Chapter VIII - Footsteps Of Truth
234:1
Spiritual draughts heal, while material lotions interfere
Spiritual draughts heal, while material lotions interfere
with truth, even as ritualism and creed hamper spirit-
uality. If we trust matter, we distrust Spirit.
Crumbs of comfort
234:4
Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love – be
Whatever inspires with wisdom, Truth, or Love – be
it song, sermon, or Science – blesses the human family
with crumbs of comfort from Christ's table
feeding the hungry and giving living waters to
the thirsty.
Hospitality to health and good
234:9
We should become more familiar with good than with
We should become more familiar with good than with
evil, and guard against false beliefs as watchfully as we
bar our doors against the approach of thieves
and murderers. We should love our enemies
and help them on the basis of the Golden
Rule; but avoid casting pearls before those who trample
them under foot, thereby robbing both themselves and
others.
Cleansing the mind
234:17
If mortals would keep proper ward over mortal mind,
If mortals would keep proper ward over mortal mind,
the brood of evils which infest it would be cleared out.
We must begin with this so-called mind and
empty it of sin and sickness, or sin and sick-
ness will never cease. The present codes of human
systems disappoint the weary searcher after a divine
theology, adequate to the right education of human
thought.
234:25
Sin and disease must be thought before they can be
Sin and disease must be thought before they can be
manifested. You must control evil thoughts in the first
instance, or they will control you in the second. Jesus
declared that to look with desire on forbidden objects was
to break a moral precept. He laid great stress on the
action of the human mind, unseen to the senses.
234:31
Evil thoughts and aims reach no farther and do no more
Evil thoughts and aims reach no farther and do no more
harm than one's belief permits. Evil thoughts, lusts, and
235:1
malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen,
malicious purposes cannot go forth, like wandering pollen,
from one human mind to another, finding unsuspected
lodgment, if virtue and truth build a strong defence.
Better suffer a doctor infected with smallpox to attend
you than to be treated mentally by one who does not obey
the requirements of divine Science.
Teachers' functions
235:7
The teachers of schools and the readers in churches
The teachers of schools and the readers in churches
should be selected with as direct reference to their
morals as to their learning or their correct
reading. Nurseries of character should be
strongly garrisoned with virtue. School-examinations are
one-sided; it is not so much academic education, as a
moral and spiritual culture, which lifts one higher. The
pure and uplifting thoughts of the teacher, constantly
imparted to pupils, will reach higher than the heavens of
astronomy; while the debased and unscrupulous mind,
though adorned with gems of scholarly attainment, will
degrade the characters it should inform and elevate.
Physicians' privilege
235:19
Physicians, whom the sick employ in their helplessness,
Physicians, whom the sick employ in their helplessness,
should be models of virtue. They should be wise spir-
itual guides to health and hope. To the trem-
blers on the brink of death, who understand
not the divine Truth which is Life and perpetuates being,
physicians should be able to teach it. Then when the soul
is willing and the flesh weak, the patient's feet may be
planted on the rock Christ Jesus, the true idea of spiritual
power.
Clergymen's duty
235:28
Clergymen, occupying the watchtowers of the world,
Clergymen, occupying the watchtowers of the world,
should uplift the standard of Truth. They should so raise
their hearers spiritually, that their listeners
will love to grapple with a new, right idea
and broaden their concepts. Love of Christianity, rather