Chapter 6: 'Science and Health with Key to The Scriptures' by Mary Baker Eddy

Chapter VI - Science, Theology, Medicine

All evil unnatural

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not seem so surprising and unnatural as error, and error

should not seem so real as truth. Sickness should not seem

so real as health. There is no error in Science, and our

lives must be governed by reality in order to be in har-

mony with God, the divine Principle of all being.

The error of carnality

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When once destroyed by divine Science, the false evi-

dence before the corporeal senses disappears. Hence the

opposition of sensuous man to the Science of

Soul and the significance of the Scripture, "The

carnal mind is enmity against God." The central fact of

the Bible is the superiority of spiritual over physical power.

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THEOLOGY

Churchly neglect

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Must Christian Science come through the Christian

churches as some persons insist? This Science has come

already, after the manner of God's appoint-

ing, but the churches seem not ready to re-

ceive it, according to the Scriptural saying, "He came

unto his own, and his own received him not." Jesus once

said: "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and

earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise

and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even

so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." As afore-

time, the spirit of the Christ, which taketh away the cere-

monies and doctrines of men, is not accepted until the

hearts of men are made ready for it.

John the Baptist, and the Messiah

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The mission of Jesus confirmed prophecy, and ex-

plained the so-called miracles of olden time as natural

demonstrations of the divine power, demonstra-

tions which were not understood. Jesus' works

established his claim to the Messiahship. In

reply to John's inquiry, "Art thou he that should come,"

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Jesus returned an affirmative reply, recounting his works

instead of referring to his doctrine, confident that this

exhibition of the divine power to heal would fully an-

swer the question. Hence his reply: "Go and show

John again those things which ye do hear and see: the

blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers

are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up,

and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And

blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me." In

other words, he gave his benediction to any one who

should not deny that such effects, coming from divine

Mind, prove the unity of God, – the divine Principle

which brings out all harmony.

Christ rejected

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The Pharisees of old thrust the spiritual idea and the

man who lived it out of their synagogues, and retained

their materialistic beliefs about God. Jesus'

system of healing received no aid nor approval

from other sanitary or religious systems, from doctrines

of physics or of divinity; and it has not yet been gener-

ally accepted. To-day, as of yore, unconscious of the

reappearing of the spiritual idea, blind belief shuts the

door upon it, and condemns the cure of the sick and sin-

ning if it is wrought on any but a material and a doctrinal

theory. Anticipating this rejection of idealism, of the

true idea of God, – this salvation from all error, physi-

cal and mental, – Jesus asked, "When the Son of man

cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?"

John's misgivings

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Did the doctrines of John the Baptist confer healing

power upon him, or endow him with the truest concep-

tion of the Christ? This righteous preacher

once pointed his disciples to Jesus as "the

Lamb of God;" yet afterwards he seriously questioned