Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 58

398:1 Sometimes Jesus called a disease by name, as when he said to the epileptic boy, "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I 398:3 charge thee, come out of him, and enter no more into him." It is added that "the spirit [error] cried, and rent him sore and came out of him, and 398:6 he was as one dead," - clear evidence that the malady was not material. These instances show the concessions which Jesus was willing to make to the popular ignorance 398:9 of spiritual Life-laws. Often he gave no name to the distemper he cured. To the synagogue ruler's daughter, whom they called dead but of whom he said, "she is not 398:12 dead, but sleepeth," he simply said, "Damsel, I say unto thee, arise!" To the sufferer with the withered hand he said, "Stretch forth thine hand," and it "was restored 398:15 whole, like as the other."

The action of faith

h.o.m.oeopathic remedies, sometimes not containing a particle of medicine, are known to relieve the symptoms 398:18 of disease. What produces the change? It is the faith of the doctor and the patient, which reduces self-inflicted sufferings and produces a new effect 398:21 upon the body. In like manner destroy the illusion of pleasure in intoxication, and the desire for strong drink is gone. Appet.i.te and disease reside in mortal mind, not 398:24 in matter.

So also faith, cooperating with a belief in the healing effects of time and medication, will soothe fear and change 398:27 the belief of disease to a belief of health. Even a blind faith removes bodily ailments for a season, but hypnotism changes such ills into new and more difficult forms of dis- 398:30 ease. The Science of Mind must come to the rescue, to work a radical cure. Then we understand the process.

The great fact remains that evil is not mind. Evil has 399:1 no power, no intelligence, for G.o.d is good, and therefore good is infinite, is All.

Corporeal combinations

399:3 You say that certain material combinations produce disease; but if the material body causes disease, can matter cure what matter has caused? Mortal 399:6 mind prescribes the drug, and administers it.

Mortal mind plans the exercise, and puts the body through certain motions. No gastric gas acc.u.mulates, not a se- 399:9 cretion nor combination can operate, apart from the action of mortal thought, _alias_ mortal mind.

Automatic mechanism

So-called mortal mind sends its despatches over its 399:12 body, but this so-called mind is both the service and message of this telegraphy. Nerves are un- able to talk, and matter can return no an- 399:15 swer to immortal Mind. If Mind is the only actor, how can mechanism be automatic? Mortal mind perpetuates its own thought. It constructs a machine, manages it, 399:18 and then calls it material. A mill at work or the action of a water-wheel is but a derivative from, and continua- tion of, the primitive mortal mind. Without this force 399:21 the body is devoid of action, and this deadness shows that so-called mortal life is mortal mind, not matter.

Mental strength

Scientifically speaking, there is no mortal mind out of 399:24 which to make material beliefs, springing from illusion.

This misnamed mind is not an ent.i.ty. It is only a false sense of matter, since matter is not 399:27 sensible. The one Mind, G.o.d, contains no mortal opin- ions. All that is real is included in this immortal Mind.

Confirmation in a parable

Our Master asked: "How can one enter into a strong 399:30 man's house and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man?" In other words: How can I heal the body, without beginning with so-called 400:1 mortal mind, which directly controls the body? When disease is once destroyed in this so-called mind, the fear 400:3 of disease is gone, and therefore the disease is thor- oughly cured. Mortal mind is "the strong man," which must be held in subjection before its influence upon health 400:6 and morals can be removed. This error conquered, we can despoil "the strong man" of his goods, - namely, of sin and disease.

Eradicate error from thought

400:9 Mortals obtain the harmony of health, only as they forsake discord, acknowledge the supremacy of divine Mind, and abandon their material beliefs.

400:12 Eradicate the image of disease from the per- turbed thought before it has taken tangible shape in conscious thought, _alias_ the body, and you pre- 400:15 vent the development of disease. This task becomes easy, if you understand that every disease is an error, and has no character nor type, except what mortal mind a.s.signs to 400:18 it. By lifting thought above error, or disease, and con- tending persistently for truth, you destroy error.

Mortal mind controlled

When we remove disease by addressing the disturbed 400:21 mind, giving no heed to the body, we prove that thought alone creates the suffering. Mortal mind rules all that is mortal. We see in the body 400:24 the images of this mind, even as in optics we see painted on the retina the image which becomes visible to the senses. The action of so-called mortal mind must be 400:27 destroyed by the divine Mind to bring out the harmony of being. Without divine control there is discord, mani- fest as sin, sickness, and death.

Mortal mind not a healer

400:30 The Scriptures plainly declare the baneful influence of sinful thought on the body. Even our Master felt this.

It is recorded that in certain localities he did not many 401:1 mighty works "because of their unbelief" in Truth. Any human error is its own enemy, and works against itself; 401:3 it does nothing in the right direction and much in the wrong. If so-called mind is cherishing evil pa.s.sions and malicious purposes, it is not a healer, 401:6 but it engenders disease and death.

Effect of opposites

If faith in the truth of being, which you impart men- tally while destroying error, causes chemicalization (as 401:9 when an alkali is destroying an acid), it is be- cause the truth of being must transform the error to the end of producing a higher manifestation.

401:12 This fermentation should not aggravate the disease, but should be as painless to man as to a fluid, since matter has no sensation and mortal mind only feels and sees 401:15 materially.

What I term _chemicalization_ is the upheaval produced when immortal Truth is destroying erroneous mortal be- 401:18 lief. Mental chemicalization brings sin and sickness to the surface, forcing impurities to pa.s.s away, as is the case with a fermenting fluid.

Medicine and brain

401:21 The only effect produced by medicine is dependent upon mental action. If the mind were parted from the body, could you produce any effect upon the brain 401:24 or body by applying the drug to either? Would the drug remove paralysis, affect organization, or restore will and action to cerebrum and cerebellum?

Skilful surgery

401:27 Until the advancing age admits the efficacy and suprem- acy of Mind, it is better for Christian Scientists to leave surgery and the adjustment of broken bones 401:30 and dislocations to the fingers of a surgeon, while the mental healer confines himself chiefly to mental reconstruction and to the prevention of inflammation.

402:1 Christian Science is always the most skilful surgeon, but surgery is the branch of its healing which will be last 402:3 acknowledged. However, it is but just to say that the author has already in her possession well-authenticated records of the cure, by herself and her students through 402:6 mental surgery alone, of broken bones, dislocated joints, and spinal vertebrae.

Indestructible life of man

The time approaches when mortal mind will forsake 402:9 its corporeal, structural, and material basis, when im- mortal Mind and its formations will be appre- hended in Science, and material beliefs will 402:12 not interfere with spiritual facts. Man is indestructible and eternal. Sometime it will be learned that mortal mind constructs the mortal body with this mind's own 402:15 mortal materials. In Science, no breakage nor dislocation can really occur. You say that accidents, injuries, and disease kill man, but this is not true. The life of man is 402:18 Mind. The material body manifests only what mortal mind believes, whether it be a broken bone, disease, or sin.

The evil of mesmerism

We say that one human mind can influence another and 402:21 in this way affect the body, but we rarely remember that we govern our own bodies. The error, mes- merism - or hypnotism, to use the recent term 402:24 - ill.u.s.trates the fact just stated. The operator would make his subjects believe that they cannot act voluntarily and handle themselves as they should do. If they yield 402:27 to this influence, it is because their belief is not better instructed by spiritual understanding. Hence the proof that hypnotism is not scientific; Science cannot produce 402:30 both disorder and order. The involuntary pleasure or pain of the person under hypnotic control is proved to be a belief without a real cause.

Wrong-doer should suffer

403:1 So the sick through their beliefs have induced their own diseased conditions. The great difference between vol- 403:3 untary and involuntary mesmerism is that vol- untary mesmerism is induced consciously and should and does cause the perpetrator to suffer, while self- 403:6 mesmerism is induced unconsciously and by his mistake a man is often instructed. In the first instance it is under- stood that the difficulty is a mental illusion, while in the 403:9 second it is believed that the misfortune is a material effect.

The human mind is employed to remove the illusion in one case, but matter is appealed to in the other. In real- 403:12 ity, both have their origin in the human mind, and can be healed only by the divine Mind.

Error's power imaginary

You command the situation if you understand that 403:15 mortal existence is a state of self-deception and not the truth of being. Mortal mind is constantly producing on mortal body the results of false 403:18 opinions; and it will continue to do so, until mortal error is deprived of its imaginary powers by Truth, which sweeps away the gossamer web of mortal illusion.

403:21 The most Christian state is one of rect.i.tude and spir- itual understanding, and this is best adapted for heal- ing the sick. Never conjure up some new discovery from 403:24 dark forebodings regarding disease and then acquaint your patient with it.

Disease-production

The mortal so-called mind produces all that is unlike 403:27 the immortal Mind. The human mind determines the nature of a case, and the pract.i.tioner improves or injures the case in proportion to the truth 403:30 or error which influences his conclusions. The mental conception and development of disease are not under- stood by the patient, but the physician should be familiar 404:1 with mental action and its effect in order to judge the case according to Christian Science.

Appet.i.tes to be abandoned

404:3 If a man is an inebriate, a slave to tobacco, or the special servant of any one of the myriad forms of sin, meet and destroy these errors with the truth of being, - 404:6 by exhibiting to the wrong-doer the suffering which his submission to such habits brings, and by con- vincing him that there is no real pleasure in false appe- 404:9 t.i.tes. A corrupt mind is manifested in a corrupt body.

l.u.s.t, malice, and all sorts of evil are diseased beliefs, and you can destroy them only by destroying the wicked 404:12 motives which produce them. If the evil is over in the repentant mortal mind, while its effects still remain on the individual, you can remove this disorder as G.o.d's law is 404:15 fulfilled and reformation cancels the crime. The healthy sinner is the hardened sinner.

Temperance reform

The temperance reform, felt all over our land, results 404:18 from metaphysical healing, which cuts down every tree that brings not forth good fruit. This con- viction, that there is no real pleasure in sin, 404:21 is one of the most important points in the theology of Christian Science. Arouse the sinner to this new and true view of sin, show him that sin confers no pleasure, 404:24 and this knowledge strengthens his moral courage and increases his ability to master evil and to love good.

Sin or fear the root of sickness

Healing the sick and reforming the sinner are one and 404:27 the same thing in Christian Science. Both cures require the same method and are inseparable in Truth.

Hatred, envy, dishonesty, fear, and so forth, 404:30 make a man sick, and neither material medi- cine nor Mind can help him permanently, even in body, unless it makes him better mentally, and so delivers him 405:1 from his destroyers. The basic error is mortal mind.

Hatred inflames the brutal propensities. The indulgence 405:3 of evil motives and aims makes any man, who is above the lowest type of manhood, a hopeless sufferer.

Mental conspirators

Christian Science commands man to master the pro- 405:6 pensities, - to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness, to conquer l.u.s.t with chast.i.ty, revenge with charity, and to overcome deceit with hon- 405:9 esty. Choke these errors in their early stages, if you would not cherish an army of conspirators against health, happiness, and success. They will deliver you 405:12 to the judge, the arbiter of truth against error. The judge will deliver you to justice, and the sentence of the moral law will be executed upon mortal mind and 405:15 body. Both will be manacled until the last farthing is paid, - until you have balanced your account with G.o.d. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 405:18 reap." The good man finally can overcome his fear of sin. This is sin's necessity, - to destroy itself. Im- mortal man demonstrates the government of G.o.d, good, 405:21 in which is no power to sin.

c.u.mulative repentence