaical creeds and practices, and he
refuted all opponents with his healing power.
Human reconciliation
18:13
The atonement of Christ reconciles man to God, not
God to man; for the divine Principle of Christ is God,
and how can God propitiate Himself? Christ
is Truth, which reaches no higher than itself.
The fountain can rise no higher than its source. Christ,
Truth, could conciliate no nature above his own, derived
19:1
from the eternal Love. It was therefore Christ's purpose
to reconcile man to God, not God to man. Love and
Truth are not at war with God's image and likeness.
Man cannot exceed divine Love, and so atone for him-
self. Even Christ cannot reconcile Truth to error, for
Truth and error are irreconcilable. Jesus aided in recon-
ciling man to God by giving man a truer sense of Love,
the divine Principle of Jesus' teachings, and this truer
sense of Love redeems man from the law of matter,
sin, and death by the law of Spirit, – the law of divine
Love.
19:12
The Master forbore not to speak the whole truth, de-
claring precisely what would destroy sickness, sin, and
death, although his teaching set households at variance,
and brought to material beliefs not peace, but a
sword.
Efficacious repentance
19:17
Every pang of repentance and suffering, every effort
for reform, every good thought and deed, will help us to
understand Jesus' atonement for sin and aid
its efficacy; but if the sinner continues to pray
and repent, sin and be sorry, he has little part in the atone-
ment, – in the at-one-ment with God, – for he lacks the
practical repentance, which reforms the heart and enables
man to do the will of wisdom. Those who cannot dem-
onstrate, at least in part, the divine Principle of the teach-
ings and practice of our Master have no part in God. If
living in disobedience to Him, we ought to feel no secur-
ity, although God is good.
Jesus' sinless career
19:29
Jesus urged the commandment, "Thou shalt have no
other gods before me," which may be ren-
dered: Thou shalt have no belief of Life as
mortal; thou shalt not know evil, for there is one Life, –
20:1
even God, good. He rendered "unto Caesar the things
which are Caesar's; and unto God the things that are
God's." He at last paid no homage to forms of doctrine
or to theories of man, but acted and spake as he was moved,
not by spirits but by Spirit.
20:6
To the ritualistic priest and hypocritical Pharisee
Jesus said, "The publicans and the harlots go into the
kingdom of God before you." Jesus' history made a
new calendar, which we call the Christian era; but he
established no ritualistic worship. He knew that men
can be baptized, partake of the Eucharist, support the
clergy, observe the Sabbath, make long prayers, and yet
be sensual and sinful.
Perfect example
20:14
Jesus bore our infirmities; he knew the error of mortal
belief, and "with his stripes [the rejection of error] we are
healed." "Despised and rejected of men,"
returning blessing for cursing, he taught mor-
tals the opposite of themselves, even the nature of God;
and when error felt the power of Truth, the scourge and
the cross awaited the great Teacher. Yet he swerved not,
well knowing that to obey the divine order and trust God,
saves retracing and traversing anew the path from sin to
holiness.
Behest of the cross
20:24
Material belief is slow to acknowledge what the
spiritual fact implies. The truth is the centre of all
religion. It commands sure entrance into
the realm of Love. St. Paul wrote, "Let us
lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so
easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that
is set before us;" that is, let us put aside material self
and sense, and seek the divine Principle and Science of
all healing.
Moral victory
21:1
If Truth is overcoming error in your daily walk and
conversation, you can finally say, "I have fought a
good fight . . . I have kept the faith," be-
cause you are a better man. This is having
our part in the at-one-ment with Truth and Love.
Christians do not continue to labor and pray, expecting
because of another's goodness, suffering, and triumph,
that they shall reach his harmony and reward.
21:9
If the disciple is advancing spiritually, he is striv-
ing to enter in. He constantly turns away from ma-
terial sense, and looks towards the imperishable things
of Spirit. If honest, he will be in earnest from the
start, and gain a little each day in the right direction,
till at last he finishes his course with joy.
Inharmonious travellers
21:15
If my friends are going to Europe, while I am en
route for California, we are not journeying together.
We have separate time-tables to consult,
different routes to pursue. Our paths have
diverged at the very outset, and we have little oppor-
tunity to help each other. On the contrary, if my
friends pursue my course, we have the same railroad
guides, and our mutual interests are identical; or, if I
take up their line of travel, they help me on, and our
companionship may continue.
Zigzag course
21:25
Being in sympathy with matter, the worldly man is at
the beck and call of error, and will be attracted thither-
ward. He is like a traveller going westward
for a pleasure-trip. The company is alluring
and the pleasures exciting. After following the sun for
six days, he turns east on the seventh, satisfied if he can
only imagine himself drifting in the right direction. By‑
and-by, ashamed of his zigzag course, he would borrow
22:1
the passport of some wiser pilgrim, thinking with the aid
of this to find and follow the right road.
Moral retrogression
22:3
Vibrating like a pendulum between sin and the hope
of forgiveness, – selfishness and sensuality causing con-
stant retrogression, – our moral progress will
be slow. Waking to Christ's demand, mortals
experience suffering. This causes them, even as drown-
ing men, to make vigorous efforts to save themselves; and
through Christ's precious love these efforts are crowned
with success.
Wait for reward
22:11
"Work out your own salvation," is the demand of
Life and Love, for to this end God worketh with you.
"Occupy till I come!" Wait for your re-
ward, and "be not weary in well doing." If
your endeavors are beset by fearful odds, and you receive
no present reward, go not back to error, nor become a
sluggard in the race.
22:18
When the smoke of battle clears away, you will dis-
cern the good you have done, and receive according to
your deserving. Love is not hasty to deliver us from
temptation, for Love means that we shall be tried and
purified.
Deliverance not vicarious
22:23
Final deliverance from error, whereby we rejoice in
immortality, boundless freedom, and sinless sense, is not
reached through paths of flowers nor by pinning
one's faith without works to another's vicarious
effort. Whosoever believeth that wrath is righteous or
that divinity is appeased by human suffering, does not
understand God.
Justice and substitution
22:30
Justice requires reformation of the sinner. Mercy
cancels the debt only when justice approves. Revenge
is inadmissible. Wrath which is only appeased is not
23:1
destroyed, but partially indulged. Wisdom and Love
may require many sacrifices of self to save us from sin.
One sacrifice, however great, is insufficient to
pay the debt of sin. The atonement requires
constant self-immolation on the sinner's part. That
God's wrath should be vented upon His beloved Son, is
divinely unnatural. Such a theory is man-made. The
atonement is a hard problem in theology, but its scien-
tific explanation is, that suffering is an error of sinful sense
which Truth destroys, and that eventually both sin and suf-
fering will fall at the feet of everlasting Love.
Doctrines and faith
23:12
Rabbinical lore said: "He that taketh one doctrine,
firm in faith, has the Holy Ghost dwelling in him."
This preaching receives a strong rebuke in
the Scripture, "Faith without works is dead."
Faith, if it be mere belief, is as a pendulum swinging be-
tween nothing and something, having no fixity. Faith,
advanced to spiritual understanding, is the evidence gained
from Spirit, which rebukes sin of every kind and estab-
lishes the claims of God.
Self-reliance and confidence
23:21
In Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and English, faith and the
words corresponding thereto have these two defini-
tions, trustfulness and trustworthiness. One
kind of faith trusts one's welfare to others.
Another kind of faith understands divine Love and how
to work out one's "own salvation, with fear and trem-
bling." "Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief!"
expresses the helplessness of a blind faith; whereas the
injunction, "Believe . . . and thou shalt be saved!"
demands self-reliant trustworthiness, which includes spir-
itual understanding and confides all to God.
23:32
The Hebrew verb to believe means also to be firm or
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