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

 

The hopeful outlook
330:1
portion as mortals give up error for Truth and the un-
derstanding of being supersedes mere belief. Until the
author of this book learned the vastness of
Christian Science, the fixedness of mortal illu-
sions, and the human hatred of Truth, she cherished
sanguine hopes that Christian Science would meet with
immediate and universal acceptance.
330:8
When the following platform is understood and the
letter and the spirit bear witness, the infallibility of divine
metaphysics will be demonstrated.
The deific supremacy
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I. God is infinite, the only Life, substance, Spirit, or
Soul, the only intelligence of the universe, including man.
Eye hath neither seen God nor His image and
likeness. Neither God nor the perfect man
can be discerned by the material senses. The individ-
uality of Spirit, or the infinite, is unknown, and thus a
knowledge of it is left either to human conjecture or to the
revelation of divine Science.
The deific definitions
330:19
II. God is what the Scriptures declare Him to be, –
Life, Truth, Love. Spirit is divine Principle, and divine
Principle is Love, and Love is Mind, and
Mind is not both good and bad, for God is
Mind; therefore there is in reality one Mind only, be-
cause there is one God.
Evil obsolete
330:25
III. The notion that both evil and good are real is a
delusion of material sense, which Science annihilates.
Evil is nothing, no thing, mind, nor power.
As manifested by mankind it stands for a lie,
nothing claiming to be something, – for lust, dishonesty,
selfishness, envy, hypocrisy, slander, hate, theft, adultery,
murder, dementia, insanity, inanity, devil, hell, with all
the etceteras that word includes.
Life the creator
331:1
IV. God is divine Life, and Life is no more confined
to the forms which reflect it than substance is in its
shadow. If life were in mortal man or mate-
rial things, it would be subject to their limi-
tations and would end in death. Life is Mind, the creator
reflected in His creations. If He dwelt within what He
creates, God would not be reflected but absorbed, and the
Science of being would be forever lost through a mortal
sense, which falsely testifies to a beginning and an
end.
Allness of Spirit
331:11
V. The Scriptures imply that God is All-in-all. From
this it follows that nothing possesses reality nor existence
except the divine Mind and His ideas. The
Scriptures also declare that God is Spirit.
Therefore in Spirit all is harmony, and there can be no
discord; all is Life, and there is no death. Everything
in God's universe expresses Him.
The universal cause
331:18
VI. God is individual, incorporeal. He is divine Prin-
ciple, Love, the universal cause, the only creator, and
there is no other self-existence. He is all‑
inclusive, and is reflected by all that is real
and eternal and by nothing else. He fills all space, and
it is impossible to conceive of such omnipresence and in-
dividuality except as infinite Spirit or Mind. Hence all
is Spirit and spiritual.
Divine trinity
331:26
VII. Life, Truth, and Love constitute the triune Person
called God, – that is, the triply divine Principle, Love.
They represent a trinity in unity, three in
one, – the same in essence, though multi-
form in office: God the Father-Mother; Christ the spirit-
ual idea of sonship; divine Science or the Holy Comforter.
These three express in divine Science the threefold, essen-
332:1
tial nature of the infinite. They also indicate the divine
Principle of scientific being, the intelligent relation of God
to man and the universe.
Father-Mother
332:4
VIII. Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which in-
dicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation.
As the apostle expressed it in words which he
quoted with approbation from a classic poet:
"For we are also His offspring."
The Son of God
332:9
IX. Jesus was born of Mary. Christ is the true idea
voicing good, the divine message from God to men speak-
ing to the human consciousness. The Christ
is incorporeal, spiritual, – yea, the divine
image and likeness, dispelling the illusions of the senses;
the Way, the Truth, and the Life, healing the sick and
casting out evils, destroying sin, disease, and death. As
Paul says: "There is one God, and one mediator between
God and men, the man Christ Jesus." The corporeal
man Jesus was human.
Holy Ghost or Comforter
332:19
X. Jesus demonstrated Christ; he proved that Christ
is the divine idea of God – the Holy Ghost,
or Comforter, revealing the divine Principle,
Love, and leading into all truth.
Christ Jesus
332:23
XI. Jesus was the son of a virgin. He was appointed
to speak God's word and to appear to mortals in such
a form of humanity as they could understand
as well as perceive. Mary's conception of
him was spiritual, for only purity could reflect Truth
and Love, which were plainly incarnate in the good and
pure Christ Jesus. He expressed the highest type of
divinity, which a fleshly form could express in that age.
Into the real and ideal man the fleshly element cannot
enter. Thus it is that Christ illustrates the coincidence,
333:1
or spiritual agreement, between God and man in His
image.
Messiah or Christ
333:3
XII. The word Christ is not properly a synonym for
Jesus, though it is commonly so used. Jesus was a human
name, which belonged to him in common with
other Hebrew boys and men, for it is identical
with the name Joshua, the renowned Hebrew leader. On
the other hand, Christ is not a name so much as the divine
title of Jesus. Christ expresses God's spiritual, eternal
nature. The name is synonymous with Messiah, and al-
ludes to the spirituality which is taught, illustrated, and
demonstrated in the life of which Christ Jesus was the
embodiment. The proper name of our Master in the
Greek was Jesus the Christ; but Christ Jesus better sig-
nifies the Godlike.
The divine Principle and idea
333:16
XIII. The advent of Jesus of Nazareth marked the
first century of the Christian era, but the Christ is
without beginning of years or end of days.
Throughout all generations both before and
after the Christian era, the Christ, as the spirit-
ual idea, – the reflection of God, – has come with some
measure of power and grace to all prepared to receive
Christ, Truth. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and the prophets
caught glorious glimpses of the Messiah, or Christ, which
baptized these seers in the divine nature, the essence of
Love. The divine image, idea, or Christ was, is, and
ever will be inseparable from the divine Principle, God.
Jesus referred to this unity of his spiritual identity thus:
"Before Abraham was, I am;" "I and my Father are
one;" "My Father is greater than I." The one Spirit
includes all identities.
Spiritual oneness
333:32
XIV. By these sayings Jesus meant, not that the hu-
334:1
man Jesus was or is eternal, but that the divine idea or
Christ was and is so and therefore antedated Abraham;
not that the corporeal Jesus was one with the
Father, but that the spiritual idea, Christ,
dwells forever in the bosom of the Father, God, from
which it illumines heaven and earth; not that the Father
is greater than Spirit, which is God, but greater, infinitely
greater, than the fleshly Jesus, whose earthly career was
brief.
The Son's duality
334:10
XV. The invisible Christ was imperceptible to the
so-called personal senses, whereas Jesus appeared as a
bodily existence. This dual personality of the
unseen and the seen, the spiritual and mate-
rial, the eternal Christ and the corporeal Jesus manifest
in flesh, continued until the Master's ascension, when
the human, material concept, or Jesus, disappeared,
while the spiritual self, or Christ, continues to exist in
the eternal order of divine Science, taking away the sins
of the world, as the Christ has always done, even before
the human Jesus was incarnate to mortal eyes.
Eternity of the Christ
334:21
XVI. This was "the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world," – slain, that is, according to the testi-
mony of the corporeal senses, but undying in
the deific Mind. The Revelator represents the
Son of man as saying (Revelation i. 17, 18): "I am the
first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead
[not understood]; and, behold, I am alive for evermore,
[Science has explained me]." This is a mystical state-
ment of the eternity of the Christ, and is also a reference
to the human sense of Jesus crucified.
Infinite Spirit
334:31
XVII. Spirit being God, there is but one Spirit, for
there can be but one infinite and therefore one God.
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:
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