Chapter XII - Christian Science Practice
Mind removes scrofula
425:1
parents or some of his progenitors farther back have so
parents or some of his progenitors farther back have so
believed. Mortal mind, not matter, induces this con-
clusion and its results. You will have humors, just so
long as you believe them to be safety-valves or to be
ineradicable.
Nothing to consume
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If the case to be mentally treated is consumption, take
If the case to be mentally treated is consumption, take
up the leading points included (according to belief) in
this disease. Show that it is not inherited;
that inflammation, tubercles, hemorrhage, and
decomposition are beliefs, images of mortal thought su-
perimposed upon the body; that they are not the truth
of man; that they should be treated as error and put out
of thought. Then these ills will disappear.
The lungs re-formed
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If the body is diseased, this is but one of the beliefs of
If the body is diseased, this is but one of the beliefs of
mortal mind. Mortal man will be less mortal, when he
learns that matter never sustained existence
and can never destroy God, who is man's Life.
When this is understood, mankind will be more spiritual
and know that there is nothing to consume, since Spirit,
God, is All-in-all. What if the belief is consumption?
God is more to a man than his belief, and the less we ac-
knowledge matter or its laws, the more immortality we
possess. Consciousness constructs a better body when
faith in matter has been conquered. Correct material
belief by spiritual understanding, and Spirit will form
you anew. You will never fear again except to offend
God, and you will never believe that heart or any por-
tion of the body can destroy you.
Soundness maintained
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If you have sound and capacious lungs and want
If you have sound and capacious lungs and want
them to remain so, be always ready with the
mental protest against the opposite belief in
heredity. Discard all notions about lungs, tubercles, in-
426:1
herited consumption, or disease arising from any cir-
herited consumption, or disease arising from any cir-
cumstance, and you will find that mortal mind, when
instructed by Truth, yields to divine power, which steers
the body into health.
Our footsteps heavenward
426:5
The discoverer of Christian Science finds the path less
The discoverer of Christian Science finds the path less
difficult when she has the high goal always before her
thoughts, than when she counts her footsteps
in endeavoring to reach it. When the desti-
nation is desirable, expectation speeds our progress. The
struggle for Truth makes one strong instead of weak,
resting instead of wearying one. If the belief in death
were obliterated, and the understanding obtained that
there is no death, this would be a "tree of life," known
by its fruits. Man should renew his energies and en-
deavors, and see the folly of hypocrisy, while also learn-
ing the necessity of working out his own salvation. When
it is learned that disease cannot destroy life, and that
mortals are not saved from sin or sickness by death, this
understanding will quicken into newness of life. It will
master either a desire to die or a dread of the grave,
and thus destroy the great fear that besets mortal
existence.
Christian standard
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The relinquishment of all faith in death and also of
The relinquishment of all faith in death and also of
the fear of its sting would raise the standard of health
and morals far beyond its present elevation,
and would enable us to hold the banner of
Christianity aloft with unflinching faith in God, in Life
eternal. Sin brought death, and death will disappear
with the disappearance of sin. Man is immortal, and
the body cannot die, because matter has no life to sur-
render. The human concepts named matter, death, dis-
ease, sickness, and sin are all that can be destroyed.