Science and Health with Key to The Scriptures
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 |
WHEN the discoverer of Christian Science
is consulted by her followers as to the propriety, advantage, and consistency
of systematic medical study, she tries to show them that under ordinary
circumstances a resort to faith in corporeal means 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 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 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
Christian Science, and think they can be benefited by certain ordinary physical
methods of medical treatment, then the Mind-physician should 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
precept: "Reprove, rebuke, exhort with all long-suffering and doctrine." If the
sick find these material expedients unsatisfactory, and they receive no help
from them, these very failures may open their blind eyes. In some way, 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 God," is the dictum of Scripture. |
Refuge and strength |
If Christian Scientists ever fail to receive aid from
other Scientists, their brethren upon whom they may call, God will still guide
them into the right use of temporary and eternal means. Step by step will those
who trust Him find that "God is our refuge 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 and medicine, but to
those who hold these differing opinions. Let us be faithful in pointing the way
through Christ, as we understand it, but let us also be careful always to
"judge righteous judgment," and never to condemn rashly. "Whosoever shall smite
thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also." 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 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
men and thy herdmen; for we be brethren." Immortals, or God's children in
divine Science, are one harmonious family; but mortals, or the "children of
men" in material sense, are discordant and often times 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 that the Scientist must
conform to God's requirements. Also the teacher must thoroughly fit his
students to defend themselves against sin, and to guard against the attacks of
the would-be mental assassin, who attempts to kill morally and
physically. No 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 capacities 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 demonstration of Truth
by sin, or by recourse to material means for healing. Teach the meekness and
might of life "hid with Christ in God," and there will be no desire for 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
thought the omnipresence and omnipotence of God. |
Divine energy |
Christian Science silences human will, quiets fear
with Truth and Love, and illustrates the unlabored motion of the divine energy
in healing the sick. Self-seeking, envy, passion, pride, hatred, and revenge
are cast out by the divine Mind which heals 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.
|
Blight of avarice |
There is great danger in teaching
Mind-healing indiscriminately, thus disregarding the morals of the student and
caring only for the fees. Recalling Jefferson's words about slavery, "I
tremble, when I remember that God is just," the author trembles whenever she
sees a man, for the petty consideration of money, teaching his slight knowledge
of Mind-power, perhaps communicating his own bad morals, and in this way
dealing pitilessly with a community unprepared for self-defence. |
A thorough perusal of the author's publications heals
sickness. If patients sometimes seem worse while reading this book, the change
may either arise from the alarm of the physician, or it may mark the crisis of
the disease. Perseverance in the perusal of the book has generally completely
healed such cases. |
Exclusion of malpractice
|
Whoever practises the Science the author teaches,
through which Mind pours light and healing upon this generation, can practise
on no one from sinister or malicious motives without destroying his own power
to heal and his own health. Good must dominate in the thoughts of the healer,
or his demonstration is protracted, dangerous, and impossible in Science. A
wrong motive involves defeat. In the Science of Mind-healing, it is imperative
to be honest, for victory rests on the side of immutable right. To understand
God strengthens hope, enthrones faith in Truth, and verifies Jesus' word: "Lo,
I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." |
Iniquity overcome |
Resisting evil, you overcome it and prove its nothing
ness. Not human platitudes, but divine beatitudes, reflect the spiritual light
and might which heal the sick. The exercise of will brings on a hypnotic state,
detrimental to health and integrity of thought. This must therefore be watched
and guarded against. Covering iniquity will prevent prosperity and the ultimate
triumph of any cause. Ignorance of the error to be eradicated often-times
subjects you to its abuse. |
No trespass on human rights
|
The heavenly law is broken by trespassing upon man's
individual right of self-government. We have no authority in Christian Science
and no moral right to attempt to influence the thoughts of others, except it be
to benefit them. In mental practice you must not forget that erring human
opinions, conflicting selfish motives, and ignorant attempts to do good may
render you incapable of knowing or judging accurately the need of your
fellowmen. There fore the rule is, heal the sick when called upon for aid, and
save the victims of the mental assassins. |
Expose sin without believing in it
|
Ignorance, subtlety, or false charity
does not for ever conceal error; evil will in time disclose and pun ish itself.
The recuperative action of the system, when mentally sustained by Truth, goes
on naturally. When sin or sickness the reverse of harmony seems true to
material sense, impart without frightening or discouraging the patient the
truth and spiritual understanding, which destroy disease. Expose and denounce
the claims of evil and disease in all their forms, but realize no reality in
them. A sinner is not reformed merely by assuring him that he cannot be a
sinner because there is no sin. To put down the claim of sin, you must detect
it, remove the mask, point out the illusion, and thus get the victory over sin
and so prove its unreality. The sick are not healed merely by declaring there
is no sickness, but by knowing that there is none. |
Wicked evasions |
A sinner is afraid to cast the first
stone. He may say, as a subterfuge, that evil is unreal, but to know it, he
must demonstrate his statement. To assume that there are no claims of evil and
yet to indulge them, is a moral offence. Blindness and self-righteousness cling
fast to iniquity. When the Publican's wail went out to the great heart of Love,
it won his humble desire. Evil which obtains in the bodily senses, but which
the heart condemns, has no foundation; but if evil is uncondemned, it is
undenied and nurtured. Under such circumstances, to say that there is no evil,
is an evil in itself. When needed tell the truth concerning the lie. Evasion of
Truth cripples integrity, and casts thee down from the pinnacle. |
Truth's grand results
|
Christian Science rises above the
evidence of the corporeal senses; but if you have not risen above sin your
self, do not congratulate yourself upon your blindness to evil or upon the good
you know and do not. A dishonest position is far from Christianly
scientific. "He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but who so confesseth
and forsaketh them shall have mercy." Try to leave on every student's mind the
strong impress of divine Science, a high sense of the moral and spiritual
qualifications requisite for healing, well knowing it to be impossible for
error, evil, and hate to accomplish the grand results of Truth and Love. The
reception or pursuit of instructions opposite to absolute Christian Science
must always hinder scientific demonstration. |
Adherence to righteousness
|
If the student adheres strictly to the teachings of
Christian Science and ventures not to break its rules, he can not fail of
success in healing. It is Christian Science to do right, and nothing short of
right doing has any claim to the name. To talk the right and live the wrong is
foolish deceit, doing one's self the most harm. Fettered by sin yourself, it is
difficult to free another from the fetters of disease. With your own wrists
manacled, it is hard to break another's chains. A little leaven causes the
whole mass to ferment. A grain of Christian Science does wonders for mortals,
so omnipotent is Truth, but more of Christian Science must be gained in order
to continue in well doing. |
Right adjusts the balance
|
The wrong done another reacts most
heavily against one's self. Right adjusts the balance sooner or later. Think it
"easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle," than for you to benefit
yourself by injuring others. Man's moral mercury, rising or falling, registers
his healing ability and fitness to teach. You should practise well what you
know, and you will then advance in proportion to your honesty and fidelity,
qualities which insure success in this Science; but it requires a higher
understanding to teach this subject properly and correctly than it does to heal
the most difficult case. |
Inoculation of thought
|
The baneful effect of evil associates is less seen
than felt. The inoculation of evil human thoughts ought to be understood and
guarded against. The first impression, made on a mind which is attracted or
repelled according to personal merit or demerit, is a good detective of
individual character. Certain minds meet only to separate through simultaneous
repulsion. They are enemies without the preliminary offence. The impure are at
peace with the impure. Only virtue is a rebuke to vice. A proper teacher of
Christian Science improves the health and the morals of his student if the
student practises what he is taught, and unless this result follows, the
teacher is a Scientist only in name. |
Three classes of neophytes
|
There is a large class of thinkers whose bigotry and
conceit twist every fact to suit themselves. Their creed teaches belief in a
mysterious, supernatural God, and in a natural, allpowerful devil. An other
class, still more unfortunate, are so depraved that they appear to be innocent.
They utter a falsehood, while looking you blandly in the face, and they never
fail to stab their benefactor in the back. A third class of thinkers build with
solid masonry. They are sincere, generous, noble, and are therefore open to the
approach and recognition of Truth. To teach Christian Science to such as these
is no task. They do not incline longingly to error, whine over the demands of
Truth, nor play the traitor for place and power. |
Touchstone of Science
|
Some people yield slowly to the touch of Truth. Few
yield without a struggle, and many are reluctant to acknowledge that they have
yielded; but unless this admission is made, evil will boast itself above good.
The Christian Scientist has enlisted to lessen evil, disease, and death; and he
will overcome them by understanding their nothingness and the allness of God,
or good. Sickness to him is no less a temptation than is sin, and he heals them
both by understanding God's power over them. The Christian Scientist knows that
they are errors of belief, which Truth can and will destroy. |
False claims annihilated
|
Who, that has felt the perilous beliefs in life,
substance, and intelligence separated from God, can say that there is no error
of belief? Knowing the claim of animal magnetism, that all evil combines in the
belief of life, substance, and intelligence in matter, electricity, animal
nature, and organic life, who will deny that these are the errors which Truth
must and will annihilate? Christian Scientists must live under the constant
pressure of the apostolic command to come out from the material world and be
separate. They must renounce aggression, oppression and the pride of power.
Christianity, with the crown of Love upon her brow, must be their queen of
life. |
Treasure in heaven |
Students of Christian Science, who start
with its letter and think to succeed without the spirit, will either make
shipwreck of their faith or be turned sadly awry. They must not only seek, but
strive, to enter the narrow path of Life, for "wide is the gate, and broad is
the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat."
Man walks in the direction towards which he looks, and where his treasure is,
there will his heart be also. If our hopes and affections are spiritual, they
come from above, not from beneath, and they bear as of old the fruits of the
Spirit. |
Obligations of teachers
|
Every Christian Scientist, every conscientious teacher
of the Science of Mindhealing, knows that human will is not Christian Science,
and he must recognize this in order to defend himself from the influence of
human will. He feels morally obligated to open the eyes of his students that
they may perceive the nature and methods of error of every sort, especially any
subtle degree of evil, deceived and deceiving. All mental malpractice arises
from ignorance or malice aforethought. It is the injurious action of one mortal
mind controlling another from wrong motives, and it is practised either with a
mistaken or a wicked purpose. |
Indispensable defence
|
Show your student that mental malpractice tends to
blast moral sense, health, and the human life. Instruct him how to bar the door
of his thought against this seeming power, a task not difficult, when one
understands that evil has in reality no power. Incorrect reasoning leads to
practical error. The wrong thought should be arrested before it has a chance to
manifest itself. |
Egotistic darkness |
Walking in the light, we are accustomed to the light
and require it; we cannot see in darkness. But eyes accustomed to darkness are
pained by the light. When outgrowing the old, you should not fear to put on the
new. Your advancing course may provoke envy, but it will also attract respect.
When error confronts you, withhold not the rebuke or the explanation which
destroys error. Never breathe an immoral atmosphere, unless in the attempt to
purify it. Better is the frugal intellectual repast with contentment and
virtue, than the luxury of learning with egotism and vice. |
Unwarranted expectations
|
Right is radical. The teacher must know the truth
himself. He must live it and love it, or he cannot impart it to others. We soil
our garments with conservatism, and afterwards we must wash them clean. When
the spiritual sense of Truth unfolds its harmonies, you take no risks in the
policy of error. Expect to heal simply by repeating the author's words, by
right talking and wrong acting, and you will be disappointed. Such a practice
does not demonstrate the Science by which divine Mind heals the sick.
|
Reliable authority |
Acting from sinful motives destroys your
power of healing from the right motive. On the other hand, if you had the
inclination or power to practise wrongly and then should adopt Christian
Science, the wrong power would be destroyed. You do not deny the
mathematician's right to distinguish the correct from the incorrect among the
examples on the black board, nor disbelieve the musician when he distinguishes
concord from discord. In like manner it should be granted that the author
understands what she is saying. |
Winning the field |
Right and wrong, truth and error, will be
at strife in the minds of students, until victory rests on the side of
invincible truth. Mental chemicalization follows the explanation of Truth, and
a higher basis is thus won; but with some individuals the morbid moral or
physical symptoms constantly reappear. I have never witnessed so decided
effects from the use of material remedies as from the use of spiritual.
|
Knowledge and honesty
|
Teach your student that he must know himself before he
can know others and minister to human needs. Honesty is spiritual power.
Dishonesty is human weakness, which forfeits divine help. You uncover sin, not
in order to injure, but in order to bless the corporeal man; and a right motive
has its reward. Hidden sin is spiritual wickedness in high places. The
masquerader in this Science thanks God that there is no evil, yet serves evil
in the name of good. |
Metaphysical treatment
|
You should treat sickness mentally just as you would
sin, except that you must not tell the patient that he is sick nor give names
to diseases, for such a course increases fear, the foundation of disease, and
impresses more deeply the wrong mindpicture. A Christian Scientist's medicine
is Mind, the divine Truth that makes man free. A Christian Scientist never
recommends material hygiene, never manipulates. He does not trespass on the
rights of mind nor can he practise animal magnetism or hypnotism. It need not
be added that the use of tobacco or intoxicating drinks is not in harmony with
Christian Science. |
Impotence of hate |
Teach your students the omnipotence of Truth, which
illustrates the impotence of error. The understanding, even in a degree, of the
divine Allpower destroys fear, and plants the feet in the true path, the path
which leads to the house built without hands "eternal in the heavens." Human
hate has no legitimate mandate and no kingdom. Love is enthroned. That evil or
matter has neither intelligence nor power, is the doctrine of absolute
Christian Science, and this is the great truth which strips all disguise from
error. |
Love the incentive |
He, who understands in sufficient degree
the Principle of Mindhealing, points out to his student error as well as truth,
the wrong as well as the right practice. Love for God and man is the true
incentive in both healing and teaching. Love inspires, illumines, designates,
and leads the way. Right motives give pinions to thought, and strength and
freedom to speech and action. Love is priestess at the altar of Truth. Wait
patiently for divine Love to move upon the waters of mortal mind, and form the
perfect concept. Patience must "have her perfect work." |
Continuity of interest
|
Do not dismiss students at the close of a
class term, feeling that you have no more to do for them. Let your loving care
and counsel support all their feeble footsteps, until your students tread
firmly in the straight and narrow way. The superiority of spiritual power over
sensuous is the central point of Christian Science. Remember that the letter
and mental argument are only human auxiliaries to aid in bringing thought into
accord with the spirit of Truth and Love, which heals the sick and the
sinner. |
Weakness and guilt |
A mental state of self-condemnation and guilt or a
faltering and doubting trust in Truth are unsuitable conditions for healing the
sick. Such mental states indicate weakness instead of strength. Hence the
necessity of being right yourself in order to teach this Science of healing.
You must utilize the moral might of Mind in order to walk over the waves of
error and support your claims by demonstration. If you are yourself lost in the
belief and fear of disease or sin, and if, knowing the remedy, you fail to use
the energies of Mind in your own behalf, you can exercise little or no power
for others' help. "First cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt
thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye." |
The trust of the Allwise
|
The student, who receives his knowledge
of Christian Science, or metaphysical healing, from a human teacher, may be
mistaken in judgment and demonstration, but God cannot mistake. God selects for
the highest service one who has grown into such a fitness for it as renders any
abuse of the mission an impossibility. The Allwise does not bestow His highest
trusts upon the unworthy. When He commissions a messenger, it is one who is
spiritually near Himself. No per son can misuse this mental power, if he is
taught of God to discern it. |
Integrity assured |
This strong point in Christian Science
is not to be overlooked, that the same fountain cannot send forth both sweet
waters and bitter. The higher your attainment in the Science of mental healing
and teaching, the more impossible it will be come for you intentionally to
influence mankind adverse to its highest hope and achievement. |
Chicanery impossible
|
Teaching or practising in the name of
Truth, but contrary to its spirit or rules, is most dangerous quackery. Strict
adherence to the divine Principle and rules of the scientific method has
secured the only success of the students of Christian Science. This alone
entitles them to the high standing which most of them hold in the community, a
reputation experimentally justified by their efforts. Whoever affirms that
there is more than one Principle and method of demonstrating Christian Science
greatly errs, ignorantly or intentionally, and separates himself from the true
conception of Christian Science healing and from its possible demonstration.
|
No dishonest concessions
|
Any dishonesty in your theory and
practice betrays a gross ignorance of the method of the Christ-cure. Science
makes no concessions to persons or opinions. One must abide in the
morale of truth or he cannot demonstrate the divine Principle. So long
as matter is the basis of practice, illness cannot be efficaciously treated by
the metaphysical process. Truth does the work, and you must both understand and
abide by the divine Principle of your demonstration. |
This volume indispensable
|
A Christian Scientist requires my work
SCIENCE AND HEALTH for his textbook, and so do all his students and patients.
Why? First: Because it is the voice of Truth to this age, and
contains the full statement of Christian Science, or the Science of healing
through Mind. Second: Because it was the first book known,
containing a thorough statement of Christian Science. Hence it gave the first
rules for demonstrating this Science, and registered the revealed Truth
uncontaminated by human hypotheses. Other works, which have borrowed from this
book without giving it credit, have adulterated the Science. Third:
Because this book has done more for teacher and student, for healer and
patient, than has been accomplished by other books. |
Purity of science |
Since the divine light of Christian
Science first dawned upon the author, she has never used this newly discovered
power in any direction which she fears to have fairly understood. Her prime
object, since entering this field of labor, has been to prevent suffering, not
to produce it. That we cannot scientifically both cure and cause disease is
self-evident. In the legend of the shield, which led to a quarrel between two
knights because each of them could see but one face of it, both sides were
beautiful according to their degree; but to mental malpractice, prolific of
evil, there is no good aspect, either silvern or golden. |
Backsliders and mistakes
|
Christian Science is not an exception to the general
rule, that there is no excellence without labor in a direct line. One cannot
scatter his fire, and at the same time hit the mark. To pursue other vocations
and advance rapidly in the demonstration of this Science, is not possible.
Departing from Christian Science, some learners commend diet and hygiene. They
even practise these, intending thereby to initiate the cure which they mean to
complete with Mind, as if the non-intelligent could aid Mind! The Scientist's
demonstration rests on one Principle, and there must and can be no opposite
rule. Let this Principle be applied to the cure of disease without exploiting
other means. |
Mental charlatanism |
Mental quackery rests on the same
platform as all other quackery. The chief plank in this platform is the
doctrine that Science has two principles in partnership, one good and the other
evil, one spiritual, the other material, and that these two may be
simultaneously at work on the sick. This theory is supposed to favor practice
from both a mental and a material standpoint. Another plank in the platform is
this, that error will finally have the same effect as truth. |
Divinity ever ready |
It is anything but scientifically Christian to think
of aiding the divine Principle of healing or of trying to sustain the human
body until the divine Mind is ready to take the case. Divinity is always ready.
Semper paratus is Truth's motto. Having seen so much suffering from
quackery, the author desires to keep it out of Christian Science. The two-edged
sword of Truth must turn in every direction to guard "the tree of life."
|
The panoply of wisdom
|
Sin makes deadly thrusts at the Christian
Scientist as ritualism and creed are summoned to give place to higher law, but
Science will ameliorate mortal malice. The Christianly scientific man reflects
the divine law, thus becoming a law unto himself. He does violence to no man.
Neither is he a false accuser. The Christian Scientist wisely shapes his
course, and is honest and consistent in following the leadings of divine Mind.
He must prove, through living as well as healing and teaching, that Christ's
way is the only one by which mortals are radically saved from sin and sickness.
|
Advancement by sacrifice
|
Christianity causes men to turn
naturally from matter to Spirit, as the flower turns from darkness to light.
Man then appropriates those things which "eye hath not seen nor ear heard."
Paul and John had a clear apprehension that, as mortal man achieves no worldly
honors except by sacrifice, so he must gain heavenly riches by forsaking all
worldliness. Then he will have nothing in common with the worldling's
affections, motives, and aims. Judge not the future advancement of Christian
Science by the steps already taken, lest you yourself be condemned for failing
to take the first step. |
Dangerous knowledge |
Any attempt to heal mortals with erring
mortal mind, instead of resting on the omnipotence of the divine Mind, must
prove abortive. Committing the bare process of mental healing to frail mortals,
untaught and unrestrained by Christian Science, is like putting a sharp knife
into the hands of a blind man or a raging maniac, and turning him loose in the
crowded streets of a city. Whether animated by malice or ignorance, a false
practitioner will work mischief, and ignorance is more harmful than wilful
wicked ness, when the latter is distrusted and thwarted in its
incipiency. |
Certainty of results
|
To mortal sense Christian Science seems
abstract, but the process is simple and the results are sure if the Science is
understood. The tree must be good, which produces good fruit. Guided by divine
Truth and not guesswork, the theologus (that is, the student the
Christian and scientific expounder of the divine law) treats disease with more
certain results than any other healer on the globe. The Christian Scientist
should understand and adhere strictly to the rules of divine metaphysics as
laid down in this work, and rest his demonstration on this sure basis.
|
Ontology defined |
Ontology is defined as "the science of
the necessary constituents and relations of all beings," and it under lies all
metaphysical practice. Our system of Mindhealing rests on the apprehension of
the nature and essence of all being, on the divine Mind and Love's essential
qualities. Its pharmacy is moral, and its medicine is intellectual and
spiritual, though used for physical healing. Yet this most fundamental part of
metaphysics is the one most difficult to understand and demonstrate, for to the
material thought all is material, till such thought is rectified by Spirit.
|
Mischievous imagination
|
Sickness is neither imaginary nor
unreal, that is, to the frightened, false sense of the patient. Sickness is
more than fancy; it is solid conviction. It is therefore to be dealt with
through right apprehension of the truth of being. If Christian healing is
abused by mere smatterers in Science, it becomes a tedious mischiefmaker.
Instead of scientifically effecting a cure, it starts a petty crossfire over
every cripple and invalid, buffeting them with the superficial and cold
assertion, "Nothing ails you." |
Author's early instructions
|
When the Science of Mind was a fresh
revelation to the author, she had to impart, while teaching its grand facts,
the hue of spiritual ideas from her own spiritual condition, and she had to do
this orally through the meagre channel afforded by language and by her
manuscript circulated among the students. As former beliefs were gradually
expelled from her thought, the teaching became clearer, until finally the
shadow of old errors was no longer cast upon divine Science. |
Proof by induction |
I do not maintain that anyone can exist in the flesh
without food and raiment; but I do believe that the real man is immortal and
that he lives in Spirit, not matter. Christian Science must be accepted at this
period by induction. We admit the whole, because a part is proved and that part
illustrates and proves the entire Principle. Christian Science can be taught
only by those who are morally advanced and spiritually endowed, for it is not
superficial, nor is it discerned from the standpoint of the human senses. Only
by the illumination of the spiritual sense, can the light of understanding be
thrown upon this Science, because Science reverses the evidence before the
material senses and furnishes the eternal interpretation of God and man.
|
If you believe that you are sick, should
you say, " I am sick"? No, but you should tell your belief sometimes, if this
be requisite to protect others. If you commit a crime, should you acknowledge
to yourself that you are a criminal? Yes. Your responses should differ because
of the different effects they produce. Usually to admit that you are sick,
renders your case less curable, while to recognize your sin, aids in destroying
it. Both sin and sickness are error, and Truth is their remedy. The truth
regarding error is, that error is not true, hence it is unreal. To prove
scientifically the error or unreality of sin, you must first see the claim of
sin, and then destroy it. Whereas, to prove scientifically the error or
unreality of disease, you must mentally unsee the disease; then you will not
feel it, and it is destroyed. |
Rapidity of assimilation
|
Systematic teaching and the student's
spiritual growth and experience in practice are requisite for a thorough
comprehension of Christian Science. Some individuals assimilate truth more
readily than others, but any student, who adheres to the divine rules of
Christian Science and imbibes the spirit of Christ, can demonstrate Christian
Science, cast out error, heal the sick, and add continually to his store of
spiritual understanding, potency, enlightenment, and success. |
Divided loyalty |
If the student goes away to practise
Truth's teachings only in part, dividing his interests between God and mammon
and substituting his own views for Truth, he will inevitably reap the error he
sows. Whoever would demonstrate the healing of Christian Science must abide
strictly by its rules, heed every statement, and advance from the rudiments
laid down. There is nothing difficult nor toilsome in this task, when the way
is pointed out; but self-denial, sincerity, Christianity, and persistence alone
win the prize, as they usually do in every department of life. |
Anatomy defined |
Anatomy, when conceived of spiritually,
is mental self-knowledge, and consists in the dissection of thoughts to
discover their quality, quantity, and origin. Are thoughts divine or human?
That is the important question. This branch of study is indispensable to the
excision of error. The anatomy of Christian Science teaches when and how to
probe the self-inflicted wounds of selfishness, malice, envy, and hate. It
teaches the control of mad ambition. It unfolds the hallowed influences of
unselfishness, philanthropy, spiritual love. It urges the government of the
body both in health and in sickness. The Christian Scientist, through
understanding mental anatomy, discerns and deals with the real cause of
disease. The material physician gropes among phenomena, which fluctuate every
instant under influences not embraced in his diagnosis, and so he may stumble
and fall in the darkness. |
Scientific obstetrics
|
Teacher and student should also be familiar with the
obstetrics taught by this Science. To attend properly the birth of the new
child, or divine idea, you should so detach mortal thought from its material
conceptions, that the birth will be natural and safe. Though gathering new
energy, this idea cannot injure its useful surroundings in the travail of
spiritual birth. A spiritual idea has not a single element of error, and this
truth removes properly whatever is offensive. The new idea, conceived and born
of Truth and Love, is clad in white garments. Its beginning will be meek, its
growth sturdy, and its maturity undecaying. When this new birth takes place,
the Christian Science infant is born of the Spirit, born of God, and can cause
the mother no more suffering. By this we know that Truth is here and has
fulfilled its perfect work. |
Unhesitating decision
|
To decide quickly as to the proper
treatment of error whether error is manifested in forms of sickness, sin, or
death is the first step towards destroying error. Our Master treated error
through Mind. He never enjoined obedience to the laws of nature, if by these
are meant laws of matter, nor did he use drugs. There is a law of God
applicable to healing, and it is a spiritual law instead of material. The sick
are not healed by inanimate matter or drugs, as they believe that they are.
Such seeming medical effect or action is that of so called mortal mind.
|
Seclusion of the author
|
It has been said to the author, "The
world is benefited by you, but it feels your influence without seeing you. Why
do you not make yourself more widely known?" Could her friends know how little
time the author has had, in which to make herself outwardly known except
through her laborious publications, and how much time and toil are still
required to establish the stately operations of Christian Science, they would
understand why she is so secluded. Others could not take her place, even if
willing so to do. She therefore remains unseen at her post, seeking no self
aggrandizement but praying, watching, and working for the redemption of
mankind. |
If from an injury or from any cause, a
Christian Scientist were seized with pain so violent that he could not treat
himself mentally, and the Scientists had failed to relieve him, the sufferer
could call a surgeon, who would give him a hypodermic injection, then, when the
belief of pain was lulled, he could handle his own case mentally. Thus it is
that we "prove all things; [and] hold fast that which is good." |
The right motive and its reward
|
In founding a pathological system of
Christianity, the author has labored to expound divine Principle, and not to
exalt personality. The weapons of bigotry, ignorance, envy, fall before an
honest heart. Adulterating Christian Science, makes it void. Falsity has no
foundation. "The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for
the sheep." Neither dishonesty nor ignorance ever founded, nor can they over
throw a scientific system of ethics. |
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