Chapter 12a ~ Christian Science Practice ~ Subtitles
Science & Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy ~ 1910 Final Ed.
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In answering the objections, by putting everything back into God and acknowledging that there is a divine plan where everything relates with everything else, we are in fact practising Christian Science. We are removing the objections of the human mind by working from the unbroken wholeness of being, seeing everything slotted back into its proper place and value in the divine purpose and plan. "Christian Science Practice" is a long and very practical healing chapter, finishing with an allegorical account of a law case. The prisoner on trial is accused of transgressing the laws of matter. He has watched with and tended a sick friend, but in doing this he has broken the laws of health that claim to govern the material body. This is his crime and he is condemned to death. But then permission is obtained for a retrial in the Court of Spirit. Christian Science, appearing as counsel for the defence, argues for man's freedom under the law of God. God's law liberates him from the bogus laws of mortality. The law case finishes with the commanding sentence, "Christian Scientists, be a law to yourselves that mental malpractice cannot harm you either when asleep or when awake" (442:30). Be a law to yourselves! ~ DISSOLVING BARRIERS, The Healing Work of Christian Science by John L. MorganSHOW ALL
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1 | 1 | 362 | personal sense, understand God, praise God, health from God, heal like Jesus, devils cast out, speak new tongues, serpants have no power |
Trust God | Intro Quotes 1. Psalms 42:11 ~ King David 2. Mark 16:17-18 ~ Jesus | Intro Quotes 1. Psalms 42:11 ~ King David 2. Mark 16:17-18 ~ Jesus | Why art thou cast down, O my soul [sense]? And why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God; for I shall yet praise Him, Who is the health of my countenance and my God. — Psalms. And these signs shall follow them that believe: In my name shall they cast out devils: they shall speak with new tongues; they 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. — Jesus. SHOW ALL |
2 | 2 | 362 | Simon the Pharisee, Oriental festivity, Mary Magdalene |
1. Love 2.Transformation 3. Forgiven |
Christ Jesus forgave Mary Magdalen as she proved by her love for Jesus that she respected goodness & purity. The host did not even arrange for washing of Jesus' feet which was the custom for a house guest. |
A gospel narrative | 362:1-15 ~ It is related in the seventh chapter of Luke's Gospel that Jesus was once the honored guest of a certain Pharisee, by name Simon, though he was quite unlike Simon the disciple. While they were at meat, an unusual incident occurred, as if to interrupt the scene of Oriental festivity. A "strange woman" came in. Heedless of the fact that she was debarred from such a place and such society, especially under the stern rules of rabbinical law, as positively as if she were a Hindoo pariah intruding upon the household of a high-caste Brahman, this woman (Mary Magdalene, as she has since been called) approached Jesus. According to the custom of those days, he reclined on a couch with his head towards the table and his bare feet away from it. It was therefore easy for the Magdalen to come behind the couch and reach his feet. She bore an alabaster jar containing costly and fragrant oil, — sandal oil perhaps, which is in such common use in the East. Breaking the sealed jar, she perfumed Jesus' feet with the oil, wiping them with her long hair, which hung loosely about her shoulders, as was customary with women of her grade.SHOW ALL |
3 | 3 | 363 | See perfection, Time is now, Forgiveness unlimited |
1. Gratitude |
1. Criticism is hate. Impersonal view eliminates criticism and therefore hate. 2. Jesus said to forgive 70 x 7 = 490x = always forgive as we should never be condemning. 3. Delete all negative concepts from thought, speech & action. |
Parable of the creditor | 363: 8-23 ~ Did Jesus spurn the woman? Did he repel her adoration? No! He regarded her compassionately. Nor was this all. Knowing what those around him were saying in their hearts, especially his host, — that they were wondering why, being a prophet, the exalted guest did not at once detect the woman's immoral status and bid her depart, — knowing this, Jesus rebuked them with a short story or parable. He described two debtors, one for a large sum and one for a smaller, who were released from their obligations by their common creditor. "Which of them will love him most?" was the Master's question to Simon the Pharisee; and Simon replied, "He to whom he forgave most." Jesus approved the answer, and so brought home the lesson to all, following it with that remarkable declaration to the woman, "Thy sins are forgiven." SHOW ALL |
4 | 4 | 363 | Moral uprising, Divine insight, Spiritual inspiration | Look through Lens of Spirit | Concept from beginning to end must be one of viewing everyone & everything from standpoint of perfection. |
Divine insight | 363: 24 ~ Why did he thus summarize her debt to divine Love? Had she repented and reformed, and did his insight detect this unspoken moral uprising? She bathed his feet with her tears before she anointed them with the oil. In the absence of other proofs, was her grief sufficient evidence to warrant the expectation of her repentance, reformation, and growth in wisdom? Certainly there was encouragement in the mere fact that she was showing her affection for a man of undoubted goodness and purity, who has since been rightfully regarded as the best man that ever trod this planet. Her reverence was unfeigned, and it was manifested towards one who was soon, though they knew it not, to lay down his mortal existence in behalf of all sinners, that through his word and works they might be redeemed from sensuality and sin. SHOW ALL |
5 | 5 | 364 | Hospitality, Mary Magdalen, Wash, Anoint | Self-righteousness damages wholeness | Mary Baker Eddy begins this chapter with story of love and forgiveness pointing out it is the FIRST priority. Do we always think of it FIRST? |
Penitence or hospitality | 364: 8 ~ Which was the higher tribute to such ineffable affection, the hospitality of the Pharisee or the contrition of the Magdalen? This query Jesus answered by rebuking self-righteousness and declaring the absolution of the penitent. He even said that this poor woman had done what his rich entertainer had neglected to do, — wash and anoint his guest's feet, a special sign of Oriental courtesy. Here is suggested a solemn question, a question indicated by one of the needs of this age. Do Christian Scientists seek Truth as Simon sought the Saviour, through material conservatism and for personal homage? Jesus told Simon that such seekers as he gave small reward in return for the spiritual purgation which came through the Messiah. If Christian Scientists are like Simon, then it must be said of them also that they love little. SHOW ALL |
6 | 6 | 364 | Meekness, Spiritual Impersonal Affection | 1. Truth |
1. Spiritual qualities dovetail and interconnect. 2. It is our duty to connect the dots. 3. Will we see the big picture or be myopic. |
Genuine repentance | 364: 25-31 ~ On the other hand, do they show their regard for Truth, or Christ, by their genuine repentance, by their broken hearts, expressed by meekness and human affection, as did this woman? If so, then it may be said of them, as Jesus said of the unwelcome visitor, that they indeed love much, because much is forgiven them. SHOW ALL |
7 | 7 | 364 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy | Compassion Requisite | 364: 1-14 ~ Did the careless doctor, the nurse, the cook, and the brusque business visitor sympathetically know the thorns they plant in the pillow of the sick and the heavenly homesick looking away from earth, — Oh, did they know! — this knowledge would do much more towards healing the sick and preparing their helpers for the "midnight call," than all cries of "Lord, Lord!" The benign thought of Jesus, finding utterance in such words as "Take no thought for your life," would heal the sick, and so enable them to rise above the supposed necessity for physical thought-taking and doctoring; but if the unselfish affections be lacking, and common sense and common humanity are disregarded, what mental quality remains, with which to evoke healing from the outstretched arm of righteousness? SHOW ALL |
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8 | 8 | 365 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Speedy healing | 365:15-24 ~ If the Scientist reaches his patient through divine Love, the healing work will be accomplished at one visit, and the disease will vanish into its native nothingness like dew before the morning sun-shine. If the Scientist has enough Christly affection to win his own pardon, and such commendation as the Magdalen gained from Jesus, then he is Christian enough to practice scientifically and deal with his patients compassionately; and the result will correspond with the spiritual intent. SHOW ALL |
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9 | 9 | 365 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Truth desecrated | 365:25 ~ If hypocrisy, stolidity, inhumanity, or vice finds its way into the chambers of disease through the would-be healer, it would, if it were possible, convert into a den of thieves the temple of the Holy Ghost, — the patient's spiritual power to resuscitate him-self. The unchristian practitioner is not giving to mind or body the joy and strength of Truth. The poor suffering heart needs its rightful nutriment, such as peace, patience in tribulation, and a priceless sense of the dear Father's loving-kindness. SHOW ALL |
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10 | 10 | 366 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Moral evils to be cast out | 366: 3-11 ~ In order to cure his patient, the metaphysician must first cast moral evils out of himself and thus attain the spiritual freedom which will enable him to cast physical evils out of his patient; but heal he cannot, while his own spiritual barrenness debars him from giving drink to the thirsty and hinders him from reaching his patient's thought, — yea, while mental penury chills his faith and understanding. SHOW ALL |
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11 | 11 | 366 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | The true physician | 366: 12-21 ~ The physician who lacks sympathy for his fellow being is deficient in human affection, and we have the apostolic warrant for asking: "He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" Not having this spiritual affection, the physician lacks faith in the divine Mind and has not that recognition of infinite Love which alone confers the healing power. Such so-called Scientists will strain out gnats, while they swallow the camels of bigoted pedantry. SHOW ALL |
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12 | 12 | 366 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Sources of calmness | 366: 22-29 ~ The physician must also watch, lest he be over-whelmed by a sense of the odiousness of sin and by the unveiling of sin in his own thoughts. The sick are terrified by their sick beliefs, and sinners should be affrighted by their sinful beliefs; but the Christian Scientist will be calm in the presence of both sin and disease, knowing, as he does, that Life is God and God is All. SHOW ALL |
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13 | 13 | 366 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Genuine healing | 366: 30 ~ If we would open their prison doors for the sick, we must first learn to bind up the broken-hearted. If we would heal by the Spirit, we must not hide the talent of spiritual healing under the napkin of its form, nor bury the morale of Christian Science in the grave-clothes of its letter. The tender word and Christian encouragement of an invalid, pitiful patience with his fears and the removal of them, are better than hecatombs of gushing theories, stereotyped borrowed speeches, and the doling of arguments, which are but so many parodies on legitimate Christian Science, aflame with divine Love. SHOW ALL |
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14 | 14 | 367 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Gratitude and humility | 367: 10-16 ~ This is what is meant by seeking Truth, Christ, not "for the loaves and fishes," nor, like the Pharisee, with the arrogance of rank and display of scholar-ship, but like Mary Magdalene, from the summit of devout consecration, with the oil of gladness and the perfume of gratitude, with tears of repentance and with those hairs all numbered by the Father. SHOW ALL |
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15 | 15 | 367 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | The salt of the earth | 367: 17-29 ~ A Christian Scientist occupies the place at this period of which Jesus spoke to his disciples, when he said: "Ye are the salt of the earth." "Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid." Let us watch, work, and pray that this salt lose not its saltness, and that this light be not hid, but radiate and glow into noontide glory. The infinite Truth of the Christ-cure has come to this age through a "still, small voice," through silent utterances and divine anointing which quicken and increase the beneficial effects of Christianity. I long to see the consummation of my hope, namely, the student's higher attainments in this line of light. SHOW ALL |
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16 | 16 | 367 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Real and counterfeit | 367:30 ~ Because Truth is infinite, error should be known as nothing. Because Truth is omnipotent in goodness, error, Truth's opposite, has no might. Evil is but the counterpoise of nothingness. The greatest wrong is but a supposititious opposite of the highest right. The confidence inspired by Science lies in the fact that Truth is real and error is unreal. Error is a coward before Truth. Divine Science insists that time will prove all this. Both truth and error have come nearer than ever before to the apprehension of mortals, and truth will become still clearer as error is self-destroyed. SHOW ALL |
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17 | 17 | 368 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Results of faith in Truth | 368: 10-19 ~ Against the fatal beliefs that error is as real as Truth, that evil is equal in power to good if not superior, and that discord is as normal as harmony, even the hope of freedom from the bondage of sickness and sin has little inspiration to nerve endeavor. When we come to have more faith in the truth of being than we have in error, more faith in Spirit than in matter, more faith in living than in dying, more faith in God than in man, then no material suppositions can prevent us from healing the sick and destroying error.SHOW ALL |
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18 | 18 | 368 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Life independent of matter | 368: 20 ~ That Life is not contingent on bodily conditions is proved, when we learn that life and man survive this body. Neither evil, disease, nor death can be spiritual, and the material belief in them disappears in the ratio of one's spiritual growth. Because matter has no consciousness or Ego, it cannot act; its conditions are illusions, and these false conditions are the source of all seeming sickness. Admit the existence of matter, and you admit that mortality (and therefore disease) has a foundation in fact. Deny the existence of matter, and you can destroy the belief in material conditions. When fear disappears, the foundation of disease is gone. Once let the mental physician believe in the reality of matter, and he is liable to admit also the reality of all discordant conditions, and this hinders his destroying them. Thus he is unfitted for the successful treatment of disease. SHOW ALL |
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19 | 19 | 369 | Man’s entity | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Mans entity | 369: 5-13 ~ In proportion as matter loses to human sense all entity as man, in that proportion does man become its master. He enters into a diviner sense of the facts, and comprehends the theology of Jesus as demonstrated in healing the sick, raising the dead, and walking over the wave. All these deeds manifested Jesus' control over the belief that matter is substance, that it can be the arbiter of life or the constructor of any form of existence. SHOW ALL |
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20 | 20 | 369 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | The Christ treatment | 369:14- 22 ~ We never read that Luke or Paul made a reality of disease in order to discover some means of healing it. Jesus never asked if disease were acute or chronic, and he never recommended attention to laws of health, never gave drugs, never prayed to know if God were willing that a man should live. He understood man, whose Life is God, to be immortal, and knew that man has not two lives, one to be destroyed and the other to be made indestructible. SHOW ALL |
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21 | 21 | 369 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Matter not medicine | 369:23-29 ~ The prophylactic and therapeutic (that is, the preventive and curative) arts belong emphatically to Christian Science, as would be readily seen, if psychology, or the Science of Spirit, God, was understood. Unscientific methods are finding their dead level. Limited to matter by their own law, what have they of the advantages of Mind and immortality? SHOW ALL |
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22 | 22 | 369 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | No healing in sin | 369:30 ~ No man is physically healed in wilful error or by it, any more than he is morally saved in or by sin. It is error even to murmur or to be angry over sin. To be every whit whole, man must be better spiritually as well as physically. To be immortal, we must forsake the mortal sense of things, turn from the lie of false belief to Truth, and gather the facts of being from the divine Mind. The body improves under the same regimen which spiritualizes the thought; and if health is not made manifest under this regimen, this proves that fear is governing the body. This is the law of cause and effect, or like producing like. SHOW ALL |
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23 | 23 | 370 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Like curing like | 370: 11-22 ~ Homoeopathy furnishes the evidence to the senses, that symptoms, which might be produced by a certain drug, are removed by using the same drug which might cause the symptoms. This confirms my theory that faith in the drug is the sole factor in the cure. The effect, which mortal mind produces through one belief, it removes through an opposite belief, but it uses the same medicine in both cases. The moral and spiritual facts of health, whispered into thought, produce very direct and marked effects on the body. A physical diagnosis of disease — since mortal mind must be the cause of disease — tends to induce disease.SHOW ALL |
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24 | 24 | 370 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Transient potency of drugs | 370:23-31 ~ According to both medical testimony and individual experience, a drug may eventually lose its supposed power and do no more for the patient. Hygienic treatment also loses its efficacy. Quackery likewise fails at length to inspire the credulity of the sick, and then they cease to improve. These lessons are useful. They should naturally and genuinely change our basis from sensation to Christian Science, from error to Truth, from matter to Spirit. SHOW ALL |
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25 | 25 | 370 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Diagnosis of matter | 370:32 ~ Physicians examine the pulse, tongue, lungs, to discover the condition of matter, when in fact all is Mind. The body is the substratum of mortal mind, and this so-called mind must finally yield to the mandate of immortal Mind. | ||
26 | 26 | 371 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Ghost-stories inducing fear | 371:5-19 ~ Disquisitions on disease have a mental effect similar to that produced on children by telling ghost-stories in the dark. By those uninstructed in Christian Science, nothing is really understood of material existence. Mortals are believed to be here without their consent and to be removed as involuntarily, not knowing why nor when. As frightened children look everywhere for the imaginary ghost, so sick humanity sees danger in every direction, and looks for relief in all ways except the right one. Darkness induces fear. The adult, in bondage to his beliefs, no more comprehends his real being than does the child; and the adult must be taken out of his darkness, before he can get rid of the illusive sufferings which throng the gloaming. The way in divine Science is the only way out of this condition. SHOW ALL |
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27 | 27 | 371 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Mind imparts purity, health, and beauty | 371: 20-32 ~ I would not transform the infant at once into a man, nor would I keep the suckling a lifelong babe. No impossible thing do I ask when urging the claims of Christian Science; but because this teaching is in advance of the age, we should not deny our need of its spiritual unfoldment. Mankind will improve through Science and Christianity. The necessity for uplifting the race is father to the fact that Mind can do it; for Mind can impart purity instead of impurity, strength instead of weakness, and health instead of disease. Truth is an alterative in the entire system, and can make it "every whit whole." SHOW ALL |
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28 | 28 | 372 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Brain not intelligent | 372:1-13 ~ Remember, brain is not mind. Matter cannot be sick, and Mind is immortal. The mortal body is only an erroneous mortal belief of mind in matter. What you call matter was originally error in solution, elementary mortal mind, — likened by Milton to "chaos and old night." One theory about this mortal mind is, that its sensations can reproduce man, can form blood, flesh, and bones. The Science of being, in which all is divine Mind, or God and His idea, would be clearer in this age, but for the belief that matter is the medium of man, or that man can enter his own embodied thought, bind himself with his own beliefs, and then call his bonds material and name them divine law. SHOW ALL |
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29 | 29 | 372 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Veritable success | 372:14-24 ~ When man demonstrates Christian Science absolutely, he will be perfect. He can neither sin, suffer, be subject to matter, nor disobey the law of God. Therefore he will be as the angels in heaven. Christian Science and Christianity are one. How, then, in Christianity any more than in Christian Science, can we believe in the reality and power of both Truth and error, Spirit and matter, and hope to succeed with contraries? Matter is not self-sustaining. Its false supports fail one after another. Matter succeeds for a period only by falsely parading in the vestments of law. SHOW ALL |
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30 | 30 | 372 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Recognition of benefits | 372: 25-32 ~ "Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven." In Christian Science, a denial of Truth is fatal, while a just acknowledgment of Truth and of what it has done for us is an effectual help. If pride, superstition, or any error prevents the honest recognition of benefits received, this will be a hindrance to the recovery of the sick and the success of the student. SHOW ALL |
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31 | 31 | 373 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Disease far more docile than iniquity | 373:1-13 ~ If we are Christians on all moral questions, but are in darkness as to the physical exemption which Christianity includes, then we must have more faith in God on this subject and be more alive to His promises. It is easier to cure the most malignant disease than it is to cure sin. The author has raised up the dying, partly because they were willing to be restored, while she has struggled long, and perhaps in vain, to lift a student out of a chronic sin. Under all modes of pathological treatment, the sick recover more rapidly from disease than does the sinner from his sin. Healing is easier than teaching, if the teaching is faithfully done. SHOW ALL |
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32 | 32 | 373 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Love frees from fear | 373:14-26 ~ The fear of disease and the love of sin are the sources of man's enslavement. "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," but the Scriptures also declare, through the exalted thought of John, that "perfect Love casteth out fear." The fear occasioned by ignorance can be cured; but to remove the effects of fear produced by sin, you must rise above both fear and sin. Disease is expressed not so much by the lips as in the functions of the body. Establish the scientific sense of health, and you relieve the oppressed organ. The inflammation, decomposition, or deposit will abate, and the disabled organ will resume its healthy functions. SHOW ALL |
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33 | 33 | 373 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Mind circulates blood | 373:27 ~ When the blood rushes madly through the veins or languidly creeps along its frozen channels, we call these conditions disease. This is a misconception. Mortal mind is producing the propulsion or the languor, and we prove this to be so when by mental means the circulation is changed, and returns to that standard which mortal mind has decided upon as essential for health. Anodynes, counter-irritants, and depletion never reduce inflammation scientifically, but the truth of being, whispered into the ear of mortal mind, will bring relief. SHOW ALL |
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34 | 34 | 374 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Mind can destroy all ills | 374:5-25 ~ Hatred and its effects on the body are removed by Love. Because mortal mind seems to be conscious, the sick say: "How can my mind cause a disease I never thought of and knew nothing about, until it appeared on my body?" The author has answered this question in her explanation of disease as originating in human belief before it is consciously apparent on the body, which is in fact the objective state of mortal mind, though it is called matter. This mortal blindness and its sharp consequences show our need of divine metaphysics. Through immortal Mind, or Truth, we can destroy all ills which proceed from mortal mind. Ignorance of the cause or approach of disease is no argument against the mental origin of disease. You confess to ignorance of the future and incapacity to preserve your own existence, and this belief helps rather than hinders disease. Such a state of mind induces sickness. It is like walking in darkness on the edge of a precipice. You cannot forget the belief of danger, and your steps are less firm because of your fear, and ignorance of mental cause and effect. SHOW ALL |
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35 | 35 | 374 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Temperature is mental | 374:26 ~ Heat and cold are products of mortal mind. The body, when bereft of mortal mind, at first cools, and afterwards it is resolved into its primitive mortal elements. Nothing that lives ever dies, and vice versa. Mortal mind produces animal heat, and then expels it through the abandonment of a belief, or increases it to the point of self-destruction. Hence it is mortal mind, not matter, which says, "I die." Heat would pass from the body as painlessly as gas dissipates into the air when it evaporates but for the belief that inflammation and pain must accompany the separation of heat from the body. SHOW ALL |
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36 | 36 | 375 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Science versus hypnotism | 375:6-20 ~ Chills and heat are often the form in which fever manifests itself. Change the mental state, and the chills and fever disappear. The old-school physician proves this when his patient says, "I am better," but the patient believes that matter, not mind, has helped him. The Christian Scientist demonstrates that divine Mind heals, while the hypnotist dispossesses the patient of his individuality in order to control him. No person is benefited by yielding his mentality to any mental despotism or malpractice. All unscientific mental practice is erroneous and powerless, and should be understood and so rendered fruitless. The genuine Christian Scientist is adding to his patient's mental and moral power, and is increasing his patient's spirituality while restoring him physically through divine Love. SHOW ALL |
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37 | 37 | 375 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Cure for palsy | 375:21-25 ~ Palsy is a belief that matter governs mortals, and can paralyze the body, making certain portions of it motionless. Destroy the belief, show mortal mind that muscles have no power to be lost, for Mind is supreme, and you cure the palsy. SHOW ALL |
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38 | 38 | 375 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Latent fear diagnosed | 375: 26 ~ Consumptive patients always show great hopefulness and courage, even when they are supposed to be in hopeless danger. This state of mind seems anomalous except to the expert in Christian Science. This mental state is not understood, simply because it is a stage of fear so excessive that it amounts to fortitude. The belief in consumption presents to mortal thought a hopeless state, an image more terrifying than that of most other diseases. The patient turns involuntarily from the contemplation of it, but though unacknowledged, the latent fear and the despair of recovery remain in thought. SHOW ALL |
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39 | 39 | 376 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Insidious concepts | 376:6-16 ~ Just so is it with the greatest sin. It is the most subtle, and does its work almost self-deceived. The diseases deemed dangerous sometimes come from the most hidden, undefined, and insidious beliefs. The pallid invalid, whom you declare to be wasting away with consumption of the blood, should be told that blood never gave life and can never take it away, — that Life is Spirit, and that there is more life and immortality in one good motive and act, than in all the blood which ever flowed through mortal veins and simulated a corporeal sense of life. SHOW ALL |
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40 | 40 | 376 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Remedy for fever | 376:17 ~ If the body is material, it cannot, for that very reason, suffer with a fever. Because the so-called material body is a mental concept and governed by mortal mind, it manifests only what that so-called mind expresses. Therefore the efficient remedy is to destroy the patient's false belief by both silently and audibly arguing the true facts in regard to harmonious being, — representing man as healthy instead of diseased, and showing that it is impossible for matter to suffer, to feel pain or heat, to be thirsty or sick. Destroy fear, and you end fever. Some people, mistaught as to Mind-science, inquire when it will be safe to check a fever. Know that in Science you cannot check a fever after admitting that it must have its course. To fear and admit the power of disease, is to paralyze mental and scientific demonstration. If your patient believes in taking cold, mentally convince him that matter cannot take cold, and that thought governs this liability. If grief causes suffering, convince the sufferer that affliction is often the source of joy, and that he should rejoice always in ever-present Love. SHOW ALL |
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41 | 41 | 377 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Climate harmless | 377: 6-11 ~ Invalids flee to tropical climates in order to save their lives, but they come back no better than when they went away. Then is the time to cure them through Christian Science, and prove that they can be healthy in all climates, when their fear of climate is exterminated. SHOW ALL |
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42 | 42 | 377 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Mind governs body | 377:12 ~ Through different states of mind, the body becomes suddenly weak or abnormally strong, showing mortal mind to be the producer of strength or weakness. A sudden joy or grief has caused what is termed instantaneous death. Because a belief originates unseen, the mental state should be continually watched that it may not produce blindly its bad effects. The author never knew a patient who did not recover when the belief of the disease had gone. Remove the leading error or governing fear of this lower so-called mind, and you remove the cause of all disease as well as the morbid or excited action of any organ. You also remove in this way what are termed organic diseases as readily as functional difficulties. The cause of all so-called disease is mental, a mortal fear, a mistaken belief or conviction of the necessity and power of ill-health; also a fear that Mind is helpless to defend the life of man and incompetent to control it. Without this ignorant human belief, any circumstance is of itself powerless to produce suffering. It is latent belief in disease, as well as the fear of disease, which associates sickness with certain circumstances and causes the two to appear conjoined, even as poetry and music are reproduced in union by human memory. Disease has no intelligence. Unwittingly you sentence yourself to suffer. The understanding of this will enable you to commute this self-sentence, and meet every circumstance with truth. Disease is less than mind, and Mind can control it. SHOW ALL |
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43 | 43 | 378 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Latent power | 378: 8-21 ~ Without the so-called human mind, there can be no inflammatory nor torpid action of the system. Remove the error, and you destroy its effects. By looking a tiger fearlessly in the eye, Sir Charles Napier sent it cowering back into the jungle. An animal may infuriate another by looking it in the eye, and both will fight for nothing. A man's gaze, fastened fearlessly on a ferocious beast, often causes the beast to retreat in terror. This latter occurrence represents the power of Truth over error, — the might of intelligence exercised over mortal beliefs to destroy them; whereas hypnotism and hygienic drilling and drugging, adopted to cure matter, is represented by two material erroneous bases. SHOW ALL |
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44 | 44 | 378 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Disease powerless | 378: 22-32 ~ Disease is not an intelligence to dispute the empire of Mind or to dethrone Mind and take the government into its own hands. Sickness is not a God-given, nor a self-constituted material power, which copes astutely with Mind and finally conquers it. God never endowed matter with power to disable Life or to chill harmony with a long and cold night of discord. Such a power, without the divine permission, is inconceivable; and if such a power could be divinely directed, it would manifest less wisdom than we usually find displayed in human governments. SHOW ALL |
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45 | 45 | 379 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Jurisdiction of Mind | 379:1-8 ~ If disease can attack and control the body without the consent of mortals, sin can do the same, for both are errors, announced as partners in the beginning. The Christian Scientist finds only effects, where the ordinary physician looks for causes. The real jurisdiction of the world is in Mind, controlling every effect and recognizing all causation as vested in divine Mind. SHOW ALL |
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46 | 46 | 379 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Power of imagination | 9 A felon, on whom certain English students experi- mented, fancied himself bleeding to death, and died be- cause of that belief, when only a stream of Power of 12 warm water was trickling over his arm. Had imagination he known his sense of bleeding was an illusion, he would have risen above the false belief. Let the despairing in- 15 valid, inspecting the hue of her blood on a cambric hand- kerchief, think of the experiment of those Oxford boys, who caused the death of a man, when not a drop of his 18 blood was shed. Then let her learn the opposite state- ment of Life as taught in Christian Science, and she will understand that she is not dying on account of the state of 21 her blood, but is suffering from her belief that blood is destroying her life. The so-called vital current does not affect the invalid's health, but her belief produces the 24 very results she dreads.SHOW ALL |
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47 | 47 | 379 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Fevers the effect of fear | Fevers are errors of various types. The quickened pulse, coated tongue, febrile heat, dry skin, pain in the 27 head and limbs, are pictures drawn on the Fevers the body by a mortal mind. The images, held in effect of fear this disturbed mind, frighten conscious thought. Unless 30 the fever-picture, drawn by millions of mortals and im- aged on the body through the belief that mind is in matter and discord is as real as harmony, is destroyed through 1 Science, it may rest at length on some receptive thought, and become a fever case, which ends in a belief called 3 death, which belief must be finally conquered by eternal Life. Truth is always the victor. Sickness and sin fall by their own weight. Truth is the rock of ages, the head- 6 stone of the corner, "but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." SHOW ALL |
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48 | 48 | 380 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Misdirected contention | Contending for the evidence or indulging the demands 9 of sin, disease, or death, we virtually contend against the control of Mind over body, and deny the Misdirected power of Mind to heal. This false method contention 12 is as though the defendant should argue for the plaintiff in favor of a decision which the defendant knows will be turned against himself. SHOW ALL |
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49 | 49 | 380 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Benefits of metaphysics | 15 The physical effects of fear illustrate its illusion. Gaz- ing at a chained lion, crouched for a spring, should not terrify a man. The body is affected only with Benefits of 18 the belief of disease produced by a so-called metaphysics mind ignorant of the truth which chains disease. Noth- ing but the power of Truth can prevent the fear of 21 error, and prove man's dominion over error. SHOW ALL |
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50 | 50 | 380 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | A higher discovery | Many years ago the author made a spiritual discov- ery, the scientific evidence of which has accumulated to 24 prove that the divine Mind produces in man A higher health, harmony, and immortality. Gradu- discovery ally this evidence will gather momentum and clearness, 27 until it reaches its culmination of scientific statement and proof. Nothing is more disheartening than to believe that there is a power opposite to God, or good, and that 30 God endows this opposing power with strength to be used against Himself, against Life, health, harmony.SHOW ALL |
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51 | 51 | 380 | Rights - Ignorance of our rights | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Rights - Ignorance of our rights | Every law of matter or the body, supposed to govern 1 man, is rendered null and void by the law of Life, God. Ignorant of our God-given rights, we submit to unjust 3 decrees, and the bias of education enforces Ignorance this slavery. Be no more willing to suffer the of our rights illusion that you are sick or that some disease is develop- 6 ing in the system, than you are to yield to a sinful temp- tation on the ground that sin has its necessities. SHOW ALL |
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52 | 52 | 381 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | No laws of matter | When infringing some supposed law, you say that 9 there is danger. This fear is the danger and induces the physical effects. We cannot in reality suffer No laws from breaking anything except a moral or of matter 12 spiritual law. The so-called laws of mortal belief are destroyed by the understanding that Soul is immortal, and that mortal mind cannot legislate the times, periods, 15 and types of disease, with which mortals die. God is the lawmaker, but He is not the author of barbarous codes. In infinite Life and Love there is no sickness, sin, nor 18 death, and the Scriptures declare that we live, move, and have our being in the infinite God. SHOW ALL |
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53 | 53 | 381 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | God-given dominion | Think less of the enactments of mortal mind, and you 21 will sooner grasp man's God-given dominion. You must understand your way out of human theories God-given relating to health, or you will never believe dominion 24 that you are quite free from some ailment. The har- mony and immortality of man will never be reached without the understanding that Mind is not in matter. 27 Let us banish sickness as an outlaw, and abide by the rule of perpetual harmony, — God's law. It is man's moral right to annul an unjust sentence, a sentence never 30 inflicted by divine authority. SHOW ALL |
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54 | 54 | 381 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Begin rightly | Christ Jesus overruled the error which would impose penalties for transgressions of the physical laws of 1 health; he annulled supposed laws of matter, opposed to the harmonies of Spirit, lacking divine au- Begin 3 thority and having only human approval for rightly their sanction. SHOW ALL |
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55 | 55 | 382 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Hygiene excessive | If half the attention given to hygiene were given to the 6 study of Christian Science and to the spiritualization of thought, this alone would usher in the millen- Hygiene nium. Constant bathing and rubbing to alter excessive 9 the secretions or to remove unhealthy exhalations from the cuticle receive a useful rebuke from Jesus' precept, "Take no thought . . . for the body." We must beware 12 of making clean merely the outside of the platter. SHOW ALL |
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56 | 56 | 382 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Blissful ignorance | He, who is ignorant of what is termed hygienic law, is more receptive of spiritual power and of faith in one 15 God, than is the devotee of supposed hygienic Blissful law, who comes to teach the so-called igno- ignorance rant one. Must we not then consider the so-called law 18 of matter a canon "more honored in the breach than the observance"? A patient thoroughly booked in medi- cal theories is more difficult to heal through Mind than 21 one who is not. This verifies the saying of our Master: "Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, shall in no wise enter therein." 24 One whom I rescued from seeming spiritual oblivion, in which the senses had engulfed him, wrote to me: "I should have died, but for the glorious Principle you teach, 27 — supporting the power of Mind over the body and show- ing me the nothingness of the so-called pleasures and pains of sense. The treatises I had read and the medicines I 30 had taken only abandoned me to more hopeless suffering and despair. Adherence to hygiene was useless. Mortal mind needed to be set right. The ailment was not bodily, 1 but mental, and I was cured when I learned my way in Christian Science." SHOW ALL |
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57 | 57 | 383 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | A clean mind and body | 3 We need a clean body and a clean mind, — a body rendered pure by Mind as well as washed by water. One says: "I take good care of my body." A clean mind 6 To do this, the pure and exalting influence of and body the divine Mind on the body is requisite, and the Christian Scientist takes the best care of his body when he leaves 9 it most out of his thought, and, like the Apostle Paul, is "willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be pres- ent with the Lord." 12 A hint may be taken from the emigrant, whose filth does not affect his happiness, because mind and body rest on the same basis. To the mind equally gross, dirt 15 gives no uneasiness. It is the native element of such a mind, which is symbolized, and not chafed, by its sur- roundings; but impurity and uncleanliness, which do 18 not trouble the gross, could not be borne by the refined. This shows that the mind must be clean to keep the body in proper condition. SHOW ALL |
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58 | 58 | 383 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Beliefs illusive | 21 The tobacco-user, eating or smoking poison for half a century, sometimes tells you that the weed preserves his health, but does this make it so? Does his Beliefs 24 assertion prove the use of tobacco to be a salu- illusive brious habit, and man to be the better for it? Such in- stances only prove the illusive physical effect of a false 27 belief, confirming the Scriptural conclusion concerning a man, "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he." The movement-cure — pinching and pounding the poor 30 body, to make it sensibly well when it ought to be in- sensibly so — is another medical mistake, resulting from the common notion that health depends on inert matter 1 instead of on Mind. Can matter, or what is termed matter, either feel or act without mind? SHOW ALL |
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59 | 59 | 384 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Corporeal penalties | 3 We should relieve our minds from the depressing thought that we have transgressed a material law and must of necessity pay the penalty. Let us reassure Corporeal 6 ourselves with the law of Love. God never penalties punishes man for doing right, for honest labor, or for deeds of kindness, though they expose him to fatigue, 9 cold, heat, contagion. If man seems to incur the penalty through matter, this is but a belief of mortal mind, not an enactment of wisdom, and man has only to enter his 12 protest against this belief in order to annul it. Through this action of thought and its results upon the body, the student will prove to himself, by small beginnings, the 15 grand verities of Christian Science. SHOW ALL |
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60 | 60 | 384 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Not matter but Mind | If exposure to a draught of air while in a state of perspiration is followed by chills, dry cough, influenza, 18 congestive symptoms in the lungs, or hints of Not matter, inflammatory rheumatism, your Mind-remedy but Mind is safe and sure. If you are a Christian Scientist, such 21 symptoms are not apt to follow exposure; but if you believe in laws of matter and their fatal effects when transgressed, you are not fit to conduct your own case or 24 to destroy the bad effects of your belief. When the fear subsides and the conviction abides that you have broken no law, neither rheumatism, consumption, nor any other 27 disease will ever result from exposure to the weather. In Science this is an established fact which all the evidence before the senses can never overrule. SHOW ALL |
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61 | 61 | 384 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Benefit of philanthropy | 30 Sickness, sin, and death must at length quail before the divine rights of intelligence, and then the power of Mind over the entire functions and organs of the 1 human system will be acknowledged. It is proverbial that Florence Nightingale and other philanthropists en- 3 gaged in humane labors have been able to Benefit of undergo without sinking fatigues and expo- philanthropy sures which ordinary people could not endure. The ex- 6 planation lies in the support which they derived from the divine law, rising above the human. The spiritual demand, quelling the material, supplies energy and en- 9 durance surpassing all other aids, and forestalls the penalty which our beliefs would attach to our best deeds. Let us remember that the eternal law of right, 12 though it can never annul the law which makes sin its own executioner, exempts man from all penalties but those due for wrong-doing. SHOW ALL |
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62 | 62 | 385 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Honest toil has no penalty | 15 Constant toil, deprivations, exposures, and all untow- ard conditions, if without sin, can be experienced with- out suffering. Whatever it is your duty to do, Honest toil 18 you can do without harm to yourself. If you has no sprain the muscles or wound the flesh, your penalty remedy is at hand. Mind decides whether or not the 21 flesh shall be discolored, painful, swollen, and inflamed. SHOW ALL |
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63 | 63 | 385 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Our sleep and food | You say that you have not slept well or have overeaten. You are a law unto yourself. Saying this and believing 24 it, you will suffer in proportion to your belief Our sleep and fear. Your sufferings are not the penalty and food for having broken a law of matter, for it is a law of mortal 27 mind which you have disobeyed. You say or think, be- cause you have partaken of salt fish, that you must be thirsty, and you are thirsty accordingly, while the oppo- 30 site belief would produce the opposite result. SHOW ALL |
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64 | 64 | 385 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Doubtful evidence | Any supposed information, coming from the body or from inert matter as if either were intelligent, is an illu- 1 sion of mortal mind, — one of its dreams. Realize that the evidence of the senses is not to be accepted Doubtful 3 in the case of sickness, any more than it is in evidence the case of sin. SHOW ALL |
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65 | 65 | 386 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Climate and belief | Expose the body to certain temperatures, and belief 6 says that you may catch cold and have catarrh; but no such result occurs without mind to demand Climate it and produce it. So long as mortals declare and belief 9 that certain states of the atmosphere produce catarrh, fever, rheumatism, or consumption, those effects will follow, — not because of the climate, but on account of 12 the belief. The author has in too many instances healed disease through the action of Truth on the minds of mor- tals, and the corresponding effects of Truth on the body, 15 not to know that this is so. SHOW ALL |
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66 | 66 | 386 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Erroneous despatch | A blundering despatch, mistakenly announcing the death of a friend, occasions the same grief that the friend's 18 real death would bring. You think that your Erroneous anguish is occasioned by your loss. Another despatch despatch, correcting the mistake, heals your grief, and 21 you learn that your suffering was merely the result of your belief. Thus it is with all sorrow, sickness, and death. You will learn at length that there is no cause 24 for grief, and divine wisdom will then be understood. Error, not Truth, produces all the suffering on earth. SHOW ALL |
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67 | 67 | 386 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Mourning causeless | If a Christian Scientist had said, while you were labor- 27 ing under the influence of the belief of grief, "Your sor- row is without cause," you would not have Mourning understood him, although the correctness of causeless 30 the assertion might afterwards be proved to you. So, when our friends pass from our sight and we lament, that lamentation is needless and causeless. We shall 1 perceive this to be true when we grow into the under- standing of Life, and know that there is no death. SHOW ALL |
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68 | 68 | 387 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Mind heals brain-disease | 3 Because mortal mind is kept active, must it pay the penalty in a softened brain? Who dares to say that actual Mind can be overworked? When we reach Mind heals 6 our limits of mental endurance, we conclude brain-disease that intellectual labor has been carried sufficiently far; but when we realize that immortal Mind is ever active, 9 and that spiritual energies can neither wear out nor can so-called material law trespass upon God-given powers and resources, we are able to rest in Truth, refreshed by 12 the assurances of immortality, opposed to mortality. SHOW ALL |
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69 | 69 | 387 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Right never punishable | Our thinkers do not die early because they faithfully perform the natural functions of being. If printers and 15 authors have the shortest span of earthly ex- Right never istence, it is not because they occupy the most punishable important posts and perform the most vital functions in 18 society. That man does not pay the severest penalty who does the most good. By adhering to the realities of eternal existence, — instead of reading disquisitions on 21 the inconsistent supposition that death comes in obedience to the law of life, and that God punishes man for doing good, — one cannot suffer as the result of any labor of 24 love, but grows stronger because of it. It is a law of so- called mortal mind, misnamed matter, which causes all things discordant. SHOW ALL |
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70 | 70 | 387 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Christian history | 27 The history of Christianity furnishes sublime proofs of the supporting influence and protecting power bestowed on man by his heavenly Father, omnipotent Christian 30 Mind, who gives man faith and understanding history whereby to defend himself, not only from temptation, but from bodily suffering. 1 The Christian martyrs were prophets of Christian Science. Through the uplifting and consecrating power 3 of divine Truth, they obtained a victory over the corpo- real senses, a victory which Science alone can explain. Stolidity, which is a resisting state of mortal mind, suffers 6 less, only because it knows less of material law. The Apostle John testified to the divine basis of Chris- tian Science, when dire inflictions failed to destroy his 9 body. Idolaters, believing in more than one mind, had "gods many," and thought that they could kill the body with matter, independently of mind. SHOW ALL |
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71 | 71 | 388 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Sustenance spiritual | 12 Admit the common hypothesis that food is the nutri- ment of life, and there follows the necessity for another admission in the opposite direction, — that Sustenance 15 food has power to destroy Life, God, through spiritual a deficiency or an excess, a quality or a quantity. This is a specimen of the ambiguous nature of all material 18 health-theories. They are self-contradictory and self-de- structive, constituting a "kingdom divided against itself," which is "brought to desolation." If food was prepared 21 by Jesus for his disciples, it cannot destroy life. SHOW ALL |
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72 | 72 | 388 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | God sustains man | The fact is, food does not affect the absolute Life of man, and this becomes self-evident, when we learn that 24 God is our Life. Because sin and sickness are God not qualities of Soul, or Life, we have hope in sustains man immortality; but it would be foolish to venture beyond 27 our present understanding, foolish to stop eating until we gain perfection and a clear comprehension of the living Spirit. In that perfect day of understanding, we shall 30 neither eat to live nor live to eat. SHOW ALL |
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73 | 73 | 388 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Diet and digestion | If mortals think that food disturbs the harmonious functions of mind and body, either the food or this thought 1 must be dispensed with, for the penalty is coupled with the belief. Which shall it be? If this decision be left 3 to Christian Science, it will be given in behalf Diet and of the control of Mind over this belief and every digestion erroneous belief, or material condition. The less we 6 know or think about hygiene, the less we are predisposed to sickness. Recollect that it is not the nerves, not mat- ter, but mortal mind, which reports food as undigested. 9 Matter does not inform you of bodily derangements; it is supposed to do so. This pseudo-mental testimony can be destroyed only by the better results of Mind's oppo- 12 site evidence. SHOW ALL |
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74 | 74 | 389 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Scripture rebukes | Our dietetic theories first admit that food sustains the life of man, and then discuss the certainty that food can 15 kill man. This false reasoning is rebuked in Scripture Scripture by the metaphors about the fount rebukes and stream, the tree and its fruit, and the kingdom di- 18 vided against itself. If God has, as prevalent theories maintain, instituted laws that food shall support human life, He cannot annul these regulations by an opposite 21 law that food shall be inimical to existence. SHOW ALL |
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75 | 75 | 389 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Ancient confusion | Materialists contradict their own statements. Their belief in material laws and in penalties for their infrac- 24 tion is the ancient error that there is fraternity Ancient between pain and pleasure, good and evil, God confusion and Satan. This belief totters to its falling before the 27 battle-axe of Science. A case of convulsions, produced by indigestion, came under my observation. In her belief the woman had 30 chronic liver-complaint, and was then suffering from a complication of symptoms connected with this belief. I cured her in a few minutes. One instant she spoke de- 1 spairingly of herself. The next minute she said, "My food is all digested, and I should like something more 3 to eat." SHOW ALL |
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76 | 76 | 390 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Ultimate harmony | We cannot deny that Life is self-sustained, and we should never deny the everlasting harmony of Soul, sim- 6 ply because, to the mortal senses, there is seem- Ultimate ing discord. It is our ignorance of God, the harmony divine Principle, which produces apparent discord, and 9 the right understanding of Him restores harmony. Truth will at length compel us all to exchange the pleasures and pains of sense for the joys of Soul. SHOW ALL |
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77 | 77 | 390 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Unnecessary prostration | 12 When the first symptoms of disease appear, dispute the testimony of the material senses with divine Science. Let your higher sense of justice destroy the false Unnecessary 15 process of mortal opinions which you name prostration law, and then you will not be confined to a sick-room nor laid upon a bed of suffering in payment of the last far- 18 thing, the last penalty demanded by error. "Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him." Suffer no claim of sin or of sickness to grow upon 21 the thought. Dismiss it with an abiding conviction that it is illegitimate, because you know that God is no more the author of sickness than He is of sin. You have no 24 law of His to support the necessity either of sin or sick- ness, but you have divine authority for denying that neces- sity and healing the sick. SHOW ALL |
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78 | 78 | 390 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Treatment of disease | 27 "Agree to disagree" with approaching symptoms of chronic or acute disease, whether it is cancer, consump- tion, or smallpox. Meet the incipient stages Treatment 30 of disease with as powerful mental opposi- of disease tion as a legislator would employ to defeat the passage of an inhuman law. Rise in the conscious strength of the 1 spirit of Truth to overthrow the plea of mortal mind, alias matter, arrayed against the supremacy of Spirit. 3 Blot out the images of mortal thought and its beliefs in sickness and sin. Then, when thou art delivered to the judgment of Truth, Christ, the judge will say, "Thou 6 art whole!" SHOW ALL |
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79 | 79 | 391 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Righteous rebellion | Instead of blind and calm submission to the incipient or advanced stages of disease, rise in rebellion against 9 them. Banish the belief that you can possi- Righteous bly entertain a single intruding pain which can- rebellion not be ruled out by the might of Mind, and in this way 12 you can prevent the development of pain in the body. No law of God hinders this result. It is error to suffer for aught but your own sins. Christ, or Truth, will de- 15 stroy all other supposed suffering, and real suffering for your own sins will cease in proportion as the sin ceases. SHOW ALL |
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80 | 80 | 391 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Contradict error | Justice is the moral signification of law. Injustice de- 18 clares the absence of law. When the body is supposed to say, "I am sick," never plead guilty. Since Contradict matter cannot talk, it must be mortal mind error 21 which speaks; therefore meet the intimation with a pro- test. If you say, "I am sick," you plead guilty. Then your adversary will deliver you to the judge (mortal 24 mind), and the judge will sentence you. Disease has no intelligence to declare itself something and announce its name. Mortal mind alone sentences itself. Therefore 27 make your own terms with sickness, and be just to yourself and to others. SHOW ALL |
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81 | 81 | 391 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Sin to be overcome | Mentally contradict every complaint from the body, 30 and rise to the true consciousness of Life as Sin to be Love, — as all that is pure, and bearing the overcome fruits of Spirit. Fear is the fountain of sickness, 1 and you master fear and sin through divine Mind; hence it is through divine Mind that you overcome disease. 3 Only while fear or sin remains can it bring forth death. To cure a bodily ailment, every broken moral law should be taken into account and the error be rebuked. Fear, 6 which is an element of all disease, must be cast out to readjust the balance for God. Casting out evil and fear enables truth to outweigh error. The only course is to 9 take antagonistic grounds against all that is opposed to the health, holiness, and harmony of man, God's image.SHOW ALL |
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82 | 82 | 392 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Illusions about nerves | The physical affirmation of disease should always be 12 met with the mental negation. Whatever benefit is pro- duced on the body, must be expressed men- Illusions tally, and thought should be held fast to this about nerves 15 ideal. If you believe in inflamed and weak nerves, you are liable to an attack from that source. You will call it neuralgia, but we call it a belief. If you think that con- 18 sumption is hereditary in your family, you are liable to the development of that thought in the form of what is termed pulmonary disease, unless Science shows you 21 otherwise. If you decide that climate or atmosphere is unhealthy, it will be so to you. Your decisions will mas- ter you, whichever direction they take.SHOW ALL |
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83 | 83 | 392 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Guarding the door | 24 Reverse the case. Stand porter at the door of thought. Admitting only such conclusions as you wish realized in bodily results, you will control yourself har- Guarding 27 moniously. When the condition is present the door which you say induces disease, whether it be air, exercise, heredity, contagion, or accident, then perform your office 30 as porter and shut out these unhealthy thoughts and fears. Exclude from mortal mind the offending errors; then the body cannot suffer from them. The issues of pain or 1 pleasure must come through mind, and like a watchman forsaking his post, we admit the intruding belief, forget- 3 ting that through divine help we can forbid this entrance. SHOW ALL |
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84 | 84 | 393 | Spirit - the strength of Spirit | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Spirit - The strength of Spirit | The body seems to be self-acting, only because mortal mind is ignorant of itself, of its own actions, and of their 6 results, — ignorant that the predisposing, re- The strength mote, and exciting cause of all bad effects is a of Spirit law of so-called mortal mind, not of matter. Mind is the 9 master of the corporeal senses, and can conquer sickness, sin, and death. Exercise this God-given authority. Take possession of your body, and govern its feeling and action. 12 Rise in the strength of Spirit to resist all that is unlike good. God has made man capable of this, and nothing can vitiate the ability and power divinely bestowed on 15 man. SHOW ALL |
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85 | 85 | 393 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | No pain in matter | Be firm in your understanding that the divine Mind governs, and that in Science man reflects God's govern- 18 ment. Have no fear that matter can ache, No pain swell, and be inflamed as the result of a law in matter of any kind, when it is self-evident that matter can have 21 no pain nor inflammation. Your body would suffer no more from tension or wounds than the trunk of a tree which you gash or the electric wire which you stretch, 24 were it not for mortal mind. When Jesus declares that "the light of the body is the eye," he certainly means that light depends upon Mind, 27 not upon the complex humors, lenses, muscles, the iris and pupil, constituting the visual organism. SHOW ALL |
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86 | 86 | 393 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | No real disease | Man is never sick, for Mind is not sick and matter 30 cannot be. A false belief is both the tempter No real and the tempted, the sin and the sinner, the disease disease and its cause. It is well to be calm in sickness; 1 to be hopeful is still better; but to understand that sick- ness is not real and that Truth can destroy its seeming 3 reality, is best of all, for this understanding is the uni- versal and perfect remedy. SHOW ALL |
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87 | 87 | 394 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Recuperation mental | By conceding power to discord, a large majority of 6 doctors depress mental energy, which is the only real recuperative power. Knowledge that we Recuperation can accomplish the good we hope for, stimu- mental 9 lates the system to act in the direction which Mind points out. The admission that any bodily condition is beyond the control of Mind disarms man, prevents him from 12 helping himself, and enthrones matter through error. To those struggling with sickness, such admissions are dis- couraging, — as much so as would be the advice to a man 15 who is down in the world, that he should not try to rise above his difficulties. Experience has proved to the author the fallacy of 18 material systems in general, — that their theories are sometimes pernicious, and that their denials are better than their affirmations. Will you bid a man let evils 21 overcome him, assuring him that all misfortunes are from God, against whom mortals should not contend? Will you tell the sick that their condition is hopeless, unless it 24 can be aided by a drug or climate? Are material means the only refuge from fatal chances? Is there no divine permission to conquer discord of every kind with harmony, 27 with Truth and Love? SHOW ALL |
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88 | 88 | 394 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Arguing wrongly | We should remember that Life is God, and that God is omnipotent. Not understanding Christian Arguing 30 Science, the sick usually have little faith in wrongly it till they feel its beneficent influence. This shows that faith is not the healer in such cases. The sick 1 unconsciously argue for suffering, instead of against it. They admit its reality, whereas they should deny it. 3 They should plead in opposition to the testimony of the deceitful senses, and maintain man's immortality and eternal likeness to God. SHOW ALL |
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89 | 89 | 395 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Divine authority | 6 Like the great Exemplar, the healer should speak to disease as one having authority over it, leaving Soul to master the false evidences of the corporeal Divine 9 senses and to assert its claims over mortal- authority ity and disease. The same Principle cures both sin and sickness. When divine Science overcomes faith in a car- 12 nal mind, and faith in God destroys all faith in sin and in material methods of healing, then sin, disease, and death will disappear. SHOW ALL |
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90 | 90 | 395 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Aids in sickness | 15 Prayers, in which God is not asked to heal but is be- sought to take the patient to Himself, do not benefit the sick. An ill-tempered, complaining, or deceit- Aids in 18 ful person should not be a nurse. The nurse sickness should be cheerful, orderly, punctual, patient, full of faith, — receptive to Truth and Love.SHOW ALL |
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91 | 91 | 395 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Mental quackery | 21 It is mental quackery to make disease a reality — to hold it as something seen and felt — and then to attempt its cure through Mind. It is no less erroneous Mental 24 to believe in the real existence of a tumor, a quackery cancer, or decayed lungs, while you argue against their reality, than it is for your patient to feel these ills in 27 physical belief. Mental practice, which holds disease as a reality, fastens disease on the patient, and it may appear in a more alarming form.SHOW ALL |
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92 | 92 | 395 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Effacing images of disease | 30 The knowledge that brain-lobes cannot kill a man nor affect the functions of mind would prevent the brain from becoming diseased, though a moral offence is indeed the 1 worst of diseases. One should never hold in mind the thought of disease, but should efface from Effacing 3 thought all forms and types of disease, both for images of one's own sake and for that of the patient. disease SHOW ALL |
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93 | 93 | 396 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Avoid talking disease | Avoid talking illness to the patient. Make no unne- 6 cessary inquiries relative to feelings or disease. Never startle with a discouraging remark about re- Avoid talking covery, nor draw attention to certain symp- disease 9 toms as unfavorable, avoid speaking aloud the name of the disease. Never say beforehand how much you have to contend with in a case, nor encourage in the patient's 12 thought the expectation of growing worse before a crisis is passed. SHOW ALL |
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94 | 94 | 396 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | False testimony refuted | The refutation of the testimony of material sense is 15 not a difficult task in view of the conceded falsity of this testimony. The refutation becomes arduous, False testimony not because the testimony of sin or disease is refuted 18 true, but solely on account of the tenacity of belief in its truth, due to the force of education and the overwhelm- ing weight of opinions on the wrong side, — all teaching 21 that the body suffers, as if matter could have sensation.SHOW ALL |
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95 | 95 | 396 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Healthful explanation | At the right time explain to the sick the power which their beliefs exercise over their bodies. Give them divine 24 and wholesome understanding, with which to Healthful combat their erroneous sense, and so efface the explanation images of sickness from mortal mind. Keep distinctly in 27 thought that man is the offspring of God, not of man; that man is spiritual, not material; that Soul is Spirit, outside of matter, never in it, never giving the body life 30 and sensation. It breaks the dream of disease to under- stand that sickness is formed by the human mind, not by matter nor by the divine Mind. SHOW ALL |
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96 | 96 | 397 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Misleading methods | 1 By not perceiving vital metaphysical points, not seeing how mortal mind affects the body, — acting beneficially 3 or injuriously on the health, as well as on the Misleading morals and the happiness of mortals, — we are methods misled in our conclusions and methods. We throw the 6 mental influence on the wrong side, thereby actually in- juring those whom we mean to bless. SHOW ALL |
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97 | 97 | 397 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Remedy for accidents | Suffering is no less a mental condition than is enjoy- 9 ment. You cause bodily sufferings and increase them by admitting their reality and continuance, Remedy for as directly as you enhance your joys by be- accidents 12 lieving them to be real and continuous. When an ac- cident happens, you think or exclaim, "I am hurt!" Your thought is more powerful than your words, more 15 powerful than the accident itself, to make the injury real. Now reverse the process. Declare that you are not hurt 18 and understand the reason why, and you will find the ensuing good effects to be in exact proportion to your disbelief in physics, and your fidelity to divine meta- 21 physics, confidence in God as All, which the Scriptures declare Him to be.SHOW ALL |
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98 | 98 | 397 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Independent mentality | To heal the sick, one must be familiar with the great 24 verities of being. Mortals are no more material in their waking hours than when they act, walk, see, Independent hear, enjoy, or suffer in dreams. We can mentality 27 never treat mortal mind and matter separately, because they combine as one. Give up the belief that mind is, even temporarily, compressed within the skull, and 30 you will quickly become more manly or womanly. You will understand yourself and your Maker better than before. SHOW ALL |
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99 | 99 | 398 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Naming maladies | 1 Sometimes Jesus called a disease by name, as when he said to the epileptic boy, "Thou dumb and deaf spirit, I 3 charge thee, come out of him, and enter no Naming more into him." It is added that "the spirit maladies [error] cried, and rent him sore and came out of him, and 6 he was as one dead," — clear evidence that the malady was not material. These instances show the concessions which Jesus was willing to make to the popular ignorance 9 of spiritual Life-laws. Often he gave no name to the distemper he cured. To the synagogue ruler's daughter, whom they called dead but of whom he said, "she is not 12 dead, but sleepeth," he simply said, "Damsel, I say unto thee, arise!" To the sufferer with the withered hand he said, "Stretch forth thine hand," and it "was restored 15 whole, like as the other." SHOW ALL |
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100 | 100 | 398 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | The action of faith | Homoeopathic remedies, sometimes not containing a particle of medicine, are known to relieve the symptoms 18 of disease. What produces the change? It is The action the faith of the doctor and the patient, which of faith reduces self-inflicted sufferings and produces a new effect 21 upon the body. In like manner destroy the illusion of pleasure in intoxication, and the desire for strong drink is gone. Appetite and disease reside in mortal mind, not 24 in matter. So also faith, cooperating with a belief in the healing effects of time and medication, will soothe fear and change 27 the belief of disease to a belief of health. Even a blind faith removes bodily ailments for a season, but hypnotism changes such ills into new and more difficult forms of dis- 30 ease. The Science of Mind must come to the rescue, to work a radical cure. Then we understand the process. The great fact remains that evil is not mind. Evil has 1 no power, no intelligence, for God is good, and therefore good is infinite, is All. SHOW ALL |
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101 | 101 | 399 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Corporeal combinations | 3 You say that certain material combinations produce disease; but if the material body causes disease, can matter cure what matter has caused? Mortal Corporeal 6 mind prescribes the drug, and administers it. combinations Mortal mind plans the exercise, and puts the body through certain motions. No gastric gas accumulates, not a se- 9 cretion nor combination can operate, apart from the action of mortal thought, alias mortal mind. SHOW ALL |
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102 | 102 | 399 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Automatic mechanism | So-called mortal mind sends its despatches over its 12 body, but this so-called mind is both the service and message of this telegraphy. Nerves are un- Automatic able to talk, and matter can return no an- mechanism 15 swer to immortal Mind. If Mind is the only actor, how can mechanism be automatic? Mortal mind perpetuates its own thought. It constructs a machine, manages it, 18 and then calls it material. A mill at work or the action of a water-wheel is but a derivative from, and continua- tion of, the primitive mortal mind. Without this force 21 the body is devoid of action, and this deadness shows that so-called mortal life is mortal mind, not matter.SHOW ALL |
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103 | 103 | 399 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Mental strength | Scientifically speaking, there is no mortal mind out of 24 which to make material beliefs, springing from illusion. This misnamed mind is not an entity. It is Mental only a false sense of matter, since matter is not strength 27 sensible. The one Mind, God, contains no mortal opin- ions. All that is real is included in this immortal Mind. SHOW ALL |
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104 | 104 | 399 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Confirmation in a parable | Our Master asked: "How can one enter into a strong 30 man's house and spoil his goods, except he first Confirmation bind the strong man?" In other words: How in a parable can I heal the body, without beginning with so-called 1 mortal mind, which directly controls the body? When disease is once destroyed in this so-called mind, the fear 3 of disease is gone, and therefore the disease is thor- oughly cured. Mortal mind is "the strong man," which must be held in subjection before its influence upon health 6 and morals can be removed. This error conquered, we can despoil "the strong man" of his goods, — namely, of sin and disease. SHOW ALL |
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105 | 105 | 400 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Eradicate error from thought | 9 Mortals obtain the harmony of health, only as they forsake discord, acknowledge the supremacy of divine Mind, and abandon their material beliefs. Eradicate 12 Eradicate the image of disease from the per- error from turbed thought before it has taken tangible thought shape in conscious thought, alias the body, and you pre- 15 vent the development of disease. This task becomes easy, if you understand that every disease is an error, and has no character nor type, except what mortal mind assigns to 18 it. By lifting thought above error, or disease, and con- tending persistently for truth, you destroy error. SHOW ALL |
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106 | 106 | 400 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Mortal mind controlled | When we remove disease by addressing the disturbed 21 mind, giving no heed to the body, we prove that thought alone creates the suffering. Mortal mind Mortal mind rules all that is mortal. We see in the body controlled 24 the images of this mind, even as in optics we see painted on the retina the image which becomes visible to the senses. The action of so-called mortal mind must be 27 destroyed by the divine Mind to bring out the harmony of being. Without divine control there is discord, mani- fest as sin, sickness, and death. SHOW ALL |
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107 | 107 | 400 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Mortal mind not a healer | 30 The Scriptures plainly declare the baneful influence of sinful thought on the body. Even our Master felt this. It is recorded that in certain localities he did not many 1 mighty works "because of their unbelief" in Truth. Any human error is its own enemy, and works against itself; 3 it does nothing in the right direction and much Mortal mind in the wrong. If so-called mind is cherishing not a healer evil passions and malicious purposes, it is not a healer, 6 but it engenders disease and death. SHOW ALL |
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108 | 108 | 401 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Effect of opposites | If faith in the truth of being, which you impart men- tally while destroying error, causes chemicalization (as 9 when an alkali is destroying an acid), it is be- Effect of cause the truth of being must transform the opposites error to the end of producing a higher manifestation. 12 This fermentation should not aggravate the disease, but should be as painless to man as to a fluid, since matter has no sensation and mortal mind only feels and sees 15 materially. What I term chemicalization is the upheaval produced when immortal Truth is destroying erroneous mortal be- 18 lief. Mental chemicalization brings sin and sickness to the surface, forcing impurities to pass away, as is the case with a fermenting fluid. SHOW ALL |
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109 | 109 | 401 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Medicine and brain | 21 The only effect produced by medicine is dependent upon mental action. If the mind were parted from the body, could you produce any effect upon the brain Medicine 24 or body by applying the drug to either? Would and brain the drug remove paralysis, affect organization, or restore will and action to cerebrum and cerebellum? SHOW ALL |
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110 | 110 | 401 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Skilful surgery | 27 Until the advancing age admits the efficacy and suprem- acy of Mind, it is better for Christian Scientists to leave surgery and the adjustment of broken bones Skilful 30 and dislocations to the fingers of a surgeon, surgery while the mental healer confines himself chiefly to mental reconstruction and to the prevention of inflammation. 1 Christian Science is always the most skilful surgeon, but surgery is the branch of its healing which will be last 3 acknowledged. However, it is but just to say that the author has already in her possession well-authenticated records of the cure, by herself and her students through 6 mental surgery alone, of broken bones, dislocated joints, and spinal vertebrae.SHOW ALL |
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111 | 111 | 402 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Indestructible life of man | The time approaches when mortal mind will forsake 9 its corporeal, structural, and material basis, when im- mortal Mind and its formations will be appre- Indestructible hended in Science, and material beliefs will life of man 12 not interfere with spiritual facts. Man is indestructible and eternal. Sometime it will be learned that mortal mind constructs the mortal body with this mind's own 15 mortal materials. In Science, no breakage nor dislocation can really occur. You say that accidents, injuries, and disease kill man, but this is not true. The life of man is 18 Mind. The material body manifests only what mortal mind believes, whether it be a broken bone, disease, or sin.SHOW ALL |
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112 | 112 | 402 | Mesmerism - the evil of mesmerism | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Mesmerism - The evil of mesmerism | We say that one human mind can influence another and 21 in this way affect the body, but we rarely remember that we govern our own bodies. The error, mes- The evil of merism — or hypnotism, to use the recent term mesmerism 24 — illustrates the fact just stated. The operator would make his subjects believe that they cannot act voluntarily and handle themselves as they should do. If they yield 27 to this influence, it is because their belief is not better instructed by spiritual understanding. Hence the proof that hypnotism is not scientific; Science cannot produce 30 both disorder and order. The involuntary pleasure or pain of the person under hypnotic control is proved to be a belief without a real cause. SHOW ALL |
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113 | 113 | 403 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Wrong-doer should suffer | 1 So the sick through their beliefs have induced their own diseased conditions. The great difference between vol- 3 untary and involuntary mesmerism is that vol- Wrong-doer untary mesmerism is induced consciously and should suffer should and does cause the perpetrator to suffer, while self- 6 mesmerism is induced unconsciously and by his mistake a man is often instructed. In the first instance it is under- stood that the difficulty is a mental illusion, while in the 9 second it is believed that the misfortune is a material effect. The human mind is employed to remove the illusion in one case, but matter is appealed to in the other. In real- 12 ity, both have their origin in the human mind, and can be healed only by the divine Mind. SHOW ALL |
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114 | 114 | 403 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Error’s power imaginary | You command the situation if you understand that 15 mortal existence is a state of self-deception and not the truth of being. Mortal mind is constantly Error's power producing on mortal body the results of false imaginary 18 opinions; and it will continue to do so, until mortal error is deprived of its imaginary powers by Truth, which sweeps away the gossamer web of mortal illusion. 21 The most Christian state is one of rectitude and spir- itual understanding, and this is best adapted for heal- ing the sick. Never conjure up some new discovery from 24 dark forebodings regarding disease and then acquaint your patient with it. SHOW ALL |
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115 | 115 | 403 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Disease-production | The mortal so-called mind produces all that is unlike 27 the immortal Mind. The human mind determines the nature of a case, and the practitioner improves Disease- or injures the case in proportion to the truth production 30 or error which influences his conclusions. The mental conception and development of disease are not under- stood by the patient, but the physician should be familiar 1 with mental action and its effect in order to judge the case according to Christian Science. SHOW ALL |
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116 | 116 | 404 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Appetites to be abandoned | 3 If a man is an inebriate, a slave to tobacco, or the special servant of any one of the myriad forms of sin, meet and destroy these errors with the truth of being, — Appetites to 6 by exhibiting to the wrong-doer the suffering be abandoned which his submission to such habits brings, and by con- vincing him that there is no real pleasure in false appe- 9 tites. A corrupt mind is manifested in a corrupt body. Lust, malice, and all sorts of evil are diseased beliefs, and you can destroy them only by destroying the wicked 12 motives which produce them. If the evil is over in the repentant mortal mind, while its effects still remain on the individual, you can remove this disorder as God's law is 15 fulfilled and reformation cancels the crime. The healthy sinner is the hardened sinner. SHOW ALL |
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117 | 117 | 404 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Temperance reform | The temperance reform, felt all over our land, results 18 from metaphysical healing, which cuts down every tree that brings not forth good fruit. This con- Temperance viction, that there is no real pleasure in sin, reform 21 is one of the most important points in the theology of Christian Science. Arouse the sinner to this new and true view of sin, show him that sin confers no pleasure, 24 and this knowledge strengthens his moral courage and increases his ability to master evil and to love good. SHOW ALL |
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118 | 118 | 404 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Sin or fear the root of sickness | Healing the sick and reforming the sinner are one and 27 the same thing in Christian Science. Both cures require the same method and are inseparable in Truth. Sin or fear Hatred, envy, dishonesty, fear, and so forth, the root of 30 make a man sick, and neither material medi- sickness cine nor Mind can help him permanently, even in body, unless it makes him better mentally, and so delivers him 1 from his destroyers. The basic error is mortal mind. Hatred inflames the brutal propensities. The indulgence 3 of evil motives and aims makes any man, who is above the lowest type of manhood, a hopeless sufferer. SHOW ALL |
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119 | 119 | 405 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Mental conspirators | Christian Science commands man to master the pro- 6 pensities, — to hold hatred in abeyance with kindness, to conquer lust with chastity, revenge with Mental charity, and to overcome deceit with hon- conspirators 9 esty. Choke these errors in their early stages, if you would not cherish an army of conspirators against health, happiness, and success. They will deliver you 12 to the judge, the arbiter of truth against error. The judge will deliver you to justice, and the sentence of the moral law will be executed upon mortal mind and 15 body. Both will be manacled until the last farthing is paid, — until you have balanced your account with God. "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also 18 reap." The good man finally can overcome his fear of sin. This is sin's necessity, — to destroy itself. Im- mortal man demonstrates the government of God, good, 21 in which is no power to sin. SHOW ALL |
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120 | 120 | 405 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Cumulative repentance | It were better to be exposed to every plague on earth than to endure the cumulative effects of a guilty con- 24 science. The abiding consciousness of wrong- Cumulative doing tends to destroy the ability to do right. repentance If sin is not regretted and is not lessening, then it is 27 hastening on to physical and moral doom. You are con- quered by the moral penalties you incur and the ills they bring. The pains of sinful sense are less harmful than its 30 pleasures. Belief in material suffering causes mortals to retreat from their error, to flee from body to Spirit, and to appeal to divine sources outside of themselves. SHOW ALL |
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121 | 121 | 406 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | The leaves of healing | 1 The Bible contains the recipe for all healing. "The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations." 3 Sin and sickness are both healed by the same The leaves Principle. The tree is typical of man's divine of healing Principle, which is equal to every emergency, offering 6 full salvation from sin, sickness, and death. Sin will submit to Christian Science when, in place of modes and forms, the power of God is understood and demonstrated 9 in the healing of mortals, both mind and body. "Per- fect Love casteth out fear."SHOW ALL |
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122 | 122 | 406 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Sickness will abate | The Science of being unveils the errors of sense, and 12 spiritual perception, aided by Science, reaches Truth. Then error disappears. Sin and sickness will Sickness abate and seem less real as we approach the will abate 15 scientific period, in which mortal sense is subdued and all that is unlike the true likeness disappears. The moral man has no fear that he will commit a murder, and he 18 should be as fearless on the question of disease. SHOW ALL |
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123 | 123 | 406 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Resist to the end | Resist evil — error of every sort — and it will flee from you. Error is opposed to Life. We can, and ultimately 21 shall, so rise as to avail ourselves in every direc- Resist to tion of the supremacy of Truth over error, Life the end over death, and good over evil, and this growth will go 24 on until we arrive at the fulness of God's idea, and no more fear that we shall be sick and die. Inharmony of any kind involves weakness and suffering, — a loss of 27 control over the body. SHOW ALL |
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124 | 124 | 406 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Morbid cravings | The depraved appetite for alcoholic drinks, tobacco, tea, coffee, opium, is destroyed only by Mind's mastery 30 of the body. This normal control is gained Morbid through divine strength and understanding. cravings There is no enjoyment in getting drunk, in becoming a 1 fool or an object of loathing; but there is a very sharp remembrance of it, a suffering inconceivably terrible to 3 man's self-respect. Puffing the obnoxious fumes of to- bacco, or chewing a leaf naturally attractive to no crea- ture except a loathsome worm, is at least disgusting. SHOW ALL |
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125 | 125 | 407 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Universal panacea | 6 Man's enslavement to the most relentless masters — passion, selfishness, envy, hatred, and revenge — is con- quered only by a mighty struggle. Every Universal 9 hour of delay makes the struggle more severe. panacea If man is not victorious over the passions, they crush out happiness, health, and manhood. Here Christian 12 Science is the sovereign panacea, giving strength to the weakness of mortal mind, — strength from the immortal and omnipotent Mind, — and lifting humanity above 15 itself into purer desires, even into spiritual power and good-will to man. Let the slave of wrong desire learn the lessons of Chris- 18 tian Science, and he will get the better of that desire, and ascend a degree in the scale of health, happiness, and existence. SHOW ALL |
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126 | 126 | 407 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Immortal memory | 21 If delusion says, "I have lost my memory," contra- dict it. No faculty of Mind is lost. In Science, all being is eternal, spiritual, perfect, harmoni- Immortal 24 ous in every action. Let the perfect model be memory present in your thoughts instead of its demoralized op- posite. This spiritualization of thought lets in the light, 27 and brings the divine Mind, Life not death, into your consciousness. SHOW ALL |
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127 | 127 | 407 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Sin a form of insanity | There are many species of insanity. All sin is insan- 30 ity in different degrees. Sin is spared from Sin a form this classification, only because its method of of insanity madness is in consonance with common mortal belief. 1 Every sort of sickness is error, — that is, sickness is loss of harmony. This view is not altered by the fact 3 that sin is worse than sickness, and sickness is not ac- knowledged nor discovered to be error by many who are sick. 6 There is a universal insanity of so-called health, which mistakes fable for fact throughout the entire round of the material senses, but this general craze cannot, in a scien- 9 tific diagnosis, shield the individual case from the special name of insanity. Those unfortunate people who are committed to insane asylums are only so many distinctly 12 defined instances of the baneful effects of illusion on mor- tal minds and bodies. SHOW ALL |
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128 | 128 | 408 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Drugs and brain-lobes | The supposition that we can correct insanity by the use 15 of purgatives and narcotics is in itself a mild species of insanity. Can drugs go of their own accord Drugs and to the brain and destroy the so-called inflam- brain-lobes 18 mation of disordered functions, thus reaching mortal mind through matter? Drugs do not affect a corpse, and Truth does not distribute drugs through the blood, and 21 from them derive a supposed effect on intelligence and sen- timent. A dislocation of the tarsal joint would produce insanity as perceptibly as would congestion of the brain, 24 were it not that mortal mind thinks that the tarsal joint is less intimately connected with the mind than is the brain. Reverse the belief, and the results would be perceptibly 27 different. SHOW ALL |
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129 | 129 | 408 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Matter and animate error | The unconscious thought in the corporeal substra- tum of brain produces no effect, and that condition of 30 the body which we call sensation in matter Matter and is unreal. Mortal mind is ignorant of it- animate error self, — ignorant of the errors it includes and of their 1 effects. Intelligent matter is an impossibility. You may say: "But if disease obtains in matter, why do 3 you insist that disease is formed by mortal mind and not by matter?" Mortal mind and body combine as one, and the nearer matter approaches its final state- 6 ment, — animate error called nerves, brain, mind, — the more prolific it is likely to become in sin and disease- beliefs. SHOW ALL |
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130 | 130 | 409 | Error - dictation of error | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Error - Dictation of error | 9 Unconscious mortal mind — alias matter, brain — can- not dictate terms to consciousness nor say, "I am sick." The belief, that the unconscious substratum Dictation 12 of mortal mind, termed the body, suffers and of error reports disease independently of this so-called conscious mind, is the error which prevents mortals from knowing 15 how to govern their bodies.SHOW ALL |
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131 | 131 | 409 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | So-called superiority | The so-called conscious mortal mind is believed to be superior to its unconscious substratum, matter, and 18 the stronger never yields to the weaker, ex- So-called cept through fear or choice. The animate superiority should be governed by God alone. The real man is 21 spiritual and immortal, but the mortal and imperfect so-called "children of men" are counterfeits from the beginning, to be laid aside for the pure reality. This 24 mortal is put off, and the new man or real man is put on, in proportion as mortals realize the Science of man and seek the true model. SHOW ALL |
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132 | 132 | 409 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Death no benefactor | 27 We have no right to say that life depends on matter now, but will not depend on it after death. We cannot spend our days here in ignorance of the Science Death no 30 of Life, and expect to find beyond the grave benefactor a reward for this ignorance. Death will not make us harmonious and immortal as a recompense for ignorance. 1 If here we give no heed to Christian Science, which is spiritual and eternal, we shall not be ready for spiritual 3 Life hereafter. SHOW ALL |
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133 | 133 | 410 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Life eternal and present | "This is life eternal," says Jesus, — is, not shall be; and then he defines everlasting life as a present knowledge 6 of his Father and of himself, — the knowledge Life eternal of Love, Truth, and Life. "This is life eter- and present nal, that they might know Thee, the only true God, and 9 Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." The Scriptures say, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God," show- 12 ing that Truth is the actual life of man; but mankind objects to making this teaching practical. SHOW ALL |
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134 | 134 | 410 | Final Edition authorized by Mary Baker Eddy. | Love casteth out fear | Every trial of our faith in God makes us stronger. 15 The more difficult seems the material condition to be overcome by Spirit, the stronger should be our Love casteth faith and the purer our love. The Apostle out fear 18 John says: "There is no fear in Love, but perfect Love casteth out fear. . . . He that feareth is not made per- fect in Love." Here is a definite and inspired proclama- 21 tion of Christian Science. SHOW ALL |