Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 26

Pulmonary misbeliefs

Damp atmosphere and freezing snow empurpled the 175:27 plump cheeks of our ancestors, but they never indulged in the refinement of inflamed bronchial tubes.

They were as innocent as Adam, before he ate 175:30 the fruit of false knowledge, of the existence of tubercles and troches, lungs and lozenges.

Our modern Eves

"Where ignorance is bliss, 'tis folly to be wise," says 176:1 the English poet, and there is truth in his sentiment. The action of mortal mind on the body was not so injurious 176:3 before inquisitive modern Eves took up the study of medical works and unmanly Adams attributed their own downfall and the fate of their off- 176:6 spring to the weakness of their wives.

The primitive custom of taking no thought about food left the stomach and bowels free to act in obedi- 176:9 ence to nature, and gave the gospel a chance to be seen in its glorious effects upon the body. A ghastly array of diseases was not paraded before the imagination. There 176:12 were fewer books on digestion and more "sermons in stones, and good in everything." When the mechanism of the human mind gives place to the divine Mind, self- 176:15 ishness and sin, disease and death, will lose their foothold.

Human fear of miasma would load with disease the 176:18 air of Eden, and weigh down mankind with superimposed and conjectural evils. Mortal mind is the worst foe of the body, while divine Mind is its best friend.

Diseases not to be cla.s.sified

176:21 Should all cases of organic disease be treated by a regular pract.i.tioner, and the Christian Scientist try truth only in cases of hysteria, hypochon- 176:24 dria, and hallucination? One disease is no more real than another. All disease is the result of education, and disease can carry its ill-effects 176:27 no farther than mortal mind maps out the way. The human mind, not matter, is supposed to feel, suffer, en- joy. Hence decided types of acute disease are quite as 176:30 ready to yield to Truth as the less distinct type and chronic form of disease. Truth handles the most malignant con- tagion with perfect a.s.surance.

One basis for all sickness

177:1 Human mind produces what is termed organic dis- ease as certainly as it produces hysteria, and it must re- 177:3 linquish all its errors, sicknesses, and sins.

I have demonstrated this beyond all cavil.

The evidence of divine Mind's healing power and abso- 177:6 lute control is to me as certain as the evidence of my own existence.

Mental and physical oneness

Mortal mind and body are one. Neither exists without 177:9 the other, and both must be destroyed by immortal Mind.

Matter, or body, is but a false concept of mor- tal mind. This so-called mind builds its own 177:12 superstructure, of which the material body is the grosser portion; but from first to last, the body is a sensuous, human concept.

The effect of names

177:15 In the Scriptural allegory of the material creation, Adam or error, which represents the erroneous theory of life and intelligence in matter, had the 177:18 naming of all that was material. These names indicated matter's properties, qualities, and forms. But a lie, the opposite of Truth, cannot name the qualities and 177:21 effects of what is termed matter, and create the so-called laws of the flesh, nor can a lie hold the preponderance of power in any direction against G.o.d, Spirit and 177:24 Truth.

Poison defined mentally

If a dose of poison is swallowed through mistake, and the patient dies even though physician and 177:27 patient are expecting favorable results, does human belief, you ask, cause this death? Even so, and as directly as if the poison had been intentionally 177:30 taken.

In such cases a few persons believe the potion swal- lowed by the patient to be harmless, but the vast ma- 178:1 jority of mankind, though they know nothing of this par- ticular case and this special person, believe the a.r.s.enic, 178:3 the strychnine, or whatever the drug used, to be poi- sonous, for it is set down as a poison by mortal mind.

Consequently, the result is controlled by the majority of 178:6 opinions, not by the infinitesimal minority of opinions in the sick-chamber.

Heredity is not a law. The remote cause or belief 178:9 of disease is not dangerous because of its priority and the connection of past mortal thoughts with present.

The predisposing cause and the exciting cause are 178:12 mental.

Perhaps an adult has a deformity produced prior to his birth by the fright of his mother. When wrested from 178:15 human belief and based on Science or the divine Mind, to which all things are possible, that chronic case is not difficult to cure.

Animal magnetism destroyed

178:18 Mortal mind, acting from the basis of sensation in matter, is animal magnetism; but this so-called mind, from which comes all evil, contradicts itself, 178:21 and must finally yield to the eternal Truth, or the divine Mind, expressed in Science. In pro- portion to our understanding of Christian Science, we are 178:24 freed from the belief of heredity, of mind in matter or ani- mal magnetism; and we disarm sin of its imaginary power in proportion to our spiritual understanding of the status 178:27 of immortal being.

Ignorant of the methods and the basis of metaphysical healing, you may attempt to unite with it hypnotism, 178:30 spiritualism, electricity; but none of these methods can be mingled with metaphysical healing.

Whoever reaches the understanding of Christian Science 179:1 in its proper signification will perform the sudden cures of which it is capable; but this can be done only by 179:3 taking up the cross and following Christ in the daily life.

Absent patients

Science can heal the sick, who are absent from their 179:6 healers, as well as those present, since s.p.a.ce is no ob- stacle to Mind. Immortal Mind heals what eye hath not seen; but the spiritual capacity to ap- 179:9 prehend thought and to heal by the Truth-power, is won only as man is found, not in self-righteousness, but re- flecting the divine nature.

Horses mistaught

179:12 Every medical method has its advocates. The prefer- ence of mortal mind for a certain method creates a demand for that method, and the body then seems to re- 179:15 quire such treatment. You can even educate a healthy horse so far in physiology that he will take cold without his blanket, whereas the wild animal, left to his 179:18 instincts, sniffs the wind with delight. The epizootic is a humanly evolved ailment, which a wild horse might never have.

Medical works objectionable

179:21 Treatises on anatomy, physiology, and health, sustained by what is termed material law, are the pro- moters of sickness and disease. It should not 179:24 be proverbial, that so long as you read medical works you will be sick.

The sedulous matron - studying her Jahr with h.o.m.oe- 179:27 opathic pellet and powder in hand, ready to put you into a sweat, to move the bowels, or to produce sleep - is unwittingly sowing the seeds of reliance on matter, 179:30 and her household may erelong reap the effect of this mistake.

Descriptions of disease given by physicians and adver- 180:1 tis.e.m.e.nts of quackery are both prolific sources of sickness.

As mortal mind is the husbandman of error, it should be 180:3 taught to do the body no harm and to uproot its false sowing.

The invalid's outlook

The patient sufferer tries to be satisfied when he sees 180:6 his would-be healers busy, and his faith in their efforts is somewhat helpful to them and to himself; but in Science one must understand the resusci- 180:9 tating law of Life. This is the seed within itself bearing fruit after its kind, spoken of in Genesis.

Physicians should not deport themselves as if Mind 180:12 were non-existent, nor take the ground that all causation is matter, instead of Mind. Ignorant that the human mind governs the body, its phenomenon, the invalid may 180:15 unwittingly add more fear to the mental reservoir already overflowing with that emotion.

Wrong and right way

Doctors should not implant disease in the thoughts of 180:18 their patients, as they so frequently do, by declaring dis- ease to be a fixed fact, even before they go to work to eradicate the disease through the ma- 180:21 terial faith which they inspire. Instead of furnis.h.i.+ng thought with fear, they should try to correct this turbulent element of mortal mind by the influence of divine Love 180:24 which casteth out fear.

When man is governed by G.o.d, the ever-present Mind who understands all things, man knows that with 180:27 G.o.d all things are possible. The only way to this living Truth, which heals the sick, is found in the Science of divine Mind as taught and demonstrated by Christ 180:30 Jesus.

The important decision

To reduce inflammation, dissolve a tumor, or cure or- ganic disease, I have found divine Truth more potent than 181:1 all lower remedies. And why not, since Mind, G.o.d, is the source and condition of all existence? Before decid- 181:3 ing that the body, matter, is disordered, one should ask, "Who art thou that repliest to Spirit? Can matter speak for itself, or does 181:6 it hold the issues of life?" Matter, which can neither suffer nor enjoy, has no partners.h.i.+p with pain and pleas- ure, but mortal belief has such a partners.h.i.+p.

Manipulation unscientific

181:9 When you manipulate patients, you trust in electricity and magnetism more than in Truth; and for that reason, you employ matter rather than 181:12 Mind. You weaken or destroy your power when you re- sort to any except spiritual means.

It is foolish to declare that you manipulate patients but 181:15 that you lay no stress on manipulation. If this be so, why manipulate? In reality you manipulate because you are ignorant of the baneful effects of magnetism, or are not 181:18 sufficiently spiritual to depend on Spirit. In either case you must improve your mental condition till you finally attain the understanding of Christian Science.

Not words but deeds

181:21 If you are too material to love the Science of Mind and are satisfied with good words instead of effects, if you adhere to error and are afraid to trust Truth, 181:24 the question then recurs, "Adam, where art thou?" It is unnecessary to resort to aught besides Mind in order to satisfy the sick that you are doing some- 181:27 thing for them, for if they are cured, they generally know it and are satisfied.

"Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

181:30 If you have more faith in drugs than in Truth, this faith will incline you to the side of matter and error. Any hypnotic power you may exercise will diminish your 182:1 ability to become a Scientist, and _vice versa._ The act of healing the sick through divine Mind alone, of casting 182:3 out error with Truth, shows your position as a Christian Scientist.

Physiology or Spirit

The demands of G.o.d appeal to thought only; but the 182:6 claims of mortality, and what are termed laws of nature, appertain to matter. Which, then, are we to accept as legitimate and capable of producing 182:9 the highest human good? We cannot obey both physi- ology and Spirit, for one absolutely destroys the other, and one or the other must be supreme in the affections.