Chapter 10: 'Science and Health with Key to The Scriptures' by Mary Baker Eddy

Chapter X - Science Of Being

292:1
When the last mortal fault is destroyed, then the final

trump will sound which will end the battle of Truth with

error and mortality; "but of that day and hour, knoweth

no man." Here prophecy pauses. Divine Science alone

can compass the heights and depths of being and reveal

the infinite.

Primitive error

292:7
Truth will be to us "the resurrection and the life" only

as it destroys all error and the belief that Mind, the only

immortality of man, can be fettered by the

body, and Life be controlled by death. A sin-

ful, sick, and dying mortal is not the likeness of God, the

perfect and eternal.

292:13
Matter is the primitive belief of mortal mind, because

this so-called mind has no cognizance of Spirit. To

mortal mind, matter is substantial, and evil is

real. The so-called senses of mortals are material.

Hence the so-called life of mortals is dependent on

matter.

292:19
Explaining the origin of material man and mortal mind,

Jesus said: "Why do ye not understand my speech?

Even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your

father, the devil [evil], and the lusts of your father ye will

do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode

not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When

he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar,

and the father of it."

Immortal man

292:27
This carnal material mentality, misnamed mind, is

mortal. Therefore man would be annihilated, were it

not for the spiritual real man's indissoluble

connection with his God, which Jesus brought

to light. In his resurrection and ascension, Jesus showed

that a mortal man is not the real essence of manhood, and

293:1
that this unreal material mortality disappears in presence

of the reality.

Elementary electricity

293:3
Electricity is not a vital fluid, but the least material

form of illusive consciousness, – the material mindless-

ness, which forms no link between matter and

Mind, and which destroys itself. Matter and

mortal mind are but different strata of human belief. The

grosser substratum is named matter or body; the more

ethereal is called mind. This so-called mind and body

is the illusion called a mortal, a mind in matter. In reality

and in Science, both strata, mortal mind and mortal body,

are false representatives of man.

293:13
The material so-called gases and forces are counter-

feits of the spiritual forces of divine Mind, whose potency

is Truth, whose attraction is Love, whose adhesion and

cohesion are Life, perpetuating the eternal facts of being.

Electricity is the sharp surplus of materiality which coun-

terfeits the true essence of spirituality or truth, – the

great difference being that electricity is not intelligent,

while spiritual truth is Mind.

The counterfeit forces

293:21
There is no vapid fury of mortal mind – expressed in

earthquake, wind, wave, lightning, fire, bestial ferocity

– and this so-called mind is self-destroyed.

The manifestations of evil, which counterfeit

divine justice, are called in the Scriptures, "The anger

of the Lord." In reality, they show the self-destruction

of error or matter and point to matter's opposite, the

strength and permanency of Spirit. Christian Science

brings to light Truth and its supremacy, universal har-

mony, the entireness of God, good, and the nothingness

of evil.

Instruments of error

293:32
The five physical senses are the avenues and instru-

294:1
ments of human error, and they correspond with error.

These senses indicate the common human belief, that life,

substance, and intelligence are a unison of

matter with Spirit. This is pantheism, and

carries within itself the seeds of all error.

294:6
If man is both mind and matter, the loss of one finger

would take away some quality and quantity of the man,

for matter and man would be one.

Mortal verdict

294:9
The belief that matter thinks, sees, or feels is not more

real than the belief that matter enjoys and suffers. This

mortal belief, misnamed man, is error, saying:

"Matter has intelligence and sensation. Nerves

feel. Brain thinks and sins. The stomach can make a

man cross. Injury can cripple and matter can kill man."

This verdict of the so-called material senses victimizes

mortals, taught, as they are by physiology and pathology,

to revere false testimony, even the errors that are destroyed

by Truth through spiritual sense and Science.

Mythical pleasure

294:19
The lines of demarcation between immortal man, repre-

senting Spirit, and mortal man, representing the error that

life and intelligence are in matter, show the

pleasures and pains of matter to be myths, and

human belief in them to be the father of mythology, in

which matter is represented as divided into intelligent gods.

Man's genuine selfhood is recognizable only in what is

good and true. Man is neither self-made nor made by

mortals. God created man.

294:28
The inebriate believes that there is pleasure in intoxica-

tion. The thief believes that he gains something by steal-

ing, and the hypocrite that he is hiding himself. The

Science of Mind corrects such mistakes, for Truth demon-

strates the falsity of error.

Severed members

295:1
The belief that a severed limb is aching in the old loca-

tion, the sensation seeming to be in nerves which

are no longer there, is an added proof of the un-

reliability of physical testimony.

Mortals unlike immortals

295:5
God creates and governs the universe, including man.

The universe is filled with spiritual ideas, which He

evolves, and they are obedient to the Mind

that makes them. Mortal mind would trans-

form the spiritual into the material, and then

recover man's original self in order to escape from the

mortality of this error. Mortals are not like immortals,

created in God's own image; but infinite Spirit being all,

mortal consciousness will at last yield to the scientific fact

and disappear, and the real sense of being, perfect and

forever intact, will appear.

Goodness transparent

295:16
The manifestation of God through mortals is as light

passing through the window-pane. The light and the

glass never mingle, but as matter, the glass

is less opaque than the walls. The mortal

mind through which Truth appears most vividly is that

one which has lost much materiality – much error – in

order to become a better transparency for Truth. Then,

like a cloud melting into thin vapor, it no longer hides

the sun.

Brainology a myth

295:25
All that is called mortal thought is made up of error.

The theoretical mind is matter, named brain, or mate-

rial consciousness, the exact opposite of real

Mind, or Spirit. Brainology teaches that

mortals are created to suffer and die. It further

teaches that when man is dead, his immortal soul is

resurrected from death and mortality. Thus error the-

orizes that spirit is born of matter and returns to mat-

296:1
ter, and that man has a resurrection from dust; whereas

Science unfolds the eternal verity, that man is the spiritual,

eternal reflection of God.

Scientific purgation

296:4
Progress is born of experience. It is the ripening of

mortal man, through which the mortal is dropped for

the immortal. Either here or hereafter, suf-

fering or Science must destroy all illusions

regarding life and mind, and regenerate material sense

and self. The old man with his deeds must be put off.

Nothing sensual or sinful is immortal. The death of a

false material sense and of sin, not the death of organic

matter, is what reveals man and Life, harmonious, real,

and eternal.

296:14
The so-called pleasures and pains of matter perish,

and they must go out under the blaze of Truth, spiritual

sense, and the actuality of being. Mortal belief must lose

all satisfaction in error and sin in order to part with

them.

296:19
Whether mortals will learn this sooner or later, and

how long they will suffer the pangs of destruction, de-

pends upon the tenacity of error.

Mixed testimony

296:22
The knowledge obtained from the corporeal senses

leads to sin and death. When the evidence of Spirit

and matter, Truth and error, seems to com-

mingle, it rests upon foundations which time

is wearing away. Mortal mind judges by the testimony

of the material senses, until Science obliterates this false

testimony. An improved belief is one step out of error,

and aids in taking the next step and in understanding

the situation in Christian Science.

Belief an autocrat

296:31
Mortal belief is a liar from the beginning, not deserving

power. It says to mortals, "You are wretched!" and they

297:1
think they are so; and nothing can change this state, until

the belief changes. Mortal belief says, "You are happy!"

and mortals are so; and no circumstance can

alter the situation, until the belief on this sub-

ject changes. Human belief says to mortals, "You are

sick!" and this testimony manifests itself on the body as

sickness. It is as necessary for a health-illusion, as for

an illusion of sickness, to be instructed out of itself into

the understanding of what constitutes health; for a change

in either a health-belief or a belief in sickness affects the

physical condition.

Self-improvement

297:12
Erroneous belief is destroyed by truth. Change the

evidence, and that disappears which before seemed real

to this false belief, and the human conscious-

ness rises higher. Thus the reality of being

is attained and man found to be immortal. The only

fact concerning any material concept is, that it is neither

scientific nor eternal, but subject to change and dis-

solution.

Faith higher than belief

297:20
Faith is higher and more spiritual than belief. It is

a chrysalis state of human thought, in which spiritual

evidence, contradicting the testimony of mate-

rial sense, begins to appear, and Truth, the

ever-present, is becoming understood. Human thoughts

have their degrees of comparison. Some thoughts are

better than others. A belief in Truth is better than a

belief in error, but no mortal testimony is founded on the

divine rock. Mortal testimony can be shaken. Until

belief becomes faith, and faith becomes spiritual under-

standing, human thought has little relation to the actual

or divine.

297:32
A mortal belief fulfils its own conditions. Sickness,

298:1
sin, and death are the vague realities of human conclu-

sions. Life, Truth, and Love are the realities of divine

Science. They dawn in faith and glow full-orbed in

spiritual understanding. As a cloud hides the sun it

cannot extinguish, so false belief silences for a while the

voice of immutable harmony, but false belief cannot de-

stroy Science armed with faith, hope, and fruition.

Truth's witness

298:8
What is termed material sense can report only a mor-

tal temporary sense of things, whereas spiritual sense can

bear witness only to Truth. To material sense,

the unreal is the real until this sense is corrected

by Christian Science.

298:13
Spiritual sense, contradicting the material senses, in-

volves intuition, hope, faith, understanding, fruition, real-

ity. Material sense expresses the belief that mind is in

matter. This human belief, alternating between a sense

of pleasure and pain, hope and fear, life and death, never

reaches beyond the boundary of the mortal or the unreal.

When the real is attained, which is announced by Science,

joy is no longer a trembler, nor is hope a cheat. Spirit-

ual ideas, like numbers and notes, start from Principle,

and admit no materialistic beliefs. Spiritual ideas lead

up to their divine origin, God, and to the spiritual sense

of being.

Thought-angels

298:25
Angels are not etherealized human beings, evolving

animal qualities in their wings; but they are celestial

visitants, flying on spiritual, not material,

pinions. Angels are pure thoughts from God,

winged with Truth and Love, no matter what their indi-

vidualism may be. Human conjecture confers upon angels

its own forms of thought, marked with superstitious out-

lines, making them human creatures with suggestive

299:1
feathers; but this is only fancy. It has behind it no more

reality than has the sculptor's thought when he carves

his "Statue of Liberty," which embodies his concep-

tion of an unseen quality or condition, but which has

no physical antecedent reality save in the artist's own ob-

servation and "chambers of imagery."

Our Angelic messengers

299:7
My angels are exalted thoughts, appearing at the door

of some sepulchre, in which human belief has buried

its fondest earthly hopes. With white fin-

gers they point upward to a new and glo-

rified trust, to higher ideals of life and its joys. Angels

are God's representatives. These upward-soaring beings

never lead towards self, sin, or materiality, but guide to

the divine Principle of all good, whither every real indi-

viduality, image, or likeness of God, gathers. By giving

earnest heed to these spiritual guides they tarry with us,

and we entertain "angels unawares."

Knowledge and Truth

299:18
Knowledge gained from material sense is figuratively

represented in Scripture as a tree, bearing the fruits of

sin, sickness, and death. Ought we not then

to judge the knowledge thus obtained to be

untrue and dangerous, since "the tree is known by his

fruit"?

299:24
Truth never destroys God's idea. Truth is spiritual,

eternal substance, which cannot destroy the right reflec-

tion. Corporeal sense, or error, may seem to hide Truth,

health, harmony, and Science, as the mist obscures the

sun or the mountain; but Science, the sunshine of Truth,

will melt away the shadow and reveal the celestial

peaks.

Old and new man

299:31
If man were solely a creature of the material senses,

he would have no eternal Principle and would be mutable

300:1
and mortal. Human logic is awry when it attempts

to draw correct spiritual conclusions regarding life from

matter. Finite sense has no true apprecia-

tion of infinite Principle, God, or of His infi-

nite image or reflection, man. The mirage, which makes

trees and cities seem to be where they are not, illustrates

the illusion of material man, who cannot be the image

of God.

300:9
So far as the scientific statement as to man is under-

stood, it can be proved and will bring to light the true

reflection of God – the real man, or the new man (as

St. Paul has it).

The tares and wheat

300:13
The temporal and unreal never touch the eternal and

real. The mutable and imperfect never touch the im-

mutable and perfect. The inharmonious and

self-destructive never touch the harmonious

and self-existent. These opposite qualities are the tares

and wheat, which never really mingle, though (to mortal

sight) they grow side by side until the harvest; then, Sci-

ence separates the wheat from the tares, through the real-

ization of God as ever present and of man as reflecting

the divine likeness.

The divine reflection

300:23
Spirit is God, Soul; therefore Soul is not in matter. If

Spirit were in matter, God would have no representative,

and matter would be identical with God.

The theory that soul, spirit, intelligence, in-

habits matter is taught by the schools. This theory is

unscientific. The universe reflects and expresses the di-

vine substance or Mind; therefore God is seen only in the

spiritual universe and spiritual man, as the sun is seen in

the ray of light which goes out from it. God is re-

vealed only in that which reflects Life, Truth, Love, –

301:1
yea, which manifests God's attributes and power, even

as the human likeness thrown upon the mirror, repeats

the color, form, and action of the person in front of the

mirror.

301:5
Few persons comprehend what Christian Science

means by the word reflection. To himself, mortal and

material man seems to be substance, but his sense of

substance involves error and therefore is material,

temporal.

301:10
On the other hand, the immortal, spiritual man is really

substantial, and reflects the eternal substance, or Spirit,

which mortals hope for. He reflects the divine, which

constitutes the only real and eternal entity. This reflection

seems to mortal sense transcendental, because the spiritual

man's substantiality transcends mortal vision and is re-

vealed only through divine Science.

Inverted images and ideas

301:17
As God is substance and man is the divine image and

likeness, man should wish for, and in reality has, only

the substance of good, the substance of Spirit,

not matter. The belief that man has any other

substance, or mind, is not spiritual and breaks

the First Commandment, Thou shalt have one God, one

Mind. Mortal man seems to himself to be material sub-

stance, while man is "image" (idea). Delusion, sin, dis-

ease, and death arise from the false testimony of material

sense, which, from a supposed standpoint outside the

focal distance of infinite Spirit, presents an inverted image

of Mind and substance with everything turned upside

down.

301:30
This falsity presupposes soul to be an unsubstantial

dweller in material forms, and man to be material instead

of spiritual. Immortality is not bounded by mortality.

302:1
Soul is not compassed by finiteness. Principle is not to

be found in fragmentary ideas.

Identity not lost

302:3
The material body and mind are temporal, but the

real man is spiritual and eternal. The identity of the

real man is not lost, but found through this

explanation; for the conscious infinitude of

existence and of all identity is thereby discerned and re-

mains unchanged. It is impossible that man should lose

aught that is real, when God is all and eternally his. The

notion that mind is in matter, and that the so-called pleas-

ures and pains, the birth, sin, sickness, and death of

matter, are real, is a mortal belief; and this belief is all

that will ever be lost.

Definition of man

302:14
Continuing our definition of man, let us remember that

harmonious and immortal man has existed forever, and

is always beyond and above the mortal illu-

sion of any life, substance and intelligence

as existent in matter. This statement is based on fact,

not fable. The Science of being reveals man as perfect,

even as the Father is perfect, because the Soul, or Mind,

of the spiritual man is God, the divine Principle of all

being, and because this real man is governed by Soul

instead of sense, by the law of Spirit, not by the so-called

laws of matter.

302:25
God is Love. He is therefore the divine, infinite Prin-

ciple, called Person or God. Man's true consciousness

is in the mental, not in any bodily or personal likeness

to Spirit. Indeed, the body presents no proper likeness

of divinity, though mortal sense would fain have us so

believe.

Mental propagation

302:31
Even in Christian Science, reproduction by Spirit's

individual ideas is but the reflection of the creative power

303:1
of the divine Principle of those ideas. The reflection,

through mental manifestation, of the multitudinous

forms of Mind which people the realm of

the real is controlled by Mind, the Principle

governing the reflection. Multiplication of God's chil-

dren comes from no power of propagation in matter, it

is the reflection of Spirit.

303:8
The minutiae of lesser individualities reflect the one di-

vine individuality and are comprehended in and formed

by Spirit, not by material sensation. Whatever reflects

Mind, Life, Truth, and Love, is spiritually conceived and

brought forth; but the statement that man is conceived

and evolved both spiritually and materially, or by both

God and man, contradicts this eternal truth. All the

vanity of the ages can never make both these contraries

true. Divine Science lays the axe at the root of the illu-

sion that life, or mind, is formed by or is in the material

body, and Science will eventually destroy this illusion

through the self-destruction of all error and the beatified

understanding of the Science of Life.

Error defined

303:21
The belief that pain and pleasure, life and death, holi-

ness and unholiness, mingle in man, – that

mortal, material man is the likeness of God

and is himself a creator, – is a fatal error.

Man's entity spiritual

303:25
God, without the image and likeness of Himself, would

be a nonentity, or Mind unexpressed. He would be

without a witness or proof of His own na-

ture. Spiritual man is the image or idea of

God, an idea which cannot be lost nor sep-

arated from its divine Principle. When the evidence

before the material senses yielded to spiritual sense, the

apostle declared that nothing could alienate him from

304:1
God, from the sweet sense and presence of Life and

Truth.

Man inseparable from Love

304:3
It is ignorance and false belief, based on a material

sense of things, which hide spiritual beauty and good-

ness. Understanding this, Paul said: "Nei-

ther death, nor life, . . . nor things present,

nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor

any other creature, shall be able to separate us from

the love of God." This is the doctrine of Christian

Science: that divine Love cannot be deprived of its

manifestation, or object; that joy cannot be turned into

sorrow, for sorrow is not the master of joy; that good can

never produce evil; that matter can never produce mind

nor life result in death. The perfect man – governed

by God, his perfect Principle – is sinless and eternal.

Harmony natural

304:16
Harmony is produced by its Principle, is controlled

by it and abides with it. Divine Principle is the Life

of man. Man's happiness is not, therefore, at

the disposal of physical sense. Truth is not

contaminated by error. Harmony in man is as beautiful

as in music, and discord is unnatural, unreal.

304:22
The science of music governs tones. If mortals caught

harmony through material sense, they would lose har-

mony, if time or accident robbed them of material sense.

To be master of chords and discords, the science of

music must be understood. Left to the decisions

of material sense, music is liable to be misappre-

hended and lost in confusion. Controlled by belief,

instead of understanding, music is, must be, imper-

fectly expressed. So man, not understanding the Sci-

ence of being, – thrusting aside his divine Principle as

incomprehensible, – is abandoned to conjectures, left in

305:1
the hands of ignorance, placed at the disposal of illusions,

subjected to material sense which is discord. A discon-

tented, discordant mortal is no more a man than discord

is music.

Human reflection

305:5
A picture in the camera or a face reflected in the mirror

is not the original, though resembling it. Man, in the

likeness of his Maker, reflects the central light

of being, the invisible God. As there is no cor-

poreality in the mirrored form, which is but a reflection,

so man, like all things real, reflects God, his divine Prin-

ciple, not in a mortal body.

305:12
Gender also is a quality, not of God, but a character-

istic of mortal mind. The verity that God's image is not

a creator, though he reflects the creation of Mind, God,

constitutes the underlying reality of reflection. "Then

answered Jesus and said unto them: Verily, verily I say

unto you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he

seeth the Father do: for what things soever He doeth,

these also doeth the Son likewise."

Inverted images

305:20
The inverted images presented by the senses, the de-

flections of matter as opposed to the Science of spirit-

ual reflection, are all unlike Spirit, God. In

the illusion of life that is here to-day and

gone to-morrow, man would be wholly mortal, were

it not that Love, the divine Principle that obtains in

divine Science, destroys all error and brings immor-

tality to light. Because man is the reflection of his

Maker, he is not subject to birth, growth, maturity, de-

cay. These mortal dreams are of human origin, not

divine.

Jewish traditions

305:31
The Sadducees reasoned falsely about the resurrec-

tion, but not so blindly as the Pharisees, who believed

306:1
error to be as immortal as Truth. The Pharisees thought

that they could raise the spiritual from the material. They

would first make life result in death, and then

resort to death to reproduce spiritual life.

Jesus taught them how death was to be overcome by

spiritual Life, and demonstrated this beyond cavil.

Divinity not childless

306:7
Life demonstrates Life. The immortality of Soul makes

man immortal. If God, who is Life, were parted for a

moment from His reflection, man, during that

moment there would be no divinity reflected.

The Ego would be unexpressed, and the Father would be

childless, – no Father.

306:13
If Life or Soul and its representative, man, unite for

a period and then are separated as by a law of divorce to

be brought together again at some uncertain future time

and in a manner unknown, – and this is the general

religious opinion of mankind, – we are left without a

rational proof of immortality. But man cannot be sep-

arated for an instant from God, if man reflects God.

Thus Science proves man's existence to be intact.

Thought-forms

306:21
The myriad forms of mortal thought, made manifest

as matter, are not more distinct nor real to the mate-

rial senses than are the Soul-created forms

to spiritual sense, which cognizes Life as per-

manent. Undisturbed amid the jarring testimony of the

material senses, Science, still enthroned, is unfolding

to mortals the immutable, harmonious, divine Principle,

– is unfolding Life and the universe, ever present and

eternal.

306:30
God's man, spiritually created, is not material and

mortal.

The serpent's whisper

306:32
The parent of all human discord was the Adam-dream,

307:1
the deep sleep, in which originated the delusion that life

and intelligence proceeded from and passed into matter.

This pantheistic error, or so-called serpent, in-

sists still upon the opposite of Truth, saying,

"Ye shall be as gods;" that is, I will make error as real

and eternal as Truth.

307:7
Evil still affirms itself to be mind, and declares that

there is more than one intelligence or God. It says:

"There shall be lords and gods many. I declare that God

makes evil minds and evil spirits, and that I aid Him.

Truth shall change sides and be unlike Spirit. I will

put spirit into what I call matter, and matter shall seem

to have life as much as God, Spirit, who is the only life."

Bad results from error

307:14
This error has proved itself to be error. Its life is found

to be not Life, but only a transient, false sense of an ex-

istence which ends in death. Error charges

its lie to Truth and says: "The Lord knows

it. He has made man mortal and material, out of mat-

ter instead of Spirit." Thus error partakes of its own

nature and utters its own falsities. If we regard matter

as intelligent, and Mind as both good and evil, every sin

or supposed material pain and pleasure seems normal,

a part of God's creation, and so weighs against our course

Spiritward.

Higher statutes

307:25
Truth has no beginning. The divine Mind is the Soul

of man, and gives man dominion over all things. Man

was not created from a material basis, nor

bidden to obey material laws which Spirit never

made; his province is in spiritual statutes, in the higher

law of Mind.

The great question

307:31
Above error's awful din, blackness, and chaos, the voice

of Truth still calls: "Adam, where art thou? Conscious-

308:1
ness, where art thou? Art thou dwelling in the belief

that mind is in matter, and that evil is mind, or art thou

in the living faith that there is and can be but

one God, and keeping His commandment?"

Until the lesson is learned that God is the only Mind gov-

erning man, mortal belief will be afraid as it was in the

beginning, and will hide from the demand, "Where art

thou?" This awful demand, "Adam, where art thou?"

is met by the admission from the head, heart, stomach,

blood, nerves, etc.: "Lo, here I am, looking for happiness

and life in the body, but finding only an illusion, a blend-

ing of false claims, false pleasure, pain, sin, sickness, and

death."

308:14
The Soul-inspired patriarchs heard the voice of Truth,

and talked with God as consciously as man talks with man.

Wrestling of Jacob

308:16
Jacob was alone, wrestling with error, – struggling

with a mortal sense of life, substance, and intelligence

as existent in matter with its false pleasures

and pains, – when an angel, a message from

Truth and Love, appeared to him and smote the sinew,

or strength, of his error, till he saw its unreality; and

Truth, being thereby understood, gave him spiritual

strength in this Peniel of divine Science. Then said

the spiritual evangel: "Let me go, for the day breaketh;"

that is, the light of Truth and Love dawns upon thee.

But the patriarch, perceiving his error and his need

of help, did not loosen his hold upon this glorious light

until his nature was transformed. When Jacob was

asked, "What is thy name?" he straightway answered;

and then his name was changed to Israel, for "as a prince"

had he prevailed and had "power with God and with

men." Then Jacob questioned his deliverer, "Tell me,

309:1
I pray thee, thy name;" but this appellation was withheld,

for the messenger was not a corporeal being, but a name-

less, incorporeal impartation of divine Love to man, which,

to use the word of the Psalmist, restored his Soul, – gave

him the spiritual sense of being and rebuked his material

sense.

Israel the new name

309:7
The result of Jacob's struggle thus appeared. He had

conquered material error with the understanding of Spirit

and of spiritual power. This changed the man.

He was no longer called Jacob, but Israel, –

a prince of God, or a soldier of God, who had fought

a good fight. He was to become the father of those, who

through earnest striving followed his demonstration of the

power of Spirit over the material senses; and the children

of earth who followed his example were to be called the

children of Israel, until the Messiah should rename them.

If these children should go astray, and forget that Life

is God, good, and that good is not in elements which are

not spiritual, – thus losing the divine power which heals

the sick and sinning, – they were to be brought back

through great tribulation, to be renamed in Christian

Science and led to deny material sense, or mind in matter,

even as the gospel teaches.

Life never structural

309:24
The Science of being shows it to be impossible for in-

finite Spirit or Soul to be in a finite body or for man to

have an intelligence separate from his Maker.

It is a self-evident error to suppose that there

can be such a reality as organic animal or vegetable life,

when such so-called life always ends in death. Life is

never for a moment extinct. Therefore it is never struc-

tural nor organic, and is never absorbed nor limited by its

own formations.

Thought seen as substance

310:1
The artist is not in his painting. The picture is the

artist's thought objectified. The human belief fancies

that it delineates thought on matter, but what

is matter? Did it exist prior to thought?

Matter is made up of supposititious mortal mind-force;

but all might is divine Mind. Thought will finally be

understood and seen in all form, substance, and color, but

without material accompaniments. The potter is not in

the clay; else the clay would have power over the potter.

God is His own infinite Mind, and expresses all.

The central intelligence

310:11
Day may decline and shadows fall, but darkness flees

when the earth has again turned upon its axis. The sun

is not affected by the revolution of the earth.

So Science reveals Soul as God, untouched

by sin and death, – as the central life and intelligence

around which circle harmoniously all things in the sys-

tems of Mind.

Soul imperishable

310:18
Soul changeth not. We are commonly taught that there

is a human soul which sins and is spiritually lost, – that

soul may be lost, and yet be immortal. If

Soul could sin, Spirit, Soul, would be flesh in-

stead of Spirit. It is the belief of the flesh and of mate-

rial sense which sins. If Soul sinned, Soul would die.

Sin is the element of self-destruction, and spiritual death

is oblivion. If there was sin in Soul, the annihilation of

Spirit would be inevitable. The only Life is Spirit, and

if Spirit should lose Life as God, good, then Spirit, which

has no other existence, would be annihilated.

310:29
Mind is God, and God is not seen by material sense,

because Mind is Spirit, which material sense cannot dis-

cern. There is neither growth, maturity, nor decay in

Soul. These changes are the mutations of material sense,

311:1
the varying clouds of mortal belief, which hide the truth

of being.

311:3
What we term mortal mind or carnal mind, dependent

on matter for manifestation, is not Mind. God is Mind:

all that Mind, God, is, or hath made, is good, and He

made all. Hence evil is not made and is not real.

Sin only of the flesh

311:7
Soul is immortal because it is Spirit, which has no ele-

ment of self-destruction. Is man lost spiritually? No,

he can only lose a sense material. All sin is

of the flesh. It cannot be spiritual. Sin exists

here or hereafter only so long as the illusion of mind in

matter remains. It is a sense of sin, and not a sinful soul,

which is lost. Evil is destroyed by the sense of good.

Soul impeccable

311:14
Through false estimates of soul as dwelling in sense

and of mind as dwelling in matter, belief strays into a

sense of temporary loss or absence of soul, spir-

itual truth. This state of error is the mortal

dream of life and substance as existent in matter, and is

directly opposite to the immortal reality of being. So long

as we believe that soul can sin or that immortal Soul is in

mortal body, we can never understand the Science of be-

ing. When humanity does understand this Science, it

will become the law of Life to man, – even the higher law

of Soul, which prevails over material sense through har-

mony and immortality.

311:26
The objects cognized by the physical senses have not

the reality of substance. They are only what mortal

belief calls them. Matter, sin, and mortality lose all

supposed consciousness or claim to life or existence, as

mortals lay off a false sense of life, substance, and intelli-

gence, but the spiritual, eternal man is not touched by

these phases of mortality.

Sense-dreams

312:1
How true it is that whatever is learned through material

sense must be lost because such so-called knowledge is

reversed by the spiritual facts of being in

Science. That which material sense calls

intangible, is found to be substance. What to material

sense seems substance, becomes nothingness, as the sense‑

dream vanishes and reality appears.

312:8
The senses regard a corpse, not as man, but simply as

matter. People say, "Man is dead;" but this death is

the departure of a mortal's mind, not of matter. The

matter is still there. The belief of that mortal that he

must die occasioned his departure; yet you say that

matter has caused his death.

Vain ecstasies

312:14
People go into ecstasies over the sense of a corporeal

Jehovah, though with scarcely a spark of love in their

hearts; yet God is love, and without Love,

God, immortality cannot appear. Mortals try

to believe without understanding Truth; yet God is

Truth. Mortals claim that death is inevitable; but man's

eternal Principle is ever-present life. Mortals believe in

a finite personal God; while God is infinite Love, which

must be unlimited.

Man-made theories

312:23
Our theories are based on finite premises, which can-

not penetrate beyond matter. A personal sense of God

and of man's capabilities necessarily limits

faith and hinders spiritual understanding. It

divides faith and understanding between matter and Spirit,

the finite and the infinite, and so turns away from the

intelligent and divine healing Principle to the inanimate

drug.

The one anointed

312:31
Jesus' spiritual origin and his demonstration of divine

Principle richly endowed him and entitled him to sonship

313:1
in Science. He was the son of a virgin. The term

Christ Jesus, or Jesus the Christ (to give the full and

proper translation of the Greek), may be ren-

dered "Jesus the anointed," Jesus the God‑

crowned or the divinely royal man, as it is said of him in

the first chapter of Hebrews: –

313:7
Therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee

With the oil of gladness above thy fellows.

313:9
With this agrees another passage in the same chapter,

which refers to the Son as "the brightness of His [God's]

glory, and the express [expressed] image of His person

[infinite Mind]." It is noteworthy that the phrase "ex-

press image" in the Common Version is, in the Greek

Testament, character. Using this word in its higher mean-

ing, we may assume that the author of this remarkable

epistle regarded Christ as the Son of God, the royal

reflection of the infinite; and the cause given for the ex-

altation of Jesus, Mary's son, was that he "loved right-

eousness and hated iniquity." The passage is made

even clearer in the translation of the late George R.

Noyes, D.D.: "Who, being a brightness from His glory,

and an image of His being."

Jesus the Scientist

313:23
Jesus of Nazareth was the most scientific man that

ever trod the globe. He plunged beneath the material

surface of things, and found the spiritual

cause. To accommodate himself to imma-

ture ideas of spiritual power, – for spirituality was pos

sessed only in a limited degree even by his disciples, –

Jesus called the body, which by spiritual power he

raised from the grave, "flesh and bones." To show

that the substance of himself was Spirit and the body

314:1
no more perfect because of death and no less material

until the ascension (his further spiritual exaltation),

Jesus waited until the mortal or fleshly sense had re-

linquished the belief of substance-matter, and spiritual

sense had quenched all earthly yearnings. Thus he found

the eternal Ego, and proved that he and the Father were

inseparable as God and His reflection or spiritual man.

Our Master gained the solution of being, demonstrating

the existence of but one Mind without a second or equal.

The bodily resurrection

314:10
The Jews, who sought to kill this man of God, showed

plainly that their material views were the parents of their

wicked deeds. When Jesus spoke of repro-

ducing his body, – knowing, as he did, that

Mind was the builder, – and said, "Destroy this temple,

and in three days I will raise it up," they thought that he

meant their material temple instead of his body. To such

materialists, the real man seemed a spectre, unseen and

unfamiliar, and the body, which they laid in a sepulchre,

seemed to be substance. This materialism lost sight of

the true Jesus; but the faithful Mary saw him, and he

presented to her, more than ever before, the true idea of

Life and substance.

Opposition of materialists

314:23
Because of mortals' material and sinful belief, the

spiritual Jesus was imperceptible to them. The higher

his demonstration of divine Science carried

the problem of being, and the more dis-

tinctly he uttered the demands of its divine Principle,

Truth and Love, the more odious he became to sinners

and to those who, depending on doctrines and material

laws to save them from sin and sickness, were submis-

sive to death as being in supposed accord with the

inevitable law of life. Jesus proved them wrong by

315:1
his resurrection, and said: "Whosoever liveth and be-

lieveth in me shall never die."

Hebrew theology

315:3
That saying of our Master, "I and my Father are one,"

separated him from the scholastic theology of the rabbis.

His better understanding of God was a rebuke

to them. He knew of but one Mind and laid

no claim to any other. He knew that the Ego was Mind

instead of body and that matter, sin, and evil were not

Mind; and his understanding of this divine Science

brought upon him the anathemas of the age.

The true sonship

315:11
The opposite and false views of the people hid from

their sense Christ's sonship with God. They could not

discern his spiritual existence. Their carnal

minds were at enmity with it. Their thoughts

were filled with mortal error, instead of with God's spirit-

ual idea as presented by Christ Jesus. The likeness of

God we lose sight of through sin, which beclouds the spir-

itual sense of Truth; and we realize this likeness only

when we subdue sin and prove man's heritage, the liberty

of the sons of God.

Immaculate conception

315:21
Jesus' spiritual origin and understanding enabled him

to demonstrate the facts of being, – to prove irrefutably

how spiritual Truth destroys material error,

heals sickness, and overcomes death. The

divine conception of Jesus pointed to this truth and pre-

sented an illustration of creation. The history of Jesus

shows him to have been more spiritual than all other

earthly personalities.

Jesus as mediator

315:29
Wearing in part a human form (that is, as it seemed

to mortal view), being conceived by a human mother,

Jesus was the mediator between Spirit and the flesh,

between Truth and error. Explaining and demonstrat-

316:1
ing the way of divine Science, he became the way of

salvation to all who accepted his word. From him mor-

tals may learn how to escape from evil. The

real man being linked by Science to his Maker,

mortals need only turn from sin and lose sight of mortal

selfhood to find Christ, the real man and his relation to

God, and to recognize the divine sonship. Christ, Truth,

was demonstrated through Jesus to prove the power of

Spirit over the flesh, – to show that Truth is made

manifest by its effects upon the human mind and body,

healing sickness and destroying sin.

Spiritual government

316:12
Jesus represented Christ, the true idea of God. Hence

the warfare between this spiritual idea and perfunctory

religion, between spiritual clear-sightedness

and the blindness of popular belief, which led

to the conclusion that the spiritual idea could be killed

by crucifying the flesh. The Christ-idea, or the Christ‑

man, rose higher to human view because of the crucifixion,

and thus proved that truth was the master of death.

Christ presents the indestructible man, whom Spirit cre-

ates, constitutes, and governs. Christ illustrates that

blending with God, his divine Principle, which gives man

dominion over all the earth.

Deadness in sin

316:24
The spiritual idea of God, as presented by Jesus, was

scourged in person, and its Principle was rejected. That

man was accounted a criminal who could

prove God's divine power by healing the

sick, casting out evils, spiritualizing materialistic beliefs,

and raising the dead, – those dead in trespasses and

sins, satisfied with the flesh, resting on the basis of mat-

ter, blind to the possibilities of Spirit and its correla-

tive truth.

317:1
Jesus uttered things which had been "secret from the

foundation of the world," – since material knowledge

usurped the throne of the creative divine Principle, insisted

on the might of matter, the force of falsity, the insignifi-

cance of spirit, and proclaimed an anthropomorphic God.

The cup of Jesus

317:6
Whosoever lives most the life of Jesus in this age

and declares best the power of Christian Science, will

drink of his Master's cup. Resistance to

Truth will haunt his steps, and he will in-

cur the hatred of sinners, till "wisdom is justified of

her children." These blessed benedictions rest upon

Jesus' followers: "If the world hate you, ye know that

it hated me before it hated you;" "Lo, I am with you

alway," – that is, not only in all time, but in all ways

and conditions.

317:16
The individuality of man is no less tangible because

it is spiritual and because his life is not at the mercy of

matter. The understanding of his spiritual individuality

makes man more real, more formidable in truth, and en-

ables him to conquer sin, disease, and death. Our Lord

and Master presented himself to his disciples after his

resurrection from the grave, as the self-same Jesus whom

they had loved before the tragedy on Calvary.

Material skepticism

317:24
To the materialistic Thomas, looking for the ideal

Saviour in matter instead of in Spirit and to the testi-

mony of the material senses and the body,

more than to Soul, for an earnest of immor-

tality, – to him Jesus furnished the proof that he was

unchanged by the crucifixion. To this dull and doubt-

ing disciple Jesus remained a fleshly reality, so long as

the Master remained an inhabitant of the earth. Noth-

ing but a display of matter could make existence real

318:1
to Thomas. For him to believe in matter was no task,

but for him to conceive of the substantiality of Spirit –

to know that nothing can efface Mind and immortality, in

which Spirit reigns – was more difficult.

What the senses originate

318:5
Corporeal senses define diseases as realities; but the

Scriptures declare that God made all, even while the cor-

poreal senses are saying that matter causes

disease and the divine Mind cannot or will

not heal it. The material senses originate and

support all that is material, untrue, selfish, or debased.

They would put soul into soil, life into limbo, and doom

all things to decay. We must silence this lie of material

sense with the truth of spiritual sense. We must cause

the error to cease that brought the belief of sin and death

and would efface the pure sense of omnipotence.

Sickness as discord

318:16
Is the sick man sinful above all others? No! but

so far as he is discordant, he is not the image of God.

Weary of their material beliefs, from which

comes so much suffering, invalids grow more

spiritual, as the error – or belief that life is in matter –

yields to the reality of spiritual Life.

318:22
The Science of Mind denies the error of sensation in

matter, and heals with Truth. Medical science treats

disease as though disease were real, therefore right, and

attempts to heal it with matter. If disease is right it is

wrong to heal it. Material methods are temporary, and

are not adapted to elevate mankind.

318:28
The governor is not subjected to the governed. In

Science man is governed by God, divine Principle, as

numbers are controlled and proved by His laws. Intelli-

gence does not originate in numbers, but is manifested

through them. The body does not include soul, but man-

319:1
ifests mortality, a false sense of soul. The delusion that

there is life in matter has no kinship with the Life supernal.

Unscientific introspection

319:3
Science depicts disease as error, as matter versus

Mind, and error reversed as subserving the facts of

health. To calculate one's life-prospects

from a material basis, would infringe upon

spiritual law and misguide human hope. Having faith

in the divine Principle of Health and spiritually under-

standing God, sustains man under all circumstances;

whereas the lower appeal to the general faith in material

means (commonly called nature) must yield to the all‑

might of infinite Spirit.

319:13
Throughout the infinite cycles of eternal existence,

Spirit and matter neither concur in man nor in the universe.

God the only Mind

319:15
The varied doctrines and theories which presuppose

life and intelligence to exist in matter are so many ancient

and modern mythologies. Mystery, miracle,

sin, and death will disappear when it becomes

fairly understood that the divine Mind controls man and

man has no Mind but God.

Scriptures misinterpreted

319:21
The divine Science taught in the original language

of the Bible came through inspiration, and needs inspi-

ration to be understood. Hence the misappre-

hension of the spiritual meaning of the Bible,

and the misinterpretation of the Word in

some instances by uninspired writers, who only wrote

down what an inspired teacher had said. A misplaced

word changes the sense and misstates the Science of

the Scriptures, as, for instance, to name Love as merely

an attribute of God; but we can by special and proper

capitalization speak of the love of Love, meaning by that

what the beloved disciple meant in one of his epistles,

320:1
when he said, "God is love." Likewise we can speak of

the truth of Truth and of the life of Life, for Christ plainly

declared, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."

Interior meaning

320:4
Metaphors abound in the Bible, and names are often

expressive of spiritual ideas. The most distinguished

theologians in Europe and America agree that

the Scriptures have both a spiritual and lit-

eral meaning. In Smith's Bible Dictionary it is said:

"The spiritual interpretation of Scripture must rest

upon both the literal and moral;" and in the learned

article on Noah in the same work, the familiar text,

Genesis vi. 3, "And the Lord said, My spirit shall not

always strive with man, for that he also is flesh," is quoted

as follows, from the original Hebrew: "And Jehovah

said, My spirit shall not forever rule [or be humbled] in

men, seeing that they are [or, in their error they are]

but flesh." Here the original text declares plainly the

spiritual fact of being, even man's eternal and harmo-

nious existence as image, idea, instead of matter (how-

ever transcendental such a thought appears), and avers

that this fact is not forever to be humbled by the belief

that man is flesh and matter, for according to that error

man is mortal.

Job, on the resurrection

320:24
The one important interpretation of Scripture is the

spiritual. For example, the text, "In my flesh shall I

see God," gives a profound idea of the di-

vine power to heal the ills of the flesh, and

encourages mortals to hope in Him who healeth all our

diseases; whereas this passage is continually quoted

as if Job intended to declare that even if disease and

worms destroyed his body, yet in the latter days he should

stand in celestial perfection before Elohim, still clad

321:1
in material flesh, – an interpretation which is just the op-

posite of the true, as may be seen by studying the book

of Job. As Paul says, in his first epistle to the Corin-

thians, "Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of

God."

Fear of the serpent overcome

321:6
The Hebrew Lawgiver, slow of speech, despaired of

making the people understand what should be revealed

to him. When, led by wisdom to cast down his

rod, he saw it become a serpent, Moses fled be-

fore it; but wisdom bade him come back and

handle the serpent, and then Moses' fear departed. In

this incident was seen the actuality of Science. Matter

was shown to be a belief only. The serpent, evil, under

wisdom's bidding, was destroyed through understanding

divine Science, and this proof was a staff upon which to

lean. The illusion of Moses lost its power to alarm him,

when he discovered that what he apparently saw was really

but a phase of mortal belief.

Leprosy healed

321:19
It was scientifically demonstrated that leprosy was a

creation of mortal mind and not a condition of matter,

when Moses first put his hand into his bosom

and drew it forth white as snow with the dread

disease, and presently restored his hand to its natural con-

dition by the same simple process. God had lessened

Moses' fear by this proof in divine Science, and the in-

ward voice became to him the voice of God, which said:

"It shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither

hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe

the voice of the latter sign." And so it was in the coming

centuries, when the Science of being was demonstrated

by Jesus, who showed his students the power of Mind by

changing water into wine, and taught them how to handle

322:1
serpents unharmed, to heal the sick and cast out evils in

proof of the supremacy of Mind.

Standpoints changed

322:3
When understanding changes the standpoints of life and

intelligence from a material to a spiritual basis, we shall

gain the reality of Life, the control of Soul over

sense, and we shall perceive Christianity, or

Truth, in its divine Principle. This must be the climax

before harmonious and immortal man is obtained and his

capabilities revealed. It is highly important – in view

of the immense work to be accomplished before this recog-

nition of divine Science can come – to turn our thoughts

towards divine Principle, that finite belief may be pre-

pared to relinquish its error.

Saving the inebriate

322:14
Man's wisdom finds no satisfaction in sin, since God

has sentenced sin to suffer. The necromancy of yester-

day foreshadowed the mesmerism and hypno-

tism of to-day. The drunkard thinks he enjoys

drunkenness, and you cannot make the inebriate leave

his besottedness, until his physical sense of pleasure yields

to a higher sense. Then he turns from his cups, as

the startled dreamer who wakens from an incubus in-

curred through the pains of distorted sense. A man who

likes to do wrong – finding pleasure in it and refraining

from it only through fear of consequences – is neither

a temperate man nor a reliable religionist.

Uses of suffering

322:26
The sharp experiences of belief in the supposititious life

of matter, as well as our disappointments and ceaseless

woes, turn us like tired children to the arms

of divine Love. Then we begin to learn Life

in divine Science. Without this process of weaning,

"Canst thou by searching find out God?" It is easier

to desire Truth than to rid one's self of error. Mortals

323:1
may seek the understanding of Christian Science, but they

will not be able to glean from Christian Science the facts

of being without striving for them. This strife consists

in the endeavor to forsake error of every kind and to pos-

sess no other consciousness but good.

A bright outlook

323:6
Through the wholesome chastisements of Love, we

are helped onward in the march towards righteousness,

peace, and purity, which are the landmarks

of Science. Beholding the infinite tasks of

truth, we pause, – wait on God. Then we push onward,

until boundless thought walks enraptured, and concep-

tion unconfined is winged to reach the divine glory.

Need and supply

323:13
In order to apprehend more, we must put into prac-

tice what we already know. We must recollect that

Truth is demonstrable when understood, and

that good is not understood until demonstrated.

If "faithful over a few things," we shall be made rulers

over many; but the one unused talent decays and is lost.

When the sick or the sinning awake to realize their need

of what they have not, they will be receptive of divine

Science, which gravitates towards Soul and away from

material sense, removes thought from the body, and ele-

vates even mortal mind to the contemplation of some-

thing better than disease or sin. The true idea of God

gives the true understanding of Life and Love, robs the

grave of victory, takes away all sin and the delusion that

there are other minds, and destroys mortality.

Childlike receptivity

323:28
The effects of Christian Science are not so much seen

as felt. It is the "still, small voice" of Truth

uttering itself. We are either turning away

from this utterance, or we are listening to it and going

up higher. Willingness to become as a little child and

324:1
to leave the old for the new, renders thought receptive of

the advanced idea. Gladness to leave the false landmarks

and joy to see them disappear, – this disposition helps

to precipitate the ultimate harmony. The purification

of sense and self is a proof of progress. "Blessed are the

pure in heart: for they shall see God."

Narrow pathway

324:7
Unless the harmony and immortality of man are be-

coming more apparent, we are not gaining the true idea

of God; and the body will reflect what gov-

erns it, whether it be Truth or error,

understanding or belief, Spirit or matter. Therefore

"acquaint now thyself with Him, and be at peace."

Be watchful, sober, and vigilant. The way is straight

and narrow, which leads to the understanding that God

is the only Life. It is a warfare with the flesh, in which

we must conquer sin, sickness, and death, either here

or hereafter, – certainly before we can reach the goal

of Spirit, or life in God.

Paul's enlightenment

324:19
Paul was not at first a disciple of Jesus but a perse-

cutor of Jesus' followers. When the truth first appeared

to him in Science, Paul was made blind,

and his blindness was felt; but spiritual

light soon enabled him to follow the example and teach-

ings of Jesus, healing the sick and preaching Christian-

ity throughout Asia Minor, Greece, and even in imperial

Rome.

324:27
Paul writes, "If Christ [Truth] be not risen, then is

our preaching vain." That is, if the idea of the suprem-

acy of Spirit, which is the true conception of being,

come not to your thought, you cannot be benefited by

what I say.

Abiding in Life

324:32
Jesus said substantially, "He that believeth in me

325:1
shall not see death." That is, he who perceives the

true idea of Life loses his belief in death. He who has

the true idea of good loses all sense of evil,

and by reason of this is being ushered into the

undying realities of Spirit. Such a one abideth in Life, –

life obtained not of the body incapable of supporting life,

but of Truth, unfolding its own immortal idea. Jesus

gave the true idea of being, which results in infinite bless-

ings to mortals.

Indestructible being

325:10
In Colossians (iii. 4) Paul writes: "When Christ, who

is our life, shall appear [be manifested], then shall ye also

appear [be manifested] with him in glory."

When spiritual being is understood in all its

perfection, continuity, and might, then shall man be found

in God's image. The absolute meaning of the apostolic

words is this: Then shall man be found, in His likeness,

perfect as the Father, indestructible in Life, "hid with

Christ in God," – with Truth in divine Love, where

human sense hath not seen man.

Consecration required

325:20
Paul had a clear sense of the demands of Truth upon

mortals physically and spiritually, when he said: "Pre-

sent your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, ac-

ceptable unto God, which is your reasonable

service." But he, who is begotten of the beliefs of the

flesh and serves them, can never reach in this world the

divine heights of our Lord. The time cometh when

the spiritual origin of man, the divine Science which

ushered Jesus into human presence, will be understood

and demonstrated.

325:30
When first spoken in any age, Truth, like the light,

"shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended

it not." A false sense of life, substance, and mind

326:1
hides the divine possibilities, and conceals scientific

demonstration.

Loving God supremely

326:3
If we wish to follow Christ, Truth, it must be in the

way of God's appointing. Jesus said, "He that believeth

on me, the works that I do shall he do also."

He, who would reach the source and find the

divine remedy for every ill, must not try to climb the hill

of Science by some other road. All nature teaches God's

love to man, but man cannot love God supremely and set

his whole affections on spiritual things, while loving the

material or trusting in it more than in the spiritual.

326:12
We must forsake the foundation of material systems,

however time-honored, if we would gain the Christ as

our only Saviour. Not partially, but fully, the great

healer of mortal mind is the healer of the body.

326:16
The purpose and motive to live aright can be gained

now. This point won, you have started as you should.

You have begun at the numeration-table of Christian

Science, and nothing but wrong intention can hinder your

advancement. Working and praying with true motives,

your Father will open the way. "Who did hinder you,

that ye should not obey the truth?"

Conversion of Saul

326:23
Saul of Tarsus beheld the way – the Christ, or Truth

– only when his uncertain sense of right yielded to a

spiritual sense, which is always right. Then

the man was changed. Thought assumed a

nobler outlook, and his life became more spiritual. He

learned the wrong that he had done in persecuting Chris-

tians, whose religion he had not understood, and in hu-

mility he took the new name of Paul. He beheld for the

first time the true idea of Love, and learned a lesson in

divine Science.

327:1
Reform comes by understanding that there is no abid-

ing pleasure in evil, and also by gaining an affection for

good according to Science, which reveals the immortal

fact that neither pleasure nor pain, appetite nor passion,

can exist in or of matter, while divine Mind can and does

destroy the false beliefs of pleasure, pain, or fear and all

the sinful appetites of the human mind.

Image of the beast

327:8
What a pitiful sight is malice, finding pleasure in re-

venge! Evil is sometimes a man's highest conception

of right, until his grasp on good grows stronger.

Then he loses pleasure in wickedness, and it

becomes his torment. The way to escape the misery of

sin is to cease sinning. There is no other way. Sin is

the image of the beast to be effaced by the sweat of agony.

It is a moral madness which rushes forth to clamor with

midnight and tempest.

Peremptory demands

327:17
To the physical senses, the strict demands of Christian

Science seem peremptory; but mortals are has-

tening to learn that Life is God, good, and that

evil has in reality neither place nor power in the human or

the divine economy.

Moral courage

327:22
Fear of punishment never made man truly honest.

Moral courage is requisite to meet the wrong and to

proclaim the right. But how shall we re-

form the man who has more animal than

moral courage, and who has not the true idea of good?

Through human consciousness, convince the mortal of

his mistake in seeking material means for gaining hap-

piness. Reason is the most active human faculty. Let

that inform the sentiments and awaken the man's dor-

mant sense of moral obligation, and by degrees he will

learn the nothingness of the pleasures of human sense

328:1
and the grandeur and bliss of a spiritual sense, which

silences the material or corporeal. Then he not only will

be saved, but is saved.

Final destruction of error

328:4
Mortals suppose that they can live without goodness,

when God is good and the only real Life. What is the

result? Understanding little about the divine

Principle which saves and heals, mortals get

rid of sin, sickness, and death only in belief. These errors

are not thus really destroyed, and must therefore cling

to mortals until, here or hereafter, they gain the true un-

derstanding of God in the Science which destroys human

delusions about Him and reveals the grand realities of

His allness.

Promise perpetual

328:14
This understanding of man's power, when he is

equipped by God, has sadly disappeared from Christian

history. For centuries it has been dormant, a

lost element of Christianity. Our missionaries

carry the Bible to India, but can it be said that they

explain it practically, as Jesus did, when hundreds of

persons die there annually from serpent-bites? Under-

standing spiritual law and knowing that there is no mate-

rial law, Jesus said: "These signs shall follow them that

believe, . . . they shall take up serpents, and if they

drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them. They

shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover." It

were well had Christendom believed and obeyed this

sacred saying.

328:28
Jesus' promise is perpetual. Had it been given only

to his immediate disciples, the Scriptural passage would

read you, not they. The purpose of his great life-work

extends through time and includes universal humanity.

Its Principle is infinite, reaching beyond the pale of a

329:1
single period or of a limited following. As time moves

on, the healing elements of pure Christianity will be fairly

dealt with; they will be sought and taught, and will glow

in all the grandeur of universal goodness.

Imitation of Jesus

329:5
A little leaven leavens the whole lump. A little under-

standing of Christian Science proves the truth of all that

I say of it. Because you cannot walk on the

water and raise the dead, you have no right to

question the great might of divine Science in these direc-

tions. Be thankful that Jesus, who was the true demon-

strator of Science, did these things, and left his example for

us. In Science we can use only what we understand. We

must prove our faith by demonstration.

329:14
One should not tarry in the storm if the body is freez-

ing, nor should he remain in the devouring flames. Un-

til one is able to prevent bad results, he should avoid their

occasion. To be discouraged, is to resemble a pupil in

addition, who attempts to solve a problem of Euclid, and

denies the rule of the problem because he fails in his first

effort.

Error destroyed, not pardoned

329:21
There is no hypocrisy in Science. Principle is impera-

tive. You cannot mock it by human will. Science is a

divine demand, not a human. Always right,

its divine Principle never repents, but main-

tains the claim of Truth by quenching error.

The pardon of divine mercy is the destruction of error. If

men understood their real spiritual source to be all bless-

edness, they would struggle for recourse to the spiritual

and be at peace; but the deeper the error into which mor-

tal mind is plunged, the more intense the opposition to

spirituality, till error yields to Truth.

The hopeful outlook

329:32
Human resistance to divine Science weakens in pro-

330:1
portion as mortals give up error for Truth and the un-

derstanding of being supersedes mere belief. Until the

author of this book learned the vastness of

Christian Science, the fixedness of mortal illu-

sions, and the human hatred of Truth, she cherished

sanguine hopes that Christian Science would meet with

immediate and universal acceptance.

330:8
When the following platform is understood and the

letter and the spirit bear witness, the infallibility of divine

metaphysics will be demonstrated.

The deific supremacy

330:11
I. God is infinite, the only Life, substance, Spirit, or

Soul, the only intelligence of the universe, including man.

Eye hath neither seen God nor His image and

likeness. Neither God nor the perfect man

can be discerned by the material senses. The individ-

uality of Spirit, or the infinite, is unknown, and thus a

knowledge of it is left either to human conjecture or to the

revelation of divine Science.

The deific definitions

330:19
II. God is what the Scriptures declare Him to be, –

Life, Truth, Love. Spirit is divine Principle, and divine

Principle is Love, and Love is Mind, and

Mind is not both good and bad, for God is

Mind; therefore there is in reality one Mind only, be-

cause there is one God.

Evil obsolete

330:25
III. The notion that both evil and good are real is a

delusion of material sense, which Science annihilates.

Evil is nothing, no thing, mind, nor power.

As manifested by mankind it stands for a lie,

nothing claiming to be something, – for lust, dishonesty,

selfishness, envy, hypocrisy, slander, hate, theft, adultery,

murder, dementia, insanity, inanity, devil, hell, with all

the etceteras that word includes.

Life the creator

331:1
IV. God is divine Life, and Life is no more confined

to the forms which reflect it than substance is in its

shadow. If life were in mortal man or mate-

rial things, it would be subject to their limi-

tations and would end in death. Life is Mind, the creator

reflected in His creations. If He dwelt within what He

creates, God would not be reflected but absorbed, and the

Science of being would be forever lost through a mortal

sense, which falsely testifies to a beginning and an

end.

Allness of Spirit

331:11
V. The Scriptures imply that God is All-in-all. From

this it follows that nothing possesses reality nor existence

except the divine Mind and His ideas. The

Scriptures also declare that God is Spirit.

Therefore in Spirit all is harmony, and there can be no

discord; all is Life, and there is no death. Everything

in God's universe expresses Him.

The universal cause

331:18
VI. God is individual, incorporeal. He is divine Prin-

ciple, Love, the universal cause, the only creator, and

there is no other self-existence. He is all‑

inclusive, and is reflected by all that is real

and eternal and by nothing else. He fills all space, and

it is impossible to conceive of such omnipresence and in-

dividuality except as infinite Spirit or Mind. Hence all

is Spirit and spiritual.

Divine trinity

331:26
VII. Life, Truth, and Love constitute the triune Person

called God, – that is, the triply divine Principle, Love.

They represent a trinity in unity, three in

one, – the same in essence, though multi-

form in office: God the Father-Mother; Christ the spirit-

ual idea of sonship; divine Science or the Holy Comforter.

These three express in divine Science the threefold, essen-

332:1
tial nature of the infinite. They also indicate the divine

Principle of scientific being, the intelligent relation of God

to man and the universe.

Father-Mother

332:4
VIII. Father-Mother is the name for Deity, which in-

dicates His tender relationship to His spiritual creation.

As the apostle expressed it in words which he

quoted with approbation from a classic poet:

"For we are also His offspring."

The Son of God

332:9
IX. Jesus was born of Mary. Christ is the true idea

voicing good, the divine message from God to men speak-

ing to the human consciousness. The Christ

is incorporeal, spiritual, – yea, the divine

image and likeness, dispelling the illusions of the senses;

the Way, the Truth, and the Life, healing the sick and

casting out evils, destroying sin, disease, and death. As

Paul says: "There is one God, and one mediator between

God and men, the man Christ Jesus." The corporeal

man Jesus was human.

Holy Ghost or Comforter

332:19
X. Jesus demonstrated Christ; he proved that Christ

is the divine idea of God – the Holy Ghost,

or Comforter, revealing the divine Principle,

Love, and leading into all truth.

Christ Jesus

332:23
XI. Jesus was the son of a virgin. He was appointed

to speak God's word and to appear to mortals in such

a form of humanity as they could understand

as well as perceive. Mary's conception of

him was spiritual, for only purity could reflect Truth

and Love, which were plainly incarnate in the good and

pure Christ Jesus. He expressed the highest type of

divinity, which a fleshly form could express in that age.

Into the real and ideal man the fleshly element cannot

enter. Thus it is that Christ illustrates the coincidence,

333:1
or spiritual agreement, between God and man in His

image.

Messiah or Christ

333:3
XII. The word Christ is not properly a synonym for

Jesus, though it is commonly so used. Jesus was a human

name, which belonged to him in common with

other Hebrew boys and men, for it is identical

with the name Joshua, the renowned Hebrew leader. On

the other hand, Christ is not a name so much as the divine

title of Jesus. Christ expresses God's spiritual, eternal

nature. The name is synonymous with Messiah, and al-

ludes to the spirituality which is taught, illustrated, and

demonstrated in the life of which Christ Jesus was the

embodiment. The proper name of our Master in the

Greek was Jesus the Christ; but Christ Jesus better sig-

nifies the Godlike.

The divine Principle and idea

333:16
XIII. The advent of Jesus of Nazareth marked the

first century of the Christian era, but the Christ is

without beginning of years or end of days.

Throughout all generations both before and

after the Christian era, the Christ, as the spirit-

ual idea, – the reflection of God, – has come with some

measure of power and grace to all prepared to receive

Christ, Truth. Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and the prophets

caught glorious glimpses of the Messiah, or Christ, which

baptized these seers in the divine nature, the essence of

Love. The divine image, idea, or Christ was, is, and

ever will be inseparable from the divine Principle, God.

Jesus referred to this unity of his spiritual identity thus:

"Before Abraham was, I am;" "I and my Father are

one;" "My Father is greater than I." The one Spirit

includes all identities.

Spiritual oneness

333:32
XIV. By these sayings Jesus meant, not that the hu-

334:1
man Jesus was or is eternal, but that the divine idea or

Christ was and is so and therefore antedated Abraham;

not that the corporeal Jesus was one with the

Father, but that the spiritual idea, Christ,

dwells forever in the bosom of the Father, God, from

which it illumines heaven and earth; not that the Father

is greater than Spirit, which is God, but greater, infinitely

greater, than the fleshly Jesus, whose earthly career was

brief.

The Son's duality

334:10
XV. The invisible Christ was imperceptible to the

so-called personal senses, whereas Jesus appeared as a

bodily existence. This dual personality of the

unseen and the seen, the spiritual and mate-

rial, the eternal Christ and the corporeal Jesus manifest

in flesh, continued until the Master's ascension, when

the human, material concept, or Jesus, disappeared,

while the spiritual self, or Christ, continues to exist in

the eternal order of divine Science, taking away the sins

of the world, as the Christ has always done, even before

the human Jesus was incarnate to mortal eyes.

Eternity of the Christ

334:21
XVI. This was "the Lamb slain from the foundation

of the world," – slain, that is, according to the testi-

mony of the corporeal senses, but undying in

the deific Mind. The Revelator represents the

Son of man as saying (Revelation i. 17, 18): "I am the

first and the last: I am he that liveth, and was dead

[not understood]; and, behold, I am alive for evermore,

[Science has explained me]." This is a mystical state-

ment of the eternity of the Christ, and is also a reference

to the human sense of Jesus crucified.

Infinite Spirit

334:31
XVII. Spirit being God, there is but one Spirit, for

there can be but one infinite and therefore one God.

335:1
There are neither spirits many nor gods many. There

is no evil in Spirit, because God is Spirit. The theory,

that Spirit is distinct from matter but must

pass through it, or into it, to be individualized,

would reduce God to dependency on matter, and establish

a basis for pantheism.

The only substance

335:7
XVIII. Spirit, God, has created all in and of Him-

self. Spirit never created matter. There is nothing in

Spirit out of which matter could be made,

for, as the Bible declares, without the Logos,

the AEon or Word of God, "was not anything made

that was made." Spirit is the only substance, the in-

visible and indivisible infinite God. Things spiritual and

eternal are substantial. Things material and temporal

are insubstantial.

Soul and Spirit one

335:16
XIX. Soul and Spirit being one, God and Soul are

one, and this one never included in a limited mind or a

limited body. Spirit is eternal, divine. Noth-

ing but Spirit, Soul, can evolve Life, for Spirit

is more than all else. Because Soul is immortal, it does

not exist in mortality. Soul must be incorporeal to be

Spirit, for Spirit is not finite. Only by losing the false

sense of Soul can we gain the eternal unfolding of Life as

immortality brought to light.

The one divine Mind

335:25
XX. Mind is the divine Principle, Love, and can pro-

duce nothing unlike the eternal Father-Mother, God.

Reality is spiritual, harmonious, immutable,

immortal, divine, eternal. Nothing unspirit-

ual can be real, harmonious, or eternal. Sin, sickness,

and mortality are the suppositional antipodes of Spirit,

and must be contradictions of reality.

The divine Ego

335:32
XXI. The Ego is deathless and limitless, for limits

336:1
would imply and impose ignorance. Mind is the I AM,

or infinity. Mind never enters the finite. Intelligence

never passes into non-intelligence, or matter.

Good never enters into evil the unlimited into

the limited, the eternal into the temporal, nor the im-

mortal into mortality. The divine Ego, or individuality,

is reflected in all spiritual individuality from the infini-

tesimal to the infinite.

The real manhood

336:9
XXII. Immortal man was and is God's image or idea,

even the infinite expression of infinite Mind, and immor-

tal man is coexistent and coeternal with that

Mind. He has been forever in the eternal

Mind, God; but infinite Mind can never be in man, but

is reflected by man. The spiritual man's consciousness

and individuality are reflections of God. They are the

emanations of Him who is Life, Truth, and Love. Im-

mortal man is not and never was material, but always

spiritual and eternal.

Indivisibility of the infinite

336:19
XXIII. God is indivisible. A portion of God could

not enter man; neither could God's fulness be reflected

by a single man, else God would be manifestly

finite, lose the deific character, and become

less than God. Allness is the measure of the infinite, and

nothing less can express God.

God the parent Mind

336:25
XXIV. God, the divine Principle of man, and man in

God's likeness are inseparable, harmonious, and eternal.

The Science of being furnishes the rule of per-

fection, and brings immortality to light. God

and man are not the same, but in the order of divine Sci-

ence, God and man coexist and are eternal. God is the

parent Mind, and man is God's spiritual offspring.

Man reflects the perfect God

336:32
XXV. God is individual and personal in a scientific

337:1
sense, but not in any anthropomorphic sense. Therefore

man, reflecting God, cannot lose his individuality; but as

material sensation, or a soul in the body, blind

mortals do lose sight of spiritual individuality.

Material personality is not realism; it is not

the reflection or likeness of Spirit, the perfect God. Sen-

sualism is not bliss, but bondage. For true happiness,

man must harmonize with his Principle, divine Love; the

Son must be in accord with the Father, in conformity with

Christ. According to divine Science, man is in a degree

as perfect as the Mind that forms him. The truth of be-

ing makes man harmonious and immortal, while error is

mortal and discordant.

Purity the path to perfection

337:14
XXVI. Christian Science demonstrates that none but

the pure in heart can see God, as the gospel

teaches. In proportion to his purity is man

perfect; and perfection is the order of celestial

being which demonstrates Life in Christ, Life's spiritual

ideal.

True idea of man

337:20
XXVII. The true idea of man, as the reflection of the

invisible God, is as incomprehensible to the limited senses

as is man's infinite Principle. The visible uni-

verse and material man are the poor counter-

feits of the invisible universe and spiritual man. Eternal

things (verities) are God's thoughts as they exist in the

spiritual realm of the real. Temporal things are the

thoughts of mortals and are the unreal, being the oppo-

site of the real or the spiritual and eternal.

Truth demonstrated

337:29
XXVIII. Subject sickness, sin, and death to the rule

of health and holiness in Christian Science,

and you ascertain that this Science is demon-

strably true, for it heals the sick and sinning as no

338:1
other system can. Christian Science, rightly under-

stood, leads to eternal harmony. It brings to light the

only living and true God and man as made in His like-

ness; whereas the opposite belief – that man originates

in matter and has beginning and end, that he is both

soul and body, both good and evil, both spiritual and

material – terminates in discord and mortality, in the

error which must be destroyed by Truth. The mortality

of material man proves that error has been ingrafted

into the premises and conclusions of material and mortal

humanity.

Adam not ideal man

338:12
XXIX. The word Adam is from the Hebrew adamah,

signifying the red color of the ground, dust, nothingness.

Divide the name Adam into two syllables,

and it reads, a dam, or obstruction. This

suggests the thought of something fluid, of mortal mind

in solution. It further suggests the thought of that

"darkness . . . upon the face of the deep," when mat-

ter or dust was deemed the agent of Deity in creating

man, – when matter, as that which is accursed, stood

opposed to Spirit. Here a dam is not a mere play upon

words; it stands for obstruction, error, even the sup-

posed separation of man from God, and the obstacle

which the serpent, sin, would impose between man and

his creator. The dissection and definition of words,

aside from their metaphysical derivation, is not scien-

tific. Jehovah declared the ground was accursed; and

from this ground, or matter, sprang Adam, notwith-

standing God had blessed the earth "for man's sake."

From this it follows that Adam was not the ideal man

for whom the earth was blessed. The ideal man was

revealed in due time, and was known as Christ Jesus.

Divine pardon

339:1
XXX. The destruction of sin is the divine method of

pardon. Divine Life destroys death, Truth destroys

error, and Love destroys hate. Being de-

stroyed, sin needs no other form of forgiveness.

Does not God's pardon, destroying any one sin, prophesy

and involve the final destruction of all sin?

Evil not produced by God

339:7
XXXI. Since God is All, there is no room for His

unlikeness. God, Spirit, alone created all, and called it

good. Therefore evil, being contrary to good,

is unreal, and cannot be the product of God.

A sinner can receive no encouragement from the fact that

Science demonstrates the unreality of evil, for the sinner

would make a reality of sin, – would make that real

which is unreal, and thus heap up "wrath against the

day of wrath." He is joining in a conspiracy against

himself, – against his own awakening to the awful un-

reality by which he has been deceived. Only those, who

repent of sin and forsake the unreal, can fully understand

the unreality of evil.

Basis of health and immortality

339:20
XXXII. As the mythology of pagan Rome has yielded

to a more spiritual idea of Deity, so will our material

theories yield to spiritual ideas, until the finite

gives place to the infinite, sickness to health,

sin to holiness, and God's kingdom comes "in

earth, as it is in heaven." The basis of all health, sin-

lessness, and immortality is the great fact that God is

the only Mind; and this Mind must be not merely be-

lieved, but it must be understood. To get rid of sin

through Science, is to divest sin of any supposed mind

or reality, and never to admit that sin can have intelli-

gence or power, pain or pleasure. You conquer error by

denying its verity. Our various theories will never lose

340:1
their imaginary power for good or evil, until we lose our

faith in them and make life its own proof of harmony

and God.

340:4
This text in the book of Ecclesiastes conveys the

Christian Science thought, especially when the word

duty, which is not in the original, is omitted: "Let

us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God,

and keep His commandments: for this is the whole

duty of man." In other words: Let us hear the con-

clusion of the whole matter: love God and keep His

commandments: for this is the whole of man in His

image and likeness. Divine Love is infinite. Therefore

all that really exists is in and of God, and manifests His

love.

340:15
"Thou shalt have no other gods before me." (Exodus

xx. 3.) The First Commandment is my favorite text.

It demonstrates Christian Science. It inculcates the tri‑

unity of God, Spirit, Mind; it signifies that man shall

have no other spirit or mind but God, eternal good, and

that all men shall have one Mind. The divine Principle

of the First Commandment bases the Science of being, by

which man demonstrates health, holiness, and life eternal.

One infinite God, good, unifies men and nations; con-

stitutes the brotherhood of man; ends wars; fulfils the

Scripture, "Love thy neighbor as thyself;" annihilates

pagan and Christian idolatry, – whatever is wrong in

social, civil, criminal, political, and religious codes;

equalizes the sexes; annuls the curse on man, and leaves

nothing that can sin, suffer, be punished or destroyed.

Chapter XI

Some Objections Answered

And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not. Which of you con-

vinceth me of sin? And if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? –

JESUS.

But if the spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in

you, He that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mor-

tal bodies by His spirit that dwelleth in you. – PAUL.

341:1
THE strictures on this volume would condemn to

oblivion the truth, which is raising up thousands

from helplessness to strength and elevating them from

a theoretical to a practical Christianity. These criticisms

are generally based on detached sentences or clauses sep-

arated from their context. Even the Scriptures, which

grow in beauty and consistency from one grand root, ap-

pear contradictory when subjected to such usage. Jesus

said, "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see

God" [Truth].

Supported by facts

341:11
In Christian Science mere opinion is valueless. Proof

is essential to a due estimate of this subject. Sneers at

the application of the word Science to Chris-

tianity cannot prevent that from being scien-

tific which is based on divine Principle, demonstrated ac-

cording to a divine given rule, and subjected to proof.

The facts are so absolute and numerous in support of

Christian Science, that misrepresentation and denuncia-

342:1
tion cannot overthrow it. Paul alludes to "doubtful dis-

putations." The hour has struck when proof and demon-

stration, instead of opinion and dogma, are summoned to

the support of Christianity, "making wise the simple."

Commands of Jesus

342:5
In the result of some unqualified condemnations of

scientific Mind-healing, one may see with sorrow the sad

effects on the sick of denying Truth. He that

decries this Science does it presumptuously,

in the face of Bible history and in defiance of the direct

command of Jesus, "Go ye into all the world, and preach

the gospel," to which command was added the promise

that his students should cast out evils and heal the sick.

He bade the seventy disciples, as well as the twelve,

heal the sick in any town where they should be hospitably

received.

Christianity scientific

342:16
If Christianity is not scientific, and Science is not of

God, then there is no invariable law, and truth becomes

an accident. Shall it be denied that a system

which works according to the Scriptures has

Scriptural authority?

Argument of good works

342:21
Christian Science awakens the sinner, reclaims the

infidel, and raises from the couch of pain the helpless

invalid. It speaks to the dumb the words of

Truth, and they answer with rejoicing. It

causes the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, and the blind

to see. Who would be the first to disown the Christli-

ness of good works, when our Master says, "By their

fruits ye shall know them"?

342:29
If Christian Scientists were teaching or practising

pharmacy or obstetrics according to the common theo-

ries, no denunciations would follow them, even if their

treatment resulted in the death of a patient. The people

343:1
are taught in such cases to say, Amen. Shall I then be

smitten for healing and for teaching Truth as the Prin-

ciple of healing, and for proving my word by my deed?

James said: "Show me thy faith without thy works, and

I will show thee my faith by my works."

Personal experience

343:6
Is not finite mind ignorant of God's method? This

makes it doubly unfair to impugn and misrepresent the

facts, although, without this cross-bearing,

one might not be able to say with the apostle,

"None of these things move me." The sick, the halt,

and the blind look up to Christian Science with blessings,

and Truth will not be forever hidden by unjust parody

from the quickened sense of the people.

Proof from miracles

343:14
Jesus strips all disguise from error, when his teachings

are fully understood. By parable and argument he ex-

plains the impossibility of good producing evil;

and he also scientifically demonstrates this great

fact, proving by what are wrongly called miracles, that

sin, sickness, and death are beliefs – illusive errors –

which he could and did destroy.

It would sometimes seem as if truth were rejected be-

cause meekness and spirituality are the conditions of its

acceptance, while Christendom generally demands so

much less.

Example of the disciples

343:25
Anciently those apostles who were Jesus' students,

as well as Paul who was not one of his students, healed

the sick and reformed the sinner by their

religion. Hence the mistake which allows

words, rather than works, to follow such examples!

Whoever is the first meekly and conscientiously to press

along the line of gospel-healing, is often accounted a

heretic.

Strong position

344:1
It is objected to Christian Science that it claims God

as the only absolute Life and Soul, and man to be His

idea, – that is, His image. It should be

added that this is claimed to represent the

normal, healthful, and sinless condition of man in divine

Science, and that this claim is made because the Scrip-

tures say that God has created man in His own image

and after His likeness. Is it sacrilegious to assume that

God's likeness is not found in matter, sin, sickness, and

death?

Efficacy may be attested

344:11
Were it more fully understood that Truth heals and

that error causes disease, the opponents of a demonstrable

Science would perhaps mercifully withhold

their misrepresentations, which harm the sick;

and until the enemies of Christian Science test its efficacy

according to the rules which disclose its merits or de-

merits, it would be just to observe the Scriptural precept,

"Judge not."

The one divine method

344:19
There are various methods of treating disease, which

are not included in the commonly accepted systems; but

there is only one which should be presented

to the whole world, and that is the Christian

Science which Jesus preached and practised and left to us

as his rich legacy.

344:25
Why should one refuse to investigate this method

of treating disease? Why support the popular systems

of medicine, when the physician may perchance be an

infidel and may lose ninety-and-nine patients, while

Christian Science cures its hundred? Is it because

allopathy and homoeopathy are more fashionable and

less spiritual?

Omnipotence set forth

344:32
In the Bible the word Spirit is so commonly applied

345:1
to Deity, that Spirit and God are often regarded as syn-

onymous terms; and it is thus they are uniformly used

and understood in Christian Science. As it

is evident that the likeness of Spirit cannot be

material, does it not follow that God cannot be in His

unlikeness and work through drugs to heal the sick?

When the omnipotence of God is preached and His ab-

soluteness is set forth, Christian sermons will heal the

sick.

Contradictions not found

345:10
It is sometimes said, in criticising Christian Science,

that the mind which contradicts itself neither knows

itself nor what it is saying. It is indeed no

small matter to know one's self; but in this

volume of mine there are no contradictory

statements, – at least none which are apparent to those

who understand its propositions well enough to pass

judgment upon them. One who understands Christian

Science can heal the sick on the divine Principle of Chris-

tian Science, and this practical proof is the only feasible

evidence that one does understand this Science.

345:21
Anybody, who is able to perceive the incongruity be-

tween God's idea and poor humanity, ought to be able

to discern the distinction (made by Christian Science)

between God's man, made in His image, and the sinning

race of Adam.

345:26
The apostle says: "For if a man think himself to be

something, when he is nothing, he deceiveth himself."

This thought of human, material nothingness, which

Science inculcates, enrages the carnal mind and is the

main cause of the carnal mind's antagonism.

God's idea the ideal man

345:31
It is not the purpose of Christian Science to "educate

the idea of God, or treat it for disease," as is alleged

346:1
by one critic. I regret that such criticism confounds man

with Adam. When man is spoken of as made in God's

image, it is not sinful and sickly mortal man

who is referred to, but the ideal man, reflecting

God's likeness.

Nothingness of error

346:6
It is sometimes said that Christian Science teaches the

nothingness of sin, sickness, and death, and then teaches

how this nothingness is to be saved and healed.

The nothingness of nothing is plain; but we

need to understand that error is nothing, and that its

nothingness is not saved, but must be demonstrated in

order to prove the somethingness – yea, the allness –

of Truth. It is self-evident that we are harmonious only

as we cease to manifest evil or the belief that we suffer

from the sins of others. Disbelief in error destroys error,

and leads to the discernment of Truth. There are no

vacuums. How then can this demonstration be "fraught

with falsities painful to behold"?

Truth antidotes error

346:19
We treat error through the understanding of Truth,

because Truth is error's antidote. If a dream ceases, it

is self-destroyed, and the terror is over. When

a sufferer is convinced that there is no reality

in his belief of pain, – because matter has no sensation,

hence pain in matter is a false belief, – how can he suffer

longer? Do you feel the pain of tooth-pulling, when you

believe that nitrous-oxide gas has made you unconscious?

Yet, in your concept, the tooth, the operation, and the

forceps are unchanged.

Serving two masters

346:29
Material beliefs must be expelled to make room for

spiritual understanding. We cannot serve both

God and mammon at the same time; but is

not this what frail mortals are trying to do? Paul says:

347:1
"The flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against

the flesh." Who is ready to admit this?

347:3
It is said by one critic, that to verify this wonderful

philosophy Christian Science declares that whatever is

mortal or discordant has no origin, existence, nor real-

ness. Nothing really has Life but God, who is infinite

Life; hence all is Life, and death has no dominion. This

writer infers that if anything needs to be doctored, it

must be the one God, or Mind. Had he stated his syllo-

gism correctly, the conclusion would be that there is noth-

ing left to be doctored.

Essential element of Christianity

347:12
Critics should consider that the so-called mortal man

is not the reality of man. Then they would behold the

signs of Christ's coming. Christ, as the spir-

itual or true idea of God, comes now as of

old, preaching the gospel to the poor, heal-

ing the sick, and casting out evils. Is it error which

is restoring an essential element of Christianity, –

namely, apostolic, divine healing? No; it is the Science

of Christianity which is restoring it, and is the light

shining in darkness, which the darkness comprehends

not.

347:23
If Christian Science takes away the popular gods, –

sin, sickness, and death, – it is Christ, Truth, who de-

stroys these evils, and so proves their nothingness.

347:26
The dream that matter and error are something

must yield to reason and revelation. Then mortals

will behold the nothingness of sickness and sin, and

sin and sickness will disappear from consciousness.

The harmonious will appear real, and the inharmo-

nious unreal. These critics will then see that error

is indeed the nothingness, which they chide us for

348:1
naming nothing and which we desire neither to honor

nor to fear.

348:3
Medical theories virtually admit the nothingness of

hallucinations, even while treating them as disease; and

who objects to this? Ought we not, then, to approve

any cure, which is effected by making the disease appear

to be – what it really is – an illusion?

All disease a delusion

348:8
Here is the difficulty: it is not generally understood how

one disease can be just as much a delusion as another. It

is a pity that the medical faculty and clergy

have not learned this, for Jesus established

this foundational fact, when devils, delusions, were cast

out and the dumb spake.

Elimination of sickness

348:14
Are we irreverent towards sin, or imputing too much

power to God, when we ascribe to Him almighty Life

and Love? I deny His cooperation with evil,

because I desire to have no faith in evil or in

any power but God, good. Is it not well to eliminate from

so-called mortal mind that which, so long as it remains in

mortal mind, will show itself in forms of sin, sickness, and

death? Instead of tenaciously defending the supposed

rights of disease, while complaining of the suffering dis-

ease brings, would it not be well to abandon the defence,

especially when by so doing our own condition can be im-

proved and that of other persons as well?

Full fruitage yet to come

348:26
I have never supposed the world would immediately

witness the full fruitage of Christian Science, or that sin,

disease, and death would not be believed for

an indefinite time; but this I do aver, that,

as a result of teaching Christian Science, ethics and

temperance have received an impulse, health has been

restored, and longevity increased. If such are the pres-

349:1
ent fruits, what will the harvest be, when this Science is

more generally understood?

Law and gospel

349:3
As Paul asked of the unfaithful in ancient days, so

the rabbis of the present day ask concerning our heal-

ing and teaching, "Through breaking the law,

dishonorest thou God?" We have the gospel,

however, and our Master annulled material law by heal-

ing contrary to it. We propose to follow the Master's

example. We should subordinate material law to spirit-

ual law. Two essential points of Christian Science are,

that neither Life nor man dies, and that God is not the

author of sickness.

Language inadequate

349:13
The chief difficulty in conveying the teachings of divine

Science accurately to human thought lies in this, that like

all other languages, English is inadequate to

the expression of spiritual conceptions and

propositions, because one is obliged to use material terms

in dealing with spiritual ideas. The elucidation of Chris-

tian Science lies in its spiritual sense, and this sense must

be gained by its disciples in order to grasp the meaning of

this Science. Out of this condition grew the prophecy

concerning the Christian apostles, "They shall speak with

new tongues."

349:24
Speaking of the things of Spirit while dwelling on

a material plane, material terms must be generally em-

ployed. Mortal thought does not at once catch the

higher meaning, and can do so only as thought is edu-

cated up to spiritual apprehension. To a certain extent

this is equally true of all learning, even that which is

wholly material.

Substance spiritual

349:31
In Christian Science, substance is understood to be

Spirit, while the opponents of Christian Science believe

350:1
substance to be matter. They think of matter as some-

thing and almost the only thing, and of the things which

pertain to Spirit as next to nothing, or as very

far removed from daily experience. Christian

Science takes exactly the opposite view.

Both words and works

350:6
To understand all our Master's sayings as recorded

in the New Testament, sayings infinitely important,

his followers must grow into that stature of

manhood in Christ Jesus which enables them

to interpret his spiritual meaning. Then they know

how Truth casts out error and heals the sick. His

words were the offspring of his deeds, both of which

must be understood. Unless the works are com-

prehended which his words explained, the words are

blind.

350:16
The Master often refused to explain his words, because

it was difficult in a material age to apprehend spiritual

Truth. He said: "This people's heart is waxed gross,

and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they

have closed; lest at any time they should see with their

eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand

with their heart, and should be converted, and I should

heal them."

The divine life-link

350:24
"The Word was made flesh." Divine Truth must be

known by its effects on the body as well as on the mind,

before the Science of being can be demon-

strated. Hence its embodiment in the incar-

nate Jesus, – that life-link forming the connection through

which the real reaches the unreal, Soul rebukes sense, and

Truth destroys error.

Truth a present help

350:31
In Jewish worship the Word was materially explained,

and the spiritual sense was scarcely perceived. The

351:1
religion which sprang from half-hidden Israelitish history

was pedantic and void of healing power. When we lose

faith in God's power to heal, we distrust the

divine Principle which demonstrates Christian

Science, and then we cannot heal the sick. Neither can

we heal through the help of Spirit, if we plant ourselves

on a material basis.

351:8
The author became a member of the orthodox Con-

gregational Church in early years. Later she learned

that her own prayers failed to heal her as did the prayers

of her devout parents and the church; but when the

spiritual sense of the creed was discerned in the Science

of Christianity, this spiritual sense was a present help. It

was the living, palpitating presence of Christ, Truth, which

healed the sick.

Fatal premises

351:16
We cannot bring out the practical proof of Christianity,

which Jesus required, while error seems as potent and

real to us as Truth, and while we make a per-

sonal devil and an anthropomorphic God our

starting-points, – especially if we consider Satan as a

being coequal in power with Deity, if not superior to Him.

Because such starting-points are neither spiritual nor

scientific, they cannot work out the Spirit-rule of Christian

healing, which proves the nothingness of error, discord,

by demonstrating the all-inclusiveness of harmonious

Truth.

Fruitless worship

351:27
The Israelites centred their thoughts on the material

in their attempted worship of the spiritual. To them

matter was substance, and Spirit was shadow.

They thought to worship Spirit from a ma-

terial standpoint, but this was impossible. They might

appeal to Jehovah, but their prayer brought down no

352:1
proof that it was heard, because they did not sufficiently

understand God to be able to demonstrate His power

to heal, – to make harmony the reality and discord the

unreality.

Spirit the tangible

352:5
Our Master declared that his material body was not

spirit, evidently considering it a mortal and material be-

lief of flesh and bones, whereas the Jews took

a diametrically opposite view. To Jesus, not

materiality, but spirituality, was the reality of man's ex-

istence, while to the rabbis the spiritual was the intangi-

ble and uncertain, if not the unreal.

Ghosts not realities

352:12
Would a mother say to her child, who is frightened at

imaginary ghosts and sick in consequence of the fear:

"I know that ghosts are real. They exist,

and are to be feared; but you must not be

afraid of them"?

352:17
Children, like adults, ought to fear a reality which

can harm them and which they do not understand, for

at any moment they may become its helpless victims;

but instead of increasing children's fears by declaring

ghosts to be real, merciless, and powerful, thus water-

ing the very roots of childish timidity, children should

be assured that their fears are groundless, that ghosts

are not realities, but traditional beliefs, erroneous and

man-made.

352:26
In short, children should be told not to believe in ghosts,

because there are no such things. If belief in their reality

is destroyed, terror of ghosts will depart and health be re-

stored. The objects of alarm will then vanish into noth-

ingness, no longer seeming worthy of fear or honor. To

accomplish a good result, it is certainly not irrational to

tell the truth about ghosts.

The real and the unreal

353:1
The Christianly scientific real is the sensuous unreal.

Sin, disease, whatever seems real to material sense, is un-

real in divine Science. The physical senses

and Science have ever been antagonistic, and

they will so continue, till the testimony of the physical

senses yields entirely to Christian Science.

353:7
How can a Christian, having the stronger evidence of

Truth which contradicts the evidence of error, think of

the latter as real or true, either in the form of sickness or

of sin? All must admit that Christ is "the way, the

truth, and the life," and that omnipotent Truth certainly

does destroy error.

Superstition obsolete

353:13
The age has not wholly outlived the sense of ghostly

beliefs. It still holds them more or less. Time has not

yet reached eternity, immortality, complete

reality. All the real is eternal. Perfection

underlies reality. Without perfection, nothing is wholly

real. All things will continue to disappear, until per-

fection appears and reality is reached. We must give up

the spectral at all points. We must not continue to admit

the somethingness of superstition, but we must yield up

all belief in it and be wise. When we learn that error

is not real, we shall be ready for progress, "forgetting

those things which are behind."

353:25
The grave does not banish the ghost of materiality.

So long as there are supposed limits to Mind, and those

limits are human, so long will ghosts seem to continue.

Mind is limitless. It never was material. The true idea

of being is spiritual and immortal, and from this it follows

that whatever is laid off is the ghost, some unreal belief.

Mortal beliefs can neither demonstrate Christianity nor

apprehend the reality of Life.

Christian warfare

354:1
Are the protests of Christian Science against the notion

that there can be material life, substance, or mind "utter

falsities and absurdities," as some aver? Why

then do Christians try to obey the Scriptures

and war against "the world, the flesh, and the devil"?

Why do they invoke the divine aid to enable them to leave

all for Christ, Truth? Why do they use this phraseology,

and yet deny Christian Science, when it teaches precisely

this thought? The words of divine Science find their

immortality in deeds, for their Principle heals the sick

and spiritualizes humanity.

Healing omitted

354:12
On the other hand, the Christian opponents of Chris-

tian Science neither give nor offer any proofs that their

Master's religion can heal the sick. Surely

it is not enough to cleave to barren and desul-

tory dogmas, derived from the traditions of the elders who

thereunto have set their seals.

Scientific consistency

354:18
Consistency is seen in example more than in precept.

Inconsistency is shown by words without deeds, which

are like clouds without rain. If our words

fail to express our deeds, God will redeem that

weakness, and out of the mouth of babes He will perfect

praise. The night of materiality is far spent, and with

the dawn Truth will waken men spiritually to hear and

to speak the new tongue.

354:26
Sin should become unreal to every one. It is in itself

inconsistent, a divided kingdom. Its supposed realism

has no divine authority, and I rejoice in the apprehension

of this grand verity.

Spiritual meaning

354:30
The opponents of divine Science must be

charitable, if they would be Christian. If the

letter of Christian Science appears inconsistent, they should

355:1
gain the spiritual meaning of Christian Science, and then

the ambiguity will vanish.

Practical arguments

355:3
The charge of inconsistency in Christianly scientific

methods of dealing with sin and disease is met by some-

thing practical, – namely, the proof of the

utility of these methods; and proofs are better

than mere verbal arguments or prayers which evince no

spiritual power to heal.

355:9
As for sin and disease, Christian Science says, in the

language of the Master, "Follow me; and let the dead

bury their dead." Let discord of every name and nature

be heard no more, and let the harmonious and true sense

of Life and being take possession of human consciousness.

355:14
What is the relative value of the two conflicting the-

ories regarding Christian healing? One, according to

the commands of our Master, heals the sick. The other,

popular religion, declines to admit that Christ's religion

has exercised any systematic healing power since the first

century.

Conditions of criticism

355:20
The statement that the teachings of Christian Sci-

ence in this work are "absolutely false, and the most

egregious fallacies ever offered for accept-

ance," is an opinion wholly due to a misap-

prehension both of the divine Principle and practice of

Christian Science and to a consequent inability to demon-

strate this Science. Without this understanding, no one

is capable of impartial or correct criticism, because demon-

stration and spiritual understanding are God's immortal

keynotes, proved to be such by our Master and evidenced

by the sick who are cured and by the sinners who are

reformed.

Weakness of material theories

355:32
Strangely enough, we ask for material theories in sup-

356:1
port of spiritual and eternal truths, when the two are so

antagonistic that the material thought must become spir-

itualized before the spiritual fact is attained.

So-called material existence affords no evidence

of spiritual existence and immortality. Sin,

sickness, and death do not prove man's entity or immor-

tality. Discord can never establish the facts of harmony.

Matter is not the vestibule of Spirit.

Irreconciliable differences

356:9
Jesus reasoned on this subject practically, and con-

trolled sickness, sin, and death on the basis of his spir-

ituality. Understanding the nothingness of

material things, he spoke of flesh and Spirit

as the two opposites, – as error and Truth, not contrib-

uting in any way to each other's happiness and existence.

Jesus knew, "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh

profiteth nothing."

Copartnership impossible

356:17
There is neither a present nor an eternal copartner-

ship between error and Truth, between flesh and Spirit.

God is as incapable of producing sin, sick-

ness, and death as He is of experiencing these

errors. How then is it possible for Him to create man

subject to this triad of errors, – man who is made in the

divine likeness?

356:24
Does God create a material man out of Himself, Spirit?

Does evil proceed from good? Does divine Love com-

mit a fraud on humanity by making man inclined to sin,

and then punishing him for it? Would any one call it

wise and good to create the primitive, and then punish its

derivative?

Two infinite creators absurd

356:30
Does subsequent follow its antecedent? It does.

Was there original self-creative sin? Then there must

have been more than one creator, more than one God.

357:1
In common justice, we must admit that God will not

punish man for doing what He created man

capable of doing, and knew from the outset

that man would do. God is "of purer eyes

than to behold evil." We sustain Truth, not by accept-

ing, but by rejecting a lie.

357:7
Jesus said of personified evil, that it was "a liar, and

the father of it." Truth creates neither a lie, a capacity

to lie, nor a liar. If mankind would relinquish the belief

that God makes sickness, sin, and death, or makes man

capable of suffering on account of this malevolent triad,

the foundations of error would be sapped and error's de-

struction ensured; but if we theoretically endow mortals

with the creativeness and authority of Deity, how dare we

attempt to destroy what He hath made, or even to deny

that God made man evil and made evil good?

Anthropomorphism

357:17
History teaches that the popular and false notions

about the Divine Being and character have originated

in the human mind. As there is in reality but

one God, one Mind, wrong notions about God

must have originated in a false supposition, not in im-

mortal Truth, and they are fading out. They are false

claims, which will eventually disappear, according to the

vision of St. John in the Apocalypse.

One supremacy

357:25
If what opposes God is real, there must be two

powers, and God is not supreme and infinite. Can

Deity be almighty, if another mighty and

self-creative cause exists and sways man-

kind? Has the Father "Life in Himself," as the Scrip-

tures say, and, if so, can Life, or God, dwell in evil and

create it? Can matter drive Life, Spirit, hence, and so

defeat omnipotence?

Matter impotent

358:1
Is the woodman's axe, which destroys a tree's so-called

life, superior to omnipotence? Can a leaden bullet de-

prive a man of Life, – that is, of God, who is

man's Life? If God is at the mercy of matter,

then matter is omnipotent. Such doctrines are "confu-

sion worse confounded." If two statements directly con-

tradict each other and one is true, the other must be false.

Is Science thus contradictory?

Scientific and Biblical facts

358:9
Christian Science, understood, coincides with the

Scriptures, and sustains logically and demonstratively

every point it presents. Otherwise it would

not be Science, and could not present its

proofs. Christian Science is neither made up of contra-

dictory aphorisms nor of the inventions of those who scoff

at God. It presents the calm and clear verdict of Truth

against error, uttered and illustrated by the prophets,

by Jesus, by his apostles, as is recorded throughout the

Scriptures.

358:19
Why are the words of Jesus more frequently cited

for our instruction than are his remarkable works? Is

it not because there are few who have gained a true

knowledge of the great import to Christianity of those

works?

Personal confidence

358:24
Sometimes it is said; "Rest assured that whatever

effect Christian Scientists may have on the sick, comes

through rousing within the sick a belief

that in the removal of disease these healers

have wonderful power, derived from the Holy Ghost."

Is it likely that church-members have more faith in

some Christian Scientist, whom they have perhaps

never seen and against whom they have been warned,

than they have in their own accredited and orthodox

359:1
pastors, whom they have seen and have been taught

to love and to trust?

359:3
Let any clergyman try to cure his friends by their

faith in him. Will that faith heal them? Yet Scien-

tists will take the same cases, and cures will follow.

Is this because the patients have more faith in the Scien-

tist than in their pastor? I have healed infidels whose

only objection to this method was, that I as a Chris-

tian Scientist believed in the Holy Spirit, while they, the

patients, did not.

359:11
Even though you aver that the material senses are

indispensable to man's existence or entity, you must

change the human concept of life, and must at length

know yourself spiritually and scientifically. The evi-

dence of the existence of Spirit, Soul, is palpable only to

spiritual sense, and is not apparent to the material senses,

which cognize only that which is the opposite of Spirit.

359:18
True Christianity is to be honored wherever found,

but when shall we arrive at the goal which that word

implies? From Puritan parents, the discov-

erer of Christian Science early received her

religious education. In childhood, she often listened

with joy to these words, falling from the lips of her

saintly mother, "God is able to raise you up from sick-

ness;" and she pondered the meaning of that Scripture

she so often quotes: "And these signs shall follow them

that believe; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick,

and they shall recover."

Two different artists

359:29
A Christian Scientist and an opponent are like two

artists. One says: "I have spiritual ideals,

indestructible and glorious. When others see

them as I do, in their true light and loveliness, – and

360:1
know that these ideals are real and eternal because drawn

from Truth, – they will find that nothing is lost, and all

is won, by a right estimate of what is real."

360:4
The other artist replies: "You wrong my experience.

I have no mind-ideals except those which are both mental

and material. It is true that materiality renders these

ideals imperfect and destructible; yet I would not ex-

change mine for thine, for mine give me such personal

pleasure, and they are not so shockingly transcendental.

They require less self-abnegation, and keep Soul well out

of sight. Moreover, I have no notion of losing my old

doctrines or human opinions."

Choose ye to-day

360:13
Dear reader, which mind-picture or externalized thought

shall be real to you, – the material or the spiritual?

Both you cannot have. You are bringing out

your own ideal. This ideal is either temporal

or eternal. Either Spirit or matter is your model. If you

try to have two models, then you practically have none.

Like a pendulum in a clock, you will be thrown back and

forth, striking the ribs of matter and swinging between the

real and the unreal.

360:22
Hear the wisdom of Job, as given in the excellent trans-

lation of the late Rev. George R. Noyes, D.D.: –

360:24
Shall mortal man be more just than God?

Shall man be more pure than his Maker?

Behold, He putteth no trust in His ministering spirits,

And His angels He chargeth with frailty.

360:28
Of old, the Jews put to death the Galilean Prophet,

the best Christian on earth, for the truth he spoke and

demonstrated, while to-day, Jew and Christian can unite

in doctrine and denomination on the very basis of Jesus'

words and works. The Jew believes that the Messiah or

361:1
Christ has not yet come; the Christian believes that

Christ is God. Here Christian Science intervenes, ex-

plains these doctrinal points, cancels the disagreement,

and settles the question. Christ, as the true spiritual idea,

is the ideal of God now and forever, here and everywhere.

The Jew who believes in the First Commandment is a

monotheist; he has one omnipresent God. Thus the Jew

unites with the Christian's doctrine that God is come and

is present now and forever. The Christian who believes

in the First Commandment is a monotheist. Thus he

virtually unites with the Jew's belief in one God, and

recognizes that Jesus Christ is not God, as Jesus himself

declared, but is the Son of God. This declaration of

Jesus, understood, conflicts not at all with another of his

sayings: "I and my Father are one," – that is, one in

quality, not in quantity. As a drop of water is one with

the ocean, a ray of light one with the sun, even so God

and man, Father and son, are one in being. The Scrip-

ture reads: "For in Him we live, and move, and have

our being."

361:21
I have revised Science and Health only to give a

clearer and fuller expression of its original meaning. Spir-

itual ideas unfold as we advance. A human perception of

divine Science, however limited, must be correct in order

to be Science and subject to demonstration. A germ of in-

finite Truth, though least in the kingdom of heaven is the

higher hope on earth, but it will be rejected and reviled

until God prepares the soil for the seed. That which

when sown bears immortal fruit, enriches mankind only

when it is understood, – hence the many readings given

the Scriptures, and the requisite revisions of Science and

Health with Key to the Scriptures.

Chapter XII

Christian Science Practice

Why art thou cast down, O my soul [sense]?

And why art thou disquieted within me?

Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him,

Who is the health of my countenance and my God. – PSALMS.

And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they

cast out devils: they shall speak with new tongues; they shall take up

serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them;

they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. – JESUS.

A gospel narrative

362:1
IT is related in the seventh chapter of Luke's Gospel

that Jesus was once the honored guest of a certain

Pharisee, by name Simon, though he was quite unlike

Simon the disciple. While they were at meat, an unusual

incident occurred, as if to interrupt the scene

of Oriental festivity. A "strange woman"

came in. Heedless of the fact that she was debarred from

such a place and such society, especially under the stern

rules of rabbinical law, as positively as if she were a Hin-

doo pariah intruding upon the household of a high-caste

Brahman, this woman (Mary Magdalene, as she has

since been called) approached Jesus. According to the

custom of those days, he reclined on a couch with his

head towards the table and his bare feet away from it.

It was therefore easy for the Magdalen to come behind

363:1
the couch and reach his feet. She bore an alabaster jar

containing costly and fragrant oil, – sandal oil perhaps,

which is in such common use in the East. Breaking

the sealed jar, she perfumed Jesus' feet with the oil,

wiping them with her long hair, which hung loosely

about her shoulders, as was customary with women of her

grade.

Parable of the creditor

363:8
Did Jesus spurn the woman? Did he repel her adora-

tion? No! He regarded her compassionately. Nor was

this all. Knowing what those around him

were saying in their hearts, especially his host,

– that they were wondering why, being a prophet, the

exalted guest did not at once detect the woman's immoral

status and bid her depart, – knowing this, Jesus rebuked

them with a short story or parable. He described two

debtors, one for a large sum and one for a smaller, who

were released from their obligations by their common

creditor. "Which of them will love him most?" was the

Master's question to Simon the Pharisee; and Simon re-

plied, "He to whom he forgave most." Jesus approved

the answer, and so brought home the lesson to all, follow-

ing it with that remarkable declaration to the woman,

"Thy sins are forgiven."

Divine insight

363:24
Why did he thus summarize her debt to divine Love?

Had she repented and reformed, and did his insight

detect this unspoken moral uprising? She

bathed his feet with her tears before she

anointed them with the oil. In the absence of other

proofs, was her grief sufficient evidence to warrant the

expectation of her repentance, reformation, and growth

in wisdom? Certainly there was encouragement in the

mere fact that she was showing her affection for a man

364:1
of undoubted goodness and purity, who has since been

rightfully regarded as the best man that ever trod this

planet. Her reverence was unfeigned, and it was mani-

fested towards one who was soon, though they knew it

not, to lay down his mortal existence in behalf of all

sinners, that through his word and works they might be

redeemed from sensuality and sin.

Penitence or hospitality

364:8
Which was the higher tribute to such ineffable affec-

tion, the hospitality of the Pharisee or the contrition of

the Magdalen? This query Jesus answered

by rebuking self-righteousness and declaring

the absolution of the penitent. He even said that this

poor woman had done what his rich entertainer had neg-

lected to do, – wash and anoint his guest's feet, a special

sign of Oriental courtesy.

364:16
Here is suggested a solemn question, a question indi-

cated by one of the needs of this age. Do Christian

Scientists seek Truth as Simon sought the Saviour, through

material conservatism and for personal homage? Jesus

told Simon that such seekers as he gave small reward

in return for the spiritual purgation which came through

the Messiah. If Christian Scientists are like Simon,

then it must be said of them also that they love

little.

Genuine repentance

364:25
On the other hand, do they show their regard for

Truth, or Christ, by their genuine repentance, by their

broken hearts, expressed by meekness and

human affection, as did this woman? If

so, then it may be said of them, as Jesus said of the

unwelcome visitor, that they indeed love much, because

much is forgiven them.

Compassion requisite

364:32
Did the careless doctor, the nurse, the cook, and the

365:1
brusque business visitor sympathetically know the thorns

they plant in the pillow of the sick and the heavenly

homesick looking away from earth, – Oh, did

they know! – this knowledge would do much

more towards healing the sick and preparing their helpers

for the "midnight call," than all cries of "Lord, Lord!"

The benign thought of Jesus, finding utterance in such

words as "Take no thought for your life," would heal

the sick, and so enable them to rise above the supposed

necessity for physical thought-taking and doctoring;

but if the unselfish affections be lacking, and common

sense and common humanity are disregarded, what men-

tal quality remains, with which to evoke healing from

the outstretched arm of righteousness?

Speedy healing

365:15
If the Scientist reaches his patient through divine

Love, the healing work will be accomplished at one

visit, and the disease will vanish into its native

nothingness like dew before the morning sun-

shine. If the Scientist has enough Christly affection to

win his own pardon, and such commendation as the Mag-

dalen gained from Jesus, then he is Christian enough to

practise scientifically and deal with his patients compas-

sionately; and the result will correspond with the spiritual

intent.

Truth desecrated

365:25
If hypocrisy, stolidity, inhumanity, or vice finds its

way into the chambers of disease through the would-be

healer, it would, if it were possible, convert

into a den of thieves the temple of the Holy

Ghost, – the patient's spiritual power to resuscitate him-

self. The unchristian practitioner is not giving to mind

or body the joy and strength of Truth. The poor suf-

fering heart needs its rightful nutriment, such as peace,

366:1
patience in tribulation, and a priceless sense of the dear

Father's loving-kindness.

Moral evils to be cast out

366:3
In order to cure his patient, the metaphysician

must first cast moral evils out of himself and thus

attain the spiritual freedom which will en-

able him to cast physical evils out of his

patient; but heal he cannot, while his own spiritual

barrenness debars him from giving drink to the thirsty

and hinders him from reaching his patient's thought, –

yea, while mental penury chills his faith and under-

standing.

The true physician

366:12
The physician who lacks sympathy for his fellow‑

being is deficient in human affection, and we have the

apostolic warrant for asking: "He that loveth

not his brother whom he hath seen, how can

he love God whom he hath not seen?" Not having this

spiritual affection, the physician lacks faith in the divine

Mind and has not that recognition of infinite Love which

alone confers the healing power. Such so-called Scien-

tists will strain out gnats, while they swallow the camels

of bigoted pedantry.

Source of calmness

366:22
The physician must also watch, lest he be over-

whelmed by a sense of the odiousness of sin and by the

unveiling of sin in his own thoughts. The

sick are terrified by their sick beliefs, and

sinners should be affrighted by their sinful beliefs; but

the Christian Scientist will be calm in the presence of

both sin and disease, knowing, as he does, that Life is

God and God is All.

Genuine healing

366:30
If we would open their prison doors for the sick, we

must first learn to bind up the broken-hearted. If we

would heal by the Spirit, we must not hide the talent

367:1
of spiritual healing under the napkin of its form, nor

bury the morale of Christian Science in the grave-clothes

of its letter. The tender word and Christian

encouragement of an invalid, pitiful patience

with his fears and the removal of them, are better than

hecatombs of gushing theories, stereotyped borrowed

speeches, and the doling of arguments, which are but so

many parodies on legitimate Christian Science, aflame

with divine Love.

Gratitude and humility

367:10
This is what is meant by seeking Truth, Christ, not

"for the loaves and fishes," nor, like the Pharisee, with

the arrogance of rank and display of scholar-

ship, but like Mary Magdalene, from the sum-

mit of devout consecration, with the oil of gladness and

the perfume of gratitude, with tears of repentance and

with those hairs all numbered by the Father.

The salt of the earth

367:17
A Christian Scientist occupies the place at this period

of which Jesus spoke to his disciples, when he said: "Ye

are the salt of the earth." "Ye are the light

of the world. A city that is set on an hill can-

not be hid." Let us watch, work, and pray that this salt

lose not its saltness, and that this light be not hid, but

radiate and glow into noontide glory.

367:24
The infinite Truth of the Christ-cure has come to this

age through a "still, small voice," through silent utter-

ances and divine anointing which quicken and increase

the beneficial effects of Christianity. I long to see the

consummation of my hope, namely, the student's higher

attainments in this line of light.

Real and counterfeit

367:30
Because Truth is infinite, error should be known as

nothing. Because Truth is omnipotent in goodness,

error, Truth's opposite, has no might. Evil is but the

368:1
counterpoise of nothingness. The greatest wrong is

but a supposititious opposite of the highest right. The

confidence inspired by Science lies in the fact

that Truth is real and error is unreal. Error

is a coward before Truth. Divine Science insists that

time will prove all this. Both truth and error have come

nearer than ever before to the apprehension of mortals,

and truth will become still clearer as error is self‑

destroyed.

Results of faith in Truth

368:10
Against the fatal beliefs that error is as real as Truth,

that evil is equal in power to good if not superior, and that

discord is as normal as harmony, even the hope

of freedom from the bondage of sickness and

sin has little inspiration to nerve endeavor. When we

come to have more faith in the truth of being than we have

in error, more faith in Spirit than in matter, more faith

in living than in dying, more faith in God than in man,

then no material suppositions can prevent us from healing

the sick and destroying error.

Life independent of matter

368:20
That Life is not contingent on bodily conditions is

proved, when we learn that life and man survive this

body. Neither evil, disease, nor death can be

spiritual, and the material belief in them dis-

appears in the ratio of one's spiritual growth. Because

matter has no consciousness or Ego, it cannot act; its

conditions are illusions, and these false conditions are the

source of all seeming sickness. Admit the existence of

matter, and you admit that mortality (and therefore dis-

ease) has a foundation in fact. Deny the existence of

matter, and you can destroy the belief in material con-

ditions. When fear disappears, the foundation of disease

is gone. Once let the mental physician believe in the

369:1
reality of matter, and he is liable to admit also the reality

of all discordant conditions, and this hinders his de-

stroying them. Thus he is unfitted for the successful

treatment of disease.

Man's entity

369:5
In proportion as matter loses to human sense all en-

tity as man, in that proportion does man become its

master. He enters into a diviner sense of the

facts, and comprehends the theology of Jesus

as demonstrated in healing the sick, raising the dead,

and walking over the wave. All these deeds manifested

Jesus' control over the belief that matter is substance,

that it can be the arbiter of life or the constructor of any

form of existence.

The Christ treatment

369:14
We never read that Luke or Paul made a reality of

disease in order to discover some means of healing it.

Jesus never asked if disease were acute or

chronic, and he never recommended atten-

tion to laws of health, never gave drugs, never prayed

to know if God were willing that a man should live. He

understood man, whose life is God, to be immortal, and

knew that man has not two lives, one to be destroyed and

the other to be made indestructible.

Matter not medicine

369:23
The prophylactic and therapeutic (that is, the prevent-

ive and curative) arts belong emphatically to Christian

Science, as would be readily seen, if psychology,

or the Science of Spirit, God, was understood.

Unscientific methods are finding their dead level. Lim-

ited to matter by their own law, what have they of the

advantages of Mind and immortality?

No healing in sin

369:30
No man is physically healed in wilful error or by it,

any more than he is morally saved in or by sin. It is

error even to murmur or to be angry over sin. To be

370:1
every whit whole, man must be better spiritually as well

as physically. To be immortal, we must forsake the

mortal sense of things, turn from the lie of false

belief to Truth, and gather the facts of being

from the divine Mind. The body improves under the

same regimen which spiritualizes the thought; and if

health is not made manifest under this regimen, this

proves that fear is governing the body. This is the law

of cause and effect, or like producing like.

Like curing like

370:10
Homoeopathy furnishes the evidence to the senses, that

symptoms, which might be produced by a certain drug,

are removed by using the same drug which

might cause the symptoms. This confirms

my theory that faith in the drug is the sole factor in the

cure. The effect, which mortal mind produces through

one belief, it removes through an opposite belief, but it

uses the same medicine in both cases.

The moral and spiritual facts of health, whispered

into thought, produce very direct and marked effects on

the body. A physical diagnosis of disease – since mor-

tal mind must be the cause of disease – tends to induce

disease.

Transient potency of drugs

370:23
According to both medical testimony and individual

experience, a drug may eventually lose its supposed power

and do no more for the patient. Hygienic

treatment also loses its efficacy. Quackery

likewise fails at length to inspire the credulity

of the sick, and then they cease to improve. These les-

sons are useful. They should naturally and genuinely

change our basis from sensation to Christian Science,

from error to Truth, from matter to Spirit.

Diagnosis of matter

370:32
Physicians examine the pulse, tongue, lungs, to dis-

371:1
cover the condition of matter, when in fact all is

Mind. The body is the substratum of mortal mind,

and this so-called mind must finally yield

to the mandate of immortal Mind.

Ghost-stories inducing fear

371:5
Disquisitions on disease have a mental effect similar

to that produced on children by telling ghost-stories in

the dark. By those uninstructed in Christian

Science, nothing is really understood of material

existence. Mortals are believed to be here without their

consent and to be removed as involuntarily, not knowing

why nor when. As frightened children look everywhere

for the imaginary ghost, so sick humanity sees danger in

every direction, and looks for relief in all ways except the

right one. Darkness induces fear. The adult, in bond-

age to his beliefs, no more comprehends his real being

than does the child; and the adult must be taken out of

his darkness, before he can get rid of the illusive suffer-

ings which throng the gloaming. The way in divine

Science is the only way out of this condition.

Mind imparts purity, health, and beauty

371:20
I would not transform the infant at once into a

man, nor would I keep the suckling a lifelong babe.

No impossible thing do I ask when urging

the claims of Christian Science; but because

this teaching is in advance of the age, we

should not deny our need of its spiritual unfoldment.

Mankind will improve through Science and Christi-

anity. The necessity for uplifting the race is father to

the fact that Mind can do it; for Mind can impart

purity instead of impurity, strength instead of weak-

ness, and health instead of disease. Truth is an altera-

tive in the entire system, and can make it "every whit

whole."

Brain not intelligent

372:1
Remember, brain is not mind. Matter cannot be sick,

and Mind is immortal. The mortal body is only an erro-

neous mortal belief of mind in matter. What

you call matter was originally error in solu-

tion, elementary mortal mind, – likened by Milton to

"chaos and old night." One theory about this mortal

mind is, that its sensations can reproduce man, can form

blood, flesh, and bones. The Science of being, in which

all is divine Mind, or God and His idea, would be clearer

in this age, but for the belief that matter is the medium

of man, or that man can enter his own embodied thought,

bind himself with his own beliefs, and then call his bonds

material and name them divine law.

Veritable success

372:14
When man demonstrates Christian Science absolutely,

he will be perfect. He can neither sin, suffer, be subject

to matter, nor disobey the law of God. There-

fore he will be as the angels in heaven. Chris-

tian Science and Christianity are one. How, then, in

Christianity any more than in Christian Science, can we

believe in the reality and power of both Truth and error,

Spirit and matter, and hope to succeed with contraries?

Matter is not self-sustaining. Its false supports fail one

after another. Matter succeeds for a period only by

falsely parading in the vestments of law.

Recognition of benefits

372:25
"Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also

deny before my Father which is in heaven." In Chris-

tian Science, a denial of Truth is fatal, while

a just acknowledgment of Truth and of what

it has done for us is an effectual help. If pride, super-

stition, or any error prevents the honest recognition of

benefits received, this will be a hindrance to the recovery

of the sick and the success of the student.

Disease far more docile than iniquity

373:1
If we are Christians on all moral questions, but are in

darkness as to the physical exemption which Christian-

ity includes, then we must have more faith

in God on this subject and be more alive to

His promises. It is easier to cure the most

malignant disease than it is to cure sin. The author has

raised up the dying, partly because they were willing to

be restored, while she has struggled long, and perhaps in

vain, to lift a student out of a chronic sin. Under all

modes of pathological treatment, the sick recover more

rapidly from disease than does the sinner from his sin.

Healing is easier than teaching, if the teaching is faithfully

done.

Love frees from fear

373:14
The fear of disease and the love of sin are the sources

of man's enslavement. "The fear of the Lord

is the beginning of wisdom," but the Scriptures

also declare, through the exalted thought of John, that

"perfect Love casteth out fear."

373:19
The fear occasioned by ignorance can be cured; but

to remove the effects of fear produced by sin, you must

rise above both fear and sin. Disease is expressed not

so much by the lips as in the functions of the body. Es-

tablish the scientific sense of health, and you relieve the

oppressed organ. The inflammation, decomposition, or

deposit will abate, and the disabled organ will resume its

healthy functions.

Mind circulates blood

373:27
When the blood rushes madly through the veins or

languidly creeps along its frozen channels, we call these

conditions disease. This is a misconception.

Mortal mind is producing the propulsion or the

languor, and we prove this to be so when by mental means

the circulation is changed, and returns to that standard

374:1
which mortal mind has decided upon as essential for

health. Anodynes, counter-irritants, and depletion never

reduce inflammation scientifically, but the truth of being,

whispered into the ear of mortal mind, will bring relief.

Mind can destroy all ills

374:5
Hatred and its effects on the body are removed by

Love. Because mortal mind seems to be conscious, the

sick say: "How can my mind cause a disease

I never thought of and knew nothing about,

until it appeared on my body?" The author has an-

swered this question in her explanation of disease as origi-

nating in human belief before it is consciously apparent

on the body, which is in fact the objective state of mortal

mind, though it is called matter. This mortal blindness

and its sharp consequences show our need of divine meta-

physics. Through immortal Mind, or Truth, we can

destroy all ills which proceed from mortal mind.

374:17
Ignorance of the cause or approach of disease is no

argument against the mental origin of disease. You con-

fess to ignorance of the future and incapacity to preserve

your own existence, and this belief helps rather than

hinders disease. Such a state of mind induces sickness.

It is like walking in darkness on the edge of a precipice.

You cannot forget the belief of danger, and your steps

are less firm because of your fear, and ignorance of mental

cause and effect.

Temperature is mental

374:26
Heat and cold are products of mortal mind. The body,

when bereft of mortal mind, at first cools, and after-

wards it is resolved into its primitive mortal

elements. Nothing that lives ever dies, and

vice versa. Mortal mind produces animal heat, and then

expels it through the abandonment of a belief, or in-

creases it to the point of self-destruction. Hence it is

375:1
mortal mind, not matter, which says, "I die." Heat

would pass from the body as painlessly as gas dissipates

into the air when it evaporates but for the belief that in-

flammation and pain must accompany the separation of

heat from the body.

Science versus hypnotism

375:6
Chills and heat are often the form in which fever mani-

fests itself. Change the mental state, and the chills and

fever disappear. The old-school physician

proves this when his patient says, "I am better,"

but the patient believes that matter, not mind,

has helped him. The Christian Scientist demonstrates

that divine Mind heals, while the hypnotist dispossesses

the patient of his individuality in order to control him.

No person is benefited by yielding his mentality to any

mental despotism or malpractice. All unscientific mental

practice is erroneous and powerless, and should be under-

stood and so rendered fruitless. The genuine Christian

Scientist is adding to his patient's mental and moral power,

and is increasing his patient's spirituality while restoring

him physically through divine Love.

Cure for palsy

375:21
Palsy is a belief that matter governs mortals, and can

paralyze the body, making certain portions of

it motionless. Destroy the belief, show mortal

mind that muscles have no power to be lost, for Mind is

supreme, and you cure the palsy.

Latent fear diagnosed

375:26
Consumptive patients always show great hopeful-

ness and courage, even when they are supposed to be in

hopeless danger. This state of mind seems

anomalous except to the expert in Christian

Science. This mental state is not understood, simply

because it is a stage of fear so excessive that it amounts

to fortitude. The belief in consumption presents to mor-

376:1
tal thought a hopeless state, an image more terrifying than

that of most other diseases. The patient turns involun-

tarily from the contemplation of it, but though unacknowl-

edged, the latent fear and the despair of recovery remain

in thought.

Insidious concepts

376:6
Just so is it with the greatest sin. It is the most subtle,

and does its work almost self-deceived. The diseases

deemed dangerous sometimes come from the

most hidden, undefined, and insidious beliefs.

The pallid invalid, whom you declare to be wasting away

with consumption of the blood, should be told that blood

never gave life and can never take it away, – that Life is

Spirit, and that there is more life and immortality in one

good motive and act, than in all the blood which ever

flowed through mortal veins and simulated a corporeal

sense of life.

Remedy for fever

376:17
If the body is material, it cannot, for that very reason,

suffer with a fever. Because the so-called material body

is a mental concept and governed by mortal

mind, it manifests only what that so-called

mind expresses. Therefore the efficient remedy is to

destroy the patient's false belief by both silently and au-

dibly arguing the true facts in regard to harmonious

being, – representing man as healthy instead of diseased,

and showing that it is impossible for matter to suffer, to

feel pain or heat, to be thirsty or sick. Destroy fear,

and you end fever. Some people, mistaught as to Mind‑

science, inquire when it will be safe to check a fever.

Know that in Science you cannot check a fever after ad-

mitting that it must have its course. To fear and admit

the power of disease, is to paralyze mental and scientific

demonstration.

377:1
If your patient believes in taking cold, mentally con-

vince him that matter cannot take cold, and that thought

governs this liability. If grief causes suffering, convince

the sufferer that affliction is often the source of joy, and

that he should rejoice always in ever-present Love.

Climate harmless

377:6
Invalids flee to tropical climates in order to save their

lives, but they come back no better than when they went

away. Then is the time to cure them through

Christian Science, and prove that they can

be healthy in all climates, when their fear of climate is

exterminated.

Mind governs body

377:12
Through different states of mind, the body becomes

suddenly weak or abnormally strong, showing mortal

mind to be the producer of strength or weak-

ness. A sudden joy or grief has caused what

is termed instantaneous death. Because a belief origi-

nates unseen, the mental state should be continually

watched that it may not produce blindly its bad effects.

The author never knew a patient who did not recover

when the belief of the disease had gone. Remove the

leading error or governing fear of this lower so-called mind,

and you remove the cause of all disease as well as the mor-

bid or excited action of any organ. You also remove in

this way what are termed organic diseases as readily as

functional difficulties.

377:26
The cause of all so-called disease is mental, a mortal

fear, a mistaken belief or conviction of the necessity and

power of ill-health; also a fear that Mind is helpless to

defend the life of man and incompetent to control it. With-

out this ignorant human belief, any circumstance is of it-

self powerless to produce suffering. It is latent belief in

disease, as well as the fear of disease, which associates sick-

378:1
ness with certain circumstances and causes the two to

appear conjoined, even as poetry and music are repro-

duced in union by human memory. Disease has no in-

telligence. Unwittingly you sentence yourself to suffer.

The understanding of this will enable you to commute this

self-sentence, and meet every circumstance with truth.

Disease is less than mind, and Mind can control it.

Latent power

378:8
Without the so-called human mind, there can be no

inflammatory nor torpid action of the system. Remove

the error, and you destroy its effects. By

looking a tiger fearlessly in the eye, Sir Charles

Napier sent it cowering back into the jungle. An ani-

mal may infuriate another by looking it in the eye, and

both will fight for nothing. A man's gaze, fastened

fearlessly on a ferocious beast, often causes the beast to

retreat in terror. This latter occurrence represents the

power of Truth over error, – the might of intelligence

exercised over mortal beliefs to destroy them; whereas

hypnotism and hygienic drilling and drugging, adopted

to cure matter, is represented by two material erroneous

bases.

Disease powerless

378:22
Disease is not an intelligence to dispute the empire of

Mind or to dethrone Mind and take the government into

its own hands. Sickness is not a God-given,

nor a self-constituted material power, which

copes astutely with Mind and finally conquers it. God

never endowed matter with power to disable Life or to

chill harmony with a long and cold night of discord.

Such a power, without the divine permission, is incon-

ceivable; and if such a power could be divinely directed,

it would manifest less wisdom than we usually find dis-

played in human governments.

Jurisdiction of Mind

379:1
If disease can attack and control the body without

the consent of mortals, sin can do the same, for both

are errors, announced as partners in the be-

ginning. The Christian Scientist finds only

effects, where the ordinary physician looks for causes.

The real jurisdiction of the world is in Mind, controlling

every effect and recognizing all causation as vested in

divine Mind.

Power of imagination

379:9
A felon, on whom certain English students experi-

mented, fancied himself bleeding to death, and died be-

cause of that belief, when only a stream of

warm water was trickling over his arm. Had

he known his sense of bleeding was an illusion, he would

have risen above the false belief. Let the despairing in-

valid, inspecting the hue of her blood on a cambric hand-

kerchief, think of the experiment of those Oxford boys,

who caused the death of a man, when not a drop of his

blood was shed. Then let her learn the opposite state-

ment of life as taught in Christian Science, and she will

understand that she is not dying on account of the state of

her blood, but is suffering from her belief that blood is

destroying her life. The so-called vital current does not

affect the invalid's health, but her belief produces the

very results she dreads.

Fevers the effect of fear

379:25
Fevers are errors of various types. The quickened

pulse, coated tongue, febrile heat, dry skin, pain in the

head and limbs, are pictures drawn on the

body by a mortal mind. The images, held in

this disturbed mind, frighten conscious thought. Unless

the fever-picture, drawn by millions of mortals and im-

aged on the body through the belief that mind is in matter

and discord is as real as harmony, is destroyed through

380:1
Science, it may rest at length on some receptive thought,

and become a fever case, which ends in a belief called

death, which belief must be finally conquered by eternal

Life. Truth is always the victor. Sickness and sin fall

by their own weight. Truth is the rock of ages, the head-

stone of the corner, "but on whomsoever it shall fall, it

will grind him to powder."

Misdirected contention

380:8
Contending for the evidence or indulging the demands

of sin, disease, or death, we virtually contend against

the control of Mind over body, and deny the

power of Mind to heal. This false method

is as though the defendant should argue for the plaintiff

in favor of a decision which the defendant knows will

be turned against himself.

Benefits of metaphysics

380:15
The physical effects of fear illustrate its illusion. Gaz-

ing at a chained lion, crouched for a spring, should not

terrify a man. The body is affected only with

the belief of disease produced by a so-called

mind ignorant of the truth which chains disease. Noth-

ing but the power of Truth can prevent the fear of

error, and prove man's dominion over error.

A higher discovery

380:22
Many years ago the author made a spiritual discov-

ery, the scientific evidence of which has accumulated to

prove that the divine Mind produces in man

health, harmony, and immortality. Gradu-

ally this evidence will gather momentum and clearness,

until it reaches its culmination of scientific statement and

proof. Nothing is more disheartening than to believe

that there is a power opposite to God, or good, and that

God endows this opposing power with strength to be used

against Himself, against Life, health, harmony.

Ignorance of our rights

380:32
Every law of matter or the body, supposed to govern

381:1
man, is rendered null and void by the law of Life, God.

Ignorant of our God-given rights, we submit to unjust

decrees, and the bias of education enforces

this slavery. Be no more willing to suffer the

illusion that you are sick or that some disease is develop-

ing in the system, than you are to yield to a sinful temp-

tation on the ground that sin has its necessities.

No laws of matter

381:8
When infringing some supposed law, you say that

there is danger. This fear is the danger and induces the

physical effects. We cannot in reality suffer

from breaking anything except a moral or

spiritual law. The so-called laws of mortal belief are

destroyed by the understanding that Soul is immortal,

and that mortal mind cannot legislate the times, periods,

and types of disease, with which mortals die. God is the

lawmaker, but He is not the author of barbarous codes.

In infinite Life and Love there is no sickness, sin, nor

death, and the Scriptures declare that we live, move, and

have our being in the infinite God.

God-given dominion

381:20
Think less of the enactments of mortal mind, and you

will sooner grasp man's God-given dominion. You must

understand your way out of human theories

relating to health, or you will never believe

that you are quite free from some ailment. The har-

mony and immortality of man will never be reached

without the understanding that Mind is not in matter.

Let us banish sickness as an outlaw, and abide by the

rule of perpetual harmony, – God's law. It is man's

moral right to annul an unjust sentence, a sentence never

inflicted by divine authority.

Begin rightly

381:31
Christ Jesus overruled the error which would impose

penalties for transgressions of the physical laws of

382:1
health; he annulled supposed laws of matter, opposed

to the harmonies of Spirit, lacking divine au-

thority and having only human approval for

their sanction.

Hygiene excessive

382:5
If half the attention given to hygiene were given to the

study of Christian Science and to the spiritualization of

thought, this alone would usher in the millen-

inium. Constant bathing and rubbing to alter

the secretions or to remove unhealthy exhalations from

the cuticle receive a useful rebuke from Jesus' precept,

"Take no thought . . . for the body." We must beware

of making clean merely the outside of the platter.

Blissful ignorance

382:13
He, who is ignorant of what is termed hygienic law, is

more receptive of spiritual power and of faith in one

God, than is the devotee of supposed hygienic

law, who comes to teach the so-called igno-

rant one. Must we not then consider the so-called law

of matter a canon "more honored in the breach than

the observance"? A patient thoroughly booked in medi-

cal theories is more difficult to heal through Mind than

one who is not. This verifies the saying of our Master:

"Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a

little child, shall in no wise enter therein."

382:24
One whom I rescued from seeming spiritual oblivion,

in which the senses had engulfed him, wrote to me: "I

should have died, but for the glorious Principle you teach,

– supporting the power of Mind over the body and show-

ing me the nothingness of the so-called pleasures and pains

of sense. The treatises I had read and the medicines I

had taken only abandoned me to more hopeless suffering

and despair. Adherence to hygiene was useless. Mortal

mind needed to be set right. The ailment was not bodily,

383:1
but mental, and I was cured when I learned my way in

Christian Science."

A clean mind and body

383:3
We need a clean body and a clean mind, – a body

rendered pure by Mind as well as washed by water.

One says: "I take good care of my body."

To do this, the pure and exalting influence of

the divine Mind on the body is requisite, and the Christian

Scientist takes the best care of his body when he leaves

it most out of his thought, and, like the Apostle Paul, is

"willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be pres-

ent with the Lord."

383:12
A hint may be taken from the emigrant, whose filth

does not affect his happiness, because mind and body

rest on the same basis. To the mind equally gross, dirt

gives no uneasiness. It is the native element of such a

mind, which is symbolized, and not chafed, by its sur-

roundings; but impurity and uncleanliness, which do

not trouble the gross, could not be borne by the refined.

This shows that the mind must be clean to keep the body

in proper condition.

Beliefs illusive

383:21
The tobacco-user, eating or smoking poison for half a

century, sometimes tells you that the weed preserves

his health, but does this make it so? Does his

assertion prove the use of tobacco to be a salu-

brious habit, and man to be the better for it? Such in-

stances only prove the illusive physical effect of a false

belief, confirming the Scriptural conclusion concerning a

man, "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he."

383:29
The movement-cure – pinching and pounding the poor

body, to make it sensibly well when it ought to be in-

sensibly so – is another medical mistake, resulting from

the common notion that health depends on inert matter

384:1
instead of on Mind. Can matter, or what is termed

matter, either feel or act without mind?

Corporeal penalties

384:3
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

384:16
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

384:30
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

385:1
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

385:15
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

385:22
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

385:31
Any supposed information, coming from the body or

from inert matter as if either were intelligent, is an illu-

386:1
sion of mortal mind, – one of its dreams. Realize that

the evidence of the senses is not to be accepted

in the case of sickness, any more than it is in

the case of sin.

Climate and belief

386:5
Expose the body to certain temperatures, and belief

says that you may catch cold and have catarrh; but no

such result occurs without mind to demand

it and produce it. So long as mortals declare

that certain states of the atmosphere produce catarrh,

fever, rheumatism, or consumption, those effects will

follow, – not because of the climate, but on account of

the belief. The author has in too many instances healed

disease through the action of Truth on the minds of mor-

tals, and the corresponding effects of Truth on the body,

not to know that this is so.

Erroneous despatch

386:16
A blundering despatch, mistakenly announcing the

death of a friend, occasions the same grief that the friend's

real death would bring. You think that your

anguish is occasioned by your loss. Another

despatch, correcting the mistake, heals your grief, and

you learn that your suffering was merely the result of

your belief. Thus it is with all sorrow, sickness, and

death. You will learn at length that there is no cause

for grief, and divine wisdom will then be understood.

Error, not Truth, produces all the suffering on earth.

Mourning causeless

386:26
If a Christian Scientist had said, while you were labor-

ing under the influence of the belief of grief, "Your sor-

row is without cause," you would not have

understood him, although the correctness of

the assertion might afterwards be proved to you. So,

when our friends pass from our sight and we lament,

that lamentation is needless and causeless. We shall

387:1
perceive this to be true when we grow into the under-

standing of Life, and know that there is no death.

Mind heals brain-disease

387:3
Because mortal mind is kept active, must it pay the

penalty in a softened brain? Who dares to say that actual

Mind can be overworked? When we reach

our limits of mental endurance, we conclude

that intellectual labor has been carried sufficiently far;

but when we realize that immortal Mind is ever active,

and that spiritual energies can neither wear out nor can

so-called material law trespass upon God-given powers

and resources, we are able to rest in Truth, refreshed by

the assurances of immortality, opposed to mortality.

Right never punishable

387:13
Our thinkers do not die early because they faithfully

perform the natural functions of being. If printers and

authors have the shortest span of earthly ex-

istence, it is not because they occupy the most

important posts and perform the most vital functions in

society. That man does not pay the severest penalty

who does the most good. By adhering to the realities of

eternal existence, – instead of reading disquisitions on

the inconsistent supposition that death comes in obedience

to the law of life, and that God punishes man for doing

good, – one cannot suffer as the result of any labor of

love, but grows stronger because of it. It is a law of so‑

called mortal mind, misnamed matter, which causes all

things discordant.

Christian history

387:27
The history of Christianity furnishes sublime proofs

of the supporting influence and protecting power bestowed

on man by his heavenly Father, omnipotent

Mind, who gives man faith and understanding

whereby to defend himself, not only from temptation, but

from bodily suffering.

388:1
The Christian martyrs were prophets of Christian

Science. Through the uplifting and consecrating power

of divine Truth, they obtained a victory over the corpo-

real senses, a victory which Science alone can explain.

Stolidity, which is a resisting state of mortal mind, suffers

less, only because it knows less of material law.

388:7
The Apostle John testified to the divine basis of Chris-

tian Science, when dire inflictions failed to destroy his

body. Idolaters, believing in more than one mind, had

"gods many," and thought that they could kill the body

with matter, independently of mind.

Sustenance spiritual

388:12
Admit the common hypothesis that food is the nutri-

ment of life, and there follows the necessity for another

admission in the opposite direction, – that

food has power to destroy Life, God, through

a deficiency or an excess, a quality or a quantity. This

is a specimen of the ambiguous nature of all material

health-theories. They are self-contradictory and self-de-

structive, constituting a "kingdom divided against itself,"

which is "brought to desolation." If food was prepared

by Jesus for his disciples, it cannot destroy life.

God sustains man

388:22
The fact is, food does not affect the absolute Life of

man, and this becomes self-evident, when we learn that

God is our Life. Because sin and sickness are

not qualities of Soul, or Life, we have hope in

immortality; but it would be foolish to venture beyond

our present understanding, foolish to stop eating until

we gain perfection and a clear comprehension of the living

Spirit. In that perfect day of understanding, we shall

neither eat to live nor live to eat.

Diet and digestion

388:31
If mortals think that food disturbs the harmonious

functions of mind and body, either the food or this thought

389:1
must be dispensed with, for the penalty is coupled with

the belief. Which shall it be? If this decision be left

to Christian Science, it will be given in behalf

of the control of Mind over this belief and every

erroneous belief, or material condition. The less we

know or think about hygiene, the less we are predisposed

to sickness. Recollect that it is not the nerves, not mat-

ter, but mortal mind, which reports food as undigested.

Matter does not inform you of bodily derangements; it

is supposed to do so. This pseudo-mental testimony can

be destroyed only by the better results of Mind's oppo-

site evidence.

Scripture rebukes

389:13
Our dietetic theories first admit that food sustains the

life of man, and then discuss the certainty that food can

kill man. This false reasoning is rebuked in

Scripture by the metaphors about the fount

and stream, the tree and its fruit, and the kingdom di-

vided against itself. If God has, as prevalent theories

maintain, instituted laws that food shall support human

life, He cannot annul these regulations by an opposite

law that food shall be inimical to existence.

Ancient confusion

389:22
Materialists contradict their own statements. Their

belief in material laws and in penalties for their infrac-

tion is the ancient error that there is fraternity

between pain and pleasure, good and evil, God

and Satan. This belief totters to its falling before the

battle-axe of Science.

389:28
A case of convulsions, produced by indigestion, came

under my observation. In her belief the woman had

chronic liver-complaint, and was then suffering from a

complication of symptoms connected with this belief. I

cured her in a few minutes. One instant she spoke de-

390:1
spairingly of herself. The next minute she said, "My

food is all digested, and I should like something more

to eat."

Ultimate harmony

390:4
We cannot deny that Life is self-sustained, and we

should never deny the everlasting harmony of Soul, sim-

ply because, to the mortal senses, there is seem-

ing discord. It is our ignorance of God, the

divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and

the right understanding of Him restores harmony. Truth

will at length compel us all to exchange the pleasures and

pains of sense for the joys of Soul.

Unnecessary prostration

390:12
When the first symptoms of disease appear, dispute the

testimony of the material senses with divine Science. Let

your higher sense of justice destroy the false

process of mortal opinions which you name

law, and then you will not be confined to a sick-room nor

laid upon a bed of suffering in payment of the last far-

thing, the last penalty demanded by error. "Agree with

thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with

him." Suffer no claim of sin or of sickness to grow upon

the thought. Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that

it is illegitimate, because you know that God is no more

the author of sickness than He is of sin. You have no

law of His to support the necessity either of sin or sick-

ness, but you have divine authority for denying that neces-

sity and healing the sick.

Treatment of disease

390:27
"Agree to disagree" with approaching symptoms of

chronic or acute disease, whether it is cancer, consump-

tion, or smallpox. Meet the incipient stages

of disease with as powerful mental opposi-

tion as a legislator would employ to defeat the passage of

an inhuman law. Rise in the conscious strength of the

391:1
spirit of Truth to overthrow the plea of mortal mind,

alias matter, arrayed against the supremacy of Spirit.

Blot out the images of mortal thought and its beliefs in

sickness and sin. Then, when thou art delivered to the

judgment of Truth, Christ, the judge will say, "Thou

art whole!"

Righteous rebellion

391:7
Instead of blind and calm submission to the incipient

or advanced stages of disease, rise in rebellion against

them. Banish the belief that you can possi-

bly entertain a single intruding pain which can-

not be ruled out by the might of Mind, and in this way

you can prevent the development of pain in the body.

No law of God hinders this result. It is error to suffer

for aught but your own sins. Christ, or Truth, will de-

stroy all other supposed suffering, and real suffering for

your own sins will cease in proportion as the sin ceases.

Contradict error

391:17
Justice is the moral signification of law. Injustice de-

clares the absence of law. When the body is supposed

to say, "I am sick," never plead guilty. Since

matter cannot talk, it must be mortal mind

which speaks; therefore meet the intimation with a pro-

test. If you say, "I am sick," you plead guilty. Then

your adversary will deliver you to the judge (mortal

mind), and the judge will sentence you. Disease has

no intelligence to declare itself something and announce

its name. Mortal mind alone sentences itself. Therefore

make your own terms with sickness, and be just to yourself

and to others.

Sin to be overcome

391:29
Mentally contradict every complaint from the body,

and rise to the true consciousness of Life as

Love, – as all that is pure, and bearing the

fruits of Spirit. Fear is the fountain of sickness,

392:1
and you master fear and sin through divine Mind; hence

it is through divine Mind that you overcome disease.

Only while fear or sin remains can it bring forth death.

To cure a bodily ailment, every broken moral law should

be taken into account and the error be rebuked. Fear,

which is an element of all disease, must be cast out to

readjust the balance for God. Casting out evil and fear

enables truth to outweigh error. The only course is to

take antagonistic grounds against all that is opposed to

the health, holiness, and harmony of man, God's image.

Illusions about nerves

392:11
The physical affirmation of disease should always be

met with the mental negation. Whatever benefit is pro-

duced on the body, must be expressed men-

tally, and thought should be held fast to this

ideal. If you believe in inflamed and weak nerves, you

are liable to an attack from that source. You will call it

neuralgia, but we call it a belief. If you think that con-

sumption is hereditary in your family, you are liable to

the development of that thought in the form of what is

termed pulmonary disease, unless Science shows you

otherwise. If you decide that climate or atmosphere is

unhealthy, it will be so to you. Your decisions will mas-

ter you, whichever direction they take.

Guarding the door

392:24
Reverse the case. Stand porter at the door of thought.

Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in

bodily results, you will control yourself har-

moniously. When the condition is present

which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise,

heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office

as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears.

Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then the

body cannot suffer from them. The issues of pain or

393:1
pleasure must come through mind, and like a watchman

forsaking his post, we admit the intruding belief, forget-

ting that through divine help we can forbid this entrance.

The strength of Spirit

393:4
The body seems to be self-acting, only because mortal

mind is ignorant of itself, of its own actions, and of their

results, – ignorant that the predisposing, re-

mote, and exciting cause of all bad effects is a

law of so-called mortal mind, not of matter. Mind is the

master of the corporeal senses, and can conquer sickness,

sin, and death. Exercise this God-given authority. Take

possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action.

Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike

good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing

can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on

man.

No pain in matter

393:16
Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mind

governs, and that in Science man reflects God's govern-

ment. Have no fear that matter can ache,

swell, and be inflamed as the result of a law

of any kind, when it is self-evident that matter can have

no pain nor inflammation. Your body would suffer no

more from tension or wounds than the trunk of a tree

which you gash or the electric wire which you stretch,

were it not for mortal mind.

393:25
When Jesus declares that "the light of the body is the

eye," he certainly means that light depends upon Mind,

not upon the complex humors, lenses, muscles, the iris

and pupil, constituting the visual organism.

No real disease

393:29
Man is never sick, for Mind is not sick and matter

cannot be. A false belief is both the tempter

and the tempted, the sin and the sinner, the

disease and its cause. It is well to be calm in sickness;

394:1
to be hopeful is still better; but to understand that sick-

ness is not real and that Truth can destroy its seeming

reality, is best of all, for this understanding is the uni-

versal and perfect remedy.

Recuperation mental

394:5
By conceding power to discord, a large majority of

doctors depress mental energy, which is the only real

recuperative power. Knowledge that we

can accomplish the good we hope for, stimu-

lates the system to act in the direction which Mind points

out. The admission that any bodily condition is beyond

the control of Mind disarms man, prevents him from

helping himself, and enthrones matter through error. To

those struggling with sickness, such admissions are dis-

couraging, – as much so as would be the advice to a man

who is down in the world, that he should not try to rise

above his difficulties.

394:17
Experience has proved to the author the fallacy of

material systems in general, – that their theories are

sometimes pernicious, and that their denials are better

than their affirmations. Will you bid a man let evils

overcome him, assuring him that all misfortunes are from

God, against whom mortals should not contend? Will

you tell the sick that their condition is hopeless, unless it

can be aided by a drug or climate? Are material means

the only refuge from fatal chances? Is there no divine

permission to conquer discord of every kind with harmony,

with Truth and Love?

Arguing wrongly

394:28
We should remember that Life is God, and that God

is omnipotent. Not understanding Christian

Science, the sick usually have little faith in

it till they feel its beneficent influence. This shows

that faith is not the healer in such cases. The sick

395:1
unconsciously argue for suffering, instead of against it.

They admit its reality, whereas they should deny it.

They should plead in opposition to the testimony of the

deceitful senses, and maintain man's immortality and

eternal likeness to God.

Divine authority

395:6
Like the great Exemplar, the healer should speak to

disease as one having authority over it, leaving Soul to

master the false evidences of the corporeal

senses and to assert its claims over mortal-

ity and disease. The same Principle cures both sin and

sickness. When divine Science overcomes faith in a car-

nal mind, and faith in God destroys all faith in sin and in

material methods of healing, then sin, disease, and death

will disappear.

Aids in sickness

395:15
Prayers, in which God is not asked to heal but is be-

sought to take the patient to Himself, do not benefit the

sick. An ill-tempered, complaining, or deceit-

ful person should not be a nurse. The nurse

should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of

faith, – receptive to Truth and Love.

Mental quackery

395:21
It is mental quackery to make disease a reality – to

hold it as something seen and felt – and then to attempt

its cure through Mind. It is no less erroneous

to believe in the real existence of a tumor, a

cancer, or decayed lungs, while you argue against their

reality, than it is for your patient to feel these ills in

physical belief. Mental practice, which holds disease

as a reality, fastens disease on the patient, and it may

appear in a more alarming form.

Effacing images of disease

395:30
The knowledge that brain-lobes cannot kill a man nor

affect the functions of mind would prevent the brain from

becoming diseased, though a moral offence is indeed the

396:1
worst of diseases. One should never hold in mind

the thought of disease, but should efface from

thought all forms and types of disease, both for

one's own sake and for that of the patient.

Avoid talking disease

396:5
Avoid talking illness to the patient. Make no unne-

cessary inquiries relative to feelings or disease. Never

startle with a discouraging remark about re-

covery, nor draw attention to certain symp-

toms as unfavorable, avoid speaking aloud the name of

the disease. Never say beforehand how much you have

to contend with in a case, nor encourage in the patient's

thought the expectation of growing worse before a crisis

is passed.

False testimony refuted

396:14
The refutation of the testimony of material sense is

not a difficult task in view of the conceded falsity of this

testimony. The refutation becomes arduous,

not because the testimony of sin or disease is

true, but solely on account of the tenacity of belief in its

truth, due to the force of education and the overwhelm-

ing weight of opinions on the wrong side, – all teaching

that the body suffers, as if matter could have sensation.

Healthful explanation

396:22
At the right time explain to the sick the power which

their beliefs exercise over their bodies. Give them divine

and wholesome understanding, with which to

combat their erroneous sense, and so efface the

images of sickness from mortal mind. Keep distinctly in

thought that man is the offspring of God, not of man;

that man is spiritual, not material; that Soul is Spirit,

outside of matter, never in it, never giving the body life

and sensation. It breaks the dream of disease to under-

stand that sickness is formed by the human mind, not by

matter nor by the divine Mind.

Misleading methods

397:1
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-

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

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

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

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

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

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

399:1
no power, no intelligence, for God is good, and therefore

good is infinite, is All.

Corporeal combinations

399:3
You say that certain material combinations produce

disease; but if the material body causes disease, can

matter cure what matter has caused? Mortal

mind prescribes the drug, and administers it.

Mortal mind plans the exercise, and puts the body through

certain motions. No gastric gas accumulates, not a se-

cretion nor combination can operate, apart from the

action of mortal thought, alias mortal mind.

Automatic mechanism

399:11
So-called mortal mind sends its despatches over its

body, but this so-called mind is both the service and

message of this telegraphy. Nerves are un-

able to talk, and matter can return no an-

swer to immortal Mind. If Mind is the only actor, how

can mechanism be automatic? Mortal mind perpetuates

its own thought. It constructs a machine, manages it,

and then calls it material. A mill at work or the action

of a water-wheel is but a derivative from, and continua-

tion of, the primitive mortal mind. Without this force

the body is devoid of action, and this deadness shows

that so-called mortal life is mortal mind, not matter.

Mental strength

399:23
Scientifically speaking, there is no mortal mind out of

which to make material beliefs, springing from illusion.

This misnamed mind is not an entity. It is

only a false sense of matter, since matter is not

sensible. The one Mind, God, contains no mortal opin-

ions. All that is real is included in this immortal Mind.

Confirmation in a parable

399:29
Our Master asked: "How can one enter into a strong

man's house and spoil his goods, except he first

bind the strong man?" In other words: How

can I heal the body, without beginning with so-called

400:1
mortal mind, which directly controls the body? When

disease is once destroyed in this so-called mind, the fear

of disease is gone, and therefore the disease is thor-

oughly cured. Mortal mind is "the strong man," which

must be held in subjection before its influence upon health

and morals can be removed. This error conquered, we

can despoil "the strong man" of his goods, – namely, of

sin and disease.

Eradicate error from thought

400:9
Mortals obtain the harmony of health, only as they

forsake discord, acknowledge the supremacy of divine

Mind, and abandon their material beliefs.

Eradicate the image of disease from the per-

turbed thought before it has taken tangible

shape in conscious thought, alias the body, and you pre-

vent the development of disease. This task becomes easy,

if you understand that every disease is an error, and has

no character nor type, except what mortal mind assigns to

it. By lifting thought above error, or disease, and con-

tending persistently for truth, you destroy error.

Mortal mind controlled

400:20
When we remove disease by addressing the disturbed

mind, giving no heed to the body, we prove that thought

alone creates the suffering. Mortal mind

rules all that is mortal. We see in the body

the images of this mind, even as in optics we see painted

on the retina the image which becomes visible to the

senses. The action of so-called mortal mind must be

destroyed by the divine Mind to bring out the harmony

of being. Without divine control there is discord, mani-

fest as sin, sickness, and death.

Mortal mind not a healer

400:30
The Scriptures plainly declare the baneful influence of

sinful thought on the body. Even our Master felt this.

It is recorded that in certain localities he did not many

401:1
mighty works "because of their unbelief" in Truth. Any

human error is its own enemy, and works against itself;

it does nothing in the right direction and much

in the wrong. If so-called mind is cherishing

evil passions and malicious purposes, it is not a healer,

but it engenders disease and death.

Effect of opposites

401:7
If faith in the truth of being, which you impart men-

tally while destroying error, causes chemicalization (as

when an alkali is destroying an acid), it is be-

cause the truth of being must transform the

error to the end of producing a higher manifestation.

This fermentation should not aggravate the disease, but

should be as painless to man as to a fluid, since matter

has no sensation and mortal mind only feels and sees

materially.

401:16
What I term chemicalization is the upheaval produced

when immortal Truth is destroying erroneous mortal be-

lief. Mental chemicalization brings sin and sickness to

the surface, forcing impurities to pass away, as is the case

with a fermenting fluid.

Medicine and brain

401:21
The only effect produced by medicine is dependent upon

mental action. If the mind were parted from the body,

could you produce any effect upon the brain

or body by applying the drug to either? Would

the drug remove paralysis, affect organization, or restore

will and action to cerebrum and cerebellum?

Skilful surgery

401:27
Until the advancing age admits the efficacy and suprem-

acy of Mind, it is better for Christian Scientists to leave

surgery and the adjustment of broken bones

and dislocations to the fingers of a surgeon,

while the mental healer confines himself chiefly to mental

reconstruction and to the prevention of inflammation.

402:1
Christian Science is always the most skilful surgeon, but

surgery is the branch of its healing which will be last

acknowledged. However, it is but just to say that the

author has already in her possession well-authenticated

records of the cure, by herself and her students through

mental surgery alone, of broken bones, dislocated joints,

and spinal vertebrae.

Indestructible life of man

402:8
The time approaches when mortal mind will forsake

its corporeal, structural, and material basis, when im-

mortal Mind and its formations will be appre-

hended in Science, and material beliefs will

not interfere with spiritual facts. Man is indestructible

and eternal. Sometime it will be learned that mortal

mind constructs the mortal body with this mind's own

mortal materials. In Science, no breakage nor dislocation

can really occur. You say that accidents, injuries, and

disease kill man, but this is not true. The life of man is

Mind. The material body manifests only what mortal

mind believes, whether it be a broken bone, disease, or sin.

The evil of mesmerism

402:20
We say that one human mind can influence another and

in this way affect the body, but we rarely remember that

we govern our own bodies. The error, mes-

merism – or hypnotism, to use the recent term

– illustrates the fact just stated. The operator would

make his subjects believe that they cannot act voluntarily

and handle themselves as they should do. If they yield

to this influence, it is because their belief is not better

instructed by spiritual understanding. Hence the proof

that hypnotism is not scientific; Science cannot produce

both disorder and order. The involuntary pleasure or

pain of the person under hypnotic control is proved to be

a belief without a real cause.

Wrong-doer should suffer

403:1
So the sick through their beliefs have induced their own

diseased conditions. The great difference between vol-

untary and involuntary mesmerism is that vol-

untary mesmerism is induced consciously and

should and does cause the perpetrator to suffer, while self‑

mesmerism is induced unconsciously and by his mistake

a man is often instructed. In the first instance it is under-

stood that the difficulty is a mental illusion, while in the

second it is believed that the misfortune is a material effect.

The human mind is employed to remove the illusion in

one case, but matter is appealed to in the other. In real-

ity, both have their origin in the human mind, and can be

healed only by the divine Mind.

Error's power imaginary

403:14
You command the situation if you understand that

mortal existence is a state of self-deception and not the

truth of being. Mortal mind is constantly

producing on mortal body the results of false

opinions; and it will continue to do so, until mortal

error is deprived of its imaginary powers by Truth,

which sweeps away the gossamer web of mortal illusion.

The most Christian state is one of rectitude and spir-

itual understanding, and this is best adapted for heal-

ing the sick. Never conjure up some new discovery from

dark forebodings regarding disease and then acquaint

your patient with it.

Disease-production

403:26
The mortal so-called mind produces all that is unlike

the immortal Mind. The human mind determines the

nature of a case, and the practitioner improves

or injures the case in proportion to the truth

or error which influences his conclusions. The mental

conception and development of disease are not under-

stood by the patient, but the physician should be familiar

404:1
with mental action and its effect in order to judge the case

according to Christian Science.

Appetites to be abandoned

404:3
If a man is an inebriate, a slave to tobacco, or the special

servant of any one of the myriad forms of sin, meet and

destroy these errors with the truth of being, –

by exhibiting to the wrong-doer the suffering

which his submission to such habits brings, and by con-

vincing him that there is no real pleasure in false appe-

tites. A corrupt mind is manifested in a corrupt body.

Lust, malice, and all sorts of evil are diseased beliefs, and

you can destroy them only by destroying the wicked

motives which produce them. If the evil is over in the

repentant mortal mind, while its effects still remain on the

individual, you can remove this disorder as God's law is

fulfilled and reformation cancels the crime. The healthy

sinner is the hardened sinner.

Temperance reform

404:17
The temperance reform, felt all over our land, results

from metaphysical healing, which cuts down every tree

that brings not forth good fruit. This con-

viction, that there is no real pleasure in sin,

is one of the most important points in the theology of

Christian Science. Arouse the sinner to this new and

true view of sin, show him that sin confers no pleasure,

and this knowledge strengthens his moral courage and

increases his ability to master evil and to love good.

Sin or fear the root of sickness

404:26
Healing the sick and reforming the sinner are one and

the same thing in Christian Science. Both cures require

the same method and are inseparable in Truth.

Hatred, envy, dishonesty, fear, and so forth,

make a man sick, and neither material medi-

cine nor Mind can help him permanently, even in body,

unless it makes him better mentally, and so delivers him

405:1
from his destroyers. The basic error is mortal mind.

Hatred inflames the brutal propensities. The indulgence

of evil motives and aims makes any man, who is above the

lowest type of manhood, a hopeless sufferer.

Mental conspirators

405:5
Christian Science commands man to master the pro-

pensities, – to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness,

to conquer lust with chastity, revenge with

charity, and to overcome deceit with hon-

esty. Choke these errors in their early stages, if you

would not cherish an army of conspirators against

health, happiness, and success. They will deliver you

to the judge, the arbiter of truth against error. The

judge will deliver you to justice, and the sentence of

the moral law will be executed upon mortal mind and

body. Both will be manacled until the last farthing

is paid, – until you have balanced your account with

God. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also

reap." The good man finally can overcome his fear of

sin. This is sin's necessity, – to destroy itself. Im-

mortal man demonstrates the government of God, good,

in which is no power to sin.

Cumulative repentence

405:22
It were better to be exposed to every plague on earth

than to endure the cumulative effects of a guilty con-

science. The abiding consciousness of wrong‑

doing tends to destroy the ability to do right.

If sin is not regretted and is not lessening, then it is

hastening on to physical and moral doom. You are con-

quered by the moral penalties you incur and the ills they

bring. The pains of sinful sense are less harmful than its

pleasures. Belief in material suffering causes mortals to

retreat from their error, to flee from body to Spirit, and

to appeal to divine sources outside of themselves.

The leaves of healing

406:1
The Bible contains the recipe for all healing. "The

leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

Sin and sickness are both healed by the same

Principle. The tree is typical of man's divine

Principle, which is equal to every emergency, offering

full salvation from sin, sickness, and death. Sin will

submit to Christian Science when, in place of modes and

forms, the power of God is understood and demonstrated

in the healing of mortals, both mind and body. "Per-

fect Love casteth out fear."

Sickness will abate

406:11
The Science of being unveils the errors of sense, and

spiritual perception, aided by Science, reaches Truth.

Then error disappears. Sin and sickness will

abate and seem less real as we approach the

scientific period, in which mortal sense is subdued and

all that is unlike the true likeness disappears. The moral

man has no fear that he will commit a murder, and he

should be as fearless on the question of disease.

Resist to the end

406:19
Resist evil – error of every sort – and it will flee from

you. Error is opposed to Life. We can, and ultimately

shall, so rise as to avail ourselves in every direc-

tion of the supremacy of Truth over error, Life

over death, and good over evil, and this growth will go

on until we arrive at the fulness of God's idea, and no

more fear that we shall be sick and die. Inharmony of

any kind involves weakness and suffering, – a loss of

control over the body.

Morbid cravings

406:28
The depraved appetite for alcoholic drinks, tobacco,

tea, coffee, opium, is destroyed only by Mind's mastery

of the body. This normal control is gained

through divine strength and understanding.

There is no enjoyment in getting drunk, in becoming a

407:1
fool or an object of loathing; but there is a very sharp

remembrance of it, a suffering inconceivably terrible to

man's self-respect. Puffing the obnoxious fumes of to-

bacco, or chewing a leaf naturally attractive to no crea-

ture except a loathsome worm, is at least disgusting.

Universal panacea

407:6
Man's enslavement to the most relentless masters –

passion, selfishness, envy, hatred, and revenge – is con-

quered only by a mighty struggle. Every

hour of delay makes the struggle more severe.

If man is not victorious over the passions, they crush

out happiness, health, and manhood. Here Christian

Science is the sovereign panacea, giving strength to the

weakness of mortal mind, – strength from the immortal

and omnipotent Mind, – and lifting humanity above

itself into purer desires, even into spiritual power and

good-will to man.

407:17
Let the slave of wrong desire learn the lessons of Chris-

tian Science, and he will get the better of that desire

and ascend a degree in the scale of health, happiness,

and existence.

Immortal memory

407:21
If delusion says, "I have lost my memory," contra-

dict it. No faculty of Mind is lost. In Science, all

being is eternal, spiritual, perfect, harmoni-

ous in every action. Let the perfect model be

present in your thoughts instead of its demoralized op-

posite. This spiritualization of thought lets in the light,

and brings the divine Mind, Life not death, into your

consciousness.

Sin a form of insanity

407:29
There are many species of insanity. All sin is insan-

ity in different degrees. Sin is spared from

this classification, only because its method of

madness is in consonance with common mortal belief.

408:1
Every sort of sickness is error, – that is, sickness is

loss of harmony. This view is not altered by the fact

that sin is worse than sickness, and sickness is not ac-

knowledged nor discovered to be error by many who are

sick.

408:6
There is a universal insanity of so-called health, which

mistakes fable for fact throughout the entire round of the

material senses, but this general craze cannot, in a scien-

tific diagnosis, shield the individual case from the special

name of insanity. Those unfortunate people who are

committed to insane asylums are only so many distinctly

defined instances of the baneful effects of illusion on mor-

tal minds and bodies.

Drugs and brain-lobes

408:14
The supposition that we can correct insanity by the use

of purgatives and narcotics is in itself a mild species of

insanity. Can drugs go of their own accord

to the brain and destroy the so-called inflam-

mation of disordered functions, thus reaching mortal

mind through matter? Drugs do not affect a corpse, and

Truth does not distribute drugs through the blood, and

from them derive a supposed effect on intelligence and sen-

timent. A dislocation of the tarsal joint would produce

insanity as perceptibly as would congestion of the brain,

were it not that mortal mind thinks that the tarsal joint is

less intimately connected with the mind than is the brain.

Reverse the belief, and the results would be perceptibly

different.

Matter and animate error

408:28
The unconscious thought in the corporeal substra-

tum of brain produces no effect, and that condition of

the body which we call sensation in matter

is unreal. Mortal mind is ignorant of it-

self, – ignorant of the errors it includes and of their

409:1
effects. Intelligent matter is an impossibility. You

may say: "But if disease obtains in matter, why do

you insist that disease is formed by mortal mind and

not by matter?" Mortal mind and body combine as

one, and the nearer matter approaches its final state-

ment, – animate error called nerves, brain, mind, – the

more prolific it is likely to become in sin and disease-

beliefs.

Dictation of error

409:9
Unconscious mortal mind – alias matter, brain – can-

not dictate terms to consciousness nor say, "I am sick."

The belief, that the unconscious substratum

of mortal mind, termed the body, suffers and

reports disease independently of this so-called conscious

mind, is the error which prevents mortals from knowing

how to govern their bodies.

So-called superiority

409:16
The so-called conscious mortal mind is believed to be

superior to its unconscious substratum, matter, and

the stronger never yields to the weaker, ex-

cept through fear or choice. The animate

should be governed by God alone. The real man is

spiritual and immortal, but the mortal and imperfect

so-called "children of men" are counterfeits from the

beginning, to be laid aside for the pure reality. This

mortal is put off, and the new man or real man is put

on, in proportion as mortals realize the Science of man

and seek the true model.

Death no benefactor

409:27
We have no right to say that life depends on matter

now, but will not depend on it after death. We cannot

spend our days here in ignorance of the Science

of Life, and expect to find beyond the grave

a reward for this ignorance. Death will not make us

harmonious and immortal as a recompense for ignorance.

410:1
If here we give no heed to Christian Science, which is

spiritual and eternal, we shall not be ready for spiritual

Life hereafter.

Life eternal and present

410:4
"This is life eternal," says Jesus, – is, not shall be;

and then he defines everlasting life as a present knowledge

of his Father and of himself, – the knowledge

of Love, Truth, and Life. "This is life eter-

nal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and

Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." The Scriptures

say, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every

word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," show-

ing that Truth is the actual life of man; but mankind

objects to making this teaching practical.

Love casteth out fear

410:14
Every trial of our faith in God makes us stronger.

The more difficult seems the material condition to be

overcome by Spirit, the stronger should be our

faith and the purer our love. The Apostle

John says: "There is no fear in Love, but perfect Love

casteth out fear. . . . He that feareth is not made per-

fect in Love." Here is a definite and inspired proclama-

tion of Christian Science.

410:22
MENTAL TREATMENT ILLUSTRATED

Be not afraid

410:23
The Science of mental practice is susceptible of no

misuse. Selfishness does not appear in the practice of

Truth or Christian Science. If mental prac-

tice is abused or is used in any way except to

promote right thinking and doing, the power to heal

mentally will diminish, until the practitioner's healing

ability is wholly lost. Christian scientific practice be-

gins with Christ's keynote of harmony, "Be not afraid!"

411:1
Said Job: "The thing which I greatly feared is come

upon me."

Naming diseases

411:3
My first discovery in the student's practice was this:

If the student silently called the disease by name, when

he argued against it, as a general rule the body

would respond more quickly, – just as a per-

son replies more readily when his name is spoken; but

this was because the student was not perfectly attuned to

divine Science, and needed the arguments of truth for

reminders. If Spirit or the power of divine Love bear

witness to the truth, this is the ultimatum, the scientific

way, and the healing is instantaneous.

Evils cast out

411:13
It is recorded that once Jesus asked the name of a dis-

ease, – a disease which moderns would call dementia.

The demon, or evil, replied that his name was

Legion. Thereupon Jesus cast out the evil,

and the insane man was changed and straightway be-

came whole. The Scripture seems to import that Jesus

caused the evil to be self-seen and so destroyed.

Fear as the foundation

411:20
The procuring cause and foundation of all sickness is

fear, ignorance, or sin. Disease is always induced by a

false sense mentally entertained, not destroyed.

Disease is an image of thought externalized.

The mental state is called a material state. Whatever

is cherished in mortal mind as the physical condition is

imaged forth on the body.

Unspoken pleading

411:27
Always begin your treatment by allaying the fear

of patients. Silently reassure them as to their exemp-

tion from disease and danger. Watch the re-

sult of this simple rule of Christian Science,

and you will find that it alleviates the symptoms of every

disease. If you succeed in wholly removing the fear,

412:1
your patient is healed. The great fact that God lovingly

governs all, never punishing aught but sin, is your stand-

point, from which to advance and destroy the human fear

of sickness. Mentally and silently plead the case scien-

tifically for Truth. You may vary the arguments to meet

the peculiar or general symptoms of the case you treat,

but be thoroughly persuaded in your own mind concern-

ing the truth which you think or speak, and you will be

the victor.

Eloquent silence

412:10
You may call the disease by name when you mentally

deny it; but by naming it audibly, you are liable under

some circumstances to impress it upon the

thought. The power of Christian Science and

divine Love is omnipotent. It is indeed adequate to un-

clasp the hold and to destroy disease, sin, and death.

Insistence requisite

412:16
To prevent disease or to cure it, the power of Truth,

of divine Spirit, must break the dream of the material

senses. To heal by argument, find the type

of the ailment, get its name, and array your

mental plea against the physical. Argue at first men-

tally, not audibly, that the patient has no disease, and

conform the argument so as to destroy the evidence of

disease. Mentally insist that harmony is the fact, and

that sickness is a temporal dream. Realize the presence

of health and the fact of harmonious being, until the

body corresponds with the normal conditions of health

and harmony.

The cure of infants

412:28
If the case is that of a young child or an infant, it needs

to be met mainly through the parent's thought, silently

or audibly on the aforesaid basis of Christian

Science. The Scientist knows that there can

be no hereditary disease, since matter is not intelligent

413:1
and cannot transmit good or evil intelligence to man, and

God, the only Mind, does not produce pain in matter.

The act of yielding one's thoughts to the undue contem-

plation of physical wants or conditions induces those very

conditions. A single requirement, beyond what is neces-

sary to meet the simplest needs of the babe is harmful.

Mind regulates the condition of the stomach, bowels, and

food, the temperature of children and of men, and matter

does not. The wise or unwise views of parents and other

persons on these subjects produce good or bad effects on

the health of children.

Ablutions for cleanliness

413:12
The daily ablutions of an infant are no more natural

nor necessary than would be the process of taking a fish

out of water every day and covering it with dirt

in order to make it thrive more vigorously in its

own element. "Cleanliness is next to godliness," but

washing should be only for the purpose of keeping the

body clean, and this can be effected without scrubbing the

whole surface daily. Water is not the natural habitat of

humanity. I insist on bodily cleanliness within and with-

out. I am not patient with a speck of dirt; but in caring

for an infant one need not wash his little body all over each

day in order to keep it sweet as the new-blown flower.

Juvenile ailments

413:24
Giving drugs to infants, noticing every symptom of

flatulency, and constantly directing the mind to such

signs, – that mind being laden with illusions

about disease, health-laws, and death, – these

actions convey mental images to children's budding

thoughts, and often stamp them there, making it probable

at any time that such ills may be reproduced in the very

ailments feared. A child may have worms, if you say so,

or any other malady, timorously held in the beliefs con-

414:1
cerning his body. Thus are laid the foundations of the

belief in disease and death, and thus are children educated

into discord.

Cure of insanity

414:4
The treatment of insanity is especially interesting.

However obstinate the case, it yields more readily than

do most diseases to the salutary action of

truth, which counteracts error. The argu-

ments to be used in curing insanity are the same as in

other diseases: namely, the impossibility that matter,

brain, can control or derange mind, can suffer or cause

suffering; also the fact that truth and love will establish

a healthy state, guide and govern mortal mind or the

thought of the patient, and destroy all error, whether it is

called dementia, hatred, or any other discord.

414:15
To fix truth steadfastly in your patients' thoughts, ex-

plain Christian Science to them, but not too soon, – not

until your patients are prepared for the explanation, –

lest you array the sick against their own interests by troub-

ling and perplexing their thought. The Christian Scien-

tist's argument rests on the Christianly scientific basis of

being. The Scripture declares, "The Lord He is God

[good]; there is none else beside Him." Even so, harmony

is universal, and discord is unreal. Christian Science de-

clares that Mind is substance, also that matter neither

feels, suffers, nor enjoys. Hold these points strongly in

view. Keep in mind the verity of being, – that man is

the image and likeness of God, in whom all being is

painless and permanent. Remember that man's perfec-

tion is real and unimpeachable, whereas imperfection is

blameworthy, unreal, and is not brought about by divine

Love.

Matter is not inflamed

414:32
Matter cannot be inflamed. Inflammation is fear, an

415:1
excited state of mortals which is not normal. Immor-

tal Mind is the only cause; therefore disease is neither a

cause nor an effect. Mind in every case is the

eternal God, good. Sin, disease, and death

have no foundations in Truth. Inflamation as a mor-

tal belief quickens or impedes the action of the system,

because thought moves quickly or slowly, leaps or halts

when it contemplates unpleasant things, or when the in-

dividual looks upon some object which he dreads. In-

flammation never appears in a part which mortal thought

does not reach. That is why opiates relieve inflammation.

They quiet the thought by inducing stupefaction and by

resorting to matter instead of to Mind. Opiates do not

remove the pain in any scientific sense. They only ren-

der mortal mind temporarily less fearful, till it can master

an erroneous belief.

Truth calms the thought

415:17
Note how thought makes the face pallid. It either re-

tards the circulation or quickens it, causing a pale or

flushed cheek. In the same way thought in-

creases or diminishes the secretions, the action

of the lungs, of the bowels, and of the heart. The mus-

cles, moving quickly or slowly and impelled or palsied by

thought, represent the action of all the organs of the hu-

man system, including brain and viscera. To remove

the error producing disorder, you must calm and instruct

mortal mind with immortal Truth.

Effects of etherization

415:27
Etherization will apparently cause the body to dis-

appear. Before the thoughts are fully at rest, the limbs

will vanish from consciousness. Indeed, the

whole frame will sink from sight along with

surrounding objects, leaving the pain standing forth as

distinctly as a mountain-peak, as if it were a separate

416:1
bodily member. At last the agony also vanishes. This

process shows the pain to be in the mind, for the inflam-

mation is not suppressed; and the belief of pain will

presently return, unless the mental image occasioning

the pain be removed by recognizing the truth of being.

Sedatives valueless

416:6
A hypodermic injection of morphine is administered

to a patient, and in twenty minutes the sufferer is qui-

etly asleep. To him there is no longer any

pain. Yet any physician – allopathic, homoe-

opathic, botanic, eclectic – will tell you that the trouble-

some material cause is unremoved, and that when the

soporific influence of the opium is exhausted, the pa-

tient will find himself in the same pain, unless the belief

which occasions the pain has meanwhile been changed.

Where is the pain while the patient sleeps?

The so-called physical ego

416:16
The material body, which you call me, is mortal mind,

and this mind is material in sensation, even as the body,

which has originated from this material sense

and been developed according to it, is mate-

rial. This materialism of parent and child is only in

mortal mind, as the dead body proves; for when the

mortal has resigned his body to dust, the body is no

longer the parent, even in appearance.

Evil thought depletes

416:24
The sick know nothing of the mental process by

which they are depleted, and next to nothing of the

metaphysical method by which they can be

healed. If they ask about their disease, tell

them only what is best for them to know. Assure them

that they think too much about their ailments, and

have already heard too much on that subject. Turn

their thoughts away from their bodies to higher ob-

jects. Teach them that their being is sustained by

417:1
Spirit, not by matter, and that they find health, peace,

and harmony in God, divine Love.

Helpful encouragement

417:3
Give sick people credit for sometimes knowing more

than their doctors. Always support their trust in the

power of Mind to sustain the body. Never

tell the sick that they have more courage

than strength. Tell them rather, that their strength

is in proportion to their courage. If you make the sick

realize this great truism, there will be no reaction from

over-exertion or from excited conditions. Maintain

the facts of Christian Science, – that Spirit is God, and

therefore cannot be sick; that what is termed matter

cannot be sick; that all causation is Mind, acting

through spiritual law. Then hold your ground with

the unshaken understanding of Truth and Love, and

you will win. When you silence the witness against your

plea, you destroy the evidence, for the disease disap-

pears. The evidence before the corporeal senses is not

the Science of immortal man.

Disease to be made unreal

417:20
To the Christian Science healer, sickness is a dream

from which the patient needs to be awakened. Dis-

ease should not appear real to the physician,

since it is demonstrable that the way to

cure the patient is to make disease unreal to him. To

do this, the physician must understand the unreality

of disease in Science.

417:27
Explain audibly to your patients, as soon as they can

bear it, the complete control which Mind holds over the

body. Show them how mortal mind seems to induce

disease by certain fears and false conclusions, and how

divine Mind can cure by opposite thoughts. Give your

patients an underlying understanding to support them

418:1
and to shield them from the baneful effects of their own

conclusions. Show them that the conquest over sickness,

as well as over sin, depends on mentally destroying all

belief in material pleasure or pain.

Christian pleading

418:5
Stick to the truth of being in contradistinction to the

error that life, substance, or intelligence can be in matter.

Plead with an honest conviction of truth and

a clear perception of the unchanging, unerr-

ing, and certain effect of divine Science. Then, if your

fidelity is half equal to the truth of your plea, you will

heal the sick.

Truthful arguments

418:12
It must be clear to you that sickness is no more

the reality of being than is sin. This mortal dream

of sickness, sin, and death should cease

through Christian Science. Then one dis-

ease would be as readily destroyed as another. What-

ever the belief is, if arguments are used to destroy it,

the belief must be repudiated, and the negation must ex-

tend to the supposed disease and to whatever decides its

type and symptoms. Truth is affirmative, and confers

harmony. All metaphysical logic is inspired by this sim-

ple rule of Truth, which governs all reality. By the

truthful arguments you employ, and especially by the

spirit of Truth and Love which you entertain, you will

heal the sick.

Morality required

418:26
Include moral as well as physical belief in your efforts

to destroy error. Cast out all manner of evil. "Preach

the gospel to every creature." Speak the

truth to every form of error. Tumors, ulcers,

tubercles, inflammation, pain, deformed joints, are wak-

ing dream-shadows, dark images of mortal thought, which

flee before the light of Truth.

419:1
A moral question may hinder the recovery of the sick.

Lurking error, lust, envy, revenge, malice, or hate will

perpetuate or even create the belief in disease. Errors

of all sorts tend in this direction. Your true course is

to destroy the foe, and leave the field to God, Life, Truth,

and Love, remembering that God and His ideas alone

are real and harmonious.

Relapse unnecessary

419:8
If your patient from any cause suffers a relapse, meet

the cause mentally and courageously, knowing that

there can be no reaction in Truth. Neither

disease itself, sin, nor fear has the power to

cause disease or a relapse. Disease has no intelligence

with which to move itself about or to change itself from

one form to another. If disease moves, mind, not mat-

ter, moves it; therefore be sure that you move it off.

Meet every adverse circumstance as its master. Ob-

serve mind instead of body, lest aught unfit for develop-

ment enter thought. Think less of material conditions

and more of spiritual.

Conquer beliefs and fears

419:20
Mind produces all action. If the action proceeds from

Truth, from immortal Mind, there is harmony; but mor-

tal mind is liable to any phase of belief. A

relapse cannot in reality occur in mortals or

so-called mortal minds, for there is but one

Mind, one God. Never fear the mental malpractitioner,

the mental assassin, who, in attempting to rule mankind,

tramples upon the divine Principle of metaphysics, for God

is the only power. To succeed in healing, you must con-

quer your own fears as well as those of your patients, and

rise into higher and holier consciousness.

True government of man

419:31
If it is found necessary to treat against relapse, know

that disease or its symptoms cannot change forms, nor

420:1
go from one part to another, for Truth destroys disease.

There is no metastasis, no stoppage of harmonious

action, no paralysis. Truth not error, Love

not hate, Spirit not matter, governs man. If

students do not readily heal themselves, they should

early call an experienced Christian Scientist to aid

them. If they are unwilling to do this for themselves,

they need only to know that error cannot produce this

unnatural reluctance.

Positive reassurance

420:10
Instruct the sick that they are not helpless victims,

for if they will only accept Truth, they can resist disease

and ward it off, as positively as they can the

temptation to sin. This fact of Christian Sci-

ence should be explained to invalids when they are in a

fit mood to receive it, – when they will not array them-

selves against it, but are ready to become receptive to the

new idea. The fact that Truth overcomes both disease

and sin reassures depressed hope. It imparts a healthy

stimulus to the body, and regulates the system. It in-

creases or diminishes the action, as the case may require,

better than any drug, alterative, or tonic.

Proper stimulus

420:22
Mind is the natural stimulus of the body, but erro-

neous belief, taken at its best, is not promotive of health

or happiness. Tell the sick that they can

meet disease fearlessly, if they only realize

that divine Love gives them all power over every physical

action and condition.

Awaken the patient

420:28
If it becomes necessary to startle mortal mind to break

its dream of suffering, vehemently tell your patient that

he must awake. Turn his gaze from the false

evidence of the senses to the harmonious facts

of Soul and immortal being. Tell him that he suffers

421:1
only as the insane suffer, from false beliefs. The only

difference is, that insanity implies belief in a diseased

brain, while physical ailments (so-called) arise from the

belief that other portions of the body are deranged. De-

rangement, or disarrangement, is a word which conveys

the true definition of all human belief in ill-health, or dis-

turbed harmony. Should you thus startle mortal mind

in order to remove its beliefs, afterwards make known

to the patient your motive for this shock, showing him

that it was to facilitate recovery.

How to treat a crisis

421:11
If a crisis occurs in your treatment, you must treat

the patient less for the disease and more for the mental

disturbance or fermentation, and subdue the

symptoms by removing the belief that this

chemicalization produces pain or disease. Insist vehe-

mently on the great fact which covers the whole ground,

that God, Spirit, is all, and that there is none beside

Him. There is no disease. When the supposed suffer-

ing is gone from mortal mind, there can be no pain; and

when the fear is destroyed, the inflammation will sub-

side. Calm the excitement sometimes induced by chemi-

calization, which is the alterative effect produced by

Truth upon error, and sometimes explain the symptoms

and their cause to the patient.

No perversion of Mind-science

421:25
It is no more Christianly scientific to see disease than

it is to experience it. If you would destroy the sense

of disease, you should not build it up by

wishing to see the forms it assumes or by

employing a single material application for

its relief. The perversion of Mind-science is like as-

serting that the products of eight multiplied by five, and

of seven by ten, are both forty, and that their combined

422:1
sum is fifty, and then calling the process mathematics.

Wiser than his persecutors, Jesus said: "If I by Beelze-

bub cast out devils, by whom do your children cast them

out?"

Effect of this book

422:5
If the reader of this book observes a great stir through-

out his whole system, and certain moral and physical

symptoms seem aggravated, these indications

are favorable. Continue to read, and the book

will become the physician, allaying the tremor which

Truth often brings to error when destroying it.

Disease neutralized

422:11
Patients, unfamiliar with the cause of this commotion

and ignorant that it is a favorable omen, may be alarmed.

If such be the case, explain to them the law

of this action. As when an acid and alkali

meet and bring out a third quality, so mental and moral

chemistry changes the material base of thought, giving

more spirituality to consciousness and causing it to depend

less on material evidence. These changes which go on

in mortal mind serve to reconstruct the body. Thus

Christian Science, by the alchemy of Spirit, destroys sin

and death.

Bone-healing by surgery

422:22
Let us suppose two parallel cases of bone-disease, both

similarly produced and attended by the same symptoms.

A surgeon is employed in one case, and a

Christian Scientist in the other. The sur-

geon, holding that matter forms its own conditions and

renders them fatal at certain points, entertains fears and

doubts as to the ultimate outcome of the injury. Not

holding the reins of government in his own hands, he

believes that something stronger than Mind – namely,

matter – governs the case. His treatment is therefore

tentative. This mental state invites defeat. The belief

423:1
that he has met his master in matter and may not be

able to mend the bone, increases his fear; yet this belief

should not be communicated to the patient, either ver-

bally or otherwise, for this fear greatly diminishes the

tendency towards a favorable result. Remember that the

unexpressed belief oftentimes affects a sensitive patient

more strongly than the expressed thought.

Scientific corrective

423:8
The Christian Scientist, understanding scientifically

that all is Mind, commences with mental causation, the

truth of being, to destroy the error. This cor-

rective is an alterative, reaching to every part

of the human system. According to Scripture, it searches

"the joints and marrow," and it restores the harmony of

man.

Coping with difficulties

423:15
The matter-physician deals with matter as both his foe

and his remedy. He regards the ailment as weakened or

strengthened according to the evidence which

matter presents. The metaphysician, making

Mind his basis of operation irrespective of matter and

regarding the truth and harmony of being as superior to

error and discord, has rendered himself strong, instead

of weak, to cope with the case; and he proportionately

strengthens his patient with the stimulus of courage and

conscious power. Both Science and consciousness are

now at work in the economy of being according to the law

of Mind, which ultimately asserts its absolute supremacy.

Formation from thought

423:27
Ossification or any abnormal condition or derange-

ment of the body is as directly the action of mortal

mind as is dementia or insanity. Bones have

only the substance of thought which forms

them. They are only phenomena of the mind of mor-

tals. The so-called substance of bone is formed first

424:1
by the parent's mind, through self-division. Soon the

child becomes a separate, individualized mortal mind,

which takes possession of itself and its own thoughts of

bones.

Accidents unknown to God

424:5
Accidents are unknown to God, or immortal Mind,

and we must leave the mortal basis of belief

and unite with the one Mind, in order to

change the notion of chance to the proper sense

of God's unerring direction and thus bring out harmony.

Opposing mentality

424:10
Under divine Providence there can be no accidents,

since there is no room for imperfection in perfection.

424:12
In medical practice objections would be raised if one

doctor should administer a drug to counteract the work-

ing of a remedy prescribed by another doctor.

It is equally important in metaphysical prac-

tice that the minds which surround your patient should

not act against your influence by continually expressing

such opinions as may alarm or discourage, – either by

giving antagonistic advice or through unspoken thoughts

resting on your patient. While it is certain that the

divine Mind can remove any obstacle, still you need the

ear of your auditor. It is not more difficult to make your-

self heard mentally while others are thinking about your

patients or conversing with them, if you understand

Christian Science – the oneness and the allness of divine

Love; but it is well to be alone with God and the sick

when treating disease.

Mind removes scrofula

424:28
To prevent or to cure scrofula and other so-called he-

reditary diseases, you must destroy the belief in these ills

and the faith in the possibility of their trans-

mission. The patient may tell you that he

has a humor in the blood, a scrofulous diathesis. His

425:1
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

425:6
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

425:14
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

425:29
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-

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

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

426:23
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.

Life not contingent on matter

427:1
If it is true that man lives, this fact can never change

in Science to the opposite belief that man dies. Life is

the law of Soul, even the law of the spirit of

Truth, and Soul is never without its represent-

ative. Man's individual being can no more

die nor disappear in unconsciousness than can Soul, for

both are immortal. If man believes in death now, he

must disbelieve in it when learning that there is no reality

in death, since the truth of being is deathless. The be-

lief that existence is contingent on matter must be met

and mastered by Science, before Life can be understood

and harmony obtained.

Mortality vanquished

427:13
Death is but another phase of the dream that exist-

ence can be material. Nothing can interfere with the

harmony of being nor end the existence of

man in Science. Man is the same after as

before a bone is broken or the body guillotined. If man

is never to overcome death, why do the Scriptures say,

"The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death"? The

tenor of the Word shows that we shall obtain the victory

over death in proportion as we overcome sin. The great

difficulty lies in ignorance of what God is. God, Life,

Truth, and Love make man undying. Immortal Mind,

governing all, must be acknowledged as supreme in the

physical realm, so-called, as well as in the spiritual.

No death nor inaction

427:26
Called to the bed of death, what material remedy has

man when all such remedies have failed? Spirit is his

last resort, but it should have been his first

and only resort. The dream of death must

be mastered by Mind here or hereafter. Thought

will waken from its own material declaration, "I am

dead," to catch this trumpet-word of Truth, "There

428:1
is no death, no inaction, diseased action, overaction, nor

reaction."

Vision opening

428:3
Life is real, and death is the illusion. A demonstra-

tion of the facts of Soul in Jesus' way resolves the dark

visions of material sense into harmony and

immortality. Man's privilege at this supreme

moment is to prove the words of our Master: "If a man

keep my saying, he shall never see death." To divest

thought of false trusts and material evidences in order

that the spiritual facts of being may appear, – this is

the great attainment by means of which we shall sweep

away the false and give place to the true. Thus we may

establish in truth the temple, or body, "whose builder

and maker is God."

Intelligent consecration

428:15
We should consecrate existence, not "to the unknown

God" whom we "ignorantly worship," but to the eternal

builder, the everlasting Father, to the Life

which mortal sense cannot impair nor mortal

belief destroy. We must realize the ability of mental

might to offset human misconceptions and to replace them

with the life which is spiritual, not material.

The present immortality

428:22
The great spiritual fact must be brought out that man

is, not shall be, perfect and immortal. We must hold

forever the consciousness of existence, and

sooner or later, through Christ and Christian

Science, we must master sin and death. The evidence

of man's immortality will become more apparent, as ma-

terial beliefs are given up and the immortal facts of being

are admitted.

Careful guidance

428:30
The author has healed hopeless organic disease, and

raised the dying to life and health through the under-

standing of God as the only Life. It is a sin to believe

429:1
that aught can overpower omnipotent and eternal Life,

and this Life must be brought to light by the understand-

ing that there is no death, as well as by other

graces of Spirit. We must begin, however,

with the more simple demonstrations of control, and

the sooner we begin the better. The final demonstration

takes time for its accomplishment. When walking, we

are guided by the eye. We look before our feet, and if

we are wise, we look beyond a single step in the line of

spiritual advancement.

Clay replying to the potter

429:11
The corpse, deserted by thought, is cold and decays,

but it never suffers. Science declares that man is sub-

ject to Mind. Mortal mind affirms that mind

is subordinate to the body, that the body is

dying, that it must be buried and decomposed

into dust; but mortal mind's affirmation is not true.

Mortals waken from the dream of death with bodies un-

seen by those who think that they bury the body.

Continuity of existence

429:19
If man did not exist before the material organization

began, he could not exist after the body is disintegrated.

If we live after death and are immortal, we

must have lived before birth, for if Life ever

had any beginning, it must also have an ending, even ac-

cording to the calculations of natural science. Do you

believe this? No! Do you understand it? No! This

is why you doubt the statement and do not demonstrate

the facts it involves. We must have faith in all the say-

ings of our Master, though they are not included in the

teachings of the schools, and are not understood gener-

ally by our ethical instructors.

Life all-inclusive

429:31
Jesus said (John viii. 51), "If a man keep my saying,

he shall never see death." That statement is not con-

430:1
fined to spiritual life, but includes all the phenomena of

existence. Jesus demonstrated this, healing the dying

and raising the dead. Mortal mind must part

with error, must put off itself with its deeds,

and immortal manhood, the Christ ideal, will appear.

Faith should enlarge its borders and strengthen its base

by resting upon Spirit instead of matter. When man

gives up his belief in death, he will advance more rapidly

towards God, Life, and Love. Belief in sickness and

death, as certainly as belief in sin, tends to shut out the

true sense of Life and health. When will mankind wake

to this great fact in Science?

430:13
I here present to my readers an allegory illustrative

of the law of divine Mind and of the supposed laws of mat-

ter and hygiene, an allegory in which the plea of Christian

Science heals the sick.

A mental court case

430:17
Suppose a mental case to be on trial, as cases are tried

in court. A man is charged with having committed liver‑

complaint. The patient feels ill, ruminates,

and the trial commences. Personal Sense is

the plaintiff. Mortal Man is the defendant. False Belief

is the attorney for Personal Sense. Mortal Minds, Ma-

teria Medica, Anatomy, Physiology, Hypnotism, Envy,

Greed and Ingratitude, constitute the jury. The court-

room is filled with interested spectators, and Judge

Medicine is on the bench.

The evidence for the prosecution being called for, a

witness testifies thus: –

430:29
I represent Health-laws. I was present on certain nights

when the prisoner, or patient, watched with a sick friend.

Although I have the superintendence of human affairs, I

was personally abused on those occasions. I was told that

431:1
I must remain silent until called for at this trial, when I

would be allowed to testify in the case. Notwithstanding

my rules to the contrary, the prisoner watched with the sick

every night in the week. When the sick mortal was thirsty,

the prisoner gave him drink. During all this time the pris-

oner attended to his daily labors, partaking of food at ir-

regular intervals, sometimes going to sleep immediately

after a heavy meal. At last he committed liver-complaint,

which I considered criminal, inasmuch as this offence is

deemed punishable with death. Therefore I arrested Mor-

tal Man in behalf of the state (namely, the body) and cast

him into prison.

431:13
At the time of the arrest the prisoner summoned Physi-

ology, Materia Medica, and Hypnotism to prevent his pun-

ishment. The struggle on their part was long. Materia

Medica held out the longest, but at length all these assist-

ants resigned to me, Health-laws, and I succeeded in get-

ting Mortal Man into close confinement until I should

release him.

431:20
The next witness is called:-

431:21
I am Coated Tongue. I am covered with a foul fur,

placed on me the night of the liver-attack. Morbid Secre-

tion hypnotized the prisoner and took control of his mind,

making him despondent.

431:25
Another witness takes the stand and testifies:-

431:26
I am Sallow Skin. I have been dry, hot, and chilled by

turns since the night of the liver-attack. I have lost my

healthy hue and become unsightly, although nothing on my

part has occasioned this change. I practise daily ablutions

and perform my functions as usual, but I am robbed of my

good looks.

432:1
The next witness testifies: –

432:2
I am Nerve, the State Commissioner for Mortal Man.

I am intimately acquainted with the plaintiff, Personal

Sense, and know him to be truthful and upright, whereas

Mortal Man, the prisoner at the bar, is capable of false-

hood. I was witness to the crime of liver-complaint. I

knew the prisoner would commit it, for I convey messages

from my residence in matter, alias brain, to body.

432:9
Another witness is called for by the Court of Error

and says: –

432:11
I am Mortality, Governor of the Province of Body, in

which Mortal Man resides. In this province there is a stat-

ute regarding disease, – namely, that he upon whose per-

son disease is found shall be treated as a criminal and

punished with death.

432:16
The Judge asks if by doing good to his neighbor, it is

possible for man to become diseased, transgress the laws,

and merit punishment, and Governor Mortality replies in

the affirmative.

432:20
Another witness takes the stand and testifies: –

432:21
I am Death. I was called for, shortly after the report of

the crime, by the officer of the Board of Health, who pro-

tested that the prisoner had abused him, and that my pres-

ence was required to confirm his testimony. One of the

prisoner's friends, Materia Medica, was present when I

arrived, endeavoring to assist the prisoner to escape from

the hands of justice, alias nature's so-called law; but my

appearance with a message from the Board of Health

changed the purpose of Materia Medica, and he decided at

once that the prisoner should die.

Judge Medicine charges the jury

433:1
The testimony for the plaintiff, Personal Sense, being

closed, Judge Medicine arises, and with great solemnity

addresses the jury of Mortal Minds. He an-

alyzes the offence, reviews the testimony, and

explains the law relating to liver-complaint.

His conclusion is, that laws of nature render disease

homicidal. In compliance with a stern duty, his Honor,

Judge Medicine, urges the jury not to allow their judg-

ment to be warped by the irrational, unchristian sugges-

tions of Christian Science. The jury must regard in such

cases only the evidence of Personal Sense against Mortal

Man.

433:13
As the Judge proceeds, the prisoner grows restless. His

sallow face blanches with fear, and a look of despair and

death settles upon it. The case is given to the jury. A

brief consultation ensues, and the jury returns a verdict

of "Guilty of liver-complaint in the first degree."

Mortal Man sentenced

433:18
Judge Medicine then proceeds to pronounce the solemn

sentence of death upon the prisoner. Because he has

loved his neighbor as himself, Mortal Man has

been guilty of benevolence in the first degree,

and this has led him into the commission of the second

crime, liver-complaint, which material laws condemn as

homicide. For this crime Mortal Man is sentenced to

be tortured until he is dead. "May God have mercy on

your soul," is the Judge's solemn peroration.

433:27
The prisoner is then remanded to his cell (sick-bed),

and Scholastic Theology is sent for to prepare the fright-

ened sense of Life, God, – which sense must be immortal,

– for death.

Appeal to a higher tribunal

433:31
Ah! but Christ, Truth, the spirit of Life and the

friend of Mortal Man, can open wide those prison doors

434:1
and set the captive free. Swift on the wings of divine

Love, there comes a despatch: "Delay the execution;

the prisoner is not guilty." Consternation fills

the prison-yard. Some exclaim, "It is con-

trary to law and justice." Others say,

"The law of Christ supersedes our laws; let us follow

Christ."

Counsel for defence

434:8
After much debate and opposition, permission is ob-

tained for a trial in the Court of Spirit, where Christian

Science is allowed to appear as counsel for

the unfortunate prisoner. Witnesses, judges

and jurors, who were at the previous Court of Error,

are now summoned to appear before the bar of Justice

and eternal Truth.

434:15
When the case for Mortal Man versus Personal Sense

is opened, Mortal Man's counsel regards the prisoner

with the utmost tenderness. The counsel's earnest,

solemn eyes, kindling with hope and triumph, look up-

ward. Then Christian Science turns suddenly to the

supreme tribunal, and opens the argument for the

defence: –

434:22
The prisoner at the bar has been unjustly sentenced.

His trial was a tragedy, and is morally illegal. Mortal

Man has had no proper counsel in the case. All the testi-

mony has been on the side of Personal Sense, and we shall

unearth this foul conspiracy against the liberty and life of

Man. The only valid testimony in the case shows the

alleged crime never to have been committed. The pris-

oner is not proved "worthy of death, or of bonds."

434:30
Your Honor, the lower court has sentenced Mortal Man

to die, but God made Man immortal and amenable to

Spirit only. Denying justice to the body, that court com-

435:1
mended man's immortal Spirit to heavenly mercy, – Spirit

which is God Himself and Man's only lawgiver! Who or

what has sinned? Has the body or has Mortal Mind

committed a criminal deed? Counsellor False Belief has

argued that the body should die, while Reverend Theology

would console conscious Mortal Mind, which alone is capa-

ble of sin and suffering. The body committed no offence.

Mortal Man, in obedience to higher law, helped his fellow‑

man, an act which should result in good to himself as well

as to others.

435:11
The law of our Supreme Court decrees that whosoever

sinneth shall die; but good deeds are immortal, bringing

joy instead of grief, pleasure instead of pain, and life

instead of death. If liver-complaint was committed by

trampling on Laws of Health, this was a good deed, for the

agent of those laws is an outlaw, a destroyer of Mortal

Man's liberty and rights. Laws of Health should be sen-

tenced to die.

435:19
Watching beside the couch of pain in the exercise of a

love that "is the fulfilling of the law," – doing "unto

others as ye would that they should do unto you," – this

is no infringement of law, for no demand, human or divine,

renders it just to punish a man for acting justly. If mor-

tals sin, our Supreme Judge in equity decides what penalty

is due for the sin, and Mortal Man can suffer only for his

sin. For naught else can he be punished, according to the

law of Spirit, God.

435:28
Then what jurisdiction had his Honor, Judge Medicine,

in this case? To him I might say, in Bible language, "Sit-

test thou to judge . . . after the law, and commandest . . .

to be smitten contrary to the law?" The only jurisdiction

to which the prisoner can submit is that of Truth, Life, and

Love. If they condemn him not, neither shall Judge Medi-

cine condemn him; and I ask that the prisoner be restored

to the liberty of which he has been unjustly deprived.

436:1
The principal witness (the officer of the Health-laws)

deposed that he was an eye-witness to the good deeds for

which Mortal Man is under sentence of death. After be-

traying him into the hands of your law, the Health-agent

disappeared, to reappear however at the trial as a witness

against Mortal Man and in the interest of Personal Sense,

a murderer. Your Supreme Court must find the pris-

oner on the night of the alleged offence to have been acting

within the limits of the divine law, and in obedience

thereto. Upon this statute hangs all the law and testimony.

Giving a cup of cold water in Christ's name, is a Christian

service. Laying down his life for a good deed, Mortal Man

should find it again. Such acts bear their own justifica-

tion, and are under the protection of the Most High.

436:15
Prior to the night of his arrest, the prisoner summoned

two professed friends, Materia Medica and Physiology, to

prevent his committing liver-complaint, and thus save him

from arrest. But they brought with them Fear, the sheriff,

to precipitate the result which they were called to prevent.

It was Fear who handcuffed Mortal Man and would now

punish him. You have left Mortal Man no alternative.

He must obey your law, fear its consequences, and be pun-

ished for his fear. His friends struggled hard to rescue the

prisoner from the penalty they considered justly due, but

they were compelled to let him be taken into custody, tried,

and condemned. Thereupon Judge Medicine sat in judg-

ment on the case, and substantially charged the jury, twelve

Mortal Minds, to find the prisoner guilty. His Honor sen-

tenced Mortal Man to die for the very deeds which the di-

vine law compels man to commit. Thus the Court of Error

construed obedience to the law of divine Love as disobedi-

ence to the law of Life. Claiming to protect Mortal Man

in right-doing, that court pronounced a sentence of death

for doing right.

436:35
One of the principal witnesses, Nerve, testified that he

437:1
was a ruler of Body, in which province Mortal Man resides.

He also testified that he was on intimate terms with the

plaintiff, and knew Personal Sense to be truthful; that he

knew Man, and that Man was made in the image of God,

but was a criminal. This is a foul aspersion on man's

Maker. It blots the fair escutcheon of omnipotence. It in-

dicates malice aforethought, a determination to condemn

Man in the interest of Personal Sense. At the bar of Truth,

in the presence of divine Justice, before the Judge of our

higher tribunal, the Supreme Court of Spirit, and before

its jurors, the Spiritual Senses, I proclaim this witness,

Nerve, to be destitute of intelligence and truth and to be

a false witness.

437:14
Man self-destroyed; the testimony of matter respected;

Spirit not allowed a hearing; Soul a criminal though

recommended to mercy; the helpless innocent body tor-

tured, – these are the terrible records of your Court of

Error, and I ask that the Supreme Court of Spirit reverse

this decision.

437:20
Here the opposing counsel, False Belief, called Chris-

tian Science to order for contempt of court. Various

notables – Materia Medica, Anatomy, Physiology, Scho-

lastic Theology, and Jurisprudence – rose to the ques-

tion of expelling Christian Science from the bar, for such

high-handed illegality. They declared that Christian Sci-

ence was overthrowing the judicial proceedings of a regu-

larly constituted court.

437:28
But Judge Justice of the Supreme Court of Spirit over-

ruled their motions on the ground that unjust usages

were not allowed at the bar of Truth, which ranks above

the lower Court of Error.

437:32
The attorney, Christian Science, then read from the

supreme statute-book, the Bible, certain extracts on the

438:1
Rights of Man, remarking, that the Bible was better au-

thority than Blackstone: –

438:3
Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and

let them have dominion.

438:5
Behold, I give unto you power . . . over all the power

of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

438:7
If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.

438:8
Then Christian Science proved the witness, Nerve, to

be a perjurer. Instead of being a ruler in the Province

of Body, in which Mortal Man was reported to reside,

Nerve was an insubordinate citizen, putting in false

claims to office and bearing false witness against Man.

Turning suddenly to Personal Sense, by this time silent,

Christian Science continued: –

438:15
I ask your arrest in the name of Almighty God on three

distinct charges of crime, to wit: perjury, treason, and con-

spiracy against the rights and life of man.

438:18
Then Christian Science continued:

438:19
Another witness, equally inadequate, said that on the

night of the crime a garment of foul fur was spread over

him by Morbid Secretion, while the facts in the case show

that this fur is a foreign substance, imported by False Be-

lief, the attorney for Personal Sense, who is in partnership

with Error and smuggles Error's goods into market with-

out the inspection of Soul's government officers. When

the Court of Truth summoned Furred Tongue for examina-

tion, he disappeared and was never heard of more.

438:28
Morbid Secretion is not an importer or dealer in fur, but

we have heard Materia Medica explain how this fur is

manufactured, and we know Morbid Secretion to be on

friendly terms with the firm of Personal Sense, Error, &

439:1
Co., receiving pay from them and introducing their goods

into the market. Also, be it known that False Belief, the

counsel for the plaintiff, Personal Sense, is a buyer for this

firm. He manufactures for it, keeps a furnishing store,

and advertises largely for his employers.

439:6
Death testified that he was absent from the Province of

Body, when a message came from False Belief, command-

ing him to take part in the homicide. At this request

Death repaired to the spot where the liver-complaint was

in process, frightening away Materia Medica, who was then

manacling the prisoner in the attempt to save him. True,

Materia Medica was a misguided participant in the misdeed

for which the Health-officer had Mortal Man in custody,

though Mortal Man was innocent.

439:15
Christian Science turned from the abashed witnesses,

his words flashing as lightning in the perturbed faces

of these worthies, Scholastic Theology, Materia Medica,

Physiology, the blind Hypnotism, and the masked Per-

sonal Sense, and said: –

439:20
God will smite you, O whited walls, for injuring in your

ignorance the unfortunate Mortal Man who sought your

aid in his struggles against liver-complaint and Death.

You came to his rescue, only to fasten upon him an offence

of which he was innocent. You aided and abetted Fear

and Health-laws. You betrayed Mortal Man, meanwhile

declaring Disease to be God's servant and the righteous

executor of His laws. Our higher statutes declare you all,

witnesses, jurors, and judges, to be offenders, awaiting the

sentence which General Progress and Divine Love will

pronounce.

439:31
We send our best detectives to whatever locality is re-

ported to be haunted by Disease, but on visiting the spot,

they learn that Disease was never there, for he could not

440:1
possibly elude their search. Your Material Court of Errors,

when it condemned Mortal Man on the ground of hygienic

disobedience, was manipulated by the oleaginous machina-

tions of the counsel, False Belief, whom Truth arraigns

before the supreme bar of Spirit to answer for his crime.

Morbid Secretion is taught how to make sleep befool reason

before sacrificing mortals to their false gods.

440:8
Mortal Minds were deceived by your attorney, False Be-

lief, and were influenced to give a verdict delivering Mortal

Man to Death. Good deeds are transformed into crimes,

to which you attach penalties; but no warping of justice

can render disobedience to the so-called laws of Matter

disobedience to God, or an act of homicide. Even penal

law holds homicide, under stress of circumstances, to be

justifiable. Now what greater justification can any deed

have, than that it is for the good of one's neighbor? Where-

fore, then, in the name of outraged justice, do you sentence

Mortal Man for ministering to the wants of his fellow-man

in obedience to divine law? You cannot trample upon the

decree of the Supreme Bench. Mortal Man has his appeal

to Spirit, God, who sentences only for sin.

440:22
The false and unjust beliefs of your human mental legis-

lators compel them to enact wicked laws of sickness and so

forth, and then render obedience to these laws punishable

as crime. In the presence of the Supreme Lawgiver, stand-

ing at the bar of Truth, and in accordance with the divine

statutes, I repudiate the false testimony of Personal Sense.

I ask that he be forbidden to enter against Mortal Man

any more suits to be tried at the Court of Material Error.

I appeal to the just and equitable decisions of divine Spirit

to restore to Mortal Man the rights of which he has been

deprived.

Charge of the Chief Justice

440:33
Here the counsel for the defence closed, and the Chief

Justice of the Supreme Court, with benign and imposing

441:1
presence, comprehending and defining all law and evi-

dence, explained from his statute-book, the

Bible, that any so-called law, which under-

takes to punish aught but sin, is null and void.

441:5
He also decided that the plaintiff, Personal Sense, be

not permitted to enter any suits at the bar of Soul, but

be enjoined to keep perpetual silence, and in case of

temptation, to give heavy bonds for good behavior. He

concluded his charge thus: –

441:10
The plea of False Belief we deem unworthy of a hearing.

Let what False Belief utters, now and forever, fall into

oblivion, "unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown." Accord-

ing to our statute, Material Law is a liar who cannot bear

witness against Mortal Man, neither can Fear arrest Mortal

Man nor can Disease cast him into prison. Our law refuses

to recognize Man as sick or dying, but holds him to be for-

ever in the image and likeness of his Maker. Reversing the

testimony of Personal Sense and the decrees of the Court of

Error in favor of Matter, Spirit decides in favor of Man

and against Matter. We further recommend that Materia

Medica adopt Christian Science and that Health-laws,

Mesmerism, Hypnotism, Oriental Witchcraft, and Esoteric

Magic be publicly executed at the hands of our sheriff,

Progress.

441:25
The Supreme Bench decides in favor of intelligence, that

no law outside of divine Mind can punish or reward Mortal

Man. Your personal jurors in the Court of Error are

myths. Your attorney, False Belief, is an impostor, per-

suading Mortal Minds to return a verdict contrary to law

and gospel. The plaintiff, Personal Sense, is recorded in

our Book of books as a liar. Our great Teacher of mental

jurisprudence speaks of him also as "a murderer from the

beginning." We have no trials for sickness before the tri-

442:1
bunal of divine Spirit. There, Man is adjudged innocent

of transgressing physical laws, because there are no such

laws. Our statute is spiritual, our Government is divine.

"Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

Divine verdict

442:5
The Jury of Spiritual Senses agreed at once upon a

verdict, and there resounded throughout the vast audience-

chamber of Spirit the cry, Not guilty. Then

the prisoner rose up regenerated, strong, free.

We noticed, as he shook hands with his counsel, Chris-

tian Science, that all sallowness and debility had dis-

appeared. His form was erect and commanding, his

countenance beaming with health and happiness. Divine

Love had cast out fear. Mortal Man, no longer sick

and in prison, walked forth, his feet "beautiful upon the

mountains," as of one "that bringeth good tidings."

Christ the great physician

442:16
Neither animal magnetism nor hypnotism enters into

the practice of Christian Science, in which truth cannot

be reversed, but the reverse of error is true.

An improved belief cannot retrograde. When

Christ changes a belief of sin or of sickness into

a better belief, then belief melts into spiritual understand-

ing, and sin, disease, and death disappear. Christ, Truth,

gives mortals temporary food and clothing until the ma-

terial, transformed with the ideal, disappears, and man

is clothed and fed spiritually. St. Paul says, "Work

out your own salvation with fear and trembling:" Jesus

said, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good

pleasure to give you the kingdom." This truth is

Christian Science.

442:30
Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental

malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when

awake.

Chapter XIII

Teaching Christian Science

Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just

man, and he will increase in learning. – PROVERBS.

Study of medicine

443:1
WHEN the discoverer of Christian Science is con-

sulted by her followers as to the propriety, advan-

tage, and consistency of systematic medical

study, she tries to show them that under ordi-

nary circumstances a resort to faith in corporeal means

tends to deter those, who make such a compromise, from

entire confidence in omnipotent Mind as really possessing

all power. While a course of medical study is at times

severely condemned by some Scientists, she feels, as she

always has felt, that all are privileged to work out their

own salvation according to their light, and that our motto

should be the Master's counsel, "Judge not, that ye be

not judged."

Failure's lessons

443:14
If patients fail to experience the healing power of

Christian Science, and think they can be benefited by

certain ordinary physical methods of medical

treatment, then the Mind-physician should

give up such cases, and leave invalids free to resort to

whatever other systems they fancy will afford relief.

Thus such invalids may learn the value of the apostolic

precept: "Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering

and doctrine." If the sick find these material expedients

444:1
unsatisfactory, and they receive no help from them, these

very failures may open their blind eyes. In some way,

sooner or later, all must rise superior to materiality, and

suffering is oft the divine agent in this elevation. "All

things work together for good to them that love God," is

the dictum of Scripture.

Refuge and strength

444:7
If Christian Scientists ever fail to receive aid from

other Scientists, – their brethren upon whom they may

call, – God will still guide them into the right

use of temporary and eternal means. Step by

step will those who trust Him find that "God is our refuge

and strength, a very present help in trouble."

Charity to those opposed

444:13
Students are advised by the author to be charitable

and kind, not only towards differing forms of religion

and medicine, but to those who hold these dif-

fering opinions. Let us be faithful in pointing

the way through Christ, as we understand it,

but let us also be careful always to "judge righteous judg-

ment," and never to condemn rashly. "Whosoever shall

smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also."

That is, Fear not that he will smite thee again for thy for-

bearance. If ecclesiastical sects or medical schools turn

a deaf ear to the teachings of Christian Science, then part

from these opponents as did Abraham when he parted

from Lot, and say in thy heart: "Let there be no strife, I

pray thee, between me and thee, and between My herd-

men and thy herdmen; for we be brethren." Immortals,

or God's children in divine Science, are one harmonious

family; but mortals, or the "children of men" in material

sense, are discordant and ofttimes false brethren.

Conforming to explicit rules

444:31
The teacher must make clear to students the Science

of healing, especially its ethics, – that all is Mind, and

445:1
that the Scientist must conform to God's requirements.

Also the teacher must thoroughly fit his students to defend

themselves against sin, and to guard against the

attacks of the would-be mental assassin, who

attempts to kill morally and physically. No

hypothesis as to the existence of another power should

interpose a doubt or fear to hinder the demonstration of

Christian Science. Unfold the latent energies and capac-

ities for good in your pupil. Teach the great possibilities

of man endued with divine Science. Teach the dangerous

possibility of dwarfing the spiritual understanding and

demonstration of Truth by sin, or by recourse to material

means for healing. Teach the meekness and might of life

"hid with Christ in God," and there will be no desire for

other healing methods. You render the divine law of

healing obscure and void, when you weigh the human in

the scale with the divine, or limit in any direction of

thought the omnipresence and omnipotence of God.

Divine energy

445:19
Christian Science silences human will, quiets fear with

Truth and Love, and illustrates the unlabored motion

of the divine energy in healing the sick. Self‑

seeking, envy, passion, pride, hatred, and

revenge are cast out by the divine Mind which heals

disease. The human will which maketh and worketh a lie,

hiding the divine Principle of harmony, is destructive to

health, and is the cause of disease rather than its cure.

Blight of avarice

445:27
There is great danger in teaching Mind-healing indis-

criminately, thus disregarding the morals of the student

and caring only for the fees. Recalling Jeffer-

son's words about slavery, "I tremble, when I

remember that God is just," the author trembles whenever

she sees a man, for the petty consideration of money,

446:1
teaching his slight knowledge of Mind-power, – per-

haps communicating his own bad morals, and in this way

dealing pitilessly with a community unprepared for self‑

defence.

446:5
A thorough perusal of the author's publications heals

sickness. If patients sometimes seem worse while read-

ing this book, the change may either arise from the alarm

of the physician, or it may mark the crisis of the disease.

Perseverance in the perusal of the book has generally

completely healed such cases.

Exclusion of malpractice

446:11
Whoever practises the Science the author teaches,

through which Mind pours light and healing upon this

generation, can practise on no one from sin-

ister or malicious motives without destroying

his own power to heal and his own health. Good must

dominate in the thoughts of the healer, or his demon-

stration is protracted, dangerous, and impossible in Sci-

ence. A wrong motive involves defeat. In the Science

of Mind-healing, it is imperative to be honest, for victory

rests on the side of immutable right. To understand

God strengthens hope, enthrones faith in Truth, and

verifies Jesus' word: "Lo, I am with you alway, even

unto the end of the world."

Iniquity overcome

446:24
Resisting evil, you overcome it and prove its nothing-

ness. Not human platitudes, but divine beatitudes, re-

flect the spiritual light and might which heal

the sick. The exercise of will brings on a

hypnotic state, detrimental to health and integrity of

thought. This must therefore be watched and guarded

against. Covering iniquity will prevent prosperity and the

ultimate triumph of any cause. Ignorance of the error

to be eradicated oftentimes subjects you to its abuse.

No trespass on human rights

447:1
The heavenly law is broken by trespassing upon

man's individual right of self-government. We have no

authority in Christian Science and no moral

right to attempt to influence the thoughts of

others, except it be to benefit them. In men-

tal practice you must not forget that erring human opin-

ions, conflicting selfish motives, and ignorant attempts

to do good may render you incapable of knowing or

judging accurately the need of your fellow-men. There-

fore the rule is, heal the sick when called upon for aid,

and save the victims of the mental assassins.

Expose sin without believing in it

447:12
Ignorance, subtlety, or false charity does not for-

ever conceal error; evil will in time disclose and pun-

ish itself. The recuperative action of the

system, when mentally sustained by Truth,

goes on naturally. When sin or sickness –

the reverse of harmony – seems true to material sense,

impart without frightening or discouraging the pa-

tient the truth and spiritual understanding, which de-

stroy disease. Expose and denounce the claims of

evil and disease in all their forms, but realize no

reality in them. A sinner is not reformed merely

by assuring him that he cannot be a sinner because

there is no sin. To put down the claim of sin,

you must detect it, remove the mask, point out the

illusion, and thus get the victory over sin and so prove

its unreality. The sick are not healed merely by

declaring there is no sickness, but by knowing that

there is none.

Wicked evasions

447:30
A sinner is afraid to cast the first stone. He may

say, as a subterfuge, that evil is unreal, but to know it,

he must demonstrate his statement. To assume that

448:1
there are no claims of evil and yet to indulge them, is

a moral offence. Blindness and self-righteousness cling

fast to iniquity. When the Publican's wail

went out to the great heart of Love, it won his

humble desire. Evil which obtains in the bodily senses,

but which the heart condemns, has no foundation; but if

evil is uncondemned, it is undenied and nurtured. Under

such circumstances, to say that there is no evil, is an evil

in itself. When needed tell the truth concerning the lie.

Evasion of Truth cripples integrity, and casts thee down

from the pinnacle.

Truth's grand results

448:12
Christian Science rises above the evidence of the cor-

poreal senses; but if you have not risen above sin your-

self, do not congratulate yourself upon your

blindness to evil or upon the good you know

and do not. A dishonest position is far from Christianly

scientific. "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper:

but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have

mercy." Try to leave on every student's mind the strong

impress of divine Science, a high sense of the moral and

spiritual qualifications requisite for healing, well knowing

it to be impossible for error, evil, and hate to accomplish

the grand results of Truth and Love. The reception or

pursuit of instructions opposite to absolute Christian

Science must always hinder scientific demonstration.

Adherence to righteousness

448:26
If the student adheres strictly to the teachings of Chris-

tian Science and ventures not to break its rules, he can-

not fail of success in healing. It is Christian

Science to do right, and nothing short of right-

doing has any claim to the name. To talk the right and

live the wrong is foolish deceit, doing one's self the most

harm. Fettered by sin yourself, it is difficult to free

449:1
another from the fetters of disease. With your own wrists

manacled, it is hard to break another's chains. A little

leaven causes the whole mass to ferment. A grain of

Christian Science does wonders for mortals, so omnip-

otent is Truth, but more of Christian Science must be

gained in order to continue in well doing.

Right adjusts the balance

449:7
The wrong done another reacts most heavily against

one's self. Right adjusts the balance sooner or later.

Think it "easier for a camel to go through

the eye of a needle," than for you to benefit

yourself by injuring others. Man's moral mercury, ris-

ing or falling, registers his healing ability and fitness to

teach. You should practise well what you know, and

you will then advance in proportion to your honesty

and fidelity, – qualities which insure success in this

Science; but it requires a higher understanding to teach

this subject properly and correctly than it does to heal

the most difficult case.

Inoculation of thought

449:19
The baneful effect of evil associates is less seen than

felt. The inoculation of evil human thoughts ought to

be understood and guarded against. The

first impression, made on a mind which is

attracted or repelled according to personal merit or de-

merit, is a good detective of individual character. Cer-

tain minds meet only to separate through simultaneous

repulsion. They are enemies without the preliminary

offence. The impure are at peace with the impure.

Only virtue is a rebuke to vice. A proper teacher of Chris-

tian Science improves the health and the morals of his

student if the student practises what he is taught, and

unless this result follows, the teacher is a Scientist only

in name.

Three classes of neophytes

450:1
There is a large class of thinkers whose bigotry and

conceit twist every fact to suit themselves. Their creed

teaches belief in a mysterious, supernatural

God, and in a natural, all-powerful devil. An-

other class, still more unfortunate, are so depraved that

they appear to be innocent. They utter a falsehood,

while looking you blandly in the face, and they never

fail to stab their benefactor in the back. A third class

of thinkers build with solid masonry. They are sincere,

generous, noble, and are therefore open to the approach

and recognition of Truth. To teach Christian Science

to such as these is no task. They do not incline long-

ingly to error, whine over the demands of Truth, nor

play the traitor for place and power.

Touchstone of Science

450:15
Some people yield slowly to the touch of Truth. Few

yield without a struggle, and many are reluctant to ac-

knowledge that they have yielded; but un-

less this admission is made, evil will boast

itself above good. The Christian Scientist has enlisted

to lessen evil, disease, and death; and he will overcome

them by understanding their nothingness and the allness

of God, or good. Sickness to him is no less a temptation

than is sin, and he heals them both by understanding

God's power over them. The Christian Scientist knows

that they are errors of belief, which Truth can and will

destroy.

False claims annihilated

450:27
Who, that has felt the perilous beliefs in life, substance,

and intelligence separated from God, can say that there

is no error of belief? Knowing the claim of

animal magnetism, that all evil combines in

the belief of life, substance, and intelligence in matter,

electricity, animal nature, and organic life, who will deny

451:1
that these are the errors which Truth must and will an-

nihilate? Christian Scientists must live under the con-

stant pressure of the apostolic command to come out from

the material world and be separate. They must re-

nounce aggression, oppression and the pride of power.

Christianity, with the crown of Love upon her brow,

must be their queen of life.

Treasure in heaven

451:8
Students of Christian Science, who start with its letter

and think to succeed without the spirit, will either make

shipwreck of their faith or be turned sadly

awry. They must not only seek, but strive,

to enter the narrow path of Life, for "wide is the gate,

and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and

many there be which go in thereat." Man walks in the

direction towards which he looks, and where his treasure

is, there will his heart be also. If our hopes and affec-

tions are spiritual, they come from above, not from be-

neath, and they bear as of old the fruits of the Spirit.

Obligations of teachers

451:19
Every Christian Scientist, every conscientious teacher

of the Science of Mind-healing, knows that human will

is not Christian Science, and he must recog-

nize this in order to defend himself from the

influence of human will. He feels morally obligated to

open the eyes of his students that they may perceive the

nature and methods of error of every sort, especially any

subtle degree of evil, deceived and deceiving. All mental

malpractice arises from ignorance or malice aforethought.

It is the injurious action of one mortal mind controlling

another from wrong motives, and it is practised either

with a mistaken or a wicked purpose.

Indispensable defence

451:31
Show your student that mental malpractice tends to

blast moral sense, health, and the human life. Instruct

452:1
him how to bar the door of his thought against this

seeming power, – a task not difficult, when one under-

stands that evil has in reality no power.

Incorrect reasoning leads to practical error.

The wrong thought should be arrested before it has a

chance to manifest itself.

Egotistic darkness

452:7
Walking in the light, we are accustomed to the light

and require it; we cannot see in darkness. But eyes ac-

customed to darkness are pained by the light.

When outgrowing the old, you should not fear

to put on the new. Your advancing course may pro-

voke envy, but it will also attract respect. When error

confronts you, withhold not the rebuke or the explana-

tion which destroys error. Never breathe an immoral

atmosphere, unless in the attempt to purify it. Better is

the frugal intellectual repast with contentment and virtue,

than the luxury of learning with egotism and vice.

Unwarranted expectations

452:18
Right is radical. The teacher must know the truth

himself. He must live it and love it, or he cannot impart

it to others. We soil our garments with con-

servatism, and afterwards we must wash them

clean. When the spiritual sense of Truth unfolds its

harmonies, you take no risks in the policy of error. Ex-

pect to heal simply by repeating the author's words, by

right talking and wrong acting, and you will be disap-

pointed. Such a practice does not demonstrate the

Science by which divine Mind heals the sick.

Reliable authority

452:28
Acting from sinful motives destroys your power of

healing from the right motive. On the other hand, if

you had the inclination or power to practise

wrongly and then should adopt Christian

Science, the wrong power would be destroyed. You do

453:1
not deny the mathematician's right to distinguish the cor-

rect from the incorrect among the examples on the black-

board, nor disbelieve the musician when he distinguishes

concord from discord. In like manner it should be granted

that the author understands what she is saying.

Winning the field

453:6
Right and wrong, truth and error, will be at strife in

the minds of students, until victory rests on the side of

invincible truth. Mental chemicalization fol-

lows the explanation of Truth, and a higher

basis is thus won; but with some individuals the morbid

moral or physical symptoms constantly reappear. I

have never witnessed so decided effects from the use of

material remedies as from the use of spiritual.

Knowledge and honesty

453:14
Teach your student that he must know himself be-

fore he can know others and minister to human needs.

Honesty is spiritual power. Dishonesty is

human weakness, which forfeits divine help.

You uncover sin, not in order to injure, but in order

to bless the corporeal man; and a right motive has

its reward. Hidden sin is spiritual wickedness in high

places. The masquerader in this Science thanks God

that there is no evil, yet serves evil in the name of

good.

Metaphysical treatment

453:24
You should treat sickness mentally just as you would

sin, except that you must not tell the patient that he is

sick nor give names to diseases, for such a

course increases fear, the foundation of dis-

ease, and impresses more deeply the wrong mind-picture.

A Christian Scientist's medicine is Mind, the divine Truth

that makes man free. A Christian Scientist never recom-

mends material hygiene, never manipulates. He does

not trespass on the rights of mind nor can he practise

454:1
animal magnetism or hypnotism. It need not be added

that the use of tobacco or intoxicating drinks is not in

harmony with Christian Science.

Impotence of hate

454:4
Teach your students the omnipotence of Truth, which

illustrates the impotence of error. The understanding,

even in a degree, of the divine All-power de-

stroys fear, and plants the feet in the true path,

– the path which leads to the house built without hands

"eternal in the heavens." Human hate has no legiti-

mate mandate and no kingdom. Love is enthroned.

That evil or matter has neither intelligence nor power,

is the doctrine of absolute Christian Science, and this is

the great truth which strips all disguise from error.

Love the incentive

454:14
He, who understands in sufficient degree the Princi-

ple of Mind-healing, points out to his student error as

well as truth, the wrong as well as the right

practice. Love for God and man is the true

incentive in both healing and teaching. Love inspires,

illumines, designates, and leads the way. Right motives

give pinions to thought, and strength and freedom to

speech and action. Love is priestess at the altar of

Truth. Wait patiently for divine Love to move upon the

waters of mortal mind, and form the perfect concept.

Patience must "have her perfect work."

Continuity of interest

454:25
Do not dismiss students at the close of a class term,

feeling that you have no more to do for them. Let your

loving care and counsel support all their feeble

footsteps, until your students tread firmly in

the straight and narrow way. The superiority of spir-

itual power over sensuous is the central point of Chris-

tian Science. Remember that the letter and mental

argument are only human auxiliaries to aid in bringing

455:1
thought into accord with the spirit of Truth and Love,

which heals the sick and the sinner.

Weakness and guilt

455:3
A mental state of self-condemnation and guilt or a

faltering and doubting trust in Truth are unsuitable

conditions for healing the sick. Such mental

states indicate weakness instead of strength.

Hence the necessity of being right yourself in order to

teach this Science of healing. You must utilize the moral

might of Mind in order to walk over the waves of error

and support your claims by demonstration. If you are

yourself lost in the belief and fear of disease or sin, and

if, knowing the remedy, you fail to use the energies of

Mind in your own behalf, you can exercise little or no

power for others' help. "First cast out the beam out

of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast

out the mote out of thy brother's eye."

The trust of the All-wise

455:17
The student, who receives his knowledge of Christian

Science, or metaphysical healing, from a human teacher,

may be mistaken in judgment and demonstra-

tion, but God cannot mistake. God selects

for the highest service one who has grown into such a

fitness for it as renders any abuse of the mission an im-

possibility. The All-wise does not bestow His highest

trusts upon the unworthy. When He commissions a mes-

senger, it is one who is spiritually near Himself. No per-

son can misuse this mental power, if he is taught of God

to discern it.

Integrity assured

455:28
This strong point in Christian Science is not to be

overlooked, – that the same fountain cannot send forth

both sweet waters and bitter. The higher

your attainment in the Science of mental

healing and teaching, the more impossible it will be-

456:1
come for you intentionally to influence mankind adverse

to its highest hope and achievement.

Chicanery impossible

456:3
Teaching or practising in the name of Truth, but con-

trary to its spirit or rules, is most dangerous quackery.

Strict adherence to the divine Principle and

rules of the scientific method has secured

the only success of the students of Christian Science.

This alone entitles them to the high standing which

most of them hold in the community, a reputation ex-

perimentally justified by their efforts. Whoever af-

firms that there is more than one Principle and method

of demonstrating Christian Science greatly errs, igno-

rantly or intentionally, and separates himself from the

true conception of Christian Science healing and from

its possible demonstration.

No dishonest concessions

456:16
Any dishonesty in your theory and practice betrays a

gross ignorance of the method of the Christ-cure. Science

makes no concessions to persons or opinions.

One must abide in the morale of truth or he

cannot demonstrate the divine Principle. So long as

matter is the basis of practice, illness cannot be effica-

ciously treated by the metaphysical process. Truth does

the work, and you must both understand and abide by the

divine Principle of your demonstration.

This volume indispensable

456:25
A Christian Scientist requires my work SCIENCE AND

HEALTH for his textbook, and so do all his students and

patients. Why? First: Because it is the voice

of Truth to this age, and contains the full

statement of Christian Science, or the Science of healing

through Mind. Second: Because it was the first book

known, containing a thorough statement of Christian

Science. Hence it gave the first rules for demonstrating

457:1
this Science, and registered the revealed Truth uncon-

taminated by human hypotheses. Other works, which

have borrowed from this book without giving it credit,

have adulterated the Science. Third: Because this book

has done more for teacher and student, for healer and

patient, than has been accomplished by other books.

Purity of science

457:7
Since the divine light of Christian Science first dawned

upon the author, she has never used this newly discovered

power in any direction which she fears to have

fairly understood. Her prime object, since

entering this field of labor, has been to prevent suffering,

not to produce it. That we cannot scientifically both

cure and cause disease is self-evident. In the legend of

the shield, which led to a quarrel between two knights

because each of them could see but one face of it, both

sides were beautiful according to their degree; but to

mental malpractice, prolific of evil, there is no good as-

pect, either silvern or golden.

Backsliders and mistakes

457:19
Christian Science is not an exception to the general

rule, that there is no excellence without labor in a direct

line. One cannot scatter his fire, and at the

same time hit the mark. To pursue other

vocations and advance rapidly in the demonstration of

this Science, is not possible. Departing from Christian

Science, some learners commend diet and hygiene.

They even practise these, intending thereby to initiate

the cure which they mean to complete with Mind, as if

the non-intelligent could aid Mind! The Scientist's

demonstration rests on one Principle, and there must

and can be no opposite rule. Let this Principle be ap-

plied to the cure of disease without exploiting other

means.

Mental charlatanism

458:1
Mental quackery rests on the same platform as all

other quackery. The chief plank in this platform is the

doctrine that Science has two principles in

partnership, one good and the other evil, –

one spiritual, the other material, – and that these two

may be simultaneously at work on the sick. This

theory is supposed to favor practice from both a mental

and a material standpoint. Another plank in the plat-

form is this, that error will finally have the same effect

as truth.

Divinity ever ready

458:11
It is anything but scientifically Christian to think of

aiding the divine Principle of healing or of trying to sus-

tain the human body until the divine Mind

is ready to take the case. Divinity is always

ready. Semper paratus is Truth's motto. Having seen

so much suffering from quackery, the author desires to

keep it out of Christian Science. The two-edged sword

of Truth must turn in every direction to guard "the tree

of life."

The panoply of wisdom

458:20
Sin makes deadly thrusts at the Christian Scientist as

ritualism and creed are summoned to give place to higher

law, but Science will ameliorate mortal malice.

The Christianly scientific man reflects the

divine law, thus becoming a law unto himself. He does

violence to no man. Neither is he a false accuser. The

Christian Scientist wisely shapes his course, and is hon-

est and consistent in following the leadings of divine

Mind. He must prove, through living as well as heal-

ing and teaching, that Christ's way is the only one

by which mortals are radically saved from sin and

sickness.

Advancement by sacrifice

458:32
Christianity causes men to turn naturally from matter

459:1
to Spirit, as the flower turns from darkness to light.

Man then appropriates those things which "eye hath

not seen nor ear heard." Paul and John

had a clear apprehension that, as mortal man

achieves no worldly honors except by sacrifice,

so he must gain heavenly riches by forsaking all worldli-

ness. Then he will have nothing in common with the

worldling's affections, motives, and aims. Judge not the

future advancement of Christian Science by the steps

already taken, lest you yourself be condemned for fail-

ing to take the first step.

Dangerous knowledge

459:12
Any attempt to heal mortals with erring mortal mind,

instead of resting on the omnipotence of the divine

Mind, must prove abortive. Committing the

bare process of mental healing to frail mor-

tals, untaught and unrestrained by Christian Science,

is like putting a sharp knife into the hands of a blind

man or a raging maniac, and turning him loose in

the crowded streets of a city. Whether animated by

malice or ignorance, a false practitioner will work mis-

chief, and ignorance is more harmful than wilful wicked-

ness, when the latter is distrusted and thwarted in its

incipiency.

Certainty of results

459:24
To mortal sense Christian Science seems abstract, but

the process is simple and the results are sure if the Science

is understood. The tree must be good, which

produces good fruit. Guided by divine Truth

and not guesswork, the theologus (that is, the student –

the Christian and scientific expounder – of the divine

law) treats disease with more certain results than any

other healer on the globe. The Christian Scientist should

understand and adhere strictly to the rules of divine meta-

460:1
physics as laid down in this work, and rest his demonstra-

tion on this sure basis.

Ontology defined

460:3
Ontology is defined as "the science of the necessary

constituents and relations of all beings," and it under-

lies all metaphysical practice. Our system of

Mind-healing rests on the apprehension of the

nature and essence of all being, – on the divine Mind

and Love's essential qualities. Its pharmacy is moral,

and its medicine is intellectual and spiritual, though used

for physical healing. Yet this most fundamental part of

metaphysics is the one most difficult to understand and

demonstrate, for to the material thought all is material,

till such thought is rectified by Spirit.

Mischievous imagination

460:14
Sickness is neither imaginary nor unreal, – that is,

to the frightened, false sense of the patient. Sickness

is more than fancy; it is solid conviction. It

is therefore to be dealt with through right ap-

prehension of the truth of being. If Christian healing

is abused by mere smatterers in Science, it becomes a

tedious mischief-maker. Instead of scientifically effect-

ing a cure, it starts a petty crossfire over every cripple

and invalid, buffeting them with the superficial and cold

assertion, "Nothing ails you."

Author's early instructions

460:24
When the Science of Mind was a fresh revelation to

the author, she had to impart, while teaching its grand

facts, the hue of spiritual ideas from her own

spiritual condition, and she had to do this orally

through the meagre channel afforded by language and by

her manuscript circulated among the students. As for-

mer beliefs were gradually expelled from her thought, the

teaching became clearer, until finally the shadow of old

errors was no longer cast upon divine Science.

Proof by induction

460:33
I do not maintain that anyone can exist in the flesh

without food and raiment; but I do believe that the

real man is immortal and that he lives in

Spirit, not matter. Christian Science must

be accepted at this period by induction. We admit the

whole, because a part is proved and that part illustrates

and proves the entire Principle. Christian Science can

be taught only by those who are morally advanced and

spiritually endowed, for it is not superficial, nor is it

discerned from the standpoint of the human senses.

Only by the illumination of the spiritual sense, can

the light of understanding be thrown upon this Science,

because Science reverses the evidence before the material

senses and furnishes the eternal interpretation of God and

man.

461:16
If you believe that you are sick, should you say, "I am

sick"? No, but you should tell your belief sometimes,

if this be requisite to protect others. If you commit a

crime, should you acknowledge to yourself that you are

a criminal? Yes. Your responses should differ because

of the different effects they produce. Usually to admit

that you are sick, renders your case less curable, while

to recognize your sin, aids in destroying it. Both sin and

sickness are error, and Truth is their remedy. The truth

regarding error is, that error is not true, hence it is unreal.

To prove scientifically the error or unreality of sin, you

must first see the claim of sin, and then destroy it.

Whereas, to prove scientifically the error or unreality of

disease, you must mentally unsee the disease; then you

will not feel it, and it is destroyed.

Rapidity of assimilation

461:31
Systematic teaching and the student's spiritual growth

and experience in practice are requisite for a thorough

462:1
comprehension of Christian Science. Some individu-

als assimilate truth more readily than others, but any

student, who adheres to the divine rules

of Christian Science and imbibes the spirit

of Christ, can demonstrate Christian Science, cast out

error, heal the sick, and add continually to his store of

spiritual understanding, potency, enlightenment, and

success.

Divided loyalty

462:9
If the student goes away to practise Truth's teach-

ings only in part, dividing his interests between God and

mammon and substituting his own views for

Truth, he will inevitably reap the error he sows.

Whoever would demonstrate the healing of Christian

Science must abide strictly by its rules, heed every state-

ment, and advance from the rudiments laid down. There

is nothing difficult nor toilsome in this task, when the way

is pointed out; but self-denial, sincerity, Christianity, and

persistence alone win the prize, as they usually do in every

department of life.

Anatomy defined

462:20
Anatomy, when conceived of spiritually, is mental self‑

knowledge, and consists in the dissection of thoughts to

discover their quality, quantity, and origin.

Are thoughts divine or human? That is the

important question. This branch of study is indispen-

sable to the excision of error. The anatomy of Christian

Science teaches when and how to probe the self-in-

flicted wounds of selfishness, malice, envy, and hate. It

teaches the control of mad ambition. It unfolds the

hallowed influences of unselfishness, philanthropy, spir-

itual love. It urges the government of the body both

in health and in sickness. The Christian Scientist,

through understanding mental anatomy, discerns and

463:1
deals with the real cause of disease. The material physi-

cian gropes among phenomena, which fluctuate every in-

stant under influences not embraced in his diagnosis, and

so he may stumble and fall in the darkness.

Scientific obstetrics

463:5
Teacher and student should also be familiar with the

obstetrics taught by this Science. To attend properly

the birth of the new child, or divine idea,

you should so detach mortal thought from its

material conceptions, that the birth will be natural and

safe. Though gathering new energy, this idea cannot

injure its useful surroundings in the travail of spiritual

birth. A spiritual idea has not a single element of error,

and this truth removes properly whatever is offensive.

The new idea, conceived and born of Truth and Love, is

clad in white garments. Its beginning will be meek, its

growth sturdy, and its maturity undecaying. When

this new birth takes place, the Christian Science infant

is born of the Spirit, born of God, and can cause the

mother no more suffering. By this we know that Truth

is here and has fulfilled its perfect work.

Unhesitating decision

463:21
To decide quickly as to the proper treatment of error –

whether error is manifested in forms of sickness, sin,

or death – is the first step towards destroy-

ing error. Our Master treated error through

Mind. He never enjoined obedience to the laws of nature,

if by these are meant laws of matter, nor did he use drugs.

There is a law of God applicable to healing, and it is a

spiritual law instead of material. The sick are not healed

by inanimate matter or drugs, as they believe that they

are. Such seeming medical effect or action is that of so‑

called mortal mind.

Seclusion of the author

463:32
It has been said to the author, "The world is bene-

464:1
fited by you, but it feels your influence without seeing

you. Why do you not make yourself more widely

known?" Could her friends know how little

time the author has had, in which to make

herself outwardly known except through her laborious

publications, – and how much time and toil are still re-

quired to establish the stately operations of Christian

Science, – they would understand why she is so secluded.

Others could not take her place, even if willing so to do.

She therefore remains unseen at her post, seeking no self‑

aggrandizement but praying, watching, and working for

the redemption of mankind.

464:13
If from an injury or from any cause, a Christian Scien-

tist were seized with pain so violent that he could not

treat himself mentally, – and the Scientists had failed

to relieve him, – the sufferer could call a surgeon, who

would give him a hypodermic injection, then, when the

belief of pain was lulled, he could handle his own case

mentally. Thus it is that we "prove all things; [and]

hold fast that which is good."

The right motive and its reward

464:21
In founding a pathological system of Christianity, the

author has labored to expound divine Principle, and not

to exalt personality. The weapons of bigotry,

ignorance, envy, fall before an honest heart.

Adulterating Christian Science, makes it void.

Falsity has no foundation. "The hireling fleeth, because

he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep." Neither

dishonesty nor ignorance ever founded, nor can they over-

throw a scientific system of ethics.

Chapter XIV

Recapitulation

For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon

line, line upon line; here a little, and there a little. – ISAIAH.

465:1
THIS chapter is from the first edition of the author's

class-book, copyrighted in 1870. After much labor

and increased spiritual understanding, she revised that

treatise for this volume in 1875. Absolute Christian

Science pervades its statements, to elucidate scientific

metaphysics.

465:7
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS

465:8
Question. – What is God?

Answer. – God is incorporeal, divine, supreme, infinite

Mind, Spirit, Soul, Principle, Life, Truth, Love.

465:11
Question. – Are these terms synonymous?

Answer. – They are. They refer to one absolute God.

They are also intended to express the nature, essence, and

wholeness of Deity. The attributes of God are justice,

mercy, wisdom, goodness, and so on.

465:16
Question. – Is there more than one God or Principle?

Answer. – There is not. Principle and its idea is one,

and this one is God, omnipotent, omniscient, and omni-

466:1
present Being, and His reflection is man and the universe.

Omni is adopted from the Latin adjective signifying all.

Hence God combines all-power or potency, all-science

or true knowledge, all-presence. The varied manifesta-

tions of Christian Science indicate Mind, never matter,

and have one Principle.

Real versus unreal

466:7
Question. – What are spirits and souls?

Answer. – To human belief, they are personalities

constituted of mind and matter, life and death, truth and

error, good and evil; but these contrasting

pairs of terms represent contraries, as Chris-

tian Science reveals, which neither dwell together nor

assimilate. Truth is immortal; error is mortal. Truth

is limitless; error is limited. Truth is intelligent; error

is non-intelligent. Moreover, Truth is real, and error is

unreal. This last statement contains the point you will

most reluctantly admit, although first and last it is the

most important to understand.

Mankind redeemed

466:19
The term souls or spirits is as improper as the term

gods. Soul or Spirit signifies Deity and nothing else.

There is no finite soul nor spirit. Soul or

Spirit means only one Mind, and cannot be

rendered in the plural. Heathen mythology and Jewish

theology have perpetuated the fallacy that intelligence,

soul, and life can be in matter; and idolatry and ritualism

are the outcome of all man-made beliefs. The Science

of Christianity comes with fan in hand to separate the

chaff from the wheat. Science will declare God aright,

and Christianity will demonstrate this declaration and

its divine Principle, making mankind better physically,

morally, and spiritually.

Two chief commands

467:1
Question. – What are the demands of the Science of

Soul?

Answer. – The first demand of this Science is, "Thou

shalt have no other gods before me." This me is Spirit.

Therefore the command means this: Thou shalt

have no intelligence, no life, no substance, no

truth, no love, but that which is spiritual. The second

is like unto it, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself."

It should be thoroughly understood that all men have one

Mind, one God and Father, one Life, Truth, and Love.

Mankind will become perfect in proportion as this fact

becomes apparent, war will cease and the true brother-

hood of man will be established. Having no other gods,

turning to no other but the one perfect Mind to guide

him, man is the likeness of God, pure and eternal, hav-

ing that Mind which was also in Christ.

Soul not confined in body

467:17
Science reveals Spirit, Soul, as not in the body, and

God as not in man but as reflected by man. The greater

cannot be in the lesser. The belief that the

greater can be in the lesser is an error that

works ill. This is a leading point in the Science of Soul,

that Principle is not in its idea. Spirit, Soul, is not

confined in man, and is never in matter. We reason im-

perfectly from effect to cause, when we conclude that

matter is the effect of Spirit; but a priori reasoning

shows material existence to be enigmatical. Spirit gives

the true mental idea. We cannot interpret Spirit, Mind,

through matter. Matter neither sees, hears, nor feels.

Sinlessness of Mind, Soul

467:29
Reasoning from cause to effect in the Science of Mind,

we begin with Mind, which must be under-

stood through the idea which expresses it and

cannot be learned from its opposite, matter. Thus we

468:1
arrive at Truth, or intelligence, which evolves its own

unerring idea and never can be coordinate with human

illusions. If Soul sinned, it would be mortal, for sin is

mortality's self, because it kills itself. If Truth is im-

mortal, error must be mortal, because error is unlike

Truth. Because Soul is immortal, Soul cannot sin, for

sin is not the eternal verity of being.

468:8
Question. – What is the scientific statement of being?

Answer. – There is no life, truth, intelligence, nor sub-

stance in matter. All is infinite Mind and its infinite

manifestation, for God is All-in-all. Spirit is immortal

Truth; matter is mortal error. Spirit is the real and

eternal; matter is the unreal and temporal. Spirit is

God, and man is His image and likeness. Therefore

man is not material; he is spiritual.

Spiritual synonyms

468:16
Question. – What is substance?

Answer. – Substance is that which is eternal and inca-

pable of discord and decay. Truth, Life, and Love are

substance, as the Scriptures use this word in

Hebrews: "The substance of things hoped

for, the evidence of things not seen." Spirit, the synonym

of Mind, Soul, or God, is the only real substance. The

spiritual universe, including individual man, is a com-

pound idea, reflecting the divine substance of Spirit.

Eternity of Life

468:25
Question. – What is Life?

Answer. – Life is divine Principle, Mind, Soul, Spirit.

Life is without beginning and without end.

Eternity, not time, expresses the thought of

Life, and time is no part of eternity. One ceases in

proportion as the other is recognized. Time is finite;

469:1
eternity is forever infinite. Life is neither in nor of mat-

ter. What is termed matter is unknown to Spirit, which

includes in itself all substance and is Life eternal. Mat-

ter is a human concept. Life is divine Mind. Life is not

limited. Death and finiteness are unknown to Life. If

Life ever had a beginning, it would also have an ending.

469:7
Question. – What is intelligence?

Answer. – Intelligence is omniscience, omnipresence,

and omnipotence. It is the primal and eternal quality

of infinite Mind, of the triune Principle, – Life, Truth,

and Love, – named God.

True sense of infinitude

469:12
Question. – What is Mind?

Answer. – Mind is God. The exterminator of error

is the great truth that God, good, is the only Mind, and

that the supposititious opposite of infinite Mind

– called devil or evil – is not Mind, is not

Truth, but error, without intelligence or reality. There

can be but one Mind, because there is but one God; and

if mortals claimed no other Mind and accepted no other,

sin would be unknown. We can have but one Mind, if

that one is infinite. We bury the sense of infinitude,

when we admit that, although God is infinite, evil has a

place in this infinity, for evil can have no place, where all

space is filled with God.

The sole governor

469:25
We lose the high signification of omnipotence, when

after admitting that God, or good, is omnipresent and

has all-power, we still believe there is another

power, named evil. This belief that there

is more than one mind is as pernicious to divine theology

as are ancient mythology and pagan idolatry. With

470:1
one Father, even God, the whole family of man would

be brethren; and with one Mind and that God, or good,

the brotherhood of man would consist of Love and Truth,

and have unity of Principle and spiritual power which

constitute divine Science. The supposed existence of

more than one mind was the basic error of idolatry. This

error assumed the loss of spiritual power, the loss of the

spiritual presence of Life as infinite Truth without an

unlikeness, and the loss of Love as ever present and

universal.

The divine standard of perfection

470:11
Divine Science explains the abstract statement that

there is one Mind by the following self-evident propo-

sition: If God, or good, is real, then evil, the

unlikeness of God, is unreal. And evil can

only seem to be real by giving reality to the

unreal. The children of God have but one Mind. How

can good lapse into evil, when God, the Mind of man,

never sins? The standard of perfection was originally

God and man. Has God taken down His own standard,

and has man fallen?

Indestructible relationship

470:21
God is the creator of man, and, the divine Principle

of man remaining perfect, the divine idea or reflection,

man, remains perfect. Man is the expression

of God's being. If there ever was a moment

when man did not express the divine perfec-

tion, then there was a moment when man did not express

God, and consequently a time when Deity was unex-

pressed – that is, without entity. If man has lost per-

fection, then he has lost his perfect Principle, the divine

Mind. If man ever existed without this perfect Principle

or Mind, then man's existence was a myth.

470:32
The relations of God and man, divine Principle and

471:1
idea, are indestructible in Science; and Science knows

no lapse from nor return to harmony, but holds the divine

order or spiritual law, in which God and all that He cre-

ates are perfect and eternal, to have remained unchanged

in its eternal history.

Celestial evidence

471:6
The unlikeness of Truth, – named error, – the op-

posite of Science, and the evidence before the five cor-

poreal senses, afford no indication of the grand

facts of being; even as these so-called senses

receive no intimation of the earth's motions or of the

science of astronomy, but yield assent to astronomical

propositions on the authority of natural science.

471:13
The facts of divine Science should be admitted, –

although the evidence as to these facts is not supported

by evil, by matter, or by material sense, – because the

evidence that God and man coexist is fully sustained by

spiritual sense. Man is, and forever has been, God's re-

flection. God is infinite, therefore ever present, and

there is no other power nor presence. Hence the spirit-

uality of the universe is the only fact of creation. "Let

God be true, but every [material] man a liar."

The test of experience

471:22
Question. – Are doctrines and creeds a benefit to man?

Answer. – The author subscribed to an orthodox

creed in early youth, and tried to adhere to it until she

caught the first gleam of that which inter-

prets God as above mortal sense. This

view rebuked human beliefs, and gave the spiritual im-

port, expressed through Science, of all that proceeds

from the divine Mind. Since then her highest creed has

been divine Science, which, reduced to human apprehen-

sion, she has named Christian Science. This Science

472:1
teaches man that God is the only Life, and that this Life

is Truth and Love; that God is to be understood, adored,

and demonstrated; that divine Truth casts out supposi-

tional error and heals the sick.

God's law destroys evil

472:5
The way which leads to Christian Science is straight

and narrow. God has set His signet upon Science, mak-

ing it coordinate with all that is real and only

with that which is harmonious and eternal.

Sickness, sin, and death, being inharmonious, do not

originate in God nor belong to His government. His

law, rightly understood, destroys them. Jesus furnished

proofs of these statements.

Evanescent materiality

472:13
Question. – What is error?

Answer. – Error is a supposition that pleasure and

pain, that intelligence, substance, life, are existent in mat-

ter. Error is neither Mind nor one of Mind's

faculties. Error is the contradiction of Truth.

Error is a belief without understanding. Error is unreal

because untrue. It is that which seemeth to be and is not.

If error were true, its truth would be error, and we should

have a self-evident absurdity – namely, erroneous truth.

Thus we should continue to lose the standard of Truth.

Unrealities that seem real

472:23
Question. – Is there no sin?

Answer. – All reality is in God and His creation, har-

monious and eternal. That which He creates is good,

and He makes all that is made. Therefore

the only reality of sin, sickness, or death is

the awful fact that unrealities seem real to human, erring

belief, until God strips off their disguise. They are not

true, because they are not of God. We learn in Christian

473:1
Science that all inharmony of mortal mind or body is illu-

sion, possessing neither reality nor identity though seeming

to be real and identical.

Christ the ideal Truth

473:4
The Science of Mind disposes of all evil. Truth, God,

is not the father of error. Sin, sickness, and death are

to be classified as effects of error. Christ

came to destroy the belief of sin. The God‑

principle is omnipresent and omnipotent. God is every-

where, and nothing apart from Him is present or has

power. Christ is the ideal Truth, that comes to heal

sickness and sin through Christian Science, and attributes

all power to God. Jesus is the name of the man who,

more than all other men, has presented Christ, the true

idea of God, healing the sick and the sinning and destroy-

ing the power of death. Jesus is the human man, and

Christ is the divine idea; hence the duality of Jesus the

Christ.

Jesus not God

473:18
In an age of ecclesiastical despotism, Jesus introduced

the teaching and practice of Christianity, affording the

proof of Christianity's truth and love; but to

reach his example and to test its unerring Sci-

ence according to his rule, healing sickness, sin, and

death, a better understanding of God as divine Prin-

ciple, Love, rather than personality or the man Jesus, is

required.

Jesus not understood

473:26
Jesus established what he said by demonstration,

thus making his acts of higher importance than his

words. He proved what he taught. This

is the Science of Christianity. Jesus proved

the Principle, which heals the sick and casts out error,

to be divine. Few, however, except his students un-

derstood in the least his teachings and their glorious

474:1
proofs, – namely, that Life, Truth, and Love (the Prin-

ciple of this unacknowledged Science) destroy all error,

evil, disease, and death.

Miracles rejected

474:4
The reception accorded to Truth in the early Chris-

tian era is repeated to-day. Whoever introduces the

Science of Christianity will be scoffed at and

scourged with worse cords than those which

cut the flesh. To the ignorant age in which it first

appears, Science seems to be a mistake, – hence the

misinterpretation and consequent maltreatment which

it receives. Christian marvels (and marvel is the sim-

ple meaning of the Greek word rendered miracle in the

New Testament) will be misunderstood and misused

by many, until the glorious Principle of these marvels is

gained.

Divine fulfilment

474:16
If sin, sickness, and death are as real as Life, Truth,

and Love, then they must all be from the same source;

God must be their author. Now Jesus came

to destroy sin, sickness, and death yet the

Scriptures aver, "I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."

Is it possible, then, to believe that the evils which Jesus

lived to destroy are real or the offspring of the divine

will?

Truth destroys falsity

474:24
Despite the hallowing influence of Truth in the de-

struction of error, must error still be immortal? Truth

spares all that is true. If evil is real, Truth

must make it so; but error, not Truth, is

the author of the unreal, and the unreal vanishes,

while all that is real is eternal. The apostle says that

the mission of Christ is to "destroy the works of the

devil." Truth destroys falsity and error, for light and

darkness cannot dwell together. Light extinguishes the

475:1
darkness, and the Scripture declares that there is "no

night there." To Truth there is no error, – all is Truth.

To infinite Spirit there is no matter, – all is Spirit, divine

Principle and its idea.

Fleshly factors unreal

475:5
Question. – What is man?

Answer. – Man is not matter; he is not made up of

brain, blood, bones, and other material elements. The

Scriptures inform us that man is made in

the image and likeness of God. Matter is

not that likeness. The likeness of Spirit cannot be so

unlike Spirit. Man is spiritual and perfect; and be-

cause he is spiritual and perfect, he must be so under-

stood in Christian Science. Man is idea, the image, of

Love; he is not physique. He is the compound idea of

God, including all right ideas; the generic term for

all that reflects God's image and likeness; the conscious

identity of being as found in Science, in which man is

the reflection of God, or Mind, and therefore is eternal;

that which has no separate mind from God; that which

has not a single quality underived from Deity; that which

possesses no life, intelligence, nor creative power of his

own, but reflects spiritually all that belongs to his Maker.

475:23
And God said: "Let us make man in our image, after

our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish

of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle,

and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that

creepeth upon the earth."

Man unfallen

475:28
Man is incapable of sin, sickness, and death. The

real man cannot depart from holiness, nor

can God, by whom man is evolved, engender

the capacity or freedom to sin. A mortal sinner is not

476:1
God's man. Mortals are the counterfeits of immortals.

They are the children of the wicked one, or the one evil,

which declares that man begins in dust or as a material

embryo. In divine Science, God and the real man are

inseparable as divine Principle and idea.

Mortals are not immortals

476:6
Error, urged to its final limits, is self-destroyed.

Error will cease to claim that soul is in body, that life

and intelligence are in matter, and that

this matter is man. God is the Principle of

man, and man is the idea of God. Hence man is not

mortal nor material. Mortals will disappear, and im-

mortals, or the children of God, will appear as the only

and eternal verities of man. Mortals are not fallen chil-

dren of God. They never had a perfect state of being,

which may subsequently be regained. They were, from

the beginning of mortal history, "conceived in sin and

brought forth in iniquity." Mortality is finally swallowed

up in immortality. Sin, sickness, and death must dis-

appear to give place to the facts which belong to immortal

man.

Imperishable identity

476:21
Learn this, O mortal, and earnestly seek the spiritual

status of man, which is outside of all material selfhood.

Remember that the Scriptures say of mortal

man: "As for man, his days are as grass: as

a flower of the field, so he flourisheth. For the wind

passeth over it, and it is gone; and the place thereof shall

know it no more."

The kingdom within

476:28
When speaking of God's children, not the children of

men, Jesus said, "The kingdom of God is within you;"

that is, Truth and Love reign in the real

man, showing that man in God's image is

unfallen and eternal. Jesus beheld in Science the per-

477:1
fect man, who appeared to him where sinning mortal

man appears to mortals. In this perfect man the Saviour

saw God's own likeness, and this correct view of man

healed the sick. Thus Jesus taught that the kingdom

of God is intact, universal, and that man is pure and holy.

Man is not a material habitation for Soul; he is himself

spiritual. Soul, being Spirit, is seen in nothing imperfect

nor material.

Material body never God's idea

477:9
Whatever is material is mortal. To the five corporeal

senses, man appears to be matter and mind united; but

Christian Science reveals man as the idea of

God, and declares the corporeal senses to be

mortal and erring illusions. Divine Science

shows it to be impossible that a material body, though

interwoven with matter's highest stratum, misnamed

mind, should be man, – the genuine and perfect man,

the immortal idea of being, indestructible and eternal.

Were it otherwise, man would be annihilated.

Reflection of Spirit

477:19
Question. – What are body and Soul?

Answer. – Identity is the reflection of Spirit, the re-

flection in multifarious forms of the living Principle,

Love. Soul is the substance, Life, and intelli-

gence of man, which is individualized, but not

in matter. Soul can never reflect anything inferior to

Spirit.

Man inseparable from Spirit

477:26
Man is the expression of Soul. The Indians caught

some glimpses of the underlying reality, when

they called a certain beautiful lake "the smile

of the Great Spirit." Separated from man,

who expresses Soul, Spirit would be a nonentity; man,

divorced from Spirit, would lose his entity. But there is,

478:1
there can be, no such division, for man is coexistent with

God.

A vacant domicile

478:3
What evidence of Soul or of immortality have you

within mortality? Even according to the teachings of

natural science, man has never beheld Spirit

or Soul leaving a body or entering it. What

basis is there for the theory of indwelling spirit, except

the claim of mortal belief? What would be thought of

the declaration that a house was inhabited, and by a cer-

tain class of persons, when no such persons were ever seen

to go into the house or to come out of it, nor were they

even visible through the windows? Who can see a soul

in the body?

Harmonious functions

478:14
Question. – Does brain think, and do nerves feel, and

is there intelligence in matter?

Answer. – No, not if God is true and mortal man a

liar. The assertion that there can be pain or pleasure

in matter is erroneous. That body is most

harmonious in which the discharge of the nat-

ural functions is least noticeable. How can intelligence

dwell in matter when matter is non-intelligent and

brain-lobes cannot think? Matter cannot perform the

functions of Mind. Error says, "I am man;" but this

belief is mortal and far from actual. From beginning

to end, whatever is mortal is composed of material hu-

man beliefs and of nothing else. That only is real which

reflects God. St. Paul said, "But when it pleased God,

who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me

by His grace, . . . I conferred not with flesh and blood."

Immortal birthright

478:30
Mortal man is really a self-contradictory phrase, for

man is not mortal, "neither indeed can be;" man is im-

479:1
mortal. If a child is the offspring of physical sense and

not of Soul, the child must have a material, not a spirit-

ual origin. With what truth, then, could the

Scriptural rejoicing be uttered by any mother,

"I have gotten a man from the Lord"? On the con-

trary, if aught comes from God, it cannot be mortal and

material; it must be immortal and spiritual.

Matter's supposed selfhood

479:8
Matter is neither self-existent nor a product of Spirit.

An image of mortal thought, reflected on the retina, is

all that the eye beholds. Matter cannot see,

feel, hear, taste, nor smell. It is not self‑

cognizant, – cannot feel itself, see itself, nor

understand itself. Take away so-called mortal mind,

which constitutes matter's supposed selfhood, and matter

can take no cognizance of matter. Does that which we

call dead ever see, hear, feel, or use any of the physical

senses?

Chaos and darkness

479:18
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the

earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and

darkness was upon the face of the deep."

(Genesis i. 1, 2.) In the vast forever, in the

Science and truth of being, the only facts are Spirit

and its innumerable creations. Darkness and chaos

are the imaginary opposites of light, understanding,

and eternal harmony, and they are the elements of

nothingness.

Spiritual reflection

479:27
We admit that black is not a color, because it reflects

no light. So evil should be denied identity or power,

because it has none of the divine hues. Paul

says: "For the invisible things of Him, from

the creation of the world, are clearly seen, being under-

stood by the things that are made." (Romans i. 20.)

480:1
When the substance of Spirit appears in Christian Sci-

ence, the nothingness of matter is recognized. Where

the spirit of God is, and there is no place where God is

not, evil becomes nothing, – the opposite of the some-

thing of Spirit. If there is no spiritual reflection, then

there remains only the darkness of vacuity and not a trace

of heavenly tints.

Harmony from Spirit

480:8
Nerves are an element of the belief that there is sensa-

tion in matter, whereas matter is devoid of sensation.

Consciousness, as well as action, is governed

by Mind, – is in God, the origin and gov-

ernor of all that Science reveals. Material sense has

its realm apart from Science in the unreal. Harmonious

action proceeds from Spirit, God. inharmony has no

Principle; its action is erroneous and presupposes man

to be in matter. Inharmony would make matter the

cause as well as the effect of intelligence, or Soul, thus

attempting to separate Mind from God.

Evil non-existent

480:19
Man is not God, and God is not man. Again, God,

or good, never made man capable of sin. It is the oppo-

site of good – that is, evil – which seems to

make men capable of wrong-doing. Hence,

evil is but an illusion, and it has no real basis. Evil is a

false belief. God is not its author. The supposititious

parent of evil is a lie.

Vapor and nothingness

480:26
The Bible declares: "All things were made by Him

[the divine Word]; and without Him was not anything,

made that was made." This is the eternal

verity of divine Science. If sin, sickness, and

death were understood as nothingness, they would dis-

appear. As vapor melts before the sun, so evil would

vanish before the reality of good. One must hide the

481:1
other. How important, then, to choose good as the

reality! Man is tributary to God, Spirit, and to nothing

else. God's being is infinity, freedom, harmony, and

boundless bliss. "Where the Spirit of the Lord is,

there is liberty." Like the archpriests of yore, man is

free "to enter into the holiest," – the realm of God.

The fruit forbidden

481:7
Material sense never helps mortals to understand

Spirit, God. Through spiritual sense only, man com-

prehends and loves Deity. The various con-

tradictions of the Science of Mind by the ma-

terial senses do not change the unseen Truth, which re-

mains forever intact. The forbidden fruit of knowledge,

against which wisdom warns man, is the testimony of

error, declaring existence to be at the mercy of death,

and good and evil to be capable of commingling. This

is the significance of the Scripture concerning this "tree

of the knowledge of good and evil," – this growth of

material belief, of which it is said: "In the day that thou

eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." Human hypotheses

first assume the reality of sickness, sin, and death, and

then assume the necessity of these evils because of their

admitted actuality. These human verdicts are the pro-

curers of all discord.

Sense and pure Soul

481:24
If Soul sins, it must be mortal. Sin has the elements

of self-destruction. It cannot sustain itself. If sin is

supported, God must uphold it, and this is

impossible, since Truth cannot support error.

Soul is the divine Principle of man and never sins, –

hence the immortality of Soul. In Science we learn that

it is material sense, not Soul, which sins; and it will be

found that it is the sense of sin which is lost, and not a

sinful soul. When reading the Scriptures, the substitu-

482:1
tion of the word sense for soul gives the exact meaning in

a majority of cases.

Soul defined

482:3
Human thought has adulterated the meaning of the

word soul through the hypothesis that soul is both an evil

and a good intelligence, resident in matter.

The proper use of the word soul can always

be gained by substituting the word God, where the deific

meaning is required. In other cases, use the word sense,

and you will have the scientific signification. As used

in Christian Science, Soul is properly the synonym of

Spirit, or God; but out of Science, soul is identical with

sense, with material sensation.

Sonship of Jesus

482:13
Question. – Is it important to understand these ex-

planations in order to heal the sick?

Answer. – It is, since Christ is "the way" and the

truth casting out all error. Jesus called himself "the

Son of man," but not the son of Joseph. As

woman is but a species of the genera, he was

literally the Son of Man. Jesus was the highest human

concept of the perfect man. He was inseparable from

Christ, the Messiah, – the divine idea of God outside

the flesh. This enabled Jesus to demonstrate his con-

trol over matter. Angels announced to the Wisemen of

old this dual appearing, and angels whisper it, through

faith, to the hungering heart in every age.

Sickness erroneous

482:26
Sickness is part of the error which Truth casts out.

Error will not expel error. Christian Science is the law

of Truth, which heals the sick, on the basis

of the one Mind or God. It can heal in no

other way, since the human, mortal mind so-called is not

a healer, but causes the belief in disease.

True healing transcendent

483:1
Then comes the question, how do drugs, hygiene, and

animal magnetism heal? It may be affirmed that they

do not heal, but only relieve suffering tempo-

rarily, exchanging one disease for another.

We classify disease as error, which nothing but Truth or

Mind can heal, and this Mind must be divine, not human.

Mind transcends all other power, and will ultimately su-

persede all other means in healing. In order to heal by

Science, you must not be ignorant of the moral and spir-

itual demands of Science nor disobey them. Moral igno-

rance or sin affects your demonstration, and hinders its

approach to the standard in Christian Science.

Terms adopted by the author

483:13
After the author's sacred discovery, she affixed the

name "Science" to Christianity, the name "error" to

corporeal sense, and the name "substance" to

Mind. Science has called the world to battle

over this issue and its demonstration, which

heals the sick, destroys error, and reveals the universal

harmony. To those natural Christian Scientists, the an-

cient worthies, and to Christ Jesus, God certainly revealed

the spirit of Christian Science, if not the absolute letter.

Science the way

483:22
Because the Science of Mind seems to bring into dis-

honor the ordinary scientific schools, which wrestle with

material observations alone, this Science has

met with opposition; but if any system honors

God, it ought to receive aid, not opposition, from all think-

ing persons. And Christian Science does honor God as

no other theory honors Him, and it does this in the way

of His appointing, by doing many wonderful works

through the divine name and nature. One must fulfil

one's mission without timidity or dissimulation, for to be

well done, the work must be done unselfishly. Christianity

484:1
will never be based on a divine Principle and so found to

be unerring, until its absolute Science is reached. When

this is accomplished, neither pride, prejudice, bigotry,

nor envy can wash away its foundation, for it is built upon

the rock, Christ.

Mindless methods

484:6
Question. – Does Christian Science, or metaphysical

healing, include medication, material hygiene, mesmer-

ism, hypnotism, theosophy, or spiritualism?

Answer. – Not one of them is included in it. In di-

vine Science, the supposed laws of matter yield to the

law of Mind. What are termed natural

science and material laws are the objective

states of mortal mind. The physical universe expresses

the conscious and unconscious thoughts of mortals.

Physical force and mortal mind are one. Drugs and

hygiene oppose the supremacy of the divine Mind.

Drugs and inert matter are unconscious, mindless. Cer-

tain results, supposed to proceed from drugs, are really

caused by the faith in them which the false human con-

sciousness is educated to feel.

Animal magnetism error

484:21
Mesmerism is mortal, material illusion. Animal mag-

netism is the voluntary or involuntary action of error

in all its forms; it is the human antipode

of divine Science. Science must triumph

over material sense, and Truth over error, thus putting

an end to the hypotheses involved in all false theories

and practices.

Error only ephemeral

484:28
Question. – Is materiality the concomitant of spirit-

uality, and is material sense a necessary preliminary to

the understanding and expression of Spirit?

485:1
Answer. – If error is necessary to define or to reveal

Truth, the answer is yes; but not otherwise. Material

sense is an absurd phrase, for matter has no

sensation. Science declares that Mind, not

matter, sees, hears, feels, speaks. Whatever contradicts

this statement is the false sense, which ever betrays

mortals into sickness, sin, and death. If the unimpor-

tant and evil appear, only soon to disappear because

of their uselessness or their iniquity, then these ephem-

eral views of error ought to be obliterated by Truth.

Why malign Christian Science for instructing mortals how

to make sin, disease, and death appear more and more

unreal?

Scientific translations

485:14
Emerge gently from matter into Spirit. Think not

to thwart the spiritual ultimate of all things, but come

naturally into Spirit through better health and

morals and as the result of spiritual growth.

Not death, but the understanding of Life, makes man im-

mortal. The belief that life can be in matter or soul in

body, and that man springs from dust or from an egg,

is the result of the mortal error which Christ, or Truth,

destroys by fulfilling the spiritual law of being, in which

man is perfect, even as the "Father which is in heaven

is perfect." If thought yields its dominion to other

powers, it cannot outline on the body its own beautiful

images, but it effaces them and delineates foreign agents,

called disease and sin.

Material beliefs

485:28
The heathen gods of mythology controlled war and

agriculture as much as nerves control sensation or

muscles measure strength. To say that

strength is in matter, is like saying that the

power is in the lever. The notion of any life or intelli-

486:1
gence in matter is without foundation in fact, and you

can have no faith in falsehood when you have learned

falsehood's true nature.

Sense versus Soul

486:4
Suppose one accident happens to the eye, another to

the ear, and so on, until every corporeal sense is quenched.

What is man's remedy? To die, that he may

regain these senses? Even then he must gain

spiritual understanding and spiritual sense in order to

possess immortal consciousness. Earth's preparatory

school must be improved to the utmost. In reality man

never dies. The belief that he dies will not establish his

scientific harmony. Death is not the result of Truth but

of error, and one error will not correct another.

Death an error

486:14
Jesus proved by the prints of the nails, that his body

was the same immediately after death as before. If death

restores sight, sound, and strength to man,

then death is not an enemy but a better friend

than Life. Alas for the blindness of belief, which makes

harmony conditional upon death and matter, and yet

supposes Mind unable to produce harmony! So long

as this error of belief remains, mortals will continue mor-

tal in belief and subject to chance and change.

Permanent sensibility

486:23
Sight, hearing, all the spiritual senses of man, are

eternal. They cannot be lost. Their reality and immor-

tality are in Spirit and understanding, not in

matter, – hence their permanence. If this

were not so, man would be speedily annihilated. If the

five corporeal senses were the medium through which

to understand God, then palsy, blindness, and deafness

would place man in a terrible situation, where he would

be like those "having no hope, and without God in the

world;" but as a matter of fact, these calamities often

487:1
drive mortals to seek and to find a higher sense of happi-

ness and existence.

Exercise of Mind-faculties

487:3
Life is deathless. Life is the origin and ultimate of

man, never attainable through death, but gained by walk-

ing in the pathway of Truth both before and

after that which is called death. There is more

Christianity in seeing and hearing spiritually

than materially. There is more Science in the perpetual

exercise of the Mind-faculties than in their loss. Lost

they cannot be, while Mind remains. The apprehension

of this gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf cen-

turies ago, and it will repeat the wonder.

Understanding versus belief

487:13
Question. – You speak of belief. Who or what is it

that believes?

Answer. – Spirit is all-knowing; this precludes the

need of believing. Matter cannot believe, and Mind

understands. The body cannot believe. The

believer and belief are one and are mortal.

Christian evidence is founded on Science or

demonstrable Truth, flowing from immortal Mind, and

there is in reality no such thing as mortal mind. Mere

belief is blindness without Principle from which to ex-

plain the reason of its hope. The belief that life is sen-

tient and intelligent matter is erroneous.

487:25
The Apostle James said, "Show me thy faith without

thy works, and I will show thee my faith by my works."

The understanding that Life is God, Spirit, lengthens

our days by strengthening our trust in the deathless

reality of Life, its almightiness and immortality.

Confirmation by healing

487:30
This faith relies upon an understood Principle. This

Principle makes whole the diseased, and brings out the

488:1
enduring and harmonious phases of things. The result

of our teachings is their sufficient confirmation. When,

on the strength of these instructions, you are

able to banish a severe malady, the cure shows

that you understand this teaching, and therefore you re-

ceive the blessing of Truth.

Belief and firm trust

488:7
The Hebrew and Greek words often translated belief

differ somewhat in meaning from that conveyed by the

English verb believe; they have more the sig-

nificance of faith, understanding, trust, con-

stancy, firmness. Hence the Scriptures often appear in

our common version to approve and endorse belief, when

they mean to enforce the necessity of understanding.

All faculties from Mind

488:14
Question. – Do the five corporeal senses constitute

man?

Answer. – Christian Science sustains with immortal

proof the impossibility of any material sense, and defines

these so-called senses as mortal beliefs, the

testimony of which cannot be true either of

man or of his Maker. The corporeal senses can take no

cognizance of spiritual reality and immortality. Nerves

have no more sensation, apart from what belief be-

stows upon them, than the fibres of a plant. Mind alone

possesses all faculties, perception, and comprehension.

Therefore mental endowments are not at the mercy of

organization and decomposition, – otherwise the very

worms could unfashion man. If it were possible for the

real senses of man to be injured, Soul could reproduce

them in all their perfection; but they cannot be dis-

turbed nor destroyed, since they exist in immortal Mind,

not in matter.

Possibilities of Life

489:1
The less mind there is manifested in matter the better.

When the unthinking lobster loses its claw, the claw grows

again. If the Science of Life were understood,

it would be found that the senses of Mind are

never lost and that matter has no sensation. Then the

human limb would be replaced as readily as the lobster's

claw, – not with an artificial limb, but with the genuine

one. Any hypothesis which supposes life to be in matter

is an educated belief. In infancy this belief is not equal

to guiding the hand to the mouth; and as consciousness

develops, this belief goes out, – yields to the reality of

everlasting Life.

Decalogue disregarded

489:13
Corporeal sense defrauds and lies; it breaks all the

commands of the Mosaic Decalogue to meet its own de-

mands. How then can this sense be the God‑

given channel to man of divine blessings or

understanding? How can man, reflecting God, be de-

pendent on material means for knowing, hearing, seeing?

Who dares to say that the senses of man can be at one time

the medium for sinning against God, at another the me-

dium for obeying God? An affirmative reply would con-

tradict the Scripture, for the same fountain sendeth not

forth sweet waters and bitter.

Organic construction valueless

489:24
The corporeal senses are the only source of evil or

error. Christian Science shows them to be false, be-

cause matter has no sensation, and no organic

construction can give it hearing and sight nor

make it the medium of Mind. Outside the

material sense of things, all is harmony. A wrong sense

of God, man, and creation is non-sense, want of sense.

Mortal belief would have the material senses sometimes

good and sometimes bad. It assures mortals that there

490:1
is real pleasure in sin; but the grand truths of Christian

Science dispute this error.

Will-power an animal propensity

490:3
Will-power is but a product of belief, and this belief

commits depredations on harmony. Human will is an

animal propensity, not a faculty of Soul.

Hence it cannot govern man aright. Chris-

tian Science reveals Truth and Love as the

motive-powers of man. Will – blind, stubborn, and head-

long – cooperates with appetite and passion. From this

cooperation arises its evil. From this also comes its pow-

erlessness, since all power belongs to God, good.

Theories helpless

490:12
The Science of Mind needs to be understood. Until

it is understood, mortals are more or less deprived of

Truth. Human theories are helpless to make

man harmonious or immortal, since he is so

already, according to Christian Science. Our only need

is to know this and reduce to practice the real man's di-

vine Principle, Love

True nature and origin

490:19
"Quench not the Spirit. Despise not prophesyings."

Human belief – or knowledge gained from the so-called

material senses – would, by fair logic, anni-

hilate man along with the dissolving elements

of clay. The scientifically Christian explanations of the

nature and origin of man destroy all material sense with

immortal testimony. This immortal testimony ushers

in the spiritual sense of being, which can be obtained

in no other way.

Sleep an illusion

490:28
Sleep and mesmerism explain the mythical nature of

material sense. Sleep shows material sense as either

oblivion, nothingness, or an illusion or dream.

Under the mesmeric illusion of belief, a man

will think that he is freezing when he is warm, and that he

491:1
is swimming when he is on dry land. Needle-thrusts will

not hurt him. A delicious perfume will seem intolerable.

Animal magnetism thus uncovers material sense, and

shows it to be a belief without actual foundation or va-

lidity. Change the belief, and the sensation changes.

Destroy the belief, and the sensation disappears.

Man linked with Spirit

491:7
Material man is made up of involuntary and voluntary

error, of a negative right and a positive wrong, the latter

calling itself right. Man's spiritual individual-

ity is never wrong. It is the likeness of man's

Maker. Matter cannot connect mortals with the true

origin and facts of being, in which all must end. It is only

by acknowledging the supremacy of Spirit, which annuls

the claims of matter, that mortals can lay off mortality and

find the indissoluble spiritual link which establishes man

forever in the divine likeness, inseparable from his creator.

Material man as a dream

491:17
The belief that matter and mind are one, – that mat-

ter is awake at one time and asleep at another, some-

times presenting no appearance of mind, –

this belief culminates in another belief, that

man dies. Science reveals material man as never the real

being. The dream or belief goes on, whether our eyes are

closed or open. In sleep, memory and consciousness are

lost from the body, and they wander whither they will

apparently with their own separate embodiment. Per-

sonality is not the individuality of man. A wicked man

may have an attractive personality.

Spiritual existence the one fact

491:28
When we are awake, we dream of the pains and pleas-

ures of matter. Who will say, even though he

does not understand Christian Science, that

this dream – rather than the dreamer – may

not be mortal man? Who can rationally say otherwise,

492:1
when the dream leaves mortal man intact in body and

thought, although the so-called dreamer is unconscious?

For right reasoning there should be but one fact before

the thought, namely, spiritual existence. In reality there

is no other existence, since Life cannot be united to its

unlikeness, mortality.

Mind one and all

492:7
Being is holiness, harmony, immortality. It is already

proved that a knowledge of this, even in small degree,

will uplift the physical and moral standard

of mortals, will increase longevity, will purify

and elevate character. Thus progress will finally destroy

all error, and bring immortality to light. We know that

a statement proved to be good must be correct. New

thoughts are constantly obtaining the floor. These two

contradictory theories – that matter is something, or

that all is Mind – will dispute the ground, until one is

acknowledged to be the victor. Discussing his cam-

paign, General Grant said: "I propose to fight it out on

this line, if it takes all summer." Science says: All is

Mind and Mind's idea. You must fight it out on this

line. Matter can afford you no aid.

Scientific ultimatum

492:22
The notion that mind and matter commingle in the

human illusion as to sin, sickness, and death must even-

tually submit to the Science of Mind, which

denies this notion. God is Mind, and God is

infinite; hence all is Mind. On this statement rests the

Science of being, and the Principle of this Science is di-

vine, demonstrating harmony and immortality.

Victory for Truth

492:29
The conservative theory, long believed, is that there

are two factors, matter and mind, uniting on some im-

possible basis. This theory would keep truth and error

always at war. Victory would perch on neither banner.

493:1
On the other hand, Christian Science speedily shows

Truth to be triumphant. To corporeal sense, the sun

appears to rise and set, and the earth to stand

still; but astronomical science contradicts this,

and explains the solar system as working on a differ-

ent plan. All the evidence of physical sense and all the

knowledge obtained from physical sense must yield to

Science, to the immortal truth of all things.

Mental preparation

493:9
Question, – Will you explain sickness and show how it

is to be healed?

Answer. – The method of Christian Science Mind-heal-

ing is touched upon in a previous chapter entitled Christian

Science Practice. A full answer to the above

question involves teaching, which enables the

healer to demonstrate and prove for himself the Principle

and rule of Christian Science or metaphysical healing.

Mind destroys all ills

493:17
Mind must be found superior to all the beliefs of the

five corporeal senses, and able to destroy all ills. Sick-

ness is a belief, which must be annihilated by

the divine Mind. Disease is an experience of

so-called mortal mind. It is fear made manifest on the

body. Christian Science takes away this physical sense

of discord, just as it removes any other sense of moral or

mental inharmony. That man is material, and that mat-

ter suffers, – these propositions can only seem real and

natural in illusion. Any sense of soul in matter is not the

reality of being.

493:28
If Jesus awakened Lazarus from the dream, illusion, of

death, this proved that the Christ could improve on a false

sense. Who dares to doubt this consummate test of the

power and willingness of divine Mind to hold man forever

494:1
intact in his perfect state, and to govern man's entire

action? Jesus said: "Destroy this temple [body], and

in three days I [Mind] will raise it up;" and he did this

for tired humanity's reassurance.

Inexhaustible divine Love

494:5
Is it not a species of infidelity to believe that so great

a work as the Messiah's was done for himself or for God,

who needed no help from Jesus' example to

preserve the eternal harmony? But mortals

did need this help, and Jesus pointed the way for them.

Divine Love always has met and always will meet every

human need. It is not well to imagine that Jesus demon-

strated the divine power to heal only for a select number

or for a limited period of time, since to all mankind and

in every hour, divine Love supplies all good.

Reason and Science

494:15
The miracle of grace is no miracle to Love. Jesus

demonstrated the inability of corporeality, as well as the

infinite ability of Spirit, thus helping erring

human sense to flee from its own convictions

and seek safety in divine Science. Reason, rightly di-

rected, serves to correct the errors of corporeal sense; but

sin, sickness, and death will seem real (even as the ex-

periences of the sleeping dream seem real) until the Sci-

ence of man's eternal harmony breaks their illusion with

the unbroken reality of scientific being.

494:25
Which of these two theories concerning man are you

ready to accept? One is the mortal testimony, changing,

dying, unreal. The other is the eternal and real evidence,

bearing Truth's signet, its lap piled high with immortal

fruits.

Followers of Jesus

494:30
Our Master cast out devils (evils) and healed the sick.

It should be said of his followers also, that they cast fear

and all evil out of themselves and others and heal the sick.

495:1
God will heal the sick through man, whenever man is

governed by God. Truth casts out error now

as surely as it did nineteen centuries ago. All

of Truth is not understood; hence its healing power is not

fully demonstrated.

Destruction of all evil

495:6
If sickness is true or the idea of Truth, you cannot

destroy sickness, and it would be absurd to try. Then

classify sickness and error as our Master did,

when he spoke of the sick, "whom Satan hath

bound," and find a sovereign antidote for error in the life‑

giving power of Truth acting on human belief, a power

which opens the prison doors to such as are bound, and

sets the captive free physically and morally.

Steadfast and calm trust

495:14
When the illusion of sickness or sin tempts you, cling

steadfastly to God and His idea. Allow nothing but His

likeness to abide in your thought. Let neither

fear nor doubt overshadow your clear sense and

calm trust, that the recognition of life harmonious – as

Life eternally is – can destroy any painful sense of, or

belief in, that which Life is not. Let Christian Science,

instead of corporeal sense, support your understanding of

being, and this understanding will supplant error with

Truth, replace mortality with immortality, and silence dis-

cord with harmony.

Rudiments and growth

495:25
Question. – How can I progress most rapidly in the

understanding of Christian Science?

Answer. – Study thoroughly the letter and imbibe

the spirit. Adhere to the divine Principle of Chris-

tian Science and follow the behests of God,

abiding steadfastly in wisdom, Truth, and

Love. In the Science of Mind, you will soon ascertain

496:1
that error cannot destroy error. You will also learn

that in Science there is no transfer of evil suggestions

from one mortal to another, for there is but one Mind,

and this ever-present omnipotent Mind is reflected by

man and governs the entire universe. You will learn

that in Christian Science the first duty is to obey

God, to have one Mind, and to love another as

yourself.

Condition of progress

496:9
We all must learn that Life is God. Ask yourself:

Am I living the life that approaches the supreme good?

Am I demonstrating the healing power of

Truth and Love? If so then the way will

grow brighter "unto the perfect day." Your fruits

will prove what the understanding of God brings to man.

Hold perpetually this thought, – that it is the spiritual

idea, the Holy Ghost and Christ, which enables you to

demonstrate, with scientific certainty, the rule of healing,

based upon its divine Principle, Love, underlying, over-

lying, and encompassing all true being.

Triumph over death

496:20
"The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is

the law," – the law of mortal belief, at war with the

facts of immortal Life, even with the spiritual

law which says to the grave, "Where is thy

victory?" But "when this corruptible shall have put

on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on im-

mortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that

is written, Death is swallowed up in victory."

496:28
Question. – Have Christian Scientists any religious

creed?

Answer. – They have not, if by that term is meant

doctrinal beliefs. The following is a brief exposition of

497:1
the important points, or religious tenets, of Christian

Science: –

497:3
1. As adherents of Truth, we take the inspired Word

of the Bible as our sufficient guide to eternal Life.

497:5
2. We acknowledge and adore one supreme and in-

finite God. We acknowledge His Son, one Christ; the

Holy Ghost or divine Comforter; and man in God's

image and likeness.

497:9
3. We acknowledge God's forgiveness of sin in the

destruction of sin and the spiritual understanding that

casts out evil as unreal. But the belief in sin is pun-

ished so long as the belief lasts.

497:13
4. We acknowledge Jesus' atonement as the evi-

dence of divine, efficacious Love, unfolding man's unity

with God through Christ Jesus the Way-shower; and

we acknowledge that man is saved through Christ,

through Truth, Life, and Love as demonstrated by the

Galilean Prophet in healing the sick and overcoming

sin and death.

497:20
5. We acknowledge that the crucifixion of Jesus and

his resurrection served to uplift faith to understand eter-

nal Life, even the allness of Soul, Spirit, and the noth-

ingness of matter.

497:24
6. And we solemnly promise to watch, and pray for

that Mind to be in us which was also in Christ Jesus; to

do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and

to be merciful, just, and pure.

498:1
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499:1
KEY TO THE SCRIPTURES

499:2
These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that

hath the key of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth;

and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold,

I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it.

– REVELATION.

500:1
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Chapter XV

Genesis

And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob by the

name of God Almighty; but by My name Jehovah was I not known to

them. – EXODUS.

All things were made by Him; and without Him was not anything

made that was made. In Him was life; and the life was the light of

men. – JOHN.

Spiritual interpretation

501:1
SCIENTIFIC interpretation of the Scriptures prop-

erly starts with the beginning of the Old Testa-

ment, chiefly because the spiritual import of

the Word, in its earliest articulations, often

seems so smothered by the immediate context as to

require explication; whereas the New Testament narra-

tives are clearer and come nearer the heart. Jesus il-

lumines them, showing the poverty of mortal existence,

but richly recompensing human want and woe with

spiritual gain. The incarnation of Truth, that amplifi-

cation of wonder and glory which angels could only

whisper and which God illustrated by light and har-

mony, is consonant with ever-present Love. So-called

mystery and miracle, which subserve the end of natural

good, are explained by that Love for whose rest the

weary ones sigh when needing something more native

to their immortal cravings than the history of perpetual

evil.

Spiritual overture

502:1
A second necessity for beginning with Genesis is that

the living and real prelude of the older Scriptures is so

brief that it would almost seem, from the

preponderance of unreality in the entire nar-

rative, as if reality did not predominate over unreality,

the light over the dark, the straight line of Spirit over

the mortal deviations and inverted images of the creator

and His creation.

Deflection of being

502:9
Spiritually followed, the book of Genesis is the history

of the untrue image of God, named a sinful mortal. This

deflection of being, rightly viewed, serves to

suggest the proper reflection of God and the

spiritual actuality of man, as given in the first chapter

of Genesis. Even thus the crude forms of human thought

take on higher symbols and significations, when scien-

tifically Christian views of the universe appear, illuminat-

ing time with the glory of eternity.

502:18
In the following exegesis, each text is followed by its

spiritual interpretation according to the teachings of Chris-

tian Science.

502:21
EXEGESIS

502:22
Genesis i. 1. In the beginning God created the heaven

and the earth.

Ideas and identities

502:24
The infinite has no beginning. This word beginning

is employed to signify the only, – that is, the eternal ver-

ity and unity of God and man, including

the universe. The creative Principle – Life,

Truth, and Love – is God. The universe reflects God.

There is but one creator and one creation. This crea-

503:1
tion consists of the unfolding of spiritual ideas and their

identities, which are embraced in the infinite Mind and

forever reflected. These ideas range from the infini-

tesimal to infinity, and the highest ideas are the sons

and daughters of God.

503:6
Genesis i. 2. And the earth was without form, and void;

and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the

spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

Spiritual harmony

503:9
The divine Principle and idea constitute spiritual har-

mony, – heaven and eternity. In the universe of Truth,

matter is unknown. No supposition of error

enters there. Divine Science, the Word of

God, saith to the darkness upon the face of error, "God

is All-in-all," and the light of ever-present Love illumines

the universe. Hence the eternal wonder, – that infinite

space is peopled with God's ideas, reflecting Him in

countless spiritual forms.

503:18
Genesis i. 3. And God said, Let there be light: and

there was light.

Mind's idea faultless

503:20
Immortal and divine Mind presents the idea of God:

first, in light; second, in reflection; third, in spiritual and

immortal forms of beauty and goodness. But

this Mind creates no element nor symbol of

discord and decay. God creates neither erring thought,

mortal life, mutable truth, nor variable love.

503:26
Genesis i. 4. And God saw the light, that it was good:

and God divided the light from the darkness.

503:28
God, Spirit, dwelling in infinite light and harmony

504:1
from which emanates the true idea, is never reflected by

aught but the good.

504:3
Genesis i. 5. And God called the light Day, and the

darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morn-

ing were the first day.

Light preceding the sun

504:6
All questions as to the divine creation being both

spiritual and material are answered in this passage, for

though solar beams are not yet included in

the record of creation, still there is light. This

light is not from the sun nor from volcanic flames, but it

is the revelation of Truth and of spiritual ideas. This

also shows that there is no place where God's light is not

seen, since Truth, Life, and Love fill immensity and are

ever-present. Was not this a revelation instead of a

creation?

Evenings and mornings

504:16
The successive appearing of God's ideas is represented

as taking place on so many evenings and mornings, –

words which indicate, in the absence of solar

time, spiritually clearer views of Him, views

which are not implied by material darkness and dawn.

Here we have the explanation of another passage of

Scripture, that "one day is with the Lord as a thousand

years." The rays of infinite Truth, when gathered into

the focus of ideas, bring light instantaneously, whereas

a thousand years of human doctrines, hypotheses, and

vague conjectures emit no such effulgence.

Spirit versus darkness

504:27
Did infinite Mind create matter, and call it light?

Spirit is light, and the contradiction of Spirit is matter,

darkness, and darkness obscures light. Mate-

rial sense is nothing but a supposition of the

absence of Spirit. No solar rays nor planetary revolutions

505:1
form the day of Spirit. Immortal Mind makes its own

record, but mortal mind, sleep, dreams, sin, disease, and

death have no record in the first chapter of Genesis.

505:4
Genesis i. 6. And God said, Let there be a firmament in

the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from

the waters.

Spiritual firmament

505:7
Spiritual understanding, by which human conception,

material sense, is separated from Truth, is the firmament.

The divine Mind, not matter, creates all iden-

tities, and they are forms of Mind, the ideas of

Spirit apparent only as Mind, never as mindless matter

nor the so-called material senses.

505:13
Genesis i. 7. And God made the firmament, and divided

the waters which were under the firmament from the waters

which were above the firmament: and it was so.

Understanding imparted

505:16
Spirit imparts the understanding which uplifts con-

sciousness and leads into all truth. The Psalmist saith:

"The Lord on high is mightier than the noise

of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of

the sea." Spiritual sense is the discernment of spiritual

good. Understanding is the line of demarcation between

the real and unreal. Spiritual understanding unfolds

Mind, – Life, Truth, and Love, – and demonstrates the

divine sense, giving the spiritual proof of the universe in

Christian Science.

Original reflected

505:26
This understanding is not intellectual, is not the result

of scholarly attainments; it is the reality of all things

brought to light. God's ideas reflect the im-

mortal, unerring, and infinite. The mortal,

erring, and finite are human beliefs, which apportion to

506:1
themselves a task impossible for them, that of distinguish-

ing between the false and the true. Objects utterly un-

like the original do not reflect that original. Therefore

matter, not being the reflection of Spirit, has no real en-

tity. Understanding is a quality of God, a quality which

separates Christian Science from supposition and makes

Truth final.

506:8
Genesis i. 8. And God called the firmament Heaven.

And the evening and the morning were the second day.

Exalted thought

506:10
Through divine Science, Spirit, God, unites under-

standing to eternal harmony. The calm and exalted

thought or spiritual apprehension is at peace.

Thus the dawn of ideas goes on, forming each

successive stage of progress.

506:15
Genesis i. 9. And God said, Let the waters under the

heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry

land appear: and it was so.

Unfolding of thoughts

506:18
Spirit, God, gathers unformed thoughts into their

proper channels, and unfolds these thoughts,

even as He opens the petals of a holy purpose

in order that the purpose may appear.

506:22
Genesis i. 10. And God called the dry land Earth; and

the gathering together of the waters called He Seas: and

God saw that it was good.

Spirit names and blesses

506:25
Here the human concept and divine idea seem con-

fused by the translator, but they are not so in the scien-

tifically Christian meaning of the text. Upon

Adam devolved the pleasurable task of find-

ing names for all material things, but Adam has not yet

507:1
appeared in the narrative. In metaphor, the dry land

illustrates the absolute formations instituted by Mind,

while water symbolizes the elements of Mind. Spirit duly

feeds and clothes every object, as it appears in the line

of spiritual creation, thus tenderly expressing the father-

hood and motherhood of God. Spirit names and blesses

all. Without natures particularly defined, objects and

subjects would be obscure, and creation would be full of

nameless offspring, – wanderers from the parent Mind,

strangers in a tangled wilderness.

507:11
Genesis i. 11. And God said, Let the earth bring forth

grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding

fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth:

and it was so.

Divine propagation

507:15
The universe of Spirit reflects the creative power of

the divine Principle, or Life, which reproduces the multi-

tudinous forms of Mind and governs the mul-

tiplication of the compound idea man. The

tree and herb do not yield fruit because of any propagat-

ing power of their own, but because they reflect the Mind

which includes all. A material world implies a mortal

mind and man a creator. The scientific divine creation

declares immortal Mind and the universe created by God.

Ever-appearing creation

507:24
Infinite Mind creates and governs all, from the men-

tal molecule to infinity. This divine Principle of all

expresses Science and art throughout His

creation, and the immortality of man and the

universe. Creation is ever appearing, and must ever con-

tinue to appear from the nature of its inexhaustible source.

Mortal sense inverts this appearing and calls ideas mate-

rial. Thus misinterpreted, the divine idea seems to fall

508:1
to the level of a human or material belief, called mortal

man. But the seed is in itself, only as the divine Mind

is All and reproduces all – as Mind is the multiplier,

and Mind's infinite idea, man and the universe, is the

product. The only intelligence or substance of a thought,

a seed, or a flower is God, the creator of it. Mind is the

Soul of all. Mind is Life, Truth, and Love which gov-

erns all.

508:9
Genesis i. 12. And the earth brought forth grass, and

herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding

fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw

that it was good.

Mind's pure thought

508:13
God determines the gender of His own ideas. Gen-

der is mental, not material. The seed within itself is

the pure thought emanating from divine

Mind. The feminine gender is not yet ex-

pressed in the text. Gender means simply kind or sort,

and does not necessarily refer either to masculinity or

femininity. The word is not confined to sexuality, and

grammars always recognize a neuter gender, neither

male nor female. The Mind or intelligence of produc-

tion names the female gender last in the ascending order

of creation. The intelligent individual idea, be it male

or female, rising from the lesser to the greater, unfolds

the infinitude of Love.

508:26
Genesis i. 13. And the evening and the morning were

the third day.

Rising to the light

508:28
The third stage in the order of Christian Science is an

important one to the human thought, letting in the light

509:1
of spiritual understanding. This period corresponds to

the resurrection, when Spirit is discerned to be the Life of

all, and the deathless Life, or Mind, dependent

upon no material organization. Our Master

reappeared to his students, – to their apprehension he

rose from the grave, – on the third day of his ascending

thought, and so presented to them the certain sense of

eternal Life.

509:9
Genesis i. 14. And God said, Let there be lights in the

firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night;

and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days,

and years.

Rarefaction of thought

509:13
Spirit creates no other than heavenly or celestial bodies,

but the stellar universe is no more celestial than our earth.

This text gives the idea of the rarefaction of

thought as it ascends higher. God forms and

peoples the universe. The light of spiritual understand-

ing gives gleams of the infinite only, even as nebulae indi-

cate the immensity of space.

Divine nature appearing

509:20
So-called mineral, vegetable, and animal substances

are no more contingent now on time or material struc-

ture than they were when "the morning stars

sang together." Mind made the "plant of

the field before it was in the earth." The periods of

spiritual ascension are the days and seasons of Mind's

creation, in which beauty, sublimity, purity, and holiness

– yea, the divine nature – appear in man and the uni-

verse never to disappear.

Spiritual ideas apprehended

509:29
Knowing the Science of creation, in which all is Mind

and its ideas, Jesus rebuked the material thought of his

fellow-countrymen: "Ye can discern the face of the

510:1
sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?"

How much more should we seek to apprehend the spirit-

ual ideas of God, than to dwell on the objects

of sense! To discern the rhythm of Spirit

and to be holy, thought must be purely spiritual.

510:6
Genesis i. 15. And let them be for lights in the firma-

ment of the heaven, to give light upon the earth: and it

was so.

510:9
Truth and Love enlighten the understanding, in whose

"light shall we see light;" and this illumination is re-

flected spiritually by all who walk in the light and turn

away from a false material sense.

510:13
Genesis i. 16. And God made two great lights; the

greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the

night: He made the stars also.

Geology a failure

510:16
The sun is a metaphorical representation of Soul out-

side the body, giving existence and intelligence to the

universe. Love alone can impart the limit-

less idea of infinite Mind. Geology has never

explained the earth's formations; it cannot explain them.

There is no Scriptural allusion to solar light until time has

been already divided into evening and morning; and the

allusion to fluids (Genesis i. 2) indicates a supposed for-

mation of matter by the resolving of fluids into solids,

analogous to the suppositional resolving of thoughts into

material things.

Spiritual subdivision

510:27
Light is a symbol of Mind, of Life, Truth, and Love,

and not a vitalizing property of matter. Sci-

ence reveals only one Mind, and this one shin-

ing by its own light and governing the universe, including

511:1
man, in perfect harmony. This Mind forms ideas, its

own images, subdivides and radiates their borrowed light,

intelligence, and so explains the Scripture phrase, "whose

seed is in itself." Thus God's ideas "multiply and re-

plenish the earth." The divine Mind supports the sub-

limity, magnitude, and infinitude of spiritual creation.

511:7
Genesis i. 17, 18. And God set them in the firmament of

the heaven, to give light upon the earth, and to rule over

the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the

darkness: and God saw that it was good.

Darkness scattered

511:11
In divine Science, which is the seal of Deity and has

the impress of heaven, God is revealed as in-

finite light. In the eternal Mind, no night is

there.

511:15
Genesis i. 19. And the evening and the morning were

the fourth day.

511:17
The changing glow and full effulgence of God's infi-

nite ideas, images, mark the periods of progress.

511:19
Genesis i. 20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth

abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl

that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of

heaven.

Soaring aspirations

511:23
To mortal mind, the universe is liquid, solid, and aeri-

form. Spiritually interpreted, rocks and mountains stand

for solid and grand ideas. Animals and mor-

tals metaphorically present the gradation of

mortal thought, rising in the scale of intelligence, taking

form in masculine, feminine, or neuter gender. The

fowls, which fly above the earth in the open firmament

512:1
of heaven, correspond to aspirations soaring beyond and

above corporeality to the understanding of the incorporeal

and divine Principle, Love.

512:4
Genesis i. 21. And God created great whales, and every

living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth

abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after

his kind: and God saw that it was good.

Seraphic symbols

512:8
Spirit is symbolized by strength, presence, and power,

and also by holy thoughts, winged with Love. These an-

gels of His presence, which have the holiest

charge, abound in the spiritual atmosphere of

Mind, and consequently reproduce their own character-

istics. Their individual forms we know not, but we do

know that their natures are allied to God's nature; and

spiritual blessings, thus typified, are the externalized, yet

subjective, states of faith and spiritual understanding.

512:17
Genesis i. 22. And God blessed them, saying, Be fruit-

ful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas; and let

fowl multiply in the earth.

Multiplication of pure ideas

512:20
Spirit blesses the multiplication of its own pure and

perfect ideas. From the infinite elements of the one

Mind emanate all form, color, quality, and

quantity, and these are mental, both primarily

and secondarily. Their spiritual nature is discerned only

through the spiritual senses. Mortal mind inverts the true

likeness, and confers animal names and natures upon its

own misconceptions. Ignorant of the origin and opera-

tions of mortal mind, – that is, ignorant of itself, – this

so-called mind puts forth its own qualities, and claims

God as their author; albeit God is ignorant of the ex-

513:1
istence of both this mortal mentality, so-called, and its

claim, for the claim usurps the deific prerogatives and is

an attempted infringement on infinity.

513:4
Genesis i. 23. And the evening and the morning were

the fifth day.

Spiritual spheres

513:6
Advancing spiritual steps in the teeming universe of

Mind lead on to spiritual spheres and exalted beings. To

material sense, this divine universe is dim and

distant, gray in the sombre hues of twilight;

but anon the veil is lifted, and the scene shifts into light.

In the record, time is not yet measured by solar revolutions,

and the motions and reflections of deific power cannot be

apprehended until divine Science becomes the interpreter.

513:14
Genesis i. 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth

the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing,

and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

Continuity of thoughts

513:17
Spirit diversifies, classifies, and individualizes all

thoughts, which are as eternal as the Mind

conceiving them; but the intelligence, exist-

ence, and continuity of all individuality remain in God,

who is the divinely creative Principle thereof.

513:22
Genesis i. 25. And God made the beast of the earth after

his kind, and cattle after their kind, and everything that

creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that

it was good.

God's thoughts are spiritual realities

513:26
God creates all forms of reality. His thoughts are

spiritual realities. So-called mortal mind – being non‑

existent and consequently not within the range of im-

514:1
mortal existence – could not by simulating deific power

invert the divine creation, and afterwards recreate per-

sons or things upon its own plane, since noth-

ing exists beyond the range of all-inclusive

infinity, in which and of which God is the

sole creator. Mind, joyous in strength, dwells in the

realm of Mind. Mind's infinite ideas run and dis-

port themselves. In humility they climb the heights of

holiness.

Qualities of thought

514:10
Moral courage is "the lion of the tribe of Juda," the

king of the mental realm. Free and fearless it roams in

the forest. Undisturbed it lies in the open

field, or rests in "green pastures, . . . beside

the still waters." In the figurative transmission from the

divine thought to the human, diligence, promptness, and

perseverance are likened to "the cattle upon a thousand

hills." They carry the baggage of stern resolve, and

keep pace with highest purpose. Tenderness accompa-

nies all the might imparted by Spirit. The individ-

uality created by God is not carnivorous, as witness the

millennial estate pictured by Isaiah: –

514:22
The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb,

And the leopard shall lie down with the kid;

And the calf and the young lion, and the fatling together;

And a little child shall lead them.

Creatures of God useful

514:26
Understanding the control which Love held over all,

Daniel felt safe in the lions' den, and Paul proved the

viper to be harmless. All of God's creatures

moving in the harmony of Science, are harm-

less, useful, indestructible. A realization of this grand

verity was a source of strength to the ancient worthies.

515:1
It supports Christian healing, and enables its possessor

to emulate the example of Jesus. "And God saw that

it was good."

The serpent harmless

515:4
Patience is symbolized by the tireless worm, creeping

over lofty summits, persevering in its intent. The ser-

pent of God's creating is neither subtle nor

poisonous, but is a wise idea, charming in its

adroitness, for Love's ideas are subject to the Mind which

forms them, – the power which changeth the serpent

into a staff.

515:11
Genesis i. 26. And God said, Let us make man in our

image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion over

the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over

the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping

thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Elohistic plurality

515:16
The eternal Elohim includes the forever universe.

The name Elohim is in the plural, but this plurality of

Spirit does not imply more than one God, nor

does it imply three persons in one. It relates

to the oneness, the triunity of Life, Truth, and Love.

"Let them have dominion." Man is the family name

for all ideas, – the sons and daughters of God. All that

God imparts moves in accord with Him, reflecting good-

ness and power.

Reflected likeness

515:25
Your mirrored reflection is your own image or like-

ness. If you lift a weight, your reflection does this also.

If you speak, the lips of this likeness move in

accord with yours. Now compare man before

the mirror to his divine Principle, God. Call the mirror

divine Science, and call man the reflection. Then note

516:1
how true, according to Christian Science, is the reflection

to its original. As the reflection of yourself appears in

the mirror, so you, being spiritual, are the reflection of

God. The substance, Life, intelligence, Truth, and Love,

which constitute Deity, are reflected by His creation;

and when we subordinate the false testimony of the

corporeal senses to the facts of Science, we shall see

this true likeness and reflection everywhere.

Love imparts beauty

516:9
God fashions all things, after His own likeness. Life

is reflected in existence, Truth in truthfulness, God in

goodness, which impart their own peace and

permanence. Love, redolent with unselfish-

ness, bathes all in beauty and light. The grass beneath

our feet silently exclaims, "The meek shall inherit the

earth." The modest arbutus sends her sweet breath to

heaven. The great rock gives shadow and shelter. The

sunlight glints from the church-dome, glances into the

prison-cell, glides into the sick-chamber, brightens the

flower, beautifies the landscape, blesses the earth. Man,

made in His likeness, possesses and reflects God's domin-

ion over all the earth. Man and woman as coexistent

and eternal with God forever reflect, in glorified quality,

the infinite Father-Mother God.

516:24
Genesis i. 27. So God created man in His own image,

in the image of God created He him; male and female

created He them.

Ideal man and woman

516:27
To emphasize this momentous thought, it is repeated

that God made man in His own image, to reflect the

divine Spirit. It follows that man is a generic

term. Masculine, feminine, and neuter gen-

ders are human concepts. In one of the ancient lan-

517:1
guages the word for man is used also as the synonym of

mind. This definition has been weakened by anthropo-

morphism, or a humanization of Deity. The word an-

thropomorphic, in such a phrase as "an anthropomorphic

God," is derived from two Greek words, signifying man

and form, and may be defined as a mortally mental at-

tempt to reduce Deity to corporeality. The life-giving

quality of Mind is Spirit, not matter. The ideal man

corresponds to creation, to intelligence, and to Truth.

The ideal woman corresponds to Life and to Love. In

divine Science, we have not as much authority for con-

sidering God masculine, as we have for considering

Him feminine, for Love imparts the clearest idea of

Deity.

Divine personality

517:15
The world believes in many persons; but if God is per-

sonal, there is but one person, because there is but one

God. His personality can only be reflected,

not transmitted. God has countless ideas, and

they all have one Principle and parentage. The only

proper symbol of God as person is Mind's infinite ideal.

What is this ideal? Who shall behold it? This ideal

is God's own image, spiritual and infinite. Even eternity

can never reveal the whole of God, since there is no limit

to infinitude or to its reflections.

517:25
Genesis i. 28. And God blessed them, and God said unto

them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,

and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea,

and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing

that moveth upon the earth.

Birthright of man

517:30
Divine Love blesses its own ideas, and causes them to

multiply, – to manifest His power. Man is not made

518:1
to till the soil. His birthright is dominion, not sub-

jection. He is lord of the belief in earth

and heaven, – himself subordinate alone to

his Maker. This is the Science of being.

518:5
Genesis i. 29, 30. And God said, Behold, I have given

you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all

the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree

yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every

beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to

everything that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is

life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it

was so.

Assistance in brotherhood

518:13
God gives the lesser idea of Himself for a link to the

greater, and in return, the higher always protects the

lower. The rich in spirit help the poor in

one grand brotherhood, all having the same

Principle, or Father; and blessed is that man who seeth

his brother's need and supplieth it, seeking his own in

another's good. Love giveth to the least spiritual idea

might, immortality, and goodness, which shine through

all as the blossom shines through the bud. All the varied

expressions of God reflect health, holiness, immortality –

infinite Life, Truth, and Love.

518:24
Genesis i. 31. And God saw everything that He had

made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and

the morning were the sixth day.

Perfection of creation

518:27
The divine Principle, or Spirit, comprehends and ex-

presses all, and all must therefore be as perfect is the

divine Principle is perfect. Nothing is new to Spirit.

519:1
Nothing can be novel to eternal Mind, the author of all

things, who from all eternity knoweth His own ideas.

Deity was satisfied with His work. How could

He be otherwise, since the spiritual creation

was the outgrowth, the emanation, of His infinite self‑

containment and immortal wisdom?

519:7
Genesis ii. 1. Thus the heavens and the earth were

finished, and all the host of them.

Infinity measureless

519:9
Thus the ideas of God in universal being are complete

and forever expressed, for Science reveals infinity and

the fatherhood and motherhood of Love. Hu-

man capacity is slow to discern and to grasp

God's creation and the divine power and presence which

go with it, demonstrating its spiritual origin. Mortals

can never know the infinite, until they throw off the old

man and reach the spiritual image and likeness. What

can fathom infinity! How shall we declare Him, till,

in the language of the apostle, "we all come in the unity

of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto

a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the ful-

ness of Christ"?

519:22
Genesis ii. 2. And on the seventh day God ended His

work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh

day from all His work which He had made.

Resting in holy work

519:25
God rests in action. Imparting has not impoverished,

can never impoverish, the divine Mind. No

exhaustion follows the action of this Mind,

according to the apprehension of divine Science. The

520:1
highest and sweetest rest, even from a human standpoint,

is in holy work.

Love and man coexistent

520:3
Unfathomable Mind is expressed. The depth, breadth,

height, might, majesty, and glory of infinite Love fill all

space. That is enough! Human language

can repeat only an infinitesimal part of what

exists. The absolute ideal, man, is no more seen nor

comprehended by mortals, than is His infinite Principle,

Love. Principle and its idea, man, are coexistent and

eternal. The numerals of infinity, called seven days, can

never be reckoned according to the calendar of time.

These days will appear as mortality disappears, and they

will reveal eternity, newness of Life, in which all sense of

error forever disappears and thought accepts the divine

infinite calculus.

520:16
Genesis ii. 4, 5. These are the generations of the heavens

and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the

Lord God [Jehovah] made the earth and the heavens, and

every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every

herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God [Jehovah]

had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not

a man to till the ground.

Growth is from Mind

520:23
Here is the emphatic declaration that God creates all

through Mind, not through matter, – that the plant

grows, not because of seed or soil, but because

growth is the eternal mandate of Mind. Mor-

tal thought drops into the ground, but the immortal creat-

ing thought is from above, not from beneath. Because

Mind makes all, there is nothing left to be made by a

lower power. Spirit acts through the Science of Mind,

never causing man to till the ground, but making him

521:1
superior to the soil. Knowledge of this lifts man above

the sod, above earth and its environments, to conscious

spiritual harmony and eternal being.

Spiritual narrative

521:4
Here the inspired record closes its narrative of being

that is without beginning or end. All that is made is

the work of God, and all is good. We leave

this brief, glorious history of spiritual creation

(as stated in the first chapter of Genesis) in the hands of

God, not of man, in the keeping of Spirit, not matter, –

joyfully acknowledging now and forever God's supremacy,

omnipotence, and omnipresence.

521:12
The harmony and immortality of man are intact. We

should look away from the opposite supposition that man

is created materially, and turn our gaze to the spiritual

record of creation, to that which should be engraved on

the understanding and heart "with the point of a diamond"

and the pen of an angel.

521:18
The reader will naturally ask if there is nothing more

about creation in the book of Genesis. Indeed there is,

but the continued account is mortal and material.

521:21
Genesis ii. 6. But there went up a mist from the earth,

and watered the whole face of the ground.

The story of error

521:23
The Science and truth of the divine creation have been

presented in the verses already considered, and now the

opposite error, a material view of creation, is

to be set forth. The second chapter of Gene-

sis contains a statement of this material view of God and

the universe, a statement which is the exact opposite of

scientific truth as before recorded. The history of error

or matter, if veritable, would set aside the omnipotence

522:1
of Spirit; but it is the false history in contradistinction

to the true.

The two records

522:3
The Science of the first record proves the falsity of

the second. If one is true, the other is false, for they are

antagonistic. The first record assigns all

might and government to God, and endows

man out of God's perfection and power. The second

record chronicles man as mutable and mortal, – as hav-

ing broken away from Deity and as revolving in an orbit

of his own. Existence, separate from divinity, Science

explains as impossible.

522:12
This second record unmistakably gives the history of

error in its externalized forms, called life and intelli-

gence in matter. It records pantheism, opposed to the

supremacy of divine Spirit; but this state of things is

declared to be temporary and this man to be mortal, –

dust returning to dust.

Erroneous representation

522:18
In this erroneous theory, matter takes the place of Spirit.

Matter is represented as the life-giving principle of the

earth. Spirit is represented as entering mat-

ter in order to create man. God's glowing

denunciations of man when not found in His

image, the likeness of Spirit, convince reason and coincide

with revelation in declaring this material creation false.

Hypothetical reversal

522:25
This latter part of the second chapter of Genesis, which

portrays Spirit as supposedly cooperating with matter in

constructing the universe, is based on some

hypothesis of error, for the Scripture just pre-

ceding declares God's work to be finished. Does Life,

Truth, and Love produce death, error, and hatred? Does

the creator condemn His own creation? Does the un-

erring Principle of divine law change or repent? It can-

523:1
not be so. Yet one might so judge from an unintelligent

perusal of the Scriptural account now under comment.

Mist, or false claim

523:3
Because of its false basis, the mist of obscurity evolved

by error deepens the false claim, and finally declares that

God knows error and that error can improve

His creation. Although presenting the exact

opposite of Truth, the lie claims to be truth. The crea-

tions of matter arise from a mist or false claim, or from

mystification, and not from the firmament, or under-

standing, which God erects between the true and false.

In error everything comes from beneath, not from above.

All is material myth, instead of the reflection of

Spirit.

Distinct documents

523:14
It may be worth while here to remark that, according

to the best scholars, there are clear evidences of two dis-

tinct documents in the early part of the book of

Genesis. One is called the Elohistic, because

the Supreme Being is therein called Elohim. The other

document is called the Jehovistic, because Deity therein is

always called Jehovah, – or Lord God, as our common

version translates it.

Jehovah or Elohim

523:22
Throughout the first chapter of Genesis and in three

verses of the second, – in what we understand to be the

spiritually scientific account of creation, – it is

Elohim (God) who creates. From the fourth

verse of chapter two to chapter five, the creator is called

Jehovah, or the Lord. The different accounts become

more and more closely intertwined to the end of chapter

twelve, after which the distinction is not definitely trace-

able. In the historic parts of the Old Testament, it is

usually Jehovah, peculiarly the divine sovereign of the

Hebrew people, who is referred to.

Gods of the heathen

524:1
The idolatry which followed this material mythology is

seen in the Phoenician worship of Baal, in the Moabitish

god Chemosh, in the Moloch of the Amorites,

in the Hindoo Vishnu, in the Greek Aphro-

dite, and in a thousand other so-called deities.

Jehovah a tribal deity

524:6
It was also found among the Israelites, who constantly

went after "strange gods." They called the Supreme

Being by the national name of Jehovah. In

that name of Jehovah, the true idea of God

seems almost lost. God becomes "a man of war," a

tribal god to be worshipped, rather than Love, the divine

Principle to be lived and loved.

524:13
Genesis ii. 7. And the Lord God [Jehovah] formed man

of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils

the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

Creation reversed

524:16
Did the divine and infinite Principle become a finite

deity, that he should now be called Jehovah? With

a single command, Mind had made man,

both male and female. How then could a

material organization become the basis of man? How

could the non-intelligent become the medium of Mind,

and error be the enunciator of Truth? Matter is not

the reflection of Spirit, yet God is reflected in all His

creation. Is this addition to His creation real or un-

real? Is it the truth, or is it a lie concerning man and

God?

524:27
It must be a lie, for God presently curses the ground.

Could Spirit evolve its opposite, matter, and give matter

ability to sin and suffer? Is Spirit, God, injected into

dust, and eventually ejected at the demand of matter?

Does Spirit enter dust, and lose therein the divine nature

525:1
and omnipotence? Does Mind, God, enter matter to be-

come there a mortal sinner, animated by the breath of

God? In this narrative, the validity of matter is opposed,

not the validity of Spirit or Spirit's creations. Man re-

flects God; mankind represents the Adamic race, and is

a human, not a divine, creation.

Definitions of man

525:7
The following are some of the equivalents of the term

man in different languages. In the Saxon, mankind, a

woman, any one; in the Welsh, that which rises

up, – the primary sense being image, form; in

the Hebrew, image, similitude; in the Icelandic, mind.

The following translation is from the Icelandic: –

525:13
And God said, Let us make man after our mind and

our likeness; and God shaped man after His mind; after

God's mind shaped He Him; and He shaped them male and

female.

No baneful creation

525:17
In the Gospel of John, it is declared that all things were

made through the Word of God, "and without Him [the

logos, or word] was not anything made that

was made." Everything good or worthy, God

made. Whatever is valueless or baneful, He did not

make, – hence its unreality. In the Science of Genesis

we read that He saw everything which He had made,

"and, behold, it was very good." The corporeal senses

declare otherwise; and if we give the same heed to the

history of error as to the records of truth, the Scriptural

record of sin and death favors the false conclusion of the

material senses. Sin, sickness, and death must be deemed

as devoid of reality as they are of good, God.

525:30
Genesis ii. 9. And out of the ground made the Lord God

[Jehovah] to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight,

526:1
and good for food; the tree of life also, in the midst of the

garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Contradicting first creation

526:3
The previous and more scientific record of creation

declares that God made "every plant of the field be-

fore it was in the earth." This opposite

declaration, this statement that life issues

from matter, contradicts the teaching of the first chap-

ter, – namely, that all Life is God. Belief is less than

understanding. Belief involves theories of material hear-

ing, sight, touch, taste, and smell, termed the five senses.

The appetites and passions, sin, sickness, and death,

follow in the train of this error of a belief in intelligent

matter.

Record of error

526:14
The first mention of evil is in the legendary Scriptural

text in the second chapter of Genesis. God pronounced

good all that He created, and the Scriptures

declare that He created all. The "tree of

life" stands for the idea of Truth, and the sword which

guards it is the type of divine Science. The "tree of

knowledge" stands for the erroneous doctrine that the

knowledge of evil is as real, hence as God-bestowed, as

the knowledge of good. Was evil instituted through God,

Love? Did He create this fruit-bearer of sin in contra-

diction of the first creation? This second biblical account

is a picture of error throughout.

526:26
Genesis ii. 15. And the Lord God [Jehovah] took the

man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it and

to keep it.

Garden of Eden

526:29
The name Eden, according to Cruden, means pleasure,

delight. In this text Eden stands for the mortal, mate-

527:1
rial body. God could not put Mind into matter nor in-

finite Spirit into finite form to dress it and

keep it, – to make it beautiful or to cause it

to live and grow. Man is God's reflection, needing no

cultivation, but ever beautiful and complete.

527:6
Genesis ii. 16, 17. And the Lord God [Jehovah] com-

manded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou

mayest freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good

and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou

eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

No temptation from God

527:11
Here the metaphor represents God, Love, as tempting

man, but the Apostle James says: "God cannot be

tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any

man." It is true that a knowledge of evil would

make man mortal. It is plain also that mate-

rial perception, gathered from the corporeal senses, consti-

tutes evil and mortal knowledge. But is it true that God,

good, made "the tree of life" to be the tree of death to His

own creation? Has evil the reality of good? Evil is un-

real because it is a lie, – false in every statement.

527:21
Genesis ii. 19. And out of the ground the Lord God

[Jehovah] formed every beast of the field, and every fowl

of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he

would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living

creature, that was the name thereof.

Creation's counterfeit

527:26
Here the lie represents God as repeating creation, but

doing so materially, not spiritually, and ask-

ing a prospective sinner to help Him. Is the

Supreme Being retrograding, and is man giving up his

dignity? Was it requisite for the formation of man

528:1
that dust should become sentient, when all being is the

reflection of the eternal Mind, and the record declares

that God has already created man, both male and

female? That Adam gave the name and nature of

animals, is solely mythological and material. It can-

not be true that man was ordered to create man anew

in partnership with God; this supposition was a dream,

a myth.

528:9
Genesis ii. 21, 22. And the Lord God [Jehovah, Yawah]

caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and

He took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead

thereof; and the rib, which the Lord God [Jehovah] had

taken from man, made He a woman, and brought her unto

the man.

Hypnotic surgery

528:15
Here falsity, error, credits Truth, God, with inducing

a sleep or hypnotic state in Adam in order to perform a

surgical operation on him and thereby create

woman. This is the first record of magnet-

ism. Beginning creation with darkness instead of light,

– materially rather than spiritually, – error now simu-

lates the work of Truth, mocking Love and declar-

ing what great things error has done. Beholding the

creations of his own dream and calling them real and

God-given, Adam – alias error – gives them names.

Afterwards he is supposed to become the basis of the

creation of woman and of his own kind, calling them

mankind, – that is, a kind of man.

Mental midwifery

528:28
But according to this narrative, surgery was first per-

formed mentally and without instruments;

and this may be a useful hint to the medical

faculty. Later in human history, when the forbidden

529:1
fruit was bringing forth fruit of its own kind, there

came a suggestion of change in the modus operandi, –

that man should be born of woman, not woman again

taken from man. It came about, also, that instruments

were needed to assist the birth of mortals. The first

system of suggestive obstetrics has changed. Another

change will come as to the nature and origin of man,

and this revelation will destroy the dream of existence,

reinstate reality, usher in Science and the glorious fact

of creation, that both man and woman proceed from

God and are His eternal children, belonging to no lesser

parent.

529:13
Genesis iii. 1-3. Now the serpent was more subtle than

any beast of the field which the Lord God [Jehovah] had

made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said,

Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? And the

woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of

the trees of the garden: but of the fruit of the tree which is

in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat

of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.

Mythical serpent

529:21
Whence comes a talking, lying serpent to tempt the

children of divine Love? The serpent enters into the

metaphor only as evil. We have nothing in the

animal kingdom which represents the species

described, – a talking serpent, – and should rejoice that

evil, by whatever figure presented, contradicts itself and

has neither origin nor support in Truth and good. Seeing

this, we should have faith to fight all claims of evil, be-

cause we know that they are worthless and unreal.

Error or Adam

529:30
Adam, the synonym for error, stands for a belief of

material mind. He begins his reign over man some-

530:1
what mildly, but he increases in falsehood and his days

become shorter. In this development, the im-

mortal, spiritual law of Truth is made manifest

as forever opposed to mortal, material sense.

Divine providence

530:5
In divine Science, man is sustained by God, the divine

Principle of being. The earth, at God's command, brings

forth food for man's use. Knowing this, Jesus

once said, "Take no thought for your life,

what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink," – presuming

not on the prerogative of his creator, but recognizing God,

the Father and Mother of all, as able to feed and clothe

man as He doth the lilies.

530:13
Genesis iii. 4, 5. And the serpent said unto the woman,

Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know that in the day

ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall

be as gods, knowing good and evil.

Error's assumption

530:17
This myth represents error as always asserting its su-

periority over truth, giving the lie to divine Science and

saying, through the material senses: "I can

open your eyes. I can do what God has not

done for you. Bow down to me and have another god.

Only admit that I am real, that sin and sense are more

pleasant to the eyes than spiritual Life, more to be de-

sired than Truth, and I shall know you, and you will be

mine." Thus Spirit and flesh war.

Scriptural allegory

530:26
The history of error is a dream-narrative. The dream

has no reality, no intelligence, no mind; therefore the

dreamer and dream are one, for neither is

true nor real. First, this narrative supposes

that something springs from nothing, that matter pre-

cedes mind. Second, it supposes that mind enters matter,

531:1
and matter becomes living, substantial, and intelligent.

The order of this allegory – the belief that everything

springs from dust instead of from Deity – has been main-

tained in all the subsequent forms of belief. This is the

error, – that mortal man starts materially, that non‑

intelligence becomes intelligence, that mind and soul are

both right and wrong.

Higher hope

531:8
It is well that the upper portions of the brain represent

the higher moral sentiments, as if hope were ever prophe-

sying thus: The human mind will sometime

rise above all material and physical sense, ex-

changing it for spiritual perception, and exchanging hu-

man concepts for the divine consciousness. Then man

will recognize his God-given dominion and being.

Biological inventions

531:15
If, in the beginning, man's body originated in non‑

intelligent dust, and mind was afterwards put into body

by the creator, why is not this divine order

still maintained by God in perpetuating the

species? Who will say that minerals, vegetables, and

animals have a propagating property of their own?

Who dares to say either that God is in matter or that

matter exists without God? Has man sought out other

creative inventions, and so changed the method of his

Maker?

531:25
Which institutes Life, – matter or Mind? Does Life

begin with Mind or with matter? Is Life sustained by

matter or by Spirit? Certainly not by both, since flesh

wars against Spirit and the corporeal senses can take no

cognizance of Spirit. The mythologic theory of mate-

rial life at no point resembles the scientifically Christian

record of man as created by Mind in the image and like-

ness of God and having dominion over all the earth. Did

532:1
God at first create one man unaided, – that is, Adam, –

but afterwards require the union of the two sexes in order

to create the rest of the human family? No! God makes

and governs all.

Progeny cursed

532:5
All human knowledge and material sense must be

gained from the five corporeal senses. Is this knowledge

safe, when eating its first fruits brought death?

"In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt

surely die," was the prediction in the story under consid-

eration. Adam and his progeny were cursed, not blessed;

and this indicates that the divine Spirit, or Father, con-

demns material man and remands him to dust.

532:13
Genesis iii. 9, 10. And the Lord God [Jehovah] called

unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? And he

said, I heard Thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid,

because I was naked; and I hid myself.

Shame the effect of sin

532:17
Knowledge and pleasure, evolved through material

sense, produced the immediate fruits of fear and shame.

Ashamed before Truth, error shrank abashed

from the divine voice calling out to the cor-

poreal senses. Its summons may be thus paraphrased:

"Where art thou, man? Is Mind in matter? Is Mind

capable of error as well as of truth, of evil as well as of

good, when God is All and He is Mind and there is but

one God, hence one Mind?"

Fear comes of error

532:26
Fear was the first manifestation of the error of mate-

rial sense. Thus error began and will end the dream of

matter. In the allegory the body had been

naked, and Adam knew it not; but now error

demands that mind shall see and feel through matter, the

five senses. The first impression material man had of

533:1
himself was one of nakedness and shame. Had he lost

man's rich inheritance and God's behest, dominion over

all the earth? No! This had never been bestowed on

Adam.

533:5
Genesis iii. 11, 12. And He said, Who told thee that

thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I

commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat? And the man

said, The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me, she gave

me of the tree, and I did eat.

The beguiling first lie

533:10
Here there is an attempt to trace all human errors

directly or indirectly to God, or good, as if He were the

creator of evil. The allegory shows that the

snake-talker utters the first voluble lie, which

beguiles the woman and demoralizes the man. Adam,

alias mortal error, charges God and woman with his own

dereliction, saying, "The woman, whom Thou gavest

me, is responsible." According to this belief, the rib taken

from Adam's side has grown into an evil mind, named

woman, who aids man to make sinners more rapidly than

he can alone. Is this an help meet for man?

533:21
Materiality, so obnoxious to God, is already found in the

rapid deterioration of the bone and flesh which came from

Adam to form Eve. The belief in material life and in-

telligence is growing worse at every step, but error has its

suppositional day and multiplies until the end thereof.

False womanhood

533:26
Truth, cross-questioning man as to His knowledge of

error, finds woman the first to confess her fault. She

says, "The serpent beguiled me, and I did

eat;" as much as to say in meek penitence,

"Neither man nor God shall father my fault." She has

already learned that corporeal sense is the serpent. Hence

534:1
she is first to abandon the belief in the material origin of

man and to discern spiritual creation. This hereafter

enabled woman to be the mother of Jesus and to behold

at the sepulchre the risen Saviour, who was soon to mani-

fest the deathless man of God's creating. This enabled

woman to be first to interpret the Scriptures in their true

sense, which reveals the spiritual origin of man.

534:8
Genesis iii. 14, 15. And the Lord God [Jehovah] said

unto the serpent, . . . I will put enmity between thee and

the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall

bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

Spirit and flesh

534:12
This prophecy has been fulfilled. The Son of the Virgin‑

mother unfolded the remedy for Adam, or error; and the

Apostle Paul explains this warfare between the

idea of divine power, which Jesus presented,

and mythological material intelligence called energy and

opposed to Spirit.

534:18
Paul says in his epistle to the Romans: "The carnal

mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the

law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that

are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the

flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell

in you."

Bruising sin's head

534:24
There will be greater mental opposition to the spirit-

ual, scientific meaning of the Scriptures than there has

ever been since the Christian era began. The

serpent, material sense, will bite the heel of

the woman, – will struggle to destroy the spiritual idea

of Love; and the woman, this idea, will bruise the head

of lust. The spiritual idea has given the understanding

535:1
a foothold in Christian Science. The seed of Truth and

the seed of error, of belief and of understanding, – yea,

the seed of Spirit and the seed of matter, – are the wheat

and tares which time will separate, the one to be burned,

the other to be garnered into heavenly places.

535:6
Genesis iii. 16. Unto the woman He said, I will greatly

multiply thy sorrow and thy conception: in sorrow thou

shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy

husband, and he shall rule over thee.

Judgment on error

535:10
Divine Science deals its chief blow at the supposed ma-

terial foundations of life and intelligence. It dooms idol-

atry. A belief in other gods, other creators,

and other creations must go down before Chris-

tian Science. It unveils the results of sin as shown in

sickness and death. When will man pass through the

open gate of Christian Science into the heaven of Soul,

into the heritage of the first born among men? Truth is

indeed "the way."

535:19
Genesis iii. 17-19. And unto Adam He said, Because

thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast

eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou

shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in

sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life: thorns

also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt

eat the herb of the field: in the sweat of thy face shalt thou

eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it

wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt

thou return.

New earth and no more sea

535:29
In the first chapter of Genesis we read: "And God

called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together

536:1
of the waters called He Seas." In the Apocalypse it is

written: "And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for

the first heaven and the first earth were passed

away; and there was no more sea." In St.

John's vision, heaven and earth stand for spir-

itual ideas, and the sea, as a symbol of tempest-tossed

human concepts advancing and receding, is represented

as having passed away. The divine understanding reigns,

is all and there is no other consciousness.

The fall of error

536:10
The way of error is awful to contemplate. The illu-

sion of sin is without hope or God. If man's spiritual

gravitation and attraction to one Father, in

whom we "live, and move, and have our be-

ing," should be lost, and if man should be governed by

corporeality instead of divine Principle, by body instead

of by Soul, man would be annihilated. Created by flesh

instead of by Spirit, starting from matter instead of from

God, mortal man would be governed by himself. The

blind leading the blind, both would fall.

True attainment

536:20
Passions and appetites must end in pain. They are

"of few days, and full of trouble." Their supposed joys

are cheats. Their narrow limits belittle their gratifica-

tions, and hedge about their achievements with thorns.

Mortal mind accepts the erroneous, material concep-

tion of life and joy, but the true idea is gained from the

immortal side. Through toil, struggle, and sor-

row, what do mortals attain? They give up

their belief in perishable life and happiness; the mortal

and material return to dust, and the immortal is reached.

536:30
Genesis iii. 22-24. And the Lord God [Jehovah] said,

Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good

537:1
and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take

also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever; therefore

the Lord God [Jehovah] sent him forth from the garden

of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

So He drove out the man: and He placed at the east

of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword

which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of

life.

Justice and recompense

537:9
A knowledge of evil was never the essence of divin-

ity or manhood. In the first chapter of Genesis, evil

has no local habitation nor name. Crea-

tion is there represented as spiritual, entire,

and good. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he

also reap." Error excludes itself from harmony. Sin

is its own punishment. Truth guards the gateway

to harmony. Error tills its own barren soil and buries

itself in the ground, since ground and dust stand for

nothingness.

Inspired interpretation

537:19
No one can reasonably doubt that the purpose of this

allegory – this second account in Genesis – is to depict

the falsity of error and the effects of error.

Subsequent Bible revelation is coordinate

with the Science of creation recorded in the

first chapter of Genesis. Inspired writers interpret the

Word spiritually, while the ordinary historian interprets

it literally. Literally taken, the text is made to appear

contradictory in some places, and divine Love, which

blessed the earth and gave it to man for a possession, is

represented as changeable. The literal meaning would

imply that God withheld from man the opportunity to

reform, lest man should improve it and become better;

but this is not the nature of God, who is Love always, –

538:1
Love infinitely wise and altogether lovely, who "seeketh

not her own."

Spiritual gateway

538:3
Truth should, and does, drive error out of all selfhood.

Truth is a two-edged sword, guarding and guiding.

Truth places the cherub wisdom at the gate

of understanding to note the proper guests.

Radiant with mercy and justice, the sword of Truth

gleams afar and indicates the infinite distance between

Truth and error, between the material and spiritual, –

the unreal and the real.

Contrasted testimony

538:11
The sun, giving light and heat to the earth, is a figure

of divine Life and Love, enlightening and sustaining the

universe. The "tree of life" is significant of

eternal reality or being. The "tree of knowl-

edge" typifies unreality. The testimony of the serpent is

significant of the illusion of error, of the false claims that

misrepresent God, good. Sin, sickness, and death have

no record in the Elohistic introduction of Genesis, in which

God creates the heavens, earth, and man. Until that

which contradicts the truth of being enters into the arena,

evil has no history, and evil is brought into view only as

the unreal in contradistinction to the real and eternal.

538:23
Genesis iv. 1. And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she

conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man

from the Lord [Jehovah].

Erroneous conception

538:26
This account is given, not of immortal man, but of mor-

tal man, and of sin which is temporal. As both mortal

man and sin have a beginning, they must

consequently have an end, while the sinless,

real man is eternal. Eve's declaration, "I have gotten

a man from the Lord," supposes God to be the author

539:1
of sin and sin's progeny. This false sense of existence

is fratricidal. In the words of Jesus, it (evil, devil) is

"a murderer from the beginning." Error begins by

reckoning life as separate from Spirit, thus sapping the

foundations of immortality, as if life and immortality

were something which matter can both give and take

away.

Only one standard

539:8
What can be the standard of good, of Spirit, of Life,

or of Truth, if they produce their opposites, such as evil,

matter, error, and death? God could never

impart an element of evil, and man possesses

nothing which he has not derived from God. How then

has man a basis for wrong-doing? Whence does he

obtain the propensity or power to do evil? Has Spirit

resigned to matter the government of the universe?

A type of falsehood

539:16
The Scriptures declare that God condemned this lie as

to man's origin and character by condemning its symbol,

the serpent, to grovel beneath all the beasts

of the field. It is false to say that Truth and

error commingle in creation. In parable and argument,

this falsity is exposed by our Master as self-evidently

wrong. Disputing these points with the Pharisees and

arguing for the Science of creation, Jesus said: "Do men

gather grapes of thorns?" Paul asked: "What com-

munion hath light with darkness? And what concord

hath Christ with Belial?"

Scientific offspring

539:27
The divine origin of Jesus gave him more than human

power to expound the facts of creation, and demonstrate

the one Mind which makes and governs man

and the universe. The Science of creation,

so conspicuous in the birth of Jesus inspired his wisest

and least-understood sayings, and was the basis of his

540:1
marvellous demonstrations. Christ is the offspring of

Spirit, and spiritual existence shows that Spirit creates

neither a wicked nor a mortal man, lapsing into sin, sick-

ness, and death.

Cleansing upheaval

540:5
In Isaiah we read: "I make peace, and create evil. I

the Lord do all these things;" but the prophet referred to

divine law as stirring up the belief in evil to its

utmost, when bringing it to the surface and re-

ducing it to its common denominator, nothingness. The

muddy river-bed must be stirred in order to purify the

stream. In moral chemicalization, when the symptoms

of evil, illusion, are aggravated, we may think in our igno-

rance that the Lord hath wrought an evil; but we ought

to know that God's law uncovers so-called sin and its

effects, only that Truth may annihilate all sense of evil

and all power to sin.

Allegiance to Spirit

540:17
Science renders "unto Caesar the things which are

Caesar's; and unto God the things that are God's." It

saith to the human sense of sin, sickness, and

death, "God never made you, and you are a

false sense which hath no knowledge of God." The pur-

pose of the Hebrew allegory, representing error as assum-

ing a divine character, is to teach mortals never to believe

a lie.

540:25
Genesis iv. 3, 4. Cain brought of the fruit of the ground

an offering unto the Lord [Jehovah]. And Abel, he also

brought of the firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof.

Spiritual and material

540:28
Cain is the type of mortal and material man, conceived

in sin and "shapen in iniquity;" he is not the

type of Truth and Love. Material in origin

and sense, he brings a material offering to God. Abel

541:1
takes his offering from the firstlings of the flock. A lamb

is a more animate form of existence, and more nearly re-

sembles a mind-offering than does Cain's fruit. Jealous

of his brother's gift, Cain seeks Abel's life, instead of mak-

ing his own gift a higher tribute to the Most High.

541:6
Genesis iv. 4, 5. And the Lord [Jehovah] had respect

unto Abel, and to his offering: but unto Cain, and to his

offering, He had not respect.

541:9
Had God more respect for the homage bestowed through

a gentle animal than for the worship expressed by Cain's

fruit? No; but the lamb was a more spiritual type of

even the human concept of Love than the herbs of the

ground could be.

541:14
Genesis iv. 8. Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and

slew him.

541:16
The erroneous belief that life, substance, and intelli-

gence can be material ruptures the life and brotherhood

of man at the very outset.

541:19
Genesis iv. 9. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto Cain,

Where is Abel thy brother? And he said, I know not: Am

I my brother's keeper?

Brotherhood repudiated

541:22
Here the serpentine lie invents new forms. At first it

usurps divine power. It is supposed to say

in the first instance, "Ye shall be as gods."

Now it repudiates even the human duty of man towards

his brother.

541:27
Genesis iv. 10, 11. And He [Jehovah] said, . . . The

voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto Me from the ground.

And now art thou cursed from the earth.

Murder brings its curse

542:1
The belief of life in matter sins at every step. It in-

curs divine displeasure, and it would kill Jesus that it

might be rid of troublesome Truth. Material

beliefs would slay the spiritual idea when-

ever and wherever it appears. Though error hides

behind a lie and excuses guilt, error cannot forever be

concealed. Truth, through her eternal laws, unveils

error. Truth causes sin to betray itself, and sets upon

error the mark of the beast. Even the disposition to

excuse guilt or to conceal it is punished. The avoidance

of justice and the denial of truth tend to perpetuate sin,

invoke crime, jeopardize self-control, and mock divine

mercy.

542:14
Genesis iv. 15. And the Lord [Jehovah] said unto him

Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken

on him sevenfold. And the Lord [Jehovah] set a mark

upon Cain, lest any finding him should kill him.

Retribution and remorse

542:18
"They that take the sword shall perish with the

sword." Let Truth uncover and destroy error in God's

own way, and let human justice pattern the

divine. Sin will receive its full penalty, both

for what it is and for what it does. Justice marks

the sinner, and teaches mortals not to remove the

waymarks of God. To envy's own hell, justice con-

signs the lie which, to advance itself, breaks God's

commandments.

542:27
Genesis iv. 16. And Cain went out from the presence of

the Lord [Jehovah], and dwelt in the land of Nod.

Climax of suffering

542:29
The sinful misconception of Life as something less

543:1
than God, having no truth to support it, falls back upon

itself. This error, after reaching the climax of suffering,

yields to Truth and returns to dust; but it

is only mortal man and not the real man,

who dies. The image of Spirit cannot be effaced, since it

is the idea of Truth and changes not, but becomes more

beautifully apparent at error's demise.

Dwelling in dreamland

543:8
In divine Science, the material man is shut out from

the presence of God. The five corporeal senses cannot

take cognizance of Spirit. They cannot come

into His presence, and must dwell in dream‑

land, until mortals arrive at the understanding that ma-

terial life, with all its sin, sickness, and death, is an illu-

sion, against which divine Science is engaged in a warfare

of extermination. The great verities of existence are

never excluded by falsity.

Man springs from Mind

543:17
All error proceeds from the evidence before the mate-

rial senses. If man is material and originates in an

egg, who shall say that he is not primarily

dust? May not Darwin be right in think-

ing that apehood preceded mortal manhood? Minerals

and vegetables are found, according to divine Science,

to be the creations of erroneous thought, not of matter.

Did man, whom God created with a word, originate

in an egg? When Spirit made all, did it leave aught

for matter to create? Ideas of Truth alone are reflected

in the myriad manifestations of Life, and thus it is

seen that man springs solely from Mind. The belief

that matter supports life would make Life, or God,

mortal.

Material inception

543:31
The text, "In the day that the Lord God [Jehovah

God] made the earth and the heavens," introduces the

544:1
record of a material creation which followed the spiritual,

– a creation so wholly apart from God's, that Spirit

had no participation in it. In God's creation

ideas became productive, obedient to Mind.

There was no rain and "not a man to till the ground."

Mind, instead of matter, being the producer, Life was

self-sustained. Birth, decay, and death arise from the

material sense of things, not from the spiritual, for in

the latter Life consisteth not of the things which a man

eateth. Matter cannot change the eternal fact that

man exists because God exists. Nothing is new to the

infinite Mind.

First evil suggestion

544:13
In Science, Mind neither produces matter nor does

matter produce mind. No mortal mind has the might

or right or wisdom to create or to destroy.

All is under the control of the one Mind,

even God. The first statement about evil, – the first

suggestion of more than the one Mind, – is in the fable

of the serpent. The facts of creation, as previously re-

corded, include nothing of the kind.

Material personality

544:21
The serpent is supposed to say, "Ye shall be as gods,"

but these gods must be evolved from materiality and be

the very antipodes of immortal and spiritual

being. Man is the likeness of Spirit, but a

material personality is not this likeness. Therefore man,

in this allegory, is neither a lesser god nor the image and

likeness of the one God.

544:28
Material, erroneous belief reverses understanding and

truth. It declares mind to be in and of matter, so-called

mortal life to be Life, infinity to enter man's nostrils

so that matter becomes spiritual. Error begins with

corporeality as the producer instead of divine Prin-

545:1
ciple, and explains Deity through mortal and finite con-

ceptions.

545:3
"Behold, the man is become as one of us." This could

not be the utterance of Truth or Science, for according

to the record, material man was fast degenerating and

never had been divinely conceived.

Mental tillage

545:7
The condemnation of mortals to till the ground means

this, – that mortals should so improve material belief

by thought tending spiritually upward as to

destroy materiality. Man, created by God,

was given dominion over the whole earth. The notion

of a material universe is utterly opposed to the theory

of man as evolved from Mind. Such fundamental errors

send falsity into all human doctrines and conclusions,

and do not accord infinity to Deity. Error tills the

whole ground in this material theory, which is entirely a

false view, destructive to existence and happiness. Out-

side of Christian Science all is vague and hypothetical, the

opposite of Truth; yet this opposite, in its false view of

God and man, impudently demands a blessing.

Erroneous standpoint

545:21
The translators of this record of scientific creation

entertained a false sense of being. They believed in

the existence of matter, its propagation and

power. From that standpoint of error, they

could not apprehend the nature and operation of Spirit.

Hence the seeming contradiction in that Scripture, which

is so glorious in its spiritual signification. Truth has

but one reply to all error, – to sin, sickness, and death:

"Dust [nothingness] thou art, and unto dust [nothingness]

shalt thou return."

Mortality mythical

545:31
"As in Adam [error] all die, even so in Christ [Truth]

shall all be made alive." The mortality of man is a

546:1
myth, for man is immortal. The false belief that spirit is

now submerged in matter, at some future time to be eman-

cipated from it, – this belief alone is mortal.

Spirit, God, never germinates, but is "the same

yesterday, and to-day, and forever." If Mind, God, cre-

ates error, that error must exist in the divine Mind, and

this assumption of error would dethrone the perfection

of Deity.

No truth from a material basis

546:9
Is Christian Science contradictory? Is the divine

Principle of creation misstated? Has God no Science to

declare Mind, while matter is governed by un-

erring intelligence? "There went up a mist

from the earth." This represents error as

starting from an idea of good on a material basis. It

supposes God and man to be manifested only through

the corporeal senses, although the material senses can

take no cognizance of Spirit or the spiritual idea.

Genesis and the Apocalypse seem more obscure than

other portions of the Scripture, because they cannot

possibly be interpreted from a material standpoint. To

the author, they are transparent, for they contain the deep

divinity of the Bible.

Dawning of spiritual facts

546:23
Christian Science is dawning upon a material age.

The great spiritual facts of being, like rays of light, shine

in the darkness, though the darkness, com-

prehending them not, may deny their reality.

The proof that the system stated in this book is Chris-

tianly scientific resides in the good this system accom-

plishes, for it cures on a divine demonstrable Principle

which all may understand.

Proof given in healing

546:31
If mathematics should present a thousand different

examples of one rule, the proving of one example would

547:1
authenticate all the others. A simple statement of Chris-

tian Science, if demonstrated by healing, contains the

proof of all here said of Christian Science. If

one of the statements in this book is true, every

one must be true, for not one departs from the stated sys-

tem and rule. You can prove for yourself, dear reader,

the Science of healing, and so ascertain if the author has

given you the correct interpretation of Scripture.

Embryonic evolution

547:9
The late Louis Agassiz, by his microscopic examination

of a vulture's ovum, strengthens the thinker's conclusions

as to the scientific theory of creation. Agassiz

was able to see in the egg the earth's atmos-

phere, the gathering clouds, the moon and stars, while the

germinating speck of so-called embryonic life seemed a

small sun. In its history of mortality, Darwin's theory

of evolution from a material basis is more consistent than

most theories. Briefly, this is Darwin's theory, – that

Mind produces its opposite, matter, and endues matter

with power to recreate the universe, including man. Ma-

terial evolution implies that the great First Cause must

become material, and afterwards must either return to

Mind or go down into dust and nothingness.

True theory of the universe

547:23
The Scriptures are very sacred. Our aim must be to

have them understood spiritually, for only by this under-

standing can truth be gained. The true the-

ory of the universe, including man, is not in

material history but in spiritual development.

Inspired thought relinquishes a material, sensual, and

mortal theory of the universe, and adopts the spiritual and

immortal.

Scriptural perception

547:31
It is this spiritual perception of Scripture, which lifts

humanity out of disease and death and inspires faith.

548:1
"The Spirit and the bride say, Come! . . . and whoso-

ever will, let him take the water of life freely." Christian

Science separates error from truth, and breathes

through the sacred pages the spiritual sense of

life, substance, and intelligence. In this Science, we dis-

cover man in the image and likeness of God. We see that

man has never lost his spiritual estate and his eternal

harmony.

The clouds dissolving

548:9
How little light or heat reach our earth when clouds

cover the sun's face! So Christian Science can be seen

only as the clouds of corporeal sense roll away.

Earth has little light or joy for mortals before

Life is spiritually learned. Every agony of mortal error

helps error to destroy error, and so aids the apprehension

of immortal Truth. This is the new birth going on

hourly, by which men may entertain angels, the true

ideas of God, the spiritual sense of being.

Prediction of a naturalist

548:18
Speaking of the origin of mortals, a famous naturalist

says: "It is very possible that many general statements

now current, about birth and generation, will

be changed with the progress of information."

Had the naturalist, through his tireless researches, gained

the diviner side in Christian Science, – so far apart from

his material sense of animal growth and organization, –

he would have blessed the human race more abundantly.

Methods of reproduction

548:26
Natural history is richly endowed by the labors and

genius of great men. Modern discoveries have brought

to light important facts in regard to so-called

embryonic life. Agassiz declares ("Methods

of Study in Natural History,") "Certain ani-

mals, besides the ordinary process of generation, also

increase their numbers naturally and constantly by self‑

549:1
division." This discovery is corroborative of the Science

of Mind, for this discovery shows that the multiplication

of certain animals takes place apart from sexual condi-

tions. The supposition that life germinates in eggs and

must decay after it has grown to maturity, if not before,

is shown by divine metaphysics to be a mistake, – a

blunder which will finally give place to higher theories

and demonstrations.

The three processes

549:9
Creatures of lower forms of organism are supposed

to have, as classes, three different methods of reproduc-

tion and to multiply their species sometimes

through eggs, sometimes through buds, and

sometimes through self-division. According to recent

lore, successive generations do not begin with the birth of

new individuals, or personalities, but with the formation

of the nucleus, or egg, from which one or more individu-

alities subsequently emerge; and we must therefore look

upon the simple ovum as the germ, the starting-point, of

the most complicated corporeal structures, including those

which we call human. Here these material researches

culminate in such vague hypotheses as must necessarily

attend false systems, which rely upon physics and are de-

void of metaphysics.

Deference to material law

549:24
In one instance a celebrated naturalist, Agassiz, dis-

covers the pathway leading to divine Science, and beards

the lion of materialism in its den. At that

point, however, even this great observer mis-

takes nature, forsakes Spirit as the divine origin of

creative Truth, and allows matter and material law to

usurp the prerogatives of omnipotence. He absolutely

drops from his summit, coming down to a belief in the

material origin of man, for he virtually affirms that

550:1
the germ of humanity is in a circumscribed and non‑

intelligent egg.

Deep-reaching interrogations

550:3
If this be so, whence cometh Life, or Mind, to the

human race? Matter surely does not possess Mind.

God is the Life, or intelligence, which forms

and preserves the individuality and identity

of animals as well as of men. God cannot

become finite, and be limited within material bounds.

Spirit cannot become matter, nor can Spirit be developed

through its opposite. Of what avail is it to investigate

what is miscalled material life, which ends, even as it be-

gins, in nameless nothingness? The true sense of being

and its eternal perfection should appear now, even as it

will hereafter.

Stages of existence

550:15
Error of thought is reflected in error of action. The

continual contemplation of existence as material and cor-

poreal – as beginning and ending, and with

birth, decay, and dissolution as its component

stages – hides the true and spiritual Life, and causes

our standard to trail in the dust. If Life has any starting‑

point whatsoever, then the great I AM is a myth. If Life

is God, as the Scriptures imply, then Life is not embry-

onic, it is infinite. An egg is an impossible enclosure for

Deity.

550:25
Embryology supplies no instance of one species pro-

ducing its opposite. A serpent never begets a bird, nor

does a lion bring forth a lamb. Amalgamation is deemed

monstrous and is seldom fruitful, but it is not so hideous

and absurd as the supposition that Spirit – the pure and

holy, the immutable and immortal – can originate the

impure and mortal and dwell in it. As Christian Science

repudiates self-evident impossibilities, the material senses

551:1
must father these absurdities, for both the material senses

and their reports are unnatural, impossible, and unreal.

The real producer

551:3
Either Mind produces, or it is produced. If Mind is

first, it cannot produce its opposite in quality and quantity,

called matter. If matter is first, it cannot pro-

duce Mind. Like produces like. In natural

history, the bird is not the product of a beast. In spiritual

history, matter is not the progenitor of Mind.

The ascent of species

551:9
One distinguished naturalist argues that mortals spring

from eggs and in races. Mr. Darwin admits this, but he

adds that mankind has ascended through all

the lower grades of existence. Evolution de-

scribes the gradations of human belief, but it does not

acknowledge the method of divine Mind, nor see that ma-

terial methods are impossible in divine Science and that

all Science is of God, not of man.

Transmitted peculiarities

551:17
Naturalists ask: "What can there be, of a material

nature, transmitted through these bodies called eggs, –

themselves composed of the simplest material

elements, – by which all peculiarities of an-

cestry, belonging to either sex, are brought down from

generation to generation?" The question of the natu-

ralist amounts to this: How can matter originate or trans-

mit mind? We answer that it cannot. Darkness and

doubt encompass thought, so long as it bases creation on

materiality. From a material standpoint, "Canst thou

by searching find out God?" All must be Mind, or

else all must be matter. Neither can produce the other.

Mind is immortal; but error declares that the material

seed must decay in order to propagate its species, and

the resulting germ is doomed to the same routine.

Causation not in matter

551:32
The ancient and hypothetical question, Which is first,

552:1
the egg or the bird? is answered, if the egg produces the

parent. But we cannot stop here. Another question

follows: Who or what produces the parent of

the egg? That the earth was hatched from the

"egg of night" was once an accepted theory. Heathen

philosophy, modern geology, and all other material hy-

potheses deal with causation as contingent on matter

and as necessarily apparent to the corporeal senses, even

where the proof requisite to sustain this assumption is un-

discovered. Mortal theories make friends of sin, sickness,

and death; whereas the spiritual scientific facts of exist-

ence include no member of this dolorous and fatal triad.

Emergence of mortals

552:13
Human experience in mortal life, which starts from an

egg, corresponds with that of Job, when he says, "Man

that is born of a woman is of few days, and

full of trouble." Mortals must emerge from

this notion of material life as all-in-all. They must peck

open their shells with Christian Science, and look outward

and upward. But thought, loosened from a material

basis but not yet instructed by Science, may become wild

with freedom and so be self-contradictory.

Persistence of species

552:22
From a material source flows no remedy for sorrow,

sin, and death, for the redeeming power, from the ills

they occasion, is not in egg nor in dust. The

blending tints of leaf and flower show the

order of matter to be the order of mortal mind. The

intermixture of different species, urged to its utmost

limits, results in a return to the original species. Thus

it is learned that matter is a manifestation of mortal

mind, and that matter always surrenders its claims when

the perfect and eternal Mind is understood.

Better basis than embryology

552:32
Naturalists describe the origin of mortal and material

553:1
existence in the various forms of embryology, and ac-

company their descriptions with important observations,

which should awaken thought to a higher and

purer contemplation of man's origin. This

clearer consciousness must precede an under-

standing of the harmony of being. Mortal thought must

obtain a better basis, get nearer the truth of being, or

health will never be universal, and harmony will never

become the standard of man.

553:10
One of our ablest naturalists has said: "We have no

right to assume that individuals have grown or been

formed under circumstances which made material con-

ditions essential to their maintenance and reproduction,

or important to their origin and first introduction."

Why, then, is the naturalist's basis so materialistic,

and why are his deductions generally material?

All nativity in thought

553:17
Adam was created before Eve. In this instance, it is

seen that the maternal egg never brought forth Adam.

Eve was formed from Adam's rib, not from a

foetal ovum. Whatever theory may be adopted

by general mortal thought to account for human origin,

that theory is sure to become the signal for the appear-

ance of its method in finite forms and operations. If con-

sentaneous human belief agrees upon an ovum as the

point of emergence for the human race, this potent belief

will immediately supersede the more ancient supersti-

tion about the creation from dust or from the rib of our

primeval father.

Being is immortal

553:29
You may say that mortals are formed before they

think or know aught of their origin, and you

may also ask how belief can affect a result

which precedes the development of that belief. It can

554:1
only be replied, that Christian Science reveals what "eye

hath not seen," – even the cause of all that exists, – for

the universe, inclusive of man, is as eternal as God, who

is its divine immortal Principle. There is no such thing

as mortality, nor are there properly any mortal beings,

because being is immortal, like Deity, – or, rather, being

and Deity are inseparable.

Our conscious development

554:8
Error is always error. It is no thing. Any statement

of life, following from a misconception of life, is errone-

ous, because it is destitute of any knowledge

of the so-called selfhood of life, destitute of

any knowledge of its origin or existence. The mortal

is unconscious of his foetal and infantile existence; but

as he grows up into another false claim, that of self-con-

scious matter, he learns to say, "I am somebody; but

who made me?" Error replies, "God made you." The

first effort of error has been and is to impute to God the

creation of whatever is sinful and mortal; but infinite

Mind sets at naught such a mistaken belief.

Mendacity of error

554:20
Jesus defined this opposite of God and His creation

better than we can, when he said, "He is a liar, and the

father of it." Jesus also said, "Have not I

chosen you twelve, and one of you is a devil?"

This he said of Judas, one of Adam's race. Jesus never

intimated that God made a devil, but he did say, "Ye

are of your father, the devil." All these sayings were to

show that mind in matter is the author of itself, and is

simply a falsity and illusion.

Ailments of animals

554:29
It is the general belief that the lower animals are less

sickly than those possessing higher organiza-

tions, especially those of the human form.

This would indicate that there is less disease in propor-

555:1
tion as the force of mortal mind is less pungent or sensi-

tive, and that health attends the absence of mortal mind.

A fair conclusion from this might be, that it is the human

belief, and not the divine arbitrament, which brings the

physical organism under the yoke of disease.

Ignorance the sign of error

555:6
An inquirer once said to the discoverer of Christian

Science: "I like your explanations of truth, but I do

not comprehend what you say about error."

This is the nature of error. The mark of igno-

rance is on its forehead, for it neither understands nor

can be understood. Error would have itself received as

mind, as if it were as real and God-created as truth; but

Christian Science attributes to error neither entity nor

power, because error is neither mind nor the outcome of

Mind.

The origin of divinity

555:16
Searching for the origin of man, who is the reflection

of God, is like inquiring into the origin of God, the self‑

existent and eternal. Only impotent error

would seek to unite Spirit with matter, good

with evil, immortality with mortality, and call this

sham unity man, as if man were the offspring of both

Mind and matter, of both Deity and humanity. Crea-

tion rests on a spiritual basis. We lose our standard of

perfection and set aside the proper conception of Deity,

when we admit that the perfect is the author of aught

that can become imperfect, that God bestows the power

to sin, or that Truth confers the ability to err. Our

great example, Jesus, could restore the individualized

manifestation of existence, which seemed to vanish in

death. Knowing that God was the Life of man, Jesus

was able to present himself unchanged after the cruci-

fixion. Truth fosters the idea of Truth, and not the be-

556:1
lief in illusion or error. That which is real, is sustained

by Spirit.

Genera classified

556:3
Vertebrata, articulata, mollusca, and radiata are mor-

tal and material concepts classified, and are supposed to

possess life and mind. These false beliefs

will disappear, when the radiation of Spirit

destroys forever all belief in intelligent matter. Then

will the new heaven and new earth appear, for the for-

mer things will have passed away.

The Christian's privilege

556:10
Mortal belief infolds the conditions of sin. Mortal

belief dies to live again in renewed forms, only to go out

at last forever; for life everlasting is not to be

gained by dying. Christian Science may ab-

sorb the attention of sage and philosopher, but

the Christian alone can fathom it. It is made known

most fully to him who understands best the divine Life.

Did the origin and the enlightenment of the race come

from the deep sleep which fell upon Adam? Sleep is

darkness, but God's creative mandate was, "Let there be

light." In sleep, cause and effect are mere illusions.

They seem to be something, but are not. Oblivion and

dreams, not realities, come with sleep. Even so goes on

the Adam-belief, of which mortal and material life is the

dream.

Ontology versus physiology

556:25
Ontology receives less attention than physiology. Why?

Because mortal mind must waken to spiritual

life before it cares to solve the problem of

being, hence the author's experience; but when

that awakening comes, existence will be on a new stand-

point.

556:31
It is related that a father plunged his infant babe, only

a few hours old, into the water for several minutes, and

557:1
repeated this operation daily, until the child could remain

under water twenty minutes, moving and playing with-

out harm, like a fish. Parents should remember this

and learn how to develop their children properly on dry

land.

The curse removed

557:6
Mind controls the birth-throes in the lower realms of

nature, where parturition is without suffering. Vege-

tables, minerals, and many animals suffer no

pain in multiplying; but human propagation

has its suffering because it is a false belief. Christian Sci-

ence reveals harmony as proportionately increasing as the

line of creation rises towards spiritual man, – towards

enlarged understanding and intelligence; but in the line

of the corporeal senses, the less a mortal knows of sin,

disease, and mortality, the better for him, – the less pain

and sorrow are his. When the mist of mortal mind evap-

orates, the curse will be removed which says to woman,

"In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children." Divine

Science rolls back the clouds of error with the light of

Truth, and lifts the curtain on man as never born and as

never dying, but as coexistent with his creator.

557:22
Popular theology takes up the history of man as if he

began materially right, but immediately fell into mental

sin; whereas revealed religion proclaims the Science of

Mind and its formations as being in accordance with

the first chapter of the Old Testament, when God, Mind,

spake and it was done.

Chapter XVI

The Apocalypse

Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this proph-

ecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at

hand. – REVELATION.

Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised in the city of our God,

in the mountain of His holiness. – PSALMS.

558:1
ST. JOHN writes, in the tenth chapter of his book of

Revelation: –

558:3
And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven,

clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and

his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of

fire: and he had in his hand a little book open: and he

set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the

earth.

The new Evangel

558:9
This angel or message which comes from God, clothed

with a cloud, prefigures divine Science. To mortal sense

Science seems at first obscure, abstract, and

dark; but a bright promise crowns its brow.

When understood, it is Truth's prism and praise. When

you look it fairly in the face, you can heal by its means,

and it has for you a light above the sun, for God "is the

light thereof." Its feet are pillars of fire, foundations

of Truth and Love. It brings the baptism of the Holy

Ghost, whose flames of Truth were prophetically de-

scribed by John the Baptist as consuming error.

Truth's volume

559:1
This angel had in his hand "a little book," open for

all to read and understand. Did this same book contain

the revelation of divine Science, the "right

foot" or dominant power of which was upon

the sea, – upon elementary, latent error, the source of

all error's visible forms? The angel's left foot was upon

the earth; that is, a secondary power was exercised upon

visible error and audible sin. The "still, small voice"

of scientific thought reaches over continent and ocean

to the globe's remotest bound. The inaudible voice of

Truth is, to the human mind, "as when a lion roareth."

It is heard in the desert and in dark places of fear. It

arouses the "seven thunders" of evil, and stirs their latent

forces to utter the full diapason of secret tones. Then is

the power of Truth demonstrated, – made manifest in

the destruction of error. Then will a voice from harmony

cry: "Go and take the little book. . . . Take it, and eat

it up; and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in

thy mouth sweet as honey." Mortals, obey the heavenly

evangel. Take divine Science. Read this book from

beginning to end. Study it, ponder it. It will be indeed

sweet at its first taste, when it heals you; but murmur not

over Truth, if you find its digestion bitter. When you

approach nearer and nearer to this divine Principle, when

you eat the divine body of this Principle, – thus partak-

ing of the nature, or primal elements, of Truth and Love,

– do not be surprised nor discontented because you must

share the hemlock cup and eat the bitter herbs; for the

Israelites of old at the Paschal meal thus prefigured this

perilous passage out of bondage into the El Dorado of faith

and hope.

To-day's lesson

559:32
The twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse, or Revela-

560:1
tion of St. John, has a special suggestiveness in connec-

tion with the nineteenth century. In the opening of the

sixth seal, typical of six thousand years since

Adam, the distinctive feature has reference

to the present age.

560:6
Revelation xii. 1. And there appeared a great wonder in

heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon

under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve

stars.

True estimate of God's messenger

560:10
Heaven represents harmony, and divine Science inter-

prets the Principle of heavenly harmony. The great

miracle, to human sense, is divine Love, and

the grand necessity of existence is to gain the

true idea of what constitutes the kingdom of

heaven in man. This goal is never reached while we

hate our neighbor or entertain a false estimate of any-

one whom God has appointed to voice His Word. Again,

without a correct sense of its highest visible idea, we can

never understand the divine Principle. The botanist must

know the genus and species of a plant in order to classify

it correctly. As it is with things, so is it with persons.

Persecution harmful

560:22
Abuse of the motives and religion of St. Paul hid from

view the apostle's character, which made him equal to

his great mission. Persecution of all who have

spoken something new and better of God has

not only obscured the light of the ages, but has been fatal

to the persecutors. Why? Because it has hid from

them the true idea which has been presented. To mis-

understand Paul, was to be ignorant of the divine idea he

taught. Ignorance of the divine idea betrays at once a

greater ignorance of the divine Principle of the idea – igno-

561:1
rance of Truth and Love. The understanding of Truth

and Love, the Principle which works out the ends of eternal

good and destroys both faith in evil and the practice of

evil, leads to the discernment of the divine idea.

Espousals supernal

561:5
Agassiz, through his microscope, saw the sun in an

egg at a point of so-called embryonic life. Because of

his more spiritual vision, St. John saw an

"angel standing in the sun." The Revelator

beheld the spiritual idea from the mount of vision.

Purity was the symbol of Life and Love. The Revelator

saw also the spiritual ideal as a woman clothed in light, a

bride coming down from heaven, wedded to the Lamb

of Love. To John, "the bride" and "the Lamb" repre-

sented the correlation of divine Principle and spiritual idea,

God and His Christ, bringing harmony to earth.

Divinity and humanity

561:16
John saw the human and divine coincidence, shown in

the man Jesus, as divinity embracing humanity in Life

and its demonstration, – reducing to human

perception and understanding the Life which

is God. In divine revelation, material and corporeal self‑

hood disappear, and the spiritual idea is understood.

Spiritual sunlight

561:22
The woman in the Apocalypse symbolizes generic man,

the spiritual idea of God; she illustrates the coincidence

of God and man as the divine Principle and

divine idea. The Revelator symbolizes Spirit

by the sun. The spiritual idea is clad with the radiance

of spiritual Truth, and matter is put under her feet. The

light portrayed is really neither solar nor lunar, but spirit-

ual Life, which is "the light of men." In the first chapter

of the Fourth Gospel it is written, "There was a man sent

from God . . . to bear witness of that Light."

Spiritual idea revealed

561:32
John the Baptist prophesied the coming of the im-

562:1
maculate Jesus, and John saw in those days the spiritual

idea as the Messiah, who would baptize with the Holy

Ghost, – divine Science. As Elias presented

the idea of the fatherhood of God, which Jesus

afterwards manifested, so the Revelator completed this

figure with woman, typifying the spiritual idea of God's

motherhood. The moon is under her feet. This idea

reveals the universe as secondary and tributary to Spirit,

from which the universe borrows its reflected light, sub-

stance, life, and intelligence.

Spiritual idea crowned

562:11
The spiritual idea is crowned with twelve stars. The

twelve tribes of Israel with all mortals, – separated by

belief from man's divine origin and the true

idea, – will through much tribulation yield to

the activities of the divine Principle of man in the har-

mony of Science. These are the stars in the crown of

rejoicing. They are the lamps in the spiritual heavens

of the age, which show the workings of the spiritual idea

by healing the sick and the sinning, and by manifesting

the light which shines "unto the perfect day" as the night

of materialism wanes.

562:22
Revelation xii. 2. And she being with child cried, travail-

ing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

Travail and joy

562:24
Also the spiritual idea is typified by a woman in tra-

vail, waiting to be delivered of her sweet promise, but re-

membering no more her sorrow for joy that

the birth goes on; for great is the idea, and the

travail portentous.

562:29
Revelation xii. 3. And there appeared another wonder in

heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads

and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.

The dragon as a type

563:1
Human sense may well marvel at discord, while, to a

diviner sense, harmony is the real and discord the unreal.

We may well be astonished at sin, sickness, and

death. We may well be perplexed at human

fear; and still more astounded at hatred, which lifts

its hydra head, showing its horns in the many inventions

of evil. But why should we stand aghast at nothingness?

The great red dragon symbolizes a lie, – the belief

that substance, life, and intelligence can be material.

This dragon stands for the sum total of human error.

The ten horns of the dragon typify the belief that mat-

ter has power of its own, and that by means of an

evil mind in matter the Ten Commandments can be

broken.

The sting of the serpent

563:15
The Revelator lifts the veil from this embodiment of

all evil, and beholds its awful character; but he also

sees the nothingness of evil and the allness of

God. The Revelator sees that old serpent,

whose name is devil or evil, holding untiring watch, that

he may bite the heel of truth and seemingly impede the

offspring of the spiritual idea, which is prolific in health,

holiness, and immortality.

563:23
Revelation xii. 4. And his tail drew the third part of the

stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the

dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be

delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

Animal tendency

563:27
The serpentine form stands for subtlety, winding its

way amidst all evil, but doing this in the name of good.

Its sting is spoken of by Paul, when he refers

to "spiritual wickedness in high places." It

is the animal instinct in mortals, which would impel

564:1
them to devour each other and cast out devils through

Beelzebub.

564:3
As of old, evil still charges the spiritual idea with error's

own nature and methods. This malicious animal in-

stinct, of which the dragon is the type, incites mortals to

kill morally and physically even their fellow-mortals, and

worse still, to charge the innocent with the crime. This

last infirmity of sin will sink its perpetrator into a night

without a star.

Malicious barbarity

564:10
The author is convinced that the accusations against

Jesus of Nazareth and even his crucifixion were instigated

by the criminal instinct here described. The

Revelator speaks of Jesus as the Lamb of God

and of the dragon as warring against innocence. Since Jesus

must have been tempted in all points, he, the immaculate,

met and conquered sin in every form. The brutal bar-

barity of his foes could emanate from no source except the

highest degree of human depravity. Jesus "opened not

his mouth." Until the majesty of Truth should be demon-

strated in divine Science, the spiritual idea was arraigned

before the tribunal of so-called mortal mind, which was

unloosed in order that the false claim of mind in matter

might uncover its own crime of defying immortal Mind.

Doom of the dragon

564:24
From Genesis to the Apocalypse, sin, sickness, and

death, envy, hatred, and revenge, – all evil, – are typi-

fied by a serpent, or animal subtlety. Jesus

said, quoting a line from the Psalms, "They

hated me without a cause." The serpent is perpetually

close upon the heel of harmony. From the beginning

to the end, the serpent pursues with hatred the spiritual

idea. In Genesis, this allegorical, talking serpent typi-

fies mortal mind, "more subtle than any beast of the

565:1
field." In the Apocalypse, when nearing its doom, this

evil increases and becomes the great red dragon, swollen

with sin, inflamed with war against spirituality, and ripe

for destruction. It is full of lust and hate, loathing the

brightness of divine glory.

565:6
Revelation xii. 5. And she brought forth a man child,

who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her

child was caught up unto God, and to His throne.

The conflict with purity

565:9
Led on by the grossest element of mortal mind, Herod

decreed the death of every male child in order that the

man Jesus, the masculine representative of the

spiritual idea might never hold sway and de-

prive Herod of his crown. The impersonation of the

spiritual idea had a brief history in the earthly life of our

Master; but "of his kingdom there shall be no end,"

for Christ, God's idea, will eventually rule all nations

and peoples – imperatively, absolutely, finally – with di-

vine Science. This immaculate idea, represented first

by man and, according to the Revelator, last by woman,

will baptize with fire; and the fiery baptism will burn up

the chaff of error with the fervent heat of Truth and Love,

melting and purifying even the gold of human character.

After the stars sang together and all was primeval har-

mony, the material lie made war upon the spiritual idea;

but this only impelled the idea to rise to the zenith of

demonstration, destroying sin, sickness, and death, and

to be caught up unto God, – to be found in its divine

Principle.

565:29
Revelation xii. 6. And the woman fled into the wilder-

ness, where she hath a place prepared of God.

Spiritual guidance

566:1
As the children of Israel were guided triumphantly

through the Red Sea, the dark ebbing and flowing tides

of human fear, – as they were led through the

wilderness, walking wearily through the great

desert of human hopes, and anticipating the promised

joy, – so shall the spiritual idea guide all right desires

in their passage from sense to Soul, from a material sense

of existence to the spiritual, up to the glory prepared for

them who love God. Stately Science pauses not, but

moves before them, a pillar of cloud by day and of fire

by night, leading to divine heights.

566:12
If we remember the beautiful description which Sir

Walter Scott puts into the mouth of Rebecca the Jewess

in the story of Ivanhoe, –

566:15
When Israel, of the Lord beloved,

Out of the land of bondage came,

Her fathers' God before her moved,

An awful guide, in smoke and flame, –

566:19
we may also offer the prayer which concludes the same

hymn, –

566:21
And oh, when stoops on Judah's path

In shade and storm the frequent night,

Be Thou, longsuffering, slow to wrath,

A burning and a shining light!

566:25
Revelation xii. 7, 8. And there was war in heaven:

Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the

dragon fought, and his angels, and prevailed not; neither

was their place found any more in heaven.

Angelic offices

566:29
The Old Testament assigns to the angels, God's divine

messages, different offices. Michael's charac-

teristic is spiritual strength. He leads the

hosts of heaven against the power of sin, Satan, and

567:1
fights the holy wars. Gabriel has the more quiet task

of imparting a sense of the ever-presence of ministering

Love. These angels deliver us from the depths. Truth

and Love come nearer in the hour of woe, when strong

faith or spiritual strength wrestles and prevails through

the understanding of God. The Gabriel of His presence

has no contests. To infinite, ever-present Love, all is

Love, and there is no error, no sin, sickness, nor death.

Against Love, the dragon warreth not long, for he is

killed by the divine Principle. Truth and Love prevail

against the dragon because the dragon cannot war with

them. Thus endeth the conflict between the flesh and

Spirit.

567:14
Revelation xii. 9. And the great dragon was cast out,

that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiv-

eth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his

angels were cast out with him.

Dragon cast down to earth

567:18
That false claim – that ancient belief, that old serpent

whose name is devil (evil), claiming that there is intelli-

gence in matter either to benefit or to injure

men – is pure delusion, the red dragon; and

it is cast out by Christ, Truth, the spiritual

idea, and so proved to be powerless. The words "cast

unto the earth" show the dragon to be nothingness, dust

to dust; and therefore, in his pretence of being a talker,

he must be a lie from the beginning. His angels, or mes-

sages, are cast out with their author. The beast and the

false prophets are lust and hypocrisy. These wolves in

sheep's clothing are detected and killed by innocence, the

Lamb of Love.

Warfare with error

567:31
Divine Science shows how the Lamb slays the wolf.

568:1
Innocence and Truth overcome guilt and error. Ever

since the foundation of the world, ever since error would

establish material belief, evil has tried to slay

the Lamb; but Science is able to destroy this

lie, called evil. The twelfth chapter of the Apocalypse

typifies the divine method of warfare in Science, and the

glorious results of this warfare. The following chapters

depict the fatal effects of trying to meet error with error.

The narrative follows the order used in Genesis. In

Genesis, first the true method of creation is set forth and

then the false. Here, also, the Revelator first exhibits

the true warfare and then the false.

568:13
Revelation xii. 10 – 12. And I heard a loud voice saying

in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the

kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the

accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them

before our God day and night. And they overcame him by

the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony;

and they loved not their lives unto the death. Therefore

rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the

inhabiters of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is

come down unto you, having great wrath, because he

knoweth that he hath but a short time.

Paean of jubilee

568:24
For victory over a single sin, we give thanks and mag-

nify the Lord of Hosts. What shall we say of the mighty

conquest over all sin? A louder song, sweeter

than has ever before reached high heaven,

now rises clearer and nearer to the great heart of Christ;

for the accuser is not there, and Love sends forth her

primal and everlasting strain. Self-abnegation, by which

we lay down all for Truth, or Christ, in our warfare against

error, is a rule in Christian Science. This rule clearly

569:1
interprets God as divine Principle, – as Life, represented

by the Father; as Truth, represented by the Son; as Love,

represented by the Mother. Every mortal at some period,

here or hereafter, must grapple with and overcome the

mortal belief in a power opposed to God.

The robe of Science

569:6
The Scripture, "Thou hast been faithful over a few

things, I will make thee ruler over many," is literally ful-

filled, when we are conscious of the supremacy

of Truth, by which the nothingness of error

is seen; and we know that the nothingness of error is in

proportion to its wickedness. He that touches the hem

of Christ's robe and masters his mortal beliefs, animality,

and hate, rejoices in the proof of healing, – in a sweet

and certain sense that God is Love. Alas for those who

break faith with divine Science and fail to strangle the

serpent of sin as well as of sickness! They are dwellers

still in the deep darkness of belief. They are in the surg-

ing sea of error, not struggling to lift their heads above the

drowning wave.

Expiation by suffering

569:20
What must the end be? They must eventually expi-

ate their sin through suffering. The sin, which one has

made his bosom companion, comes back to him

at last with accelerated force, for the devil

knoweth his time is short. Here the Scriptures declare

that evil is temporal, not eternal. The dragon is at last

stung to death by his own malice; but how many periods

of torture it may take to remove all sin, must depend upon

sin's obduracy.

569:29
Revelation xii. 13. And when the dragon saw that he

was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which

brought forth the man child.

Apathy to occultism

570:1
The march of mind and of honest investigation will

bring the hour when the people will chain, with fetters of

some sort, the growing occultism of this period.

The present apathy as to the tendency of

certain active yet unseen mental agencies will finally be

shocked into another extreme mortal mood, – into human

indignation; for one extreme follows another.

570:8
Revelation xii. 15, 16. And the serpent cast out of his

mouth water as a flood, after the woman, that he might

cause her to be carried away of the flood. And the earth

helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and

swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his

mouth.

Receptive hearts

570:14
Millions of unprejudiced minds – simple seekers for

Truth, weary wanderers, athirst in the desert – are wait-

ing and watching for rest and drink. Give

them a cup of cold water in Christ's name,

and never fear the consequences. What if the old dragon

should send forth a new flood to drown the Christ-idea?

He can neither drown your voice with its roar, nor again

sink the world into the deep waters of chaos and old night.

In this age the earth will help the woman; the spiritual

idea will be understood. Those ready for the blessing

you impart will give thanks. The waters will be paci-

fied, and Christ will command the wave.

Hidden ways of iniquity

570:26
When God heals the sick or the sinning, they should

know the great benefit which Mind has wrought. They

should also know the great delusion of mor-

tal mind, when it makes them sick or sinful.

Many are willing to open the eyes of the people to the

power of good resident in divine Mind, but they are

571:1
not so willing to point out the evil in human thought,

and expose evil's hidden mental ways of accomplishing

iniquity.

Christly warning

571:4
Why this backwardness, since exposure is necessary

to ensure the avoidance of the evil? Because people like

you better when you tell them their virtues

than when you tell them their vices. It re-

quires the spirit of our blessed Master to tell a man his

faults, and so risk human displeasure for the sake of doing

right and benefiting our race. Who is telling mankind

of the foe in ambush? Is the informer one who sees the

foe? If so, listen and be wise. Escape from evil, and

designate those as unfaithful stewards who have seen the

danger and yet have given no warning.

The armor of divinity

571:15
At all times and under all circumstances, overcome

evil with good. Know thyself, and God will supply

the wisdom and the occasion for a victory

over evil. Clad in the panoply of Love,

human hatred cannot reach you. The cement of a

higher humanity will unite all interests in the one

divinity.

Pure religion enthroned

571:22
Through trope and metaphor, the Revelator, immortal

scribe of Spirit and of a true idealism, furnishes the

mirror in which mortals may see their own

image. In significant figures he depicts the

thoughts which he beholds in mortal mind. Thus he

rebukes the conceit of sin, and foreshadows its doom.

With his spiritual strength, he has opened wide the gates

of glory, and illumined the night of paganism with the

sublime grandeur of divine Science, outshining sin, sorcery,

lust, and hypocrisy. He takes away mitre and sceptre.

He enthrones pure and undefiled religion, and lifts on

572:1
high only those who have washed their robes white in

obedience and suffering.

Native nothingness of sin

572:3
Thus we see, in both the first and last books of the

Bible, – in Genesis and in the Apocalypse, – that sin

is to be Christianly and scientifically reduced

to its native nothingness. "Love one an-

other" (I John, iii. 23), is the most simple and profound

counsel of the inspired writer. In Science we are chil-

dren of God; but whatever is of material sense, or mor-

tal, belongs not to His children, for materiality is the

inverted image of spirituality.

Fulfilment of the Law

572:12
Love fulfils the law of Christian Science, and nothing

short of this divine Principle, understood and demon-

strated, can ever furnish the vision of the

Apocalypse, open the seven seals of error with

Truth, or uncover the myriad illusions of sin, sickness,

and death. Under the supremacy of Spirit, it will be seen

and acknowledged that matter must disappear.

572:19
In Revelation xxi. 1 we read: –

572:20
And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first

heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was

no more sea.

Man's present possibilities

572:23
The Revelator had not yet passed the transitional

stage in human experience called death, but he already

saw a new heaven and a new earth. Through

what sense came this vision to St. John? Not

through the material visual organs for seeing, for optics

are inadequate to take in so wonderful a scene. Were this

new heaven and new earth terrestrial or celestial, mate-

573:1
rial or spiritual? They could not be the former, for the

human sense of space is unable to grasp such a view.

The Revelator was on our plane of existence, while yet

beholding what the eye cannot see, – that which is in-

visible to the uninspired thought. This testimony of Holy

Writ sustains the fact in Science, that the heavens and

earth to one human consciousness, that consciousness

which God bestows, are spiritual, while to another, the

unillumined human mind, the vision is material. This

shows unmistakably that what the human mind terms

matter and spirit indicates states and stages of con-

sciousness.

Nearness of Deity

573:13
Accompanying this scientific consciousness was an-

other revelation, even the declaration from heaven, su-

preme harmony, that God, the divine Principle

of harmony, is ever with men, and they are

His people. Thus man was no longer regarded as a mis-

erable sinner, but as the blessed child of God. Why?

Because St. John's corporeal sense of the heavens and

earth had vanished, and in place of this false sense was

the spiritual sense, the subjective state by which he could

see the new heaven and new earth, which involve the

spiritual idea and consciousness of reality. This is Scrip-

tural authority for concluding that such a recognition of

being is, and has been, possible to men in this present

state of existence, – that we can become conscious,

here and now, of a cessation of death, sorrow, and pain.

This is indeed a foretaste of absolute Christian Science.

Take heart, dear sufferer, for this reality of being will

surely appear sometime and in some way. There will

be no more pain, and all tears will be wiped away. When

you read this, remember Jesus' words, "The kingdom of

574:1
God is within you." This spiritual consciousness is

therefore a present possibility.

574:3
The Revelator also takes in another view, adapted to

console the weary pilgrim, journeying "uphill all the way."

574:5
He writes, in Revelation xxi. 9: –

574:6
And there came unto me one of the seven angels which

had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked

with me, saying, Come hither, I will show thee the bride,

the Lamb's wife.

Vials of wrath and consolation

574:10
This ministry of Truth, this message from divine Love,

carried John away in spirit. It exalted him till he be-

came conscious of the spiritual facts of being

and the "New Jerusalem, coming down from

God, out of heaven," – the spiritual outpour-

ing of bliss and glory, which he describes as the city

which "lieth foursquare." The beauty of this text is,

that the sum total of human misery, represented by

the seven angelic vials full of seven plagues, has full

compensation in the law of Love. Note this, – that the

very message, or swift-winged thought, which poured

forth hatred and torment, brought also the experience

which at last lifted the seer to behold the great city, the

four equal sides of which were heaven-bestowed and

heaven-bestowing.

Spiritual wedlock

574:25
Think of this, dear reader, for it will lift the sack-

cloth from your eyes, and you will behold the soft-

winged dove descending upon you. The very

circumstance, which your suffering sense

deems wrathful and afflictive, Love can make an angel

entertained unawares. Then thought gently whispers:

575:1
"Come hither! Arise from your false consciousness

into the true sense of Love, and behold the Lamb's

wife, – Love wedded to its own spiritual idea." Then

cometh the marriage feast, for this revelation will de-

stroy forever the physical plagues imposed by material

sense.

The city foursquare

575:7
This sacred city, described in the Apocalypse (xxi. 16)

as one that "lieth foursquare" and cometh "down from

God, out of heaven," represents the light and

glory of divine Science. The builder and

maker of this New Jerusalem is God, as we read in the

book of Hebrews; and it is "a city which hath founda-

tions." The description is metaphoric. Spiritual teach-

ing must always be by symbols. Did not Jesus illustrate

the truths he taught by the mustard-seed and the prodi-

gal? Taken in its allegorical sense, the description of

the city as foursquare has a profound meaning. The

four sides of our city are the Word, Christ, Christianity,

and divine Science; "and the gates of it shall not be shut

at all by day: for there shall be no night there." This

city is wholly spiritual, as its four sides indicate.

The royally divine gates

575:22
As the Psalmist saith, "Beautiful for situation, the

joy of the whole earth, is mount Zion, on the sides of

the north, the city of the great King." It is

indeed a city of the Spirit, fair, royal, and

square. Northward, its gates open to the North Star,

the Word, the polar magnet of Revelation; eastward,

to the star seen by the Wisemen of the Orient, who fol-

lowed it to the manger of Jesus; southward, to the

genial tropics, with the Southern Cross in the skies,

– the Cross of Calvary, which binds human society

into solemn union; westward, to the grand realization

576:1
of the Golden Shore of Love and the Peaceful Sea of

Harmony.

Revelation's pure zenith

576:3
This heavenly city, lighted by the Sun of Righteous-

ness, – this New Jerusalem, this infinite All, which to

us seems hidden in the mist of remoteness, –

reached St. John's vision while yet he taber-

nacled with mortals.

576:8
In Revelation xxi. 22, further describing this holy city,

the beloved Disciple writes: –

576:10
And I saw no temple therein: for the Lord God Almighty

and the Lamb are the temple of it.

The shrine celestial

576:12
There was no temple, – that is, no material structure

in which to worship God, for He must be worshipped

in spirit and in love. The word temple also

means body. The Revelator was familiar

with Jesus' use of this word, as when Jesus spoke of his

material body as the temple to be temporarily rebuilt

(John ii. 21). What further indication need we of the

real man's incorporeality than this, that John saw

heaven and earth with "no temple [body] therein"?

This kingdom of God "is within you," – is within

reach of man's consciousness here, and the spiritual

idea reveals it. In divine Science, man possesses this

recognition of harmony consciously in proportion to his

understanding of God.

Divine sense of Deity

576:26
The term Lord, as used in our version of the Old

Testament, is often synonymous with Jehovah, and ex-

presses the Jewish concept, not yet elevated

to deific apprehension through spiritual trans-

figuration. Yet the word gradually approaches a higher

meaning. This human sense of Deity yields to the divine

577:1
sense, even as the material sense of personality yields

to the incorporeal sense of God and man as the infinite

Principle and infinite idea, – as one Father with His uni-

versal family, held in the gospel of Love. The Lamb's

wife presents the unity of male and female as no longer

two wedded individuals, but as two individual natures

in one; and this compounded spiritual individuality re-

flects God as Father-Mother, not as a corporeal being.

In this divinely united spiritual consciousness, there is no

impediment to eternal bliss, – to the perfectibility of

God's creation.

The city of our God

577:12
This spiritual, holy habitation has no boundary

nor limit, but its four cardinal points are: first, the

Word of Life, Truth, and Love; second,

the Christ, the spiritual idea of God; third,

Christianity, which is the outcome of the divine Prin-

ciple of the Christ-idea in Christian history; fourth,

Christian Science, which to-day and forever interprets

this great example and the great Exemplar. This city

of our God has no need of sun or satellite, for Love

is the light of it, and divine Mind is its own interpreter.

All who are saved must walk in this light. Mighty

potentates and dynasties will lay down their honors

within the heavenly city. Its gates open towards light

and glory both within and without, for all is good, and

nothing can enter that city, which "defileth. . . . or

maketh a lie."

577:28
The writer's present feeble sense of Christian Science

closes with St. John's Revelation as recorded by the

great apostle, for his vision is the acme of this Science

as the Bible reveals it.

577:32
In the following Psalm one word shows, though faintly,

578:1
the light which Christian Science throws on the Scriptures

by substituting for the corporeal sense, the incorporeal

or spiritual sense of Deity: –

578:4
PSALM XXIII

578:5
[DIVINE LOVE] is my shepherd; I shall not want.

578:6
[LOVE] maketh me to lie down in green pastures:

[LOVE] leadeth me beside the still waters.

578:8
[LOVE] restoreth my soul [spiritual sense]: [Love] lead-

eth me in the paths of righteousness for His name's sake.

578:10
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of

death, I will fear no evil: for [LOVE] is with me; [LOVE's]

rod and [LOVE'S] staff they comfort me.

578:13
[LOVE] prepareth a table before me in the presence of

mine enemies: [LOVE] anointeth my head with oil; my cup

runneth over.

578:16
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of

my life; and I will dwell in the house [the consciousness]

of [LOVE] for ever.

Chapter XVII

Glossary

These things saith He that is holy, He that is true, He that hath the key

of David, He that openeth, and no man shutteth; and shutteth, and no

man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open

door, and no man can shut it. – REVELATION.

579:1
IN Christian Science we learn that the substitution of

the spiritual for the material definition of a Scrip-

tural word often elucidates the meaning of the inspired

writer. On this account this chapter is added. It con-

tains the metaphysical interpretation of Bible terms,

giving their spiritual sense, which is also their original

meaning.

579:8
ABEL. Watchfulness; self-offering; surrendering to

the creator the early fruits of experience.

579:10
ABRAHAM. Fidelity; faith in the divine Life and in the

eternal Principle of being.

This patriarch illustrated the purpose of Love to create

trust in good, and showed the life-preserving power of

spiritual understanding.

579:15
ADAM. Error; a falsity; the belief in "original sin,"

sickness, and death; evil; the opposite of good, – of God

and His creation; a curse; a belief in intelligent matter,

580:1
finiteness, and mortality; "dust to dust;" red sand-

stone; nothingness; the first god of mythology; not

God's man, who represents the one God and is His own

image and likeness; the opposite of Spirit and His crea-

tions; that which is not the image and likeness of good,

but a material belief, opposed to the one Mind, or Spirit;

a so-called finite mind, producing other minds, thus mak-

ing "gods many and lords many" (I Corinthians viii. 5);

a product of nothing as the mimicry of something; an

unreality as opposed to the great reality of spiritual ex-

istence and creation; a so-called man, whose origin,

substance, and mind are found to be the antipode of

God, or Spirit; an inverted image of Spirit; the image

and likeness of what God has not created, namely, mat-

ter, sin, sickness, and death; the opposer of Truth,

termed error; Life's counterfeit, which ultimates in

death; the opposite of Love, called hate; the usurper

of Spirit's creation, called self-creative matter; immor-

tality's opposite, mortality; that of which wisdom saith,

"Thou shalt surely die."

580:21
The name Adam represents the false supposition that

Life is not eternal, but has beginning and end; that the

infinite enters the finite, that intelligence passes into non‑

intelligence, and that Soul dwells in material sense; that

immortal Mind results in matter, and matter in mortal

mind; that the one God and creator entered what He cre-

ated, and then disappeared in the atheism of matter.

580:28
ADVERSARY. An adversary is one who opposes, denies,

disputes, not one who constructs and sustains reality and

Truth. Jesus said of the devil, "He was a murderer from

the beginning, . . . he is a liar and the father of it."

581:1
This view of Satan is confirmed by the name often con-

ferred upon him in Scripture, the "adversary."

581:3
ALMIGHTY. All-power; infinity; omnipotence.

581:4
ANGELS. God's thoughts passing to man; spiritual

intuitions, pure and perfect; the inspiration of goodness,

purity, and immortality, counteracting all evil, sensuality,

and mortality.

581:8
ARK. Safety; the idea, or reflection, of Truth, proved

to be as immortal as its Principle; the understanding of

Spirit, destroying belief in matter.

581:11
God and man coexistent and eternal; Science show-

ing that the spiritual realities of all things are created

by Him and exist forever. The ark indicates temptation

overcome and followed by exaltation.

581:15
ASHER (Jacob's son). Hope and faith; spiritual com-

pensation; the ills of the flesh rebuked.

581:17
BABEL. Self-destroying error; a kingdom divided

against itself, which cannot stand; material knowledge.

581:19
The higher false knowledge builds on the basis of evi-

dence obtained from the five corporeal senses, the more

confusion ensues, and the more certain is the downfall

of its structure.

581:23
BAPTISM. Purification by Spirit; submergence in

Spirit.

581:25
We are "willing rather to be absent from the body,

and to be present with the Lord." (II Corinthians v. 8.)

582:1
BELIEVING. Firmness and constancy; not a faltering

nor a blind faith, but the perception of spiritual Truth.

Mortal thoughts, illusion.

582:4
BENJAMIN (Jacob's son). A physical belief as to life,

substance, and mind; human knowledge, or so-called

mortal mind, devoted to matter; pride; envy; fame;

illusion; a false belief; error masquerading as the pos-

sessor of life, strength, animation, and power to act.

582:9
Renewal of affections; self-offering; an improved

state of mortal mind; the introduction of a more spiritual

origin; a gleam of the infinite idea of the infinite Prin-

ciple; a spiritual type; that which comforts, consoles,

and supports.

582:14
BRIDE. Purity and innocence, conceiving man in the

idea of God; a sense of Soul, which has spiritual bliss

and enjoys but cannot suffer.

582:17
BRIDEGROOM. Spiritual understanding; the pure con-

sciousness that God, the divine Principle, creates man

as His own spiritual idea, and that God is the only crea-

tive power.

582:21
BURIAL. Corporeality and physical sense put out of

sight and hearing; annihilation. Submergence in Spirit;

immortality brought to light.

582:24
CANAAN (the son of Ham). A sensuous belief; the

testimony of what is termed material sense; the error

which would make man mortal and would make mortal

mind a slave to the body.

582:28
CHILDREN. The spiritual thoughts and representa-

tives of Life, Truth, and Love.

583:1
Sensual and mortal beliefs; counterfeits of creation,

whose better originals are God's thoughts, not in em-

bryo, but in maturity; material suppositions of life, sub-

stance, and intelligence, opposed to the Science of being.

583:5
CHILDREN OF ISRAEL. The representatives of Soul, not

corporeal sense; the offspring of Spirit, who, having

wrestled with error, sin, and sense, are governed by divine

Science; some of the ideas of God beheld as men, casting

out error and healing the sick; Christ's offspring.

583:10
CHRIST. The divine manifestation of God, which comes

to the flesh to destroy incarnate error.

583:12
CHURCH. The structure of Truth and Love; what-

ever rests upon and proceeds from divine Principle.

583:14
The Church is that institution, which affords proof of

its utility and is found elevating the race, rousing the

dormant understanding from material beliefs to the ap-

prehension of spiritual ideas and the demonstration of

divine Science, thereby casting out devils, or error, and

healing the sick.

583:20
CREATOR. Spirit; Mind; intelligence; the animating

divine Principle of all that is real and good; self-existent

Life, Truth, and Love; that which is perfect and eternal;

the opposite of matter and evil, which have no Prin-

ciple; God, who made all that was made and could not

create an atom or an element the opposite of Himself.

583:26
DAN (Jacob's son). Animal magnetism; so-called mor-

tal mind controlling mortal mind; error, working out

the designs of error; one belief preying upon another.

584:1
DAY. The irradiance of Life; light, the spiritual idea

of Truth and Love.

584:3
"And the evening and the morning were the first day."

(Genesis i. 5.) The objects of time and sense disappear

in the illumination of spiritual understanding, and Mind

measures time according to the good that is unfolded.

This unfolding is God's day, and "there shall be no night

there."

584:9
DEATH. An illusion, the lie of life in matter; the un-

real and untrue; the opposite of Life.

584:11
Matter has no life, hence it has no real existence. Mind

is immortal. The flesh, warring against Spirit; that

which frets itself free from one belief only to be fettered

by another, until every belief of life where Life is not

yields to eternal Life. Any material evidence of death is

false, for it contradicts the spiritual facts of being.

584:17
DEVIL. Evil; a lie; error; neither corporeality nor

mind; the opposite of Truth; a belief in sin, sickness,

and death; animal magnetism or hypnotism; the lust of

the flesh, which saith: "I am life and intelligence in

matter. There is more than one mind, for I am mind, –

a wicked mind, self-made or created by a tribal god and

put into the opposite of mind, termed matter, thence to

reproduce a mortal universe, including man, not after the

image and likeness of Spirit, but after its own image."

584:26
DOVE. A symbol of divine Science; purity and peace;

hope and faith.

584:28
DUST. Nothingness; the absence of substance, life, or

intelligence.

585:1
EARS. Not organs of the so-called corporeal senses,

but spiritual understanding.

585:3
Jesus said, referring to spiritual perception, "Having

ears, hear ye not?" (Mark viii. 18.)

585:5
EARTH. A sphere; a type of eternity and immortality,

which are likewise without beginning or end.

585:7
To material sense, earth is matter; to spiritual sense,

it is a compound idea.

585:9
ELIAS. Prophecy; spiritual evidence opposed to mate-

rial sense; Christian Science, with which can be discerned

the spiritual fact of whatever the material senses behold;

the basis of immortality.

585:13
"Elias truly shall first come and restore all things."

(Matthew xvii. 11.)

585:15
ERROR. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 472.

585:16
EUPHRATES (river). Divine Science encompassing

the universe and man; the true idea of God; a type

of the glory which is to come; metaphysics taking the

place of physics; the reign of righteousness. The atmos-

phere of human belief before it accepts sin, sickness, or

death; a state of mortal thought, the only error of which

is limitation; finity; the opposite of infinity.

585:23
EVE. A beginning; mortality; that which does not

last forever; a finite belief concerning life, substance,

and intelligence in matter; error; the belief that the hu-

man race originated materially instead of spiritually, –

that man started first from dust, second from a rib, and

third from an egg.

586:1
EVENING. Mistiness of mortal thought; weariness of

mortal mind; obscured views; peace and rest.

586:3
EYES. Spiritual discernment, – not material but

mental. Jesus said, thinking of the outward vision, "Having

eyes, see ye not?" (Mark viii. 18.)

586:7
FAN. Separator of fable from fact; that which gives

action to thought.

586:9
FATHER. Eternal Life; the one Mind; the divine

Principle, commonly called God.

586:11
FEAR. Heat; inflammation; anxiety; ignorance; error;

desire; caution.

586:13
FIRE. Fear; remorse; lust; hatred; destruction; afflic-

tion purifying and elevating man.

586:15
FIRMAMENT. Spiritual understanding; the scientific

line of demarcation between Truth and error, between

Spirit and so-called matter.

586:18
FLESH. An error of physical belief; a supposition that

life, substance, and intelligence are in matter; an illusion;

a belief that matter has sensation.

586:21
GAD (Jacob's son). Science; spiritual being under-

stood; haste towards harmony.

586:23
GETHSEMANE. Patient woe; the human yielding to

the divine; love meeting no response, but still remaining

love.

587:1
GHOST. An illusion; a belief that mind is outlined

and limited; a supposition that spirit is finite.

587:3
GIHON (river). The rights of woman acknowledged

morally, civilly, and socially.

587:5
GOD. The great I AM; the all-knowing, all-seeing,

all-acting, all-wise, all-loving, and eternal; Principle;

Mind; Soul; Spirit; Life; Truth; Love; all substance;

intelligence.

587:9
GODS. Mythology; a belief that life, substance, and

intelligence are both mental and material; a supposition

of sentient physicality; the belief that infinite Mind is in

finite forms; the various theories that hold mind to be a

material sense, existing in brain, nerve, matter; supposi-

titious minds, or souls, going in and out of matter, erring

and mortal; the serpents of error, which say, "Ye shall

be as gods."

587:17
God is one God, infinite and perfect, and cannot be-

come finite and imperfect.

587:19
GOOD. God; Spirit; omnipotence; omniscience; om-

nipresence; omni-action.

587:21
HAM (Noah's son). Corporeal belief; sensuality;

slavery; tyranny.

587:23
HEART. Mortal feelings, motives, affections, joys, and

sorrows.

587:25
HEAVEN. Harmony; the reign of Spirit; government

by divine Principle; spirituality; bliss; the atmosphere

of Soul.

588:1
HELL. Mortal belief; error; lust; remorse; hatred;

revenge; sin; sickness; death; suffering and self-de-

struction, self-imposed agony; effects of sin; that which

"worketh abomination or maketh a lie."

588:5
HIDDEKEL (river). Divine Science understood and

acknowledged.

588:7
HOLY GHOST. Divine Science; the development of

eternal Life, Truth, and Love.

588:9
I, or EGO. Divine Principle; Spirit; Soul; incor-

poreal, unerring, immortal, and eternal Mind.

588:11
There is but one I, or Us, but one divine Principle, or

Mind, governing all existence; man and woman un-

changed forever in their individual characters, even as

numbers which never blend with each other, though they

are governed by one Principle. All the objects of God's

creation reflect one Mind, and whatever reflects not this

one Mind, is false and erroneous, even the belief that

life, substance, and intelligence are both mental and

material.

588:20
I AM. God; incorporeal and eternal Mind; divine

Principle; the only Ego.

588:22
IN. A term obsolete in Science if used with reference

to Spirit, or Deity.

588:24
INTELLIGENCE. Substance; self-existent and eternal

Mind; that which is never unconscious nor limited.

588:26
See chapter on Recapitulation, page 469.

589:1
ISSACHAR (Jacob's son). A corporeal belief; the

offspring of error; envy; hatred; selfishness; self-will;

lust.

589:4
JACOB. A corporeal mortal embracing duplicity, re-

pentance, sensualism. Inspiration; the revelation of

Science, in which the so-called material senses yield to

the spiritual sense of Life and Love.

589:8
JAPHET (Noah's son). A type of spiritual peace, flow-

ing from the understanding that God is the divine Prin-

ciple of all existence, and that man is His idea, the child

of His care.

589:12
JERUSALEM. Mortal belief and knowledge obtained

from the five corporeal senses; the pride of power and

the power of pride; sensuality; envy; oppression; tyr-

anny. Home, heaven.

589:16
JESUS. The highest human corporeal concept of the

divine idea, rebuking and destroying error and bringing

to light man's immortality.

589:19
JOSEPH. A corporeal mortal; a higher sense of Truth

rebuking mortal belief, or error, and showing the immor-

tality and supremacy of Truth; pure affection blessing

its enemies.

589:23
JUDAH. A corporeal material belief progressing and

disappearing; the spiritual understanding of God and

man appearing.

590:1
KINGDOM OF HEAVEN. The rein of harmony in divine

Science; the realm of unerring, eternal, and omnipotent

Mind; the atmosphere of Spirit, where Soul is supreme.

590:4
KNOWLEDGE. Evidence obtained from the five cor-

poreal senses; mortality; beliefs and opinions; human

theories, doctrines, hypotheses; that which is not divine

and is the origin of sin, sickness, and death; the oppo-

site of spiritual Truth and understanding.

590:9
LAMB OF GOD. The spiritual idea of Love; self-im-

molation; innocence and purity; sacrifice.

590:11
LEVI (Jacob's son). A corporeal and sensual belief;

mortal man; denial of the fulness of God's creation;

ecclesiastical despotism.

590:14
LIFE. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 468.

590:15
LORD. In the Hebrew, this term is sometimes em-

ployed as a title, which has the inferior sense of master,

or ruler. In the Greek, the word kurios almost always

has this lower sense, unless specially coupled with the

name God. Its higher signification is Supreme Ruler.

590:20
LORD GOD. Jehovah.

590:21
This double term is not used in the first chapter of

Genesis, the record of spiritual creation. It is intro-

duced in the second and following chapters, when the

spiritual sense of God and of infinity is disappearing

from the recorder's thought, – when the true scientific

statements of the Scriptures become clouded through a

591:1
physical sense of God as finite and corporeal. From this

follow idolatry and mythology, – belief in many gods, or

material intelligences, as the opposite of the one Spirit,

or intelligence, named Elohim, or God.

591:5
MAN. The compound idea of infinite Spirit; the spirit-

ual image and likeness of God; the full representation of

Mind.

591:8
MATTER. Mythology; mortality; another name for

mortal mind; illusion; intelligence, substance, and life

in non-intelligence and mortality; life resulting in death,

and death in life; sensation in the sensationless; mind

originating in matter; the opposite of Truth; the oppo-

site of Spirit; the opposite of God; that of which immortal

Mind takes no cognizance; that which mortal mind sees,

feels, hears, tastes, and smells only in belief.

591:16
MIND. The only I, or Us; the only Spirit, Soul, divine

Principle, substance, Life, Truth, Love; the one God;

not that which is in man, but the divine Principle, or God,

of whom man is the full and perfect expression; Deity,

which outlines but is not outlined.

591:21
MIRACLE. That which is divinely natural, but must

be learned humanly; a phenomenon of Science.

591:23
MORNING. Light; symbol of Truth; revelation and

progress.

591:25
MORTAL MIND. Nothing claiming to be something,

for Mind is immortal; mythology; error creating other

errors; a suppositional material sense, alias the belief

592:1
that sensation is in matter, which is sensationless; a be-

lief that life, substance, and intelligence are in and of

matter; the opposite of Spirit, and therefore the opposite

of God, or good; the belief that life has a beginning

and therefore an end; the belief that man is the off-

spring of mortals; the belief that there can be more than

one creator; idolatry; the subjective states of error;

material senses; that which neither exists in Science nor

can be recognized by the spiritual sense; sin; sickness;

death.

592:11
MOSES. A corporeal mortal; moral courage; a type

of moral law and the demonstration thereof; the proof

that, without the gospel, – the union of justice and affec-

tion, – there is something spiritually lacking, since justice

demands penalties under the law.

592:16
MOTHER. God; divine and eternal Principle; Life,

Truth, and Love.

592:18
NEW JERUSALEM. Divine Science; the spiritual facts

and harmony of the universe; the kingdom of heaven,

or reign of harmony.

592:21
NIGHT. Darkness; doubt; fear.

592:22
NOAH. A corporeal mortal; knowledge of the noth-

ingness of material things and of the immortality of all

that is spiritual.

592:25
OIL. Consecration; charity; gentleness; prayer; heav-

enly inspiration.

592:27
PHARISEE. Corporeal and sensuous belief; self-right-

eousness; vanity; hypocrisy.

593:1
PISON (river). The love of the good and beautiful, and

their immortality.

593:3
PRINCIPLE. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 465.

593:4
PROPHET. A spiritual seer; disappearance of mate-

rial sense before the conscious facts of spiritual Truth.

593:6
PURSE. Laying up treasures in matter; error.

593:7
RED DRAGON. Error; fear; inflammation; sensuality;

subtlety; animal magnetism; envy; revenge.

593:9
RESURRECTION. Spiritualization of thought; a new

and higher idea of immortality, or spiritual existence;

material belief yielding to spiritual understanding.

593:12
REUBEN (Jacob's son). Corporeality; sensuality; de-

lusion; mortality; error.

593:14
RIVER. Channel of thought.

593:15
When smooth and unobstructed, it typifies the course

of Truth; but muddy, foaming, and dashing, it is a type

of error.

593:18
ROCK. Spiritual foundation; Truth. Coldness and

stubbornness.

593:20
SALVATION. Life, Truth, and Love understood and

demonstrated as supreme over all; sin, sickness, and

death destroyed.

593:23
SEAL. The signet of error revealed by Truth

594:1
SERPENT (ophis, in Greek; nacash, in Hebrew).

Subtlety; a lie; the opposite of Truth, named error;

the first statement of mythology and idolatry; the belief

in more than one God; animal magnetism; the first lie

of limitation; finity; the first claim that there is an oppo-

site of Spirit, or good, termed matter, or evil; the first

delusion that error exists as fact; the first claim that sin,

sickness, and death are the realities of life. The first

audible claim that God was not omnipotent and that

there was another power, named evil, which was as real

and eternal as God, good.

594:12
SHEEP. Innocence; inoffensiveness; those who follow

their leader.

594:14
SHEM (Noah's son). A corporeal mortal; kindly affec-

594:1
tion; love rebuking error; reproof of sensualism.

594:2
SON. The Son of God, the Messiah or Christ. The

son of man, the offspring of the flesh. "Son of a year."

594:18
SOULS. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 466.

594:19
SPIRIT. Divine substance; Mind; divine Principle;

all that is good; God; that only which is perfect, ever‑

lasting, omnipresent, omnipotent, infinite.

594:22
SPIRITS. Mortal beliefs; corporeality; evil minds;

supposed intelligences, or gods; the opposites of God;

errors; hallucinations. (See page 466.)

594:25
SUBSTANCE. See chapter on Recapitulation, page 468.

595:1
SUN. The symbol of Soul governing man, – of

Truth, Life, and Love.

595:3
SWORD. The idea of Truth; justice. Revenge;

anger.

595:5
TARES. Mortality; error; sin; sickness; disease;

death.

595:7
TEMPLE. Body; the idea of Life, substance, and in-

telligence; the superstructure of Truth; the shrine of

Love; a material superstructure, where mortals congre-

gate for worship.

595:11
THUMMIM. Perfection; the eternal demand of divine

Science.

595:13
The Urim and Thummim, which were to be on Aaron's

breast when he went before Jehovah, were holiness and

purification of thought and deed, which alone can fit us

for the office of spiritual teaching.

595:17
TIME. Mortal measurements; limits, in which are

summed up all human acts, thoughts, beliefs, opinions,

knowledge; matter; error; that which begins before,

and continues after, what is termed death, until the mortal

disappears and spiritual perfection appears.

595:22
TITHE. Contribution; tenth part; homage; gratitude.

A sacrifice to the gods.

595:24
UNCLEANLINESS. Impure thoughts; error; sin; dirt.

595:25
UNGODLINESS. Opposition to the divine Principle and

its spiritual idea.

596:1
UNKNOWN. That which spiritual sense alone compre-

hends, and which is unknown to the material senses.

596:3
Paganism and agnosticism may define Deity as "the

great unknowable;" but Christian Science brings God

much nearer to man, and makes Him better known as

the All-in-all, forever near.

596:7
Paul saw in Athens an altar dedicated "to the unknown

God." Referring to it, he said to the Athenians: "Whom

therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you."

(Acts xvii. 23.)

596:11
URIM. Light.

596:12
The rabbins believed that the stones in the breast-

plate of the high-priest had supernatural illumination,

but Christian Science reveals Spirit, not matter, as the

illuminator of all. The illuminations of Science give us

a sense of the nothingness of error, and they show the

spiritual inspiration of Love and Truth to be the only fit

preparation for admission to the presence and power of

the Most High.

596:20
VALLEY. Depression; meekness; darkness.

596:21
"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of

death, I will fear no evil." (Psalm xxiii.4.)

596:23
Though the way is dark in mortal sense, divine Life

and Love illumine it, destroy the unrest of mortal thought,

the fear of death, and the supposed reality of error. Chris-

tian Science, contradicting sense, maketh the valley to bud

and blossom as the rose.

596:28
VEIL. A cover; concealment; hiding; hypocrisy.

596:29
The Jewish women wore veils over their faces in token

597:1
of reverence and submission and in accordance with

Pharisaical notions.

597:3
The Judaic religion consisted mostly of rites and cere-

monies. The motives and affections of a man were of

little value, if only he appeared unto men to fast. The

great Nazarene, as meek as he was mighty, rebuked the

hypocrisy, which offered long petitions for blessings upon

material methods, but cloaked the crime, latent in thought,

which was ready to spring into action and crucify God's

anointed. The martyrdom of Jesus was the culminating

sin of Pharisaism. It rent the veil of the temple. It re-

vealed the false foundations and superstructures of super-

ficial religion, tore from bigotry and superstition their

coverings, and opened the sepulchre with divine Science,

– immortality and Love.

597:16
WILDERNESS. Loneliness; doubt; darkness. Spon-

taneity of thought and idea; the vestibule in which a

material sense of things disappears, and spiritual sense

unfolds the great facts of existence.

597:20
WILL. The motive-power of error; mortal belief; ani-

mal power. The might and wisdom of God.

597:22
"For this is the will of God." (I Thessalonians

iv. 3.)

597:24
Will, as a quality of so-called mortal mind, is a wrong‑

doer; hence it should not be confounded with the term

as applied to Mind or to one of God's qualities.

597:27
WIND. That which indicates the might of omnipo-

tence and the movements of God's spiritual government,

encompassing all things. Destruction; anger; mortal

passions.

598:1
The Greek word for wind (pneuma) is used also for

spirit, as in the passage in John's Gospel, the third chap-

ter, where we read: "The wind [pneuma] bloweth where

it listeth. . . . So is every one that is born of the Spirit

[pneuma]." Here the original word is the same in both

cases, yet it has received different translations, as in other

passages in this same chapter and elsewhere in the New

Testament. This shows how our Master had constantly

to employ words of material significance in order to unfold

spiritual thoughts. In the record of Jesus' supposed

death, we read: "He bowed his head, and gave up the

ghost;" but this word ghost is pneuma. It might be trans-

lated wind or air, and the phrase is equivalent to our

common statement, "He breathed his last." What

Jesus gave up was indeed air, an etherealized form of

matter, for never did he give up Spirit, or Soul.

598:17
WINE. Inspiration; understanding. Error; fornica-

tion; temptation; passion.

598:19
YEAR. A solar measurement of time; mortality;

space for repentance.

598:21
"One day is with the Lord as a thousand years."

(II Peter iii. 8.)

598:23
One moment of divine consciousness, or the spiritual

understanding of Life and Love, is a foretaste of eternity.

This exalted view, obtained and retained when the Sci-

ence of being is understood, would bridge over with life

discerned spiritually the interval of death, and man

would be in the full consciousness of his immortality and

eternal harmony, where sin, sickness, and death are un-

known. Time is a mortal thought, the divisor of which

599:1
is the solar year. Eternity is God's measurement of Soul‑

filled years.

599:3
YOU. As applied to corporeality, a mortal; finity.

599:4
ZEAL. The reflected animation of Life, Truth, and

Love. Blind enthusiasm; mortal will.

599:6
ZION. Spiritual foundation and superstructure; in-

spiration; spiritual strength. Emptiness; unfaithful-

ness; desolation.

Chapter XVIII

Fruitage

Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them. – JESUS.

That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruit-

ful in every good work, and increasing in the knowledge of God. –

PAUL.

Let us get up early to the vineyards: let us see if the vine flourish,

whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth. –

SOLOMON'S SONG.

600:1
THOUSANDS of letters could be presented in testi-

mony of the healing efficacy of Christian Science and

particularly concerning the vast number of people who

have been reformed and healed through the perusal or

study of this book.

600:6
For the assurance and encouragement of the reader, a

few of these letters are here republished from THE CHRIS-

TIAN SCIENCE JOURNAL and CHRISTIAN SCIENCE SENTI-

NEL. The originals are in the possession of the Editor,

who can authenticate the testimonials which follow.

600:11
RHEUMATISM HEALED

600:12
I was a great sufferer from a serious form of rheumatic

trouble, my hands being affected to such an extent that it

was impossible for me even to dress without assistance.

The trouble finally reached the knees, and I became very

lame and had to be assisted in and out of bed. I went

to the different health resorts for the benefit I hoped to

derive from the baths and waters that were prescribed by

601:1
physicians, but found no permanent relief. I was placed

under an X-ray examination, and was told that the joints

were becoming ossified. I then consulted a celebrated

specialist, who after a thorough examination said my

condition would continue to grow worse and that I would

become completely helpless.

601:7
At that time a copy of "Science and Health with Key to

the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy was loaned me. I read it

more from curiosity than with the thought of any physical

benefit. As the truth was unfolded to me, I realized that

the mental condition was what needed correcting, and

that the Spirit of truth which inspired this book was my

physician. My healing is complete, and the liberation in

thought is manifest in a life of active usefulness rather

than the bondage of helpless invalidism and suffering. I

owe to our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, gratitude which

words cannot express. Her revelation of the practical

rather than the merely theoretical application of Jesus'

words, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall

make you free," proved to be my redeemer. I did not

even have to apply to a practitioner, but am most grate-

ful for the helpful words of loving friends. – E. B. B.,

Pasadena, Cal.

601:24
ASTIGMATISM AND HERNIA HEALED

601:25
It is nearly five years since I bought my first copy of

Science and Health, the reading of which cured me of

chronic constipation, nervous headache, astigmatism, and

hernia, in less than four months.

601:29
Where would I be now, had not this blessed truth been

brought to me by much persuasion of a very dear friend?

602:1
I certainly should have been deep in the slough of despond,

if not in the grave. Am I truly thankful for all the good

that has come to me and mine? I try to let my works

testify of that; but to those whom I do not meet in person,

I can truly say, Yes; I am indeed more thankful than

words can express for the glorious healing that has come

to me, both physical, mental, and moral, and I also con-

vey herein, my song of gratitude to the dear Leader who

has through her fidelity to Truth enabled me to touch

at least the hem of Christ's garment. – B. S. J., Sioux

City, Iowa.

602:12
SUBSTANCE OF LUNGS RESTORED

602:13
It was about fifteen years ago that Christian Science

first came to my notice. At that time I had been a chronic

invalid for a good many years. I had acute bowel

trouble, bronchitis, and a number of other troubles. One

physician had told me that my lungs were like wet paper,

ready to tear at any time, and I was filled with fear, as

my mother, two brothers, and a sister had been vic-

tims of consumption. I tried many physicians and

every material remedy that promised help, but no help

came until I found a copy of Mrs. Eddy's book, Sci-

ence and Health. The book was placed in my hands

by one who did not then appreciate it, and I was told

that it would be hard for me to understand it. I com-

menced reading it with this thought, but I caught beau-

tiful glimpses of Truth, which took away my fear and

healed me of all those diseases, and they have never

returned.

602:30
I would also like to tell how I was healed of a sprained

603:1
ankle. The accident occurred in the morning, and all

that day and during the night I gave myself Christian

Science treatment, as best I could. The next morning

it seemed to be no better, being very sore, badly swollen,

and much discolored. Feeling that I had done all I could,

I decided to stop thinking about it. I took my copy of

Science and Health and began reading. Very soon I

became so absorbed in the book that I forgot all about

my ankle; it went entirely out of my thought, for I had

a glimpse of all God's creation as spiritual, and for the

time being lost sight of my material selfhood. After two

hours I laid the book down and walked into another room.

When next I thought of my ankle, I found it was not hurt-

ing me. The swelling had gone down, the black and blue

appearance had nearly vanished, and it was perfectly well.

It was healed while I was "absent from the body" and

"present with the Lord." This experience was worth

a great deal to me, for it showed me how the healing is

done. – C. H., Portland, Ore.

603:20
FIBROID TUMOR HEALED IN A FEW DAYS

603:21
My gratitude for Christian Science is boundless. I

was afflicted with a fibroid tumor which weighed not

less than fifty pounds, attended by a continuous hem-

orrhage for eleven years. The tumor was a growth of

eighteen years.

603:26
I lived in Fort Worth, Tex., and I had never heard

of Christian Science before leaving there for Chicago

in the year 1887. I had tried to live near to God, and

I feel sure He guided me in all my steps to this heal-

ing and saving truth. After being there several weeks

604:1
I received letters from a Texas lady who had herself been

healed, and who wrote urging me to try Christian

Science.

604:4
Changing my boarding-place, I met a lady who owned

a copy of Science and Health, and in speaking to her of

having seen the book, she informed me she had one, and

she got it and told me I could read it. The revelation

was marvelous and brought a great spiritual awakening.

This awakened sense never left me, and one day when

walking alone it came to me very suddenly that I was

healed, and I walked the faster declaring every step that

I was healed. When I reached my boarding-place, I

found my hostess and told her I was healed. She looked

the picture of amazement. The tumor began to disap-

pear at once, the hemorrhage ceased, and perfect strength

was manifest.

604:17
There was no joy ever greater than mine for this Christ‑

cure, for I was very weary and heavy laden. I thought

very little of either sleeping or eating, and my heart was

filled with gratitude, since I knew I had touched the hem

of his garment.

604:22
I must add that the reading of Science and Health, and

that alone, healed me, and it was the second copy I ever

saw. – S. L., Fort Worth, Tex.

604:25
INSANITY AND EPILEPSY HEALED

604:26
While an inmate of the State asylum for the insane at

Middletown, Conn., an epileptic, and at times confined to

my bed with bilious attacks, pronounced incurable by the

doctors (at least six in number), the book, Science and

Health with Key to the Scriptures, by Mrs. Eddy was

605:1
placed in my hands. After reading a few pages, I be-

came very much impressed with the truth therein stated,

and although I was surrounded with opposition, I knew

that "underneath are the everlasting arms." Since that

time – past the middle of the year 1899 – I have kept

pressing on, until I have been healed by reading Science

and Health. At times I was beset by what seemed un-

conquerable opposition, until the first week in October,

1904, when, upon going to my home in Darien for a visit,

I was given my liberty, and I am now earning my living

in this city. After having been subject to epileptic at-

tacks since 1892, and at one time pronounced dying

by the doctor in charge, I am now well. I have had no

fit, or symptoms of any, since the first week in May,

1904.

605:16
I trust that this testimony to the healing power of Truth,

realized by reading Science and Health (for I had no treat-

ment), may reach the eye of some to whom the battle

seems long, and inspire them with fresh courage and a

realization of the worth of the victory. I am filled with

inexpressible gratitude and love to God, and to Mrs.

Eddy. – Mrs. B. B. C., Stamford, Conn.

605:23
A CASE OF MENTAL SURGERY

605:24
I have felt for some time I should give my experience

in mental surgery. In May, 1902, going home for

lunch, on a bicycle, and while riding down a hill at a

rapid gait, I was thrown from the wheel, and falling

on my left side with my arm under my head, the bone

was broken about half-way between the shoulder and

elbow. While the pain was intense, I lay still in the dust,

606:1
declaring the truth and denying that there could

be a break or accident in the realm of divine Love,

until a gentleman came to assist me, saying, he

thought I had been stunned. I was only two and a

half blocks from home, so I mounted my wheel again

and managed to reach it. On arriving there I lay

down and asked my little boy to bring me our text-

book. He immediately brought Science and Health,

which I read for about ten minutes, when all pain

left.

606:11
I said nothing to my family of the accident, but at-

tended to some duties and was about half an hour late

in returning to the office, this being my only loss of time

from work. My friends claimed that the arm had not

been broken, as it would have been impossible for me to

continue my work without having it set, and carrying it

in a sling until the bone knit together. Their insistence

almost persuaded me that I might have been mistaken,

until one of my friends invited me to visit a physician's

office where they were experimenting with an X-ray ma-

chine. The physician was asked to examine my left

arm to see if it differed from the ordinary. On look-

ing through it, he said, "Yes, it has been broken, but

whoever set it made a perfect job of it, and you will

never have any further trouble from that break." My

friend then asked the doctor to show how he could

tell where the break had been. The doctor pointed

out the place as being slightly thicker at that part,

like a piece of steel that had been welded. This

was the first of several cases of mental surgery that

have come under my notice, and it made a deep

impression on me.

607:1
For the benefit of others who may have something

similar to meet, I will say that I have overcome almost

constant attacks of sick headaches, extending back

to my earliest recollection. – L. C. S., Salt Lake City,

Utah.

607:6
CATARACT QUICKLY CURED

607:7
I wish to add my testimony to those of others, and

hope that it may be the means of bringing some poor

sufferer to health, to happiness, and to God. I was

healed through simply reading this wonderful book,

Science and Health. I had been troubled periodically

for many years with sore eyes, and had been to many

doctors, who called the disease iritis and cataract. They

told me that my eyes would always give me trouble, and

that I would eventually lose my sight if I remained in

an office, and advised me to go under an operation. Later

on I had to wear glasses at my work, also out of doors

as I could not bear the winds, and my eyes were gradually

becoming worse. I could not read for longer than a few

minutes at a time, otherwise they would smart severely.

I had to rest my eyes each evening to enable me to use

them the next day; in fact gas-light was getting unbearable

because of the pain, and I made home miserable. A

dear brother told me about Christian Science, and said

that if I would read Science and Health it would help

me. He procured for me the loan of the book. The

first night I read it, it so interested me I quite forgot

all about my eyes until my wife remarked that it was

eleven o'clock. I found that I had been reading this

book for nearly four hours, and I remarked immediately

after, "I believe my eyes are cured," which was really

608:1
the case. The next day, on looking at my eyes, my wife

noticed that the cataract had disappeared. I put away

my outdoor glasses, which I have not required since, and

through the understanding gained by studying Christian

Science I have been able to do away with my indoor

glasses also, and have had no return of pain in my eyes

since. This is now a year and a half ago. – G. F. S.,

Liverpool, England.

608:9
VALVULAR HEART DISEASE HEALED

608:10
Fourteen years ago my heart awoke to gratitude to

God and the dear Leader at the same time. After a

patient and persistent effort of three months' duration, to

procure a copy of Science and Health (during which time

I had visited every bookstore, and many of the second-

hand bookstores in the city of St. Paul), and had failed

to find it, I at last remembered that the stranger who told

me I might be healed, had mentioned a name, and

McVicker's Theatre Building in Chicago as being in

some way connected with the work. I sent there for

information regarding a book called Health and Science,

and the return mail brought me the book, Science and

Health, and in it I at once found sure promise of deliver-

ance from valvular heart disease, with all the accompani-

ments, such as extreme nervousness, weakness, dyspepsia,

and insomnia. I had suffered from these all my life,

finding no permanent relief, even, in material remedies,

and no hope of cure at any time. Only those who have

been held in such bondage and have been liberated by

the same means, can know the eager joy of the first perusal

of that wonderful book.

609:1
Half a day's reading convinced me that I had found

the way to holiness and health. I read on, thinking only

of the spiritual enlightenment, content to wait until I

should be led to some person who would heal me; but

old things had passed away, and all things had become

new. I was completely healed before I had met a Scien-

tist, or one who knew anything about Christian Science,

and before I had read a line of any other Christian Science

literature except one leaf of a tract; so it is absolutely

certain that the healing was entirely impersonal, as was

also the teaching, which enabled me to begin at once

demonstrating the power of Truth to destroy all forms

of error. – E. J. W., North Yakima, Wash.

609:14
THE TRUE PHYSICIAN FOUND

609:15
It is with a deep sense of gratitude that I send the

particulars of my healing through Christian Science.

While visiting friends in the southwestern part of On-

tario, about three years ago, my attention was called

to Christian Science and the wonderful healing it was

doing. I had lived in New York for twenty-five years,

but had never heard of Christian Science before, to my

recollection.

609:23
Up to that time, for seventeen years, I had suffered

with indigestion and gastritis in the worst form, often

being overcome from a seeming pressure against the heart.

I had asthma for four years, also had worn glasses for

four years. It seemed to me that I had swallowed every

known medicine to relieve my indigestion, but they only

gave me temporary benefit. I purchased a copy of Sci-

ence and Health, and simply from the reading of that

610:1
grand book I was completely healed of all my physical

ailments in two weeks' time. I have used no medi-

cine from that day to this, and with God's help, and

the wonderful light revealed to me through the reading

of Mrs. Eddy's book, I never expect to again. I used

to smoke eight or ten cigars a day, and also took an

occasional drink, but the desire for these has gone, – I

feel forever. I travel on the road, and am constantly

being invited to indulge, but it is no effort to abstain,

and in many instances I find that my refusal helps

others.

610:12
While I fully appreciate the release from my physical

troubles, this pales into insignificance in comparison with

the spiritual uplifting Christian Science has brought me.

I had not been inside a church for more than ten years,

to attend regular services, until I entered a Christian

Science church. What I saw and realized there, seemed

so genuine that I loved Christian Science from the very

start. I have never taken a treatment, – every inch

of the way has been through study and practical demon-

stration, and I know that all can do the same thing if they

will try.

610:23
Since I have been in Science I have overcome a case of

ulcerated tooth in one night through the reading of Science

and Health; also a severe attack of grip in thirty-six hours

by obeying the Scripture saying, "Physician, heal thy-

self." – B. H. N., New York, N. Y.

610:28
CANCER AND CONSUMPTION HEALED

610:29
I was a great sufferer for many years from internal

cancer and consumption. I was treated by the best of

611:1
physicians in New York, Minneapolis, and Duluth, and

was finally given up as incurable, when I heard of Chris-

tian Science. A neighbor who had been healed of con-

sumption, kindly loaned me Science and Health by Mrs.

Eddy, which I read and became interested in. In three

months' time, I was healed, the truth conveyed to me by

this book being the healer, and not only of these diseases,

but I was made whole mentally as well. I have not been

in bed one day since, or rather in eleven years. I have

had many good demonstrations during this time, have

passed through many a "fiery trial," but this blessed truth

has caused me to stand, at times seemingly alone, and

God was with me.

611:14
I will mention a demonstration of painless childbirth

which I have had since coming to Idaho. Perhaps it may

help some sister who is looking through the Journal for

a demonstration of this kind, as I was before my baby

came. Good help being scarce here, I did my housework

up to the time I was confined, and was in perfect health.

I awoke my husband one morning at five o'clock, and at

half past five baby was born, no one being present but

my husband and myself. It was quite a surprise to the

rest of the family to see me sitting by the fire with a new

baby on my lap. My son got the breakfast, of which I

ate heartily; at noon I joined the family in the dining-

room. I was out on the porch the second day, around

the yard the third day, and have been perfectly well

ever since, which has been now over three years. To

one who had previously passed through agony untold,

with a physician in attendance, this seemed wonderful.

I hope this will interest some one who is seeking the truth,

and I wish to express my sincere love for our beloved

612:1
Leader, who has given us the "Key to the Scriptures." –

E. C. C., Lewiston, Idaho.

612:3
A REMARKABLE CASE

612:4
Nine years ago my only child was hovering between

life and death. Some of the best physicians in Boston

had pronounced his case incurable, saying that if he

lived he would always be an invalid and a cripple. One

of the diseases was gastric catarrh. He was allowed

to eat but very few things, and even after taking every

precaution, he suffered to the extent that he would

lie in spasms for half a day. He also had rickets; physi-

cians saying that there was not a natural bone in his

body.

612:14
It was while he was in what seemed to be his greatest

agony, and when I was in the darkest despair, that I

first heard of Christian Science. The bearer of the joyful

tidings could only tell me to come and hear of the wonder-

ful things that Christian Science was doing. I accepted

the invitation, for I was willing to try anything to save

my child, and the following Friday evening I attended

my first meeting, which was in The Mother Church of

Christ, Scientist. Long before the service began every

seat was filled, which was amazing to me, being an ordi-

nary weekly meeting, and that night I realized from the

testimonies given that Christian Science was the religion

for which I had been searching for years. The next

day I went to find a practitioner, but was unable to get

the one who had been recommended, he being too busy.

On my way home I thought of some of the testimonies

which I had heard the night before, – of people being

613:1
healed by simply reading Science and Health. I resolved

at once to borrow a copy, and not dreaming of the

sacrifice that my friend would make by conferring such

a favor, I went and asked her for a loan of Science

and Health. I never saw any one part so reluctantly

with a book as my friend did with her copy of the

textbook.

613:8
I read it silently and audibly, day and night, in my

home, and although I could not seem to understand

it, yet the healing commenced to take place at once.

The little mouth which had been twisted by spasms

grew natural and the child was soon able to be up,

playing and romping about the house as any child

should. About this time we decided to move to the

far West.

613:16
I was young in Science at the time, and my husband

greatly feared that the journey would cause a relapse

for the child, but instead, he continued to improve. I

constantly read the Bible, Science and Health, and Mis-

cellaneous Writings, the two weeks we traveled, and we

were the only ones in our car who, throughout the journey,

did not get train sick. The child's limbs grew perfectly

straight, he ate anything he wanted, and for years he has

been a natural, healthy child in every way. He has passed

through some of the worst forms of contagion untouched

and unharmed.

613:27
I had been reading Science and Health several months,

before I gave any thought to myself and my numerous

complaints. I had never been very strong, and some of

my ailments were supposed to be hereditary and chronic,

hence I dragged through many tedious years with a belief

in medical laws and hereditary laws resting upon me.

614:1
Just before I commenced reading Science and Health

I spent a half day in having my eyes examined by one

of the leading oculists in Boston. His verdict was that

my eyes were in a dreadful condition, and that I would

always need to wear glasses. In the meantime I com-

menced to read Science and Health, and when I thought

of my eyes, I had no need for glasses. The years that

I have been in Science I have used my eyes incessantly,

night as well as day, doing all kinds of trying work and

without requiring the aid of glasses. I was healed of

all my complaints whilst seeking the truth for my child,

and many of them have never returned. Those that

appeared simply came to the surface to be destroyed.

Teeth have been restored and facial blemishes re-

moved, unconsciously, simply by reading Science and

Health. All of this is, however, nothing to compare

with the spiritual uplifting which I have received,

and I have everything to be thankful for. – M. T. W., Los

Angeles, Cal.

614:20
INTENSE SUFFERING OVERCOME

614:21
For about five years I was afflicted with sciatic rheu-

matism, in such a severe form that my body was drawn

out of shape. When able to be around, I walked with

the assistance of a cane. The attacks were periodical,

recurring every few months; any exposure to rain or

dampness would bring one. At one time I was in bed

eleven weeks, suffering intensely all the time except when

relieved by hypodermic injections. When I had these

attacks, my regular physician was always in attendance.

My daughter consulted another physician, who said there

615:1
would have to be an operation which would include

the exposing and scraping of the sciatic nerve. There

was also another physician who, knowing of the case,

examined my heart and claimed that it was weak and

that I was liable to pass on at any time from heart

trouble.

615:7
After suffering three years I heard of Christian Science,

but did not avail myself of it for two years, when I de-

cided to give up all other means and rely wholly upon

it. It was not convenient to call a practitioner, so I took

Science and Health and applied its teachings as best

I could. In three days the trouble completely left

me and there has never been the slightest return. My

health has been good ever since, and I am at present

in perfect physical health. I have been benefited in

every way by Christian Science, physically, mentally, and

spiritually, and would not be without my understand-

ing of it for anything. – Mrs. E. A. K., Billings,

Mont.

615:20
HEALED OF RHEUMATISM AND BRIGHT'S DISEASE

615:21
I am very thankful to God for what He has done for

me. I was suddenly left alone, with many troubles

and trials, and I took up the study of the Bible. I

was trying to understand it, prior to joining some

church, as it seemed to me this would be expected. I

had attended all sorts of churches from my childhood

up, but never could find any that met my need. As

time passed on, my condition became very alarming.

Sciatic rheumatism, that had troubled me for some

years, became so severe I could scarcely do anything.

616:1
Then there appeared some complications, so distressing

that I was unable to walk far, and had to sit down fre-

quently by the way. I thought I had Bright's disease, –

such excruciating pains, no tongue could tell my suffer-

ings. With all these things upon me, death seemed very

near. I had never joined any church, and I thought it

now too late, as I would have to wait six months on pro-

bation, and I would be dead before that.

616:9
About this time I made some inquiries of my sister in

reference to Christian Science, as she had already turned to

that faith, and I soon found that it was just what I had

been looking for. I saw at once that it declared the truth

and nothing but the truth. I commenced reading Science

and Health, also the New Testament. I wanted to find

out what Jesus said, as I did not expect then to live long.

I did not go to the meetings, nor did I read Science and

Health to be cured, – not thinking of that, – but to be

saved from an everlasting hell hereafter. My sister urged

me to have a practitioner, but I kept on reading, and

praying to God in silence, and what happened? Where

had the diseases gone? I persisted in reading Science

and Health, together with the Bible, with the knowl-

edge that God as revealed by Christ Jesus can do

everything, that He made everything that was made,

that He can and does heal the afflicted. He has healed

me, thanks to His most holy name. – G. J. H., Charles-

ton, Ill.

616:28
GRATEFUL FOR MANY BLESSINGS

616:29
In the year 1901, Christian Science found me a hope-

less invalid. I had suffered for seven years previous with

a very painful back, the result of an operation. I could

617:1
get no rest or sleep at night, as I could not lie down, but

had to sit propped in a chair with pillows around me.

Only those who have suffered as I did can know the full

misery of it. I had come to the end of material means

and never hoped to get well. One day, however, while

out walking, it was my good fortune to come to a Christian

Scientist's house, and there the teaching was explained

to me. I was advised to buy Science and Health, which

I did, and the study of this book has healed my back en-

tirely. Christian Science has also cured me of long-

standing catarrh of the throat, and neuralgia with which

I had been afflicted from childhood. Before coming into

Science I had doctored with three of the best physicians

in Seattle, but none could give me relief.

617:15
I am no longer a sufferer, but rejoice exceedingly in

Christian Science. God's promise has been fulfilled to

me, "But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of

righteousness arise with healing in his wings." – E. O.,

Georgetown, Wash.

617:20
FREED FROM NEURASTHENIC AND OTHER TROUBLES

617:21
Christian Science found in me a minister's son who

had failed to profit by continuous teaching in the old

thought. Some years ago I was pronounced by a pro-

fessor of materia medica, whose works are in general use,

a neurasthenic. I had been in this condition more or less

for eight years, and up to two years ago, when Christian

Science was first brought to my attention (thanks to Al-

mighty God) through a kind friend, I was almost con-

stantly taking medicine and had in all eleven physicians

who undoubtedly did their best, but without avail, not-

618:1
withstanding almost all known drugs were prescribed,

and further I had tried very many patent medicines. I

was also put through forms of hygienic treatment and

other things that offered inducements. At the time of

coming into Science I was taking three times daily forty

minims of cod-liver oil and three of creosote, also three

drops of Fowler's solution of arsenic, and on the month

or so previous had bought eighteen dollars' worth of

patent medicine. I was restricted to the simplest means

of diet, – all stews, fries, sweets, berries, and tomatoes I

had not touched for two years.

618:12
I started to read Science and Health, and before I had

half finished the book once I was eating everything that

any one does. I read the book eleven times straight

ahead and many times skipping about. The book

has done the work and I am a well man. – C. E. M.,

Philadelphia, Pa.

618:18
MANY ILLS OVERCOME

618:19
I have received much help, spiritually and physically,

through Christian Science. I had what the doctors

diagnosed as muscular rheumatism, dropsy, and con-

stipation of thirty years' standing. A dear friend whom

I had known as an invalid had been healed by Christian

Science and advised me to read Science and Health. I

did so, having a desire to know the truth. One of my

troubles was that I could not sleep. I began reading the

Bible and the Christian Science textbook, and troubles

of every kind disappeared before I had read Science and

Health through. The thought came, What about the

old remedies? but truth prevailed, and I took all the

619:1
material remedies I had and threw them away. That

was seven years ago, and I have not had any use for them

since. My husband was healed of the tobacco habit

of fifty years' standing, also of kidney trouble, by read-

ing Science and Health. I have not words to express

the gratitude I feel to-day for the many blessings that

have come to our home. – Mrs. M. K. O., Seattle,

Wash.

619:9
A HELPFUL HEALING

619:10
I became interested in Christian Science about eleven

years ago, and was healed of neuralgia of the stomach,

from which I had suffered from a child. As I grew older,

the spells became more frequent and more severe; the

only relief physicians could give me was by hypodermic

injections of morphine. Finally, after each spell, I would

be prostrated for a day or two with the after-effect of the

morphine. I was entirely healed of this trouble through

the study of Science and Health. I think I never realized

what fear meant until I began to try and put into practice

my understanding of Christian Science for my children.

I have proved, however, many times, that fear can

neither help nor hinder in our demonstration of truth.

The first time I realized this was in the overcoming of

a severe case of croup for my little boy. I was

awakened one night by the sound that seems to bring

terror to every mother's heart, and found the little

fellow sitting up in bed, gasping for breath. I got up,

took him in my arms, and went into the next room.

My first thought was, "O if only there was another

Christian Scientist in town!" But there was not, and

the work must be done and done quickly. I tried

620:1
to treat him, but was so frightened I could not think;

so I picked up Science and Health, which lay on the

table beside me, and began reading aloud. I had read

but a few lines when these words came to me as though

a voice spoke, "The word of God is quick, and powerful,

and sharper than any two-edged sword." Almost im-

mediately after, the little one said, "Mamma, sing 'Shep-

herd,'" – our Leader's hymn, that both the big and

the little children love. I began singing, and commenc-

ing with the second line, the little voice joined me. I

shall never forget the feeling of joy and peace that came

over me, when I realized how quickly God's word, through

Science and Health and the beautiful hymn, had accom-

plished the healing work. This is only one of many

instances in which the power of God's word to heal has

been demonstrated in our home. – A. J. G., River-

side, Cal.

620:18
RELIEF FROM MANY ILLS

620:19
Paul said, "Be ye transformed by the renewing of your

mind." In my own case deafness has been overcome by

an enlarged understanding of God's word, as explained

by Mrs. Eddy in Science and Health. Many times I

have been enabled to turn to God, to know it was His

will to help in trouble, and obtained the needed benefit.

Catarrh has disappeared; tonsilitis, which very frequently

laid me aside from duties in the schoolroom and home,

is no longer manifest. When temptation comes (for

Christian Science is both preventive and curative), I turn

to that wonderful book, Science and Health, and my

precious Bible, grown dearer since read in the new light

621:1
of spiritual understanding, until I know that my mind is

renewed, because the action is changed and the inflam-

mation has abated.

621:4
Thus in my experience in Christian Science, I have seen

the transformation begun, and Truth is able to perfect

that which is begun in me so gloriously. – Mrs. C.A.

McL., Brooklyn, Nova Scotia.

621:8
HEALTH AND PEACE ATTAINED

621:9
For fifteen years I was a great sufferer physically and

mentally. Eminent physicians treated me for hereditary

consumption, torpid liver, and many other diseases. I

sought relief at famous springs, the ozone of Florida, and

the pure air of Colorado, but in vain. My life was one

ceaseless torture.

621:15
During all this time, however, I was an earnest seeker

after Truth. I examined every religious teaching with

a calm and unprejudiced attention. From an orthodox

Protestant I became a skeptic, and a follower of Voltaire,

Tom Paine, and Ingersoll; yet all the while I retained

faith in a supreme intelligent Being who made all. Sick,

weary, doubting, and despairing, I accidentally went into

a Christian Science church in New York City, on a Wed-

nesday evening, not knowing what kind of a place it was.

Seeing a large number of people going into the build-

ing, I followed, supposing that a marriage ceremony

had attracted the crowd. Being informed it was their

regular Wednesday evening service, I inquired as to the

denomination. I concluded that it was another new fad,

but after investigation I procured a copy of Science and

Health, promising I would read it carefully. I began

622:1
reading the book on Tuesday and finished on Friday of

the same week. I was still in the dark. I laid the book

down, involuntarily closed my eyes, and silently prayed

to God.

622:5
I remained in that attitude a few moments, when I

felt like the mariner who had been tossed for days upon

a boisterous sea, the clouds bending low, the billows

rolling high, all nature wrapped in darkness; in his de-

spair he kneels and commits his soul to God, when he

suddenly beholds the North Star breaking through the

clouds, enabling him to guide his ship to the shores of

safety. Many things were made plain to me. I saw

that there is one Fatherhood of God and one brother-

hood of man; that though "once I was blind, now I see;"

that there was no more pain, nor aches, no fear, nor in-

digestion. I slept that night like a babe and awoke next

morning refreshed. There are now no traces whatever of

my former complaint and I feel like a new being. – L. P.,

New York, N. Y.

622:20
HEALTH AND PEACE GAINED

622:21
About nine years ago I was drawn to Christian

Science by a relative whose many afflictions had given

place to health and harmony, and whose loving grati-

tude was reflected in every word and deed. The

thought came to me, God indeed healeth all our

diseases.

622:27
My first reading of Science and Health was without

understanding. I was full of darkness and gloom, and

it was laid aside for a time. The good seed had been

sown, however, and erelong the reading was resumed,

623:1
and with such interest that my afflictions disappeared

"like mist before the morning sun." Asthma (thought

to be hereditary), neuralgia in an aggravated form, and

besides these, the tobacco and liquor habit of many years'

standing left me. Bless the Lord, "He sent his word"

and healed me, – for the reading of Science and Health

brought to my consciousness the truth that makes free. –

S., Shellman, Ga.

623:9
CONSUMPTION QUICKLY CURED

623:10
I became interested in Christian Science nearly five

years ago through the healing of my wife of what the

doctors called consumption in its last stages. I had tried

everything that I could get in the way of materia medica,

and every doctor would tell me nearly the same story

about the case. At last they recommended for her only

a higher, drier climate, and when she would be at her

worst to give her something to quiet her.

623:18
I tried different climates, but she was no better,

indeed worse. At last she struggled along until the

first of March, 1899. She had taken to her bed again.

For two days and nights she suffered, and I called a

physician. He came and diagnosed the case, and said

that he could do nothing for her but give her some

morphine tablets to make her rest. I gave her two

of them according to direction, and just before the

time to give her the third, she called me to her bed-

side, and said, "Don't give me any more of that stuff,

for it does me more harm than good," so I turned and

placed them in the fire, though I did not then know any-

thing about Christian Science. We had heard of it, but

624:1
that was all. I gave her the last tablet at eight o'clock

that night, and about nine o'clock the next day a lady

who had been healed in Christian Science visited her,

and introduced her to this great truth. She accepted it

and thought she would try it. The lady loaned her Sci-

ence and Health. She got the book about ten o'clock

that day and read it until dinner was called. She ate a

hearty dinner, the first in about three days, and that same

evening she dressed herself, walked into the dining-room,

ate a hearty supper and enjoyed it. She slept well that

night. She borrowed this lady's copy of Science and

Health two hours each day for eight days, and was

healed. The first day that she read Science and Health

she weighed about ninety-five pounds. Three months

later she weighed one hundred and thirty-five pounds. –

A. J. D., Houston, Tex.

624:17
A PROFITABLE STUDY

624:18
It may help others to know that some one was really

healed of severe illness through Christian Science. It

is over nine years since we first became interested in

the Science, and it would be hard to find a healthier

person than I am now. I can go all day, from morn-

ing till night, upheld by the thought that "they that

wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." I

can truly say that I scarcely know what physical wear-

iness is any more. Before I came into Science the

physicians said that one lung was gone, and that the

other was affected with tuberculosis; so, from their

standpoint, there was little left for me to hope for. We

had tried every remedy that they had suggested. I had

625:1
gone to the mountains, but could not stay there on account

of the altitude; and when they did not know what else

to do, they said we would better go to England – that

the ocean air would be beneficial. So we spent three

months in the British Isles, and when I came back I

seemed much better, but this only lasted a short time.

In little more than a month I was worse than ever, and

my mother was told that I had but a few weeks, or at

most months, to live.

625:10
At that time, a lady, a stranger to us, suggested that

we try Christian Science. There was no prejudice against

it, as we did not even know what it was. We knew of

no Scientists in the Western town where we were living,

and when we were told that we could send to Kansas City

for absent treatment, we thought it was absurd. We were

then told that many people had been healed through the

reading of the Christian Science textbook, Science and

Health, and to us this seemed a little worse than the

absent treatment, but as we had tried everything we

had heard of up to that time, my mother sent for the

book.

625:22
It came in the middle of October and we began to read

it together. It seemed to me from the first that it was

something I had always believed, but did not know how

to express – it seemed such a natural thing. My im-

provement was very gradual, but I felt I was recovering.

After the Christmas holidays I started in at school and

went the whole term without missing a day, – some-

thing I had never done before. I finished my school

course without missing a day – in fact, I have not spent

a day in bed since that time. I feel absolutely certain

that I have two sound, healthy lungs now. The hollows

626:1
in my chest have filled out, and I breathe perfectly on both

sides; rarely have a cold to meet, and have not a sign of

a cough.

626:4
People sometimes say, "Oh, well, maybe you never had

consumption." Well, I had all the symptoms, and they

are every one gone through the reading of Science and

Health. – E. L. B., Chicago, Ill.

626:8
HEALED OF INFIDELITY AND MANY PHYSICAL ILLS

626:9
I feel compelled to write my testimony and hope that

I may be accepted as one more witness to the Truth as con-

tained in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

626:12
In the year 1883 I first heard of Christian Science. I

was sitting in a saloon in Leadville, Col., reading a daily

paper of that place. My eyes lighted upon an article

which spoke of some peculiar people in Boston who

claimed to have discovered how to heal as Jesus healed.

I do not remember much of the article, but those words

stayed with me.

626:19
I had drifted out to Colorado from New York City (my

home), where I had been under the treatment of many

leading physicians. The last one, who was too honest

to take my money knowing that he could not cure me,

advised me to keep away from doctors and quit taking

medicine, as nothing but death could cure me. My

trouble was pronounced by some to be Bright's disease,

by others gravel on the kidneys with very acute inflam-

mation of the bladder and prostate gland.

626:28
In the spring of 1888 my wife and myself were spend-

ing the evening at the house of a gentleman whose wife

had been healed in the East by Christian Science. The

627:1
gentleman took a book from its bookcase saying, "Here

is a work on Christian Science." It proved to be Science

and Health. I knew as soon as I had read the title-page

that this was the very book we wanted. We immediately

sent for the book, and when it arrived we obeyed the angel

and feasted on it. I was very much prejudiced against

the Bible, and my first demonstration over self was to

consent to read the four Gospels. My wife bought me a

New Testament and I began to read it. What a change

came over me! All my prejudice was gone in an instant!

When I read the Master's words, I caught his meaning

and the lesson he tried to convey. It was not difficult for

me to accept the whole Bible, for I could not help myself,

I was just captured. The disease with which I had been

troubled for years tormented me worse than ever for

about six months, as if trying to turn me aside; but I lost

all fear of it.

627:18
I kept up my study of Science and Health and the dis-

ease disappeared. I can honestly say that Science and

Health was my only healer, and it has been my only

teacher. – R. A. C., Los Angeles, Cal.

627:22
DISEASED EYES CURED

627:23
Christian Science came to me when I was a wreck, my

body being completely covered with sores. My eyes were

very bad, so that I sat in a darkened room for weeks to-

gether, most of the time in bed under opiates. The home

doctor and a specialist said the disease of the eyes could not

be cured, though they might help me for a while. I had

one operation, and the doctor said if I took cold I would

become totally blind. My suffering was beyond telling.

628:1
A clergyman called almost every day, and sat by my bed

and wept, and my good, kind doctor shed tears many times.

Finally, after a year of this terrible suffering, I was sent

to Indiana, to a sister who had been healed of lung trouble

by Christian Science. The first day I was there she read

to me from the Bible and from "Science and Health with

Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, and I was healed.

I knew that God was no respecter of persons, and when I

saw what had been done for my sister, who was changed

from being a mere frame to a strong, robust, healthy, rosy-

cheeked woman, the cough all gone, I said, "God has as

much for me, if I will accept it." I was healed instan-

taneously by Christian Science, and am thankful to God

for giving us this understanding through Mrs. Eddy,

our beloved Leader. I am now in perfect health. –

Mrs. F. S., Laurel, Miss.

628:17
THE TEXTBOOK HEALED ME

628:18
For twelve years previous to the fall of 1897 I had been

under the care of a physician much of the time. Different

opinions were given by them, as to the nature of the trouble,

some diagnosing it as an abnormal growth, etc. I was

healed through reading "Science and Health with Key to

the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. It was a clear case of

transformation of the body by the renewal of the mind.

I am perfectly well at the present time. – J. M. H.,

Omaha, Neb.

628:27
OBSTINATE STOMACH TROUBLE HEALED

628:28
There is no doubt that by far the greater number come

to Christian Science by the way of physical healing, but

629:1
there are those to whom this does not particularly appeal.

In the hope that it may be of benefit to some such, and in

gratitude for help received, I submit my own experience.

Three years ago I knew nothing of Christian Science, aside

from the knowledge gathered from the daily papers and

current literature. When I thought of the subject at all,

it was to class Christian Science with various human the-

ories with which I could not be in sympathy, for they

seemed to rely upon both good and evil. I had never

known of a case of healing, had never read the textbook

or heard of the Journal or Sentinel, but I would sometimes

see people going into the Christian Science church. I was

tired of trying to find anything satisfactory in religious

belief, for it seemed as if God either could not or would

not bring into harmony the terrible conditions existing in

human society. I had quit using any form of prayer ex-

cept the Lord's Prayer, and even then omitted the words

"lead us not into temptation." How I longed to know

just a little of the "why?" and "wherefore?" of it all.

629:20
Here is where Christian Science found me. I was

thrown in contact with a dear friend of whom I had seen

very little for a year or more, a thoroughly educated woman

and a thinker. She told me she had taken some treatments

in Christian Science for a physical trouble, and had be-

come very much interested in the study of "Science and

Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy. She

asked me if I would like to look at the book, and I said I

I would be glad to do so. The first chapter, "Prayer,"

appealed to me from the first, and when I came to Mrs.

Eddy's spiritual sense of the Lord's Prayer (Science and

Health, p. 17), my interest was fully aroused. I knew

that in a dim way I was learning what it means to "pray

630:1
without ceasing." Very soon I bought a book of my own,

and with the help of our Lesson-Sermons, as given in the

Quarterly, I began in earnest the study of Science and

Health, in connection with the Bible.

630:5
I stood very much in need of physical healing at this

time, having suffered for several years from an obstinate

form of stomach trouble. So far as I know, I gave no

thought to the benefits I might derive physically from the

study, but I did believe this Science held the truth of things,

and I was so absorbed in getting an understanding of the

Principle that I thought very little of myself. After about

three or four months' study I realized that the stomach

trouble was gone, and with it went other physical troubles,

which have never returned. This healing was brought

about by the earnest, conscientious seeking for the truth,

as contained in the Bible and interpreted by our Leader

in our textbook, Science and Health. I have since learned

more of the Science of healing and have been able in a

small way to help others in need. I have also learned

that in living and loving is healing realized, and in reflect-

ing divine Love I have the "signs following."

630:22
When we think of the pure, loving, unselfish life Mrs.

Eddy must have lived in order to become conscious of this

truth and give it to us, words are a poor medium through

which to express the gratitude which her followers feel for

her. It is best expressed by obediently following her, even

as she is following Christ. – H. T., Omaha, Neb.

630:28
DYSPEPSIA QUICKLY HEALED

630:29
It has occurred to me that I have had ample time to

meditate on the many blessings which I have received

631:1
through Christian Science, as it is now more than six

years since I was entirely healed of dyspepsia as well as

constipation in its worst form by the reading of Science

and Health. So aggravated were the conditions that for

three years or more I was unable to drink a glass of cold

water. Everything that I drank had to be hot, and my

only means of relief from the bowel trouble was hot water

injections, for a period of more than three years.

631:9
I can truthfully say that I was permanently, and I might

say instantly, healed of those two ailments by reading

Science and Health as before stated, and in fact I do not

think I had read more than thirty pages of this book when

I ignored entirely the most rigid kind of diet. I ate and

drank everything I wished without a single harmful effect

from that time to this date, and there has not been a drop

of medicine in our home for more than six years, in a fam-

ily of five.

631:18
I have also seen the power of Truth manifested in our

home by having our youngest child relieved of the most

excruciating pain, and changed to his most playful mood,

immediately upon notifying one of the faithful practi-

tioners of this city. For all this I am endeavoring to be

thankful to God and to our faithful Leader, Mrs. Eddy,

whose pure and undefiled life enabled her to discover this

precious truth for the benefit of all mankind. – M. C.

McK., Denver, Col.

631:27
AFTER TWENTY YEARS' SUFFERING

631:28
From early girlhood I was considered an invalid, hav-

ing been injured by a hard fall while playing. The pain

was intense for some time and for several hours I was un-

632:1
able to walk or stand alone. Later, a growing weakness

of the back accompanied with sharp pains alarmed my

parents, who called a physician, and he pronounced it

spinal trouble. Then followed nearly twenty years of

increased suffering, at times very severe. As years went

by and I became a wife and mother, my suffering in-

creased. Everything that medical skill could do was

done, but finding no lasting benefit from anything, I lost

hope of recovery.

632:10
When Christian Science found me I was under the

doctor's sentence that if I lived the week through I would

become entirely helpless, not able to move hand or foot.

My husband was a travelling man, and being urgently

called home, he met an old friend on the train who asked

why we did not try Christian Science. The reply, We

know nothing of it, was followed by a brief explanation

of its healing power and the benefit his family had re-

ceived. This inspired my husband with new hope, and

on his arrival at home he called on a practitioner, who

recommended our getting Science and Health, which we

did, but ignorance and the prejudice of old education

produced such fear that I hid the book under the covers

of the bed whenever the children came into the room,

fearing that it was not of God and would injure them.

God's dear love was, however, more potent than these

foolish fears, and the first day I read from its sacred pages

I was convinced its teachings were the same truths as

Jesus Christ had taught centuries ago. When I had read

a few pages, I reached out and threw my medicine from the

open window at the head of my bed. I then turned back to

the book and began reading again, when, lo, the Christ-idea

dawned upon me, and I was healed instantaneously.

633:1
I first noticed the spot in my back cooling, and soon

I got out of bed. I continued to read eagerly; I felt as

if I wanted to devour the healing truth, and drank it in

as a thirsty plant does the gentle rain. When dinner was

prepared, I walked out and ate a hearty meal with the

family, to the amazement of all. We shall never forget

what a joyful meal this was. How we did thank God

for Christian Science!

633:9
As year after year has gone by, till twenty years have

passed and the healing has remained perfect, I have

grown to thank God with deeper sincerity that one brave

woman was found pure enough to bring forth this Christ‑

healing again, to remain forever among men and to save

suffering humanity from all disease and sin. – Mrs.

P. L. H., Fairmont, Minn.

633:16
FROM DESPAIR TO HOPE AND JOY

633:17
I have often had a desire to make public what Chris-

tian Science has done for me, but I never could tell of

all my blessings, they are so many. From childhood

I was always sick, never knew one hour of rest, and was

under the doctor's care most of the time. I was living in

the East at that time, and was advised to try change of

climate, which I did. I came West with my family in

the spring of the year, but instead of growing better I

grew steadily worse, until at last I was obliged to keep

my bed for nearly three years, – a great sufferer. My

ailments were, it seemed, all that flesh is heir to, and

were called incurable by the doctors; viz., Bright's dis-

ease, and many others, – in the last stages. My case was

known among physicians, many of whom were prominent

634:1
specialists, as a most extreme one. Many, upon looking

at me, would turn away with a wise shake of the head

and say, "What keeps her alive?" My physicians, who

were exceedingly kind and did all that lay within their

power for me, gave me up and the death sentence was

pronounced on me by all who attended me.

634:7
It was then I realized that "man's extremity is God's

opportunity." The "little book" was handed me at this

hour of great need. I read it, not thinking it would heal

me, but, like a drowning man, I grasped at it. I read it,

read it again, and soon found myself growing stronger;

then I kept on reading and was perfectly healed of all the

supposedly incurable diseases. – L. B., Austin, Minn.

634:14
TRUTH MAKES FREE

634:15
As the son of a physician, a graduate in pharmacy,

and an ex-druggist, I had a perfect contempt for what

I thought Christian Science to be. About six and a half

years ago, however, having exhausted all material means

at my command, – materia medica, electricity, gym-

nastics, cycling, and so on, – and being in a hopeless

state, the study of Christian Science was taken up. I

had been a sufferer from catarrh and sore throat for over

thirty years, and in the last five were added several others,

including dyspepsia, and bronchitis, and a loss in flesh of

sixty pounds. I was completely healed, and regained

health, strength, and flesh through the spiritual under-

standing of Christian Science, the result of about six

weeks' study. This good and perfect gift came to me

through the careful and prayerful study of Christian

Science, as revealed to the world to-day through Science

635:1
and Health. The promise of Christ Jesus, "the truth

shall make you free," was fulfilled, and the past six years

of health and harmony have been spent in striving to

"hold fast that which is good."

635:5
While most grateful for the physical healing, my grati-

tude for the mental and spiritual regeneration is beyond

expression. When I learned that Jesus' mission of heal-

ing sickness as well as sin did not end with his short stay

upon earth, but is practical in all ages, my joy was un-

bounded. Having spent thousands in the old way, it

seemed wonderful to be healed at such small cost as the

price of the "little book" and a few weeks' study. Every

thought of prejudice immediately vanished before the

proofs that Christian Science is indeed the elucidation

and practical application of Jesus' teachings, which are

demonstrable truth, "The same yesterday, and to-day,

and forever." – C. N. C., Memphis, Tenn.

635:18
DEAF EARS UNSTOPPED

635:19
As a mother of a family my heart goes out in love and

gratitude to that good woman we are privileged to call

our Leader, for all she has done through her book for me

and mine.

635:23
Ten years ago I was healed of hereditary deafness and

catarrh of the head, simply through reading the book,

Science and Health. For years previous I had consulted

and taken treatment from some of the best specialists

for the ear and throat, both in England and America,

but grew worse all the time. I was then urged by a lady

who had been healed through Christian Science to buy

this book and study it. I did so very reluctantly, but

636:1
had not read fifty pages before I felt I had indeed found

the truth which makes free, and can truly say, from that

time I have never had a return of the ailment.

636:4
That for which I am, however, most grateful, is the

daily help it is to me in my household of young chil-

dren. I am sure if mothers only knew what Christian

Science truly means they would give all they possess

to know it. We have seen croup, measles, fever, and

various other children's complaints, so-called, disappear

like dew before the morning sun, through the applica-

tion of Christian Science, – the understanding of God

as ever-present and omnipotent. It has been proven

to me without a doubt that God is a very present help in

trouble, and what a blessed help this wonderful truth is

in the training of our children, and how quickly the child

grasps it.

636:17
Some time ago my little girl, then three years old,

dislocated her shoulder. I was alone in the house at

the time. The pain was so intense that she became

faint. I treated her the best I knew how, but kept

holding the thought that just as soon as some one came

I would run for help. She seemed to grow worse and

cried very much. I undressed her and tried to twist

the arm into place, but it caused such suffering that I

began to get afraid. Then like a flash came the thought,

What would you do if you were out of the reach of a prac-

titioner? Now is your time to prove God's power and

presence. With these thoughts came such a sense of

calm and trustfulness that I lost all fear. I then asked

the child if I should read to her; she said "Yes, mamma,

read the truth-book." I began reading aloud to her

from Science and Health. In about half an hour I noticed

637:1
she tried to lift the arm but screamed and became

very pale. I continued to read aloud and again she made

an effort to put some candy into her mouth. This time

I noticed with joy that she almost reached her mouth

before she felt the pain. I kept reading aloud to her

until my sister and two boys came in, when she jumped

off her bed, so delighted to see her brothers that she for-

got her arm. She then began to tell her aunt that she

had broken her arm and mamma treated it with the truth-

book. When this happened, it was about 10.30 A. M.

and by 3 P. M. she was playing out doors as though

nothing had ever happened. – Mrs. M. G., Winnipeg,

Man.

637:14
SAVED FROM INSANITY AND SUICIDE

637:15
A few years ago, while under a sense of darkness and

despair caused by ill health and an unhappy home, Sci-

ence and Health was loaned me with a request that I

should read it.

637:19
At that time my daughter was given up by materia

medica to die of lingering consumption, supposed to have

been inherited. My own condition seemed even more

alarming, as insanity was being manifested, and rather

than go to an insane asylum, it seemed to me the only

thing to do was to commit suicide. Heart trouble, kid-

ney complaint, and continual headaches caused from

female trouble were some of the many ailments I had

to contend with. My doctor tried to persuade me to

undergo an operation as a means of relief, but I had

submitted to a severe operation ten years previous, and

found only additional suffering as a result, so I would

not consent.

638:1
When I began with Science and Health, I read the

chapter on "Prayer" first, and at that time did not sup-

pose it possible for me to remember anything I read,

but felt a sweet sense of God's protection and power,

and a hope that I should at last find Him to be what

I so much needed, – a present help in time of trouble.

Before that chapter on "Prayer" was finished, my daugh-

ter was downstairs eating three meals a day, and daily

growing stronger. Before I had finished reading the

textbook she was well, but never having heard that the

reading of Science and Health healed any one, it was

several months before I gave God the glory.

638:13
One by one my many ailments left me, all but the head-

aches; they were less frequent, until at the end of three

years the fear of them was entirely overcome.

638:16
Neither myself nor my daughter have ever received

treatments, but the study of the Bible and Science and

Health, the Christian Science textbook by Mrs. Eddy,

has healed us and keeps us well.

638:20
While Christian Science was very new to me, I at-

tended an experience meeting in First Church of Christ,

Scientist, Chicago. A gentleman told of an unhappy

woman who was about to separate from her husband.

This gentleman had asked her if she did not love her

husband. She replied, "No; when I married him I

did, but not now." He told her God made man in His

image and likeness, and that He is perfect. He said

to her, "Go home and see only God's perfect man; you

don't need to love a sinful mortal such as you have been

looking upon." The lady followed his advice, as he

told her there is no separation in divine Mind. In a

short time peace and harmony were in her home, and

639:1
both husband and wife became members of a Christian

Science church.

639:3
This testimony was like a message from heaven to me.

I had received many benefits from the study of Science

and Health, but it had never dawned upon my darkened

consciousness till then how wonderful our God is. I

knew what had taken place in that home could take place

in my unhappy home where there was neither rest nor

peace.

639:10
I hopefully took up my cross, and step by step my

burden grew lighter, as I journeyed along, realizing the

presence of the Christ, Truth, that indeed makes us

free. Not all at once did any outward change appear,

but at the end of three years all was peace, all the

members of the family attending church together and

realizing that there is but one Mind. – E. J. B., Supe-

rior, Wis.

639:18
STOMACH TROUBLE HEALED

639:19
I was healed of stomach trouble of many years' stand-

ing by reading Science and Health. My condition had

reached the stage in which I had periodical attacks, that

came on with greater frequency. I was a travelling sales-

man, and it was a common occurrence for me to have to

call a physician to my hotel to administer morphine for

an acute form of this disease. This became a regular

thing at certain places, and these attacks always left me

worse than before. As a result of the last one I lost a

great deal in weight. I had tried many physicians and

most of the usual remedies during these years of suffer-

ing, without any good result. Finally, as a last resort, I

640:1
decided to try Christian Science, and I was healed by

reading "Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures"

by Mrs. Eddy.

640:4
My health has been of the best since I was healed, now

six years ago. In the family we have depended entirely

on Christian Science for our healing, and have ever found

it efficacious. We consider the physical healing, however,

only incidental to the understanding of God and His good-

ness. This, together with our increased love for the Bible,

is proving most valuable to us. We are humbly trying

to live the lives that will prove our gratitude to God, and

to our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy. – Charles E. Peck,

St. Johnsbury, Vt.

640:14
FREED FROM MANY YEARS OF SUFFERING

640:15
In the spring of 1880 I was taken down with a severe

attack of stomach trouble, was bedfast for three months,

and not able to drive out for nearly six months. During

this time I had three good doctors treating me. I gained

a little in strength, but had very little relief from the

stomach trouble. I was recommended to try mineral

springs and did so, but with the same disappointment. I

went to a sanitarium, but yet the stomach trouble pre-

vailed. I had some friends who recommended patent

medicines, but no healing came.

640:25
I worried along in this way for several years. Finally

I read medicine nearly two years with a good doctor

friend, especially for my own benefit, and during this

time I had a severe attack of bladder trouble, and for

fifteen years I suffered so severely at times that I thought

life was not really worth living. In connection with these

641:1
troubles I suffered every winter with rheumatism and

the grip. I also had a growth coming on both eyes called

cataract, which caused my eyes to be inflamed nearly

all the time, and this growth had made such progress

that it was causing my vision to be very dim when read-

ing. Corns were not forgotten, as I was reminded of

them very frequently, and for all these troubles I had tried

every remedy I heard of that I was able to get, specialists

included, without relief.

641:10
Thanks to a friend who took me in this hopeless, dis

couraged condition and led me to the light that never

knows darkness, I got a copy of Science and Health by

Mrs. Eddy and was healed in a short time by reading this

work. – D. W. L., Anderson, Ind.

641:15
RELIEF FROM INTENSE SUFFERING

641:16
I became interested in Christian Science in 1901. For

four or five years I had suffered with severe attacks which

nothing but an opiate seemed to relieve. After one

which I think was the worst I ever had, I consulted our

family physician, who diagnosed my case as a dangerous

kidney disease and said that no medicine could help me

but that I must undergo a surgical operation. I con-

tinued to grow worse and went to see the physician again,

and he advised me to consult a doctor who was connected

with the city hospital of Augusta. This doctor made

an examination and diagnosed the difficulty as some-

thing different but quite as serious. Meanwhile a friend

offered me a copy of Science and Health. I said I did

not care to read the book, but she was so urgent that I

finally promised to do so. I received the book on Satur-

642:1
day, and on Sunday morning I sat down to read it. When

I reached the place where Mrs. Eddy says she found this

truth in the Bible, I began comparing the two books. I

read passages which looked very reasonable to me, and

said to myself, This is nearer to the truth than any-

thing I have ever seen. I continued to read all day,

stopping only long enough to eat my dinner. As I read

on, everything became clearer to me, and I felt that I

was healed. During the evening a neighbor came in,

and I said, "I am healed, and that book has healed me."

I read on and was certainly healed. Eight days after

my healing I did my own washing. This occurred in

February, 1901. About six weeks after, I was called

to care for my mother, who was under the care of my

former physician. I again let him examine my side,

as he wished to see if the trouble was still there. He

said, "It is certainly gone." I said to him, "Doctor,

you told me I would never be a well woman unless I was

operated upon; what has healed me?" He replied, "God

has healed you." – S. H. L., North Pittston, Me.

642:21
GRATEFUL FOR MANY BLESSINGS

642:22
It is with sincere gratitude for the many blessings Chris-

tian Science has brought me, that I give this testimony.

I first heard of Christian Science about fifteen years

ago. A friend of mine was taking treatment for physical

troubles, and was reading the textbook of Christian

Science, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures.

The title of the book appealed to me very strongly. I

said to my friend, "If that is a Key to the Scriptures,

I must have it."

643:1
I had long been a member of a Bible class in an or-

thodox Sabbath school, but I never felt satisfied with

that which was taught; there was something lacking,

I did not understand then what it was. I purchased a

copy of Science and Health and began to study it. I

wish I could express in words what that book brought

me. It illumined the Bible with a glorious light and I

began to understand some of the Master's sayings, and

tried to apply them.

643:10
I had had a longing to live a better Christian life for

many years, and often wondered why I failed so utterly

to understand the Bible. Now I knew; it was lack of

spiritual apprehension.

643:14
I did not know at first that people were healed of dis-

ease and sin by simply reading Science and Health,

but found after a while that such was the case. At

that time I had many physical troubles, and one after

another of these ills simply disappeared and I found

that I had no disease, – I was perfectly free. The

spiritual uplifting was glorious, too, and as I go on in the

study of this blessed Science, I find I am gaining surely

an understanding that helps me to overcome both sin and

disease in myself and in others. My faith in good is in-

creased and I know I am losing my belief in evil as a power

equal to good. The pathway is not wearisome, because

each victory over self gives stronger faith and a more

earnest desire to press on. – E. J. R., Toledo, Ohio.

643:28
GRATEFUL FOR MORAL AND SPIRITUAL AWAKENING

643:29
About four years ago, after I had tried different ways

and means to be relieved from bodily suffering, a faith-

644:1
ful friend called my attention to the teaching of Chris-

tian Science. After some opposition, I decided to in-

vestigate it, with the thoughtthat if this teaching would

be helpful, it was meant for me as well as for others; if

it did not afford any help, I could put it aside again, but

that I would find out and be convinced.

644:7
After I had read Mrs. Eddy's work, Science and Health,

a few days, I found that my ailments had disappeared,

and a rest had come to me which I had never before known.

I had smoked almost incessantly, although I had often

determined to use my will power and never smoke again,

but had always failed. This desire as well as the de-

sire for drink simply disappeared, and I wish to say here,

that I received all these benefits before I had gained much

understanding of what I was reading. Like a prisoner,

who had been in chains for years, I was suddenly set free.

I did not then know how the chain had been removed,

but I had to acknowledge that it came through the reading

of this book. I then felt an ardent desire to read more,

and to know what this power was that had freed me

in a few days of that which I had been trying for years

to shake off and had failed. It then became clear to

me that this was the truth which Jesus Christ taught

and preached to free humanity almost two thousand

years ago. It did not, however, occur to me to apply

it in my business affairs; on the contrary, I first thought

that if I continued in my study I would have to retire

from business.

644:29
This did not happen, however, for I gradually found

that the little understanding of this wonderful teach-

ing which I had acquired became a great help to me in

my business. I became more friendly, more honest,

645:1
more loving to my fellow-men; and I also acquired better

judgment and was able to do the right thing at the right

time. As a natural result my business improved. Be-

fore I knew anything of Christian Science my business

had often been a burden to me, fear and worry deprived

me of my rest. How different it is now! Through the

study of the Bible, which now possesses unmeasurable

treasures for me, and for our textbook, Science and Health,

and the other works of our Leader, I receive peace and

confidence in God and that insight into character which

is necessary for the correct management of any business.

– W. H. H., Bloomfield, Neb.

645:13
HEREDITARY DISEASE OF THE LUNGS CURED

645:14
For a long time I have been impelled to contribute a

testimony of the healing power of Truth. As I read

other testimonies and rejoice in them, some one may

rejoice in mine. I was healed by reading Science and

Health. By applying it, I found it to be the truth that

Jesus taught, – the truth that sets free.

645:20
From childhood I had never known a well day. I

was healed of lung trouble of long standing. Con-

sumption was hereditary in our family, my mother and

three brothers having passed on with it. The law of

materia medica said that in a short time I must fol-

low them. I also had severe stomach trouble of over

eight years' standing, during which time I always re-

tired without supper, as the fear of suffering from my

food was so great that I denied myself food when hun-

gry. For over twenty years I had ovarian trouble,

which was almost unbearable at times. It dated from

646:1
the birth of my first child, and at one time necessitated

an operation. I suffered with about all the ills that

flesh is heir to: I had trouble with my eyes from a child;

wore glasses for fourteen years, several oculists saying

I would go blind, one declaring I would be blind in less

than a year if I did not submit to an operation, which I

refused to do.

646:8
But thanks be to God whose Truth reached me through

the study of our textbook. Words fail to express what

Christian Science has done for me in various ways, for

my children, my home, my all. The physical healing

is but a small part; the spiritual unfolding and uplifting

is the "pearl of great price," the half that has never been

told. – Mrs. J. P. M., Kansas City, Mo.

646:15
TEXTBOOK APPRECIATED

646:16
It has been my privilege to have interviews with

representatives of more than sixty per cent of the na-

tions of this earth, under their own vine and fig-tree.

I had never heard a principle understandingly ad-

vanced that would enable mankind to obey the apos-

tolic command, "prove all things," until Science and

Health with Key to the Scriptures was placed in my

hands. I believe that the honest study of this book

in connection with the Bible will enable one to "prove

all things."

646:26
I make this unqualified statement because of what

my eyes have seen and my ears heard from my fellow‑

men of unquestioned integrity, and the positive proofs

I have gained by the study of these books. Many

supposed material laws that had been rooted and

647:1
grounded in my mentality from youth have been over-

come. It required some time for me to wake up to

our Leader's words in Miscellaneous Writings, p. 206:

"The advancing stages of Christian Science are gained

through growth, not accretion." I had many disappoint-

ments and falls before I was willing to do the scientific

work required to prove this statement; yet notwithstanding

the cost to ourselves, I am convinced that we cannot do

much credit to the cause we profess to love until we place

ourselves in a position to prove God as He really is to us

individually, and our relation to Him, by scientific work.

647:12
I wish to express loving gratitude to our Leader for

the new edition of Science and Health. In studying

this new edition one cannot help seeing the wisdom,

love, and careful and prayerful thought expressed in

the revision. Often the changing of a single word in

a sentence makes the scientific thought not only more

lucid to him who is familiar with the book, but also to

those just coming into the blessed light. All honor to

that God-loving, God-fearing woman, Mary Baker G.

Eddy, whose only work is the work of love in the helping

of mankind to help themselves; who has placed before her

fellow-men understandingly, what man's divine rights are,

and what God really is. – H. W. B., Hartford, Conn.

647:25
RUPTURE AND OTHER SERIOUS ILLS HEALED

647:26
When I took up the study of Christian Science

nearly three years ago, I was suffering from a very

bad rupture of thirty-two years' standing. Sometimes

the pain was so severe that it seemed as if I could not

endure it. These spells would last four or five hours,

648:1
and while everything was done for me that could be

done, no permanent relief came to me until I com-

menced reading Science and Health with Key to the

Scriptures. After I had once looked into it I wanted to

read all the time. I was so absorbed in the study of

the "little book" that I hardly realized when the healing

came, but I was healed, not only of the rupture, but also

of other troubles, – inflammatory rheumatism, catarrh,

corns, and bunions.

648:10
I would never part with the book if I could not get

another. I am seventy-seven years old, and am enjoy-

ing very good health. – Mrs. M. E. P., St. Johnsbury, Vt.

648:13
MOTHER AND DAUGHTER HEALED

648:14
When Christian Science came to me, I had been tak-

ing medicine every day for twenty years, on account of

constipation. I had been treated by doctors and spe-

cialists; had taken magnetic treatments and osteopathy;

had tried change of climate; had an operation in a hospital,

and when I came out was worse than before. I was

so discouraged, after I had tried everything I ever heard

of, and was no better but rather grew worse, that it seemed

as though I must give up trying to get well, when a friend

suggested that I try Christian Science. I had heard

that Christian Scientists healed by prayer, and I thought

this must be the way Jesus had healed. I felt that this

was all there was left for me to try. I sent for the book,

Science and Health, and commenced to read it out of

curiosity, not thinking or knowing that I could be helped

by the reading, but thinking I must still take medicine

and that I must also have treatment by a Scientist. I,

649:1
however, dropped my medicine and read for three days;

then a light began to shine in the darkness. I was healed

of the trouble and have never had to take medicine since.

I have studied Science and Health faithfully ever since,

and other ailments have disappeared. My little daughter

has also been healed and has learned to use this knowledge

in her school work. – Mrs. O. R., Leadville, Col.

649:8
LIVER COMPLAINT HEALED

649:9
As my thoughts go back to the time when I believed

I had nothing to live for, and when each morning's awak-

ing from sleep brought a sense of disappointment to find

myself still among the living (for I had hoped each night

that I closed my eyes in sleep that it would be the last

time), my heart overflows with love and gratitude to

God for our dear Leader who discovered this blessed

truth and to the dear ones who have helped me so lov-

ingly and patiently over many rough places.

649:18
Twelve years ago, I consulted a physician because I

had noticed some odd-looking spots on one of my arms.

He said they were liver spots, but that it was not worth

while prescribing for those few, that I should wait until

I was covered with them. About three months later,

with the exception of my face and hands, I was covered

with them. Then I became alarmed and called on

another physician who prescribed for me, but he finally

said he could do no more for me. Other physicians

were consulted with no better results. Six years ago,

friends advised me to see their family physician, and

when I called on him he said he was positive he could

cure me, so I asked him to prescribe for me. At the

650:1
end of two years, after prescribing steadily, he said I

was so full of medicine that he was afraid to have me

take any more, and advised a rest. After having paid

out a small fortune, I was no better, and very much

discouraged.

650:6
Two years ago, having failed in business, I applied to

one of my patrons for a furnished room where I could

meet the few I still had left. This lady, who is a Christian

Scientist, loaned me Science and Health, and because

she asked me so often how I was getting on with the

book, I began reading it. I also attended the Wednes-

day evening meetings which I found very interesting.

After hearing the testimonies at the meetings, I decided

to speak to some practitioner about these spots, but

not until I had at least a hundred dollars on hand, be-

cause I thought I would require that amount for treat-

ments, as I had been accustomed to paying high prices.

I had not inquired about prices, and in fact did not speak

to any one about my intentions, because I felt sensitive

on this subject. When I had read about half of Science

and Health, I missed the spots, and upon searching

could find no trace of them. They had entirely dis-

appeared without treatment. In a few weeks the read-

ing of that book had accomplished what materia medica

had failed to accomplish in ten years. It is impossible

to express the feeling of relief and happiness which came

over me then. – C. K., Astoria, N. Y.

650:28
A CONVINCING INVESTIGATION

650:29
While I have testified to those around me and in many

localities, of my healing in Christian Science, I feel that

651:1
it is high time I put the candle in the candlestick where

all who will may see. My earliest recollection was a day

of suffering, – a physical inheritance from my mother,

which gave simple interest for a time until years ad-

vanced and compound interest was added. My father

was a physician, and material remedies were used for

my mother without avail, consequently his confidence

in them for me was shaken, – in fact he often told me

it was better to suffer without medicine than become a

chronic doser, without pain.

651:11
I began teaching in early life and continued for more

than twenty years, and during that time not a day passed

without pain, or fear of pain, and only for my innate

love of life it would have become an intolerable burden.

For five years oatmeal was my chief food and I became

almost as attached to it as Kaspar Hauser to his crust.

I was early taught to have faith in God, and many times

was relieved of pain only to have it appear again in an

aggravated form.

651:20
At last my heart cried out for the living God, and

the answer came by one of His messengers, who told

me of Christian Science. I replied that I believed God

could heal, but that I had no faith in the healing of Chris-

tian Science, but would like to investigate its theology,

as it might aid in giving me some clue to the meaning

of life. For three years I had searched the works of

the most scientific writers to find the origin of life; many

times I would think I had traced it to the beginning,

but it would elude my grasp every time. One day in

talking with my friend, she said she would like to loan

me the textbook, Science and Health, which I very will-

ingly accepted. Not long afterward I felt a severe

652:1
attack of suffering. I opened the book for the first

time and found a paragraph near the middle which

attracted my attention. I read the same paragraph over

and over for nearly two hours. When the tea bell rang

I closed the book and I shall never forget my per-

ception of the new heaven and the new earth, – every-

thing in nature that I could see seemed to have been

washed and made clean. The flowers that I have

always loved so much, and that from childhood had

told me such sweet stories, now spoke to me of the

All-in-all, the hearts of my friends seemed kinder, – I

had touched the hem of the garment of healing.

652:13
I ate my supper that evening forgetful of the prepa-

rations I had made for suffering, and when the next

day began I was more zealous of good work than ever

before. Since closing Science and Health at my first

reading I have never been able to find the paragraph

which I had read so many times over, the words seemed

to have slipped away from me, but my joy knew no

bounds at having found the pearl of great price. By

the continued reading of the book I was entirely

healed, and for fourteen years I have not seen a day

of physical suffering. – Miss L. M., Rome, N. Y.

652:24
DEAFNESS AND DROPSY HEALED

652:25
I had been deaf from childhood. I suffered intensely

after eating, and dropsy was another of my complaints.

This, with consumption, caused one doctor to say, "It

puzzles me; I have never seen such a case before as

yours."

652:30
I met a friend who had been cured in Christian

653:1
Science, and she said, "Try Christian Science." I got

a copy of Science and Health and in three weeks I

was entirely cured. I felt uplifted. It seemed as if

God's arms were around and about me. I felt as if

heaven had come down to earth for me. After five

years of suffering can any one wonder at my unspeak-

able gratitude? – A. B., Pittsburg, Pa.

653:8
GRATEFUL FOR MANY BLESSINGS

653:9
In 1894 I began the study of Christian Science. At

that time I was greatly in need of its healing truth.

For a number of years previous I had been a semi‑

invalid with no hope of ever being well and strong

again. Several years before this time I had undergone

an operation which resulted in peritonitis. For three

years previous to my study of Science and Health

by Mrs. Eddy, I was scarcely ever free from headache

caused by the weakened and diseased condition of the

internal organs. At the time I began the study of

Christian Science I was taking five kinds of medicine.

653:20
I began to read Science and Health, and did not

take treatment, for I thought, "If this is truth, I shall

be healed; if it is not, I shall be able to detect it,

and will have nothing to do with it." I became a

devoted student and gradually my bodily diseases left

me, – I was free, and since that time, nearly ten

years ago, neither my two children nor myself have

taken any medicine; and our understanding of truth

has been able to meet and overcome any suggestion of

illness.

653:30
I was a devoted member of an orthodox church,

654:1
but as I grew older I began to question my beliefs,

and to my questions I could find no satisfactory an-

swer. I became dissatisfied and finally ceased attend-

ing church. I could not accept the idea of God taught

there, and at last my friends looked sadly upon me as

an atheist. There I stood until I learned to know God

as revealed in Science and Health, and then all my

questionings were answered. In my girlhood I had

always prayed to the God I held in mind, and when

the shadows of sickness pain, and death came to my

family, I prayed as only those can who know that if

He helps not, there is none; but my prayers were

unanswered. Then I closed my Bible, saying, "There

is a mistake somewhere, perhaps some time I may

know."

654:16
Only those who know the attitude of mind that I

was in can understand the joy that came to me as I

began to learn of God in Christian Science, and of my

relation to Him.

654:20
Many proofs of the healing power of Truth and of

His protecting care throng my thoughts. Seven years

ago, when we were in a far distant country, where

Christian Science was then unknown, my little daughter

came in one morning from her school, saying, "Mother,

I have measles; twenty of the girls are sick in bed and I

am afraid they will put me there also." Her face, hands,

and chest were covered with a deep red rash, throat sore,

and eyes inflamed. We began immediately to do our work

in Science and at night, when I left her at the door of the

college, her face was clear, her eyes bright, and all fear

destroyed. That was the end of the disease. – F. M. P.,

Boston, Mass.

655:1
A JOYFUL EXPERIENCE

655:2
In love and gratitude to God, and to Mrs. Eddy, the

interpreter of Jesus' beautiful teachings, I wish to tell

of some of the benefits which I have received from

Christian Science. It is a little over a year since

Science found me in a deplorable condition, physically

as well as mentally. I had ailments of many years'

standing, – chronic stomach trouble, severe eye trouble,

made almost unbearable from the constant fear of

losing my sight (a fate which had befallen my

mother), also a painful rupture of twenty-five years'

standing. These ailments, combined with unhappy

conditions in my home, made me very despondent. I

had entirely lost my belief in an all-merciful God, and

I did not know where to turn for help. At that time

Christian Science was brought to my notice, and I shall

never forget the sublime moment when I perceived that

an all-loving Father is always with me. Forgotten was

all sorrow and worry, and after four weeks' reading in

Science and Health all my ailments had disappeared.

I am today a healthy, contented woman.

655:22
All this has come to pass in one short year, and my

earnest desire is to be more and more worthy to be

called a child of God. This is in loving gratitude for

an understanding of this glorious truth. – Mrs. R. J.,

Chicago, Ill.

655:27
AN EVER-PRESENT HELP

655:28
It is a year since I began to read Science and Health,

and I will now try to outline what a knowledge of its

teachings has done for me.

656:1
My condition was then very trying; my eyes, which

had caused me much trouble since childhood, were

very painful. For these I had been treated by some

of the best specialists in my native land, and after

coming to the United States I had been doctored

much and had worn glasses for four years. I also had

catarrh, for which I had taken much medicine without

being relieved. In addition to this I was an excessive

smoker, using tobacco in some form almost constantly.

I had contracted a smoker's heart, and used liquors

freely.

656:12
The one who brought to me that which I now prize

so highly, was a book agent. I told him that I should

be forced to leave my trade on account of my eyes.

He then told me of having been healed of a cancer,

through Christian Science treatment. He showed me

a copy of Science and Health, which had the signs of

much use, and after being assured that if I did my part

I would be healed of all my diseases, I sent for a copy of

the book.

656:21
My recovery was very rapid, for after reading the

book only three weeks I was completely healed of the

tobacco habit. I will say, in regard to this healing,

that it did not require even as much as a resolution

on my part. I was smoking a cigar, while reading

Science and Health, when all the desire to continue

smoking left me, and I have never had a desire to use

tobacco in any form since then. My eyes were the

next to manifest the influence of the new knowledge

gained, and had soon so far recovered that I could go

about my work with ease, and I have had no more

use for glasses. To-day my heart is normal, the catarrh

657:1
has totally disappeared, and I am not addicted to the

use of liquor.

657:3
Christian Science has proved to be an ever-present

help, not only in overcoming physical ailments, but in

business and daily life. It has also overcome a great

sense of fear. The Bible, which I regarded with

suspicion, has become my guide, and Christianity has

become a sweet reality, because the Christian Science

textbook has indeed been a "Key to the Scriptures" and

has breathed through the Gospel pages a sweet sense of

harmony. – A. F., Sioux City, Iowa.

657:12
SEVERE EYE TROUBLE OVERCOME

657:13
After hearing Christian Science lightly spoken of,

from a Christian pulpit, I decided to go to one of the

services and hear for myself. From infancy I had

been devoted to my church, and as soon as I was old

enough I was ever active in the work. Feeling it to

be my duty to attend every service held in my own

church, I took advantage of the Wednesday evening

meetings. My first visit was not my last, I am thank-

ful to say, for I saw immediately that these people

not only preached Christianity, but practised and lived

it. At that time I was wearing glasses and had worn

them for sixteen years. At times I suffered the most

intense pain, and for this phase of the trouble, one

specialist after another had been consulted. All gave

me very much the same advice; each one urged ex-

treme carefulness and gave me glasses that seemed to

relieve for a time. None of them held out any hope

that my sight would ever be restored, saying that the

658:1
defect had existed since infancy, and that in time I should

be blind.

658:3
The thought of blindness was very distressing to me,

but I tried to bear it with Christian resignation, since

I thought that God had seen fit to afflict me; but since

I have learned that He is a loving Father, who gives

only good, I regret that I ever charged Him with my

affliction. I had no treatment, but I read Science and

Health, and my eyes were healed and glasses laid aside.

I can never find words to express my thanks to our dear

Leader, through whose teachings my sight has been re-

gained. I can truthfully say that "whereas I was blind,

now I see" – through an understanding of Truth I

have found my sight perfect as God gave it. – Miss

B. S., Wilmington, N. C.

658:16
A TESTIMONY FROM IRELAND

658:17
It is with a heart full of love and gratitude to God,

and to our dear Leader, that I send this testimony to

the Field. I had never been a strong girl; had always

been subject to colds and chills, and suffered all my

life from a delicate throat. Seven years ago I had a

very severe attack of rheumatic fever and subsequently

two less severe ones. These left all sorts of evils be-

hind them, – debility, chronic constipation, and several

others, so that with these ills my life was often a

burden to me and I used to think I never should re-

ceive relief or health. I had also lost all love for

God and faith in Him. I could not accept a God who,

as I then believed, visited sickness and sorrow upon

His children as a means for drawing them to Him.

659:1
I was in this state of mind and body when Christian

Science found me. A dear friend, seeing my suffering,

presented the truth to me, and though at first I did not

believe that there could be healing for me, the Chris-

tian Scientists' God seemed to be the one I had been

looking for all my life. I began to read Science and

Health, and shall never forget my joy at finding that

I could love and trust God. I took to studying the

Bible, and read nothing but Science and Health and

other Christian Science literature for a year. After

studying the "little book" for about six weeks, I one

day realized that I was a well woman, that I had taken

no medicine for three weeks, and that my body was

perfectly harmonious. The reading of Science and

Health had healed me. The wonderful joy and spirit-

ual uplifting which came to me then no words of mine

can describe. I had also suffered from astigmatism

and had for several years been obliged to use special

glasses when reading or working, and could never use

my eyes for more than half an hour; but from the first

reading of Science and Health I found that I could read

in any light and for any length of time without the slight-

est discomfort. I am not only grateful for the physi-

cal healing but for the mental regeneration. I rejoice

that I am now able to help others who are sick and sor-

rowing. – E. E. L., Curragh Camp, County Kildare,

Ireland.

659:28
THE TEXTBOOK MAKES OPERATION UNNECESSARY

659:29
In the early part of the year 1895 my physician said I

must undergo a surgical operation in order ever to be well.

660:1
While in great fear, and dreading the operation, a kind

neighbor called, and after telling me of Christian Science

gave me a copy of Science and Health. She said I must

put aside all medicine, and by reading faithfully she knew

I could be healed. The book became my constant com-

panion, and in a short time I was healed. Besides the

relief from an operation, I was completely healed of severe

headaches and stomach trouble. Physicians could give

me no help for either of these ailments. For ten years I

have not used medicine of any kind, and have not missed

a Christian Science service on account of sickness during

this period. I am perfectly well. To say that I am grate-

ful to God for all this does not express my feelings. The

physical healing was wonderful, but the understanding

given me of God, and the ability to help others out-

weigh all else. I also love our dear Leader. – Mrs.

V. I. B., Concord, N. H.

660:18
KIDNEY DISEASE AND EYE TROUBLE HEALED

660:19
Early in 1904 I was teaching in a private boarding‑

school. I was a very unhappy, discontented woman; I

had kidney disease, besides sore eyes, and my general

health was very bad. The doctor said that the climate

did not suit me, and that I certainly should have a change.

The best thing, he said, was to go back to France (my

own country); but I did not like to leave the school, so I

struggled on until July, when we went travelling for a

month, but I came home worse than ever. I had a lot

of worry, one disappointment after another, and I often

thought that life was not worth living. In September,

1904, we heard for the first time of Christian Science

661:1
through a girl who was attending our boarding-school,

and who was healed through Christian Science treatment.

We bought the textbook, "Science and Health with Key

to the Scriptures" by Mrs. Eddy, and what a revelation

it was and is to us; it is indeed the fountain of Truth. I

had read Science and Health but a very short time when

I took off my glasses, began to sleep well, and soon found

myself well in mind and body. Besides this, it has brought

harmony into our school, where there had been discord,

and everything is changed for the better. I cannot de-

scribe the happiness that has come to me through Chris-

tian Science; I can only exclaim with the psalmist: "Bless

the Lord, O my soul;" and may God bless Mrs. Eddy.

661:14
My one aim now is to live Christian Science, not in words

only, but in deeds; loving God more and my neighbor as

myself, and following meekly and obediently all our

Leader's teachings. Words cannot express my gratitude

to Mrs. Eddy for Christian Science. – S. A. K., Van-

couver, B. C.

661:20
DISEASE OF BOWELS HEALED

661:21
When I first heard of Christian Science I had been

afflicted for nine years with a very painful disease of the

bowels, which four physicians failed even to diagnose,

all giving different causes for the dreadful sufferings I

endured. The last physician advised me to take no more

medicine for these attacks, as drugs would not reach the

cause, or do any good. About this time I heard of

Christian Science, and had the opportunity of reading

"Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures" by Mrs.

Eddy, a few minutes every day for about a week, and I

662:1
was thereby healed. In looking back I found I had not

suffered in the least from the time I began reading this

book. It has been nearly seventeen years since this won-

derful healing, and I have had no return of the disease.

My gratitude is endless and can be best expressed by

striving mightily to walk in the path our Leader has so

lovingly shown us in Science and Health. – Mrs.

J. W. C., Scranton, Pa.

662:9
HEALED BY READING THE TEXTBOOK

662:10
After doctoring about a year, I was obliged to give

up school and was under medical care for two years;

but grew worse instead of better. I was then taken to

specialists, who pronounced my case incurable, saying

I was in the last stages of kidney disease and could

live only a short time. Shortly afterward my uncle

gave me a copy of "Science and Health with Key to

the Scriptures," and asked me to study it. After study-

ing a short time I was able to walk a distance of several

miles, which I had not been able to do for three years.

I also laid aside glasses which I had worn seven years,

having been told I would become blind if my eyes did

not receive proper care. It is over a year since I re-

ceived God's blessing, and I am now enjoying perfect

health and happiness. I have never had my glasses on

since I first began reading Science and Health, and I have

not used any medicine. – L. R., Spring Valley, Minn.

662:27
A TESTIMONY FROM SCOTLAND

662:28
I came to Christian Science purely for physical healing.

I was very ill and unhappy; very cynical and disbeliev-

ing in regard to what I heard of God and religion.

663:1
I tried to live my life in my own way and put religion

aside. I was a great believer in fate and in will-power,

and thought to put them in the place of God, with

the consequence that I was led to do many rash and

foolish things. I am now thankful to say that my out-

look on life is entirely changed; I have proved God's

wisdom and goodness so often that I am willing and

thankful to know my future is in His hands and that

all things must work out for the best. I have found a

God whom I can love and worship with my whole

heart, and I now read my Bible with interest and

understanding.

663:13
I was healed of very bad rheumatism simply by read-

ing Science and Health. I had tried many medicines,

also massage, with no result, and the doctors told me

that I would always suffer from this disease, as it

was inherited, and also because I had rheumatic fever

when a child. I suffered day and night, and nothing

relieved me until Science proved to me the falseness

of this belief by removing it. I gave up all the medi-

cines I was taking and have never touched any since,

and that is more than two years ago. Before this I

had often tried to do without a medicine that I had

taken every day for ten years, but was always ill and had

to return to it, until I found out that one Mind is the only

medicine, and then I was freed from the suffering.

663:27
I had also suffered constantly from bilious attacks,

colds, and a weak chest, and had been warned not to

be out in wet weather, etc., but now, I am glad to say,

I am quite free from all those material laws and go

out in all sorts of weather. – R. D. F., Edinburgh,

Scotland.

664:1
CURING BETTER THAN ENDURING

664:2
For eight years I was a great sufferer from weak

lungs and after being treated by ten different physi-

cians, in the States of Illinois, Missouri, and Colo-

rado, I was told there was no hope of my recovery

from what they pronounced tuberculosis, which was

hereditary, my father having been afflicted with it. I

was greatly emaciated and hardly able to be about.

My general condition was aggravated by what the doc-

tors said was paralysis of the bowels. Three physi-

cians so diagnosed it at different times, and assured

my husband that I could never get more than tem-

porary relief. This indeed I found difficult to obtain,

in spite of my almost frantic efforts. At times I was

nearly insane from suffering, and after eight years of

doctoring I found myself steadily growing worse. For

four years I did not have a normal action of the bowels,

and it was only by extreme effort and by resort to pow-

erful drugs or mechanical means, with resultant suffering,

that any action whatever could be brought about.

664:21
I had heard nothing of the curative power of Chris-

tian Science, and only to oblige a friend I went one

night, about three years ago, to one of their mid-week

testimonial meetings, in Boulder, Colorado. I was much

impressed by what I heard there, and determined at once

to investigate this strange religion, in the hope that it

might have something good for me. I bought the text-

book, Science and Health, and from the first I found

myself growing stronger and better, both physically and

mentally, as I acquired a better understanding and en-

deavored toput into practice what I learned. In one week

665:1
I was able to get along better without drugs than I had for

years with them, and before three months had passed I

was better than I had been any time in my life, for I

had always suffered more or less from bowel trouble.

Since that time I have taken no medicine whatever, and

rely wholly upon Christian Science. My lungs are now

sound, my bowels normally active, my general health

excellent, and I am able to endure without fatigue

tasks that before would have prostrated me. The

study of our textbook was the sole means of my healing.

– L. M. St. C., Matachin, Canal Zone, Panama.

665:12
SEVERE ECZEMA DESTROYED

665:13
It is only two years since I came from darkness into

the light of Christian Science, and to me the spiritual

uplifting has been wonderful, to say nothing of the

physical healing. Words cannot express my gratitude

for benefits I have received in that time. For five

years I suffered with that dreaded disease, eczema, all

over my body. Five doctors said there was no help

for me. The suffering seemed as terrible as the hell

fire that I had been taught to believe in. When Christian

Science came to me two years ago through a dear friend,

she gave me a copy of Science and Health and asked

me to read it. I told her that I would, for I was like a

drowning man grasping at a straw. I had been a Bible

student for twenty-eight years, but when I commenced

reading Science and Health with the Bible I was healed

in less than a week. I never had a treatment. A case

of measles was also destroyed in twenty-four hours after

it appeared. – Mrs. M. B. G., Vermilion, Ohio.

666:1
SCIENCE AND HEALTH A PRICELESS BOON

666:2
I am a willing witness to the healing power of Chris-

tian Science, having had a lifetime's battle with dis-

ease and medical experiments. Various doctors finally

admitted that they had exhausted their resources, and

could only offer me palliatives, saying that a cure was

impossible. I had paralysis of the bowels, frequent

sick headaches with unutterable agony, and my mortal

career was nearly brought to an end by a malignant

type of yellow fever. Many were the attending evils of

this physical inharmony, but God confounds the wis-

dom of men, for while studying Science and Health

two years ago, the veil of ignorance was lifted and

perfect health was shown to me to be my real con-

dition, and to such there is no relapse. The constant

use of glasses, which were apparently a necessity to

me for years, was proven needless, and they were laid

aside. Mrs. Eddy has made Scripture reading a never‑

failing well of comfort to me. By her interpretation

"the way of the Lord" is made straight to me and

mine. It aids us in our daily overcoming of the tyr-

anny of the flesh and its rebellion against the blessed

leading of Christ, Truth. The daily study of the Bible

and our textbook is bringing more and more into our con-

sciousness the power of God unto salvation. – J. C.,

Manatee, Fla.

666:27
A CRITIC CONVINCED

666:28
With gratitude to God I acknowledge my lifelong

debt to Christian Science. In 1895 I attended my first

667:1
Christian Science meeting, and was deeply impressed

with the earnestness of the people and the love re-

flected, but as for the spiritual healing of the physical

body, I did not believe such a thing to be possible.

I bought Science and Health and studied it to be

able to dispute intelligently with the supposedly de-

luded followers of Christian Science. I pursued the

study carefully and thoroughly, and I have had abun-

dant reason since to be glad that I did, for through this

study, and the resultant understanding of my rela-

tion to God, I was healed of a disease with which I

had been afflicted since childhood and for which there

was no known remedy. Surely my experience has

been the fulfilling in part of the Scripture:

"He sent His Word and healed them, and delivered them from

their destructions." I believe that Science and Health

reveals the Word referred to by David. – C. A. B. B.,

Kansas City, Mo.

667:19
BORN AGAIN

667:20
It was in April, 1904, that I first heard the "still,

small voice" of the Christ and received healing through

Christian Science; and the blessings have been so

many since, that it would take too much space to

name them. Reared from childhood in an intellectual

atmosphere, my paternal grandfather having been an

orthodox minister of the old school for forty years,

and my father a deep student, ever seeking for the

truth of all things, I began early to ponder and to

study into the meaning of life, and came to the con-

clusion before I was twenty that though God probably

668:1
existed in some remote place, still it was impossible to

connect Him with my present living. My highest

creed, therefore, became, "Do right because it is right

and not for fear of being punished." Then began the

suffering. Sorrow after sorrow followed each other

in rapid succession; for ten long years there was no

rest, the road was indeed long and hard and had no

turning, until finally the one thing that had stood by

me all through the trials, namely, my health, gave

way, and with that went my last hope. But the last

hour of the night had come, the dawn of day was at

hand; a dear friend left Science and Health upon my

piano one day, saying that I would gain much good by

reading it.

668:15
Glad to get away from my own poor thoughts, I

opened the "little book" and began to read. I had

read only a short time when such a wonderful trans-

formation took place! I was renewed; born again.

Mere words cannot tell the story of the mighty up-

lifting that carried me to the very gates of heaven.

When I began to read the book, life was a burden, but

before I had finished reading it the first time, I was doing

all my housework and doing it easily; and since that

glorious day I have been a well woman. My health

is splendid, and I am striving to let my light so shine

that others may be led to the truth. There have been

some mighty struggles with error, and I have learned

that we cannot reach heaven with one long stride or

easily drift inside the gate, but that the "asking" and

the "seeking" and the "knocking" must be earnest and

persistent.

668:32
For a long time I was always looking back to see if

669:1
the error had gone, until one day when I realized

that to catch a glimpse of what spiritual sense means

I must put corporeal sense behind me. I then set to

work in earnest to find the true way. I opened

Science and Health and these words were before me,

"If God were understood, instead of being merely be-

lieved, this understanding would establish health" (p. 203).

I saw that I must get the right understanding of God!

I closed the book and with head bowed in prayer I

waited with longing intensity for some answer. How

long I waited I do not know, but suddenly, like a won-

derful burst of sunlight after a storm, came clearly

this thought, "Be still, and know that I am God." I

held my breath – deep into my hungering thought

sank the infinite meaning of that "I." All self‑

conceit, egotism, selfishness, everything that constitutes

the mortal "I," sank abashed out of sight. I trod, as

it were, on holy ground. Words are inadequate to con-

vey the fullness of that spiritual uplifting, but others

who have had similar experiences will understand.

669:21
From that hour I have had an intelligent consciousness

of the ever-presence of an infinite God who is only good.

– C. B. G., Hudson, Mass.

669:24
A RESTLESS SENSE OF EXISTENCE DESTROYED

669:25
Through reading Science and Health and the illu-

mination which followed, I was healed of ulceration of

the stomach and kindred troubles, a restless sense of

existence, agnosticism, etc. The torture I endured with

the stomach trouble I will not attempt to describe. The

attending physician declared that I could live but a short

670:1
time, and I felt there would be a limit to my endur-

ance of the torture, but the disease was dissipated into

nothingness through Christian Science, which brought

me peace.

670:5
Like many others I had been seemingly lost in the

sea of error, without a compass, yet earnestly and hon-

estly seeking a haven. I had investigated all kinds of

religions and philosophies that came under my notice,

with the exception of Christian Science, which was

not then deemed worthy of inquiry, and yet it held

the very truth I was searching for – the light which

"shineth in the darkness; and the darkness comp-

rehended it not." Three years of stubborn resist-

ance to Truth, with increasing suffering, followed –

then the light came, and with it a new experience.

Now, after nine years of Christian Science experience,

under severe tests, it can be truthfully said that it

has not failed me in any hour of need. – J. F. J.,

Cincinnati, Ohio.

670:20
MORALLY AND PHYSICALLY HEALED

670:21
I did not accept Christian Science on account of any

healing of my own, but after seeing my mother, who was

fast drifting toward helplessness with rheumatism, restored

to perfect health with only a few treatments in Christian

Science, I thought surely this must be the truth as Jesus

taught and practised it, and if so it was what I had been

longing for.

670:28
This was about ten years ago and was the first I had

ever heard of Christian Science. We soon got a copy

of Science and Health and I began in the right way to

671:1
see if Christian Science were the truth. I had no thought

of studying it for bodily healing; in fact, I did not think

I needed it for that, but my soul cried out for something

I had not yet found. This book was indeed a key to the

Scriptures.

671:6
It was not long after I began reading before I dis-

covered that my eyes were good and strong, I could

read as much as I wished, and at any time, which was

something I could not do before, as my eyes had always

been weak. The doctors said they never would be very

strong, and that if I did not wear glasses, I might lose

my sight altogether. I never gave up to wearing glasses,

and now, thanks to Christian Science, I do not need them,

my work for the past two years as a railway mail clerk

being a good test. At the same time my eyes were healed,

I also noticed that I was entirely healed of another ail-

ment which had been with me all my life, and which was

believed to be inherited. Since that time my growth

has seemed to me slow, yet when I look back and view

myself as I was before Christian Science found me, and

compare it with my life as it now is, I can only close my

eyes to the picture and rejoice that I have been "born

again" and that I have daily been putting off "the

old man with his deeds," and putting on "the new

man."

671:26
Some of the many things that have been overcome

through the study of Science and Health, and through

realizing and practising the truth it teaches, are pro-

fanity, the use of tobacco, a very quick temper, which

made both myself and those around me at times very

miserable, and such thoughts as malice, revenge, etc. –

O. L. R., Fort Worth, Tex.

672:1
HEALTH AND UNDERSTANDING GAINED

672:2
Most of my boyhood days were spent in the hands

of physicians. From birth I was considered a very

weakly child, but my mother was brave, and being

much devoted to me did everything within her knowl-

edge and power for my comfort. Sickness and medi-

cine were continually before me, and by the time I

reached my teens I thought I knew a material remedy

for every ill. I continued in my delusion, because I

was never told the real cause of my trouble. Besides

being under a leading specialist for two years, I was

also an outdoor patient at a noted hospital, but I was

not healed. It is wonderful how the "little ones" are

cared for in the face of all these seeming difficulties.

I always used the prayers that I had been taught, and

as I grew older I began to ask for wisdom. Little by

little I gained a desire for freedom, and my prayers

finally led me to the truth. The first week that I

heard of Christian Science, I visited the home of dear

Christian Science friends, and was at once refreshed

by their purity of thought and example. I bought

a copy of Science and Health, and, after studying it

a little while with the Bible, I saw that if the Bible

was true, Science and Health must also be true. I

began to demonstrate over my physical and mental

condition, and as soon as the fear and pain began

to leave me I felt encouraged to go on. I was healed,

and stopped complaining. I kept on studying our

textbook, and when I got an understanding in a

small degree of the Science of Mind, my first thought

was to help others. I was guided where I could pro-

673:1
gress in Science, and was no longer "carried about with

every wind of doctrine," but held to Principle as closely

as possible. From the time the healing came into my

consciousness, the desire for material remedies left me,

because Christian Science at once pointed out the way to

get at the cause of discord and disease. All that I had to

give up were the false beliefs of mortal mind. Christian

Science then taught me to love the church, and to appre-

ciate what it had already done for mankind. I often

thought of the old adage, "Charity begins at home,"

and after three years' preparation I felt able to take Chris-

tian Science to my home, where it found, in due time,

ready acceptance and willing disciples. This gave me

even greater joy than my own healing. The more good

I saw accomplished, the more love I had for the truth.

Christian Science changed my course from the first, and

gave me a nobler aim and purpose in life. I was not

so easily influenced by other people's shortcomings,

when I learned that evil has neither personality nor place.

I was not so ready to take offence, when I found out the

way to work unselfishly for the upbuilding of the Cause.

– A. E. J., Toledo, Ohio.

673:23
AN EVER-PRESENT HELP FOUND

673:24
On the 23rd of March, 1900, I received from one of my

daughters a copy of Science and Health on my seventy-first

birthday. Although a constant reader of all kinds of papers

and books, I had never heard anything of Christian Sci-

ence, except a short notice that spring in a San Francisco

newspaper, from an orthodox clergyman, referring to the

Christian Science people in not very complimentary style.

674:1
In Mrs. Eddy's book I came across a great deal of

thought that was not readily understood at the first read-

ing, but by continued and careful study, and a good deal

of help from my knowledge of chemistry and natu-

ral philosophy, I soon shook off the belief of sensation

in matter, – the so-called elementary substance. One

afternoon I put the belt on my circular saw to cut blocks

of firewood and also to split a small stick of frame tim-

ber. In doing this the stick closed and pinched the saw.

I picked up a small wooden wedge and tried to drive

it into the saw kerf, but a bit of ice let the stick on to the

back of the saw and instantly it flew, with heavy force,

into my face, and bouncing off my left cheek fell about

twenty feet off on the snow. The blood spattered on the

snow next the saw table, and on feeling with my hand

there were two wounds, one on the lock of the jaw and

another forward, as big as a dollar, on the cheek bone.

"Now," I thought to myself, "there is a case of surgery

for you," and without further ceremony, I began to

treat the case to the best of my knowledge, with the

result that the bleeding stopped almost instantly, and

so did a thumping pain, which had commenced. I

paid no more attention to the matter, but finished my

work, and then went to supper. When I washed my

face, I felt a big lump on the jawbone where the block

of wood struck, but after my usual reading I went to

bed and slept all night until near daylight, when a pain

on the right side awoke me. On feeling with my hand

there was another big lump on the right side, but I

treated it and went to sleep again. I never lost an

hour from the hurt, although I found out that my jaw

was broken. There is no scar, only a little red spot on

675:1
the cheek, and the lumps on the bone have long since

disappeared.

675:3
In summing up the benefits I have received from

the reading of Science and Health, I can but refer to

a condition of sickness dating back to the war (1862),

when chronic and malignant diarrhea came near

making an end of my material existence. My hearing,

also, was seriously impaired from the effect of cannon

firing at Shiloh, but it has come back to me, and where

I formerly dared not eat an orange, or grapes, I can now

eat anything without being hurt. My peace of mind

is giving me a rest which I never experienced before

during my life, and I have ceased to look away off for

the divine presence that was always near, though I did

not know it. – L. B., Baldy, N. M.

675:16
MANY PHYSICAL AND MENTAL TROUBLES OVERCOME

675:17
Less than a year ago, when nothing but trouble seemed

to encompass me, I was led to Christian Science. My

mother's copy of Science and Health was always lying

on the table, but I scarcely ever read it. One day, how-

ever, the mental conflict was so great I commenced read-

ing in the hope of obtaining peace. Every day since

then my companions have been the Bible and Science

and Health. At that time I had a very serious eruption

on my face, which had been there two years. We had

consulted several physicians, and used every remedy

suggested to eradicate it, but they proved useless. I

had given up all hopes of its ever being healed, as the

physician we last consulted pronounced it tuberculosis

of the skin and incurable. A few weeks after I com-

676:1
menced reading, I was amazed to see it almost healed

over, and to-day my cheek is perfectly smooth, while the

scar is disappearing.

676:4
In April my baby was born with only the practitioner

and a woman friend present. I suffered little pain, and

the third day I went down-stairs. I am able to nurse

him, – a privilege of which I was deprived with my first

child. He is a picture of health, having never been

sick a day since he was born. – K. E. W. L., Mt.

Dora, Fla.

676:11
A NEW LIFE GAINED

676:12
Leaving home when a young man, I carried with me

a protection against the temptation of a great city, – a

mother's prayers and a small Bible. For a time I read

the Bible and prayed, but without understanding. This

did not suffice, and evil seemed to gain the victory. I

soon omitted to read my Bible; forgot to go to God in

prayer for guidance and help, and looked to the world

for that which it never has and never can give, – health,

peace, and joy.

676:21
Thus, years later, when Christian Science came into

my home, it found me prayerless, churchless, godless;

a home discordant, and with no thought or knowledge

of spiritual things. Up to this time, my wife had for

years been seeking health through the physicians,

but without success, and as a last resort had been

sent to Christian Science. The help received was so

wonderful that I commenced the study of Science and

Health. The first effect which I realized from the

reading of our textbook, was a great love for the Bible

and a desire to read it, something which I had not done

677:1
for years. I went in silent prayer to God, that I might

see the light and truth which would enable me to be-

come a better man. "Ye must be born again." Thus

again, and as a child, was I taught to pray "the effectual

fervent prayer" which "availeth much." In a few

weeks' study of Science and Health together with the

Bible, and without other help, I was healed of a desire

for liquor, of years' standing, and of the use of tobacco.

Ten years have passed and these appetites have never

returned. I have never used either liquor or tobacco

in any form from that time to the present. Surely this

Scripture is fulfilled in our home: "Old things are passed

away; behold, all things are become new." How can

we estimate the value of a book, the study of which brings

such transformation and regeneration? Only as we

endeavor to live, and strive to practise what it teaches,

can we begin to pay our debt to God, and to her whom

He has sent to make plain to human understanding the

life and teaching of Christ Jesus. – W. H. P., Boston,

Mass.

677:21
A VOICE FROM ENGLAND

677:22
For a number of years I was a weary woman, not ill

enough in health to, be called an invalid, but suffering

more than could be told with fatigue and weakness.

Feeling that this was God's will, I did not ask to be healed,

although I was constantly doctoring. I suffered with dys-

pepsia, congestion of the liver, and many other things,

including weak eyesight. With all the medicine, and

with different changes for rest, I never regained health,

and thought I never should, so I prayed for grace to bear

my cross patiently for others' sake. One day, while

678:1
lying on my couch exhausted, which had become a fre-

quent experience, the words came to me, "Whatsoever

ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive." I

rose, knelt down and said, O God, make me well. I

was telling a friend this and she kindly gave me a Sen-

tinel. Imagine my joy when I saw the testimonies of heal-

ing! I believed them, remembering our Lord's words,

"Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have be-

lieved." I obtained a copy of Science and Health and

before a week had passed I realized that if God was my

all I needed no glasses. My eyes were healed in a few

days, and since then I have never thought of glasses.

I was also cured of dyspepsia, and nothing that I have

eaten has hurt me since then. The belief in health laws

was next destroyed, by knowing that our heavenly Father

did not make them, and from this has come the beautiful

experience of the overcoming of fatigue.

678:18
For this alone I can never be thankful enough. True

indeed are the words, "They shall run, and not be weary."

This was more than a year ago, and I can say that not

once have I felt inclined to lie on the couch, nor have I

had a headache, although I am doing more work than

ever before. Fear has also been overcome in many ways.

– A. L., Chelmsford, England.

678:25
DEPRAVED APPETITES OVERCOME

678:26
When Christian Science first came to me, or rather,

when I first came to Christian Science, I did not have

a very bad opinion of myself. I thought I was a pretty

good fellow. I had no religious views. I seemed to be

getting along as well as, if not better than, some who

679:1
professed Christianity. So I drifted along until I was

led to investigate Christian Science.

679:3
As I progressed in the understanding as gained from

the study of both Science and Health and the Bible,

and commenced to know myself, I found that a great

change had been wrought in me. For fifteen years I

had used tobacco, both chewing and smoking; for ten

years I had been a victim of the drink habit, sometimes

to excess; I was also addicted to profanity. Christian

Science removed these appetites. A stomach trouble

and other lesser ills, such as headache, a bad temper, an

inordinate love of money, etc., disappeared under the

same benign influence. Those things that seemed to be

pleasure do not give me pleasure now. They were not

real pleasure. I have lost nothing, I have sacrificed

nothing; but I have gained everything, and not yet the

whole, for I can see plenty yet to be done.

679:18
The condition of mind before investigating and after

is as different as black and white. As Mrs. Eddy

says, "Not matter, but Mind, satisfieth." – G. B. P.,

Henry, S. D.

679:22
CATARRH OF THE STOMACH HEALED

679:23
I should like to express my gratitude for the many

benefits I have received through Christian Science, and

to mention the great joy brought to me in the thought

that man is not the helpless victim of sin, disease, and

death. Through its teachings I have been able to over-

come many errors.

679:29
When Christian Science found me, one year ago

last April, in Chicago, I was suffering from catarrh

680:1
of the stomach, which had been very persistent, and I

had been a slave to the cigarette habit for eighteen

years. Pain and weakness had robbed me of all that

one holds dear. The first symptoms of the disease

appeared about five years ago in the form of severe

cramps of the stomach, which finally developed into

other symptoms of that painful disease. I doctored

continually, my diet daily becoming more rigid, until

three slices of toast became my daily allowance of food.

680:10
In this condition I left the East for my home in

Chicago, hoping that a change of climate might benefit

me. After spending six weeks there and finding no re-

lief, I concluded to return East. The Sunday morning

before leaving I picked up a Sunday paper, and glanc-

ing through the religious items my eyes fell on the notices

of Christian Science church services. Curiosity led me

to a service and I shall never forget that morning or the

surprise and joy it gave me to find that beautiful church,

and to know that so great a number actually believed

that God does heal the sick to-day. This brought a first

ray of hope. The evening service found me there again.

Among the notices read was that of a reading room,

giving the location and time of opening. Monday morn-

ing found me there promptly, and the first book I picked

up was Science and Health which opened a new

world to me.

680:27
I had dieted so long and suffered so much that I had

a morbid fear of food. When I had reached and read

"neither food nor the stomach, without the consent of

mortal mind, can make one suffer" (Science and Health,

p. 221), I left the reading room for something to eat. I

found a bakery near by, and bought a bag of cakes

681:1
which I ate, and shortly after I had a hearty dinner with-

out the least complaint from my stomach.

681:3
From that time until now I have eaten anything that I

wished, and the craving for cigarettes, which I had for

many years, has entirely vanished. The understanding

of Truth, which entirely relieved the diseased stomach,

healed also the morbid appetite for smoking. After

coming back East, I bought a copy of Science and Health,

which I have read daily, and find it a continual help in

all the affairs of life.

681:11
In my home and at work I find this Science a com-

fort and source of strength. I have had many difficulties

in the way, but it has helped me out of them all. – W. E.

B., New Britain, Conn.

681:15
SPINAL DISEASE HEALED

681:16
When I first heard of Christian Science, seven years

ago, I supposed that it was some old fad under a new

name. In the little Texas town where we then lived

there were two or three Christian Scientists who met

at the home of one of their number to read the Lesson‑

Sermon. Meeting one of them one day, I asked if un-

believers could come to their meetings. She said that

they could if they wanted to. I went, expecting them

to do something that I could laugh at when telling my

friends about it. How surprised I was to find out that

they didn't do anything but read the Bible and another

book which they called Science and Health. I still

thought it all foolishness, but resolved to go to their meet-

ings until I found out all they believed. I continued to

go until I began to understand a little of what they knew,

682:1
not what they believed; and instead of spending my

time telling others what a silly thing Christian Science

is, I am now trying to find words to tell what a great

and wonderful thing it is. I have been healed of so‑

called incurable spinal disease of ten years' standing

by studying the Bible and Science and Health. Science

and Health has been my only teacher, and I wish to send

my thanks to our dear Leader.

682:9
There are no other Scientists near where we now live,

but I have the Quarterly and study the lessons by myself.

I have five small children, and Christian Science is in-

valuable to me in controlling them, and in overcoming

their common ills. They often help themselves and

each other to destroy their little hurts and fears. – Mrs.

M. H., Oleta, Okla.

682:16
MANY TROUBLES OVERCOME

682:17
In the second chapter of First Peter, ninth verse, I

read "that ye should show forth the praises of him who

hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous

light." The periodicals so wisely established by our

Leader give us one means of showing forth the praises

of Truth.

682:23
From the darkness of physical pain and weariness into

the light of wholeness and joyousness in work and

living, – from the darkness of a clouded sight into the

light of clearer vision, – from the darkness of doubt

and discord into the marvellous light of the reality of

good, – this is what a reading of the Christian Science

textbook has done for me.

682:30
At the time the book was lent to me, I was teach-

683:1
ing in the public schools of Chicago, and absences from

my work on account of illness were of frequent occurrence.

For five weeks I had been under the care of a specialist

for an organic trouble, and he said I would have to come

as many more months before a cure could be effected.

At this time, Science and Health was brought to my

notice. I never thought of such a thing as being healed

by the reading of the book, but my thought was so changed

that I was healed, not only of the organic trouble, but of

blurred eyesight, fatigue, and a train of other discordant

manifestations. I did not go back to the physician

until four months later to pay my bill (which, by the

way, was more than five times the price of the Science

and Health I had purchased). From the time I read

the book I taught steadily without losing time from my

work. I was helped, too, with my work in many other

ways.

683:18
Through reading the textbook I learned that God has

given us strength to do all we have to do, and that it is

the things we do not have to do (the envying, strife, emu-

lating, vainglorying, and so on) that leave in their wake

fatigue and discord.

683:23
Gratitude to our beloved Leader, Mrs. Eddy, and

to her faithful students, with whom I afterwards be-

came associated, can be expressed only by daily efforts

to put into practice what has been taught. – T. H. A.,

Madison, Wis.

683:28
PREJUDICE OVERCOME

683:29
I became interested in Christian Science somewhat

over three years ago when in much need of help. I

had never been strong, and as I grew older I grew

684:1
weaker and at last became so ill that life was a burden

to me. Science and Health by Mrs. Eddy was sent

to me, in answer to prayer, as I thought. I was a little

afraid of all these new fads, as I thought them, but I

had not read far before I felt that I had found the truth

which makes us free. I was healed of stomach trouble,

inward weakness, and bilious attacks.

684:8
One physician said I might have to undergo an opera-

tion before I could get well, but, thanks to this Truth, I

have found that the only operation needed was the re-

generation of this so-called human mind by learning to

know God. In many cases I have been able to help

myself and others.

684:14
Words cannot express my thanks to Mrs. Eddy, and

to all who are bringing these great truths to the help of

the whole world. – E. E. M., Huntington, W. Va.

684:17
A CONVINCING TESTIMONY

684:18
I became interested in Christian Science some five

years ago, the practical nature of its statements appeal-

ing to me, and I must say, at the outset, that with my

little experience I have found it all and more than I ever

dreamt of realizing on this plane of existence. I am

satisfied that I have found Truth. God is indeed to me

an ever-present help.

684:25
My little girl, some ten months old, was afflicted

with constipation. It was so severe I dreaded to go

out anywhere with her, as I knew not when she would

be taken with a convulsion. I had tried all the usual

remedies in such cases, but it seemed to grow more ob-

stinate. There was a Christian Scientist living in

685:1
the same house with us, a Scientist who let her light

shine, and while she said little, I felt the reflection of

Love. I had no knowledge of the teachings of Chris-

tian Science, save that God was the physician at all

times. In my own way I believed He was all-power-

ful, and I said to my husband one day, "I am through

with medicine for baby. I am just going to leave her

in God's care and see what He will do. I have done

all I can." I did as I said, laid my burden at God's

feet, and did not pick it up again. In two days the

child was perfectly natural, and has since been free

from the trouble. She is now six years of age. Some

months later a second test came. She woke up at nine

o'clock at night crying and holding her ear. There

was to sense a gathering. I was alone. I took up my

Science and Health and Bible, but the more I worked

the louder she screamed. Error kept suggesting ma-

terial remedies, but I said firmly: "No; I shall not go

back to error. God will help me." Just then I thought

of my own fear, how excessive it was, and a conversation

I had with the Scientist who first voiced the truth to me,

came to mind. She said she always found it helpful

to treat herself and cast out her own fear before treat-

ing a patient. I put baby down and again took up

my Science and Health, and these were the words I

read: –

685:27
"Every trial of our faith in God makes us stronger.

The more difficult seems the material condition to be

overcome by Spirit, the stronger should be our faith

and the purer our love. The Apostle John says: 'There

is no fear in Love, but perfect Love casteth out fear'"

(Science and Health, p. 410). I looked up, the crying

686:1
had ceased, the child was smiling, and in a few minutes

asked to be put to bed. There has been no further

trouble of that kind.

686:4
I have since seen the power of Truth overcome error

of many forms, including croup, whooping-cough, ton-

silitis, etc. I am thankful for all these proofs, but far

more grateful am I for the spiritual teaching to love, to

forgive, to curb my tongue, and cease my criticism. –

M. A. H., Brockton, Mass.

686:10
HEALED PHYSICALLY AND SPIRITUALLY

686:11
I had been taking medicine continually for many

years. Finally I was taken suddenly ill and could not

leave my room for about two months, then I went away

for three months, thinking that I should come back

and be able to continue my work. I improved very much,

but the fear of quick consumption was with my doctor

and my family and friends, and I was warned about the

coming winter. Only too soon the fear manifested

itself. I had worked just three weeks when all the pains

and aches returned, and I had to go to bed as soon as I

got home, so there was no pleasure in living. My em-

ployer advised me to see my physician, and said perhaps

I should not work that winter. I then and there turned

to Christian Science. I could not afford to give up work

and live away from home, neither did I want to depend

on doctors and medicine any longer. I took the book

and read it on my way to work, and at noon I lay down

on a couch instead of going out for luncheon and fell

asleep. When I awoke I was a different person, all

pains and aches had gone, and I was free. I was so

687:1
happy I could hardly contain myself; to material

sense it was wonderful. As I walked I kept saying,

"Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful," and tried to un-

derstand "the scientific statement of being" by repeat-

ing portions at a time, then pondering over them. I

read the book four times in succession, and every

time I found more and more to aid in the under-

standing.

687:9
This healing was in October, 1901, with no other

help than Science and Health, and soon I was relieved

of other chronic ailments. In February I was able to

put away eyeglasses, which I had worn ten years and

a half for astigmatism. Oculists told me I would always

have to wear them. A month later my father asked

me to help him, as he was suffering so much from con-

stipation, dyspepsia, and neuralgia. He had been sub-

sisting on bran, nearly starving himself until be was most

miserable, and his limbs seemed so cold that they were

kept wrapped in blankets. I felt very humble as he

asked me, and told him I would have a practitioner help

him, as I had never treated any one; but he would not

consent to have any one but myself, and I finally told

him I would try, but that he must not hold Science respon-

sible if he were not benefited, for my lack of understand-

ing, and not Science, would be at fault. At my request

he read Science and Health, ate whatever he wanted,

and used no medicine in any form. After two treat-

ments I received word from him that he was healed

of that bondage of thirty years' standing. In view of

all these signs which followed my acceptance of Chris-

tian Science, I knew it must be true. – R. L. A.,

Chicago, Ill.

688:1
A VOICE FROM THE SOUTH

688:2
I was delicate from childhood, and my parents did

not think it was possible for me to live more than a

few years. I lived, however, although there was not

much improvement in my health. Travel and change

of climate brought only temporary relief, and the physi-

cians gave me no hope that I would ever be well.

688:8
As a last resort I began the study of Science and

Health, and before I had finished reading the book I

realized that its author was divinely commissioned to

bring this spiritual message to a waiting world. Through

this reading my health was restored, and I was healed

of one disease that has been called incurable by all

physicians.

688:15
For this, together with the greater and higher bles-

sing of having the spiritual fact of being unfolded to me,

I am most grateful.

688:18
What shall be rendered for such benefits received and

made possible by the consecrated life of our revered

Leader? Only by following the teachings of our text-

book, and by loving obedience to her gentle and timely

admonitions can we show our true sense of gratitude. –

F. H. D., De Funiak Springs, Fla.

688:24
HEALED AFTER MUCH SUFFERING

688:25
A testimony given in the Journal led me to investi-

gate Christian Science, and I hope in return to be the

means of leading some one else to see the beauty of this

saving truth, and to learn to know God aright and

man's relationship to Him. I know from experience

689:1
that it is prejudice and misapprehension of what Christian

Science is, that keeps many from enjoying the blessings

it bestows.

689:4
I had been taking patent medicines for several years,

and had been to one of the best sanitariums in this country,

but was not healed, although I received some benefit, for

which I shall always feel grateful, for I know the physi-

cians did all they could for me. I sometimes thought

I had exhausted all remedies, but did not give up, for

I felt there must be something to heal me if I could

find it.

689:12
When in this state of mind Christian Science came to

my notice, and after reading several Journals, I pur-

chased a copy of Science and Health. I read for several

days at odd times. I commenced to improve, and in

about a week I was healed of most of my ills, among

which were dyspepsia and nervous debility.

689:18
Although I had heard about Christian Science before,

I had never heard that the reading of the Christian

Science textbook had ever effected the healing of anybody.

I commenced reading to find out what Christian Science

was, but was surprised to find myself improving, and was

soon assured that it was the theology of Science and

Health that healed me, just as it was the theology of

Jesus that healed the sick.

689:26
It has also proved to me that there can be no

Christian Science Church that does not heal the sick

and sinful, for healing follows as the natural result of the

teaching of Christian Science. The Bible has become

a new revelation to me, and I can read it much more

understandingly by the light received through the reading

of Science and Health. – A. F. M., Fairmont, Minn.

690:1
THROUGH GREAT TRIBULATIONS

690:2
When I attempt to make plain what Christian Science

has done for me, words fail me. For twenty years

I was a constant sufferer, my spine having been

injured when I was very young. As a little child I

suffered so much that I would look up to the stars

and beg God, who I thought might be up there

somewhere, to take me away from the earth, – I was

so tired. A great wall of pain seemed to separate me

from the pleasures enjoyed by others, and I could not

explain how I felt, because no one could understand.

Years passed, and I saw my earthly happiness swept

away; my heart was broken and I did not know what

to do. I cried for help, day after day and night after

night, although I was not sure what God was, nor where

He was. I only knew that I suffered, and was

in need of help, and that there was no earthly help

for either mind or body. I loved purity, truth, and

right always, and this made evil seem a most terrible

reality. I was unable to cope with it, and so found

myself in despair. This was my condition when I com-

menced reading Science and Health. I was ready for

its message, and in about ten days there came a won-

derful insight into the truth which heals the sick and

binds up the broken-hearted. All pain left me, I had

a glimpse of the new heavens and the new earth, and

was beginning to be fed by Love divine.

690:28
I had suffered for years with insomnia. That night

I rested like a child, and awoke the next morning well

and happy. A flood of light daily illumined the pages

of the "little book," and the revelation it holds for all

691:1
came to my waiting heart. "The peace which passeth

all understanding" rested upon me, and joy too deep for

words transformed my life. My prayers were answered,

for I had found God in Christian Science.

691:5
The Bible, which I knew very little about, became

my constant study, my joy, and my guide. The copy

which I bought at the time of my healing is marked

from Genesis to Revelation. It was so constantly

in my hands for three years that the cover became

worn and the leaves loose, so it has been laid away

for a new one. Two and three o'clock in the morning

often found me poring over its pages, which grew

more and more sacred to me every day, and the help

I received therefrom was wonderful, for which I can

find no words to express iny gratitude. – I. L., Los

Angeles, Cal.

691:17
A HELPFUL TESTIMONY

691:18
Words cannot express my gratitude to God for

Christian Science. When I first read Science and

Health, I had tried every remedy I had ever heard of.

I felt no change in mind or body that I was conscious

of until I read page 16 of the chapter on "Prayer," in

Science and Health. The first words of the "spiritual

sense of the Lord's Prayer," telling of our Father‑

Mother God, gave me a glimpse of heavenly light. I

stopped and reasoned, and remembered the teachings

of Jesus. The truth of man's spiritual being dawned

on my consciousness. I realized I was not subject to

mortal laws, as I had been taught all my life. I could

not explain how I knew this, but I knew it. Through

Christian Science, Mrs. Eddy had given me what

692:1
I had longed for all my life, – a Mother, a perfect

"Father-Mother God." I had known there was a

great lack, and at that time I believe the orthodox

world had but half of the truth which Jesus came to

establish. When I read, "Give us this day our daily

bread," and its spiritual interpretation, my tears began

to flow; all the years of bitterness, hate, and fear melted

away. I knew then, as I know now, that nothing satisfies

but Love. That day began the outward and inward

conscious healing, – mental and physical. There never

came a doubt! I absolutely knew that Christian Science

was and is the truth. Money, friends, materiality, are

nothing beside the conscious knowledge of God, man,

and the universe.

692:15
I did not need treatment from any one, – Science

and Health was so clear and beautiful. I could not

understand the Bible before, but I found it illumined

now that I had a little understanding of Christian

Science. For ten years I have not had to lie down in

the daytime from any sickness. I am now, and have

been all these years, the picture of perfect health.

When I first read Science and Health I weighed one

hundred and four pounds; I now weigh over one hun-

dred and sixty. This physical health is not to be com-

pared to my happiness, – my harmony that nothing

can take away, – because it is the gift of God. Nothing

has shown me the perversity of the human mind more

than in its conclusions in regard to my healing. Even

when I felt and knew that I was healed, people con-

stantly said, because I was thin and delicate looking,

"You are not well, any one could look at you and know

it." Now that I am fleshy, they say, "You don't look

693:1
as if you ever had a pain in all your life. You could not

have had consumption."

693:3
When I think what my life was before I had Christian

Science, of the six years of colds, suffering, and cough-

ing, not to mention the unhappiness, I want to "work,

watch, and pray" for the Mind of Christ, that I may work

rightly in God's vineyard, and to know that in truth, what

belongs to one belongs to all, – that one God, one Life,

Truth, and Love is all. – A. C. L., Kansas City, Kans.

693:10
DESIRE FOR LIQUOR AND TOBACCO DISAPPEARED

693:11
I first heard of Christian Science four years ago. At

that time drinking and smoking were my comforters. I

had no other companionship. I had lived almost con-

stantly from childhood in an evil atmosphere. Though

I was far from being satisfied with my condition, I failed

to see how to better it until I read Science and Health.

I used occasionally to listen to a sermon, but sermons

did not give me any more comfort than I derived from

my pipe, hence I concluded that church-going could not

satisfy me and I preferred drinking and smoking. When

I began to read Science and Health, I saw it offered some-

thing substantial. After a few months' study all desire

for drinking and smoking disappeared. I did not give

them up; I made no sacrifices, I simply found some-

thing better. I might mention that I had smoked ever

since I can remember. I used to smoke years before I

left school, and, like most Englishmen, loved my pipe, and

would almost prefer to miss a meal rather than to go

without my smoke. I used to think it gave me comfort.

693:30
During my four years' study of Christian Science I

694:1
have not spent a cent for doctors or medicine, neither

have I lost a day from my work on account of sickness,

which compares wonderfully with the previous four years.

I take a great interest and pleasure in reading the Bible

and studying the lessons in the Quarterly. The Bible

used to be a most mysterious book to me, but Science

and Health makes it a most precious book, making its

meaning clearer, plainer, and simpler.

694:9
I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to Mrs.

Eddy and to the friend who invited me to attend the ser-

vice held in the Auditorium years ago. I also wish to

acknowledge the benefit I have had from the Journal

and the Sentinel. They have helped me wonderfully. If

the value of Science and Health and these publications

were measured as business men value things, by the

results or benefits they bring, they certainly would be

priceless to me. It would be impossible to measure

their value, as I have got something from Science and

Health that all the money in the world could not buy. –

H. P. H., Chicago, Ill.

694:21
AN EXPRESSION OF LOVING GRATITUDE

694:22
In the spring of 1893, while studying for the minis-

try, Science and Health was placed in my hands, and

the truth contained therein at once became to me the

pearl of great price. I literally devoured the book,

reading it about eighteen hours a day. Its originality

was startling, upsetting my preconceived opinions of

God, man, and creation. Two sentences especially

appealed to me: "The foundation of mortal discord is a

false sense of man's origin" (p. 262), and, "For right

695:1
reasoning, there should be but one fact before the thought,

namely, spiritual existence" (p. 492). I had found the

keynote to the Science of being as taught in this marvel-

lous book, and persevered until a glimpse of the new heav-

ens and new earth came, for the old were passing away.

With this spiritual uplifting came also physical health.

695:7
All my life had been spent in semi-invalidism, and

I seemed destined to a life of suffering. In three

weeks after beginning Science and Health, to my joy-

ful surprise I found myself a well man, sound physi-

cally, and uplifted spiritually. Life was being lived

from a new basis, the old things of personal sense

were passing away and all things becoming new. I

learned that the infinite good is the one Friend upon

whom we can call at all times, an all-powerful, ever‑

present help in every time of trouble; that His children

are really governed in peace and harmony by spiritual

law, and as the right understanding of it is gained, the

other things soon follow, bringing a peace the human

concept can never know.

695:21
For the last twelve years my whole time has been

devoted to Christian Science practice, and I have seen

nearly every so-called incurable disease healed by its

beneficent influence. God bless our dear Leader! She

has set before us an open door, which no man can shut,

and it is but a question of time when the world will know

her better and love her more. – E. E. N., Washington,

D. C.

695:29
HEALED OF BRIGHT'S DISEASE

695:30
August 18, 1902, I was taken down with what three

doctors pronounced Bright's disease, and they stated

696:1
that I would not live a year, or if I did succeed in liv-

ing longer, I would be mentally unbalanced. On Decem-

ber 6, 1902, my wife presented me with Science and

Health as a birthday gift, and it was indeed the

best present I ever received. Since that time I have

been reading it and attending the Second Church

here. I have not used any medicine since, nor has any

one in our home. I am in the finest of health and have

lost all my bad habits. This truth has brought a great

spiritual uplifting to all of us, and words cannot express

my gratitude to Mrs. Eddy and to all who have helped

me to the same. – T. V., Chicago, Ill.

696:13
FIBROID TUMOR DESTROYED

696:14
When quite young I was impressed that the Bible

was not properly interpreted by the preachers, for I

could not conceive of a God of wrath who was unjust

enough to allow His little ones to suffer pain, misery, and

death. I had hope, however, that some day the truth

would be revealed to an awakening world, but little did

I dream that even then there was one of God's noble

women who reflected sufficient purity and holiness to

entertain the "angel of his presence," and commune with

the true God.

696:24
I was believed to be predisposed to scrofula, so that

I was not a strong or attractive child, and my girlhood

and womanhood were scarcely ever free from dread of

the laws of matter and lack of strength. The climax

was reached when a physician informed me, after weeks

of treatment, that I had a fibroid tumor, which required

an operation. The conditions were most trying and I

697:1
was heartsick and discouraged when, in January, 1893,

I heard of Christian Science through a letter from a dear

sister who had been greatly benefited thereby, and I re-

solved to go at once to a practitioner, for I believed it

to be the long-lost truth that would make me free. It

meant a great effort and sacrifice for me to go to Chicago

at that time, but divine Love opened the way and I reached

there in March. I had been in my sister's home but

a few days, reading Science and Health almost con-

stantly, when I asked her if I had not better have

treatment for the tumor, which had given me so much

trouble. She said to me, "You feel well, do you not?"

I assured her that I never had felt so well as I had since

reaching there. "Well," she said with decision, "your

tumor is gone, for God never made it," and her statements

were true, for it has never been heard of from that day.

Since then I have been healed of chronic sore throat,

hay fever, and other troubles, and I know that Christian

Science is the truth. – B. W. S., Coldwater, Mich.

697:21
LIGHT OUT OF DARKNESS

697:22
I have received so much benefit from the testimonies

in the Sentinel and Journal that I send mine, hoping

it may cheer some struggling heart. I was reared by

kind and loving Christian parents and was a member

of an orthodox church for over twenty years, but I was

never satisfied. I was filled with fear and bound down

by the false gods of this world, – sin, disease, and pov-

erty; consequently every way I turned, and in everything

I attempted to do, I was met with disappointment and

failure; but God was leading me into a different life.

698:1
My interest was first awakened to Christian Science

about thirteen years ago, and I have been a willing dis-

ciple ever since. Through the reading of Science and

Health I was healed of chronic catarrh and laryngitis,

and it also enabled me to lay off my glasses. Christian

Science has not only helped me mentally, morally, and

physically, but the greatest blessing of all is the spirit-

ual uplifting which enabled me to know that God is both

able and willing to care for His children, if we are but

willing to do our part and bear the cross which, though

it seems heavy at times, always brings a sure reward.

Christian Science has not only helped me, but it has

enabled me to help others.

698:14
The Bible is a new book to me. I now see what

Jesus meant when he said, "Come unto me, all ye that

labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."

698:17
My heart goes out in gratitude to Mrs. Eddy for the

work she has done and is still doing for the world, and

to God I am most grateful that He has guided me into the

truth, that I may have life, and have it more abundantly.

– Mrs. M. M., Chicago, Ill.

698:22
A PRICELESS BOON

698:23
I have long desired to express my gratitude for what

Christian Science has done, through reading Science

and Health, for me and my family. I was healed of

profanity, the tobacco habit, and a bad temper, through

the understanding that man is the image and likeness of

God. I was also healed of kidney disease and rheuma

tism. What surprised me most, however, was this; I

had had one finger thrown out of place some fifteen years

699:1
before. It was crooked, but it became straight and use-

ful. A bone in my foot had also been broken, leaving

a bunch, which disappeared after I studied Christian

Science and received class instruction. I am an entirely

well man and for this I am very grateful. I am also

glad that I have learned enough of Truth and love to

be able to heal others. I wish to express my thankful

appreciation of our Leader, also of the Sentinel and the

Journal. – N. R. F., Salina, Kans.

699:10
HEALED OF CONSUMPTION AND ASTHMA

699:11
It is a pleasure to acknowledge the great benefits which

have come to me through Christian Science. It is nearly

ten years since I began the investigation of the subject by

borrowing a copy of Science and Health. I had become

a hopeless sufferer from asthma, – the disease being so

aggravated at times as to make breathing almost impos-

sible. I was also a victim of that dread disease, consump-

tion. It was hereditary, nearly all my family on both

sides having passed away with it. I took up Christian

Science very much as a drowning man catches at a straw.

However, I was much interested as soon as I began to

understand it, and having read the book nearly all my

waking hours for a few weeks, I became so much better

and so convinced of its truth, that myself and wife de-

stroyed all the medicines in the home, and have never

since used any remedy except Christian Science. I con-

tinued to study and to put into practice the teaching as

best I knew, and was restored to health in a few months.

699:29
Prior to my investigation of Christian Science I had

been from boyhood an outspoken infidel, had read that

700:1
class of literature extensively, and had no desire for

anything of a religious nature, – the orthodox teaching

never having appealed to me as a rational exposition of

an all-wise God. I now have no more doubt of the truth

of the teaching of the great Way-shower, Jesus of Naza-

reth, than I doubt the correctness of the basic law of

mathematics or music. I have no doubt whatever that

Christian Science saved me from the grave, and thus

proved a most practicable and efficient help in time of

greatest need. However great my physical suffering has

been, I can but feel glad that through it the door of con-

sciousness was opened to let in the light of Truth. Thus

I have progressed a little way in the knowledge of God,

good, as revealed in Christian Science. – C. B., Webb

City, Mo.

700:16
A GRATEFUL TESTIMONY

700:17
"Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto

my path."

700:19
This has been proven to me in every way. When

Christian Science came to me, I was a wreck, physically,

mentally, and financially; but since the reading of Sci-

ence and Health turned my thought toward the light, I

have found that, as far as I am willing to receive the word

and live it, all comforts are supplied me. I am especially

grateful for the spiritual help. I know that things which

I did and thought last year I would not do or think this

year, and am satisfied. Through the careful and prayer-

ful study of Science and Health I have been lifted from

sickness to health, from sorrow to peace, from lack to

plenty, and, the most beautiful of all, from darkness to

light. – Mrs. H. S. C., Seattle, Wash.

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