Science and Health, with Key to the Scriptures Part 63

Man self-destroyed; the testimony of matter respected; 437:15 Spirit not allowed a hearing; Soul a criminal though recommended to mercy; the helpless innocent body tor- tured, - these are the terrible records of your Court of 437:18 Error, and I ask that the Supreme Court of Spirit reverse this decision.

Here the opposing counsel, False Belief, called Chris- 437:21 tian Science to order for contempt of court. Various notables - Materia Medica, Anatomy, Physiology, Scho- lastic Theology, and Jurisprudence - rose to the ques- 437:24 tion of expelling Christian Science from the bar, for such high-handed illegality. They declared that Christian Sci- ence was overthrowing the judicial proceedings of a regu- 437:27 larly const.i.tuted court.

But Judge Justice of the Supreme Court of Spirit over- ruled their motions on the ground that unjust usages 437:30 were not allowed at the bar of Truth, which ranks above the lower Court of Error.

The attorney, Christian Science, then read from the 437:33 supreme statute-book, the Bible, certain extracts on the 438:1 Rights of Man, remarking, that the Bible was better au- thority than Blackstone: -

438:3 Let us make man in our image, after our likeness; and let them have dominion.

Behold, I give unto you power ... over all the power 438:6 of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death.

Then Christian Science proved the witness, Nerve, to 438:9 be a perjurer. Instead of being a ruler in the Province of Body, in which Mortal Man was reported to reside, Nerve was an insubordinate citizen, putting in false 438:12 claims to office and bearing false witness against Man.

Turning suddenly to Personal Sense, by this time silent, Christian Science continued: -

438:15 I ask your arrest in the name of Almighty G.o.d on three distinct charges of crime, to wit: perjury, treason, and con- spiracy against the rights and life of man.

438:18 Then Christian Science continued:

Another witness, equally inadequate, said that on the night of the crime a garment of foul fur was spread over 438:21 him by Morbid Secretion, while the facts in the case show that this fur is a foreign substance, imported by False Be- lief, the attorney for Personal Sense, who is in partners.h.i.+p 438:24 with Error and smuggles Error's goods into market with- out the inspection of Soul's government officers. When the Court of Truth summoned Furred Tongue for examina- 438:27 tion, he disappeared and was never heard of more.

Morbid Secretion is not an importer or dealer in fur, but we have heard Materia Medica explain how this fur is 438:30 manufactured, and we know Morbid Secretion to be on friendly terms with the firm of Personal Sense, Error, & 439:1 Co., receiving pay from them and introducing their goods into the market. Also, be it known that False Belief, the 439:3 counsel for the plaintiff, Personal Sense, is a buyer for this firm. He manufactures for it, keeps a furnis.h.i.+ng store, and advertises largely for his employers.

439:6 Death testified that he was absent from the Province of Body, when a message came from False Belief, command- ing him to take part in the homicide. At this request 439:9 Death repaired to the spot where the liver-complaint was in process, frightening away Materia Medica, who was then manacling the prisoner in the attempt to save him. True, 439:12 Materia Medica was a misguided partic.i.p.ant in the misdeed for which the Health-officer had Mortal Man in custody, though Mortal Man was innocent.

439:15 Christian Science turned from the abashed witnesses, his words flas.h.i.+ng as lightning in the perturbed faces of these worthies, Scholastic Theology, Materia Medica, 439:18 Physiology, the blind Hypnotism, and the masked Per- sonal Sense, and said: -

G.o.d will smite you, O whited walls, for injuring in your 439:21 ignorance the unfortunate Mortal Man who sought your aid in his struggles against liver-complaint and Death.

You came to his rescue, only to fasten upon him an offence 439:24 of which he was innocent. You aided and abetted Fear and Health-laws. You betrayed Mortal Man, meanwhile declaring Disease to be G.o.d's servant and the righteous 439:27 executor of His laws. Our higher statutes declare you all, witnesses, jurors, and judges, to be offenders, awaiting the sentence which General Progress and Divine Love will 439:30 p.r.o.nounce.

We send our best detectives to whatever locality is re- ported to be haunted by Disease, but on visiting the spot, 439:33 they learn that Disease was never there, for he could not 440:1 possibly elude their search. Your Material Court of Errors, when it condemned Mortal Man on the ground of hygienic 440:3 disobedience, was manipulated by the oleaginous machina- tions of the counsel, False Belief, whom Truth arraigns before the supreme bar of Spirit to answer for his crime.

440:6 Morbid Secretion is taught how to make sleep befool reason before sacrificing mortals to their false G.o.ds.

Mortal Minds were deceived by your attorney, False Be- 440:9 lief, and were influenced to give a verdict delivering Mortal Man to Death. Good deeds are transformed into crimes, to which you attach penalties; but no warping of justice 440:12 can render disobedience to the so-called laws of Matter disobedience to G.o.d, or an act of homicide. Even penal law holds homicide, under stress of circ.u.mstances, to be 440:15 justifiable. Now what greater justification can any deed have, than that it is for the good of one's neighbor? Where- fore, then, in the name of outraged justice, do you sentence 440:18 Mortal Man for ministering to the wants of his fellow-man in obedience to divine law? You cannot trample upon the decree of the Supreme Bench. Mortal Man has his appeal 440:21 to Spirit, G.o.d, who sentences only for sin.

The false and unjust beliefs of your human mental legis- lators compel them to enact wicked laws of sickness and so 440:24 forth, and then render obedience to these laws punishable as crime. In the presence of the Supreme Lawgiver, stand- ing at the bar of Truth, and in accordance with the divine 440:27 statutes, I repudiate the false testimony of Personal Sense.

I ask that he be forbidden to enter against Mortal Man any more suits to be tried at the Court of Material Error.

440:30 I appeal to the just and equitable decisions of divine Spirit to restore to Mortal Man the rights of which he has been deprived.

Charge of the Chief Justice

440:33 Here the counsel for the defence closed, and the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, with benign and imposing 441:1 presence, comprehending and defining all law and evi- dence, explained from his statute-book, the 441:3 Bible, that any so-called law, which under- takes to punish aught but sin, is null and void.

He also decided that the plaintiff, Personal Sense, be 441:6 not permitted to enter any suits at the bar of Soul, but be enjoined to keep perpetual silence, and in case of temptation, to give heavy bonds for good behavior. He 441:9 concluded his charge thus: -

The plea of False Belief we deem unworthy of a hearing.

Let what False Belief utters, now and forever, fall into 441:12 oblivion, "unknelled, uncoffined, and unknown." Accord- ing to our statute, Material Law is a liar who cannot bear witness against Mortal Man, neither can Fear arrest Mortal 441:15 Man nor can Disease cast him into prison. Our law refuses to recognize Man as sick or dying, but holds him to be for- ever in the image and likeness of his Maker. Reversing the 441:18 testimony of Personal Sense and the decrees of the Court of Error in favor of Matter, Spirit decides in favor of Man and against Matter. We further recommend that Materia 441:21 Medica adopt Christian Science and that Health-laws, Mesmerism, Hypnotism, Oriental Witchcraft, and Esoteric Magic be publicly executed at the hands of our sheriff, 441:24 Progress.

The Supreme Bench decides in favor of intelligence, that no law outside of divine Mind can punish or reward Mortal 441:27 Man. Your personal jurors in the Court of Error are myths. Your attorney, False Belief, is an impostor, per- suading Mortal Minds to return a verdict contrary to law 441:30 and gospel. The plaintiff, Personal Sense, is recorded in our Book of books as a liar. Our great Teacher of mental jurisprudence speaks of him also as "a murderer from the 441:33 beginning." We have no trials for sickness before the tri- 442:1 bunal of divine Spirit. There, Man is adjudged innocent of transgressing physical laws, because there are no such 442:3 laws. Our statute is spiritual, our Government is divine.

"Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?"

Divine verdict

The Jury of Spiritual Senses agreed at once upon a 442:6 verdict, and there resounded throughout the vast audience- chamber of Spirit the cry, Not guilty. Then the prisoner rose up regenerated, strong, free.

442:9 We noticed, as he shook hands with his counsel, Chris- tian Science, that all sallowness and debility had dis- appeared. His form was erect and commanding, his 442:12 countenance beaming with health and happiness. Divine Love had cast out fear. Mortal Man, no longer sick and in prison, walked forth, his feet "beautiful upon the 442:15 mountains," as of one "that bringeth good tidings."

Christ the great physician

Neither animal magnetism nor hypnotism enters into the practice of Christian Science, in which truth cannot 442:18 be reversed, but the reverse of error is true.

An improved belief cannot retrograde. When Christ changes a belief of sin or of sickness into 442:21 a better belief, then belief melts into spiritual understand- ing, and sin, disease, and death disappear. Christ, Truth, gives mortals temporary food and clothing until the ma- 442:24 terial, transformed with the ideal, disappears, and man is clothed and fed spiritually. St. Paul says, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling:" Jesus 442:27 said, "Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." This truth is Christian Science.

442:30 Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when awake.

CHAPTER XIII - TEACHING CHRISTIAN SCIENCE

Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning. - PROVERBS.

Study of medicine

443:1 WHEN the discoverer of Christian Science is con- sulted by her followers as to the propriety, advan- 443:3 tage, and consistency of systematic medical study, she tries to show them that under ordi- nary circ.u.mstances a resort to faith in corporeal means 443:6 tends to deter those, who make such a compromise, from entire confidence in omnipotent Mind as really possessing all power. While a course of medical study is at times 443:9 severely condemned by some Scientists, she feels, as she always has felt, that all are privileged to work out their own salvation according to their light, and that our motto 443:12 should be the Master's counsel, "Judge not, that ye be not judged."

Failure's lessons

If patients fail to experience the healing power of 443:15 Christian Science, and think they can be benefited by certain ordinary physical methods of medical treatment, then the Mind-physician should 443:18 give up such cases, and leave invalids free to resort to whatever other systems they fancy will afford relief.

Thus such invalids may learn the value of the apostolic 443:21 precept: "Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine." If the sick find these material expedients 444:1 unsatisfactory, and they receive no help from them, these very failures may open their blind eyes. In some way, 444:3 sooner or later, all must rise superior to materiality, and suffering is oft the divine agent in this elevation. "All things work together for good to them that love G.o.d," is 444:6 the dictum of Scripture.

Refuge and strength

If Christian Scientists ever fail to receive aid from other Scientists, - their brethren upon whom they may 444:9 call, - G.o.d will still guide them into the right use of temporary and eternal means. Step by step will those who trust Him find that "G.o.d is our refuge 444:12 and strength, a very present help in trouble."

Charity to those opposed

Students are advised by the author to be charitable and kind, not only towards differing forms of religion 444:15 and medicine, but to those who hold these dif- fering opinions. Let us be faithful in pointing the way through Christ, as we understand it, 444:18 but let us also be careful always to "judge righteous judg- ment," and never to condemn rashly. "Whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also."

444:21 That is, Fear not that he will smite thee again for thy for- bearance. If ecclesiastical sects or medical schools turn a deaf ear to the teachings of Christian Science, then part 444:24 from these opponents as did Abraham when he parted from Lot, and say in thy heart: "Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between My herd- 444:27 men and thy herdmen; for we be brethren." Immortals, or G.o.d's children in divine Science, are one harmonious family; but mortals, or the "children of men" in material 444:30 sense, are discordant and ofttimes false brethren.

Conforming to explicit rules

The teacher must make clear to students the Science of healing, especially its ethics, - that all is Mind, and 445:1 that the Scientist must conform to G.o.d's requirements.

Also the teacher must thoroughly fit his students to defend 445:3 themselves against sin, and to guard against the attacks of the would-be _mental a.s.sa.s.sin_, who attempts to kill morally and physically. No 445:6 hypothesis as to the existence of another power should interpose a doubt or fear to hinder the demonstration of Christian Science. Unfold the latent energies and capac- 445:9 ities for good in your pupil. Teach the great possibilities of man endued with divine Science. Teach the dangerous possibility of dwarfing the spiritual understanding and 445:12 demonstration of Truth by sin, or by recourse to material means for healing. Teach the meekness and might of life "hid with Christ in G.o.d," and there will be no desire for 445:15 other healing methods. You render the divine law of healing obscure and void, when you weigh the human in the scale with the divine, or limit in any direction of 445:18 thought the omnipresence and omnipotence of G.o.d.

Divine energy

Christian Science silences human will, quiets fear with Truth and Love, and ill.u.s.trates the unlabored motion 445:21 of the divine energy in healing the sick. Self- seeking, envy, pa.s.sion, pride, hatred, and revenge are cast out by the divine Mind which heals 445:24 disease. The human will which maketh and worketh a lie, hiding the divine Principle of harmony, is destructive to health, and is the cause of disease rather than its cure.