Chapter 12: 'Science and Health with Key to The Scriptures' by Mary Baker Eddy

Chapter XII - Christian Science Practice

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.

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