0.0 – Christian Science – 16 Books by Mary Baker Eddy – 2 – Christian Healing

The second book is a twin with the first; they date from a similar
period, cover parallel ground, and exhibit equal vigour. Because they
represent the twin roots of Christian Science, both treat of God as divine
Principle, and both relate the understanding of God to healing.
Now although Christian Healing was delivered as a sermon and issued
as a pamphlet as early as 1880 - which is three years before The People's
Idea of God- the Journal did not mention or advertize it until some  while
after the text of the latter had appeared in its pages. The Journal
chronology is our guide, and evidently Mrs Eddy decided to publicize
The People'S Idea if God first. This parallels our personal experience of
Christian Science: although usually it is the healing that engages us first,
it is actually the revelation of God's allness that is primary and has in
fact produced the healing.
The title page of Christian Healing shows it as a sermon, but in the first
edition it was described as a lecture. Perhaps this is significant, in that
Mrs Eddy's life-work was to shift the emphasis of Christianity away
from sermonizing that did not heal and to present it more as practical
Science; indeed the term "Science of Christianity" occurs now in this
book (p. 7). Note too that the title is Christian healing, not mental or even
spiritual. For instance we find, "the genius of Christianity is works more
than words; a calm and steadfast communion with God" (p. 2). "The
primitive privilege of Christianity was to make men better, to cast out
error, and heal the sick" (p. 3). We read that as materialization "stole
into religion, it lost Christianity and the power to heal" (p. 3). Again,
"metaphysics requires mind imbued with Truth to heal the sick"
(p. II).
In this unification one begins to hear the same keynote as the second
chapter of Science and Health, ATONEMENT AND EUCHARIST. The chapter
begins, "Atonement is the exemplification of man's unity with God,
whereby man reflects divine Truth, Life, and Love" (S&H 18). It goes
on to spell out this unity: "Those who cannot demonstrate, at least in
part, the divine Principle of the teachings and practice of our Master
have no part in God" (S&H 19). Exactly the same thought characterizes
Christian Healing: "Because God is the Principle of Christian healing, we
must understand in part this divine Principle, or we cannot demonstrate
it in part" (p.3). In Christian Science we understand our divine
Principle only by incorporating it, partaking of it, being changed by it; it
is not understood in any depth with the intellect alone. ATONEMENT AND
EUCHARIST is about the necessity of being at-one with God. Thus while
Christian Healing says that "the doctrine of atonement never did anything
for sickness" (p. 18), it does explain what at-one-ment means in
practice: "Metaphysical or divine Science reveals the Principle and
method of perfection - how to attain a mind in harmony with God"
(p.14).
This reconciliation - attaining a mind in harmony with God - must be
the key to healing, because it removes the possibility of contradictions or
inconsistencies within us (see p. 4). It enables us "to work out our own
salvation ... relying not on the person of God or the person of man to do
our work for us" (p. 5). Through such at-one-ment we are no longer in a
state of contention, fighting error as a hostile power, for "the only correct
answer to the question, 'Who is the author of evil?' is the scientific
statement that evil is unreal" (p. 9). What enables the book to say this is
that the 'masculine' sense of approaching God from outside now yields
to the 'feminine' realization of being within God, as we see from this
reference to the dragon in Revelation: "but the beast bowed before the
Lamb: it was supposed to have fought the manhood of God, that Jesus
represented; but it fell before the womanhood of God, that presented the
highest ideal of Love" (p. 10).
"The highest ideal" indicates working from the summit. Perhaps this
explains why there is the rather curious reference to "the great pyramid
of Egypt - a miracle in stone" (p. II). To build a pyramid one would
have to start with its capstone as a model, for that final cap provides the
necessary angles and proportions for the entire edifice; it is a pattern for
the Christian Scientist, who in the work of healing must start out from
God.
Because Christian healing is the Christly work of being integrated
with the divine Principle, Life and Love, a feature of the book which
quite strikingly illustrates this integration is the unusually large number
of combinations of synonymous terms for God in the text. We find Life,
Truth, Love - Truth, Life, Love - Truth and Love, and four others.
There is always a specific spiritual and scientific reason for these
groupings, and in this case it seems that they are telling us that the
essence of the divine Principle is relationship. Just as disease, accidents,
divorce, etc. represent a breakdown in relationships in one form or
another, so all healing is the restoration of the harmony of the parts
within the whole. Thus the device of'combinations' is bidding us keep in
their right relationships the diverse elements of manhood and
womanhood, or of individual, generic and universal, and so forth. "See
to it, 0 Christian Scientists, ye who have named the name of Christ with
a higher meaning, that you abide by your statements, and abound in
Love and Truth, for unless you do this you are not demonstrating the
Science of metaphysical healing" (p. 16). Then, as the elements of being
are kept harmoniously gathered together, healing follows. The parallel
chapter ATONEMENT AND EUCHARIST puts it, "whosoever layeth his
earthly all on the altar of divine Science, drinketh of Christ's cup now,
and is endued with the spirit and power of Christian healing" (S&H 55).

Mary Baker Eddy's Other Writings
'You will find me in my books'

“To be a Christian Scientist involves being changed; it demands an inner transformation, a renovation of the self, in order to become a transparency for the divine. This vital work is done by spiritualization of consciousness, but it is done in the area of life and of relationships, and it is on this area of experience that the Other Writings concentrate. Mrs Eddy herself considered these writings 'essential to preparing Christian Scientists for the full understanding of Science and Health'” (Orcutt 78).

"The spiritual beauty and practicality of these inspired books have made them beloved to generations of Christian Scientists, yet strangely few students today, a century later, know much about their origin, or regard them in their wholeness.  Yet this is critical to appreciating the value of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures, Mary Baker Eddy’s flagship which is the Textbook of Christian Science.  Understanding this framework is necessary in order to approach the ever-unfoldment that takes place when a serious study of Christian Science is undertaken.  With this background information the student can read intelligently each piece in its setting, The message of the writings is enormously enhanced once he understands their occasion.  
See  Mary Baker Eddy's Other Writings by John L. Morgan  (1984)SHOW ALL

  	                CHRISTIAN HEALING 

 1	    TEXT:  And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name
  	shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; they
 3	shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall
  	not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall
  	recover. — MARK xvi. 17, 18. 


 6	    History repeats itself; to-morrow grows out of to-
  	day. But Heaven's favors are formidable:  they are
  	calls to higher duties, not discharge from care; and whoso
 9	builds on less than an immortal basis, hath built on sand. 
  	    We have asked, in our selfishness, to wait until the age
  	advanced to a more practical and spiritual religion before
12	arguing with the world the great subject of Christian heal-
  	ing; but our answer was, "Then there were no cross to
  	take up, and less need of publishing the good news." A
15	classic writes, — 

  	                     "At thirty, man suspects himself a fool;
  	                      Knows it at forty, and reforms his plan;
18	                      At fifty, chides his infamous delay,
  	                      Pushes his prudent purpose to resolve." 

  	The difference between religions is, that one religion has a
21	more spiritual basis and tendency than the other; and
 
   
Christian Healing by Mary Baker Eddy                                          2


 1	the religion nearest right is that one. The genius of
  	Christianity is works more than words; a calm and stead-
 3	fast communion with God; a tumult on earth, — religious
  	factions and prejudices arrayed against it, the synagogues
  	as of old closed upon it, while it reasons with the storm,
 6	hurls the thunderbolt of truth, and stills the tempest of
  	error; scourged and condemned at every advancing foot-
  	step, afterwards pardoned and adopted, but never seen
 9	amid the smoke of battle. Said the intrepid reformer,
  	Martin Luther: "I am weary of the world, and the world
  	is weary of me; the parting will be easy." Said the more
12	gentle Melanchthon: "Old Adam is too strong for young
  	Melanchthon." 
  	    And still another Christian hero, ere he passed from
15	his execution to a crown, added his testimony: "I have
  	fought a good fight, . . . I have kept the faith." But
  	Jesus, the model of infinite patience, said: "Come unto
18	me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
  	give you rest." And he said this when bending beneath
  	the malice of the world. But why should the world hate
21	Jesus, the loved of the Father, the loved of Love? It was
  	that his spirituality rebuked their carnality, and gave this
  	proof of Christianity that religions had not given. Again,
24	they knew it was not in the power of eloquence or a dead
  	rite to cast out error and heal the sick. Past, present,
  	future magnifies his name who built, on Truth, eternity's
27	foundation stone, and sprinkled the altar of Love with
  	perpetual incense. 
 
   
Christian Healing by Mary Baker Eddy                                          3


 1	    Such Christianity requires neither hygiene nor drugs
  	wherewith to heal both mind and body; or, lacking these,
 3	to show its helplessness. The primitive privilege of Chris-
  	tianity was to make men better, to cast out error, and heal
  	the sick. It was a proof, more than a profession thereof;
 6	a demonstration, more than a doctrine. It was the foun-
  	dation of right thinking and right acting, and must be
  	reestablished on its former basis. The stone which the
 9	builders rejected must again become the head of the
  	corner. In proportion as the personal and material ele-
  	ment stole into religion, it lost Christianity and the power
12	to heal; and the qualities of God as a person, instead of
  	the divine Principle that begets the quality, engrossed the
  	attention of the ages. In the original text the term God
15	was derived from the word good. Christ is the idea
  	of Truth; Jesus is the name of a man born in a remote
  	province of Judea, — Josephus alludes to several indi-
18	viduals by the name of Jesus. Therefore Christ Jesus was
  	an honorary title; it signified a "good man," which epi-
  	thet the great goodness and wonderful works of our
21	Master more than merited. Because God is the Principle of
  	Christian healing, we must understand in part this divine
  	Principle, or we cannot demonstrate it in part. 
24	    The Scriptures declare that "God is Love, Truth, and
  	Life," — a trinity in unity; not three persons in one, but
  	three statements of one Principle. We cannot tell what is
27	the person of Truth, the body of the infinite, but we know
  	that the Principle is not the person, that the finite cannot
  
   
Christian Healing by Mary Baker Eddy                                         4


1	contain the infinite, that unlimited Mind cannot start from
  	a limited body. The infinite can neither go forth from,
 3	return to, nor remain for a moment within limits. We
  	must give freer breath to thought before calculating the
  	results of an infinite Principle, — the effects of infinite
 6	Love, the compass of infinite Life, the power of infinite
  	Truth. Clothing Deity with personality, we limit the ac-
  	tion of God to the finite senses. We pray for God to re-
 9	member us, even as we ask a person with softening of the
  	brain not to forget his daily cares. We ask infinite wisdom
  	to possess our finite sense, and forgive what He knows
12	deserves to be punished, and to bless what is unfit to be
  	blessed. We expect infinite Love to drop divinity long
  	enough to hate. We expect infinite Truth to mix with
15	error, and become finite for a season; and, after infinite
  	Spirit is forced in and out of matter for an indefinite period,
  	to show itself infinite again. We expect infinite Life to
18	become finite, and have an end; but, after a temporary
  	lapse, to begin anew as infinite Life, without beginning and
  	without end. 
21	    Friends, can we ever arrive at a proper conception of the
  	divine character, and gain a right idea of the Principle of
  	all that is right, with such self-evident contradictions? 
24	God must be our model, or we have none; and if this
  	model is one thing at one time, and the opposite of it at
  	another, can we rely on our model? Or, having faith in it,
27	how can we demonstrate a changing Principle? We can-
  	not:  we shall be consistent with our inconsistent statement
 
   
Christian Healing by Mary Baker Eddy                                          5


 1	of Deity, and so bring out our own erring finite sense of
  	God, and of good and evil blending. While admitting
 3	that God is omnipotent, we shall be limiting His power at
  	every point, — shall be saying He is beaten by certain kinds
  	of food, by changes of temperature, the neglect of a bath,
 6	and so on. Phrenology will be saying the developments of
  	the brain bias a man's character. Physiology will be say-
  	ing, if a man has taken cold by doing good to his neighbor,
 9	God will punish him now for the cold, but he must wait for
  	the reward of his good deed hereafter. One of our lead-
  	ing clergymen startles us by saying that "between Chris-
12	tianity and spiritualism, the question chiefly is concerning
  	the trustworthiness of the communications, and not the
  	doubt of their reality." Does any one think the departed
15	are not departed, but are with us, although we have no
  	evidence of the fact except sleight-of-hand and hallu-
  	cination? 
18	    Such hypotheses ignore Biblical authority, obscure the
  	one grand truth which is constantly covered, in one way
  	or another, from our sight. This truth is, that we are
21	to work out our own salvation, and to meet the responsi-
  	bility of our own thoughts and acts; relying not on the
  	person of God or the person of man to do our work for us,
24	but on the apostle's rule, "I will show thee my faith by
  	my works." This spiritualism would lead our lives to
  	higher issues; it would purify, elevate, and consecrate
27	man; it would teach him that "whatsoever a man soweth,
  	that shall he also reap." The more spiritual we become
 
   
Christian Healing by Mary Baker Eddy                                          6


 1	here, the more are we separated from the world; and
  	should this rule fail hereafter, and we grow more material,
 3	and so come back to the world? When I was told the other
  	day, "People say you are a medium," pardon me if I
  	smiled. The pioneer of something new under the sun is
 6	never hit:  he cannot be; the opinions of people fly too
  	high or too low. From my earliest investigations of the
  	mental phenomenon named mediumship, I knew it was
 9	misinterpreted, and I said it. The spiritualists abused me
  	for it then, and have ever since; but they take pleasure in
  	calling me a medium. I saw the impossibility, in Science,
12	of intercommunion between the so-called dead and the
  	living. When I learned how mind produces disease on the
  	body, I learned how it produces the manifestations ig-
15	norantly imputed to spirits. I saw how the mind's ideals
  	were evolved and made tangible; and it matters not
  	whether that ideal is a flower or a cancer, if the belief is
18	strong enough to manifest it. Man thinks he is a medium
  	of disease; that when he is sick, disease controls his body
  	to whatever manifestation we see. But the fact remains,
21	in metaphysics, that the mind of the individual only can
  	produce a result upon his body. The belief that produces
  	this result may be wholly unknown to the individual, be-
24	cause it is lying back in the unconscious thought, a latent
  	cause producing the effect we see. 
  	    "And these signs shall follow them that believe; In
27	my name shall they cast out devils." The word devil
  	comes from the Greek diabolos; in Hebrew it is belial, and
 
   
Christian Healing by Mary Baker Eddy                                          7


 1	signifies "that which is good for nothing, lust," etc. The
  	signs referred to are the manifestations of the power of
 3	Truth to cast out error; and, correcting error in thought,
  	it produces the harmonious effect on the body. "Them
  	that believe" signifies those who understand God's su-
 6	premacy, — the power of Mind over matter. "The new
  	tongue" is the spiritual meaning as opposed to the material. 
  	It is the language of Soul instead of the senses; it translates
 9	matter into its original language, which is Mind, and gives
  	the spiritual instead of the material signification. It begins
  	with motive, instead of act, where Jesus formed his esti-
12	mate; and there correcting the motive, it corrects the act
  	that results from the motive. The Science of Christianity
  	makes pure the fountain, in order to purify the stream. It
15	begins in mind to heal the body, the same as it begins in
  	motive to correct the act, and through which to judge of it. 
  	The Master of metaphysics, reading the mind of the poor
18	woman who dropped her mite into the treasury, said,
  	"She hath cast in more than they all." Again, he charged
  	home a crime to mind, regardless of any outward act, and
21	sentenced it as our judges would not have done to-day. 
  	Jesus knew that adultery is a crime, and mind is the crim-
  	inal. I wish the age was up to his understanding of these
24	two facts, so important to progress and Christianity. 
  	    "They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any
  	deadly thing, it shall not hurt them." This is an unquali-
27	fied statement of the duty and ability of Christians to heal
  	the sick; and it contains no argument for a creed or doc-
 
   
Christian Healing by Mary Baker Eddy                                          8


 1	trine, it implies no necessity beyond the understanding of
  	God, and obedience to His government, that heals both
 3	mind and body; God, — not a person to whom we should
  	pray to heal the sick, but the Life, Love, and Truth that
  	destroy error and death. Understanding the truth regard-
 6	ing mind and body, knowing that Mind can master sick-
  	ness as well as sin, and carrying out this government over
  	both and bringing out the results of this higher Chris-
 9	tianity, we shall perceive the meaning of the context,
  	 — "They shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall
  	recover." 
12	    The world is slow to perceive individual advancement;
  	but when it reaches the thought that has produced this,
  	then it is willing to be made whole, and no longer quarrels
15	with the individual. Plato did better; he said, "What
  	thou seest, that thou beest." 
  	    The mistaken views entertained of Deity becloud the
18	light of revelation, and suffocate reason by materialism. 
  	When we understand that God is what the Scriptures have
  	declared, — namely, Life, Truth, and Love, — we shall
21	learn to reach heaven through Principle instead of a par-
  	don; and this will make us honest and laborious, knowing
  	that we shall receive only what we have earned. Jesus
24	illustrated this by the parable of the husbandman. If we
  	work to become Christians as honestly and as directly
  	upon a divine Principle, and adhere to the rule of this
27	Principle as directly as we do to the rule of mathematics,
  	we shall be Christian Scientists, and do more than we are
 
   
Christian Healing by Mary Baker Eddy                                          9


 1	now doing, and progress faster than we are now pro-
  	gressing. We should have no anxiety about what is or
 3	what is not the person of God, if we understood the
  	Principle better and employed our thoughts more in dem-
  	onstrating it. We are constantly thinking and talking
 6	on the wrong side of the question. The less said or thought
  	of sin, sickness, or death, the better for mankind, morally
  	and physically. The greatest sinner and the most hope-
 9	less invalid think most of sickness and of sin; but, having
  	learned that this method has not saved them from either,
  	why do they go on thus, and their moral advisers talk for
12	them on the very subjects they would gladly discontinue to
  	bring out in their lives? Contending for the reality of
  	what should disappear is like furnishing fuel for the flames. 
15	Is it a duty for any one to believe that "the curse causeless
  	cannot come"? Then it is a higher duty to know that
  	God never cursed man, His own image and likeness. God
18	never made a wicked man; and man made by God had not
  	a faculty or power underived from his Maker wherewith to
  	make himself wicked. 
21	    The only correct answer to the question, "Who is
  	the author of evil?" is the scientific statement that
  	evil is unreal; that God made all that was made, but
24	He never made sin or sickness, either an error of mind
  	or of body. Life in matter is a dream:  sin, sickness,
  	and death are this dream. Life is Spirit; and when we
27	waken from the dream of life in matter, we shall learn this
  	grand truth of being. St. John saw the vision of life in
 
   
Christian Healing by Mary Baker Eddy                                        10


 1	matter; and he saw it pass away, — an illusion. The
  	dragon that was wroth with the woman, and stood ready
 3	"to devour the child as soon as it was born," was the vision
  	of envy, sensuality, and malice, ready to devour the idea
  	of Truth. But the beast bowed before the Lamb:  it was
 6	supposed to have fought the manhood of God, that Jesus
  	represented; but it fell before the womanhood of God,
  	that presented the highest ideal of Love. Let us re-
 9	member that God — good — is omnipotent; therefore evil
  	is impotent. There is but one side to good, — it has no
  	evil side; there is but one side to reality, and that is the
12	good side. 
  	    God is All, and in all:  that finishes the question of
  	a good and a bad side to existence. Truth is the real;
15	error is the unreal. You will gather the importance of
  	this saying, when sorrow seems to come, if you will look
  	on the bright side; for sorrow endureth but for the night,
18	and joy cometh with the light. Then will your sorrow be
  	a dream, and your waking the reality, even the triumph
  	of Soul over sense. If you wish to be happy, argue with
21	yourself on the side of happiness; take the side you wish
  	to carry, and be careful not to talk on both sides, or to
  	argue stronger for sorrow than for joy. You are the at-
24	torney for the case, and will win or lose according to your
  	plea. 
  	    As the mountain hart panteth for the water brooks, so
27	panteth my heart for the true fount and Soul's baptism. 
  	Earth's fading dreams are empty streams, her fountains
  
   
Christian Healing by Mary Baker Eddy                                        11


1	play in borrowed sunbeams, her plumes are plucked from
  	the wings of vanity. Did we survey the cost of sublunary
 3	joy, we then should gladly waken to see it was unreal. A
  	dream calleth itself a dreamer, but when the dream has
  	passed, man is seen wholly apart from the dream. 
 6	    We are in the midst of a revolution; physics are yield-
  	ing slowly to metaphysics; mortal mind rebels at its own
  	boundaries; weary of matter, it would catch the meaning
 9	of Spirit. The only immortal superstructure is built on
  	Truth; her modest tower rises slowly, but it stands and is
  	the miracle of the hour, though it may seem to the age like
12	the great pyramid of Egypt, — a miracle in stone. The
  	fires of ancient proscription burn upon the altars of to-day;
  	he who has suffered from intolerance is the first to be in-
15	tolerant. Homoeopathy may not recover from the heel of
  	allopathy before lifting its foot against its neighbor, meta-
  	physics, although homoeopathy has laid the foundation
18	stone of mental healing; it has established this axiom,
  	"The less medicine the better," and metaphysics adds,
  	"until you arrive at no medicine." When you have
21	reached this high goal you have learned that proportion-
  	ately as matter went out and Mind came in as the remedy,
  	was its potency. Metaphysics places all cause and cure
24	as mind; differing in this from homoeopathy, where cause
  	and cure are supposed to be both mind and matter. Meta-
  	physics requires mind imbued with Truth to heal the sick;
27	hence the Christianity of metaphysical healing, and this
  	excellence above other systems. The higher attenuations
 
   
Christian Healing by Mary Baker Eddy                                        12


 1	of homoeopathy contain no medicinal properties, and
  	thus it is found out that Mind instead of matter heals
 3	the sick. 
  	    While the matter-physician feels the pulse, examines
  	the tongue, etc., to learn what matter is doing independent
 6	of mind, when it is self-evident it can do nothing, the
  	metaphysician goes to the fount to govern the streams;
  	he diagnoses disease as mind, the basis of all action, and
 9	cures it thus when matter cannot cure it, showing he was
  	right. Thus it was we discovered that all physical effects
  	originate in mind before they can become manifest as
12	matter; we learned from the Scripture and Christ's healing
  	that God, directly or indirectly, through His providence
  	or His laws, never made a man sick. When studying the
15	two hundred and sixty remedies of the Jahr, the character-
  	istic peculiarities and the general and moral symptoms
  	requiring the remedy, we saw at once the concentrated
18	power of thought brought to bear on the pharmacy of
  	homoeopathy, which made the infinitesimal dose effectual. 
  	To prepare the medicine requires time and thought; you
21	cannot shake the poor drug without the involuntary
  	thought, "I am making you more powerful," and the
  	sequel proves it; the higher attenuations prove that the
24	power was the thought, for when the drug disappears by
  	your process the power remains, and homoeopathists ad-
  	mit the higher attenuations are the most powerful. The
27	only objection to giving the unmedicated sugar is, it would
  	be dishonest and divide one's faith apparently between
 
   
Christian Healing by Mary Baker Eddy                                        13


 1	matter and mind, and so weaken both points of action;
  	taking hold of both horns of the dilemma, we should work
 3	at opposites and accomplish less on either side. 
  	    The pharmacy of homoeopathy is reducing the one hun-
  	dredth part of a grain of medicine two thousand times,
 6	shaking the preparation thirty times at every attenuation. 
  	There is a moral to this medicine; the higher natures are
  	reached soonest by the higher attenuations, until the fact is
 9	found out they have taken no medicine, and then the so-
  	called drug loses its power. We have attenuated a grain of
  	aconite until it was no longer aconite, then dropped into
12	a tumblerful of water a single drop of this harmless solu-
  	tion, and administering one teaspoonful of this water at
  	intervals of half an hour have cured the incipient stage of
15	fever. The highest attenuation we ever attained was to
  	leave the drug out of the question, using only the sugar of
  	milk; and with this original dose we cured an inveterate
18	case of dropsy. After these experiments you cannot be
  	surprised that we resigned the imaginary medicine alto-
  	gether, and honestly employed Mind as the only curative
21	Principle. 
  	    What are the foundations of metaphysical healing? 
  	Mind, divine Science, the truth of being that casts out
24	error and thus heals the sick. You can readily perceive
  	this mental system of healing is the antipode of mesmer-
  	ism, Beelzebub. Mesmerism makes one disease while it is
27	supposed to cure another, and that one is worse than the
  	first; mesmerism is one lie getting the better of another,
 
   
Christian Healing by Mary Baker Eddy                                        14


 1	and the bigger lie occupying the field for a period; it is the
  	fight of beasts, in which the bigger animal beats the lesser;
 3	in fine, much ado about nothing. Medicine will not arrive
  	at the science of treating disease until disease is treated
  	mentally and man is healed morally and physically. What
 6	has physiology, hygiene, or physics done for Christianity
  	but to obscure the divine Principle of healing and en-
  	courage faith in an opposite direction? 
 9	    Great caution should be exercised in the choice of
  	physicians. If you employ a medical practitioner, be sure
  	he is a learned man and skilful; never trust yourself in the
12	hands of a quack. In proportion as a physician is enlight-
  	ened and liberal is he equipped with Truth, and his efforts
  	are salutary; ignorance and charlatanism are miserable
15	medical aids. Metaphysical healing includes infinitely
  	more than merely to know that mind governs the body and
  	the method of a mental practice. The preparation for a
18	metaphysical practitioner is the most arduous task I ever
  	performed. You must first mentally educate and develop
  	the spiritual sense or perceptive faculty by which one learns
21	the metaphysical treatment of disease; you must teach
  	them how to learn, together with what they learn. I
  	waited many years for a student to reach the ability to
24	teach; it included more than they understood. 
  	    Metaphysical or divine Science reveals the Principle and
  	method of perfection, — how to attain a mind in harmony
27	with God, in sympathy with all that is right and opposed
  	to all that is wrong, and a body governed by this mind. 
 
   
Christian Healing by Mary Baker Eddy                                        15


 1	    Christian Science repudiates the evidences of the senses
  	and rests upon the supremacy of God. Christian healing,
 3	established upon this Principle, vindicates the omnipo-
  	tence of the Supreme Being by employing no other remedy
  	than Truth, Life, and Love, understood, to heal all ills
 6	that flesh is heir to. It places no faith in hygiene or drugs;
  	it reposes all faith in mind, in spiritual power divinely
  	directed. By rightly understanding the power of mind
 9	over matter, it enables mind to govern matter, as it rises
  	to that supreme sense that shall "take up serpents" un-
  	harmed, and "if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not
12	hurt them." Christian Science explains to any one's per-
  	fect satisfaction the so-called miracles recorded in the
  	Bible. Ah! why should man deny all might to the divine
15	Mind, and claim another mind perpetually at war with this
  	Mind, when at the same time he calls God almighty and
  	admits in statement what he denies in proof? You pray
18	for God to heal you, but should you expect this when you
  	are acting oppositely to your prayer, trying everything else
  	besides God, and believe that sickness is something He
21	cannot reach, but medicine can? as if drugs were superior
  	to Deity. 
  	    The Scripture says, "Ye ask, and receive not, because
24	ye ask amiss;" and is it not asking amiss to pray for a
  	proof of divine power, that you have little or no faith in
  	because you do not understand God, the Principle of
27	this proof? Prayer will be inaudible, and works more
  	than words, as we understand God better. The Lord's
  
   
Christian Healing by Mary Baker Eddy                                        16


1	Prayer, understood in its spiritual sense, and given its
  	spiritual version, can never be repeated too often for the
 3	benefit of all who, having ears, hear and understand. 
  	Metaphysical Science teaches us there is no other Life,
  	substance, and intelligence but God. How much are you
 6	demonstrating of this statement? which to you hath the
  	most actual substance, — wealth and fame, or Truth and
  	Love? See to it, O Christian Scientists, ye who have
 9	named the name of Christ with a higher meaning, that you
  	abide by your statements, and abound in Love and Truth,
  	for unless you do this you are not demonstrating the
12	Science of metaphysical healing. The immeasurable
  	Life and Love will occupy your affections, come nearer
  	your hearts and into your homes when you touch but the
15	hem of Truth's garment. 
  	    A word about the five personal senses, and we will leave
  	our abstract subjects for this time. The only evidence we
18	have of sin, sickness, or death is furnished by these senses;
  	but how can we rely on their testimony when the senses
  	afford no evidence of Truth? They can neither see, hear,
21	feel, taste, nor smell God; and shall we call that reliable
  	evidence through which we can gain no understanding of
  	Truth, Life, and Love? Again, shall we say that God
24	hath created those senses through which it is impossible to
  	approach Him? Friends, it is of the utmost importance
  	that we look into these subjects, and gain our evidences of
27	Life from the correct source. Jesus said, "I am the way,
  	the truth, and the life.  No man cometh unto the Father,
 
   
Christian Healing by Mary Baker Eddy                                        17


1	but by me," — through the footsteps of Truth. Not by the
  	senses — the lusts of the flesh, the pride of life, envy,
 3	hypocrisy, or malice, the pleasures or the pains of the
  	personal senses — does man get nearer his divine nature
  	and present the image and likeness of God. How, then,
 6	can it be that material man and the personal senses were
  	created by God? Love makes the spiritual man, lust
  	makes the material so-called man, and God made all that
 9	was made; therefore the so-called material man and these
  	personal senses, with all their evidences of sin, sickness,
  	and death, are but a dream, — they are not the realities of
12	life; and we shall all learn this as we awake to behold His
  	likeness. 
  	    The allegory of Adam, when spiritually understood,
15	explains this dream of material life, even the dream of
  	the "deep sleep" that fell upon Adam when the spiritual
  	senses were hushed by material sense that before had
18	claimed audience with a serpent. Sin, sickness, and
  	death never proceeded from Truth, Life, and Love. Sin,
  	sickness, and death are error; they are not Truth, and
21	therefore are not TRUE. Sin is a supposed mental condi-
  	tion; sickness and death are supposed physical ones, but
  	all appeared through the false supposition of life and in-
24	telligence in matter. Sin was first in the allegory, and
  	sickness and death were produced by sin. Then was not
  	sin of mental origin, and did not mind originate the de-
27	lusion? If sickness and death came through mind, so
  	must they go; and are we not right in ruling them out of
 
   
Christian Healing by Mary Baker Eddy                                        18


1	mind to destroy their effects upon the body, that both
  	mortal mind and mortal body shall yield to the govern-
 3	ment of God, immortal Mind? In the words of Paul,
  	that "the old man" shall be "put off," mortality shall
  	disappear and immortality be brought to light. People are
 6	willing to put new wine into old bottles; but if this be
  	done, the bottle will break and the wine be spilled. 
  	    There is no connection between Spirit and matter. 
 9	Spirit never entered and it never escaped from matter;
  	good and evil never dwelt together. There is in reality
  	but the good:  Truth is the real; error, the unreal. We
12	cannot put the new wine into old bottles. If that could be
  	done, the world would accept our sentiments; it would will-
  	ingly adopt the new idea, if that idea could be reconciled
15	with the old belief; it would put the new wine into the
  	old bottle if it could prevent its effervescing and keep it
  	from popping out until it became popular. 
18	    The doctrine of atonement never did anything for sick-
  	ness or claimed to reach that woe; but Jesus' mission
  	extended to the sick as much as to the sinner:  he estab-
21	lished his Messiahship on the basis that Christ, Truth,
  	heals the sick. Pride, appetites, passions, envy, and malice
  	will cease to assert their Caesar sway when metaphysics is
24	understood; and religion at the sick-bed will be no blind
  	Samson shorn of his locks. You must admit that what is
  	termed death has been produced by a belief alone. The
27	Oxford students proved this:  they killed a man by no other
  	means than making him believe he was bleeding to death. 
 
   
Christian Healing by Mary Baker Eddy                                        19


 1	A felon was delivered to them for experiment to test the
  	power of mind over body; and they did test it, and proved
 3	it. They proved it not in part, but as a whole; they
  	proved that every organ of the system, every function of
  	the body, is governed directly and entirely by mind, else
 6	those functions could not have been stopped by mind in-
  	dependently of material conditions. Had they changed
  	the felon's belief that he was bleeding to death, removed
 9	the bandage from his eyes, and he had seen that a vein had
  	not been opened, he would have resuscitated. The illusive
  	origin of disease is not an exception to the origin of all
12	mortal things. Spirit is causation, and the ancient ques-
  	tion, Which is first, the egg or the bird? is answered by
  	the Scripture, He made "every plant of the field before it
15	was in the earth." 
  	    Heaven's signet is Love. We need it to stamp our re-
  	ligions and to spiritualize thought, motive, and endeavor. 
18	Tireless Being, patient of man's procrastination, affords
  	him fresh opportunities every hour; but if Science makes
  	a more spiritual demand, bidding man go up higher, he is
21	impatient perhaps, or doubts the feasibility of the demand. 
  	But let us work more earnestly in His vineyard, and accord-
  	ing to the model on the mount, bearing the cross meekly
24	along the rugged way, into the wilderness, up the steep
  	ascent, on to heaven, making our words golden rays in the
  	sunlight of our deeds; and "these signs shall follow them
27	that believe; . . . they shall lay hands on the sick, and
  	they shall recover." 
 
   
Christian Healing by Mary Baker Eddy                                        20


 1	    The following hymn was sung at the close: — 

  	                "Oh, could we speak the matchless worth,
 3	                 Oh, could we sound the glories forth,
  	                     Which in our Saviour shine,
  	                 We'd soar and touch the heavenly strings,
 6	                 And vie with Gabriel, while he sings,
  	                 In notes almost divine."SHOW ALL