Science and Health
with Key to The Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
Chapter VI - Science, Theology, Medicine

 

The sun and Soul
120:1
seems otherwise to finite sense. But we shall never under-
stand this while we admit that soul is in body or mind in
matter, and that man is included in non-intelligence.
Soul, or Spirit, is God, unchangeable and eternal; and
man coexists with and reflects Soul, God, for man is God's
image.
Reversal of testimony
120:7
Science reverses the false testimony of the physical
senses, and by this reversal mortals arrive at the funda-
mental facts of being. Then the question in-
evitably arises: Is a man sick if the material
senses indicate that he is in good health? No! for matter
can make no conditions for man. And is he well if the
senses say he is sick? Yes, he is well in Science in which
health is normal and disease is abnormal.
Health and the senses
120:15
Health is not a condition of matter, but of Mind; nor
can the material senses bear reliable testimony on the sub-
ject of health. The Science of Mind-healing
shows it to be impossible for aught but Mind
to testify truly or to exhibit the real status of man. There-
fore the divine Principle of Science, reversing the testi-
mony of the physical senses, reveals man as harmoniously
existent in Truth, which is the only basis of health; and
thus Science denies all disease, heals the sick, overthrows
false evidence, and refutes materialistic logic.
120:25
Any conclusion pro or con, deduced from supposed sen-
sation in matter or from matter's supposed consciousness
of health or disease, instead of reversing the testimony of
the physical senses, confirms that testimony as legitimate
and so leads to disease.
Historic illustrations
120:30
When Columbus gave freer breath to the
globe, ignorance and superstition chained the
limbs of the brave old navigator, and disgrace and star-
121:1
vation stared him in the face; but sterner still would have
been his fate, if his discovery had undermined the favor-
ite inclinations of a sensuous philosophy.
121:4
Copernicus mapped out the stellar system, and before
he spake, astrography was chaotic, and the heavenly fields
were incorrectly explored.
Perennial beauty
121:7
The Chaldean Wisemen read in the stars the fate of
empires and the fortunes of men. Though no higher
revelation than the horoscope was to them dis-
played upon the empyrean, earth and heaven
were bright, and bird and blossom were glad in God's
perennial and happy sunshine, golden with Truth. So
we have goodness and beauty to gladden the heart; but
man, left to the hypotheses of material sense unexplained
by Science, is as the wandering comet or the desolate
star – "a weary searcher for a viewless home."
Astronomic unfoldings
121:17
The earth's diurnal rotation is invisible to the physical
eye, and the sun seems to move from east to west, instead
of the earth from west to east. Until rebuked
by clearer views of the everlasting facts, this
false testimony of the eye deluded the judgment and in-
duced false conclusions. Science shows appearances often
to be erroneous, and corrects these errors by the simple
rule that the greater controls the lesser. The sun is the
central stillness, so far as our solar system is concerned,
and the earth revolves about the sun once a year, besides
turning daily on its own axis.
121:28
As thus indicated, astronomical order imitates the
action of divine Principle; and the universe, the reflec-
tion of God, is thus brought nearer the spiritual fact, and
is allied to divine Science as displayed in the everlasting
government of the universe.
Opposing testimony
122:1
The evidence of the physical senses often reverses the
real Science of being, and so creates a reign of discord, –
assigning seeming power to sin, sickness, and
death; but the great facts of Life, rightly un-
derstood, defeat this triad of errors, contradict their false
witnesses, and reveal the kingdom of heaven, – the actual
reign of harmony on earth. The material senses' re-
versal of the Science of Soul was practically exposed nine-
teen hundred years ago by the demonstrations of Jesus;
yet these so-called senses still make mortal mind tributary
to mortal body, and ordain certain sections of matter, such
as brain and nerves, as the seats of pain and pleasure,
from which matter reports to this so-called mind its status
of happiness or misery.
Testimony of the senses
122:15
The optical focus is another proof of the illusion of
material sense. On the eye's retina, sky and tree-tops
apparently join hands, clouds and ocean meet
and mingle. The barometer, – that little
prophet of storm and sunshine, denying the testimony of
the senses, – points to fair weather in the midst of murky
clouds and drenching rain. Experience is full of instances
of similar illusions, which every thinker can recall for
himself.
Spiritual sense of life
122:24
To material sense, the severance of the jugular vein
takes away life; but to spiritual sense and
in Science, Life goes on unchanged and
being is eternal. Temporal life is a false sense of
existence.
Ptolemaic and psychical error
122:29
Our theories make the same mistake regarding Soul
and body that Ptolemy made regarding the solar system.
They insist that soul is in body and mind therefore tribu-
tary to matter. Astronomical science has destroyed the
123:1
false theory as to the relations of the celestial bodies, and
Christian Science will surely destroy the greater error as
to our terrestrial bodies. The true idea and
Principle of man will then appear. The Ptole-
maic blunder could not affect the harmony of
being as does the error relating to soul and body, which
reverses the order of Science and assigns to matter the
power and prerogative of Spirit, so that man becomes
the most absolutely weak and inharmonious creature in
the universe.
Seeming and being
123:11
The verity of Mind shows conclusively how it is that
matter seems to be, but is not. Divine Science,
rising above physical theories, excludes matter,
resolves things into thoughts, and replaces the objects of
material sense with spiritual ideas.
123:16
The term CHRISTIAN SCIENCE was introduced by
the author to designate the scientific system of divine
healing.
123:19
The revelation consists of two parts:
123:20
1. The discovery of this divine Science of Mind‑
healing, through a spiritual sense of the Scriptures and
through the teachings of the Comforter, as promised by
the Master.
123:24
2. The proof, by present demonstration, that the so‑
called miracles of Jesus did not specially belong to a
dispensation now ended, but that they illustrated an
ever-operative divine Principle. The operation of this
Principle indicates the eternality of the scientific order
and continuity of being.
Scientific basis
123:30
Christian Science differs from material sci-
ence, but not on that account is it less scien-
tific. On the contrary, Christian Science is pre-emi-
124:1
nently scientific, being based on Truth, the Principle of
all science.
Physical science a blind belief
124:3
Physical science (so-called) is human knowledge, – a
law of mortal mind, a blind belief, a Samson shorn of his
strength. When this human belief lacks organ-
izations to support it, its foundations are gone.
Having neither moral might, spiritual basis,
nor holy Principle of its own, this belief mistakes effect
for cause and seeks to find life and intelligence in matter,
thus limiting Life and holding fast to discord and death.
In a word, human belief is a blind conclusion from material
reasoning. This is a mortal, finite sense of things, which
immortal Spirit silences forever.
Right interpretation
124:14
The universe, like man, is to be interpreted by Science
from its divine Principle, God, and then it can be under-
stood; but when explained on the basis of
physical sense and represented as subject to
growth, maturity, and decay, the universe, like man, is,
and must continue to be, an enigma.
All force mental
124:20
Adhesion, cohesion, and attraction are properties of
Mind. They belong to divine Principle, and support
the equipoise of that thought-force, which
launched the earth in its orbit and said to the
proud wave, "Thus far and no farther."
124:25
Spirit is the life, substance, and continuity of all
things. We tread on forces. Withdraw them, and
creation must collapse. Human knowledge calls them
forces of matter; but divine Science declares that they
belong wholly to divine Mind, are inherent in this
Mind, and so restores them to their rightful home and
classification.
Corporeal changes
124:32
The elements and functions of the physical body and
125:1
of the physical world will change as mortal mind changes
its beliefs. What is now considered the best condition
for organic and functional health in the human
body may no longer be found indispensable
to health. Moral conditions will be found always har-
monious and health-giving. Neither organic inaction
nor overaction is beyond God's control; and man will
be found normal and natural to changed mortal thought,
and therefore more harmonious in his manifestations than
he was in the prior states which human belief created and
sanctioned.
125:12
As human thought changes from one stage to an-
other of conscious pain and painlessness, sorrow and
joy, – from fear to hope and from faith to understand-
ing, – the visible manifestation will at last be man gov-
erned by Soul, not by material sense. Reflecting God's
government, man is self-governed. When subordinate
to the divine Spirit, man cannot be controlled by sin or
death, thus proving our material theories about laws of
health to be valueless.
The time and tide
125:21
The seasons will come and go with changes of time and
tide, cold and heat, latitude and longitude. The agri-
culturist will find that these changes cannot
affect his crops. "As a vesture shalt Thou
change them and they shall be changed." The mariner
will have dominion over the atmosphere and the great
deep, over the fish of the sea and the fowls of the air.
The astronomer will no longer look up to the stars, –
he will look out from them upon the universe; and the
florist will find his flower before its seed.
Mortal nothingness
125:31
Thus matter will finally be proved nothing more
than a mortal belief, wholly inadequate to affect a man
126:1
through its supposed organic action or supposed exist-
ence. Error will be no longer used in stating truth. The
problem of nothingness, or "dust to dust," will
be solved, and mortal mind will be without
form and void, for mortality will cease when man beholds
himself God's reflection, even as man sees his reflection
in a glass.
A lack of originality
126:8
All Science is divine. Human thought never pro-
jected the least portion of true being. Human belief
has sought and interpreted in its own way
the echo of Spirit, and so seems to have
reversed it and repeated it materially; but the human
mind never produced a real tone nor sent forth a positive
sound.
Antagonistic questions
126:15
The point at issue between Christian Science on the
one hand and popular theology on the other is this: Shall
Science explain cause and effect as being
both natural and spiritual? Or shall all that
is beyond the cognizance of the material senses be called
supernatural, and be left to the mercy of speculative
hypotheses?
Biblical basis
126:22
I have set forth Christian Science and its application
to the treatment of disease just as I have discovered them.
I have demonstrated through Mind the effects
of Truth on the health, longevity, and morals
of men; and I have found nothing in ancient or in modern
systems on which to found my own, except the teachings
and demonstrations of our great Master and the lives of
prophets and apostles. The Bible has been my only au-
thority. I have had no other guide in "the straight and
narrow way" of Truth.
Science and Christianity
126:32
If Christendom resists the author's application of the
127:1
word Science to Christianity, or questions her use of the
word Science, she will not therefore lose faith in Chris-
tianity, nor will Christianity lose its hold upon
her. If God, the All-in-all, be the creator of
the spiritual universe, including man, then everything
entitled to a classification as truth, or Science, must be
comprised in a knowledge or understanding of God, for
there can be nothing beyond illimitable divinity.
Scientific terms
127:9
The terms Divine Science, Spiritual Science, Christ
Science or Christian Science, or Science alone, she em-
ploys interchangeably, according to the re-
quirements of the context. These synony-
mous terms stand for everything relating to God, the in-
finite, supreme, eternal Mind. It may be said, however,
that the term Christian Science relates especially to
Science as applied to humanity. Christian Science re-
veals God, not as the author of sin, sickness, and death,
but as divine Principle, Supreme Being, Mind, exempt
from all evil. It teaches that matter is the falsity, not
the fact, of existence; that nerves, brain, stomach, lungs,
and so forth, have – as matter – no intelligence, life, nor
sensation.
No physical science
127:23
There is no physical science, inasmuch as all truth
proceeds from the divine Mind. Therefore truth is not
human, and is not a law of matter, for matter
is not a lawgiver. Science is an emanation of
divine Mind, and is alone able to interpret God aright.
It has a spiritual, and not a material origin. It is a divine
utterance, – the Comforter which leadeth into all truth.
Christian Science eschews what is called natural science,
in so far as this is built on the false hypotheses that matter
is its own lawgiver, that law is founded on material con-
128:1
ditions, and that these are final and overrule the might of
divine Mind. Good is natural and primitive. It is not
miraculous to itself.
Practical Science
128:4
The term Science, properly understood, refers only to
the laws of God and to His government of the universe,
inclusive of man. From this it follows that
business men and cultured scholars have found
that Christian Science enhances their endurance and
mental powers, enlarges their perception of character,
gives them acuteness and comprehensiveness and an
ability to exceed their ordinary capacity. The human
mind, imbued with this spiritual understanding, becomes
more elastic, is capable of greater endurance, escapes
somewhat from itself, and requires less repose. A knowl-
edge of the Science of being develops the latent abilities
and possibilities of man. It extends the atmosphere of
thought, giving mortals access to broader and higher
realms. It raises the thinker into his native air of insight
and perspicacity.
128:20
An odor becomes beneficent and agreeable only in pro-
portion to its escape into the surrounding atmosphere.
So it is with our knowledge of Truth. If one would
not quarrel with his fellow-man for waking him from
a cataleptic nightmare, he should not resist Truth, which
banishes – yea, forever destroys with the higher testi-
mony of Spirit – the so-called evidence of matter.
Mathematics and scientific logic
128:27
Science relates to Mind, not matter. It rests on fixed
Principle and not upon the judgment of false sensation.
The addition of two sums in mathematics must
always bring the same result. So is it with
logic. If both the major and the minor propo-
sitions of a syllogism are correct, the conclusion, if properly
129:1
drawn, cannot be false. So in Christian Science there
are no discords nor contradictions, because its logic is as
harmonious as the reasoning of an accurately stated syl-
logism or of a properly computed sum in arithmetic.
Truth is ever truthful, and can tolerate no error in
premise or conclusion.
Truth by inversion
129:7
If you wish to know the spiritual fact, you can dis-
cover it by reversing the material fable, be the
fable pro or con, – be it in accord with your
preconceptions or utterly contrary to them.
Antagonistic theories
129:11
Pantheism may be defined as a belief in the intelli-
gence of matter, – a belief which Science overthrows.
In those days there will be "great tribulation
such as was not since the beginning of the
world;" and earth will echo the cry, "Art thou [Truth]
come hither to torment us before the time?" Animal
magnetism, hypnotism, spiritualism, theosophy, agnos-
ticism, pantheism, and infidelity are antagonistic to true
being and fatal to its demonstration; and so are some
other systems.
Ontology needed
129:21
We must abandon pharmaceutics, and take up ontol-
ogy, – "the science of real being." We must look deep
into realism instead of accepting only the out-
ward sense of things. Can we gather peaches
from a pine-tree, or learn from discord the concord of
being? Yet quite as rational are some of the leading
illusions along the path which Science must tread in its
reformatory mission among mortals. The very name,
illusion, points to nothingness.
Reluctant guests
129:30
The generous liver may object to the author's small
estimate of the pleasures of the table. The sinner sees,
in the system taught in this book, that the demands of
130:1
God must be met. The petty intellect is alarmed by con-
stant appeals to Mind. The licentious disposition is dis-
couraged over its slight spiritual prospects.
When all men are bidden to the feast, the ex-
cuses come. One has a farm, another has merchandise,
and therefore they cannot accept.
Excuses for ignorance
130:7
It is vain to speak dishonestly of divine Science, which
destroys all discord, when you can demonstrate
the actuality of Science. It is unwise to doubt
if reality is in perfect harmony with God, divine Principle,
– if Science, when understood and demonstrated, will
destroy all discord, – since you admit that God is om-
nipotent; for from this premise it follows that good and
its sweet concords have all-power.
Children and adults
130:15
Christian Science, properly understood, would dis-
abuse the human mind of material beliefs which war
against spiritual facts; and these material
beliefs must be denied and cast out to make
place for truth. You cannot add to the contents of a
vessel already full. Laboring long to shake the adult's
faith in matter and to inculcate a grain of faith in God, –
an inkling of the ability of Spirit to make the body har-
monious, – the author has often remembered our Master's
love for little children, and understood how truly such as
they belong to the heavenly kingdom.
All evil unnatural
130:26
If thought is startled at the strong claim of Science
for the supremacy of God, or Truth, and doubts the su-
premacy of good, ought we not, contrari-
wise, to be astounded at the vigorous claims
of evil and doubt them, and no longer think it natural to
love sin and unnatural to forsake it, – no longer imagine
evil to be ever-present and good absent? Truth should
131:1
not seem so surprising and unnatural as error, and error
should not seem so real as truth. Sickness should not seem
so real as health. There is no error in Science, and our
lives must be governed by reality in order to be in har-
mony with God, the divine Principle of all being.
The error of carnality
131:6
When once destroyed by divine Science, the false evi-
dence before the corporeal senses disappears. Hence the
opposition of sensuous man to the Science of
Soul and the significance of the Scripture, "The
carnal mind is enmity against God." The central fact of
the Bible is the superiority of spiritual over physical power.
131:12
THEOLOGY
Churchly neglect
131:13
Must Christian Science come through the Christian
churches as some persons insist? This Science has come
already, after the manner of God's appoint-
ing, but the churches seem not ready to re-
ceive it, according to the Scriptural saying, "He came
unto his own, and his own received him not." Jesus once
said: "I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and
earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise
and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes: even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." As afore-
time, the spirit of the Christ, which taketh away the cere-
monies and doctrines of men, is not accepted until the
hearts of men are made ready for it.
John the Baptist, and the Messiah
131:26
The mission of Jesus confirmed prophecy, and ex-
plained the so-called miracles of olden time as natural
demonstrations of the divine power, demonstra-
tions which were not understood. Jesus' works
established his claim to the Messiahship. In
reply to John's inquiry, "Art thou he that should come,"
132:1
Jesus returned an affirmative reply, recounting his works
instead of referring to his doctrine, confident that this
exhibition of the divine power to heal would fully an-
swer the question. Hence his reply: "Go and show
John again those things which ye do hear and see: the
blind receive their sight and the lame walk, the lepers
are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up,
and the poor have the gospel preached to them. And
blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me." In
other words, he gave his benediction to any one who
should not deny that such effects, coming from divine
Mind, prove the unity of God, – the divine Principle
which brings out all harmony.
Christ rejected
132:14
The Pharisees of old thrust the spiritual idea and the
man who lived it out of their synagogues, and retained
their materialistic beliefs about God. Jesus'
system of healing received no aid nor approval
from other sanitary or religious systems, from doctrines
of physics or of divinity; and it has not yet been gener-
ally accepted. To-day, as of yore, unconscious of the
reappearing of the spiritual idea, blind belief shuts the
door upon it, and condemns the cure of the sick and sin-
ning if it is wrought on any but a material and a doctrinal
theory. Anticipating this rejection of idealism, of the
true idea of God, – this salvation from all error, physi-
cal and mental, – Jesus asked, "When the Son of man
cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?"
John's misgivings
132:28
Did the doctrines of John the Baptist confer healing
power upon him, or endow him with the truest concep-
tion of the Christ? This righteous preacher
once pointed his disciples to Jesus as "the
Lamb of God;" yet afterwards he seriously questioned
133:1
the signs of the Messianic appearing, and sent the inquiry
to Jesus, "Art thou he that should come?"
Faith according to works
133:3
Was John's faith greater than that of the Samaritan
woman, who said, "Is not this the Christ?"
There was also a certain centurion of whose
faith Jesus himself declared, "I have not found so great
faith, no, not in Israel."
133:8
In Egypt, it was Mind which saved the Israelites from
belief in the plagues. In the wilderness, streams flowed
from the rock, and manna fell from the sky. The Israelites
looked upon the brazen serpent, and straightway believed
that they were healed of the poisonous stings of vipers.
In national prosperity, miracles attended the successes of
the Hebrews; but when they departed from the true
idea, their demoralization began. Even in captivity
among foreign nations, the divine Principle wrought
wonders for the people of God in the fiery furnace and
in kings' palaces.
Judaism antipathetic
133:19
Judaism was the antithesis of Christianity, because
Judaism engendered the limited form of a national or
tribal religion. It was a finite and material
system, carried out in special theories concern-
ing God, man, sanitary methods, and a religious cultus.
That he made "himself equal with God," was one of the
Jewish accusations against him who planted Christianity
on the foundation of Spirit, who taught as he was in-
spired by the Father and would recognize no life, intelli-
gence, nor substance outside of God.
Priestly learning
133:29
The Jewish conception of God, as Yawah, Jehovah,
or only a mighty hero and king, has not quite
given place to the true knowledge of God.
Creeds and rituals have not cleansed their hands of
134:1
rabbinical lore. To-day the cry of bygone ages is re-
peated, "Crucify him!" At every advancing step, truth
is still opposed with sword and spear.
Testimony of martyrs
134:4
The word martyr, from the Greek, means witness; but
those who testified for Truth were so often persecuted
unto death, that at length the word martyr
was narrowed in its significance and so has
come always to mean one who suffers for his convictions.
The new faith in the Christ, Truth, so roused the hatred
of the opponents of Christianity, that the followers of
Christ were burned, crucified, and otherwise persecuted;
and so it came about that human rights were hallowed
by the gallows and the cross.
Absence of Christ-power
134:14
Man-made doctrines are waning. They have not waxed
strong in times of trouble. Devoid of the Christ-power,
how can they illustrate the doctrines of Christ
or the miracles of grace? Denial of the possi-
bility of Christian healing robs Christianity of the very
element, which gave it divine force and its astonishing and
unequalled success in the first century.
Basis of miracles
134:21
The true Logos is demonstrably Christian Science, the
natural law of harmony which overcomes discord, – not
because this Science is supernatural or pre-
ternatural, nor because it is an infraction of
divine law, but because it is the immutable law of God,
good. Jesus said: "I knew that Thou hearest me al-
ways;" and he raised Lazarus from the dead, stilled the
tempest, healed the sick, walked on the water. There
is divine authority for believing in the superiority of
spiritual power over material resistance.
Lawful wonders
134:31
A miracle fulfils God's law, but does not violate that
law. This fact at present seems more mysterious than
135:1
the miracle itself. The Psalmist sang: "What ailed
thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? Thou Jordan,
that thou wast driven back? Ye mountains,
that ye skipped like rams, and ye little hills,
like lambs? Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the
Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob." The miracle
introduces no disorder, but unfolds the primal order,
establishing the Science of God's unchangeable law.
Spiritual evolution alone is worthy of the exercise of
divine power.
Fear and sickness identical
135:11
The same power which heals sin heals also sickness.
This is "the beauty of holiness," that when Truth heals
the sick it casts out evils, and when Truth
casts out the evil called disease, it heals the
sick. When Christ cast out the devil of
dumbness, "it came to pass, when the devil was gone out,
the dumb spake." There is to-day danger of repeating
the offence of the Jews by limiting the Holy One of Israel
and asking: "Can God furnish a table in the wilderness?"
What cannot God do?
The unity of Science and Christianity
135:21
It has been said, and truly, that Christianity must be
Science, and Science must be Christianity, else one or the
other is false and useless; but neither is unim-
portant or untrue, and they are alike in demon-
stration. This proves the one to be identical
with the other. Christianity as Jesus taught it was not
a creed, nor a system of ceremonies, nor a special gift
from a ritualistic Jehovah; but it was the demonstration
of divine Love casting out error and healing the sick,
not merely in the name of Christ, or Truth, but in demon-
stration of Truth, as must be the case in the cycles of
divine light.
The Christ-mission
136:1
Jesus established his church and maintained his mission
on a spiritual foundation of Christ-healing. He taught
his followers that his religion had a divine
Principle, which would cast out error and heal
both the sick and the sinning. He claimed no intelli-
gence, action, nor life separate from God. Despite the
persecution this brought upon him, he used his divine
power to save men both bodily and spiritually.
Ancient spiritualism
136:9
The question then as now was, How did Jesus heal the
sick? His answer to this question the world rejected.
He appealed to his students: "Whom do
men say that I, the Son of man, am?" That
is: Who or what is it that is thus identified with casting
out evils and healing the sick? They replied, "Some
say that thou art John the Baptist; some, Elias; and
others, Jeremias, or one of the prophets." These prophets
were considered dead, and this reply may indicate that
some of the people believed that Jesus was a medium,
controlled by the spirit of John or of Elias.
136:20
This ghostly fancy was repeated by Herod himself.
That a wicked king and debauched husband should have
no high appreciation of divine Science and the great work
of the Master, was not surprising; for how could such
a sinner comprehend what the disciples did not fully
understand? But even Herod doubted if Jesus was con-
trolled by the sainted preacher. Hence Herod's asser-
tion: "John have I beheaded: but who is this?" No
wonder Herod desired to see the new Teacher.
Doubting disciples
136:29
The disciples apprehended their Master better than
did others; but they did not comprehend all
that he said and did, or they would not have
questioned him so often. Jesus patiently persisted in
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