Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 22

Divine metaphysics is now reduced to a system, to a form comprehensible by and adapted to the thought of 147:1 the age in which we live. This system enables the learner to demonstrate the divine Principle, 147:3 upon which Jesus' healing was based, and the sacred rules for its present application to the cure of disease.

147:6 Late in the nineteenth century I demonstrated the divine rules of Christian Science. They were submitted to the broadest practical test, and everywhere, when honestly ap- 147:9 plied under circ.u.mstances where demonstration was hu- manly possible, this Science showed that Truth had lost none of its divine and healing efficacy, even though cen- 147:12 turies had pa.s.sed away since Jesus practised these rules on the hills of Judaea and in the valleys of Galilee.

Perusal and practice

Although this volume contains the complete Science of 147:15 Mind-healing, never believe that you can absorb the whole meaning of the Science by a simple _perusal_ of this book. The book needs to be _studied_, 147:18 and the demonstration of the rules of scientific healing will plant you firmly on the spiritual groundwork of Christian Science. This proof lifts you high above the 147:21 peris.h.i.+ng fossils of theories already antiquated, and en- ables you to grasp the spiritual facts of being hitherto unattained and seemingly dim.

A definite rule discovered

147:24 Our Master healed the sick, practised Christian heal- ing, and taught the generalities of its divine Principle to his students; but he left no definite rule for 147:27 demonstrating this Principle of healing and preventing disease. This rule remained to be discovered in Christian Science. A pure affection takes form in good- 147:30 ness, but Science alone reveals the divine Principle of goodness and demonstrates its rules.

Jesus' own practice

Jesus never spoke of disease as dangerous or as difficult 148:1 to heal. When his students brought to him a case they had failed to heal, he said to them, "O faithless gen- 148:3 eration," implying that the requisite power to heal was in Mind. He prescribed no drugs, urged no obedience to material laws, but acted in direct 148:6 disobedience to them.

The man of anatomy and of theology

Neither anatomy nor theology has ever described man as created by Spirit, - as G.o.d's man. The former ex- 148:9 plains the men of _men_, or the "children of men," as created corporeally instead of spir- itually and as emerging from the lowest, in- 148:12 stead of from the highest, conception of being. Both anatomy and theology define man as both physical and mental, and place mind at the mercy of matter for every 148:15 function, formation, and manifestation. Anatomy takes up man at all points materially. It loses Spirit, drops the true tone, and accepts the discord. Anatomy and the- 148:18 ology reject the divine Principle which produces harmo- nious man, and deal - the one wholly, the other primarily - with matter, calling that _man_ which is not the counter- 148:21 part, but the counterfeit, of G.o.d's man. Then theology tries to explain how to make this man a Christian, - how from this basis of division and discord to produce the con- 148:24 cord and unity of Spirit and His likeness.

Physiology deficient

Physiology exalts matter, dethrones Mind, and claims to rule man by material law, instead of spiritual. When 148:27 physiology fails to give health or life by this process, it ignores the divine Spirit as unable or unwilling to render help in time of physical need.

148:30 When mortals sin, this ruling of the schools leaves them to the guidance of a theology which admits G.o.d to be the healer of sin but not of sickness, although our great 149:1 Master demonstrated that Truth could save from sickness as well as from sin.

Blunders and blunderers

149:3 Mind as far outweighs drugs in the cure of disease as in the cure of sin. The more excellent way is divine Science in every case. Is _materia medica_ a 149:6 science or a bundle of speculative human theories? The prescription which succeeds in one in- stance fails in another, and this is owing to the different 149:9 mental states of the patient. These states are not com- prehended and they are left without explanation except in Christian Science. The rule and its perfection of opera- 149:12 tion never vary in Science. If you fail to succeed in any case, it is because you have not demonstrated the life of Christ, Truth, more in your own life, - because you have 149:15 not obeyed the rule and proved the Principle of divine Science.

Old-school physician

A physician of the old school remarked with great 149:18 gravity: "We know that mind affects the body some- what, and advise our patients to be hopeful and cheerful and to take as little medicine as 149:21 possible; but mind can never cure organic difficulties."

The logic is lame, and facts contradict it. The author has cured what is termed organic disease as readily as she 149:24 has cured purely functional disease, and with no power but the divine Mind.

Tests in our day

Since G.o.d, divine Mind, governs all, not partially but 149:27 supremely, predicting disease does not dignify therapeutics.

Whatever guides thought spiritually benefits mind and body. We need to understand the 149:30 affirmations of divine Science, dismiss superst.i.tion, and demonstrate truth according to Christ. To-day there is hardly a city, village, or hamlet, in which are not to 150:1 be found living witnesses and monuments to the virtue and power of Truth, as applied through this Christian 150:3 system of healing disease.

The main purpose

To-day the healing power of Truth is widely demon- strated as an immanent, eternal Science, instead of a 150:6 phenomenal exhibition. Its appearing is the coming anew of the gospel of "on earth peace, good-will toward men." This coming, as was promised 150:9 by the Master, is for its establishment as a permanent dispensation among men; but the mission of Christian Science now, as in the time of its earlier demonstration, 150:12 is not primarily one of physical healing. Now, as then, signs and wonders are wrought in the metaphysical heal- ing of physical disease; but these signs are only to demon- 150:15 strate its divine origin, - to attest the reality of the higher mission of the Christ-power to take away the sins of the world.

Exploded doctrine

150:18 The science (so-called) of physics would have one be- lieve that both matter and mind are subject to disease, and that, too, in spite of the individual's pro- 150:21 test and contrary to the law of divine Mind.

This human view infringes man's free moral agency; and it is as evidently erroneous to the author, and will be to 150:24 all others at some future day, as the practically rejected doctrine of the predestination of souls to d.a.m.nation or salvation. The doctrine that man's harmony is gov- 150:27 erned by physical conditions all his earthly days, and that he is then thrust out of his own body by the operation of matter, - even the doctrine of the superiority of matter 150:30 over Mind, - is fading out.

Disease mental

The hosts of AEsculapius are flooding the world with diseases, because they are ignorant that the human mind 151:1 and body are myths. To be sure, they sometimes treat the sick as if there was but one factor in the case; but 151:3 this one factor they represent to be body, not mind. Infinite Mind could not possibly create a remedy outside of itself, but erring, finite, human mind 151:6 has an absolute need of something beyond itself for its redemption and healing.

Intentions respected

Great respect is due the motives and philanthropy of 151:9 the higher cla.s.s of physicians. We know that if they un- derstood the Science of Mind-healing, and were in possession of the enlarged power it confers 151:12 to benefit the race physically and spiritually, they would rejoice with us. Even this one reform in medicine would ultimately deliver mankind from the awful and oppres- 151:15 sive bondage now enforced by false theories, from which mult.i.tudes would gladly escape.

Man governed by Mind

Mortal belief says that death has been occasioned by 151:18 fright. Fear never stopped being and its action. The blood, heart, lungs, brain, etc., have nothing to do with Life, G.o.d. Every function of the 151:21 real man is governed by the divine Mind. The human mind has no power to kill or to cure, and it has no con- trol over G.o.d's man. The divine Mind that made man 151:24 maintains His own image and likeness. The human mind is opposed to G.o.d and must be put off, as St. Paul declares. All that really exists is the divine Mind and 151:27 its idea, and in this Mind the entire being is found har- monious and eternal. The straight and narrow way is to see and acknowledge this fact, yield to this power, and 151:30 follow the leadings of truth.

Mortal mind dethroned

That mortal mind claims to govern every organ of the mortal body, we have overwhelming proof. But this so- 152:1 called mind is a myth, and must by its own consent yield to Truth. It would wield the sceptre of a monarch, but 152:3 it is powerless. The immortal divine Mind takes away all its supposed sovereignty, and saves mortal mind from itself. The author has endeavored 152:6 to make this book the AEsculapius of mind as well as of body, that it may give hope to the sick and heal them, although they know not how the work is done. Truth 152:9 has a healing effect, even when not fully understood.

All activity from thought

Anatomy describes muscular action as produced by mind in one instance and not in another. Such errors 152:12 beset every material theory, in which one statement contradicts another over and over again. It is related that Sir Humphry Davy once ap- 152:15 parently cured a case of paralysis simply by introducing a thermometer into the patient's mouth. This he did merely to ascertain the temperature of the patient's body; 152:18 but the sick man supposed this ceremony was intended to heal him, and he recovered accordingly. Such a fact ill.u.s.trates our theories.

The author's experiments in medicine

152:21 The author's medical researches and experiments had prepared her thought for the metaphysics of Christian Science. Every material dependence had 152:24 failed her in her search for truth; and she can now understand why, and can see the means by which mortals are divinely driven to a spiritual source 152:27 for health and happiness.

h.o.m.oeopathic attenuations

Her experiments in h.o.m.oeopathy had made her skep- tical as to material curative methods. Jahr, from 152:30 _Aconitum_ to _Zinc.u.m oxydatum_, enumerates the general symptoms, the characteristic signs, which demand different remedies; but the drug 153:1 is frequently attenuated to such a degree that not a ves- tige of it remains. Thus we learn that it is not the drug 153:3 which expels the disease or changes one of the symptoms of disease.

Only salt and water

The author has attenuated _Natrum muriatic.u.m_ (com- 153:6 mon table-salt) until there was not a single saline property left. The salt had "lost his savour;" and yet, with one drop of that attenuation in a goblet of 153:9 water, and a teaspoonful of the water administered at in- tervals of three hours, she has cured a patient sinking in the last stage of typhoid fever. The highest attenuation 153:12 of h.o.m.oeopathy and the most potent rises above matter into mind. This discovery leads to more light. From it may be learned that either human faith or the divine Mind is 153:15 the healer and that there is no efficacy in a drug.

Origin of pain

You say a boil is painful; but that is impossible, for matter without mind is not painful. The boil simply 153:18 manifests, through inflammation and swell- ing, a belief in pain, and this belief is called a boil. Now administer mentally to your patient a high 153:21 attenuation of truth, and it will soon cure the boil. The fact that pain cannot exist where there is no mortal mind to feel it is a proof that this so-called mind makes its 153:24 own pain - that is, its own _belief_ in pain.

Source of contagion

We weep because others weep, we yawn because they yawn, and we have smallpox because others have it; but 153:27 mortal mind, not matter, contains and carries the infection. When this mental contagion is understood, we shall be more careful of our mental con- 153:30 ditions and we shall avoid loquacious tattling about disease, as we would avoid advocating crime. Neither sympathy nor society should ever tempt us to cherish 154:1 error in any form, and certainly we should not be error's advocate.

154:3 Disease arises, like other mental conditions, from as- sociation. Since it is a law of mortal mind that certain diseases should be regarded as contagious, this law ob- 154:6 tains credit through a.s.sociation, - calling up the fear that creates the image of disease and its consequent manifes- tation in the body.

Imaginary cholera

154:9 This fact in metaphysics is ill.u.s.trated by the following incident: A man was made to believe that he occupied a bed where a cholera patient had died. Imme- 154:12 diately the symptoms of this disease appeared, and the man died. The fact was, that he had not caught the cholera by material contact, because no cholera patient 154:15 had been in that bed.

Children's ailments

If a child is exposed to contagion or infection, the mother is frightened and says, "My child will be sick."

154:18 The law of mortal mind and her own fears gov- ern her child more than the child's mind gov- erns itself, and they produce the very results which might 154:21 have been prevented through the opposite understanding.

Then it is believed that exposure to the contagion wrought the mischief.