Chapter XII - Christian Science Practice
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instead of on Mind. Can matter, or what is termed
instead of on Mind. Can matter, or what is termed
matter, either feel or act without mind?
Corporeal penalties
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We should relieve our minds from the depressing thought
We should relieve our minds from the depressing thought
that we have transgressed a material law and must of
necessity pay the penalty. Let us reassure
ourselves with the law of Love. God never
punishes man for doing right, for honest labor, or for
deeds of kindness, though they expose him to fatigue,
cold, heat, contagion. If man seems to incur the penalty
through matter, this is but a belief of mortal mind, not
an enactment of wisdom, and man has only to enter his
protest against this belief in order to annul it. Through
this action of thought and its results upon the body, the
student will prove to himself, by small beginnings, the
grand verities of Christian Science.
Not matter, but Mind
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If exposure to a draught of air while in a state of
If exposure to a draught of air while in a state of
perspiration is followed by chills, dry cough, influenza,
congestive symptoms in the lungs, or hints of
inflammatory rheumatism, your Mind-remedy
is safe and sure. If you are a Christian Scientist, such
symptoms are not apt to follow exposure; but if you
believe in laws of matter and their fatal effects when
transgressed, you are not fit to conduct your own case or
to destroy the bad effects of your belief. When the fear
subsides and the conviction abides that you have broken
no law, neither rheumatism, consumption, nor any other
disease will ever result from exposure to the weather. In
Science this is an established fact which all the evidence
before the senses can never overrule.
Benefit of philanthropy
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Sickness, sin, and death must at length quail before
Sickness, sin, and death must at length quail before
the divine rights of intelligence, and then the power
of Mind over the entire functions and organs of the
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human system will be acknowledged. It is proverbial
human system will be acknowledged. It is proverbial
that Florence Nightingale and other philanthropists en-
gaged in humane labors have been able to
undergo without sinking fatigues and expo-
sures which ordinary people could not endure. The ex-
planation lies in the support which they derived from
the divine law, rising above the human. The spiritual
demand, quelling the material, supplies energy and en-
durance surpassing all other aids, and forestalls the
penalty which our beliefs would attach to our best
deeds. Let us remember that the eternal law of right,
though it can never annul the law which makes sin its
own executioner, exempts man from all penalties but
those due for wrong-doing.
Honest toil has no penalty
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Constant toil, deprivations, exposures, and all untow-
Constant toil, deprivations, exposures, and all untow-
ard conditions, if without sin, can be experienced with-
out suffering. Whatever it is your duty to do,
you can do without harm to yourself. If you
sprain the muscles or wound the flesh, your
remedy is at hand. Mind decides whether or not the
flesh shall be discolored, painful, swollen, and inflamed.
Our sleep and food
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You say that you have not slept well or have overeaten.
You say that you have not slept well or have overeaten.
You are a law unto yourself. Saying this and believing
it, you will suffer in proportion to your belief
and fear. Your sufferings are not the penalty
for having broken a law of matter, for it is a law of mortal
mind which you have disobeyed. You say or think, be-
cause you have partaken of salt fish, that you must be
thirsty, and you are thirsty accordingly, while the oppo-
site belief would produce the opposite result.
Doubtful evidence
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Any supposed information, coming from the body or
Any supposed information, coming from the body or
from inert matter as if either were intelligent, is an illu-