Chapter 8: 'Science and Health with Key to The Scriptures' by Mary Baker Eddy

Chapter VIII - Footsteps Of Truth

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we can have no other Mind but His, – no other Love,

wisdom, or Truth, no other sense of Life, and no con-

sciousness of the existence of matter or error.

Will-power unrighteous

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The power of the human will should be exercised only

in subordination to Truth; else it will misguide the judg-

ment and free the lower propensities. It is the

province of spiritual sense to govern man.

Material, erring, human thought acts injuriously both

upon the body and through it.

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Will-power is capable of all evil. It can never heal

the sick, for it is the prayer of the unrighteous; while

the exercise of the sentiments – hope, faith, love – is the

prayer of the righteous. This prayer, governed by Science

instead of the senses, heals the sick.

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In the scientific relation of God to man, we find that

whatever blesses one blesses all, as Jesus showed with

the loaves and the fishes, – Spirit, not matter, being the

source of supply.

Birth and death unreal

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Does God send sickness, giving the mother her child

for the brief space of a few years and then taking it away

by death? Is God creating anew what He

has already created? The Scriptures are defi-

nite on this point, declaring that His work was finished,

nothing is new to God, and that it was good.

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Can there be any birth or death for man, the spiritual

image and likeness of God? Instead of God sending

sickness and death, He destroys them, and brings to light

immortality. Omnipotent and infinite Mind made all

and includes all. This Mind does not make mistakes

and subsequently correct them. God does not cause man

to sin, to be sick, or to die.

No evil in Spirit

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There are evil beliefs, often called evil spirits; but

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these evils are not Spirit, for there is no evil in Spirit.

Because God is Spirit, evil becomes more apparent and

obnoxious proportionately as we advance spir-

itually, until it disappears from our lives.

This fact proves our position, for every scientific state-

ment in Christianity has its proof. Error of statement

leads to error in action.

Subordination of evil

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God is not the creator of an evil mind. Indeed, evil

is not Mind. We must learn that evil is the awful decep-

tion and unreality of existence. Evil is not

supreme; good is not helpless; nor are the

so-called laws of matter primary, and the law of Spirit

secondary. Without this lesson, we lose sight of the per-

fect Father, or the divine Principle of man.

Evident impossibilities

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Body is not first and Soul last, nor is evil mightier than

good. The Science of being repudiates self‑

evident impossibilities, such as the amalgama-

tion of Truth and error in cause or effect. Science sepa-

rates the tares and wheat in time of harvest.

One primal cause

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There is but one primal cause. Therefore there can

be no effect from any other cause, and there can be no

reality in aught which does not proceed from

this great and only cause. Sin, sickness, dis-

ease, and death belong not to the Science of being. They

are the errors, which presuppose the absence of Truth,

Life, or Love.

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The spiritual reality is the scientific fact in all things.

The spiritual fact, repeated in the action of man and the

whole universe, is harmonious and is the ideal of Truth.

Spiritual facts are not inverted; the opposite discord,

which bears no resemblance to spirituality, is not real.

The only evidence of this inversion is obtained from