Chapter XII - Christian Science Practice
Misleading methods
397:1
By not perceiving vital metaphysical points, not seeing
By not perceiving vital metaphysical points, not seeing
how mortal mind affects the body, – acting beneficially
or injuriously on the health, as well as on the
morals and the happiness of mortals, – we are
misled in our conclusions and methods. We throw the
mental influence on the wrong side, thereby actually in-
juring those whom we mean to bless.
Remedy for accidents
397:8
Suffering is no less a mental condition than is enjoy-
Suffering is no less a mental condition than is enjoy-
ment. You cause bodily sufferings and increase them
by admitting their reality and continuance,
as directly as you enhance your joys by be-
lieving them to be real and continuous. When an ac-
cident happens, you think or exclaim, "I am hurt!"
Your thought is more powerful than your words, more
powerful than the accident itself, to make the injury
real.
397:17
Now reverse the process. Declare that you are not hurt
Now reverse the process. Declare that you are not hurt
and understand the reason why, and you will find the
ensuing good effects to be in exact proportion to your
disbelief in physics, and your fidelity to divine meta-
physics, confidence in God as All, which the Scriptures
declare Him to be.
Independent mentality
397:23
To heal the sick, one must be familiar with the great
To heal the sick, one must be familiar with the great
verities of being. Mortals are no more material in their
waking hours than when they act, walk, see,
hear, enjoy, or suffer in dreams. We can
never treat mortal mind and matter separately, because
they combine as one. Give up the belief that mind
is, even temporarily, compressed within the skull, and
you will quickly become more manly or womanly. You
will understand yourself and your Maker better than
before.
Naming maladies
398:1
Sometimes Jesus called a disease by name, as when he
Sometimes Jesus called a disease by name, as when he
said to the epileptic boy, "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I
charge thee, come out of him, and enter no
more into him." It is added that "the spirit
[error] cried, and rent him sore and came out of him, and
he was as one dead," – clear evidence that the malady
was not material. These instances show the concessions
which Jesus was willing to make to the popular ignorance
of spiritual Life-laws. Often he gave no name to the
distemper he cured. To the synagogue ruler's daughter,
whom they called dead but of whom he said, "she is not
dead, but sleepeth," he simply said, "Damsel, I say unto
thee, arise!" To the sufferer with the withered hand
he said, "Stretch forth thine hand," and it "was restored
whole, like as the other."
The action of faith
398:16
Homoeopathic remedies, sometimes not containing a
Homoeopathic remedies, sometimes not containing a
particle of medicine, are known to relieve the symptoms
of disease. What produces the change? It is
the faith of the doctor and the patient, which
reduces self-inflicted sufferings and produces a new effect
upon the body. In like manner destroy the illusion of
pleasure in intoxication, and the desire for strong drink
is gone. Appetite and disease reside in mortal mind, not
in matter.
398:25
So also faith, cooperating with a belief in the healing
So also faith, cooperating with a belief in the healing
effects of time and medication, will soothe fear and change
the belief of disease to a belief of health. Even a blind
faith removes bodily ailments for a season, but hypnotism
changes such ills into new and more difficult forms of dis-
ease. The Science of Mind must come to the rescue,
to work a radical cure. Then we understand the process.
The great fact remains that evil is not mind. Evil has