Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 16

107:1 In the year 1866, I discovered the Christ Science or divine laws of Life, Truth, and Love, and 107:3 named my discovery Christian Science. G.o.d had been graciously preparing me during many years for the reception of this final revelation of the ab- 107:6 solute divine Principle of scientific mental healing.

Mission of Christian Science

This apodictical Principle points to the revelation of Immanuel, "G.o.d with us," - the sovereign ever-pres- 107:9 ence, delivering the children of men from every ill "that flesh is heir to." Through Christian Science, religion and medicine are 107:12 inspired with a diviner nature and essence; fresh pinions are given to faith and understanding, and thoughts ac- quaint themselves intelligently with G.o.d.

Discontent with life

107:15 Feeling so perpetually the false consciousness that life inheres in the body, yet remembering that in reality G.o.d is our Life, we may well tremble 107:18 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?

108:3 According to St. Paul, it was "the gift of the grace of G.o.d given unto me by the effectual working of His power."

It was the divine law of Life and Love, unfolding to me 108:6 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 108:9 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 108:15 greater, as the product of three multiplied by three, equalling nine, proves conclusively that three times three duodecillions must be nine duodecillions, - not 108:18 a fraction more, not a unit less.

Light shining in darkness

When apparently near the confines of mortal existence, standing already within the shadow of the death-valley, 108:21 I learned these truths in divine Science: that all real being is in G.o.d, the divine Mind, and that Life, Truth, and Love are all-powerful and ever- 108:24 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 108:27 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 109:3 Mind-science.

Scientific evidence

Christian Science reveals incontrovertibly that Mind is All-in-all, that the only realities are the divine Mind 109:6 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 109:9 thus proved absolute and divine. This proof once seen, no other conclusion can be reached.

Solitary research

For three years after my discovery, I sought the solu- 109:12 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- 109:15 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 G.o.d, 109:18 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 109:21 conclusions through divine revelation, reason, and dem- onstration. The revelation of Truth in the understand- ing came to me gradually and apparently through divine 109:24 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 109:27 called Wonderful."

Jesus once said of his lessons: "My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me. If any man will do His will, 109:30 he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of G.o.d, or whether I speak of myself." (John vii. 16,17.)

G.o.d's allness learned

The three great verities of Spirit, omnipotence, omni- 110:1 presence, omniscience, - Spirit possessing all power, filling all s.p.a.ce, const.i.tuting all Science, - contradict 110:3 forever the belief that matter can be actual.

These eternal verities reveal primeval exist- ence as the radiant reality of G.o.d's creation, 110:6 in which all that He has made is p.r.o.nounced by His wis- dom good.

Thus it was that I beheld, as never before, the awful 110:9 unreality called evil. The equipollence of G.o.d brought to light another glorious proposition, - man's perfecti- bility and the establishment of the kingdom of heaven on 110:12 earth.

Scriptural foundations

In following these leadings of scientific revelation, the Bible was my only textbook. The Scriptures were 110:15 illumined; reason and revelation were recon- ciled, and afterwards the truth of Christian Science was demonstrated. No human pen nor tongue 110:18 taught me the Science contained in this book, SCIENCE AND HEALTH; and neither tongue nor pen can over- throw it. This book may be distorted by shallow criti- 110:21 cism or by careless or malicious students, and its ideas may be temporarily abused and misrepresented; but the Science and truth therein will forever remain to be dis- 110:24 cerned and demonstrated.

The demonstration lost and found

Jesus demonstrated the power of Christian Science to heal mortal minds and bodies. But this power was lost 110:27 sight of, and must again be spiritually dis- cerned, taught, and demonstrated according to Christ's command, with "signs following."

110:30 Its Science must be apprehended by as many as believe on Christ and spiritually understand Truth.

Mystical antagonists

No a.n.a.logy exists between the vague hypotheses of 111:1 agnosticism, pantheism, theosophy, spiritualism, or millenarianism and the demonstrable truths of Chris- 111:3 tian Science; and I find the will, or sensuous reason of the human mind, to be opposed to the divine Mind as expressed through divine Science.

Optical ill.u.s.tration of Science

111:6 Christian Science is natural, but not physical. The Science of G.o.d and man is no more supernatural than is the science of numbers, though departing 111:9 from the realm of the physical, as the Science of G.o.d, Spirit, must, some may deny its right to the name of Science. The Principle of divine metaphysics 111:12 is G.o.d; the practice of divine metaphysics is the utiliza- tion of the power of Truth over error; its rules demon- strate its Science. Divine metaphysics reverses perverted 111:15 and physical hypotheses as to Deity, even as the ex- planation of optics rejects the incidental or inverted image and shows what this inverted image is meant to 111:18 represent.

Pertinent proposal

A prize of one hundred pounds, offered in Oxford Uni- versity, England, for the best essay on Natural Science, 111:21 - an essay calculated to offset the tendency of the age to attribute physical effects to physical causes rather than to a final spiritual cause, - is one of 111:24 many incidents which show that Christian Science meets a yearning of the human race for spirituality.

Confirmatory tests

After a lengthy examination of my discovery and its 111:27 demonstration in healing the sick, this fact became evi- dent to me, - that Mind governs the body, not partially but wholly. I submitted my 111:30 metaphysical system of treating disease to the broad- est practical tests. Since then this system has gradually gained ground, and has proved itself, whenever scien- 112:1 tifically employed, to be the most effective curative agent in medical practice.

One school of Truth

112:3 Is there more than one school of Christian Science?

Christian Science is demonstrable. There can, there- fore, be but one method in its teaching. Those who de- 112:6 part from this method forfeit their claims to belong to its school, and they become adher- ents of the Socratic, the Platonic, the Spencerian, or some 112:9 other school. By this is meant that they adopt and ad- here to some particular system of human opinions. Al- though these opinions may have occasional gleams of 112:12 divinity, borrowed from that truly divine Science which eschews man-made systems, they nevertheless remain wholly human in their origin and tendency and are not 112:15 scientifically Christian.

Unchanging Principle

From the infinite One in Christian Science comes one Principle and its infinite idea, and with this infinitude 112:18 come spiritual rules, laws, and their demon- stration, which, like the great Giver, are "the same yesterday, and to-day, and forever;" for thus are 112:21 the divine Principle of healing and the Christ-idea charac- terized in the epistle to the Hebrews.

On sandy foundations

Any theory of Christian Science, which departs from 112:24 what has already been stated and proved to be true, af- fords no foundation upon which to establish a genuine school of this Science. Also, if any 112:27 so-called new school claims to be Christian Science, and yet uses another author's discoveries without giving that author proper credit, such a school is erroneous, for it 112:30 inculcates a breach of that divine commandment in the Hebrew Decalogue, "Thou shalt not steal."

Principle and practice

G.o.d is the Principle of divine metaphysics. As there 113:1 is but one G.o.d, there can be but one divine Principle of all Science; and there must be fixed rules for the demon- 113:3 stration of this divine Principle. The letter of Science plentifully reaches humanity to-day, but its spirit comes only in small degrees. The vital part, 113:6 the heart and soul of Christian Science, is Love. With- out this, the letter is but the dead body of Science, - pulseless, cold, inanimate.

Reversible propositions

113:9 The fundamental propositions of divine metaphysics are summarized in the four following, to me, _self-evident_ propositions. Even if reversed, these proposi- 113:12 tions will be found to agree in statement and proof, showing mathematically their exact relation to Truth. De Quincey says mathematics has not a foot to 113:15 stand upon which is not purely metaphysical.

1. G.o.d is All-in-all.

2. G.o.d is good. Good is Mind.

113:18 3. G.o.d, Spirit, being all, nothing is matter.

4. Life, G.o.d, omnipotent good, deny death, evil, sin, disease. - Disease, sin, evil, death, deny good, omnipo- 113:21 tent G.o.d, Life.

Which of the denials in proposition four is true? Both are not, cannot be, true. According to the Scripture, 113:24 I find that G.o.d is true, "but every [mortal] man a liar."

Metaphysical inversions

The divine metaphysics of Christian Science, like the 113:27 method in mathematics, proves the rule by inversion.