Science and Health
with Key to The Scriptures
by Mary Baker Eddy
Chapter IV - Christian Science Versus Spiritualism

 

Key to the kingdom
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
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