0.0 – Christian Science Publication Contents

MENTAL PRACTICE 

12	    It is admitted that mortals think wickedly and act
  	wickedly:  it is beginning to be seen by thinkers, that
  	mortals think also after a sickly fashion. In common
15	parlance, one person feels sick, another feels wicked. A
  	third person knows that if he would remove this feeling
  	in either case, in the one he must change his patient's
18	consciousness of dis-ease and suffering to a consciousness
  	of ease and loss of suffering; while in the other he must
  	change the patient's sense of sinning at ease to a sense of
21	discomfort in sin and peace in goodness. 
  	    This is Christian Science:  that mortal mind makes
  	sick, and immortal Mind makes well; that mortal mind
24	makes sinners, while immortal Mind makes saints; that
  	a state of health is but a state of consciousness made mani-
  	fest on the body, and vice versa; that while one person
27	feels wickedly and acts wickedly, another knows that if
  	he can change this evil sense and consciousness to a good
  	sense, or conscious goodness, the fruits of goodness will
30	follow, and he has reformed the sinner. 

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  1	    Now, demonstrate this rule, which obtains in every
  	line of mental healing, and you will find that a good rule
 3	works one way, and a false rule the opposite way. 
  	    Let us suppose that there is a sick person whom an-
  	other would heal mentally.... The healer begins by mental
 6	argument. He mentally says, "You are well, and you
  	know it;" and he supports this silent mental force by
  	audible explanation, attestation, and precedent. His
 9	mental and oral arguments aim to refute the sick man's
  	thoughts, words, and actions, in certain directions, and
  	turn them into channels of Truth. He persists in this
12	course until the patient's mind yields, and the harmonious
  	thought has the full control over this mind on the point
  	at issue. The end is attained, and the patient says and
15	feels, "I am well, and I know it." 
  	    This mental practitioner has changed his patient's
  	consciousness from sickness to health. The patient's
18	mental state is now the diametrical opposite of what it
  	was when the mental practitioner undertook to transform
  	it, and he is improved morally and physically. 
21	    That this mental method has power and bears fruit,
  	is patent both to the conscientious Christian Scientist and
  	the observer. Both should understand with equal clear-
24	ness, that if this mental process and power be reversed,
  	and people believe that a man is sick and knows it, and
  	speak of him as being sick, put it into the minds of others
27	that he is sick, publish it in the newspapers that he is
  	failing, and persist in this action of mind over mind, it
  	follows that he will believe that he is sick, — and Jesus
30	said it would be according to the woman's belief; but if
  	with the certainty of Science he knows that an error of
  	belief has not the power of Truth, and cannot, does

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 1	not, produce the slightest effect, it has no power over
  	him. Thus a mental malpractitioner may lose his
 3	power to harm by a false mental argument; for it
  	gives one opportunity to handle the error, and when
  	mastering it one gains in the rules of metaphysics, and
 6	thereby learns more of its divine Principle. Error pro-
  	duces physical sufferings, and these sufferings show
  	the fundamental Principle of Christian Science; namely,
 9	that error and sickness are one, and Truth is their
  	remedy. 
  	    The evil-doer can do little at removing the effect of sin
12	on himself, unless he believes that sin has produced the
  	effect and knows he is a sinner; or, knowing that he is a
  	sinner, if he denies it, the good effect is lost. Either of
15	these states of mind will stultify the power to heal men-
  	tally. This accounts for many helpless mental practi-
  	tioners and mysterious diseases. 
18	    Again: If error is the cause of disease, Truth being
  	the cure, denial of this fact in one instance and
  	acknowledgment of it in another saps one's under-
21	standing of the Science of Mind-healing. Such denial
  	dethrones demonstration, baffles the student of Mind-
  	healing, and divorces his work from Science. Such de-
24	nial also contradicts the doctrine that we must mentally
  	struggle against both evil and disease, and is like saying
  	that five times ten are fifty while ten times five are not
27	fifty; as if the multiplication of the same two numbers
  	would not yield the same product whichever might serve
  	as the multiplicand. 
30	    Who would tell another of a crime that he himself is
  	committing, or call public attention to that crime? The
  	belief in evil and in the process of evil, holds the issues
 
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1	of death to the evil-doer. It takes away a man's proper
  	sense of good, and gives him a false sense of both evil
 3	and good. It inflames envy, passion, evil-speaking, and
  	strife. It reverses Christian Science in all things. It
  	causes the victim to believe that he is advancing while
 6	injuring himself and others. This state of false conscious-
  	ness in many cases causes the victim great physical suffer-
  	ing; and conviction of his wrong state of feeling reforms
 9	him, and so heals him:  or, failing of conviction and re-
  	form, he becomes morally paralyzed — in other words,
  	a moral idiot. 
12	    In this state of misled consciousness, one is ready to
  	listen complacently to audible falsehoods that once he
  	would have resisted and loathed; and this, because the
15	false seems true. The malicious mental argument and
  	its action on the mind of the perpetrator, is fatal, morally
  	and physically. From the effects of mental malpractice
18	the subject scarcely awakes in time, and must suffer its
  	full penalty after death. This sin against divine Science
  	is cancelled only through human agony:  the measure it
21	has meted must be remeasured to it. 
  	    The crimes committed under this new regime of mind-
  	power, when brought to light, will make stout hearts quail. 
24	Its mystery protects it now, for it is not yet known. Error
  	is more abstract than Truth. Even the healing Principle,
  	whose power seems inexplicable, is not so obscure; for
27	this is the power of God, and good should seem more
  	natural than evil. 
  	    I shall not forget the cost of investigating, for this age,
30	the methods and power of error. While the ways, means,
  	and potency of Truth had flowed into my consciousness
  	as easily as dawns the morning light and shadows flee,

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 1	the metaphysical mystery of error — its hidden paths,
  	purpose, and fruits — at first defied me. I was say-
 3	ing all the time, "Come not thou into the secret" — 
  	but at length took up the research according to God's
  	command. 
 6	    Streams which purify, necessarily have pure fountains;
  	while impure streams flow from corrupt sources. Here,
  	divine light, logic, and revelation coincide. 
 9	    Science proves, beyond cavil, that the tree is known
  	by its fruit; that mind reaches its own ideal, and cannot
  	be separated from it. I respect that moral sense which
12	is sufficiently strong to discern what it believes, and to say,
  	if it must, "I discredit Mind with having the power to
  	heal." This individual disbelieves in Mind-healing, and
15	is consistent. But, alas! for the mistake of believing in
  	mental healing, claiming full faith in the divine Principle,
  	and saying, "I am a Christian Scientist," while doing
18	unto others what we would resist to the hilt if done unto
  	ourselves. 
  	    May divine Love so permeate the affections of all those
21	who have named the name of Christ in its fullest sense,
  	that no counteracting influence can hinder their growth
  	or taint their examples. 
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