Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 60

You may call the disease by name when you mentally deny it; but by naming it audibly, you are liable under 412:12 some circ.u.mstances to impress it upon the thought. The power of Christian Science and divine Love is omnipotent. It is indeed adequate to un- 412:15 clasp the hold and to destroy disease, sin, and death.

Insistence requisite

To prevent disease or to cure it, the power of Truth, of divine Spirit, must break the dream of the material 412:18 senses. To heal by argument, find the type of the ailment, get its name, and array your mental plea against the physical. Argue at first men- 412:21 tally, not audibly, that the patient has no disease, and conform the argument so as to destroy the evidence of disease. Mentally insist that harmony is the fact, and 412:24 that sickness is a temporal dream. Realize the presence of health and the fact of harmonious being, until the body corresponds with the normal conditions of health 412:27 and harmony.

The cure of infants

If the case is that of a young child or an infant, it needs to be met mainly through the parent's thought, silently 412:30 or audibly on the aforesaid basis of Christian Science. The Scientist knows that there can be no hereditary disease, since matter is not intelligent 413:1 and cannot transmit good or evil intelligence to man, and G.o.d, the only Mind, does not produce pain in matter.

413:3 The act of yielding one's thoughts to the undue contem- plation of physical wants or conditions induces those very conditions. A single requirement, beyond what is neces- 413:6 sary to meet the simplest needs of the babe is harmful.

Mind regulates the condition of the stomach, bowels, and food, the temperature of children and of men, and matter 413:9 does not. The wise or unwise views of parents and other persons on these subjects produce good or bad effects on the health of children.

Ablutions for cleanliness

413:12 The daily ablutions of an infant are no more natural nor necessary than would be the process of taking a fish out of water every day and covering it with dirt 413:15 in order to make it thrive more vigorously in its own element. "Cleanliness is next to G.o.dliness," but washing should be only for the purpose of keeping the 413:18 body clean, and this can be effected without scrubbing the whole surface daily. Water is not the natural habitat of humanity. I insist on bodily cleanliness within and with- 413:21 out. I am not patient with a speck of dirt; but in caring for an infant one need not wash his little body all over each day in order to keep it sweet as the new-blown flower.

Juvenile ailments

413:24 Giving drugs to infants, noticing every symptom of flatulency, and constantly directing the mind to such signs, - that mind being laden with illusions 413:27 about disease, health-laws, and death, - these actions convey mental images to children's budding thoughts, and often stamp them there, making it probable 413:30 at any time that such ills may be reproduced in the very ailments feared. A child may have worms, if you say so, or any other malady, timorously held in the beliefs con- 414:1 cerning his body. Thus are laid the foundations of the belief in disease and death, and thus are children educated 414:3 into discord.

Cure of insanity

The treatment of insanity is especially interesting.

However obstinate the case, it yields more readily than 414:6 do most diseases to the salutary action of truth, which counteracts error. The argu- ments to be used in curing insanity are the same as in 414:9 other diseases: namely, the impossibility that matter, brain, can control or derange mind, can suffer or cause suffering; also the fact that truth and love will establish 414:12 a healthy state, guide and govern mortal mind or the thought of the patient, and destroy all error, whether it is called dementia, hatred, or any other discord.

414:15 To fix truth steadfastly in your patients' thoughts, ex- plain Christian Science to them, but not too soon, - not until your patients are prepared for the explanation, - 414:18 lest you array the sick against their own interests by troub- ling and perplexing their thought. The Christian Scien- tist's argument rests on the Christianly scientific basis of 414:21 being. The Scripture declares, "The Lord He is G.o.d [good]; there is none else beside Him." Even so, harmony is universal, and discord is unreal. Christian Science de- 414:24 clares that Mind is substance, also that matter neither feels, suffers, nor enjoys. Hold these points strongly in view. Keep in mind the verity of being, - that man is 414:27 the image and likeness of G.o.d, in whom all being is painless and permanent. Remember that man's perfec- tion is real and unimpeachable, whereas imperfection is 414:30 blameworthy, unreal, and is not brought about by divine Love.

Matter is not inflamed

Matter cannot be inflamed. Inflammation is fear, an 415:1 excited state of mortals which is not normal. Immor- tal Mind is the only cause; therefore disease is neither a 415:3 cause nor an effect. Mind in every case is the eternal G.o.d, good. Sin, disease, and death have no foundations in Truth. Inflamation as a mor- 415:6 tal belief quickens or impedes the action of the system, because thought moves quickly or slowly, leaps or halts when it contemplates unpleasant things, or when the in- 415:9 dividual looks upon some object which he dreads. In- flammation never appears in a part which mortal thought does not reach. That is why opiates relieve inflammation.

415:12 They quiet the thought by inducing stupefaction and by resorting to matter instead of to Mind. Opiates do not remove the pain in any scientific sense. They only ren- 415:15 der mortal mind temporarily less fearful, till it can master an erroneous belief.

Truth calms the thought

Note how thought makes the face pallid. It either re- 415:18 tards the circulation or quickens it, causing a pale or flushed cheek. In the same way thought in- creases or diminishes the secretions, the action 415:21 of the lungs, of the bowels, and of the heart. The mus- cles, moving quickly or slowly and impelled or palsied by thought, represent the action of all the organs of the hu- 415:24 man system, including brain and viscera. To remove the error producing disorder, you must calm and instruct mortal mind with immortal Truth.

Effects of etherization

415:27 Etherization will apparently cause the body to dis- appear. Before the thoughts are fully at rest, the limbs will vanish from consciousness. Indeed, the 415:30 whole frame will sink from sight along with surrounding objects, leaving the pain standing forth as distinctly as a mountain-peak, as if it were a separate 416:1 bodily member. At last the agony also vanishes. This process shows the pain to be in the mind, for the inflam- 416:3 mation is not suppressed; and the belief of pain will presently return, unless the mental image occasioning the pain be removed by recognizing the truth of being.

Sedatives valueless

416:6 A hypodermic injection of morphine is administered to a patient, and in twenty minutes the sufferer is qui- etly asleep. To him there is no longer any 416:9 pain. Yet any physician - allopathic, h.o.m.oe- opathic, botanic, eclectic - will tell you that the trouble- some material cause is unremoved, and that when the 416:12 soporific influence of the opium is exhausted, the pa- tient will find himself in the same pain, unless the belief which occasions the pain has meanwhile been changed.

416:15 Where is the pain while the patient sleeps?

The so-called physical ego

The material body, which you call _me_, is mortal mind, and this mind is material in sensation, even as the body, 416:18 which has originated from this material sense and been developed according to it, is mate- rial. This materialism of parent and child is only in 416:21 mortal mind, as the dead body proves; for when the mortal has resigned his body to dust, the body is no longer the parent, even in appearance.

Evil thought depletes

416:24 The sick know nothing of the mental process by which they are depleted, and next to nothing of the metaphysical method by which they can be 416:27 healed. If they ask about their disease, tell them only what is best for them to know. a.s.sure them that they think too much about their ailments, and 416:30 have already heard too much on that subject. Turn their thoughts away from their bodies to higher ob- jects. Teach them that their being is sustained by 417:1 Spirit, not by matter, and that they find health, peace, and harmony in G.o.d, divine Love.

Helpful encouragement

417:3 Give sick people credit for sometimes knowing more than their doctors. Always support their trust in the power of Mind to sustain the body. Never 417:6 tell the sick that they have more courage than strength. Tell them rather, that their strength is in proportion to their courage. If you make the sick 417:9 realize this great truism, there will be no reaction from over-exertion or from excited conditions. Maintain the facts of Christian Science, - that Spirit is G.o.d, and 417:12 therefore cannot be sick; that what is termed matter cannot be sick; that all causation is Mind, acting through spiritual law. Then hold your ground with 417:15 the unshaken understanding of Truth and Love, and you will win. When you silence the witness against your plea, you destroy the evidence, for the disease disap- 417:18 pears. The evidence before the corporeal senses is not the Science of immortal man.

Disease to be made unreal

To the Christian Science healer, sickness is a dream 417:21 from which the patient needs to be awakened. Dis- ease should not appear real to the physician, since it is demonstrable that the way to 417:24 cure the patient is to make disease unreal to him. To do this, the physician must understand the unreality of disease in Science.

417:27 Explain audibly to your patients, as soon as they can bear it, the complete control which Mind holds over the body. Show them how mortal mind seems to induce 417:30 disease by certain fears and false conclusions, and how divine Mind can cure by opposite thoughts. Give your patients an underlying understanding to support them 418:1 and to shield them from the baneful effects of their own conclusions. Show them that the conquest over sickness, 418:3 as well as over sin, depends on mentally destroying all belief in material pleasure or pain.

Christian pleading

Stick to the truth of being in contradistinction to the 418:6 error that life, substance, or intelligence can be in matter.

Plead with an honest conviction of truth and a clear perception of the unchanging, unerr- 418:9 ing, and certain effect of divine Science. Then, if your fidelity is half equal to the truth of your plea, you will heal the sick.

Truthful arguments

418:12 It must be clear to you that sickness is no more the reality of being than is sin. This mortal dream of sickness, sin, and death should cease 418:15 through Christian Science. Then one dis- ease would be as readily destroyed as another. What- ever the belief is, if arguments are used to destroy it, 418:18 the belief must be repudiated, and the negation must ex- tend to the supposed disease and to whatever decides its type and symptoms. Truth is affirmative, and confers 418:21 harmony. All metaphysical logic is inspired by this sim- ple rule of Truth, which governs all reality. By the truthful arguments you employ, and especially by the 418:24 spirit of Truth and Love which you entertain, you will heal the sick.

Morality required

Include moral as well as physical belief in your efforts 418:27 to destroy error. Cast out all manner of evil. "Preach the gospel to every creature." Speak the truth to every form of error. Tumors, ulcers, 418:30 tubercles, inflammation, pain, deformed joints, are wak- ing dream-shadows, dark images of mortal thought, which flee before the light of Truth.

419:1 A moral question may hinder the recovery of the sick.

Lurking error, l.u.s.t, envy, revenge, malice, or hate will 419:3 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 G.o.d, Life, Truth, 419:6 and Love, remembering that G.o.d and His ideas alone are real and harmonious.

Relapse unnecessary

If your patient from any cause suffers a relapse, meet 419:9 the cause mentally and courageously, knowing that there can be no reaction in Truth. Neither disease itself, sin, nor fear has the power to 419:12 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- 419:15 ter, moves it; therefore be sure that you move it off.

Meet every adverse circ.u.mstance as its master. Ob- serve mind instead of body, lest aught unfit for develop- 419:18 ment enter thought. Think less of material conditions and more of spiritual.

Conquer beliefs and fears

Mind produces all action. If the action proceeds from 419:21 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 419:24 so-called mortal minds, for there is but one Mind, one G.o.d. Never fear the mental malpract.i.tioner, the mental a.s.sa.s.sin, who, in attempting to rule mankind, 419:27 tramples upon the divine Principle of metaphysics, for G.o.d is the only power. To succeed in healing, you must con- quer your own fears as well as those of your patients, and 419:30 rise into higher and holier consciousness.

True government of man

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 420:3 action, no paralysis. Truth not error, Love not hate, Spirit not matter, governs man. If students do not readily heal themselves, they should 420:6 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 420:9 unnatural reluctance.

Positive rea.s.surance

Instruct the sick that they are not helpless victims, for if they will only accept Truth, they can resist disease 420:12 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 420:15 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 420:18 and sin rea.s.sures 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, 420:21 better than any drug, alterative, or tonic.

Proper stimulus

Mind is the natural stimulus of the body, but erro- neous belief, taken at its best, is not promotive of health 420:24 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 420:27 action and condition.