0.0 – Science & Health by Mary Baker Eddy Chapter 4 – Christian Science Versus Spiritualism – 1910 Edition

The fourth chapter is CHRISTIAN SCIENCE VERSUS SPIRITUALISM and it handles the belief of mediumship in any form. If you think of God working through a person He is requiring a medium, but if you think of God operating as what is called you and me, that is what is meant by the term Christian Science. We are not persons who have to take the ideas of God and do something with them, rather we are the direct operating of  these ideas of God  . Just as when we are honest, or intelligent, or loving, these qualities operate as you and me, not through us as persons. A Christian is not someone with a will of his own, he is a spiritual Scientist. There is not really a person in the picture; there is only the direct operation of God. It is this that uncovers or unmasks the lie or false influence.
~ DISSOLVING BARRIERS, The Healing Work of Christian Science by John L. MorganSHOW ALL

     Chapter 4                                                                       70

  	Christian Science versus Spiritualism 

  	And when they shall say unto you,
  	Seek unto them that have familiar spirits,
  	And unto wizards that peep and that mutter;
  	Should not a people seek unto their God? — Isaiah. 

  	Verily, verily, I say unto you,
  	If a man keep my saying, he shall never see death. 
  	Then said the Jews unto him,
  	Now we know that thou hast a devil. — John. 

 1	    Mortal existence is an enigma. Every day is a
  	mystery. The testimony of the corporeal senses
 3	cannot inform us what is real and what is delusive, but
  	the revelations of Christian Science unlock the  treasures
  	of Truth. Whatever is false or sinful can	The infinite
 6	never enter the atmosphere of Spirit. There	one Spirit 
  	is but one Spirit. Man is never God, but spiritual man,
  	made in God's likeness, reflects God. In this scientific
 9	reflection the Ego and the Father are inseparable. The
  	supposition that corporeal beings are spirits, or that there
  	are good and evil spirits, is a mistake. 
12	    The divine Mind maintains all identities, from a blade
  	of grass to a star, as distinct and eternal. The	Real and
  	questions are:  What are God's identities? 	unreal identity 
15	What is Soul? Does life or soul exist in the thing
  	formed? 
 
      Science and Health – Christian Science versus Spiritualism         71

 1	    Nothing is real and eternal, — nothing is Spirit, — but
  	God and His idea. Evil has no reality. It is neither
 3	person, place, nor thing, but is simply a belief, an illusion
  	of material sense. 
  	    The identity, or idea, of all reality continues forever;
 6	but Spirit, or the divine Principle of all, is not in Spirit's
  	formations. Soul is synonymous with Spirit, God, the
  	creative, governing, infinite Principle outside of finite form,
 9	which forms only reflect. 
  	    Close your eyes, and you may dream that you see a
  	flower, — that you touch and smell it. Thus you learn
12	that the flower is a product of the so-called	Dream-
  	mind, a formation of thought rather than of	lessons 
  	matter. Close your eyes again, and you may see land-
15	scapes, men, and women. Thus you learn that these
  	also are images, which mortal mind holds and evolves
  	and which simulate mind, life, and intelligence. From
18	dreams also you learn that neither mortal mind nor
  	matter is the image or likeness of God, and that im-
  	mortal Mind is not in matter. 
21	    When the Science of Mind is understood, spiritualism
  	will be found mainly erroneous, having no scientific basis
  	nor origin, no proof nor power outside of	Found
24	human testimony. It is the offspring of the	wanting 
  	physical senses. There is no sensuality in Spirit. I never
  	could believe in spiritualism. 
27	    The basis and structure of spiritualism are alike ma-
  	terial and physical. Its spirits are so many corporealities,
  	limited and finite in character and quality. Spiritualism
30	therefore presupposes Spirit, which is ever infinite, to be
  	a corporeal being, a finite form, — a theory contrary to
  	Christian Science. 
 
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 1	    There is but one spiritual existence, — the Life of
  	which corporeal sense can take no cognizance. The
 3	divine Principle of man speaks through immortal sense. 
  	If a material body — in other words, mortal, material
  	sense — were permeated by Spirit, that body would
 6	disappear to mortal sense, would be deathless. A con-
  	dition precedent to communion with Spirit is the gain of
  	spiritual life. 
 9	    So-called spirits are but corporeal communicators. As
  	light destroys darkness and in the place of darkness all
  	is light, so (in absolute Science) Soul, or God,	Spirits
12	is the only truth-giver to man. Truth de-	obsolete 
  	stroys mortality, and brings to light immortality. Mortal
  	belief (the material sense of life) and immortal Truth
15	(the spiritual sense) are the tares and the wheat, which
  	are not united by progress, but separated. 
  	    Perfection is not expressed through imperfection. 
18	Spirit is not made manifest through matter, the anti-
  	pode of Spirit. Error is not a convenient sieve through
  	which truth can be strained. 
21	    God, good, being ever present, it follows in divine
  	logic that evil, the suppositional opposite of good, is never
  	present. In Science, individual good derived	Scientific
24	from God, the infinite All-in-all, may flow	phenomena 
  	from the departed to mortals; but evil is neither com-
  	municable nor scientific. A sinning, earthly mortal is
27	not the reality of Life nor the medium through which
  	truth passes to earth. The joy of intercourse becomes
  	the jest of sin, when evil and suffering are communicable. 
30	Not personal intercommunion but divine law is the com-
  	municator of truth, health, and harmony to earth and
  	humanity. As readily can you mingle fire and frost as
 

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 1	Spirit and matter. In either case, one does not support
  	the other. 
 3	    Spiritualism calls one person, living in this world, ma-
  	terial, but another, who has died to-day a sinner and sup-
  	posedly will return to earth to-morrow, it terms a spirit. 
 6	The fact is that neither the one nor the other is infinite
  	Spirit, for Spirit is God, and man is His likeness. 
  	    The belief that one man, as spirit, can control an-
 9	other man, as matter, upsets both the individuality and
  	the Science of man, for man is image. God	One
  	controls man, and God is the only Spirit. Any	government 
12	other control or attraction of so-called spirit is a mortal
  	belief, which ought to be known by its fruit, — the repe-
  	tition of evil. 
15	    If Spirit, or God, communed with mortals or controlled
  	them through electricity or any other form of matter, the
  	divine order and the Science of omnipotent, omnipresent
18	Spirit would be destroyed. 
  	    The belief that material bodies return to dust, hereafter
  	to rise up as spiritual bodies with material sensations and
21	desires, is incorrect. Equally incorrect is the	Incorrect
  	belief that spirit is confined in a finite, ma-	theories 
  	terial body, from which it is freed by death, and that, when
24	it is freed from the material body, spirit retains the sensa-
  	tions belonging to that body. 
  	    It is a grave mistake to suppose that matter is any part
27	of the reality of intelligent existence, or that Spirit and
  	matter, intelligence and non-intelligence, can	No
  	commune together. This error Science will	mediumship 
30	destroy. The sensual cannot be made the mouthpiece of
  	the spiritual, nor can the finite become the channel of
  	the infinite. There is no communication between so-
 

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 1	called material existence and spiritual life which is not
  	subject to death. 
 3	    To be on communicable terms with Spirit, persons must
  	be free from organic bodies; and their return to a mate-
  	rial condition, after having once left it, would	Opposing
 6	be as impossible as would be the restoration	conditions 
  	to its original condition of the acorn, already absorbed
  	into a sprout which has risen above the soil. The seed
 9	which has germinated has a new form and state of exist-
  	ence. When here or hereafter the belief of life in matter
  	is extinct, the error which has held the belief dissolves
12	with the belief, and never returns to the old condition. 
  	No correspondence nor communion can exist between
  	persons in such opposite dreams as the belief of having
15	died and left a material body and the belief of still living
  	in an organic, material body. 
  	    The caterpillar, transformed into a beautiful insect,
18	is no longer a worm, nor does the insect return to
  	fraternize with or control the worm. Such	Bridgeless
  	a backward transformation is impossible in	division 
21	Science. Darkness and light, infancy and manhood,
  	sickness and health, are opposites, — different beliefs,
  	which never blend. Who will say that infancy can utter
24	the ideas of manhood, that darkness can represent light,
  	that we are in Europe when we are in the opposite hemi-
  	sphere? There is no bridge across the gulf which divides
27	two such opposite conditions as the spiritual, or incor-
  	poreal, and the physical, or corporeal. 
  	    In Christian Science there is never a retrograde step,
30	never a return to positions outgrown. The so-called dead
  	and living cannot commune together, for they are in
  	separate states of existence, or consciousness. 
 
 
 
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 1	    This simple truth lays bare the mistaken assumption
  	that man dies as matter but comes to life as spirit. The
 3	so-called dead, in order to reappear to those	Unscientific
  	still in the existence cognized by the physical	investiture 
  	senses, would need to be tangible and material, — to have
 6	a material investiture, — or the material senses could take
  	no cognizance of the so-called dead. 
  	    Spiritualism would transfer men from the spiritual sense
 9	of existence back into its material sense. This gross mate-
  	rialism is scientifically impossible, since to infinite Spirit
  	there can be no matter. 
12	    Jesus said of Lazarus: "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth;
  	but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep." Jesus
  	restored Lazarus by the understanding that	Raising
15	Lazarus had never died, not by an admis-	the dead 
  	sion that his body had died and then lived again. Had
  	Jesus believed that Lazarus had lived or died in his
18	body, the Master would have stood on the same plane of
  	belief as those who buried the body, and he could not have
  	resuscitated it. 
21	    When you can waken yourself or others out of the belief
  	that all must die, you can then exercise Jesus' spiritual
  	power to reproduce the presence of those who have thought
24	they died, — but not otherwise. 
  	    There is one possible moment, when those living on the
  	earth and those called dead, can commune together, and
27	that is the moment previous to the transition,	Vision of
  	 — the moment when the link between their op-	the dying 
  	posite beliefs is being sundered. In the vestibule through
30	which we pass from one dream to another dream, or
  	when we awake from earth's sleep to the grand verities
  	of Life, the departing may hear the glad welcome of those
 
 
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 1	who have gone before. The ones departing may whisper
  	this vision, name the face that smiles on them and the
 3	hand which beckons them, as one at Niagara, with eyes
  	open only to that wonder, forgets all else and breathes
  	aloud his rapture. 
 6	    When being is understood, Life will be recognized as
  	neither material nor finite, but as infinite, — as God,
  	universal good; and the belief that life, or	Real Life
 9	mind, was ever in a finite form, or good in	is God 
  	evil, will be destroyed. Then it will be understood that
  	Spirit never entered matter and was therefore never
12	raised from matter. When advanced to spiritual being
  	and the understanding of God, man can no longer com-
  	mune with matter; neither can he return to it, any more
15	than a tree can return to its seed. Neither will man seem
  	to be corporeal, but he will be an individual conscious-
  	ness, characterized by the divine Spirit as idea, not matter. 
18	    Suffering, sinning, dying beliefs are unreal. When
  	divine Science is universally understood, they will have
  	no power over man, for man is immortal and lives by
21	divine authority. 
  	    The sinless joy, — the perfect harmony and immortality
  	of Life, possessing unlimited divine beauty and goodness
24	without a single bodily pleasure or pain, — 	Immaterial
  	constitutes the only veritable, indestructible	pleasure 
  	man, whose being is spiritual. This state of existence
27	is scientific and intact, — a perfection discernible only
  	by those who have the final understanding of Christ in
  	divine Science. Death can never hasten this state of
30	existence, for death must be overcome, not submitted to,
  	before immortality appears. 
  	    The recognition of Spirit and of infinity comes not
 

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  1	suddenly here or hereafter. The pious Polycarp said:
  	"I cannot turn at once from good to evil." Neither do
 3	other mortals accomplish the change from error to truth
  	at a single bound. 
  	    Existence continues to be a belief of corporeal sense
 6	until the Science of being is reached. Error brings its
  	own self-destruction both here and hereafter,	Second
  	for mortal mind creates its own physical con-	death 
 9	ditions. Death will occur on the next plane of existence
  	as on this, until the spiritual understanding of Life is
  	reached. Then, and not until then, will it be demon-
12	strated that "the second death hath no power." 
  	    The period required for this dream of material life,
  	embracing its so-called pleasures and pains, to vanish
15	from consciousness, "knoweth no man . . . 	A dream
  	neither the Son, but the Father." This period	vanishing 
  	will be of longer or shorter duration according to the
18	tenacity of error. Of what advantage, then, would it be
  	to us, or to the departed, to prolong the material state and
  	so prolong the illusion either of a soul inert or of a sinning,
21	suffering sense, — a so-called mind fettered to matter. 
  	    Even if communications from spirits to mortal con-
  	sciousness were possible, such communications would
24	grow beautifully less with every advanced stage	Progress and
  	of existence. The departed would gradually	purgatory 
  	rise above ignorance and materiality, and Spiritualists
27	would outgrow their beliefs in material spiritualism. 
  	Spiritism consigns the so-called dead to a state resembling
  	that of blighted buds, — to a wretched purgatory, where
30	the chances of the departed for improvement narrow
  	into nothing and they return to their old standpoints of
  	matter. 
 

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 1	    The decaying flower, the blighted bud, the gnarled oak,
  	the ferocious beast, — like the discords of disease, sin,
 3	and death, — are unnatural. They are the fal-	Unnatural
  	sities of sense, the changing deflections of mor-	deflections 
  	tal mind; they are not the eternal realities of Mind. 
 6	    How unreasonable is the belief that we are wearing
  	out life and hastening to death, and that at the same
  	time we are communing with immortality! 	Absurd
 9	If the departed are in rapport with mor-	oracles 
  	tality, or matter, they are not spiritual, but must still
  	be mortal, sinning, suffering, and dying. Then why
12	look to them — even were communication possible — for
  	proofs of immortality, and accept them as oracles? Com-
  	munications gathered from ignorance are pernicious in
15	tendency. 
  	    Spiritualism with its material accompaniments would
  	destroy the supremacy of Spirit. If Spirit pervades all
18	space, it needs no material method for the transmission
  	of messages. Spirit needs no wires nor electricity in order
  	to be omnipresent. 
21	    Spirit is not materially tangible. How then can it
  	communicate with man through electric, material effects? 
  	How can the majesty and omnipotence of	Spirit
24	Spirit be lost? God is not in the medley	intangible 
  	where matter cares for matter, where spiritism makes
  	many gods, and hypnotism and electricity are claimed
27	to be the agents of God's government. 
  	    Spirit blesses man, but man cannot "tell whence
  	it cometh." By it the sick are healed, the sorrowing are
30	comforted, and the sinning are reformed. These are the
  	effects of one universal God, the invisible good dwelling
  	in eternal Science. 
 

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 1	    The act of describing disease — its symptoms, locality,
  	and fatality — is not scientific. Warning people against
 3	death is an error that tends to frighten into	Thought
  	death those who are ignorant of Life as God. 	regarding death 
  	Thousands of instances could be cited of health restored
 6	by changing the patient's thoughts regarding death. 
  	    A scientific mental method is more sanitary than the
  	use of drugs, and such a mental method produces perma-
 9	nent health. Science must go over the whole	Fallacious
  	ground, and dig up every seed of error's sow-	hypotheses 
  	ing. Spiritualism relies upon human beliefs and hy-
12	potheses. Christian Science removes these beliefs and
  	hypotheses through the higher understanding of God, for
  	Christian Science, resting on divine Principle, not on ma-
15	terial personalities, in its revelation of immortality, intro-
  	duces the harmony of being. 
  	    Jesus cast out evil spirits, or false beliefs. The Apostle
18	Paul bade men have the Mind that was in the Christ. 
  	Jesus did his own work by the one Spirit. He said: "My
  	Father worketh hitherto, and I work." He never de-
21	scribed disease, so far as can be learned from the Gospels,
  	but he healed disease. 
  	    The unscientific practitioner says: "You are ill. Your
24	brain is overtaxed, and you must rest. Your body is
  	weak, and it must be strengthened. You have	Mistaken
  	nervous prostration, and must be treated for it." 	methods 
27	Science objects to all this, contending for the rights of in-
  	telligence and asserting that Mind controls body and brain. 
  	    Mind-science teaches that mortals need "not be weary
30	in well doing." It dissipates fatigue in doing	Divine
  	good. Giving does not impoverish us in the	strength 
  	service of our Maker, neither does withholding enrich us. 
 

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 1	We have strength in proportion to our apprehension of
  	the truth, and our strength is not lessened by giving
 3	utterance to truth. A cup of coffee or tea is not the equal
  	of truth, whether for the inspiration of a sermon or for
  	the support of bodily endurance. 
 6	    A communication purporting to come from the late
  	Theodore Parker reads as follows: "There never was,
  	and there never will be, an immortal spirit." 	A denial of
 9	Yet the very periodical containing this sen-	immortality 
  	tence repeats weekly the assertion that spirit-communica-
  	tions are our only proofs of immortality. 
12	    I entertain no doubt of the humanity and philanthropy
  	of many Spiritualists, but I cannot coincide with their
  	views. It is mysticism which gives spiritual-	Mysticism
15	ism its force. Science dispels mystery and	unscientific 
  	explains extraordinary phenomena; but Science never
  	removes phenomena from the domain of reason into the
18	realm of mysticism. 
  	    It should not seem mysterious that mind, without the
  	aid of hands, can move a table, when we already know
21	that it is mind-power which moves both table	Physical
  	and hand. Even planchette — the French toy	falsities 
  	which years ago pleased so many people — attested the con-
24	trol of mortal mind over its substratum, called matter. 
  	    It is mortal mind which convulses its substratum, matter. 
  	These movements arise from the volition of human belief,
27	but they are neither scientific nor rational. Mortal mind
  	produces table-tipping as certainly as table-setting, and
  	believes that this wonder emanates from spirits and elec-
30	tricity. This belief rests on the common conviction that
  	mind and matter cooperate both visibly and invisibly,
  	hence that matter is intelligent. 
 

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 1	    There is not so much evidence to prove intercommuni-
  	cation between the so-called dead and the living, as there
 3	is to show the sick that matter suffers and has	Poor
  	sensation; yet this latter evidence is destroyed by	post-mortem
  	Mind-science. If Spiritualists understood the	evidence 
 6	Science of being, their belief in mediumship would vanish. 
  	    At the very best and on its own theories, spiritualism
  	can only prove that certain individuals have a continued
 9	existence after death and maintain their affili-	No proof of
  	ation with mortal flesh; but this fact affords	immortality 
  	no certainty of everlasting life. A man's assertion that
12	he is immortal no more proves him to be so, than the op-
  	posite assertion, that he is mortal, would prove immor-
  	tality a lie. Nor is the case improved when alleged spirits
15	teach immortality. Life, Love, Truth, is the only proof
  	of immortality. 
  	    Man in the likeness of God as revealed in Science can-
18	not help being immortal. Though the grass seemeth to
  	wither and the flower to fade, they reappear. 	Mind's
  	Erase the figures which express number, silence	manifestations
21	the tones of music, give to the worms the body	immortal 
  	called man, and yet the producing, governing, divine
  	Principle lives on, — in the case of man as truly as in
24	the case of numbers and of music, — despite the so-called
  	laws of matter, which define man as mortal. Though
  	the inharmony resulting from material sense hides the
27	harmony of Science, inharmony cannot destroy the divine
  	Principle of Science. In Science, man's immortality de-
  	pends upon that of God, good, and follows as a necessary
30	consequence of the immortality of good. 
  	    That somebody, somewhere, must have known the
  	deceased person, supposed to be the communicator, is
 

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 1	evident, and it is as easy to read distant thoughts as near. 
  	We think of an absent friend as easily as we do of one
 3	present. It is no more difficult to read the	Reading
  	absent mind than it is to read the present. 	thoughts 
  	Chaucer wrote centuries ago, yet we still read his thought
 6	in his verse. What is classic study, but discernment of
  	the minds of Homer and Virgil, of whose personal exist-
  	ence we may be in doubt? 
 9	    If spiritual life has been won by the departed, they
  	cannot return to material existence, because different
  	states of consciousness are involved, and one	Impossible
12	person cannot exist in two different states of	intercommunion 
  	consciousness at the same time. In sleep we
  	do not communicate with the dreamer by our side despite
15	his physical proximity, because both of us are either un-
  	conscious or are wandering in our dreams through differ-
  	ent mazes of consciousness. 
18	    In like manner it would follow, even if our departed
  	friends were near us and were in as conscious a state of
  	existence as before the change we call death, that their
21	state of consciousness must be different from ours. We
  	are not in their state, nor are they in the mental realm
  	in which we dwell. Communion between them and
24	ourselves would be prevented by this difference. The
  	mental states are so unlike, that intercommunion is as
  	impossible as it would be between a mole and a human
27	being. Different dreams and different awakenings be-
  	token a differing consciousness. When wandering in
  	Australia, do we look for help to the Esquimaux in their
30	snow huts? 
  	    In a world of sin and sensuality hastening to a
  	greater development of power, it is wise earnestly to
 

      Science and Health – Christian Science versus Spiritualism         83


 1	consider whether it is the human mind or the divine
  	Mind which is influencing one. What the prophets of
 3	Jehovah did, the worshippers of Baal failed to do; yet
  	artifice and delusion claimed that they could equal the
  	work of wisdom. 
 6	    Science only can explain the incredible good and evil
  	elements now coming to the surface. Mortals must find
  	refuge in Truth in order to escape the error of these latter
 9	days. Nothing is more antagonistic to Christian Science
  	than a blind belief without understanding, for such a
  	belief hides Truth and builds on error. 
12	    Miracles are impossible in Science, and here Science
  	takes issue with popular religions. The scientific mani-
  	festation of power is from the divine nature	Natural
15	and is not supernatural, since Science is an	wonders 
  	explication of nature. The belief that the universe, in-
  	cluding man, is governed in general by material laws, but
18	that occasionally Spirit sets aside these laws, — this be-
  	lief belittles omnipotent wisdom, and gives to matter the
  	precedence over Spirit. 
21	    It is contrary to Christian Science to suppose that life
  	is either material or organically spiritual. Between
  	Christian Science and all forms of superstition	Conflicting
24	a great gulf is fixed, as impassable as that be-	standpoints 
  	tween Dives and Lazarus. There is mortal mind-reading
  	and immortal Mind-reading. The latter is a revelation
27	of divine purpose through spiritual understanding, by
  	which man gains the divine Principle and explanation of
  	all things. Mortal mind-reading and immortal Mind-
30	reading are distinctly opposite standpoints, from which
  	cause and effect are interpreted. The act of reading
  	mortal mind investigates and touches only human beliefs. 
 

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 1	Science is immortal and coordinate neither with the
  	premises nor with the conclusions of mortal beliefs. 
 3	    The ancient prophets gained their foresight from a
  	spiritual, incorporeal standpoint, not by foreshadowing
  	evil and mistaking fact for fiction, — predict-	Scientific
 6	ing the future from a groundwork of corpo-	foreseeing 
  	reality and human belief. When sufficiently advanced
  	in Science to be in harmony with the truth of being, men
 9	become seers and prophets involuntarily, controlled not
  	by demons, spirits, or demigods, but by the one Spirit. 
  	It is the prerogative of the ever-present, divine Mind, and
12	of thought which is in rapport with this Mind, to know
  	the past, the present, and the future. 
  	    Acquaintance with the Science of being enables us to
15	commune more largely with the divine Mind, to foresee
  	and foretell events which concern the universal welfare,
  	to be divinely inspired, — yea, to reach the range of fetter-
18	less Mind. 
  	    To understand that Mind is infinite, not bounded by
  	corporeality, not dependent upon the ear and eye for
21	sound or sight nor upon muscles and bones	The Mind
  	for locomotion, is a step towards the Mind-	unbounded 
  	science by which we discern man's nature and existence. 
24	This true conception of being destroys the belief of spirit-
  	ualism at its very inception, for without the concession of
  	material personalities called spirits, spiritualism has no
27	basis upon which to build. 
  	    All we correctly know of Spirit comes from God, divine
  	Principle, and is learned through Christ and Christian
30	Science. If this Science has been thoroughly	Scientific
  	learned and properly digested, we can know	foreknowing 
  	the truth more accurately than the astronomer can read
 

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 1	the stars or calculate an eclipse. This Mind-reading
  	is the opposite of clairvoyance. It is the illumination of
 3	the spiritual understanding which demonstrates the ca-
  	pacity of Soul, not of material sense. This Soul-sense
  	comes to the human mind when the latter yields to the
 6	divine Mind. 
  	    Such intuitions reveal whatever constitutes and per-
  	petuates harmony, enabling one to do good, but not
 9	evil. You will reach the perfect Science of	Value of
  	healing when you are able to read the human	intuition 
  	mind after this manner and discern the error you would
12	destroy. The Samaritan woman said: "Come, see a
  	man, which told me all things that ever I did: is not this
  	the Christ?" 
15	    It is recorded that Jesus, as he once journeyed with his
  	students, "knew their thoughts," — read them scientifi-
  	cally. In like manner he discerned disease and healed
18	the sick. After the same method, events of great mo-
  	ment were foretold by the Hebrew prophets. Our
  	Master rebuked the lack of this power when he said:
21	"O ye hypocrites! ye can discern the face of the sky;
  	but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" 
  	    Both Jew and Gentile may have had acute corporeal
24	senses, but mortals need spiritual sense. Jesus knew the
  	generation to be wicked and adulterous, seek-	Hypocrisy
  	ing the material more than the spiritual. His	condemned 
27	thrusts at materialism were sharp, but needed. He never
  	spared hypocrisy the sternest condemnation. He said:
  	"These ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other
30	undone." The great Teacher knew both cause and
  	effect, knew that truth communicates itself but never
  	imparts error. 
 

      Science and Health – Christian Science versus Spiritualism         86


 1	    Jesus once asked, "Who touched me?" Supposing
  	this inquiry to be occasioned by physical contact alone,
 3	his disciples answered, "The multitude throng	Mental
  	thee." Jesus knew, as others did not, that	contact 
  	it was not matter, but mortal mind, whose touch called
 6	for aid. Repeating his inquiry, he was answered by the
  	faith of a sick woman. His quick apprehension of this
  	mental call illustrated his spirituality. The disciples'
 9	misconception of it uncovered their materiality. Jesus
  	possessed more spiritual susceptibility than the disciples. 
  	Opposites come from contrary directions, and produce
12	unlike results. 
  	    Mortals evolve images of thought. These may appear
  	to the ignorant to be apparitions; but they are myste-
15	rious only because it is unusual to see	Images of
  	thoughts, though we can always feel their	thought 
  	influence. Haunted houses, ghostly voices, unusual
18	noises, and apparitions brought out in dark seances
  	either involve feats by tricksters, or they are images and
  	sounds evolved involuntarily by mortal mind. Seeing
21	is no less a quality of physical sense than feeling. Then
  	why is it more difficult to see a thought than to feel one? 
  	Education alone determines the difference. In reality
24	there is none. 
  	    Portraits, landscape-paintings, fac-similes of penman-
  	ship, peculiarities of expression, recollected sentences,
27	can all be taken from pictorial thought and	Phenomena
  	memory as readily as from objects cognizable	explained 
  	by the senses. Mortal mind sees what it believes as
30	certainly as it believes what it sees. It feels, hears, and
  	sees its own thoughts. Pictures are mentally formed
  	before the artist can convey them to canvas. So is it
 

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 1	with all material conceptions. Mind-readers perceive
  	these pictures of thought. They copy or reproduce
 3	them, even when they are lost to the memory of the mind
  	in which they are discoverable. 
  	    It is needless for the thought or for the person hold-
 6	ing the transferred picture to be individually and con-
  	sciously present. Though individuals have	Mental
  	passed away, their mental environment re-	environment 
 9	mains to be discerned, described, and transmitted. Though
  	bodies are leagues apart and their associations forgotten,
  	their associations float in the general atmosphere of human
12	mind. 
  	    The Scotch call such vision "second sight," when
  	really it is first sight instead of second, for it presents
15	primal facts to mortal mind. Science enables	Second
  	one to read the human mind, but not as a	sight 
  	clairvoyant. It enables one to heal through Mind, but
18	not as a mesmerist. 
  	    The mine knows naught of the emeralds within its
  	rocks; the sea is ignorant of the gems within its caverns,
21	of the corals, of its sharp reefs, of the tall ships	Buried
  	that float on its bosom, or of the bodies which	secrets 
  	lie buried in its sands:  yet these are all there. Do not
24	suppose that any mental concept is gone because you do
  	not think of it. The true concept is never lost. The
  	strong impressions produced on mortal mind by friend-
27	ship or by any intense feeling are lasting, and mind-
  	readers can perceive and reproduce these impressions. 
  	    Memory may reproduce voices long ago silent. We
30	have but to close the eyes, and forms rise	Recollected
  	before us, which are thousands of miles away	friends 
  	or altogether gone from physical sight and sense, and
 

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 1	this not in dreamy sleep. In our day-dreams we can
  	recall that for which the poet Tennyson expressed the
 3	heart's desire, — 

  	          the touch of a vanished hand,
  	       And the sound of a voice that is still. 

 6	The mind may even be cognizant of a present flavor and
  	odor, when no viand touches the palate and no scent
  	salutes the nostrils. 
 9	    How are veritable ideas to be distinguished from il-
  	lusions? By learning the origin of each. Ideas are
  	emanations from the divine Mind. Thoughts,	Illusions
12	proceeding from the brain or from matter, are	not ideas 
  	offshoots of mortal mind; they are mortal material be-
  	liefs. Ideas are spiritual, harmonious, and eternal. Beliefs
15	proceed from the so-called material senses, which at one
  	time are supposed to be substance-matter and at another
  	are called spirits. 
18	    To love one's neighbor as one's self, is a divine idea;
  	but this idea can never be seen, felt, nor understood
  	through the physical senses. Excite the organ of ven-
21	eration or religious faith, and the individual manifests
  	profound adoration. Excite the opposite development,
  	and he blasphemes. These effects, however, do not pro-
24	ceed from Christianity, nor are they spiritual phenomena,
  	for both arise from mortal belief. 
  	    Eloquence re-echoes the strains of Truth and Love. 
27	It is due to inspiration rather than to erudition. It shows
  	the possibilities derived from divine Mind,	Trance
  	though it is said to be a gift whose endowment	speaking
30	is obtained from books or received from the	illusion 
  	impulsion of departed spirits. When eloquence proceeds
  	from the belief that a departed spirit is speaking, who
 

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 1	can tell what the unaided medium is incapable of know-
  	ing or uttering? This phenomenon only shows that the
 3	beliefs of mortal mind are loosed. Forgetting her igno-
  	rance in the belief that another mind is speaking through
  	her, the devotee may become unwontedly eloquent. Hav-
 6	ing more faith in others than in herself, and believing
  	that somebody else possesses her tongue and mind, she
  	talks freely. 
 9	    Destroy her belief in outside aid, and her eloquence
  	disappears. The former limits of her belief return. She
  	says, "I am incapable of words that glow, for I am un-
12	educated." This familiar instance reaffirms the Scrip-
  	tural word concerning a man, "As he thinketh in his heart,
  	so is he." If one believes that he cannot be an orator with-
15	out study or a superinduced condition, the body responds
  	to this belief, and the tongue grows mute which before
  	was eloquent. 
18	    Mind is not necessarily dependent upon educational
  	processes. It possesses of itself all beauty and poetry,
  	and the power of expressing them. Spirit,	Scientific
21	God, is heard when the senses are silent. We	improvisation 
  	are all capable of more than we do. The influence or
  	action of Soul confers a freedom, which explains the phe-
24	nomena of improvisation and the fervor of untutored lips. 
  	    Matter is neither intelligent nor creative. The tree is
  	not the author of itself. Sound is not the originator of
27	music, and man is not the father of man. Cain	Divine
  	very naturally concluded that if life was in the	origination 
  	body, and man gave it, man had the right to take it away. 
30	This incident shows that the belief of life in matter was
  	"a murderer from the beginning." 
  	    If seed is necessary to produce wheat, and wheat to
 
 
      Science and Health – Christian Science versus Spiritualism         90


1	produce flour, or if one animal can originate another,
  	how then can we account for their primal origin? How
 3	were the loaves and fishes multiplied on the shores of
  	Galilee, — and that, too, without meal or monad from
  	which loaf or fish could come? 
 6	    The earth's orbit and the imaginary line called the
  	equator are not substance. The earth's motion and
  	position are sustained by Mind alone. Divest	Mind is
 9	yourself of the thought that there can be sub-	substance 
  	stance in matter, and the movements and transitions now
  	possible for mortal mind will be found to be equally
12	possible for the body. Then being will be recognized
  	as spiritual, and death will be obsolete, though now
  	some insist that death is the necessary prelude to
15	immortality. 
  	    In dreams we fly to Europe and meet a far-off friend. 
  	The looker-on sees the body in bed, but the supposed
18	inhabitant of that body carries it through	Mortal
  	the air and over the ocean. This shows the	delusions 
  	possibilities of thought. Opium and hashish eaters men-
21	tally travel far and work wonders, yet their bodies stay
  	in one place. This shows what mortal mentality and
  	knowledge are. 
24	    The admission to one's self that man is God's own like-
  	ness sets man free to master the infinite idea. This con-
  	viction shuts the door on death, and opens it	Scientific
27	wide towards immortality. The understanding	finalities 
  	and recognition of Spirit must finally come, and we may
  	as well improve our time in solving the mysteries of being
30	through an apprehension of divine Principle. At present
  	we know not what man is, but we certainly shall know
  	this when man reflects God. 
 

      Science and Health – Christian Science versus Spiritualism         91


 1	    The Revelator tells us of "a new heaven and a
  	new earth." Have you ever pictured this heaven and
 3	earth, inhabited by beings under the control of supreme
  	wisdom? 
  	    Let us rid ourselves of the belief that man is separated
 6	from God, and obey only the divine Principle, Life and
  	Love. Here is the great point of departure for all true
  	spiritual growth. 
 9	    It is difficult for the sinner to accept divine Science,
  	because Science exposes his nothingness; but the sooner
  	error is reduced to its native nothingness, the	Man's  genuine
12	sooner man's great reality will appear and his	being 
  	genuine being will be understood. The destruction of
  	error is by no means the destruction of Truth or Life, but
15	is the acknowledgment of them. 
  	    Absorbed in material selfhood we discern and reflect
  	but faintly the substance of Life or Mind. The denial of
18	material selfhood aids the discernment of man's spirit-
  	ual and eternal individuality, and destroys the erroneous
  	knowledge gained from matter or through what are termed
21	the material senses. 
  	    Certain erroneous postulates should be here considered
  	in order that the spiritual facts may be better	Erroneous
24	apprehended. 	postulates 
  	    The first erroneous postulate of belief is, that substance,
  	life, and intelligence are something apart from God. 
27	    The second erroneous postulate is, that man is both
  	mental and material. 
  	    The third erroneous postulate is, that mind is both evil
30	and good; whereas the real Mind cannot be evil nor the
  	medium of evil, for Mind is God. 
  	    The fourth erroneous postulate is, that matter is in-
 
 

      Science and Health – Christian Science versus Spiritualism        92


1	telligent, and that man has a material body which is part
  	of himself. 
 3	    The fifth erroneous postulate is, that matter holds in
  	itself the issues of life and death, — that matter is not
  	only capable of experiencing pleasure and pain, but also
 6	capable of imparting these sensations. From the illusion
  	implied in this last postulate arises the decomposition of
  	mortal bodies in what is termed death. 
 9	    Mind is not an entity within the cranium with the power
  	of sinning now and forever. 
  	    In old Scriptural pictures we see a serpent coiled around
12	the tree of knowledge and speaking to Adam and Eve. 
  	This represents the serpent in the act of	Knowledge of
  	commending to our first parents the knowl-	good and evil 
15	edge of good and evil, a knowledge gained from matter,
  	or evil, instead of from Spirit. The portrayal is still
  	graphically accurate, for the common conception of mor-
18	tal man — a burlesque of God's man — is an outgrowth
  	of human knowledge or sensuality, a mere offshoot of
  	material sense. 
21	    Uncover error, and it turns the lie upon you. Until
  	the fact concerning error — namely, its nothingness — 
  	appears, the moral demand will not be met,	Opposing
24	and the ability to make nothing of error will	power 
  	be wanting. We should blush to call that real which is
  	only a mistake. The foundation of evil is laid on a belief
27	in something besides God. This belief tends to support
  	two opposite powers, instead of urging the claims of Truth
  	alone. The mistake of thinking that error can be real,
30	when it is merely the absence of truth, leads to belief in
  	the superiority of error. 
  	    Do you say the time has not yet come in which to
 

      Science and Health – Christian Science versus Spiritualism         93


 1	recognize Soul as substantial and able to control the
  	body? Remember Jesus, who nearly nineteen centuries
 3	ago demonstrated the power of Spirit and said,	The age's
  	"He that believeth on me, the works that I	privilege 
  	do shall he do also," and who also said, "But the hour
 6	cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall
  	worship the Father in spirit and in truth." "Behold,
  	now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of sal-
 9	vation," said Paul. 
  	    Divine logic and revelation coincide. If we believe
  	otherwise, we may be sure that either our	Logic and
12	logic is at fault or that we have misinterpreted	revelation 
  	revelation. Good never causes evil, nor creates aught
  	that can cause evil. 
15	    Good does not create a mind susceptible of causing
  	evil, for evil is the opposing error and not the truth of
  	creation. Destructive electricity is not the offspring of in-
18	finite good. Whatever contradicts the real nature of the
  	divine Esse, though human faith may clothe it with angelic
  	vestments, is without foundation. 
21	    The belief that Spirit is finite as well as infinite has
  	darkened all history. In Christian Science, Spirit, as a
  	proper noun, is the name of the Supreme Being. 	Derivatives
24	It means quantity and quality, and applies ex-	of spirit 
  	clusively to God. The modifying derivatives of the word
  	spirit refer only to quality, not to God. Man is spiritual. 
27	He is not God, Spirit. If man were Spirit, then men
  	would be spirits, gods. Finite spirit would be mortal,
  	and this is the error embodied in the belief that the infi-
30	nite can be contained in the finite. This belief tends to
  	becloud our apprehension of the kingdom of heaven and
  	of the reign of harmony in the Science of being. 
 

      Science and Health – Christian Science versus Spiritualism        94


 1	    Jesus taught but one God, one Spirit, who makes man
  	in the image and likeness of Himself, — of Spirit, not of
 3	matter. Man reflects infinite Truth, Life, and	Scientific
  	Love. The nature of man, thus understood,	man 
  	includes all that is implied by the terms "image" and
 6	"likeness" as used in Scripture. The truly Christian
  	and scientific statement of personality and of the relation
  	of man to God, with the demonstration which accompa-
 9	nied it, incensed the rabbis, and they said: "Crucify him,
  	crucify him . . . by our law he ought to die, because he
  	made himself the Son of God." 
12	    The eastern empires and nations owe their false gov-
  	ernment to the misconceptions of Deity there prevalent. 
  	Tyranny, intolerance, and bloodshed, wherever found,
15	arise from the belief that the infinite is formed after the
  	pattern of mortal personality, passion, and impulse. 
  	    The progress of truth confirms its claims, and our
18	Master confirmed his words by his works. His healing-
  	power evoked denial, ingratitude, and be-	Ingratitude
  	trayal, arising from sensuality. Of the ten	and denial 
21	lepers whom Jesus healed, but one returned to give God
  	thanks, — that is, to acknowledge the divine Principle
  	which had healed him. 
24	    Our Master easily read the thoughts of mankind, and
  	this insight better enabled him to direct those thoughts
  	aright; but what would be said at this period of an in-
27	fidel blasphemer who should hint that Jesus used his in-
  	cisive power injuriously? Our Master read mortal mind
  	on a scientific basis, that of the omnipresence of Mind. 
30	An approximation of this discernment indicates spiritual
  	growth and union with the infinite capacities of the one
  	Mind. Jesus could injure no one by his Mind-reading. 
 

      Science and Health – Christian Science versus Spiritualism        95


 1	The effect of his Mind was always to heal and to save,
  	and this is the only genuine Science of reading mortal
 3	mind. His holy motives and aims were tra-	Spiritual
  	duced by the sinners of that period, as they	insight 
  	would be to-day if Jesus were personally present. Paul
 6	said, "To be spiritually minded is life." We approach
  	God, or Life, in proportion to our spirituality, our fidel-
  	ity to Truth and Love; and in that ratio we know all
 9	human need and are able to discern the thought of the
  	sick and the sinning for the purpose of healing them. 
  	Error of any kind cannot hide from the law of God. 
12	    Whoever reaches this point of moral culture and good-
  	ness cannot injure others, and must do them good. The
  	greater or lesser ability of a Christian Scientist to discern
15	thought scientifically, depends upon his genuine spirit-
  	uality. This kind of mind-reading is not clairvoyance,
  	but it is important to success in healing, and is one of the
18	special characteristics thereof. 
  	    We welcome the increase of knowledge and the end
  	of error, because even human invention must have its
21	day, and we want that day to be succeeded	Christ's
  	by Christian Science, by divine reality. Mid-	reappearance 
  	night foretells the dawn. Led by a solitary star amid
24	the darkness, the Magi of old foretold the Messiahship
  	of Truth. Is the wise man of to-day believed, when he
  	beholds the light which heralds Christ's eternal dawn
27	and describes its effulgence? 
  	    Lulled by stupefying illusions, the world is asleep
  	in the cradle of infancy, dreaming away the hours. 
30	Material sense does not unfold the facts of	Spiritual
  	existence; but spiritual sense lifts human	awakening 
  	consciousness into eternal Truth. Humanity advances
 
 
      Science and Health – Christian Science versus Spiritualism         96


 1	slowly out of sinning sense into spiritual understanding;
  	unwillingness to learn all things rightly, binds Christen-
 3	dom with chains. 
  	    Love will finally mark the hour of harmony, and spir-
  	itualization will follow, for Love is Spirit. Before error
 6	is wholly destroyed, there will be interrup-	The darkest
  	tions of the general material routine. Earth	hours of all 
  	will become dreary and desolate, but summer and winter,
 9	seedtime and harvest (though in changed forms), will
  	continue unto the end, — until the final spiritualization of
  	all things. "The darkest hour precedes the dawn." 
12	    This material world is even now becoming the arena
  	for conflicting forces. On one side there will be discord
  	and dismay; on the other side there will be	Arena of
15	Science and peace. The breaking up of mate-	contest 
  	rial beliefs may seem to be famine and pestilence, want
  	and woe, sin, sickness, and death, which assume new
18	phases until their nothingness appears. These disturb-
  	ances will continue until the end of error, when all
  	discord will be swallowed up in spiritual Truth. 
21	    Mortal error will vanish in a moral chemicalization. 
  	This mental fermentation has begun, and will continue
  	until all errors of belief yield to understanding. Belief is
24	changeable, but spiritual understanding is changeless. 
  	    As this consummation draws nearer, he who has
  	shaped his course in accordance with divine Science
27	will endure to the end. As material knowl-	Millennial
  	edge diminishes and spiritual understanding	glory 
  	increases, real objects will be apprehended mentally
30	instead of materially. 
  	    During this final conflict, wicked minds will endeavor
  	to find means by which to accomplish more evil; but
 

      Science and Health – Christian Science versus Spiritualism         97


 1	those who discern Christian Science will hold crime in
  	check. They will aid in the ejection of error. They
 3	will maintain law and order, and cheerfully await the
  	certainty of ultimate perfection. 
  	    In reality, the more closely error simulates truth and
 6	so-called matter resembles its essence, mortal mind, the
  	more impotent error becomes as a belief. Ac-	Dangerous
  	cording to human belief, the lightning is fierce	resemblances 
 9	and the electric current swift, yet in Christian Science
  	the flight of one and the blow of the other will become
  	harmless. The more destructive matter becomes, the
12	more its nothingness will appear, until matter reaches
  	its mortal zenith in illusion and forever disappears. The
  	nearer a false belief approaches truth without passing
15	the boundary where, having been destroyed by divine
  	Love, it ceases to be even an illusion, the riper it becomes
  	for destruction. The more material the belief, the more
18	obvious its error, until divine Spirit, supreme in its do-
  	main, dominates all matter, and man is found in the like-
  	ness of Spirit, his original being. 
21	    The broadest facts array the most falsities against
  	themselves, for they bring error from under cover. It
  	requires courage to utter truth; for the higher Truth
24	lifts her voice, the louder will error scream, until its in-
  	articulate sound is forever silenced in oblivion. 
  	    "He uttered His voice, the earth melted." This Scrip-
27	ture indicates that all matter will disappear before the
  	supremacy of Spirit. 
  	    Christianity is again demonstrating the Life that is
30	Truth, and the Truth that is Life, by the apos-	Christianity
  	tolic work of casting out error and healing the	still rejected 
  	sick. Earth has no repayment for the persecutions which
 

      Science and Health – Christian Science versus Spiritualism         98


 1	attend a new step in Christianity; but the spiritual recom-
  	pense of the persecuted is assured in the elevation of ex-
 3	istence above mortal discord and in the gift of divine Love. 
  	    The prophet of to-day beholds in the mental horizon
  	the signs of these times, the reappearance of the Chris-
 6	tianity which heals the sick and destroys error,	Spiritual
  	and no other sign shall be given. Body can-	foreshadowings 
  	not be saved except through Mind. The Science of Chris-
 9	tianity is misinterpreted by a material age, for it is the
  	healing influence of Spirit (not spirits) which the material
  	senses cannot comprehend, — which can only be spiritu-
12	ally discerned. Creeds, doctrines, and human hypotheses
  	do not express Christian Science; much less can they
  	demonstrate it. 
15	    Beyond the frail premises of human beliefs, above the
  	loosening grasp of creeds, the demonstration of Christian
  	Mind-healing stands a revealed and practical	Revelation
18	Science. It is imperious throughout all ages	of Science 
  	as Christ's revelation of Truth, of Life, and of Love, which
  	remains inviolate for every man to understand and to
21	practise. 
  	    For centuries — yea, always — natural science has not
  	been considered a part of any religion, Christianity not
24	excepted. Even now multitudes consider that	Science as
  	which they call science has no proper con-	foreign to
  	nection with faith and piety. Mystery does	all religion 
27	not enshroud Christ's teachings, and they are not theo-
  	retical and fragmentary, but practical and complete; and
  	being practical and complete, they are not deprived of
30	their essential vitality. 
  	    The way through which immortality and life are learned
  	is not ecclesiastical but Christian, not human but divine,
 
      Science and Health – Christian Science versus Spiritualism         99

 1	not physical but metaphysical, not material but scien-
  	tifically spiritual. Human philosophy, ethics, and super-
 3	stition afford no demonstrable divine Principle	Key to the
  	by which mortals can escape from sin; yet	kingdom 
  	to escape from sin, is what the Bible demands. "Work
 6	out your own salvation with fear and trembling," says
  	the apostle, and he straightway adds: "for it is God
  	which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good
 9	pleasure" (Philippians ii. 12, 13). Truth has furnished
  	the key to the kingdom, and with this key Christian Sci-
  	ence has opened the door of the human understanding. 
12	None may pick the lock nor enter by some other door. 
  	The ordinary teachings are material and not spiritual. 
  	Christian Science teaches only that which is spiritual and
15	divine, and not human. Christian Science is unerring
  	and Divine; the human sense of things errs because it
  	is human. 
18	    Those individuals, who adopt theosophy, spiritualism,
  	or hypnotism, may possess natures above some others
  	who eschew their false beliefs. Therefore my contest is
21	not with the individual, but with the false system. I
  	love mankind, and shall continue to labor and to endure. 
  	    The calm, strong currents of true spirituality, the
24	manifestations of which are health, purity, and self-
  	immolation, must deepen human experience, until the
  	beliefs of material existence are seen to be a bald imposi-
27	tion, and sin, disease, and death give everlasting place
  	to the scientific demonstration of divine Spirit and to
         God's spiritual, perfect man.SHOW ALL