Chapter 4: 'Science and Health with Key to The Scriptures' by Mary Baker Eddy

Chapter IV - Christian Science Versus Spiritualism

The age's privilege

93:1
recognize Soul as substantial and able to control the

body? Remember Jesus, who nearly nineteen centuries

ago demonstrated the power of Spirit and said,

"He that believeth on me, the works that I

do shall he do also," and who also said, "But the hour

cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall

worship the Father in spirit and in truth." "Behold,

now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of sal-

vation," said Paul.

Logic and revelation

93:10
Divine logic and revelation coincide. If we believe

otherwise, we may be sure that either our

logic is at fault or that we have misinterpreted

revelation. Good never causes evil, nor creates aught

that can cause evil.

93:15
Good does not create a mind susceptible of causing

evil, for evil is the opposing error and not the truth of

creation. Destructive electricity is not the offspring of in-

finite good. Whatever contradicts the real nature of the

divine Esse, though human faith may clothe it with angelic

vestments, is without foundation.

Derivatives of spirit

93:21
The belief that Spirit is finite as well as infinite has

darkened all history. In Christian Science, Spirit, as a

proper noun, is the name of the Supreme Being.

It means quantity and quality, and applies ex-

clusively to God. The modifying derivatives of the word

spirit refer only to quality, not to God. Man is spiritual.

He is not God, Spirit. If man were Spirit, then men

would be spirits, gods. Finite spirit would be mortal,

and this is the error embodied in the belief that the infi-

nite can be contained in the finite. This belief tends to

becloud our apprehension of the kingdom of heaven and

of the reign of harmony in the Science of being.

Scientific man

94:1
Jesus taught but one God, one Spirit, who makes man

in the image and likeness of Himself, – of Spirit, not of

matter. Man reflects infinite Truth, Life, and

Love. The nature of man, thus understood,

includes all that is implied by the terms "image" and

"likeness" as used in Scripture. The truly Christian

and scientific statement of personality and of the relation

of man to God, with the demonstration which accompa-

nied it, incensed the rabbis, and they said: "Crucify him,

crucify him . . . by our law he ought to die, because he

made himself the Son of God."

94:12
The eastern empires and nations owe their false gov-

ernment to the misconceptions of Deity there prevalent.

Tyranny, intolerance, and bloodshed, wherever found,

arise from the belief that the infinite is formed after the

pattern of mortal personality, passion, and impulse.

Ingratitude and denial

94:17
The progress of truth confirms its claims, and our

Master confirmed his words by his works. His healing-

power evoked denial, ingratitude, and be-

trayal, arising from sensuality. Of the ten

lepers whom Jesus healed, but one returned to give God

thanks, – that is, to acknowledge the divine Principle

which had healed him.

Spiritual insight

94:24
Our Master easily read the thoughts of mankind, and

this insight better enabled him to direct those thoughts

aright; but what would be said at this period of an in-

fidel blasphemer who should hint that Jesus used his in-

cisive power injuriously? Our Master read mortal mind

on a scientific basis, that of the omnipresence of Mind.

An approximation of this discernment indicates spiritual

growth and union with the infinite capacities of the one

Mind. Jesus could injure no one by his Mind-reading.

95:1
The effect of his Mind was always to heal and to save,

and this is the only genuine Science of reading mortal

mind. His holy motives and aims were tra-

duced by the sinners of that period, as they

would be to-day if Jesus were personally present. Paul

said, "To be spiritually minded is life." We approach

God, or Life, in proportion to our spirituality, our fidel-

ity to Truth and Love; and in that ratio we know all

human need and are able to discern the thought of the

sick and the sinning for the purpose of healing them.

Error of any kind cannot hide from the law of God.

95:12
Whoever reaches this point of moral culture and good-

ness cannot injure others, and must do them good. The

greater or lesser ability of a Christian Scientist to discern

thought scientifically, depends upon his genuine spirit-

uality. This kind of mind-reading is not clairvoyance,

but it is important to success in healing, and is one of the

special characteristics thereof.

Christ's reappearance

95:19
We welcome the increase of knowledge and the end

of error, because even human invention must have its

day, and we want that day to be succeeded

by Christian Science, by divine reality. Mid-

night foretells the dawn. Led by a solitary star amid

the darkness, the Magi of old foretold the Messiahship

of Truth. Is the wise man of to-day believed, when he

beholds the light which heralds Christ's eternal dawn

and describes its effulgence?

Spiritual awakening

95:28
Lulled by stupefying illusions, the world is asleep

in the cradle of infancy, dreaming away the hours.

Material sense does not unfold the facts of

existence; but spiritual sense lifts human

consciousness into eternal Truth. Humanity advances

96:1
slowly out of sinning sense into spiritual understanding;

unwillingness to learn all things rightly, binds Christen-

dom with chains.

The darkest hours of all

96:4
Love will finally mark the hour of harmony, and spir-

itualization will follow, for Love is Spirit. Before error

is wholly destroyed, there will be interrup-

tions of the general material routine. Earth

will become dreary and desolate, but summer and winter,

seedtime and harvest (though in changed forms), will

continue unto the end, – until the final spiritualization of

all things. "The darkest hour precedes the dawn."

Arena of contest

96:12
This material world is even now becoming the arena

for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord

and dismay; on the other side there will be

Science and peace. The breaking up of mate-

rial beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want

and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new

phases until their nothingness appears. These disturb-

ances will continue until the end of error, when all

discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth.

Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization.

This mental fermentation has begun, and will continue

until all errors of belief yield to understanding. Belief is

changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless.

Millennial glory

96:25
As this consummation draws nearer, he who has

shaped his course in accordance with divine Science

will endure to the end. As material knowl-

edge diminishes and spiritual understanding

increases, real objects will be apprehended mentally

instead of materially.

96:31
During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor

to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but

97:1
those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in

check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They

will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the

certainty of ultimate perfection.

Dangerous resemblances

97:5
In reality, the more closely error simulates truth and

so-called matter resembles its essence, mortal mind, the

more impotent error becomes as a belief. Ac-

cording to human belief, the lightning is fierce

and the electric current swift, yet in Christian Science

the flight of one and the blow of the other will become

harmless. The more destructive matter becomes, the

more its nothingness will appear, until matter reaches

its mortal zenith in illusion and forever disappears. The

nearer a false belief approaches truth without passing

the boundary where, having been destroyed by divine

Love, it ceases to be even an illusion, the riper it becomes

for destruction. The more material the belief, the more

obvious its error, until divine Spirit, supreme in its do-

main, dominates all matter, and man is found in the like-

ness of Spirit, his original being.

97:21
The broadest facts array the most falsities against

themselves, for they bring error from under cover. It

requires courage to utter truth; for the higher Truth

lifts her voice, the louder will error scream, until its in-

articulate sound is forever silenced in oblivion.

97:26
"He uttered His voice, the earth melted." This Scrip-

ture indicates that all matter will disappear before the

supremacy of Spirit.

Christianity still rejected

97:29
Christianity is again demonstrating the Life that is

Truth, and the Truth that is Life, by the apos-

tolic work of casting out error and healing the

sick. Earth has no repayment for the persecutions which

98:1
attend a new step in Christianity; but the spiritual recom-

pense of the persecuted is assured in the elevation of ex-

istence above mortal discord and in the gift of divine Love.

Spiritual foreshadowings

98:4
The prophet of to-day beholds in the mental horizon

the signs of these times, the reappearance of the Chris-

tianity which heals the sick and destroys error,

and no other sign shall be given. Body can-

not be saved except through Mind. The Science of Chris-

tianity is misinterpreted by a material age, for it is the

healing influence of Spirit (not spirits) which the material

senses cannot comprehend, which can only be spiritu-

ally discerned. Creeds, doctrines, and human hypotheses

do not express Christian Science; much less can they

demonstrate it.

Revelation of Science

98:15
Beyond the frail premises of human beliefs, above the

loosening grasp of creeds, the demonstration of Christian

Mind-healing stands a revealed and practical

Science. It is imperious throughout all ages

as Christ's revelation of Truth, of Life, and of Love, which

remains inviolate for every man to understand and to

practise.

Science as foreign to all religion

98:22
For centuries – yea, always – natural science has not

been considered a part of any religion, Christianity not

excepted. Even now multitudes consider that

which they call science has no proper con-

nection with faith and piety. Mystery does

not enshroud Christ's teachings, and they are not theo-

retical and fragmentary, but practical and complete; and

being practical and complete, they are not deprived of

their essential vitality.

Key to the kingdom

98:31
The way through which immortality and life are learned

is not ecclesiastical but Christian, not human but divine,

99:1
not physical but metaphysical, not material but scien-

tifically spiritual. Human philosophy, ethics, and super-

stition afford no demonstrable divine Principle

by which mortals can escape from sin; yet

to escape from sin, is what the Bible demands. "Work

out your own salvation with fear and trembling," says

the apostle, and he straightway adds: "for it is God

which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good

pleasure" (Philippians ii. 12, 13). Truth has furnished

the key to the kingdom, and with this key Christian Sci-

ence has opened the door of the human understanding.

None may pick the lock nor enter by some other door.

The ordinary teachings are material and not spiritual.

Christian Science teaches only that which is spiritual and

divine, and not human. Christian Science is unerring

and Divine; the human sense of things errs because it

is human.

99:18
Those individuals, who adopt theosophy, spiritualism,

or hypnotism, may possess natures above some others

who eschew their false beliefs. Therefore my contest is

not with the individual, but with the false system. I

love mankind, and shall continue to labor and to endure.

99:23
The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the

manifestations of which are health, purity, and self‑

immolation, must deepen human experience, until the

beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposi-

tion, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place

to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to

God's spiritual, perfect man.

Chapter V

Animal Magnetism Unmasked

For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, forni-

cations, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which

defile a man. – JESUS.

Earliest investigations

100:1
MESMERISM or animal magnetism was first brought

into notice by Mesmer in Germany in 1775. Ac-

cording to the American Cyclopaedia, he regarded this

so-called force, which he said could be ex-

erted by one living organism over another, as

a means of alleviating disease. His propositions were

as follows:

100:8
"There exists a mutual influence between the celestial

bodies, the earth, and animated things. Animal bodies

are susceptible to the influence of this agent, disseminat-

ing itself through the substance of the nerves."

In 1784, the French government ordered the medical

faculty of Paris to investigate Mesmer's theory and to

report upon it. Under this order a commission was

appointed, and Benjamin Franklin was one of the com-

missioners. This commission reported to the govern-

ment as follows:

100:18
"In regard to the existence and utility of animal mag-

netism, we have come to the unanimous conclusions that

there is no proof of the existence of the animal magnetic

101:1
fluid; that the violent effects, which are observed in

the public practice of magnetism, are due to manipula-

tions, or to the excitement of the imagination and the

impressions made upon the senses; and that there is one

more fact to be recorded in the history of the errors of

the human mind, and an important experiment upon

the power of the imagination."

Clairvoyance, magnetism

101:8
In 1837, a committee of nine persons was appointed,

among whom were Roux, Bouillaud, and Clo-

quet, which tested during several sessions the

phenomena exhibited by a reputed clairvoyant. Their

report stated the results as follows:

101:13
"The facts which had been promised by Monsieur

Berna [the magnetizer] as conclusive, and as adapted to

throw light on physiological and therapeutical questions,

are certainly not conclusive in favor of the doctrine of

animal magnetism, and have nothing in common with

either physiology or therapeutics."

101:19
This report was adopted by the Royal Academy of

Medicine in Paris.

Personal conclusions

101:21
The author's own observations of the workings of

animal magnetism convince her that it is not

a remedial agent, and that its effects upon

those who practise it, and upon their subjects who do

not resist it, lead to moral and to physical death.

101:26
If animal magnetism seems to alleviate or to cure dis-

ease, this appearance is deceptive, since error cannot

remove the effects of error. Discomfort under error is

preferable to comfort. In no instance is the effect of

animal magnetism, recently called hypnotism, other

than the effect of illusion. Any seeming benefit derived

from it is proportional to one's faith in esoteric magic.

Mere negation

102:1
Animal magnetism has no scientific foundation, for

God governs all that is real, harmonious, and eternal, and

His power is neither animal nor human. Its

basis being a belief and this belief animal, in

Science animal magnetism, mesmerism, or hypnotism is

a mere negation, possessing neither intelligence, power,

nor reality, and in sense it is an unreal concept of the so‑

called mortal mind.

102:9
There is but one real attraction, that of Spirit. The

pointing of the needle to the pole symbolizes this all‑

embracing power or the attraction of God, divine Mind.

102:12
The planets have no more power over man than over

his Maker, since God governs the universe; but man,

reflecting God's power, has dominion over all the earth

and its hosts.

Hidden agents

102:16
The mild forms of animal magnetism are disappear-

ing, and its aggressive features are coming to the front.

The looms of crime, hidden in the dark re-

cesses of mortal thought, are every hour weav-

ing webs more complicated and subtle. So secret are the

present methods of animal magnetism that they ensnare

the age into indolence, and produce the very apathy on

the subject which the criminal desires. The following

is an extract from the Boston Herald:

102:25
"Mesmerism is a problem not lending itself to an easy

explanation and development. It implies the exercise

of despotic control, and is much more likely to be abused

by its possessor, than otherwise employed, for the in-

dividual or society."

Mental despotism

102:30
Mankind must learn that evil is not power. Its so‑

called despotism is but a phase of nothingness. Christian

Science despoils the kingdom of evil, and pre-eminently

103:1
promotes affection and virtue in families and therefore

in the community. The Apostle Paul refers to the

personification of evil as "the god of this

world," and further defines it as dishonesty

and craftiness. Sin was the Assyrian moon-god.

Liberation of mental powers

103:6
The destruction of the claims of mortal mind through

Science, by which man can escape from sin

and mortality, blesses the whole human fam-

ily. As in the beginning, however, this libera-

tion does not scientifically show itself in a knowledge of

both good and evil, for the latter is unreal.

On the other hand, Mind-science is wholly separate

from any half-way impertinent knowledge, because Mind‑

science is of God and demonstrates the divine Principle,

working out the purposes of good only. The maximum

of good is the infinite God and His idea, the All-in-all.

Evil is a suppositional lie.

The genus of error

103:18
As named in Christian Science, animal magnetism or

hypnotism is the specific term for error, or mortal mind.

It is the false belief that mind is in matter, and

is both evil and good; that evil is as real as

good and more powerful. This belief has not one qual-

ity of Truth. It is either ignorant or malicious. The

malicious form of hypnotism ultimates in moral idiocy.

The truths of immortal Mind sustain man, and they anni-

hilate the fables of mortal mind, whose flimsy and gaudy

pretensions, like silly moths, singe their own wings and

fall into dust.

Thought-transference

103:29
In reality there is no mortal mind, and conse-

quently no transference of mortal thought

and will-power. Life and being are of

God. In Christian Science, man can do no harm, for

104:1
scientific thoughts are true thoughts, passing from God

to man.

104:3
When Christian Science and animal magnetism are

both comprehended, as they will be at no distant date,

it will be seen why the author of this book has been

so unjustly persecuted and belied by wolves in sheep's

clothing.

104:8
Agassiz, the celebrated naturalist and author, has

wisely said: "Every great scientific truth goes through

three stages. First, people say it conflicts with the Bible.

Next, they say it has been discovered before. Lastly,

they say they have always believed it."

Perfection of divine government

104:13
Christian Science goes to the bottom of mental action,

and reveals the theodicy which indicates the rightness of

all divine action, as the emanation of divine

Mind, and the consequent wrongness of the

opposite so-called action, – evil, occultism,

necromancy, mesmerism, animal magnetism, hypnotism.

Adulteration of Truth

104:19
The medicine of Science is divine Mind; and dishonesty,

sensuality, falsehood, revenge, malice, are animal pro-

pensities and by no means the mental quali-

ties which heal the sick. The hypnotizer

employs one error to destroy another. If he heals sick-

ness through a belief, and a belief originally caused the

sickness, it is a case of the greater error overcoming the

lesser. This greater error thereafter occupies the ground,

leaving the case worse than before it was grasped by the

stronger error.

Motives considered

104:29
Our courts recognize evidence to prove the motive as

well as the commission of a crime. Is it not

clear that the human mind must move the

body to a wicked act? Is not mortal mind the mur-

105:1
derer? The hands, without mortal mind to direct them,

could not commit a murder.

Mental crimes

105:3
Courts and juries judge and sentence mortals in order

to restrain crime, to prevent deeds of violence or to punish

them. To say that these tribunals have no

jurisdiction over the carnal or mortal mind,

would be to contradict precedent and to admit that the

power of human law is restricted to matter, while mortal

mind, evil, which is the real outlaw, defies justice and is

recommended to mercy. Can matter commit a crime?

Can matter be punished? Can you separate the men-

tality from the body over which courts hold jurisdiction?

Mortal mind, not matter, is the criminal in every case;

and human law rightly estimates crime, and courts rea-

sonably pass sentence, according to the motive.

Important decision

105:16
When our laws eventually take cognizance of mental

crime and no longer apply legal rulings wholly to physical

offences, these words of Judge Parmenter of

Boston will become historic: "I see no reason

why metaphysics is not as important to medicine as to

mechanics or mathematics."

Evil let loose

105:22
Whoever uses his developed mental powers like an es-

caped felon to commit fresh atrocities as opportunity oc-

curs is never safe. God will arrest him. Di-

vine justice will manacle him. His sins will

be millstones about his neck, weighing him down to the

depths of ignominy and death. The aggravation of er-

ror foretells its doom, and confirms the ancient axiom:

"Whom the gods would destroy, they first make mad."

The misuse of mental power

105:30
The distance from ordinary medical prac-

tice to Christian Science is full many a league

in the line of light; but to go in healing from the use of

106:1
inanimate drugs to the criminal misuse of human will‑

power, is to drop from the platform of common manhood

into the very mire of iniquity, to work against the free

course of honesty and justice, and to push vainly against

the current running heavenward.

Proper self-government

106:6
Like our nation, Christian Science has its Declaration

of Independence. God has endowed man with inalien-

able rights, among which are self-government,

reason, and conscience. Man is properly self‑

governed only when he is guided rightly and governed by

his Maker, divine Truth and Love.

106:12
Man's rights are invaded when the divine order is in-

terfered with, and the mental trespasser incurs the divine

penalty due this crime.

Right methods

106:15
Let this age, which sits in judgment on Christian

Science, sanction only such methods as are demonstrable

in Truth and known by their fruit, and classify

all others as did St. Paul in his great epistle

to the Galatians, when he wrote as follows:

106:20
"Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are

these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,

idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath,

strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness,

revellings and such like: of the which I tell you before,

as I have also told you in time past, that they which do

such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But

the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering,

gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against

such there is no law."

Chapter VI

Science, Theology, Medicine

But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me

is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught

it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ. – PAUL.

The kingdom of heaven is like unto leaven, which a woman took, and

hid in three measures of meal, till the whole was leavened. – JESUS.

Christian Science discovered

107:1
IN the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science or

divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and

named my discovery Christian Science. God

had been graciously preparing me during many

years for the reception of this final revelation of the ab-

solute divine Principle of scientific mental healing.

Mission of Christian Science

107:7
This apodictical Principle points to the revelation of

Immanuel, "God with us," – the sovereign ever-pres-

ence, delivering the children of men from

every ill "that flesh is heir to." Through

Christian Science, religion and medicine are

inspired with a diviner nature and essence; fresh pinions

are given to faith and understanding, and thoughts ac-

quaint themselves intelligently with God.

Discontent with life

107:15
Feeling so perpetually the false consciousness that life

inheres in the body, yet remembering that in

reality God is our Life, we may well tremble

in the prospect of those days in which we must say, "I

have no pleasure in them."

108:1
Whence came to me this heavenly conviction, – a con-

viction antagonistic to the testimony of the physical senses?

According to St. Paul, it was "the gift of the grace of

God given unto me by the effectual working of His power."

It was the divine law of Life and Love, unfolding to me

the demonstrable fact that matter possesses neither sen-

sation nor life; that human experiences show the falsity

of all material things; and that immortal cravings, "the

price of learning love," establish the truism that the

only sufferer is mortal mind, for the divine Mind cannot

suffer.

Demonstrable evidence

108:12
My conclusions were reached by allowing the evidence

of this revelation to multiply with mathematical certainty

and the lesser demonstration to prove the

greater, as the product of three multiplied by

three, equalling nine, proves conclusively that three times

three duodecillions must be nine duodecillions, – not

a fraction more, not a unit less.

Light shining in darkness

108:19
When apparently near the confines of mortal existence,

standing already within the shadow of the death-valley,

I learned these truths in divine Science: that

all real being is in God, the divine Mind, and

that Life, Truth, and Love are all-powerful and ever‑

present; that the opposite of Truth, – called error, sin,

sickness, disease, death, – is the false testimony of false

material sense, of mind in matter; that this false sense

evolves, in belief, a subjective state of mortal mind which

this same so-called mind names matter thereby shutting

out the true sense of Spirit.

New lines of thought

108:30
My discovery, that erring, mortal, misnamed

mind produces all the organism and action of

the mortal body, set my thoughts to work in new channels,

109:1
and led up to my demonstration of the proposition that

Mind is All and matter is naught as the leading factor in

Mind-science.

Scientific evidence

109:4
Christian Science reveals incontrovertibly that Mind

is All-in-all, that the only realities are the divine Mind

and idea. This great fact is not, however, seen

to be supported by sensible evidence, until its

divine Principle is demonstrated by healing the sick and

thus proved absolute and divine. This proof once seen,

no other conclusion can be reached.

Solitary research

109:11
For three years after my discovery, I sought the solu-

tion of this problem of Mind-healing, searched the Scrip-

tures and read little else, kept aloof from so-

ciety, and devoted time and energies to dis-

covering a positive rule. The search was sweet, calm, and

buoyant with hope, not selfish nor depressing. I knew

the Principle of all harmonious Mind-action to be God,

and that cures were produced in primitive Christian

healing by holy, uplifting faith; but I must know the

Science of this healing, and I won my way to absolute

conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and dem-

onstration. The revelation of Truth in the understand-

ing came to me gradually and apparently through divine

power. When a new spiritual idea is borne to earth, the

prophetic Scripture of Isaiah is renewedly fulfilled:

"Unto us a child is born, . . . and his name shall be

called Wonderful."

109:28
Jesus once said of his lessons: "My doctrine is not

mine, but His that sent me. If any man will do His will,

he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or

whether I speak of myself." (John vii. 16,17.)

God's allness learned

109:32
The three great verities of Spirit, omnipotence, omni-

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