Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 51

G.o.d's idea the ideal man

It is not the purpose of Christian Science to "educate the idea of G.o.d, or treat it for disease," as is alleged 346:1 by one critic. I regret that such criticism confounds _man_ with Adam. When man is spoken of as made in G.o.d's 346:3 image, it is not sinful and sickly mortal man who is referred to, but the ideal man, reflecting G.o.d's likeness.

Nothingness of error

346:6 It is sometimes said that Christian Science teaches the nothingness of sin, sickness, and death, and then teaches how this nothingness is to be saved and healed.

346:9 The nothingness of nothing is plain; but we need to understand that error is nothing, and that its nothingness is not saved, but must be demonstrated in 346:12 order to prove the somethingness - yea, the allness - of Truth. It is self-evident that we are harmonious only as we cease to manifest evil or the belief that we suffer 346:15 from the sins of others. Disbelief in error destroys error, and leads to the discernment of Truth. There are no vacuums. How then can this demonstration be "fraught 346:18 with falsities painful to behold"?

Truth antidotes error

We treat error through the understanding of Truth, because Truth is error's antidote. If a dream ceases, it 346:21 is self-destroyed, and the terror is over. When a sufferer is convinced that there is no reality in his belief of pain, - because matter has no sensation, 346:24 hence pain in matter is a false belief, - how can he suffer longer? Do you feel the pain of tooth-pulling, when you believe that nitrous-oxide gas has made you unconscious?

346:27 Yet, in your concept, the tooth, the operation, and the forceps are unchanged.

Serving two masters

Material beliefs must be expelled to make room for 346:30 spiritual understanding. We cannot serve both G.o.d and mammon at the same time; but is not this what frail mortals are trying to do? Paul says: 347:1 "The flesh l.u.s.teth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh." Who is ready to admit this?

347:3 It is said by one critic, that to verify this wonderful philosophy Christian Science declares that whatever is mortal or discordant has no origin, existence, nor real- 347:6 ness. Nothing really has Life but G.o.d, who is infinite Life; hence all is Life, and death has no dominion. This writer infers that if anything needs to be doctored, it 347:9 must be the one G.o.d, or Mind. Had he stated his syllo- gism correctly, the conclusion would be that there is noth- ing left to be doctored.

Essential element of Christianity

347:12 Critics should consider that the so-called mortal man is not the reality of man. Then they would behold the signs of Christ's coming. Christ, as the spir- 347:15 itual or true idea of G.o.d, comes now as of old, preaching the gospel to the poor, heal- ing the sick, and casting out evils. Is it error which 347:18 is restoring an essential element of Christianity, - namely, apostolic, divine healing? No; it is the Science of Christianity which is restoring it, and is the light 347:21 s.h.i.+ning in darkness, which the darkness comprehends not.

If Christian Science takes away the popular G.o.ds, - 347:24 sin, sickness, and death, - it is Christ, Truth, who de- stroys these evils, and so proves their nothingness.

The dream that matter and error are something 347:27 must yield to reason and revelation. Then mortals will behold the nothingness of sickness and sin, and sin and sickness will disappear from consciousness.

347:30 The harmonious will appear real, and the inharmo- nious unreal. These critics will then see that error is indeed the nothingness, which they chide us for 348:1 naming nothing and which we desire neither to honor nor to fear.

348:3 Medical theories virtually admit the nothingness of hallucinations, even while treating them as disease; and who objects to this? Ought we not, then, to approve 348:6 any cure, which is effected by making the disease appear to be - what it really is - an illusion?

All disease a delusion

Here is the difficulty: it is not generally understood how 348:9 one disease can be just as much a delusion as another. It is a pity that the medical faculty and clergy have not learned this, for Jesus established 348:12 this foundational fact, when devils, delusions, were cast out and the dumb spake.

Elimination of sickness

Are we irreverent towards sin, or imputing too much 348:15 power to G.o.d, when we ascribe to Him almighty Life and Love? I deny His cooperation with evil, because I desire to have no faith in evil or in 348:18 any power but G.o.d, good. Is it not well to eliminate from so-called mortal mind that which, so long as it remains in mortal mind, will show itself in forms of sin, sickness, and 348:21 death? Instead of tenaciously defending the supposed rights of disease, while complaining of the suffering dis- ease brings, would it not be well to abandon the defence, 348:24 especially when by so doing our own condition can be im- proved and that of other persons as well?

Full fruitage yet to come

I have never supposed the world would immediately 348:27 witness the full fruitage of Christian Science, or that sin, disease, and death would not be believed for an indefinite time; but this I do aver, that, 348:30 as a result of teaching Christian Science, ethics and temperance have received all impulse, health has been restored, and longevity increased. If such are the pres- 349:1 ent fruits, what will the harvest be, when this Science is more generally understood?

Law and gospel

349:3 As Paul asked of the unfaithful in ancient days, so the rabbis of the present day ask concerning our heal- ing and teaching, "Through breaking the law, 349:6 dishonorest thou G.o.d?" We have the gospel, however, and our Master annulled material law by heal- ing contrary to it. We propose to follow the Master's 349:9 example. We should subordinate material law to spirit- ual law. Two essential points of Christian Science are, that neither Life nor man dies, and that G.o.d is not the 349:12 author of sickness.

Language inadequate

The chief difficulty in conveying the teachings of divine Science accurately to human thought lies in this, that like 349:15 all other languages, English is inadequate to the expression of spiritual conceptions and propositions, because one is obliged to use material terms 349:18 in dealing with spiritual ideas. The elucidation of Chris- tian Science lies in its spiritual sense, and this sense must be gained by its disciples in order to grasp the meaning of 349:21 this Science. Out of this condition grew the prophecy concerning the Christian apostles, "They shall speak with new tongues."

349:24 Speaking of the things of Spirit while dwelling on a material plane, material terms must be generally em- ployed. Mortal thought does not at once catch the 349:27 higher meaning, and can do so only as thought is edu- cated up to spiritual apprehension. To a certain extent this is equally true of all learning, even that which is 349:30 wholly material.

Substance spiritual

In Christian Science, substance is understood to be Spirit, while the opponents of Christian Science believe 350:1 substance to be matter. They think of matter as some- thing and almost the only thing, and of the things which 350:3 pertain to Spirit as next to nothing, or as very far removed from daily experience. Christian Science takes exactly the opposite view.

Both words and works

350:6 To understand all our Master's sayings as recorded in the New Testament, sayings infinitely important, his followers must grow into that stature of 350:9 manhood in Christ Jesus which enables them to interpret his spiritual meaning. Then they know how Truth casts out error and heals the sick. His 350:12 words were the offspring of his deeds, both of which must be understood. Unless the works are com- prehended which his words explained, the words are 350:15 blind.

The Master often refused to explain his words, because it was difficult in a material age to apprehend spiritual 350:18 Truth. He said: "This people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their 350:21 eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them."

The divine life-link

350:24 "The Word was made flesh." Divine Truth must be known by its effects on the body as well as on the mind, before the Science of being can be demon- 350:27 strated. Hence its embodiment in the incar- nate Jesus, - that life-link forming the connection through which the real reaches the unreal, Soul rebukes sense, and 350:30 Truth destroys error.

Truth a present help

In Jewish wors.h.i.+p the Word was materially explained, and the spiritual sense was scarcely perceived. The 351:1 religion which sprang from half-hidden Israelitish history was pedantic and void of healing power. When we lose 351:3 faith in G.o.d's power to heal, we distrust the divine Principle which demonstrates Christian Science, and then we cannot heal the sick. Neither can 351:6 we heal through the help of Spirit, if we plant ourselves on a material basis.

The author became a member of the orthodox Con- 351:9 gregational Church in early years. Later she learned that her own prayers failed to heal her as did the prayers of her devout parents and the church; but when the 351:12 spiritual sense of the creed was discerned in the Science of Christianity, this spiritual sense was a _present help_. It was the living, palpitating presence of Christ, Truth, which 351:15 healed the sick.

Fatal premises

We cannot bring out the practical proof of Christianity, which Jesus required, while error seems as potent and 351:18 real to us as Truth, and while we make a per- sonal devil and an anthropomorphic G.o.d our starting-points, - especially if we consider Satan as a 351:21 being coequal in power with Deity, if not superior to Him.

Because such starting-points are neither spiritual nor scientific, they cannot work out the Spirit-rule of Christian 351:24 healing, which proves the nothingness of error, discord, by demonstrating the all-inclusiveness of harmonious Truth.

Fruitless wors.h.i.+p

351:27 The Israelites centred their thoughts on the material in their attempted wors.h.i.+p of the spiritual. To them matter was substance, and Spirit was shadow.

351:30 They thought to wors.h.i.+p Spirit from a ma- terial standpoint, but this was impossible. They might appeal to Jehovah, but their prayer brought down no 352:1 proof that it was heard, because they did not sufficiently understand G.o.d to be able to demonstrate His power 352:3 to heal, - to make harmony the reality and discord the unreality.

Spirit the tangible

Our Master declared that his material body was not 352:6 spirit, evidently considering it a mortal and material be- lief of flesh and bones, whereas the Jews took a diametrically opposite view. To Jesus, not 352:9 materiality, but spirituality, was the reality of man's ex- istence, while to the rabbis the spiritual was the intangi- ble and uncertain, if not the unreal.

Ghosts not realities

352:12 Would a mother say to her child, who is frightened at imaginary ghosts and sick in consequence of the fear: "I know that ghosts are real. They exist, 352:15 and are to be feared; but you must not be afraid of them"?

Children, like adults, _ought_ to fear a reality which 352:18 can harm them and which they do not understand, for at any moment they may become its helpless victims; but instead of increasing children's fears by declaring 352:21 ghosts to be real, merciless, and powerful, thus water- ing the very roots of childish timidity, children should be a.s.sured that their fears are groundless, that ghosts 352:24 are not realities, but traditional beliefs, erroneous and man-made.

In short, children should be told not to believe in ghosts, 352:27 because there are no such things. If belief in their reality is destroyed, terror of ghosts will depart and health be re- stored. The objects of alarm will then vanish into noth- 352:30 ingness, no longer seeming worthy of fear or honor. To accomplish a good result, it is certainly not irrational to tell the truth about ghosts.

The real and the unreal

353:1 The Christianly scientific real is the sensuous unreal.

Sin, disease, whatever seems real to material sense, is un- 353:3 real in divine Science. The physical senses and Science have ever been antagonistic, and they will so continue, till the testimony of the physical 353:6 senses yields entirely to Christian Science.